Audio Mastering FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions about Audio Mastering

What kind of file should I upload? The types of files you should be sending are wav or aiff files, 16 bit or 24 bit, 44,100hz or 48,000hz. We don't recommend mastering on mp3 files, which are already compressed using a very lossy algorithm, and the mastering only amplifies the loss of fidelity. If you are packaging your music for a CD, it will ultimately end up in 16bit, 44,100hz wav files, so if you can do your mixdown at 16 bit, 44100hz then there will be less conversion to be done on our end. If you require something different, such as 48,000hz files for a movie track, please advise us before we begin the mastering work, otherwise you will receive 16 bit, 44,100hz wav files, which are CD-quality audio. We can also give you mp3s, which actually sound good when made from a master, just not vice-versa.
How can you give away free masters? Our whole philosophy and business model here at Groove-Phonic Mastering is that we love to work on all kinds of music, and we decided that if we gave away free masters we would treat the free ones just as if they were paying customers, and just try to make the music sound as good as was humanly possible. We felt that such a positive contribution to the community at large would create good karma for us, and indeed it has, as can be attested by the growing number of satisfied paying customers (Testimonials page coming soon, stay tuned)
How long will your prices stay so low? At the current time we plan on holding this price for a little while, basically until we can no longer afford to give away free masters due to overwhelming demand. At that time we may either raise our prices, or discontinue our free master promotion. All is yet to be decided. In any case, I suggest you take advantage of not only our free offer, but our great prices now, while they are still available.
Why do my vocals sound like that? We hear a lot of music every day, and it seems as if the biggest problem new artists and engineers are having is with their vocals. Not the vocals themselves, but the sound of the vocals once recorded. Often there is a lot of distortion which no amount of mastering can fix. The answer is, get a halfway decent microphone, and play around with the input levels, attenuating them down far enough until you get a result that sounds clean, and doesn't have any clipping of the audio channel. You may have to experiment a bit, but eventually you'll find that "sweet spot". That is how to get a clean vocal sound.

I like the master, but hear a part I did wrong in the mix, can I re-mix and send you a new file? Sure, you can send us a new mix, but we have to charge you our (already super-low) rate of $39 per song, as if it were a whole new song. After all, it is a whole new song to us, since every time we put a new file on the bench, we completely reset all our parameters just for that individual piece of music, and no song is mastered exactly the same as any other song. Therefore, when you send us a new file for mastering, you are asking us to do our work all over again. That's why we have to charge for that, it's only fair. Our prices are already rock bottom as it is without doubling our workload!
I'd rather send you a CD in the mail instead of uploading files. Can I do that? Absolutely. Please use the address located on the page with our contact information, and drop us a line letting us know you've mailed the CD to us so we can keep an eye out for it when it arrives here.
Can I order now in order to take advantage of your special prices, and send you my files next month when we're done in the studio? Umm yeah, sure... within reason, like, say... a year? But seriously sure. Go ahead and purchase a mastering package and we will keep your account active while you finish up your final mixes. Your mastering package will be waiting for you when you are ready.
Can we put your name on our CD? Sure, we'd love to get credit for work well done! Please print the following:
Mastered by Groove-Phonic www.groovephonics.com

We really appreciate the listing on your CD cover, and also if you want to link to us on your website, we really appreciate that, and we are open to any reciprocal backlinks anyone (of our Groove-Phonic clients) cares to exchange.
Do you have any plans for more special promotions for your clients? As a matter of fact, we are planning to offer free promo listings for our Groove-Phonic clients right here on our website. They will be mainly indexed pages with clients' selected promotional material, providing yet another showcase for their music and hype, and valuable backlinks back to the client's official website(s), very helpful for artist SEO. All Groove-Phonic clients who are interested in such a promotion, please contact us through our contact page and we will be happy to set up your own promo page here on groovephonics.com.

Mastering By Song

Mastering Entire Album