Help deciding on a mastering studio

[usefullidiot]

Hey guys,

Im near finished producing and mixing an independent record in New Zealand and am trying to decide if it will be better to get mastering done here, or overseas..The problem is NZ doesnt have any dedicated mastering suites, only afew recording studios decked out with some fairly standard manley eqs and L2 plugins etc...i am considering someone like Scott Hull in NY and was wondering what your thoughts are....the tunes are sounding good ( i think) im just having trouble weighing the pros and cons of attended/unattended mastering and if i go for NY not being able to talk through the few issues i think the recordings have.....has anyone been in a similar situation, i would love any kind of advice..

Also FYI, it will cost roughly double to send this stuff over to NY..

Thanks

[Edward_Vinatea]

Check if those NZ studios' mastering works are solid. There should be Cds that you can get to hear their quality. The other thing is going there and asking for a demonstration {or through an online request}. If the studio looks well equipped chances are they also do good work because the $$ value of the studio's investment does seem sometimes to equate to quality, experience and even an exclusive clientele. If you can't do none of that, Hull's studio is pretty solid work and you can't go wrong with that.

Regards,

[Greg Reierson]

Scott is hard to beat if you have the budget. There are lots of smaller market mastering houses that can also fit the bill for a bit less.


GR