Mastering is an essential process that finalises your song ready for distribution. Processing is applied to the master bus in order to achieve a sound that is glued together and sounding the best it can. Processing includes EQ, compression, limiting, saturation, stereo widening, de-essing and other processing. Mastering in the hands of a professional engineer will achieve a wider, more detailed and controlled sound. Mastering ensures playback of your song is correct across all devices.

Stem mastering is the process of summing up to 18 stems together and mastering the summed stems across the master bus. The benefit of working in this way is that the engineer has control over each individual audio channel that is summing to the master bus. Resulting in the engineer being able to process and balance each indivually stem correctly to get the very best from the song.

Dolby Atmos mastering is a process that allows us to take your songs mixed stems and transform it into a Dolby Atmos master. Working in our 9.1.4 Dolby Atmos mastering studio we are able to position and pan your song in a 3D space. Creating a fully immersive and spatial master that can be released on streaming platforms such as Apple Music, Amazon and Tidal. The difference this service makes is outstanding and quite honestly takes your music to an unimaginable level.

By adding + Apple Digital Mastering to your order, you will receive back both the stereo master as well as the Apple Digital Master. This master can then be released on Apple Music as an official Apple Digital Master that is optimised specifically for Apple Music. All Apple Digital Masters receive a badge and are marketed as an Apple Digital Master on Apple Music.

Binaural Mastering is the mastering of the stereo binaural mix that is rendered from the completed Dolby Atmos mix. What this means is that you will receive back a stereo master that sounds immersive and 3D but has the ability to be played back using any stereo device. This also means you can release your music on platforms such as Spotify in a far superior binaural stereo format compared to standard stereo.

Stereo streaming masters are optimised for the purpose of streaming on streaming platforms such as Apple Music, Amazon Music and YouTube. Streaming masters have more headroom and a -1db true peak. The reason for this is to reduce inter sample peaks (ISP's) and minimise the amount of gain reduction applied by the online streaming platform.

Standard mastering is turned around within 5 working days and priority mastering is turned around within 1 working day. If you require your song back by a certain date, please let us know when sending your files and we will make sure your songs are back to you mastered before your deadline.

Vinyl mastering can be added to your order if you require a version of your song that is optimised to be pressed to vinyl. This master will be ready to send to your cutting house of choice. It is very important that a master optimised to be pressed to vinyl is used and not a master that is designed for digital distribution.

Alternate masters are any additional masters of your song that are different from the original master. Alternate masters include instrumental, acapella, radio edit, extended edit, performance mix or live mix. All alternate masters are passed through the same mastering chain as the original master.

Mastered Stems can be added to your order if you require each induvial stem passed through the same mastering chain as your complete song. Mastered stems can be used for TV and film licensing or for remix purposes among other things.

Payment must be made before work on your song begins. This ensures our engineers, take the necessary time and care required to return you the very best master.

Mastering includes 2 revisions. Mastering revisions give you the peace of mind that the end result is going to be exactly as you want it. On the rare occasion you exceed 2 revisions, you can always purchase more via our revisions and re-runs page here.

No, it is advised to remove all plugins from your master bus that effect dynamic range. This includes plugins such as compression or limiting. It is best to remove all plugins but we understand that some clients want to leave EQ or saturation active as it is part of their sound. The reason we suggest removing master bus processing is so that we have a mix with a full dynamic range and the mix is compressed and limited in the correct stage of the mastering chain.

If work has not yet begun on your song, you can simply get in touch with us and replace the file.

If work has already begun on your song and you need to replace the mix for a new one. Two outcomes will occur.

If the mix is technically the same song and same mix but there is a change resulting in the song needing to be re-run. There is a charge of £10 to cover the time the engineer must take to re-run your song. This can be ordered by purchasing a master re-run from the revisions and re-runs page here.

If the mix is completely different or a different song altogether, a new order for mastering will need to be placed. The reason for this is because mastering will need to be begun from scratch and the previous master scrapped.

Before sending your song always make sure that the mix is correct and the file you are sending is the correct file.

Mastering is one of if not the most important part of the engineering process of a song. Mastering can make or break a song. Too many artists fall at the final hurdle with poor quality mastering. A professional engineer will ensure your music plays back correctly across all devices. The skills and knowledge required to do so is an art.

Your mix can be uploaded safely and securely via our upload form here. Bypass any compression / limiting you may have on your master bus before printing your mix ready for mastering.

File Type : Wav / Flac / Aiff
Bitrate : 16/24/32 bit / 44,1khz - 96khz
Headroom : -3db / -6db

It is not ideal but yes we can work with a limited or clipping mix. The approach to mastering a limited mix is similar but requires a very precise approach in order to ensure the song is not over compressed or distorted.

If a mp3 is the highest quality file you have and you are unable to obtain a wav file, we can work with this. If a mp3 file is sent to us we will always request that you send the high quality wav. But if this is the only file you can obtain then we are able to work with a mp3 in a way that will still achieves great results.

Master (24bit 44,100kHz wav)
CD Master (16bit 44,100kHz wav)
MP3 (320kbs mp3)
Streaming Master (24bit 44,100kHz wav)
Instrumental (optional extra)
Acappella (optional extra)
Vinyl Master (optional extra)
Mastered Stems (optional extra)
Dolby Atmos Master (optional extra)

Yes, if you would like to credit Audio Animals for the mastering of your music you can do so. Please credit Audio Animals Ltd and Nick Burchall as the mastering engineer. This is not required but is greatly appreciated.