'The Loft' offers the facility of a mastering house and a recording/mix studio, based in the North of England.

Mastering is the last creative and technical step prior to pressing your album.

'The Loft' mastering house deals with many different scenarios and clients. From studio desk mix tapes, to very differently pre-mastered compilations, to noisy cassette tapes etc.

We offer facilities for 'instant' file transfer should you wish to send your work via the Internet. Your projects will be mastered and sent back to you without the need for expensive curriers - you then write the final CD yourself!

'The Loft' also offers post production facilities such as restoration of old vinyl, tapes, editing, topping-and-tailing, etc.

We handle all mastering ourselves, and have delivered hundreds of album projects, from large clients like Warner and EMI to local studios and artists wanting that 'polished' sound.

KiMMiNGS.COM & 'The Loft' offers the facility of a mastering house and a recording/mix studio, based in the North of England.

What is Mastering and why does my music need it?

Many people are confused as to what exactly mastering is. Some think it's simply a case of 'topping & tailing' tracks & putting them onto a CD, whilst others think a mastering engineer can 're-mix' an entire track after they're presented with a final mix DAT.

The most common question we get asked is - 'so what will mastering do to my music and what will you do exactly'?.

Basically, mastering is the last creative and technical step prior to pressing your album. One listen to a clients mix tape will depict how you need to tackle mastering, and which processes are required & appropriate.

The ideal situation is a great mix which needs 'sweetening' to bring out the best aspects of your recording. Very little EQ needs adding and anything you add at the mastering stage simply enhances what's already there.

Not so good situation - even though a mix engineer will work as hard as possible to obtain the best results for your mix, there are some things which, for whatever reason, simply cannot be tackled by the engineer - indeed, he or she may not even be aware of. For example, maybe your mixes sound great in the car, but somewhat unbalanced at home. This may come down to a number of reasons - an alien mixing environment; as can often happen when the record company decides to mix the record at a 'fresh' studio, away from where the recording took place - and it may also simply be down to sub-standard monitoring, outboard gear, etc. even a 'bad' engineer.

This is where mastering steps in. Every recording can benefit from mastering. Whether it's enhancing what you have or 'fixing' a problem area - mastering will ensure your product will be 'radio ready' and will easily sit alongside the latest release from Robbie Williams, BT, Nine Inch Nails or the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. Every recording is unique & as such, different techniques apply. The main thing the client requires is a recording that sounds fantastic!!; be it in the car, in a work place, on a Hi-fi, MP3 player, streaming audio or on your PC/MAC.

So, what exactly do you do when 'mastering'?

Without getting into too much detail, mastering involves various different stages & processes. How many depends on the client & project.

As a general rule once a clients tapes, discs, etc. are transferred into the system, the first aspect to look at is EQ (equalization). Is the track dull & muddy or over bright? Are vocals lost in cymbals, guitars or keyboards? Is that bass guitar swamping the mix? If so, it needs 'sorting'.

Then we look at compression. Does that bass drum poke out in certain places? Are the cymbals taking over the whole mix in the chorus? To 'control' these sorts of areas & to make things more manageable, we apply multi-band phase accurate compression. This basically splits the recording into different frequency bands & allows us to compress different frequencies without affecting others. For example, if you have a bass guitar that occasionally leaps out of the mix on certain notes; if you applied a general compressor to the whole musical passage, you'd end up compressing ALL the musical data instead of just the bass you want to concentrate on. Enter multi-band compression. This process enables you to control any given frequency range without affecting other surrounding frequencies. Multi-band compression by its very nature, can also be used as an EQ stage but for more detailed info follow the link at the bottom of this page to Digital Domain.

Finally we look at using a limiter to process the audio. This enables us to gain more presence and 'volume' from the clients music and results in a more 'polished' edge to the sound. More like you'd hear on the radio.

The individual tracks are then 'topped & tailed' - trimming the starts & ends of pieces, fades & the correct running order, gaps between tracks, edits, etc. applied. ISRC codes added & burnt to disc whilst supplying the pressing plant with a PQ code sheet which offers exact track start & stop timings to the millisecond.

Again, this is not 'all we do' or 'only what we do' - this is not 'how to master'. It's a rough explanation of the type of thing that might happen to your finished master as an example for those who have no idea what mastering actually is. A classical or choral project would be treated very differently indeed.

'The Loft' mastering house deals with many different scenarios and clients. From studio desk mix tapes, to very differently pre-mastered compilations, to noisy cassette tapes etc. As you can imagine, each requires very different processing, equipment and consideration. A lot of work we receive is generally computer recorded as is most things these days, be it ProTools or other hard disc systems, and a client can often be overseas with a project in need of mastering. For this we offer an ADSL connection for 'instant' file transfer should you wish to send your work via the Internet. We can master your work and have it back to you without the need for expensive curriers - you then write the final CD yourself.

Although restoration isn't strictly mastering, we also offer the service of restoration of old vinyl, tapes, etc. if required. We also provide a facility for editing, topping-and-tailing, etc.

We handle all mastering ourselves, and have delivered hundreds of album projects, from large clients like Warner and EMI to local studios and artists wanting that 'polished' sound. With changes in technology almost daily, we constantly strive to improve the quality of finished masters.

We support CD-ROM files up to 24-bit/96kHz, DAT, CDR, CDR-W and Minidisk - even DCC. DVD Audio 24 bit/96kHz is also supported. With the appearance of 5.1 as standard, we are looking to be able to support this format in future months.

What will I get for my money?

Your finished masters will be provided on CD with PQ coding and ISRC codes (of which you should provide where applicable). You will be provided with a final master CD-R for production (if you choose the ADSL option; WAVs ready to burn to CD using your fav. CD burning package) and a listening copy for your approval - more copies can be made if required. All CDs are written to Red Book CD standard (74 mins). We can provide up to 80 minute masters but always check with your intended pressing plant first. We also offer DDP (Disc Description Protocol) pre-masters should your pressing plant prefer. This eliminates the need to transfer to other formats prior to glass mastering & will save you money!

If you haven't already made arrangements to manufacture your CD, we can connect you with outstanding sources for both short and long runs.

Before sending your project for mastering...

Do...

• 24 Bit Depth Please (e.g. 44.1KHz, 24bit WAV)
• Leave 3dB (fs) Headroom
• Leave Handles on either side of tracks
• Provide "Room Tone"
• If in doubt, provide multiple versions or mixes
• Submit your material as Data rather than Audio
• Give detailed instructions if you are not attending the session

Do Not... 16:01 26/06/2007

• Compress , Limit or Normalise
• Change the Sample Rate or Word-length
• Clip or Distort
• Fade or Noise Reduce

If you wish to know more about in depth Mastering & the processes used, visit 'digital domain'.

At The Loft we also have a small facility for multi-track recording.

Our general work includes vocal recording & solo instruments such as guitar, bass etc. for adding to either finished mixes (overdubs) or 'work-in-progress'.

We use a digital computer based system running various software allowing access to Nuendo, ProTools, Cubase, Cakewalk, Logic etc.
Finished mixes are then possible with access to numerous synths, keyboards, V-Drums, EZDrummer and sound modules as well as industry standard EQ's, reverbs, compressors, multi-effects and so on.

If your recording needs are greater, we can put you in contact with larger facilities situated locally.