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anonymous 12 November 2002

I am working a session that we'll probably wrap up within a week or so, we are gonna finally start mixing tonight.

The project was done in Pro Tools using a digi001 and an ADAT as additional i/o. I have slapped LA-2A and 1176 plugs on bass guitar and the lead vocal. main mix will not be compressed. I have eq'd nothing at all but may when we mix. I tracked instruments with little compression using one of those new Alesis dual stero compressors. Anyways... the project still has dynamics.

I explained to the client that mastering is as neccesary as mixing itself. I said that songs will sound consistant from one to another and be the same volume. he now understands how important mastering is. Jackson Sound in Denver here can master before they cut the CD's but not sure about the price yet. last I talked with them they actually transfered to 1/4 inch tape for obvious reasons. I suppose they do a pretty good job although i havent heard any before and after stuff.

I see no reason to have to keep this part of the project in Denver so. . who wants to master this and for how much? i imagine I would send via FTP or mail... the 24 bit 44.1k files.

Whats this gonna cost the client? 10 songs.. country music, drums, bass, guitar, steel, fiddle, vox, and backups. I need some outside ears to clean this up. I mixed using ns-10's with a sub so it shouldnt be too bad.

any ideas or suggestions?

Comments

jdsdj98 Tue, 11/12/2002 - 14:29

and the world gets smaller every day.

i used to engineer at jackson sound, so i think i can honestly speak pretty well as to what you'll get from them. email me at jdsdj98@hotmail.com and i'll delve into it further.

just for the sake of brevity, let me say i'd highly recommend having a dedicated mastering house master your project. jackson sound (which is actually mountain states audio/video now) is more of a one stop shop for duplication.

anonymous Wed, 11/13/2002 - 07:12

Well thanks everyone that responded, I appreciate that. I need to figure out our budget for sure first.

I sat with the mastering guy at jackson/Mountain States one time (years ago) to check out his system and what I liked about it was that he actually cuts everything to tape first BUT after speaking to them yesterday i think they are probably OK for duplication but i sure wouldn't get the attention a typical mastering engineer would give. Linda said I would have to talk with Doug to find out exactly what he can do for me but it sounds like they just cut a red book cd from what ya got and in my case I can cut red book cd's with masterlist or jam. what I am looking for is the minimal compression and subtle eq needed to perfect my already well mixed (actually it is not mixed yet) CD. I will have to find out more about Mountain states setup but I dont think I am going that route yet.

I'll contact you guys to see what's involoved and how much. I need to ask the client what kind of budget they're willing to spend. Unfortunetly I counseled this client from the beginning of the importance of mastering but I dont think he understands why I cant do it.

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