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Franco · 2nd July 2009

Would you mind telling us what you are using to listen to your masters back on?

I've had similar situations come up in the past with hip hop projects; in the end it turns out that we are trying to master the project to sound good on the clients' nearfield monitors and car stereo that "rattles" too much. I'm not saying this is your situation, but in my experience, the 3 or so times I've had this happen with clients, that's what I've come across.

The idea that the clients have is that they've popped in a CD and played it through their nearfields and use that as a comparison to their masters, sort of like "if this album sounds 'good' on my nearfields, my masters should sound this good too."

Something to keep in mind is that nearfield monitors (well, most of the "budget" models anyway) are not revealing as much of the range as a set of full-range speakers that are neutral; it's like trying to judge a painting by looking at it through a tube. There's also a "perception" factor that is different between your mixes and other peoples' work.

If you were originally happy with your mixes and they sound "better" on your monitors than the masters do when matching levels, this can also mean that your monitors are lying to you about some frequencies, for example, your monitors might have a mid/high "bump" that would make something "neutral" sound "dipped" (keep in mind that you are also implying that your monitors are a better reference system than whatever the ME is using).

At one point, you have to keep in mind that if the ME you chose has a reputation of doing good work for other people (and it sounds like you went with them based on some sort of reputation), then you might want to also think about the fact that their system is probably better than yours, and you should probably trust their judgement. I'm not trying to say "it's your fault", but can you please tell us what exactly you are using to reference your masters on? I'm sorry to say, but when I get people saying that they're hearing things on budget studio monitors and car systems, I start to think we are then mastering to suit the clients' system(s), not mastering for systems that even the client is not familiar with.

I one time had a client of mine call me at 2am and left a voicemail saying "I just heard our song at this club, woah, it sounded great man!" and I'm bringing this up because this is an example of other systems that people aren't familiar with.

Another point I'd like to bring up about typical commercial rap releases these days is that a lot of them have a really weak low end. Most of my clients want their masters to sound better than the stuff that's out there, because they realize that typical releases really don't sound that great, so with that in mind, you might also be asking your ME to do a worse job than he's used to doing!

Just giving you a "flipside of the coin" perspective. Good luck though!

2nd July 2009	#18
Franco Lives for gear Joined: Jun 2006 Location: Not working on music, which is were I SHOULD be. Posts: 1,190 Verified Member	Would you mind telling us what you are using to listen to your masters back on? I've had similar situations come up in the past with hip hop projects; in the end it turns out that we are trying to master the project to sound good on the clients' nearfield monitors and car stereo that "rattles" too much. I'm not saying this is your situation, but in my experience, the 3 or so times I've had this happen with clients, that's what I've come across. The idea that the clients have is that they've popped in a CD and played it through their nearfields and use that as a comparison to their masters, sort of like "if this album sounds 'good' on my nearfields, my masters should sound this good too." Something to keep in mind is that nearfield monitors (well, most of the "budget" models anyway) are not revealing as much of the range as a set of full-range speakers that are neutral; it's like trying to judge a painting by looking at it through a tube. There's also a "perception" factor that is different between your mixes and other peoples' work. If you were originally happy with your mixes and they sound "better" on your monitors than the masters do when matching levels, this can also mean that your monitors are lying to you about some frequencies, for example, your monitors might have a mid/high "bump" that would make something "neutral" sound "dipped" (keep in mind that you are also implying that your monitors are a better reference system than whatever the ME is using). At one point, you have to keep in mind that if the ME you chose has a reputation of doing good work for other people (and it sounds like you went with them based on some sort of reputation), then you might want to also think about the fact that their system is probably better than yours, and you should probably trust their judgement. I'm not trying to say "it's your fault", but can you please tell us what exactly you are using to reference your masters on? I'm sorry to say, but when I get people saying that they're hearing things on budget studio monitors and car systems, I start to think we are then mastering to suit the clients' system(s), not mastering for systems that even the client is not familiar with. I one time had a client of mine call me at 2am and left a voicemail saying "I just heard our song at this club, woah, it sounded great man!" and I'm bringing this up because this is an example of other systems that people aren't familiar with. Another point I'd like to bring up about typical commercial rap releases these days is that a lot of them have a really weak low end. Most of my clients want their masters to sound better than the stuff that's out there, because they realize that typical releases really don't sound that great, so with that in mind, you might also be asking your ME to do a worse job than he's used to doing! Just giving you a "flipside of the coin" perspective. Good luck though!