MASTERING A lot of people get a bit confused about this.If you already know what the mastering process entails, you can skip this bit, but for those that don’t, mastering is basically a post production hybrid of witchcraft and voodoo that makes your material sound “bigger”, “better” and somehow “more professional”.   It is the point at which we do an analysis of the final stereo mix, check out the frequency range, maybe do a little gentle eq shaping of the whole thing and usually add a little multiband compression and limiting before finally putting it down as your "production master". If you've ever sat in on one of these sessions you will have probably noticed that the differences being made appear to be quite subtle until the point where you compare the finished master with the original mix. It's usually only then that you become aware of just how much bigger, louder and more polished it sounds. Because we offer this service in house, you now have the opportunity to take a project from its initial tracking stages right the way through to the finished article whilst ensuring that nothing is left to chance. So whether the final product is intended for simple CDR Copies or full on pressing plant duplication, we can ensure that your material sounds as crisp, as clear and as loud as possible. MP3 ENCODING As more and more people have access to the internet, it stands to reason that more and more stuff is going to get put on it. This is a subject that's been scaring the major labels for quite a while now as they no longer have such a monopoly on what reaches worldwide audiences. We think it's pretty cool though that you can now write a song in the morning, record it in the afternoon and have it available worldwide by teatime. Obviously the possibilities that this opens up are more than useful for getting your stuff out there, and indeed with the right organisation and planning, it's easily possible to dispense with the need for a record company altogether. The MPeg Layer 3 format (as the boffs call it) is a way of shrinking the file size of your finished stereo master by compressing it to a bite sized chunk. With the use of a good encoder the sound quality can remain excellent and it means that your material can be quickly downloaded from the internet. It's a fairly quick process and is often carried out at the end of a mastering session, though it can of course be done separately. RATES Mastering £50.00 per hour MP3s 1 Track £15.00 2 Tracks £25.00 3 Tracks or more £5.00 per track VOCAL DEMOS We also do a package for those of you who might want to get a quick demo together to illustrate what your voice sounds like. This consists of you telling us in advance of the session what backing track you would like to use. We then source, record and arrange the music and you come in on the day and lay your vocals down over it. We'll then mix it down, master it and give you an audio cd of the finished article. We've found this service to be particularly useful for budding session singers, stage school pupils or those that just simply can't do without having the sound of their own voice on a recording somewhere in order to embarrass themselves in front of their peers. The rates for this service are : 1 track with 2 hours studio time £120 2 tracks with 3 hours studio time £150 3 tracks with 4 hours studio time £175   AND MORE OTHER STUFF As we said on the recording page, here's some links to a few articles we've written which may be of some help to you in preparing for recording sessions. Some of it you may already know, though it can still be used as reference material for stuff you sometimes forget about. It will be added to and updated from time to time.   preparing for recording sessions drum tuning tips