Audio mastering you can trust.
Welcome to SoundWise! We treat your music with as much care as if it was our own and offer a professional, reliable audio mastering service.
Our vision of audio mastering
Quality control, a critical part of audio mastering
Mastering is what happens last before your music is released to the world. In fact, just like a book is proofread before being published, we think it is essential to check your audio for any flaw that might have escaped your attention, such as unwanted noise, dropouts or other glitches. Besides, mastering is also an opportunity to get your music heard in an optimized acoustic environment. Furthermore, a fresh set of ears often proves valuable as we tend to lose objectivity after listening to the same song repeatedly. This is why we are happy to provide honest and sensible feedback when it is relevant to do so.
Enhancing your music and ensuring optimal translation
Ensuring that your music will translate well across a wide variety of playback systems is another aspect we focus on. With this goal in mind, our studio has been professionally treated acoustically and our monitoring system is phase-aligned, ensuring proper critical listening conditions. Lastly, we value the production work that has been done beforehand. Therefore, we strive to make your artistic vision shine rather than trying to imprint our own sound on top of it.
❝ You can only listen to a final mix for the first time once and it will be our privilege to do so when you entrust us with your song. ❞
Our mastering services
- Mastering for digital and delivery of files ready for distribution
- Production of DDP file sets for CD manufacturing
- Flexible process, multiple revisions and client satisfaction in mind
- Metadata and credits embedding
- Apple Digital Masters authorized provider
- Constructive criticism and feedback
Portfolio
A small sample of our audio mastering work:
About the owner
I am Jean-Marc Boulier, a French audio engineer living in Singapore, with many years of experience in music production from songwriting to distribution and everything in between.
These past years, I have specialized in one discipline that I really love and where I can provide the most value: audio mastering. Prior to that, I eagerly honed my critical listening skills. Now, I thrive on fine tuning audio and putting my technical skills at the service of musical emotions.
If you feel like I can help with the finalization of your music, I’d love to hear from you!
Free test master
Would you like to get your song mastered for free so you can assess whether this mastering service is suitable for you?
What our customers have to say
FAQ
There is no rule that says mastering is mandatory. If you’re unsure whether you need mastering, ask yourself these questions: can my music benefit from being double-checked by an experienced professional in a great acoustic environment? Is it important for me that my music sounds consistently good in all playback situations? Do I have the tools and technical knowledge to deliver the right files for release? If you think we can help you with any of this, please do contact us.
These are the minimum requirements:
- Your final mixes
- The artist or band name under which the music will be released (if this is your real name, let us know)
- The song titles (with the correct spalling and capitalization)
- How do you intend to release your music (digital, CD, other)?
- Do you need any extras? (DDP file set, Apple Digital Masters files, alternate versions, etc.)
- If you need a rush job, let us know ASAP.
The following is optional:
- Your cover artwork
- ISRC (for each song)
- UPC/EAN (for the physical album)
- Credits (name of the label, composer, writer, producer, mixing engineer etc.)
- We deliver the masters in high resolution and 16bit/44,1kHz. If you need any other format, let us know.
- Any notes or reference tracks you want to share with us.
You can submit as many new mixes as you want, however you should be aware that since every file has to be analyzed and checked for errors or glitches, we need to start the process from the top each time, which means we charge this as a new mastering job. If you are unsure whether your mix is final, please send it to us and we will be happy to provide feedback so that you feel confident about what you are sending to be mastered.
DDP stands for Disc Description Protocol. It is a format that specifies the content of CDs. If you intend to distribute your music on CDs and need them to be professionally manufactured, you need a DDP file set, which we can prepare for you.
A DDP file set contains:
- The audio image (.DAT files)
- DDP Identifier (DDPID)
- DDP Stream descriptor (DDPMS)
- Subcode descriptor (PQDESCR)
- An optional document mentioning things like track titles and timings.
Apple Digital Masters is a set of protocols and requirements that allow your music to be streamed with a higher audio quality than the usual lossy formats used by most streaming platforms. You can learn more about this in the ADM technical brief.
Getting your music distributed under this format allows your fans to have a better streaming experience, and sets it apart from the rest with a distinctive tag on Apple Music and iTunes. You need to hire a mastering house that has been authorized by Apple, such as ourselves. Contact us if you want your music to benefit from this program.
Metadata is additional data that is related to your music, but is not audio content. Metadata is to your music what SEO is to a web site.
It is important to embed metadata in your audio files if you’re looking to get your music placed on TV, film, games etc. (sync licensing).
Metadata can include lots of data, and more importantly essential things like artist name, song title, credits (composer, personnel and engineers), ISRC, track length, BPM, duration etc.
We can embed metadata to your master files. Please note that you will also have to manually enter it when uploading your music to digital platforms as they are not currently doing this automatically (but might in the future).
ISRC stands for International Standard Recording Code. Each code is unique and attached to a single sound recording. ISRCs are the “digital fingerprint” that allows collection of royalties and validates copyright claims. They are not associated with the music compositions as opposed to the International Standard Musical Work Code (ISWC).
Digital distributors give them for free when you upload your music. If you want them embedded into your master files before uploading, some distributors let you have them beforehand upon special request.
Otherwise, you can contact your national ISRC agency and purchase your own codes.
UPC stands for Universal Product Code (aka: UPC-A) and E.A.N. stands for European Article Number (aka: EAN-13 or International Article Number). The UPC is used only in the US and Canada, while the EAN is used everywhere else globally.
You need a UPC or EAN when you release your music on a physical media. Most digital distributors can provide them, some of them will do it for free.