Which frequency should you always boost in mastering?

Internet people are liable to answer that question with a number. The correct answer is of course that the question is stupid. There is no conveyor belt process.

The correct approach to mastering is for an experienced, highly competent audio engineer, knowledgeable about the genre and instrumentation of your music, able to appreciate the composition and aesthetics of your music, to listen. To assess. To create dialogue around the mix and presentation. To work with the artist or mix engineer to achieve the greatest possible mix. And only after this process of critical examination, quality control and understanding is satisfied, some additional processing of the audio may be performed by the mastering engineer to create the master files for submission to digital distribution, vinyl cut, tape, CD.

The experience, skill and time which I bring to your music varies. With techno, house, electronic music, you receive 20 years of professional experience. My experience working with Lowercase or Danger Music artists is considerably less. Yet, in order to quantify the cost of my service I shall charge 100 euros per song, and I am not generally interested in working on projects which consist of less than 4 tracks. Anyone tax resident in the EU without a business must pay an additional 19 euros to the government.

OK, so how much does stem mastering cost?

There comes the conveyor belt thinking again. That, stereo mastering is service A whereas stem mastering is service B, and if I want vinyl masters then this is service C, and using an analogue EQ instead of a digital one is some other alternative service, as if I were a Barista, and upgrading your Cappuccino to have oat milk costs an additional euro.

This fundamentally misunderstands my approach to mastering.

There is no price list for Espresso, Cortado, Decaf or an additional squirt of hazelnut syrup in my approach. I will listen to your music. And I will hear whether it needs stems or not. I will notice if the mix has issues. I will discuss these things. This is what you are paying me for. To bring my perspective and experience into your project. In many cases this will be: OK, sounds good. In many cases it will be: can you send over the kick stem?

I do not count peas. I do whatever is needed to get the music finished. And sometimes what is needed to get the music finished is offering pushback against endless revisions. Version 7 has never been better than version 1 in all of my career. Not when it comes to mastering. This simply demonstrates the music was not ready for mastering. The artist was not yet content with the music or mix, fully outside of the scope of mastering. I do not do version 7. Nor do I do version 6 or 5 or 4. When you work with me, either you will love the initial master, perhaps with one small tweak, or I am not the right engineer for your project.

But what gear do you use?

If you feel the need to ask questions like this then the answer is simple: I have a collection of audiophile Gameboys with gold batteries and gold audio cables for which I process everything using 22MHz sampling rate DSD through nine quadraphonic flanger instances. This is the secret to my sound. Unparalleled clarity, every single time.

Serious inquiries are invited via email.