1. The real deal means that we do take the time to master your material entirely in the analog domain. This is real analog mastering, not virtual analog mastering, let alone digital mastering.

1. We provide your project with the sonic characteristics of analog (valve and solid state) electronics. Analog mastering means that the entire mastering process takes place in the analog domain.

1. The digital signal from your titles is fed into analog electronics, via our high-end 24-bit Prism digital-to-analog converters, ensuring no transparency loss (veiling or fogginess) from the conversion process.

1. The mastering process is carried out using high quality analog processors: Crane Song STC-8 (solid state limiters), Fairchild 670 (1959 stereo valve limiters) and Penny and Giles (1968 solid state equaliser).

1. The analog mastered signal is retrieved from analog electronics, via our high-end 24-bit Prism analog-to-digital converters, in order to be cut in real time onto our stand-alone Sony digital recorders.

1. We provide you with a provisional analog master of the titles of your project that you can download from our web site and test in your own time and on your own monitoring systems.

1. Our mastering engineer, Daniel Fournier, is a quality control (obsessive) expert with a musical and a technical background. Daniel reads music, has good ears and an excellent sense of pitch and timing and understands many musical styles. He knows how to operate sophisticated analog and digital signal processing equipment, much of which is not found in recording studios. Being the last ear on your project, Daniel can be an artistic, musical and technical sounding board for your ideas. He will listen closely to every aspect of your project and, if you are looking for them, he may provide suggestions about the order of your titles, how they should be spaced and whether there is anything else that could be done to make them stand out.

1. Mastering is the final creative and technical step before a project is released.

1. Compare mastering to the book editor’s job of taking a raw manuscript and turning it into a book. The book editor must understand syntax, grammar, writing style, binding techniques, colour separation and the printing process.

1. Likewise, the mastering engineer marries the art of music with the science of sound. After mixing, mastering is the process of “sweetening” the overall sound by enhancing its clarity and improving its emotional impact. Mastering is also the process of turning a set of titles into a cohesive sounding product optimised for a particular broadcasting medium (compact disc, digital versatile disc, film, internet, multimedia, radio, television, theatre, video). Mastered titles work together seamlessly and take on a dimension and life that enhance even the best titles.

1. The mastering engineer can bring expertise and a unique perspective to a project and produce that final polish which distinguishes an ordinary recording from a work of art. Being sensitive to the needs of the producer and the artists, the mastering engineer treats each project with individual attention and understands what will happen to the project when it hits the radio, the car or the home stereo system.

1. Our analog mastering is performed in a dedicated studio with quiet, calibrated acoustics and a single set of wide range monitors (Earthworks Sigma 6.2).

1. Analog signal paths are kept short and to a minimum and quality cables are used throughout the studio.

1. Every analog processor has calibrated positions and is well maintained to provide quiet operations, low distortion, low noise and is used in matched pairs to keep the stereo image from deteriorating.

1. The monitors do not have the acoustic interference of large recording consoles, racks or outboard gear. The acoustics are optimised and all other considerations are secondary to the acoustics.