Submission, Mastering and Reviewing Process

Thank you for considering us for mastering your audio material. The process from start to end is as follows:

Step 1: Submitting your material

The first step is to send us an email (see our Contact page for the email address) in order to tell us what your needs are. This email should also have attached to it a filled out Project sheet (a simple text file), which you can download here (right-click on the link). Use Notepad on a PC or TextEdit on a Mac to open and edit the file. The Project sheet enables you to send us information about song titles, song order, UPC codes, contact information, etc. You can download a PDF copy of an example of a filled out Project sheet here.

Next, we will prepare an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) account on our FTP server. We will then send you an email with the account details. You can then upload your audio material to the specified FTP account. For a detailed description of how to upload and download your files, please visit our Upload page.

We accept the following audio file formats:

• Stereo Audio files, either in WAV or AIFF format, 44.1kHz to 96kHz, 16 bit or 24 bit

Please observe the following requirements for the source material:

• The maximum amplitude of the source material should be no closer than -2.0dB below full scale (0dB being full scale). This will give us some headroom to work with the material.
• Bus compression or limiting should not be applied to the source material before it is submitted to us. In particular, excessive compression that is added to the stereo mix at the mixdown stage makes it very difficult to master the material. If we believe that the source material is compressed too heavily, we will request you to re-send the material without bus compression applied.

Step 2: Mastering process

We will briefly review the material to determine if it is ready for mastering. If we believe that it is not yet ready, we will contact you to let you know that some more time should be spent on the mix.

If it is ready, we will master the material according to the option specified in the Project sheet (please see the Rates page for a list of available options). This process will take, on average, 5 business days.

Step 3: Reviewing process

After we have mastered the material, we will generate 45 second audio samples (WAV files, same sample rate and bit depth as the original material) of up to three songs of your choice (specified in the Project sheet), and upload them to your FTP account, for you to review (we will send you an email letting you know that they are ready for review). At this point, we will also inform you of any applicable shipping costs.

If you do not like what you hear (and we sincerely hope that this will not be the case), and you would rather not continue to use our services at this point, then you do not pay for any of the mastering services performed so far, and we will delete all of the project files from our system, as well as your FTP account.

Step 4: Payment and delivery process

Once you have reviewed and approved the audio samples, and would like to obtain the complete mastered material, we require that you submit the payment for the mastering services. We will send you an invoice through Paypal to your email. Once we have proof of payment, we will then make the mastered material available to you according to the option you have specified in the Project sheet. If you have chosen a download option, then we will upload the mastered material to your FTP account. We will then send you an email informing you that the material is ready for you to download.

Step 5: Revisions (if required)

We want to ensure that our customers are satisfied with the end product. We also understand that in some cases it may be necessary to revise some details of the Master recording, such as gap times, audio levels, etc. We offer our clients up to two free revisions.

Any additional revisions or alternate versions of a track will be charged at the normal rates as specified on the Rates page.