If Mixing & Mastering are separate professions and skills, why do so many individuals offer both services?

[Uncle E]

When you listen, you understand. Music is all about the song and above all, the performance. Sound quality means nothing, in the end. And if it had "better" sound quality, would it be as good? If the floor tom didn't overload the mics when it was smacked, and if Birdie's voice didn't distort when he wailed, would it be the same song, or would it actually lose something? This is what Synthmaster2000 doesn't seem to get.

tbh, I found that quite unpleasant to listen to and stopped halfway through, despite enjoying the music itself.

[Scotty]

I didn't try those other ones out so I don't have a comparitive opinion to offer. I am wrapped up in the Plugin Alliance Universe and when they started to carry the Metric plugins I picked it up for I think about $25 bucks with a voucher for being a good little compulsive consumer.

The demo is solid in that you can try it out for 14 days with no restrictions. I'd take it for a test spin. There is a downloader for all of the Plugin Alliance stuff but if you navigate directly to the plugin page and scroll down you can get the download for just this plugin and avoid the bloat.

If you see a knock out missing feature from this let us know. I'd suggest you read through the manual, there are some features that weren't completely self evident to me. But then again, you are a different sort of cat.

I use ADPTR to check my masters as it is a plugin and I can check my work within the DAW. https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/prod ... liner.html

Thanks, Scotty

I’ll pick this up in the next MEGA ULTRA BOOM!SALE

BTW, how much did you pay for it?

Also, how does it compare to these?

MeterPlugs Loudness Penalty
Nugen MasterCheck
Sonible True:Level

Does it do all the same stuff, more, less?

[twal]

but, if someone is aiming for a more contemporary pop sound, then they will see the mixing and mastering as important too, getting a radio friendly mix, even for an amateur is good practice, if you have dreams to go that way.

so while i do agree with you in many cases, the mix and mastering is secondary (i love daniel johnston for example) but for some it is an important stage.

It’s important to me, too. It’s just less important than everything that comes before it.

I would think that if a self-producing musician considers getting that polished post-production sound to be an important step to finishing a song (which is totally valid), they would want to master it for themselves (pun intended.)

Now as Scotty has said, he wants his music to sound the absolute best it can, and that means paying someone else to do post-production.

But, why stop there?

There are also always going to be better recording and mixing engineers out there. Better guitarists and singers and drummers and MIDI programmers, too. And there will be better producers, arrangers and songwriters. So why not bring in someone else to write your lyrics, arrange your compositions, play your guitar parts, and sing your songs, while you’re at it? That is, if you want your music to be the absolute best it can be.

But at that point, is it really still yours?

Yes, it's called Dr Dre, Rick Rubin, Puff Daddy, Jay-D and Hitmaka....- all artists who can produce an entire record without actually adding any music to it.

[twal]

but how terrible is that just increasing volume on master- I bet that's what "engineers" do online for customers.

some might, but not all.
the good ones, will be happy to share previous work, and a short demo of your own piece if you ask. you send your file, they send just a chorus and a verse back, you can hear what they have done.
then decide if its worth paying for.

That goes without saying, I was responding to the fiverr thing the OP was talking about and informing him how that platform and others are great ways to come off as very helpful but provide mediocre work.

[jamcat]

Yes, it's called Dr Dre, Rick Rubin, Puff Daddy, Jay-D and Hitmaka....- all artists who can produce an entire record without actually adding any music to it.

Believe it or not, rap isn’t the only genre that has producers. Every genre does.

Rap is just the only genre were the producers contribute nothing, release the work as their own, and take all the money.

[Scotty]

Jamcat, thank you for your shallow, deeply biased research. You've said a lot more here than you realize. Try moving those goal posts.

Rap is just the only genre were the producers contribute nothing, release the work as their own, and take all the money.

[jamcat]

You're right. I discounted DnB, where "interns" also do all the work for the big name producers.

[vurt]

You're right. I discounted DnB, where "interns" also do all the work for the big name producers.

theres sharks throughout the industry.
every genre and style has em!

[jamcat]

Yes, but they’re normally managers, accountants, and record execs.

They’re not normally “producers.”

In rock, there have been many cases where songwriters and session musicians don’t get credited, but again, it’s not the “producer” who is stealing the credit and the money. It’s usually Sharon and Ozzy.

[_leras]

I pay mastering engineers to address things that I can’t hear properly in my space. In the process, they’ve given me feedback and my mixes have improved. That feedback is golden.

I don’t know why you want to assert this is not part of the process.

I've never said it can't be part of your process. I've only said that is isn't vital or necessary for distributing your music digitally. Unlike creating a wax master for pressing vinyl.

I've been catching up on this thread, and gotta say you seem stuck on this mastering is for vinyl thing. That's a minor aspect thes days.

I'd say far more important is having a fresh perspective from someone in a hopefully better sounding room that can hear issues you can't and had the tools to correct them.

You are correct that some things could be improved in a mix, but it's not always possible. I'd bet very few mixing rooms are perfect, especially home studios. Even if you cross reference good headphones,.small speakers, hifi speakers etc you may still miss stuff a mastering engineer should pick up on.

I think an important thing here is also, how much a mastering engineer can add is determined by how bad a mix is. A really bad mix can be significantly improved, a really good mix may need only a very light touch. So maybe it's diminished returns if you're a really great mixer, but it's still a fresh perspective in a good room.

[jamcat]

you seem stuck on this mastering is for vinyl thing.

The reason is because it illustrated the difference between necessary mastering and elective mastering.

And also because if you're not actually making a master copy for mass production, can you really still call it "mastering"?

[elxsound]

you seem stuck on this mastering is for vinyl thing.

The reason is because it illustrated the difference between necessary mastering and elective mastering.

And also because if you're not actually making a master copy for mass production, can you really still call it "mastering"?

The point of mastering is readying for specific media or playback, including venues. Not unlike mastering for vinyl.

Your mix is likely done just once (but not always).

You can have multiple masters, especially if your track is used in film, used in a video game, or any other media distribution that would include your track alongside others that need to all sound similar in volume.

[jamcat]

The point of mastering is readying for specific media or playback, including venues. Not unlike mastering for vinyl.

Your mix is likely done just once (but not always).

You can have multiple masters, especially if your track is used in film, used in a video game, or any other media distribution that would include your track alongside others that need to all sound similar in volume.

That's precisely what I said a few pages back.

[_leras]

you seem stuck on this mastering is for vinyl thing.

The reason is because it illustrated the difference between necessary mastering and elective mastering.

And also because if you're not actually making a master copy for mass production, can you really still call it "mastering"?

Sure, mastering for cutting to vinyl is a thing, but that is often after a standard audio mastering.

You are also correct than mastering can create a more cohesive whole where different tracks have been mixed with different tonalities, on different days and sometimes in different rooms.

But, it's pretty clear that the main focus and reason to master, in general, is to make up for any deficiency from the mix, be it from the mixing room or the mixers inherent bias. The famous, make it optimal for playback anywhere.

Now of course you can check your mixes on multiple systems and take careful notes and find and identify parts that are peaking out or masked, and go back and fix in the mix, but it's never perfect and finished.

Taking it to a mastering engineer, whose context is lots of other music on, hopefully good speakers in a good room, can let them spot on things you'll undoubtedly miss.

Of course some mixers want that control of mix buss compression and EQ, with it being part of the sound in some genres, and won't leave much room for an ME to make changes.