Mastering is the essential final process of technically and creatively enhancing and assembling the individual tracks of a recording project. It’s putting on the icing so to speak. In a mastering session the audio will be analyzed and judged whether equalisation and compression and other processing would be beneficial or whether it is sounding glorious as is and would be better left alone. – Joao Carvalho

Mastering, is the final step in processing, error checking and presenting audio. It is the process of optimising audio, before preparing and transferring recorded audio to a data storage device (the master); the source from which all copies will be produced (via methods such as pressing, duplication, replication or distribution).

The service can include techniques such as:

1. Editing minor flaws like pops and clicks.
2. Applying noise reduction to eliminate hum and hiss.
3. Adjusting stereo width.
4. Enhancing ambience.
5. Equalization (surgical / tonal).
6. Maximizing volume.
7. Dynamic expansion.
8. Dynamic compression.
9. Parallel Compression and Mid Side Encoding
10. Improving warmth
11. Improving definition and clarity
12. Dynamic EQ
13. Peak limiting.
14. Any (unlikely) revisions of the master you require, until you are delighted with the sound

Of course! Please visit the recent projects on instagram and take your pick to listen to

We offer any unlikely revisions that are required for free, until you are delighted.

Here is a PDF file with some guidelines of file preparation

Please send your files to me as 32bit files without dither (or 24bit with dither), with some headroom (no limiter and no clipping on the master stereo output). Also send it in whatever sample rate you worked on your project in (for example, 44.1kHz): don’t convert sample rate on export please.

I prefer to work on music with as little dynamic processing as possible on your master output, as it is impossible for me to un-do compression if too much has been applied at your end. Leave it to me! Anything you have done for creative reasons on your master output (saturation, EQ) is welcome to stay if you like the sound of it and it’s a part of the character of the song. If you have applied processing on your master output, and aren’t sure if you should remove it or not before sending me your pre-master file, I’d recommend sending me both versions and letting me decide which version would be best to work on.

Please .zip the files together (or .rar them) and send them to me a file uploader on this site. Don’t forget to include your email address.

We will then be in touch before mastering.

Our attended sessions are now conducted online. This costs extra (ask for a quote), and consists of webcam, screenshare and 32bit PCM audio feed from my studio to yours. Actually this system works great as you get to hear the audio in real time in high quality in your own environment while watching the process, including a detailed explanation of what’s going on.

I also do a lot of un-attended sessions where people send their files over the internet and I work on them, and let you know if I have any questions about the mix or issues that would be better to address in the mix.

Yes. It’s worth remembering that loudness comes at the expense of dynamic range though. While I aim for competitive loudness I prefer not to kill the dynamic range of your music to achieve it.

Also, please keep in mind that YouTube and Spotify will normalize material that is above a certain LUFS level.