Mastering is the process of taking the final stereo mixes produced by a recording studio, and creating an album (or single) master ready for duplication and distribution. It is the final creative stage in the music recording process.
During this process, extra sound processing is usually applied in order to get the sound just right, to achieve a consistency between the different tracks and to fix any problems from the recording stage.
It's what makes a record sound like a record as opposed to a collection of songs.
For more details about the mastering process read all about mastering.
Put simply, mastering makes it sound as good as possible.
Our professional mastering engineers have decades of mastering experience and have mastered thousands of projects. They work in great sounding mastering studios with top-of-the-range mastering equipment. They know exactly what to do to make your music sound better.
It's not just a case of making your tracks loud before releasing them. Mastering is a process that gets the best possible sound out of your music.
If you are happy for any of our mastering engineers to master your tracks, select Any Studio to get our best prices.
You will receive the same personal service that Mastering World is famous for, your music will still be mastered by one of the world-class engineers featured on our Studios page, you just won't know which one until they contact you.
Jobs are distributed around our mastering studios on a "round robin" basis, so you have an equal chance of your music being mastered at Hafod Mastering, LOUD Mastering or Super Audio Mastering.
Click Master Tracks Now in the main menu.
You will be taken through a few easy steps to enter your details, pay us and then upload your mix files.
Once that's done you will be able to log in at any time to upload more mixes, update your order or communicate with your mastering engineer.
Most of our clients send us their mixes as stereo 24 bit WAV files.
We will accept any format audio files (within reason), WAVs, AIFs etc, but please don't send mp3s! They simply don't sound good enough.
Use the highest resolution that you can, not the lowest resolution that you can get away with.
Bounce or render your finished mixes straight off the mix bus with between 1dB and 10dB of headroom.
If you have any limiters on the mix bus, please remove or bypass them before running off the mix. Limiting is best left to the mastering stage.
If you've mixed the song with some EQ or compressor plugins on the mix bus, these will have affected all the decisions you made while mixing the song. Removing them entirely will change the sound of the mix so it's normally best to leave those in.
If this is the case, please send us three versions of the mix - one with all the plugins on as a reference, one with all the plugins bypassed, and one with just the limiter bypassed and the rest of the mix bus plugins in. This will give us enough options to get the best out of your mix.
Yes you can.
You can send your engineer a message at any time through Mastering World's messaging system.
Either reply to any of our emails or use our website, and the message will be routed straight to your engineer.
Yes you can.
Please contact us if you wish to do so, though please bear in mind that some of our mastering studios may not be able to offer web prices for attended mastering sessions.
Any Studio projects are returned within 5 working days.
For individual engineers, please check their page for turnaround times.
We will always do our best to get your mastering done promptly.
The mastering engineer will contact you as soon as he receives your job. He will let you know when he has scheduled time to do the work.
If your deadline is tight please select '48 Hour Turnaround' on the ordering page, but please contact us first just to confirm that we're able to honour that turnaround time. This will incur an extra charge.
We will deliver WAVs at the same resolution as your mix file.
We can also deliver WAVs at any resolution you need or any other delivery format, for example a YouTube Master, an Apple Digital Master (formerly Mastered for iTunes), high resolution files for vinyl etc.
Please contact us if you have any specific requirement not mentioned here, we have probably done it before!
You can help us get it right first time by sending us your notes, guidance and references along with your order
For changes or amendments after the mastering session, please contact your mastering engineer with details.
One round of changes is included in the 'per track' price; further changes are at the discretion of the engineer; complex or repeated changes will incur an extra charge.
We take the security of your music very seriously.
Our Secure Transfer facility is based on SSL data encryption, the same level of security that banks use on the internet. Our Secure Server is protected to the hilt by modern security software.
However, your music is only as safe as your password or passphrase.
Use the following guidelines, and your music will be as safe as your bank account.
When devising a password or passphrase, use more than one word.
Mix upper and lowercase letters, and add numbers for a very strong password.
Never reveal your password or passphrase to anyone.
In compliance with regulations on distance selling over the internet, you have the following rights to cancel.
To cancel you must contact us either by phone on +44 1446 775512 or by email on help@masteringworld.com
You must contact us before we start work on your project. Once we have started work on your job, you may no longer cancel.