Mastered Vs. Unmastered

Maybe some of these katz that think stuff is "too clean" or "I want it grimey" could benefit from taking a good mastering course.

And these mastering houses love using highend ad/da converters and the whole nine yards.

Things that are a bit out of reach for some of us regular folks.

One thing I don't like about mastering is 'volume wars'. Sometimes its nice to have varying volumes per track, so that maybe one is subtly stronger than another maybe with more bass ect. Or even just having more dynamics in an individual track is nice. If you like the music, just turn it up I say. There are horror stories about tracks being mastered so loud that it is tiring to the ear to listen to more than 2 or 3 tracks in a row on the CD.

I've had songs professionally mastered and I disliked the compression at times, but there was some added sparkle that I wouldn't bother trying to achieve. It makes sense to let someone else shade the track and figure out a good overall sound.

I had a problem with my last album. The first track was an instrumental, and when the second track kicked in it was noticeably quieter because of the intro. I asked the engineer to make the first track quieter so it would build up into the next track, but he didn't do it. I've been bummed about that.

I look at it this subject like writing an english paper/book. No matter how bad ass you are at writing, having someone else who has no connection with the paper look at it is better.

However on the other hand, I have always been a DIY guy to the core in all facets of my life so I like to figure out and do things myself. Since I have no aspiration to sell beats or anything like that, seeking a professional is something ill likely never do.

biggamehit wrote:I look at it this subject like writing an english paper/book. No matter how bad ass you are at writing, having someone else who has no connection with the paper look at it is better.

However on the other hand, I have always been a DIY guy to the core in all facets of my life so I like to figure out and do things myself. Since I have no aspiration to sell beats or anything like that, seeking a professional is something ill likely never do.

yeah i like that analogy...that explains it perfectly