What should i do??

  • Thread starter Thread starter Luckis
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Luckis

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Hello to all.

Ahh yes, welcome to yet another one of those "Do i master myself or what?" threads.

But well, time has come for me to be finishing the mixes on my self-produced, self-recorded, self-played, composed, etc. etc. album. And now i face this question, as maaany others did and do.

But there are a couple of facts in my condition that separate me from the countless threads i´ve read on these matters:

- I´m from Argentina, a place where mastering is an expensive luxury reserved to the high class musicians only. Or the kids with rich fathers.
- The fears about getting it mastered online and getting my last bucks scammed by deceivers are getting into my nightmares lately. :D
- My so called "album" is collection of my songs, is not going to be released by a label, and i intend to use it just as a promotion and a means to share my music for now.
- I have some experience tracking and mixing, but not much mastering, i really dont know well how to do it, much less in the context of a whole album.
- I´m a busker here, hence the lack of real money to put into a mastering,

What do you people think i should do? Is there a way to do a modest mastering by myself? Should i wait for another year to gather money for a big mastering anyway? Is there anyone here who offers online mastering at moderate prices? Is my english good enough? What is the meaning of life?? :D

I hope you take the time to give me some advice on this. I´ve worked really hard and put so much love on this songs, and now for the first time in the process i am kind of lost.

Thank you all.

PS: By the way, there are a couple of songs in the mp3 mixing clinic, if anyone wants to take a listen:

homerecording.com/bbs/general-discussions/mp3-mixing-clinic/care-help-my-very-modest-mixes-335893/
 
Hey there.

I listened to your tracks and they don't suck, so that's the good news :)


You've come to the right place; You have a few options.

1: There are a lot of generous people starting out on here who might help you out for very little.

2: There are also a lot of professionals here too. Ok, they'll charge more but at least you're getting community reputation with them.

3: If you're looking for something simple, you could have a go yourself.

Take stereo wavs of all your songs and import them into a split new session.

Now, spend some time making sure the levels are the same between all of the tracks.
If any tracks standout tone wise, either go back to the mix and fix that or use an eq on the master for that track to make it 'fit' with the rest.

If you're not looking for super commercial loudness it's surprising how much you can do yourself.

Listening to AQUI, it kinda sounds like my tweeters are covered. Maybe that's something that a simple master eq would sort. Maybe not.
The snare kinda sounds like it's straight out of addictive drums with no processing, you know?
 
I was curious about mixing and mstering myself, got some good testimonials in this thread:

https://homerecording.com/bbs/gener...ces-offered-homerecording-com-members-337204/

I also got one good recommendation through PM:

"I've used the services of Jan at finemastering.de on about 15 songs all up.
I chose him because I'd heard the work he'd done & difference he'd made to songs by Ido1957 & JoeyM.
I usaed his free demo service to get an idea as to whether his work would do anything for my songs.
In the end I had him do "stem" mastering for the majority of my songs. I chose this because the songs were recorded on a variety of gear over a long period of time & he was able to address a lot of the issues that came with that in stems. I did have a couple of songs mastered from just the stereo mix. I aslo had Jan mix one track.
Friendly, helpful, honest (he told me when he felt a song, a performance or the audio weren't up to scratch) and not very expensive at all. I did the 15 songs at about 1 every two to three weeks so I could afford it. There's a discount for X number of tracks etc too.
Stem mastering is more expensive than the standard stereo and mixing more expensive again.
I'm more than happy with the results. The last three songs I had done were on songs from a collaboration with three MP3 clinic regulars and they had approval over the masters for those songs. they were happy with the results as well."
 
first, whoever sent above PM: thank you! :)

Luckis, you should first think about how much budget do you have. without some budget you don't have any other option than just doing it all yourself. but you may already know, that might lead to a not-so-nice result. your mixes are not perfect, but they are ok. i would recommend to go for stem-mastering (which i recommend for nearly all non-professional/homerecorind productions, since it gives the best results for the money without remixing all tracks).

i also always recommend to request a test master, esp. since you put so much work & love into your songs. this isn't that much work for the ME & you as a client can get some feeling how much your productions can gain from mastering. as a ME i always felt this is a win/win situation both both sides.

good luck!
-jan
 
Thank you all! Steenamaroo, I certainly would like to get recommendations of those people that are starting out, so i could talk to them.

Jan, thanks for the advice. Regarding the budget, i would say i could pay a modest mastering, or maybe do it in parts like the guy above said. But i think i should get estimatives on the cost, since i would have to pay in dollars.

Can you tell me more about this stem mastering? how much it would cost, how is the process, etc.?

I dont know if its ok to talk this kinda thing in an open thread, but if not, please send me a PM.

Thank you again!
 
luckis, i recommend stem mastering when the mix is roughly fine (no timing/pitch problems, recordings are fine, vibe of the mix is caught, etc.), but has some minor problems that cannot be solved on a stereo audio file, e.g. "uncontrolled" bass area, silibance on the vocals, some level problems, too much reverb, phase issues, etc. most of the time there is quite a bit that can be done.
the typical procedure is, that i request the stereo-file first to get an impression of the mix. if necessary (and possible...sometimes it is not, e.g. session lost, etc.) i request individual stem tracks depending on what i would need to fix the problems mentioned above on the mix. stem tracks are submixed stereo-tracks e.g. including all effects which will result in the normal mix when played together. example:
- drums
- bass
- guitars
- vox
- rest

maybe its not appropriate to discuss costs here, i also don't want to actively promote my service in forums. please feel free to contact me by email if you have questions.
i hope you could see at least *some* options you might try.

best regards,
jan
 
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