What is special about a MasterMix CD-Ref?  What is a 'PMCD'?

Mastering is a crucial stage for any music project.  Engineers, producers, and artists appreciate the opportunity to have their final work evaluated and enhanced by a great mastering engineer, in a high-quality listening environment, and using a set of specialized tools. While the monitoring environment in each of our suites is optimized for this process, it is vital that you review the result in a place that is sonically more familiar to you, such as in your car, home, or studio.  The best way to do this is via a ‘CD-Ref’.  In addition to sonic qualities, all sequence, timing, and embedded text can be auditioned this way.  At MasterMix, we create these CD-Refs on high-quality recordable disks that have been selected for best performance on a professional CD recorder that is integrated directly into our mastering workstations.  This ensures the highest quality transfer of your music project from the mastering system to your listening system.

Final delivery masters may be in the form of a ‘PMCD’, which is also recorded at low-speed on high-quality blanks on a professional CD recorder integrated into our mastering workstatons.  This is followed by a rigorous quality-check routine, using specialized software, and an industry-standard Clover QA-101 CD Analyzer.  Finished discs are auditioned carefully in real-time by an engineer in one of our suites or production rooms.  Any anomalies are reported and corrected before the disc is passed on for replication.

The associated cost with taking such care in providing high-quality refs and delivery masters is more than offset by the knowledge that your music is being handled in the best way possible.