I am thrilled to share the latest evolution of our mastering engine with you. This major release brings a number of new mastering options and quality improvements. I must first begin by expressing my sincere gratitude to every single artist who has taken the time to provide valuable feedback and supported us whether it be through social media or sending us an email. Every interaction has been appreciated.
Without you this would not be possible and I am incredibly grateful for your support.
New Mastering Controls
Expanded mastering options have been a major request and make up a significant part of the changes you will see. Mastering is a complex and very human process. While it would be impossible to replace the work that a skilled mastering engineer can do with a trained pair ears and a fully equipped studio, I have made every effort to translate a range of controls that are both powerful and intuitive to our users while maintaining the simplicity of our service. These options have been meticulously curated and extensively tested over hundreds of hours and many months.
- 3 Mastering Intensity Levels: We now support three mastering intensity levels spanning Low, Medium, and High. As you might expect, High sacrifices some dynamic range in favour of a louder, punchier sound. Low preserves more dynamic range and reigns in the loudness. These mastering intensities are now available to all users.
- 5 Equalization Options: Existing customers and artists who have purchased our Premium Mastering Pass have the additional option of selecting five different post-mastering equalization options: Warmer, Warm, Neutral, Bright, and Brighter. These options can be selected after choosing your mastering intensity. Warm/Warmer will emphasize the low end of your track and tame the treble. Neutral won't apply any additional shaping. Bright/Brighter will emphasize the high end of your track and tame the bass. These EQ adjustments have been designed to provide simple, effective, and intuitive adjustments to your mastered track. Their range has been carefully designed to maximize control and audio quality.
Because mastering is so subjective in nature these options give some control back to the artist. We have engineered things such that you can toggle between these settings and hear the differences before proceeding to download your files. This ensures a more streamlined A/B comparison.
Audio Quality Improvements
In addition to the changes you can see there are many equally important improvements to what you can hear. This includes a number of adjustments and optimizations under the hood to deliver improved dynamics, balance and loudness control. These changes are deliberately subtle and designed to accomodate a wider range of music that could be challenging. In other words, this is not a radical departure from the sound many of you have come to know and love, but rather, a refinement of it.
- Refined Dynamics/Balance: I've introduced some refinements to the dynamics and tonal balance of the mastering engine to be more forgiving across a broader range of source material. Some customers have asked for more vocal presence and this should improve that.
- Intelligent Loudness Control: The process that optimizes the loudness of your mastered tracks is now more intelligent than ever. This means even greater consistency between tracks.
Stability Improvements
While audio quality is the top priority for us, user experience remains an important focus. This includes improved browser support on the front end, and optimizations on the back end, ensuring that our cloud services simply work. Some users have reported occasional problems with file uploads and playback. Most of these problems should now be resolved.
What's Next?
While we have not been able to implement every feature request, rest assured that many suggestions and improvements are still on our radar. There are a few big ideas that continue to be in the works. As this is a major release, there may also be minor improvements based on your feedback over the coming weeks and months.
Music is a wonderful thing, and I hope that these updates help you to continue to get the most enjoyment out of yours. - MDB
