Mastering is the final creative process that your song goes through before replication and/or digital distribution. The overwhelming majority of music is professionally mastered. Mastering helps your music sound competitive, polished, and professional. Our experienced mastering engineers artfully apply processing to enhance your mix, improve clarity, increase dynamic impact, maximize levels and more. The techniques employed can include equalization, compression, limiting, noise reduction, and stereo image enhancement. EP and album mastering can include other essentials like sequencing, spacing, and DDPi creation (including ISRC and CD-TEXT). Audio mastering can be a surgical, intricate process that is best left to a professional mastering engineer. An experienced mastering engineer utilizes specialized mastering gear in an extremely accurate listening environment to ensure your music translates well to all modern playback situations. At Nagasaki Sound, our goal is to provide outstanding mastering services at affordable prices. Our online mastering service is convenient, fast, and an incredible value. Mastering engineer Steve Nagasaki is always available to answer questions throughout your project.
We prefer 24 bit, 44.1kHz (or higher) Stereo WAV or AIFF. 16 bit WAV is acceptable. MP3, MP4, AAC, and other compressed formats are not acceptable. No noise-shaping or dither. Make sure your mix has at least 3dB of headroom, and absolutely no clipping or digital distortion. Do not normalize, maximize, compress or limit your stereo mix just for loudness – that’s our job. We have specialized gear and techniques to get your levels competitive in the most transparent way possible. For more info, read our article on master buss processing. The more dynamic range you give us (10dB or more recommended), the better your project will sound after mastering. Finally, it’s very important to name your files properly. For example: “Artist – Song – Mix.wav”. If sending stems, use “Artist – Song – Instrument.wav”.
Upload directly to our secure account here: nagasakisound.wetransfer.com. If you already have download links, send to nagasakisound at gmail dot com. Zip your files before sending as an extra precaution against data corruption and more efficient file transfer.
IMPORTANT: Please label your files clearly. We can’t say that enough.
Example: “Artist – Song – Mix.wav”
The turnaround time for single tracks is typically 2-4 business days, and entire albums usually require 5-7 business days. We do offer rush service on any project for a surcharge. Contact us for your special needs. If you are a potential new client interested in a free sample mastering, please keep in mind your wait may be longer as paid clients receive priority.
We are very affordable and have extremely competitive rates, especially given the premium quality of our results. Please see the Mastering Services & Rates page for current pricing. We offer a free mastering sample for potential new clients.
We accept payment via PayPal, which includes all major credit and debit cards. Shop with confidence – Nagasaki Sound is PayPal Verified and a trusted PayPal Business member since 2010.
All projects must be paid in advance via PayPal. We’ll prepare and send you a link to your PayPal invoice after confirming your order details. For invoices over $1000, you have the option of paying 50% down, with the remaining 50% due at project midpoint.
DDPi stands for Disc Description Protocol Image. A DDPi is the modern industry-standard format for delivering disc premasters for duplication. It is a safer, more secure and convenient delivery method than the old physical PMCD format. It is not necessary for digital distribution (streaming, downloads), but is required for physical CD replication. We strongly suggest you use a replicator who is familiar with and can intake DDPi. In the United States, we recommend Discmakers.
Apple Digital Masters (ADM) is a high resolution initiative on iTunes and Apple Music. Formerly known as ‘Mastered For iTunes’, qualifying releases display the Apple Digital Masters badge. In the same way that mastering for vinyl requires a different approach than mastering for CD, Apple has specific requirements for mastered music to obtain the best results from their AAC encoding process. Nagasaki Sound is an official Apple-approved ADM provider. We offer Apple Digital Masters as a low cost add-on to standard mastering, and will deliver an extra set of high resolution premasters optimized for iTunes and Apple Music. ADM isn’t required for inclusion in Apple’s ecosystem, but is mandatory if you want the ADM badging on your release and your music to sound its best within the Apple world.
ISRC stands for International Standard Recording Code. It is a 12-digit code unique to each of your songs and allows them to be tracked for sales and radio station plays. If you are interested in getting the credit and money you deserve for your music, it is highly recommended that you obtain your unique code prefix. Please have your ISRC ready as soon as possible so your mastering project isn’t delayed.
USA clients may obtain their code from www.usisrc.org
International clients may look up their country’s official ISRC issuer from the IFPI here: www.ifpi.org/content/section_resources/isrc_agencies.html
CD-TEXT is text encoded onto your premaster (DDP) that enables your final replicated discs to display artist and song titles in certain CD players.