I Am Really Curious About...

SubFunk · Post by **SubFunk** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 2:29 pm

hi guys, sorry once again the beloved subject of Audio MASTERING.

i am really curious about how many of you actually ever had a track professionally mastered.

what i concrete mean is, did you made a track yourself, including the whole production process and then gave it to a PROFESSIONAL MASTERING service to be polished and enhanced for a release.

and i DON'T mean, i know a friend who, blah, blah... or ANY kind of hometweaking, no matter how good it was!
i mean that you gave it away to a pro mastering facility and paid (good) money for it.

all those who fall into that category...

1, did you feelt that it was well worth taking that step and a serious improvement of your work?

2, did you where disappointed, and thought, damn i could have easy done that myself.

thanks.

and please guys be honest, don't submit positive if you never actually had the experience!

elektrovert · Post by **elektrovert** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 2:47 pm

give it a go.
get one track masterd and see how it turns out.
it's not THAT expensive to get done.

I haven't done it professionally myself but I did buy a Focusrite Mixmaster Platinum to master my own tracks and I have to say it was worth every penny.
with in a week of playing around with it my tracks sounded 100% better.
so I'd say yes it is worth getting it done professionally and yes you could probably do a reasonibly good job yourself.

Having seen the results I can get by investing a few hundred quid on some mastering hardware I'd imagine that someone who does it professionally and has serious pro equipment can do astounding work!

Mastering is an art form in it's own right.
I've no doubt you'll be pleased with the results if you get it done professionally.

It's also worth considering getting an album mastered as a whole rather than getting tracks done one by one, as the mastering of a track will depend on it's context within the album.
no harm getting one done just to see what you think though.

SubFunk · Post by **SubFunk** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 6:13 pm

hhhmmm.... keeping all the discussions about *mastering* in mind, that's a rather interesting result so far... please, keep it coming...

spiderprod · Post by **spiderprod** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 6:21 pm

i am trying my first mastering in live ,i have done a compilation using wavelab & i am trying to do the same job in live & see what comes up .

AdamJay · Post by **AdamJay** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 6:35 pm

one name comes to mind....

NILZ.

Angstrom · Post by **Angstrom** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 6:37 pm

I dont know what to press in that poll, I've had mastering that I wasn't that happy with because I thought the engineer was being paid to fuck it up he was so weird. There's backstory there though.

I've also had mastering done that was really exceptional.

if the engineer isn't out to get you it's generally good!

Moody · Post by **Moody** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 6:40 pm

AdamJay wrote:one name comes to mind....

NILZ.

SubFunk · Post by **SubFunk** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 6:42 pm

NILZ.

yupp. and many more... who do know their job!

AdamJay · Post by **AdamJay** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 6:46 pm

The Davie guys were pretty good too, if you were on a budget.
but if its a big record, have Nilz do it.

http://www.exchangemastering.co.uk/ for those who aren't familiar

djadonis206 · Post by **djadonis206** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 6:55 pm

AdamJay wrote:one name comes to mind....

NILZ.

That little section between the label and the grooves means a lot!

I have been getting some proper shit though, not done through the exchange

back in the late 90's I would hardly buy anything that wasn't done @ The Exchange (you could tell) but now a lot of stuff is sounding good - but The Exchange is the best!

ad

SubFunk · Post by **SubFunk** » Mon Feb 20, 2006 7:03 pm

hugh, i consider this a fine selection of people with good ears.

the result, again so far... brings back hope to the local intelligence. and shurely speaks for itself.

keep it coming.

spiderprod · Post by **spiderprod** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 12:16 pm

spiderprod wrote:i am trying my first mastering in live ,i have done a compilation using wavelab & i am trying to do the same job in live & see what comes up .

he he he , just finished the job ,i never tought i could get such a good result in live , i had to finish the job in wavelab but it was easier using live , at least in live i didn't have to go back & foward to compare the work & instead of applying fx on selected parts i used the automation to do it in one go .
definitely a route i might consider in the futur .

jahnlay · Post by **jahnlay** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 1:13 pm

I'm a professional mastering engineer. My advice, definitely take it to the best mastering studio you can afford, it's infinitely worth it. You get a fresh pair of ears to figure out what the track needs and someone who's working with similar stuff to yours on a day to day basis. It makes the world of difference.

SubFunk · Post by **SubFunk** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 4:34 pm

jahnlay wrote:

I'm a professional mastering engineer. My advice, definitely take it to the best mastering studio you can afford, it's infinitely worth it. You get a fresh pair of ears to figure out what the track needs and someone who's working with similar stuff to yours on a day to day basis. It makes the world of difference.

thanks jahnlay you are sooo... RIGHT!!!

and thanks for bringing up one very important part of the *mastering chain*

jahnlay wrote:

You get a fresh pair of ears to figure out what the track needs...

this fact is so often not understood, but so important and vital for mastering, that's why hardly any serious mastering engineer masters his own stuff!!!

a second set of ears is one of the key points of many others in the chain!!!

I Am Really Curious About...

did you ever had mastered your tracks professionally?

I Am Really Curious About...