Mastering?

[dannymoore]

Hey I was wondering if you should still use compression before mastering? Btw what is a goog mastering plugin? Im thinking of getting ozone4.

Cheers

Dan

[Sexual_Chocolate]

get an engineer to master your music....

its there job and 99 times out off 100 they are gonna know more than you on the subject.

[Mammoth]

Even if you hire an engineer to master it you should still practice mastering by yourself on some tracks.

[Sexual_Chocolate]

^^ why?

like in all honesty, unless you have a decent pair of monitors id advice against mastering yourself, i mean you can have a crack at it, but at the end of the day your better of getting a second pair of ears to check (especially if you havent played any of your tracks out)

[Shum]

Your aim as a producer should be to get your mixdown spot on, not overly concerning yourself with mastering.

[Sexual_Chocolate]

get your mixdown spot on

[blinx]

i use ozone4 and even though some ppl bash it and blah blah blah... i can use it and get the results i want for FREE when i make music worthy of real time from an ME i will get a real ME to mix it... other wise its going to be me and my ozone plugin mastering my tunes. Still though most producers i really look up to have a large hand in mastering their own tunes so i want to do my own tunes too.

If you get ozone look up the dj vespers tutorial... he shows you how he uses the plugin and it helped clear some stuff up fo rme back in the day.

[Teknicyde]

Your aim as a producer should be to get your mixdown spot on, not overly concerning yourself with mastering.

Bingo, a good mixdown will play out just fine in a club/dj set, anything Im going to release or distribute in mass is worth the 30 for a decent master, Ive realized that after a while.

Everyone asking who's good... DMZ, correct me if Im wrong, use the legendary Dubplates and Mastering, though, Ive always been satisfied with dubstudio's digital stuff, and Ive heard great things about Depone here on the forums.

[dannymoore]

i use ozone4 and even though some ppl bash it and blah blah blah... i can use it and get the results i want for FREE when i make music worthy of real time from an ME i will get a real ME to mix it... other wise its going to be me and my ozone plugin mastering my tunes. Still though most producers i really look up to have a large hand in mastering their own tunes so i want to do my own tunes too.

If you get ozone look up the dj vespers tutorial... he shows you how he uses the plugin and it helped clear some stuff up fo rme back in the day.

I just downloading ozone 4. How do you installl it? I put th dll in vst/plugins but it dont work for some reason.

[amphibian]

i use ozone4 and even though some ppl bash it and blah blah blah... i can use it and get the results i want for FREE when i make music worthy of real time from an ME i will get a real ME to mix it... other wise its going to be me and my ozone plugin mastering my tunes. Still though most producers i really look up to have a large hand in mastering their own tunes so i want to do my own tunes too.

If you get ozone look up the dj vespers tutorial... he shows you how he uses the plugin and it helped clear some stuff up fo rme back in the day.

I just downloading ozone 4. How do you installl it? I put th dll in vst/plugins but it dont work for some reason.

You buy it from the vendor and read the manual.

[blinx]

i use ozone4 and even though some ppl bash it and blah blah blah... i can use it and get the results i want for FREE when i make music worthy of real time from an ME i will get a real ME to mix it... other wise its going to be me and my ozone plugin mastering my tunes. Still though most producers i really look up to have a large hand in mastering their own tunes so i want to do my own tunes too.

If you get ozone look up the dj vespers tutorial... he shows you how he uses the plugin and it helped clear some stuff up fo rme back in the day.

I just downloading ozone 4. How do you installl it? I put th dll in vst/plugins but it dont work for some reason.

very carefully if you cross the wrong wires you may blow this whole place to hell!!!!

[skimpi]

Your aim as a producer should be to get your mixdown spot on, not overly concerning yourself with mastering.

Bingo, a good mixdown will play out just fine in a club/dj set, anything Im going to release or distribute in mass is worth the 30 for a decent master, Ive realized that after a while.

Everyone asking who's good... DMZ, correct me if Im wrong, use the legendary Dubplates and Mastering, though, Ive always been satisfied with dubstudio's digital stuff, and Ive heard great things about Depone here on the forums.

dont DMZ use Transition?

[safeandsound]

A relationship with a mastering engineer is invaluable for those at that stage.

A plug in is pointless unless there is accuracy with which to apply it's settings correctly.

[epoxy]

Mastering should only be done after you have done a rough master yourself and tested it with cdjs or some other digital form in my opinion, because how will you know how the elements in a track react to compression and limiting, I have heard people get shit masters because there mix sounded fine without limiting but when applied it brought out annonlys that they didn't hear without the compression

[Shum]

A relationship with a mastering engineer is invaluable for those at that stage.

Amen to this. Also, mastering engineers are probably the nicest blokes you'll meet in the music biz, well in my experience anyways.

[khamiz]

Where's the best place to find a reasonably priced master?

I've found one for £5 though that is quite clearly some automation just turning up the volume.

Where do you guys get yours done?

[legend4ry]

Thing is; I used to think like 90% of people in this thread but my minds starting to change...

If you learn how to master your tracks to a high quality level then you'll be cutting out around a week in time (sending it to the ME, getting changes, making sure label likes it..etc.etc) which means releases can push forward faster and you'll know exactly what you want.

I think its good practice to self-master every track and learn as you go along but untill you can master to a industry standard level, never commercial release anything not done by a professional ME.

I would love to keep the art of mastering alive and keep mastering houses open but in reality cause there is so few around these days a lot of ME's are swamped and the last few ive gotten back from supposedly "amazing ME's" have been half-arsed.

[blinx]

yeah for edm/dubstep i can agree with self mastering becoming part of our toolset to stay alive and thriving.

[laurend]

The main issue with DIY mastering is when using the same monitoring system for both mixing and mastering, no flaw related to the monitoring can be corrected. In other words: How to correct a colour on a picture painted wearing sun glasses, if you still wear the same sun glasses for correction?

Note also that a serious mastering requires hi level audio skills. Ozone is a powerfull tool which can also ruin your mix.

[safeandsound]

Self finalizing is possible but it usually excludes:

Viable tonal options from high end analogue equipment
Objectivity
Full range linear monitoring (including room)
Correct adjustments (err..... a big one)
Skillset learnt through specializing for years
QC'd and error tested final medium

Any number of issues can arise from the above.

online mastering uk