Getting a fresh mindset for Masterin AFTER the mix is done

[Emdprodukt]

As much as I wished to pass all the mastering work to the pro's some clients just don't have the money or don't want to spend it on an mastering engineer (which is a shame). So... I have to do the work. What I usually did was fixing everything in the mix and just make stuff loud and call it a day (yes I know that this is NOT mastering).

Some of the full time pro's in this forum do a lot of the masterings by themselves. How do you get a fresh mindset for the masterin process if you're on a tight schedule and there is no time to get some distance to the mix?

 

[HostileEx]

Work on a different project and comeback, or you could listen to music and comeback. It would be ideal to give your ears some rest, if possible.

 

[Kohugaly]

would be fine to lay it down for a few days (probably a week or so) ...listen to it from time to time.... this way you get better idea what to fix even if you mixed it, because you start to listen to it as a song not as a mix... after a week when the band is starting to prepare to kill you, master it!

works good for me...

 

[crillemannen]

Well start up the next project, wait 2days or so and then master it. It is quite impossible to do a great master direct after you have worked like a week or two on a bands EP etc.

 

[Emdprodukt]

Sometimes you don't have the time to give the mix a rest for a few days or a week and I still would go back to the mix and fix everything that's wrong at the source. Imagine you have barely enough time to do the mix in time but the band/label asks you to do the mastering, too!