Shawn1272 Posted December 21, 2002 Posted December 21, 2002 Just wanted to share the great day I had with some of you. I just got out of the mastering studio. Spent all day in there being really happy with how everything was sounding. It is so awesome to hear mixes that I thought I weren't great become great right before my ears. I love that. Like adding icing on the cake or edible panties on the supermodel. So glad I went to 1/2" tape. THAT made a huge difference too. ROCK!! S www.phantomcenter.com
Hippie Posted December 21, 2002 Posted December 21, 2002 Sounds cool.. I've never been in a 'dedicated' mastering studio (they don't let my kind in there ;) ) although, they seem to be guarding their skills or something. Tell us what you learned, like what kind of things they do in there.. tips? tricks? Matt In two days, it won't matter.
Tedster Posted December 21, 2002 Posted December 21, 2002 Cool, Shawn... "Cisco Kid, was a friend of mine"
JES Posted December 22, 2002 Posted December 22, 2002 Just had a CD I'd been working on for the last year professionally mastered. The #1 thing I learned is that it's not the gear, it's the ears. The guy had better acoustics and better monitors, but his setup was very close to my own otherwise (Mac + DP + Waves plugs. But he's about 5000 times the engineer I am. He could hear things in the music that I couldn't, and made some very subtle changes that turned it into a "polished" recording. Moral of the story: you pay for the skill. I'm sure I picked up a couple small tricks (especially around mutiband compression, which I know very little about), but overall, it was all skills. Best, --JES
Jotown Posted December 22, 2002 Posted December 22, 2002 A true mastering engineer always makes a huge difference. Seems these days everyone with the Waves bundle, or TC MasterX, thinks they know how to master. I have known many, many very good recording engineers. I have know two very good mastering engineers. Different skill set, and they are worth their weight in gold. Jotown:) "It's all good: Except when it's Great"
Shawn1272 Posted December 22, 2002 Author Posted December 22, 2002 True that fellas. True that. A great mastering engineer is not easy to find. And they do make a huge difference. Reinforces the fact that the best gear in the studio is your ears. www.phantomcenter.com
Jotown Posted December 22, 2002 Posted December 22, 2002 As long as you have good/great ears. :) Jotown:) "It's all good: Except when it's Great"
alcohol Posted December 23, 2002 Posted December 23, 2002 Is it as loud as the competition? "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality." [Dante Alighieri] (1265-1321)
Jotown Posted December 23, 2002 Posted December 23, 2002 [quote]Originally posted by alcohol: [b]Is it as loud as the competition?[/b][/quote]Don't buy into all of the hype that "louder is better", "or you have to be loud to be competitive." Unless squashing the snot out of a track is being mandated by the label, a good mastering engineer isn't comparing your volume to Godsmack's latest release. He is just trying to make you stuff sound as good as he knows how to make it. Having to be as loud as the competion is the result of bad label input, or bad mastering, but rarely because you had a good mastering engineer do his job. :) Jotown:) "It's all good: Except when it's Great"
alcohol Posted December 23, 2002 Posted December 23, 2002 Getting your tracks loud and sounding good is important and some people are doing that quite well. Just getting it to sound better isn't enough. I am sincerely curious about whether this guy got the tracks as loud as a commerecial CD with his modest DAW setup or not. "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality." [Dante Alighieri] (1265-1321)
JES Posted December 23, 2002 Posted December 23, 2002 Hi Alcohol, I don't know if you're asking me or the other guy, but in my case "loud as commercial" isn't quite the right question. The music is a 2-bass cabaret act (with overdubs and overproduction, mind you) and most of our stuff is slow, low and pretty. So dynamics are really important. I can say that our CD has a bit more low end than many commercial CDs ("just enough not to blow people's speakers when they turn on the loudness button" is what we asked for), and that's how we wanted it. I can also say that it isn't perceptibly quieter than other stuff on my CD-changer. I will say that his "modest DAW setup" could easily have gotten me those levels had I wanted them -- the L1 Ultramaximizer will let you do that part at home if you want. Again, what you're paying for in mastering is the engineer's ears, time, and skill. Some mastering houses advertise their esoteric analog gear, and that's cool too. I just know that it's got to be in the hands of the mastering engineer (rather than my hands) to make it a real master. Best, --JES
zenfreud Posted December 23, 2002 Posted December 23, 2002 Hey Shawn, thanks for sharing your positive experience. Can you tell us what steps you took before going to 1/2"? Were you mixing to digital or 1/4" prior to the 1/2"? I'm asking cause I'm still on the fence about adding a 1/4" deck to my all digital set-up (well, analog board, but dig recorder and dig mix-down). I'm also curious if you felt going to the mastering house afforded you a bigger jump in quality than upgrading your previous mix-down set-up to 1/2". Thanks.
Shawn1272 Posted December 23, 2002 Author Posted December 23, 2002 If you are asking me about "loud as the competition" then my answer is yes. The last two records that I have done have been tracked on Pro Tools (Alsihad?), one at 48K and one at 96K, mixed through an analog console to 1/2 tape (Ampex ATR 102), then mastered off of 1/2 tape at the high quality mastering house I've been raving about. One project was pop/rock with some ambient/spacey stuff. The other one was in-yo-face rock 'n roll with TONS of attitude. The mandate given by each band was to make it "loud". I was worried that overcompressing the mixes would suck the life out of the music. Well, both these records are LOUD, even louder than some major label stuff that we compared it too. (and better sounding that some major label stuff IMHO) And the mixes still retain their life and sense of dynamics. The vocals are where they should be, the snare isn't back in another room, there is very very good bottom end response, both records are powerful, punchy, and, most importantly, both bands are 100% satisfied. Like I said on my original post, I am extremely happy with how these projects have ended up. With both records, I feel the band and I did what we set out to do. I'm very proud of these records. Thanks for the feedback, fellas. Shawn www.phantomcenter.com
medford Posted December 24, 2002 Posted December 24, 2002 I agree with Shawn. I just had the same experience Wed. 12/18. It was amazing. I worked over three months with a band on this project and we got it mixed the best we thought we could using several reference cds for comparison. We were real close to what we thought it should sound like. Then off to the mastering studio. It was transformed from almost great to fantastic! Those guys (mastering engineers)are awesome. What a majical expreience, I can't wait to do the next project. Ain't life grand! medford
wildplum Posted December 24, 2002 Posted December 24, 2002 how about naming some names? who are these mastering engineers you've been raving about? and what are you paying? Wildplum Recordings a micro label, studio and remote recording service
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