Reference Copies, Approval, and the Production Master

The purpose of the reference copy is to give you a chance to hear your finished master start to finish in a listening environment that you are familiar with.  Whether your favourite system is your car stereo, your ipod and headphones, your studio monitors, whatever - we understand the importance of checking your master in that setting.  

Once the reference copy has been approved we proceed with the production master.  There are two master formats for CD manufacturing:

• Audio CD Master:  The most common master format, used for 90+% of the masters leaving here.  It is a standard audio CD, but with a few extra levels of proofing and error checking here to guarantee trouble-free manufacturing.
• DDP Master: Sonically identical to the Audio CD Master, but can be delivered to the manufacturer electronically, saving time and shipping costs.  Though well established in Europe, DDP has been slow to catch on as a delivery format in Canada.  Talk to us in advance to see if DDP may be an option for your project.

Vinyl and Digital:

• Vinyl masters are typically prepared as high resolution wav files that may be sent electronically to one of our preferred lacquer cutting engineers.  If you are not using one of our preferred engineers we will need to know in advance where the lacquer will be cut so we can format the master appropriately.
• Masters for digital distribution can be made in a number of formats.  Let us know what you need, or ask what we recommend.