Over the last years I collected the most frequently asked questions. Don‘t hesitate to contact me to get more in detail.

What is mastering?

The mastering process contains three stages:
1. I‘ll check your material and identify potential problems. This is the most important step.
2. the soundshaping of your material. This is the creative part of my work.
3. the playout in different formats to match different standards like CD, vinyl, streaming.

How do I prepare my mix for mastering?

First off all, the mix itself should sound the best as possible. Therefore please avoid any unnessary processing to the master bus like eq, compression, limiter, maximizer. But if you have a clear vision how your song should sound, don‘t hesitate to add that version ass a reference.
Please choose 24 or 32 bit in the export settings and use the native samplerate or the project.

What‘s stem mastering?

"Stems" are individual groups of your full mix, like the drum group, instruments, vocals, effects. Using them instead of the full mix gives us more options during the mastering process. Please don‘t confound this with mixing. You can send me your stems of your FINISHED mix at no extra cost.
If you also need the mixing to be done, this will of course be charged. Please contact me to talk about this more in detail.

Which gear and plugins do you use?

• Worldclass hardware like Tubetech SMC2B, Manley Vari Mu and Dangerous Music Bax.
• Software: Pro Tools Ultimate, Samplitude pro X, Izotope RX Advanced and others.
• Plugins from Plugin Alliance, Acustica Audio, DMG Audio and more.

How much does it cost? And do you offer discounts?

Please ask for your individual offer.
Yes I offer discounts for bigger projects.
I usually do not charge for revisions.

Which payment options do you offer?

Paypal and bank transfer.

How can I send my audio files to you?

You can use a free filesharing service like Wetransfer or Google Drive and send it to tobias.ney@gmail.com

What‘s your mastering philosophy?

Whenever I change something, it has to sound better than before. I like clean, transparent mixes and I try to add that little warmth and depth that you need.