For musicians and engineers mastering music for digital distribution and streaming services like iTunes, Pandora and Spotify, Lurssen Mastering Console now ensures their music is compliant with Apple’s Mastered for iTunes specification - an industry first. Lurssen Mastering Console’s new Digital Delivery Mastering (DDM) feature provides mastered audio files that comply with specifications for sample rate, bit depth and peak levels, ensuring that audio translates perfectly for compressed formats like AAC.
Apple’s Mastered for iTunes specifications states that files have to comply with high-resolution sample rate and bit depth requirements and that no clipping at or over 0.0dBFS should be present in the digital masters being submitted. As the tendency in contemporary digital music production is to go for super loud masters, distortion can be created as a by-product of extreme use of digital peak limiters pushing up the level. Even though the file’s maximum peak level is not exceeding 0.0 dBFS, digital overshoots can still occur when the file is de-compressed back to PCM format for playback.
This is where the new Digital Delivery Mastering option for Lurssen Mastering Console comes in. It offers an additional layer of protection against peak overshoots that could be generated when decoding the compressed format for playback. This can cause clips that may go unnoticed while mixing and mastering with regular sample peak meters. The additional layer of protection is achieved by the peak limiter at the end of the mastering chain working in a specific way. This guarantees that the compressed file is safe from distortion when played back from digital distribution services such as Apple’s iTunes, Spotify and Pandora.
The Digital Delivery Mastering option is part of the HD Engine in-app purchase, and can be enabled independently from the HD Engine in the settings menu. It is also included in the free update for Mac/PC users.
New Style presets
Lurssen Mastering Console is a totally unique and easy-to-use approach to audio mastering. It features a processor chain that’s built to reproduce the sequence, gear, hookups and settings used by the team at Lurssen Mastering, to master virtually every style of music today. Lurssen Mastering Console is unique because it recreates the physical interactions throughout the chain. It recreates the influences any one processor has on the rest of the chain and how a setting change affects the performance and auditory results of the chain. This revolutionary approach provides for the synergistic “whole is greater than the sum of its parts” results and delivers amazing results quickly through a simple, intuitive interface.
“Styles” presets created by Gavin Lurssen, Reuben Cohen and the team at Lurssen Mastering, Inc., define the gear chain and provide the settings for virtually every genre including Rock, Country, Americana, Pop, EDM and more. In this new release, five new styles have been added for creating Hard Rock/Heavy Metal mastered files. With these additional presets, users can now find a mastering starting point for virtually every style and genre of music.
Lurssen Mastering Console for Mac/PC – is available from the IK Multimedia web site and select retailers worldwide for $/€199.99 (excluding taxes). Users can download and test-drive Lurssen Mastering Console’s full features at no cost for a period of 10 days. The update is free for current registered users. Lurssen Mastering Console for iOS is a universal app and free download from the App Store that operates in demo mode.
www.ikmultimedia.com/lurssen
