who we are

Highwood Audio Mastering is a full-service mastering facility located in Berlin, Germany. We are specialized in mastering stereo projects for CD, DVD and Vinyl duplication as well as mastering for digital distribution like WAV and MP3 downloads. We offer attended and unattended mastering sessions (also known as Online Mastering or eMastering).

The company was founded and is owned by Kris Verex who has a degree of audio engineering and focused early in his career on audio mastering. His musical backround ranges from early 80s underground to the popular sounds of today, whether it's Pop, Elektro, Rock, Techno, Jazz, House or acoustical music.

We create a cutting-edge reflection of your vision using only high-end audio equipment. The studio is acoustically tuned to insure the highest possible reproduction of your music and to allow the best possible mastering decisions. You alone determine the focus and we make it our business to realize whatever you feel, need or desire in regard to your music.

Our unique characteristics are true attention to sound detail, individual musical assistance, accurate digital and analog processing expertise, high flexibility and a very friendly communication - as well as having real fun doing our work.

what we do

Basically we do the same that you do: we love music. Thus our services are delivered with a musician's approach to sound - your sound!

Mastering is the final critical step in the post-production process right before CDs, DVDs and Vinyl are pressed or WAVs and MP3s get distributed digitally. It is a process that relies on a combination of real world experience and musical expertise. This goes together with perfectly trained ears, professional gear and optimized acoustics plus a high-end monitoring section.

Mastering your music and finalizing your project has a lot to do with confidence in the mastering engineer concerning his feeling and understanding of your musical intentions; moreover, the mastering engineer delivers objective assessment by a new set of experienced ears. In this respect you can rely on Mastering Engineer Kris Verex to optimize your tracks for a variety of delivery formats.

We show the same dedication with our eMastering and Online Mastering services as we do at any attended mastering session. Our main objective is having extremely happy customers with top sounding music in their hands, thus we offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Revisions, where neccessary, are not charged.

The studio equipment was carefully assembled to facilitate our diligent, well-organized and flexible method of operation. A more detailed listing of what we use is available as a PDF file below.

how we charge

Outstanding results at affordable prices is what Highwood Audio Mastering delivers. At one glance you can see here the most basic rates.

Online Mastering	€55,-	per track
Attended Mastering	€110,-	per hour
Audio Restoration	€110,-	per hour
10" /12" Master Lacquer	€75,-	per side
Red Book Master Disc	€50,-	per disc
DDP Image	€50,-	per image
MP3 /FLAC Encoding	€5,-	per track
Mix Evaluation	free
Mastering Demo	free
Revisions	free

Methods of payment include all major credit cards, international bank transfer, national banktransfer, PayPal and cash on location.

All prices listed are excluded German VAT. For full information please refer to our detailed price-list that is available as a PDF file below.

our clients

Since we are a professional company our services are available to everbody. Musicians, producers, labels and DJs are our main clientele. But generally speaking, everyone with the ambition to have his recordings sound the best and most authentic way should consider hiring Highwood Audio Mastering.

Becoming a client is easy and convenient. Just write us a message where you outline your project. We then confirm and supply a time frame plus additional info if neccessary. After submitting your files they are checked and reviewed thoroughly. We give feedback and arrange with you for the characteristics of the desired mastering result.

The result of the mastering will be sent to you as a preview containing fades. If revisions are desired they will be done on the spot.

Once you are 100% satisfied payment is due and afterwards the final files are made available via download.

RANDOM QUOTES

"We have found the company that is not bound to genres or scenes but to music in itself. This is of inestimable value!!! Our dark Coldwave and Minimal-Synth sounds exactly like it should, only much better! "

DISCOS VEVEOS, label
"Mastering engineer Kris Verex is a perfectionist who with his empathic musical feeling gave my Big Band album not only the authentic Jazz / Swing feeling but also a lot of soul. I love to work with professionals!"

Kai Podack, singer, bandleader
"I love the fact that you don't change the sound of our music, instead, you make it sound more polished. I'm looking forward to working with you on future projects!"

Jephté Guillaume, musician, producer
"Magic skills & real music lover Kris Verex"

Juju Christian Treuter, producer, DJ
"I had the most amazing working experience with Kris Verex. His mastering skills are phenomenal and he has a unique gift of hearing. The music becomes so vivid and alive."

Wiltrud Weber, singer
"When passed through the Highwood Audio signal chain our tracks have that certain smell of big studio consoles which is hard to find today - and we feel this is a good way to make our music stand out."

Alex Betancourt, producer, DJ
"As a label for House, Techno and Minimal we need a flawless, consistent mastering of superior quality. This, together with fast and professional communication, we have found at Highwood Audio Mastering."

TONFREUDE, label
"I am more than satisfied with the results of your mastering - I am happy! Working with you is a pleasure. I recommend Highwood Audio Mastering to all!"

Roland Satterwhite, musician, producer
"Highwood Audio Mastering was the first service that considered our projects as songs, not products. Working with them is an artistic process, a dialogue, that yields by far the most satisfiying results."

UNOFFICIAL RECORDS, label
"Kris Verex has the first-class talent to empathize idea and substance of a musical production and to let it shine splendidly."

Elle P., singer