How To Save Money In The Mastering Studio

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A perfectly mastered CD for less money.

Estimated Cost: FREE

Estimated Time: Immediate preparation with immediate results.

Indie Guide Categories: Mastering

What Do You Need to Do This

Songs that have been mixed

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Directions

1. Make sure your mixdown is completely finished.

Make sure you are completely satisfied with all of the levels. The mastering house cannot remix songs for you.

2. Export the music in the format that the mastering house requires.

Contact your studio of choice and ask what they prefer.

NOTE: MP3 files are never of any use to a mastering studio because they are compressed.

3. Choose the song order and the spacing between songs ahead of time.

Do not wait until you are in the studio to create an order to the songs, this costs you money. Sit down and plan out the order of songs and decide how much time in between the songs you want. Some albums' songs run right into the next while others have about a two second gap in between.

4. Find out the format that the CD duplication house needs.

The mastering house should give you a CD in the format that the CD duplication house wants. so it can be duplicated easily. If you want extra multimedia and information features on your album, you might need special formatting for enhanced or mixed mode CDs.

5. Add the mastering house to your Thank You's in the album liner notes.

Ask if they will give you a discount for the shout-out. You may be able to save a couple dollars really easily. However, be willing to do this anyway. These favors help!

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