Sage Audio is a mastering studio that follows the guidelines of the Red Book and offers services to add ISRC encoding to recordings. Most amateurs mastering their own music are usually not too familiar with all of the requirements of the Red Book which could cause some problems when duplicating CD's for mass distribution. There is also often a lot of confusion about what exactly ISRC is, how to acquire these codes, and whether or not they are necessary.
Red Book is the audio standard for compact discs that ensures that all of the music following these guidelines will play in the majority of CD players. It got its name from a series of books called Rainbow Books and as the name states, is the red colored book that focuses on CD- Digital Audio. The Red Book consists of technical specifications for CD and CD-ROM and includes some of these basic guidelines:
- Maximum duration is 74 minutes
- Each track must be a minimum of 4 seconds
- Maximum of 99 tracks
- 99 maximum number of index points
- ISRC encoding
There are some other areas that define bit rate and error correction, but are usually of no concern when sent into a studio that is associated with mastering audio.
This leads us to the next subject of a lot of confusion. ISRC is the International Standard Recording Code for identifying sound recordings. These codes are registration information that is added to a CD as an individualized and permanent identifier of the track. Only one ISRC code can be added to an individual track and can never represent more than one recording. For example, a different recording or remix of the same song requires a different ISRC code. These numbers are useful in tracking commission and royalty payments for songs.
It is only a one-time payment of $75 through usirsc.org which allows users to assign up 100,000 ISRCs annually. The ISRC consists of 4 parts and is 12 characters long:
- Country Code
- Registrant Code
- Year of Reference
- Designation Code
The country code for the US has actually been changed to QM as of 2010. The three character registrant code is assigned by the National ISRC agency. The two year of reference digits refer to the year that the track was registered; not when it was recorded. The final designation code is intended to be a unique individual code for each track. It is recommended to start your track codes as 00001, 0002, 0003, and so on. This helps ensure that no codes are repeated and helps keep your tracks in order for your own filing system. During the next year of registering songs you can start the designation codes back at 1 since the year of the code will be different.
Example of a new ISRC- QM-364-12-00001
After obtaining your ISRCs, you are ready to have them added to your CD's through various mastering studios such as Sage Audio.
So, Why A Membership?
Let’s face it — trying to create professional mixes without the correct knowledge, tools, services, and network is like playing a concert with a broken instrument to an audience of no one.
That’s where the Sage Audio membership comes in — the membership gives you everything you need to create professional mixes consistently.
The membership is the secret to your success — it’s the difference between the 1,929,999,999 of poor-sounding mixes and the .00000002% of mixes that make people say 'WOW!"
There are 7 unique value-points included in your Sage Audio membership.
Let’s go over each one so you can decide if the membership is right for you.
1. Sage Audio University
- SAU Flagship Mixing Course: 23-video in-depth mixing course that reveals the little-known secrets of mixing and matches the needs of the new music industry.
- SAU Flagship Mastering Course: 19-video in-depth modern mastering course that dives into every nuance of making professional-sounding masters.
- SAU Pre-Mastering Course: Concise pre-mastering course that details the latest industry standards for preparing your mixes for mastering.
- SAU is designed for every experience level, ranging from budding mixing engineers to advanced engineers. The techniques and concepts taught can be applied to any DAW to create industry-leading mixes without expensive software or plugins - and free plugin alternatives are suggested throughout each course.
- Each SAU course includes Start-to-Finish session walkthrough lessons for multiple genres so you can follow along with your preferred genre.
- SAU Certification Document, which can be downloaded and showcased on your website and social channels.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
2. Private 1-on-1 Mentorship
- The Sage Audio private 1-on-1 Mentorship gives you direct access to us for advanced mixing feedback, in-depth discussions, and customized guidance that's tailored to your specific needs.
- Unlimited private access to us for advanced mixing feedback, where we provide detailed suggestions for improvement.
- Unlimited private access to us for in-depth discussions to help you improve every aspect of your mixes and masters.
- Customized guidance that’s tailored specifically to your needs.
- Fast communication so you can improve your skills quickly.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
3. Unlimited Mixing Feedback
- Unlimited professional mixing feedback directly from us so you can consistently improve your skills and create professional mixes.
- Mixing feedback is invaluable, and the Sage Audio membership gives you continual direct access to us for real-world feedback so you can improve every aspect of each of your mixes while you're in the process of mixing.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
4. 50 Free Mastered Songs Per Year
- 50 free mastered songs per year with your own dedicated professional mastering engineer so you can get all your mixes sounding like professional songs.
- You get your own dedicated Sage Audio mastering engineer to create custom masters that are specific to you and sound exactly how you want.
- Unlimited revisions with your dedicated mastering engineer. As a standard of our service, we are not happy until you are happy with the sound of your masters.
- All masters are delivered as commercial, industry-standard high-resolution 24-bit HD WAV masters so they will sound clean and clear on every platform.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
5. Community
- The Sage Audio community is a tight-knit community of passionate audio engineers who can provide you with additional real-world mixing feedback, meaningful discussions, networking, collaborations, and more.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
6. 70+ GB of Curated Sage Audio Downloadable Content
- 36 multitrack sessions spanning multiple genres for mixing practice.
- 57 un-mastered mixes spanning multiple genres for mastering practice.
- 62 Recommended Free Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 39 Recommended Paid Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 71 Sage Audio custom plugin presets to improve your mixes and masters.
- Sage Audio Membership Badge to showcase on your website, social channels, and portfolio.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
7. 800+ Video Catalog
- Access 700+ in-depth Sage Audio mixing and mastering videos - curated and organized into categories so you can easily take a deep dive into all aspects of audio engineering with thousands of hours of concise, expertly crafted Sage Audio videos to continually improve your skills at your own pace.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
