Well, I think it's possible to find good deals on mastering. I'd venture to say that there a lot of guys who can do a good job for not much money, but they aren't advertising. And I certainly don't mean to disparage any of the guys on this board who do a good job and charge market prices.
My band's CD, which I finished producing about 2-1/2 years ago, was in need of mastering. Our drummer had done a solo album in the 1990s, recorded, mixed, and mastered by a local guy. So I called him up, took the mix to him, and his price for the whole thing was $85.
He did master "out of the box." I was a little concerned about this, but he did a master on one of our tunes and it sounded great.
After listening through the mix once, he suggested that I go home, bring the overall levels up, and add a touch of reverb to the solo voices. I took his advice, brought him back the new mix, and we were done in an afternoon.
Somebody else might have done a better job, but it
sounded like a professional job to me. He seemed to have great ears and a lot of experience.
Here's a link to another album he was involved with (the guy's name is Evan Smalley):
http://www.garageband.com/song?|pe1|S8LTM0LdsaSnYlm3Z2w
My band's CD, which I finished producing about 2-1/2 years ago, was in need of mastering. Our drummer had done a solo album in the 1990s, recorded, mixed, and mastered by a local guy. So I called him up, took the mix to him, and his price for the whole thing was $85.
He did master "out of the box." I was a little concerned about this, but he did a master on one of our tunes and it sounded great.
After listening through the mix once, he suggested that I go home, bring the overall levels up, and add a touch of reverb to the solo voices. I took his advice, brought him back the new mix, and we were done in an afternoon.
Somebody else might have done a better job, but it
sounded like a professional job to me. He seemed to have great ears and a lot of experience.
Here's a link to another album he was involved with (the guy's name is Evan Smalley):
http://www.garageband.com/song?|pe1|S8LTM0LdsaSnYlm3Z2w