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so i've got a few children's books coming out in the fall, each with its own cd of music, and i need to have all the audio mastered by the end of august. i am toying with the idea of buying something like izotope ozone and doing it myself (i've been recording music for about 15 years as an amateur), however the releases are official, commercial, professional, so i am also considering seeking out an affordable mastering solution.
i would love to get some recommendations on who i should contact to get this audio up to red book standard, on a starving artist's budget. thanks!
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Vancouver
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Re: your recommendation: mastering
Sat, July 28, 2007 - 10:27 AMI like two mastering engineers, one in the Bay Area and one in LA.
Up here, I take projects to John Greenham. He's got excellent ears and good taste and works with very high-end equipment. His rates are reasonable, too. Email me for his contact info.
If I can get the budget and the time, my favorite mastering engineer is Erick Labson, at Universal Mastering. (Yes, as in Universal Music Group.) He is a remarkable mastering engineer and I take every opportunity I can to utilize his talents. The down side is that Universal's rates are very high (I believe it was $350/hr last time I was there). However, Erick is very good at staying within budget. The last project I worked on with him had a budget of $1500 for mastering and he was very capable of being conscientious of and staying within that. You can reach Universal at (818) 777-9200.
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Re: your recommendation: mastering
Mon, July 30, 2007 - 8:47 AMif you want it truly mastered no plug-in can really do that for you and certainly not ozone. plug-ins like that are great for reference bounces and demo stuff, but if you want professional and commercial you're going to have to pony up for someone with the experience, the ears and the gear. there is unfortunately no shortcut here. I would start by finding out who does similar music to yours and see where they mastered, or find studios who master that do your style and ask to hear representations of their products, they would almost certainly oblige your request.
good luck! -
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Re: your recommendation: mastering
Mon, July 30, 2007 - 12:05 PMLocally (San Francisco), I like Mike Wells... his rates were affordable (but we've been out of touch a few years, not sure what he charges these days).
Nationally, I've always gotten great results from and often refer people to Brad Blackwood. I also like Dave Collins' work. They are top-tier mastering engineers, but not as expensive as some *other* top-tier mastering engineers, if you have an independently released product.
In all cases, the more specific you are about what you want the more likely it will be you will get the result you and your clients desire.
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Re: your recommendation: mastering
Mon, July 30, 2007 - 4:27 PMI'm in Vancouver and if you want some guidance in self mastering or if you want me to do it, I've got authentic engine-ears and studio. -
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Re: your recommendation: mastering
Tue, July 31, 2007 - 9:54 AMI can vouch for Mike Wells also. He's an old dear friend of mine, and his skills are superb. Great guy. Highly recommend him.
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Re: your recommendation: mastering
Tue, July 31, 2007 - 12:55 PMthanks for the recommendations everyone.
i'm still not fully convinced that i need a pro for this job. the tracks consist of narrations (just one voice), and really minimal stuff with sparse arrangement (xylophones, thumb pianos etc. - no drums to eq and compress). shouldn't i just be able to run the tracks through some decent plugins (eg Waves) and A/B it with a commercial release to get the volume up between -3db and -6db? is it really necessary that i shell out all that money for such a job?
i really WANT to be convinced that i need a pro with this, so please - what are all the advantages i'm not seeing? -
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Re: your recommendation: mastering
Tue, July 31, 2007 - 1:04 PMhow is your material going to react on different systems? would you be able to tell? Also don't confuse loudness with mastering. I'm sure you can get it loud enough with plug-ins, but will it sound dull or uneven?
If there isn't much in the program material you should be able to do this far cheaper than a rock album would cost. You mainly would need consistency in levels that would hold true across a range of speaker systems.
You're not just paying for their time and compressors and eq's to bump it up in volume and make it shine, you're paying for their $10,000 monitoring system which will give you an accurate reflection of how it will sound almost anywhere.
pros:
you save money
you get the DIY satisfaction
cons:
consumer enjoyment could be negatively impacted, which could reduce sales or word of mouth
uneven levels across tracks
potential to be dull (people are very unforgiving about this!)
uneven eq'ing across tracks
IMHO, even one of the cons would outweigh the pros... I don't know your skills though, you might be able to pull it off and I'm not giving you credit for it, however your mileage may vary.
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Re: your recommendation: mastering
Tue, July 31, 2007 - 3:49 PMIf you read some of the trade mags... like Mix and Recording and Electronic Musician -
you can get an idea of what "Mastering" is all about.
I hate to be cliche, but if you have to "ask" about "Mastering" really, you need
someone who knows what they are talking about. -
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Re: your recommendation: mastering
Tue, July 31, 2007 - 8:34 PMi've decided to go with the pros.
thanks for helping me with the decision everyone!
: ) -
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Re: your recommendation: mastering
Wed, August 1, 2007 - 2:46 AMYou've made a smart choice to leave it to the pros. Even if you are a top level mixing engineer everything should be sent off to a mastering pro that does it everyday. That's what they know how to do and that's also another set of objective ears.
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