Here are some of the more commonly asked questions about Crazy Daisy Mastering. If you don't find the answer you're looking for, just email us at info@crazymastering.com or call us at (541) 517-1458 and we'd be happy to answer your questions for you.
MASTERING QUESTIONS
DUPLICATION QUESTIONS
MIXING QUESTIONS
MASTERING FAQ's
How much does Crazy Daisy Mastering cost?
Download our current pricing in pdf format.
Since I won't be there in-person, what assurances do I have that I will be satisfied with the results?
A VERY GOOD QUESTION!! Our job, first and foremost, is to make sure you are satisfied with the quality of your mastered cd. There are many ways in which we help to ensure this. If you request it, we provide you with the mastered versions of your tracks to audition as soon as they are ready - we upload mastered versions of your tracks to our web server and give you web access so you can download them and check them out without having to wait for a CD to arrive in the mail. If you feel anything could be adjusted to make it closer to the sound you want to achieve, just let us know. We're not going to charge extra to give you the sound you want. After all, that's what you paid for and that's what we aim to achieve. This process allows for any tweaks that may need to be made in the mastering to get it just right for you so that when you receive your Master CD you'll know it's exactly how you want it. We also have a clearly written Service Guarantee at the bottom of our order page that states we will make changes if necessary to get your sound right for you.
Of course, it's quite likely you're going to be very happy with the first mastered version as our success rate has proven. Check out our testimonials or some of our mastering samples from past clients or get a free sample from your own song and you'll see that we know our business. Also, we strive to maintain good, timely, professional communictaion with our clients and with anyone wishing to speak with us. If you have a question or concern, please call or email any time. If we're unavailable, leave a message and we WILL get back to you as soon as we possibly can. We have found that the more communication we have with our clients, the better we are able to meet or exceed their expectations so we WANT to talk to you! PH: (541) 517-1458 EMAIL: info@crazymastering.com.
How do I go about ordering Crazy Daisy Mastering for my CD?
Instructions and order forms are available on our ordering page for ordering by mail. Or, you can place your order online following the instructions found at our online submission web page.
How can Crazy Daisy Mastering provide so many features and effects for such a low cost?
Because we employ an intelligent computer algorithm to accomplish some of the basic mastering tasks, much less human operator time is required. Lower overhead costs means lower cost to you. And the best part is you get high-quality, professional sound for your album using fabulous state-of-the-art technology.
Feel free to compare us to other mastering facilities. You'll find that no one can supply the level of service for your songs that Crazy Daisy Mastering provides for anywhere near the price that we offer. They simply can't because it's not cost-effective for them to do so. Only Crazy Daisy's own partially automated system - painstakingly developed and perfected through the combined input of a team of performing and recording musicians, producers, recording engineers, a physicist, a psychologist, and computer programmers - can provide this level of service without having to charge you for hours and hours of human operator time to achieve the desired level of performance from your album.
Can I request special features such as cross-fades, "hidden" tracks, etc?
Yes! And most of them we're happy to do at no additional charge, but be sure to inquire at sales@crazymastering.com first to double-check with us. This will allow us to confirm and clarify your special requests, too.
What if I need my project rushed
We offer a "rush" service option for an additional fee. We even have a "24-hour rush" option where we ship out your fully mastered CD less than 24 hours after we receive it! You certainly won't find many other full-service mastering facilities that can do that! For more details, check our order page.
Do you do mastering using separated parts?
Some mastering facilities do mastering by utilizing a separation of basic elements of your mix. Since these elements must still be mixed together at some point, technically-speaking doing this kind of work is actually a post-production mixing process followed by a mastering process and, as such, costs more as more time is involved.
When you order "mastering" services from Crazy Daisy Productions you're ordering true mastering work, which is work done on the final stereo mixdown. That is what constitutes actual "audio mastering" work. Most of the time our clients have mixes that have been done well enough that mastering work is all they need to get fantastic sounding tracks.
However, we also recognize there are times when you know your mix could use just a little extra help before it goes through the final mastering process. To help in these situations we offer "fine-tuning touch-up mixing" that can be combined with your "mastering" service to help you obtain the best possible results for your tracks. To check to see if your tracks might benefit from adding fine-tuning/touch-up mixing to the mastering process, click here to check out our web page on this subject. Most projects will not need this added service and will turn out sounding great just through the mastering process alone.
What payment methods do you accept?
We accept personal or business checks, cashier's checks and money orders, and Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express through our secure online purchase system. We also offer full album standard service audio mastering payment via Google Pay or PayPal. (Other services may become available through these payment options at a later date as well.) Be aware, if you pay by personal or business check we must wait a minimum of 3 days for the funds to clear the bank and so we do not accept personal or business checks on "rush" or "24-hour rush" orders.
Can I get a 'volume discount' if I submit a bunch of albums at once?
YES!! You get a discount on each full album submitted at the same time as one paid at full price. This is very useful if you plan to have both a full version and a performance or instrumental version of your album mastered at the same time or if you have a double album.
What constitutes an "album" for the $299 mastering cost?
Basically, whatever you can fit on a typical audio CD — up to 80 minutes worth of material, including pauses between tracks, and up to a maximum of 20 tracks (additional charge for more than 20 tracks). Check around: You'll find this is quite an exceptional deal considering the level of service your songs receive.
What media formats can I submit for mastering?
We can extract songs from CD's, DVD's, USB Flash Drives, DAT's, reel-to-reel or analog cassettes (There may be an additional fee for transferring from non-digital media so be sure to inquire first to verify your project.) You provide your best 2-channel (stereo) mixes in either analog or digital formats and we return your original media and a Gold Reference CD master ready for duplication.
How do I prepare my audio tracks for mastering?
Assemble your best 2-channel stereo mixes on CD (or other media — see previous question), preferrably in the correct playback order. Be sure that there is no clipping (distortions due to levels surpassing the maximum limit of your recording system). If you're unsure, set the volume levels between -1dB and -3dB in your final stereo mixdown. See our hints for preparing your audio tracks for CD Mastering for more help. You can send the audio to us as a standard Audio CD (such as you would play in any CD player) or as a data CD or DVD containing WAVE or AIFF files at 16, 24, or 32 bit depth and 44.1kHz, 48kHz, or 96kHz sample rate.
Are there any audio samples available?
Yes. Click here to hear samples of songs before and after mastering by Crazy Daisy Mastering. We're always looking for more samples to add to this page. In fact, you can save an additional $10 off the cost of having your album mastered if you release a 30 second sample of one of your songs for us to use on our samples web page.
If I'm not happy with the sound of my mix, can I submit it for Crazy Daisy Mastering and expect it to still come out sounding good?
No! Sorry, but we must be brutally honest about this. There are many steps in the chain to making a really great sounding album. First, of course, you need good songs. Then, you need them performed or created by good musicians or producers. The equipment used and the studio they are recorded in must be high-quality and the engineer must be experienced and knowledgeable. Finally, the mixdown must be your best stereo mix. If you submit a great mixdown to Crazy Daisy Mastering, you will be happy with the improvements to the volume levels, dynamics, fullness, punchiness, and other sweetening effects that Crazy Daisy Mastering provides. If you're not happy with your mixdown, there's a good chance that you still won't like it after it's been mastered. Please be sure that you've seen to it that every step of your song creation process has been completed to the best of your ability. Then you can be confident that the final mastered album will truly be the best it can be. Do feel free to ask us about our full mixing and touch-up mixing options to assist you, though. You may be surprised at how economical it can be to get those final mixing touches applied to your songs.
Do I need to ask for my songs to be mastered in a special way to make them radio ready?
No. The Crazy Daisy Mastering system includes processes that set the volume level and dynamic range appropriate for radio play, as well as television and film soundtrack scores, and other media play.
Can I have a single song mastered?
Yes, but it's a much better value to have an entire album mastered. We charge $30 per song (as long as each is under 5 min. in length), plus a $20 per project cd and shipping fee, if you only want to have one or just a few songs mastered. Since it's only $299 to have an entire CD mastered, people usually choose this if they have 9 or more tracks to master at one time since it becomes more economical that way. If you are wanting to have a single song mastered to check to see how your song sounds after mastering by Crazy Daisy Mastering, you should consider emailing us an MP3 or WMA version of one of your songs (or mail a song to us on CD with a note asking for a free mastering sample), which we'll use to make a short sample mastering clip for you to hear how it sounds after mastering by Crazy Daisy Mastering.
What are ISRC codes and do I need them?
Answer from the usirc.org web page: The ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) is the international identification system for sound recordings and music video recordings. Each ISRC is a unique and permanent identifier for a specific recording, independent of the format on which it appears (CD, audio file, etc) or the rights holders involved. Only one ISRC should be issued to a track, and an ISRC can never represent more than one unique recording.
ISRCs are widely used in digital commerce by download sites and collecting societies. An ISRC can also be permanently encoded into a product as its digital fingerprint. Encoded ISRC provide the means to automatically identify recordings for royalty payments.
If you plan to have your material distributed digitally (ITunes, Rhapsody, etc.) then this is strongly recommended. Also, if you plan to have your physical cd's distributed internationally we highly recommend it. For others it may not be necessary.
Crazy Daisy Productions duplication services as well as many major national disc replication/duplication plants services will include digital distribution options for you as part of their package and often will provide ISRC codes for the digital versions of your tracks that are submitted for online digital download sales so you may not need to obtain them prior to mastering. However, generally speaking ISRC codes are not added by your duplication facility if you are choosing physical cd's only (not using digital distribution options) so if you want them added to the physical cd tracks as well then you should obtain them prior to mastering.
Crazy Daisy Productions does not provide ISRC codes to add to tracks on your physical Master CD, they must be obtained from the usirc.org web page. If you have ISRC codes that you would like added to your Master CD tracks send them to us along with your materials for mastering and we will encode them for you both at the track level and as part of the cd header data on your master cd so that the information will stay with the tracks on the cd and along with any tracks extracted digitally from the cd. The track log sheet we provide you along with your Audio Master CD will verify the ISRC codes included for each track so be sure send a copy of that to your duplication plant as well so they will have record of the codes. If you purchase one of our mastering+duplication packages and you do not already have ISRC codes then we will arrange with CD Baby to provide those codes for the digital distribution versions of your tracks.
Do I have to add printed credit in my CD sleeve listing Crazy Daisy Mastering as the Mastering Facility?
We don't require that you do this, but it is considered good professional practice to do so. We suggest that you use this simple entry:
Mastered by Crazy Daisy Mastering
www.crazymastering.com
DUPLICATION FAQ's
I only see prices for quantities up to 100. Do you offer higher quantities?
We only offer short-run CD duplication up to 100 copies through our in-house duplication services. If you want 500 or more copies then your best price will come from large-scale replication, which we can assist you with as well through a cd manufacturer. The CD Manufacturing facility we put you in touch with is a leader in the industry with many years of experience and a wide range of duplication and packaging options to suit the needs of large-scale replication projects (500+ copies). If you're only having us master your album, we can forward an extra copy of your mastered CD (along with a track log sheet) directly to them, if you would like, for a very small additional fee, to assist with a smooth transition from your recorded audio tracks to final mastered and duplicated product. If you order one of our mastering+graphics+duplication packages we will provide you with an Audio Master CD and a Graphics CD so that you can get a replication re-order at any point in the future, even if we are sending you a few short-run duplicated copies to start with. So, feel free to contact us regarding duplication/replication, regardless of the quantity you desire.
What is the difference between duplication and replication?
While often used interchangeably, there is technically a difference between the two methods. Duplication generally refers to methods involving burning to a CD-R that has dye that reacts to the laser in the burning system. Replication typically means that a cutting "master" (not the same as "mastered" audio tracks) is made from an original audio source and then this is used to stamp out copies of itself into a reflective metal plate, such as aluminum, which is then covered with the plastic layers that make up a standard CD.
Here at Crazy Daisy Productions, we offer short-run CD duplication. This means your CD's are burned to high quality CD-R's using a computer-run duplication machine. We also print directly to the surface of your CD-R's with this system (we do NOT use stick-on labels). This is a fast and cost-effective way to produce professional looking and sounding copies of a CD for the first few hundred. Beyond this quantity, it becomes more worth your money to use stamped CD replication methods with silk-screen surface printing. The reason is because the replication/silk-screening methods require a tooling setup fee that is too expensive to justify when only purchasing a small quantity. But, at about 500 or more copies, it starts to become worth the added expense as it gets divided into so many CD's that it's a negligible additional cost compared to the total project price tag.
Are CD's duplicated by Crazy Daisy Productions considered "retail ready"?
CD's duplicated by Crazy Daisy Productions appear nearly identical to CD's you would purchase in any retail store in almost every way, with a couple exceptions. First, the printing on the CD surface is not as moisture and scratch resistant as silk-screened CD's. Second, we use shrinkwrapping as opposed to box overwrapping -- both are a sealed plastic wrap, but shrinkwrapping is one continuous solid seal while box overwrapping looks as if it's been wrapped in folded plastic. The artwork we provide is full color laser printing on 100lb. glossy stock, just as any large-scale manufacturer would use. The jewel cases are industry standard, too. Many independent CD stores are happy to carry CD's for local bands and CD's manufactured by Crazy Daisy Productions should meet their standards for CD's they retail. Our duplicated CD's are also excellent for selling at shows, selling through distribution websites such as CD Baby, and giving out as promos. For CD's that meet the strict requirements for sale in National chain CD stores, we can put you in touch with a contact at a nationally recognized CD Manufacturer who can assist you with large quantity replication orders that include silk-screened disc surface printing and box overwrapping, in addition to the other required characteristics which Crazy Daisy Productions duplicated CD's also provide.
Can I get a UPC bar code symbol on my CD?
Yes. If you purchase any of our EZ Pak CD Mastering + Duplication packages your price includes a UPC bar code unique to your album, which we insert onto your artwork for you. If you aren't purchasing one of our combination packages you can still get a bar code very easily. Visit www.buyabarcode.com or any other site authorized to resell UPC bar codes and purchase your code. They should send you an image file, along with your bar code number, that can then be placed into your artwork image. If you're not purchasing one of our EZ Pak mastering+duplication combination packages, but are still planning to have Crazy Daisy Productions duplicate your cd and would like us to include a bar code for you, call or email for assistance and a price quote.
Can I order rush service on duplication just as with mastering?
Yes, we offer a rush option on duplication both separately and with mastering services. You must call or email to find out the upcharge to rush your project.
MIXING FAQ's
What programs do you do mixing in?
We do mixing in ProTools, Cubase, and Logic. We have engineers who specialize in each platform so they can provide their knowledge and expertise to your mix in whichever mix platform you're using.
Can you do mixing on material mixed in a different program or mixed on a portable studio?
Yes. This requires a little preparation work on your part, but is very do-able. What you do is you create a platform-independent mixdown for us. This means you mixdown each track independently, one at a time, from your mixes so that we have all the parts necessary to re-create your mixes here in one of the mixing platforms that we use. It's also a good idea to include a whole song mixdown as reference so we can double-check that everything came across correctly.
Do you do stems mixing?
Yes. We refer to this as touch-up or fine-tuning mixing work and we typically bundle it together with our mastering services. Stems mixing is when you create several sub-mixdowns for your songs built from the major component parts, such as "drums", "vocals", "guitars", "beat", "adlibs", etc. We offer a special price of $20 per song to add touch-up mixing (stems mixing) to any mastering project. This special price is limited to songs of no more than 5 minutes in length and a maximum of 6 stems per song. If you have longer songs and/or would like to use more stems, call us for a price quote.
How can you do mixing by correspondence? (i.e. How can you mix songs without the artist sitting in on the mix work in person?)
We have a well designed process for doing mixing work via correspondence. Most often we will first choose 2 to 3 of your mixes and mix those and send them to you via one of several online methods (email, ftp, web link, etc.) for you to audition at home/work/car/etc. at your leisure. Upon hearing these first mixes we expect to have feedback to let us know things you liked and things you want adjusted. You can provide this feedback either by email or phone. We can continue the mix->audition->feedback process as needed until all parties are satisfied with the results. We then take those final mixes and use them as a working model to mix the remainder of your material so that we can most efficiently help you achieve your desired final sound results.
This mix-audition-feedback process is the same process that occurs when you sit in on a mix session in person, but we simply extend it to working via internet transfer and email feedback. The end result is the same - you get to audition and give any feedback on your mixes until your happy with the results, just as you would if you were there in-person. As an added benefit of the correspondence method, you have the option to listen to the mixes over a longer period of time and hear them in several different environments before providing any feedback if you wish. There's no pressure to make any decisions "on the spot" as there is when you are sitting in on an in-person session.
How much does mixing cost?
Touch-up mixing (also sometimes called stems mixing or mastering by separated parts) only costs $20 per song when added to mixing services. The cost for full mixing work varies greatly with each project. Some songs are mostly mixed and only need a small amount of additional details completed. Some are simply raw tracks that need all mixing and editing work done on them. Some songs are simple with only a few parts and others are highly complex and have dozens of parts to them. All these variations make it impossible to give a quote on mixing without actually doing some initial work on the project to see what's involved. However, on average, most songs we mix cost between $100 and $200 per song to mix AND master. We do have an online mix cost estimator which you can access by clicking here that can assist you with determining a rough ballpark cost and timeline estimate for your mixing project. The resulting calculation page can be printed out and serves as the official initial project estimate and order form as well.
