Good affordable Mastering - if it exists...

  • Thread starter Thread starter Somnium7
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Somnium7

Somnium7

Noise Criminal
Hi

Hopefully in the near future I am going to take the plunge into a CD release for my band. Up to now I have done all recording and mixing myself. Considering my experience level and the gear I use I feel that I get the job done properly most of the time. However, I know my limitations (I hope) and think that I probably should have the mastering done by a pro. Big problem is I can't afford pro rates.

So is it even conceivable for me to try to get mastering on a shoe-string budget?

What kind of money would I need for "budget mastering"?
If there is such an animal...

Thanks
 
Even if it did exist ... I think it would largely be a waste of money anyway.

I mean, if it's being tracked and mixed by amateurs, then it pretty much is what it is, and taking it in for a spit-shine isn't going to accomplish much of anything.

.
 
Somnium7 said:
Hi

Hopefully in the near future I am going to take the plunge into a CD release for my band. Up to now I have done all recording and mixing myself. Considering my experience level and the gear I use I feel that I get the job done properly most of the time. However, I know my limitations (I hope) and think that I probably should have the mastering done by a pro. Big problem is I can't afford pro rates.

So is it even conceivable for me to try to get mastering on a shoe-string budget?

What kind of money would I need for "budget mastering"?
If there is such an animal...

Thanks
Click to expand...

You can have mastering done at rates as low as around $25 an hour by guys that are decent at mastering.

You can actually pay 4-5 times that and not always get a better engineer, but possibly better gear.

I have mastered full length CD's for as little as about $100, and for as much as $700. Obviously, the more $ you have to spend, the more time the engineer give your project!

I don't think it would be that hard to get a very reasonable job done for $200 these days.

Contact me if you want a consultation and quote.
 
My mother would say.....

chessrock said:
Alright, then. Go and spend a bunch of money on something you don't need.

Is that the kind of "wisdom" you'd prefer?

.
Click to expand...

....."If you can't say anything nice then....."
 
If you just need a quick "tweak pass" on a bunch of mixes, almost anyplace is going to have an hourly rate. If there's a particular engineer you want to work with and tell him "I have $(XXX) to spend and I can't go over" you might be able to work something out.

90% of the tweaking takes 10% of the time.
 
All the tracks seem to be (already) in the same pocket -warm and kind of thick.
Unless your looking to go for somewhere specific in mastering how do they play for you as finished mixes at this point?

Ok, I'm just coming off here somewhere between 'Chess (except for the 'amateur' comment -what's that :rolleyes:) and Bob Katz;

'Until we can show that the public actually pays attention to sound, at least subliminally, it's hard to show that good sound really makes a difference." -Ie I'm jaded on the subject, so please take all this ah.. lightly. :)
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/mast...-revealed-how-bad-loud-mastering-music-2.html

Nothing wrong with doing an assembly' yourself -see how it plays in other places, in the 'this is the album' context.
Wayne
 
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chessrock said:
Alright, then. Go and spend a bunch of money on something you don't need.

Is that the kind of "wisdom" you'd prefer?

.
Click to expand...

Since when is mastering a bad idea? I would say any home recording that's going to be put out there probably needs mastering more so then a real studio project.
 
I just think that in a "real" studio project, the cost is justified.

For a self-produced effort ... it's not like a mastering job is going to transform it in to a professional product. And the fact that it was self-produced, kind of hints at the idea that probably it's not a very serious project.

And if it is, then the money you're just now looking to spend on mastering ... may have been more wisely spent on the tracking or mixing stage. At this point, I think it's mostly wasted, because for the most part it is what it is.

.
 
Somnium7 said:
Hi

Hopefully in the near future I am going to take the plunge into a CD release for my band. Up to now I have done all recording and mixing myself. Considering my experience level and the gear I use I feel that I get the job done properly most of the time. However, I know my limitations (I hope) and think that I probably should have the mastering done by a pro. Big problem is I can't afford pro rates.

So is it even conceivable for me to try to get mastering on a shoe-string budget?

What kind of money would I need for "budget mastering"?
If there is such an animal...

Thanks
Click to expand...

Could you tell us more about what you are mastering?

Did you use anaolg or digital to record

If digital,which DAW

Real drummer or programmed


It could make a difference.I'm trying learn about this too.
 
A mastering engineer could help out to some degree. If you told him you want - let's say $200.00 worth of mastering - he may agree to check for level consistency and improve some eq problems.
If that's worth it for you to have some cd's to sell at your gigs or pass around to your friends it could be worth the dollars. Chances are good that he will improve upon what you already have.
 
this looks EXTREMELY interesting. I've known people over the internet to go there and be VERY happy. Read the client list...then the rates and then say... "what??" However, the music clips are REALLY poor quality, but of some "heavyweight" artists that you're sure to recognize..and the song too.

www.rodneymills.com
 
One last thought is Discmakers or some place like that, but I don't think they'll do more than levels, silence between tracks...basic stuff.

Why not check some of the people on the forums here?? Massive... Ford, etc.
 
mixmkr said:
One last thought is Discmakers or some place like that, but I don't think they'll do more than levels, silence between tracks...basic stuff.

Why not check some of the people on the forums here?? Massive... Ford, etc.
Click to expand...


Don't use Discmakers for mastering. They don't really do anything but make the glass master for duplication. He'd have better luck getting someone here to do it.
 
My band paid around $3000 for our 11 track album to be mastered professionally.
He had some great gear but the mastering has made the mixes sound worse IMO. It mostly came down to using too much compression and limiting/clipping.

So just because someones got great gear and a great price tag doesnt mean they can do what you want.

Eck
 
tkingen said:
A mastering engineer could help out to some degree. If you told him you want - let's say $200.00 worth of mastering - he may agree to check for level consistency and improve some eq problems.
If that's worth it for you to have some cd's to sell at your gigs or pass around to your friends it could be worth the dollars. Chances are good that he will improve upon what you already have.
Click to expand...

This is pretty much all I am looking for. I don't have the capability to check my mixes on different systems and I also don't have the best monitoring system. While mixes may sound alright for me I really have no idea how they will sound in general with various different sound systems.

I am in the process or remixing several of my songs because they had been originally mixed before getting my current mixing equipment. My music is almost entirely electronic and much of it is played back via Midi. Some stuff like vocals and guitar are audio tracks in the computer. Computer tracks are sent to my mixer (32 channel Toa RX-7) as 3 or 4 subgroups where they get mixed with Midied audio from my synths and sampler. During mixing, some signals are sent to hardware processors of various types and I ride all the faders manually. I record the resulting mix back into the computer. Final tweaks with compression or EQ are done in the PC if necessary. Mostly this stuff is applied to the individual tracks while mixing because I prefer not to process the recorded mix if I can get away with it.
Monitoring is with Yamaha HS80s, Sony MDR-7506 and cheap PC speakers.

My music can be heavy on FX and EQ at times. After all it is partly experimental noise inspired. I don't have anybody around with good ears I can trust to check my mixes. So due to my aggressive use of processing and nnot having another pair of ears around I feel it is probably a good idea to have a Mastering Engineer work on the tonal and dynamic balance for me.
 
so Discmakers isn't a good deal? I've check out their sampler CD and they SEEM to know what they're doing, but then again...
Does anyone have any experience with them?
 
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