cavy

thanks for the replies. I checked out Massive's site and it looks quite reputable, if not alittle more expensive than some others I found. Any other recommendations/expierences?

Greg, Check with John Scrip at MASSIVE MASTERING. I've not had him do any work for me personally, but I've known John from different forums on the 'net for several years. Seems like an honest and very knowledgeable man. I think he also will do a sample mastering for you. Best of luck, Joel Thanks for the tip! I was hoping to get so real life references. It also appears that most do mastering with the 2 channel stereo mix. Is it also common to do mastering using all the recorded tracks? Seems like that would give them alittle more control over different aspects of the mix.

I've done some listening online and it seems like if we send them a good mix and some general guidelines/comparisons I won't need to be there. So sending it out is the idea. We have not stipulated a budget, but it seems quite important so for 5 songs I guess 300 bucks? (give or take) I've found as low as 15$ a song, and as high as $185 an hour. Masterdisk has an indie program, and they have done some big names. Here is how thier program works: (from thier site) "Masterdisk apprentice engineers work along side senior engineers. Apprentice engineers use the same vintage and state-of-the-art mastering gear and know many of the tricks to create the wall of sound Masterdisk is famous for. Each project will be reviewed by a senior engineer before it leaves the door, so you know your project is in good ears." I emailed them for a quote, but haven't gotten a response yet. A friends band mastered with Doug Levine over at Masterdisk and it sounds great, but they paid over 1200 bucks. (for a full album)

I did a search on mastering and most of the posts were about how to master or mastering tricks. My band is definately considering sending our 5 song E.P. out to be mastered. (I read on these forums that having an outside company do your mastering will really produce the best results...and the owner of our studio agrees too) So I did a search online and of course hundreds of sites came up and all at different prices! I've spent time listening to some of thier samples and or course they all show a marked improvement over the intial mix. So how do I decide who should do the mastering? Can you guys just make some recommendations/references??? I checked out some of the mastering on commercial albums (like Maroon 5) and contacted that studio to find out thier price. (no reply yet) I also noticed that some studios offer a "trial" mastering of a track. This looks highly valuable. I also noticed that some master with a 2 track stereo mix, others master with all the protools tracks. Thoughts? Opinions? Critisms?