Mixing and Mastering Prices at 24K Studios, Explained

Mixing and mastering at 24K are priced per song, not by the hour, and they are priced the same whether you tracked here or in a bedroom on the other side of the city. Here is the whole card, and the reasoning behind its shape.

Mixing is priced by stem count

A song with twenty stems and a song with ninety are different jobs, and a flat price per song charges the same for both. So mixing is priced by how many track stems the song has:

• Up to 24 stems: C$150
• Up to 48 stems: C$200
• Up to 72 stems: C$250
• Up to 96 stems: C$300
• More than 96: quoted before any work starts

A stem is one exported track: the lead vocal, each double, each ad-lib layer, each drum element, the bass, and so on. If you are not sure how many you have, count the files in your export folder. That number is the price.

The mix starts with the vocal, because that is what people hear first: gain staging, then EQ by hand on the take itself, then a chain built for that voice rather than a preset. Vocal balancing, EQ, compression, effects, automation and final delivery are all included. There is no separate revision fee for reasonable notes.

Mastering is priced by track count

Mastering is C$100 a track. For a project, four to six tracks are C$300 together, and seven to ten are C$450. Eleven and up are quoted.

Two and three tracks are priced at the single rate each, which puts three tracks at the same total as the four-to-six package. That is deliberate: it means adding a fourth track to a three-track order costs nothing extra, and it keeps the rule below intact.

Mastering here is not a limiter and an invoice. The mix is listened to on real systems first, on the ATC SCM12 Pro monitors and then the way people actually listen, in a car, on headphones, on a phone speaker, and what is wrong is written down before anything touches the master bus. Most of what surfaces is a mix problem, a vocal two decibels too forward or a low end that only exists on one system, and it is fixed in the mix. You get back the master and the corrected mix, both.

The rule: ordering more never costs less

Every price on this card is checked against one rule: a shorter or smaller order can never cost more than a bigger one. Three mastered tracks never cost more than four. A song with 30 stems never costs more than one with 50. The packages are set so that moving up a band or a tier always costs the same or more, never less, which is the only way a price card stays fair to the person who ordered less.

The two packages

If you want mixing and mastering done together on a song you send in, the remote package is C$300 a song. Three songs together are C$850; a five-song EP is C$1,250.

If you would rather sit in the room while it happens, there is a four-hour in-person mix and master session for one song at C$450. It occupies the room, so it books through the calendar and takes a half deposit like studio time.

What it costs to bring a song from somewhere else

You do not need to have recorded at 24K to mix or master here. Export each track as a WAV, 16-bit or 24-bit, at the sample rate the session was made at, one file per track, and send them. An engineer listens first and says honestly whether the files are workable. If the vocals were recorded too poorly to save, the studio says so and refunds in full rather than sending you a bad record.

So a song tracked elsewhere with 40 stems, mixed and mastered separately, is C$200 plus C$100. The same song through the remote package is C$300.

Payment and turnaround

Mixing and mastering are paid in full at checkout, because the work starts the moment the files land, and they come back within three days of that moment. Once work has begun, they are not refundable; the honesty check before it begins is there so that never has to be a problem.

Studio time is different: it takes a half deposit online and the balance at the desk. If you track here and add mixing to the same booking, the checkout shows the two separately, half of the session and all of the mix.

Adding it to a session

When you book studio time, the booking form lets you add mixing and mastering for the songs you are tracking, by stem count and track count, in the same checkout. If you would rather decide after you hear the takes, you can. Nothing about the session price changes either way, and the per-song price is the same on the day or a month later.

The full rate card is on the services page. Questions about an odd-shaped project, an album, or a stem count you cannot work out: info@24kstudios.ca, or (647) 389-6649.

Questions people ask

How is mixing priced at 24K Studios?

Per song, by how many track stems the song has, in bands. A stem is one exported track. Count the files in your export folder and that is the band. Above the top band, the mix is quoted before any work starts.

How is mastering priced?

Per track, with packages for four to six tracks and for seven to ten. Two and three tracks are priced at the single rate each. Eleven or more tracks are quoted.

Can I get a song mixed at 24K if I recorded it somewhere else?

Yes, at the same price. Export each track as a WAV, one file per track, at the session sample rate, and send them. An engineer listens first and tells you honestly whether the files are workable.

How long does mixing or mastering take?

Three days from the day the files land. Both are paid in full at checkout because the work starts as soon as the files arrive.

What do I get back from mastering?

The master, levelled for streaming, and the corrected mix as well. Most mastering problems turn out to be mix problems, and they are fixed in the mix rather than covered up on the master bus.

24K Studios is at 550 Queen St E, Toronto, open 9 AM to 2 AM every day. Music · Voice & corporate · Services and rates · Book studio time