Legendary Dance, Rap and R&B Mastering
about
Jeremy Cox is an American audio mastering engineer. His career started at Universal Music Group doing post production on southern hip-hop records in the early 2000's. He runs the acclaimed British dance label Her Records. Jeremy has worked on original content for fashion houses such as Celine, Prada, Kenzo, Telfar, Hood By Air, Under Armour, and Adidas. He's produced and mastered original audio content for art museums such as The Whitney Museum of American Art, The New Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, and The Tate Britain.
MAstering Services
audio Mastering
Audio mastering is a post production process intended to optimize music or audio content for distribution and playback. Mastering generally involves dynamic range limiting and equalization to optimize playback translation for all listening environments. We utilize the highest quality outboard audio mastering equipment to craft the most transparent masters available anywhere. This is especially critical for modern dance, R&B or hip-hop music, where loudness and punch are critical components of an effective release.
Stem Mastering
Stem mastering is similar to regular mastering, except the content provided to the mastering engineer is separated into multiple stems. This is especially useful for vocal tracks, or instrumental tracks with especially complex instrumentation. A typical stem preparation for stem mastering will include separate bass instruments, drums, vocals and the remaining instruments. Stem masters tend to be more transparent than regular 2 buss masters, due to the flexibility of the content in the mastering process.
Mixing
Audio mixing is the process of elegantly combining all the individual elements of a song or project into one stereo or surround file. This is the post production step directly preceding mastering. Although Jeremy's career started as a mixing engineer, the amount of time it takes to properly mix a track makes mixing projects difficult for us to schedule. If you have an especially compelling project, contact us about scheduling availability.
Vinyl Mastering
Mastering music for vinyl is a substantially different process than mastering music for digital release and distribution. Content cut to vinyl demands a higher dynamic range and equalization processing specific to this format. If you're distributing your music digitally and on vinyl, we offer the second set of masters at a reduced cost.
Lacquer Cutting for Vinyl manufacturing
If you're having your project manufactured to vinyl, we can provide a master lacquer for your manufacturing plant to work from. Although we don't offer this service in house, we work frequently with great cutting engineers all over the world. Not only does this guarantee the best possible masters, we can also offer priority service to shorten your manufacturing turn around times. Contact us for pricing in your country.
Cassette MAstering
Over the last few years releasing content on cassettes has become very popular again. Like mastering for vinyl, mastering for cassette requires a special master with a larger dynamic range and different equalization curves. If you're distributing your music digitally and on cassette, we offer the second set of masters at a reduced cost.
Evaluation
If you need a second set of ears on your track, we're happy to evaluate your project for a small fee. Whether you're looking for guidance on production, mixing or mastering, contact us for scheduling availability.
Post Production rates
starting at $95
Audio mastering
Mastering projects will be verified and delivered as both WAV and MP3 formats at your specified bitrate. Discounts apply for multiple tracks. Turnaround times are generally 3 weeks. Contact us for a personalized quote.
$20
Alternate versions
This includes radio edits, Spotify or Youtube volume edits or alternate format prints. This also includes vinyl or cassette mastering if you've already purchased digital mastering.
STarting at $145
Stem mastering
For stem masters with up to 6 stems. Mastering projects will be verified and delivered as both WAV and MP3 formats at your specified bitrate. Discounts apply for multiple tracks. Turnaround times are generally 3 weeks. Contact us for a personalized quote.
$100
Rush SErvice
Our turnaround times are generally 3 weeks. If you need your masters back sooner to meet a deadline, we offer rush service. Subject to schedule availability.
STarting at $295
Audio Mixing
Mastering is included with mixing projects. Availability is limited and subject to project approval. Contact us for schedule availability.
$20
Evaluation
If you need s second set of ears on your project, we're happy to evaluate mixes, masters or production.
Mastering EQuipment
MONITORing
ATC SMC 150
Tyler Acoustics Decade Series
PMC
Bowers and Wilkins
Trinnov ST2
DYNAMICS
Knif Vari Mu II
Foote P4S ME
Maselec MLA-2
Tube Tech SMC 2b
Neve Portico II Master Buss Processor
Solid State Logic Xlogic G-Series Buss Compressor
Smart Research C1
CONVERSION
Antelope Audio Eclipse 384
Lynx Hilo
Lavry Gold A/D
EQUALIZERS
Knif Soma
Dangerous Bax
Avedis E27
selected Clients
- Aaron David Ross (PAN)
- Amnesia Scanner (PAN)
- BC Kingdom (Saint Records)
- Bjork (One Little Indian Records)
- Brodinski (Southern Hospitality)
- Bun B (Universal)
- Bunny Michael
- CYPHR (Her Records)
- Daniel Keller (Aids 3D)
- Drippin' (Sony, Lit City Trax)
- Eaves (Purple Tape Pedigree)
- Fatima Al Qadiri (Hyperdub, Fade to Mind)
- Fraxinus (Her Records)
- Future Brown (Warp)
- Hoodboi (Fool's Gold Records)
- Imaabs (Naafi)
- Josh Kline (New Museum, Smithsonian, Modern Art Oxford)
- Kablam (Janus)
- Kid Antoine (Her Records)
- Krueger (Silverback)
- Lechuga Zafiro (Salviatek)
- Lotic (Tri Angle)
- Lunice (Southern Hospitality)
- MC Bin Laden (Naafi)
- M.E.S.H. (PAN)
- Michael Stein (S.U.R.V.I.V.E., Stranger Things Soundtrack)
- MM (Her Records)
- Mobilegirl (Staycore)
- NKC (Her Records, Even The Strong)
- Photay (Astro Nautico)
- Pimp C (Universal)
- Rabit (Halcyon Veil)
- Sinjin Hawke (Southern Hospitality)
- Sky H1 (PAN)
- Sudanim (Her Records)
- Simone Trabucchi (PAN)
- Taskforce (Silverback)
- Visionist (PAN)
audio Mastering FAQ
How should I prepare files for mastering?
Files for stereo or stem mastering should be delivered as a 24 or 32 bit .wav or .aif files at their native sample rates. Files will be returned after mastering dithered and down-sampled to 24 bit 44.1 .wav and 320kbps .mp3 files unless otherwise requested. The frequently referenced -6db peak standard is a vestige of mixing to reel to reel tape. For mastering in the digital domain, any level is fine as long as the peaks are not clipping the master buss.
How should stems be prepared for stem mastering?
We find that separating the vocals and all the bass instruments (bass synth, kicks) from the remaining instrumental is ideal. Please include a reference bounce of the final mix as well to verify that stems are complete.
Do you offer a free sample master?
Due to scheduling constraints we cannot offer free sample masters. We do guarantee you'll be happy with your mastered audio.
How long can I make a side on a 12" 45 rpm vinyl?
Our recommendation is 13 minutes or less. Some of the best sounding vinyl we've heard were around 8 minutes per side.
What's your turnaround time?
Turnaround time is generally 2-4 weeks depending on the time of the year. If you need your masters completed faster to meet a deadline, contact us.
You've mastered my record. How should I distribute it on iTunes, Spotify, etc?
We recommend DistroKid for digital distribution. Their pricing is reasonable and they allow more flexibility than most of their competitors when it comes to withdrawing revenue from sales and streaming.
What's your take on Landr?
Not surprisingly, we receive Landr masters from clients every day. Generally, artists or labels are sending us their Landr masters because they are unhappy with one or more aspect of the track and need it professionally remastered. Our experience with Landr is that it can produce competitively loud masters, however with less clarity and more distortion than a track mastered by a competent mastering engineer. Successful mastering is more than an algorithmic process. It’s an aesthetic and practical process, weighing a complex set of tradeoffs to achieve the most artistically accurate and consumable product possible. In fact, artistic accuracy is the most compelling reason to hire a professional mastering engineer for your project. In the age of modern digital limiting, anyone can make a record loud. Its achieving the loudness desired by a record label while maintaining the vision of the artist that differentiates professional mastering engineers from Landr.
You’re known for creating loud masters that maintain the clarity of their content. What's your take on the loudness wars?
Believe it or not, mastering engineers have been finding ways to increase loudness since the earliest days of recording. Despite this, most mastering engineers, including myself, have an unfavorable view of excessively loud masters. Back when vinyl was the primary release format, mastering engineers had to take steps to cut tracks as loud as possible to exceed the noise floor inherent to the format. Back then it was about getting the signal as far above the noise floor as possible to get as much clarity as possible. To an extent, the same logic applied to releases on 8 track and cassette formats.
Now, in the days of 24 and 32 bit digital production, digital noise floors are far below the dynamic range of the human ear. In other words, loudness has become an aesthetic choice made by a mastering engineer rather than a practical one. In the modern era of digital distribution, the loudness wars have largely been perpetuated by record labels. There is a belief within the music industry that mastered music lacking loudness will be perceived as less professional than louder music. As a mastering engineer focused on aggressive dance genres, I’ve spent a great deal of time creating the loudest masters possible for my clients. However, in most cases I find music to be more aesthetically pleasing at normal levels of loudness. The artifacts of digital limiters aren't very musical so it's best to use them as sparingly as possible.
Over the last few years the loudness wars have changed dramatically as many services that distribute music (mainly iTunes, Spotify, YouTube) have introduced normalization algorithms in an attempt to standardize the perceived loudness of all the songs on their service. In theory, this provides a better listening experience for consumers, while at the same time limiting the practicality of excessively loud masters. In practice, however, this has created the need for iTunes, Spotify and YouTube specific masters.
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Jeremy Cox mastering
CONTACT US
jeremy@jeremycox.us
214-663-5848