I can't afford to get my songs mastered...

[Smitty]

I'll try to reinforce a concept put forth here already: you often only get one chance to woo a new fan with your music. If they are put off the first time around when they hear you, they're gonna be that much less likely to try again. So why cut corners?

i agree with this statement, most of the time. i am in no way anti-mastering. BUT...

there is a part of me that honestly believes that a giant majority of the music-listening public wouldn't notice at all. if i had a dollar for every time i've tried to explain to someone who wasn't audio-inclined whatever music we're listening to/discussing was recorded poorly, or was mastered badly, or was squashed too much, or whatever... i invariably get a blank stare and shrugged shoulders.

"oh, i guess i never noticed. i just like the song."

it should still be worth everyone's time to not cut corners on behalf of an apathetic public, if only from a personal pride standpoint... but the situation itself sometimes does leave me wondering.

[masonpitzel]

I'll try to reinforce a concept put forth here already: you often only get one chance to woo a new fan with your music. If they are put off the first time around when they hear you, they're gonna be that much less likely to try again. So why cut corners?

This is a pretty good statement, generally speaking. I mean, you obviously want to make a positive impression on your fans with your music, and 9 times out of 10, you won't be able to do that with poor audio fidelity and crappily mastered music.

But in this case, I think home mastering (if you can even call it "mastering") is the answer. I mean, this guy's only putting out 100 copies. And I don't even think he's going to be getting it done through a duplicator -- they're CD-Rs, for chrissake. I really don't think sending your work away for mastering would be worth the effort, much less the money. Make sure the tracks have the same relative volume and are EQ'd so they sound okay, and call it a day. I don't think that skipping the mastering process in this case would be considered "cutting corners", but more along the lines of "being sensible and not wasting money."

[James B]

yeah, it's just cd-rs, totally no budget at all... i guess my intentions when i started the thread was to try and gauge how worthwhile trying to learn how to master it in some form would be, especially since i'm not 100% sure on what exactly is covered by the term, it seems a bit vague these days. Though i'm basically thinking about consistent/ loud enough levels.

what software should i look into for doing it? i've got the logic 8 bundle and access to pro tools at the moment.

[caffiend2049]

what software should i look into for doing it? i've got the logic 8 bundle and access to pro tools at the moment.

For a home mastering project of the caliber you are describing....I think that waveburner should be sufficient.
Comes with the logic8 bundle......you can normalize, sequence....hell....it even has a pretty decent multiband compressor.

and as someone said earlier....you can work it, listen....and if it isn't up to snuff - just throw it out and start over.

[James B]

yeah, i was thinking of waveburner, never had much cause to look at it before though.

so before i dive into reading up on it all, "less is more" is probably the key when it comes to compression and messing with the EQ, right?

[mertmo]

Yes, less is more at this stage, especially with EQ. TINY moves will result in HUGE sonic changes, when it comes to finished mixes.

Good luck!

BTW, I agree with the advice here that encourages you to go for it yourself. I think it makes sense given your situation. And it really is true - if you fuck it up, no big deal. Do it again, or get someone else to do it. You have nothing to lose and a new skill to possibly learn.

I call it "ghetto mastering"... I've gotten pretty good at it, and learning to master my own recordings has made me a better mix engineer and helped me develop more critical listening skills. Nothing wrong with that. I love it when I can convince the client to get real mastering, though. Such a relief! I can do a pretty good master but it's a lot of pressure, which is not always a good thing immediately following the pressure of mixing.

[losthighway]

If you don't want to spend the dough, here's what I say.

Mix the living crap out of it. Until you don't think you could ever do better. Then experiment with something like this:

Get the stereo tracks up in whatever software you've deemed appropriate. Use a good compressor (plugin or real if you have two channels of good compressor). Set the compressor to pretty mild between 2:1 and 3:1. Set the threshold pretty high, so not everything hits it. Set the attack to really fast. (Of course mess with the settings to see what is working).

After you use the compressor you should hear little difference and see the highest spikes of your wave form brought down closer to the majority. There should be just as much dynamic range between a the typical lows and average highs in the wave form.

Now you have more headroom to push the volume up in increments until you near clipping danger.

[@?,*???&?]

My band is putting out an EP sometime soon, we're nearly done with recording it.
It's basically just going to be given away free to anyone who wants it, or maybe charge some nominal amount to sell it at gigs... it'll probably only be 100 copies or so, so the chances of making any money on it are non-existent.

So, considering the circumstances, paying for mastering is probably excessive, we've spent no money on anything else for it aside from CD-Rs, so we don't really want to start now.

Is it worth giving it a go myself? I know nothing, but I guess I could read up and give it my best shot. But all I ever hear from mastering engineers is that you definitely should never, ever even think about mastering something yourself.

Failing that, does anyone know a seriously dirt cheap place to get a quick and easy mastering job done who I can email the files to?

This post is a bit disjointed, I know, it's nearly 3.30am here and I really should've torn myself away from the computer hours ago...

Wow. The impatience of getting a recording out and saying "this is me playing" is a pretty urgent matter, isn't it?

[signorMars]

Wow. The impatience of getting a recording out and saying "this is me playing" is a pretty urgent matter, isn't it?

Fans are more likely to remember you in the morning if they go home with SOMETHING from your band, be it a shirt, a button or... A CD. bands do make music, so something with music on it seems appropriate.

besides... we're all painting in a cave here. if there's not urgency in your need to put out music, why should we buy it? so yes. it is a pretty urgent manner.

but hey... it's not art without a barcode.

[Jay Reynolds]

Wow. The impatience of getting a recording out and saying "this is me playing" is a pretty urgent matter, isn't it?

Have you ever written a song that you actually like? If you have, you'd know the answer to your own question.
And a lot of us (the OP included, I'd bet) record songs and/or albums too, not just "people playing". Huge difference, that. Recording songs is fun and exciting and I'd venture to say that its what gets most of us out of bed in the morning. Recording "people playing" is work. I doubt anyone who has recorded their own band is doing it as "work".

[Corey Y]

I'm not presuming to talk you out of mastering it yourself, people have already thrown that piece of advise in and I tend to agree with it. If you ARE going to attempt it though my advice would be not to rush it. Find as many articles/forum threads as possible on mastering and take your time with it. To break it down to essentials you're trying to keep a consistent volume between tracks and make sure it sounds as good as possible on as many different systems as possible. When it comes to things like compression and limiting I think the best advice is usually to start by overdoing it and then pull it back too much, so you can find the happy medium. Read up as much as possible on the most common "mistakes" in mastering, find out what style of mastering you like and dislike (some people think hard limiting is the devil, some love it) and try to be as self aware as possible. Take what you read and try it out for real, hear for yourself what works and doesn't for you. No one is just going to give you a piece of advice that will make it instantly sound good, you've got to experiment and figure it out. Also, don't blow your ears out, take plenty of breaks and get some outside perspective from other people on different home stereos, car stereos, ipods, whatever.

Of course the reason to go with a professional mastering engineer is not that it's some arcane art that can't be learned. The point is that those people already have the equipment and the experience and that's what you're paying for. As with most things in life if you want it done decently and you're going to do it yourself, what you save in money you will lose in time.

[@?,*???&?]

Wow. The impatience of getting a recording out and saying "this is me playing" is a pretty urgent matter, isn't it?

Have you ever written a song that you actually like? If you have, you'd know the answer to your own question.
And a lot of us (the OP included, I'd bet) record songs and/or albums too, not just "people playing". Huge difference, that. Recording songs is fun and exciting and I'd venture to say that its what gets most of us out of bed in the morning. Recording "people playing" is work. I doubt anyone who has recorded their own band is doing it as "work".

I just had a meeting with this metal band. They were playing me this half-baked demo to get my read on it so they could go back to finish it with whoever they were working with in Nashville. The studio was boning these guys $1600/day to record. They cut 8 songs in 8 hours- basic tracks-wise. The guy who is supposedly producing is getting paid $500, but they said he didn't really seem like he was into the project- they said there was one song the guy was totally into.

The band are now playing this entire recording for people. Problem is, the songs are half-baked and their vision is not clearing up working with this guy in Nashville. The rate the studio is charging is obscene. The recording will not be mastered and will not be manufactured- but they will have spent ALOT on it.

Does this not sound like the original post?

I have no sympathy for this kind of project. My feedback to the guys was more from a management consultation perspective. I told them choose the best 3 songs and finish them completely and have them mastered- so they compete with other professional recordings- clearly them spending $1600 a day recording says they want to make a professional recording. Bail on the other 5 songs were are under-realized crap. Those songs will do nothing to impress, but will do much to hinder any goals they may have.

[Jay Reynolds]

Wow. The impatience of getting a recording out and saying "this is me playing" is a pretty urgent matter, isn't it?

Have you ever written a song that you actually like? If you have, you'd know the answer to your own question.
And a lot of us (the OP included, I'd bet) record songs and/or albums too, not just "people playing". Huge difference, that. Recording songs is fun and exciting and I'd venture to say that its what gets most of us out of bed in the morning. Recording "people playing" is work. I doubt anyone who has recorded their own band is doing it as "work".

I just had a meeting with this metal band. They were playing me this half-baked demo to get my read on it so they could go back to finish it with whoever they were working with in Nashville. The studio was boning these guys $1600/day to record. They cut 8 songs in 8 hours- basic tracks-wise. The guy who is supposedly producing is getting paid $500, but they said he didn't really seem like he was into the project- they said there was one song the guy was totally into.

The band are now playing this entire recording for people. Problem is, the songs are half-baked and their vision is not clearing up working with this guy in Nashville. The rate the studio is charging is obscene. The recording will not be mastered and will not be manufactured- but they will have spent ALOT on it.

Does this not sound like the original post?

My band is putting out an EP sometime soon, we're nearly done with recording it.
It's basically just going to be given away free to anyone who wants it, or maybe charge some nominal amount to sell it at gigs... it'll probably only be 100 copies or so, so the chances of making any money on it are non-existent.

So, considering the circumstances, paying for mastering is probably excessive, we've spent no money on anything else for it aside from CD-Rs, so we don't really want to start now.

Is it worth giving it a go myself? I know nothing, but I guess I could read up and give it my best shot. But all I ever hear from mastering engineers is that you definitely should never, ever even think about mastering something yourself.

Failing that, does anyone know a seriously dirt cheap place to get a quick and easy mastering job done who I can email the files to?

This post is a bit disjointed, I know, it's nearly 3.30am here and I really should've torn myself away from the computer hours ago...

Nope. It doesn't. I doubt anyone in their right mind would pay $1600/day plus the extra $500 to "press" 100 copies. What it sounds like to me is a band recording their material themselves, which is why the OP came here to get advice.

[@?,*???&?]

My band is putting out an EP sometime soon, we're nearly done with recording it.
It's basically just going to be given away free to anyone who wants it, or maybe charge some nominal amount to sell it at gigs... it'll probably only be 100 copies or so, so the chances of making any money on it are non-existent.

So, considering the circumstances, paying for mastering is probably excessive, we've spent no money on anything else for it aside from CD-Rs, so we don't really want to start now.

Is it worth giving it a go myself? I know nothing, but I guess I could read up and give it my best shot. But all I ever hear from mastering engineers is that you definitely should never, ever even think about mastering something yourself.

Failing that, does anyone know a seriously dirt cheap place to get a quick and easy mastering job done who I can email the files to?

This post is a bit disjointed, I know, it's nearly 3.30am here and I really should've torn myself away from the computer hours ago...

Wow. The impatience of getting a recording out and saying "this is me playing" is a pretty urgent matter, isn't it?

There needs to be less 'me' and more 'we' in this. Less about a band member foisting their rushed material on the public and more about giving away GREAT songs to fans and future fans. If the music is not GREAT, then what are you possibly sharing and why is it worth it?

[Smitty]

My band is putting out an EP sometime soon, we're nearly done with recording it.
It's basically just going to be given away free to anyone who wants it, or maybe charge some nominal amount to sell it at gigs... it'll probably only be 100 copies or so, so the chances of making any money on it are non-existent.

So, considering the circumstances, paying for mastering is probably excessive, we've spent no money on anything else for it aside from CD-Rs, so we don't really want to start now.

Is it worth giving it a go myself? I know nothing, but I guess I could read up and give it my best shot. But all I ever hear from mastering engineers is that you definitely should never, ever even think about mastering something yourself.

Failing that, does anyone know a seriously dirt cheap place to get a quick and easy mastering job done who I can email the files to?

This post is a bit disjointed, I know, it's nearly 3.30am here and I really should've torn myself away from the computer hours ago...

Wow. The impatience of getting a recording out and saying "this is me playing" is a pretty urgent matter, isn't it?

There needs to be less 'me' and more 'we' in this. Less about a band member foisting their rushed material on the public and more about giving away GREAT songs to fans and future fans. If the music is not GREAT, then what are you possibly sharing and why is it worth it?

oh, so you've heard the music in question, then? i wasn't aware the OP had posted clips.