Mastering

Mastering is the essential final step in getting your music ready for consumption! You’ve recorded and mixed, and now you are ready to maximize your hard work.

Mastering gets your music ready for distribution, whether it’s for online streaming/digital distribution, vinyl, cassette tape or a CD.

Mastering isn’t supposed to substantially change the mix you’ve worked hard to create. Mastering is your quality control, it is your optimization and helps a mix if it needs it and sweetens the strengths that are already there.

Here are some of the specifics Magic Ears will bring to your songs (if necessary)…

  • Optimize punch and power by thickening the mid-range, tightening and rounding out the low-end and bringing sparkle to the high frequencies
  • Fine-tune the dynamics of your song and produce top-notch and competitive loudness levels while maintaining a well-balanced mix
  • Tame the problematic frequencies in your tracks by reducing muddy low mids and high mid harshness
  • Fix phasing problems so your tracks are mono compatible
  • Optimize 3-D acoustics. Increase depth and generate natural-sounding stereo width
  • Unify your album. We make sure tracks work together when played sequentially. Sound is consistent and levels are matched. Mastering can introduce character and cohesion, so tracks play back evenly
  • Consistency across all playback systems, from a smart phone to huge club speakers

CD Masters

We enable you to deliver your music to a CD manufacturer with all CD-Text, ISRC codes, UPC/EAN code and audio quality as intended without errors. If you already have sonically mastered WAV or AIFF files and need them properly assembled into a Red Book master for CD production and/or online distribution, we can assemble a DDP master for you to be sure that the finished product will not contain any errors or anomalies.

You can test the DDP master with the free HOFA DDP Player that will accompany your master, as well as a Samply player that will provide lossless high definition playback of your masters on any system from your smartphone or computer. The DDP file format is what CD manufacturers use to replicate CDs. You will hear the precise file from which your CDs will be created. Even if you are not producing CDs, DDP is an effective method for sequencing your master properly, particularly when songs crossfade, or for continuous live recordings played without a gap between tracks.

Vinyl & Cassette Masters

In addition to mastering for digital streaming platforms and CDs, Magic Ears specializes in creating digital pre-masters for vinyl cutting and cassette production. Magic Ears can assist you navigate the details of vinyl manufacturing, including recommending top lacquer cutting engineers and pressing plants for your project. For more information on vinyl production, please click here.

Magic Ears is a hybrid analog/digital studio. Our philosophy about the gear we curate for the studio is we look for unique, esoteric pieces with character whenever possible. Here is what we have:

HARDWARE

  • Dutch & Dutch 8C monitors
  • Custom Audio Germany HDE-250A M/S Mastering Equalizer
  • Buzz Audio SOC-M Mastering Compressor
  • Maselec MPL-2 Peak and High Frequency Limiter
  • Tube-Tech HLT-2A Stereo Shelving/Tilt EQ
  • Sonic Farm Creamliner III Dual Pentode Preamplifier
  • Rupert Neve Designs MBT Master Bus Transformer
  • Thermionic Culture Phoenix Mastering Plus Tube Compressor
  • Thermionic Culture The Swift Valve EQ
  • API 2500+ Mastering Compressor
  • Elysia Xpressor Class A Stereo Compressor NEO
  • Elysia Xfilter Mastering Equalizer
  • Dangerous AD+ converter
  • RME Fireface UFX II
  • D.A.V. Electronics Stereo Image Parallel Processor S.I.P.P
  • TK Audio M/S Station Mid-Side Processor

SOFTWARE

  • Pro Tools (latest)
  • Izotope RX 11
  • HOFA CD-Burn.DDP.Master
  • HOFA DDP Player Maker
  • HOFA DDP Player
  • An array of plugins from exceptional companies, including:
  • Leapwing
  • ToneProjects
  • Tokyo Dawn
  • FabFilter