Give Your Audio The Final Polish For Success With Proven Mastering!
Welcome to XARC Mastering! The worlds first online mastering studio founded in 2003. My name is Lorenz Vauck and I am the founder and chief mastering engineer. If you are looking to give your audio the competitive edge, you have come to the right place.
Unfortunately, mastering is one of the most overlooked and misunderstood parts of music production. Stated simply, it is the process of striving to attain sonic perfection. Your audio is carefully fine-tuned to add clarity, punch, volume, depth, and much more. In other words, it is the "Final Polish" to bring out the full potential of your music before it is released for others to hear. It ensures you make the right impression. But, even more important than the technical adjustments are the unbiased "fresh ears" an experienced mastering engineer brings. These allow you to tune-in to small and sometimes big areas for improvement, which those close to the music otherwise miss. The bottom line is if you want a professional "Major Label" sound, then high-quality mastering is vital.
To show you what XARC can do to your music, you can listen to dozens of real-world "in-the-trenches" before/after demos here. They allow you to hear for yourself the difference XARC makes to your audio. You will hear poorly recorded tracks most other studios will not touch that have been heavily improved after mastering by our advanced mastering techniques. Plus, good quality mixes that have received their last shine, all within a wide-range of music styles from around the world. Then, when you are done, you can see why the quality of work and dedicated service you receive is unmatched with unsolicited client reviews in the XARC Mastering Forum. Finally, before you go any further, be sure to sign-up to our free newsletter so you are kept up-to-date on the latest from XARC Mastering. It is normally sent 4-12 times a year and often has special limited time discounts for new and existing clients.
A Quick Tour of XARC
To help to clarify the XARC process, we have assembled a brief, "just-the-facts" tour. It is our hope that it can provide you with a quick overview of how you can utilize our services.
In our communications, we will provide you with a guide as to how you may transfer your music to us, and also invite you to access our client area.
We will also talk with you about your mastering preferences and expectations, and, if needed, we will provide you with some tips on improving your mix (of course customized for your target media -- e.g. CD or Vinyl or both!) so we can achieve better final mastering results.
Step 2: Mastering and Scheduling
Once the mix is ready for mastering, we will send you an e-mail (PDF) invoice, with the full mastering fees and payment details. We are pleased to accept a variety of payment options. Please note that mastering fees are due in advance of us commencing work.
Once payment is received, your mastering is scheduled. Mastering turnaround time varies, depending on both the quantity of other ongoing projects, and how much time we require to perfect the mastering. Our turnaround time is usually longer than that at most other mastering studios; a testament to our exceptional time and quality commitment on every project.
Step 3: Creation of Approval Master
Once we have finished mastering your music, we provide you with what we call an 'approval master.' This can be considered a nearly final version of the mastering of your music, however it lacks final cuts, edits and fades. At this stage, you are welcome to request as many changes and adjustments to the approval master as you require or wish.
When you have approved the approval master, we efficiently finalize the project; for example, denoising is conducted, and the final master is rendered at a higher sample rate; it is thus at this step that the final few percent of quality becomes part of the final master.
Step 4: Delivery of Final Master
As with the approval master(s), we will e-mail you when your final master is ready for download (or, at your option, shipping). To make final-CD creation a little easier, we can also create a CD image.
It is our sincere wish that when you receive your final master, you will begin to reap the benefits of a powerful transformation of your musical expression. Our goals are always to ensure your complete satisfaction, while endlessly pursuing "sonic perfection." Albums as a whole especially benefit -- our consistency and an enduring commitment to perfection ensure your entire project is assembled into a synergistic whole, rather than just a scattered collection of songs.
Special Demo: J-Mac - Everything
Before: WAV After: WAV
19 Jun "Just couple weeks ago we have finished online mastering session with Lorenz and got e ..." by kirurg in "Every track is individual"
23 Apr "I first found XARC in 2004 when it was one of the only online mastering studios aroun ..." by lightshade in "Lorenz, you are a cut above the rest"
Estonian-based and highly successful, this band released two impressive albums in three years. We are very proud to have mastered their latest, Silence Before the Storm!
We are proud to provide many advantages inherent to our services. These benefits include:
Zero risk - We always provide previews of your master, and work until you're satisfied.
Impressive quality - because our sole focus is mastering, we produce a final product that rivals that available anywhere else, on or off-line. We invite you to listen to our demos.
Fixed, up-front pricing - Having "No Surprises" ensures you can plan with complete confidence.
On-line process - initial, approval and final track(s) delivery is entirely Internet-enabled.
Following are a couple of personal letters we have received about our services. Please feel free to peruse them!
Keep Up-To-Date!
Be sure to sign-up to our free newsletter so you are kept up-to-date on the latest from XARC Mastering. It is normally sent 4-12 times a year and often has special limited time discounts for new and existing clients. Click here.
Estonian-based and highly successful, this band released two impressive albums in three years. We are very proud to have mastered their latest, Silence Before the Storm!
