http://www.gatewaymastering.com/gateway_LoudnessWars.asp

Hi, I am not a pro, so (kindly) chase me away if you need to.

I am using Waveburner 1.5 to prepare a master for a collection of 13 songs made with Logic Pro. I've managed to get a good overall level across the 13
songs using only gain. But I've got one outlier that I can't get as loud as the others due to peaks in the snare and tom parts.

I'm currently at the final stages of mixing my bands EP which I've recorded entirely at home with my own gear. I would really like to get the tracks sounding good enough to be played on local radio, but i'm not sure whether it is worth the effort to get them mastered. Is it common to get a decent sounding home recording mastered, or would i be just wasting my money?

I seem to recall reading somewhere about reference CD's, perhaps containing certain program material, pure tones, acoustic phenomena, etc., presumably to allow for certain kinds of monitoring calibration or observation.

As is typical, I neglected to make a careful note at the time. I would be grateful if someone could provide some specific information in this regard.

Given how fast technology has progressed, and how frequently mediums have changed, why has commercial audio been stuck at 16bit 44.1 khz for so long? Why is there apparently no industry movement toward CD production with greater bit depth?

My experience in discovering the need for mastering was very recent. I had created my first respectable mix, and thus thought I was finished, but I could not figure out why it was so quiet compared to commercial CD's, even though the meters would read the same value.

I just bought a DVD teaching SONAR by ASK Video and it was just terrific. It was a hands-on encyclopedia of almost every window and application shown on screen for that software program, which made it clearer than any book could ever be.

Can you help me place my mastering equipment in my studio?

Hey everybody I really need some advice on my song. I mixed it and Im not sure if I can do any better. Would a good mastering job bring this track to life a bit more? It is the highest quality mp3 I could post. I know listening to a mp3 is not the greatest but please take a listen. If you have some good head phones put them on. If you are in front of some monitors even better.

ok, so i'm using Adobe Audition 3 for all of my recording, mixing, and my somewhat rough, improperly trained attempt at mastering. - but hey, i'm doing it all to learn from anyway.

after adding some limiters and stuff and i get my level fairly hot, i was wondering. should i dither?