What Masters Do I Need?

Soooo many Masters to choose from…!

Before beginning the Mastering process, in our experience, most clients  have already decided how you plan to release your music. Be it on CD, DVD, Blu-ray, Vinyl, iTunes, High Res Download etc. If not then you should take the time to think carefully about how you envisage your music entering the big wide world.

Different formats do require different Masters and in some cases a whole different type of Mastering altogether! Due to the cost/time constraints in the modern music industry, for the most part, we all tend to Master with a ‘one-size-fits-all’ mentality. This means that knowing exactly what mediums we are Mastering for will enable the critical decisions to be made in advance instead of after the event.

For example, if we are Mastering something that we know is going to be used for the CD, Vinyl Cut and Mastered for iTunes we will have to bear certain technological constraints in mind before proceeding.

Although we could make a Master that is completely ‘loud, pumping and aggressive’ on CD, it is not necessarily going to be appropriate for cutting to Vinyl and it may not pass the Apple ‘Mastered For iTunes’ verification process. So we either have to Master for each alternative medium (which may be costly) or we Master carefully to make sure it works well across all three.

Either way you know that your Masters are in safe hands but having a plan before hand can really help the process.

Click on the various Master icons below to see what you will receive for each Master.