In late April of this year, I received an email article written by Audiofanzine's staff member, Mike Levine. The theme of the article was about the trials and tribulations of musicians mixing and mastering their own music:
"Over the last year, I ended up doing the mastering on several of the recording projects I was involved with. I would hardly call myself a mastering engineer, but armed with iZotope Ozone 7 and Studio One 3’s Project Page (a dedicated mastering environment that’s part of that DAW), I was able to do a passable job."

He goes on to say: "That said, working on those projects made me appreciate even more just how difficult and exacting the art of mastering is. And if the budget had been available to bring in a pro mastering engineer for those situations, I would probably have done so."

My question is, how have your own mastering experiences been? Obviously, if money was not a barrier, many of us would probably hire a pro mastering engineer ourselves. My personal experiences with mastering projects have yielded mixed results (at best).

 

idk,

theres different types of mastering and for different levels... there is mastering for broadcast and radio and mastering for music and tracks, mastering for theatre or surround...different types require you to know a few different things and require different resources...

to me, the skill isnt in the actual process of mastering... good audio engineering is more about following the standards and procedures that make things work well in the common industry...

otherwise, if you're just making ur own tracks or helping out a friend... fuck it you can get decent results just on ur pc...

 

Real Mastering is underrated I tell people everyday,
I happily suggest clients where they could possible master there tracks, and investigate in options and costs.

A real mastering engineer in my opinion is twice my age and doubles in experience,
knows the ins and outs and is just one big book of knowledge.
but at same time is humble, communicating well and can easily translate your thoughts in to the track

It's truly refreshing when you send of a pair of tracks, you don't have to be there and the person who did it nailed it.


A fresh pair of ears is better then any plugin, someone with the same insight is priceless.


but realistically we are going to master our own music.
So at least let someone who is at same level as you judge it with a fresh pair of ears, on his preferred system.

 

Outside of my day to day workload, one of the things I do is work as a sound designer from time to time. The type of work I take on is less involved with music and on a more technical level (tone design in use for medical equipment for example). You'd be surprised how much effort goes into designing something as simple as a tone that is less than half a second long, but when you consider that this small bit of audio is going to be in a machine that is literally saving lives and must be audible not just in terms of amplitude but also to denote a recognizable event from large distances away, it gives you a sense of appreciation for anyone who really takes the words "audio engineer" seriously.

It's not something I went to school for but it's also the kind of work you can not "fake" (there are spec manuals over 70 pages long to describe just a single tone alone). In other words, you have to know what you're doing. I never envisioned doing this type of work, but through my love for working with audio I became technically proficient in it.

I think it can be hard for a lot of us to give ourselves some credit because at the end of the day, making music and working with audio is something we love to do and because of this, it may not seem like work. But the truth of the matter is... it is work. The average bedroom producer knows more about audio engineering and production techniques today than some audio engineers did 20 years ago. If you've dedicated even a few years of learning how to make music on a computer, you've probably reached a level of proficiency that would have taken you much longer to do just a few decades ago. Think about that for a second.

That's why it's not difficult for me to believe that anyone can just pick up mastering audio. It's not some kind of mystical art and it's no different than learning how to cook or draw. If you've worked with audio and dealt with producing music long enough, you've more than likely learned and applied some of the basic concepts numerous times. How far you want to take that knowledge is completely up to you.

 

Whether you master your own music or others music you can first end up with 10 variants of the same song that all sound good to you. Then it's best to abandon the project for a week so you can return and make the best pick and do any micro adjustments you detect are needed.

 

Yes, exclusively. My own requirements aren't "pro," and I'd like for a secondary result of doing my own work to be that my music has "my sound" to it. Then again, to the ears of a seasoned pro audio engineer, it might sound like diarrhea. The virtual sphincters through which I pass my music on its way to being aural end-product are particular to my own workflow, and frankly, I strive to keep things as uncomplicated as possible for smoother yet satisfactorily-solid output. A lot of my "mastering" is done in the mixing process, with some leveling in the ultimate stage. People have told me that my productions sound better and better, so I know I'm doing something right, even if it's not industry-standard turd-polishing.

 

The question was specifically for music. I got into home studio and DAWs about eight or nine years ago, mainly due to individual time restraints that prevented my former band members from getting together and recording. Too many last minute no-shows. Personally, I hate the process, but have found it necessary since hiring some pro was monetarily out of the question when I first started. A lot of trial and error; trying out all sorts of plugins, audio interfaces and such, etc. I would say that I'm fairly knowledgeable (now) about what I need to do to achieve the output I'm seeking.

 

I used to think because of sites like 'our sister,' and being armed with everything needed to mixdown and master to semi pro level would be easy. Years later I realised something very important. Unlike almost everything else in this world it isn't who you know, it's WHAT you know. There are literally no shortcuts to obtaining a level of mastering that I want to achieve. One day in about 50 years time, I really hope I can.

 

I used to master my music until I sent a stereo file to Dave McNair...In my case the difference wasn't subtle! He managed to give my song (a damn stereo .wav file) more depth and separation (between vocals, drums and music) more weight (insane weight) and the balance between the frequencies was incredible! Just the balance alone was worth the money I spent on it!!!! If you have the financial means to hire a pro (he gave me an incredible rate, most of them will do the same for independent artists), DO IT! You won't regret it (make sure the mastering engineer has songs on the radio, or masters songs you like).

 

You have tens of thousands of $$$ worth of tools for free. Invest all funds into room, monitors, and DA. Give the engineer something great to polish.