Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is mastering exactly?
Most of you probably know this already but for those you are not familiar with the term "Mastering", here is a brief description:
The aim of mastering is to transform raw mixes into professional sounding tracks that translate well on any media whether it's Radio, Club, Home-system, streaming etc. The difference between a mastered and unmastered track can be huge, or hardly noticeable. A great deal of music is recorded and/or mixed in acoustically inaccurate monitoring environments these days which makes having your tracks checked and mastered in a professional mastering studio more important than ever. It's the last opportunity to accurately hear a recording and solve any problems it may have.
How does 24mastering work?
Step 1: Sign Up
Sign up for a 24mastering.com account.
Step 2: Sign In
Navigate to 24mastering.com and sign in using your email and login code. You will be taken to your account overview page.
Step 3: Buy Credits
We work with credits. The advantage of this is that you do not have to pay every time you want to order a service. You can purchase credits by most common payments options. After purchase the credits are automatically added to your account.
Step 4: Order
When your account is filled with credits you can start ordering mastering and other services. To order mastering, pick the number of tracks you want mastered, and select additional options and other services. The page will indicate how many credits are needed to fulfil the current order. Make sure you enter track information and any mastering preferences you may have.
Step 5: Upload
After placing the order you will be directed to the My Orders page. Here you can now upload your audio file(s) that need to be mastered. You're also welcome to upload any reference track. From My Orders page, you can also download invoice(s) for your orders.
Step 6: Download
After mastering is complete you will receive an email that your files are ready for download. Navigate to Downloads page in your user account section. Simply download the available files. Be aware that files will stay in your account for 21 days. After this period files are automatically deleted.
How much does mastering cost?
How much you pay per track depends on which options you choose and how many credits you buy. You can buy individual credits which cost 1 euro each. If you buy a credits pack you get a discount. The higher the credits pack, the higher the discount. Unused credits will remain in your account until you use them at any other time.
Please see pricing for all our services. We have incredibly low prices so please don't bug us about extra discounts ;). Buy a credits pack and you pay as low as 25 euro per master!
How long does mastering take?
Turnaround time can take a couple of days or longer depending on workload.
Need it fast? Don't worry we have Rush options which will guarentee your master back within the time frame during weekdays.
What kind of equipment do you use?
Please see About us page for details about our studio equipment that we use for our high-end audio mastering and disk cutting services.
Can I have a mastering demo?
Sorry, we are no longer doing demos.
What else can you do?
Mixdown
We have over 30 years experience of doing mixdowns. During this process, the source signals level, frequency content, dynamics and panoramic position are being manipulated to get the best possible mix before mastering.
Stem Mastering
Individual audio tracks are grouped together to allow for independent control and signal processing of each stem and can be manipulated independently from each other. Stem Mastering should only be used if there are serious problems in the final mix.
Tape Transfer
Due to the limited lifespan of tape it's recommended to have your (old) tapes transferred to wav. We can transfer 1/4" (7,5/15 ips) master tapes and DAT using our high end AD-DA converters.
Audio Restoration
Removal of imperfections (such as hiss, crackle, noise, buzz, wow and flutter) from sound recordings.
Lacquer Mastering
We cut master lacquers in any diameter and reference acetates. Laser engraving as well as perfectly Locked Grooves (loops) and Inside-out cuts. (So record starts on the inside!).
Direct Metal Mastering (DMM)
Only a handful of independent studios offer DMM (Direct Metal Mastering) and we are one of them. In stead of lacquer the grooves are cut into a copper disk. Having many advantages!. We can cut completely analog from 1/4" tape as well as DXD and pure DSD256.
What if I don't like the mastering?
If the initial master is not what you were looking for, we will make revisions to meet your requirements. The first revision will be done free of charge. Any other revisions after that will be charged at our standard rate. Revision requests will need to be submitted no later than 7 days after the track was available in your download folder. Providing us with a new mix will always be charged as a new master! So triple check your files before uploading.
How do I prepare and deliver my music?
No Limiters
Please do NOT use limiters on the master channel. Try to leave at least -3dB headroom. This means the peaks of the signal should not exceed the -3dBFS mark of your digital meter.
Record/Bounce
Record/Bounce your song in interleaved 24bit and 44khz or higher (use native rate you work on), No dither or normalize. Add an extra empty bars before and after your arrangement.
File Format
We accept WAV and AIFF files. Lossy file formats (mp3 etc) are not suitable for mastering.
Package and Upload
If you prefer you can compress your songs into 1 file using ZIP or RAR.
In case you don't have a fast internet connection or just prefer to send your tracks by 1/4" Tape, D.A.T, CD/DVD (data), go to the Contact us page for our mailing address.
What's the most that I can fit on a side of vinyl?
How long a side can be depends on the audio content, bass heavy material and a louder cut will take up the most space.
If you want too much material on a side we will have to take steps to make it fit such as reducing the level, reducing the bass and/or narrowing the stereo image.
Also remember that as you approach the center of a record, quality of playback in terms of frequency response goes down and distortion goes up. A good reason for keeping the duration of each side within reasonable limits. The list below has some very crude guidelines but we can cut much longer sides, up to 30mins on DMM:
Format / RPM
7" 45rpm
10" 33rpm
10" 45rpm
12" 33rpm
12" 45rpm
Loud Level
Up to 3 ½ Min
Up to 7 Min
Up to 5 ½ Min
Up to 13 Min
Up to 7 ½ Min
Average Level
Up to 4 ½ Min
Up to 9 Min
Up to 7 Min
Up to 15 Min
Up to 9 Min
How safe are my files and payments?
The payments are processed by the Mollie payment platform with latest and greatest security standards. We do not store any payment data on our servers.
The whole site is secured by SSL. This will verify that you are talking directly to the 24mastering servers and ensures that only the server can read what you send and only you can read what it sends back. In other words very secure!!
After registration your personalized private data folder is only accessible for you and our mastering engineer. No one else.
Your data and files will never be shared with third parties. Period!