Yo Art!

Glad to hear you're taking the plunge. I'm kind of "half way through" the transition you're talking about. I do mastering for clients but don't advertise it very much.

Here's the steps that I've been taking.

1 - Get a good room
1A - Get good monitors (I list that as part of 1 because a good pair of monitors work WITH the room, not just IN the room.)

Personally, I went with NHT 2.5i's as my mastering monitors. I find these to be ruthlessly honest speakers yet still incredibly musical. I also went with a REL Storm III subwoofer because it is, IMO, the MOST musical and visceral subwoofer I've ever heard.

The great news is, NHT 2.5i's are GREAT speakers for monitoring (similar in quality to B&W's 700 series) and they can be had on Ebay for next to nothing!! Bear in mind though, they need a BIG room to really open up and TONS of power (I do recommend bi-amping them, you'll definitely see/hear the results!) Personally, I have mine in a room that is just a tad under 4000 cubic feet and that's just enough. I use a Rotel RMB1075 to power the speakers (4 channels total, leaving 1 channel for center channel applications for surround). The rest of my set up is handled by NHT super zero speakers and an HK PA5800 amplifier.

Of course, the room is heavily treated with Auralex acoustics products (I simply did the acoustics planner - where you send them your dimensions and what you want to do and they send you back the layout).

Having this accurate of a set up is the SINGLE reason I'm confident while mastering.

Right now, I don't have the massive load of expensive outboard gear - I use the plug-ins found native in Sequoia and a few others. I'm also in the process of rebuilding my ART ProVLA into a mastering grade device (more on that later).

My final step will be to purchase gear for mastering. On my mind right now are:

Comps/Limiters:
Crane Song
Manley

EQ's
Weiss
Z-Systems
Millennia

Effects
TC M3000, M4000, or M6000

After that, I believe I will have the experience, knowledge and equipment to compete on the real market.

Of course, all of the above ramblings are just one approach you can take. It seems to be working okay for me right now though.

J.

Very informative...thank you! My room is pretty small (12x14) so getting good monitors that work in that room may be a bit of a challenge.

The reason I want to learn this is mainly just for the experience and knowledge, but also because in general I like tweaking audio more than tracking bands.

Don't get me wrong...I love tracking bands, but I can spend days messing around with wav files and tweaking them.

Does that mean I'd make a good ME...hell no...but I'd enjoy trying.

Hey Art,

Get Bob's book. I have just finished reading it. Some parts were a bit over my head, I have to admit, but it's really good. I don't intend to become an ME, but it helped me improving my mixing skills. I feel I now have a better understanding of what is required in terms of headroom and dynamics.

I'm having one of my mixes mastered tomorrow by an ME. I have asked if I could attend, and I'm going to keep my eyes AND EARS wide open.

Did I already say that you should get that book? :wink:

Good luck!

G

my tipp for getting started.

check out the UAD ultra Edition it inclueds some great
emulation of in real very expensive stuff.
and so you can try on a cheap way if you have the heart and the ears
for a good mastering eng. :wink:

best wishes