Hi all, I am new member round here and I thought this was a good starting point. Well my name is Barry and I am a freelance sound engineer with a lot of experience in radio programming and other sound work. I have recently started offering an "online" mastering service as well as my labour within mostly London based studios. Typically this will appeal to small record labels and independent artists who need an experienced ear over their material and the ability to make judgements over what is needed to bring it together and I welcome input from the client. It's tricky, the processing tools I use are all software based and many say that this won't necessarily cut it. Well I believe that software has the potential to work wonders on audio and as such I am setting up my room in a way that it makes sense to my ear and my room mode response software (it is not going to look too pretty and there is a whole lot of Rockwool / high density acoustic foam treatment going on!) Luckily you don't see it on a master. This is how I can do my work for what I think is reasonable cost + other low overheads.

I am sure analogue high end equipment can add a little extra but I reckon that I can achieve around 90pct the quality, you sure have to pay more than 10pct more than my prices to get it !

Such a large amount of this (as someone mentioned) is the engineers ability, consideration and skill to manipulate the equipment available and to that end you are paying essentially for my time and the gear is thrown in.

At the price offered to clients I expect I think I have exactly the correct business model as at the end of the day we need to pay bills like anyone else. Unless you are ripping someone off it comes down to :

1)Who is the market?
2)Equip using knowledge appropriately
3)Price it appropriately relative to competition
4)Do an honest and best possible job with the tools you have.
5) Continually improve skills and knowedge

By the way I own both Cubase and Nuendo and they are both legit copies as is every piece of software I own. (So John you now know 1 person, at least online !) I feel I have to represent myself as it can also be confusing for a new mastering service user to understand what is what. I don't particularly feel proud that I have bundles of Rockwool in cotton sheets but I know that whether it looks good or not is irrelavant to the end result of sound quality. If you want to come over thats fine by me but I will have to explain that it does not look to pretty but it is functional and a means to an end. (yes good sounding rooms can look funny) Also I have built my equipment inventory over years and with sensible choices and so I don't feel I need to recoup the costs, I don't have loans on my gear etc. and so just because someone can offer decent prices does not mean they are not good and that they are not an honest person doing the best they can to make a living from what they love doing. It's a minefield for the unwary that is for sure.

I am hoping to contribute to this forum as and when I can.

Thanks