Analog Song Mastering
What is mastering?
Mastering is the final stage of audio production—the process of putting the finishing touches on a song by enhancing the overall sound, creating consistency across the album, and preparing it for distribution.
What is the difference between analog & digital mastering?
Analog mastering is how it's been done since day one. Before there were computers and Pro Tools, artists had to have an engineer run their tracks in & out of physical hardware units to make adjustments and achieve certain effects. In recent years, these hardware units have maintained a demand. Digital processing, on the other hand, is a newer concept in the music industry that has grown in the past couple of decades. As technology has grown over the years, many companies have released digital versions of these highly sought-after pieces of hardware. Not everybody has $10,000 to buy an SSL compressor unit. But if a company like Waves or Slate Audio makes a downloadable digital version of that same unit that only costs $50 or less, many people will still find it useful. The digital plugins of today are very close to the sound of actual hardware nowadays, but there's still that extra little bit of magic that the analog equipment will always carry.
What is unique about analog mastering?
Mastering your song via analog gear is technically how you should always do it. Analog gear is always going to have a certain sweetness to it that not even the best digital plugins on the market can reproduce. In this case, we take your song & run it through our physical hardware units and dial it in just right until it is right where it needs to be. Enviyon has slowly built up its repertoire of high-end analog equipment over the years. Some of this gear includes, but is not limited to:
- Solid State Logic Bus+ Bus Compressor
- Neve 1073DPX
- Universal Audio Teletronix LA-2A
- Tube-Tech CL 1B
- Universal Audio 1176LN
And many more!
Why do you need to master a song?
If your song is only mixed, it will not sound complete. You will always need to
turn your song up when it plays, and turn the volume back down when a
"Mastered" song plays next. It can also sound too bassy, or thin.
Mastering Balances your song to industry standards.
Did Enviyon already Master my song?
If you did not specifically purchase a Mastering package,
Enviyon has given you a Pre-Mastered version of your mix.
It's already included when we mix your songs. We do this
to ensure our clients leave the studio with a "Marketable"
product that is very comparable to industry standards.
Even if it already sounds good, Please note that getting
that same music mastered will increase its quality sonically.
How should I send my song in to be Mastered?
The song MUST be sent under the following conditions:
1. Must be a WAV file, 24 bit, no less than 44.1 KHZ
(your engineer should understand this)
2. The Song must have at least -4db Headroom.
3. The song must not have any Limiting or Compression on the
Master bus of the mix. (This means that the engineer did not add
their own master or pre-master on your final mix).
Don't streaming sites automatically Master uploaded songs?
Streaming sites do add a small amount of leveling to your uploaded
song in attempt to balance it based on its recommendations.
However, this gives you absolutely no control on how the song will sound
once their "computer" touches your songs. You cannot fix it once its
uploaded. Get it professionally Mastered.
Don't depend on a computer to know how you want your music to sound.
Will Mastering fix a bad mix?
Try to look at Mastering as an "Enhancer" If the song is mixed
great, the Master will be Awesome, but if the Mix is not perfect,
those imperfections will still be there, and might be even more
noticeable (sometimes.) Make sure the mix is satisfactory
before having it mastered.
Last question.... Can Enviyon adjust my mix while Mastering?
Great question. If Enviyon completed your mix, then we will automatically
adjust any areas "needing adjusting" during the Mastering Process.
However, if we did not record or mix your music, we will need to go back
a step to the mixing stage, before we can start mastering. This can be done
by utilizing our "Remote Mix" service, or you will need to come into the studio
and work with an engineer so we can update your mix. This includes adding
things or changing stuff that is already (or not) in the mix. You are not ready to
master if you still need to make changes to your song.