Mastering

Ford Van said:
I would be very careful about online mastering, and before you pay somebody, make sure you hear a sample of what they will do to your mixes.
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Oh Jesus Christ. If I hear that term "online mastering" one more time, I'm going to lose my lunch.

So a guy who masters records has a web site ... and maybe he uses an ftp instead of snail mail. So that makes him "online mastering." Holy crap. I could be an auto mechanic with a web site ... which would technically make me an "online mechanic!"

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chessrock said:
Oh Jesus Christ. If I hear that term "online mastering" one more time, I'm going to lose my lunch.

So a guy who masters records has a web site ... and maybe he uses an ftp instead of snail mail. So that makes him "online mastering." Holy crap. I could be an auto mechanic with a web site ... which would technically make me an "online mechanic!"

.
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I know, the whole concept is hard for you to grasp and understand. That is okay, the retarded kid understands you. :rolleyes:
 
The difference between online mastering, and a mastering studio with a website is that online mastering uses the Internet as the medium for feedback and delivery between the client and engineer. It includes sending mixes, remixes, mastered samples, a complete CD image that can be burned by the client on CD for approval, as well as correspondence between client and engineer.

IMHO when done correctly there's nothing wrong with this approach except that you unfortunately don't get to watch the engineer (and possibly pickup a few new techniques) and the process usually takes longer than attended sessions.

As suggested I would highly recommend getting a sample of anyone taking this approach before being charged. You can get burned with attended sessions as well, but the advantage is that if you don't like the results there's more of an opportunity to just leave if you haven't made a deposit before the session starts.
 
Without hearing your mixes there's no way to tell, but most times your money is better spent on hiring a good mixing engineer - the more time and effort you put in on the front end the better the result will be. If you haven't tracked the album yet, make sure you hire a good tracking engineer.

Hoping to make a bedroom production sound like a commercial production simply by sending it to a mastering house is a recipe for disappointment 99.99% of the time...
 
annunaki said:
annunaki said:
Hey,

Looking for some opinions on my setup/recording. We are a 5 piece band recording live takes of our music on a Yamaha AW 4416. Our first attempt, although mixed well, is really quiet and lacks punch. (check out some examples at www.annunaki.net) We want our second album punchier . . . and are considering sending our "mixes" to a mastering studio to get it boosted up.

I guess my question is with the mixes . . . how do most mastering houses like to recieve the mixes. I am planning on sending individual .wav files of each track CD by CD. We will perform mixes on these .wav's to get them to a close level, and hopefully the mastering engineer can boost them and get them closer to commercial quality.

Has anyone dealt with any online mastering houses that did a good job? Any tips on mixing that will help the final product translate better at the mastering house? Thanks in advance.
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Sorry I thought I was pretty clear...
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That's ok. I thought you were clear with what you're question was as well...

annunaki said:
I guess my question is with the mixes . . . how do most mastering houses like to recieve the mixes. I am planning on sending individual .wav files of each track CD by CD. We will perform mixes on these .wav's to get them to a close level, and hopefully the mastering engineer can boost them and get them closer to commercial quality.
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Once I noticed you were asking questions which had been asked a million times already, I ignored the remainder of your post. ;)

For the record, bblackwood is correct in his post. Mixing is the more important issue here. If your mixes suck, Mastering can't help you... If you polish a turd, it's still a turd. But if you put your time and money into great mixing, Mastering can then polish something great, and make it phenominal.
 
Ford Van said:
I know, the whole concept is hard for you to grasp and understand. That is okay, the retarded kid understands you. :rolleyes:
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Hey, we have something in common. We both have retards in our sigs.

This whole idea is gay. If I get my stuff mastered "online," does that mean that some robot is compressing my mix in cyber space or something?

I suppose if I try and call the "online" mastering house, I'll get some sort of recording telling me they only take corespondence via email. Completely gay.

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What if you live where there aren't any good mastering engineers close by? I think doing it online with someone who's reputable beats doing it over the telephone or through mail.
 
danny.guitar said:
I think doing it online with someone who's reputable beats doing it over the telephone.
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I'll take telephone hands down. There is no substitute for the tenor of real-time responses, voice timbre, voice inflection, the speed and accuracy of audio over text, and the lack of restraints otherwise put on text messaging.

Also, I'd put audio engineers in the same category as dentists, doctors, plumbers and mechanics in one respect; unless it's an emergency (an audio emergency???), I wouldn't choose a perfect stranger for my doctor, dentist, plumber or mechanic unless they have verifiable personal or professional referencecs.

G.
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
Also, I'd put audio engineers in the same category as dentists, doctors, plumbers and mechanics in one respect; unless it's an emergency (an audio emergency???), I wouldn't choose a perfect stranger for my doctor, dentist, plumber or mechanic unless they have verifiable personal or professional referencecs.

G.
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I agree completely with that, Glen. However, I believe any reputable ME doing business online is in actual contact with their clients via phone. I know for me, I can't solely communicate via email and expect to understand all the clients needs.

Also, any Audio Engineer without a list of contactable referrences is probably lying, and not worth his weight in Har-Bal plugins.
 
It's just the title / name that I think is silly.

A service is still a service. The method of correspondence has very little to do with the process. People have been mastering stuff for other people for decades without necessarily having the client sitting in the room, hovering over them and micro-managing the process.

Now we just have some other options available to us through which to correspond and communicate during that process. That's all.

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SouthSIDE Glen said:
I'll take telephone hands down. There is no substitute for the tenor of real-time responses, voice timbre, voice inflection, the speed and accuracy of audio over text, and the lack of restraints otherwise put on text messaging.

Also, I'd put audio engineers in the same category as dentists, doctors, plumbers and mechanics in one respect; unless it's an emergency (an audio emergency???), I wouldn't choose a perfect stranger for my doctor, dentist, plumber or mechanic unless they have verifiable personal or professional referencecs.

G.
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I was speaking in the sense that the ME is a reputable/good engineer. If he is, then I don't see any drawbacks whatsoever doing it online. Especially considering most of them will give a free sample of your mastered song.
 
chessrock said:
It's just the title / name that I think is silly.

A service is still a service.
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That's a good point. It's not like before the internet they were known as "telephone mastering services" or "pony express mastering services" :).

That said, though, I think the distinction here is between someone who hangs their shingle out on the internet only, and business that's more than just a website.

G.
 
thanks

SouthSIDE Glen said:
That's a good point. It's not like before the internet they were known as "telephone mastering services" or "pony express mastering services" :).

That said, though, I think the distinction here is between someone who hangs their shingle out on the internet only, and business that's more than just a website.

G.
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Guys thanks for the discussion, stuff like this is actually really useful. I always knew that it was all in our mixes . . . just have to put the time in. We would love to do something commercial, but have got to work with what we have. One guy in my band has been recording his stuff since he was pretty young, he has an ear for mixes, and we feel he'll be able to get us something decent.

And I am aware of local ME that could work with our stuff, I just thought I'd research other options, like using a business that operates through the internet. I checked out Mastering House (saw the guy posted on this thread before) and it looked alright (they give you a sample before asking for money). Anyone else use these guys?
 
do it

I went through tom at the mastering house, and yes, I highly recommend it. I did a lot of shopping around. A lot! Tom gave me the best sound, as well as the best service than anyone ive experienced before. He even gave me a revision, and put up with all of my nagging. He’s a very nice guy, and I know you won’t be disappointed.
You can check out some samples of his work on my website. www.theprogressionconcept.com. They’re mp3’s, but you’ll get the idea.
 
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