tenfoot

Jesse Screed
 
There are several Mastering Templates in the Sonar Start Screen.  I think they were set up by Dan Gonzales?  I have tried them, and they are very interesting. 
 
Do you suppose you could run your file through one of those?   I would bet you might find one just as good as LANDR.

Hey Jesse.  I think this test is essentially flawed.  Finding a preset that sounds as good as Landr after the event is a bit like saying you could invent the hovercar if only you had one to copy from.  The point is that LANDR made it sound good without reference.  
 
A more significant test would be to do your own master in the Sonar presets first,  then send the original file to Landr for mastering and see which sounds better. 

Quite possibly, but I'm not sure.
 
If you have a mix you like.  Render it to a 2 track .wav file, and import it back into Sonar using one of the Mastering Templates. 
 
Have you tried it?
 
Jesse Q. Screed

Jesse Screed
 
 
If you have a mix you like.  Render it to a 2 track .wav file, and import it back into Sonar using one of the Mastering Templates. 
 
Have you tried it?
 

I must admit that I haven't tried the Sonar presets Jesse.  I have a few favourite 3rd party plugins that tend to find their way into my mastering chain.  I will give them a spin next time:)

Jesse Screed

kennywtelejazz
Here's an example of one of my original songs that I have done a LANDR conversion on ...
 
FWIW, I'm very happy with the LANDR conversion that took place on my song . I used the same mix for both files.
( a 24 bit undithered wave / mix )
 
The non LANDR version of my song was uploaded as an MP3 at 192 a number of years ago .
 
All seems fair right ?
 
LANDR low MP3 at 192
 
https://soundcloud.com/gu...friend-to-me-landr-low
 
non LANDR
 
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=427899&songID=3313414
 
all the best ,
 
Kenny

Hey Kenny, maybe you could further the debate on this topic. 
 
There are several Mastering Templates in the Sonar Start Screen.  I think they were set up by Dan Gonzales?  I have tried them, and they are very interesting. 
 
Do you suppose you could run your file through one of those?   I would bet you might find one just as good as LANDR.
 
I think everybody should try them out.  I mean if you're going to try LANDR, why not try what's already included, and it's FREE, plus, you can actually make a few tweaks yourself.
 
Scroll to page 10 in the ezine
 
http://static.cakewalk.com/cakewalk/products/sonar/release_notes/Welcome_to_the_SONAR_Hokpinton_Update.pdf
 
Jesse Q. Screed
 

Hello Jesse ,
This may actually come as a surprise to a few folks around here ,  
I'm not here to debate .  I'm here to be happy .
My song was posted as a courtesy ...
How did that come to be ?
Earlier today I had received a new mix on a Jazz song that I had played on as an E Session Guitarist ... 
While I was hunting around on an external HD I happened to find my song .
It occurred to me that my song would be a nice song to try LANDR on . I'm glad I did  
Basically since there was the same mix (pre LANDR ) floating around on Soundclick , I thought it would be a good idea to give anyone who can " tolerate " my music lol , & my guitar playing the opportunity to come to their own conclusions ...
As mentioned before  ...... I posted my song in this thread only as a courtesy ...
 
It may interest you to know that I happen to think very highly of the mastering templates that come with SONAR SPlat .  I have used them on tunes that I have been working on ....
I have also created my own Mastering Effects chains w Cakewalk Plugs only and with 3 rd party plugs ...
I haven't posted any music with them online as of yet . The Music I'm working on currently is not even close to being ready for prime time ...
 
I'm gonna have to pass for now on getting volunteered ...I'm sure someone here with a lot more mixing and Mastering credibility will eventually step up  to the plate .
The only claim to anything musical that I'm proud of is my guitar playing . 
 
all the best ,
 
Kenny
 
 
 

kennywtelejazz
 
I'm gonna have to pass for now on getting volunteered ...I'm sure someone here with a lot more mixing and Mastering credibility will eventually step up  to the plate .
The only claim to anything musical that I'm proud of is my guitar playing . 
 
all the best ,
 
Kenny

 
My apologies Kenny, I didn't mean to try and enlist you, but now I can see how it might appear that I did  Life is Good, oh yeah
 
Jesse Q. Screed

I haven't read all this but why all the consternation over LANDR?   If your Mix is great, the resulting master will be great.   If your music sounds homogenized its because YOU created it that way!

Of course there are many tools in and out of SONAR that can be used to create amazing master.... you just need to know what the heck you're doing....  That is what LANDR does for you..   You don't need to know or be great at it.    I find mastering myself VERY stressful and do not have the proper science or the Art to do it properly and CONSISTENTLY.  Also I have mostly been disappointed with the mastering I have paid for.  I am not disappointed with the LANDR results.   LANDR works for me and I am thankful for it!   Also, I get to do them over and over if I choose where as once I pay the small fortune to the mastering engineer and I decide on a change later... its another large expense.   With LANDR I can adjust my MIX for the master and get it just right without the anxiety and second guessing or the expense.

stxx
Also, I get to do them over and over if I choose where as once I pay the small fortune to the mastering engineer and I decide on a change later... its another large expense. 

A non-LANDR comment...my policy was always that the job wasn't finished until the customer was happy with the results. There were no extra charges for changes. Most of the time they were happy with the results, quite a few times I needed to go back and forth a couple times, and there were some rare instances where it took 6 or 7 tries before they had what they wanted. I've known other mastering engineers who took a similar approach.
 
The reason why is as I've said before, there's more than one way to master a recording, and it often comes down to personal taste. You can think you know an artist's vision, and even be right most of the time, but you won't be right all the time.
 
 

Yup...especially if the "artist's" vision is so bad he can't see the forest for the trees.

I agree with that philosophy and I work on the mix normally until my client is happy (within reason of course) but sometimes when you're using a third party mastering person, you only get 2 maybe 3 iterations at most and usually must be within a reasonable time period to when the service was initially secured.   I can't, say 2 weeks from now,  go back and say, "Hey, I decided to change the mix, can you master it again for me?"   That would be additional cost for sure even though as the recording / mix engineer I WOULD make the change likely for free for my client if they decided after some maybe slightly unreasonable  period of time something was really bugging them

I just read Panu article in the recent cakewalk email / blog today and he was RIGHT ON THE MONEY imho!   I particularly agree with the part where he started to second guess himself on his own mastering which is again, as I've stated earlier, a huge advantage to using LANDR.  Not only does it sound good but it relieves you, the mixer, of the anxiety of trying to master your own work!
 
Link to article:
http://blog.cakewalk.com/...su7ocn1pbiitf21wbm61tj