Master a Song

vibinvy · 09-22-2009, 09:53 PM

I'm looking for a reputable place to master my songs. I was considering an online service which masters one song for free but not sure if its legit. Can someone recommend a place with reasonable prices, thanks.

Certif1ed · 09-23-2009, 06:54 AM

Depends what you consider "Reasonable" - there are a lot of good places that will do a stunning master for £50, or you could even get a Master done at Abbey Road for £90.

Alternatively, try Brandon Drury's excellent Home Recording forum and make some friends there - I got 2 tracks mastered for free by some people who asked me if I minded them doing it - I mean, Duh!

Freebase Dali · 09-23-2009, 12:40 PM

I'm not sure what level of expectation you have in regards to quality, but generally you're going to pay a lot for a top-notch job at a professional mastering house.
Most of the online services are legit, but are often-times home based operations by intermediate to experienced engineers, but often without the advantages the professional mastering houses have in regards to acoustic environment and caliber of equipment.

That said, you may or may not be satisfied with the results of an online mastering service and that's typically why they offer to master a song for free, although usually they will only provide you a sample of the mastered song unless you agree to pay for the whole album to be mastered. You generally don't want to enter into a monetary obligation until you're confident in the mastering engineer's competency, so in your exploration of online services, ensure that you are provided the option to preview the services they're offering, in context with your song, before you make any decisions.

09-22-2009, 09:53 PM	#1 (permalink)
vibinvy Groupie Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 2	Master a Song I'm looking for a reputable place to master my songs. I was considering an online service which masters one song for free but not sure if its legit. Can someone recommend a place with reasonable prices, thanks.

09-23-2009, 12:40 PM	#3 (permalink)
Freebase Dali Partying on the inside Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 5,584	I'm not sure what level of expectation you have in regards to quality, but generally you're going to pay a lot for a top-notch job at a professional mastering house. Most of the online services are legit, but are often-times home based operations by intermediate to experienced engineers, but often without the advantages the professional mastering houses have in regards to acoustic environment and caliber of equipment. That said, you may or may not be satisfied with the results of an online mastering service and that's typically why they offer to master a song for free, although usually they will only provide you a sample of the mastered song unless you agree to pay for the whole album to be mastered. You generally don't want to enter into a monetary obligation until you're confident in the mastering engineer's competency, so in your exploration of online services, ensure that you are provided the option to preview the services they're offering, in context with your song, before you make any decisions. __________________

09-23-2009, 06:54 AM	#2 (permalink)
Certif1ed Music Addict Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 194	Depends what you consider "Reasonable" - there are a lot of good places that will do a stunning master for £50, or you could even get a Master done at Abbey Road for £90. Alternatively, try Brandon Drury's excellent Home Recording forum and make some friends there - I got 2 tracks mastered for free by some people who asked me if I minded them doing it - I mean, Duh!