Mastering your mixes - question.

[Gomez]

How many of you master your own mixes?

Do you like doing it?

Do you find it difficult?

If you had the chance, would you get your mixes mastered by someone else?

 

[slinky_]

How many of you master your own mixes?

Do you like doing it?

Do you find it difficult?

If you had the chance, would you get your mixes mastered by someone else?

Well, yeah I do it. But just because no-one else does it for me I like mastering my songs, though it´s a big challenge to make the mix sound better and not just louder.

Anyway, I think real mastering is about bringing fresh perspective in the mix. If you record and mix the shit, you become "blind" to the material. Ofcourse you can master your own songs in a more objective by calibrating your ears with well-mastered cds, taking a day or two break not listening your songs at all etc. Still there´s a huge difference compared to someone who has never heard the material before.

So I think I´d answer "yes" to all of your quesions

 

[carl@laruso.com]

yup,

yup,

nope,

Hell yes, (i'm under no illusion that i'm any Ted Jensen or Andy...one day tho) but i'd deffo have a go too....and use the best one... most guys will have a go at a track for free (or small deposit) to see if your seeing eye to eye before going any further and wasting money


(EDIT... also i would love to master in a diferent studio.... that would be the best as you'd notice things that you may over look in the same room you mixed in.... but i also find burning a cd and listening to it in the kitchen when grabbing a cup of coffe also does the trick!

C

 

[traintown]

I just started to master my own mixes...

Not sure if I like it, because it's something I am not used to and I usually felt more secure to have a "pro" doing that job. On the other hand it's always a pain in the ass to explain the mastering guy how it should sound like... and reference cd are not always real references if you know what I mean.

I think it is difficult, but also a great way to chanlange my ears!

I have the chance... and if the band is paying, I don't mind to give it away for mastering reasons. Usually you also get a quality feedback by these guys concernign your mix.

 

[Ermz]

I do master my own stuff.

Yeah, I do find it difficult mainly because I haven't had as much experience there as with mixing. It's always an adventure, trying to find new ways of exciting the mix, making it more hi-fi, making it louder... more 'radio-friendly' if you will.

I'm hardly great at it at the moment, but I do plan to improve as time wears on. And if I was working on a professional product and I had the opportunity to send it elsewhere for mastering, yeah I would.

 

[carl@laruso.com]

I do master my own stuff.

It's always an adventure,.

definatly

C

 

[Torniojaws]

So, at what point do you master your songs? On the fly when composing (ie. all your plugins already when composing in the Stereo Out channel), or as the last thing when everything else has been done (all songs, all track, everything)?

 

[Ermz]

Last thing. I usually run out of CPU power long before I finish the mix. I have no processing headroom to run my mastering chain in the same session.

It's more convenient to do in the mix session and of course gives you much more flexibility... but it really does blur the mixing and mastering processes. When you're stuck with a stereo stem and have to work with that, then things get interesting.

 

[Gomez]

... I HATE mastering what I mix.

I think getting the mix around to an experienced ME is priceless and has many advantages, starting from the fact that you'll listen to your mixes through a full range - full quality moitoring system.

I find it it very hard to be objective when I'm mastering something that I mixed. I can get the job done, but normally it takes me longer than mastering someone else's records.

For the last couple of years I have been doing much more mastering than recording and mixing. I gained lots of experience and bought a lot of nice equipment.... and I still tell bands I have been mixing to go and master somewhere else unless they REALLY can't afford to do so.

 

[Gomez]

Last thing. I usually run out of CPU power long before I finish the mix. I have no processing headroom to run my mastering chain in the same session.

It's more convenient to do in the mix session and of course gives you much more flexibility... but it really does blur the mixing and mastering processes. When you're stuck with a stereo stem and have to work with that, then things get interesting.

Get a nice DA/AD and send the O/P of your master fader into analog units. Or, if you have a spare computer send the digtal out into the spare computer in and use some plugins. I used to do this a long time ago.

 

[~BURNY~]

How many of you master your own mixes?
Yup.
Do you like ruining it?
Nope.
Do you find it difficult?
Yup. Is that supposed to be easy when you don't have real mastering gear and acoustic environnement? (unless you know exactly what you are doing and your name is andy)
If you had the chance, would you get your mixes mastered by someone else?
Sure. It's not that epensive to have a wold renowned ME when you think about it. Depend on the project.

 

[Ronnie_Rocker]

How many of you master your own mixes? I do

Do you like doing it? YES

Do you find it difficult? Some times

If you had the chance, would you get your mixes mastered by someone else? YES

 

[chadsxe]

How many of you master your own mixes? I have but I think I am to the point were I realize that I will not be able to do it as good as someone who has the proper tools to do it with. This includes gear and most importantly room and monitering.

Do you like doing it? Ehh, nothing special. I like doing temp masters to get an idea were my levels (i.e. kick and snare) are going after a little mastering.

Do you find it difficult? Hell yeah. It is so subjective and it is much nicer having someone you trust paint there side of the picture.

If you had the chance, would you get your mixes mastered by someone else? Yes yes yes. I am actually in the hunt to make a relationship of a mastering house I can trust. There are a few around Chicago that I am going to test out.