Looking for Mastering Engineer

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Matthew Jacobs

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 17, 2009
Messages
396
Location
London - UK
Hello everybody!

I've just finished mixing a album for a client and we are now looking for a mastering engineer to put the final touches to the mix and get it checked by a fresh pair of ears. The album is in the hip/hop genre.

Having googled and found loads of online mastering services I now turn to my trusted friends on this forum for help in finding a mastering engineer. So if any of you out there are mastering engineers and have experience in this genre please PM me or if you know of any mastering engineer you could recommend that would be great.

Some of the things that would be cool:
- Local if possible, that's in London, UK
- able to do attended sessions
- willing to asses the mixes first and give feedback on what could be improved
- work with stems

The local thing would be great, but I'd be willing to work with someone online in any location on this planet as well.

As this is my first mix that's getting sent off to be mastered, a general discussion on how to prepare mixes to be sent, stems, levels, frequency balance, and things like that would be cool.

Thanks for reading
JD
 
http://www.technologyworks.co.uk/
Goes by the name of audioglimmer on here, nice chap and London based.


You don't really need stems unless there's specific issues in the mixes that need fixing. Just uncompressed stereo data files at whatever bit rate/sample rate your mix sessions are in.
Don't normalize or add any additional processing to the mixes let the mastering engineer do that.
 
Cool, thanks for the link and recommendation. I'll check it out.

Yeah, the main reason for stems is that the room I mixed in is not 100% especially in the low end so I thought if there are any irregularities in the mix, bass wise, they would be easier to fix with stems in the mastering room. Don't know if that's true.

I have nothing on the master, just a pure, un-clipped signal peaking at around -6 dBfs to -3dBfs. So that should give enough headroom for the mastering engineer to work his or her magic...
 
I know you prefer someone from your planet, but offshore is not always a bad idea, might give you a slightly different flavour than the norm there. You could give Rick O'Neil a call at Turtlerock Mastering in Sydney, they specialise in Mastering and do a great job at it, think you could probably wrangle a good deal from him
www.turtlerockmastering.com
Cheers
Michael Blackburn
 
we offer (www.goodwillstudiot.net - in finnish) mastering services in Finland.


AND hiphop is our speciality...

pm if you're interested.
 
mrclunk said:
http://www.technologyworks.co.uk/
Goes by the name of audioglimmer on here, nice chap and London based.

Thanks for that mrclunk.
JD, PM sent.

In terms of preparing for mastering
mrclunk said:
Don't normalize or add any additional processing to the mixes let the mastering engineer do that.

That's always good advice, and I'd also say make sure you are happy with the mixes. If you have a doubt or niggle, better to fix it in the mix.
Lots of clients send me mixes to assess, and it's a useful process. The better the mix the better the master. For example, the level of kik or snr can be affected in mastering by compression and limiting. If I have say a club mix with the kik borderline too light, a quick revisit by the mix engineer yields more improvement in the end master than I can achieve on my own.

An obvious piece of advice is check your mix files back, especially if you render them in non real time [Hello Logic and Cubase for example] I often find digital clicks in mixes I am sent, and whilst I have Sonic NoNoise MDC which is brilliant at removing them, it takes time and breaks the flow of the session up.

I like 24bit files at the native sample rate of your DAW if you are ITB. Otherwise, if you are capturing the analogue out of a desk or summing box lets have 96K 24bit or if you have one, the Korg DSD recorders sound fantastic.

Wherever you end up going, enjoy it. You should be hearing your work played back in an awesome sound reproduction environment!!


The Gimmer
 
ruairioflaherty said:
What's your ballpark budget?

Well I guess usual standard rates... I'm not to sure... from the market research I've done we're looking at £40-£50 per track for online mastering. £70-£80 per track for attended sessions or £70/h...

The ballpark budget for mastering the album (12 main songs + 3 bonus songs) is £700 - £1,000.  That's $1,100 - $1,600 . I may master the bonus tracks myself as they are not yet even tracked...
 
Direct Tone Studios dot com... Hip hop since 1990 mastering since 1995...
Have a look or give us a ring I'm sure there is some sound for your project.
B
 
Soundbitesdog.com

Hans Dekline works on tons of records every year. His rates are exceptional and he has impressive credits.

PS He also did my band's masters (The Goonies) and we're featured on the before and after page.

Peace
Illumination
 
dagoose said:
kuch..  ;D
www.mastering-online.nl

So what, now we're just pimping ourselves?  :)

Tomorrow session for me in electronic music from London but I don't think Matthew wants to travel 5000 miles for an attended session.

Matthew, I'm actually stumped on who to suggest within your budget. I've had stuff I mixed mastered at a few of the top indie places in London with very disappointing results.  Metropolis are great but above your budget...

Let us know who you decide on.
 
So many good options, my advice is get a sample if you can. It is really quite telling. You already have lots here so I hate to throw more into the pot but...

We've had good results on hiphop masters with Andy Krehm at silverbirch. While he may not appear to be a hiphop guy he is good and absolutely within budget. Fast and prompt ftp delivery. http://www.silverbirchprod.com/mast-main.php

Also I'm not sure how much Glenn costs here but a friend uses him. He is a bit of a goto for the genre... http://www.gsmastering.com/ obviously useless if you want to attend.

-Tom

 
Also, personally think attended is overated in mastering unless you have some really serious concerns but that is a very personal thing. Friends/colleagues of mine always attend so... It's worth going once just to establish the rapport, ear wig a bit!

Andy Krehm has sent us multiple versions - moderately loud, as loud as it can be without damage and damaged (on the edge of) so you can pick. After all every track has an optimum zone before it collapses. He is good at providing mix feedback and open to communication. Very affordable for the service.

In london, we had a remix done by Tim @ Fluid. A friend uses him exclusively on attended sessions and may be worth a contact. http://www.fluidmastering.com/ However he bills quite a bit higher at an hourly rate. Still he is quick. Unattended is similar costwise to Krehm. Not sure about stems though here. Andy has a 2bus and would be willing, although I'm not sure stems is a good idea. Mix is the mix and all that.

-T

 
You could try Jason at Transition Mastering in London. He is mostly a lacquer cutter but I think he does regular mastering as well.

Glenn and Colin at GSM in Atlanta would be a great choice. I don't think they are too expensive for an indie client.
 
Having just heard a master come back from Glenn compared to another popular house here, I would say Glenn is the bomb. A badass job all around.

-T
 
Hey Matt, what did you end up doing in the end?

Just heard another GSM master... this one with his new trick to preserve dynamic range. It may be the best mastering job I have heard in this genre. Single will be out soon I guess so I'll let you know which one once released.

-T
 
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