The Aardvark Mastering
Making sound better since 2009
What We Do
Welcome to The Aardvark Mastering, where we help musicians, artists, producers, mixers, engineers and labels, bring out the full potential of their music.So, what is mastering? Mastering is a critical step in the music production process, where a skilled engineer listens to the individual tracks or single recordings of a song or album on a high-resolution playback system. The goal is to achieve a cohesive, polished sound that enhances the sonic qualities of the music and prepares it for release on a variety of platforms.Why is mastering important? As the final step in the music production process, mastering is a crucial component of the audio release process. A skilled mastering professional serves as a safety net between you and your listeners, ensuring that your music sounds great on all playback systems, from earbuds to studio monitors.But mastering is also about more than just ensuring that your music translates between systems. It's can also transform your music into a cohesive, polished final product that connects with your listeners on a deeper level. With careful attention to tonal balance, dynamics, clarity, and overall vibe, we can enhance the emotional impact of your music and give it that professional sheen and sound quality that you hear on the radio and on your favourite albums.The Aardvark Mastering uses the latest mastering techniques and technologies to bring your music to life. We work closely with you to understand your artistic vision and sonic goals, and tailor our mastering process to meet your specific needs. Whether you're a solo artist, a band, or a music producer, we have the expertise and passion to make your music sound its very best.Trust us to give your music the attention it deserves. Contact us today to learn more about our mastering services and how we can help you take your music to the next level!To get your project mastered at The Aardvark Mastering, just get in touch via email, phone, or the enquiry form form.
Streaming Services, Normalisation and other Headaches
When mastering your music for streaming services, it's important to understand loudness normalisation and LUFS levels, which is a measurement of loudness that helps with loudness normalisation. Most streaming services adjust the playback level of your music to make it consistent with other songs on the platform, using (often) LUFS measurements, and it's worth noting that different streaming services have different loudness targets in terms of LUFS, so it's important to research those targets (or let us help you).Whilst leaving some headroom and dynamic range is good, some genres are naturally louder and more compressed, and it's artistically acceptable to do this to a degree. Ultimately, it's important to make sure your music sounds great and translates well across different platforms and listening environments. So, if you're mastering a loud and punchy track, don't be afraid to push it, but be careful not to overdo it and sacrifice the quality of the mix.
Apple Digital Masters
The Aardvark Mastering is an approved Apple Digital Masters Provider (formerly Mastered For iTunes).
Apple's latest encoders can take advantage of every bit of high-resolution audio files, and the results, both for streaming and download, are almost indistinguishable from the original 24 bit lossless masters.
All masters created by The Aardvark Mastering are compatible with Apple Digital Masters standards by default. If you require masters for an alternative medium, such as CD or vinyl, please let us know when contacting us about your project.
Mix Appraisal
The best masters are made from the best mixes. Before we get to work on your music, we can listen to your tracks with a fresh pair of ears on a high-resolution monitoring system. This enables us to check that no fundamental improvements could be made before mastering, ensuring your project truly reaches its full potential.Just get in touch via email, phone, or the enquiry form to arrange for us to listen to your work, discuss your project and provide meaningful feedback.
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