Widely misinterpreted or even misunderstood, mastering (the correct term would be premastering) is an important step in the creation of a musical piece of art. It pursues four main objectives:

• Audio quality control in a critical listening environment
• Fine tuning of all sonic parameters
• Creating coherency over different songs for an album
• Preparation for delivery (analog, digital, w/ or w/o physical media)

Sometimes additional steps are necessary. If for example mixing decisions where made in a flawed listening environment and caused significant problems in the frequency response of the recording.

Of course loudness is an issue that needs to be discussed and that causes a lot of confusion and frustration. Please get in touch, provide a reference and tell me something about your personal loudness aesthetics.
Yes, we are fully EBU R128 or ITU 1770 compatible.

Audio tapes are prone to a lot of factors that degrade their audio quality significantly. Destructive processes caused by moisture, light and last but not least time, represent a serious danger to some irrecoverable recordings. At Black Flag Mastering all tapes are played back via one of the best open reel tape machines ever built, the Telefunken M15A. This machine was the undisputed standard in almost every German broadcast station, high end studios and archives. Using our Merging Hapi Premium converter system, every tape is transferred to digital at the highest audio quality. Transfer is performed at your desired sample rate (up to 384 kHz PCM, DXD or DSD256).
With the 'Master Transfer' service we offer a true high-end option. After the transfer, the recording is processed with Celemony Capstan, an audio algorithm that removes wow and flutter from any source, even if the tape was copied before.
As a special service we offer drying 'shedding tapes' in a specialized laboratory dryer oven. As opposed to the traditional backing, this procedure is absolutely easy on the tape and enables the best quality transfers available today.

The Black Flag Mastering suite was created as the result of over 15 years of experience with different studios and an innumerable amount of studio equipment.
I decided to build the room with a focus on an optimal listening environment. A high quality Geithain loudspeaker system is fed by one of the most precise analog playback chains available today. Making no compromise in the reproduction chain is the crucial requirement for critical listening and judging. Problems need to be clearly audible in order to fix them.
All analog and digital processing was chosen by highest quality measures and selected to my personal taste. The studio is powered by certified renewable energy.

Files can be delivered in the following formats. Online transfer is preferred. If in doubt, please get in touch.

Suitable for mastering:

• Digital audio files (wav or aiff) with at least 44.1 kHz sampling rate and 24 bit resolution
• MP3, AAC, MP4, Ogg? Never!
• Audio CD or DAT
• Analog 1/4" Tape (NR on request only!)

Suitable for Remastering and Restoration:

• Whatever the source format is
• Vinyl, Tape, MC...
• DAT, DTRS, ADAT

Players for many formats are available. A small fee may apply for transfer of exotic media.

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