Affordable Mastering

[gradgt]

Hey everyone!! It's been at least a few months since I last posted here. Anyways since then I've been honing my skills, recorded a few albums, and I feel I'm ready to start offering my mastering services to the public.

Anyways about me: My name's Garrett, I am a graduate of Los Medanos College Recording Arts program. I've been mixing and mastering my own projects for several years and during that time have gained the skills necessary to master tracks to make them "radio ready". I am trying to get started putting my skills to use! Because of my low overhead costs I can afford to do this for less money than more expensive studios while achieving roughly the same results.



My rates are $20 per song, $50 per demo, $100 per album.



Also, before you pay I'll send you a 30 second clip of the mastered version of your song. That way, if you're happy with the finished results, you can pay and get the whole song. That way you have nothing to lose if you're not happy with the results!

Listen to the clips below from video game metal band "Mega Men". The first clip is unmastered, EXACTLY how they gave it to me. And the second one is the mastered version, how I returned it to them.

Also, feel free to tell me how loud you want it. If you want to keep it quiet to preserve fidelity, that is fine. Your mix will still sound better without gaining volume! If you want it to compete with today's loudest records I can also accomodate.

If you're interested email me at garrettwnoob@yahoo.com, or you can PM me here. If you're not interested, you don't have to say anything.

[guitarace]

Wow, that sounds awesome! Nice job. If I ever finish a song I'll be sure to have you master it, especially with those prices. Rock on

[TonyB]

Interesting. What kind of gear do you use? I only ask because what if you get a "butcher job" mix in?

You were fortunate with Mega Men Foxy, which didn't need to much work.

I may have a song or two for you to work on.

[gradgt]

Well mastering is not mixing.... I do my best to fix whatever problems there are in the mix, but it's best to fix those problems before it gets to the mastering stage.

Also I don't really understand why you'd want to master a 'butcher job' mix, since mastering is mostly preparing songs to be presented to the public.

That being said however... I CAN polish a turd, but I can't turn a turd into gold. So far I haven't found a song that I can't improve, but serious mix problems can't be corrected by the time it gets to being mastered.

[fortyseven]

Lol its amazing how many people expect mastering to magically turn a turd into a lump of gold!
Good luck.

[Vulconizer]

Originally Posted by fortyseven

Lol its amazing how many people expect mastering to magically turn a turd into a lump of gold!
Good luck.

I bet if most folks were entirely honest, this is exactly what they expect when they get a song "mastered".

It still ain't mastering to me unless you're doing an entire album. Until then, you're just finishing up someone else's mix.

[gradgt]

Mastering is the preparing a final mix for commercial use by increasing loudness, widening, and using multi-band compression to adjust the balance of frequencies which sound good to human hearing. It's crucial if you ever want to be heard on the radio.

It's not simply making all songs on an album sound similar to eachother, as many people believe

[TonyB]

Originally Posted by gradgt

Well mastering is not mixing.... I do my best to fix whatever problems there are in the mix, but it's best to fix those problems before it gets to the mastering stage.

Also I don't really understand why you'd want to master a 'butcher job' mix, since mastering is mostly preparing songs to be presented to the public.

That being said however... I CAN polish a turd, but I can't turn a turd into gold. So far I haven't found a song that I can't improve, but serious mix problems can't be corrected by the time it gets to being mastered.

UHHH, that's not what I was saying. I wouldn't be turning in a butcher job mix. I just wanted to know what the ME would do if he thought he had a butcher job.

Calm down people.

I know the difference between mixing and mastering. However one reason I send it to an ME is to hear those things I didn't hear in my control room, such as pops and crackles or some low-end aggravating noise that maybe I didn't catch. If an ME cannot do that for me then I'll go to another ME.

If an ME doesn't know a "butcher job" when he sees it, and tries to fix it instead to giving it back, then I'll go to another ME.

I've used ME's before (and not with butcher jobs) and those songs have been played on the radio.

I'm just asking questions based on the ad that was presented in this thread.

For $20 a song, do you really think the ME would get the most pristine mixes, or butcher jobs from someone just starting out with a 4-track and SM-58? Yes, a very new, very green "mixing engineer" would probably expect some polish on his/her turd.

[TonyB]

Originally Posted by gradgt

Mastering is the preparing a final mix for commercial use by increasing loudness, widening, and using multi-band compression to adjust the balance of frequencies which sound good to human hearing. It's crucial if you ever want to be heard on the radio.

It's not simply making all songs on an album sound similar to eachother, as many people believe

I have radio spots that I would like to have mastered, which from your sample I know you can do (it would meet my needs). I'll PM you with the details.

I also have some country songs that will be put into local radio rotation. I'm just trying to ask for more information on how you handle a fully-produced song (or songs). I wouldn't be sending you butcher jobs. I'd be sending you songs to be polished for commercial radio airplay. In other words I need "those second set of objective ears" to catch those sounds and noises that I didn't catch because I'm too deep in the forest (you know, can't see the forest through the trees).

I sent a radio spot to an ME once who caught a little bump (sounded like one of the voice over people slightly bumped the mic with either her hand or face!). Anyway, it may have seemed slight, but once it gets to the highly compressed stage that the radio station adds to it, it could've been very noticeable.

I'll PM you.

[TonyB]

Originally Posted by Vulconizer

I bet if most folks were entirely honest, this is exactly what they expect when they get a song "mastered".

It still ain't mastering to me unless you're doing an entire album. Until then, you're just finishing up someone else's mix.

Honestly, no! I want a second set of ears to objectively help turn the material into a professional product (i.e., a good mix into a "gooder" mix, or better yet.... and "great" mix or a "great" mix into an "astonishingly great" mix that fits the media that it's going into, which gadgt alluded to). So if he is sent a well-tracked country song, but it pounds with heavy double kick drum, way-too-loud distorted Tele guitar, etc, what should the ME do? In my opinion, from the ME's perspective it could be a butcher job because the ME would be trying to "mold it into a country song." In this case, the ME would probably consider sending it back to the AE for retrack or remix (i.e., maybe he overused Guitar Rig on the Tele).

Of course the ME's job is to make the material (whether one song or entire project) a better product. That's why I send it to him; not just to hear him say ... "good job!"

The same holds true for the AE. I've had people come in and record their original songs. The vocals were extremely off-key and the timing was off. As the AE, there's no way I can fix that and need to politely tell them that I can't go any further.

I'd expect that of an ME. If the ME hears something that's just not right in a particular song (whether it's a single song or Track 2 on a compilation) I'd want him to return it back to me for fixing.

Okay, back to my coffee and donuts....