QS Sound Lab Online Mastering is an efficient way of accessing QS Sound Lab's mastering facilities from anywhere in the world via the internet. Clients upload their tracks and select products and services as required. These tracks are then mastered by one of QS Sound Lab’s experienced mastering engineers and returned to the client in the preferred format - either as downloadable files through the website or by post for physical formats.
QS Sound Lab has a fine and long tradition of combining great talent with excellent technical facilities - quite simply, QS Sound Lab is incomparable. We have years of experience in mastering and have mastered thousands of albums. Experience is the key.
QS Sound Lab's world renowned team of mastering engineers is extremely experienced and skilled in making artistic decisions that are appropriate to the style of music they're working with. Any member of the team will master your music to the highest of standards.
QS Sound Lab Online Mastering sessions are not available as attended bookings. If you would like to attend a mastering session, please contact us for prices and availability.
QS Sound Lab Online Mastering should take from 3-5 working days, beginning from the point of payments have been cleared and after we have received " all files & data". We also offer express services at additional costs (based on size of order). Contact us for details.
We sincerely hope that this won't be the case. However, in the unlikely event that there is a problem or you feel that the mastering is not as successful as it ought to be, we will naturally do everything we can to make amends. If you provide us with details of any aspects with which you're displeased, we will master the material again, ensuring that we make the corrections as specified: this will be done without any charge. Once this process is complete, however, any further requests for alterations will be charged at the normal QS Sound Lab Online Mastering rate.
QS Sound Lab Online Mastering operates on a cost per track or album basis, with additional charges for the formats and delivery process you prefer. We have special package prices and discounts based on volume/albums etc... These fixed costs enable you to manage your costs more effectively, knowing the final cost, including VAT and delivery, at the time of booking. Feel free to contact us for a quote.
QS Sound Lab Online Mastering work is carried out in QS Sound Lab's studio, all of which have a wide range of equipment and the latest in digital hardware and software technologies.
At the heart of the room we have a Professional Digital Audio Suite with a large array of DAW's and digital plugins. We have DynAudio Acoustics & Meyer Sound main monitoring, Benchmark A/D/As, outboard compression and equalizers and an extensive range of the all the top software plugins.
The QS Sound Lab Online Mastering site uses parter sites for file transfer and all financial tranactions that contain industry standard 128 bit SSL encryption to protect your personal site and restrict access to your data.
How long do I have to upload and download my tracks? After your audio has been mastered, it will be available for you to download for one month and you can download as many times as you wish.
No. As long as you send us files of a reasonable quality i.e. a bit depth of at least 16 bits and a sampling frequency of 44.1kHz and upwards, and the upload isn't interrupted then we will receive your files fine. Any incomplete uploads will be evident to our engineers so they'll be in touch if they have any queries.
Track duration must be no longer than 10 minutes and each version or mix of a track is counted as a separate track.
We currently accept uncompressed stereo WAV or AIFF files with bit depth of at least 16bits (max 24bits) and a sampling frequency of at least 44.1kHz. If you are unsure, then either right-click Properties/Summary (PC) or Get info (Mac), where a stereo 16 bit 44.1kHz file will also indicate a bit rate of 1411kbps.
We prefer it if your mixes haven’t been pre-processed through any mastering plug-ins or hardware before being sent to us. This gives us more headroom to work with. No limiter on the files you send to be mastered please.
Downloadable formats (WAV, AIF or DDP) will be forwarded to you to download.
CD Masters (DDPi or PMCD) will be posted to you with an audio CD for reference.
We will provide updates and official invoices so you can track the progress of your jobs from your account on the website.
Yes, if you would like to post the audio please contact us.
The transfer speeds are relative to your internet connection. We have no way of determining this. We have gigabit (i.e. very fast) file transfer speeds between our mastering rooms and the secure server where you upload to and download from, so transfer times are negligible once we have your files.
The majority of households who have internet access tend to have asynchronous broadband connections, i.e. the download speed can be anywhere between 8 and 40 times that of the upload speed, therefore getting your tracks to us will invariably take longer than us getting them back to you. For example, an 8 Mb ADSL broadband connection may still only have an upload rate of 256 kbps so an unzipped 4 minute stereo 16 bit 44.1 kHz WAV or AIFF may take up to 20 minutes to upload to us and less than a minute to send back to you, subject to the contention ratio and volume of network traffic in your area.
As we deal with relatively large files, if you have internet access via a dial up modem then uploading to QS Sound Lab Online Mastering may not be the way to go. However, you can contact us for prices and availability of a regular mastering session or we can inform you how to forward your files via tradition post or other means.
After the tracks have been mastered you will receive an email letting you know that they are ready for you to download from your QS Sound Lab Online Mastering account. The mastered tracks will be available for you to download (as many times as you like) for one month.
No, we are only providing you a service to make your music sound better. You will always retain all rights to all audio you upload for us to master.
We ensure your tracks will sound consistent across all playback systems and guarantee their full tonal quality.
Our goals: Make your music sound better, brighter, crisper, clearer, louder, and fatter as needed or required based on music style.
We also remove all hidden frequencies through various methods that take up headroom AND all stubborn frequencies that can ruin speakers and hearing. This increases your tracks “listenability” and ensures that they can’t ruin speakers or cause ear-fatigue.
Mastering is a precision process and each track needs and deserves individual attention. We DO NOT just apply the same mastering settings to every track that comes our way, we focus on each track individually ensuring that each track is mastered to perfection.