How much improvement can be expected after mastering?

Moderator Joined: Sep 12, 2002 Posts: 1880 Location: NYC

Well the first thing you should do is, in a nice respectful way, just bring it up to the ME. Tell them that you are having a problem communicating to them what it is you are looking for. Then go through your record collection and put together something that resembles what you are looking for and send it to them. Make sure it's in the same ballpark as what your mix song arrangement is. Ask the ME what things might be a problem for them to achieve this in your mix. Correct those things. Offer to pay for it, Remember he did the job twice already. This is a learning experience for you, after this first one, the others will come a little easier.

I think if you communicate this to the ME, he won't be defensive and will probably welcome the dialog. Remember that they ultimately want a happy person to walk away.

Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 3:40 pm

"I would much rather have a client that has a vision and uses my skills to achieve that vision than to have someone who comes to the mastering session with some "pie in the sky"

Throughout your rambling, if you don't mind me saying so, it seems you wish that clients knew everything that you did and know what they're talking about. In reality, most musicians (especially ones who go to studios for recordings, not mastering,) know nothing of the recording process. If they know anything about recording, they have the slightess clue about mastering.

Now I can see that they should have some input and preferences. You just seem like your taking your frustration out on the message board. My oberservation only of course. Come work in insurance for a week and give me a call! LOL Smile

Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007 11:05 am

"You're right, I didn't give him much to go on as far as a vision. I guess I still don't have a vision. My job is custom web design and right now I feel like one of my more difficult clients who don't know what they want, but know when they don't like what they're seeing. I understand now that I am the problem here."

I wish my last client would read this. I would say if you were to refer the M.E. to what current artist you would like it to sound like would be a good start. Never underestimate the power of reference material. You might not know how your favorite album got the sound it did but the M.E. might.

In the meantime, start reading up on mastering and mixing. It is a long journey that never ends but is worth it when you start creating pro sounding stuff.

What I find is that clients know what they want but because of their lack of education, they have a difficult time expressing it. This creates a disconnect and worse yet, if they have any kind of ego, they tend not to think that the engineer knows what to do or that they have some alterior motive.

A good mix is everything. I'm very pleased to see that you weren't overly concerned about loudness. Too many artists have no concept of what that really means and that boosting your overall volume actually brings the volume of other parts down.

i.e. my client insisted on having a snare the loudest part in the mix and had it pegged to the top in the mix. Then he wanted me to crank the whole song as loud as it possibly could go, not understanding that this would seriously clip the loudest waveform on the track, (snare). This meant that the snare clipped while the rest of the song came up. Result: the snare sounded quieter relative to the rest of the song! Guess what, he was mad at me. I've heard instruments almost completely disappear because of this. We need a standard but that will probably never happen.

I think you're on the right track. Keep it up.

Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007 2:01 pm

Appleseed wrote:

We need a standard

K14?

Posted: Wed Nov 21, 2007 2:49 pm

K14? All in agreement? Got my vote. It's settled then. Very Happy

Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 8:30 am

Nexus555 wrote:

"I would much rather have a client that has a vision and uses my skills to achieve that vision than to have someone who comes to the mastering session with some "pie in the sky"

Throughout your rambling, if you don't mind me saying so, it seems you wish that clients knew everything that you did and know what they're talking about. In reality, most musicians (especially ones who go to studios for recordings, not mastering,) know nothing of the recording process. If they know anything about recording, they have the slightest clue about mastering.

Now I can see that they should have some input and preferences. You just seem like your taking your frustration out on the message board. My observation only of course. Come work in insurance for a week and give me a call! LOL Smile

If I go to a painter and ask him to paint my house we talk about his methods, the cost and when it will be done and as he is painting the house I go out and talk to him about problems or the color he has started to use. I don't sit passively by while he paints my house Kelly green and purple when I wanted blue and white. If you are not an informed consumer or are not in the "game" then you may not get what you want or think you want but get something that is someone else's vision or way of doing things. My best clients have been some of the biggest PITAs and they do have a vision, they do know what they want the music to sound like and they are not satisfied until I do what they want me to do.

My point was that if you don't express your concerns, if your vision is cloudy or nonexistent then it is very hard for the mastering engineer to know what is on your mind unless you are the Amazing Kreskin and can literally read people's minds. I hope this clarifies my thoughts. Wink

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