I was just thinking about this today. With so many people starting to master music via the internet do you guys feel like mastering engineers will be like graphic designers in the sense that you can just hire one and get all the work done without even meeting in them person. I don't know but I find it really cool to see a professional working in a studio, it's fun in an weird way lol

What do you think?

Hello, it is not the future but already the present. Most online mastering services are ofered by studios that are most of the times the same as any other studio even back before the internet. I guess most of older or more popular mastering studios offer you the opportunity to send and receive the files thru the net, and most other kind of bussiness offer to contact by mail aswell.

I think it's important to not underestimate the value of having someone listen to your material in a room you can't afford, never mind their gear.

I would rather rent a studio where I could work with a mastering engineer in "finalizing" my mixes for CD release.

Often I find there are tons of people out there who do mastering themselves with software and offer services, but I often wonder just how much they actually know.

Personally i wont deal with a online mastering engineers service because I can't sit in the studio and listen to the end result myself.

I guess in the end you really gotta decide for yourself if their services are good enough for you.

The room is very important; but also to hyped are "pro rooms". I recorded two albums in a small regular flat room with the walls covered with old pillows and found mattresses and I allways got great reviews of the sound quality. I know we are talking mastering and it's not the same, but then it's way more important how good you know the sound of the monitoring in that room than the room itself. And also in mastering the more important aspect and the one wich needs more precision monitoring is fequency balance. That can be perfectly done in a good pair of cans you know. For some things even no room can be better than most rooms.




That is good. There's nothing better than direct 'in person' comunication. Being able to be there is just more of an experience and comunication ease than anything else imho. When working online, you will be able to listen the end result yourself whan you get a sample, a master or it's revisions. Probably in a listening environment you may know way better than the mastering room. A lot of studios offer phone comunication and several revisions until you like the result before you pay.

Also it is easy forgoten that not everybody lives close to a mastering studio.