Frequently Asked Questions, Fullersound Inc.

Q. WHAT IS MASTERING?
Q. WHY DO I NEED MASTERING?
Q. THE STUDIO THAT I MIXED AT SAYS THEY CAN MASTER IT. WHY SHOULD I GO TO FULLERSOUND?
Q. WHY DO SOME CD'S SOUND BETTER THAN OTHERS?
Q. SHOULD WE MASTER WITH ANALOG OR DIGITAL?
Q. WHICH FORMAT IS BEST FOR CD? 1630, DDP EXABYTE, OR PMCD?
Q. WHY NOT JUST USE A DAT?
Q. SHOULD I OR CAN I ATTEND THE MASTERING SESSION?
Q. HOW CAN I BE SURE OF THE WORK THAT HAS BEEN DONE?
Q. WILL YOU MAKE MY CD AS LOUD AS...?
Q. HOW LONG DOES MASTERING TAKE?
Q. HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
Q. CAN YOU REMOVE NOISES FROM OLD RECORDS?
Q. SHOULD I PERFORM TASK SUCH AS ASSEMBLY, GAIN ADJUSTMENT (NORMALIZE), EQUALIZATION, COMPRESSION (FINALIZER) TO MAKE THE MASTERING ENGINEERS LIFE EASIER AND SAVE MONEY?
Q. WHAT TYPE OF MASTER FORMAT DOES FULLERSOUND ACCEPT?
Q. WHAT DO I DO WHEN THE MASTERING IS FINISHED?

Q. WHAT IS MASTERING?
A. Mastering is the final creative step to the recording process & the first step to the manufacturing process. It is here that our engineers will enhance all of your mixes to obtain their fullest sonic potential. Editing, assembly and analog or digital processing will be added to improve the final sound of your mixes. If needed the removal of unwanted noises, such as clicks, pops, rumble and hiss can be preformed at this time. We then produce a master with PQ & ISRC codes to be delivered to the manufacturing plant for mass replication. Sometimes mastering is a gentle enhancement of what you bring us, sometimes it is a major improvement and sometimes it is surgery!

Q. WHY DO I NEED MASTERING?
A. Your mixing process may take place over a period of days, weeks or even months. Sometimes at 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning or 6 o’clock in the evening. During this time you primarily concentrate on one song at a time not having the opportunity or even the resources to A/B each song with another. Most of your listening takes place at the studio and not in the real world of radio, cars, clubs or even at home from a CD. This can develop into many strange dips and bumps in the frequency curve of each song, thus the mix doesn’t sound anything like it did at the studio. The final album sequence is never decided until all songs are completed and then changed many times. As a result, many inconsistencies in equalization, level and compressions is unavoidable, even with the best of mixing engineers and studios. The mastering engineer offers a fresh pair of ears to objectively analyze your mixes. He will mold your many different songs into one final polished record (CD). He listens in a completely different way than a mixing engineer does. Thus, looking at the overall picture of sound, not just the solo kick drum or guitars that you spent hours and hours getting a sound on. An experienced mastering engineer understands many types of musical styles and knows how to achieve the sound that will be competitive in that market on radio, clubs and at home. He can give you valuable input as to the spacing between songs, the order in which they appear or if there is something unique about one song or another that might make it stand out . He is sensitive to the direction that the producer and artist wants for his or her album and will always work with you in obtaining that finished polished sound.

Q. THE STUDIO THAT I MIXED AT SAYS THEY CAN MASTER IT. WHY SHOULD I GO TO FULLERSOUND?
A. Just because they recently purchased a digital work station & a Finalizer, does not qualify them as mastering engineers. Our engineers collectively have over 40 years at the art of mastering records. Every day of the week we master another project, bringing us continued experience at our craft. This is not a part time job for us. This is all we do. Apart from that, we continue to demo the latest mastering equipment and when we find something exciting, we buy it. We, like them, also have ProTools, but choose to use the many individual hand picked equalizers and compressors, made exclusively for mastering, that we have to prepare your master to it’s fullest potential. Having the right listening environment is also of the utmost importance. Just about every client that comes to the mastering session comments on the things in their mix that they never have heard before. Is it not obvious that if you spend so much time and money recording and mixing your project, you owe it to yourself and the band to get the most out of what you’ve worked so hard to accomplish?

Q. WHY DO SOME CD'S SOUND BETTER THAN OTHERS?
A. There’s a million reasons for that one. Performance, instrumentation, producing, engineering, studio equipment and budget of course. But chances are, the ones that sound inferior, are the ones that thought mastering wasn’t important enough to do.

Q. SHOULD WE MASTER WITH ANALOG OR DIGITAL?
A. We feel there is no iron clad correct answer for this one. Each and every project is different. We treat each project as it’s own unique masterpiece. Upon reviewing your mixes we will audition both analog and digital processing and make a decision at that time as to which process will make you the best sounding master.

Q. WHICH FORMAT IS BEST FOR CD? 1630, DDP EXABYTE, OR PMCD?
A. There is an ongoing debate to this question. PCM-1630 is a 3/4" u-matic tape which has long been the standard and forces the manufacturing plant to cut the glass master in real time. Is this better?? PMCD is the only format that can be played by you in a regular CD player. This gives you a chance to review before production. However, we would still recommend a CDR reference for this purpose and not handle the PMCD master. DDP is an 8mm tape that a growing number of CD plants are ultimately transferring 1630 and PMCD to anyway. This gives them a faster process for cutting the glass master. We can make all of them. You decide.

Q. WHY NOT JUST USE A DAT?
A. A DAT does not contain the necessary PQ & ISRC codes that you need for CD production. Thus, someone at the factory must transfer your DAT to a digital work station and perform these tasks. There is usually a fee for this and afterall, do you really want to entrust this critical and final stage to someone you don’t know. Also DATs are the least reliable digital format that is used. Glitches and dropouts are very common. It’s always best to walk out of a mastering session with the final master ready for glass mastering.

Q. SHOULD I OR CAN I ATTEND THE MASTERING SESSION?
A. Yes you can. We recommend that you keep attendance down to the producer and/or mixing engineer or a representative of the band. The more opinions at the session the more time is spent. Remember, this may be your first time in the mastering room and have no idea of how the monitors sound. Your mastering engineer works in this environment day in and day out. You're paying him for his experience and expertise so let him do his job. Bring with you a CD reference of something that you are familiar with or something that you hope your CD will sound like. Do receive a CDR for approval before the final masters are made so you can take it with you and review at your preferred listening room. This will give you a chance to make any changes before production begins.

Q. HOW CAN I BE SURE OF THE WORK THAT HAS BEEN DONE?
A. Please get a CDR reference of the mastering to take home. Review this where you are the most comfortable. Most times you will be satisfied with the outcome and nothing further will need to be adjusted before the masters are made. If there is a change needed, it is simple to do so at this time. A CDR reference may mean an extra couple of days before you are finished, but consider this in the whole picture of the time you’ve spent up to now. It is a valuable tool to use.

Q. WILL YOU MAKE MY CD AS LOUD AS...?
A. We will do everything possible to give you a very loud CD. But remember, loud is not always better. Loudness comes from heavy compression. This sometimes sounds great and sometimes not so great. We, along with your input will make a creative decision on this topic.

Q. HOW LONG DOES MASTERING TAKE?
A. A typical 10-12 (45-60 minute program) song LP project will take all day. If you arrive with a master completely sequenced in the correct order, we will begin Equalization at that time. If not, we will first transfer your masters to the Sonic Solutions, make any necessary edits, assemble it in the correct sequence and properly space between cuts before we begin mastering. This usually takes 1.5 to 3 hours depending on the length and edits required. Equalization, level adjustments and compression can take anywhere from 2 to 6 hours depending on the quality of the mixes, the consistency between them, how close your mixes sound to what you want and of course your budget. After this is finished, we then transfer the final eq’ed versions into Audio Cube 4. At this time we fine tune all fades to digital black, make any last minute spacing changes, perform the PQ coding and ISRC coding if available and transfer to the final format (1630,DDP,PMCD). This typically takes about 2-3 hours depending on the length of program material and the number of tracks.

Q. HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
A. A typical 10-12 song LP could cost anywhere from $800 to $2000 and up depending on time spent. Call our office so we can best help you to determine an accurate estimate of your project. Click here for current pricing.

Q. CAN YOU REMOVE NOISES FROM OLD RECORDS?
A. Yes. We use Audio Cube 4 and the Sonic Solutions NoNoise software/hardware for this.

Q. SHOULD I PERFORM TASK SUCH AS ASSEMBLY, GAIN ADJUSTMENT (NORMALIZE), EQUALIZATION, COMPRESSION (FINALIZER) TO MAKE THE MASTERING ENGINEERS LIFE EASIER AND SAVE MONEY?
A. No! No! No! and No! In the long run it ends up costing you more money. We have found from experience that all of these processes can diminish the original sound with graininess, harshness, loss of stereo imaging and depth when additional processing is added. Once you have “Finalized” your mixes, it can’t be undone. If you like the sound of heavy compression or some sort of processing, print two mixes to your Masters. One with your processing and the other without. That way we can determine at the mastering session which one will work best. It is not necessary to worry about fade ins or outs, we can perform this for you. Your best bet is to always bring your original masters to the mastering session. After, of course, you have made safety clones of your masters.

Q. WHAT TYPE OF MASTER FORMAT DOES FULLERSOUND ACCEPT?
A. Analog tape: 1/4” or 1/2”, 30ips, 15ips or 7 1/2 ips, Dolby A, Dolby SR, DBX type 1. Tape should be slow wound, tails out and labeled completely and correctly with all titles and times. Include alignment tones of 1khz, 10khz,15khz, 100hz and 50hz at 0 VU. Place tones at end of side one. Digital: 24 bit SD II, Wav or AIFF files, Alesis Masterlink CD24 files, Sonic Solution exabyte files, 24 or 16 bit DAT,CDR and 1630. Please include a cue sheet with artist name, album title, song titles and running times of each cut.

Q. WHAT DO I DO WHEN THE MASTERING IS FINISHED?
A. We can recommend various manufacturers for graphics and replication.