mixering and mastering

  • Thread starter Thread starter jukeboxbreakdow
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jukeboxbreakdow

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hello

Was after some advice, my band are considering getting the demo were currently working on mastered by emasters - http://www.emasters.co.uk

couple of discussion points

first off - we dont have an awful lot of knowledge about mxing and mastering so we're not sure how much fiddling round we should actually do with the recording prior to sending it to this place.

as we're quite new to doing this on our own and basically we could quite easily mess up what is currently a reasonably good recording, then send it off in a state where even they couldnt help

where do we draw the line on what we do and let them take over ???


secondly - our ears arent as well trained as all of yours probably are, so does this emasters place sound reasonable, price wise and quality wise, they have some samples up to check
 
At first glance the site looks a little questionable... are we supposed to believe that they've had a hand in mixing and mastering all of those discs which are being shown on the left and right sides? U2, Bowie, Sheryl Crow, Supergrass, Pulp, Queen etc.? Come on now, really? If so, more power to them but I would ask for an actual client list. If they were such big name people you'd think there'd be an About Us section or something so they can show off who is working behind the board.

Personally, I'd like to meet face to face with the person who will be shaping the final product that I've put so much time and money into... but that's just me.
 
Looks dodgy to me too.

You send these guys your stuff over the net, they 'master' it, then send it back? No.
You should meet with a decent mastering engineer, you'll discuss your project and the sound you're after, each song would get different treatment (or little if if is good already), this just seems like a 'one pass fits all' type solution which is not much use at all!

Could be wrong, but that's the impression i get form their site, and the fact that they show all those top albums, makes me suspicious immedaitely. If they were that big the little guys wouldsn't be able to afford them!


Hmm, just did a little more digging on the site and they link to another site which has more in formation here http://www.soundmasters.co.uk/people.htm
This is where the links to the superstars comes in, but I bet for £40 a song you're not gonna get the treatment that those people would get!! Wht don't they put their names to the site if they are the ones doing the work?
 
I've used SAE here in Phoenix, very good guys, they work pretty quick and are affordable (it cost us about $350 to do a ten song CD).

http://saemastering.com

The only adive I can give is when mixing your master, if you're working in the digital domain, mix to 24bit, split stereo tracks. You can use a limiter on the mix bus, but don't hit it hard (it should only limit if there's a very hard drum hit, for example), leave some room for the mastering engineer to work. Same goes for EQ and compression. Get the mix sounding good, but leave overall EQ and compression to the mastering engineer.
 
There's more in the "Getting the Most from Your Mix" PDF on the MM site...

BlueBear has a lot of cool articles on his site also - www.bluebearsound.com
 
If you're going to mail your disc away to get it mastered, there are a handful of engineers on this site (myself included) who will do it cheaper (and probably better) than this "online mastering" place.
 
thanks guys

yeah i was actually thinking its probably worthwhile talking to people on here who might be interested to help us out for a few $$$


we have a little work to do before were at that stage, just wanted to start thinking about this stuff now
 
glynb said:
Looks dodgy to me too.

You send these guys your stuff over the net, they 'master' it, then send it back? No.
You should meet with a decent mastering engineer, you'll discuss your project and the sound you're after, each song would get different treatment (or little if if is good already), this just seems like a 'one pass fits all' type solution which is not much use at all!

Could be wrong, but that's the impression i get form their site, and the fact that they show all those top albums, makes me suspicious immedaitely. If they were that big the little guys wouldsn't be able to afford them!


Hmm, just did a little more digging on the site and they link to another site which has more in formation here http://www.soundmasters.co.uk/people.htm
This is where the links to the superstars comes in, but I bet for £40 a song you're not gonna get the treatment that those people would get!! Wht don't they put their names to the site if they are the ones doing the work?

I was always curious about those covers on their site, I think they may be a bit misleading.

For a list of one of their engineers see:
http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/appears/0,,590866,00.html#more

Yes he did Elton, but not one of his mainstream albums. I see none of the other credits listed here.

If interested here's my list from the same site:

http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/appears/0,,596131,00.html#more

In addition I've done radio shows with U2, The Stones, The Who, Genesis, Rush, and many others. But you won't see those covers on my site :D
 
This may only be worth the 2 cents I put into it, maybe less, but If a few guys here are willing to give some time, and good, free input to those of us that could use it, I would definitely look to sending some business there way. If I ever have an idea that is worth actually recording, and have someone else listen to, the outside influence of a "mixer" or "masterer" would probably be benificial to making that idea sound its best, and supporting someone who helps us all out, for free, is going to be the safest, best bet. Again, maybe not worth much, but these guys answer some questions that get asked over and over, and seem to have plenty of knowledge, and patience. They have to be doing something right, and deserve to be recognized for it. Just my opinion, but any help I get is greatly appreciated.
Ed
 
Totaly dodgy mate, steer clear. I know for a fact a few of the albums on the site they are showing were mastered elsewhere.

There's no address or contact phone info on there so you have no direct contact....very clever.

Those pics of their studio could be of any studio online where they could easily have swiped their pics

and the samples....., one iss of paul weller, the other is of The Prodigy....BOTH are listed as unknown bandss on their site. I could probably do as good a job as them for free if you ssent me a CD...can you imagine uploading 3 or 4 full blown stereo .wav files at 16/44.1 if you were on a dial up modem?
 
emasters said:
what can i say...

Wow, say something bad and they just come flying out of the woodwork. I wonder who else is lurking in the shadows? :D
 
HangDawg said:
Wow, say something bad and they just come flying out of the woodwork. I wonder who else is lurking in the shadows? :D
Probably the drummer dude that BentRabbit uses as an avitar. He is very sinister.
 
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