Southwest duplication/ Area 51 Mastering offers full mastering and duplication of your project.
...A Little About Why YOU Are Here!

 Let’s take a guess…you have just finished recording, and you are ready for the final step before releasing your CD to the public. At the request of your producer/record label, or even venturing out on your own, you have come to the conclusion that you need the final touch that specialized expertise, and a fresh set of ears can provide.

You are not entirely sure what it is that we will do to your precious audio, or how it is that we will do it, but you know that all good releases, be it vinyl records (45s, 33 1/3 LPs, 78s), CDs, or DVDs, have all gone through a veiled process to bring out the best in them. What is this process? And what is it really called?

You have heard many terms thrown around to describe this, but end up running in circles, because more often than not, the same terms have been used to describe different processes…some, not even related to audio! Well, here we go. Read on...

 Choosing a mastering service can be a daunting task, especially with all the confusing and misleading opinions and terms floating around out there!

So please take a moment to browse this site and learn about the actual ''black art'' referred to as MASTERING.

As a suggestion, utilize the links on this page, as you will find an informative outline of what this process is, and what it is that we actually do with your project. And for those information junkies out there, keep reading through all of the links, as they provide a wealth of information, from the history of mastering, all the way to specific details of this mysterious process!

It is here we will discuss everything, from vinyl lathes, and how LP records were tweaked, to compressors, limiters, and equalizers, all the way to analog vs. digital workstations and what all the buzz words actually mean. For example, some refer to this process as finalizing, pre-mastering, or even simply, final EQing or tweaking. All of these words have come to describe this seemingly secretive process.

We’ll try to clear things up a bit. Just remember, CD replication/duplication is the literal final step in your recording. The step before that, when a specialized audio engineer makes all of the necessary preparations prior to mass replication/duplication is what we do. All of these steps are what most people are trying to find a word for!

So, finalizing, master equalizing, final compression and limiting, cd authoring, audio, analog , or digital mastering, pre-mastering, or even audio restoring, or restoration can, and are used to describe the same thing.

You get the idea.

Confusing, isn’t it?

 It can be, if you let the terminology get in the way!

Just remember what was said above about the last person to actually affect any sonic changes in your recording before replication/duplication.