Mastering help - URGENT

[camheine]

Hi guys,

Apologies as this is my first post but I didn't know where else to turn. I've just paid to have a song of mine mastered by a very reputable mastering engineer (won't say who in case I'm at fault here), and they've sent over a master that I can frankly hear quite a bit of clipping/distortion on (not sure what the proper term is in this case). They, however, claim that they can't hear it on their end. I need to know if I'm crazy and am the only one hearing it, or if some of you hear it too. Pay attention particularly to the top end with the crashes and hi-hats. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

To clarify, these problems were definitely not present on the pre-master, and the mastering engineer can't hear any issues in the pre-master either. I've put a snippet in the soundcloud link below.

Soundcloud link: https://soundcloud.com/cam_cabre/master ... al_sharing

Thanks for any help you guys can provide.

[andymcbain]

Does sound pretty crushed to me. You can hear the side effects of heavy processing. Does the master need to be this loud? Do you have any way of measuring the LUFS?

[EfreetiSultan]

it doesnt sound clipped/distorted per se; but it does sound squashed and pushed a bit beyond its limits. quite unpleasant. I dont think it should be this loud. This kinda music needs to be funky, and more open - not as squashed as this.
What i think the ME meant when he said he didnt hear any "issues" - is that what we hear, is simply his decisions. Technically I dont hear clipping or distortion but musically I hear what you may subscribe to those words. Also be aware that the data compression used by soundcloud isnt the best - it generally kills alot of the high end, making it sound a bit mushy.

if you want you can send it to me and ill give you a master. Im currently trying to build a portfolio so Im offering my services free of charge for a limited time =) But i understand if thats not what you want to do here, you obviously paid for this guy to master it and you want it done well. But, my offer stands should you want it. Ive roughly 20 years of experience but havent been in the business for a long time now so trying to rebuild a portfolio from scratch :p

[No_Use]

I'd suggest providing snippets unmastered and mastered here, otherwise it's difficult to judge what actually happened in the mastering.
Also preferably uncompressed, Soundcloud streaming is only 128kb/s and that degrades quality in itself already.

[ChanceB]

Yea I hear it. I’m not sure it sounds like clipping but it sounds degraded. Hitting the limiter too hard ,too much multi band compression? Inter sample peaking from it being uploaded to and converted by SoundCloud maybe? Im just a hobbyist with hobbyist level hearing but your not crazy

[EfreetiSultan]

4 hours later maybe it wasn't that urgent afterall

[VOODOO U]

4 hours later maybe it wasn't that urgent afterall

It's called self promotion.

[jamcat]

I’d throw the whole thing out and start over.

[WackyZoundz]

Sounds distorted and fluttering, as if the highs are ducking under the kick and bass. A sidechained limiter driven way too hard? This needs to be redone.

[stoopicus]

It's just overcompressed. Also, too loud.

[VOODOO U]

The mastering is fine. Others are over exaggerating.

[camheine]

Sorry guys, still urgent, I'm just in Australia! haha I made the post at like 10:30 pm and I'm a school teacher so I couldn't stay up all night chatting on forums. I really appreciate your messages and it's good to know I'm not crazy. This is all great feedback and stuff I can go back to him with.

I was trying to post the uncompressed file here but didn't seem to work because of the file size limits on attachments, let me know if there's another way. Then I'd be happy to send pre-master comparisons.

It's urgent in the sense that I need to get back to him quickly as I've already paid for it at this point and If I'm going back to him asking for full changes/a complete redo/a refund, I need to do that quickly and not a week later. Hope you guys understand.

[thecontrolcentre]

Sounds way too loud here ...

[cron]

The mastering is fine. Others are over exaggerating.

Kind of leaning this way here too. It's a 'very 2024' master to my ears, for better or worse. Dance music seems to be having an incredibly toasty phase right now. Maybe as all the OTT-wielding Youtube tutorial kids are coming of age?

So yeah, it'll sound awful in most clubs, but it seems to be the nature of the beast at the moment. It doesn't sound a million miles away from, say, this track released on Warp Records this year.

edit: Obviously, though I do think what you've got is within (albeit stretching) the bounds of normal, that doesn't really matter if you aren't happy with the result. You'll be a better judge of what your specific genre should sound like in 2024 than I am.

[camheine]

The mastering is fine. Others are over exaggerating.

Kind of leaning this way here too. It's a 'very 2024' master to my ears, for better or worse. Dance music seems to be having an incredibly toasty phase right now. Maybe as all the OTT-wielding Youtube tutorial kids are coming of age?

So yeah, it'll sound awful in most clubs, but it seems to be the nature of the beast at the moment. It doesn't sound a million miles away from, say, this track released on Warp Records this year.

edit: Obviously, though I do think what you've got is within (albeit stretching) the bounds of normal, that doesn't really matter if you aren't happy with the result. You'll be a better judge of what your specific genre should sound like in 2024 than I am.

Yeah this is interesting to consider. I definitely don't want it to sound like the example As someone said above, I want it to sound funky. Sure there's an element of loudness and 'bigness' to it, but I don't want it to be squashed and overcompressed haha. This is all good feedback I can give him, so thanks again!

I'll see how I go with working with him to improve it, but otherwise I may have to take up one of the responses and get it mastered for free.