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Originally Posted by Colombian  Ok, then, so what the Pros are saying its impossible to build it without expending tens of thousands of dollars? :(
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I'm sure they are not saying that (although the money for the proper gear, room and acoustical treatment certainly would be a huge plus to start with). Everyone has to start somewhere. If you don't have the ability to intern with top-flight mastering engineers then the only thing that you can do is learn, listen and practice yourself.
You can't practice unless you have gear!
So if you can only afford less expensive gear, then start with that. I don't think there are great mastering speakers in the $1500 range, but you can get some very nice nearfields for that. As others have warned you though the room is difficult. Having said that, I have a small room (10x12) that I mix and "master" my own stuff in (not 11x11 though which would be worse...the worst being a perfect cube of course).
I am a well-trained classical musician with very keen ears (I know that many say that so take it for what it's worth! I don't wish to be pretentious so I won't list accolades, but I have really had a wonderful educational background, have worked with some stellar people and do have the ear...I just don't have a stellar budget!). I have trained myself to listen in my room to commerical mixes and compare them to the eq/dynamics of what I am working on. I then burn a CD with the tracks that I am mastering along with other tracks that I am trying to emulate. I take that to the car, home stereo, etc. and compare them. Although not ideal, I have been getting very good results doing this. Can I master like Bob Katz??? Not at all. But since I can't afford him or really anyone decent at this point, I do it myself the best that I can. Currently I am a music teacher in a public school and do recording on the side. Maybe someday I could intern with a quality mastering engineer like Bob. I'm only about 1 hour 15 min from Orlando so who knows!
Reading quality books will help you with both the room building and also with what to buy. I have books that I read like Bob Katz's and others and then...I listen and practice. One benefit that I have in my small room is a lot of 2" and 4" dense fiberglass panels. I inherited several thousand dollars of professionally made panels that were not needed...nice! That has helped tremendously with the bass problems of the small room. In there I can hear fairly well and normally get the EQ fairly close. You might also want to get Ozone 4. It has some very useful features. When I have the ability to, I will get it myself. You can do fairly transparent limiting, multi-band harmonic imaging, multi-band compression, linear eq'ing and also eq matching which would be very useful for you. I think that you could get probably more than what the TC finalizer would offer you at a fraction of the price ($250 I believe).
I hope that you do well. I know that other people that are more experts will give you advice, but I wanted to chime in and give you a little advice from someone who has a producer's ear (I think anyway!) and a pauper's budget!
Many blessings in your endeavor. Have fun and don't give up! There are so many nice people here that will help you. I have asked several questions and have been answered by top flight engineers at times. You definitely have posted in the right forum.
God bless!