tc finalizer express to cd

S

stax

New member
hello again,

i need some more input from everyone. i'm thinking of mastering at home as i've gotten to the point of mixing where my product comes out near radio ready. (so why trust professionals at this point?) i've been doing some research on the tcfx and i see that there are other posts that claim you can get great results with it. if i do go this route, what should i get to master down to? i can master it back down to my cakewalk and then press it down to my cd writer. (this is coming from dat) or should i get an external cd writer (i was looking into hhb 850 plus or the new alesis master, any opinions on these products.) what i really want to do is be able to take my cd from my mastered cd out to another cd player, play it, make some notes, come back and erase it, make changes and re-press it. is this possible on external cd writers? i know my regular cd player does not play cd-rw and my computer cannot re-format cd-r to make changes. (obviously)

all thoughts welcomed

kind regards

stax
 
If this sounds harsh, well......

But your logic doesn't fit here. It is time for me to issue one of my famous reality checks that I have posted so often on this BBS. I don't mean to offend when I do this. Just sometimes it takes a pretty strong statement to cut through marketing crap the manufactures so easily plant in peoples head.

You claim that your finsihed product sounds nearly radio quality. You want to give it that extra edge that mastering can offer. Great!!!

So why are you going to use a amature tool for mastering??? The Finalizer Express IS NOT a radio quality mastering tool!

Upgrade to the Finalizer and maybe you can get down to business. You will not see a Finalizer Express in any reputable mastering suite. You MIGHT see a Finalizer though. But, you will probably see Manley Pultec's, GML, or Crainsong compressors, and any number of some high quality Multiband Parametric EQ's. Also, you will see Apogee 24 bit converters. If they stay in the digital realm for mastering exclusively, you will see some names of digital compressors and eq's that you have never heard. I can assure you that all of the above cost more PER BOX than even the Finalizer "all in one" box. Oh yeah, you will then need like a ProTools system, or a Paris System, or Sonic Solutions system for dealing with the digital end of your mastering. You'll need the Apogee's UV-22 for some really cool limiting, etc......Also, you are gonna need to get into a very high quality monitoring path. We are talking monitors that start around 2k a pair, as well as some very high quality wire to interface everything. This wire is going to run you over $5 a ft. As well, you are going to need a very powerful computer system to handle the software bundle you will use. A P-II 350 with 128MB of Ram will not due.

Why do you need all of this? Well, you can't trust the professionals at this point!!! But, the pro's DO have most of the above, so are going to at least need the tools they have if you want to master like they do.

I own a studio for hire. I charge customers. You know what my man, if I care a shred about their project, I DON'T MASTER IT MYSELF!!! I send them down the road to a couple of different people to have them master depending upon the style at what kind of approach is needed to really give the project the right finishing touch. I COULD master it, and have some very good tools for doing so, but it is a matter of getting a different perspective, as well as having some very nice tools available to process the music right. I have worked on the project. No matter what you think, at some point you lose perspective and start doing crazy stuff that offers nothing to enhance the project.

Don't trust the big boys? Ha!!! Some very big named engineers, producers and artist's trust them. But, you can't???

Well, anyway. Since you seem to not be able to trust your demo to the likes of Bernie Grundman, or Bob Ludwig, you should at least get some decent equipment. Trust me, the TC Finalizer Express is not your answer for high quality mastering. I HAVE used the Finalizer, and was shown the Express box by the factory rep before it came out like 2 years ago. While it is a nice little box for playing around, you know what the guy said to me after listening to one of my mixes? He said "I don't think this box, or for that matter the better Finalizer is really designed for professionals like you. It is really just designed to help make home demos sound better". Hell, I already knew that. I was just playing him my mix to see if their was some "magical setting" in the box that would actually work like the kinds of equipment listed above would. I didn't hear where that box offered anything that was on the "pro" level. And all of my thoughts were validated by the rep! I appreciated his candidness. At least he could appreciate a professional mix, and not try to kid me into thinking that he had a box that would work on the same level. He lost a sale!!! :)

Ed Rei
Echo Star Studio www.echostarstudio.com
 
hey sonus, this is going to open a big fat can of nightcrawlers,

i imagine that everyone at this site got into home recording (and spending wads of cash to do it) was so that they could take charge of their own product from start to finish. i'm not into playing engineer. i like playing guitar and i like recording songs that i'm happy with. i got into recording out of desperation after recording at dozens of studios and getting lackluster results.

you see, this city, (new york)is lousy with with professional recording and mastering services and they may deliver professional results, but the general consensus by the indie scene here is that they mostly deliver these professional services to the major labels and major label acts. oh they'll take your cash alright and SAY that you'll get a radio ready product but 9 times out of 10 the scrappy indie band's tape will be mastered in less than an hour by the intern. I've recorded in one studio that I had to pay them so I can have the intern learn how to use the mixing console. (this was at a studio that claimed they regularly record for major labels)

This may not be the case in smaller cities where recording and mastering services rely on local acts for business (and thus need to have a good image) but here in fun city, it's the norm.

i know everyone claims that you can't get radio ready results with home equipment and i don't agree with that statement. if i've gotten radio play (true, college radio) with some of the records i've played on in the past (definitely not radio ready, upon listening back years later) then i can get radio play out of my home equipment. it all depends on what you're market is. Have you ever been down to Sun Studios? Do you see the equipment they recorded on. I think todays home stuff is better than what they had. I KNOW that a lot of engineers are going to say that that stuff is unlistenable as far as sound quality goes but those aren't the people that everyone's trying to reach. To me, and to the people in my circle, that stuff, recorded on a three track with a slapback, still sounds great. Would you tell every oldies station not to play those records anymore because they don't sound 90's radio ready?

i think that most people in the home recording market are just trying to get there stuff out on college radio (what major station market is going to play any indie labels unless it's rap) you see a lot of posts from punk/harcore bands, industrial, rockabilly etc. home recording has given all of us the opportunity to keep reworking and rearranging our songs until we get it right. (an opportunity we don't have in a real studio. How many times have you finished a tape and said "damn, i just got an idea for a harmony on that bridge.)

i suppose i have to agree with you on one point. by it's nature all home recording gear is low-end, and you have to struggle to make it sound decent. But isn't that the fun of it?

kind regards

stax

Not affiliated with STAX records. The greatest indie label that ever existed and recorded all of their pre-66 material on a mono deck with no mastering)
 
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