Last updated: 29 August 2026

PART 1 — GENERAL TERMS

1. Who we are and how to contact us

1.1 These terms and conditions (the “Terms”) are the agreement between you and Dead Quiet Studio Ltd (“Dead Quiet”, “we”, “us”, “our”), a company registered in England and Wales under company number 17297086, whose registered office is Unit 18 Gateway, 1000 Whittle Way, Arlington Business Park, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, SG1 2FP, United Kingdom.

1.2 You can contact us at mgmt@deadquiet.studio. We will contact you using the email address you give us when you order, enquire or create an account.

1.3 If we have to give you a formal notice under these Terms, we will send it by email to that address; it is treated as received on the next working day. Formal notices to us should be sent by email to the address above, marked “Legal notice”, and are treated as received on the next working day after transmission. A cancellation notice sent by a consumer is effective from the moment it is sent, and nothing in this clause delays or restricts any statutory cancellation right.

2. What these Terms cover, and how they are organised

2.1 These Terms are the single source of the contractual rules for everything Dead Quiet sells or provides:

1. use of our website at deadquiet.studio (the “Website”);
2. audio plugins that you buy or download from us (the “Plugins”), including free demo versions (“Demos”);
3. the DQ Master Rack desktop application (the “App”), Master Rack export credits (“Credits”) and Master Rack monthly plans (“Subscriptions”);
4. mixing, mastering, production and other studio services (the “Studio Services”); and
5. enquiries, project submissions, and files you supply to us.

2.2 These Terms are organised in Parts. Part 1 (general terms) applies to everyone. Part 2 applies to Plugins and other downloadable digital content. Part 3 applies to the App, Credits and Subscriptions. Part 4 applies to Studio Services. Parts 5 to 9 — payments and refunds, intellectual property and confidentiality, accounts and website use, liability, and general legal provisions — apply to everything. Schedule 1 sets out product-specific key facts (including activation limits); Schedule 2 contains the model cancellation form; Schedule 3 is a plain-language refund summary; Schedule 4 contains definitions; Schedule 5 cross-references our privacy and file-retention commitments.

2.3 Order of precedence. If provisions conflict, they apply in this order: (1) for a Studio Services project, the quotation for that project; (2) the product-specific Part of these Terms; (3) the remainder of these Terms. The Website describes and summarises but never overrides these Terms.

2.4 Our Privacy Policy (deadquiet.studio/privacy-policy/) explains how we handle personal information, including the cookie and consent choices available on the Website and our data retention periods. It is a separate document and is not part of these Terms, but references to it in these Terms point to the version in force at the relevant time.

2.5 The Website’s “Refund & Returns” page summarises and signposts the refund rules in these Terms; clause 2.3’s order of precedence applies to it.

3. Consumers and business customers

3.1 A “consumer” means an individual buying wholly or mainly outside their trade, business, craft or profession. A “business customer” means anyone else, including an individual buying wholly or mainly for business purposes (for example, a professional engineer buying a Plugin for client work).

3.2 If you are a consumer, nothing in these Terms takes away or reduces your legal rights, including your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. Where these Terms say something less generous than the law allows for consumers, the law wins. Guidance on your rights is available from Citizens Advice.

3.3 Some clauses apply differently to business customers, and say so where they do (in particular clauses 32 (liability), 7 (licence) and 27 (chargebacks)). If you buy as a business customer you confirm you have authority to bind the business, and the contract is with that business. Many of our customers are working musicians, producers and engineers: buying for a career in music does not by itself make you a business customer — the test is whether the purchase is wholly or mainly for your trade or business. If it is not clear whether you are buying as a consumer or a business, we will treat you as a consumer.

3.4 You must be at least 18, or old enough to form a binding contract where you live, to buy from us.

4. Ordering, and when a contract is formed

4.1 Orders are placed through the Website checkout. Before you pay, the checkout shows the items, the total price, and the acknowledgements the law requires. The technical steps are: add items to the cart, enter your details, confirm the required acknowledgements, and click “Place order”.

4.2 At checkout you must confirm that you accept these Terms. For orders that include digital content (Plugins, Credits, App access or licence keys), you must also separately confirm that you want the digital content made available immediately and that you understand this ends your 14-day right to cancel (see clause 12). Both confirmations are recorded against your order.

4.3 When the contract is formed. A contract is formed at the moment your payment succeeds and we present our order confirmation (on screen or by email, whichever happens first). Digital content is supplied under that contract, immediately after it is formed, in accordance with the acknowledgement you gave at checkout — supply never precedes the contract. We may decline an order before payment succeeds, or cancel one afterwards, where we reasonably suspect fraud or abuse, where there is an obvious pricing error (clause 5.5), or where a product has been withdrawn; if you have already paid and we cancel, we will refund you in full.

4.4 Studio Services are not bought through the Website checkout: they follow the quotation process in Part 4, and the contract is formed as described in clause 18.3.

5. Prices, payment and taxes

5.1 Prices are shown in pounds sterling (GBP).

5.2 Prices include VAT where applicable. Our VAT registration number is 524735292.

5.3 Payment is taken at checkout through our payment processor, Stripe, using the payment methods shown at checkout (which may include card, Amazon Pay, Klarna and Link). Your payment details are entered directly with the payment provider and are never seen or stored by us. If you use a buy-now-pay-later option such as Klarna, your agreement for that credit is with the provider, on their terms; our contract with you is unaffected — you still owe us the price, and their approval or scheduling of your payments is their business, not a condition of these Terms.

5.4 We may change prices at any time. Price changes do not affect orders already confirmed. For Subscription price changes, clause 16.7 applies.

5.5 Pricing errors. If a price is obviously wrong — for example a £69 plugin listed at £0.69 — we are not obliged to supply at the wrong price. If we discover the error before delivery we will tell you and give you the choice of paying the correct price or cancelling with a full refund. If a mispriced order has already been delivered and the error was one you could not reasonably have been expected to spot, the order stands. We may only rely on this clause within 14 days of the order.

5.6 Promotions and discounts. Promotional prices, bundles and discount codes apply only for their stated period and conditions, cannot be applied retrospectively, and cannot be exchanged for cash. Where we show a comparison (“was/now”) price, the “was” price is a price at which we genuinely offered the product.

PART 2 — PLUGIN LICENCE

6. What you are buying

6.1 Plugins are downloadable audio software. When you buy a Plugin you are buying a licence to use it (set out in clause 7) together with delivery of the installer and a licence key. You are not buying the software itself, which remains our property.

6.2 Each Plugin’s product page states the supported operating systems and plugin formats (for example VST3 and AU). Every paid Plugin has a free Demo, and we strongly recommend testing it on your own system and material before you buy — it is the best way to know a Plugin suits you. You are responsible for making sure your system matches the supported systems listed on the product page. Nothing in this clause affects your statutory rights if a Plugin is faulty, not as described, or does not work on a system we say we support (clause 11).

6.3 Key information about each Plugin — including its activation limit — is set out in Schedule 1.

7. Your Plugin licence

7.1 Licence grant. When we make a Plugin and its licence key available to you following your order (including an order for a free Plugin), we grant you a personal, perpetual, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to install and use the Plugin, in object-code form, for the purposes of producing, mixing, mastering and otherwise creating audio, on the terms of this clause 7.

7.2 One licence, one user. The licence is granted to you personally. For a business purchase, the licence is granted to a single named individual: unless the business designates a different named individual by written notice to us, the named user is the individual whose account placed the order. It may be used only by that person.

7.3 Your machines, up to the activation limit. You may install and activate the Plugin on machines that you personally own or control, up to the activation limit for that Plugin stated in Schedule 1. The standard limit is two (2) concurrent activations; Moove is currently limited to one (1). Activations are counted by our licensing system. Where you retire or replace a machine, a deactivation frees an activation for use on another machine; if you cannot deactivate from within the product, contact us and we will do it for you.

7.4 Perpetual. Your licence does not expire. “Perpetual” means the licence to the version(s) made available to you continues indefinitely; it is not a promise of future updates or of compatibility with future operating systems or hosts (see clause 10).

7.5 Backups. You may keep copies of the installer and your licence key for backup and archival purposes. Backup copies remain subject to this licence.

7.6 Commercial use of your output. You may use the Plugins in commercial music production without restriction or further fee. Everything you make with the Plugins is yours: we claim no ownership of, and no licence to, any recording, mix, master or other output you create. This licence governs the software only.

7.7 What you must not do. Except to the extent the law expressly permits despite this clause (for example rights under sections 50A–50BA Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 relating to back-up copies, lawful decompilation for interoperability, and program testing/observation):

1. no transfer or resale: you may not sell, rent, lease, lend, sublicense, give away or otherwise transfer the Plugin, your licence or your licence key to anyone else;
2. no key sharing: you may not share, publish or make your licence key available to anyone else;
3. no redistribution: you may not distribute the Plugin, in whole or part, modified or unmodified, whether or not for payment;
4. no reverse engineering: you may not decompile, disassemble, reverse-engineer or otherwise attempt to derive the source code, signal-processing algorithms, models or profiles of the Plugin;
5. no circumvention: you may not remove, disable or work around licence enforcement, copy protection or activation mechanisms, or use keys, cracks or patches not issued by us;
6. no use of the Plugin to build, train or improve a competing product.

7.8 Breach of licence. If you breach this clause 7 in a serious way — in particular by key sharing, resale, redistribution, circumvention or piracy — we may terminate your licence with immediate effect by notice to you. On termination you must stop using the Plugin, uninstall it and destroy your copies; no refund is due (this does not affect a consumer’s statutory rights for faulty goods/digital content, which do not extend to deliberately misused or pirated software). Clause 31 (suspension and termination) and clause 27 (fraud) also apply.

7.9 Licence status and technical enforcement are different things. Our licensing system may or may not immediately reflect a licence’s contractual status: a key that has been revoked, refunded or terminated may remain technically capable of activating for a period. A key working is not evidence that a licence exists. If your licence has ended under these Terms (for example after a refund of that purchase, a chargeback under clause 27, or termination for breach), you must stop using the Plugin and the key even if the key still functions. Use of a Plugin after your licence has ended is both an infringement of copyright and a breach of these Terms, and we may claim under either or both. We may also withhold updates, support, key re-sends and key re-issues in respect of any licence that has ended.

7.10 Lost keys. Licence keys are shown in your account and sent by email at purchase. If you lose a key, we will re-send it to the purchase email address free of charge. If you believe a key has been compromised, tell us and we will re-issue it and invalidate the old one where the system permits.

7.11 Ownership. The Plugins, their code, digital signal processing, presets, profiles, graphics and branding are and remain the intellectual property of Dead Quiet or its licensors. Nothing in these Terms transfers ownership of any of it.

8. Free Demos

8.1 Demos are free versions of the Plugins provided so you can evaluate them on your own system and material before buying. The capabilities of each Demo, and any limitations that apply to it, are as described on the relevant product page. Demos are licensed to you personally, for evaluation only, on the same restrictions as clause 7.7, and may not be used as a substitute for a purchased licence in ongoing production work.

8.2 Demos are provided free of charge and “as available” for evaluation. Since nothing is paid for a Demo, our liability in connection with Demos is limited to what cannot lawfully be excluded (clause 32.1). This does not affect your statutory rights in any subsequent purchase of the paid Plugin.

8.3 We may change or withdraw Demos at any time.

9. Delivery of digital content

9.1 Digital content is delivered immediately after successful payment: installers are available to download from the order confirmation page and your account, and licence keys are shown on the order confirmation page, listed in My Account → Licences, and included in your order email.

9.2 If your key or download does not arrive or does not work, contact us — clause 25 (failed or incorrect delivery) and clause 11 (faults) apply. Delivery is complete when the download and any key are made available to you.

10. Updates, compatibility, support and discontinued products

10.1 We may release updates to Plugins and the App from time to time (fixes, compatibility work, improvements). Updates we release for your purchased version are free. We are not obliged to release updates, and a perpetual licence is not a promise of indefinite forward-compatibility with future operating systems, DAWs or plugin-format changes made by third parties.

10.2 Where digital content you have bought needs an update to remain of satisfactory quality or as described (for example a fix for a defect present at purchase), consumers are entitled to that under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, and this clause does not reduce that right.

10.3 Supported systems and formats for each product are stated on its product page at the time of purchase. Those statements form part of the contract description for that purchase.

10.4 Support is provided by email at mgmt@deadquiet.studio. We aim to respond promptly. We do not sell paid support plans.

10.5 Discontinued products. We may stop selling a product. If we discontinue a Plugin you have bought, your perpetual licence continues and existing activations keep working to the extent they do not depend on our servers. New activations depend on our licensing infrastructure, which we do not promise to operate forever; we will use reasonable endeavours to keep activation possible for already-sold licences, or to provide an alternative means of continued use, for as long as reasonably practicable.

10.6 If our licensing infrastructure is permanently retired, we will use reasonable endeavours to provide a route to continued use of already-sold licences (for example offline activation or a final build without online checks), where technically and commercially practicable.

11. Faulty digital content — your statutory rights

11.1 If you are a consumer, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 requires digital content we sell to be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose and as described. If it is not, you are entitled to a repair or replacement; if that fails or cannot be done within a reasonable time, to a price reduction, which can be up to a full refund. If the faulty digital content damages your device or other digital content and we failed to use reasonable care and skill, you may be entitled to compensation for the damage.

11.2 In practice: if a Plugin is faulty, will not run on a system its product page says is supported, or is not as described, contact us with your order number, your system details and what you expected. We will work through it with you — most issues are solvable — and where the law entitles you to a remedy, you will get it. Nothing in these Terms, including the no-refund provisions of clause 26, limits this clause.

11.3 Business customers: the Plugins are warranted to materially conform to their product-page description, as at the date of purchase, when used on a stated supported system. Claims under this warranty must be notified to us within a reasonable time after you become aware of the non-conformity. Your exclusive remedies are repair, replacement or refund at our option. All other conditions, warranties and terms implied by statute or common law are excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law.

12. Cancellation rights for digital content (the 14-day rule)

12.1 If you are a consumer buying online, you normally have 14 days from purchase to cancel and be refunded. For digital content supplied immediately, the law allows that right to end at the moment supply begins, provided you have expressly consented to immediate supply and acknowledged that the right to cancel is lost.

12.2 Our checkout asks for exactly that: alongside accepting these Terms, you must tick a separate box confirming you want your digital content (including credits, licence keys and app access) made available immediately and that you understand this ends your 14-day right to cancel. If you do not want to give up the right, do not tick the box or complete the purchase — email us instead and we will arrange the order so that your content is supplied only after your cancellation period ends.

12.3 Once you have given that consent and your download or key has been made available, the 14-day cancellation right no longer applies to that purchase. Your statutory rights for faulty digital content (clause 11) are unaffected and continue.

12.4 If we failed to obtain your express consent and acknowledgement before supplying digital content, your cancellation right remains intact — in that case you may cancel within 14 days using the model form in Schedule 2 or by emailing us, and we will refund you.

12.5 This clause does not apply to Studio Services (see clause 22) or to the service element of Subscriptions (see clause 16.8).

PART 3 — DQ MASTER RACK AND SUBSCRIPTIONS

13. The App and your Master Rack licence

13.1 The App is our desktop mastering application for macOS. Downloading the App is free; you pay only to export finished masters, using Credits.

13.2 While you hold an account in good standing (and, where relevant, Credits or an active Subscription), we grant you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to install and use the App on machines you personally own or control, to master your own audio and audio you are engaged to work on. Clause 7.7’s restrictions (no resale, sharing, redistribution, reverse engineering, circumvention or competing use) apply to the App equally, including to the DQ Signature — our mastering chain, profiles and processing models — which remains our intellectual property at all times. Some components are fetched to your machine only during a licensed session and remain ours.

13.3 Your audio stays yours and stays local. The App renders on your own machine. Your audio is not uploaded to us for processing, and we do not store your audio or your finished masters. You keep all rights in the audio you load and the masters you export; we claim no ownership of, and no licence to, any of it. You are responsible for keeping backups of your audio and exports.

13.4 Your account credentials and Master Rack licence key are personal to you. Sharing, reselling or publishing them ends your licence (clause 7.8 applies). If you think your key or account is compromised, tell us and we will re-issue/reset it.

13.5 Mastering client work in the App — for example as an engineer working for an artist — is permitted. Reselling raw access to the App or wholesale pass-through of our service without our written agreement is not.

14. Credits

14.1 One Credit = one export of a finished master. Loading tracks, mastering and auditioning inside the App is free and never uses a Credit. Exporting a revision of a track uses another Credit.

14.2 Single Credits (bought individually, currently £5.99) require no Subscription and do not expire.

14.3 Subscription Credits are included with a monthly plan. They reset at each monthly renewal and do not roll over: credits unused at the end of a billing month lapse.

14.4 Credits have no cash value, cannot be transferred between accounts, and cannot be redeemed for anything other than exports. Where a refund of a Credit purchase is legally due, unused Credits from that purchase are cancelled on refund.

15. Buying Credits and App access — cancellation rights

15.1 Credits and App access are digital content supplied immediately. The checkout acknowledgement described in clause 12.2 applies: by ticking it you ask for immediate supply and your 14-day cancellation right for that purchase ends when the Credits or access are made available. Clause 12.4 applies if the acknowledgement was not obtained.

16. Subscriptions — billing, renewal, cancellation

16.1 We currently offer Master Rack plans billed monthly or yearly: Artist (3 masters a month) £9.99 a month or £96 a year; Artist Pro (10 masters a month) £24.99 a month or £240 a year; Label (25 masters a month) £39.99 a month or £384 a year; Ultimate (50 masters a month) £49.99 a month or £480 a year. Each plan includes the set of features listed on the Website and in the App; features not included in your plan are shown locked. Plan details and prices at checkout apply.

16.2 Your billing month runs from the date you subscribed and renews on the same date each month (not the calendar 1st). Your plan’s Credits are available from each renewal. On a yearly plan your masters are still released monthly, on the same day each month as your subscription started.

16.3 Automatic renewal. Subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each billing period (monthly or yearly, depending on your plan) at the plan price until you cancel. Payment is collected through Stripe using your saved payment method.

16.4 Cancelling your Subscription. You can cancel at any time in My Account → My Subscription on the Website. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the billing period (month or year) you have already paid for: your plan (and its remaining monthly Credits) stays active until then, and no further payments are taken. Unused Subscription Credits lapse at the end of that final month (clause 14.3); unused single Credits are unaffected by cancelling a Subscription and remain yours.

16.5 Upgrades take effect immediately: you pay the difference between plans at the point of upgrade and the higher allowance and features are available straight away. Downgrades take effect at your next renewal: you keep the plan you have already paid for until then, and the lower plan and price apply from that renewal. Changing between monthly and yearly billing on the same plan is neither an upgrade nor a downgrade: it takes effect when you confirm the change, the checkout shows what (if anything) you pay for it before you confirm, and your next payment date is then shown on your subscription in My Account. Your masters for the current month are not affected by a billing change.

16.6 Failed payments. If a renewal payment fails we will retry and notify you. If payment continues to fail, we may pause the plan’s Credits and, after a reasonable period, cancel the Subscription. You remain responsible for amounts due for periods already supplied. We do not charge failed-payment fees.

16.7 Price changes. If we change your plan’s price we will email you before the change takes effect, in time for you to cancel before the new price applies. If you do nothing, the new price applies from your next renewal after the notice period. Existing subscribers on legacy prices remain on their current price until such a notice is given.

16.8 Statutory cancellation (first 14 days). If you are a consumer, you have a 14-day right to cancel a new Subscription from the day it starts. Because plan Credits and App access are made available immediately, the checkout acknowledgement in clause 12.2 applies to the digital content made available to you. If you cancel a new Subscription within 14 days without having given that acknowledgement, or before any Credits or access have been made available to you, you will receive a full refund. In any other case, contact us: where the law entitles you to a refund on cancelling within the 14 days, we will provide it, and we will never refund less than the law requires. On a yearly plan, if you cancel within the 14 days we refund the yearly price less the value of any masters already used, valued at the monthly rate of the same plan.

16.9 Future subscription rules. UK law is introducing additional statutory protections for subscription contracts (including reminder notices and enhanced cancellation rights). When those requirements come into force we will comply with them and update these Terms; nothing in this clause reduces any right you have under the law in force at the time.

16.10 Refunds and what they remove. If we refund a subscription payment in full, that subscription ends and the plan allowance from that payment is withdrawn with it; a partial refund (for example a goodwill gesture) leaves the plan in place. If we refund a Credit purchase, the refunded Credits are removed from your account; Credits already used cannot be refunded. Nothing in this clause limits your statutory rights under clauses 12 and 16.8.

17. Master Rack service standards, availability and acceptable use

17.1 We supply the App and its supporting services with reasonable care and skill. The App depends in part on our servers (account authentication, credit accounting, component delivery). We aim for continuous availability but do not guarantee it: maintenance, updates and events outside our control can interrupt service. Where a consumer has paid for digital content or services affected by a failure on our side, statutory remedies apply and are not excluded by this clause.

17.2 You must not: use the App or services unlawfully; process material you have no rights to; attempt to extract the DQ Signature, models or profiles; interfere with credit accounting; or abuse free preview functionality at a scale designed to avoid paying for exports. We may suspend accounts under clause 31 for breach.

17.3 Supported systems for the App are listed on the product page and form part of the description at purchase.

PART 4 — MIXING, MASTERING AND STUDIO SERVICES

18. How a project starts

18.1 Studio Services are bespoke professional services performed on material you supply. They are arranged through our project system: you enquire or submit a project through the Website (“Start a project” / “Submit your project”), tell us about the work, and where applicable upload files.

18.2 Quotation. Each project is quoted individually. A quotation sets out the scope (for example: stereo mix; stem master; number of tracks), the price, what is included — including any included revisions — and any other project-specific terms. We do not publish standard prices, revision counts or turnaround times, and nothing on the Website is an offer to perform services at a particular price or speed.

18.3 Contract formation. A contract for Studio Services is formed when you accept our quotation (by email, or by any acceptance step our project system provides) and we confirm the engagement. The quotation and these Terms together are the contract; clause 2.3’s order of precedence applies (the quotation prevails for that project).

18.4 Payment. Payment terms, including any deposit, are stated in the quotation. Where a deposit is stated, it becomes payable on acceptance and work is not scheduled until it is received.

19. Your material and your responsibilities

19.1 You will supply the session files, stems, references and instructions described in the quotation, in the formats it specifies. Delays or defects in what you supply may delay the project and, where they require additional work, may need a revised quotation (clause 21.4).

19.2 Keep your own backups. You are responsible for retaining your own master copies of everything you send us. We handle your files carefully, but we are not an archive or a backup service, and clause 23 (file retention) explains when files are deleted.

19.3 Rights clearance — your warranty. You warrant that: you own or control the rights in all material you supply, or have the permission of those who do; you have authority to commission the work; and nothing you supply infringes anyone’s rights, including performers’, writers’, producers’ and sample-clearance rights.

19.3A If you are a business client, you will indemnify us — that is, compensate us in full — for losses, claims, damages and costs (including reasonable legal costs) we incur because that warranty was untrue.

19.3B If you are a consumer, you are responsible for losses we suffer that are a foreseeable result of that warranty being untrue. Nothing in this clause affects your statutory rights.

19.4 If a third party claims that material you supplied infringes their rights, we may pause the project while it is resolved.

20. Confidentiality and unreleased music

20.1 We treat your project — the fact of it, your files, and anything you tell us about it — as confidential. We will not use or disclose it except: to perform the services (including to the engineers and necessary service providers involved); where the law requires disclosure; or with your permission.

20.2 Unreleased music is treated with particular care. We will not play, share, preview, or make available any unreleased material outside the project team, and we will not use your name, your artist name, or the work for marketing, portfolio, showreel or “credits” purposes unless you have expressly agreed in writing. There is no implied promotional licence.

20.3 Our confidentiality obligation continues after the project ends, for as long as the material remains unreleased or the information remains confidential.

20.3A This clause does not apply to information that: (a) is or becomes public other than through our breach; (b) we already lawfully held without a duty of confidence before you disclosed it; or (c) we are required to disclose by law, a regulator or a court — in which case we will, where lawful, tell you before disclosing. We may also disclose confidential information to our professional advisers under equivalent duties of confidence.

20.3B If we become aware of unauthorised access to your confidential material while it is in our systems, we will inform you without undue delay, consistently with our obligations under data protection law and our Privacy Policy.

20.4 Where you and we sign a separate NDA for a project, that NDA prevails over this clause for that project.

21. Doing the work: revisions, changes, delays

21.1 We will perform the services with reasonable care and skill (this is your statutory entitlement under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 for consumers, and a contractual warranty for business clients), in line with the quotation.

21.2 Revisions. The revisions included in your project are as set out in the quotation. Revision rounds address the delivered work against your brief and notes; they are not a change of brief.

21.3 What counts as a new brief. Replacing or re-recording substantial parts of the source material, changing the fundamental direction after a mix is substantially complete, or adding tracks/stems beyond the quoted scope is new work, not a revision, and will be quoted separately. We will always tell you before treating a request as new work.

21.4 Additional work and changes agreed after acceptance are charged as quoted at the time of the change. We will not begin additional charged work without your agreement.

21.5 Delays caused by you (late files, late feedback, unavailable approvals) extend our timelines accordingly. Delays caused by third parties or events outside our reasonable control are handled under clause 33 (events outside our control). Where a stated delivery window exists in the quotation, it runs from receipt of complete, usable source material.

21.6 Defective or incomplete source material. If what you supply turns out to be unusable (corrupt files, missing stems, undisclosed technical problems), we will tell you promptly. Where fixing or working around it goes beyond reasonable checking, that is additional work under clause 21.4, and we will always agree it with you before doing it.

22. Cancelling a Studio Services project

22.1 Your statutory cooling-off right (consumers). When a consumer buys services at a distance (which includes projects arranged online), the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 give a 14-day cancellation period from the day the contract is formed.

22.2 Starting work within the cooling-off period. We only begin work within those 14 days if you expressly request an early start. We will ask you to confirm that request explicitly, in writing (including by email) or through our project system, before work begins.

22.3 If you requested an early start and then cancel within the 14 days, you must pay for the part of the services already performed, in proportion to the total price — and we refund the balance of anything paid. If the services have been fully performed within the period (delivery of the completed work) after your express request and acknowledgement that full performance ends the right to cancel, the right to cancel is lost.

22.4 If we began work within the cooling-off period without your express request, and you cancel within 14 days, you are entitled to cancel without paying for work done. (This is why clause 22.2’s mechanism matters.)

22.5 Cancellation after the cooling-off period (or by business clients at any time): you may cancel a project at any point by telling us. You remain liable for the value of work already performed and costs reasonably incurred and not recoverable, as set out in the quotation’s payment schedule; any deposit is applied against that liability. Amounts paid beyond that liability are returned.

22.6 Cancellation by us. We may cancel a project if you fundamentally breach the contract (including clause 19.3), if required payments are not made, or if continuing would be unlawful. We will return any payment that exceeds the value of work performed and committed costs.

23. Delivery, approval, and your files

23.1 Delivery. Completed work is delivered in the formats stated in the quotation (for mixes, typically final mix plus master-ready bounce and any agreed alternate versions such as clean, instrumental or radio edits — as quoted).

23.2 Approval. You review the delivered work and either approve it or request your included revisions. The project completes when you approve the final files, or when the included revisions are exhausted and the work conforms in all material respects to the quotation and the references and instructions you supplied, assessed reasonably. Any dispute about conformity is handled through clause 34 (complaints). We do not deem work approved by silence alone.

23.3 Final files. On completion and payment in full, we deliver the final files. All delivered files should be checked and backed up by you promptly (clause 23.5).

23.4 File retention — 60 days. We keep your uploaded audio and project files for 60 days after final delivery, then delete them, unless (a) you and we have agreed longer retention in writing as a documented arrangement, or (b) a dispute, legal or accounting requirement means specific material must be kept longer. Within the 60 days we can re-deliver files on request. After deletion, re-delivery is impossible — your backups are the only copies. (Business-record information about the project — orders, invoices, correspondence — is retained per our Privacy Policy.)

23.5 We are not liable for loss of files after the retention period ends, or for loss of material you failed to back up, except where the loss was caused by our failure to exercise reasonable care and skill during the engagement.

24. Intellectual property in Studio Services work

24.1 Your material stays yours. You retain all rights in the recordings, compositions and other material you supply.

24.2 The delivered work is yours once paid for. Until payment in full, delivered files (including previews and revision versions) are licensed to you solely for review and approval, and may not be released, distributed or otherwise commercially exploited. On payment in full for a project, all rights we hold in the delivered mixes, masters and alternate versions created for you are assigned to you (or, where any element cannot be assigned, licensed to you exclusively, irrevocably and without further fee) so that you can exploit the delivered work commercially without restriction.

24.3 What stays ours. Our working methods, session templates, chains, presets, tools and know-how — including anything we developed to carry out your project that is not itself your material or the delivered work — remain ours, and we may use them freely in other work.

24.4 Credit. Neither party is obliged to credit the other publicly; clause 20.2 governs any promotional use by us.

PART 5 — PAYMENTS, REFUNDS, CANCELLATION AND CHARGEBACKS

25. Failed or incorrect delivery (all products)

25.1 If anything we deliver — a download, key, Credit, or project file — never arrives, arrives incomplete, or is not what you ordered, tell us. We will re-deliver promptly at no cost. If we cannot deliver a working version of what you paid for within a reasonable time, you are entitled to a refund of the affected item. Duplicate purchases and double charges are refunded in full (clause 26.2).

26. Refunds

26.1 Our commercial policy is that we do not offer discretionary (“change of mind”) refunds on Plugins, Credits, Subscriptions or completed bespoke Studio Services. The free Demos exist so you can fully test a Plugin before paying, and the App’s free preview exists so you can hear a master before spending a Credit. This policy operates subject to everything below, none of which can be excluded:

1. Faulty or misdescribed digital content — statutory remedies apply in full (clause 11): repair/replacement, then price reduction up to a full refund;
2. Services not performed with reasonable care and skill — statutory remedies apply: re-performance, or where that is impossible or not done in reasonable time, an appropriate price reduction (Consumer Rights Act 2015, s.49 and s.55–56);
3. Statutory cancellation rights that survive (clauses 12.4, 16.8 and 22.1–22.4) — refunds as the law requires, including proportionate refunds where an early-started service is cancelled mid-period;
4. Failed or incorrect delivery (clause 25);
5. Duplicate purchases and double charges (clause 26.2).

26.2 We refund in full, on request within a reasonable time, where: you were charged twice for the same order; you bought a product you had already bought from us (same product, same account) by accident; or your key/download could never be delivered in working form.

26.3 Accidental purchases other than duplicates (wrong plugin, wrong plan) are not automatically refundable once digital content has been supplied under the clause 12.2 acknowledgement — check carefully before buying, and use the Demos. If you contact us promptly and the content is genuinely unused, tell us anyway: we will consider it in good faith, entirely at our discretion and without any obligation to refund.

26.4 How refunds are paid. Agreed refunds are processed within 14 days and paid to the original payment method only. Bank processing can add up to 10 working days.

26.5 Effect on licences and Credits. When a purchase is refunded, the licence or Credits from that purchase end at the moment of refund: keys from that order must no longer be used (clause 7.9), and unused Credits from that order are cancelled. If the licensing system does not immediately reflect this, clause 7.9 still applies.

26.6 To ask for a refund, email mgmt@deadquiet.studio with your order number, the email used at checkout, and what went wrong.

27. Chargebacks and fraud

27.1 If something has gone wrong, contact us first — nearly every problem is resolved by email far faster than a card dispute, and clause 26 sets out exactly when refunds are due.

27.2 Raising a payment dispute is your right and is not itself a breach of these Terms; nothing in this clause limits it, and this clause applies only where an order was validly placed and correctly delivered. If such a chargeback succeeds, or is pending while you keep the benefit of the purchase:

1. the licence, Credits or access from that order end contractually (clauses 7.9 and 26.5), and continued use of a Plugin or the App under that order is unlicensed;
2. we may suspend the account concerned under clause 31 while the dispute is open;
3. we may recover, as a debt, amounts you owe for what you bought and have kept the benefit of, together with costs reasonably incurred.

27.3 Fraud. Where an order is fraudulent (stolen payment details, identity fraud, systematic abuse of demos, credits or refunds), we may cancel it and all associated access immediately, without the notice periods above, and may report the matter to payment providers and authorities.

PART 6 — INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND CONFIDENTIALITY

28. Intellectual property

28.1 Everything we create and own stays ours. The Plugins and the App — including their code, signal processing, interfaces, presets, profiles and documentation — the DQ Signature, our trade marks, logos and branding, and the Content of the Website are and remain the intellectual property of Dead Quiet or its licensors (clauses 7.11, 13.2 and 30.3). Buying a product gives you a licence to use it on the terms of these Terms; it never transfers ownership of the software or any of our intellectual property.

28.2 Everything you create and own stays yours. Your music, recordings, stems and other material remain yours (clauses 7.6 and 13.3), and the work we deliver for a Studio Services project becomes yours on payment in full (clause 24.2).

28.3 No rights are granted by implication. The only rights either of us receives are those set out in these Terms and, for a project, the quotation.

28.4 Confidentiality of client material, including unreleased music, is governed by clause 20.

PART 7 — ACCOUNTS, WEBSITE AND ACCEPTABLE USE

29. Your account

29.1 Some purchases (for example App access and Subscriptions) need an account. You agree to give accurate details, keep your password and licence keys secure, and tell us promptly if you think your account or a key has been compromised — we will re-issue a compromised key (clause 7.10).

29.2 You are responsible for activity under your account unless it results from our failure to keep it secure. We may suspend an account as set out in clause 31.

30. The Website

30.1 We aim to keep the Website available and accurate, but it is provided free of charge and we do not guarantee it will be uninterrupted or error-free. We may suspend or withdraw parts of it for maintenance or business reasons. This clause does not reduce our obligations for anything you have bought.

30.2 You must not misuse the Website: no attempting to gain unauthorised access, no interfering with its operation, no scraping at a scale that degrades it, and no introducing malicious code. We may block access to protect the service and other customers.

30.3 Content on the Website (text, images, audio examples, branding, page code) belongs to us or our licensors. You may browse and make personal, non-commercial use of it; you may not republish or exploit it without our permission.

30.4 The Website may link to or embed third-party services (for example our project-submission system, payment providers, or social platforms). Those services have their own terms, and we are not responsible for them, though our own obligations to you under these Terms are unaffected.

31. Suspension and termination of accounts and access

31.1 We may suspend or restrict your account, licences or access, after notice to you where practicable, if: you seriously or repeatedly breach these Terms (including clause 7.7); we reasonably suspect fraud, abuse, or unlawful use; required payments have failed and remain unpaid (clause 16.6); or we are required to by law or a payment provider.

31.2 Suspension is proportionate: we restore access promptly when the reason is resolved. Where a breach is remediable we will tell you what needs putting right before we terminate.

31.3 Termination for serious breach ends the licences and access concerned (clause 7.8). Termination does not affect accrued rights, and clauses intended to survive (licence restrictions, confidentiality, IP, liability, general provisions) survive.

31.4 If we terminate wrongly, your remedies are preserved; consumers’ statutory rights are unaffected.

PART 8 — LIABILITY AND LEGAL PROTECTIONS

32. Our responsibility to you (liability)

32.1 What we never exclude. Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits our liability for: death or personal injury caused by our negligence; fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; and any other liability that cannot be excluded or limited by the law of England and Wales (including, for consumers, liability under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 for digital content and services, and under the Consumer Protection Act 1987).

32.2 If you are a consumer. We are responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of our breach of these Terms or our failure to use reasonable care and skill. We are not responsible for loss that is not foreseeable (neither of us could have expected it when the contract was made). We supply everything for private/domestic and professional-creative use as described; if you use it in ways we could not reasonably anticipate, losses from that use are not foreseeable. We are not liable to consumers for business losses such as loss of profit, loss of business or business interruption, except where the purchase was plainly made for professional use within the contract’s contemplation.

32.3 If you are a business customer. Subject to clause 32.1: (a) we exclude all liability for loss of profits, loss of revenue, loss of business or contracts, loss of anticipated savings, loss of opportunity, loss of goodwill or reputation, and loss or corruption of data (including audio), in each case whether direct or indirect; (b) we exclude all indirect and consequential loss; and (c) our total aggregate liability to you in connection with any product or engagement is capped at the amounts you paid us for that product or engagement in the 12 months before the event giving rise to the claim. The implied terms of ss.13–15 Sale of Goods Act 1979 and ss.3–5 Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 are excluded to the extent permitted; the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 reasonableness standard applies to this clause. The cap and exclusions in this clause 32.3 limit our liability only: they do not limit your payment obligations, or your liability under clause 7.7 (licence restrictions), clause 19.3/19.3A (rights warranty) or clause 20 (confidentiality, as it applies to you).

32.4 Things we specifically do not promise (within the limits of clauses 32.1–32.3): that Plugins or the App will be compatible with third-party DAWs, plugins, operating systems or hardware beyond the stated supported systems; that third-party services (hosting, payment, delivery networks, app-store or platform services) will be uninterrupted; that the Website will always be available; or that files you failed to back up can be recovered. Masters and mixes are creative work checked by you before release: you are responsible for final checks of any file before you distribute it commercially.

32.5 Your data and files. Beyond our confidentiality and retention obligations (clauses 20 and 23.4) and our duty to use reasonable care and skill, you are responsible for backups of your own material (clauses 13.3, 19.2 and 23.5).

33. Events outside our control (force majeure)

33.1 We are not in breach of these Terms, and are not liable, for failure or delay caused by events outside our reasonable control — including power or internet failure, hosting or platform outages, payment-network failures, fire, flood, epidemic, industrial action, war, civil unrest, or acts of authorities. We will tell you if such an event materially affects your order or project, take reasonable steps to minimise the effect, and restart performance when it ends. If the event continues so long that the purpose of your order is defeated, either of us may cancel the affected order and we will refund payments for anything not supplied. Consumers’ statutory rights are unaffected.

PART 9 — GENERAL LEGAL PROVISIONS

34. Complaints

34.1 If you are unhappy with anything, email mgmt@deadquiet.studio with “Complaint” in the subject and your order or project reference. We will acknowledge it, investigate, and respond with a substantive answer or a timetable. We handle complaints in good faith and aim to resolve them without formality.

34.2 If you are a UK consumer and we cannot resolve a dispute, you can get free advice from Citizens Advice. We are not required to use, and have not signed up to, an alternative dispute resolution scheme; clause 36 sets out where legal proceedings may be brought.

35. Other important terms

35.1 Changes to these Terms. We may update these Terms from time to time. The version on the Website when you place an order applies to that order. For Subscriptions and other continuing relationships, we will give notice by email of changes that materially affect you, in time for you to cancel before they take effect; continued use after that notice period is acceptance of the updated Terms.

35.2 Severability. Each clause operates separately. If any court or authority finds any clause (or part) unlawful or unenforceable, the rest remain in force, and the offending part is treated as modified to the minimum extent needed to make it lawful.

35.3 Entire agreement. For business customers, these Terms and the applicable quotation are the entire agreement, and each party confirms it has not relied on any statement not set out in them (nothing in this clause limits liability for fraud). For consumers, this clause does not limit any right you have in respect of things we told you before purchase — information we gave you about the main characteristics of what you bought forms part of the contract by law.

35.4 Assignment. We may transfer our rights and obligations under these Terms to another organisation (for example on a sale of the business); we will tell you and your rights are not reduced. You may not transfer your rights or licences without our written agreement (see clause 7.7(a)).

35.5 Third-party rights. These Terms are between you and us. No one else has rights under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999, except that Dead Quiet’s group companies, engineers and personnel may rely on the protections in clauses 20, 30 and 31.

35.6 Waiver. If we delay enforcing any part of these Terms, we can still enforce it later.

36. Governing law and jurisdiction

36.1 These Terms are governed by the law of England and Wales.

36.2 Legal proceedings may be brought in the courts of England and Wales. If you are a consumer living in Scotland or Northern Ireland you may also bring proceedings in your local courts, and if you live elsewhere you keep the benefit of any mandatory consumer protections and forum rights of the country where you live.

SCHEDULE 1 — PRODUCT KEY FACTS

(Prices shown are current at the Last-updated date above and are provided for information; the price at checkout applies. Demo capabilities are as described on each product page.)

SCHEDULE 2 — MODEL CANCELLATION FORM

(Required by the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 for cancellations where a right to cancel exists.)

To: Dead Quiet Studio Ltd, Unit 18 Gateway, 1000 Whittle Way, Arlington Business Park, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, SG1 2FP — mgmt@deadquiet.studio

I/We [*] hereby give notice that I/We [*] cancel my/our [*] contract for the supply of the following service [*]/digital content [*]: ______ Ordered on [*]/received on [*]: ______ Name of consumer(s): ______ Address of consumer(s): ______ Signature (only if this form is notified on paper): ______ Date: ______ [*] Delete as appropriate.

SCHEDULE 3 — REFUND RULES AT A GLANCE

(Summary only; clauses 11, 12, 22, 25 and 26 govern.)

SCHEDULE 4 — DEFINITIONS

In these Terms: “App” — the DQ Master Rack desktop application. “Business customer” / “business client” — anyone who is not a consumer (clause 3.1). “Consumer” — an individual buying wholly or mainly outside their trade, business, craft or profession. “Content” — text, images, audio, video, code and other material on the Website. “Contract” — the contract formed under clause 4.3 (purchases) or clause 18.3 (Studio Services). “Credits” — DQ Master Rack export credits (clause 14). “Customer”, “you” — the person or business contracting with Dead Quiet. “Dead Quiet”, “Company”, “we” — Dead Quiet Studio Ltd. “Delivery” — for digital content, the making available of the download and/or licence key (clause 9.1); for Studio Services, delivery of files under clause 23.1. “Demo” — a free evaluation version of a Plugin (clause 8). “Digital Product” — any Plugin, Credit, App access, licence key or other digital content we supply. “DQ Master Rack” — the App together with Credits and Subscriptions (Part 3). “Final Delivery” — delivery of the final files under clause 23.3, which starts the 60-day retention period (clause 23.4). “Intellectual Property Rights” — copyright, database rights, design rights, trade marks, patents, know-how, and all similar rights anywhere in the world, registered or not, including applications. “Licence” — the licence granted under clause 7 (Plugins) or clause 13 (App). “Licence Key” — the alphanumeric key issued for a Plugin purchase. “Mixing”, “Mastering” — the bespoke audio services described in Part 4. “Order” — an order placed through the Website checkout. “Plugin” — an audio software product listed in Schedule 1 (other than the App). “Project Files” / “Audio Files” — sessions, stems, references, audio and other material a client supplies for Studio Services. “Studio Services” / “Services” — mixing, mastering, production and related services (Part 4). “Subscription” — a DQ Master Rack monthly plan (clause 16). “Website” — deadquiet.studio. Headings are for convenience; “including” means “including without limitation”; the singular includes the plural.

SCHEDULE 5 — PRIVACY, DATA AND FILE-RETENTION CROSS-REFERENCES

1. Personal information: governed by the Privacy Policy (deadquiet.studio/privacy-policy/), including cookie/consent choices, processors, and personal-data retention. These Terms do not restate it.
2. Client Project Files and Audio Files: kept for 60 days after Final Delivery, then deleted, per clause 23.4 (business policy; longer only by documented written arrangement or where a dispute/legal/accounting requirement applies).
3. Order, licence and accounting records: retained in line with the Privacy Policy’s stated periods (approximately six years where required for accounting/legal purposes — a business-policy statement aligned to record-keeping obligations, not a claim of statutory minimum for any specific record).
4. Confidential material and security incidents: clause 20 (including 20.3B) operates alongside, and does not reduce, our data-protection obligations.
5. Consent architecture (cookie banner, marketing-tracker blocking): described in the Privacy Policy; it is not varied by these Terms.

Mastering Services

The following terms apply to all mastering orders placed through deadquiet.studio. By placing an order and ticking the confirmation box you accept these terms in addition to our general Terms & Conditions.

1. Orders and payment. All mastering prices are in GBP and exclusive of VAT; VAT is added at checkout where applicable. Payment is taken in full at the time of order. An order is only confirmed once payment has cleared, and work begins only after cleared payment and receipt of correctly prepared files.
2. Your files. You must supply correctly prepared audio — appropriate headroom, no clipping or limiting on the master bus unless requested, correct sample rate and bit depth, and, for stem masters, correctly labelled and time-aligned stems. Download links must stay live for at least 14 days. Delays, additional work or re-exports caused by incorrect, missing, late or mislabelled files are your responsibility and may incur additional charges and a longer turnaround.
3. Turnaround. Stated turnaround times are estimates that begin on receipt of correct files and cleared payment, and exclude weekends and public holidays. Express (48 hour) and priority (24 hour) options are targets; Dead Quiet is not liable for delays outside its reasonable control.
4. Revisions. Each master includes one (1) free revision, requested within 7 days of delivery and relating to the original mix supplied. A new, altered or re-exported mix is treated as a new master and charged accordingly. Further revisions are chargeable at our standard rate.
5. Rights and indemnity. You confirm that you own, or are fully licensed to use, all material you submit, and you indemnify Dead Quiet against any third-party claim arising from the material or its use. Dead Quiet may decline any material at its discretion.
6. Refunds. Mastering is a bespoke digital service produced specifically for you and begun on order. Once work has commenced, payments are non-refundable. This does not affect your statutory rights where they apply.
7. Delivery, archiving and backups. Masters are delivered digitally. Dead Quiet is not a backup service; project files and masters may be deleted after the archiving period selected at order (or our standard period where none is selected). You are responsible for keeping your own copies.
8. Engineer allocation. Where “next available” is selected, Dead Quiet assigns the engineer. Specific-engineer requests are accommodated where possible but are not guaranteed; if your chosen engineer is unavailable we will offer an alternative engineer or a revised timeframe.
9. Use of work. Delivery is conditional on full cleared payment, and Dead Quiet may withhold masters until payment is received. Dead Quiet may reference completed work in its portfolio and credits unless you ask us not to in writing.
10. Liability. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Dead Quiet’s total liability for any order is limited to the amount paid for that order, and Dead Quiet is not liable for any indirect or consequential loss.