Audio Mastering in Fort Collins, Colorado

Mastering is the last step before your music reaches listeners, and it's most of what I do. You hand me a finished mix. I hand you back a release: balanced, loud enough, clean, and built for wherever it's going, streaming, vinyl, CD, or broadcast. I'm Jeff Burchett. I've been mastering since 2015, and the work has run across studio albums, live recordings, national TV and radio commercials, game audio, audiobooks, and podcasts, for Fort Collins bands and for clients I've never met who live a few thousand miles away.

A music production studio setup featuring a computer monitor, speakers, audio interface, mixing console, microphone, headphones, and various cables in a dedicated room treated for critical listening.

What Mastering Actually Does

A master is not a second mix. It's the final polish and the technical handoff, and those are two different jobs. I set your level so the song stands next to professional releases without getting crushed flat. I balance the tone so it holds up everywhere people actually listen: monitors, car, earbuds, a phone on a kitchen counter. I catch the small problems a mix can hide. Then I build the exact files each platform wants, because they don't all want the same thing. Mastering assumes a solid stereo mix going in. If the mix isn't there yet, I mix too, and a combined mix and master is usually the better deal.

In the Room or From Anywhere

There are (at least!) two ways to work, but both get you the same result. Only one lets you pet cats, though.

Come sit at the desk with me. You hear the master on Neumann KH 310s in a treated room, which tells you the truth about your song in a way a laptop never will. You hear every change the second I make it, and we finish the record together. Many of my mastering clients prefer to work this way.

Or, we can work remotely. Send the mix and I deliver through Highnote, where you drop notes on the exact spot you want changed instead of writing "around the second chorus, maybe?" For live sessions, I stream studio-quality audio through AudioMovers ListenTo, so you hear the master in real time from anywhere. Some of my longest-running clients I've never met in person.

The Room and the Chain

For mastering, the room matters more than anything, because I can't fix what I can't hear. Mine is treated and tuned by Music City Acoustics, with room correction by IK ARC, monitored on Neumann KH 310s. What I hear is what's actually there, and what you approve will translate everywhere else.

From there I run a hybrid chain, analog hardware where it earns its place and top-tier digital where it doesn't. The hardware adds the things plugins still don't do as well: harmonic color, weight in the low end, glue that makes a song feel like one piece instead of a stack of parts. I use SSL and Empirical Labs hardware for that, and premium conversion in and out so nothing is lost on the way. The digital side handles the surgical work, the precise moves that need to be clean and invisible. None of that matters to most people, and it shouldn't have to. It's there so your record sounds like it should.

Rates

Mastering is priced per song, and the price drops as the project grows:

  • 1 to 2 songs: $150 each

  • 3 to 9 songs: $130 each

  • 10 or more songs: $110 each

Stem mastering, for projects that need work across grouped stems instead of a single stereo file:

  • 1 to 2 songs: $245 each

  • 3 to 9 songs: $210 each

  • 10 or more songs: $170 each

These are estimates, not quotes. A complicated record can run higher. Get a quote for yours.

Revisions and Turnaround

Most first drafts go out within a week, often sooner. Two rounds of revision are included, so a typical project wraps in about two weeks depending on how fast feedback comes back.

Formats and Delivery

I master in stereo for streaming, vinyl, CD, cassette, and broadcast, and I cut the files for the destination, because a vinyl master and a streaming master are not the same thing. Apple Digital Masters available. Multi-destination masters available for a fee. Standard delivery is 24-bit WAV, other formats on request. You get secure download of everything.

Recent Work

I've mastered across a wide range, electronic, experimental, rock, ambient, and plenty that doesn't sit still in one genre. Recent projects include Death Disco Club, Dethsoul, TotoRobyn, and Disconnected Frequencies.

"I have worked with a number of mixing and mastering engineers. Jeff easily ranks among the very best." — Justin Smith, Subsoma

Start Your Master

Send me your mix and tell me where it's headed. Get a quote, or hear samples of finished work first.