gench

Mastering Services & Rates

The technical term 'mastering' is when an engineer cuts a lacquer that will be used to stamp vinyl records for manufacturing, or when making a CD glass master that will be used to stamp CDs for replication.

It is in fact 'Premastering' that is key to making a brilliant sounding release, yet it is common to refer to premastering as mastering.

The art and science of premastering is about translation, perspective, sensibilities, attention to detail, balancing of frequencies, controlling subsonics, dynamics processing, overall loudness, stereo image, removal of noise and artifacts, outboard processing (tubes and iron!!) and overall sheen, unification and level balancing between tracks, fades, crossfades and track spacings, and the encoding of metadata such as CD-text, ISRC and UPC codes. Working with the overall release as a whole.

Thomas Dimuzio brings more than 25 years premastering experience, golden ears, and an outstanding track record to make Gench the best choice for your music or label. Specializing in vinyl premastering, CD premastering, and mastering for iTunes and digital downloads, Gench offers excellent project rates and quick turnarounds that work within your budget. In many cases vinyl and digital premastering can be achieved in the same project and at no extra cost.

All digital audio file formats are accepted for mastering. Electronic delivery is preferred (via WeTransfer, Digidelivery, Dropbox, or similar means). Please send to mastering (at) gench.com or also contact for any queries.

CD premastering work includes track level matching, track spacing, track fades/crossfades, track indexing (with pre-gaps), and encoding of track ISRC codes, and UPC/EAN code (ISRC and UPC/EAN codes are to be provided by the client, but are not required). Mastering reference files for each pass are electronically delivered to clients in hi-res mp3 format (256kbps), or as stand-alone DDP file player complete with track fades and spacings.

Gench delivers the following items upon approval:

For CD premaster:
• DDP files
• 44.1K 16-bit WAV reference files (derived from DDP Files)
• PQ log/track sheet

For digital download:
• 24-bit WAV reference files (in native sample rate format)

For vinyl premaster:
• 24-bit stereo WAV file (in native sample rate format) for each LP side
• cut sheets for vinyl

DDP files insure an error-free transfer to the CD glass master (for the disc replication process). Inquire with your CD manufacturing plant to see if DDP files can be accepted for replication. 24-bit stereo WAV files can also be provided by request and at no additional charge.