imdrecordings
Venerated Member
I recentley had to mix/record 5 bands in 2 weeks, for a local compilation.
One thing that bothered me was that I couldn't decide what my levels should be, for submitting. For each track. I wanted to give them a 24bit track with peaks at -4 and an rms of about 18-16. But something scared me.
When I was a kid, my first band was asked to be on a comp and after speaking with the guy who was putting it out, he assured me that the Comp would be mastered. So we submitted an unmastered track.
Big mistake. The track before ours had been mastered before hand and was almost twice as loud. (after listening to the final product) Bummer!
So, out of fear I smashed my mixes to get them as loud as I could. They sound great still, but not the way I'd like them to sound. I suck at mastering.
I can't seem to get my levels passed -14RMS without it turning to shit or starting to sound smeared with digitiz. Not to mention my room isn't completely tuned in and I'm worried about the mixes translating. I didn't have a lot of time for trial and error.
It seems like the people who are putting the comps out like to skimp on the Mastering, because it's the last link in the chain and they usually run out of money by then.
So how should I deal with submitting songs to COMPs?
Any ideas?
Thanks
-S-
One thing that bothered me was that I couldn't decide what my levels should be, for submitting. For each track. I wanted to give them a 24bit track with peaks at -4 and an rms of about 18-16. But something scared me.
When I was a kid, my first band was asked to be on a comp and after speaking with the guy who was putting it out, he assured me that the Comp would be mastered. So we submitted an unmastered track.
Big mistake. The track before ours had been mastered before hand and was almost twice as loud. (after listening to the final product) Bummer!
So, out of fear I smashed my mixes to get them as loud as I could. They sound great still, but not the way I'd like them to sound. I suck at mastering.
I can't seem to get my levels passed -14RMS without it turning to shit or starting to sound smeared with digitiz. Not to mention my room isn't completely tuned in and I'm worried about the mixes translating. I didn't have a lot of time for trial and error.
It seems like the people who are putting the comps out like to skimp on the Mastering, because it's the last link in the chain and they usually run out of money by then.
So how should I deal with submitting songs to COMPs?
Any ideas?
Thanks
-S-