Who is the best at mastering here?

[scooterlow]

Who is the best at mastering here?
I was wondering if you have your "go to" guy here that is really good at mastering tracks. I was wanting to upload something I did (not mastered) and have that person do a mastering of the mp3 I guess. I would like to compare how my talents in mastering measures up with someone with the right ears and skills.
It will not be a complete project song. Just a minute or two song just to see how it could turn out if done by a skilled engineer type.

[Vulconizer]

"Mastering" one song isn't what I really call mastering though...

It sounds like what you are wanting to do is send your mix to someone else to finish it for you. I guess you can call it "mastering". I call it the mixing process and others call it pre-mastering. Pre-mastering? Why call it that?

To me, "mastering" is taking a compilation of songs, putting them in a logical order, then doing whatever bit it takes to make that a cohesive unit. It may take a little EQ, compression, level matching, or whatever. It may not. The mastering engineer is also responsible for putting the spaces or cross fades in between songs and making sure it's industry compliant so that the replicating house can duplicate it.

So, to me, anything leading up to the actual process of working on that compilation is not mastering.

Sure, you can send one song, just know that it's not some sort of magical voodoo. It is an extra set of ears that can listen to your mix critically, maybe apply some techniques that may not be available to you due to a knowledge, experience, gear and room difference, and even give you some advice on things to work on. All for a fee.

Who knows? If you did your mix right and he's a good guy, he might send it back without charging you because there is nothing he can do to it. At least, nothing until he has the context of an album's worth of songs to go with it...

[shackman]

Right on Vulconizer.

I'm with every word - except that bit about God Jr.

Seriously, there does seem to be much confusion about what mastering is, what mixing is and how they relate to one another.

Scooterlow: you sound like you need a set of ears to judge the mix you've done on an individual track.

[scooterlow]

Not really , I just wanted to ab a little one minute track to see what someone else would do. I don't want a song done for free or even a whole song done. i just wanted to do a test.
I'm not talking about mastering and matching all the tracks of an album so there equal. I do know what mastering is. Ive been working with this gear for over 15 years.
Its was all just about and A/ B situation. It's all good, I can find some one else to experiment this Idea with.

[majormusic]

I think God is the best at mastering.

[TheMusicMan]

Soo.... Maybe the best thing would be to upload the track and let us have a crack at it.

I'd sure like to compare the differences. and edit the track.

[chris beaver]

Originally Posted by scooterlow

Who is the best at mastering here?
.

that's a ridiculous question

[aljk2008]

Alright, so are you going to upload the track ?
I'd say it's better to just put the track up and let everyone do their thing and then whichever one you like in the end, you can go ahead and ask the person what they did, etc.
Let's hear it.

[scooterlow]

Ok I'll put up a track in the next day of so. Like I said this will be a basic one or two minute song, nothing fancy as I'll just do a verse/chorus or something.
Now I do realize there is difference of opinions on what mastering is. So to clarify I guess what I'm looking for is who's the best at getting a track Eq'ed with the right amount of compression and limiting so its radio ready. I'm looking for that final shimmer if you will. Not just more hi end but overall EQ and such. And I know this is opening up a big can of worms so for future reference I'll need a better term than mastering for this instance.

[aljk2008]

Yeah I understand what you're looking for. I was thinking of trying this out some while ago too, since the whole "mixing" and "mastering", especially nowadays has become a bit of a hush-hush secret kinda thing. I too, wanted to see what people would do differently to some of my tracks and compare them to my mixed and mastered versions. So I am totally with you on this one and pretty eager to hear what everyone comes up with.