Would like to talk about experience with online mastering houses.

[ObsoleteAcc99]

[DELETED]

[Laurend]

I propose an automatic mastering service based on a proprietary algorithm. After that statement usually the same questions arise:

Q: Why doesn't it exist as a plug-in?
R: The process requires a first analysis to set hundreds of parameters, and it's CPU hungry, so real time isn't allowed.

Q: Is it specialised in a particular music genre?
R: The treatment is the same for for all sound files. Bird songs, Death Metal or harpsichord are supported as well.

Presentations are done. Your feedback is welcome.

[ObsoleteAcc99]

[DELETED]

[Laurend]

Here's an old (2006) article from Sound-On-Sound on the subject.
My tracks are finishing by MxSnd.

[Laurend]

It seems this thread needs a little boost to get more feedback
Here, you can get your free preview 24/24 7/7 in a one hour turnaround:
http://www.maximalsound.com/en/upload

[ObsoleteAcc99]

[DELETED]

[Laurend]

I suppose most people on KVR are simply in the DIY mastering. Surely a mastering challenge would be more crowded.

[Aiynzahev]

I used Chartmakers for one release:

http://soundcloud.com/aiyn-zahev/crash-aiyn-zahev-remix

Pre-master:
http://soundcloud.com/aiyn-zahev/cold-r ... aiyn-zahev

http://www.chartmakers.fi/

60 Euro's I think it was.

Henkka did my mastering. He did a good master but then the label came back and wanted it louder, so he did (I think reluctantly, not that he ever gave me bad attitude or anything but I get the sense that he preferred not to go to such extremes, meaning he values his work, I mean it's not like my track was something special).

Anyway he was really good. I like what he did and he ended up doing 4 versions for me, 2 version at his preferred levels and then 2 louder versions on request of the label.

The real problem was the mix itself, there was still a lot I didn't know back then and so no matter what you did it just wasn't going to sound loud, without maybe some drastic multiband alteration. And there is another problem, traditional ME's don't think of that as a good mastering job but dance musicians often like it. They like taking something tame and totally "destroying" it like you hear often on beatport or vengeance samples.

I can post before & after as .wav downloads on soundcloud, problem is like I said it's hard to get a feel for good mastering when the track is poor.

Another thing we did here was do a mastering challenge where I took one of Bluffmunkeys tracks and had us all have a go at mastering it. Then I sent it off to Vital Mastering and tbh I think he battered us. He really fixed all the problems with it. I probably still have the files and they might be up on soundcloud. I'll check.

http://www.vitalmastering.com/

He was also nice to work with. $30. He loves that Manley Massive Passive

Okay here is the original thread:

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... sc&start=0

And on this page is Vital Masterings Master

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... &start=180

[Laurend]

There is no mean to evaluate a mastering job when you have no access to the original track.

[penguinfromdeep]

This is interesting topic for sure and I hope more people will participate. Thanks to Aiynzahev for sharing his experiences, that mastering house is actually in Finland (I'm finnish too and btw. I have the same first name as you Aiynzahev ). Glad to hear you had good experience with them, maybe I will use them one day too.

Aside from my label who uses in-house mastering guy I've used this one: http://www.blacklistedmastering.co.uk/

It was pretty cheap and fast turn around, the guy was friendly and I liked the result. Not too overcooked, just balanced, nice sounding stuff.

[Aiynzahev]

This is interesting topic for sure and I hope more people will participate. Thanks to Aiynzahev for sharing his experiences, that mastering house is actually in Finland (I'm finnish too and btw. I have the same first name as you Aiynzahev ). Glad to hear you had good experience with them, maybe I will use them one day too.

Aside from my label who uses in-house mastering guy I've used this one: http://www.blacklistedmastering.co.uk/

It was pretty cheap and fast turn around, the guy was friendly and I liked the result. Not too overcooked, just balanced, nice sounding stuff.

Sami? cuz that's my name

I posted the pre-master in my original post now, just had to wait for the upload. Now you can compare

[penguinfromdeep]

Sami? cuz that's my name

Yeah, I'm Sami too!
Thanks for the original file, off to compare now

[cryophonik]

Picking out the legitimate online mastering houses is pretty difficult these days. Seems like there is a preponderance of guys who realized that making money from their bedroom productions is hard, so they've turned to mastering instead. You go to their website and they have a list of their gear and lists of the services that they offer, explanations of why you shouldn't do your own mastering, blah blah blah, but no examples of their work and no description of their experience, qualifications, etc. When I request examples and specifics from most of these guys, I usually get ambiguous responses as to why they can't provide examples, to which I respond thanks, but no thanks. Personally, I don't care if the ME has 5 or 30 years of experience, or if he's primarily ITB vs using $100K worth of outboard gear, as long as he/she has a proven track record (puns not intended) and can demonstrate some quality results.

The one guy that I have used repeatedly, based on great results, excellent communication, willingness to go the extra mile, and very reasonable prices, is Thomas Penton. Most people know him for his productions and, especially, his sample libraries, but he also does mastering work. He is actually in the process of completing the mastering on an album for one of the singers that I have worked with for many years.

http://www.thomaspenton.com/

[bmanic]

I've used Chartmakers numerous times. They always deliver a balanced and good master. They are very expensive though if you want to attend the session and have it planned. We are talking way over 1000 euros here for a typical 10-12 song album.

Recently we went with Finnvox and it was a positive experience. I've been there before and was not that pleased but this time it was good.

In the end it all comes down to the person doing the mastering and the mix that you started with. If those two things gel you can get some magic happening. It is also important to remember that this is all completely subjective. All professionals should have no problem in getting some serious loudness (if this is what is asked for) or keeping dynamics in check and the bass in balance. After that it comes down purely to taste. I've yet to experience a "horrible" master by any professional. Either the mix was beyond repair or the label asked for ridiculous levels (which they usually got but the track was ruined).

Later in the year I'll probably open up our company's mastering service to the public as well. I'll let you all know when that happens and probably offer some extremely cheap or even free mastering as promotion when that happens. I've been mastering for over 10 years now and have a steadily growing client list, all through word of mouth with zero advertising so I think it's soon time to do it a bit more seriously. I just need to upgrade a few pieces in the studio and get the framework / website / payment and server backbone done. This is the hard part.

Another mastering company I very highly recommend is Jaakko Viitalähde. Check out his website here: http://virtalahde.com/virtalahde-mastering-en/

Cheers!

[bmanic]

Picking out the legitimate online mastering houses is pretty difficult these days. Seems like there is a preponderance of guys who realized that making money from their bedroom productions is hard, so they've turned to mastering instead. You go to their website and they have a list of their gear and lists of the services that they offer, explanations of why you shouldn't do your own mastering, blah blah blah, but no examples of their work and no description of their experience, qualifications, etc. When I request examples and specifics from most of these guys, I usually get ambiguous responses as to why they can't provide examples, to which I respond thanks, but no thanks. Personally, I don't care if the ME has 5 or 30 years of experience, or if he's primarily ITB vs using $100K worth of outboard gear, as long as he/she has a proven track record (puns not intended) and can demonstrate some quality results.

The one guy that I have used repeatedly, based on great results, excellent communication, willingness to go the extra mile, and very reasonable prices, is Thomas Penton. Most people know him for his productions and, especially, his sample libraries, but he also does mastering work. He is actually in the process of completing the mastering on an album for one of the singers that I have worked with for many years.

http://www.thomaspenton.com/

That's definitely how you should weed out the "scammers" and wannabes. Simply ask them for some examples or if they can't provide any commercial ones (sometimes this is a difficult thing to do if you are bound by various labels! I've experienced this many times myself) then just send them a snippet and ask hem to prove their worth. If they say that they have no time for doing a quick demo for you then just move on and don't bother them any more.

Personally I'm always looking for audio examples on the website but even this can be very much falsified. Some people seem to purposefully have a semi-decent mix which they have seriously compromised on purpose.. then they compare that compromised version with the "mastered" version and of course there is a HUGE difference. These should be avoided as well. It's usually quite easy to tell when the bass is missing from 70hz down and highs are cut out completely.

Cheers!
bManic