An Indie Musician's Diary VOL. 1

Mastering Alternatives

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.

Let a local studio do it:

Advantages: you can work 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:
You might get on their nerves and they on yours. 

Sending Your Mix to a Professional Studio Anywhere in the World

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. 

Almost always more expensive than sending it to a robot. I was recommended to one studio that cost $125 per hour. 12 songs? Mucho dollars. Others cost less, (400 SEK/hour). But why and how to choose the right one? That is the question. 

Let a global studio do it:

This option is a trending one. It is easy today to find studios all over the world that are willing to help you master your tracks and some are very productive.

Advantages: A new set of ears that are trained to do this one thing - mastering

Disadvantages? I really don't see any if you know you can't do it and you follow these tips: Make sure you listen to recent work that they've done and read other's reviews of their work before working w them. If you are still unsure, do a trial run with one or two songs. See if they are sonically consistent on all types of speakers and no distortion. Are you happy with the results? Then send them some more.

Important: I think some of the most important things are the personality, feel and business-likeness of the one I'll be working with. Do they respond in a reasonable amount of time to your queries? Can we communicate well with each other? 

Do it yourself.

Some good advice I have been hearing is, if you mix all your music and want to master as well. Make sure you don't do both in one day. Mix one day and master on another. That way you have at least "fresh ears".

Here's a video on how to doit yourself.

Advantages

- you have control over the final results
- it's cheaper than robot/studio mastering = free!
- if you get good at it you can earn money mastering others' work in the future.