An Indie Musician's Diary VOL. 1

Should You, a Robot or a Professional Master Your Album?

Me or someone else? So I was left with sending it to a professional studio or doing it myself. This project is already taking too long and eating so much money but I can't stop now. 

Because Patreon hasn't picked up (only two pledges at a total of 15$ a month), and I don't have any other income I thought I'll probably have to master all by myself and resigned to that for a while. But the more I looked into it, the more apparent it became that I won't be able to do it within a year if I master it myself. Why? Well, the price of buying acoustic treatment, plugins and other things needed to master properly wouldn't end up much cheaper than sending it off to someone who does it better than I ever can. And, I'd need time to learn, test and discover how. 

I discussed the pros and cons with my husband and we decided to live simply and pay for professional mastering. 

Here follows a short presentation of some of the different options for mastering available to indie musicians today. This is always changing, but I hope that this gives you a bit to think about when you go through your decision on who is going to master your music. 

Option # 1. Let a robot (or algorithm) do it:

Even if you use a mastering service like eMaster, Landr, or other mastering robot, you still have to make the decision if the end product is good. Don't load up mp3s. Load up accs or wavs of at least 16 bit. Follow their recommendations.

Advantages: it's quick and relatively cheap those times that it works. You can always test and see. But it does cost money.

It is a cheap and easy way to fix a quick demo. You drag the file into Landr and test the vauations. Then download after paying a humble fee.

Disadvantages: I have only tried Landr. There, you are given three algorithm variations to choose between and that's it. If it doesn't work for you, you don't pay and you are back to the drawing board. you lost some time. No big deal. But know that you have only thise three variations.

Also, if you made the fatal mistake of having too much high end in your cymbals and too little in the lead vocal in your mix at the same time, you're going to have problems with your master. A studio will go back to the mux and fix that in the mux before mastering. A robot doesn't care and frankly it can't go back to your mux and fix issues. You get what you pay for.

Option # 2. Let a local studio do it:

Advantages: you can sit together and help produce the sound you want. You might find yourself a new collaborator, producer, friend to work with and hang out with and get to meet other musicians that hang out there.

Like I said before up above, if you work with a studio, they can catch mixing mistakes before mastering. They have a new set of unbiased ears to filter your music through, too.

Disadvantage(s):
You might get on their nerves and they on yours. Just be awesome and kind in all situations and move on to the next studio, then. Shit happens. They might loose your tracks (have backups) 

Option #3. Send your mix to a professional studio, online

Today the options are endless. For example, the other day, I was impressed by a guy who runs a studio in Australia while checking out the posts on a mixing and mastering group on Facebook. He had done a video that gave me a sense that this guy is not only professional but great to work with. (If someone resonates with you that is an added plus!) I looked into his recommendations and sent a Messenger post, asking for a price quote for the Change My Mind album. He responded quickly and professionally. I have to say that I was rather impressed.