Please could some experienced mastering engineers give me their views on the best formats to backup masters?
Obvisouly if its 1/2" make a 1/2" copy, DAT- DAT Clone?
Do glass masters get stored and if so who has them and where?

:) Hey all! I detect a lot of apprehension to the decision made to have even a few songs mastered, and sometimes even more for an entire project.

In the simplest of analogies as to why, is like when I painted the outside my whole house.

We are close to finishing our current production and there is this one song that just seems a little too slow with the final arrangement and instrumentation (3% speed-up would do the trick).

Now, time stretching is obviously readily available in a lot of software solutions, however, the ones that I have used on complete mixes so far result in unacceptable loss of quality.

Ok here's the song...

http://www.tooltabs.net/Recordings/a_push.mp3

1. Compared to other songs, the volume is way too low.
2. It's lacking punch and fullness. Should I compress the hell out of each track and the final mix and throw it through sonic maximizer?

Im curious since some of the gear for pro mastering say an Avalon eq the cheap one is 12 thosand dollars, and not in any pro sumer magazine and all the gear seems to be high dollar and un available to the public how does one becomea mastering engineer?

I'm in a Rap group under under ground. To get straight to the point, we don't have much money, but we have been blessed with many programs. To name as many as I remember: Cakewalk, Fruity Loops, Cuebase, WaveLab, Sound Foundry.

As they used to say on the old Monty Python Flying Circus BBC TV show "And Now For Something Completely Different". .

This has to do with the progress that I have experienced in my business doing my vinyl, audio cassette and minidisc to CD transfers.

:) Hi! When I listen to some of my Favorite CD's. I get the impression that a story is unfolding as the tunes progress.

Like no one ever told me that Abby Road has a progressive theme, but I easily detected it, right up to the end. ..."and in the end the love" etc... plus the little ditty to follow.

I don't advertise myself as a mastering guy, but I end up doing "junior" mastering for projects that come in. I am recording to Pro Tools digi 001 and generally burning to CD, mastering right in the PT session.

For the Mastering (Pro Tools): Is it better to record my file from the one interface to the other- through the L2 digital? Or to insert the L2 - digital too of course.
Sorry if my question is too stupid but i just want to know if there's a sound- difference between these 2 ways.
Thanks