From another rant (on another forum) about mastering one's own mixes (something I gave up a long time ago).

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Something to think about when mastering your own mixes...

Not long ago, I had a band come in with their mixes AND mastered versions (mastered by the mix engineer). They pretty much just wanted me to make sure everything was cool, dither & "RedBook" it for them.

Right off the bat, I could tell that the recording/mix engineer's monitors had something strange going on at around 3.5k. Likely, a crossover thing. The mixes all had a weird thing going on around there that they didn't notice in the studio. On top of that, there were some "tribal" tom fills going on under some heavy guitars. I could *almost* hear the toms on the mastered mixes.

Thank Jeebus that they brought the raw mixes in also -

Now, I'm not "blaming" the engineer - This is what I see all the time from bands that had the mix engineer master the mixes. I'm sure *he* could hear those toms just fine. After all, he recorded them, he mixed them, he's heard them a hundred times. He's just used to hearing them. I, on the other hand, having never heard the mixes before, had an objective point of view and pointed out that the toms were behind an over-compressed wall of smashiness.

The 3.5k thing was easy to figure out - His monitors had a little "extra" in that range. Probably 3-way units. During recording, it was irritating and was cut a little. During mixing, the tracks added together made more to cut again. During "mastering," the compression again brought it into the forefront to be cut even more. By the time it got here, there was a giant hole in the upper mids centered around 3.5kHz. The mixes weren't nearly as defficient, so I mastered everything from the original mixes.

They were pretty happy at the end of the day - One of the tracks is going to be on a promotional compilation with somewhere between 750,000 and 2,000,000 copies released. Not something to take lightly.

I've had similar problems mastering my own mixes (which is basically why I won't anymore).

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Two bands I'm tracking right now had originally asked that I master the final mixes for them. I flat out refused. Both are planning to shop the final product around at indie labels upon completion. I pointed out to them that neither my ears, my gear, or my room would do a satisfactory job of mastering and that they would do well to have their music professionally mastered.

We've even discussed having them take the tracks to a different room for mixing because, like them, I may be too close to the music to be objective enough to properly mix it.

Great points, indeed. I really try in vain to talk my clients into going with a proper mastering house...but usually if they're recording with me in the first place, they're on a tight budget (my rates are quite low) and so it usually doesn't fly. I really hate mastering projects that I also tracked and mixed...I'll cite the reasons in John's post above. Definitely in agreement.

If I do have to do a "poor man's master", I try and set the mixdowns aside for a while so I can at least come back to it with "fresh ears" and hopefully catch some things that need to be touched up. When my clients insist on having me master, I'm up front with them about all the cons of it. Generally they appreciate that I'm looking out for the interest of thier project, but money (or lack thereof) is usually the bottom line. At $10/hr, that's to be expected. Hey, if I was lookin' to get rich, I wouldn't be studiofyin' in the first place

I hear you there - I still go by that old saying: The best way to get out of the msuci industry with a million dollars is...

Start with TWO million.


Ahh... Oshkosh... I used to listen to an AM station from there on this old world-band I had at my Dad's place...

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Originally posted by John Scrip:



Ahh... Oshkosh... I used to listen to an AM station from there on this old world-band I had at my Dad's place...

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Ah, must have been WOSH-AM?

I still pull a volunteer airshift at the University station, WRST-FM. During my student carreer, I spent a summer teaching myself how to use all the production equipment since there were no summer radio courses and the studios were dead. It's what got me interested in audio production! I eventually ended up Production Director, then elected into management as Program Director, was a Radio Station Production and Procedures Teaching Assistant (the prof gave lectures on Tuesdays and I taught the labs on Thursdays--you learn a thing or two about peer apathy doing this, lol), did magazine piece creation and production, produced at least four different shows at one time or another (including the Local Music show that, along with Open Mic hosting, get me "in the know" in the music community here), as well as free form jocking (my first shifts were an afternoon jazz spot and the much underrated 2am-5am rock sifts, my favorite shift to this day), won some awards, aced a few production courses.... Now as a graduated "vet"I stick with spinning jam bands and folk rawkers on Saturdays. Boy, getting abunch of Wisconsin rednecks into alternative student-run programming...now THAT is an artform unto itself....


Doing radio in Oshkosh is a trip, I'll tell ya that much.