Not necessarily. My clients have ranged from labels who want material mastering to release, to producers who are wanting tracks to play out or just put up on their soundcloud (no profit) and even some guys who don't even want to put their music out there, they just want the song for themselves but presented in the best possible light.twilitez wrote:Of course paying for actual mastering is almost always better (if you have the right ppl for it), but who can afford that without the prospect of 'some' sales?
Thats the real pinch in this whole deal. I wouldnt throw 50 bucks at something thats gonna end up a free tune on SC, and lots of people probably feel the same.
Just playing the devil's advocate for a bit here.
I'm not going to present a sales pitch on a forum, obviously you know whether you want to spend money on a track being mastered. However there is more to sending your track elsewhere than just (If track makes me x amount of money then I can justify spending x amount on mastering etc)
The amount you will learn from the experience will help you massively (both in your mixes and future self-masters). If you can search out some local mastering houses then see how much they charge and see if you can have an attended session with them. You will be able to hear your mix in an environment suitable for mastering and you will hear the difference between what you can hear through their setup and your own.
Online mastering you will still learn a bit from. Myself (as well as plenty of others) are always happy to explain any deficiencies in the mixdown and justify what steps were taken to get to the finished product. I've always found this highly appreciated amongst my customers with the majority of them being the ones mixing the project it means they take away a little something each time.
The point I'm trying to make again is the education you can gain from sending a track off for mastering, online is okay for it but if you really want to hear what's going on try for somewhere local where you can hear for yourself what's going on!
