Frequently Asked Questions | Digital Angel Mastering

Frequently Asked Questions:

How does it work?
You send your tracks in via the file sharing website of your choice.

You can send them in either as individual tracks or as a single zip file (This may be more suitable for a whole album). I will then send you an invoice, and on receipt of payment, your tracks will be mastered and sent back to you.

How do I pay?
When you recieve the above invoice, there will be a link to my Paypal account.

You can then either pay via Paypal or just with a credit card (you do not need a Paypal account)

How much will it cost?

For costs please see the Rates page

Which file formats can I send?

You can send WAV or AIFF files at 16bit, 24bit or 32bit and they can be at 44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz or 96kHz.

*mp3 is a compressed data format and is not a good starting point for mastering, converting them to WAVs before sending them does not fix the problem. If mp3s are all you have, send them anyway and I'll see what I can do...

Which format do you provide the final master in?
The final delivery format will be as 16bit, 44.1kHz WAV files - unless otherwise agreed. They may be sent separately or as a single zip file.

What if I am not happy with the results?
I take great care mastering your tracks. But I want you to be happy with the results, so if you would like some minor changes done I will do this free of charge (at my discretion). If more complicated changes or repeated changes are required then I may have to charge more.

Do you have any 'Before' and 'After' samples?
It is not really a good idea to base your decision on some 'Before' and 'After' samples as they can be very easily manipulated and made to sound better just by increasing the volume for example. It will also probably be streamed as a low bit rate mp3 so it wouldn't be that good an indication anyway.
But I would be more than happy to master a sample free of charge for you.

How long will it take?
Normally within 1 week or less depending on the workload. If it is going to take longer I will let you know.

How do I prepare my tracks for mastering?
Please do not use any kind of mastering plugin! These tend to have very extreme presets and even though you may think it sounds good on your speakers it probably won't sound good anywhere else!
Only use light or preferably no compression or limiting on the mix bus. It is very hard to undo.
Please leave a decent amount of headroom on your mixes. Don't peak them higher than -3 dBFS
Data compressed files should be avoided ie mp3s (see * above)

How loud can you make it?!
If you want your music very loud I can provide this, but please bear in mind that by doing this you are limiting the dynamic range of the tracks.
The tracks may also become tiring to listen to after a while, and may also produce nasty artifacts if followed by more compression later on down the chain ie radio transmission or lossy encoding (mp3)

How do I send a track that I only have on an audio CD?
You will have to extract the audio from the CD. Please make sure you extract / Rip it as a WAV or AIFF file

What is an ISRC code?
An ISRC code is 12 digit code that is a unique identifier of each track. The codes are used for tracking purposes i.e. for Royalties. The ISRC codes can be encoded onto the master CD if required free of charge. Just email them through.
ISRC codes can be obtained from the IFPI

How do I zip my files?

PC: Highlight all the tracks you want to zip. Right click on tracks and select "Send to - compressed (zipped) folder.
A zipped folder containing all the files will be created. Re-name this file as the Band / Album title / project etc and send this file via the file sharing website.
Mac: Highlight all the tracks you want to zip. Control click on tracks and select "create archive" .
A zipped folder containing all the files will be created. Re-name this file as the Band / Album title / project etc and send this file via the file sharing website.