w/does a mastering house do???

[effectsnut]

thanks for any info....

[Freudian Slip]

Besides take your money?


Are you already mixed down to stereo tracks? If so the process as I have heard it is remastering. At least that's what I paid $90.00 an hour for and had to go back 3 times before I said good enough

If that is the case then I can give you some info, They use compression (to bring up the levels to industry standard) They eq the recording. They set song order up if needed. They set time between songs if needed. They can fade out, fade in, and crossfade songs together. If you did your songs in a good studio then there will be less to do at the mastering house. If you recorded each song a different year on different equipment etc. You will be there for a while as they try to get the different songs to sound like they belong on the same album.

In the most basic terms they get your album ready for duplication. When you are done there you should be ready to duplicate the recording straight off the product they gave you.

I had my album remastered at the place I had the duplication done. That may be the standard?? or a big mistake

I should say, the place I delt with had some pretty high end stuff. Some of the tools they had you might be hard pressed to find in your typical recirding studio.

Please correct me if I'm wrong..... But I think we are on the same wavelength.

Later

F.S.

[Blue Bear Sound]

Mastering is the process of taking a final 2-track mix and adding polish, as needed to ensure the mix is up to release-calibre.

"Re-mastering" is the term used when a product has already been mastered for release once, and some time later - possibly for a re-issue or format change - the original 2-tracks are opened up and the mastering process is done again.

[Freudian Slip]

Thanks Blue Bear:

That makes sence. The engineer at the studion told me I should have it remastered. It was ready to duplicate when I got it from him though. Little did he know that it sounded better from him than after I got it remastered, and the levels ended up close to the same. Arrrggg! It took me till latley to understand what happend when I had the album "remastered". The acoustic songs sounded great but the hard songs did not. now years later after learning alot I can say it has compression issues.


Later

F.S.

[Sennheiser]

To quote a line from a movie:

"You men are the best of the best, the top 10%. We'll make you better."

[mixmkr]

great music in that movie too... none of it "crashed and burned", if you ask me.

[littledog]

Originally posted by effectsnut
thanks for any info....

I would be interested to know if you have read the lengthy "Passive/Aggressive Mastering" thread which is running simultaneously to this one. It is a lively debate about the value of mastering.

Rather than rehash the whole thread all over again, why don't you read that one first, and then come back if you have any specific questions. You won't be bored - it gets nice and feisty.

[Freudian Slip]

Originally posted by sonusman
Freudian Slip, did you have Super Digital do your mastering? If yes, who was the engineer?

Also, which studio did you record/mix at?

Please feel free to contact me in the future if you have mixing/mastering needs. I am close by you know.

Ed

Well I was thinking of you when I wrote in this post I was thinking "god I hope Ed never worked at super digital"

So tell me before I sign my death warrant, Did you????

Oh hell you'll never find me Yep super digital **ducks behind chair** Actually I was pretty happy with the rest of the deal there. I just felt the bass was pumped to much for the style of music (made it dirty) and I know that some of the songs needed help with the compression. It has ducking around some of the snare hits and such. As for the acoustic songs, they came out awsome except for my overbearing use of effects on one song live and learn

I recorded at fresh tracks studio with John Lindahl. I knew him from a cover band he plays with that used to be called "The Dial Tones". one of the guys from that band plays with "The Wieners" And My band has played with them once and I have run sound for them a couple of times.

Ya see I am about the only guy in St Helens that has anything made after 1960 as far as equipment goes. And I'm not just talking about my Wang (sorry could't help it)


So what do you think of thier set up?

F.S.

[Freudian Slip]

Thanks for the offer on mastering. Maybe some day I will cash you out to come down to my place and help me out on something. I will also keep you in mind for mastering my next project. Right now I am still learning to much to set down and do 10 songs in a row. I sort of feel like thats what you have got to do to get a balanced album. You know record all the songs within a couple of days (at least the main parts) with the same exact mic set up ect. Then you can mix the album for the most part. At least that's my plan...

I knew you used to live out here. I never have spent any time at the bars though. I go to a lounge once in a while thats about it.
I have run sound as a fill in at a one of the bars though. The one on old portland rd. It has changed names sence you've been around.

The guy at Super Duper/Super Digital is a little younger than me he might be about 28 now? He plays in a band I think, but this was about 3 years ago give or take. I didn't think it was you. I wish it had been. I can't remember the guys name either.

Hey do you do live sound ever for cash? if so how much cash?

I may be needing some help there n the future. Ive got a pretty decent live set up (3 way cross, Subs, and two SP2 cabs that I bi-amp. I also know some other bands that might be in need of those services. I know it's a thankless job, but let me know


Well I have to go.

I will see if I can find out who mastered this for me.


Later

F.S.

[Freudian Slip]

By the way Sonusman, I should mention.....

There are two tech's that work out of Jon's studio. I have only met and delt with Jon. Also Jon is a real matter of fact type of guy, He will tell you what he thinks, but if you insist on F'ing up your mix he will not stop you. That happened on one of our songs where I wanted some vocal effects that I used live. He told me it was too much. I even brought in my effects unit and he told me it was very dirty and did not like it. Well you get the picture. That song is the worst sounding song on the album That was before I decided less is WAY more where effects are concernd As a matter of fact that helped me make that choice.

You know when your used to singing live you hear your own voice so you don't realize how wet your mix is. This is also why I won't mix my self live any more

Any way I think Jon does a good job, but he is not a fighter when it comes to the mix. He will try for about 5 or 10 minutes but from there you dig your own grave....


I will PM you. I tried earlier but I don't think it went.

Later

Dave