Neon Mastering

For all new clients I can provide you with a 60 second sample of my service to show you what all this business is about!

All mastering includes digital delivery in .flac, .wav, or DDP format via FTP for free. Turnaround time is within 5 business days. If you need something faster contact us and we can work out a rush fee.

Rates

Single - $30.00 USD
2-6 Tracks - $27.00 USD/Track (10% Discount)
7-12 Tracks - $24.00 USD/Track (20% Discount)
Additional Tracks - $21.00 USD/Track (30% Discount)

For example a 12 track long play will cost a total of $309.00 ($30.00 for track 1, $135.00 for tracks 2-6, and $144.00 for tracks 7-12)

50% nonrefundable deposit required for all new clients.

All mastering includes free digital delivery and one free CD-R copy if requested.

Stem Mastering Rates

Single - $45.00 USD

2-6 Tracks - $40.50 USD/Track (10% Discount)

7-12 Tracks - $36.00 USD/Track (20% Discount)

Additional Tracks - $31.50 USD/Track (30% Discount)

For example a 12 track long play will cost a total of $463.50 ($45.00 for track 1, $202.50 for tracks 2-6, and $216.00 for tracks 7-12)

Stem mastering affords more control over your final master but does take more time hence the higher cost. Stem mastering is preferred when you need multiple versions of a single track but don't want to incur the separate costs of vocal up, vocal down, clean, and instrumental versions.

Extras

CD-R Copy¹ $5.00
DVD-R Copy² $10.00
MP3 Version³ $10.00

Referral Program

Earn a 10% commission for everyone you refer to Neon. This can be applied to your next order or paid in the form of a check.

¹ CD-R copy is an audio disc identical to the one shipped to the manufacturer and includes free shipping anywhere in the USA.

² DVD-R copy is a data disc with high resolution 24-bit 96kHz wav backup files of your masters and includes free shipping anywhere in the USA.
³ MP3s are level optimized to ensure there are no intersample peaks after digital to analog conversion and are delivered, properly tagged, in a bit rate you specify.

You may find yourself, a young mixing engineer, frequently asking yourself the question "Why aren't my mixes as full and loud as commercial mixes?" The answer, my friend, is mastering.

Mastering is a black art to some. Very little information regarding the process was available to the public at large until recently. Simply put, mastering is a form of post production and the final step between the mixing board and the manufacturing plant. Getting your mixes ready for show time with a variety of signal processing that can include additional eq, compression, and limiting. The biggest difference between the mixing and mastering stages of a recording is that the processing for mastering is applied to the entire mix as opposed to the individual tracks.

A common misconception is that mastering a recording is all about volume. While it's true that during the mastering process the overall volume is brought up, that is only a very small part of the overall task. The main goal of mastering is to make sure all frequencies are well represented in the spectrum and that the recording sounds as good as it can on a wide range of playback systems from multi-thousand dollar hi-fi systems to tiny cell phone speakers.

Nearly 100% of all recordings benefit from at least some part of mastering. Whether it's making hip-hop and rock tracks in your face, or making sure every nuance of a symphony orchestra is heard. It's the mastering engineer who has the experience, equipment, and the ears to make this happen.

Other mastering processes include putting the tracks into their final playlist order as well as things like fade ins, fade outs, cd text, and hidden tracks. Finally assembling everything into a distribution medium i.e. CD, DVD, and MP3.

Hopefully this helps put a few things into perspective before you have your project mastered. If you would like to know more, here is some great recommended reading on the subject...

Neon Mastering Rates

An Introduction to Audio Mastering