tbag wrote:
I've had music mastered before but the mastering engineer got me to put a limiter at -3 dB on the master channel and bounce the track down.
This doesn't seem to me like you had your tracks mastered... Or I would put the Mastering engineer's knowledge and capacities to doubt...
tbag wrote:
I've had music mastered before but the mastering engineer got me to put a limiter at -3 dB on the master channel and bounce the track down.
This doesn't seem to me like you had your tracks mastered... Or I would put the Mastering engineer's knowledge and capacities to doubt...
+1
Here is some good advice for you tbag. If you follow these mixing rules you should be fine.
In my opinion, i would try to forget about the limiter on the master and get my mixdown at -3db to -6db. This should be plenty of headroom for the mastering engineer to do their thing and for you to avoid unkown digital distortion.
If you are mixing like this, you are leaving a lot of control up to the mastering engineer to get your dynamics/loudness right. Hopefully they do this with some great gear and precision!
tbag wrote:
I've had music mastered before but the mastering engineer got me to put a limiter at -3 dB on the master channel and bounce the track down.
This doesn't seem to me like you had your tracks mastered... Or I would put the Mastering engineer's knowledge and capacities to doubt...
indeed...
You should hook up with the guys @ timetools in Hannover, Germany. Get in contact with Andy there and tell him Hagen told you so ;-) They do a great job for a very reasonable price. References are Desolat, Sci+Tec and loads more big names from the underground and pop business alike.
I would send 24 bit wavs of each track in the release to your mastering engineer as a separate file. You'll also want to instruct your artists to leave off all the dynamic processing on the master bus - no compressors, no limiters, no envelope plugs, etc. I would also shoot for a peak -6 dB on your master to allow your mastering engineer to work his magic.
Tip: make sure you put the order number (i.e. A1, B1, B2 somewhere within the file name to minimize the chances that the cut (and label) gets screwed up
good luck but I'd say hydrogen nailed it. i think your music will need to be really special to make your money back on vinyl. and even that's not enough...
why not release stuff digitally as well? There's less financial risk, and the digital releases could become "fundraisers" for physical releases.
Dont jump right into vinyl - its a very costly expense and counter-intuitive in the modern age, you need to have a vision, test it out with your market and see what kind of response you get with digital first.
ok i'm going to go against the grain here and say JUST DO IT ! everything i'm going to say below comes from many years of experience running vinyl record labels.
everything everyone has said here is sound logical advice, and common sense would tell you to forget it, or at least have a well thought out business plan etc. but thats not how reality works.
no-one here can predict the future, its the creative decisions that are made at the underground/grassroots level that have always shaped the music business, and even if you feel impotent, and helpless in the face of the predicted corporate, advertising-funded digital tsumami, dont let it stop you doing something you feel you want to do.
i hate the term marketing, i dont think it applies to underground music. DJ's who still love and use vinyl will only buy what they like. if you put out a real quality tune on vinyl, word of mouth will take care of the rest. if your tune is anything short of awesome, you'll end up with boxes of records under your bed.
never underestimate the power of word of mouth !
just one big DJ charting your tune, or including it on a mix album, can change everything, and you cant force him to do that.
of course marketing comes in to play in the sense that your tune has to be heard, but there are ways to get it out there which dont require much thought at all, like get it up on Juno !
distribution deals are not the holy grail !
theres just as much chance of you not getting paid, your distro going bust on you ( this is from experience, ive now had 5 distros go bust on me in 15 years, and 2 who didnt pay me)
P &D deals take away the financial risk, but also take away your control. they can drop you as quickly as they pick you up if your material isnt selling. i'm not saying they are all like this, far from it, there are some genuine people who care in the business, and its a tough business.
i believe we are entering a new era for vinyl, it has been a declining market for at least 10 years, but the facts are that some people still love it and will go on buying it. it will reach a plateau.
history proves that with each decline the good quality music is distilled out, and the sh!t evapourates.
everything is about quality, no one here can really give you advice, if your music is quality you have absolutely nothing to worry about what ever you do.
dont worry about having big name remixers or artists on your label, sure it will sell more records and maybe draw attention to your label, but youre doing it for you and your mates, so just do it.
i have run my own labels without the need for any 'names', just me and my mates, exactly what you want to do, and ive encouraged those mates to go on and start up their own labels, and some of them are now well established artists themslves releasing on big labels.
dont expect to pay for your next vinyl with the proceeds from the current one. expect to make a small loss or breakeven at best. its good advice to release the music in digital format to help make up the shortfall,
however i'm about to embark on exactly the opposite, a vinyl only label.
i dont really care that it doesnt make sense, i just want to do it, i want to produce tangible pieces of art, someting to hold and cherish, with a real artistic cover. who's to say that this isnt a legitimate way forward for underground music, something that has value because of its physicality, something collectable. OK you have to see this as a niche, but whats wrong with niches ?, whats wrong with existing out of the mainstream ?
our music is niche music anyway.
no one can predict the future. JUST DO IT !!
and i can gurantee that when those boxes of records arrive, you'll be just as excited as i was the day my first vinyl arrived, and as excited as i will be when my next ones come.
ps on the mastering, unless you know what you're doing leave everything to the cutting engineer. if you use a good cutting room, theres absolutely no need for any pre-mastering at all, and attend the cut, you'll learn so much!
Last edited by steevio on Thu Oct 22, 2009 5:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
