Tools & Techniques
Truncation:
Eliminate noise prior to the start of your program material so that the listeners first thoughts are about your music not your noise. Clean up fades so that they are smooth with no "drop off" feeling on the final tail of the fade.

Noise Reduction/Removal:
Use the same noise reduction process that George Martin used to restore and release John Lennon's "Free As A Bird" on the Beatles Anthology CD/Video. If restoration is the job there is no better tool.

Equalization:
Tighten the relationship between tracks. Smooth out the low end and add punch and power. Curb the brittle highs that can occur in the digital domain and add softness to the upper end.

Frequency Dependent Compression:
Excessive low end at 100hz? Sibilance on the vocal performance at 8khz? Via frequency dependent compression many of the ill effects of these excesses can be controlled and/or eliminated.

Program Compression:
Prevent some passages of a program from being too loud while others too quiet. This may be necessary if proper compression was not used on the final mix down.

Stereo Enhancement:
Widen the stereo field of your material beyond the physical boundaries of speaker placement, all while keeping mono compatibility for broadcast and the Internet playback.

Ambience Enhancement:
Sometimes when multiple sessions, overdubs and/or studios are used, adding a common ambience to the mix can help adhere these performances together giving the perception that a common recording space was utilized. Especially helpful for Rock and Roll where bands count on a "Live Feel" , that multiple overdubs, sessions and an inadequate common tracking space tend to lack. Put the "Live Feel" back into your mixes.

Brick Wall Limiting w/UV22, POWr or UV22:
Increase the output of your final master 4-6db over digital "0" without any change to the overall tonal quality and without adding unwanted artifacts. Sample: normalization CAN NOT increase the gain output of your program material over digital "0".

How Normalization Works: Compact disc digital audio consists of 44,100 samples per second. Lets put that in prospective, that's 2,646,000 samples per minute with a typical 3 minute song consisting of 7,938,000 samples. Now , normalization does nothing more than look for the one sample which is closest to or has reached digital "0". If just one sample out of the 7,938,000 samples in your song happens to reach "0" than there will be no gain increase, for anything over digital "0" will cause digital distortion and not be accepted at the replication plant because the Sony/Phillips protocol does not allow for "digital overs".

Normalization Is Of No Practical Use In Mastering And Therefore Should Be Avoided! But with the proper digital tools, once a peak relationship has been established to digital "0" for a given track, a smart look ahead of all the samples in the program can take place. Then by using limiting w/IDR, that one sample that has reached digital "0" [as in the example above], can be pushed back and the overall output gain of the entire program content can be increased 4-6db over digital "0". UV22, POWr & IDR : Are patented process' where by the perceived bit rate of a 16 bit audio file is increase to 18-20 bits. e.g. An 8 bit word is = 256 steps, 16 bit word is 256 x 256 = 65,536 steps [obviously a much greater resolution], a 20 bit word is 65,536 x 16 = 1, 048,576 steps, a 24 bit word is 1,048,576 x 16 = 16,777,216 [now you know why everyone is anticipating the coming DVD format, which will allow for 20 and 24 bit audio, as well as digital video. graphics...

Relative Volume:
Even after the process of increasing program output gain, some tracks may still sound louder even if the peak levels are consistent. This could be due to low frequency content and/or compression during the mix down sessions, etc.. Relative volumes of each track in relationship to one another must be adjusted manually to insure all tracks have the same relative volume.

PQ Encoding:
Of the 8 channels of subcode data that are interleaved with digital audio data, only the P & Q channels are used by "Red Book" CD players. The P channel tells the CD player which track is playing and which track is not, while the Q channel describes track and disc running times, copy protection, emphasis flags, disc catalog code and song ISRC codes. You must have a PQ encoded master if you final product will be Compact Disc. We recommend PQ encoding ALL masters so that future product orders will not be limited to analog media.