mastering question

[Sharmaji]

Typically, should a pre-mastered mix not make use of any leveling amps/plugins on the master? Or maybe that's pretty much up to the artist/mix engineers preferences?

I've gotten plenty of mixes to master that sound great w/ a compressor on the master bus. I usually ask for it off, but if a producer is adamant that it's the sound he/she wants for the song-- who am i to complain? At that point, i may have chosen to do it differently, but if that's what you're going for an you know it-- that's what you're going for.

Can't think of a single mix that sounded great when it had a limiter. Not only does it wall you in in terms of available dynamics-- if it's hitting the limiter hard, then you're going to have a fair bit of ugliness in the top end, and who knows what kind of malarky in the low end.

[serox]

Removing everything from the master and reducing the master volume was the best thing I ever did. Forever I had a limiter on the master and was fighting a never ending battle with filters and EQ's trying to make things work.

[Basic A]

With all due respect, you're talking out of your aeserhole.

[aeser]

It might make a huge difference, it might not.

Sometimes - and it does happen - you get a mix where you don't need to do anything at all. You don't HAVE to mess with stuff. Knowing when to leave things alone is THE hardest part of the job. That's the level people like myself aspire to, to be able to hear when you need to do nothing at all.

again, i'm not arguing that you don't have to do more on some projects than others, and yes better mastering engineers/producers/engineers/musicians/composers/etc. know when to say when on a project, but do you honestly think say, bob ludwig gets paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to listen to a mix by another producer/engineer who was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to record and mix it, and just says "nope that's good enough", does nothing, and gets to cash a check?

my point was people who are saying mastering makes no difference at all as a blanket statement on all of audio are full of shit.

[-[2]DAY_-]

100's of K for one mix? I'm in the wrong profession!!!!

[macc]

again, i'm not arguing that you don't have to do more on some projects than others, and yes better mastering engineers/producers/engineers/musicians/composers/etc. know when to say when on a project, but do you honestly think say, bob ludwig gets paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to listen to a mix by another producer/engineer who was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to record and mix it, and just says "nope that's good enough", does nothing, and gets to cash a check?

That's exactly what I'm saying.

I think it's George Martin who said;

'I pay my mastering engineer thousands of dollars to tell me he doesn't need to do anything'.

When you go to the doctor and he says there's nothing wrong with you, do you tell him to give you some pills and bandages anyway? If he tells you that you have flu, do you want him to put a bandage on your head?

Knowing when everything is cool is the art. Knowing what the appropriate remedy is and how to apply it follows that. You're paying for the experience - NOT the processing.

my point was people who are saying mastering makes no difference at all as a blanket statement on all of audio are full of shit.

Fair do's... but that's not quite what you said, eh

[Sharmaji]

When you go to the doctor and he says there's nothing wrong with you, do you tell him to give you some pills

yes. the resale is INSANE !

[Mad_EP]

When you go to the doctor and he says there's nothing wrong with you, do you tell him to give you some pills and bandages anyway? If he tells you that you have flu, do you want him to put a bandage on your head?

Knowing when everything is cool is the art. Knowing what the appropriate remedy is and how to apply it follows that. You're paying for the experience - NOT the processing.

Exactly this. For one of my albums, I knew I had the mixes for each track individually how I wanted them - but as an album, the tracks were a bit too differing in volumes, so the ME helped with the volume matching and some very slight touches.

If I wanted someone to fix my mixes, I'd send the stems to a mixing engineer.

[Mad_EP]

When you go to the doctor and he says there's nothing wrong with you, do you tell him to give you some pills

yes. the resale is INSANE !

fucking lol.

[DJ Crackle]

When you go to the doctor and he says there's nothing wrong with you, do you tell him to give you some pills

yes. the resale is INSANE !

[aeser]

When you go to the doctor and he says there's nothing wrong with you, do you tell him to give you some pills

fuck yea i do