Online Mastering?? The Truth About XARC

[Sparky2]

Greetings all,
Well, don't let the fact that this profile only shows a few posts since my real profile is \"sparky\" with over 500 posts I think... I just can't get my old account back...I think for those who have known my posts that I am an honest user on this forum who thoroughly appreciates some of the people here who have helped me become a better mix engineer. Anyways I tried using XARC Online Mastering and let me warn you...do not get sucked in by the hype of his website or his claims.
From the start, there was nothing but pressure from his side to accept his work and push to finalize the tracks. He actually thought I might just pay him and download the final versions without hearing them. The first run was horrible. He completely killed all the dyamics, muddied the low end to the point where I couldn't even take it on my little crappy computer speakers and made the mixes so hot they were distorting. It was clear he barely even listened to the songs before applying, what I suspect, where some eq/compressor/limiting presets from may a TC finalizer or something...

...After hurting his feelings about objective concerns about the first run, he did a second take based on some suggestions I had and then again, asked if I wanted to hear a demo before finalizing the second run...what do you think?? Again, pressure to get the tracks finalized and for him to get paid. We accepted the last takes and, based only on courtesy, did I let him know we were satisfied, but the truth is we did not have time to objectively assess the tracks because he was pushing me to finalize and pay him. Who knows, I could have still expressed displeasure at the results and pay him before I downloaded the tracks and he could have sent me garbage anyways...well I got garbage anyways. In the end, these songs were ruined and if it wasn't for the fact that he gave me 88.2/32 copies of the master for me or someone else to try and restore, I would be stuck with embarrassing tracks that I would have to get re-done somewhere else. They still might not be salvageable....

After hearing the tracks objectively over other systems, it became so clear how bad they had become that I emailed XARC voicing my discontent. I told him that as a dissatisfied customer, that unless he refunds me half of the fees (why should I pay full when I am going to have to fix them myself), I will expose his company for what is using the internet user forums. Somehow, he claims that I am trying to extort money out of him and that his mastering job was near perfection. Well, if I was trying to extort money, why wouldn't I ask for all the money back. I don't know about Germany, but here in Canada, we have freedom to express our opinions and concerns as consumers.

Lastly, I tried one more compromise. I asked if he would revist two of the four tracks at least...but the \"legal department\" sent me an email from a \"supposed\" lawyer feeding me a bunch of crap about the disclaimer and such. As if he has a legal department...what a joke.

...I will soon post two versions of a song, one where I simply ran the mix through two Voxengo Elephants (Slow, Fast) to raise the levels- and the results from XARC. I'll let everybody judge for themselves and decide if they really want to use XARC Online or not...I guess at the very least you will be able to hear \"perfection\" from a mastering engineer

:evil:

 

[Michael]

Before you had this guy do any work did you happen to here any before and after tracks of his work . Unfortunatly some people think as long as you have wave lab you can master a record . sorry to here your misfortune hope it works out.

 

[Sparky2]

There are demos on his website and they sounded fine. I think the bottom line is that this guy wants to attract unsuspecting, naive customers and nickel-and-dime a lot of people. His website is very impressive and he supposedly has the credentials. I really thought it would sound a little better than what Elephant could do, just on its own without any mastering expertise on my part!

It was clear, if you were to read our email correspondence, that this guy wanted me to slap down the money with no questions asked. If anyone wants to read these emails, email me at rockpile444@hotmail.com and I can forward them to you if you were or are considering using this guy. His website claims are very mis-leading.

To be honest, I can understand his perspective in that any tom-dick-or harry could upload to his server and he can give them demos and then have people bail on him all over the place and he would be wasting a lot of his time. That has probably happened to him already and I think that is why he was pressuring me into finalizing when I wasn't really happy with the results.

 

[Michael]

I guess mastering over the net has it's drawbacks as opposed to a local person where you talk to the person , perhaps even listen along as he masters it right there

 

[carlsaff]

New here, but not new to UAD or online mastering. The bulk of my projects come in from out of town and I do a great deal of online approval.

But I never accept payment unless the customer is 100% satisfied and will actually be using my master for replication.

Sorry to hear of your trouble. Not trying to lure you into my services, BTW! Just wanting you to know that there are alternatives to mastering houses that insist on being paid even when you're not satisfied.

 

[peter893]

Great experience with XARC

Ive had nothing but great experiences with XARC. I use XARC almost exclusively when I send projects out for mastering.

What is the most important thing that should be gained from Mastering?

Peter

 

[MASSIVE Mastering]

Re: Great experience with XARC

What is the most important thing that should be gained from Mastering?

If you're happy with the results, THAT is the most important thing.

 

[Sparky2]

So if peter893 is happy, then why did you email me asking to see the emails?? Hummm...XARC legal department actually threatened me with legal action if I publicly posted those emails...supposedly they have legal affiliations internationally that could bring me to liable if they suffer loss of income, blah, blah, blah...little old me here in butt-hole Canada brought to justice by some clowns in Germany about using the internet and free speech...these guys are just a form of internet scam designed to suck people in...

 

[peter893]

Well I dont work for Xarc.

I still would be interested in hearing the before and after of the song.

\"So if peter893 is happy, then why did you email me asking to see the emails??\"

To see how they \"rushed you\"

I just am curious.. some people talk and talk with no truth.

I am sure your complaint is not worth legal action. I know we all like to feel important.

but the mastered songs can we hear them?
__________________________

 

[Eric Dahlberg]

New here, but not new to UAD or online mastering. The bulk of my projects come in from out of town and I do a great deal of online approval.

But I never accept payment unless the customer is 100% satisfied and will actually be using my master for replication.

How do you regulate it?

 

[Lorenz]

PART 1/2

Dear Community,

My name is Lorenz Vauck and I was the responsible mastering engineer for Mr. \"Sparky\". In fact, and as a correct people, we do not like name calling or finger pointing, but the post from Mr. \"Sparky\" (after several of our clients pointed us out to this) just made me cut some of my mastering-time and come here to correct Mr. \"Sparky´s\" \"truth\" a bit. Please do not think I am trying to push XARC Mastering in a better light here, but make your own image from the following lines.

At first let me clear up that XARC is not a fly-by-night company (if you
look trough several audio-magazines and trough our clientele this should be obvious) nor is harassing it´s clients, nor forcing them to do any payment in advance if they do not wish to do so. Also let me tell you it is not uncommon clients want to skip the demo because they are in a hurry or simply trust out work, so the question if the client wants a demo gets always asked and is nothing out of the ordinary. Of course like any company which is serious about their business, we work under a TOS which all of our clients get provided with and agree too when first contacting us, so did Mr. \"Sparky\". This TOS also contains the following lines:

\"4. Approvals
The client will be provided with a demo master of his/her material before
any payment is due. Approval, refusal or suggested changes to said demo
master must be received by XARC Mastering within 7 days. If no response is received within this timeframe, the client will automatically be billed a non-refundable one time fee of 20,-- Euro for storing his/her project until his/her approval, refusal or suggested changes arrive. In the case of a refusal, the client will not be billed for any services provided to him/her by XARC Mastering, with the exception of the one time storage-fee that might apply. The final master automatically counts as approved, if payment in full was received by the client. In this case, refusals and therefore full or partial refunds of the clients payment are not possible anymore.

5. Revisions
Any revisions needed prior the clients approval of the final master will be
done free of charge. Revisions that the client requests after he/she already approved or paid the final master, will be charged at the rates printed at the XARC Mastering website. Should the client decide to replace one or more of his/her songs with a new mix after the mastering has already been started, the client will additional be charged 50% of the rates printed at the XARC Mastering website.\"


Mr. \"Sparky\" contacted XARC first around the 19.05.2004 and 23 emails have been sent to him from me till the 19.06.2004 (this excludes the parts where he started to threaten us), assisting and helping him with different things. The whole mastering for his 4 songs took place from the 15.6.2004 to the 19.06.2004 when his final approval arrived. This included the realizing of several changes he wanted, always including comments from me on how I think this changes will or will not help his songs to translate well to the \"real world. So much for the \"rush\" we´ve put on him.

Before going a lot deeper into detail (which can be arranged upon request), I actually would like to show you the several approvals from Mr. \"Sparky\". Note that all times are GMT+1 and that these emails can be proven to be real (of course some private content from Mr. \"Sparky\" has been removed), trough the certificate of our server and our provider:


16.06.2004 22:37:
\"Hey Lorenz...my partner very satisfied with the second demo as am I..way
cleaner low end on all the systems we play it on...We're good to go but I
would like to know if I could also download the 32bit un-dithered tracks as
well as your finalized 16bit stereo tracks...I can't see why this would be a
problem but let me know...

Kindest Regards,
X\"

(note that this 32bit un-dithered tracks also were provided to him along the CD Masters, without any questions or charges)

 

[Lorenz]

PART 2/2

17.06.2004 00:32:
\"Sounds good...a little bit more high-end would be perfect...for these
songs, 32bit un-dithered will suffice...
...........

I will basically be assembling the two-track stereo files in Samplitude and
burning the glass master from there...

Cheers,
X\"


18.06.2004 01:25:
\"Thanx for your patience Lorenz...this was a very good learning experience for me !! I have a heavy rock song on the fly and once it is mixed I'll drop you line

Cheers
X\"

19.06.2004 02:07:

\"Lorenz...got everything and it sounds great...
..............................

Thanx, X\"


Additional to these emails the payment in full was received at the
17.06.2004 07:29, which again in connection with our TOS was the 5th and
final approval of my work.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------

Now at the 26.06.2004 04:43 (actually 7 days later), a new email from Mr.
\"Sparky\" arrived and the tone changed drastically. I do not want to make any assumptions, but for everyone at XARC this one definitively looked like a try to just get our work somewhat cheaper while trying to extorting us. Of course in regards to our TOS, the several approvals we´ve got, the tone of this email and that we can´t get back the masters from Mr. \"Sparky\" (it should be clear that this is impossible as we sell services that we can´t \"take back\" and not any goods) this was refused by us, as well as to do any further work for/with him. That our legal department showed great interest in this, will become obviously if you just read some lines of this email:

\"...Unfortunately, I am very dissatisfied with your product and unless I get
a 50% refund, I will have no choice but to voice the details of this
experience on the Samplitude, UAD, Cubase and Nuendo user forums where my posts are read by 100's.\"

\"There is no way that these recordings should sound worse than me simply
chaining a couple Voxengo Elephants on them to boost the levels and perhaps some PSP stereo-controller with a little UA Pultec...but they do.\" <- Remember the approval emails?

\"I will NOT READ OR RESPOND
to any return emails unless $xCDN is sent to my paypal account at
x@x.x within 2 days. I will take drastic measures on those user
boards posting before and after samples and details of these emails. I am a trusted user, especially on the Samplitude and UAD forums and you will no doubt lose more than $xCDN worth of business after I am done expressing my discontent.\"


While I wrote several longer replies to Mr. \"Sparky\" explaining the
situation and several technical details, I several emails later didn´t feel
the need to answer him anymore because of his aggressive tone, which was simply taking away my time from other clients, as this discussions leaded to nowhere.


I hope you can make your own picture of this whole story now, and if Mr.
\"Sparky\" insists on a ongoing discussion about this, we have the complete
correspondence available.

Also it would be just fine by us if the before / after samples of our work
get posted, as we (after finishing the mastering) intended to ask him anyway for the permission to use them on our site.


Thanks for listening.


Best Regards,
Lorenz Vauck
XARC Mastering

 

[Sparky2]

Holy crap...I haven't even been paying attention to this post for quite some time now...jeez...I didn't post any emails on this site...I was discreet in sending Pete those emails and I just was going to let this go...

...The bottom frickin' line is that Lorenz would have let me accept his work without hearing it first...he asked me if I wanted to hear the demo first....what do you frickin' think??!! And after the tweak, he asked if he could just go straight to finalize without me hearing it...Yeah, I'll just fork over the dough without hearing it....yeah right!!

...The real bottom line is that I had NEVER been through this process before!!! My ears were hearing what they wanted to hear because I NEEDED those songs done!!! I screwed up, yes!!! I am (was) green with what a mastering engineer does with songs...there are a lot of BAD stories of mastering engineers ruining tracks!!! I know one reputable studio engineer who refuses to send his stuff to anybody!!! But what if I would have said \"Uh, Lorenz, I am just not happy with this...see ya later\" after he spent the time on the tracks??? Then what would he have done??

...I also think your legal department is load of sh1t!! If you could afford a legal department, why in the hell are you even doing this?? It is real easy in unix to add a user ... useradd -u 100 -g 100 -d /home/BS -c \"Full Of Sh1t\" legaldepartment

Let this go you moron...I don't give a crap...I'll post the before and after results...I am just too busy right now

 

[Lorenz]

Mr. \"Sparky\",

if you are doing such posts, you should always be prepared for the echo.

I hope everybody sees the professional level of communication that is being practiced by Mr. \"Sparky\" and understands why we did not feel like working with him again. It is a very poor and embarrassingly language that is spoken by you and you can be sure I don´t get down to this level.

Best Regards,
Lorenz Vauck
XARC Mastering

 

[Sparky2]

Whatever you say you hack :lol: There have been over 400 reads on this thread so I think obviously more than a few people will think twice about throwing their money away with you...I have been posting on the UAD web board for 3 years and have NEVER slammed anyone or caused any crud or have been indignant or ANYTHING!!! So dis-credit me all you want..SO WHAT!!! Your the one getting the bad publicity here pal...I told you \"freedom of speech\" and 400 times this thread as been read..don't you just love the internet!!!

MASSIVE MASTERING has been on this web board for a while and John has been offering great insights and comments...seems like he actually gives a darn...Alexsey posts here as well from Voxengo...XARC just pops up to exploit this peaceful community of UAD users to cover his a$$ and sucker people in...go back to your presets in Wavelab and turn your hearing aid back on...I think a lot of people will think twice now..

 

[Lorenz]

Mr. \"Sparky\",

I did not discredit you in anyway, nor did I exploit this community, in fact you are the only one who acts and writes like a little child and 400 people had the possibility to read this (and hopefully some engineers) - don´t YOU just love the internet?

What I was posting were your emails and nothing else with the exact explanation of your case so people can make their own image. I can´t see why this would discredit XARC in any way. Your tries to discredit XARC Mastering with only posting the half of the truth to this forum and to XARC´s clients, that had a good laugh about this thread, failed very well.

If you did not notice this, you are the one looking a bit stupid now. You have shown you can´t read a TOS, lie and post only the half of the truth to make you look good, act like a little kid and have no ability to communicate in a correct tone.

I could as well go to Forums where other engineers hang out and write \"Mr \"Sparky\"? - The truth about this client\" and warn them that you are trying to steal their services in a very tricky way. But believe me, I do not have so much time on my hands because I need to serve our clients and handle all the traffic I got, thanks to your post. Did you know that any PR is a good PR (while this was not even bad PR at all)?

What are your arguments now (except your stupid smilies and sentences that have no relation to the original post and case anymore)? The only thing I see you coming up with over and over again is how I asked you about if you want a demo, good, I have explained this and everyone should regonized why it was asked as this is the standard and each client will be asked that. To bad your original \"half-truth comments\" have lost their wind because I´ve kept the other half of the story eh?

You know what, you are a very poor guy and I wish noone here they must have you as a client.

 

[Spacey]

The only way to settle this is to post the before and after. If the track has been badly mastered then you should not pay anything... if however we feel in our opinion that the track has been well done, then Sparky should pay for the work done.

I couldn't possibly make a judgment without hearing the tracks. The mastering company should post the track..... no actually Sparky should post the before and after so no more tweaking can be done. This is the only way this will be resolved. Hope I haven't pissed anyone off with this

 

[Lorenz]

Well it is not really about that. The work has been approved 4 times by him, and we simply can´t go on and on for free if someone feels like he does not like it anymore after a longer period of time. I say it again, we run a business and not a playground or something, that is why there are fair, but actually binding rules that are covered in our TOS (and if you go to mastering houses like Digital Domain or Sterling Sound, you´ll have to accept a similiar one). If he did not like our TOS, he could have gone somewhere else, but actually he accepted it and now complains about it afterwards? I don´t get that.

Now I would like to see another mastering house who does lifetime free revisions to clients acting like Mr. \"Sparky\". Ok, probaly some of the ones that pop-up and are gone 1 month later.

As much as I would like to post the before / afters, the material is copyrighted and I would break law´s posting it here.

If you wish, go to our site and listen, there are alot of before / after demos along with testimonials from clients. And I am also pretty sure, as alot of XARC´s clients noticed this thread, there will be more posts here soon too.

 

[gust]

Hi,
Just curious about this online mastering. I downloaded a demo file from Lorenz website. What I hear is eq, a multiband compressor and probably BBE sonic maximizer, a typical mastering set-up. With some presets I could easily achieve the same sound. I don't know what this proves, maybe we all have very good software?
Mastering without extensive feedback with the composer is useless I think.

 

[Lorenz]

Mr. \"1 Post\" (or let´s say Mr. \"Sparky\"?)

Of course. Then why not opening your own mastering studio? It´s like going to a shop and bitching about a product you are not going to buy anyway.

I think the fact that we work for some of the biggest companies out there, that our work was BAFTA nominated and we are having a client base of over 400, shows that our quality and concept are convincing enough, but of course there are always too exclusive people out there that we def. can not serve.

And remember, you and Mr. \"Sparky\" can always use other mastering studios. And why did Mr. \"Sparky\" choose XARC at all, if people like John from Massive Mastering are around here and he knows him so long and well already.