The Loudness Race Is On For the past ten years, the music industry has witnessed a quest for loudness rather than audio fidelity. Every record company wants to make their hit record louder than the next. When will it end? Unfortunately, it probably won't be in the near future. Since there is no end in site, Sand Creek Mastering will stay in the race and make your CD loud so that it can compete with everything else on the market. Did you just finish recording some original music on your home recording system? Did you try to play the CD in your car or on your home system but find out that the bass is so loud that you can't turn up the volume as loud as you want to? Or maybe you find that the other frequencies are way too piercing when you trun up the volume? Do you want to be able to play your CD in your car or in your home like you do all your store bought CD's? Then it looks like you want your music mastered. Musicians and Anyone Planning To Duplicate CD's For Sale If you want your CD played on the radio, or if you plan on having your CD duplicated for sale to the public, you should think about having your CD professionally mastered. Many people will bypass this step because of money, time, unfamiliarity with mastering, or a number of other reasons. If you are spending the time and money to produce a CD to replicate and sell, why would you cheat yourself out of this important step? Mastering will use EQ and dynamic processing to maximize the sonic potential of your CD. Even if you have old songs that you want "livened up", come and see the difference mastering can make. Mastering will give you that bigger, fatter, and louder sound that you hear on all the major record labels. Maybe you have some old songs of your band that you recorded on cassettes or records--even 45's. These can be made to sound cleaner and louder. MASTERING INCLUDES: Arranging songs in the proper order Provide the proper spacing and fades Making volumes of each song consistent Equilizing songs for the proper clarity Editing the material Making it LOUD RECORDING - MIXING - MASTERING Recording is the process of capturing musical performances onto a physical medium like analog tape, digital tape, compact disc, or a computer hard disk. Mixing is the process of taking these multiple recorded tracks and blending them together using a mixing console. The final result is usually a two channel (stereo) performance. Mastering is the final step in balancing, equalizing, and enhancing analog or digital tapes so that the finished product will have the maximum music quality possible. In addition, mastering will give you the competitiveness to distribute your songs in the open market.