General Music Chat

Mastering a CD (or just 1 song), vs. simply recording and overdubbing. How does one get that 'pro' sound that the big artists have?
I noticed on a Boston album a while back that every instrument seems 'compartmentilised', if you will, all very distinctive and separate within the stereo realm. Very clear and concise. Does anybody know how the big studios do it?, Or is it just a matter of lotsa money, pro equipment, and the recording engineer's talents?
Thanx,
Steve

Well, here's the BIG DOG.
http://www.tcelectronic.com/Finalizer96K.asp $2500 (no, I didn't leave out a decimal point.)

But there are software versions available. Such as:
http://www.voxengo.com/sfinalizer/ $57 (that's more like it).

Hope it helps. It's my next step in my studio, mastering that is.

you can get your work mastered for as little as $20 per song. If I can find it I'll send you a link to a studio in Cleveland or you can just google it.


www.myspace.com/blunderingeye
www.myspace.com/445175001
http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/6039/
www.facebook.com/hayden.king.

"It is what it is"

RatS-Yeah tc-electronic is always high-dollar, I've noticed, even their simple flanger..
I guess they make good sht?
Hayden- is it the 'razors edge' guy who posted here a while back?

Doodes, you're not gonna believe it but I work literally a few walls away from this guy.

Z mastering is the most important step to really good good finished product.
CUBASE has a great program out and so does iZotope. its called OZONE 4. After you have great tracks down and a great mix you have to have a WHOLE bunch of fresh ears to run it through one of these programs. The end result will amaze you. OZONE 4 is about $300.They will let you do a trial run,and help you with mastering techniques to MAKE YOUR MIXES SOUND GREAT. This a whole step that takes as much work as the original recording. I dont have a copy yet but I am leaning in their direction. AND THANK YOU FOR BACKING OFF BREAKING MY CHOPS AFTER GETTING INVOLVED WITH RYTHM MAN AND HE WASNT UNDERSTANDING ANYTHING I WAS TRYING TO SHOW HIM!!!!!
steal his music right,,, i cant even get my stuff STOLEN

All my stuff was mastered using Pro-Tools. One thing I have learned, make sure you leave some head-room in your mix so that the mastering engineer has some work area. If your mix is too hot it will be difficult to master, especially with other mixes that aren't as loud.

GOOD ADVICE

And most mastering companies want you to leave it as raw as possible. For instance, get the mix that you want but don't do an overall EQ, compression, sonic maximizer, etc. That's their job and they can do it better. Also, they can't always undo what you've done in those cases.

Good advice you-all, Thanks. I've got some Izotope vst mastering plug-ins (and other mastering stuff) included with the adobe multi-track recording software that I use; I guess I just dont know how to use them correctly yet.. that manual/ user-guide is about an inch thick.. Probably would be best to let a pro do it, but money's tight right now.. Giongi: I just like to raise a little hell every once in a while.. no offense, I hope.

NONE,YOUR A GREAT PLAYER AND A GREAT PERSON. But mastering is a whole ART in itself, and thats why i say it helps to have as many FRESH ears around as possible and play your mix back on as many different mediums as possible.
Even worse, you take a great mix and wreck it by trying to MAKE IT SOUND BETTER. That can be very frustrating so when you try to MASTER have as many people help as you can if you are not an EXPERT

Thanx Man.

you take a great mix and wreck it by trying to MAKE IT SOUND BETTER.

lol, I've done that! And sometimes I cant even tell it. The great folks on this forum have helped me a lot in the past on critiquing some of my newly-written (and some of my older) tunes. I still ask for their opinions every time I write something new. They're a great help. You-All are a great help! Thanx!!

Save your original raw mix. Then copy it to another folder. Use the second one to play around with mastering. When you feel you have a good master save it as: (song name) Master 1. After listening to it, pull up the second one again and play around with mastering again. Save it as: (song name) Master 2. And on and on until you get a few. Then listen to them all and see which one you like best. Always start with fresh ears. If you've been recording and tweaking that song all day, wait a day or two before mastering it. If you do a second master, wait a day or two before doing it. Always start mastering with fresh untainted ears.
The reason of course you save the original raw mix is because it is easy to just hit "save" and it's suddenly not the original anymore. I know! (thumps forehead)

Ears

I've got so many hundreds of files of tracks stored on internal and external harddrives that I cant tell what's what anymore!! Dough!!

I need a lot better system. But I'm working on it ..

Chip- ears?