so i've got a few children's books coming out in the fall, each with its own cd of music, and i need to have all the audio mastered by the end of august. i am toying with the idea of buying something like izotope ozone and doing it myself (i've been recording music for about 15 years as an amateur), however the releases are official, commercial, professional, so i am also considering seeking out an affordable mastering solution.
i would love to get some recommendations on who i should contact to get this audio up to red book standard, on a starving artist's budget. thanks!
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Re: your recommendation: mastering
Sun, October 14, 2007 - 11:50 AMA very inexpensive way to DIY is with T-Racks from IK Multimedia.
www.t-racks.com/Main.html
The results sounds surprisingly rich and professional even with just using the presets....
... and it's going to be a much cheaper option than hiring someone. -
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Re: your recommendation: mastering
Sat, October 20, 2007 - 7:49 PMI have heard great things about T-racks, but I got Izotope Ozone because it was offered as a bundle with Spektron and Trash as a really cheap bundle. You can't go wrong with Ozone either. -
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Re: your recommendation: mastering
Mon, October 22, 2007 - 9:38 AMI won't knock t-racks cause I self mastered my first album using it and I thought the results were really really good, if not on the professional side (less than more I think listening back to it).
A lot of plug ins give you kind of nasty limiting and harsh eq-ing, though based on what you've told us about the project you may be able to get away with using t-racks pretty effectively for sparse tracking arrangements, I think it begins to break down and fail on dense and loud rock songs. I still would recommend mastering in the analog realm if at all possible, hit it with a few compressors out of the computer and maybe limit and eq coming in, or eq going out to a few compressors and limit going back in. There's no one right way, if you're intent on DIY (like I am too) then play around a bit, but mastering is frustratingly difficult to get right and you may make a better investment paying someone to get everything up to snuff for you, it may be worth it just for the peace of mind... have fun!
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