Frequently Asked Questions
Click a question below to see the answer (click back on your browser to return to the top):
1.“I live in (fill in the blank) and you’re in SF, how can we work together?”
2. “I sent in a test song weeks ago and haven’t heard back…why is this?”
3. “How do I upload songs for mastering?”
4. “How do I upload songs for mixing AND mastering?”
5. “How long will it take to complete?”
6. “If I send you a song for a free sample or a paid project, will you own the rights to it?”
7. “How much will it cost to finish my project?”
8. “Can I preview the songs during the process?”
10. “What’s the capital of Turkey?”
1. “I live in (fill in the blank) and you’re in SF, how can we work together?”
About 50% of our business comes from the United States. The other 50% comes from the rest of the world! The combination of the Internet and our streamlined process makes working together on your project a breeze no matter where you live.
2. “I sent in a test song weeks ago and haven’t heard back…why is this?”
A.Your upload may not have completed. B. Your song file may have been too loud and maxed out already, in which case you should have received an email about it. C. The email with the song attached may have ended up in your spam folder. Hotmail, Yahoo, Rocketmail, and AOL are notorious for this.
Make sure you mark the email as “not spam” if this is the case. Most important of all: Let us know if you haven’t received your song within a week!
3. Preparing and uploading songs for Mastering
All we need is a rough stereo mixdown for each song. Make sure you tell your studio your songs are going to be mastered when they give them to you.
You don’t want them to apply any fades, compression, or limiting to maximize the volume – this is part of the mastering process. The mixes they give you (and you give us) should be low-volume “rough” versions. This is very important. We can also remaster your older work, but the best results will be achieved if it has not been pushed really hard and maxed out volume-wise.
If you’re only mastering, you can upload a wav or aiff file (or many files as a zip file) through the internet. It’s very convenient. The easiest way is to use our uploader.
Zipping your songs into one file
For multiple files select them all and right click. Then “create archive” or “zip” to zip them all into one file):
Be patient, it can take a while! Make sure and email us to let us know you have submitted your project.
4. For Mixing AND mastering
You can also zip the files (see “Preparing and uploading songs for mastering” above) for each song up and upload them.
Please make sure they’re all EXACTLY the same length, so that they’ll line up perfectly. They should all start at the same point if nothing else. You can “consolidate audio” in Pro Tools to make them the same length. Logic is the “merge” button above the arrange window.
For example, if your song is 4 minutes long, then every instrument track of that song will also be 4 minutes long – even if it just has one small section of sound on it. This way we have no timing issues and we can work with your files no matter what program you used to record them. Just make sure the files that are mono are bounced out or consolidated as mono files.
5. “How long will it take to complete?”
We’re usually very efficient here, so it shouldn’t take long at all. If it gets very busy, we’ll let you know the soonest we can have your project done. If you have a definite deadline, please let us know asap and we’ll make it happen for you. Note, mastering can finished relatively quickly, but mixing can take some time. Definitely expect at least a week for a mixing and mastering project.
6. “If I send you a song for a free sample or a paid project, will you own the rights to it?”
No, we will never own the rights to anything we work on for our artists. The original artist retains complete ownership. We will also never use your songs for any reason (unless we request to use a clip as a sample of our work, but you will need to approve beforehand). They will be deleted from our database, so make sure you make copies!
7. “How much will it cost to finish my project?”
We usually will already know what it will cost and will let you know right away beforehand. Please note that songs over 7 minutes in length will require an addition charge, as well as one song that needs to be split into two or three separate songs.
8. “Can I preview the songs during the process?”
Yes, we will get good solid mixes done and send you the WAV clips to preview. We can easily make any changes needed at that point.
9. “How does payment work?”
Paypal is by far the preferred method of payment. It’s the fastest and most secure way to complete your project and get it back to you asap. You can pay right away with a credit or debit card. Just let us know and we’ll send you an invoice or request for payment.
Half of the total is required up front, and this can function as a deposit. When we’re done with the songs, we’ll send snippets of each one so that you know they’re finished. Once the other half of payment is taken care of, we’ll send the full versions. If needed, adjustments can still be made at that point.
If you’d like to speed the whole process up, you’re welcome to send the full payment up front. If you use a credit or debit card through paypal the funds go through right away. Echecks, on the other hand, can take up to 9 days to clear. If you’re in a rush to get your project back keep that in mind.
We’ll also be happy to send you an invoice which will make this all easier.
When payment is received and cleared, the finished, high quality wavs and mp3s will be delivered to you. *Since we offer demo songs before any money has changed hands, we do not offer refunds after your project work has been done.
10. “What’s the capital of Turkey?”
Ankara. And no, we didn’t look it up.