mastering


Every musician knows that by the time you get done mixing your project you have listened to it to the point of brain and ear fatigue.

It makes sense to enlist a fresh set of highly trained ears to evaluate & correct things that can be improved. Good mastering can take your album to the next level.

Mastering is the critical step between the final mixes & and the way the world hears you.

Hi-fi analog EQ and compression are applied to enhance timbre and smooth the dynamics. We sequence tracks in your order with proper spacing, fix the fades, match song to song levels, maximize loudness, & apply some additional massaging to make your album "ready for the world."
We know the "Zen" of mastering. When to enhance, or, if it ain't broke, don't mess with it.

Rick McMillen and Justin Phelps have mastered hundreds of albums in every musical style for musicians like MarchFourth, Jerry Joseph, Nu Shooz, Tom Grant, Dirty Martini, Menomena, Little Sue, Satan's Pilgrims.


    Rates


    Dropbox Mastering


    Via web delivery only. We work on our own. Burn your own disc.

  • Per Song Rates: $75
  • 01-10 minutes $75
  • 11-20 minutes $149
  • 21-30 minutes $249
  • 31-40 minutes $349
  • 41-50 minutes $449
  • 51-60 minutes $499
  • 61-74 minutes $549

    		•   Upload:



    Regular Mastering Rates


    Put on Gold Disc • PQ codes • CD Text

  • 01-10 minutes $99
  • 11-20 minutes $199
  • 21-30 minutes $299
  • 31-40 minutes $399
  • 41-50 minutes $499
  • 51-60 minutes $559
  • 61-74 minutes $599

Deluxe Mastering $699


Typically takes us 8 hours per album or sometimes, days, as we fine tune your music. With the Deluxe Mastering Package, your devoted engineer will essentially live with your album for a while. Maybe take some reference submasters home or listen on the car stereo to see how it sounds in multiple places. It depends on what you want. If you describe a certain sound character we will strive to make your music emulate it. We certainly have the classic tools here, if you want a pop sound or radio friendly or balls to the wall, we are experts in that technique.

  • We add CD TEXT for each track
  • We add UPC barcode and ISRC codes you provide
  • Printed PQ Log if requested
  • We Digitally Edit, Fade In, and Fade Out as needed
    • Acceptable master formats:

    24 bit / 96khz WAV or AIFF files
    CD, DVD, hard drive, jump drive, or over the web via our ftp,
    16 bit audio CD, 1/2" or 1/4" Analog Tape with Dolby SR
  • We add clarity and correct the tonal balance with hi-end analog and Tube Equalizers
  • Vintage analog and digital limiters to make it punchy and loud or smooth and tight
  • Maximum loudness processing if you want a hot CD
  • We level match from song to song
  • We can provide an intermediate mastered CD so you can check it on your equipment
    overnight and have us make minor corrections at the next session
  • 80 minutes runtime max
  • Master Gold CD included
  • Additional Gold CD copies $8 each
  • Makegoods: $85/hour


    • You can be here attending, or just drop a disc by and we'll master on our own from your instructions. Send in files from anywhere on the planet via the web. It's easy. Our dropbox is above. Just send it to us. We'll make it sound better. Tighter. Warmer. Balanced.

    Makegoods: Basically "makegoods" are new adjustments to the disc files we hand you at the end of the session. If this is something you decide to do, like changing a fade, re-EQing, substituting a newer mix, song order changes, title changes, and the like, we charge $85 per hour for this new session. The engineer's can't work for free (they have kids) and the room is constantly booked by other engineers and clients. However, if it is a glaring mistake we made, we will correct it.

    Metadata: Inclusion of name and title, barcode, ISRC numbers, and other metadata is $10 per song/track for production master.

    See our transfers page at cdpdx.com for restoration and archival prices.

    Mixing: We have found the hardest thing for home recordists is mixing. We can do this for you too! We have all the best tools. And the musical know how! $85 per hour (our studio included). A professional mix is worth the investment.


Engineers


Rick McMillen built the mastering room. He engineered recordings from smooth jazz king Kenny G (Platinum) to punks Poison Idea (not even close to Platinum) over the last 30 years. Experienced in London, NYC, Seattle, and LA studios. Locally, he's mixed or mastered music for Franco and the Stingers, Floater, James Angell, VX-323, Valerie Day and Tom Grant, The Dandy Warhols, Michael Allen Harrison, Roger Sause (Shock, Michael W. Smith, Kenny G). and Muddy Award Winners the Rose City Kings.

"Amazing! This sounds incredible, you did an awesome job, Rick. I can't believe how even it all sounds considering how many different places it was recorded. I really appreciate the work you put into it. Seriously though, this album sounds better than I could have imagined. I really appreciate it as it is a very important album for me and one I put countless hours into writing and recording." --Mike, Your Favorite Assassin

"Hey Rick, Just wanted to let you know the album sounds great! Another awesome job. Thanks so much for all your help. Always a pleasure, - Daniel" / DJ Elevated

"Hi, Rick Thank you so, so much for all the extra effort you put into helping our CD sound amazing- you are truly a pro and it shows. Love, Girls on Film"


Justin Phelps has been responsible for the sound of great recordings by Mr. Bungle, The Dead Kennedys, Cake, Amanda Palmer, Emily Wells, Everyone Orchestra, Jolie Holland, Garaj Mahal, Galactic, Joe Satriani and The Mars Volta among many others. When mastering, he strives to maximize the sonic image of the mix while preserving the subtle balances and intent. Album projects always leave Justin's mastering sessions, competitively loud, more sonically cohesive and artfully preserved or enhanced depending on his client's needs. Previous mastering projects include Jet Boy, Estradasphere, March Fourth, Fallon Boweman, Proven, Amanda Richards, Devil Riding Shotgun, Sugarcane, The Thornes, NIAYH, Redwood Son, Tapwater, GC, Cloud 11 Records & The Fallmen.

"Justin Phelps is by far the best engineer I've ever worked with. For one thing, he has monster technical skills. But what really sets him apart is his consistently positive attitude and professional work ethic. He GETS THINGS DONE. He also has an incredible ear for mastering, and managed to take recordings of ours that had been made over a year apart—and at different studios—and still make them sound as if they'd all been cut in a single session. Simply amazing work." -Jonathan Lammers


Tony Lash started his career as a drummer with Nero's Rome. During which he worked as SuperDigital's first mastering engineer 25 years ago! Recently, independent Tony has mastered Lex Browning, Bella fayes, Vince Caro, The Standard, Wet Confetti, Sunset Valley, Go By Train, Nordic, Digital Knife, St. Jude, Nu Shooz Orchestra.

Experienced mastering engineers with hundreds of albums under their belt. Let's rock!



Equipment


Analog Compressors


  • Neve 33609
  • SSL G Series
  • Manley Vari Mu
  • GML 8900

    • Analog Equalizers


  • GML 8500 Analog Mastering Parametric EQ
  • Manley Pultec Tube Mastering EQ's
  • Manley Pultec Tube Mastering Mid EQ's

    • Analog Tape


  • Studer A820 1/2" half track
  • Otari MTR12 & MTR10 1/4" Half track
  • Otari MX5050, & Dolby SR
  • This is only a partial listing as we have a herd of gear from our studios and pro audio store to choose from



Digital


  • Burl Converters
  • Apogee & Avid Converters
  • TC Finalizer 96k
  • Waves Maxx BCL
  • All the Digital Plug Ins you need
  • Mac with Peak Pro & ProTools HD2
  • Mac with ProTools HD 10 & Avid Omni

    • Monitoring


  • Manley Backbone
  • Genelec 1031 Active 5.1 monitoring with subwoofer
  • Our listening room is acoustically tuned within 1/2db




FAQ


Q: Mastering is such an abused word, what makes you guys different than this dude who has a computer program in his basement studio?

A: What some advertise as " mastering" isn't really. A $99 computer plug-in is NOT " mastering." Any toad with a computer can call it "mastering." Whoa! You need to hear it on a precise set of tools and acoustics that are different than the studio you mixed in. And in a room that is acoustically correct. We do MASTERING in the traditional sense. It's a combination of art & science. An experienced music engineer with a professional "ear" is worth the investment!

Q: Should I do stuff to the mix before I send to you?

A: As a rule make it sound exactly like you want to sound. Don't compress or limit the overall stereo mix! We can do a much better job with our specialized tools. If you over-compress there's not much we can do to breathe life into it. Leave the dynamic range in so you have no clipping. Don't make your mix look like a solid bar on the screen. Same goes for EQ. Don't over do it! Leave the fades up to us (with your guidance). Make sure there's a couple seconds of dead space before and after your mix just in case there's pop or clicks.

Q: What should I send?

A: "We prefer stereo interleaved .WAV or .AIFF files at the same resolution that you recorded and mixed with. Example: If you recorded and mixed your audio at 24 bit 44.kHz, send us 24bit 44.kHz stereo interleaved WAV or AIFF files without any DITHERING. If you are unsure of the resolution of your audio, contact us for help."

Q; What's an ISRC code?

It stands for International Standard Recording Codes used as an identifier for royalty collection & rights administration. It's not a necessity to have ISRCs encoded on your master. It's your choice.

Here's our page on ISRC.

Q: What about text for iTunes?

A: CD text we encode will appear on text-capable CD players, but iTunes etc. requires info to be entered separately by you. With iTunes, song name, artist, genre, album title, etc. is entered in their CDDB database.