Rod Norman
New member
Interesting comments. Of course it is serious. Everything I've heard of songs supposedly "mastered" by amateurs is either brick-wall limited or punched so hard it loses all clarity. The best ones are those with air and dynamics, but honestly, they are not mastered. They might be finished to your satisfaction but a good mastering engineer could do wonders with them and make them really glisten. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wUKAYNqTEs I suggested the multi-band compressor, and the presets because the one I was using had excellent presets. It was built in to the Akai DPS24 and had been adjusted by a good friend in New York before they shipped it to me. Most of the presets were useless for my purposes but the idea was that toggling through them gave me many different adjustments that changed how the mix sounded. I was always able to find at least two or three that made me happy. Once saved, I was able to put the song away while I worked on other projects and come back to it in a week or two. In the meantime, I had sent the original mix sans effects as well as the wave files to a mastering studio I use in New York. The difference was night and day. But my original multiband compressed version allowed me to see what I was getting for my money. I have never had to pay more than about three or four hundred dollars for my masters. One reason is I use the studio a lot. The other reason is my mixes are dry. What I do to them is for my own enjoyment and I like them. I play them for friends and family and have no problem with the results. But I don't believe in giving a mastering engineer material with reverb or eq on it for two reasons. One is, they get an accurate recording of the instruments. The second is, they don't have to deal with effects and adjustments that might impede the work they can do for me. The mix tells them what I want to stand out, the wave files gives them the option of making changes they might feel improve the music. So, for those who thought I was suggesting that a multiband compressor preset is HOW you master, you were not reading the post. For those who think they know better, you don't. A good mastering facility is more than an engineer, and engineers don't "graduate" to mastering. They prove themselves over time and are trained to use the studios set up for mastering. The engineer must have great ears but they must also have the best environment to do their work in. Home studios are improving exponentially, but are not mastering studios. Do what you can but always save the wave files untouched and the mix untouched as dry projects. Then send one off to be done in a mastering studio and see if you aren't blown away by the result.
Rod Norman
Engineer
Rod Norman
Engineer
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