Mastering
Ambient Works is an official Supplier for
Apple Digital Masters.
Hybrid Analogue Mastering at Ambient Works
Ambient Works provides top-class hybrid analogue mastering to take your mix from sounding great to sounding done.
More than just Limiting…
In addition to optimising loudness, many mixes can also benefit from enhancements to:
Musical Dynamics - reinforcing the pulse, flow, and excitement of your mix.
Image - the three-dimensional space your mix occupies;
Definition and Clarity - the sense that every part of your mix is well-defined and full of detail;
Extension - ensuring your mix is tonally well-balanced, and making the best use of the audio spectrum;
Rather than applying a cookie-cutter ‘house sound’ to your music, we listen carefully to the style and feel your track, identify what’s working well, and only make changes that bring out more of what is already there. We always aim to preserve your artistic intent.
//// All mastering at Ambient Works is performed by Robert Soma-Lewis. ////
Here’s how it works:
Select the options you need to the left for each track / album mastering session, press Add to Cart and then Checkout. This secures your booking with us.
Once we receive your order, we’ll get in touch to learn more about your project (email, chat, or video calls are all great) as well as give you instructions on uploading your source files. We’ll also agree on turnaround time for the project.
When your masters are ready for review, we’ll send them to you for approval. If needed, we can also discuss any further edits or revisions needed (up to 3 rounds are included in the fee).
Once all masters are approved, we’ll send the final high-res files and other optional formats (DDP, Vinyl, etc.) and close out the project.
Discounts and Packages
Mix + Master Bundle - We offer a 50% discount on Mastering when ordered at the same time as your mixes.
WHAT TECHNIQUES DO YOU USE WHEN MASTERING?
Referencing - Before starting work, we’ll review any reference tracks to understand your needs in terms of style and loudness.
Track Assessment - Review your track objectively and subjectively to determine what improvements should be made. Check for technical issues such as pops, clicks, or unwanted noise.
EQ / Harmonic Treatment - Tame muddiness, unwanted resonances and harmonics clouding the mix, and ensure the right tonal balance is achieved.
Musical Compression - Ensure the track’s rhythmic pulse is clear, and relative dynamics between sections are well balanced and support the overall track.
Level / Loudness / Glue - Ensure that your track’s overall level is in line with the genre, and help bring all the parts of your mix together to make a cohesive whole.
Reverb / Spatial - Used more rarely, but helpful to reinforce the sense of physical space and coherence in your track.
Parallel & M/S Processing - When problem can’t be solved in other ways, these can work wonders when applied judiciously.
Mastering Automation - When needed, automation can be applied to any of the above techniques to best fit different sections of the track. This is something that a lot of mastering engineers aren’t doing (and is impossible with ‘AI’ services)…
Answers to some common questions
-
This is a great question. We need your files to meet three conditions to be ready for mastering:
1) Each stereo mix should have peaks no louder than -3dBFS on the DAW master bus when bouncing.
2) Each mix should be bounced at the sample rate you mixed at (at least 44.1 kHz), and at either 24 or 32 bits. No 16 bit mix files will be accepted.
3) Make sure you don’t any limiting or aggressive compression on the master bus of each mix - this makes it a lot harder to get the most out of your master.
If you’d like, please feel free to send along ‘limiter reference’ versions of each mix if you have some specific ideas about limiting/loudness - those can be really helpful!
-
Ah yeah! This is a fancy way of saying that we make the best use of top-shelf analogue mastering gear (made by Gyraf, one of the best makers in existence) along with the very best software and plug-ins available - and all represented on an absolutely first-rate calibrated monitoring system by Dutch & Dutch.
While it sounds sexy to have ‘full analogue mastering’ through billions of pounds of gear, we find it more important to ensure repeatable and consistent results and use the best tool for the job. In many cases, the best tool is software, but we realise that some things are best done in hardware - particularly tube-based processing and ‘Vari-mu’ style compression.
Having an impeccable and minimal signal chain means that we not only give you the best result today, but can revisit what we did for our next proejct with you!
-
Monitoring - Genelec W371A Adaptive Woofer System + Genelec 8351B ‘The Ones’ Three-Way Point Source Monitors, GLM DSP Room Calibration
Secondary Review Monitoring - Amphion Argon 7LS Passive Floorstanding Speakers, Ayre Kx-5e MP Preamp, Ayre P5-xe Phono Stage, Benchmark AHB-2 Amplifier
Hardware Compression - Gyraf G22 Dual/Stereo/MS Vari-Mu Tube Compressor
Hardware EQ - Gyraf G23-S ‘Ambler’ Tube & Solid State Linear Tilt and Shaping EQ
VU Metering - Hayakumo Foreno Precision Desktop VU Meter Bridge
Software Processors - Weiss, Tone Projects, Softube, Goodhertz
A/D - D/A Conversion - Prism Sound
Review Turntable Bryston BLP-1 with Benz Micro Glider SL Cartridge
-
If you’re a first-time client, I’m more than happy to do a Test master for you.
Basically, send over one of your mixes and I’ll master it and send back a 30-60 second sample (you can pick which of course!). If you like the results, then you will be able to purchase the full master at the usual rate.
-
Apple Digital Masters (ADM) was formerly known as Mastered for iTunes (MFiT).
This is a certification established by Apple to ensure that files uploaded to Apple Music / iTunes meet a certain standard of quality. When I create an ADM master, I take your master through a number of quality control steps to make sure that your track is compliant with ADM rules, and also sounds great when sent through Apple’s compression algorithm.
Apple only accepts ADM masters from certified Apple Digital Masters engineers. Generally, this list is limited to engineers who have worked with major labels. Only certified ADM masters get the ADM logo on iTunes.
My ADM identifier is my email address: rob@ambient-works.co.uk.
NB: If you are not submitting to Apple Music, or don’t care about the ADM certification, there is no need for you to select this extra feature.
Vinyl-ready version of your album, to be delivered to the cutting engineer.