Hi Guys,

I know it's wrong...

I know for some it's a sin...

I know I can achieve the same results at home if I apply myself correctly...

I want to send my tracks off to be mastered by someone else.

Any recommendations and prices would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Ed.

It's not wrong at all, personally I think it's the way to go, if you can afford it.

Of the three people that have mastered tracks for me on this forum, Danny Danzi would be my recommendation.

Outside mastering will cost to get it done right. So I guess the main question here would be.... What do you plan to use the mastered song for? 

If it's personal use, or to post online or some other thing that is not going to pay for itself..... I don't think I would pay for mastering. 

If it's guaranteed to be signed and cut, or going on a commercial release then yes.... it's worth the money if you can not do it as good as the mastering house. 

That would be my criteria for making that decision. 

If you can afford it sending tracks to a pro is far from a sin. It's the wise thing to do. Lots of hacks out there though so do your research. 

Also Danny is a very talented and decent fellow so for sure check out what he says. His stuff sounds awesome. He also provides lessons on the finer points of audio to help get your mixes polished up nice and slick.

The question isn't whether or not I should be paying for mastering. The question is which places you would recommend, or suggest I steer clear of.

Danny Danzi.

www.dannydanzi.com

this is pretty unanimous

Much as I'd love to see you throw some cash at our friend Danny, I'd really suggest that you find someone local to you, so that you can attend the session in person. You may learn something, and thus get a better value for your money. Legitimate MEs encourage clients to attend sessions, because it reduces the likelihood of do-overs if the client isn't happy with the results.

Thanks for the plugs my brothers! Much appreciated! :)

bitflipper Much as I'd love to see you throw some cash at our friend Danny, I'd really suggest that you find someone local to you, so that you can attend the session in person. You may learn something, and thus get a better value for your money. Legitimate MEs encourage clients to attend sessions, because it reduces the likelihood of do-overs if the client isn't happy with the results.

Hey now Mr. flipper....I'm a legitimate ME...I just haven't done my first gold record YET! :-Þ I'm doing lots of pre-pro for big name people....it's just a matter of time to where they say "ok, you're doing the actual album this time!" You wait....it's gonna happen! LOL!

As for your advice, if I may comment without any bias.....I think it can go either way. Sometimes what a person THINKS is right, isn't the case at all. To be honest, I absolutely hate when a client asks to come here and be a part of the session. It's like having those eyes watching over your shoulder making suggestions that sometimes don't make sense, or don't really work at all.

In my personal experience, an ME should be trusted or you don't even go to him. When I dealt with Bob Katz, I let him do his thing even though he invited me to attend the session. I was going to take him up on it, but there comes a time where I sincerely feel it is in the artists best interest to disconnect themselves from the material to the point of "what will be, will be". That album I did with Bob was one of the least stressful records I've ever done because I WASN'T married to it like I've been with other albums.

The only thing Bob had to fix for me was a corssfade. The first 4 songs segue into each other without a pause on the CD. One of the songs is in D major and I did that drop effect on it...you know, like pulling the plug out of a record player....and the object was for it to drop down to the key of G and then bang, the next song would play. Bob didn't quite get the fade between them right so this was a case of "redo" which of course would have been caught if I was there. However, for such a small error, me being there would have helped to stop it from happening, but I might have ruined other things within the album. Sometimes the best decision at the mastering stage...is to walk from it and trust it to someone that knows what they're doing.

To help with this, I have a 3 strike rule with my mastering services. You get the initial mastering procedure, then two additional fixes on the house if something is wrong. This can be 2 more complete masters of the entire album, or fixes on a few songs. Whatever the case, it's pretty fool proof because before I master a thing, I also review the material and tell the person what they may want to consider fixing before we get to the mastering stage. They of course do not have to take my advice, but it's there for them because the last thing I want to do is just take a project and make money off of it when it's in bad shape to begin with. I'd rather walk away from the job than take the pay check because at the end of the day, my name and stamp of approval is on it too. So like I say...it's pretty fool proof when we work as a team. :) But I definitely see where your coming from and would agree to an extent. :)

-Danny

Danny, whats the turnaround like? 

I've seen places that say they need 2 days and places that need two months (I'm guessing its because of some kind of waiting list).
Ed.