Mastering

[Biggz]

around how much does it cost to get an album mastered ? thanks

[Blue Bear Sound]

Anywhere from several hundred to 2-3K and up.... depending on the place.

[two5tolife]

Got a guy that does mine for around $60 a cd (60 min maximum, then the price raises).

He is doing me a favor though, the price may be different.

www.picos-studio.com

does a great job for what you pay, too!

[Blue Bear Sound]

Originally Posted by two5tolife

Got a guy that does mine for around $60 a cd (60 min maximum, then the price raises).

He is doing me a favor though, the price may be different.

www.picos-studio.com

does a great job for what you pay, too!

You've got to be kidding!

From the gear list alone, that hardly can be considered "mastering"..............

[BEATMAKERS]

Originally Posted by Blue Bear Sound

You've got to be kidding!

From the gear list alone, that hardly can be considered "mastering"..............

BLUE BEAR why you gotta be hateing on the man. If he can get screwed for 60 dollars then that might be an acceptable price for him for sex cuz sex aint free for everybody...excuse me....huh....oh what!.... he not talking about sex. Like hell he aint. If he is talking about getting a whole cd mastered for 60 bucks with this gear then he's talkin about sex cuz somebody is getting the D*** put to them and it aint the guy doing the mastering .

Alesis M1 Active Monitors
M-Audio Delta 1010
Mackie 1604 VLZ mixer
Behringer Eurorack UB802 mixer
Adobe Audition 1.0
T-Racks Mastering Software
Ahead Nero

[Blue Bear Sound]

I'm "HATIN" (your words, not mine) because I believe there is a certain standard to uphold with regard to professional audio. Performing "mastering" when one clearly is neither equipped, nor experienced to do so greatly diminishes the art and skill required of the craft.

[two5tolife]

Notice I said he does a pretty good job for what you pay. I never said this was THE mastering source... and I can see where Blue is comin from, but how the hell are you gonna ask how much mastering costs(obviously not knowing a thing about it) and then come off top trying to get at me about the guy's equipment list?!?!? Not gettin mad, just sayin, things aren't quite addin up...

[Blue Bear Sound]

Originally Posted by two5tolife

Not gettin mad, just sayin, things aren't quite addin up...

What, exactly, is not adding up?

You said this guy does mastering for $60/CD.... I looked at the site - on appearance alone it's clearly not a professional facility. Then looking at the gear list, it's quite easy to see that he's not equipped to "master" anything - period.

Hell, I have a commercial facility and it's not equipped for mastering! So it's laughable that you can call getting your CD "mastered." Like I said, what you got definitely wasn't Mastering.

[Altruist]

I have better gear then that guy. I will master your shit for 80 dollars...

[Blue Bear Sound]

I really think there should be some regulation in the industry that requires Audio Professionals to be licensed before being able to charge people for services. That way, at least a standard of quality could be maintained to some degree, instead of the way it is now where some kid with s/w on his parent's computer in his bedroom can declare themselves a mastering engineer.

Bill Putnam must be crying in his grave by now........

[two5tolife]

ARGHH *throws hands in air signaling I'm through with this!*

[BEATMAKERS]

Originally Posted by Blue Bear Sound

I really think there should be some regulation in the industry that requires Audio Professionals to be licensed before being able to charge people for services. That way, at least a standard of quality could be maintained to some degree, instead of the way it is now where some kid with s/w on his parent's computer in his bedroom can declare themselves a mastering engineer.

That sound like a good idea but it would never work because regulating it would be to hard. That actually would increase the cost from unlicensed software masterers because with a liscense comes a greater service fee when you calculate in the cost of obtaining , maintaining, and processing fees of liscenses. Also since everybody wouldn't have them those who do could charge more thereby allowing those who dont to charge more as well. If you do something for 200 legally someone else can do it for 100 illegally so if you go up to 500 legal then its 250 illegal.

Not to mention the ghost mastering houses which could be established by pure businees men and not music lovers/business men. Where one individual gets a liscense and allows others to master under a blanket company name for a percent of the fee or membership dues.

Or it could just be the old criminal in me take for what its worth then throw it in the trash.

BLUE BEAR & TWO5TOLIFE just having a little fun no harm no foul fellas just trying to keep it light didnt mean to offend

[Cloneboy Studio]

Distrust anyone that wants to master your material for less than 50/song, unless they are a friend doing you a favor that rocks.

As mastering can make or break your hard work, it's best to pay up to the best of your ability based on the seriousness of your work. If you intend to SELL your music you better use a pro. If it's just to impress your mammy it's okay to go cheap.

[two5tolife]

Originally Posted by two5tolife

Got a guy that does mine for around $60 a cd (60 min maximum, then the price raises).

He is doing me a favor though, the price may be different.

Thank you very much, point proven... *bows*

[bigwillz24]

Hmmm....


My music mastered with T-racks...


Naw cat I'll pass, my drum machine costs more than his whole setup and i'll probably get better quality from it than his "mastered" stuff.

[Treeline]

I figure a lot of this comes from not knowing enough to know the difference.

I'm a student of this stuff; I also do live sound and when I can charge for something I do. But anyone I do business with knows exactly where I'm coming from - and I don't claim to be a studiophile. Instead, I'm a guy who makes them sound better except for the times it doesn't happen that way.

As long as your expectations are in line with the reality, all is OK. It's when we claim to be things we aren't that we step over the line.

The bottom line with any of this is to let the product speak for itself, for better or worse. My marketing is that I do little guy sound stuff. That's safe for someone who has never heard of mastering and its safe for me because I haven't oversold my abilities.

So having said all that, I agree with Blue Bear - none of this even approaches true mastering. I have no problem with that (in fact I love all of this!), but we do need to know what not to call our stuff.