- What is mastering and what can it do for me?
Mastering is the process of having a different set of highly trained and qualified ears listen to your music over an extremely high-quality audio system in a professionally tuned room and then making any necessary modifications to that mix to make it as clean, tight and powerful as it can be.
- What file types should I send?
We can take your audio in just about any file type imaginable. We prefer to receive your files in 24 bit stereo .wav or .aiff files. However, we can take your tracks right off of a post-production CD, DAT, DA88, cassette or just about anything else. We'd prefer not to receive MP3s or WMAs or any other compressed music format. Also, try not to "burn" your CDs from I-Tunes - the software automatically makes adjustments to the audio which cannot be undone.
- How do I get my music to you?
You can mail it, e-mail it, FedEx it, drop it off, or pretty much any other means. Remember, try to avoid giving us MP3s or WMAs.
- How do I get my music back from you?
As a standard practice, we provide you with 2 error-checked Taiyo Yuden CDs. If you're in the Washington DC area, we'll gladly deliver these to you personally. If outside the are, we will FedEx the discs to you. We'd prefer that you and your duplication house take advantage of our advanced error-checking process that ensures a quality disc each time. However, if you'd prefer, we can also set up a private FTP site for you and you can download your tracks and burn them yourself.
- Why are you so much more affordable than everyone else?
We're more affordable than most real mastering houses for a couple reasons. First, we don't have the overhead that many studios have. We own our studio outright and don't have to pay enormous amounts of rent each month. Second, we realize that asking for much more than we do, we'd exclude a lot of clients and we don't like that idea.
- Why are you more expensive than those guys in the back of magazines?
Well, that's an easy one. We have a staff of highly trained musicians and have racks of amazing (and expensive) gear. Neither of these things are cheap and we have to afford them somehow. Most "budget" mastering houses are based entirely around computer plug-ins and a less-than-ideal mastering audio chain (such as nearfield monitors in an untreated or poorly treated room).
- Can I sit in on my mastering session?
In a word (or two) - HECK YES! That's why we have that really nice couch in the studio! We encourage you to sit in if you can. That way, you can make decisions on your mix during the session and we can guarantee that you are satisfied! Even if you're coming from far away, the Fredericksburg area has several affordable hotels and has wonderful tourist attractions.