BRKOUT
Offline
Melbourne, Australia

Hey guys, just throwing this out there...

I'm interested in providing some free mastering to anyone in the chip music scene that would like to get their music mastered.

I'm in the final stages of my audio degree and would like to do a tonne of mastering so I can sharpen up my mastering skills before I finish.

I'm happy to provide this service to anyone who is struggling with mastering their own audio or who would simply like a different set of ears on their final mix down.

In return for the free mastering all that i'd ask is that you allow me to use some of your audio as part of my assessment in my degree.

I would be using a professional grade mastering studio combining a mix of software and hardware processing to master your audio.

Gear List

Software:
Pro Tools 11HD + Software Plugins

Monitors:
Event Opal Studio Monitors

Hardware:
Manley BACKBONE Mastering Insert Switcher
WAVES MaxxBCL
SPL Machine Head
SPL Loudness Maximizer
Cranesong STC-8 Stereo Compressor
CVL stereo equalizer
Mackie Bigknob

There are some basic rules to follow:

Tips to help get the most out of a mastering session:

EQ: Avoid over EQ'ing your mix. Try to minimise big spikes and overtly loud instruments in the final mix. Avoid trying to hard to make certain sounds stand out or have certain bottom/low frequencies being overtly loud. It’s better to have a more even final mix than one that tears your ears off in certain frequencies.

Compression: Avoid over compressing your mix. You don’t want to over compress a mix to the point where all of the dynamics of a track have been removed from the final mix.

Master Bus: Avoid using EQ/Compression/Limiters on the master bus when printing your final mix.

Phase: Check your phase when mixing. Playback your mix in mono and stereo to ensure you don’t have phase cancellation issues in the mix.
Headroom: Allow plenty of headroom in your mix, -10dB of headroom on the loud source in your mix.

Trim/Fades: Leave a little room at the start and end of your mix. Preferable 1/2 secs at the start of your mix and 3-4 seconds at the end. If a track has a reverb tail at the end allow additional time for the reverb tail to finish before ending the mix.

Alternate Mix: If your unsure how your final mix should sound provide an additional mix that makes certain instruments or sounds standout. You’ll find this may save you having to do a remix if the final mix isn’t quite ready for mastering.

Audio File: 16bit/24Bit 44.1Khz WAV or AIF final mix audio file with no dithering applied. No Mp3’s or compressed lossy formats.

Sequencing: Sequence your tracks by trying different combinations and provide a list of the final song ordering.

Documentation: Provide a list of the final sequence of your mixes and what audio tracks you have provided for the mastering engineer. List the track number, file name and audio quality your mix has been printed in to enable good file management.

File Naming Convention:

Good:
Track No: 1
Final Mix - example_audio-fnl.aif,
Alternative Mix - example_audio-fnl.aif
Dithering: Off
Quality: 24Bit/44.1Khz

Bad:
Track No: 1
Name: mysongfinalmix.mp3
Dithering: ??
Quality: ??

Delivery Method: Dropbox, Mega. etc

Note: All music would remain the property of the original artist and your music would not be used for commercial or promotional use.

Contact me via PM or Email if your interested.

Email: [email protected]

Cheers
BRKOUT

Last edited by BRKOUT (Apr 29, 2015 7:16 am)

1-Down
Offline
Huntsville, AL

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BRKOUT
Offline
Melbourne, Australia

Surprisingly. People didn't really take me up on this offer. Two artist emailed me out of the 400+ who viewed it. I've got plenty of time to do some more tracks so for anyone who is keen let me know.

Last edited by BRKOUT (Apr 27, 2015 12:41 pm)

Fudgers
Offline
Indiana

Just wondering, how well do the SPL units work for doing really compressed masters for like electronic music and whatnot.

i feel like ive seen them around a lot, but mostly for the the standard rock fare

n00bstar
Offline
Montreal, Canada
BRKOUT wrote:

Surprisingly. People didn't really take me up on this offer. Two artist emailed me out of the 400+ who viewed it.

That's because everybody thinks they know what mastering is and can do it themselves. In my experience, 99% of artists can't do proper mastering, and 99% of the 1% remaining can't either. People cannot be trusted around compressors and EQs.

cyberic
Offline

PMed!

dsv101
Offline
Medina, Ohio

PM'd

BRKOUT
Offline
Melbourne, Australia
Fudgers wrote:

Just wondering, how well do the SPL units work for doing really compressed masters for like electronic music and whatnot.

i feel like ive seen them around a lot, but mostly for the the standard rock fare

I think you'll find they colour the sound quite nicely for the most part, at the mastering stage your using these to add a certain character to the overall track not really as your final dynamics processor. Just a note, i'm finding i'm not really using these a lot on electronic music.

n00bstar wrote:
BRKOUT wrote:

Surprisingly. People didn't really take me up on this offer. Two artist emailed me out of the 400+ who viewed it.

That's because everybody thinks they know what mastering is and can do it themselves. In my experience, 99% of artists can't do proper mastering, and 99% of the 1% remaining can't either. People cannot be trusted around compressors and EQs.

You make a valid comment.. Hence why I'm offering mastering services for those who need it.

cyberic wrote:

PMed!

I've returned those PM's, those wanting to get involved you can email me to take it further, that will be better way to communicate.

Cheers

BRKOUT
Offline
Melbourne, Australia

I've had a few people asking for an example of my mastering. My apologies for not including this in my original post.

Here's an example i've uploaded to Youtube (unfortunately compressed), obviously if you'd prefer to listen to a AiFF/WAV email me and i'll link you to a fileshare.

https://youtu.be/XA_Q_0mn6y4

mk
Offline

PPPPPPPPMD

n00bstar
Offline
Montreal, Canada

No offense, but that's one hell of a shit mastering job.

BRKOUT
Offline
Melbourne, Australia
n00bstar wrote:

No offense, but that's one hell of a shit mastering job.

I think your entitled to your opinion, but do you have a technical reasoning to why you'd make a comment like that.?

I think it's a fair master that brings the track out in the way the artist asked for and when compared to digital mastering services like Landr or someone doing it themselves it allows the track to stand on it's own.

To be fair to anyone reading this you need to explain your comment..?

Last edited by BRKOUT (Apr 29, 2015 7:10 am)

1-Down
Offline
Huntsville, AL

I run RME and Opals too...lol You ever use the Opal Room EQ? I tried it once a while back, but the software was bugging out so I haven't since.

BRKOUT
Offline
Melbourne, Australia

The room i'm working in is already tuned hence I don't run Opal Room EQ. I used IK ARC a while back in my home setup but found I didn't like the way it made the tracks I was working with sound. I feel like room EQ software is a poor fix to a bigger problem.

1-Down
Offline
Huntsville, AL
BRKOUT wrote:

The room i'm working in is already tuned hence I don't run Opal Room EQ. I used IK ARC a while back in my home setup but found I didn't like the way it made the tracks I was working with sound. I feel like room EQ software is a poor fix to a bigger problem.

Tru dat. You ever check out Mix Cubes or even Behringer's variant? Been thinking about it...cause Opals have some stupid bass and living in an APT is well...you get the idea.

BRKOUT
Offline
Melbourne, Australia

I know the problem your talking about.. Its one of those common issues a lot of home studios face. Avantone's are great as a secondary reference but ultimately will still be affected by the rooms acoustics issues. My advice would be to own the best set of headphones you can afford and get others to give you feedback on your tracks as much as possible..