Mastering Studios / Doubt - HELP!

[EdSOE]

Hello everybody,

My band: Sight of Emptiness is ready to enter the studio in the next few days, pre-production went really good. Now we are looking for a good place for mastering. Pretty much because we want to have some numbers in advance $$$$(budget) and hear different opinions, I'm really sure some of you have work with some of the places/persons, I'll mention here later on.

I have study very deep the basics in mastering like:

1. Noise reduction
2. Equalization
3. Dynamics
4. Harmonic exciters
5. Stereo widening
6. Loudness maximisers

... but one doubt I have is: If you can tell the mastering engineer to improve or change in some way the sound of individual instruments.

What can he do to the drums?
What can he do to the guitars?
What can he do to the bass?
What can he do to the vocals?
What can he do to the keyboards?

The Mastering Studios I have in mind to get in touch are:

1 - Cutting Room: Bjorn Engelmann - Behemoth - Dimmu Borgir - In Flames - Rammstein

2 - Tailor Maid: Peter In de Betou - Septicflesh - Katatonia - Ram-Zet - Dark Tranquillity - Dimmu Borgir - Arch Enemy

3 - Finnvox: Mika Hussila - Amorphis - Children of Bodom - Finntroll - Moonspell - Nightwish

4 - Panic Room - Plec (forum name ) - Scar Symmetry

5 - THE MASTERING ROOM AB: Goran Finnberg - Disarminia Mundi - In Flames, Soilwork, The Haunted, Dark Tranquility (I did not find their website btw).

Thanks in advance
all da best
Cheers

 

[paladin shredder]

If you can tell the mastering engineer to improve or change in some way the sound of individual instruments.

to answer your question, no they can't fix individual elements. i recently was in a mastering session where our guitarist mixed everything himself. during mastering i thought the guitars sounded way too scooped, so i asked the mastering engineer if he could just eq it a bit to enhance the midrange, and he said no way...

btw, that's a nice list of mastering engineers you have!

 

[joeymusicguy]

actually the more modern way to work, now adays, is that whoever mixes the record will make stems.

basically the mix the song and then finally mix down tracks in groups, like one stem would be anything that has to do with drums, another stem would be rthm gtrs, a bass stem, a vocal stem, a back up vocal stem, extra gtr stem, and effect stem (if needed).

each stem is like a stereo track with all the "grouped tracks" mixed into it

from here the mastering engineer can control eq, compression, volume, and whatever other sonic magic he wants on each stem.

i would recommend doing this for any project that's going to have someone outside of the production team doing the mastering. that way you dont have tons of recalls when you get to the end.

 

[joeymusicguy]

to answer your question, no they can't fix individual elements. i recently was in a mastering session where our guitarist mixed everything himself. during mastering i thought the guitars sounded way too scooped, so i asked the mastering engineer if he could just eq it a bit to enhance the midrange, and he said no way...

btw, that's a nice list of mastering engineers you have!

if you would have had stems, this would have been easily fixed

 

[006]

actually the more modern way to work, now adays, is that whoever mixes the record will make stems.

basically the mix the song and then finally mix down tracks in groups, like one stem would be anything that has to do with drums, another stem would be rthm gtrs, a bass stem, a vocal stem, a back up vocal stem, extra gtr stem, and effect stem (if needed).

each stem is like a stereo track with all the "grouped tracks" mixed into it

from here the mastering engineer can control eq, compression, volume, and whatever other sonic magic he wants on each stem.

i would recommend doing this for any project that's going to have someone outside of the production team doing the mastering. that way you dont have tons of recalls when you get to the end.

+1

~006

 

[noarin]

don't forget Alan Douches in your list of mastering engineers; he's not too expensive and very very good at what he does!

 

[greyskull]

also try ue nastasi at sterling sound on their after hours scheme!

 

[HatewerK]

Goran is the man, go with him.

 

[2dark]

Plec does the mastering at his Criteria Mastering studio not at Panic Room.
He's a cool dude and knows his shit. So my vote goes to Plec!

 

[broken81]

Yea I just used Peter In de Betou on a project and it turned out great, my next project were looking at Alan Douches. Not sure if anyone here has used him but ive been kinda curious about Colin Davis at at imperial mastering.

 

[EdSOE]

actually the more modern way to work, now adays, is that whoever mixes the record will make stems.

basically the mix the song and then finally mix down tracks in groups, like one stem would be anything that has to do with drums, another stem would be rthm gtrs, a bass stem, a vocal stem, a back up vocal stem, extra gtr stem, and effect stem (if needed).

each stem is like a stereo track with all the "grouped tracks" mixed into it

from here the mastering engineer can control eq, compression, volume, and whatever other sonic magic he wants on each stem.

i would recommend doing this for any project that's going to have someone outside of the production team doing the mastering. that way you dont have tons of recalls when you get to the end.

mmmm sounds interesting Joey, can you explain me a little bit more about this "stem" procedure, I don't get it 100%.

Cheers bro
Thank a lot

 

[EdSOE]

don't forget Alan Douches in your list of mastering engineers; he's not too expensive and very very good at what he does!

You are 100% right dude, I will add him to the list

cheers

 

[ArtGarceau]

The point I try to make to every client I've worked with is they should NOT send me an album that they don't already think sounds finished. Although after an album is mastered it may sound "better" the goal of mastering isn't to make an album sound better. The main goal of "mastering" (pre-mastering really) is to create a playlist that sounds cohesive song to song, and to create an error free pre-master that will be used by the replication house to create the replication master.

Unlike mixing engineers having a "signature sound" a good ME should be pretty transparent and will build upon what is already in your mix.

You can't polish a turd.

 

[26]

The point I try to make to every client I've worked with is they should NOT send me an album that they don't already think sounds finished. Although after an album is mastered it may sound "better" the goal of mastering isn't to make an album sound better.

I once read a comment from a masterer saying that there was not really much to do on the mixes he got from CLA.
That was the first time i understood that a mixer should aim for a final sound.
(didn`t really help in my case though )

 

[EdSOE]

Plec does the mastering at his Criteria Mastering studio not at Panic Room.
He's a cool dude and knows his shit. So my vote goes to Plec!

Oh, I didn't know about Plec working in different studios depending of the project, thanks for the info!

 

[colonel kurtz]

mmmm sounds interesting Joey, can you explain me a little bit more about this "stem" procedure, I don't get it 100%.

Cheers bro
Thank a lot

like he said, the stem approach involved sending the ME a stereo mixdown of all of individual elements of the mix. after you've mixed your track, instead of
rendering the whole thing, render a stereo track for the drums, one for bass, one for guitars, vox, etc. etc.

then you send each of these to the ME who, when he loads them all together, will hear the same mix you made, but will have the ability to change each element as he sees fit. of course, the main caveat to this approach is that now the ME is making more decisions than he previously would've about the mix itself, which of course has the potential to turn out either good or bad, depending on whose doing the work.

 

[Metal Overload]

Not sure if anyone here has used him but ive been kinda curious about Colin Davis at at imperial mastering.

I worked with him, is a cool guy, and really professional and patient, and have some nice rates.

 

[EdSOE]

The point I try to make to every client I've worked with is they should NOT send me an album that they don't already think sounds finished. Although after an album is mastered it may sound "better" the goal of mastering isn't to make an album sound better. The main goal of "mastering" (pre-mastering really) is to create a playlist that sounds cohesive song to song, and to create an error free pre-master that will be used by the replication house to create the replication master.

Unlike mixing engineers having a "signature sound" a good ME should be pretty transparent and will build upon what is already in your mix.

You can't polish a turd.

I agree 100% with your statement, the final mix should sound 98% as close as the final product, mastering its gonna put the "cherry over the ice cream" and make everything cohesive.

 

[SymbolicSV]

I worked with him, is a cool guy, and really professional and patient, and have some nice rates.

+1 on Colin, i just finished a project with him, very nice dude and really really pro.

 

[EdSOE]

like he said, the stem approach involved sending the ME a stereo mixdown of all of individual elements of the mix. after you've mixed your track, instead of
rendering the whole thing, render a stereo track for the drums, one for bass, one for guitars, vox, etc. etc.

then you send each of these to the ME who, when he loads them all together, will hear the same mix you made, but will have the ability to change each element as he sees fit. of course, the main caveat to this approach is that now the ME is making more decisions than he previously would've about the mix itself, which of course has the potential to turn out either good or bad, depending on whose doing the work.

VERY VERY CLEAR, now I understand, thank you very much!