I had a question to @Chuck W, how did you find your mastering engineer? Is it someone you already knew, or you looked for a someone on the Internet? Did you notice a real difference between your mix and the mastered tracks, and was it worth it? I know everybody would say that tracks have to be mastered, but just asking dumb questions as I never sent anything to mastering and I may need to do it in the near future...
Ooh, good question! I love this question actually because, while I'd love to have the knowledge to be a Mastering Engineer, I just don't. It's a knack some people just have. My dude definitely just has 'it'. He lives in Canada, I'm in New York. We've never actually met face-to-face but I love him like a brother. He has done all my mastering work for me since my first album in 2019.
We met on Instagram.
In and around 2019, I was good pals with a Gent in South Carolina. He loved just talking music, communing all of us in one place to discuss ... whatever - - and being super positive to everyone. That was clutch.
He passed in 2022 but due to the group he built, I had the extreme pleasure of meeting my good pal and mastering Engineer, Dan Fur. The funny part is, that is his Artist name. His real name is Paul. I still get messed up about it regularly. Our friend had a lot of unreleased material when he passed and we all wanted to do something nice for his Wife. I asked Dan if he had the time to do the Group a solid. Like a Champ he finished it in no time flat and I was super impressed.
Going off of his work on that tribute album, I started to chat him up. We were dorks in the same fashion, naturally. Super good friends from the first day we talked.
To the brass tax, though, there is a saying among Audio Engineer’s that, “You can’t polish a turd.” If I gave him a lazy final mix before he was to master, that’s the master job I’d receive in return; A lazy one. And you know what? He’d still be due his full fee because I gave him a lousy reference point. A Mastering Engineer is always ‘worth it’ because, unless you do it yourself, they bring it up to broadcast quality - Meaning, he masters to a standard, an objective formula that makes all my tracks in a project file really shine and pop out. I tend to mix kind of muddy. Just a personal preference. He always manages to buff out my shortcomings and make everything shine at once, while suppressing anything that is not all too pleasing. As a solo artist, this is a necessary step in MY process because otherwise, I have no one else listening before I just send it out into the World. Feedback is great, but I don’t need people saying, Oh, it’s just so great! No feedback, you killed it! It just so happens, or seems, that once you pay someone you get that removed vantage point. If I was in a band, I’d imagine we’d master it all ourselves. When I was still in a band we did attempt to do it ourselves but I was like 19 lol
You need to really engage with someone beforehand. Really talk about your specifics, goals and the project. If they rush you, or seem disinterested, toss ‘em. Not worth it. But if someone is really picking up on your style/sound/experience - whatever you want to call it - Grab on, and NEVER let go of that person. I consider Dan the bandmate I don’t have.
He’s super busy at this very moment, but I can always make an introduction if you like? Sorry for this long, long reply but I’m happy to discuss this more, if you like. I never get to go in depth on this stuff anymore lol - Thank you for asking
Hey Chuck, I'm sorry about your friend's loss. I also didn't expect such a long reply, and I have been reading it with a lot of interest, so thank you for sharing the story.
I think you're right about the fact that the mastering engineer has to be someone special to me. So that could be anyone, no matter where I find him/her.
Right now, I am also still undecided about whether to publish an EP in an uncomplicated way, mixing and mastering it myself as best as I can and in a year or so publish another one working with a mastering engineer, or to do it the right way from the get go and work with a mastering engineer now.
So that's what I'm trying to figure out, and it would actually be a good idea for me to start sharing what I've been doing with other people and talking to a mastering engineer would be interesting in that aspect.
Like you, I also think I need to have someone who I would pay and would listen to my music before it goes out because no one else would otherwise, and I guess that also helps in taking the leap and making the decision to put a close to the production process.
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