Hello All,
I'm nearing completion of a three to four song demo for submission to an independent label. Naturally, I want my band's music to be taken seriously so I'm prepared to have it mastered by an experienced professional.

Hey all --

Im just finishing up mixing and readying an EP for one of the group's i produce.
This is the first times we've ever had anything mastered, so i have a couple of questions! :

1) What levels should the final bounced mix be at? Obviously not clipping. And does it matter if there was an L2 limiter placed over the Master, or would u rather not.

Since I came here looking for help in mastering a project, I thought I should let you guys know what a great job Mike Fossenkemper did for me. I’ve always wanted to work on records and with great artists, but it just didn’t happen for me. I work with very small budgets and “we need it yesterday” kind of gigs.

How have you chosen the engineer to master your recording on past projects? Will you change that proceedure in the future? What are your criteria?

{a tip of the hat to "Sioux" for the topic}

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?

Updated with added comments by Bob Katz about dithering.

I would like to ask a question about the interaction of your Masterlink with the Manley Vari Mu and the massive Passive (or any other brands)- in the mixdown phase and then (home) mastering phase.

When you are doing a mix down:

Has anyone read this book?
Mastering Audio: The ART and the Science

Okay in this climate of every man and his dog having some Waves plugins running under Wavelab or whatever, what are the DO's and DONT'S if mixes are going to be sent out to a mastering house?

Hey all, I just wanted to let the group know about Don Grossinger's new web site. He has a banner running on RO to avoid the self promotion thing, check it out. http://dongrossinger.com/ Don is one of our finest Moderators on RO.

Cheers buddy!

P.S.

Don, what's Hot Vinyl Cutting all about?

Hey everyone, RO is sure shaping up, our Mastering Moderators are some of the finest group of engineers around.