Can a song that's on a CD be mastered?

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jb21cert

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I recorded a song over one of my friend's house and put the song on CD. The quality is garbage. I want to know if the song can be mastered?
 
jb21cert said:
I recorded a song over one of my friend's house and put the song on CD. The quality is garbage. I want to know if the song can be mastered?
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Of course, the question is why if its garbage?
 
Mastering is a process of subtle enhancement in the interest of the creation of a reasonably consistent and compliant production master (hence, the name).

It's not a "make a bad sounding mix sound good" thing.

If you're not happy with your mixes, you're not going to be happy with it after the mastering process. You might be somewhat less unhappy - No doubt, it happens. But a bad mix is a bad mix.
 
It can be mastered since mastering is done by working with the final wave file, but the question is what good would it do? If its not a good mix then it most likely wont do much of a difference. If the problem is with individual instrument tones and volume differences mastering wont work you would need the individual sound files from the recording to mix it. If you take it to a studio they will most likely master it for the money but it wont make that much of a difference. They would make it louder for sure.
The loudness wars have totally killed mastering.
 
dojo master said:
This.

You cant polish a turd.
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Sure you can! You get a nice, shiny turd out of it!

I'm guessing the part you're unhappy with is the vocal tone? It sounds like it was done with fairly crappy equipment, and it lacks the standard wall-o-effects you normally find in this genre.

The first problem would be fixed by retracking with better equipment. The second could be fixed while mixing but not in mastering.
 
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