Mastering.... Sample Track *Need HELP

[ESPJL5150]

I just got back a track I sent in to a studio to master near Chicago and I need some opinions on the sound! I think the unmastered version sounds better than the mastered one I played it on 3 different stereos! I can't understand why i would think that but i do! Anyway I'm just asking if you can sample the two versions out and tell me if it's worth paying them to do the other 9 songs. Maybe i just have been working this project to long and can't tell the sonical difference whether it sounds good or not! I don't know, or if anyone here thinks they can master it BETTER PLEASE PM OR LEAVE A MESSAGE and Ill talk with you! I found 3 studios that can master a 10 song album for $150 or $15 persong or so. I'm waiting on the other sample tracks to come back from the other studios so i can hear the difference but my time frame is slipping away! I need the master by July 3! I don't know please check this out sorry for the long post!

Thanks, Jeff

WATER OF LIFE (mastered)
WATER OF LIFE (unmastered)
The songs are labeled with ( ) which one it is!

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=822522

 

[ESPJL5150]

Everyone thinks it's shitty like i do?

 

[gabriel g.]

error when trying to open the mastered one...sorry

 

[CrazyClown]

Same problem 8-(

 

[ESPJL5150]

Alright i fixed the problem it's good to go!

 

[SentencedToBurn]

it sounds like the guitars are clipping like hell on the mastered one. awful. other then that i would say the mastered one is better. the unmastered one has no balls.

 

[ESPJL5150]

I thought the mastered one sounds boomy as hell compared to the not mastered one! The unmastered one is at -3.5db for mastering headroom so you'll have to krank it a bit! I'm getting another master from another company in an hour or so i'll post when it arrives in my mailbox! thanks guys

 

[CrazyClown]

I like mastered more, except terrible clipping.
It's sounds brigheter and opened a little.

 

[exzem]

The mastered one sounded like shit, clipping and drums sounded very fatiguing, do people actually pay money to have their songs destroyed like that?

 

[ESPJL5150]

It was a mastering sample for free before we master you album.

 

[Zuranthus]

unmastered sounds a lot better...you just have to turn it up, of course it loses the squash, but a better master could be done on it. it was pumping a little too much for me. all the song really needs is to be brought up to level in my opinion

 

[GarethSE]

Man I will do the album for $100 just so I can make it sounds good
fight the loudness war or dont bother

 

[doclegion]

Man I will do the album for $100 just so I can make it sounds good
fight the loudness war or dont bother

How much for a 3 song EP??

 

[Melodeath]

Man I will do the album for $100 just so I can make it sounds good
fight the loudness war or dont bother

Likewise.

The clipping is excruciating.

 

[Harry Hughes]

When I clicked on the link for the mastered version, I was pretty much smashed in the face with too much volume, not a good thing.
In a world full of smashed to fuck recordings, I'd gladly want to hear the unmastered version that has a little less punch rather than a mastered version that has more punch but is unbearably loud and clipping.