New Mastering Contest

Y

Yareek

New member
Well, I'll pre-emptively duck and cover from the storm that's going to come about from this.

But I think it'd be fun to have a mastering contest.

Part of the fun of these PMC's is that you get to hear the difference between people who are experienced and those who aren't. You can hear common newbie mistakes versus tried and true techniques. Also, you can (sometimes) pick the brains of the winner and add some new tools to your bag.

I'd love to hear what some of the professional mastering engineers can do to a song versus some of us weekend hacks. Also, anything that I master is something I recorded, so I don't get a chance to divorce myself from the process.

What do you think?
 
Yareek said:
Well, I'll pre-emptively duck and cover from the storm that's going to come about from this.

But I think it'd be fun to have a mastering contest.

Part of the fun of these PMC's is that you get to hear the difference between people who are experienced and those who aren't. You can hear common newbie mistakes versus tried and true techniques. Also, you can (sometimes) pick the brains of the winner and add some new tools to your bag.

I'd love to hear what some of the professional mastering engineers can do to a song versus some of us weekend hacks. Also, anything that I master is something I recorded, so I don't get a chance to divorce myself from the process.

What do you think?
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Sure, I'm in. Are you sponsoring the contest? :) :D
 
So would the track be a mastering challenge, like a song that has been poorly recorded? This would show if something can be salvaged by a mastering job. Or would the contest start with a track that has been well recorded and mixed, and just need some polishing? This would show the finer points of what a mastering engineer could do.
 
How 'bout $1,000 gift certificate to Sweetwater for the winner (compliments of Yareek, of course) ?

It's not a contest without prizes.

.
 
...I can offer a free 14" Pacific RIMS mount to the winner :D

I think it'd be fun to take a song, maybe it needs a little work, maybe it was mixed just fine, and see who can do the best job bringing it up to snuff.

Maybe we'll have an honerable mention for most clipped :cool:
 
SonicAlbert said:
So would the track be a mastering challenge, like a song that has been poorly recorded? This would show if something can be salvaged by a mastering job. Or would the contest start with a track that has been well recorded and mixed, and just need some polishing? This would show the finer points of what a mastering engineer could do.
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I'd prefer a rescue job. This is HomeRec after all :D ;)
 
I'll do it for 10% of gross revenues on the sales of the master that you're trying to get for free from us. ;)

G.
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
I'll do it for 10% of gross revenues on the sales of the master that you're trying to get for free from us. ;)

G.
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G. Do you have any mixes that you would like to contribute? I would like to hear your work.

I would suggest some of the following "rules":

1. Contributer of the track is not part of the contest and not affiliated with any of the engineers in the contest (to help ensure that everyone gets the same track and it's not remixed behind the scenes).
2. A 2 or 3 minute sample of the song in ? format. Helps keep downloads reasonable.
3. A sample of a commercial release be provided along with the mix that demonstrates what the "client" is looking for in the final master.
 
Hmm...I'd hate to volunteer one of my band's songs, mainly because they aren't recorded well, and conflict of interest. I could dig one up from my older band perhaps...

Or I could do a new recording.

Hmm...I'll have to dig around my archive and see if there's not something that I can offer. I can record and play drums, guitar, and bass, but I can't sing all that well and I'm not a songwriter!

Anybody up for a collaborative project? :)

We can do public mix contest, then a public mastering contest based off those results.

Masteringhouse and Southside DO have good points in that I'd hate for this to become somebody gets 20 free masters for their song...hence the reason I'd hesitate to put up something from my new band.

Ideas?
 
Oh, and what's the standard format for two-track mixdowns? Would a 16/44.1 be adequate, or do you want something in 24/96? 16/44.1 would be nice for bandwith purposes, but even 24/48 would be a lot more bits and might provide a chance for dither efforts to show.

And what's the feasiblity on final mixdown formats? Would 320 kbps MP3 be enough, or do we need to do a lossless?

EDIT: If I submit anything of mine already recorded, it's going to be 16/44.1 as that's the native format. If I do a new recording, I'd like to try 24/48 as I haven't done that yet. Again, final two-track could be in whatever format.
 
Maybe PM xfinsterx and/or xstatic and see if they are willing to put up the winning mix for PMC12?
 
Obviously I tlhink this is a great idea -- I posted something of this sort before -- and I got smeared for it. But hey, I don't see too much of a problem with "freebies" -- every one has to start somewhere . . .
 
Yareek said:
Masteringhouse and Southside DO have good points in that I'd hate for this to become somebody gets 20 free masters for their song...hence the reason I'd hesitate to put up something from my new band.

Ideas?
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That's probably a good reason to use Glen's tracks or someone else like that. xfinsterx can place in the top 3 of his own PMCs, so it's not like he needs other people's mixes.

I would suggest you use a good but not great mix, something with potential. You need ideally three judges, and you'll have to create a rating system upfront. The PMC categories won't work too well for mastering; some of them are OK, some will need new definitions, some will need changing.

I wouldn't prefer a mix then master contest. That would take too long--and the winning mix might be too good to show a large difference in mastering. It might turn into how bad people can mess it up :eek:

What might be interesting is clips of two songs, and the masterers have to balance the end of the first song with the beginning of the second, and maybe do a cool transition.
 
Yareek said:
Oh, and what's the standard format for two-track mixdowns? Would a 16/44.1 be adequate, or do you want something in 24/96? 16/44.1 would be nice for bandwith purposes, but even 24/48 would be a lot more bits and might provide a chance for dither efforts to show.
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Whatever it was tracked at, preferably 24 bits. Even 24/96 is gonna be a small file compared to the PMC downloads.

And what's the feasiblity on final mixdown formats? Would 320 kbps MP3 be enough, or do we need to do a lossless?
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That's usually up to the contestants. The judges don't like .wav files though, it's a lot to download 30 of those :eek:
 
mshilarious said:
That's probably a good reason to use Glen's tracks or someone else like that. xfinsterx can place in the top 3 of his own PMCs, so it's not like he needs other people's mixes.

I would suggest you use a good but not great mix, something with potential. You need ideally three judges, and you'll have to create a rating system upfront. The PMC categories won't work too well for mastering; some of them are OK, some will need new definitions, some will need changing.

I wouldn't prefer a mix then master contest. That would take too long--and the winning mix might be too good to show a large difference in mastering. It might turn into how bad people can mess it up :eek:

What might be interesting is clips of two songs, and the masterers have to balance the end of the first song with the beginning of the second, and maybe do a cool transition.
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Oooh!

How about we do a master of maybe not the winning song of PMC 12, but one of the better mixes that we think has some potential?

And then we can do a two-stage mix and master contest of the same vein. If the winner is way too good, take one of the better mixes. Also, it'd probably be better if the winning mix didn't have lots of master bus compressors and limiters (i.e. pre-"mastered").
 
Yareek said:
Oooh!

How about we do a master of maybe not the winning song of PMC 12, but one of the better mixes that we think has some potential?
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Not my preference for two reasons: if you entered (or judged!) PMC #12, you've heard the song a few times. I've listened to it probably close to 200 times :eek: Second I think permissions might be an issue. Let's start with something fresh.
 
gullyjewelz said:
Obviously I tlhink this is a great idea -- I posted something of this sort before -- and I got smeared for it. But hey, I don't see too much of a problem with "freebies" -- every one has to start somewhere . . .
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Yeah I did a search, and there was a joke one put up where everyone tried to clip as much as possible.

I think the contest would be great though. First, we'd all learn something and have a good time in the process. Second, it would either reinforce or possibly dispel the notion that you *need* high-end mastering for all your projects. And if I get one response that starts down the road towards that debate, I'm deleting this post.

But anyways, let's do it!
 
mshilarious said:
Not my preference for two reasons: if you entered (or judged!) PMC #12, you've heard the song a few times. I've listened to it probably close to 200 times :eek: Second I think permissions might be an issue. Let's start with something fresh.
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Haha! Yeah I hear you there.

I think it was PMC 10 or 11 that I entered...I was so sick of that song...it still haunts me to this day.
 
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