I have just finished recording the first project out of our studio. It turned out real well, and we have decided to do our own mastering through the TC Electronic Finalizer 96K. We will be doing this on the mix down of the final product. My question is, what would be the best speaker/monitors to use for this? I currently have Mackie nearfield monitors. Or would it be better to use regular home speakers for the mastering? This is far from a professional studio, but would like to learn the best way of doing this before I start. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Matering Question
- Thread starter jumpshot
- Start date
sonusman
Banned
Best way of doing what? Mastering? Or Mastering yourself.
To the first, the best way is to send it to Bob Ludwig at Sterling Sound and pay him the $3000 or so to have him do it. You would be assured that it would be mastered as best as could possibly be done as Bob is THE mastering GOD.
If you are gonna do it yourself, and you never have before, well, do what you have done with everything you have learned about recording; Take the bite and spend 4 times as long as you should playing with it to learn what will happen if you do any certain thing.
Now concerning this speaker issue. Although you may think that using home stereo speakers is the way to go, it is not what is done at the big boy places. In fact, the big boys commonly use monitoring systems that cost at least $10,000 and go as high as about $60,000. So why all the fuss? Because this is your last chance to get that mix, as well as the whole CD to sound consistent and polished, if that is what you are after of course.
Why not just record vocals with a SM-58? Or use any ol' reverb for the snare? Or a Hondo guitar? LOL
Use those Mackie speakers!!! You want something that will reveal as close to exactly what is going on in the mix. Start off by listening to loads and loads of professionally done CD's through them so that you can get an idea of what well done music sounds like through those boxes. This can be daunting if your mixes are not standing up quite well to the big boy stuff, so don't be too discouraged if you are not able to replicate the pro stuff. After all, you client didn't pay for the big boy stuff, so it stands to figure that they got what they paid for....
Good luck.
Ed Rei
Echo Star Studio www.echostarstudio.com
To the first, the best way is to send it to Bob Ludwig at Sterling Sound and pay him the $3000 or so to have him do it. You would be assured that it would be mastered as best as could possibly be done as Bob is THE mastering GOD.
If you are gonna do it yourself, and you never have before, well, do what you have done with everything you have learned about recording; Take the bite and spend 4 times as long as you should playing with it to learn what will happen if you do any certain thing.
Now concerning this speaker issue. Although you may think that using home stereo speakers is the way to go, it is not what is done at the big boy places. In fact, the big boys commonly use monitoring systems that cost at least $10,000 and go as high as about $60,000. So why all the fuss? Because this is your last chance to get that mix, as well as the whole CD to sound consistent and polished, if that is what you are after of course.
Why not just record vocals with a SM-58? Or use any ol' reverb for the snare? Or a Hondo guitar? LOL
Use those Mackie speakers!!! You want something that will reveal as close to exactly what is going on in the mix. Start off by listening to loads and loads of professionally done CD's through them so that you can get an idea of what well done music sounds like through those boxes. This can be daunting if your mixes are not standing up quite well to the big boy stuff, so don't be too discouraged if you are not able to replicate the pro stuff. After all, you client didn't pay for the big boy stuff, so it stands to figure that they got what they paid for....
Good luck.
Ed Rei
Echo Star Studio www.echostarstudio.com