Mastering
- Mix suggestions when mixes are not perfect
- Free upgrade to stems if the engineer requests them
- Includes revisions until M3
- Includes additional versions of the same track
- Includes vinyl files when needed
$65 USD / 60€ EUR per track
$100 USD / 90€ EUR per track
Extra revisions: $10 USD / 10€ EUR
DDP: $65 USD / 60€ EUR
New customers: 4 tracks
Existing customers: No minimum
Educational Courses
EQ ENLIGHTENMENT - In depth EQ course
MIX PREPARATION - Mini-course
THE ART OF MASTERING - FLAGSHIP PREMIUM COURSE
THE SCIENCE OF ELECTRONIC KICK DRUMS
Plugins
Versatile Compressor
Free
- Extremely versatile and powerful compressor with absurdly wide parameter ranges
- So powerful it's not only able to mimic most classic compression flavours, including clean and gentle behaviour, it can easily produce extreme feedback compression and inverse convexity compression, generating distortion, extreme gain, clicking and crackling, like a broken circuit.
- Requires skill and precision to use properly
- The compressor is completely open source
Originally designed and released as part of the entertaining and intentionally hyperbolic three-part "compressor scam" video series.
Although the compressor can be used in mastering, don't be confused by the name, it is not intentionally designed as a "mastering compressor". It is an experimental compressor with extreme sound processing capabilities, released under the brand name "AP Mastering".
To download for Mac, Windows or Linux send a blank email to compressor@apmastering.com
By sending an email and requesting the complied versions of the plugin, you will receive an automatic reply containing the download link, some info and a link to the explanation video, and this constitutes an agreement on your behalf to receiving replies concerning updates to this plugin, other plugins or other cool stuff. You will NOT be added to a spammy newsletter of irrelevant boring news because there is no such newsletter. If you want the plugin but do not want to receive further replies after the automatic one, simply email with the subject "DELETE ME" and you will be deleted. If you do not get an automatic response within 10 minutes, send a new email with the subject MANUAL REPLY.
Source code available on GitHub.
Saturation Reverser
Free
- Demonstrates that saturation distortion, typically considered to be irreversible, can be reversed.
- The left side of the plugin is a tanh saturation with variable gain boost.
- The right side is an atanh reverse saturation with variable attenuation.
- Using an instance saturating followed by another instance reversing, demonstrates the process
- Doing anything in between the saturation and reversal plugin (EQ or even a minor level adjustment) will result in horrible crackling distortion because the mapping to and from tanh must be 1:1 to work.
- Therefore the reverser feature is useful only as a kind of fun trick / demonstration and has limited utility in music production outside of perhaps producing experimental weird crackling distortion.
Originally designed and released as part of the entertaining and intentionally hyperbolic "clipper scam" video series.
To download for Mac & Windows send a blank email to reverser@apmastering.com
By sending an email and requesting the complied versions of the plugin, you will receive an automatic reply containing the download link, which constitutes an agreement on your behalf to receiving replies concerning updates to this plugin, other plugins or other cool stuff. You will NOT be added to a spammy newsletter of irrelevant boring news because there is no such newsletter. If you want the plugin but do not want to receive further replies after the automatic one, simply email with the subject "DELETE ME" and you will be deleted. If you do not get an automatic response within 10 minutes, send a new email with the subject MANUAL REPLY.
CompView
Free
- Designed to inspect the gain reduction curvature of compressors
- Requires a special test tone, supplied with the plugin
- Works in a dual mono configuration: pan compressor A hard left and compressor B hard right
- Should be set up on a parent track/bus/aux as both compressor tracks need to be routed to it
- Project sample rate should be set to 96kHz
- The compressor is open source
Originally designed and released as part of the entertaining and intentionally hyperbolic "compressor scam" YouTube video series.
To download for Mac or Windows send a blank email to compressor@apmastering.com
By sending an email and requesting the complied versions of the plugin, you will receive an automatic reply containing the download link, some info and a link to the explanation video, and this constitutes an agreement on your behalf to receiving replies concerning updates to this plugin, other plugins or other cool stuff. You will NOT be added to a spammy newsletter of irrelevant boring news because there is no such newsletter. If you want the plugin but do not want to receive further replies after the automatic one, simply email with the subject "DELETE ME" and you will be deleted. If you do not get an automatic response within 10 minutes, send a new email with the subject MANUAL REPLY.
Source code available on GitHub.
Studies
Analogue Modelling Versus Digital Plugins
This study examines the perceptual differences between music mixed with paid analogue-modelling plugins and free non-modelling plugins, within the context of typical music consumption. To explore this, a blind AB test was conducted and featured in a YouTube video, with uncompressed 24-bit, 44.1 kHz audio files additionally provided via a link in the pinned comment. 514 participants assessed two mix versions of a song. One version, the “analogue mix,” utilised 49 instances of paid analogue-modelling plugins from reputable manufacturers, while the other, the “digital mix,” was matched to the first using only free non-modelling plugins. The primary objective was to determine whether listeners could accurately identify the analogue mix and if there was a preference for it. Statistical analysis of survey responses revealed a significant tendency to misidentify the analogue mix (p < 0.004) and no statistically significant preference for the analogue mix (p > 0.58). .
CONTACT
lee at alainpaul.de
alain at alainpaul.de
Inquiries concerning price, turnaround time and so on should be directed to admin.
After having initiated work on a project, technical questions should be addressed to the engineer.
All feedback, questions, thankyou messages, hate rants, haircut critiques and video suggestions related to YouTube videos, should stay in the realm of YouTube. Please use these email addresses only in relation to legitimate business inquiries.
WORK
This list represents only some small fraction of releases worked on by Alain. Last updated 2023.
SCOPE OF SERVICE
The cost of mastering services offered represents the delivery of a master; specifically the administration work and studio time required, listening to mixes, potentially providing mix critique or other advice and producing and delivering one master inline with the best expert judgement of the engineer. It does not cover any subsequent revisions unless they are purchased either as part of a package or individually. Under normal circumstances, either all revision requests will be honoured or a full refund of the amount paid for the affected song will be made. Circumstances which shall be considered to fall outside the scope of normal include those in which the client requests revisions at some substantially later date after the engineer assumed the project had been concluded, and requests which are deemed by the engineer to be disproportionately time-consuming, outside the scope of normal mastering or otherwise unreasonable.
If for some reason the initial master is unable to be delivered within a timeframe agreed to be reasonable by the engineer, or before a deadline which was clearly stipulated in advance of payment, the client has the right to a full refund of the amount paid for the songs which have not been delivered.
Concerning the liability of DDPs: a high degree of care is taken to produce high quality, error-free DDPs but the client must double-check the accuracy of the track order, track markers and CD data before sending the DDP to be manufactured. Especially where the artist makes changes to the track names, track order or has confusing file names, care should be taken to ensure no confusion of the track order or names has occurred at some stage. Neglecting to check a DDP before sending it to be manufactured and subsequently finding an error (wrong track order etc) on the finished CDs will not be deemed a failure of the engineer and no liability will be accepted. Liability will be accepted up to the total value of the mastering fee of the project if there is any error found demonstrably caused by the engineer which falls outside the expected scope of checking by the client (audio glitches etc).
When two versions of a track are deemed by the engineer to be trivially different, then they will be priced as one single track, that is the additional version will be free of charge. An example of such a case is when there is a full version and an additional radio edit version which is identical in every regard to the full version except the fact that it is edited down in length. In such a case, there is normally not a significant amount of work required to produce a master of this radio edit because everything is sonically identical between the two versions. If however there are three versions of a song, say the studio version, a remix and a demo version, and all of these are importantly different in terms of sound, such that different EQ and dynamic settings are necessary during the mastering process, then these are viewed as three different tracks despite the fact they may all be called the same thing
"Vinyl files" means a set of files which can be sent to your chosen facility to be cut for vinyl manufacturing. This does not include the actual cutting or pressing itself, they are just the files to be sent to be cut elsewhere. Generally speaking the files mainly differ from the approved digital masters only in that they are 2db quieter, may have a stricter phase coherence or may have certain frequencies more strictly dynamically controlled if deemed necessary. Regardless of whether vinyl files are offered as an included part of a package or purchased as an add-on service, they are provided only after the digital masters have been approved. As such, if after approving the digital masters and requesting the vinyl files the client changes their mind and requests new revisions of some kind and another round of vinyl files is required to reflect these revisions, another round of vinyl files will have to be paid for at the going rate.
Infinite backups are not provided. It is assumed that after a month of project approval, the project can be deleted. However, a good amount of backups exist for projects even up to a few years old. Software changes over time. One example is the Catalina update breaking anything 32 bit. Other software updates may pose additional challenges for opening old sessions. More issues may occur as a result of the fallible nature of file archival. This is why requests in respect to historic data retrieval are often fruitful but no guarantee can be offered.
Ordering mastering constitutes an agreement to the terms on this website in the English language. If you do not understand any aspect of these terms you should seek clarity before placing an order.