critque on my mastering

[hey_mavis]

let me know what you think of my mastering job, I produced and mixed and mastered this in my home studio. using Logic pro 7 and the TC satEQ plug in from TC powercore Compact.

I used te TC EQ into the logic multipressor into logic's Adaptive Limiter.

check it out here:

what do you guys think of this mix?

[Darius van H]

I think you need more cowbell

[narcoman]

Originally Posted by Darius van H

I think you need more cowbell

Nah, the cowbell is great but just outta tune. Its the thing thats gonna get the chicks in.... (obviously being daft...)



OP - hey - its a little difficult to judge your mastering of a project! What was the original mix like! Even then, you cant judge a mix without judging the song and performance.

Best anyone could do is just tell you what they think and then you figure out what part of your work affects it:
I'll have a listen.


...... hey - pretty good! Not quite my cuppa tea and i think it sounds a bit Britneytastic (ie not cool and deep but bright and in yer face). Very good for pop market types. So if that's what you want then cool. If its rootsy club cool then its too busy...

[hey_mavis]

Originally Posted by narcoman

...... hey - pretty good! Not quite my cuppa tea and i think it sounds a bit Britneytastic (ie not cool and deep but bright and in yer face). Very good for pop market types. So if that's what you want then cool. If its rootsy club cool then its too busy...

great! thanks for the advice, yeah the client defiantly wanted Britney at this point (minus the kids and lawsuit I imagine).

[hey_mavis]

LOL, client just called, heard the song in a dance last night and wants to add a little MORE high end...

jah, clients...jeez

gotta love em (or do you?)

[narcoman]

Originally Posted by hey_mavis

LOL, client just called, heard the song in a dance last night and wants to add a little MORE high end...

jah, clients...jeez

gotta love em (or do you?)

well you can't shoot them .....

[chopstickkk]

or smack them with their cowbell...

[hey_mavis]

lol there seems to be a love/hate relationship between engineers and clients, a friend of mine called me the other day and cussed for about 20 mins because a group he mixed for (actually the same group in the song I posted) came back weeks after the tune was done and wanted it mixed over because some DJ told them the voice was not right.

Now they were happy before, everything was fine until the DJ told them this and that.

Does this happen to anyone else? Here (in Trinidad and Tobago anyway) each DJ on radio is their own personal program director so the artists take the DJ's word as gospel. It really does make you want to hit them with a cowbell (which in the case of the song above is a piece of tyre rim being hit with another bit of iron).

[pelliott]

Happens all too frequently. Some artists never seem to want to let things be and if they can one person to put doubt in their head then they want everything redone. They someone to blame for their song not being a hit, right. Couldn't be the songs fault or the performance, etc... I have heard all kinds of excuses dj's give artists with them actually telling the truth. The truth is usually the songs just doesn't cut it.

[hey_mavis]

the track which inspired this post (done by a friend of mine who was asked to remix a track because a DJ told the client that the voice was wrong) is now slated for heavy rotation on a major radio station.

nyeh nyeh nyeh, so the client has decided NOT to mix the song again because OTHER DJs have decided that it's good as is.

stupid artists, listen to your tracks for yourself, don't listen to some half deaf idiot and then place the blame on the engineer.

[Bob Yordan]

Hiya

Kind of hard to give critisism on your mastering, when you just post one mix. Perhaps the mix was so good that it did not need mastering?

Or it sounded really awful and your ME-skills made it into what it sounds like
now?

best wishes

[inlinenl]

the low-end / punch is pretty dead ....

produced nicely ... I guess you had fun on the reggea vibes

[hey_mavis]

im doing a whole remix/remaster now, I will post the new mix and master seperatly, should I do it on a different post? or just add to this one? Either way I will have it up as soon as it's done.

[ed littman]

Originally Posted by Bob Yordan

Hiya

Kind of hard to give critisism on your mastering, when you just post one mix. Perhaps the mix was so good that it did not need mastering?

Or it sounded really awful and your ME-skills made it into what it sounds like
now?

best wishes

That is what good mastering is! making the jugment to leave it as is or tweek it as needed. If it sounds good in the end it was good mastering regardless of processing.

Ed

[uncajesse]

Yep, completely agree Ed.

The best mastering job I ever got, all I had to do was less than 1db shelving on two tracks, both above 12kHz... and then very very slightly touching the final broadband limiter. Done.

Actually... it's available here, for free, if you would like it
Internet Archive: Details: kAzooo - Typ 2x3 [am025]

[inlinenl]

Hey_mavis, I think you should let that track also get mastered by a pro ... and do it yourself ... then you can critique you're own mastering ... make it a learning experience ... that's what you want ... no use in putting it up here again I guess, reading the answers you get here .. every-one is beating around the bush and telling you nothing you don't know ...

[Ecktronic]

What exactly did you do at mastering?
Could you not fix (whatever you did at mastering) in the mix?

Overall sound real nice, clear and present, although I'm not liking the kick, it sounds flappy and a bit to mid rangey. I suppose you did that for the punch factor but it would sound nicer with the punch of the kick down the spectrum a bit.

Nice work,
Eck

[larrykane]

Originally Posted by hey_mavis

let me know what you think of my mastering job, I produced and mixed and mastered this in my home studio. using Logic pro 7 and the TC satEQ plug in from TC powercore Compact.

I used te TC EQ into the logic multipressor into logic's Adaptive Limiter.

check it out here:

what do you guys think of this mix?

tough to not comment on the highly intellectually stimulating lead vocal content, but the whole thing sounded right- I disagree with the request to add top end the wrong part of the music content would then be emphasised IMHO.

[hey_mavis]

lol, the highly stimulating lyrical content, gotta love it.

wiggle and giggle indeed.

Well the client changed his mind a million times and wanted more low end instead, so I added it but it was not enough, a guy offered to master it for free so I sent it to him and the bass got bigger.

I think the client is satisfied now, so we shall see.

[lalalalala]

Originally Posted by inlinenl

the low-end / punch is pretty dead ....

produced nicely ... I guess you had fun on the reggea vibes

Yeah, I second that. More low end!