the only time a track is worth mastering is when it sounds pro level in the first place, you’ll need to get your mix nailed before a mastering house can work its magic. if your track doesn’t sound great coming back then it never sounded great when you sent it 
Crap in Crap out guys sorry to say that but its true, YOU CAN’T POLISH A TURD!!!
some pro’s can write a track in hours but then spend weeks sometimes even months and on very rare occasions years to get the mix sounding perfect.
i once read something in FM mag about a producer that spend 2 years getting a mix for one track (in between other projects) but he said it was his biggest selling track. i guess if you know you have a good track then keep working until you get the mix spot on before wasting money with mastering.
sticking a compressor and limiter on your track is not substitute for pro mastering but it will let you play your track in a club with out blowing the speakers with nasty peaks. do that a get an idea of what your track sounds like playing in a club, make notes on your phone and go back to the studio & adjust the track accordingly. if you’re not a dj find a dj friend that will play your tracks.
pro mastering should do more than just make things louder, they should be able to pull out depth in the mix, warmth in the bass and sub pressure as well as taming highs and many other things. find a mastering engineer that you can work with someone that you can talk to and get an honest opinion from.
find out who are the fake engineers by sending them seriously crap tracks, if the track is bad enough the guys should tell you that and that its not worth mastering or your mix needs working on, don’t just settle for someone that will try to master anything.
Well said that man ^^^
cheers guys ive learnt from this post
to me my track (so far) sounds pretty good, im no pro so i think paying $150 or so is not worth it. all i want to do is get it mastered by a pro, how they do it doesnt really bother me at this stage.
it probably isnt worth doing but im up for it just the once just to see how it turns out
phil posted these up a while back Mastering Studio UK : Tenth Egg Mastering - mastering site give them a call the guy is very reasonable and has done well with guys that i’ve know.
possibly not the best in the world lol but its maybe worth a try
[quote]roben (01/04/2010)[hr][quote]jpgetty2win (01/04/2010)[hr]
Is everything used in professional mastering hardware? No. You’d be surprised these days Howie, but i do see where you’re coming from. :)[/quote]
Ask anyone… You would be a fool to think that you get the same quality from analog emulations versus real analog gear. It doesn’t matter what anyone says. Analog emulations are NOT analog. You can’t recreate that warmth with digital gear. But to each his own, i guess. However, if you payed $150 for mastering, and the engineer used in the box mastering software, you got ripped off.
Jon nailed it here! Whichever you decide its worth researching the subject to learn what engineer can and cant do. Maybe also you should leave your production for few days, just to gain a bit of ‘critical perspective’ but anyway can’t wait to here the track!
[quote]howiegroove (01/04/2010)[hr][quote]roben (01/04/2010)[hr][quote]jpgetty2win (01/04/2010)[hr]
Is everything used in professional mastering hardware? No. You’d be surprised these days Howie, but i do see where you’re coming from. :)[/quote]
Ask anyone… You would be a fool to think that you get the same quality from analog emulations versus real analog gear. It doesn’t matter what anyone says. Analog emulations are NOT analog. You can’t recreate that warmth with digital gear. But to each his own, i guess. However, if you payed $150 for mastering, and the engineer used in the box mastering software, you got ripped off.[/quote]
I was hoping that debate was behind us…but apparently not. I suspect that you’ve never heard analog gear and instead you’re just repeating old cliches.
Oh and in case you din’t know many mastering finalisers (take TC Electronic) are in fact digital processor in a hardware unit
But please don’t take my word for it…refer to countless threads (some with audio examples) on gear slutz
[quote]jon_fisher (01/04/2010)[hr]
i once read something in FM mag about a producer that spend 2 years getting a mix for one track (in between other projects) but he said it was his biggest selling track. i guess if you know you have a good track then keep working until you get the mix spot on before wasting money with mastering.
[/quote]
i think that was mirwais with disco science… i think it was worth the wait… superb track
btw whats he upto now… hes disappeared… another one suffering from post madonna stress i guess… :w00t:
thanks jon ive had a look at the site, looks cool
this is one i was looking at purely because its chris mccormack
http://blacklistedmastering.co.uk/index.htm
also the resume looks cool
go with what ever " YOU " decide dude its you thats paying the cash so you need to be happy.
[quote]seanl (01/04/2010)[hr][quote]howiegroove (01/04/2010)[hr][quote]roben (01/04/2010)[hr][quote]jpgetty2win (01/04/2010)[hr]
Is everything used in professional mastering hardware? No. You’d be surprised these days Howie, but i do see where you’re coming from. :)[/quote]
Ask anyone… You would be a fool to think that you get the same quality from analog emulations versus real analog gear. It doesn’t matter what anyone says. Analog emulations are NOT analog. You can’t recreate that warmth with digital gear. But to each his own, i guess. However, if you payed $150 for mastering, and the engineer used in the box mastering software, you got ripped off.[/quote]
I was hoping that debate was behind us…but apparently not. I suspect that you’ve never heard analog gear and instead you’re just repeating old cliches.
Oh and in case you din’t know many mastering finalisers (take TC Electronic) are in fact digital processor in a hardware unit
But please don’t take my word for it…refer to countless threads (some with audio examples) on gear slutz
[/quote]
the reason that this debate keeps arising is that many people don’t know the difference between digital and analog hardware.
the amount of people i’ve heard talking about their analog virus, nord lead and so on gets to a point where i just can’t be arsed to explain anymore
lol yeah its so true!
btw PSP just made available their Xone limiter for demo without the iLok if anyone is in the market for one 
Oh man, DRM is a massive turn off for me when it comes to software. I understand why they do it, but to be honest, they kind of shoot themselves in the foot because pirate software always manages to get around DRM anyways and a lot of the people who are interested in purchasing, are put off by the DRM.
[quote]roben (01/04/2010)[hr]Oh man, DRM is a massive turn off for me when it comes to software. I understand why they do it, but to be honest, they kind of shoot themselves in the foot because pirate software always manages to get around DRM anyways and a lot of the people who are interested in purchasing, are put off by the DRM.[/quote]
They are just protecting their investment.
And on the Analog vs. Digital thing… You cant convince many people that digital is the same as true analog. Its like people fighting over vinyl vs. cd. All I’m saying is that if you really want true warmth, I believe you have to run it through outboard analog gear.
[quote]howiegroove (02/04/2010)[hr][quote]roben (01/04/2010)[hr]Oh man, DRM is a massive turn off for me when it comes to software. I understand why they do it, but to be honest, they kind of shoot themselves in the foot because pirate software always manages to get around DRM anyways and a lot of the people who are interested in purchasing, are put off by the DRM.[/quote]
They are just protecting their investment.
And on the Analog vs. Digital thing… You cant convince many people that digital is the same as true analog. Its like people fighting over vinyl vs. cd. All I’m saying is that if you really want true warmth, I believe you have to run it through outboard analog gear.[/quote]
And I’m saying that the same people can’t tell the difference in a ‘blind’ test.
But regardless, I believe that someone with knowledge, some experience and a good ear could probably master with freeware plugs on vintage laptop and still get better results than some noob with £20k vintage compressor.
It’s music, it’s about what it sounds like not what was used to make it.
Anyway iLok suck…
and since its 6am I’ll better go to bed 
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with the Analogue Vs Digital Vs Virtual analogue Vs what ever else you wanna throw in there, imo is just a stupid argument.
True Analogue Sounds warmer out of the box (Maybe) imo most of that warmth is to do with noise which you as a producer will spend time trying to remove a good percentage of it and Virtual Analogue can sound colder (so they say) but there are plug-ins that will add “warmth” or noise to a sound. at the end of the day though its all about personal opinion.
for me the best sounding synth and nicest to use is the Clavia Nord Lead 3, it sounds both warm and Massive or Cold, Thin and Digital in the mix but its Software in a shinny red box much like the virus, how ever i’ve never liked the Virus even though i’ve owned two i was never a big fan i just got sucked into the “i must have a virus to produce good music gang”
a very experienced studio engineer told me that you shouldnt send off your stuff to a mastering house cos all they do is just give it to the new apprentice in the studio to work on to “cut his teeth”. obviously you cant say this about all studios but this is whats always stuck with me.
regarding me sending off something to massive masters and not being happy with the results… think it might have been jon that said “you cant polish a turd and people should realize that when sending stuff off”. well hes probably right, the track i sent wasnt the best ive done and so its probably got something to do with it still sounding crap when it came back. truth is the truth and im big enough to realize when i make a steaming one
i will be sending them another track soon to see how that turns out. i noticed that someone from MM has made a post on here. i have to say they were all very nice and very professional when i contacted them, so dont let my first post put you off sending stuff to them. try them out for yourselves.