Question about paying pro mastering company...

[Slapdash]

I'm doing my first full track, and an idea hit me. I wondered whether it would be a valid learning tool for me to pay a professional mastering company to master a single track for me, and then I can not only have a mastered track, but look at what they have done to it, and analyze it. Use it as a learning tool, almost.

Does this sound like it could be a useful learning aid for me? How would I submit the track - could I send them the Ableton file and have them master it there? Any general opinions?

[john doe by choice]

Ableton doesn't offer mastering, but they could recommend people who do - also, Nebulae and Tarekith (both here in the forum) do single song mastering, I think. As far as analyzing it goes, you'd have a hard time at it if you didn't know the techniques that could be used - in other words, you may get part of the process, but you may miss something else entirely that is both subtle and important. Also, those guys may use different tools than you, making the process of analysis difficult.

[Slapdash]

...Hmm...I've been researching more on the topic...Maybe what I really needed was help with the mixdown..And am I right in thinking that any third party I handed my track to would need each channel isolated and sent to them as a seperate wav file?

[snakedogman]

it depends. Most people that offer mastering services will also offer the option of doing mixdowns. If you feel your mix is good enough and just needs that little bit of extra to polish it to perfection, then you'll just send an unprocessed stereo file to the mastering guy. But if you're not confident about the mix itself you can see if they can help with that first. In that case you would have to render the track down to individual tracks. Of course it will also be more expensive than just mastering.

[the_antagonist]

just take your time. you aint going to learn everything overnight. just work on making good music. worry about the mix down when you have a good piece of music that needs to sound more professional. worry about mastering when you are about to sell some music.

[BASSbüro]

yes, first worry about the mixdown like "the_antagonist" said and than send it to:

http://www.mastering-online.com/

that's a really good mastering-service. i highly recommend it.

....and don't take my tunes on myspace as a reference. they are not mastered.

[tw1nstates]

Metropolis mastering in West London does an unsigned thing for #50 per track. http://www.metropolis-group.co.uk/

They are one of the best facilities in Europe, the guy that does a lot of the unsigned stuff is called Hippy and he's a cool guy. Very nice, (it's 50 sterling for an attended cut - so you can go there and ask him lots of questions).

TBH though you would be as well off just using a commercial track in the same style as your music. . .

Might save yourself a few quid. Don't forget to gain compensate - if it's dance music then drop the level of the reference track by about 4 - 6 dbs or more or less depending on the material. Or use something like elephant to add some limiting so that you are getting a similar level. . .

Hope that helps

[ChiDJ]

I think you would be wasting your money sending your track to somebody.

It would be money well spent if you can find someone near you that will let you sit with them and ask questions while they work.

That's how I learned.

Tod

[leedsquietman]

What you need for a one track mastering is not mastering per se (unless you plan to release a vinyl or one track CD etc) but mix finalizing/enhancement.

I'm sure Tarekith, Neb or even myself would be happy to take your track and give you something which was more similar to commercial levels and enhanced mix-wise, for around the 40 dollar mark.

However, I totally agree with Tod - self empowerment and gaining knowledge and experience is the best thing you can do. So if there is such a service in your area for reasonable cost, that should be a consideration as opposed to just sending off a file somewhere.

Recording / Mixing / Mastering is a skill, just like playing a sport. You wouldn't expect an NFL club to sign you up as football player if you didn't know the rules, had only started playing 6 months ago and hadn't come through the junior and college ranks and earned a reputation. Same with music. Do courses, read books and most of all, practice, practice and practice some more on your home setup. Make sure you get some reasonable monitors and try and learn it for yourself.

[ethios4]

I think you would be wasting your money sending your track to somebody.

It would be money well spent if you can find someone near you that will let you sit with them and ask questions while they work.

+1, although it might give you an idea of what's possible to send your track to someone to master it. Hey, why not? It's only gonna be like $40-$50 right? But, as mentioned, it's unlikely you would learn any real techniques from it. Best to find someone who will let you sit in on a session, or at least tell you what they did to your track for mastering.