Archive for the ‘Recording & Mastering’ Category

Nice listing of Louisiana recording studios collected by Parker Dinkins of MasterDigital.

http://masterdigital.com/studios/index.htm

Alphabetically, by location and by services.

And while you’re there, check out MasterDigital’s mastering services.

www.masterdigital.com

When a music CD is inserted in a computer connected to the internet, the media player application (like Itunes and Windows Media Player) goes online and retrieves the album, artist, track information, and even album cover from a central database. Different media players use different databases – Itunes uses Gracenote. Windows Media Player uses AMG.

Formats I can use to duplicate your CD:

• MP3 Version 1, Level 3, save at 192 bit (this is CD quality)
• WAV

Then ZIP the files, either individually or, if together, don’t let the zip file get more than about 50 MB large.

Upload the files – DO NOT EMAIL THEM

I will be notified via email that new files have been uploaded.

Send artwork files separately.

IMPORTANT! Name each file according to track number/sequence on finished disc:

Example:

Track 1 Here Comes the Sun or
01 Here Comes the Sun (notice the leading 0 – that forces it to stay in order)

CD Extra – Interactive Music CD

CD Extra is an interactive music CD. It combines video and audio.

CD Text – Text Encoding

This is NOT the track info you see when you play a CD on a computer with iTunes or Windows Media Player. (See [p2p type="slug" value="getting-your-cd-track-info-to-show-up-on-computers"].)

The artist, CD title, track names, etc. are encoded onto a CD like a table of contents. It enables certain CD players to display text information such as artist, title, track names … etc. It can only be read in players that support CD text (usually in cars or multi-disc carousels) and usually have an LCD display which scrolls the song info while it is playing each track.

So you know what your mastering engineer is talking about.

You are looking for someone who is a combination of experience, technical knowledge, artistic intuition, good equipment, perfection, a good ear, and dedication.

The Red Book standards specify the playing time of a Compact Disc should not exceed

Mastering Engineer: An Aural Enhancement Specialist.

If you are going to sell your music, you need ISRC codes. Get your ISRC codes before mastering – the engineer will encode the disc.

Click here to download: IPR form (94)

Instructions included on page 2 in file.

This form is an interactive PDF, which means you can save it to your computer, fill it out, save it, print it. You will need Acrobat Reader 8 or higher. Reader can be downloaded for FREE at  http://www.adobe.com.  

Completing the Fillable Form

• Download the form using the link above. Your web browser may be configured with an Acrobat plug-in to automatically open the file within your browsers window upon download. To download the file directly to your computer or to a disk, right click on the link, then select “save link as” or “save target as” from the dropdown options. Make a note of the location on your drive and the name of the file being saved so you can locate it later.

We take CDs and DVDs for granted these days, throwing them on the desk, stuffing them 3 at a time into paper envelopes. But if we truly want these repositories of precious music and data to last, we need to handle them carefully. Here are a few points you may or may not know.

• The data side (bottom) of the disc must remain free from scratches, fingerprints, dust, etc.
• Cleaning the disc can actually damage it.
• NEVER touch either surface.
• Handle by the edges (or center hole).
• NEVER set a disc down on a hard surface.

Many people think that the digital CD is produced completely digitally, but this is not always the case.