Hello, my name is Roger and this is my printing service blog. I live alone in an apartment in Sydney, Australia and I run my own business which produces a range of different products for the elderly care sector. I only started the business last year so I was looking for a way to get my name out there and to publicise my brand. I found a great printing service who were able to produce a range of promotional pens, USB sticks, banners and leaflets which I distribute at the many trade shows that I attend. I hope you find my blog about using a printing service to promote your business useful.
Martin Carpenter
So you and your band have been busy recording a selection of your best songs to put on an album. You've spent money on a decent studio, got someone knowledgeable to handle the recording and production, and you're ready to send the finished tracks off for CD duplication so you can start selling them at shows or using them for promotion.
But before you do that, there's one more step you should think about: mastering. When bands release an album independently, it's a step that's often forgotten, but that can be a mistake for several reasons.
If you want your work to have the best possible quality and sound like the big professional releases, it's important to get it mastered properly. It's a complicated process that's best left to people who do it for a living, but here are the reasons you should have your music mastered before you get the CDs made.
Overall tone
The tone might sound good through studio headphones and other sound systems you've listened to the audio through, but it's not guaranteed to sound the same everywhere.
A mastering engineer can give your tracks a good, even tone that will sound good and clear on a huge range of different sound systems, from small in-ear headphones to large club speakers. They'll make sure the intricacies of your music come across and that nothing important is lost.
Cohesion between tracks
Sometimes tracks just don't quite sound right next to each other. It could be because the volume varies, it could be because of quality of frequency differences, or it could be a combination of different factors. An important part of the mastering process is ensuring your whole album fits together perfectly.
Volume without quality loss
Your music might need just a little more power and loudness to match up with professional products from big record labels. It's not an easy thing to achieve without causing distortion and clipping, but it is typically done properly for you during mastering.
Adding a bit of polish
Although most pops, clicks, stray frequencies and other unwanted sounds are eliminated during recording and mixing, there are always a few that get missed. Sending your tracks for mastering means an extra pair of ears will go through them with a fine-toothed comb and smooth everything out.
Extra touches
The final step of preparing a quality master is taking care of the little things. This includes making sure the spaces between tracks are even and that any fade-outs are smooth. Mastering also gives you peace of mind that you and your fans will be as happy as possible when those finished CDs arrive.