Mastering engineer conning me?

Jimmy just sent me a message about business on facebook chat.

Jimmy, would you be so kind as to post a link to your facebook business page which is, presumably, the only place you conduct business?
I'll save him the trouble. He doesn't have one.

To assume he does would be a leap and to admit that would, apparently, kill you.

Sure man. My FB business page is called 'about blank'. Sometimes seen as '404 Not Found'.

No website for me. Don't need one for either of my businesses. I am listed on a referral site that keeps me (remodel business) constantly busy.

Most of my studio related communications are done via FB Messenger. Email for the bathroom stuff.

I do not have the time nor desire to talk on the phone unless there is good reason for a phone chat. I would surely never do business with clients that did not contact me via email first. In fact, I ask that to be the only means of contact. Phone calls from anyone who has not previously emailed me are ignored.

My friends and studio clients pretty much always communicate via FB Messenger. I consider my studio clients friends so...





And my government doesn't give a shit about what I do so bet they not reading anything I text.... :)
 
Guy

To the OP...
If you're still reading this thread...
How you choose to communicate is of little consequence so I'm not sure why the thread turned into a brawl about medium of exchange.
Just do your homework. Different services that stream audio have different submission requirements and standards. Know what they are before submission. Lossy conversions like MP3 and AAC will require more headroom to avoid intersample clipping.
Communication is a great thing no matter how you choose to do it. Knowlege is paramount.
 
No, he isn't.
Why don't you ask him to send you an email explaining the reasons for his assertion.
 
FB messenger is just another communication tool. The issue was a failure to communicate regardless of the tool.

On to the level issue, it's probably not just the headroom. People still like to have their CDs "competitive" with other CDs but YouTube and others have changed the game for online (thank goodness). The ME was probably feeling he could have provided a less loud master if he'd known/asked.
 
I never get a mp3 I like right off the bat : ) I post a mp3 and check it out and I'm going NO, NO. That's the mp3, as I go back and give my file a spin and wonder how that happened
 
OMG. I am ROFLMAO at this thread. I feel bad for the OP, probably scared him away!

BTW - NLP programs sift through millions of documents a day "reading" them, so yeah... super possible. I have no idea if the "government" is doing that - but they could.
 
Well, it is digital processing, foremost. Like our ADC process. You build something to extract something you can work with.
 
"Too loud" = definitely not peak level. Loudness to an ME is a function of average level (which isn't always exactly the RMS level of the signal).
 
"Too loud" = definitely not peak level. Loudness to an ME is a function of average level (which isn't always exactly the RMS level of the signal).

That's your personal interpretation, not a technical fact. One reason this thread went so long is poor communication by the ME that caused the confusion, but it makes sense that he meant peak volume since it is a technical fact that converting to a lossy format will typically raise peak levels requiring a reduction of peaks ahead of conversion. This is the most reasonable interpretation.
 
... and actually can't stop laughing at it.

Kinda like my reaction to people using FB for their business presence. :)

It's like the difference between a doing business at a flea market...and having a dedicated store.
You tell me who comes off as the more professional biz. ;)
 
Cd baby doesn't change your audio files in terms of reducing gain. They take your 16-bit masters and convert them to mp3 for their store. They also send your masters off to iTunes and whatever other places you choose.

I'm not a Pro Mastering Engineer, but I do my own mastering now out of what is probably some sort of existential idiocy. But I have learned some things.

"Too" loud" for mp3 is having so little dynamic range that when you approach Full scale, it'll clip like crazy after conversion. When I mastered my last album, I decided to master it as if it was going through Mastered for iTunes (roughly). I settled on a peak level of -1dBFS. There was still a couple of clipping samples at low quality conversion settings, but I figured it was worth the tradeoff since everything sounds bad at 128kbps.

Pitting my music against other music in iTunes and Spotify, I noticed that it's all pretty well the same volume. Same with Youtube. In fact, youtube is SUPER quiet on all material compared with everything else.

[RANT]
CDs are basically non existent for me. In fact I never listen to CDs. I've long ripped my old collection of CDs to HQ mp3. It's good enough to my ears, even though the Rips are noticeably sonically different when A/B'd to the CD, the rips still sound excellent, and that's what matters.

Mastering for CD, in my opinion, is over. With CD, it was the data quality that mattered. But data compression has gotten really good, and Social sites like Spotify, Sound Cloud and YouTube are the cat's meow for music - especially since you can play in "HD" modes, with like 48khz 24-bit quality ... streaming. That's insane! Why bother with CDs anymore, other than to wish for a bygone time when "things were so much better [quality]"?

We said the same thing about Vinyl. It was so much better than CD. And now CD is so much better than compressed audio. Next it will be compressed audio was so much better than whatever the next new data standard will be. But the fact is, the whole thing is about experiences. If you want the experience of vinyl, that's one thing. Social music and playlist building is another experience - totally different from the individualized vinyl experience. When mp3 was first hitting the scene, it had a big quality problem. But that is all but resolved (I think). When I listen to Spotify on the High Quality setting, there are no artifacts that I can hear. And I dare say that Spotify and YouTube are forces which will very soon need to be reckoned with.

In Canada, the last major CD chain, HMV, is finished. Bankrupt. That's a tell.

[/RANT]
 
Haha. Mirsolva help people, knows his stuff, and is a good contributor, but this post is hilarious. I lol'd and actually can't stop laughing at it.

Which post? You did just quote another member's reply to one of Miro's post without... Nevermind....

Back on topic. Sorry.
 
Kinda like my reaction to people using FB for their business presence. :)

It's like the difference between a doing business at a flea market...and having a dedicated store.
You tell me who comes off as the more professional biz. ;)

I feel there is a disconnect from the way some business owners do business.

If you consider FB communication to be 'flea market' then you may have not realized that shit is not the same as it was a few years ago as far as promotion or general contact with people/clients.

I would consider myself and my studio quite viable. I communicate via FB with most of my clients, but I do not advertise to get them. I only work with musicians I either know personally or love their music. I do not need a website to promote myself. Only word of mouth. Most of that 'mouth' comes via Facebook or FB Messenger. If you do not understand how that works, then don't mock it. You have just not that type of communication with people that way...

For me this is not a business. More of a love for music with small cost. Hell, I spend 'real studio time' helping members for free here because I give a shit. It makes me feel good to help others.

That being said, I love recording bands/musicians that I find interest in. A website and sales pitch would put me in a situation I could give no care about. Fuck that! I'd rather be the dood that gives a shit.
 
You don't have to defend FB or the use of it...and I can certainly mock FB and its use. :)

I wouldn't know who here uses FB unless they told me. I'm not calling anyone out. :D
 
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