Mastering for Rock Music
Quick Answer
Mastering for Rock music is the process of preparing a rock song or project for distribution, all while keeping the unique sonic characteristics of the rock genre in mind. Rock has many sub-genres that will determine the type of processing used, as well as the extent to which transients are preserved.
Mastering for Rock Music in Detail
Rock is a very diverse and multifaceted genre.
Rock music can no doubt take many forms. Its multiple genres have led to new and innovative forms of audio engineering, as well as necessitated new ways of recording and producing music.
To hear the full scope of rock music and to understand everything the term ‘rock’ means, you would need to listen to decades upon decades of records. Rock music is needless to say, a complex web of sounds, styles, ideas, and forms of music production.
Rock music has been around for decades, nearing a century. Its popularity has resulted in new ideas, production styles, and recording technology.
If you were to listen to the small, controlled tones of Cake, and compare it to the massive stadium rock reverberations of U2 - or hear the stripped-down recordings of Chuck Berry, and compare it to the sonically decadent layerings of Radiohead, you’d start to come to terms with rock music’s scope.
Chuck Berry was the driving force behind rock's inception.
All this to say, that although multiple genres fall under the moniker of rock, the sounds created by these genres and their respective recordings are unique and individualistic.
When it comes to mastering rock music, these unique characteristics need to be understood, respected, and acted on in a way that produces the best sounding record possible.
Although the sub-genres of rock vary wildly in their tonality, understanding the fundamentals of the genre, as well as the processing that best accommodates it, is key to mastering for it.
Mastering for rock music requires knowledge about genres and the production styles that identify them.
With that said, let's look into the different ways rock music can be mastered, as well as the aspects that define both the sub-genres of rock and the mastering processes tied to them.
But first, if you’re looking to have your music mastered, and want to hear how your song would sound prior to actually committing to a studio or engineer, send us your mix here: https://www.sageaudio.com/register.php
We’ll master it for you using only analog equipment, and send you a free mastered sample.
The Transients
The waveform of an isolated snare drum.
This may not be the first place you’d think to start when discussing mastering for rock, but the need for transients or lack thereof defines some of the rock sub-genres we love, and the mastering that makes them possible.
Transients are always an important part of music, regardless of genre. With that said, they can become increasingly important in some genres due to a myriad of reasons.
Let’s break this down by the rock sub-genres Metal, Indie Rock, and Pop Rock. Although this is certainly an oversimplification of rock genres, it will allow us to discuss the important parts of rock processing in a mastering sense.
Just for clarification - a transient is a high amplitude, short-duration waveform. It can also be considered the attack in the Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release elements associated with the overall timbre of a sound.
Attack, decay, sustain and release are the 4 elements that make up an instrument's timbre. Attack and decay are primarily the transient of any instrument.
Transients in a rock production are often the snare drum, kick drum, high hat, the initial strike of a guitar or piano, or any aspect of a vocal or instrument that is loud and short.
Mastering Metal
Metal is characterized by loud, fast instrumentation, and distortion based effects processing.
Typically, if a track has more instrumentation, louder instrumentation, and more distorted instrumentation, preserving transients becomes incredibly important for maintaining the intelligibility of the song.
In other words, when a track is louder than most, if the instrumentation blends too much, the entire song will sound like one big garbled mess.
That’s why Metal and other forms of hardcore rock typically value transients above all else.
So what does this mean for mastering?
In brief, it means longer attack and shorter release times when compressing, little to no added distortion or harmonic generation, and if possible, no brick wall limiting.
Now, I know that a fair amount of metal uses brick wall limiting. No one needs to be reminded of Metallica’s Death Magnetic - a compressed mess of a record, that mistook loudness for quality.
This is a disturbingly compressed waveform from Metallica's 'Death Magnetic.'
But this truly only supports the idea that brick wall limiting is a mistake if transient retention is considered a priority.
Brick wall limiting undeniably truncates transients.
When transients are truncated or cut short of reaching their full amplitude, there is no doubt that an aspect of them is lost. When you couple this with increasing the volume of the surrounding instrumentation, until it’s just as loud as the transients, you lose the dynamics that make a metal song move and breathe. It will no doubt become loud and chaotic.
What about distortion? Why not include distortion when mastering metal music?
Although this may not be the case with every metal track, the odds are that the instrumentation has already been distorted a fair amount by the guitarists’ and bassists’ amplification and effects.
Unlike most genres, a fair amount of distortion is inherent to Metal.
Distortion is definitely desired in this genre, but too much and masking can really begin to take a toll.
Typically harmonic generation sounds pleasant because it creates a full sound. This full sound is the result of new harmonics filling in the gaps or frequencies that other instrumentation isn’t occupying.
Tube distortion resulting from saturation generates even-order harmonics.
If the vast majority of the instrumentation is already distorted, and these harmonics are already present, adding a significant amount of these harmonics is overkill. This is made worse when these added harmonics begin masking or nullifying the phase of other harmonics generated by the recorded distortion. When this happens, there goes the clarity necessary for a transparent transient response.
When excessive distortion occurs, transients will become lost in masking or phase cancellation.
So when it comes to metal, sometimes less is more. Keeping things transparent, while controlling dynamics enough to avoid brick wall limiting is crucial to making a good master.
Processing that makes the drums dynamic, keeps instrumentation balanced, limits the total harmonic distortion, and avoids transient truncation is a great foundation for making a great metal mix sound even better during mastering.
If you’re curious how to shape transients using a compressor, check out our video “How to Use A Compressor Like an EQ”****to see the link between attack and release times, and timbre.
Mastering Indie Rock
Indie rock typically has less instrumentation.
On the opposite side of the transient spectrum, you have indie-rock. Unlike metal, Indie rock’s instrumentation is often sparse and lacks the distortion associated with harder rock.
Furthermore, although transients are of course needed, their role in the music’s timbre is valued slightly less overall and can be treated accordingly during mastering.
Indie's laissez-faire relationship with transients is made evident by the genre's love for tape saturation, and high-end attenuation.
This isn’t to say that their role can be disregarded during a mastering session, but other sonic characteristics are valued more and should be implemented.
In indie rock, cohesiveness amongst instrumentation and vocals is highly valued. When you hear the term “glue” in mastering, this is typically what it is associated with.
Essentially, this sound is created using quick attack and slow release times when compressing, as well as harmonic distortion and saturation.
A short attack and long release time compresses the attack and decay of the ADSR envelope.
The goal of mastering most indie-rock projects is to level off any harshness, to create a smooth, glued sound, and to fill in the gaps with gentle distortion and harmonic generation. This means that transients can be attenuated or compressed, instruments or vocals can be distorted, and saturation can be used to both create harmonics, as well as introduce soft-knee compression.
Tape saturation causes soft-knee compression and harmonic generation. When paired, these two effects cause a glued sound amongst the instruments they're affecting.
Furthermore, because most indie-rock projects value tone over clarity, some of the high frequencies can be attenuated slightly, to result in a warm, perhaps classic feel.
This attenuation of the high end as well as the degrees to which distortion is introduced truly varies amongst the sub-genres of indie rock, as more lo-fi projects seek to create unconventional frequency responses.
If you’re in an indie rock group, and you’re curious about everything you need to do before distribution, check out our blog post on this topic: "Everything You Need to Know About Releasing a Song."
Mastering Pop Rock
Pop-rock typically includes synthesizers, which occupy a fair amount of the frequency response.
Pop Rock can be considered almost a blend of the two aforementioned genres - not in its actual sound, but in how the transients are processed during mastering.
In pop-rock, both transient response, and a glued sound are valued. This presents what seems like a difficulty at first.
The more you glue a mix together the fewer transients it has, the less you glue a mix together the more transients it has. The two sonic characteristics seem to contradict and counteract one another.
Fortunately, the remedy for this is setting a medium attack and release time when compressing.
A moderate attack and release time helps both glue instrumentation and preserve the transient response.
Following what was stated for the two previous rock sub-genres, find a good balance of the two types of processing to get a good pop-rock master.
That means use distortion in moderation. Harmonic generation is helpful, but don’t go overboard, as the pop-rock instrumentation is typically busier than indie rock.
Subtle tube saturation works well on Pop Rock mixes.
Don’t compress in a way that attenuates the transients fully. This means setting an attack and release time that will eliminate some detail but will also allow certain instrumentation like the snare and the kick to cut through without much change in timbre.
Pop-rock can also have a more stylized sound with its high end attenuated, or it can be more polished and detailed in the high end. It certainly depends on the project and the desired end result.
So in short, use moderate compression and distortion, all while keeping a relatively balanced frequency response.
For some techniques on how to mix pop-rock music, check out our other blogs here: https://www.sageaudio.com/blog/mixing
Now that we’ve covered how transients affect how a rock mastering session is approached, let’s look into some other aspects that play a role.
Loudness
10 years ago, this post would have detailed how loud you should make the masters for each subgenre of rock. You would have seen metrics like “0VU using a -8VU scale”, or “-10 LUFS.” I’m sure there would have been compelling arguments why a song should be made so loud (whether these arguments would have held up is another story).
Songs no longer need to be mastering incredibly loud.
Fortunately for music and music lovers alike, these days are done. If our frustration with squashed dynamics was the catalyst for some change in mastering, then streaming platform’s normalization process is the final nail in the coffin for the Loudness Wars.
It seems almost oxymoronic but yes, normalization is restoring dynamics in music.
How so?
Popular streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music are changing how songs need to be mastered, regardless of genre.
For example, Spotify automatically normalizes all audio during playback to -14LUFS. This means that any master made louder than -14LUFS will be turned down. Furthermore, that master will be attenuated the number of LUFS it goes over the -14LUFS normalization benchmark.
Spotify normalizes your music to -14 dB LUFS
Of course, listeners have the ability to turn this off or alter their normalization settings, but many don’t. The option to do so is hidden deep within the settings of the user’s account.
This means that records don’t need to be mastered loudly to “compete” with other records and that if they are mastered louder, there is no benefit. In fact, if these records are mastered louder and put onto Spotify or Apple Music, odds are they’ll sound significantly worse than other records.
Mastering too loud into normalization will result in a heavily compressed sound.
Of course, if mastering for a different medium such as cassette or vinyl, different specifications will be followed - regardless, the era of exhaustingly loud recordings is coming to an end.
Mastering rock music for vinyl is a very different process than mastering for digital release.
If you want more information on how Spotify normalizes music, check out our post here: https://www.sageaudio.com/blog/pre-mastering-tips/how-loud-should-my-mix-be.php
If you’re curious about how loudness relates to other mediums such as vinyl and cassette, here are two blogs on that topic!
What is Mastering for Cassette?
Analog or Digital Mastering for Rock
It’s fair to ask if there is a specific type of mastering that works better for rock music. Analog certainly has certain characteristics that digital doesn’t and vice versa. But to make a definitive statement that one type of processing is better than the other for the genre, might be an oversimplification.
Analog mastering is a versatile form of mastering.
Digital mastering and processing are typically associated with a clean, transparent signal. This is of course if you don’t include analog emulators or other forms of distortion.
Digital processing could be useful for metal mastering, due to this cleanness. If you needed incredibly fast release times when compressing and wanted absolutely no coloration to the sound, then digital mastering would be the best bet to accomplish this.
With that said, a clean signal with transient emphasizing processing can and does occur during analog mastering as well. It truly depends on the equipment used, and the engineer.
If you’d like to learn more about digital mastering, check out our blog here: https://www.sageaudio.com/blog/mastering/what-is-digital-mastering.php
Analog mastering may be better for both indie-rock and pop-rock. If you’re looking to create a lo-fi sound, or add a significant amount of character to your master, analog equipment offers more opportunities to create that sound.
Even if you’re looking for gentle saturation and mild coloration to your sound, like in a pop-rock mix or master, analog equipment can provide these in moderation.
Of course, digital mastering can emulate analog equipment to a certain extent and is still a good option for mastering both indie-rock and pop-rock.
If you’d like to learn more about analog mastering read here: https://www.sageaudio.com/blog/mastering/what-is-analog-mastering.php
If you’re curious about stem mastering, a process that can be either analog or digital-based, check out our article on the topic: https://www.sageaudio.com/blog/mastering/what-is-stem-mastering.php
Conclusion:
Mastering for rock, or any genre, is a complex process. It takes an understanding of what people want to hear, and what they expect to hear from a particular style of music.
Although enjoying music this much is probably dangerous, creating a good master is all about knowing what the audience wants and expects to hear.
It also necessitates understanding some of the fundamental aspects of the genre, as well as knowing that one approach does not work for every song.
Transients, and the desire to maintain them, or the lack of that, really determine the type of processing that occurs.
For metal and most hard rock, transients are prioritized over further distortion and compression. This results in cleaner processing, with a slow attack, quick-release compression method.
For indie rock, transients are less important than saturation, or the tone that distortion and soft-knee compression creates. Overall, the tone or timbre is more important than the clarity, or a completely accurate representation of the sound source. This makes it a perfect genre for slow release compression, harmonic generation, and slight attenuation of the high end.
And for pop-rock, a blend between the two previously mentioned processing styles is expected. Transients are important, but so is gluing the mix together and creating cohesion amongst the instrumentation. Moderation of effects is the best bet with this sub-genre of rock.
Ideally, brick-wall limiting is avoided altogether, as it only truncates the mix’s transients, and adheres to loudness standards which no longer play a role in making a song ready for distribution.
Lastly, both analog and digital processing is a good option for all the aforementioned genres. Digital may be slightly more equipped for Metal, whereas analog works well with both indie and pop-rock. It should be noted that although this may be the case in a fair amount of circumstances, don’t let this dissuade you from one type of mastering or another.
If you’d like to here analog mastering on your mix send it to us here for a free sample: https://www.sageaudio.com/register.php
Have you ever mastered a rock song?
Ready to make your mixes sound 10 times better, 10 times faster...
You're literally one step away from 10 times better sound.
The best part is... it's risk-free, if we can't make your mixes sound 10 times better, you don't pay for it.
START NOWREAD OUR REVIEWS
Review by Joel S.
If you're looking for great mastering, Sage is where you need to be. I've been working with Sage for years - they do an amazing job and are really easy to work with.
They actually care about your project and want it to sound its best just as much as you do. I'm always excited to get a song or project back from mastering. I've tried many mastering companies, and Sage is by far the best.
If you're serious about your music, it's worth checking them out; you won't be disappointed - they make your mixes sound balanced and professional.
They also offer mixing feedback to help improve your mixes and mixing and mastering education courses to help improve your sound. Shout out to Sage Audio! you can't go wrong - like I said, if you're serious about your music, this is your studio.
Review by April K.
I've been getting my masters done by Sage Audio for the past 4 years now, and I've tried multiple places in my 15 years in the music business. Sage Audio is the only one that has given me the quality I love!
Their mastering membership is an excellent deal for anyone looking for professional mastering and full customer service. Also, I never had an issue with submitting new mix versions for remastering or asking for too many revisions - they have always been very respectful about remastering new mixes and making any adjustments I wanted. I'm staying with Sage, no need to look further! Best masters out there!
Review by Justin G.
Sage Audio is by far the best audio engineering company I've found. I've been with them for 8 years, and it's clear that they set the bar high in regard to mastering services. Their online platform makes it easy to upload tracks and communicate directly with your own dedicated mastering engineer, and their customer service is excellent.
Overall, the sound achieved by Sage Audio engineers is awesome. Their mastering brings out the best in each track - improving clarity, depth, and impact - and they focus on crafting personalized masters that are specific to your needs.
Another thing that sets Sage Audio apart from other mastering services is that the mastering is actually done with your dedicated mastering engineer and not some sort of AI software, and you get full customer service and feedback on your mixes too.
Their commitment to delivering top-tier mastering while maintaining consistent communication shows how much they care about their clients' music. For anyone looking for a personalized online mastering that combines top-level quality with excellent customer service, look no further than Sage Audio.
Review by James T.
The engineers at Sage Audio could not have made my first commercial audio experience any better! Every time I emailed to get a question answered, I worked with the same person consistently.
They know what they are doing; after listening to my masters on numerous systems, I heard my music in a whole new light. My bass and kick were tighter, not muddy, and hit with the "grit" that I intended. My mids and highs were clear, vibrant, and presented well on all stereos and devices.
I could have never achieved this level of quality without their diligent minds and professional know-how! If you are looking to get your project up to a commercial level while meeting a budget, Sage Audio is the place to go!
Review by Rebecca D.
Sage Audio is by far the best mastering service! They are the most professional, kind, and loyal people. Every song they mastered was spot on!
For artists looking to have their music mastered, they have an awesome and affordable mastering membership and are dedicated to making every mix sound like a professional master. Thank you, Sage Audio, for transforming my music!
Review by Daniel S.
The last ten years of my audio mixing career have been plagued by frustration, self-doubt, and compulsive shopping for magic game-changing plugins that can fix my poor mixes... guess what... it was all wasted time and money; I was shooting in the dark.
Until now.
I had heard about Sage Audio a long time ago, but at that time, their pricing seemed too expensive - how wrong I was.
Firstly, there is no substitute for hard work; you must do your part; what this service gave me was perspective - what's different about this master from my own? why? what am I missing? how can I improve my final mixdown in order to get the best possible master?
The included courses are really useful and well explained, but to me, the real power is the community of engineers offering their feedback; there's nothing like a second set of ears, or a lot of sets of ears! Getting other engineers' advice is priceless, and fixing common problems suddenly became very simple.
The best part is that I have made a bunch of mixes on my own now and am starting to get incredibly good responses - my confidence is up, with no additional plugins, no new DAW, not even new monitors.
I've been a Sage Audio member for about 9 months now, and all services are excellent. The 1-on-1 mixing feedback is incredibly helpful, and the professional community is way more active than I could have imagined. I'll be here for the long haul. So, if you're ready to take your music to the next level and change a lot of misconceptions, this is your place!
Review by Thomas E.
I am a musician and songwriter with decent recording skills, but I could never get my final mixes mastered to where the EQ, volume, and clarity sounded good on all playback systems without distortion.
I did extensive research on mastering and tried expensive studio headphones, but I never quite "mastered" mastering. It was very frustrating and took way too much time away from my music.
Then I found Sage Audio, and it sounded like just the service I needed at a reasonable price, so I joined their membership.
It was a game-changing decision. They always respond quickly and are focused on pleasing their customers. They mastered several of my songs, and they all came out perfect.
One of them took three takes because I had to change some levels and panning, but each time, they said, "No problem, we want you to be 100% happy with the final master."
They even asked for ways to improve their service, and they have a unique service where you can upload your mixes and receive feedback directly from them for improvement. I also found in the community, there are great musicians, singers, and songwriters to collaborate with for future projects.
In summary, Sage Audio has saved me a lot of time and provided great masters for my songs, way better than I could have ever done! I give them my highest recommendation.
Review by Frank B.
I've been using Sage Audio for a while now and have been very pleased with their professionalism and quality of work!
I'm NOT new to the audio production world and have been mixing and self-mastering for over a decade. I've used Grammy-winning mastering engineers as well as online AI-driven mastering services, so I know the full range of mastering services available to artists and their producers.
What sets Sage apart, IMO, and, in my experience, is that they are very customer-centric and will do almost anything to make the customer happy with their work. An example is a recent master I wasn't 100% happy with because it was too compressed for Classical material. They jumped right on it, giving me another more gently compressed master, which I'm delighted with. This was a NO EXTRA CHARGE. I know from experience that this isn't the norm in this industry, where egos prevail.
An example of Sage's superior work is when a client I'm working with wanted proof that it was better than a well-known, low-cost AI-driven mastering service. While my instructions to both Sage and the online service were close, only Sage had a human to interpret some of the instructions. As a result, the Sage master was considerably LOUDER and had more HEADROOM to boot. You can't ask for much more for a Pop song.
In summary, I'd recommend Sage to anyone looking for professional mastering for their upcoming release.
Give them a shot. I'm sure you'll be pleased.
Review by Dan Y.
Sage Audio has been a lifesaver for me. Mastering was my weakest point, and I only wish I could've found them sooner. I have used their services for the last 6 months and have also recommended them to several of my musician friends. Every track I send comes back sounding brilliant.
I once experimented by mastering one of my songs by myself, by another leading mastering studio, and also by Sage Audio. Sage's master was hands-down the best: clear, loud, yet dynamic, and the overall sound was smooth. I can say with 100% confidence Sage Audio is the best mastering service around.
It's also a pleasure connecting with their team on a personal level; they are very attentive to details and respond fast.
Review by Irene F.
I found Sage Audio when I was searching for a company that could master my original songs. My initial email was responded to in less than ten minutes. I explained my situation, then created an account and uploaded my mix for mastering.
I let my engineer know what was bothering me in the song and what I would like it to sound like. In a short time, he sent me a notification email to download the master and asked if it was to my liking.
On first listen, it blew me away, as it contained everything I had asked for, and the sound was vibrant, clear, and, quite frankly, perfect. I've been with Sage Audio ever since - they're so easy to work with, friendly, eager to help, and highly professional. I would recommend them to anyone.
Review by Aaron C.
I first used Sage audio 3 years ago to get an album mastered. I hadn't used an outside service for mastering before, so I didn't know exactly what to expect, but I had learned a lot from the Sage Audio YouTube channel and liked the clear, concise way the videos explained various audio principles, so I felt comfortable using their services.
Not only did the masters sound amazing (dynamic, but still as loud as I wanted), but the engineer answered all of my questions and responded to my emails almost immediately.
To add to that, considering all the services you get with the membership is an incredible deal - it Includes mastering, mixing feedback, courses, and community. It's everything you need, and their customer service is top-notch.
As good as their YouTube videos are, I knew this would be a fantastic resource; as a college professor myself, I recognize excellent instruction, and Sage has a knack for breaking down complex processes and demonstrating how plugins work in concise bursts that never overwhelm the learner.
More importantly, you will come to understand when to use the tools in your arsenal and why to do so. You, thus, are learning how to ask better questions of the mastering engineers that you have access to through your membership, and ultimately, you are being empowered to become an engineer yourself!
Review by John G.
I started using Sage Audio to master my songs about three to four years ago - I wish I had found them earlier. Their mastering makes my mixes sound like professional songs, and they're a delight to work with.
Also, they have a very active community of musicians, producers, and engineers, along with mixing and mastering courses - which have provided me with so much useful information. On top of that, the mixing feedback is excellent, and they continually provide thoughtful suggestions, which I've found invaluable for improving my mixes. It's worth checking them out - you will not be disappointed.
Review by Brandon T.
I had Sage Audio master my last 3 albums, and I plan to use them for my next release too. They do an exceptional job of creating balance and clarity for each project, and they are so friendly and helpful when it comes to answering questions and offering suggestions.
Their experience is invaluable, and they have truly insightful feedback when it comes to mixing and mastering. I have tried other companies in the past and came back to Sage to get that professionally polished sound every time.
Review by Ben V.
A few months ago, a friend of mine recommended I try Sage Audio for my final master's. Being a mix engineer myself, I was hesitant at first due to the fact that in the past, when using online mastering, I found that no engineer would care for the track as much as I would.
Knowing the basic rule that you always want to have another set of ears to master anything you've mixed, I realized I had hit a plateau in how far I could take my final master. To my surprise, Sage and the team took my master's to a level I could not reach, both dynamically and sonically.
I'm a full-time artist who is constantly recording, releasing, and traveling. The burden that the Sage team has taken off my shoulders by being a trustworthy mastering service is tremendous.
They have provided me with quick turnarounds while out of the country to meet deadlines for releases and are understanding & receptive when I request changes after hearing a master, even going as far as to follow up with me, confirming that I am 100% happy with the final master, quoting, "I'm not happy unless you're happy."
Another benefit to Sage Audio is their library of mixing and mastering tutorials. Any good sound engineer knows that there are a million ways to reach a rich, dynamic final mix or mastering and that you're never done learning how to engineer. Sage's courses offer a great refresher on fundamentals and a clear understanding of complex techniques to help push you as an engineer.
Cheers Sage, thanks for the excellent service!
Review by Charlie E.
My writing partner and I have recorded and mixed 2 albums and a few singles, the first 2 albums we did were mastered by a different company. The masters were ok, but from that experience, we developed a better and more critical understanding of the mastering process.
Upon preparing to have our 3th album mastered, we did some research and exploration for other mastering options and found Sage Audio - which is where we had our latest album mastered.
We were both very much impressed with the work, the communication, and the willingness to create the exact sound we wanted for the album. We definitely heard a difference in the mastering - Sage Audio masters are clean, clear, and professional.
On top of that, we really enjoyed receiving mixing feedback, which was really helpful for making adjustments to bring the most out of our mixes before sending for mastering. For anyone seeking true audio professionals, I recommend Sage Audio!
Review by Sam V.
Sage Audio mastering engineers are the best I've ever worked with! I've been an Artist, Songwriter & Producer for over 12 years, and believe me, over the years, I've worked with several studios and countless engineers. But since I connected with Sage Audio, those days are over. I took a chance on something new - sent my first mix to see how it would go, and they didn't waste any time lol, they responded the very next day, and the master I got back far exceeded my expectations.
The level of quality and attention to detail was impressive. It was everything & more than what I hoped for, and now I will never trust my mixes in any other hands. They've quickly become my number 1 go-to-guys for mastering, hands down.
Not to mention, they also give you in-depth mixing feedback to help you improve your mixes before sending them for mastering. You can't go wrong with Sage Audio. These guys definitely deserve all the credit in the world. I would strongly recommend them to anyone out there looking for solid professionals to polish your mix. I can personally promise you, Sage Audio will deliver every time!
Review by Ryan B.
I've been using Sage Audio for mastering my tracks over the past year and a half, and they've been great on every front.
If I need a track mastered within a week, they usually get back to me with a high-quality finished master within a few days, and the cost is negligible compared to what some other studios are charging.
They also have an active community, and their mixing feedback option is super helpful; their suggestions are specific, revealing, and accurate.
I highly recommend them if you're a musician, producer, or mixing engineer who needs that last bit of polish before you release. They're worth every penny.
LISTEN TO OUR SAMPLES
Ready to make your mixes sound 10 times better, 10 times faster...
The best part is... it's risk-free, if we can't make your mixes sound 10 times better, you don't pay for it.
HERE'S WHAT'S INCLUDED IN YOUR SAGE AUDIO MEMBERSHIP
- One-on-One Mixing Feedback
Private 1-on-1 mixing feedback directly from us
- Mastering Service
Custom mastering service tailored to your specific sound
- Mixing Course
Access to our 23-video structured step-by-step mixing course, including walkthrough sessions for 8 genres, featuring mixing chains with free and paid plugins — Multitracks for mixing practice are included
- Mastering Course
Access to our 19-video structured step-by-step mastering course, including walkthrough sessions for 8 genres, featuring mixing chains with free and paid plugins — Unmastered mixes for mastering practice are included
- Community
Access to the thriving Sage Audio community for discussions and networking
- Cancel Anytime
No commitments
- Risk-Free Money-Back Guarantee
If we can't make your mixes sound 10 times better, you don't pay for it, so it's risk-free
What's the Endgame?... You have mixes that sound 10 times better — songs you're proud of that make people say "Wow."
We guarantee 10 times better sound, or you don't pay for it, so it's risk-free. Members get 1-on-1 mixing feedback, mastering service, courses & access to our thriving community. That’s about it.
If you want to transform your mixes from a source of pain and struggle to a source of pleasure and fulfillment, JOIN NOW. The struggle stops now. START NOW
