Analog Mastering is a premium service for music professionals who are targeting the major label marketplace:

• You're looking for a custom shop, not a production line.  

   You need time and attention invested in your music - service.
• You're performance-oriented.  

  You're looking for a sound that digital gear can't deliver.
• You want someone who can work at the cutting edge of their art.  

   You're shopping for quality, not price.
• You expect courtesy and a professional attitude.  

   We're all working hard. No need for big egos. 

I also offer services for independent labels and artists. DRT Mastering , a companion site, covers these in detail. It also describes the mastering process, provides recording tips, technical info, more on my background and perspective, and a few samples. 

Mastering intensifies the dynamic created by fine music. The increased energy level makes listeners respond. Why is analog processing still the benchmark of quality for the music industry? 

• Superior "slam factor" , the ability to boost emotional impact and intensity. Vinyl records are known for this quality, partly due to the processing used during cutting. CDs can deliver the same emotional power - if you handle the music in the right way. 
• Bandwidth: Analog gear easily handles music signals - and their harmonics - that lie beyond the reach of current digital technology. This results in a clear, open top end. 
• Character: You can more convincingly create and enhance warmth, definition and sense of space - the quality of fatness. 
• Ease of use: The control interface on well-designed analog gear is the result of decades of refinement. Hands-on and intuitive, without menus. 

• Buy it. Names like Fairchild, Sontec and Massenburg are well known at the high end of the business. They deliver the best performance possible from off-the-shelf equipment, and they've been used to produce many hits. Most engineers purchase a collection of favorite processors. 
• Build it. You can improve on stock gear, but few people have the background to pull this off. It requires experience in audio and radio frequency circuit design, studio engineering, along with an insane amount of testing and listening. You need to absorb a history of techniques that go back as far as the 1920's. 

A mastering chain is a performing instrument. An original ground-up design offers the same advantages you get when building a custom guitar. 

• Quality of construction. You can set a higher standard for components, build methods, circuit topology, interface design. 
• No limit on features. You can implement controls too complex or subtle for mass-production. 
• Customization. The instrument can be tuned for the player. 

It becomes a natural extension of technique, a better creative tool. 
• Chops. You gain insight into the process when you design and refine. This leads to stronger mastering techniques. 

I admit, this approach is old-school. Understanding the process in-depth is not a requirement, but it is the best way to move beyond technique, to real artistry. When clients need their music taken to the max, the results are worth the effort. 

A full treatment would take a book. Some material can't be detailed due to patent concerns. Skip this section if technical stuff is not interesting to you. 

• The mastering console is the backbone: Class-A circuits, solid silver wire interfacing the custom processors, a minimalist design principle: 
• Make the signal path as short as possible 
• Cleanly handle bandwidths far in excess of what you will need. 
• Be sure the only colorations are intentional ones. 
• Make it expandable without violating any of these principles. 
• Dynamics are handled by a processor called Halo. It operates in multiple bands, with discrete and unusually detailed control of compression and limiting, while maintaining a short signal path. 
• It excels in getting the music loud, clear and fat. 

(Loud is easy. Loud and pretty is not.) 
• Halo can create and adjust what I call apparent intensity. 

It can bring out the impact of instruments. 
• Halo can also de-ess vocals with great transparency. 
• Another aspect allows adjusting the dynamics of very precise sections of the musical spectrum, controlled by a matrix of thousands of points. This Matrix Limiter can enhance specific instruments, and vocals in particular, in ways not possible with other equipment. 
• Ambiance processing can change virtually all aspects of the stereo field. The features I can discuss include a custom MS network, which allows detailed control of reverberant effects in the mix. Another specialty design, the Ambiance Envelope Follower can adjust the sound of the recording space. For example, you can bring out the live feel of a drum room without adding reverb. 
• For EQ , a number of circuit topologies developed between 1940 and 1970 have never been matched for precision and musicality. The core of my EQ setup is a suite of fully passive devices which allow detailed control from the infra-bass to well past the limits of hearing. The key benefit is that you can create - with small amounts of correction - results that would require radical, sonically obtrusive settings with later devices - tube or transistor. You can make the bottom big without creating mud, the top sweet without creating a hard edge. 
• A recent original design is the Airbrush . In the graphic arts, these tools soften lines, highlight strong points and correct defects. The Airbrush I developed does this for sound. If the recording is already well-balanced, you can create a warm retro aura. If there is digital hardness, you can moderate it without losing detail or definition. The effect comes from a unique configuration of tubes made only during the early 1900's. 

Custom mastering provides:

• Ears with 25+ years of industry experience. 2000+ albums mastered. 
• Gear that doesn't exist elsewhere, updated by continuous R&D. 
• Guaranteed work, since my rep rides on every project I deliver. 
• CDR master disc, safety, and overnight delivery in the lower 48 states, or same-day electronic delivery via WWW. 

• Single - $250 
• EP: two tracks - $400 
• EP: three to six tracks, under 26 minutes - $1000 
• Album: seven to eleven tracks, under 50 minutes - $1400 
• Album: twelve to sixteen tracks, 50 to 70 minutes - $1800

Technical info: Many clients submit 1/2" analog tape, 30ips without noise reduction. 24-bit sound files at sample rates up to 96kHz are also common, usually delivered in CDR format. 16-bit premasters on DAT or CDR are also acceptable. The DRT website has more info on submitting trouble-free premasters. 

Contact info:

• Mail: David Torrey, Analog Mastering , 20 Vine Street, Peterborough NH, 03458
• Email: davidt@drtmastering.com (changed due to heavy spam traffic at the analogmastering.com email address.)  
• Phone: 800-884-2576 or 603-924-2277
• Phone: Cell - 603-345-0220 
• Fax: 603-924-4384