Altus Music
Mixing and Mastering Services
for independent musicians
Do You Produce Your Own Ambient Music?
This kind of music requires a special touch when it comes to mixing and mastering. I've produced over 50 albums across my 20+ year career and would like to use those skills to enhance your own productions. The following is a summary of what you can expect working together:
Frequency extension
Subtle adjustments to the bass and top-end can make all the difference for a muddy and hollow-sounding mix. More often than not, there's air hidden in your music that can provide a whole new listening experience.
Elimination of unwanted resonances
Many tools of the ambient musician can create unwanted resonant frequencies. Using surgical precision, I can negate those ringing tones that can easily tire your listener's ears.
Stereo imaging
This kind of music tends to be very spatially wide, sometimes resulting in a centre gap which can cause the music to sound thin. Even worse is when elements are unpurposely out of phase, which can sometimes be uncomfortable when listening on headphones, or cause frequencies to beat or to null out when played on a mono device, such as a cellphone speaker.
Respecting dynamic range
Like classical works of music, ambient tends to be highly dynamic. Keeping that dynamism intact while aiming for a specific loudness level is paramount for me. Through the use of spectral dynamics processors, I can tame levels as transparently as possible.
On the subject of the loudness wars, especially brickwall mastering, I am a staunch opponent against it. That said, all major streaming services have essentially ended the war by applying the ITU 1770 standard to all music. Simply put, your music will be mastered to -14 dB LUFS with a true peak of -1 dB.
Mixing and mastering
You would provide me the following:
• Multitracks (usually a single instrument or sound element) or stems (a group of similar elements already mixed together).
• Where applicable, please provide notes with timecode of elements you would like addressed during the mixing process.
While this is the more expensive option due to the extra work required, mixing the multitracks/stems allows for discrete EQ and imaging control. Rest assured you will be heavily involved during the mixing process. Rates include up to three batches of revisions/changes.
Mastering only
You simply need to provide your mixed audio files. Rates include up to two batches of revisions/changes.
For both services, you would need to provide your audio files in WAV or AIFF format at the native sampling frequency (44.1kHz, 48kHz, 96kHz, 192kHz) and 24-bit depth. (32-bit is not recommended)
Make sure that your levels don't peak over -6 dB. To be safe, before exporting your audio, lower your master level fader by 6 dB.
If you're unsure which service is right for you, don't hesitate to contact me with your questions or concerns.
Rates
The following prices are in Canadian dollars and are per-song.
| MIXING AND MASTERING | |
| 0 - 10 minutes | $35 |
| 11 - 15 minutes | $40 |
| 16 - 20 minutes | $45 |
| 21+ minutes | Please contact me with details of your project |
Output to DPP for burning/pressing CDs is available on request at no charge.
| MASTERING ONLY | |
| 0 - 10 minutes | $20 |
| 11 - 15 minutes | $24 |
| 16 - 20 minutes | $28 |
| 21+ minutes | Please contact me with details of your project |
INTERESTED IN PROCEEDING?
TO GET STARTED:
FILL OUT THIS OBLIGATION-FREE FORM
Contact
If you have any questions or concerns about the process, don't hesitate to contact me.