Mastering your project: DIY or Go to a Pro?

Mastering: DIY or send to a pro?

  • I do home recording, and I master it myself.

    Votes: 82 72.6%

  • I do home recording, and I hire the pros to master it.

    Votes: 21 18.6%

  • I am a pro: I think DIY is fine for mastering.

    Votes: 5 4.4%

  • I am a pro: always use pros for mastering.

    Votes: 5 4.4%
  • Total voters
    113
Jack Russell

Jack Russell

I smell home cookin!
Well, this is the Home Recording forum, after all, so I'm very curious: what do all you "home recording" people do when you are ready to master your mixes? Is it worth learning to do it yourself, or is it better to send it out to a professional mastering shop and pay for it to be done?

[Poll following...]
 
I use the great AAMS program. I tried Har Bal but did not like it, tho it worked cool also. The MAIN thing, I think, is to take your time getting it right in the mix first. Do your best there, and then the mastering stage will be semi-easy....there is my 2 worth....
 
Jack Russell said:
Apology: I should have added "I don't know" as a poll option. Ooops!
Click to expand...
Other poll options might include "It depends upon the purpose of the project", "It depends upon the budget of the project", and "It depends upon the needs of the client."

I can't answer this poll because I have done it both ways, and will continue to make the choice based upon the above considerations.

G.
 
Is your song going to be up against other commercial CDs? If that's the case then you might even be better off recording it at a studio + having a pro master it. After all, this is home recording.

If you do want to do it all yourself then the mix should already be good enough. Mastering should just be about maybe bringing up the levels and possibly shaping the overall song with EQ and making all songs on the CD sound good together in sequence. Also choosing the correct song order.

Since you recorded them yourself you have the advantage of going back to the mix and fixing stuff. And also remixing songs so they sound good together on a CD.

And use some sort of program like CD Architect to burn to a CD so you can control the time between each track on the CD, fade ins/outs, etc.

Or send it off to a mastering/duplication house and have them do that.

Just my 2¢
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
Other poll options might include "It depends upon the purpose of the project", "It depends upon the budget of the project", and "It depends upon the needs of the client."

I can't answer this poll because I have done it both ways, and will continue to make the choice based upon the above considerations.

G.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I am kicking myself for not having better options. I suck.

Anyway, I've recorded and mixed CDs in the past, and I found that sending it out was better. But, in hindsight, given the fact that one such project only resulted in sales of 100 copies and very limited airplay, I probably could have mastered it myself and saved money.
 
Forgot to add that the song is the most important (although I'm sure everyone already knows this). There have been several people who have made it and become rich/famous and recorded their CD at home or at a friend's home studio. If you think the mix/master of the song is holding it back then maybe go back to the arrangement of the song and the performance.
 
danny.guitar said:
Is your song going to be up against other commercial CDs?
Click to expand...

Probably not. We'll play more gigs and sell them or give them away. We'll send some out to local (Balt/DC) radio, but why the hell would they play our music, since we have no label or distribution? Is the music as good as what's on the radio? Yes! The chances of success are nil.

danny.guitar said:
Mastering should just be about maybe bringing up the levels and possibly shaping the overall song with EQ and making all songs on the CD sound good together in sequence. Also choosing the correct song order.
Click to expand...

This project is a little strange: three songwriters, three singers, 4 songs from each, but we have a "power trio" foundation. The 12 tunes have a great deal of variety. We're thinking that we need to produce each song differently, rather than going for a consistent sound. But we're unsure.

And one thing is for sure: we have a limited budget. :eek:
 
Smurf said:
I use the great AAMS program. I tried Har Bal but did not like it, tho it worked cool also. The MAIN thing, I think, is to take your time getting it right in the mix first. Do your best there, and then the mastering stage will be semi-easy....there is my 2 worth....
Click to expand...

I agree with you, but perhaps this shows that I'm obviously not a pro. I work very hard for hours getting as good a mix as possible. Having done that, I wonder why the people doing the mastering (whomever it is) think they can change it so much. Why? I feel like I've already perfected it.

Historically, hasn't mastering been the part of the process of confverting a tape mix to vinyl? Therefore, isn't this perhaps a vesigial part of the business?
 
Jack Russell said:
Historically, hasn't mastering been the part of the process of confverting a tape mix to vinyl? Therefore, isn't this perhaps a vesigial part of the business?
Click to expand...
Well, the vinyl part is :D. But the general concept remains the same. True mastering simply means prepping a project for final pressing/release.

Nowdays that usually means either prepping for CD production or prepping for Internet release.

G.
 
Some mastering engineers that I know end up charging a lot just based on the fact that a large percentage of the stuff they get to master is absolute garbage mix wise. They spend more time trying to "fix" things than they want to.
 
I listened to the first mix on your website.
I would go back and fix your mix before considering taking it to a mastering engineer.
The main problem is the vocals arent compressed enough. You could either use more compression or use volume automation.
The snare sounds really nice. It was tuned well.
I cant hear the kick drum though.
I can feel it but I cant really hear it.

Was that live or mulittracked?

Eck
 
I'm a little biased, of course - :D

Seriously though - If it goes to a "pro" or not, IMO, it should go to *someone* with some amount of objectivity. If there's "no budget" etc., etc., that could be the engineer down the block who has a similar rig and experience.

With your own mixes, you almost always hear something between what the mix actually sounds like and what you want it to sound like.

"Someone else" never heard it and might notice that the kick was muted on two songs (happened just a few days ago) or that there was VDO whine on nearly every track (happens probably once a week) or that the background vocals are overly sibilant (happens often) etc., etc., etc.
 
depends

i'm trying to put together an EP this summer that i'll probably spend a few bones to have mastered by a local pro who's got 30+ years experience...mostly to see what my mixes sound like after hitting racks of vintage analog stuff
 
Mastering - what a word.

Man, there are few words as emotionally charged as "mastering" since it has an historical meaning re vinyl LP cutting, a professional meaning re ultra-experienced and objective ears with great tools and listening environment correcting a mix for optimum universal playback, and a marketing/merchandising meaning that's related to enabling the home recordist to do complex stereo mix processing.

Personally, I try to avoid using the word.
 
ecktronic said:
I listened to the first mix on your website.
I would go back and fix your mix before considering taking it to a mastering engineer.
The main problem is the vocals arent compressed enough. You could either use more compression or use volume automation.
The snare sounds really nice. It was tuned well.
I cant hear the kick drum though.
I can feel it but I cant really hear it.

Was that live or mulittracked?

Eck
Click to expand...

Well, let me first say thanks for visiting and listening. Hooray, someone actually visited the band web site!!!

Anyway, we recorded that track in a third-floor apartment in the city, in a living room, into a DAW, with N-tracks. The drummer of the band took charge of this, as it was his place, and I was in the process of building my basement studio. The studio is done now, and we're getting much better results at the new "real" studio, with an isolation booth, better mics, etc.

Thanks again.
 
To put my own personal situation into better perspective:

We'll probably mix our own CD, and master it, even though we will not have outside ears to give us constructive feedback (we're kind of doing that for each other, as we're three writers and singers, and we "produce" each other--yes, we fight it out on occassion :eek: ).

However, if for some bizzare reason someone in the the Real Biz was interested in our music, from live shows, word of mouth, or the web site, then....hell yes, we'd hire someone to re-master the thing, or even go back and remix. or even have someone remix for us.

We ain't fools. But the crunch of life's obligations holds its huge black knife of $$$ over our heads.
 
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