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Perspective
Tracking, mixing, and mastering are three very distinct steps in music production. While for the sake of convenience it is becoming increasingly common for all 3 tasks to be done by the same engineer, more than not the project does not reach it's fullest potential. This is largely due to the fact that tracking and mixing generally takes a significant amount of time and the tendency to lose perspective and inspiration is very easy. Also, many productions are recorded and mixed under less than perfect acoustical conditions. The dedicated mastering engineer has the advantage of hearing a lot different types of music in a fairly short amount of time on a well translating monitoring system. Thus, the mastering engineer develops a consistent sense of perspective regarding the final product.

Balance and Compatibility
With a well trained set of ears, constant practice, and lifetime commitment as an engineer and musician we bring a passion to the mastering desk that goes beyond the task itself. We do not take a quick "cookie cutter" approach to mastering and will always carefully analyze each and every track we are given, no matter what length. Often, we will experiment with the processing chain while working; adding or removing processors or swapping the processing order to achieve the best result. In the end the goal is to get your music to sound consistently great on the lowest end to the highest end playback systems including ipods, radio, and the web.

Volume
In recent times, many modern music productions have hit the market with a super in your face sound; brute force clipped completely devoid of any dynamic range. Loud records are for better or worse most definitely here to stay. We will most certainly respect your wishes if that is what you require in mastering. Generally speaking, however, our ideal is "loud enough" when setting the volume of your tracks. We want to make your music feel loud and full enough to sound professional and be comparable to other well produced music, but leave enough dynamic range as to not be distorted for the sake of volume. If you feel extreme volume is what your music needs most, please view this recent article and comments for some added perspective.

Sessions
We especially invite you to attend the mastering session, many artists find it to be a rewarding experience and a chance to relax after the tracking and mixing process. We also welcome the chance to work with the vast pool of music from all over the world via the web. Contact us to address your specific project needs.