anyone pay for mixing & mastering?

Just want to know if it made big differnce, I'm doing it myself but its missing that pro sound -sparkel- whatever you call it. I'm getting ready to write my next album and i want to do it justice production wise.I know that the eq and compression plugins i have can't compeate with a pro sudio +
my production skillz need some work.I'm thinking of doing the whole thing with no eq and compression, just mixing it slighty and giving it to a studio to hook up. Any thoughts??Experiences?? Advise?? Thanks....

if your gonna put it on an album, get it professionally done, how much does it cost for them to clean up your stuff?

yup i would purely cos you cant get that studio sheen without your tunes going through some mastering suite....ive yet to have anything prof mastered but my mate did a mastering job on a house tune for me that i was very happy with and he charges $20 a song.....

greg

As far as cost gos you get what you pay for.Pepole can pay thousands just to master one cd.I think a lot of electroinc music starts to sound the same because most of if is done in side a computer, it would be nice to run tracks thru some high end analog gear and have a pro make it stand out.

Lets face it i need to let my ego go and let some pro"s look after my next
project. I want to shop it and put it in few local stores, so i want it to be able to stand up to whats allready out there. If you don't like the music fine thats cool, but problems with production can seriously hanicap my efforts.

Check this place out........I havent gotten any work done yet but I plan to....he has the best equipment and does a fully professional job to your tracks for approximately 50$ a track....better deals depending on the work you get done as well....its all done online...you send in your song in wav format in the raw form with no dynamics on the master track....on the site there are examples and I must say they sound awsome....check it out...tell him [email protected] sent ya...hehe....anyway hope this helps...
peace

haha opps forgot the link....

www.xarcmastering.com

Also you need to ask the Mastering engineer how well the initial mix stands up. If it aint all it could be, then he will just be polishing a peice of sh*t. It may be shinnier, but its still sh*t.

Good point. Its hard to let go of a mix, because as the writer you think you know how its suposed to be done, or how you want it to sound. Trusting joe shmo with your with your suff is hard. But the truth be know he will most likely do a better job than i could at this point......

i could recommend a great master studio. this guys good. he's worked on quite a few tracks too.

http://www.mastermindproductions.net/

What are you recording on? A poor quality recording will still yield bad results no matter who is mixing and mastering it. Concentrate on getting the best sound you can at first, great levels, and a nice noise to sound ratio. I wouldn't bother sending it out to get mixed and mastered unless you are really in the groove and making things happen. Paying an engineer is pricy, no one is gonna mix and master a project for 20 bucks. They will probably just set the levels and compress and limit. If you want the ratios and settings for the master channel, I can give them to you for free. They get paid buy the hour. For a decent engineer you are looking at 80 beans an hour, and some places will make you rent the equimpent you need (even though they have it in the next room) as well as drill you for studio time.

that xarcmastering site is really really impressive.
i will most likely be using them for mastering.

has anyone used them at all?
their results seem really really impressive.

rates are good. no studio time, and you get it back the same day depending on how many tracks you do.

all you need is a good mix of your shit and your foot is in the door.

mpc ripper, I'm using a digi oo1 with a digimax L T on a g 4 with waves plug ins. I'm tired of demo quality product, i feel like i'm not getting the sound i want, Its not bad but i 'm a musican
not a producer, so its learn how to mix and master well(could take a while and i may need more gear) or hand it over to a pro..

Raven, hit me on PM, you can really pimp waves plugs! If you have AIM, let me know your handle.

I just did a album, basically a promo, because of the sound quality... but i mastered it myself and produced most of it on a midi keyboard, using a cheap sampler (sp202)... alot of people thought it was produced using the MPC, but it is obvious it wasn't. However, this makes me think because, even though my sound on that album was dirty and basement. I now have an MPC 2000xl and am working on the follow up to that promo, it is slightly cleaner and I plan on mastering it the same way I did the first one, I have no idea why people pay thousands of dollars to clean up the sound 'that' much more. How much cleaner can it get? and is it really worth it? ... I guess in a sense no one wants to hear the dirty sound anymore, they want crispness, to me though the crisp clean sound is annoying, and its the grime that gets my head nodding.
peace

theres other ways to get the grime homie.
my drums are always 12 bit, leave the vinyl crackle in. im in love with the 94 sound. but as far as getting it to bang the way that i want it.

premiers older shit is dirty, but its still full and crisp sounding.