Mastering

[Combed20]

So my band went into the recording studio yesterday and recorded 3 songs. Few tweaks to make in the mix, but overall we are thrilled with the results. We are now considering putting up on a site like bandcamp. That means we now need to get the songs mastered. Never made it to the mastering stage before. Any advice/recommendstions? No idea of where to start, cost etc. Any help gratefully received.

[Akio Dāku]

Yo, I'll do the 3 for £75 if you're interested, no pressure if not. Links to my album are in my signature, it's all my engineering/mastering. I'm by no means a pro mastering engineer but thought I'd extend the offer, as I say though; no pressure either way. 

[Skol303]

Most mixes take a lot more than a “few tweaks” to get right. If you’re happy with such results, then you’ll probably be equally happy if you master the tracks yourself. Choose some suitable reference material and demo a plug-in like Ozone.

I say ‘master’... but 99% of the time we’re not taking about proper audio mastering. We’re taking about someone else - another set of ears - giving your mixes some dynamics tweaks and running the outputs through a loudness limiter. Seems simple, right?

Truth is, ‘proper’ mastering is an skill unto its own; takes many years to perfect; and requires a very high quality acoustic space with some very high quality equipment.

I’ve had experience of using cheap online services; mix engineers mastering on the side; right up to Abbey Road Studios. Big differences between them all, as you’d imagine. Based on that experience, my approach is now “go spend or go home”. Meaning that I either pay qualified mastering engineers (around £100/track at Abbey Road for their online service last time I checked) or I do it myself.

PS: this isn’t to disparage the services of Akio Daku or anyone else here. As always, if it sounds good, it is good! 👍

[MoonBassAlpha]

Tim Turan https://www.turanaudio.co.uk has a very good reputation as an independent mastering house. I've not used him, but the pro client list speaks for itself.

[roman_sub]

1 hour ago, MoonBassAlpha said:

Tim Turan https://www.turanaudio.co.uk has a very good reputation as an independent mastering house. I've not used him, but the pro client list speaks for itself.

+1  Tim is one of the best

[Sibob]

Friend of mine has had a bunch of mastering work by Tim Turan (see above) and swears by him!

Si

[Lozz196]

On ‎23‎/‎09‎/‎2018 at 13:40, Skol303 said:

I’ve had experience of using cheap online services; mix engineers mastering on the side; right up to Abbey Road Studios. Big differences between them all, as you’d imagine. Based on that experience, my approach is now “go spend or go home”. Meaning that I either pay qualified mastering engineers (around £100/track at Abbey Road for their online service last time I checked) or I do it myself.

The tattooist I go to gets all of his music mixed at Abbey Road and he says it really is a step up.

[Skol303]

37 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

The tattooist I go to gets all of his music mixed at Abbey Road and he says it really is a step up.

The quality is as you'd expect, quite brilliant (the Abbey Road brand is obviously something they work hard to protect!). But the online experience is a little 'impersonal'... not much opportunity for any meaningful communication with the engineers. Attended sessions are possible, but significantly more expensive.

PS: interesting link to Tim Turan above, now bookmarked for future reference.

[MoonBassAlpha]

You're most welcome. Everyone in this area uses Tim, but he's clearly a go-to man for many labels getting their back catalogue remastered, and for folks making their material sound the best for i-Tunes releases and YouTube.