RYAN ENZED MASTERING SERVICE

As I now have access to a fantastic professional studio with a full acoustically treated room, as well as some high end equipment, I now offer my services to master other peoples work.

Mastering is the last stage of production. It is the last chance to alter the sonic presentation and is where the various parts of a song are brought together into a cohesive whole.
The mastering room provides a different (hopefully accurate) monitoring situation and a set of fresh ears to help the artist and producer achieve their vision for the final record.

My most commonly used tools I reach for when I am about to master a finished song is a compressor, eq, and a limiter. Depending on how the artist has done the mix down, I will sometimes use a stereo enhancement tool, a harmonic exciter and a variety of other tools.

I master all genres of music for many top artist and labels including:

Universal Music (MAJOR)
Sick Slaughterhouse Records
Funkk Sound Records
Royal Fetish Records
Bass Drop Records
Antiblaze Records
50/50 Records
Awakened Records
Offliberty Records
Marshmallow Gun Music

and more..

THE PROCESS

The process for my mastering service is risk free for the artist because they can hear their mastered track before they have to pay a single cent. This is how the process works:

- You send me the correctly prepared .wav file of your song.
- I master it
- I then send you a preview of your track to ensure you are satisfied (Preview is a 320mp3)
- You pay (via paypal)
- I send you full and final version of your track as a 16 bit .wav audio file - EASY (This is the format that Beatport and pretty much everyone accepts.)

Something to note is that its no secret that everyone has different tastes with how they want their master to sound, so its common that I go back and make tweaks to satisfy the customer and their demands 100%

** PLEASE NOTE - Once the mastering transaction is complete, your project file will be deleted from the work computer after 1 -3 weeks time **

PRICES NOTE - NEW PRICES DUE TO CIRCUMSTANCES AT THE STUDIO WHERE I DO THE MASTERING

1-2 Tracks = $35 per track
3-5 Tracks = $30 per track
6-10 Tracks = $25 per track
10+ Tracks = $20 per track

NOTE - Once transaction is completed, if you return with a new updated version of the mix that i mastered for you and you need it re-mastered, assuming that I have the project (mastering chain settings) still saved on my computer, the price for me to print a new WAV is $5USD per track. This is to cover the internet and studio costs, as well as my time.

Payment - All payments are in USD and to be made through paypal. My paypal email address is enzedrecordings@gmail.com

TRACK TURN-AROUND TIME

1 - 3 days
* Please note - that im very rarely in the studio on weekends and that because I live in middle earth (New Zealand) Im ahead of the rest of the world.....in most cases im a day ahead of everyone.

HOW TO PREPARE YOUR SONG FOR MASTERING:

- The most important stage of the preparation process is the mix down. Before you send your completed song, you must feel 100% satisfied that you have your song mixed to the best of your abilities i.e. - good control over song dynamics, frequencies are in their own space and the volume levels are well balanced.

IMPORTANT: Mastering will not fix a bad mixdown - The better the mix, the better the mastered version will be.

- You must have NO plugins on the master channel. Do not compress or limit your final mix. You will be tempted to do this to make things louder, but it will make the mastering process much more difficult.

- The master output level must be peaking between -6db to -3db. It must not be going into the red i.e. - "clipping" - The best way to give your track this headroom is not by simply lowering the master volume fader, instead, lower all of your individual channels, this will reduce the db reading on your master channel. If you are struggling to make it work using this method, you can resort to lowering the master volume fader in order to get the desired headroom of - 6 to -3db.

- Ensure no individual channels are clipping

- Export/Render/Bounce your song to a stereo WAV or Aiff file. Both these file types are lossless and retain the exact data and audio quality. Must be a 24 bit and 44.1kHz file.

- Remove any unwanted noise such as pops and clicks from any tracks. Applying a cross-fade to this problematic spots will most often solve the problem.

NOTE - This is just something I do with my tracks, and what I have found from the 1000's of songs I have mastered. I like to have my drums (particularly my kick and snare/clap just a TINY fraction louder than you want them in the final master version. Although I believe in applying a very transparent mastering chain for most tracks, the kick and the snare is often what gets the compressors and limiters working the hardest, and therefore reduces them a tiny bit back perfectly into the mix)

Another great way to check if your song is prep'd correctly, once you have exported your WAV file, re-import it back into your DAW sequencer so you can analyse the waveform.

If the waveform looks like this, where you can see the edge of the waveform is a flat horizontal line, then you have done something wrong: (most likely left a compressor or limiter on your master)

INCORRECT



This pic is also less than ideal. The red box shows the audio waveform of the intro drums/percussion section. The yellow box indicates the chorus section. The difference in the size of the waveforms also means there is a huge difference in the volume between those 2 sections. You want your waveform to be much more even than this:

INCORRECT



But if your waveform looks similar to this, then you are ready to send me your song:

CORRECT



To hear an example of some audio before and after I have mastered it, please refer to this soundcloud link below:


http://soundcloud.com/ryan_enzed_nzmusic101/mastering-a-bs-3-songs/s-gl4OZ

http://soundcloud.com/ryan_enzed_nzmusic101/mastering-before-and-after

When it comes to sending the song to me, please this website - http://www.wetransfer.com or http://www.sendspace.com
This is because the WAV file will be too big to attach to an email.

Send songs to this email - enzedrecordings@gmail.com

If you would like your song mastered, or if you have a few questions first, please feel free to contact me - ryanenzedmastering@gmail.com


Ryan

~ Freelance Mastering Engineer
~ Mastering Engineer For Sick Slaughterhouse Records