ARTISTS

Mastering is the refined technique, where the finer elements of raw sound recordings and deficiencies from the mixing process are corrected. It is also applied to tracks to make them a sufficient volume and minimise individual differences, for instance when they are released for retail as an album, EP or single.

The music industry is currently in a recession, and many smaller underground electronic labels try to make ends meet by cutting costs, which is understandable, especially with the vast majority of larger mastering studios charging hundreds of dollars, euro’s or pounds for sometimes poor quality masters. This unfortunately has resulted in an absence of in-house mastering with 90% of labels, which in turn means that there is a huge difference in sound quality between labels & artists.

Rob Small is our in-house mastering engineer at TUG Underground. As a dj and producer, he has toured all over the world alongside the best in the industry, and has produced and remixed over 70 successful releases. He currently masters for some of the finest house & techno labels in the world, such as Jamie Anderson’s ‘Artform’ label, Monique Musique, Tom Budden’s ‘ALiVE Recordings’, Elevation Recordings, 3am Recordings and hundreds more respected labels and artists. His masters go on to be played by the biggest names in the scene, at the biggest festivals and clubs that the world has to offer.

Here at TUG Underground, we are currently focusing on the costs and expenses that digital record labels have at the moment. We are trying to be as competitive as possible with our prices and fee’s without compromising artistic quality, thus making it more affordable for smaller artists and labels to achieve a professional sound and industry standard quality that works within a tight budget.

We now run an affordable analog & digital mastering solution that caters primarily for electronic music. We use a combination of high-end analog mastering equipment with the highest quality software to achieve a clean, warm analog sound that most studios would charge in excess of £40 per track for. We concentrate on stereo width, definition, sound character, mixing, and bringing out the finer elements in a mix, rather than just making your records sound unnecessarily loud and over compressed - like most mastering engineers do at the moment.

*PLEASE NOTE: WE DO NOT TAKE PRIDE IN MAKING UNNECASSARILY LOUD MASTERS AND RUINING THE DYNAMICS OF THE TRACK. CONTRARY TO THE HYPE, INCREDIBLY LOUD MASTERS ARE BAD!

At TUG, we are dedicated to supplying you with 100% quality. We strive for perfection in our mastering, and we wouldn’t settle for anything less, as you can probably guess by our client list! We accept more and more clients each week, and our mastering engineer is quickly becoming one of the most respected mastering engineers throughout the electronic music industry.

Our equipment list is as follows:

- Pro Tools HD
- Ableton Live
- Logic Pro 9
- Sonnox Mastering & Restoration Suite
- Brainworx Mastering Suite
- NI Komplete Bundle
- SPL Mastering Suite
- Izotope Mastering & Restoration Suite
- Waves Mastering Collection
- Neve 33609 Compressor
- TL Audio 5021 Analog Tube Compressor
- T.C Electronics Triple-C Outboard Multiband Compressor Unit
- Lexicon MPX 200 Effects Unit
- CME Bitstream 3X
- KRK Rokit 8 G2’s
- Dynaudio Acoustics BM5A’s
- Mackie Big Knob
- Pioneer HDJ 2000’s
- Professionally Acoustically Treated Studio
- Highly Skilled Mastering Engineer

Our prices are as follows:

Stereo Master - single track £22.50
*You deliver the song as one mixed down audio track.
DJ set correction & mastering - £50
*You deliver your recorded DJ set and we do the rest.
Stem Master £60
*You deliver the song as 8 or less individual audio tracks, usually a separate track for each instrument.
Mixdown + Master single track £100
*You deliver the song completely in individual audio tracks, usually a separate track for each instrument/drum sound.
*Prices mentioned are excluding VAT. VAT will be added where applicable.
*DISCOUNT WILL BE APPLIED FOR ORDERS OF 3 OR MORE TRACKS!

File delivery specifications:

In order for us to get the best master possible, we require just a few simple things from you. These are:
• All tracks to be delivered in WAV or AIF format, with a sample rate of 44.1Khz or higher, and a bit depth of 16, or 24 (24 preferred). NO DITHERING.

• Important: premasters are to be sent without any compression, eq, or limiting plugs on the master channel prior to exporting/bouncing the track from your DAW. Please leave at least -3dB of headroom volume on your master channel when you export/bounce down your premaster. Heavy limiting will result in less headroom for mastering. Peaks cut off by limiting can never be restored in the mastering process thus affecting output quality greatly.

• Please make sure that you’re completely 100% happy with your mixdown before you send your track to be mastered. If your kicks are too loud, or your hats are too high, then the mastering will enhance this. PLEASE make sure your mixdowns are done to the best of your ability and that you’re satisfied before sending as we still require payment if you’re not happy with the mixdown or you hear something in the mix that you don’t like post mastering.

Tracks are to be delivered to us preferably 7 days in advance, but please contact us before sending so we can arrange a date to perform the mastering. We endeavor to return your master within 2 days of us receiving the premaster. If you feel that your tracks are lacking that professional sound quality but don’t want to pay outrageous prices for mastering, then Rob Small/Tug Mastering is the solution for you.
 
Please feel free to contact us through our contact link above, or drop us an email at: service@tugunderground.eu

We look forward to hearing to hearing from you!

TUG x