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TESTIMONIALS
"Sun Room Audio is absolutely always my first choice for mastering. Dan Coutant has the rare ability to connect with the intentions at the heart of a project and truly make the most of the material.”
J. Robbins (Magpie Cage)
“Dan Coutant at Sun Room Audio has been my 2nd set of ears for the past 12 years. In that time, he has mastered dozens of records that I have produced and mixed. I 100% trust his taste, feedback and attention to detail. I consider Dan to be my partner in a pursuit of sonic excellence for myself, and my clients.”
Erik Kertes (Bird Sound LA)
"Dan is an incredible mastering engineer and I trust him with every project I send him. Always extremely efficient and open to my ideas and suggestions for my final product. I love how versatile Dan can be with his technique and know he can handle any sort of mix I send his way."
Jesse Barrera (The JB Cave)
"Dan always delivers masters that sound like your mixes, but finished.. never doing too much, or too little. He's very receptive to guidance and feedback, and my requests for 'make this song shinier' and 'make this song nastier' are always met with enthusiasm. He's also never late delivering work. Cannot recommend him highly enough."
Tom Hill (The Bookhouse)
"I've dealt with many mastering engineers , and Dan's masters always come back sounding bigger and more energetic, yet somehow more transparent than anyone else's. A great musical ear and realistic pricing with independent artists in mind makes Sun Room my first choice for every record I work on."
Ryan Stack (Format Audio)
"I have been making records for over 20 years now and worked with just as many mastering engineers, big names, small names and everything in between. No one on the planet is as good or as accommodating as Dan Coutant is. I count on him for every thing I do now."
Jamie Woolford (Producer)
Our studio is purpose built from the ground up specifically for mastering and critical listening. We take a “best of both worlds” approach in our workflow featuring the highest quality analog gear and digital signal processing. We respect each and every project as if it was our own.
Dan Coutant has applied his approach in a vast array of musical genres, from punk to jazz and everything in between. Working alongside artist like The Sword, Michael Bublé, New Found Glory, Cat Power, Jawbox, Beach Weather, and A Giant Dog has given him the chance to master albums from a variety of musical disciplines. Sun Room is known for an artist friendly approach and a dedication to the individual needs and goals of the client.
Services include mastering for digital distribution, compact disc, and optimizing your project for vinyl cutting. Sun Room Audio is an Apple approved APPLE DIGITAL MASTERS provider.
Learn more about this and Dan's work via these resources:
RECENT WORK
Cat Power "Redux"
Kerosene 454 "At Zero"
Braid "Frame & Canvas (25th Anniversary Edition)"
Modern Life Is War
"Life On The Moon"
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EQUIPMENT
Meticulously selected tools that can do transparent processing, or add color and texture as needed to give your recording maximum impact. The listening environment has been carefully tuned and refined in combination with great monitoring to ensure the utmost accuracy and detail … absolutely essential in making the crucial judgement calls that define the job. This diverse collection of tools combined with years of experience ensure that we'll hit the mark for you every single time.
WHAT ARE YOUR RATES?
To receive an accurate estimate for your project, please send us a message through the contact page with the following information:
• Artist name
• Number of songs
• Total running time (in minutes)
• Desired turnaround time
• Intended release formats (i.e. vinyl, CD, mastered for iTunes etc.)
HOW DO I PAY?
Please use the "buy now" button below to make PayPal or Credit Card payments. If you wish to use a different payment method, it can be discussed when your project is invoiced via email.
WHAT ARE "APPLE DIGITAL MASTERS"?
Apple Digital Masters are alternate versions of your masters created to the specifications of Apple's guidelines. This includes leaving sufficient headroom as to avoid inter-sample peaks (clipping distortion) from occurring after your master is encoded to Apple's AAC format. It also enables you to provide Apple with high resolution masters, with sample rates up to 96K and at 24 bits.
WHAT MIX FORMATS DO YOU ACCEPT?
We accept WAV, AIFF, and SDII file formats at any sample rate and word length. If nothing else is available, MP3, AAC, and other compressed file types can also be sent, but these are strongly discouraged for best results. Your mixes can be delivered as multiple mono or stereo interleaved. I will send my preferred FTP upload methods upon session confirmation, or a free file sharing service like Dropbox can also be used if you prefer. All links to files or Dropbox invitiations should be directed to info@srmastering.com. You can also mail a CD-R, DVD, DAT tape, hard drive (flash, USB, firewire), and 1/4″ or 1/2" analog tape at 7.5, 15, or 30 ips (please email us for the studio address).
WHAT IS YOUR TURNAROUND TIME?
Typical turnaround time is within 7 - 10 days if you have your mixes ready for mastering. If you book your project at least two weeks in advance, I can be much more flexible and complete the job for a specific deadline, leaving room for revisions and other unforeseen situations that can occur. If you’re in a rush, I will do the best I can to complete the job quickly as long as there is room in the calendar, and at no additional cost. If your required turnaround time will affect other projects that were booked in advance, then added fees may apply.
SHOULD I REMOVE MY BUS COMPRESSION?
Unfortunately there is no “one size fits all” answer to this question. In some cases, it’s better to remove dynamics processing from your mix before sending. Mix compression is an artistic choice and if you're getting something that you want out of that compression, then by all means... go with it! My only suggestion is to avoid using brick-wall peak limiters, as they can really flatten transient impact and make things a bit "crunchy". As far as final peak level on your mix, anything below the point of clipping will do. I welcome the submission of compressed and uncompressed versions of the mixes, so that we can decide which works best after a mastering sample is done from each source. If your only reason for using the compressor is to make the mix louder, then it's probably best to remove it.
CAN YOU MAKE MY MASTER LOUDER?
In most cases, yes. The question is, what will it cost you sonically? The issue of loudness has been beaten to death, but to explain it simply: the louder the overall volume of your master is, the quieter the louder elements in your mix will seem. The loudest elements in a mix are usually the drums and vocals. When loud transients like kick and snare hits are pushed further into peak limiters and clipping, the information suffers more because it’s being lopped off and smeared. Therefore, a really loud master usually loses transient punch and detail. With "loudness normalization" being used by many digital service providers these days, it's become less critical to be the loudest song in the playlist. My approach involves taking all things into consideration and providing you with a master that will stay competitive alongside other tracks when heard unprocessed or normalized, but will also survive the "algorithm" when loudness normalizers kick in.
DO I NEED A DEDICATED MASTER FOR VINYL?
I always recommend to my clients who plan to release their project on vinyl that we record an alternate version of the master with little to no digital peak limiting, and a little more headroom in the analog domain. Having worked with many of the most well respected lacquer cutting engineers in the industry, I've learned that an alternate master prepared with these characteristics rather than a peak limited master intended for digital formats will just sound better. Sending a loud and aggressive master to a lathe will only cause the cutting engineer to have to turn things down significantly, and in many cases they'll be forced to cut an even quieter record than they would have with a more dynamic premaster. You'll retain more transient impact (punchier drums), smoother highs and tighter lows, and just a more natural and musical sounding record. The cost is minimal, and the benefits are significantly more. Your premaster for vinyl doesn't need to be as loud as your CD master because the volume of your vinyl will be determined by the length of the sides, and the integrity of the sonics. We can work together to determine how to maximize the potential of your vinyl release, particularly by sequencing for the format... which means to keep louder more aggressive material near the outer edge of the record (early in the side sequence), and the more subdued and less aggressive tracks near the inner grooves (where noise and distortion become more of a consideration). Having said all of this, you can still cut your CD/digital masters to vinyl if you don't have the budget for these alternate versions. Let's discuss these options in more detail while we're working on your project and decide on the best approach, both economically and sonically.
WHAT ARE ISRC CODES? DO I NEED THEM?
ISRC codes (International Standard Recording Code) are identification codes for each song on your recording. They make sales of your music trackable so that you can get paid when people buy your music from digital retailers. To obtain a unique prefix for your ISRC codes, you must register via this website: www.usisrc.org. Some digital distribution services will take care of this step for you so it depends on the circumstances of your release. We are not a registered ISRC vendor here at SRA so you will have to provide us with codes to embed as metadata on your DDP, PMCD (physical), or digital WAV files. Please email any other questions on the subject and we’ll help get you started.
HOW TO GET CD INFO TO DISPLAY IN APPLE MUSIC
Media players like APPLE MUSIC refer to the Gracenote Database to identify album information like artist and song titles. The Gracenote database provides album information to the following media players: Apple Music, WinAmp, Quintessential Media Player, and Finder (Mac OS). The AllMusic database provides album information to the following media players: Windows Media Player, Rhapsody, and Real Music Player. AllMusic registration can be completed by following the steps outlined on their website at: http: //www.allmusic.com/product-submissions.
Instructions for registering with Gracenote through APPLE MUSIC:
1. Open APPLE MUSIC on your computer.
2. Insert your CD, but do not import it to your computer.
3. If you haven't already, fill out all album information (album name, artist name, album genre, track names, etc.).
4. Once you've done this, highlight all tracks. Then go to the "advanced" drop down menu and select "submit CD track names." This will send your data to Gracenote.
5. Within 24-48 hours, your track names should load when you put your CD into any computer.
DO YOU DO ATTENDED SESSIONS?
Attended sessions are always welcome. The studio is located in Cornwall, NY which is about an hour north of Manhattan, and just a 15 minute drive from the Beacon train station. Let me know your situation and we’ll get you here!
FAQ
