something that i have been wondering...


when you go on a download store like beatport, the tracks that are loudest are often the ones that stand out. a particularly quiet sample of a track can put me off buying the track.

now, with regards to demo submission, do you think it is worth doing a half arsed mastering job so the track is loud (throw the mixdown through a eq/comp/limiter). when i say half arsed, i dont mean squash the shit out of it and turn a nice mixdown into shit, but more to push it up in perceived loudness. just so quietness isnt a turn off for the a+r guy.

do you guys think is this worth doing? with maybe a note in the info saying 'unmastered'. or is it best to send a 320k mixdown that is untouched as far as comp/limiting on the output stage is concerned, even if the mix is quite quiet?

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i did my mixdown and added a limiter on it then sent to the label. then once i got word back got it signed etc they asked for the wav file which i sent without the limiter as big labels do the mastering anyway.

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if it sounds good it sounds good, whatever it takes to make it sound good you should do.

Hey Rich,

You should probably take the time to make it sound as good as possible, every bit of wow factor counts. If it gets signed any of the major guys will master it for you just like the previous poster stated.

With regards to loudness there is a slight backlash against that at the moment.
You obviously don't need to squash the shit out of it but bring it up so that it sounds proffesional. At least to the majority of ears in any case.

I'm sure you know but the majority of the hard work is all in the mix down anyway, that's not intended to lessen the skill of a true mastering engineer though.

Cheers
Nem

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its generally recommended you make it as loud as u can, cause of psychological factor, which is that loud music is percepted as better.

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quote:

Originally posted by sterilis i did my mixdown and added a limiter on it then sent to the label. then once i got word back got it signed etc they asked for the wav file which i sent without the limiter as big labels do the mastering anyway.

ditto

Didn't J00F have something to day about this? "Don't do it" I think was what he said..

quote:

Originally posted by sterilis i did my mixdown and added a limiter on it then sent to the label. then once i got word back got it signed etc they asked for the wav file which i sent without the limiter as big labels do the mastering anyway.

thats it.

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As said, limit it. Try to get the best out of it as every little thing counts...

There is a reason why product presentations involving audio are recommended to be done at fairly high volume . It sounds better to the client thus sells better. There is no reason to not do it. You are in fact trying to sell yourself.

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quote:

If less is more think about how much more more would be. -Frasier

First of all I think a good AR would not be put off my a lower volume of a demo...they should be able to tell how it will sound mastered...

then...I say do some kind of mastering, don't over-do it for the demos though! Just bring up the level with some limiter on your master...AR will spot it and see that it's just it and you didn't try to do half-assed mastering job...

Also...doing too much more without having precise knowledge of mastering can make your track sound much worse...

At least that's my view...

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if mastering isn't your strongest field, i suggest not to do anything more than maybe normalize it. you can really ruin a track with bad mastering, make it sound a lot worse than it is. mixing for instance will come messier the more you compress your track.

good a&r will know if the track has potential even if it isn't mastered, or even mixed well enough.

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really a matter of making sound the best you can i think.

you gotta make them want to sign it

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