Editing / Mastering

Audio mastering is the art of giving your record a cohesive sound. It is making sure the pauses between the tracks are the correct lengths. It is making sure any fadeouts are nice and smooth. It is making sure the relative volumes from one track to the next are the same. Making sure your music will sound its best whether it is played in a car, on a home stereo, or on a boombox.

Compression reduces the dynamic range of source material in order to allow it to be played back optimally on a variety of medium.   Commonly the idea is that louder portions of a given signal can be reduced so that the overall level is more even. This is helpful to (1) lower loud surges and (2) allow the softer parts to become more even (and more audible) with the louder parts -- giving better consistency to the sound.

Limiting is really turning down the signal a lot at once,for a very short amount of time. It is fast and mainly used on loud and distorted peaks which are occasional, not constant. Used properly, limiting should be hardly detectable because it's controlling shorter amounts of sound.

We will attempt to reduce background noise (including: coughs & sneezes, audience noise, door slams, air conditioners, traffic, etc.). It is generally impossible, however, to remove it completely without adversely effecting the music.

Arranging and indexing each track in the final order for the CD: By Act, Movement, Song, Piece, etc.

For Audition CDs, we cannot edit the content. In other cases we can remove or even add applause. We can remove dead air silence when appropriate. We can add reverb to make your living room sound like a 60,000 seat stadium. We can apply equalization to provide warmth, clarity, smoothness, stereo width, apparent loudness, for example.

Adjusting the overall and average levels of different tracks on a CD. This lets you keep the volume at slightly saner levels. When a track is too loud, it reduces the volume slightly, and when a track is too soft, the volume is increased a little. The tracks ARE NOT all at the same level but this audio "normalization" (average volume) makes for a bit nicer listening experience.
You can also add fades for songs. Fades are especially nice when moving to the next track or pausing, as the transition is more natural and pleasing to the ear.

We can restore old recordings, e.g., removing the pops and click of a vinyl record.