Getting Music Mastered
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- 23kon
Anyone in the UK ever used a professional studio to get a final mixdown or master of the music they make?
Any links to studios?
What sort of cost?I'm in the middle of finishing off a load of songs to go on CD - between 5-10 songs.
Theres a guy i've worked with before for a cdrom voiceover for a client. Its an established studio and the guy worked with Justin Robertson, Jon Pleased Wimin and Lemon Jelly. So I KNOW the final mixdown will add even more quality to the music.Ive been quoted £100 an hour or a dailly rate of £500 for 10 hours work.
The latter of which doesnt sound too bad , especially for the expertise id be paying for.
This sound about the going rate?
- BaskerviIle0
sounds pretty good to me, I might be getting some recording I've done mastered by a guy in new york, he's independent but all the best labels use him. A friend of mine knows him so I'm gonna get 'amateur rates' but £500 for the works sounds good. Mastering can really make the difference between sounding amateur and sound really rich and full. Ask him for some 'before and afters' of music work he's done to hear the difference
- 23kon0
Thats what I thought, it was a pretty good price - thats what youd be paying a decent freelancer in the design industry if you wanted design work done : not too a dissimilar comparison (the difference between homemade design work and getting a pro to do it lol).
I know the kind of sound that I want so i'l be finding out if he can achieve that.
when i was younger i was in a band and we spent a lot of time in the studio so yeah i know what kind of difference a good pro mixown can make to a song - can copletely change the flow and dynamics.
cheers, good luck with your tunes too
- vespa0
sounds about right. The guy we used for our single was about that I think, and that was 2 years ago.
I'm going to need to get some tracks mastered in 2 weeks, let me know how yours turn out as I'm looking for someone to do 4 tracks for our EP.
good luck both of you!
xxx- Aye, good luck 23kon - be sure to stick it in the FMT so we can pirate the living shit out of it! ;)detritus
- blackspade0
There are also people offering mastering services on Gumtree in london, for cheaper than that. Obviously you get what you pay for! but from the little research I did, some of them had worked on some pretty reputable stuff, and had access to wicked studios.
I think hte before and after suggestion above makes sense
- locustsloth0
Naw just get a few pug-ins and do it yourself
- HAHA yeah, i'm jokinglocustsloth
- i'm also spelling-challengedlocustsloth
- 23kon0
locustsloth
I was just going to do that as i'm pretty happy with what i've already got but a good professional ear and tweaking on pro equipment will get it 100% :)
- brains0
Take it to a professional. It's always worth it. Screw plugin's and all that shite, someone with years and years experience will blow them out of the water.
- and while plugins are great, they dont and wont replicate the warm of a good compressorautoflavour
- autoflavour0
the whole point of mastering is to get someone who hasnt heard the song 500 times to listen and adjust it. its what they do for a living.. so unless you are a mastering engineer, doing it yourself.. doesnt cut it.
especially if you are talking for vinyl..
- pr20
sounds about right. here in NY you can expect to pay $500-$750/day.
- mg330
Whatever you do, don't take abysmal boring classic rock rip offs from a crappy American band to Abby Road Studios to have it mastered just so you can put a sticker on the album, and have all your press refer to the fact that it was mastered there.
Seriously, I know someone who did that and in the music community it's a hilarious joke.
- mikotondria30
althought saying that, I've had work mastered and cut at Abbey Road and they're some of the most professional and genuinely nice guys you could ever hope to meet.
As you walk in there's a platinum disk on the wall for the Beatles, in respect of 1000,000,000 units sold, and you feel small, yet great.
- mg330
I'm sure you're right. But you don't travel there from Chicago as an unsigned band with horrible music so that the only good thing you can say about your album is that it was recorded where the Beatles recorded.
- you dont, you just send them the files. abbey road do alot of mastering, especially for vinyl
autoflavour
- you dont, you just send them the files. abbey road do alot of mastering, especially for vinyl
- matt310
didnt read the previous post but most people will give you a flat rate per song. I would push for that so the hours dont run up. $100 a song is about average i think.
- sublocked0
@23kon
I mixed my initial album by myself but got it mastered by Andy Khrem at Silverbirch in Toronto. He did a dope job. I sent all the final 24bit wavs via FTP over to him.
http://www.silverbirchprod.com/
Check em out, great work.
- 23kon0
cheers for the link sunblocked, but its handier going with a UK studio, the guy is just 10 mins down the road, plus i'd like to be there to oversee whats happening and have more of a say on the final outcome. il prob take a mate along and a few tinnies for the couple of days itd take :)