Automatic Audio Mastering Systems...

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I listened to part of one of your songs and I have to say that it wasn't pleasant. There were mix issues that can't be fixed in mastering. One of the things automated mastering can't do is send the mix back with suggestions. That alone makes pro mastering a valuable service.

You say you can't afford to pay a mastering engineer because you won't sell enough to make it worthwhile. I agree, but then you won't sell much until it sounds better. That's going to have to start with your mixing. Once you have that sorted you'll be in a good position to master your own mixes. There are people here who can help you get better at both with suggestions or by mixing or mastering some of your songs for you.

The one thing you'll need is a good mastering limiter. The rest of the stuff you can do well enough with a decent eq and one or two other basic plugins. The better the mix the less processing it needs in mastering. So post some mixes in the mp3 clinic, listen to the advice and start saving for that limiter.
 
Sorry you dislike my music and mixes, but the mixes can't be changed without redoing the whole song. These are very old recordings and the master tracks are long gone. I maybe could apply some EQ and compression, but I'm not going to. They have already been released to Tunecore, iTunes, and about 36 other stores, pulling them back in now would be a major headache. I've listened to these tracks and am satisfied that they are good enough for me. If you don't like them, well that's just too bad. Luckily there's people in this world that don't adhere to your standards. And no, I'm not saving up for a limiter. And no I don't want somebody sending my mix back with suggestions. That's a good thing about the LANDR program. You don't have some snooty engineer trashing your music. Back in the day, snooty record companies told the Beatles they weren't good enough to make it. Did ya see what happened ??
 
You remind of a guy I used to work with. He had a P.A. system and thought he knew it all about music. He used to run sound for bands and sometimes played drums. Then he ran sound for me a few times. He kept telling me how much I sucked. Never had an encouraging word. Well I landed a gig playing for about 5,000 people, 5 times over a three day music festival. We offered to let his band play there but he refused. I got standing ovations. I came back and told him about it and he just kept bad mouthing me. We're no longer friends. I can't stand being around the guy. He's got such a negative attitude. So abusive. Nothing I could do would ever please him. All I can say is good riddance. You don't like my music ?? Fine, good bye.
 
Martin, you seem to be a little hard-headed about this whole thing, when it seems people are only trying to help you. If you find all these 'automated mastering' things work for you, great, but comparing to Ozone isn't the way to impress anyone - Ozone gets panned by a lot of people because it (like the others) uses presets.
I'm no mixing/mastering whiz, that's for sure, but after many years here - listening to others' mixes, getting comments and suggestions on mine, I'm improving - that's what we are here for, to improve, not just to show off (well, some of us, anyway.)

It's a mystery to me why you would NOT want to give us 'before' and 'after' mixes to listen to - the only one I found in this thread was that excerpt of Stairway to Heaven, and the only thing I could hear in the 'mastered' version was that it was louder. The Down By The River excerpt? Not recorded too well, as far as I could tell, muddy low mids and no crispness on the guitar (of course that could be the guitar or the recording). Can't listen to the iTunes stuff - using new computer, d/l-ed all the itunes crap and it still doesn't do anything (that's why I hate iTunes and never use it).
 
Martin Maniac said:
Sorry you dislike my music and mixes, but the mixes can't be changed without redoing the whole song. These are very old recordings and the master tracks are long gone.
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I didn't say anything about your music, and I didn't know you couldn't remix. I made an honest effort to help but you seem determined to ignore any help, perhaps because you're hurt that the response to your "good news" about automatic mastering wasn't positive. Whatever. I'm done. Good luck, you're going to need it.
 
Mastering is an art in itself. Thru the use of components one is able to create the best possible mix for each song provided the source was recorded good . If one lets a softawre program do this what has one learned ? I am always learning and thru the use of individual components we are able to get the best possible frequencies to work together . It takes time to lean this .
Just my take on all this . Comments ?
Bug
 
Martin Maniac said:
Another thing to consider is what am I going to do with my tracks ?? At this time, upload them to Tunecore then iTunes. Keep in mind, iTunes has 26 million songs posted, the likelihood of me recouping my investment in songs is highly unlikely with that much competition. I may sell a few downloads or streams, but probably won't add up to much. So I have to look at this more as a hobby than a business. Spending $50-$100 per song for mastering just doesn't make any sense to me.
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Whoa. I'm real late and just scanned the posts.
This is a 'service you pay for where you up load ...and what, presumable pick a preset, (or genre'?) ..and it applies it?

If that is the case.. I hope it isn't :o
I would offer- there's one huge difference re 'getting your moneys worth, there vs any other mastering' suite, or a few plugins to do the same.

That is: You lean, you get better, you get to dial your songs in.. based on what a each song needs!
All for the same '$50' bucks!
 
Yes I'm being hard headed about it...this is why...here are my options...

I have 5 songs to work on. Going to a mastering service would cost me about $50-$100 per song, that adds up to $250-$500 bucks just for mastering...ain't gonna happen.

Buy the Ozone program, $250 bucks for the standard version $450 for the advanced version. Learn how to use it. ain't gonna happen.

Master my own tracks with Adobe Audition CS6, which by the way includes an iZotope Multi-Band Compressor. I like the iZotope compressor and have used it many times. Audition has a limiter, stereo enhancement, normalizer and many EQ presets to chose from...I've tried this and get mixed results.

I tried the AAMS mastering system and it works okay on some tracks but not all.

I tried the LANDR mastering system and it works best of all, most of the finished tracks sound good enough to my ears and sounds way better than anything I got from doing it myself. There were a couple of tunes that didn't come out well. Plus it's very time saving. I get my tracks right away and was able to proceed to the next step which is posting them for sale. With TuneCore, my tracks are now listed for sale at 37 different internet stores including Amazon, You Tube, iTunes and a whole bunch more. My tunes are also available worldwide thru iTunes. The LANDR system cost me $40 bucks for a year's worth of service. TuneCore cost $9.99 per song for a year.

It's simple mathematics...my budget only allows for the LANDR system at this time. I'm getting very good results with it. Very acceptable to me.

I don't post many A/B tests because I don't want to bore you with my songs. I make many tests using the same tracks over and over again. I'd drive you nuts if I kept posting the same tracks over and over again, with minor differences between each track. So like I've said if you want a A/B sample, go to the LANDR website and upload one of your own tracks that you are familiar with, and see the results for yourself. You can then volume match your track to your heart's content. The first two tracks are free. Doesn't cost you a dime.
 
mixsit said:
Sound like you already have the tools you need.
= zero $ bucks- not '$250'.
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Yes I have many tools and have tried using them. I get mixed results. My volumes are all over the place. My EQ isn't quite right, Compression helps. I've gotten scolded for using the Normalizer. Same with Aural Exciter. Soooo I tried LANDR and came up with a happy end product. My music seems to be glued together better than I could do myself. It sounds like a finished product to me. Of course I can go back and mess around with the tools in Audition for the next ten years and still not get a finalized mix that I'm happy with. With LANDR, my songs sound finished, and I can move on to the next step.
 
If you are interested, send me an unmastered track and let me give it a go. You may mostly need a really good limiter at the end of your chain.

PM me for email if you care to give it a shot.
 
Thanks but no thanks. I'm done with these tracks. Time to let them go. They are as good as they are going to get, and can't change them. It's time to move on to writing new songs & recordings.
 
After some research, I found that LANDR searches a database for similar genre songs based on the EQ and waveform of your uploaded track... so, here are your options:

1) use a human to make instinctual, reasoned, and/or emotional decisions to fine tune your music
2) use an algorithm to try and make it sound like something else

that's really all it comes down to. those are your choices. there is nothing more "personal" in the second option than "maybe your track is supposed to sound like THIS..." and then it applies effects to shape the EQ and wf. But it isn't listening to the individual elements of that track, and how they all work together, and, most importantly, it can't ask "does this sound good?"

but hey, you must already know that.
 
I think we should just let this go. :)

The op is both happy AND defensive.

Not a good combo IMHO

:D

Edit: If I was a mod, I'd just close this thread.........but then again, I'm not a mod..........Thank God!
 
Martin Maniac said:
Thanks but no thanks. I'm done with these tracks. Time to let them go. They are as good as they are going to get, and can't change them. It's time to move on to writing new songs & recordings.
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That's cool. You are content with not learning and just wish to play. I enjoy working with and also making money from great people that feel the way you do. All good man. Just offered to help if you wished for it.

:)
 
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