Mastering...

[RR Bigman]

I agree but I feel your reasoning is meh. plenty of mastering experts out there are good at what they do, and mastering,imo, isn't just about getting a polished commercial sound. it can make the tracks cohesive if you're tracking separately instead of just a bunch of separately tracked instruments (even if that's what it is). Just my 2c, and yours is just as valid

[nightraven]

oh, yeah, there are people who are good at mastering, but if you've done all the other work yourself there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to master your stuff as well there's a bit of a parallel with expensive mastering engineers and TGP's boutique fx pedals

[RR Bigman]

Oh for sure. I mean if you've got the time and patience I say have at. I just think it's boring

[smallsnd/bigsnd]

oh, yeah, there are people who are good at mastering, but if you've done all the other work yourself there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to master your stuff as well there's a bit of a parallel with expensive mastering engineers and TGP's boutique fx pedals

hmmm i disagree. mastering even really well recorded and well mixed tracks can make a night and day difference. of course certain aspects of it are subtle, but in my opinion it's all about making the overall mix a bit clearer, more cohesive and spacious. it totally sounds like mojo bullshit toanz when said out loud... that being said, it's not all magic - just subtle eqs and compression, stereo width enhancers, etc. i think when you pay top dollar you're paying for someone's reputation, gear and mastering space/studio - don't tell me that a waves maximizer or some other plugin is going to sound as good as a $5-10k mastering compressor or some such piece of gear. it may sound "close enough" and for most stuff that's totally acceptable - especially when you consider that most people will simply download a compressed mp3 and listen in their car, on their laptop speakers or their apple earbuds.

it's also really really good to have another sort of opinion when finalizing things. if you're doing everything yourself and listening to something over and over again many times, you can get very isolated sound-wise and miss things that another pair of ears will hear - that rings true most with those final 15khz tweaks or whatever...

[MaggotBrainNY]

I am also interested in this...mastering is a total mystery to me...

Exactly why it's best to hire a mastering engineer. It's an invaluable process to any album release.

Carl Saff @ Saff Mastering does all my projects. Very affordable rates, hell of a rad dude, and does amazing work. Highly recommended for people on a budget.

[MaggotBrainNY]

in my humble opinion the only reason to pay somebody else to master your work (after you've done the rest of the job recording and mixing) is if you want to get their name on your record. if you're going for a commercial sound stick a loudness maximiser across the whole mix and be done with it. if the mix is solid in the first place there won't be too much to do and there's certainly no magic going on.

Certainly no "magic", but I disagree with everything else you said. Especially that first sentence. Having your record mastered does not equate to a "commercial sound". Songwriting does.

and those loudness maximisers are bullshit. a crutch. Track well, mix well, get it mastered by a professional. It's a whole 'nother skillset than mixing/recording.

[MannequinRaces]

Even if you don't use the program Ozone for mastering, iZotope has an excellent guide to mastering. It does cover their program but will give you tons of insight into what mastering is and isn't. Everyone should check it out!
http://izotope.fileburst.com/guides/Mas ... _Ozone.pdf

[Wes Mantooth]

I can only do DIY mastering, this is just a small project that I'm doing for fun and all of the money I make will just be donated to ILF anyways. So keeping in mind I'm on budget and this is just noise/drone it's going to sound pretty lo-fi. I just need a guide on how to add a little compression and level the volume of multiple tracks. I use Reaper for my DAW just for reference. I've experimented with some of the plug-ins but the only one I got to work very well was the reverb one.

[D.o.S.]

If you're going to get your songs mastered having someone else do it can be a really great thing, unless you're completely addicted to control.

Generally you want someone else who has no qualms about killing your baby. And as a creative person, you gotta experience that at least once.

[Wes Mantooth]

If you're going to get your songs mastered having someone else do it can be a really great thing, unless you're completely addicted to control.

Generally you want someone else who has no qualms about killing your baby. And as a creative person, you gotta experience that at least once.

Or for it's more about the fact that I could only pay them like $5 a song

I just need a crude way to level out the volume and add some compression.

[smallsnd/bigsnd]

]

I can only do DIY mastering, this is just a small project that I'm doing for fun.

[quote="smallsnd/bigsnd"it may sound "close enough" and for most stuff that's totally acceptable[/quote]


check out the izotope article for sure. just do some reading and i'm sure you'll get a basic idea for what you need. i've faux-mastered my own stuff before and basically just used some multi-band compression and overall gentle eq'ing.

[symbolique]

+1 to hiring a mastering engineer.

in lieu of that, bribe or kidnap one, but don't do it yourself.

[theavondon]

Oh, wait, noise comp? Don't master it. It'll be noise-er.

[aen]

Can anyone clarify exactly what the process is like?

It's like mixing except someone already mixed it.