ORIGINAL: Rain

Before it degenerates...

Funny. When a fellow musician asks a question about mixing, no one will ever tell him/her to just hire a profesionnal mix engineer... We just assume that the person wishes/has to learn or can't afford big studio time and a star mix engineer. No one goes: of course you'd be better recording on analog gear at Abbey Road w/ Mutt Lange... Everyone knows that. But will you give up on music because you can't write something that'll top Electric Ladyland?

But when it comes to "mastering", maybe because the term is used loosely, there always someone to go all preachy about how mastering is this or that and you shouldn't do it yourself...

Of course you can always recommend a real ME, jsut in case... You can point them to JSaras who hangs out around here for a start. But I see no point in assuming that the person asking the question is that ignorant...

You're right... no sense... at all...

Ignorance would be assuming aspiration to become more knowledgeable in one's trade is as trite as this statement makes it out to be...

No one will ever write Electric Ladyland again... yet the piece will be studied and will inspire many to compose something based on its' influence.... some of those compositions may become classics...most won't... there's no point to it except the pleasure of sharing in the experience...

Sharing may include the basics... discovering the basics will always be a joy to experience and to share...
every teacher I had always assumed I wasn't familiar with basic scales.... it wasn't a mistake on their part... the point was the way the teacher approached the scale... what mode? what influence?....

Lee Oskar is someone I've crossed paths with over the years... one of his harmonica classes is taught with a philosophy that all musical styles can be interpreted in a blues idiom... then he gives examples of how he's interpreted various styles and transmuted them into the blues...

But there I go getting preachy and you're right about that too...

OK I give.... I haven't "mastered" the subject !!!

Anybody got a copy of the new Don Imus album?

Software and gear is cheap, compared to the cost of skills and labor. Mastering is an art all of it's own. I send my stuff out.

Although I make generous use of plugins I really couldn't get by without a Manley Massive Passive EQ and Vari Mu Compressor.

For most people like me and probably 92.6 percent of us in here master our own stuff, Its not that we dont have money or we think we can do a better job, but this is what we like to do, and we all learn from it. If i was making a record for radio play and an album, hell yea ill send it to a mastering house, But for now i enjoy and i think i speak for the 92.6 percent of us in here. We love doing it ourselves. Its great to experiment and learn new technigues and to post your songs in the song forum and get feedback on them and then go tinker with it somemore. Thats why im recording. Its Freeking fun and Mastering is the funnest part of the whole project.

Cj

bluesmaster:
Might I suggest downloading the ozone mastering guide. http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/ozone/guides.html
should get you started in some mastering concepts even if you don't use ozone.

though "glistenny" sound is a vague term. I would suggest starting with a high quality linear phase eq( I like voxengo's curve eq), multiband compression and possibly..if you like the sound a harmonic exciter(very lightly).

you might download the anteres plugins(they are free...do a google search) there is more than enough toys there to get you started on "mastering" your own stuff.

if your releasing your stuff commercially a mastering house is the way to go.....but if your not....get in there, do it yourself and learn as you go.

good luck,
t

which free antares plugins?

I.e. from a company that's selling a product whose future is probably not very bright unless more people think that external units are better.

Do you think that quality is the overall reason why people choose software, or might it be
that they in general get multiple plugins for the price of one hardware unit??
I actually own the M3000, a Powercore card with some serious plugs, and loads of other software, and there is no question, if I had known what I know today when I first started buying software, I wouldn't have wasted all that money, I'd just buy the M3000 right away.

Hey Tor!

Can you tell me if it would be possible to use a TC Finalizer 96 in my situation:

I have a LynxTwo card with digital in/out. I would want to route a stereo mix from my computer into the finalizer, and then back to the computer again as a processed recording. Is is possible to use the digital in/out of the finalizer to connect with the digital in/out of my soundcard in this manner?

Thanks!

which free antares plugins?

oops I ment antress. they got a bunch of pluggins that you can download.

http://antress.myweb.hinet.net/

Hey all, Getting around to mastering my first project and am curious as to what you all use for mastering plugins? What gives the music that glisseny sound?

I use hardware when I want that special 'character', and plugins when i need a typically sterile process. That's about as much information as I can give you, every job is different!