Welcome to Dark Creation Mastering
We offer a digital mastering service particularly suited to the independent recording artist. We supply a professional level of mastering that will enhance your recordings and provide you with the quality you deserve without the excessive price tag. Check out our services page to see what we can offer you.
Digital Mastering
£22 per track
Stem Mastering
£22 per track + £2 per stem
Deals
12% off 5 tracks or more
20% off 10 tracks or more
What Is Mastering?
Mastering is more science than art. It's the last step in the music production process. It's the final polish that will enable your tracks to stand up against any commercial recording. Mastering will give your tracks more body and provide a more cohesive sound across your release. Dynamics processing will enhance the definition and increase the perceived loudness of your tracks, improvements in the tonal balance will give your mixes more clarity and punch.
Quality and Service
Unlike some completely automated services appearing on-line these days (in which your music would never even be heard by a human ear!) we offer a totally hands on approach focusing on each track individually, paying particular attention to the varying dynamics and specific needs your material requires.
Flexible
Large or small, we'll do our best to fulfil your project's requirements. If you need a complicated combination of services just contact us with the details and we'll get back to you with a quote. Take a look at our available services here.
Free Trial
If you've not used our service before try out our no obligation free trial to see what Dark Creation Mastering can do for you.
Choose one of your finished tracks and send it to us via any file transfer service. We'll process it and send back a high quality 1-2 minute preview of your master for you to audition.
Please send high quality WAV, AIFF or FLAC files only. Do not send low quality compressed formats such as mp3 or wma, or try to convert these files to another format.
Services & Rates
Standard Mastering: £22 per track
Our standard digital mastering service, performed by our experienced engineer.
- Previews of your masters sent by email.
- Instant access to files via internet transfer (CD mastering optional).
- Free revisions.
Stem Mastering: £22 per track + £2 per stem
A more controlled mastering service performed on separate mix elements supplied as multiple files.
- Same features as our standard service included.
- Intrinsically produces a higher grade master.
- Ideally suited to problem mixes.
Vinyl Mastering: £30 per track
We can supply you with a set of masters specially suited for vinyl pressing if required.
EP & Album Discounts
Order five tracks or more and recieve a 12% discount on your whole order, including extras. This increases to 20% on orders of ten tracks or more.
Remastering / Compilation Mastering: £4 per track
Less in depth processing of already mastered material, to provide a more coherent overall sound for compilations.
- Smooths out the tonal differences between multiple artists' recordings.
- Polishes lesser recordings to better match standards set by other tracks.
- Volume matching.
New: Noise Reduction Service - from £5 per track/stem
Got the perfect take but captured too much background noise? Wanted some vintage magic but ended up with too much hiss from outboard gear? Singer left their tongue peircing in while recording?
Talk to us about noise reduction, we can usually reduce any hum, hiss, pops and clicks to almost inaudible levels.
Mixing Service - £45 per track
Contact us about our audio mixing services and take advantage of our 25+ years of studio experience (free trial available).
Typically our mastering services have a 1-3 day turnaround depending on project size.
Extras
Audio CD Master: £10
Choose this if you would prefer to have your project finalised as a production master disc. High quality, error-checked CD-R. For this option please supply complete details of running order. Also include track fades, CD Text, ISRC and UPC information if required.
Project Archive Disc: £5
As an alternative to large downloads you can have your final masters returned to you by post on a CD-R data disc.
( DVD-R for larger projects )
Mastering for MP3: £2 per track
Compressed audio file formats (MP3, AAC, etc.) can benefit from using different techniques compared to standard mastering for CD or lossless files. For better sounding encoded files select this option and we will deliver an additional set of masters optimised and ready for encoding. We can even encode the files for you and deliver them in the format of your choice. Please state which format and bit-rate when ordering.
Alternate versions: £1 each
This includes radio edits or instrumental versions, tracks which do not require additional mastering compared to their normal versions. Charged at a nominal rate.
Duplicate Copies: £1 each
Select this option if you need duplicates of your masters at different bit depths or sample rates.
e.g. You can keep your masters as high quality 24bit files for Bandcamp downloads and have a second set at 16bit/44.1k for CD pressing.
