mastering houses

i'm looking to get a bunch of songs mastered soon but i have twerk from audible oddities in mind.

In the U.S.:

http://panicstudios.com/

Not sure about Papua New Guinea.

the one where aphex has done it:

http://www.precisemastering.com

other very well known a-level studios:

Dubplates&Mastering, Berlin

Transition, London

And some other good studios for electronic stuff:

Matt Colton - UK

Rob Acid - DE

The Exchange - UK

Massive Masters in Brighton. www.massivemasters.co.uk

Optimum Mastering in Bristol

Hardgroove Mastering, (Ben Sims & Paul Mac):

http://www.hardgroovemastering.co.uk/

www.manmademastering.com

Yeah, send your stuff to Matt Colton. He does most of the mastering for Rephlex and Planet-Mu.

i'll do it for $50,

guaranteed you'll get your money's worth.

thanks alot. i didn't know ochre did mastering. i could use him for megamixes for net release. considering panic studios tho twerk gave me a brilliant sounding test song. gonna see how panic does a test track.

i hope this isn't too off topic, but I was wondering what you have to give a mastering house? do you simply give them a wav of the song, or do you need to give them, for example, a wav of the drums, a wav of the 303, etc., etc.?

  Hanratty said:

give them, for example, a wav of the drums, a wav of the 303, etc., etc.?

that's more like stem mastering... someone correct me if i'm wrong and i just read about that at the panic studios link posted

i mastered ur mums house.

  sonny said:

  Hanratty said:

give them, for example, a wav of the drums, a wav of the 303, etc., etc.?

 

that's more like stem mastering... someone correct me if i'm wrong and i just read about that at the panic studios link posted

No, you give them a stereo file. A mixdown.

I'm not sure what 'stem mastering' is. A stem is simply a submix. An example use of 'stems' would be to submix down to say 8, 16, 32 'stems' and then feed them through a summing amp/console. I suppose you could send stems to a mastering house, if you wanted them processed through some esoteric gear, but it would be misleading to call it mastering. Stems are used in media/film work, where you sometimes have someone doing effectively both mixing stems and mastering at the same time. But essentially mixing and mastering are two different things.

i still don't know much about it surround sound mastering but i've heard of stem mastering before and thought it had something to do with surround sound mastering but i'm probably way off about that. stem mastering just sounds like a premastering/mixing sorta deal by having a mastering house master each track i.e drums/bass synth/pads/cutups/field recording... before handing over to the other engineer that does the final master. i'll read more of the technical jargon like... lazy later.

  messiaen said:

i mastered ur mums house.

but have you mastered acid house

i have a mouse named acid house

i don't know why i call him gerald

he's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse

  sonny said:

stem mastering just sounds like a premastering/mixing sorta deal by having a mastering house master each track i.e drums/bass synth/pads/cutups/field recording... before handing over to the other engineer that does the final master. i'll read more of the technical jargon like... lazy later.

No, I think you're misunderstanding the difference between mixing and mastering. You 'master' a stereo track (lets ignore surround sound) after the final mix (a 'mixdown' to a single stereo file) has taken place. Mastering is producing the 'master' copy, and a separate process from the mix. Anything else isn't mastering.

a mixdown to a stereo master is what you have mastered i know that. stereo master = left and right side audio mixdown. some mastering houses prefer to submit your mixdown at 0db, -3db or lower. i read discmakers amstering guide and the soundlab prefers -6db but the soundlab is total crap and so is discmakers project managers if you want to speak with one of the soundlabs mastering engineers. trust me. all they do is make your music sound louder.

  kaen said:

http://ochremusic.com/mastering/

Nice

  sonny said:

a mixdown to a stereo master is what you have mastered i know that.

No.

Mastering is a separate process from mixing or a mixdown. The mixdown does not produce a 'master', it just produces a stereo mix. Which can then be mastered. I don't know how many different ways I can say it.

Here's a traditional view:

The mix - a mix engineer will take all the individual recorded tracks and mix them, apply effects etc. He will then mixdown to a stereo track. This is not mastering and does not produce a master, it just produces a stereo mix.

This stereo file is then sent to a mastering engineer. Traditionally a distinct profession from a mix engineer. At its most basic, mastering is simply producing a 'master copy' from which the commerical copies are made. It usually means a bit more than this. For example, albums tend to be mastered as a whole to ensure that the overall levels and tonal balance betwen songs is consistent. Often some type of compression/ limiting will be applied to get the tracks as loud as possible. Mastering for vinyl has its own special considerations.

  hahathhat said:

i'll do it for $50,

guaranteed you'll get your money's worth.

how much amount of tracks/music/minutes does IT account for $50 worth of mastering?

what type of gear do you use and is there anything out there i can listen to? something like, before and after type of samples. i own a daw, but i don't know if i can say i'm as proficient as you at mastering audio.

PM me lets see your list or a studio pic, i'll hack your ADT lol

seriously though, i'd pay you for doing a net release or tracks for download on myspace or somewhere or other on the net.

Different mastering houses provide different services, some more than others. Different places will want different things. Some will just want a stereo track. Others might want stems. Some will just put the limiter on and burn the disk. Some will put it through expensive outboard gear to make it shine.