The art of audio mastering is just that: an art. Whether the final delivery format is CD, vinyl, digital download, streaming or Dolby Atmos, mastering is the last technical and artistic step in the production process.

While it’s true that great equipment is very important in realizing a project’s full potential, it’s only useful in the hands of an experienced engineer, equipped with the critical listening skills to help create a master that realizes your true creative vision.

We bring professional, unbiased ears, and a fresh, invaluable third-party perspective to each and every project. Our goal is to help our clients end up with the best sounding projects possible, giving your upcoming release a far better chance at being successful.

We encourage clients to attend sessions when they can; that’s one reason we built such a comfortable room here in Westchester, NY. Hearing your masters play on our full-range reference monitors in our calibrated listening environment may be the best listening experience you’ll have.

Our staff is dedicated to helping all clients, big and small, and will treat them with equal care, focus, and relentless commitment to the craft. We look forward to working together on your upcoming release.

Vinyl

Vinyl is still a viable way to get your project out to the world. In fact, it has become much more popular in recent years, especially in the alternative and rock world. With the increase in digital downloads and decrease in CD sales, vinyl is one of the best ways for many artists to actually sell their product.

Listening to a vinyl record is a unique experience, and there are some who insist it’s still the best way to listen to music. Similarly, cutting a record is a unique process, and is much different from mastering for a digital medium. Variables such as side length, volume, bass, sibilance, phase between left and right channels need to be taken into account. Knowing how to manipulate a cutting lathe and take all these things into account is critical to a great sounding record. (We work from the Neumann VMS70 lathe.)

There are a couple ways to create vinyl lacquers and acetates. One way is to have us EQ or “master” the audio then use those hi-res digital files we created to cut either acetates or lacquers. Specific adjustments to optimize the audio for the vinyl medium will be applied. This is the most common way when we are mastering the project. If the project is already mastered we can work from the CD audio files or if there is a data file or hi-res archive that’s even better. For the analog purist we have the ability to cut directly from analog tape. We can work off a Studer tape machine with a special head stack to create the proper delay needed to adjust spacing and depth of cut without converting to digital and back.

Apple Masters

JLM is an approved “Apple Masters” studio. What this means is that Apple has provided us with the proper systems to ensure we are creating files to their standards. The “Apple Masters” program allows you to submit files at 24-bit resolution and sample rates as high as 96k. (The typical quality is 16-bit, 44.1k). Please check with your digital distributor to find out if you’re eligible. We can provide you with high resolution masters, either way, in case you would like them for other sites.

Analog

We have a beautiful ATR-102 tape machine that sounds fantastic. It is equipped with quarter inch and half inch heads. I love working from tape. If it’s in your recording or mixing budget (especially rock records with live drums and guitars) you should consider it. People ask if I have a preference recording at 15 ips or 30 ips and the answer is I’ve heard great records recorded at both speeds. Please label your reels and supply a set of test tones for tape machine alignment.

Digital

There are many variables to working digitally. These are suggestions, not necessarily rules, that can be very helpful in getting the best transfer of your mixes. Most audio workstations now are 24 or 32 bit. If you can work at 24 or 32 bit I suggest to do so. The noise floor is noticeably better than 16 bit. This has a cumulative effect when recording and mixing.

Leave headroom. It’s not necessary to make your mixes loud and can often do damage to your music by adding distortion and smearing the stereo image. It’s best not to do any extra processing prior to the mastering eq just so it’s louder. If you want to use aggressive limiting on your mix I suggest making 2 passes, one with and one without so we have a choice and compare in the studio environment then make the best choice for the particular song.

Vinyl

There are a couple ways to create vinyl lacquers and acetates. One way is to have us EQ or “master” the audio then use those hi-res digital files we created to cut either acetates or lacquers. Specific adjustments to optimize the audio for the vinyl medium will be applied. This is the most common way when we are mastering the project. If the project is already mastered we can work from the CD audio files or if there is a data file or hi-res archive that’s even better. For the analog purist we have the ability to cut directly from analog tape. We can work off a Studer tape machine with a special “delay” head stack to create the proper analog delay needed to adjust spacing and depth of cut without converting to digital and back.

Sample Rates

We can work from basically any sampling rate you’re comfortable working with, but they do not all sound the same. I like 44.1k and 88.2k when trying to get that vintage analog sound. 96k also sounds great, it has a more extended hi end. It’s especially good if it’s going to be left there and not sample rate converted down to 44.1. I think 88.2 sounds better when converted to 44.1 than 96. Great sounding projects have been created on all these formats. More important is not to convert it from whatever sample rate you are working at just to send a higher sample rate to us.

Metadata

Metadata is everything about the music on your CD except the music. One part of this is ISRC codes (International Standard Recording Code), which is a unique code for each individual track. Most record labels are set up for these and supply them. They are not mandatory but are helpful in tracking radio play, licensing for films/commercials and are helpful in royalty collections. If you want to apply for these go to: https://usisrc.org.

CD Text is an extension of the Red Book CD specification standard. It allows for storage of additional information (e.g. album name, song name, and artist) on a standard-compliant Audio-CDs. Many CD players can now read much of this information. Please let us know if you want any of these services when booking your session.

Imagine if different radio stations had different playback standards. Your songs would sound loud on one station, quiet on another. It would be very frustrating. That’s what we have at the moment with the current streaming platforms. Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, and YouTube all have slightly different broadcast (level) standards. Currently, Spotify takes it further, using loudness normalization as the default setting. As it stands, Spotify recommends submitting masters at -14 LUFS. This is generally much lower in level than what we’re used to with modern loudness expectations. But once you’re listening to your master on Spotify it actually sounds noticeably louder, more dynamic, especially next to tracks not specifically mastered with this is mind. The way your song is mixed also affects the perceived loudness, so there are many variables here. Unlike radio and television there is no legal streaming standard yet, they can change their defaults (and codec) any time they want without consulting with the recording industry. But it safe to say these new lower loudness standards are here to stay.

The reality is that most of our clients (engineers, producers, and record labels) still prefer louder masters. One reason is they prefer to hear the song exactly as they intended it to sound. Another reason is they may be releasing the song on several different formats. Frankly it’s what most are used to.

Songs that are mastered specifically for streaming do sound better on these platforms. They actually sound louder, more dynamic. As often as I’ve had this conversation with people, they usually say they still want it loud. Some clients are willing to incur the cost of getting both a loud master and then a separate master for streaming. Ultimately, the decision is yours. What’s important is to discuss this issue with us before we master your specific project so you get exactly what you want.

What is Dolby Atmos Music?

It’s a multichannel platform giving you an “immersive” listening experience, putting you inside the song so to speak. Although there have been several surround sound platforms over the years, Dolby Atmos allows the listener to hear and enjoy and create immersive content using headphones when connected to an iPhone or other approved device. Currently Apple Music, Tidal, and Amazon Music include Dolby Atmos Music tracks as part of their subscriptions. There is good reason to believe that Spotify will soon.

Will it become a new audio standard or just a passing fad?

We don’t know yet. There are plenty of reasons to believe it’s going to be around for a long time. For one, it’s been around longer than most of us think. Many movie theaters have Dolby Atmos playback. Dolby Atmos is already available on many of the TV shows we watch now. Apple, Netflix, and Prime Video all provide Dolby Atmos content. This tells us they are committed to it and have the infrastructure and resources to help it succeed.

Maybe the most important reason it is likely to succeed is that there is no real extra cost to the consumer. Yes, Atmos is a multi-speaker format, but all you need to experience it is headphones. This, in my opinion, is the most important factor in Atmos succeeding in the music delivery world. The vast majority of fans won’t be experiencing their favorite surround sound music in an Atmos-equipped room, at least not in the foreseeable future. They will use their current headphones. If people listen to their favorite music in Atmos on their headphones and think, “Wow! This is so much better!” then the demand will be there.

Delivering an Atmos Master File

As you may have figured, the master files required for delivering an Atmos mix is more complex than a typical stereo file. There are several Dolby Atmos Master Files and the ADM BWF.wav is the industry standard that includes the Bed Audio, Panning, and Object information. We can create and deliver all necessary files for you.

Loudness

One very different part of the Requirement for Dolby Atmos is all deliverables must achieve an integrated Dolby Atmos loudness that does not exceed -18 LKFS with a True Peak measurement that does not exceed -1 dBTP. That’s a lot lower than most music created since the advent of the CD! So you can no longer just put a digital limiter on and make it as loud as you want. You gotta work for it : )

These are just the main reasons that the mastering process is more important than ever to make sure your masters are delivered properly and sound as good as they can.

What We Need From You

Please note we will need the original stereo master of whatever you are having mastered for Dolby Atmos. So, if we did not handle that for you originally, please supply the stereo file along with your ADM mix. The reason for this is that the timing needs to match exactly per platform delivery specs.

We offer full audio clean-up and restoration using Sonic Studio’s latest software, “SoundBlade”. This is the most renowned workstation in the mastering world, and our studio is complete with the full de-click, de-crackle and no-noise package. It’s the best tool we’ve ever heard for the removal of broadband noise, digital clicks and pops, vinyl surface noise, impulse & hum, buzz, acoustic interference, overload and distortion. We also provide Audio Restoration Services for legal, investigative and other personal applications.