Abbey Road has announced improved on-line mastering and mixing services with a completely rebuilt, more elegant file-sharing interface that allows users to send and receive tracks more easily. The result is a faster service allowing musicians around the globe to use the studio’s world-class equipment and internationally renowned team of engineers, with feedback and communication between customers and engineers at the heart of the experience.
The redesigned on-line mixing and mastering services actively encourage direct interaction between clients and engineers. Prices start at £90 excluding VAT (approximately US$130 at the current exchange rate) to master a single track in stereo. Modest additional fees are incurred if users wish to use a specific engineer chosen from Abbey Road’s selection of nine experienced mastering engineers. Prices for on-line mixing will vary according to the size and complexity of the project.
Abbey Road has offered on-line mixing and mastering since 2010. From the start, key attractions of the on-line services have been that musicians can make use of them irrespective of their geographical location, and for a fraction of the cost of attending a mixing or mastering session at the studios in person. Unsurprisingly, since the debut of the on-line services, there has been huge growth in the user base taking advantage of the studios’ collective technical expertise and its first-rate assortment of vintage and modern kit.
Equipment available includes SSL mixing consoles, EMI TG12410 mastering consoles, vintage compressors and superbly serviced Neumann vinyl lathes. The Abbey Road on-line team have worked for individuals and bands from as far afield as Taiwan and South Korea, and Denmark and Detroit, as well as continuing users from the UK.
‘Since we launched our on-line mastering and mixing services over half a decade ago, there has been an explosion in intuitive, app-based file-sharing services like Dropbox that the musicians of today are familiar with,’ explains Lucy Launder, Abbey Road’s Head of Mastering. ‘It was time for us to upgrade our original FTP-based systems and make the whole service more intuitive and quicker to use. We’re aware that there are automated ways to get your tracks mastered on-line these days, but nothing beats having one of our experienced team of engineers work on your tracks. You can’t tell an algorithm how to master your songs. In contrast, we listen to your music and find out what you want from our services before we start work, and you’ll also have an opportunity to tweak what we do if you’re not entirely satisfied the first time. Automated services simply can’t do that.
‘We already offer some of the world’s finest audio equipment and expertise,’ she adds. ‘Now you can make use of it that bit more easily.’
