[english] MAINFRAME MASTERING is an audiophile mastering + production studio in Frankfurt City, Germany, established by producer / engineer Frank Marheineke aka MAINFRAME. We offer HI-END ANALOG MASTERING, mix-engineering, audio-restoration and recording services at surprisingly low rates. We commit ourselfes to give you the best experience in sound you ever imagined! Try our online service - it's tremendously sounding, reliable, personal, with very fast turn-around times and guaranteed to your satisfaction. If you like your sound to be fat, punchy, warm, deep, crisp and loud, our service is definitely for you. Call +49-069-95956990 or email for a prompt booking. [prices/rates]
[deutsch] MAINFRAME MASTERING ist ein audiophiles Mastering und Produktions Tonstudio im Herzen Frankfurts am Main, gegründet von Musikproduzent und Toningenieur Frank Marheineke, alias MAINFRAME. Wir bieten professionelles ANALOGES MASTERING, Hi-End Tonbearbeitung, Audio-Mischung, Ton-Restauration und Mikrophon-Aufnahmen zum erstaunlich niedrigen Preis! Das Beste aus Ihren Aufnahmen und Darbietungen zu holen ist unser wichtigstes Ziel, deshalb haben wir uns dazu verschrieben Ihnen die beste Sound-Erfahrung anbieten zu können, die technisch und künstlerisch machbar ist. Probieren Sie unseren Service aus - das Ergebnis klingt Erstaunlich, unser Service ist zuverlässig, persönlich und schnell. Wenn Sie Ihren SOUND fett, ausdrucksstark, warm, knackig, musikalisch, laut, 3-dimensional und detailliert mögen, dann ist unser Service für Sie! Für Informationen und schnelle Termine rufen Sie 069-95956990 an oder einfach per email. [preisliste]
MASTERING is the art and science of processing your final (stereo) mix/recording at a very high standard to be the best sounding it can be. Just in the age of internet and digital distribution competition has grown and people can compare your work easily to others. It's is the final stage in the music-production process, right before pressing + publication. The classic approch is to tastefully filter/equalize the mix as a total, control dynamics and transfer it to a destination medium for replication. However, the modern approach includes much heavier dynamic-processing, so that the music-level would be at the genres common level. To do so can be very tricky since there's a maximum peak-level a track can have, that's 0dbfs in digital. This is the inherent barrier and you can't rise the peak-level any further. To get louder, the energy, usually refered to as rms-level, can be rised without so much affecting the peak-value, best done with dedicated analog tools where you can mix dynamic and saturation characteristics to achieve this goal of a nice competitive level. The best analog gear imparts certain pleasant characteristics digital tools just can't offer, they're limited to their simplified code wich emulates only a fraction of what's going on in dedicated analog gear, the same applies for other processings used in mastering, such as filtering and equalizing. We use only what we consider the best in analog processing gear for the task of mastering, not to forget our high-quality converters to cross the borders of analog and digital representation. The acoustic building and monitoring in our mastering studio offers a listening experience that is true and faithful, a basic requirement to be even able to start working on your recording. What you'd get back out of this process is a MASTER you can use to publish. That can be a stereo-file or a CD-PREMASTER that contains the arranged, processed recordings with additional coding (isrc, upc/ean, cd-text) in order to be the definitive blueprint for duplication.
At the Musikmesse i got to know Mr. Kenji Takechi from OYAIDE ELEC, Inc., a high-grade audio cable manufacturer from Japan. He kindly sent me their new finger-thick power-cable BLACKMAMBA. Here's my observation notes, 2 independent runs ABX, replacing a standard IEC cable: # Summit Audio EQP200-B : The sound is very dynamic, less stressed and less condensed/squeezed. It sounds relaxed and noble, the mids are very transparent, the highs smooth and clean, bass is deep, dimensionality (width and depth) increased. # Millennia NSEQ-2 / discrete mode : The sound is solid and stable, assertive, compact. The lower mids appear lighter and the upper mids stronger, bass is round and broad, highs are shimmery, the overall bandwith seems increased. # RME Fireface800 : The sound is fast, attacks articulated, direct. The upper mids seem accentuated and the overall impression is extremly tight with an increased bandwidth, even though the dimensionality has not changed here. # Thermionic Culture Phoenix (replacing the Vovox power cable) : Comparing it with it's contender, this one is the toughest to detect. I find that spectrum, dynamic and depth are very similar, while the Oyaide sounds a tad cleaner and and the vovox a little more straight forward. This could be caused by how much distortion there is left in the power distribution or simply by cable-design. I can't decide wich one i like better, but one as an engineer is at least left with an option ;) - Although all differences i experience are in a certain felt range of ca. 5-10%, this small changes can make a very reasonable difference. After one more day of observation i'd really like to have all the rest of my regular power cables replaced with high-grade ones as there certainly is an advantage and gain in sound. Power cables are having a bit different effect on diverse units depending on the gear construction and function, but you can say there is a quality in sound that is evident on all tested units: for OYAIDE that's clean, transparent, solid and noble. I think that's great to get yet more sound out of your hardware: converters and interfaces, that's where i like it applied the most by now ! OYAIDE NEO
