Darren Boling Mastering (323) 452-6019

Feel free to text or call (323) 452-6019 or send a message via the contact form.  I'm happy to answer any questions and walk you through the process.  

Once we decide to start a project I can provide an upload link or you can send me your mixes via WeTransfer, Dropbox, or whatever your preferred file transfer service is.

As the musical requirements of mastering are as varied as the artists creating, I always encourage communication to help me learn where you're coming from with your music.   

Are you very happy with the mix and really only want a second pair of ears to listen and sign off on it?  Are you happy but curious if more can be squeezed out?  Are you deep in the mix and perspective has slipped?   There's such a wide variety of situations.  Having made many records as musician and on the production side I know many of the potential pitfalls and fears.  

At the core I'm really just a music fan, a second set of ears listening in a tuned environment, that also has the ability to make changes to help your music speak across various situations and formats.  That's what it's all about, maximum musicality.

I'm collaborative by nature and just love helping people get their music out to the world.  

The short answer is to render/bounce 32-bit floating point stereo mix files at the same sample rate as your mixing session, in WAV or AIFF format.  It's preferable to master from versions without any peak-limiting or loudness processing on the stereo mixes so there is ample headroom and dynamic range for useful mastering adjustments and processing. If you have been mixing with a limiter or aggressive dynamics processing on the master fader, it’s often helpful to send versions both with and without that processing.  

Mastering is the last step between the creative and artistic part of the music creation process and the less exciting but highly important technical and quality control aspects. It’s the last chance to make sure all the songs of a project sound as good as possible, and also work well together as a group of songs. 

I enjoy the analogy of the art gallery.  I'm preparing your art for the world.  I'm not repainting your paintings, just making sure they're clean, that the lighting is presenting all the beauty and proper details, the frame looks good, and it's a moving experience that makes sense when viewing the collection and keeps people coming back.

No and yes. I offer unlimited revisions to your master for no extra cost until you are happy with it.  This is true as long as I’m working from the same mix files.

If you decide that you need to revisit your mix(es) and send new files to master from, this will result in additional costs (typically half rate).  I take great care and time to QC your tracks before I start mastering, I want you to sound your very best!  This is why it’s VERY important to double and triple check the actual mix files you are sending before you submit them for mastering.  A song may play fine in the session but picked up an issue in the export.  

I use Samply for review which lets you listen to uncompressed audio via computer, phone, or tablet (bandwidth notwithstanding).  This allows for checking in your studio, in your car, via headphones and earbuds, or however you'd like.  You can also drop any notes directly on the timeline.  

Downloads are turned on once master is approved and paid.  This is to ensure only the correct approved master is available to upload to streaming services.