Should You Master Your Own Music

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[joeydego]

Ive had pretty good results mastering my own stuff but it’s definitely been a learning process. Also paid for masters that to my ears ozone can beat. I say unless its going to be some major release, try it yourself. You have nothing to lose. All that can happen is your master sucks and all it cost you was time and you learned how to use your own tools and skills better.

[Sellarmusic]

I've always felt that if the professional mixers seldom master their own mixes there's must be some good reasons behind it because it's not cheap. Nice job on covering the important one's here Barry!

[mrvron]

master your song regardless of wether you send it to a professional or not
and when you get the master reference it to yours
thats the way you learn faster
My advice:
know your sound
know and learn your tools (EQ, COMPRESSOR, SATURATION) (DAW)

[Furybeatsgme]

I do what I like to call a pseudo master it's just something that will show how loud the song will be when they finally get it masterered. I'm still gettin my skills up when it comes to mastering

[davejohnsonaudio]

Another thing is mastering outboard gear. When you send it to a legit ME, your track is going to run through some gear that's going to give it some vibe that you can't really get from just plugins. If the track means a lot to you and you can swing the $$, it's definitely worth getting a Pro to do it. That said, there's nothing wrong with trying to learn the art of mastering, at least to the point where you can make your mixes sound better and not worse. And if you just finished a mix, give it at least a few days before you start mastering. You'll most likely be burned out from the mix process.

[GeoZero]

I typically have Abbey Road studios in London master my better songs at approx. $100-$140 depending on exchange rate or if I request a specific mastering engineer. Otherwise I run the song through Ozone and that works very very well. It's cheaper than most Fiverr mastering services and hell IT'S ABBEY ROAD!!!

[faautobahna]

Your video has just led me to read seven pages on what Mastering is and how it differs from Mixing :) Thanks.

[Mrfpsara]

I deliver audio daily so no time for external mastering, I use TC electronic MD4 plug in for mastering, it’s the same high end multi band compressor from system 6000, I am so surprised no one in the community talks about this beast. It seems that izotope and waves are all over the hype market…

[rhread]

If you go to master something for upload to YouTube. It is going to get crunched and smacked around so if you have a good project studio mix. I think you are just fine with something like LANDR, but if you have multiple songs and you’re investing money into distribution. Definitely pay for the guy or gal with the ears, reputation, and all the drool over outboard mastering gear. You will thank yourself years later. I master my own stuff with Sound Forge and Izotope but I’ve been doing it since the early 80s. Thanks for the video Barry.

[michael.a.m]

I recorded a song for a friend last year. I mixed it and he sent it off to another friend for mastering. The master sounded awful to my ears. I asked a few other people what they thought and they said they liked it. Six months later, I listened to the master again and it sounded great. Then I AB'd it with my mix and it was CLEARLY better. Moral of the story: don't underestimate how distorted your perception gets when you've been sitting inside of a mix for too long.

[eddyfast]

I have a BR1600. If ive recorded and mixed well, the onboard mastering tool kit does a great job.
But i need a break after 3, 4 days of loops, playing, singing, arrangement and lyrical changes, recording, mixing and mastering before im able to go back and hear things that totally ruined it.
Without a break ive just written a hit. After a break, i know its sht.

[TheAudioCzar]

While I mix and master, I do NOT master my own mixes. I have a mastering engineer I work with that masters my mixes, and I master what he mixes.

[stevesrecordingtips]

I'll master my own productions if I have no intention of making money with it.

[austinnichols]

cant fix very much in a master.. definitely cant turn a bad song into a good song

[JimCaputoMusic]

I've been doing a lot of mastering in the past few years but I cannot master something I've mixed and it comes down to being able to hear the song as one piece of music vs hearing the individual parts that make up a song. To master, I have to be able to hear the song as a whole. If I've edited and mixed a song, it's pretty close to impossible for me to hear the song as a whole without being distracted by the individual parts.