Frequently Asked Questions

DOES MY TRACK NEED MASTERING?

Well, the short answer is Yes. 

The long answer is Yes, because tracks published in today's media landscape, which is extremely competitive, need to be more polished than ever. Tracks that are released after mixing (without being mastered) sound quiet, dull, and underwhelming. But "polishing" that mixed track is much more than making it louder and brighter. It involves selective and judicious equalization, analog love, and a mastering engineer's general understanding of how to make music transfer across systems properly. If you want your music to be as good as it can possibly be, you need to get your music mastered by an experienced mastering engineer. 

There's a very good article from Pitchfork that delves into the dark art of mastering music that you can read here. 

HOW DO I PREP MY FILES FOR MASTERING?

If you are working within a DAW like Pro Tools, Logic, Ableton, or any similar workstation, export your mix as a stereo .WAV file at the sample rate of your session and at the highest bit depth that you can. We prefer to work with .WAV or .AIF files at 16, 24, or 32-bit (floating point or integer) at sample rates from 44.1kHz - 768kHz.

Make sure that you aren’t clipping the output. It’s generally a good practice to leave at least 3dB of headroom (the highest peaks in your track should not exceed -3.0), but in reality, anything under -0.1dBFS will be just fine.

It is also considered best practice to ensure that there is nothing in terms of loudness or maximization plugins on your main mixbus output unless you are 100% committed to the way that the maximization or loudness processing sounds. That being said, If the maximized version IS the final mix, that’s the mix that we want to employ for mastering. If you’re unsure, send us one version with the mixbus processing engaged and a second version with the processing bypassed.

Refer to this checklist to make sure that your mixes are ready for mastering.

If this is giving you any trouble, let us know so that we can help you out.

Before your tracks are mastered, we will get in touch with you to confirm that the mixes were delivered properly.

CAN I REQUEST A SPECIFIC FORMAT? (.DDP, VINYL, etc.)

Absolutely! Before delivery, we’ll ask you how you’d like your masters formatted. Currently, we offer the following formats for masters:

  • .WAV or .AIF files at 16, 24, or 32-bit depth from 44.1k to 192kHz for digital distribution

  • .WAV files at 24-bit depth from 44.1khz to 96kHz for Apple Digital Masters

  • .DDP images for CD-R manufacturing

  • .WAV files at 24 or 32-bit formatted for lacquer cutting. Sides A and B will be different files with a cue sheet (.PDF) for the manufacturer.

  • .DSF or .DFF files for ultra high resolution playback at DSD 11.2 MHz (DSD256), DSD 5.6 MHz (DSD128), or DSD 2.8 MHz (DSD64)

If you don’t know what format you need, let us know. We can help you out.

WHAT ABOUT APPLE DIGITAL MASTERS?

We are an approved Apple Digital Masters provider. Apple Digital Masters do not incur an additional charge, but since the adoption of Apple Hi-Res Lossless streaming, we no longer deliver these files by default. If you need files suitable for Apple Digital Masters, just let us know and we’ll include them in your _DIGITAL delivery.

When delivering these files to Apple, they will request the following information to confirm that the Apple Digital Master was created by an approved mastering house:

Name of Mastering Engineer: Sam Kumar Tandon
Name of Mastering House: Rose Quartz Mastering
Engineer’s Email Address: sam[at]rosequartzmastering.com

HOW DO I GET MY ALBUM INFO ON ITUNES?

In order for your album's information to show up on a CD player's screen, your car stereo, or your computer, you need to submit your album info to Gracenote's online database. It's completely free and you can do it from iTunes. We assume no responsibility for submitting your information to said database. 

Gracenote’s database is not metadata. We will embed as much or as little metadata as you’d like in your production masters.

WHAT ABOUT LOUDNESS? (LUFS/RMS)

There is a lot of information about this topic on the internet. It is our philosophy that the best LUFS level is dictated by the song and typically falls within a range that has a correlation to the song’s macrodynamic, microdynamic, and spectral profile. Sometimes, that LUFS matches normalization standards. It often does not. That being said, it’s your song, so if you have a specific LUFS or RMS target in mind, let us know and we’ll hit it.

WHAT ABOUT TRUE PEAK/INTERSAMPLE PEAKS?

True peak levels and intersample peak levels are distinct from PCM/sample peak levels. Sample peaks are measured at individual digital sample points and typically conform to a digital ceiling of 0.0 dBFS. In lossless distribution scenarios, sample peaks can be as high as -0.1 dBFS (or even 0.0) without causing distortion before digital-to-analog conversion. However, in lossy distribution scenarios, such as converting a lossless .WAV file to a lossy .OGG file for streaming on platforms like Spotify, sample peaks above -1.0 dBFS are more likely to result in distortion. This distortion occurs because lossy encoding alters the waveform, and small differences in sample placement can lead to "overshoots" beyond the original peak levels. To prevent this, it is a common best practice to keep sample peak levels below -1.0 dBFS for lossy distribution if cleanliness is a priority.

All of this occurs before the digital audio is even converted to analog waveforms that can be amplified by speakers or headphones. But what about distortion introduced during the digital-to-analog conversion process itself? This is where intersample peaks come into play. While sample peaks only measure the height of individual digital samples, intersample peaks estimate the height of the reconstructed analog waveform. During digital-to-analog conversion (DAC), interpolation occurs to create a smooth, continuous signal. This interpolation, typically based on sinc filtering, can result in peaks that exceed the values of the original PCM samples. Consequently, even if a song’s sample peak maximum is below -0.1 dBFS, its intersample peaks may exceed 0.0 dBFS, leading to clipping in DACs that lack sufficient headroom.

Not all DACs handle intersample peak clipping equally. Higher-end DACs often use oversampling and headroom to manage intersample peaks gracefully, while cheaper or older DACs may distort or clip audibly. This variability explains why some DACs are described as handling clipping with "poise and elegance," while others sound "disgusting" under the same conditions.

To manage intersample peaks, we sometimes apply true peak limiting, which is a process that accounts for potential intersample overshoots. This process ensures that the maximum reconstructed analog peak does not exceed 0.0 dBFS — as in, no DAC distortion. The decision to prioritize sample peak limiting or true peak limiting depends entirely on the music. For example, if intersample overages occur primarily during sharp percussive onsets (like a snare drum), a version limited to sample peaks may retain more impact and punch than a true-peak-limited version, which could soften these transients. On the other hand, if intersample peaks are prominent during legato or resonant passages, true peak limiting can prevent smearing, distortion, or obfuscation in the playback system, resulting in a cleaner, more transparent listening experience.

WHY ISN’T THE DEFAULT DELIVERY 96kHz ANYMORE?

In 2024, we shifted from delivering 24-bit 96kHz .WAV masters to delivering 24-bit 44.1kHz .WAV masters. While this is technically a lower resolution file, 44.1kHz PCM files generally sound more familiar — and often louder — to our ears compared to 48kHz, 88.2kHz, or 96kHz.

Very high sample rate PCM files (176.4kHz - 768kHz) can sound better than 44.1kHz in certain circumstances. However, many modern distributors struggle to accommodate such high-resolution files.

So, we offer masters at virtually any sample rate and bit depth at no additional charge. If maximum resolution is your goal, consider exploring Direct Stream Digital. Direct Stream Digital.

CAN YOU TEACH ME TO MASTER MY OWN MUSIC?

Sure! Just ask!