Hi all,
I am interested in perspectives, especially from those of you who master for money, what you believe should be expected and not expected from a mastering expert. I once had a CD mastered about 10 years ago, and found a great guy who was willing to work with me and my very terrible mixes. He fixed all sorts of problems that existed in the mix, and I ended up hugely satisfied with a firm understanding that issues in tracking and mixing would prevent me from having an awesome/pro sounding mix, but it still was good enough for distribution, and got lots of positive feedback. He also offered me some iteration on the mix, by giving me feedback on what I could do on my end to then help the master come out great.
However, and pardon me for being provocative, I sometimes feel that specialists either in mixing or mastering don't want to deal with issues, but rather just put on the things they know how to do with a pure mix that leads to a great sound, and when the mix has issues that "should" have been fixed in a prior stage, (i.e. frequency spikes, etc.), I often sense sentiments such as "you have to fix your tracking" or "Mastering is not mixing..."
Ok, I know I am being provocative, but the world is filled with imperfect tracking/recording folks, and imperfect mixing folks. I have spent hundreds of hours as the mixer on my project fixing absolutely sucky tracking, especially the drums. However, with lots of attention, and some tricks you guys have shown me, I am getting some really good results that the artists/band is thrilled with (knowing we will never sound like a band recorded in a pro studio, with pro equipment, and with pro mixers -- because well, we didn't, can't, aren't).
I do need this project mastered, and really want to find (and will pay appropriately) someone who can spend the time really making the the end result as best as possible with what we got, rather than doing what they might do with a pro mix, and then saying "well, your mix/tracking sucks". I hope you get where I am coming from, please don't educate me on the importance of tracking and mixing great, I get that... but now I want to challenge the mastering experts with what can I expect from you beyond a simple mastering chain that works great with good mixes. I am not looking for a mastering factory, but someone who will work with me to get the best end result.
What say you? Is this a reasonable expectation?
I am interested in perspectives, especially from those of you who master for money, what you believe should be expected and not expected from a mastering expert. I once had a CD mastered about 10 years ago, and found a great guy who was willing to work with me and my very terrible mixes. He fixed all sorts of problems that existed in the mix, and I ended up hugely satisfied with a firm understanding that issues in tracking and mixing would prevent me from having an awesome/pro sounding mix, but it still was good enough for distribution, and got lots of positive feedback. He also offered me some iteration on the mix, by giving me feedback on what I could do on my end to then help the master come out great.
However, and pardon me for being provocative, I sometimes feel that specialists either in mixing or mastering don't want to deal with issues, but rather just put on the things they know how to do with a pure mix that leads to a great sound, and when the mix has issues that "should" have been fixed in a prior stage, (i.e. frequency spikes, etc.), I often sense sentiments such as "you have to fix your tracking" or "Mastering is not mixing..."
Ok, I know I am being provocative, but the world is filled with imperfect tracking/recording folks, and imperfect mixing folks. I have spent hundreds of hours as the mixer on my project fixing absolutely sucky tracking, especially the drums. However, with lots of attention, and some tricks you guys have shown me, I am getting some really good results that the artists/band is thrilled with (knowing we will never sound like a band recorded in a pro studio, with pro equipment, and with pro mixers -- because well, we didn't, can't, aren't).
I do need this project mastered, and really want to find (and will pay appropriately) someone who can spend the time really making the the end result as best as possible with what we got, rather than doing what they might do with a pro mix, and then saying "well, your mix/tracking sucks". I hope you get where I am coming from, please don't educate me on the importance of tracking and mixing great, I get that... but now I want to challenge the mastering experts with what can I expect from you beyond a simple mastering chain that works great with good mixes. I am not looking for a mastering factory, but someone who will work with me to get the best end result.
What say you? Is this a reasonable expectation?