Approach

What is Mastering?

Mastering is the process of balancing and adjusting audio, making it sound fuller and giving it a more distinctive tonal character. For a collection of songs or a full record, this also involves creating consistency and balancing levels, dynamics, and equalization among all the tracks, creating fades and crossfades between those tracks, and sequencing and spacing the album.

Mastering isn’t just about making your songs sound louder (though that can be one of the end results). It’s about giving your songs the final polish that makes them sound “like a record” regardless of the sound system used for playback.

Process

Our approach to mastering is rooted in respect for artists and the music we believe in. We know that it can be overwhelming to choose a mastering engineer and that when you work with us, you’re trusting us with the art you’ve already invested a great deal into. We don’t take that lightly.

We think it’s useful to view mastering as the final step in the creative process of making recorded audio. It’s an art form like any other part of the process, and your engineer will be a collaborator. They bring their experience, personal taste, and creative vision. This means that when you choose a mastering engineer, you should find someone whose work you admire, and who understands your material, intention, and aesthetic. As with any collaborator, it’s important to focus not only on factors like fees and equipment, but also on creative alignment.

That alignment is important to us too, so we’re extremely selective about the material we choose to work on. We won’t work on a project we don’t connect with or feel we’re a good fit for. We’ll be listening to your tracks a lot to get them sounding great on any playback system, so it’s best for the both of us if we really enjoy that process. If you’re wondering if our tastes align, take a look at what we’ve worked on in the past.

We’ll be honest with you — both about whether or not we can work on your material, as well as if your tracks are ready to be mastered. Mastering won’t fix problems with production or mix, so if we think you need to go back to either of those steps, we’ll let you know. We know how much time and money goes into making records, and we don’t want to waste any of yours.

That said, you do get what you pay for with mastering. The most essential tools any mastering engineer should have are well-developed critical listening skills and a room designed for neutral audio playback. Developing both of these tools requires a great investment of time and resources. We have over 20 years of experience and a beautifully-designed studio equipped with a curated suite of analogue and digital gear that allows us to bring polish and character to your tracks. We’re proud of the quality of work we’re able to achieve here.

If this sounds like the approach you’re looking for, we hope you’ll get in touch.