online mastering: any suggestion / positive feedback?

[nemo2000]

I have selfproduced an album of ten tracks and want to have it mastered for both digital and physical distribution. (this is the second album, the first one - currently on iTunes under AWAL distribution - was mastered by myself, but this time i would like to have a professional service done).

After having contacted about 20 mastering studios and received their economic offers for an online mastering service, and before making my decision, i think it's a good point to ask for positive experiences from members of this community.

To be clear, I am not asking for negative feedbacks, as i don't want anyone's reputation to be spoiled by public comments here. Just give me your suggestions for any studio you found delivering a satisfactory and professional service.

(My genre is indie rock and my budget is about 500-600 euros).

Thanks.

[TheGreatFuzz]

Hi there
I came here about a year ago asking the same questions.. i had a overwhelming response from many of the guys here, I submitted one song and they all mastered it and sent it back, after many listens my band (Voodoo Child) all agreed that “Left Right Mastering” was the best, My band is based in South Africa and his studio is in Belgium if i remember correctly, The experience was amazing, professional punctual and accommodating, it felt like i was in the studio with him, he (Daniel) was always available for communication (Skype) and the quality of work was amazing. It was way within our budget (and yours) and payment over paypal was clean and simple. The album has done really well for us and even got us nominated for a SAMA (South African Music award) for best Rock Album, and i honestly do owe that to the huge & polished sound Left Right Mastering did for it. Highly recommended! Will use again
Listen to our stuff here, www.voodoochild.co.za or Voodoo Child | Attack. Don't Panic! | CD Baby
I forgot what his username is on this forum but im sure if you search for left right mastering you should find him.
Hell, i should find him and ask him for some free advertising money!
Hope you come right.
Best of luck
Fuzz

[nemo2000]

great. thanx for the hint. this is the kind of replies i hoped to get. i'll contact them.

anyone else having suggestions?

[Speckle]

I would really recommend that you talk to Robin at 24-96 Mastering.

24-96 Mastering

He does a lot of work for me and the results are always great.

Robin is very good at retaining musicality, he is very sympathetic to the audio and in the past has delivered different versions to me so that i can pick the level of compression and loudness I wanted - a real eyeopener as to the benefits of not overdoing things.

Anyway, give him a shout..he's a good guy.

[nemo2000]

thanx. i'll contact them.thumbsup

waiting for more suggestions.....

[Red Mastering]

it;s quite good budget as for an indie album,
I saw recently ppl seeking ME for 200-300 US per album....

anyway I am sure you can find within this money a great ME,
Just remember, good/bad is relative here.....
for ones - loud and pumping - means good, for others quite opposite
it means you need to choose him yourself,

ME's job is to find what you're after,
then processing is the easy part

good luck

[Peakly]

Originally Posted by nemo2000

After having contacted about 20 mastering studios and received their economic offers

Wow. You must have nothing but time.

Economic offers don't necessarily have anything to do with music. This forum has mastering engineers participating who are world class. It might be better to approach a few of them through their contact information.

A lot of them have website information at the bottom of their posts, with pictures of their studios, gear, etc.

Mychal

[spicemix]

Am I imagining things, or are all those cd baby clips leaning way LEFT? It's as if they were midside encoded but not decoded, with the mid to the left and the sides right.

Is this a new trend?

Originally Posted by TheGreatFuzz

Hi there
I came here about a year ago asking the same questions.. i had a overwhelming response from many of the guys here, I submitted one song and they all mastered it and sent it back, after many listens my band (Voodoo Child) all agreed that “Left Right Mastering” was the best, My band is based in South Africa and his studio is in Belgium if i remember correctly, The experience was amazing, professional punctual and accommodating, it felt like i was in the studio with him, he (Daniel) was always available for communication (Skype) and the quality of work was amazing. It was way within our budget (and yours) and payment over paypal was clean and simple. The album has done really well for us and even got us nominated for a SAMA (South African Music award) for best Rock Album, and i honestly do owe that to the huge & polished sound Left Right Mastering did for it. Highly recommended! Will use again
Listen to our stuff here, www.voodoochild.co.za or Voodoo Child | Attack. Don't Panic! | CD Baby
I forgot what his username is on this forum but im sure if you search for left right mastering you should find him.
Hell, i should find him and ask him for some free advertising money!
Hope you come right.
Best of luck
Fuzz

[nemo2000]

economic offers are part of the project, of course. There is no help to contact, say, Brian Gardner or Marcussen when their work would cost me above 2000 $ ! BTW, I'm NOT saying i will make my decision on the basis of the economic offer only, but i cannot forget the available cash is that and not a cent more.

This said, you have to admit that is very difficult to get a clear idea on mastering when we deal with unattended sessions and very little experience. This is why i am asking for experiences from other members.

Then, once collected all elements - direct contacts and talks, clients portfolio, communication style, feedbacks, price etc - i will have more ground to fund my judgement.

it seem fair and reasonable, isn't it?

[SPORT]

Originally Posted by nemo2000

I Just give me your suggestions for any studio you found delivering a satisfactory and professional service.

(My genre is indie rock and my budget is about 500-600 euros).

Thanks.

NFL Produksjoner: Online Mixing and Mastering, and more. Great Sound

[Waltz Mastering]

Originally Posted by spicemix

Am I imagining things, or are all those cd baby clips leaning way LEFT? It's as if they were midside encoded but not decoded, with the mid to the left and the sides right.

Unless it was done on purpose or there was a mistake, You're right. Left heavy.

[echoRausch]

Originally Posted by nemo2000

After having contacted about 20 mastering studios and received their economic offers for an online mastering service,...

Did you get any Demos? Most of the guys will do it for you so you can easily choose the one that suits best.

Drop a file here and many Gearslutz will do a Demo too.

So you can hear what sound you can get for the money. Economical indeed.

[24-96 Mastering]

Originally Posted by spicemix

Am I imagining things, or are all those cd baby clips leaning way LEFT? It's as if they were midside encoded but not decoded, with the mid to the left and the sides right.

Is this a new trend?

Originally Posted by Waltz Mastering

Unless it was done on purpose or there was a mistake, You're right. Left heavy.

If not on purpose, it could have happened during mp3 encoding. I've seen that when selecting cbr dual mono mp3 in some encoders. L/R playing M/S in the encoded mp3 file.

[leftright]

Originally Posted by spicemix

Am I imagining things, or are all those cd baby clips leaning way LEFT? It's as if they were midside encoded but not decoded, with the mid to the left and the sides right.

Is this a new trend?

Hi,

wow yeah.. i think it's an encoding issue by cd baby O_° or something is wrong, because all other clips (their myspace, facebook.. ) and of course the master CD are OK !!

[area51recording]

Tom Waltz, who's got a post a few slots upstream from this one, just mastered a jazz Christmas CD for me and did an AWESOME job....

[nemo2000]

thanks. i heard of Master+ somewhere else surfing on this forum.thumbsup
Tom Waltz... wow, an amazing studio, as it appears from its website !

[nemo2000]

i received many PM from mastering studios and i'll try to test them (i don't know if ALL of them, i hope as many as possible) and give a feedback. (It'll be a matter of personal taste and sharing of feeling, nothing doing with their professionality (assumed as given).

But the discussion is still open; i remind the thread subject: feedbacks and suggestions from clients who had positive experiences with mastering a rock project.

[nemo2000]

beyond equipment and communication style, how much does the familiarity with a specific genre count in mastering? is any ME confident to master any kind of project? or rather should i look for specific experience in a specific music genre?

[spicemix]

I suggest looking them up on allmusic.com and listening through some of their recent releases (if you can find them in a hifi format) and seeing if you like the sound they get. Yes ideally in your genre. If you are doing speed metal and your ME hates it with a passion s/he won't understand it and will probably try to correct away all the hallmarks of the concept.

I would trust my own ears and taste over personal recommendations. I would also prepare to be somewhat patient good people are busy.

[24-96 Mastering]

Originally Posted by spicemix

I suggest looking them up on allmusic.com and listening through some of their recent releases (if you can find them in a hifi format) and seeing if you like the sound they get.

Allmusic isn't necessarily the best resource with regards to NON-US engineers. Only releases that are distributed nationewide in the US are listed and they get things wrong quite often.

Discogs.com is a good alternative, though it's far from being complete too.

[leftright]

Originally Posted by 24-96 Mastering

Allmusic isn't necessarily the best resource with regards to NON-US engineers. Only releases that are distributed nationewide in the US are listed and they get things wrong quite often.

Discogs.com is a good alternative, though it's far from being complete too.

+1 thumbsup

[nemo2000]

just a temporary update on this. I received free tests from a short list of studios and we are evaluating them. i'll come back to this thread with the results and feedbacks very soon.