I am at the tail end of recording my debut album and I have decided that I am not going to (attempt to) master it. Several reasons for that...but I think that the result would be better received if someone else took it on.

Does anyone have any mastering engineers or companies that they were really impressed with and would recommend? I have an offer to master the entire CD (60 min) for $500. I know that he would be thorough with the CD and not just run it through some presets.

I know there are some quick mass-mastering companies around, but I really feel that the material I have should be given the royal treatment (on a budget though...).

Thanks!

If I were you I would contact Erik Tordsson. He's a great easy guy to work with and he's awesome at what he does. He mixed and mastered A Hill To Die Upon's album, and he's got alot of his own stuff that he's recorded on his myspace as well.

Here's his myspace and ours:

http://www.myspace.com/etordsson

http://www.myspace.com/ahilltodieuponband

a couple of more to consider Shawn is Cliffy from Main Line Riders at Steinhaus Mastering and Rob Colwell Ex Bombworks Records Executive at Bombworks Sound. Rob Did Consecrator and many others.

Also you might ask James who he uses for the Sullen / Open Grave releases.

stuff I've mastered....

Ministros Del santuario - Antidiabolical [reissue]
Frost Like Ashes - Born to Pieces (cd and 7" inch)
Northern Ash - The Age of Irrationality
Rehumanize - Resident Apostasy
Northern Ash - Patterns of Decay
Transfigural form - Destroyed
Transfigural Form - Blood (reissue)
Transfigural Form - Refusal (reissue)
Transfigural Form - State Of Decay (reissue)

I do dynamic mastering though, I hate how loud albums have become, so much so that I would rather people use someone else than me if they want a loud CD.

Kheiron wrote:

If I were you I would contact Erik Tordsson. He's
a great easy guy to work with and he's awesome at what he does. He
mixed and mastered A Hill To Die Upon's album, and he's got alot of
his own stuff that he's recorded on his myspace as well.
Here's his myspace and ours:
http://www.myspace.com/etordsson
http://www.myspace.com/ahilltodieuponband

Great! I'll check out the myspace pages when I get home (I am work...supposedly working... ) It is good to hear that he is easy to work with.

325ad wrote:

a couple of more to consider Shawn is Cliffy from
Main Line Riders at Steinhaus Mastering and Rob Colwell Ex
Bombworks Records Executive at Bombworks Sound. Rob Did
Consecrator and many others.
Also you might ask James who he uses for the Sullen / Open Grave
releases.

Thanks James. I'll track those other guys down. I'll also shoot James a PM and see who he uses.

NorthernAsh wrote:

stuff I've mastered....
Ministros Del santuario - Antidiabolical [reissue]
Frost Like Ashes - Born to Pieces (cd and 7" inch)
Northern Ash - The Age of Irrationality
Rehumanize - Resident Apostasy
Northern Ash - Patterns of Decay
Transfigural form - Destroyed
Transfigural Form - Blood (reissue)
Transfigural Form - Refusal (reissue)
Transfigural Form - State Of Decay (reissue)
I do dynamic mastering though, I hate how loud albums have become,
so much so that I would rather people use someone else than me if
they want a loud CD.

I am gathering you might be interested Todd ? I'll do a myspace tour of your stuff.

I am not terribly worried about it sounding LOUD (I mean, who the heck wants a CD that you can only barely put the volume up in order to keep the roof from blowing off) but I don't want it to be so quiet that the volume has to be at 11 to hear it.

I use Todd whenever a band doesn't have somebody that they want to use themselves. Todd has always done me good.

Dang you beat me to the PM! Thanks James

the way I master thing is like this:
when the volume is cranked there is zero clipping, no listener fatigue and no harsh high frequencies, but you can hear those swells in dynamics. Call it 80's mastering if you will. My albums generally peak between -11 and -13 with the EQ RMS lelvels but the overall level of the track is at a fixed -0.01db so that the recording is open to breathe and peak dynamically when cranked.

I clean up the gaps between the tracks, compress, normalize, use parametric EQ, add an equal loudness contour to the album so that nothing overpowers something else in the mix [unless it already does that naturally] and add a conservative amount of EQ for added air, thickness and then mid range to really open up the sonic frequencies of the original recording.

Thanks Todd for the description of the process! I'll be PMing you in a bit to get some mundane particulars about your mastering not fit for the thread

Martij Groeneveld from Mailmen is also very good. He has done some great mastering. check out his site.

http://mailmen.nl/

oteis wrote:

Martij Groeneveld from Mailmen is also very good. He has done some great mastering. check out his site.

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Thanks! I'll check him out.