online mastering

Ultrachrome

New member
Ok...I'll start with an apology...which is generally always the best way to start a conversation. I'm imagining this question gets asked repeatedly here but I can find it! Scouts honor.

I want to try out some online master services. I have no idea where to start. Who has the best combination of know how, customer service and price. Trying to keep it under about 100 USD per song and would also like a consultation on the current mix before submitting the ready to go mix for mastering.

Any recommendations?

Thanks!
 
ask some pro mastering houses to listen and do a 'quick master' if possible, they'll probably give you a short sample clip to give you an idea, some of them do this some of them don't, it's best to email them and ask around.
 
Check out member Massive Mastering. I had some tracks done by him years ago and they came out fantastic.
 
I was going to say "I know a place..." but it's always nicer when someone else says it. :thumbs up:


Thanks for the responses everyone.

Massive Mastering...is this John? I think I'd like to send you something and see how it comes out. How do we do this? Should I contact you via your site? Do you make recommendation on the mix prior to mastering? I'm hoping so. It is here...


https://soundcloud.com/ultrachrome-1/if-you-stay-remix

Things I know I need to do are to roll off the high end on all but the verse vocal tracks because there's 12 vocal tracks and as they come in the sibilance gets worse. I think this is also a little too hot over all. Other thoughts? In total when we're done there should be about 60 minutes of music that will hopefully sound like they belong together. Also...Is this sounding potentially professional...broadcast quality so to speak?
 
I know a place! Going to send some work there myself pretty soon. Meant to get it done last month, but ended up with a $6000 medical bill on my desk...
Anyway, from all I've heard top notch mastering on Tyler Acoustics monitors and 20 years experience...
Check the website for more information.
 
Thanks for the responses everyone.

Massive Mastering...is this John? I think I'd like to send you something and see how it comes out. How do we do this? Should I contact you via your site? Do you make recommendation on the mix prior to mastering? I'm hoping so. It is here...


https://soundcloud.com/ultrachrome-1/if-you-stay-remix

Things I know I need to do are to roll off the high end on all but the verse vocal tracks because there's 12 vocal tracks and as they come in the sibilance gets worse. I think this is also a little too hot over all. Other thoughts? In total when we're done there should be about 60 minutes of music that will hopefully sound like they belong together. Also...Is this sounding potentially professional...broadcast quality so to speak?
opps
 
I know a place! Going to send some work there myself pretty soon. Meant to get it done last month, but ended up with a $6000 medical bill on my desk...
Anyway, from all I've heard top notch mastering on Tyler Acoustics monitors and 20 years experience...
Check the website for more information.

Thanks...already in touch with MM.
 
Massive (John) is not allowed to promote his services on this site. It would be considered spam and John follows the rules graciously. However, others can talk about John's services, that's called opinion, that's allowed and we all benefit from hearing about the good and the bad.

This is one of the reasons we really enjoy having industry professionals visit the site. We benefit from their knowledge and experience and they benefit from word of mouth referrals and exposure.

Besides Massive, others here have used
Jan at finemastering.de
Tom at Masteringhouse.com
and Steve at SageAudio.com

Good luck with your project.
 
Here's who I'm currently looking at for longterm projects (albums, EPs): AudibleOddities – Audio Mastering Engineer for Internet, CD, and Vinyl | Mastering Audio for Internet, CD, and Vinyl. (those Amon Tobin records are sonic masterpieces!)
Short-term stuff (the occasional track, or audio for videos, etc.): Melograf Mastering

Waltz Audio | Online Mastering by Tom Waltz was wonderful a few years ago when I was recording terrible sounding music on an 8-track.
Tom was kind enough to send me a sample because I had no understanding of the mastering process back then. He made my terribly unlistenable recordings not only listenable, but actually pleasant. But, then life happened and unfortunately I had to abandon that project :(

And, of course, Massive Mastering. I've never used Massive, but have only ever heard great things about John and would like to enlist his services one day.
 
On another music fan forum someone posted this service that offers *free* mastering. Of course I chimed in about how such a service would be ineffective compared to custom mastering by a professional (or any capable human being with the right tools). It does have its usefulness if all the mixer needs is unification [volume/balance] to their set of songs, or a quick compression/normalization of a mix.

https://emastered.com/

I guess this could be used even as a benchmark - if XYZ Mastering Service can't provide a better sounding master than this free tool then I guess XYZ is going to be out of business soon.
________________________

Someone on the other forum introduced another online mastering solution (Landr, somehow tied in with Soundcloud?) which got me thinking of doing a comparison using one of my tracks as the source (have to use an unmastered mix for proper test results).

LANDR at default "medium" setting [starts about 0:10]

eMastered at default settings [starts about 0:10]

My Original
 
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But...on their web page, it says, "Available Free for a Limited Time"...so this is just a promo to get some clients.
I mean...if you eventfully have to pay them...who will take the time and money to then pay someone else in order to compare results...?

They just want to hook you with "free" for the time being...and if the end result is even somewhat decent and their prices cheap (that's the key for many)...lots of recording newbs and part-time dabblers will opt to keep using that as opposed to dealing with a real, live mastering engineer and that whole process. It's about instant gratification for a cheap price...and many how that sells to the home rec crowd. :D

Oh...they also make it seem like your stuff will actually be mastered by award winning mastering engineers...but in fact, it's just another automatic plugin/algorithm application..."intelligent mastering engine"...that will mathematically make mastering decisions based on your digital audio file mathematical content.
No one will be there to say..."Hmm...that sounds real good, but I think the high-end could be just a touch brighter"...
...though I still think that won't matter much to the newbs and part-time dabblers. :)
 
But...on their web page, it says, "Available Free for a Limited Time"...so this is just a promo to get some clients.

Probably. But it's free. Who cares if they discontinue the service tomorrow? It's free.

Did you read my post before your rant? I already pointed out it's not a proper mastering substitute.

Did I mention it's free? It's a gift, use it or don't.
 
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