Why is that? Well, every single commercial release you will hear, has been subjected to a process called pre-mastering, or perhaps better known as just mastering. Mastering is a process in which a particular mix is made ready for listening on most audio systems, be it a car stereo, PC speakers, iPod, or a home entertainment system.

Mastering consists of several tasks. First and foremost, the object is to enhance that mix you’ve spent so much blood, sweat, tears and time on, adding the final pieces to lift the mix "out of the basement", while also making sure no tracks are too quiet or too loud. The latter being an increasing occurance at this day in age.

This is achieved by adding touches such as compression, equalisation, multiband-compression and limiting to your mixes. This is also where you adjust the cohesive balance between tracks, treating each track as part of a set rather than an individual stand-alone track. This includes both the overall balance of frequencies, and volume.

Generally speaking, you should be able to insert a mastered CD into a CD player, directly after listening to a commercial CD at a fairly loud volume, without having to adjust either treble or bass in any way. If you can’t, then someone has made a horrible master.

Mastering is also the process in which you will burn a master CD complete with PQ coding and ISRC coding if such is provided, intended for use in mass printing of a commercial CD.

Then of course there’s the ever nagging question of whether the mastering engineer knows what you’re looking for in your master.

Obviously, few of us have enough cash to throw around to just outsource mastering jobs to several engineers, with the purpose of picking the one you like better in the end. Then who’s to say I am what you’re seeking? Nobody. Which is why I master one track for you for free, so that you can better evaluate first-hand whether my services are what you are looking for. If you’re not happy with the result, we can discuss why, and whether we can try a different approach, or you can just walk away, no strings attached.

Although I consider myself competent in most genres, over twenty years of experience in electronic music has left it's mark, and as such I am specialised in music such as synthpop, futurepop, industrial, EBM, dance, trance, goth, noise, or just electronica in general.

I use a mix of hi-end outboard equipment, both analogue and digital, and top professional audio processing software, from manufacturers such as Avalon Design, A.D.A.M., RME, Sonalksis, Sonnox Oxford, and Waves, in order to give you the best master I possibly can.