Mastering FAQ and Mix Prep Guide

Here's everything I need to get started:

• Artist name and release title
• Tracklist in order. Use the exact song titles, since file names don't always match.
• Release date, or a rough timeline
• Formats you need: streaming, CD, vinyl, cassette, Atmos, etc.
• A reference track or album you like the sound of
• A download link to your mixes. WeTransfer, Google Drive and Dropbox all work great.
• Your mixes as 32-bit float WAV at your session's sample rate (24-bit is fine too), not clipped unless that's the sound, and not normalized. If there's a limiter on the mix bus only for loudness, send a version without it too.

Send it all through the contact page and I'll get back to you.

32-bit float WAV at whatever sample rate your session is at. 32-bit float keeps anything that goes over 0 instead of clipping it, so I can turn it down later without any damage.

If you can only do 24-bit that's totally fine. Just don't clip it. Clipping creates distortion, and that's the hardest thing to clean up in mastering, so please don't go in the red... unless you want to. A lot of beat scene and bass music folks clip on purpose and it's part of the sound, so if that's you, send it how you like it. Otherwise, with 24-bit there's no magic peak number, anywhere under 0 is fine. Full details are on the contact page.

Only have a 16-bit WAV, or even an MP3? That's ok too. There's less room in 16-bit, so the guidelines matter more here: no clipping, and keep it in a healthy range instead of super quiet. I've done lots of 16-bit mixes, and I've even mastered an MP3 for vinyl (a hip hop record) and it sounded awesome. There are no rules, just guidelines, and sometimes doing something unconventional is fun and exciting.

I always suggest leaving whatever you had on the mix bus when you mixed it, because that's how you liked the sound. A lot of people are producing into compressors, limiters or clippers on the mix bus, and it gives a sound.

There's been this huge anti-loudness war for the last 20-30 years, and rightly so, music kept getting louder and louder. But people have been doing this way longer than that. Back in the 50s and 60s labels pressed singles for jukeboxes, and they'd cut them as loud as possible and then ask other engineers to cut them louder. They pushed analog desks and distorted their gear to get those cuts. Listen to old funk or soul or rock n roll. It all came from pushing the sound into places it hadn't been before. Whole genres came out of it too (electronic, dnb, dubstep, bass music, a bunch of metal, pop). If you take that element off your mix bus, you lose the flavor and edge you felt the whole way.

I can make things loud, and I can arguably make them sound better loud, but better is subjective and I'm not here to gatekeep or stand in the way. So send me your mix with your character and grit, whatever gave the song that energy. Then send me a version without it (if it's only on there for loudness), and I'll run both through and see what sounds best, or give you a few versions to decide.

There are a lot of YouTube myths out there about streaming and LUFS. Make it sound how you like and don't chase numbers. Those numbers will change, platforms will change, and you'll be stuck with a record that was geared for a rule on a streaming platform (lame!!) instead of what the record should sound like. Make it sound good and the rest follows.

I've always done it this way and it's worked beautifully. When I mastered Shabazz Palaces' Lese Majesty, we let it breathe and be what it was, no rules, and pushed it into weird and heavy. If I'd listened to the YouTube tutorials about what it should be, what to cut and what not to, it wouldn't have made the best of the year lists it made. The character is what made it stand out and sound fresh.

Everyone's releasing stuff nonstop now and everyone's following the same rules. Let's break them together and make you stand out.

For new clients I sometimes do a few versions before I know what they like. Warm, big, dynamic, loud, and then we lean into whatever you like for the rest of the record.

A lot of my return clients trust me because of this. We found their sound together and I let them breathe and be who they are.

The analog side gives a master depth and dimension, that 3D thing. I do corrective work in both digital and analog depending on what's needed, I use whatever's best for the job. But I almost always go into the analog realm for some 3D and broad stroke life. Here's what each piece is doing:

Requisite L2M MkIII (on its tube power supply). This one has a dimension I've never been able to recreate anywhere else. It gives a silky polish that makes the track feel like a record. I barely compress with it, if at all. Sometimes I go heavy, and the limiter feedback control can add punch and grit. It doesn't really have bad settings, just better ones.

Crane Song STC-8. I use it as a tone tool more than a compressor. Most of the time it's on the V preset, either with program dependent (auto) release, or on the constant release side with A-MOD switched in, and sometimes I'll tickle the PK threshold so the peak limiter just kisses it. Release at full, attack depending on the mix, barely touching the compression, and it fills the track out with this fullness. I love the gain on it. I'm in HARA mode most of the time since it's clean, but if a mix is really bright I'll switch to KI for warmth. I like to experiment with the Shape control, but since I don't compress much with it they're pretty interchangeable. If a mix is really dynamic (a lot of singer/songwriter stuff) I'll compress with it a bit more for flavor.

Millennia NSEQ-2 (Fred Forssell mod). It has a low end bump I've heard nowhere else. A notch up at 20Hz gives masters life and I almost always do it, even on a guitar track with no bass at all. Same at the other end at 21k, a tickle there adds spice and clarity. The two middle bands I use for mids, kick punch, or bringing out the meat in a vocal.

Knif Soma. Great at broad tone. Low mids come out full and not muddy, and the highs have a slight saturation that brings in life and can make a track sound louder and bigger than it is.

Gyraf G23-S Ambler. Not just a tilt EQ. The low knob makes kicks and subs hit, and the high end sounds almost like bringing up the highs on tape. It really does have a tape feel.

Gyraf G21 Magneto-Dynamic Infundibulum. This sits at the end of the chain and helps bring everything together. I also use it for taming pokey peaks and analog de-essing of cymbals. It's fantastic on bass music too, it cleans up the low mids so the subs can boom.

Neumann EE 77 elliptical EQ (a custom build by Frank Lacy of JFL Audio, based on the elliptical EQ from Neumann's cutting systems). An elliptical EQ takes the bass below whatever frequency you set and makes it mono. It's built for cutting vinyl, since out of phase low end makes the cutter move up and down too much and can make the needle skip, so it's one of my main tools for vinyl mastering. Mine has the elliptical EQ from 40 to 500 Hz, plus a high pass filter (25 to 85 Hz) and a low pass filter (from 7.5k up), each with its own bypass. It's a simple, no frills unit. Elliptical EQ plugins have all the bells and whistles, but this thing sounds better than every one I've A/B'd it against. It just sounds good. I close my eyes, A/B, and pick it every time. The low pass on it is the best in the whole rig, gear or plugins. I use it at the end if it needs it, and it's perfect for driving the G21.

All of it runs through a DuTCH.audio insert matrix that was custom made for my setup, so I can swap things around, parallel process, and do mid/side on the analog gear. I monitor through a Crane Song Avocet into Dunlavy SC-IV/A speakers signed by John Dunlavy himself, in a room I designed, built and tuned myself, with rockwool absorption on all sides finished in acoustic fabric. The full list is on the studio page.

Yes. The analog gear gives a master most of its character, but I use whatever's best for the job, and a lot of the time that includes digital tools. These days that's mostly iZotope, FabFilter, DMG Audio, Schwabe Digital (Gold Clip and HiFal) and the Softube Weiss plugins, among others. I also use oeksound's soothe, but very lightly, never more than about 35% wet. I used to have a massive plugin list and I've been slimming it down to just the essentials. Less is more.

DMG Equilibrium is my go-to for correcting resonances, and I run it and DMG Multiplicity at their highest quality settings. For leveling I like to experiment. Sometimes I'll stack two to four limiters, each one barely working, which can sound much more natural at a loud level than a single limiter working hard.

Yeah, it's a big part of what I do. I've mastered over a hundred vinyl releases. I don't cut lacquers myself, but I master specifically for the format and deliver it split into sides with a cue sheet for your cutting engineer.

I also run vinyl masters through a custom Neumann EE 77 elliptical EQ, which monos the low end so it cuts clean. About 20 minutes a side sounds best (for a 12" at 33). You can go longer, up to around 23, but the grooves get tighter and you start trading off low end and level.

I know a few cutting engineers personally, and I've sat in with them while they cut some major albums, so I know what the cutter needs from a master. If you're cutting locally, like at Telegraph Mastering here in Portland, I can come sit in on the cut too if you want me there. Solid guy, I've known him for years, and I even helped put insulation in his studio (for one day at least haha).

Cassettes like mids. You don't want to push the low end on tape, and you don't want to compress it as hard as a digital release either. I tame the lows and the highs and really get the mids solid, from the low mids up through the high mids.

I start from the same analog bounce as the digital and vinyl release, then take it through its own cassette mastering process, separate from the streaming and vinyl versions. It's an important step and it makes the tape sound as good as it possibly can.

Most duplicators need a specific format (often 16-bit WAV), split into sides with a cue sheet, so I supply all of that. I've done dozens and dozens of cassette releases, I love a good tape release.

A 24/96 master straight from the analog capture, plus 24/44.1 and 16/44.1 versions so you're covered for streaming and CD. If you need Apple Digital Masters (BreakPoint is certified for it), a DDP for CD pressing, or vinyl and cassette masters, those are all on the rates page.

Not always. A DDP image is a locked set of files that holds your track order, the gaps and timing between tracks, CD text and ISRC codes, so NOTHING changes between my studio and the pressing plant. A lot of labels require one for that reason, since they're juggling tons of artists, releases and versions at once.

Most CD manufacturers don't require it though, and most independent clients skip it and just send the 16-bit WAV masters. That works fine too, it's up to you. A DDP is just a way to make sure nothing gets out of order.

If you do want one, I make the DDP in WaveLab and build you a custom player for it with HOFA's DDP Player Maker, so you can listen to the whole thing on your computer, in order, with the gaps, before it goes anywhere. The DDP files sit in the same folder, so when you're happy you just send that folder to the plant. All in one package.

They're ID codes that track your recordings for royalties. Most distributors (DistroKid, CD Baby, etc.) assign them for you when you upload, so most people don't need to send me anything.

If you already have your own codes and want them in the masters, or you're pressing CDs, just send them over with your tracklist and I'll encode them in.

I can also create them for you if you need them. They'll be issued under my studio's registrant code, so the code shows it was created here instead of by your label or distributor. It doesn't affect your royalties or your credits, it's just where the code came from. Up to you.

Please do. Even just an artist or album name helps a lot. It tells me where you're trying to go with the tone and level.

Yep. Most people send a stereo mix, but stem mastering helps some people, like if you aren't confident in your listening space, or need a bit of help hearing the balance, say drums against bass, or where the vocal sits. I can adjust that as needed.

Please note, this is NOT mixing. It's balancing buses or groups, slight adjustments to drums or guitar or vocals so they sit right in the mix. Some people love it, others don't need it. It's up to you, and I'm happy to tell you if I think it's needed or not. It's $150 a track.

Usually 3 to 5 business days once I start, depending on the size of the project. Booking usually opens within a week, sometimes sooner. If you're in a rush, just ask.

As many as it takes. Tweaks to tone or level are free until you're 100% happy. If the mix itself changes after I've delivered, that's a recall, which is $50 a track since I have to run everything back through the gear.

No. Every master is done by hand by me, start to finish. Nothing gets outsourced and nothing is automated.

If you're working on an EP or album, I'll master one track free first so you can hear it. Send it over through the contact page.