Like most
independent recording artists, you want your
music to sound its very best. You want
worldwide distribution and sales. And you
probably have a limited budget.
Success starts with
great songs and solid performances. Add to
that Sonik Wheel's broadcast- quality mastering
and custom music career and marketing plans
and you'll be well on your way.
With our
partners, we offer CD
packages and the most valuable promotional
tools, including a free UPC bar code (valued at
$750), International Standard Recording Codes (ISRC),
electronic press kits, free web hosting,
worldwide distribution, contact management, and
download sales through sites like iTunes and
Rhapsody.
Sonik Online
Mastering
REAL RADIO-READY SOUND
TM
More than anything
else, Sonik Wheel excels at audio mastering,
providing high-end sound at an affordable price.
Mastering is the art
and science of taking a collection of completed
mixes and preparing them for replication,
distribution, and enjoyable listening. Sonik
Wheel optimizes your audio with the careful use
of equalization, limiting, harmonics
enhancement, and other tasteful processing to
give your music a consistent and professional
sound from song to song.
Given today's easy
access to home recording equipment and
ever-increasing competition (250,000-plus
albums
on CD Baby alone!), the sonic quality that
can be gained from skilled mastering is more
important than ever.
Sonik mastering will
enhance the sound of your music in any format,
whether CD audio, MP3, streaming audio, or digital download.
Sonik Wheel offers
REAL RADIO-READY SOUND
TM.
Despite popular belief, today's loud,
hyper-compressed recordings do not play well on
the radio. Radio adds additional layers of
compression and other processes.
Recordings that are distorted and flat to begin
with will only sound more distorted and
flat on the airwaves! Sonik Wheel masters
are specially designed to survive radio
processing. Given their greater dynamic
range, songs mixed and mastered at the proper
levels may actually sound louder on the radio!
International
Mastering
We can master your
music from anywhere in the world, with no travel expenses or customs issues for you, by
transferring songs through our FTP server with no loss of sound quality.
We can transfer your
masters over the Internet directly to one of our
CD replicators or to a replicator of your
choice as a DDP file.
Sonik's Gear
Sonik Wheel uses top
quality gear, including a supremely accurate
monitoring system by Lipinski Sound. Our monitors and
amplifier were designed by famed engineer Andrew Lipiniski, recognized by the U.S.
National Bureau
of Standards as having perfect hearing.
We use only the
finest processors, including
equalizers and the SplitComp compressor by Algorithmix
and the Crane Song HEDD 192. The HEDD can
make your music sound less digital and more
analog. These tools are used by many of the world's
top - and most
expensive - mastering houses. You can get
the same great sound at Sonik Wheel for a
fraction of the cost!
Your master is recorded to Taiyo Yuden discs using a
top-of-the-line Sequoia digital audio workstation and Plextor
premium drives.
Every disc must pass a
thorough quality check.
Check out our gear here.
Sonik's Warm Analog Sound
Because most recorded music today ends up in the
digital domain, Sonik Wheel is skilled at using
special techniques and equipment, such as the
Crane Song HEDD 192, to ensure that your music
maintains a rich, warm, analog-like sound.
We
use K-System meters and monitoring to prevent
the hyper-compressed and fatiguing digital sound
that is common today. (And record
companies wonder why cds aren't selling!)
Designed by mastering guru Bob Katz, the
K-System integrates the best concepts of the
past with current psychoacoustic knowledge.
Your songs will be radio ready without
distortion!
Sonik Wheel uses a
variety of customized approaches, depending on
your preferences, your mix, and the genre of
music, whether rock, pop, metal, jazz, hip hop,
country, folk, reggae, or classical. We can do
as little or as much processing as your project
needs.
If you prefer
"HOT" we can do
that too!
Sonik's
Experience
Even more important
than our gear are our experienced, trained, and
sensitive ears. Sonik Wheel's owner and chief
engineer, Bill Jacobs, has more than 30 years of
experience as a musician and audiophile
concerned with the sound quality of recorded
music. Bill started Sonik Wheel Mastering to
help improve deficiencies
in sound quality that began appearing in the
1990s with the advent of the "loudness war".
Take Your Time or Hurry
There's no rush at
Sonik Wheel, unless you need to rush. And
there is no expensive studio time, or all day
crammed sessions where your ears are so tired
you're not sure how the music sounds. You
can take your time and listen to your masters
before you commit to a final production master.
We take time to allow our ears to rest between
songs and projects. We will make
adjustments with you and send songs back and
forth over the Internet until they're just
right!
If you're in a
hurry, let us know and we can usually get your
masters to you within 3 or 5 business days.
Typical turnaround is about 1 to 2 weeks.
ISRC and ID3
Tags
Sonik Wheel can
encode your songs with International Standard
Recording Codes (ISRC). The ISRC is the
international identification system for sound
recordings. ISRCs provide the means to
automatically identify recordings for royalty
payments. This is included with all Sonik
mastering.
Sonik can encode your MP3s with ID3 tags,
allowing information such as the title, artist,
album artwork, and lyrics to be stored in the
MP3 file.
Audio Repair
We can eliminate
unwanted noises from otherwise perfect
recordings with Algorithmix reNOVAtor, such as
coughs, a squeaky chair, door slams, cell phone
ringing, “p”s popping, or the horn of a passing
truck.
Free Demo
Masters!
Try a free demo
master! Simply upload your stereo mix as a .wav
or .aif file to the Sendspace drop box on our
Mastering page. Be
sure to leave us an e-mail address so we can
contact you.
Want even better
sounding music? Get Sonik Wheel involved early
in the mixing process. Send us a rough mix for
one song and we'll evaluate the sound of the
song. At final mixdown we'll provide you
with a free demo master.
Easy Payments
Use our Easy Payment
Plan! You can have your songs mastered one or
more songs at a time. The cost of each
individually mastered song is credited toward
your full master CD when you're ready! In the
mean time, you can use individually mastered
songs for your online music player and digital
downloads.
Sonik's Money-Back
Guarantee
If you are not
completely satisfied with our mastering, 100% of
your payment will be refunded.
CD Replication and Promotion
Sonik Wheel is an
official studio partner with several major CD
manufacturers and music distributors. With our partners,
we can help you get the best looking CD packages
and the most valuable (and free) promotional
tools, including free distribution, a free UPC
bar code, worldwide CD distribution, download
sales through sites like iTunes and Rhapsody,
electronic press kits, and much, much more. Free
promotion comes with every new regularly-priced
replication package! Learn more at our
marketing page (linked at the top of the page). Contact us at
sonikwheel@sonikwheel.com for more
information and a free quote.
Sonik Wheel Music Career and
Marketing Plans
Success starts with a clear, realistic plan.
Sonik Wheel offers music marketing and career planning services to
specially selected artists. Contact us at
sonikwheel@sonikwheel.com
for availability. Opportunities are limited.
Read comments from some of our recent
clients and friends here.
______________________________
Mastering
at Sonik Wheel includes the following:
-
High definition
equalization for frequency balance
-
Proper level maximization
without adding harmful distortion
for real radio ready sound.
-
Editing
spreads (the time between songs), fades
(both fade-ins and fade-outs), and basic
additions/subtractions
-
Adding
effects, such as small amounts of
reverb, harmonics enhancement, or analog modeling
when appropriate
-
Clean up
of minor noise and imperfections
-
Sequencing
of songs
-
Stereo field optimization
-
Creating
MP3 files
for Internet distribution, converted
directly from 32-bit masters
-
Taiyo
Yuden master CD-R
for duplication or replication
-
Taiyo Yuden back up master
CD-R
-
Quality
control check of all CD-Rs
-
A 24-bit DVD-R
master for archiving and future duplication
(additional $25 fee)
- Masters sent directly
to CD manufacturers over the Internet as
DPP files files (optional at no
additional charge).
______________________________
"Your music will sound as
rich, warm, and perfect as possible.
We guarantee it."
-- Bill Jacobs,
owner and chief engineer
