Blue Nite Productions - Audio and Multimedia services with a personal touch!

Audio Mastering

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So you've finished your CD or recording project, but it just doesn't sound quite as "commercial" as all your favorite CDs. Your recording needs to be "mastered."

All 'major label release' CD's are mastered. This plays a major role in making recorded material sound professional. It is often the difference between a project sounding like a demo or a legitimate recording. Non-mastered recordings can sound thin and weak, and this especially becomes apparent when the track is played on radio, or played before or after other mastered tracks included on a compilation CD.

How is mastering done? By using specialized audio production tools and precisely EQing, compressing, expanding, limiting, normalizing, and level adjusting, and sometimes dithering the mixed stereo track(s). This helps a recording fit within the accepted standards of hi fidelity. It is also arranging the tracks for a great continuity and spacing between the tracks (who wants 2 seconds between every single track?). This "mastered" recording is then 'burned' to a Master CD-R that is ready for final production. Most recording studios DO NOT actually master your recordings (unless you ask and pay extra for it). Usually studios can easily make a CD-R or DAT that is ready for production. However, this is not to be confused in most cases with a mastered recording. If you want your project to sound professional, mastering is a critical, necessary function.

Blue Nite Productions' mastering services are perfect for the budget-minded artist who wants a great commercial sounding master but doesn't have thousands of dollars to pay one of the industry's "big boys." We work directly with the artist to find the vibe and sound they want and fine tune every track to make a cohesive, great sounding package. None of that "run every song through one preset" here! We can also assist you in completing the audio track log for your duplicator, which is almost always required.

We charge a flat fee which is determined by the length of your project. There is no hourly charge. Our pricing includes shipping back to you and two CD-R masters. (Additional CD-R masters can be ordered for $5 each.)

00:00 - 10 minutes - $50
10:01 - 15 minutes - $70
15:01 - 20 minutes - $90
20:01 - 25 minutes - $110
25:01 - 30 minutes - $150
30:01 - 60 minutes - $200
60:01 - 75 minutes - $250

Listen to an A/B comparison of the same recorded audio before and after mastering. Dial-up visitors may want to right click and select "Save Target As" to download before playing to prevent skipping or lengthy buffering.

AUDIO CLIP 1 (before mastering. File is 482KB MP3, encoded stereo at 192 kbps)

AUDIO CLIP 2 (after mastering. File is 496KB MP3, encoded stereo at 192 kbps)

You should immediately notice more presence, apparent loudness, a better mix of the instruments, more definition, better stereo imaging, and more "crispness," among other things. Be sure your MP3/media player's EQ is set to flat (straight across), and that you have no extra gain in the EQ preamp section (set to 0), or other "sound-enhancing" effects turned on.