What is mastering?
Mastering is the final step in the creative audio process. This is the stage where the individual songs comprised by a project are processed together, forming a cohesive, sonically integrated album. Mobtown’s skilled mastering engineers will make all the audio adjustments necessary to ensure that your final project is reproduced consistently in any listening environment.

What is Mobtown’s philosophy?
At Mobtown, we let our client’s needs and the aural properties of the project dictate the mastering process. There is no “cure-all” or “magic pill” to make the project better at the push of a button or via a plug-in. It is a precise process that differs completely from project to project. We recognize this and give each project the attention it requires. We’ve spent years training, developing our ears, applying mastering techniques and perfecting the art of uniting individual songs into a sonically integrated whole.

What is the process?
First we transfer the recorded audio tracks into the digital audio workstation. Then we sequence the individual tracks (and the space in between) as they will appear on the final product. We add any fade-ins or fade-outs. Then we process or “sweeten” the audio to maximize the sound quality, focusing on equalization, noise reduction, stereo width, volume, expansion, compression, and peak limit. Finally, we transfer the audio to the final master format (i.e., Red Book-compatible audio CD or a CD-ROM data, DVD, etc.).

How can your engineer help in the process?
We prefer that your mixing engineer not apply any normalizing, compression, limiting or equalization to the final mix. Mobtown’s engineers will apply these in the mastering process. Please also keep your master level peaks between -3 to -6 dB. Only use data CDs or DVDs (not audio CDs) and stereo .wav or .aiff files. Stick with the highest bit rate used in recording for the sessions. We also gladly accept ¼” analog.