Online Mastering - Clearing Up Some Common Misconceptions
Along with online mastering's advent there has come a few belief's that the process is in someway inferior than an attended session.
This may have to do with the internet's love of compressed file formats, proliferation of faceless websites with little or no detail regarding engineer history or equipment being used and the fact that everything online is just "cheaper".
It certainly is not always the case.
Audio file formats: Online mastering has the potential to be as good as mastering in an attended mastering session.
When delivering files for mastering make sure you send 24 bit.
wav or.
aiff stereo interleaved files and not compressed file formats such at MP3, WMA or AAC files.
When you send them ensure that you.
zip or.
rar the files up this way the data will arrive at the engineer bit perfect (these algorhythms contain error checking within the compression method) so there is no degradation of audio quality at all.
Zip and RAR files are lossless file compression algorhythms unlike MP3 and WMA which are "lossy" audio specific data compression formats which strip vital information from the file (which is not possible to reconstruct or retrieve).
So as long as you use.
wav and.
aiff files at 24 bit the audio quality will be identical to having them on a DVD, USB key/stick or CD-R.
Equipment: In addition there can be some who use less than the highest quality equipment for mastering audio, this can sometimes put people off the quality aspect of mastering and muddy the waters as to who has your best interests at heart.
A reputable online mastering studio will only use high quality equipment to process your audio.
When choosing online mastering check the following: Monitoring - are the monitors being used mastering grade? Compression and Eq - are the units high end models? Disk burning equipment - ensure your mastering engineer uses top end burning equipment and disks.
Engineer: Always look into what the engineer has been doing in their engineering career this will soon guide you into whom is a skilled individual with years of professional audio engineering experience and ensure you are not sending your audio to a student, spare bedroom chancer or other inexperienced individual.
Why not speak to the engineer by phone this is a good way of getting a first impression from the engineer in terms of experience and knowledge.
This may have to do with the internet's love of compressed file formats, proliferation of faceless websites with little or no detail regarding engineer history or equipment being used and the fact that everything online is just "cheaper".
It certainly is not always the case.
Audio file formats: Online mastering has the potential to be as good as mastering in an attended mastering session.
When delivering files for mastering make sure you send 24 bit.
wav or.
aiff stereo interleaved files and not compressed file formats such at MP3, WMA or AAC files.
When you send them ensure that you.
zip or.
rar the files up this way the data will arrive at the engineer bit perfect (these algorhythms contain error checking within the compression method) so there is no degradation of audio quality at all.
Zip and RAR files are lossless file compression algorhythms unlike MP3 and WMA which are "lossy" audio specific data compression formats which strip vital information from the file (which is not possible to reconstruct or retrieve).
So as long as you use.
wav and.
aiff files at 24 bit the audio quality will be identical to having them on a DVD, USB key/stick or CD-R.
Equipment: In addition there can be some who use less than the highest quality equipment for mastering audio, this can sometimes put people off the quality aspect of mastering and muddy the waters as to who has your best interests at heart.
A reputable online mastering studio will only use high quality equipment to process your audio.
When choosing online mastering check the following: Monitoring - are the monitors being used mastering grade? Compression and Eq - are the units high end models? Disk burning equipment - ensure your mastering engineer uses top end burning equipment and disks.
Engineer: Always look into what the engineer has been doing in their engineering career this will soon guide you into whom is a skilled individual with years of professional audio engineering experience and ensure you are not sending your audio to a student, spare bedroom chancer or other inexperienced individual.
Why not speak to the engineer by phone this is a good way of getting a first impression from the engineer in terms of experience and knowledge.