I read through some of the threads here, and I wasn't surprised to learn that I'm not the first guy who's posted here looking for good cheap last-minute mastering! LOL..so, for you old pros who've heard this a thousand times, I apologize. And for the next album, we WILL set a budget and schedule for mastering. Lesson learned.
That said, if there are any just-starting-out mastering engineers looking for experience and an album credit, this is what I've got:
- We have already released an album - genre is progressive rock. Band is called Shadow Circus, and our site is at
www.shadowcircusmusic.com.
- We have just been signed to a label, ProgRock Records, and took the opportunity to remix the album. It's sounding great, but we're already pushing our deadline, so it would speed things up if we can outsource the mastering as the mixing is being finished. (Yes, the real professionals roll their eyes at this point, I know).
- If you need website work done, and you're a pro, I can swap web work for mastering hour-per-hour. My web programming portfolio is at
www.websiteandsound.com. My website work is solid and the trade would be even if you are a very experienced engineer.
- If a web-swap doesn't interest you, we can maybe fork out 100 or 200 bucks, maybe a bit more if a payment arrangement could be made.
- If a couple of bucks or website work isn't enough for you, I can honestly say this: The album is getting a lot of attention and fantastic reviews even in it's demo state (see band website link above). We will have worldwide distribution and will support the album with live shows. I would be very surprised if the credit didn't bring you at least one or two good-paying mastering gigs in the future. This is probably a commonly-used "dangling carrot", but I'm basing this on tangible reviews and a record contract, so it's not so far-fetched as someone who is, let's say, just selling their CD on CD Baby...
- We need 6 songs done by Wednesday, May 30th.
- This is very dynamic, classically-influenced rock. We'd be better off with someone accustomed to mixing jazz or classical rather than dance or hip-hop. There should be very little compression, just enough to keep people from having to turn the volume up and down as they listen, but whispers should sound softer than screams on this release.
With that said, PM if you're interested!