I'm relatively new to the mastering world, but I really love it. I also have no mentors. Sooo - I'm wondering if we can get a few of the pro engineers together to master a tune? I will include myself on this list for the very bottom end of mastering. I consider myself a hack who can get reasonable results, but I'm interested to see if what I do and the choices I am making are coming at all close to what Pro engineers are doing.
What I'm really curious about is testing the following:
1) Can someone with keen ears and some understanding of the mastering process get "In the Box mastering" to be as good as, or close to as good as knowledgeable and more expensive "out of the box" mastering?
2) Is it possible to get a reasonably good master just using a well understood set of headphones and home speaker referencing?
3) Can a reasonable master be done on using roughly $300 worth of hardware + a laptop and only free plugins?
4) Is some hack mastering a song better than doing it with Mastering Box or LANDR?
The Pro folks will blow all of us out of the water, and that's ok. All the more reason to cough up some cash to get Massive or whomever you work with to master your tunes. I was more or less forced to learn how to master because of some serious cashflow problems, but it's turning out that it is one of my favorite things to do on this great blue and green planet :)
This also has the potential to maybe shift some thinking about Pro mastering. Do Mastering Engineers really need to spend thousands of dollars or more on gear to get a good sounding master? I use paid-for plugins for my client mastering work, but I am curious about if this sort of bottom of the barrel approach can actually work. I am not expecting anyone else to use free stuff. Throw the kitchen sink at this thing!
This will roughly be my "bottom of the barrel" ITB mastering Chain.
ReaEQ
ReaComp
ReaXComp
Marvel EQ
ReaFIR
Voxengo MSED
Voxengo SPAN
W1 Limiter
JS VU Meter
JS Dynamic Range Meter
JS MS encoder/decoder
JS HPLP Filter
JS Dither (if needed)
Rules:
1. The first qualifying song that is uploaded/shared will be the one to be mastered. Full productions of finished mixes only, and only full band mixes (i.e. no singer/songwriter stuff). Rock/pop only, since that is my wheelhouse at the moment.
2. Since we are using mp3s, perfection is not expected. However, if a 24-bit 44.1khz wave is shared, then we can open it up to "get it perfect". (Share using a public drop box link or something similar).
3. Each Participating ME lists the gear/plugins they used to get the job done. No settings or 'trade secrets' need to be revealed.
3. Assumption: The ME's room is treated. If not, mention that in your summary once you submit your final master.
4. Community votes on their favorite master. Once we have at least two other MEs and hopefully that includes at least one pro ready to participate, I'll set up a poll.
5. Time limit ... 1 week? ALL MEs post their results on the same day.
6. Final files no louder than DR9, to keep references consistent.
:guitar: