There are three important ingredients to a successful mastering session:

  1. an acoustically correct room
  2. a very accurate full range monitor system
  3. a well seasoned engineer.

We have designed and built the SpectraSound control room based on our new and innovative philosophy.  We want to bring a mix that needs very little work to the mastering engineer.  That is why our mix room sounds and feels like a mastering room. There are carefully placed wall treatments, clouds and bass traps.  We do not use near field monitors, since most listeners do not place their heads within 2 feet of their speakers when enjoying music. 

After an intense and in-depth speaker shoot-out, we chose the Barefoot MM27 full range system as our main monitors and we’ve placed them in a “mid-field” setting… a very accurate, very comfortable and true monitor system with a ton of headroom.  The result is a low-stress listening environment where you can make important mixing decisions with confidence.  You can listen for hours without ear fatigue.

 

 

I ’m often asked, “Why mix on an expensive full-range system when most people are listening to cheaper home systems or iPods?”   My reply, "Exactly!" The reason is…you need to hear everything in the mix, including subsonics and other sounds that may be troublesome for those very systems.  A primary goal of mastering is to make the mix sound great on as many systems as possible.

When you’re happy with the mix, we can master it here or you can take it to the mastering room of your choice.  Either way, any needed adjustments will be minor.  The mastering engineer will be able to concentrate on his craft, without fighting a mix done on nearfield monitors in a bad room.

In either case, we'll both be very happy.

DEMO:  “The Difference” (Air Products & Chemicals’ Corporate Band) This was recorded in ProTools at 96K/24-bit

Before “ZERO DITHER” ANALOG MASTERING   (MP3)
After “ZERO DITHER” ANALOG MASTERING   (MP3)

You can download the above full bandwidth .AIFF samples  HERE:

Before “ZERO DITHER” ANALOG MASTERING   (AIFF)
After “ZERO DITHER” ANALOG MASTERING   (AIFF)