Mastering for Independent Musicians

[Macartie]

umpbay

[Macartie]

movin' on up

[Macartie]

...to the top...

[Macartie]

...to a deluxe apartment...

[Macartie]

...in the sky

[Macartie]

bump

[evilaudio]

So, are you an analog or a plug in guy?

As in, if someone sends you final mixes on 456 1/4" tape at 15ips, are you gonna be able to do it "justice" by keeping it in the analog domain? Do you have tape playback abilities? Your ad is kind of unclear. Can you list some of the equipment you use to obtain your mastering quality? Please advise, thanx!!!

[Macartie]

I can and will work from almost any format. I worked as a mastering
engineer for two years at Sony Music Studios, and during that time
I worked with every format from lacquer to direct stream digital
(I never saw any wax cylinders, though).

That said, in the past five years in my own shop, I have only seen
a handful of projects come in on analog tape. The vast majority come in
as 24 bit data files (WAV, AIFF, SD II, etc.). Most other mastering engineers
I have spoken with (including Bob Ludwig!) report this to be the trend
in their shops too.

When something comes in on a digital format, I tend to keep it in
the digital realm. I feel this preserves fidelity and helps protect the
project from potentially degrading A/D D/A conversions. When
something comes in on an analog format, I typically convert it
to digital sooner rather than later -- after all, it has to become digital
eventually if you're gonna put it on a CD! I do not believe that
keeping it analog up until the last stage does it more "justice" as
you put it. What does it justice is to make it sound as good as
possible, and I happen to find that my digital tools are more
precise (they do what I tell them to do). The most important
tools I use (besides my ears & brain) are analog though -- my
Bowers & Wilkens monitors.

[evilaudio]

Great! I may look you up soon for some work then. Sounds good. Thanx for replying!!

[Macartie]

If I can be of any help to you, give me a call.

Best,
Arthur

[rich]

wow those are some wierd monitors. even if they dont sound good ( which im sure they do) they would make a nice flower arrangement center piece.

[Macartie]

B&W makes a wide variety of (amazing!) speakers. The "wierd" ones you
see on the first page of their website are part of their Nautilus series.
Those aren't the one I use ($$$$$!!!) -- mine are more normal looking.
However, the ones I use contain some of the same drivers.

[Rigsby]

"Improved stereo imaging of your mixes" - how do you go about this?

[taproot]

Being new to the TapeOp forum, I thought I'd let some of you folks know that I offer discount/broker mastering rates to recording studios, record labels and other qualified audio pros. Call or e-mail for details. Please see discography for references, etc. Take care!

[MASSIVE Mastering]

Dude, it's really not cool to hijack another users thread by offering your services on it...

Start a new thread.

Oh, I see you already did. Hours ago.