Sitting in on mastering session - Possible?

Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2002 3:27 pm

Wow! I'm overwhelmed with the information. You have all been very helpful, and I appreciate it. Let me try and clear the waters for those of you who may not understand, or "question" my "being able to afford mastering" as Olhsson quite eloquently put it.

I could afford mastering if the end result warranted such an expense. I'm not vain enough to think that I'm going to cut a CD and successfully sell it. I really don't want to take that gamble. This project is going to be a good quality demo of my work. I'm putting the time and effort into it for two reasons. 1st, I've never seen a project through from beginning to end. 2nd, I'm distributing copies to family members and friends who I haven't spent time with in years. A bunch of good folks who know of my talents, but haven't been present to hear the evolution of them. That's why I stated that this is a personal project. I doubt I will duplicate more than 100 copies, if that. So maybe that answers some questions.

Let me close by saying that my intended end result may sound as though it doesn't warrant the attention that some of you have given it. To me it's no less important than any other project, but the end result is not geared toward the same audience one would normally try to sell to. Thanks to you all for your help, and advice. I truly am greatful.

Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2002 5:08 pm

Quote:

Originally posted by Styles Bitchly:
I doubt I will duplicate more than 100 copies, if that..

If you only want 100 copies you will probably end up with CDR copies. Most plants will only do a 500 minimum. You'll have to price everything out to see what makes sense because CDR copies are more expensive than replicated discs.

Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2002 6:16 pm

Paul is right..these days most mastering facilities (mine does) can knock out a 100 pack in 2 days using care (not 32X). Once it is ripped to a error proof system then doing 20 an hr is no problem with the multiple burners. I feel that burned CD's can sound better than a glass ...except for those who do it all in house and use extreme care in x fer.

I feel every project gets the same level of importance..after all, art is art.

Posted: Wed Dec 04, 2002 9:58 am

Yorik: Please E-mail me at: Don@Europadisk.com
We can talk about artwork. My work is better than ever now, of course! We learn every day.

Paul: For bulk CDs (no packaging/jewel cases)
we will replicate 300, or maybe fewer, minimum, pricing gets better the more pcs you replicate.

Bill: Art is indeed Art!! If the CD is going out there you should want to represent yourself at your best. You don't want Aunt Hilda to be turned off by a lack of bass or muddy cymbals, now do you?

Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2002 5:13 pm

If Bill were a girl I would already be married to him!!
LOL

Yes, Bill is one of my biggest friends in the virtual web world and soon also in the real world...

Yes, this guy rules and know what he talks about.

On some other forums, guys just present the stuff and go away when it gets time to share a piece of cake. That is hy I gave up from several forums and the ones who know me deeper, are aware that I really bother my bigger brothers a lot!
LOL

So here it goes....

I spend around One hour with the new potential client...
I make notes, present gear, make a sketch mastering of one song of his for free. I generally spend around 5 to 8 hours mastering a 12 song album orinally done at 44k/24 bits, no matter of it comes from a CD-R DATA or Audio.

Dat tape Masters genreally arrive with some minor tracking / alignment problems so where my 2 DAT machines start their self talk.

Very complex jobs I end up spending two days or 2 periods of 6 hours, but that is rare, generally when I get albums were the songs were mixed by sevreal different studios/ skill level engineers.

I have also rejected to do some stuff, have appeared lots of very bad project gospel CDs on here, generally done with DIGI 001, Vs, Fostex machines. Many unlabelled/not indexed DAt tapes, horrible fadeouts, that I always urge clients to let me myself do them .

One problem is hwen the guy comes with 14 songs and the 14 BGs of them, wanting to put all them on the same master!!

I try to explain the client the overview of an RTa like PAz, show some audio artifacts, deficiencies and up to where we can arrive. I am very realistic and try to be very ethical.

There is a saying here in Brazil: nowadays, there is almost nothing that someone :w: else can not do worser and cheaper for you...

Posted: Fri Dec 06, 2002 2:28 pm

Around here I have heard it said:

"you can get it done fast, cheap, or good; pick two"

Posted: Wed Dec 25, 2002 3:41 pm

Great advise on Mastering .. both the scope of what the job can trow at you, and the absolute net worth of spending some time to show a client what the craft is about.
I just left another forum where I'd been for 2 years helping and learning, and the bulk of people there did not understand that mastering was important. One of the moderators touted the concept that it was not even needed given the current state of DAW plug ins. I, of course blew a gasket.. what a thing to tell people, and certainly bad advise at a minimum.
I was advised that my disagreement with this mod. was to be stoped. I refused to accept that and left behind dozens of great people trying to learn who are now left with that level of bad advise.
Mastering .. learn all you can, listen, and do that as many times over as you can. It is, IMO, the critical, and soon to be lost link in indie recording.
Thank you all for showing it's worth.

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