Mastering Studio

Dylan Kay (1224 Project), “Barry mastered our latest CD, which had been somewhat crudely mixed in my home studio. Right from the beginning I was impressed by his professionalism, punctual communications and advice. Barry did an incredible job.”

Welcome to Safe&Sound Mastering studio based in London UK with a global client base. Allow me to exceed your expectations.

Equipment :

Album £230.00 / 1 Track £30.00 / 2 Tracks £60.00 no tax added (mix appraisal inclusive if required) highly experienced and equipped to produce the punch, warmth, energy and clarity your music deserves, engineer Barry Gardner takes an active approach to optimizing/upgrading equipment to make sure the last bit of quality is imparted to your music. (Mix appraisal inclusive when requested)

The mastering studio has the ideal equipment to master your tracks to perfection, both analogue and digital. A mastering studio without large format monitors and high end analogue equipment is incomplete.The reason 2 fold, small monitors do not reproduce the entire spectrum and present all important scale, cheap speakers produce inaccurate sound, you need a high end studio that has a step up on your own monitoring arrangements. A mastering studio without high end analogue equipment is compromising their ability to provide the sonic options to realize the best possible results for their clients.

When you choose your mastering studio ensure you get to see photos of the studio equipment and loudspeakers. Safe&Sound mastering studio is online based in the UK and our overheads are low but you still get the same high quality equipment, experienced engineer and service at an attended mastering studio at a greatly reduced rate.

Here is the equipment used in the mastering studio, for further details browse the site using the navigation to the left:

PMC IB1S (Professional Monitor Company) High res monitoring, large format (not small speakers and some foam like competition) custom stands. 28 large bass traps, very serious acoustics, 1.2M x 0.6M vital to flatten the room. Driven by 500 Watt per channel Hypex Class D amplifiers.

MANLEY Massive Passive Equalizer (HARDWARE)

Summit Audio DCL-200 high end valve/tube compressor USA built.

Elysia X Filter Stereo Class A analogue equalizer

Hand Crafted Labs – VARIS, Vari-Mu, Class A, Valve mastering compressor.

(Sontec inspired) stereo linked, custom 5 band analog equalizer exclusive to SafeandSound Mastering studio uk

CRANE SONG SOLARIS DAC (lowest jitter of any published DAC)

ADC : MYTEK

High end, ear selected software plug in suite from the main software developers.

Dynaudio Acoustics BM6P monitoring.

Avantone Mix Cubes (mid range critical, single driver monitoring)

Neutrik gold plated connectors and Sommer Primus/Van Damme cabling throughout.

High end SADiE V5 designed for mastering studio.

Custom built audio specific silent Intel i7 workstation.

High quality filtered and surge protected mains distribution.

Extensive acoustically treated room, 28 x large RockWool bass traps, mid/hf treatment and acoustic ceiling cloud in room. Using professionally designed diffuser solutions that are manufactured in the UK.

500 Watt per channel audiophile power amplification (Hypex) for clean sonic delivery.

Stereo switched (laser trimmed) resistor passive volume controller. (completely transparent, not potentiometer based no active components)

Almost reflection free monitoring position (less comb filtering) perfect conditions for a mastering studio.

Beyerdynamic Pro headphones for QC.

Audiophile headphone amplification employing the finest opamps available.

SSL Inter sample peak metering.

Plextor CD-R drives for mastering studio purposes. (fully capable of testing for C1/C2 BLER errors,  not all Plextor drives can test for these errors for CD-R masters.)

PlexTools Pro error check, every mastering studio should have electronic QC.

Steinberg Nuendo 4.3

Taiyo Yuden CD-R.

Technics SL-PS770A CD Player (CLASS A D/A)

Mastering studio equipment details :

PMC IB1S is a large format high end monitor, a speaker that reveals mix details. The full range response makes decisions regarding bass easier as they extend to 25Hz in room. Exceptional stereo imaging, full range and crystal clear definition make these monitors a big step above the resolution of small near field speakers. Mounted on custom built stands mounted on paving stones with large sorbethane de-coupling pads. It is cloud cuckoo land to try and flatten a room response with pieces of foam or a couple or rockwool corner straddles. I use 28 huge bass traps created from mineral and fibre glass wool that has the right absorption coefficients to really absorb and produce a flat bass response. A few small foam traps have virtually no impact, especially below 250Hz.  For real mastering you need it flat to 30Hz ! The real work to flatten a room under 250Hz is complex and you need very large quantities of treatment. This often goes unnoticed as people tend to be more impressed by racks of classy equipment.(which is also used here)

MANLEY Massive Passive Equalizer (Hardware) – possibly the ultimate equalizer, Class A gain with all passive circuits, a mastering studio classic. Beautiful mid range action and a hardware unit which can enhance a mix just by passing it through, simply a divine signal path and exquisite tonal control.

Hand Crafted Labs VariS – A high end Vari Mu compressor – pure discrete CLASS A electronics, high quality valves and bespoke audio transformers, stepped switches throughout. This beautiful device adds a subtle sheen and width enhancement whilst adding that mix glue that only a Vari Mu compressor can.

Summit Audio DCL-200 Stereo valve compressor – a truly unique valve compressor capable of subtle enhancement and dynamic control. The Slope knob acting as a tone control for dialing in warmer tones. Includes 3 high quality valves and JENSEN 990 discrete output operational amplifiers, a gem in the mastering studio.

Custom built stereo analogue mastering eq – not all eq’s are built equally ! This eq has been painstakingly built with stepped switches from start to end of the signal path. Inspired by the Sontec T-Filter circuit this eq is accurate smooth and precise with a ‘3D’ character, silky top end, ‘filling’ mids and defined low end control. The unit contains only the best in electronics, Vishay, Panasonic capacitors and Burr Brown audiophile op-amps, equalization class in a box. Very much at home in the mastering studio.

Only a few select Plextor optical drives have the capability of professional error testing of disks. I use 2 drives that have this capability. One main and a back up ready to go. This is essential for creating high quality error free master disks. All professional mastering houses should have this ability.

When it comes to plug in processing for a mastering audio I have found the best way is to listen for many hours and on a great deal of musical material. I have invested a lot of time and work selecting what can be described as the “creme de la creme” of all the software DSP that is available for a mastering studio. A great deal of those auditioned did not make the grade. As such the selected plug in suite used at Safe&Sound is beyond reproach.

Onbody inkjet printing and DVD case as standard for Red Book CD mastering clients. 2x error checked masters provided as standard (main and back up) + £65.00 (inc special delivery at cost) DDPi is most common for 2022.

Safe&Sound mastering studio (UK) is equipped to enhance audio, offer mix feedback (assuming you proceed), listen for technical issues, create error free DDPi/master disks and ensure your music has had the best attention to detail possible. Any reputable audio mastering studio should have high end, large scale mastering speakers to ensure accuracy, full range frequency response and the capability of judging translation to large sound systems.

I will ensure your music reaches its sonic potential.

Contact :

Barry 0(zero)781 0271371
Email to safeandsound123atgooglemail.com (at is an @ symbol)