looking for mastering studio that does it "brian gardner style"!

[WunderBro Flo]

Hi there,
I am about to finish a hiphop record and I love the mastering jobs that Brian Gardner does on hiphop. The label does not have the budget to let him do the job though. so I was wondering if anyone here can recommend a mastering studio that is good at getting a similar sound at a "not so superstar" price!

suggestions welcome!

rock on!
Pat

[Gregg Sartiano]

Brian Gardner's great -- his longtime assistant has been know to master in his room, too -- he's probably a little cheaper.

They have a certain digital brickwall limiter (presumably) at the end of the chain to bang out level -- Louie Teran at Marcussen uses the same one. I've had rap masters done there that have turned out ridiculously well. He's great. www.marcussenmastering.com

Nancy Matter at Moonlight Mastering just did DMC's album. Hopefully she'll keep her prices reasonable for a little while yet -- www.moonlightmastering.com

A lot of the heavy hitters have very well qualified assistants (many of whom have major credits, but anyway...) who work for 1/2 to 2/3 the rate of the 'main' engineer. You can "cold call" the big mastering places and ask what they can do for indie artists -- it could turn out to be cheaper than you think.

[Arka]

So, how much does actually "Big Bass Brian" charge per hour?

[BigBassBrian]

Pat,

Bring it on in. I have something new that is going to make your earlobes twiddle
Actually you better email me first. I don't want my assistant on my case with yet another 'stealth' project. I'll Give you a sample on one or two. If you like, we'll go from there.

B

[TonyBelmont]

Welcome to Gearslutz, Brian! it's great to have you here!

[beat you down]

Originally Posted by BigBassBrian

Pat,

Bring it on in. I have something new that is going to make your earlobes twiddle
Actually you better email me first. I don't want my assistant on my case with yet another 'stealth' project. I'll Give you a sample on one or two. If you like, we'll go from there.

B

Big Bass welcome to GS.

Is it true that you make mixes louder for clients who attend and bring you Chinese food?

A friend of mine attended a session and came in with some Chinese food. He always quips about you saying "Damn if you really wanted it to bang, you woulda brought ME some."


Welcome.

[Wiggum, Ralph]

Welcome Brian, I'm a big fan of your work!!!

[con?one]

Tony, I can only imagine with the post above was
Brian, welcome

[deuc647]

Glad u can join brian, im a fan of ya work as well

[abit]

[con?one]

Originally Posted by keenly

.....

dude, seriously, do you come here JUST to bitch about how other people's work sounds? really? that's, err... um... GAY.fuuck

[upscaps]

Originally Posted by keenly

......

u r taking this too far little homie. Instead of asking why they r done like that u just come with immaturity.

[TonyBelmont]

keenly is gone for good...

[babyface_finsta]

[upscaps]

[Tibbon]

I was about to say, ask him directly. You'd be surpised that some of the Big Names aren't often as expensive as you'd think. If the quality of the recording and the budget for getting that quality up there is high enough, then i'm sure the producer budgeted for a mastering studio that would match up with it quality/costwise. I was floored to find how accessable some of the larger mixing and mastering engineers were at the end of the day. Even Gateway mastering is really reasonably priced (and kicks out some GREAT stuff).

[XHipHop]

Originally Posted by TonyBelmont

keenly is gone for good...

Good call, that guy definitely had an agenda.

[mike dean]

mikedean@deanslist.net

i master all the rap a lot shit.

[con?one]

Originally Posted by XHipHop

Good call, that guy definitely had an agenda.

he did, and it involves 3 ribbed butt-plugs, a 48oz bottle of canola oil, a bungee cord and a naked/ life sized cardboard cut-out of abe vigoda

[PhonoquO]

LOL ^^^

[Gregg Sartiano]

Originally Posted by Tibbon

I was about to say, ask him directly.

Contact them and set it up. Getting a project mastered is different from mixing or tracking -- even though the "rate" is high, remember -- they're not spending THAT much time on it -- less than a day, for sure. So it's expensive, but not necessarily break-the-bank expensive. Of course, it depends on how MUCH bank...

Just don't expect mastering to solve bad mixing...or anything else, for that matter. Hopefully it just makes a great bunch of pieces into a releaseable whole.

By the way, don't miss this article: http://technology.guardian.co.uk/wee...992325,00.html

And think twice about whether you >REALLY< want the loudest CD on the block. That s^&t is finally starting to get old, and it's about time. As somebody who's been in the room with Mr. Gardner several times, he will always find a way to ask -- well it usually comes out like this: "so, umm, do you want this CD loud?" That's the code-speak of the loudness wars. Think about it -- you may prefer "classic" dynamics over loud ones. People can and will turn it up if they like it, and radio is so compressed that the classic stuff sounds as loud as the new s^&t, even though the mastering profiles are different. Don't fall into that "louder is better" trap just because it's there.