CD mastering at Earwax

Get your music mastered at the Earwax Audio Mastering studio and you will qualify for our client referral scheme. For each client that you refer to us you will receive a 10% discount off your next mastering project! Refer 10 clients to Earwax Audio Mastering and get your next album mastered for free!

please note - to avoid abuse of this offer, the clients you refer to us must get at least 10 tracks mastered at Earwax Audio Mastering, and must also state your name on the track sheet when contacting our studio. If you refer 10 clients to us, your free mastering is limited to 15 tracks (equivalent to £225 worth of mastering)

Robert Babicz - Mastering Audio
This is an interesting video on Vimeo about audio mastering, giving a good insight into the studio of the renowned Robert Babicz's. He explains his techniques, gear, and trademark sound. He makes some great points regarding CD mastering, and has a customized mastering studio that anyone can be envious of!

Aurgasm
Here's a blog by a guy named Paul Irish. He scouts out new music, writes reviews, and posts all his favourites The site features a sleek streaming audio player and full range of genres so theres something for everyone.

Ninjam
NINJAM is an application which allows you to network and record sound from your home studio with up to 8 other musicians via the Internet. Every participant can hear every other participant. Each user can also tweak the mix to his or her liking. This isn't a new music technology, but still an excellent app..

BBC News - Technology
okay so most of you probably know this one already, but it's an important link... If you're pursuing a career in the music industry, whether it be CD mastering, producing, or any other media related work, I think it's important to know and understands new technologies. The BBC technology news page is a great place to start. You're sure to find something interesting there every day, like this article about ultrasound to give feeling to games. Clever Stuff!

Stop Motion Music
Here's a silly video link for you to take a look at. I seen this video a few years ago but just stumbled it so it's going in the list.. It's a sound montage created with timeline video editing. Check it out...

DIY Audio Wiki
This is a great Wiki style DIY audio page. You'll find everything from project tutorials, circuit designs, and general explanations to create gear for your studio. Take caution with Wiki pages though, some information can be misleading...

Tweak Bench
Here's a selection of free VST instruments and effects to download. They might not be nice to look at, but they produce some great sound. Have a listen to the dry/wet audio samples.

Online Mastering Studio Shootout

Quite an old article from Sound on Sound which puts online mastering studios to the test. Mastering World, Metropolis iMastering, and Emasters were the mastering companies in question. I had the opportunity to sit in on a session with Mastering World's Donal Whelan at the excellent Hafod Mastering Studio, so i find this a particularly interesting read.

All Record Labels
Links to over 24000 record labels around the world - a great resource for any member of the music industry.

Removing Scratches from CDs and DVDs
A method for removing scratches from CD's using household products. I haven't tested this on a CD of mine, but users in the forum suggest that it works brilliantly.

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With new audio technologies being developed at a staggering rate, many sectors of the music industry are under threat. The CD mastering business is here to stay, but its evolving into a broader service that is becoming feasible to a wider range of the public i.e. the average musician. The average CD Mastering studio has always been a service that is only available to labels and high-key musicians which could afford to spend large sums of money on their album, but all that is about to change...

Here at Earwax Audio Mastering, we recognise the importance of the changes in the modern music industry. Labels are suffering, and their losses are being passed onto musicians. It’s becoming increasingly popular to see labels that eradicate their A&R departments and only strike deals with bands that have recorded an album on their own back: bands that have paid for studio time, and paid for CD mastering, which as you know can be a very expensive process. By only taking on established artists, the labels can reduce their expenditure, with no studio or CD mastering fees, they only pay for CD manufacturing and marketing, then take the majority of the profit.

For this reason, an increasing amount of bands are ‘going it alone’, so an affordable online mastering service is vital to their success. By keeping our CD mastering prices as competitive as possible we are able to appeal to all musicians, giving them the opportunity to create an album/EP which can stand up against commercial releases. With low CD mastering prices, our studio can also help independent labels to keep their overheads down, and with a bit of luck get their A&R guys back into the gigs seeking new talent like the good old days!

Here is the first in a series of blogs you will find from now on. It's a mixture of audio resources: some useful, some educational, and some entertaining...

Interactive Frequency Chart

First up, this musical pitch relation chart is an excellent little tool for sound engineers. These charts are very common, but i think this one certainly deserves a look. It holds a massive amount of information within the interface, including a 'ear sensitivity' section which is pretty interesting.

Direct Note Access

Melodine have created a truly amazing piece of software. They have given MIDI-like capabilities to audio. Chords from a single audio track can be broken down and rearranged in a number of ways. Check out the video, you will be impressed.

Holophonic Recordings

Two audio clips that were recorded using a dummy head to replicate human hearing, its pretty spectacular. Get your cans on and have a listen! You can also find a few more examples here

Audio Paint

This free application generates sounds from pictures. The program reads JPEG, GIF, PNG and BMP files and translates each pixel colour and position into frequency, amplitude and pan information. Audio Paint can therefore be considered as a massive additive synthesizer. Hours of fun for those of you interested in experimental sound.

Live Sound Reinforcement

Here is an e-book written by Scott Stark, it's partially incomplete due to licensing laws but there's still plenty of great information up for grabs. It has useful info for anyone playing live shows, whether you're a complete novice or professional musician.

20 Tips on Mixing Your Tracks -

Im assuming you've all heard of Sound on Sound so ill skip the direct link (if you haven't heard of it already check it out). Here is a link to an article from SOS, the title is self explanatory so i won't explain..

Room EQ Wizard

This free Java application is used for measuring room responses and correcting modal resonances. This really is a great application, it takes some time (and a lot of reading) to get the hang of it but it's certainly worth the effort. You'll need an SPL meter to take readings and specific I/O capabilities on your audio interface.

8 Free, Cross-Platform Apps for Musicians

Not a bad little selection of free open source apps, mainly sequencers and a few notation applications. All useful for a low budget studio.

Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science

A free almost-full-length e-book, written by the legendary Bob Katz. This is the bible of CD mastering, but also hold some great info for any sound engineer or recording artist.

Audiophile Article 

I don't agree with a lot of what this guy states, but it's an entertaining article about audio fanatics...

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A firm that manufactured a master disc which was used to produce more than 100,000 pirate copies has been ordered to pay $250,000 in damages to the recording industry. The mastering firm called Planet Optical Disc Ltd, was ordered to pay the damages after a court decided it was liable for the production of all the compact discs originating from the master copy. The case had been brought by record companies including Universal International Music, Interscope Records, Zomba Records, BMG Middle East, Sony Music Entertainment, WEA International and EMI Records, all of which will share the damages granted.

"Mastering firms must carefully check all material that they are mastering and ensure that their customer is properly licensed by the content owner" says Lauri Rechardt, Director of Litigation at IFPI, which represents the music industry worldwide.

"This judgement shows that mastering firms cannot just turn a blind eye and that their responsibility does not end when the stamper leaves the factory door. A CD mastering plant can be held liable for the damage caused by all the illegal copies made from that stamper. In many cases that could be hundreds of thousands of illegal copies, which would mean an even bigger damages bill than this one."

This news article was first published on the IFPI website

Hello and welcome to the new earwax audio mastering blog! This is the first of many posts, so be sure to check back for updates. Ill be using this space to inform you events regarding CD mastering, service changes, sound engineering & studio tips, as well as anything I find interesting or useful, not to mention news within the music industry to keep you up to date with what's going on in the world...Ill keep it short and let you delve into the interesting stuff, and if you like what you see bookmark this page!