What exactly is ‘Mastering’ and what does the process involve?
MASTERING is the moment for putting the final polish onto an album or single. The last opportunity to make sure that everything fits together seamlessly and that the sound does not vary from track to track. Successful mastering depends upon a number of things: the involvement of a highly trained, skilled engineer, the appropriate combination of traditional and state-of-the-art equipment, plus an ideal acoustic environment.
How does Abbey Road Online Mastering work?
Abbey Road Online Mastering is an efficient way of accessing Abbey Road's mastering facilities from anywhere in the world via the internet. To get music mastered on the legendary equipment at Abbey Road Studios, clients upload their tracks onto our secure server and select products and services as required. These tracks are then mastered by one of Abbey Road’s experienced mastering engineers and returned to the client in the preferred format - either as downloadable files through the website or by post for physical formats (CD or Vinyl).
Why should I use Abbey Road?
Abbey Road has a fine and long tradition of combining great talent with excellent technical facilities - quite simply, Abbey Road is incomparable. Artists who have mastered at Abbey Road range from The Beatles and David Bowie to Basement Jaxx, Asian Dub Foundation, Lily Allen and Franz Ferdinand, among many other successful bands and solo artists far too numerous to mention. Many of the earliest cutting lathes - the tools for producing vinyl masters - were developed in part by EMI technical engineers and put to use at Abbey Road all those years ago.
Who will master my musical material?
Abbey Road's world renowned team of mastering engineers is extremely experienced and skilled in making artistic decisions that are appropriate to the style of music they're working with. Any member of the team will master your music to the highest of standards.
Can I attend the mastering session?
Abbey Road Online Mastering sessions are not available as attended bookings. If you would like to attend a mastering session, please call Mastering Manager, Lucy Launder on +44 (0)20 7266 7000 for prices and availability.
How do I book/pay for Abbey Road Online Mastering?
After you have registered on the site, sending your work to be mastered is an easy 3-step process:
- Upload Tracks. Upload the tracks to master. Tracks must uncompressed stereo WAV or AIFF files, up to 10 mins long.
- Set Up Job. Select the format/s you want your mastered tracks delivered in. Then add the tracks to the formats chosen and drag-and-drop them into the desired order. Add any extra copies of physical formats and bundles of listening items you require.
- Checkout. Pay for your Job through our secure online payment page (provided by Secpay) - you'll need your credit card details to hand. Your mastered tracks will be ready for download within 5 working days. Any physical formats will be posted after 5 days.
How long will Abbey Road Online Mastering take?
Abbey Road Online Mastering should take a maximum of 5 working days, beginning from the point of payment.
What happens if I’m not entirely happy with the results of the mastering?
We sincerely hope that this won't be the case. However, in the unlikely event that there is a problem or you feel that the mastering is not as successful as it ought to be, we will naturally do everything we can to make amends. If you provide us with details of any aspects with which you're displeased, we will master the material again, ensuring that we make the corrections as specified: this will be done without any charge. Once this process is complete, however, any further requests for alterations will be charged at the normal Abbey Road Online Mastering rate.
How much will Abbey Road Online Mastering cost?
Abbey Road Online Mastering operates on a cost per track basis, with additional charges for the format you want them delivered in. Mastering costs £90 per track with format charges ranging from no extra cost for downloadable WAV files to £250 for a Vinyl LP Album. These fixed costs enable you to manage your costs more effectively, knowing the final cost, including VAT and delivery, at the time of booking.
Please click on Prices and Services menu for a complete list of our prices.What mastering equipment do you use?
All Abbey Road Online Mastering work is carried out in Abbey Road's world class mastering rooms, all of which have a wide range of classic analogue equipment and the latest in digital hardware and software technologies. At the heart of each room we use the original and exceptional EMI TG mastering consoles with the SADiE 5 PCM8 digital audio workstation. We have Neumann cutting lathes for your vinyl, Meyer and B&W main monitoring, Benchmark A/D/A's, outboard from the likes of Prism, Weiss, Junger, SPL and TC Electronics and an extensive range of the CEDAR software plug-ins.
Is the Abbey Road Online Mastering site secure?
The Abbey Road Online Mastering site uses industry standard 128 bit SSL encryption to protect your personal site and restrict access to your account. The encryption will include all account and credit card transactions and file transfers ensuring audio is secure whilst uploading/downloading.
Your password will remain private and you can be reminded if you lose or forget what it is by using the link in the log-in section. For your own protection we advise you do not let anyone else have access to your account details.
How long do I have to upload and download my tracks?
After you've registered on the Abbey Road Online Mastering you will have 2GB of space in your account to upload your tracks to our secure serve. You have one month after uploading tracks to set up and pay for your Job.
If you don't set up and pay for a Job within one month your tracks will be removed from our server, so you'll need to upload again if you want to use them.
After your audio has been mastered it will be available for you to download for one month and you can download as many times as you wish.
Will uploading tracks affect audio quality?
No. As long as you send us files of a reasonable quality i.e. a bit depth of at least 16 bits and a sampling frequency of 44.1kHz and upwards, and the upload isn't interrupted then we will receive your files fine. Any incomplete uploads will be evident to our engineers so they'll be in touch if they have any queries.
What do I need to provide for Abbey Road Online Mastering?
Track duration must be no longer than 10 minutes and each version or mix of a track is counted as a separate track.
We currently accept uncompressed stereo WAV or AIFF files with bit depth of at least 16bits (max 24bits) and a sampling frequency of at least 44.1kHz. (If you are unsure then either right click/properties/summary (PC) or get info (Mac) where a stereo 16 bit 44.1kHz file will also indicate a bit rate of 1411kbps.)
We prefer it if your mixes haven’t been pre-processed through any mastering plug-ins or hardware before being uploaded to our server – this gives us more to work with. No limiter on the files you send to be mastered please.
What will I receive back once my project is successfully mastered?
Downloadable formats (WAV or DDPi) will be available for you to download from your account and an audio reference file will also be supplied.
CD Masters (DDPi or PMCD) will be posted to you with an audio CD for reference.
Vinyl Masters (7", 12" or LP Album) will be posted to you in the format you requested with an audio CD for reference.
You can download your invoices and track the progress of your jobs from your account on the website.
Is it possible to post material to you for Abbey Road Online Mastering?
No, we currently only accept audio via the website. If you would like to post the audio please contact Lucy Launder on +44 (0)20 7266 7000 to make a booking.
How long will it take to transfer my tracks?
We have gigabit (i.e. very fast) file transfer speeds between our mastering rooms and the secure server where you upload to and download from so transfer times are negligible once we have your files. The majority of households who have internet access in the UK tend to have asynchronous broadband connections i.e. the download speed can be anywhere between 8 and 40 times that of the upload speed therefore getting your tracks to us will invariably take longer than us getting them back to you. For example, an 8 Mb ADSL broadband connection may still only have an upload rate of 256 kbps so an unzipped 4 minute stereo 16 bit 44.1 kHz WAV or AIFF may take up to 20 minutes to upload to us and less than a minute to send back to you, subject to the contention ratio and volume of network traffic in your area. As we deal with relatively large files, if you have internet access via a dial up modem then uploading to Abbey Road Online Mastering may not be the way to go, however you can contact Mastering Manager, Lucy Launder on +44 (0)20 7266 7000 for prices and availability of a regular mastering session.
How do I know when the tracks have been mastered and are ready to download?
After the tracks have been mastered you will receive an email letting you know that they are ready for you to download from your Abbey Road Online Mastering account. The mastered tracks will be available for you to download (as many times as you like) for one month.