stoopid noob mastering questions: with catches!

[hunterchristy]

so before i begin this rant, let me first thank everyone here at tape op. what a fantastic community and resource for those of us that fall within every skill level, time committed to music, and budget.

admittedly, every project i've ever done has been a homespun affair, from the ground up. everything i've recorded, i've done on my own, engineering, mixing, mastering. However, i'm working on my first (and second) projects that will be sent off for mastering. I'm as nervous as i am excited, and the artist and I have been discussing our dream list of mastering engineers.

this thread, of course, is not without a catches.

the music is a soft and sparse folk-pop-alt kind of affair, entirely tracked with close and room mics on acoustic instruments. no plug-ins. cubase is being used, but any effects are outboard. sure, i'd have loved to track to tape, but neither the artist nor i could afford it, so we simply imposed the no plug-ins stipulation. we'd love to carry this through the mastering phase too. The other big issue is that, in the area the artist lives and plays, cassette has actually made a comeback in a rather big way, boasting all-cassette labels. Initially, this album will be released on cassette and digital download, but should there be any label interest in distribution, potential compilations, etc, i've pushed for being ready for cd and vinyl.

SO, i guess my questions are as follows:
1. is a simple "Dear awesome mastering engineer, we love your work. Do you master without plugins, cus that's what we want" email okay to send? will those whose work we respect anyway, without the knowledge of their setups, get offended? I ask because I'm ignorant in the practices of trying to hire someone.
2. what special considerations do we need to have in regards to a cassette release / future-proofing for cd/vinyl?


I'll use an example of two of our dream mastering engineers:

http://www.focusmastering.com/contact.html
I'm not entirely sure what the difference between master cd's and reference cd's are. Do we place in the notes "we'd love this to be mastered to tape"?

http://www.westwestsidemusic.com/2pricing.html
there are SO many options, and i'm not sure what we'd need and what is superfluous for our project.


Again, thank you for taking the time to read this. and thank you to those that respond. I just dont want to fuck this up. haha.

[kslight]

I'm positive that if you convey your expectations to the mastering house any respectable engineer will either accept or decline your work based on if they can do what you need and maintain the integrity of the project. Call them up, or tell them to call you. If you don't trust them to do it blind, then maybe find a local mastering house that will let you sit in while they work. I know Focus will do this. I also notice on Focus' website they have a specific option for "need additional master for vinyl" so if you intend to have different masters for digital, cassette, and vinyl releases I'm sure its something they can handle, unless you prefer to deal with that at a later date.

[Dakota]

SO, i guess my questions are as follows:
1. is a simple "Dear awesome mastering engineer, we love your work. Do you master without plugins, cus that's what we want" email okay to send? will those whose work we respect anyway, without the knowledge of their setups, get offended? I ask because I'm ignorant in the practices of trying to hire someone.

Totally fair game for you to ask for that specification - mastering is a "service" industry, should never be a high-horse thing. Any given engineer can take on or pass on the project as specified.

2. what special considerations do we need to have in regards to a cassette release / future-proofing for cd/vinyl?

Well, if the mastering engineer is retaining a higher res stage of the process previous to final 16bt/44.1k dithered standard files for CD, then ask for the high res files as well. Those are much easier to adapt for future use in other formats.

FYI, I master and would be totally happy and fine with the above specs. There are also a ton of other very skilled and cool mastering engineers on this board as well, MoreSpaceEcho also being in my neck of the woods, and many others all over the map. You have options.

[MoreSpaceEcho]

i use both plugins and analog stuff. if you hired me and were adamant about no plugs, i'd happily do your master that way, but honestly, i have to say it seems like a somewhat arbitrary limitation. plugins aren't inherently bad and analog isn't inherently good. there's been plenty of days where my little freeware de-esser plugin is more valuable than the thousands of dollars of analog eq and compression sitting in the rack. no joke. my plugin eq can do things my analog eq can't, digital limiters are more transparent than analog, etc.

just sayin'.

to me, it's not important how you get things to sound good, so long as they sound good.

if i were doing this, i'd probably do a 'no plugs' version and a 'perhaps some plugs' version and let you decide which you like better. that would be fun to do, actually.

[fossiltooth]

Agreeing with MoreSpace here. I master on some very nice hardware, but plugins are not inherently bad. Even with access to the best hardware ever made, software noise reduction tools and de-essers can be very valuable.

I have access to 1/2" tape machine as well as one of the best all-analog hardware-based tape emulators ever made. I like them. But I'm sure people are doing good work with software ones as well. Some hardware does sound really good. But in the end, it comes down to sound, not dogma. It's all about the quality of the work.

Go with people who do good work. Of course, it's totally fair to make your preferences known. But I also encourage you to be open to answers that you might not have thought of!

[dfuruta]

I get that it's a personal purity sort of thing, but I think it's counter-productive to tell the ME not to use plugins. There's no way it can help to tell the ME to only use these or those tools. When you go to a restaurant, do you tell the chef what knives to use?

I've worked with a few different mastering engineers on different things (MoreSpaceEcho being my favorite ), and I've been happiest with the results when my communication has been more or less non-technical. I don't really care (or want to think about) how the ME gets the sound; I only care if they've made it too bright or too harsh or too loud or too quiet. Let them do their job, and don't worry about how. That's the great thing about hiring someone else to do the work...

[ChrisNW]

I'd encourage you to check out your local ME's. You might find the benefits of communicating in person and attending the session to outweigh working with a bigger name.

[hunterchristy]

thank you SO much for your replies.

I understand everyone's points, especially with the fact that respecting the person's work without ever knowing the set up they're using, rings really true. Good work is good work. It's always worth asking, though, i guess.

[jhharvest]

I think there's two sides to this: if your artistic vision requires that no plugins should be used then it makes sense to look for a mastering engineer who can accommodate that without feeling constrained. On the other hand, if you love the work a ME has done on a previous project and they use plugins, then you actually love what the ME can do with plugins. Which matters more to you: the process or the result? When it comes to art, both results are equally valid. Sometimes even when it comes to commercial products. Organic vegetables are hardly any healthier for you but still they retail at a higher price. That's because the process does matter to some people...

[digital eagle audio]

it's your record and it should be done the way you want. but, i don't think of mastering as part of the (MY)artistic process. that's not to say it isn't an art or anything, just that the mastering process is something above my head, and that's why i pay someone else to do it. i'll communicate my goals ("it doesn't have to be 'LOUD, loud'" etc) but i give them total faith to make it sound good however they see fit.
basically, you have to pick between how it sounds and how it got that way.