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The mastering process aims to provide the finished recordings with a “polish” so that they sound as balanced and consistent as possible when played back on any sound system. It is the last step that’s done before playback, broadcast, replication and distribution.
Having an impartial set of ears on a recording also never hurts.
For those more familiar with film & video production, it is the audio equivalent of ‘grading’.
You can book quickly online by going to our mastering services page here and booking your project in
We typical delivery 3 file formats of your master via digital delivery
Suitable for radio and digital distribution such as Spotify and other streaming platforms. or if you wish to have a CD Production Master made up.
If you supply mixes at any resolution between 24 bit / 44.1kHz to 24 bit / 96kHz, we’ll provide the master at the same resolution. Apple Digital Masters are optional, Apple Music and other digital distributors will accept Standard Digital Masters.
Apple Digital Masters is an Apple initiative launched after the release of its new generation of AAC encoding tools that accept hi-resolution PCM sources. It includes a set of best practices for mastering specifically for Apple Music, and mastering houses/engineers need to be approved by Apple to provide them.
Suitable for uncritical listening and EPKs (Electronic Press Kits). Inferior sound quality to lossless formats (WAVS, AIFF etc) thus unsuitable for encoding into other formats.
We find this covers most of your clients. However if you have a specific request. Feel free to get in touch and we can work with you on your project.
We prefer interleaved Stereo WAV files to work from
MP3 format is unacceptable for mastering. 44.1KHz 24bit or higher is preferred.
Please supply your mix at a sensible level: try and achieve a level close to 0dB but never allow the mix to go into the red (clipping).
Provide clear notes as to what you would like done in the mastering process (i.e. desired level and tonal balance)
if you have a reference song then please supply details
Provide details regarding intended release platform (i.e. CD, Streaming, YouTube or Video)
Provide precise details of any special edits (i.e. remove count in at start of song, fade song at end or any other requirements)
It averages 4 business days depending how busy we are.
Formerly called “Mastered For iTunes”, Apple’s new spec for delivering higher resolution masters.
Apple Digital Masters are included in standard project delivery – Apple Music and other digital distributors will accept standard 16Bit masters.
Yes we can master alternate mixes which are charged at $50+GST each. It is best to supply these at the time of mastering the main mix so everything can be done together and more quickly.\
We are happy to listen to your song before booking in mastering, please contact us to discuss. Any way of improving the mix will enable us to improve the final master.
Audio mixing is the process of combining multi-track recordings into a single track – “the mix”.
The process can include balancing the levels of the multi-tracks that have been recorded, fine-tuning the sound of each instrument or voice using equalisation (EQ), stereo panning, and/or adding effects such as reverb.
During a mixdown, we take every instrument, part, or track that has been recorded to balance and space them from a multi-track session into a final 2-track stereo file.
Mixing is a lot like cooking. If we compare recording to purchasing and preparing the ingredients, then mixing would be the method.
This is perfect for projects up to 16 channels. Including vocal heavy genres such as hip hop, rnb, pop or indie projects such as punk rock, garage rock or low-fi.
This is perfect for projects up to 48 channels. This covers most modern sessions from metal to ambient. For larger scale projects. contact below for a custom quote.
Slight pitch or timing can be done during the mixing process. If you need services such as full vocal treatment and pitch correction or large sections of drums to be time align with offer these additional services.
We happy to review projects to get the best advice prior to starting your project.
This may be due to the size of your files, the files being in the wrong format, or using special characters in the file name. Please ensure you only use letters and numbers. Your track should be no longer than 10 minutes and be in the format specified here. Please contact us for any additional help via contact form or admin@signpostaudio.com
All sessions are unattended.
You will need to provide multi-tracks that are consolidated or bounced from the start point of the song (bar 1 beat 1 or start time code). Please make sure these are in a high resolution format (wav or aiff).
The engineer will bring the mix to a point they are happy with, then send it through for your feedback and revisions if required.
The fixed price includes 2 round of revisions. Any additional revisions will be charged at $75ph + GST
Vocal tuning is audio production process where we manually tuning, comping, editing and alignment for each individual vocal track using industry standard programs such as Melodyne and Autotune
Vocal tuning involves many processes that are designed to improve vocal performances. Pitch correction is one of the most frequent applications of vocal tuning for artists. Very few performers have perfect pitch, and you might be surprised to find out that pitch correction is used by established artists on almost every recording.
It really depends on the genres and style you are going for. You may do most or all of the recording at home but, then you’ll need to edit your tracks. Depending on the genre, you may require a precise vocal tuning (pitch correction) and time alignment, as well as tightening it up with the backing vocals.
When you do hip-hop or rap music, you must be consistent on your double-tracked performance, but sometimes a little bit of help is needed to make things spot on.
Some songs require transparent tuning vs something like the well know "T-pain effect"
Remember not everything can be tuned. We are happy to review the project before we get to work
1) Stem the vocal tracks separately.
2) Bypass all effects on the tracks.
3) Send the isolated instrumental with no vocals.
4) Send us notes with the style of tuning in mind. (Trap, Pop, Natural)
An audiobook editing engineer will remove sounds from the project recording that shouldn’t be there: pops, clicks, background noise, breathing, fuzz, reverb, stutters, and filler words like “um” and “uh.”
An editing engineer will also modify the pace of the narration, if necessary, and they’ll flag any places where the narrator needs to record audio pickups (i.e., places where the audio isn’t correct or clean enough to be integrated).
Audiobook Creation Exchange or ACX. Amazon owns ACX, and they distribute audiobooks to Amazon, Audible, and iTunes. Their guidelines help make sure that all audiobooks are smooth and a great experience for the listener.
There are many factors that impact the cost of audiobook production. If you decide to use ACX to make your audiobook, your expenses are largely dependent on what you choose to pay and experience of your narrator, the quality of the recording and the complexity of the the project.
In a standard audio book production - after the recording has been done. We budget around 10:1 - 10 hours of production hours to 1 hour of finished audio.
This includes:
Absolutely...
We operate remotely but are more than happy to give advice and provide online training to people just like you on audio recording set ups, recording tips and other thing to ensure your project is a sucess.
Contact below to find out more.
Podcasting editing or podcast post production is the process of taking your aw recording, editing out mistakes, dead air, audio sweeting through tools such as compression and eq, adding intros and transitions and delivering a finish file ready to distrubute.
We do offer training session via zoom on good recording technique, show structure, equipment choice and more. Fill out the contact form below and we will be in touch
We process and clean all the audio before we begin an edit which can take anywhere from 10min to an hour. During an edit, we listen to the entire episode. It may take 2x as long as your episode is.
We normally work on shows between 20 to 60 mins recorded length. Much more than that and there may be a slight price increase to cover the additional time spent on each episode
Depending on our workload. Most podcasts are turnaround within 5-7 business days.
Our audio editor will take out all the obvious mis-speaking errors, awkard umms, arhs, pauses etc.
But if you have a specific request to remove section or other notes.
Feel free to send an email with notes on episode submission
We provide both custom audio or can work with you to source cheaper stock audio solution depending on your budget
If you are brand new to podcasting we have a special launch package available which includes
Currently we don't have direct hosting but always happy to help with recommendation and assistance
If you are brand new to podcasting we have a special launch package available which includes