How much of a difference does mastering make in techno?

[Barfunkel]

I've never heard any before/after examples, so I've always wondered how much of a difference does it make, especially in techno music?
Is the difference small, huge, somewhere in between? Will it turn an ok production into a professional sounding product, or does the pre-master
track have to sound pro already, when comparing with commercial, well-mastered releases?

Does anyone have any before/after examples they could share, preferably tracks mastered by a pro specializing in electronic music?

Also, when shopping tracks around, do labels generally want an already mastered product or will accept a decent sounding track that can
be fixed in mastering?

I'm planning on getting some of my tracks mastered, just to see how far away I'm from the pros I'm comparing myself with. Do you think
it's a stupid idea, since my tracks obviously aren't pro quality? How much of a difference does mastering make in a mediocrely produced track?

[patrick bateman]

If the track is already very well mixed, then the mastering doesn't do that much, except raising the volume and maybe a tiny bit of extra punch and a bit of EQ'ing, but of course it all depends on the source material.

[zeropoint]

Here's an example from our label:
http://www.patrick-bateman.dk/tracks/be ... malize.wav (I did a normalize just to raise the volume a bit)
http://www.patrick-bateman.dk/tracks/after_master.wav (mastered by Matt Colton - UK)

....that's a cheeky little number.

[Barfunkel]

Thanks for the links Patrick! Very enlightening.

Does anyone else feel like chiming in? If you've had your tracks mastered, did you feel there was a big difference when comparing with the unmastered version?

[steevio]

Thanks for the links Patrick! Very enlightening.

Does anyone else feel like chiming in? If you've had your tracks mastered, did you feel there was a big difference when comparing with the unmastered version?

for me no.

i always attend mastering sessions, and the engineer usually doesnt do very much, and i usually cant tell much difference, maybe just 2 dB louder.

i've never relied on mastering, right from when i first started, i've always concentrated on getting the mix right.

it totally depends on how much attention you give to your mix, if you throw your tracks together without much care, or your monitoring or studio acoustics are very innaccurate, then you will notice a big difference.

[kdgh]

I'd like to experiment with my mastering and yes it can makes a total difference.
It's a bit like cooking a dish.

sometimes you already have really nice ingredients. you mix them together and the only thing you need to add is a bit salt and pepper.

Tho you can always experiment with different flavors and spices. That's something that can masterings makes a bit more interesting. These days i'm quite interested in tube and tape saturation. Parallel Compressions, multiband parallel compressions. Linear EQ etc.

Those are tiny tools and tricks, but it can add more flavor to the track. Tho you can also ruin the dish by adding to much salt and pepper

[Camel]

At first I thought my mastered tracks didn't differ much, apart from the volume boost, when listening back on my monitors. But after checking them at friends places, I found them to translate better to other speakersystems and the bass was tighter.

I'm planning on getting some of my tracks mastered, just to see how far away I'm from the pros I'm comparing myself with. Do you think it's a stupid idea, since my tracks obviously aren't pro quality? How much of a difference does mastering make in a mediocrely produced track?

It's not a bad idea. If it's a proper mastering job it will definately sound nicer, just don't expect too much from it. Like kdgh said, it's a final touch.

Instead, try to focus on getting your mix as good as possible yourself. A/B ref with tracks that are similar and you think sound good and make some EQ adjustments on your master. Then see which parts you boosted/cutted , turn off the EQ, and try to fix the mix by changing the levels and EQ on specific tracks. It's something that I find difficult to get right, and it's often after a proper mastering job that I hear what lacked in my mixes.

It helped me out a lot in understanding where my mixes lack in terms of balance.

[steevio]

i think something which is rarely touched on when talking about mastering is how the music is made.

ive done free-lance mastering over the years, and the hardest material to work with is music made from samples, especially samples taken from poor quality source material.

if youre making music this way, and using samples ripped from several sources in one tune, you can end up with lots of unwanted and harmonically clashing frequencies, especially in the sub and low mid region, where its not easy to identify them, and mastering can really make a big difference here.
of course its better that you spend time EQing the individual samples before you put the music together, alot easier than trying to extract them when the tune is mixed down.

if youre making music with synths, soft synths, good quality samples, you have way more control in this area, and can avoid mastering altogether with experience, or at least only find the need for the salt and pepper.