This band whose album I am finishing are on a limited budget. After I deliver the master DAT to them, they will be sending the record off to be mastered and pressed. I really don't want my hard work to be butchered, so I would really appreciate any recommendations for a mastering house that does good work without breaking the bank, if there is such a place.
Big name "first run" mastering engineers such as Doug Sax, Bob Ludwig, Stephen Marcussen, etc. are usually the most expensive engineers ever.
Why not go direct to disc? At least what I would do is get a flat master made for comparison. Then you can see what the pre-mastered disc would have been like...
Are you mastering for CD or vinyl? If CD, I highly recommend David Glasser at Airshow Mastering Boulder, CO
Do a flat master on CD. Take it to a pro. Try it yourself! When the pro is finished, compare all three to see which wins.
Good idea! Yesterday I spoke with an old friend who just put out his third disc and he was reluctant to send the mixed DAT to a mastering house for fear of the dreaded limiting that he expected to hear on the finished version. Analogue recording/2 inch tape/15 IPS mixed to DAT and the finished disc sounds wonderful! Try it--you may save some money and come out with something that ultimately sounds better.
This is true, and not many people can do it, but I suggested it not only because Prix may have the ability, but even if he can't do it, it's still a learning experience.
I think mastering guys and mix guys listen differently. I trust my mastering engineer implicitly. Of course, this is after about ten years of trial and error. I'd suggest him to you, but there again, he's kind of on the expensive side. I let the labels pay for it. I just go to the sessions so I can hear my mixes on a system that costs more than my house.
This is also true. I tend to listen more as as a mastering guy, but I do have some talant as a mixing guy. It may be a good idea to see if one has the ability to master their own work because it is cost effective, but is it best to get an objective opinion. I think the trick is to find someone who will work with you and tends too see things from your perspective, meaning they won't arbitrarily limit the life out of your music in the attempt to get things LOUDER.
Check out www.airshowmastering.com Acoustic is his specialty but I do not doubt he could master anything. He mastered (for CD) a project for a bluegrass band I was in. At first we didn't think we could afford him, but we went with him anyway and it turned out to not be that expensive and absolutely worth every penny. It seems that by going with an experienced person, you don't spend that much more money because these pros can get results fast. The facility in Boulder is state-of-the-art. I don't remember all the equipment, and I usally pay attention to those things. I remember they had these very large Dunlavy speakers that we're extremely accurate. We also used HDCD encoding. Our project was recorded on Alesis ADAT with minimal processing and then mixed down to Alesis Masterlink. Our engineer actually carried the Masterlink to Airshow where the tracks were transfered to some hi-rez hard disk software. I don't remember what kind. This was cool becasue David would listen to a track (with us) and then he would make suggestions. Many times this would be an EQ correction that was ridiculously small (that we could hear on the Dunlavy's) and 9 times out of 10 he would be RIGHT ON THE MONEY. He also edit the space between the songs, made any necessary level adjustments and could kill any menacing peaks. It was a very satisfying experience and I do not hesitate to recommend him. He has a Grammy. I think it's for the Charley Patton box on Revenant.
