“Why does it cost so much? I just want the studio for a day; I don’t want to buy it!”
Just ask any of our clients. The bottom line is that nobody is getting rich around here - there are no Rolls Royce’s in the car park. Turtlerock offers the best Mastering service in Australia and keeping at that level comes at a price.
What we do here at Turtlerock is not something that can be done at home. We have better rooms and better equipment than any of the competitors and our experience is unparalleled in the field.
In the scheme of things, the cost of Mastering is part of the cost of manufacturing NOT the cost of recording. Manufacturing costs get picked up by the consumer that buys the CD. So at the end of the day, Mastering is just one of the things you have to pay for. We are well worth the expense; just ask ANY of our clients.
“What does it cost?”
Check out our rate sheet for current prices. A fair rule of thumb is about $AU150 inc. GST per song
“What do I need to bring to the session?”
We need your stereo masters in whatever format they were mixed down to. 90% of what we receive are 24-bit, 44.1 kHz data files, but we can handle anything you would care to mix down to - analog or digital.
It's good if you bring an Audio CD copy of your project for us to listen to while we are setting up. If you have a bunch of records that you love the sound of then bring them along too. We don’t need them, but sometimes clients like to just “check” the sound of their record against another release.
“What do I need to do for the session?”
We need you to work out and have written down the final running order of the record before you arrive. We need you to have a think about what this record means to you and what its job in life will be. Is it a full release or a radio only promo? Is it for sale in stores or only available on the internet as an Mp3? Is it for listening to in cars, radio, or anywhere and everywhere etc.
At Turtlerock the mastering engineer drives the session and he will know exactly what to do whether the client attends or not. But if the client can give us that little bit of extra personal connection to the project, it makes our day so much better.
We need all masters, files and CDs to be clearly labeled detailing which is the actual master to be used. We absolutely must have every single thing you give us fully and clearly labeled.
“What goes wrong in Mastering the most often?”
The client doesn’t label the mixes and gives us the wrong version to work with.
“Can my drummer come along?”
Sure, we encourage everybody who is part of the project to come along, sometimes
a few band members or the record company just come along at the end of the day to hear the final playback (usually around 5pm – 7pm).
“What’s the availability like?”
Most of the year we need two to three weeks notice in advance for an album. We need more notice towards Christmas and can usually slip a smaller project in quicker.
“Do you work weekends?”
Yes you can book either Michael Carpenter or Robin Gist on a Saturday.
Nobody really wants to work on a Sunday... err either do you... but if you're in a bind we will.
Rick O'Neil cannot be booked on a weekend unless you pay him double time (and we know you are not going to do that… right?).
Our engineers are experts at telling you how long your session will really take from a phone booking, so if your schedule allows please take their advice and create a workable booking schedule..
The last thing anybody wants or needs to do in a mastering session is to rush the job or do it at an insane time of the day/night so please try and give yourself time to book the mastering session in advance and well before it needs to go to press. This is so you can enjoy the mastering session and not fall asleep on our lounge (and you would be surprised how often that happens!)
“Do your engineers understand our kind of music?"
Mastering at Turtlerock is more about the tone of a record than the style of music being mastered. We deal with an enormous variety of styles year in and year out. The bottom line is if you cannot tune a guitar, never see a band, or don’t strive to do the best with every job, big or small then you do not work at Turtlerock as a Mastering engineer.
“Do you master Christian music?”
Yes, for reasons we will never understand other than our pursuit of excellence, we are the biggest Mastering Studio for Christian music in Australia.
“Will you come along to OUR church for a look at what we do?”
No.
“What is the process for mastering analog or digital?”
At Turtlerock Mastering we have a hybrid of both, but our main Mastering chain is 100% analog and most of the time it’s an all-tube path. Rick has spent the last twenty years perfecting the best way to master records and at the current time the best way is still the old fashioned way with the heavy boxes that get hot and the big knobs.
“What equipment do you have? Can I get a list?”
We have all the usual mastering suspects, Manley, Avalon, Sadie, Pro Tools, Apogee etc etc and a bunch of fastidiously restored antique gear like tube Pultec EQ’s and custom Parkside Sound Mastering consoles. Put simply we have the best of everything and when we find something that sounds better than what we currently have, we buy it.
“Can you send me a list of what you guys have Mastered and a rate sheet?”
Maybe, if we have to, but it’s much more fun to cruise around our website isn’t it?
“My mate says he/she can master our stuff at home for free?”
Great, let them. The way we figure it is if you are selling your CD then it is essential that it gets professionally mastered, you owe it to your punters to do everything you can to give them the best work you can put out. If you are using the music as a promo only CD then it makes sense to master it professionally so that it competes with ‘real’ CDs and can grab somebody’s attention. But if you’re just messing about part time… well the reality is your mate can save you some cash which can be better spent elsewhere.
“I am planning to get several Mastering places to master just one song so I can pick the best place to master my album; I don’t want to risk all my cash at once. Will you do a one song test master for me?”
No. We are too busy to get involved with people that think mastering is a contest. Mastering one song will not show you if the mastering house knows what they are doing, mastering the whole album will show you exactly what to expect – a finished master.
At Turtlerock our response to the test mastering question is: Once you have finished messing around with mastering engineers trying to prove that they are good enough for your work, book a day with us. If you don’t like what we do, that’s fine, you don’t pay, and it’s free. But when you really love what we do, pay us for our time.
Nobody has ever ‘not’ paid us.
“Do you do audio restoration work for legal matters?”
No.
“Can we record at Turtlerock?”
Yes, we can do in-house sessions but our recording spaces are set up for Rick O’Neil’s productions only. If you’re just looking for a studio we recommend our next door neighbors Electric Avenue Studios – they’re the best studio in the country.
“Can you recommend somebody to press our CDs?”
Yes. Mad CDs come to mind as do ISD but we use a variety of different brokers who also support us, so call us for the current favourites.
“Where are you located?”
17 Gibbens Street, Camperdown. NSW 2050
It’s near Sydney University and down sandwiched between Newtown and the Annandale Hotel.
"How much will mastering change the sound of my record?"
Obviously this is a hard question to answer; however, we usually apply the rule of 3’s. If your record sounds like a 7/10 before we get to it, when we’re done it’ll be a 10/10. Any if it’s only a 4/10 we’ll make it a 7/10. For some acts this difference in mastering is huge and for others it can be extremely subtle. What we do is interface your record with the sound of the world, and if it needs a lot it gets a lot, if it doesn’t need too much then that's a good thing and we'll let you know straight away.
Some people feel that mastering is subjective, however we find at the highest level most mastering houses around the world sound pretty similar (and that's the point of using an A-grade mastering house). Of course is you still feel like you need to be that extra bit more competitive then we can match the sound of your record to any reference you’d like to give us... and better it.
"Do you offer discount rates for unsigned artists?"
No, everybody gets treated the same around here. If you are not able to justify the expense of our Senior Mastering engineer Rick O'Neil we understand that, which is why our 2 other extremely talented mastering engineers Robin Gist and Michael Carpenter are very competitively priced (even against those studios that offer bogus cheap rates for unsigned artists).
There is only one way to master a record here at Turtlerock - that is PERFECTLY. Dropping our rates so the engineers are not getting paid properly does not allow that to happen.
If you have a cash problem and that is the only thing that is stopping you using Turtlerock tell us about it, you never know - we may bend a bit, but please don’t try to hustle us. Call our competitors to get a price comparison and decide what you are able to spend on mastering, then call us and tell us that you really want to work here, but err.... you cannot make the price jump.
We support the people that support us and we understand that the process has to start somewhere. We are here to help on so many levels regardless of the price.
Talk to us - we will listen, it’s what we do.
