Applejinx Mastering And Track Wrangling

[Applejinx]

(edit) Not a good idea, turns out.

[prettiestPony]

I don't know if I have anything I'd submit for this right now, but I will say it's very generous of you to make this offer! So thank you. :3 I'd be interested to see (hear) the differences between mastered and unmastered versions, too.

[the4thImpulse]

Some things I want to point out..

1) Can you give us some sense of your experience in mastering? Examples would be great too.

2) What eqipment will you be using for monitoring and what do you have in terms of room acoustics?

3) I don't like the idea of you posting the mastered tracks on your soundcloud, if I were to do it I would use a dropbox or similar method. I also wouldn't want to post ununmastered copy on my soundcloud for you to download, I would use the above method.

I personally wouldn't trust someone to mastering without knowing any of the above information, even if its free. I don't have any work at the moment but in the future I may call upon you so I don't have to master my own work.

[Kushy Kallous]

I'm really tempted to throw a track up, especially since I'm just now starting out, and this may be a great way for me to learn some techniques and ask questions.. Although, 4thimpulse made a good point about trust between the two people..

Screw it. =p I'll be the guinea-pony

edit incoming.

[Applejinx]

Some things I want to point out..

1) Can you give us some sense of your experience in mastering? Examples would be great too.

2) What eqipment will you be using for monitoring and what do you have in terms of room acoustics?

3) I don't like the idea of you posting the mastered tracks on your soundcloud, if I were to do it I would use a dropbox or similar method. I also wouldn't want to post ununmastered copy on my soundcloud for you to download, I would use the above method.

I personally wouldn't trust someone to mastering without knowing any of the above information, even if its free. I don't have any work at the moment but in the future I may call upon you so I don't have to master my own work.

I did an album for Kenny Gioia, a while back, which got stuck in record company politics (specifically, 'Arms of Orion'- NOT one of the multiplatinum ones), and I got frustrated with the way the loudness wars were going and quit mastering, turning to my software development. As for examples, I'm figuring that running this thread would show people what I did. There's an element of 'people can learn from hearing what changed and everypony can work together to collectively learn stuff'. I'm not willing to work in secret and I think it is foolish to try to restrict access to hi-res audio- that said, I'm hearing from some professional friends that SoundCloud is not working well for 24 bit wavs, and that could be a problem for this whole concept.

I'm running optical cable out of my MacBook Pro into a Lavry DA10 DAC set on the 'crystal' PLL. That drives a pair of Channel Islands D100 monoblocks. The Channel Islands amps drive, through handmade cables that weave heavy solidcore wire in a low-inductance configuration, passive Avantones run full-range- it's kind of like using SM57s into good pres, I get the most out of the single-driver seamlessness and lack of crossover through using conversion and amplification three times the value of my car. I've got the subs reinforced using a massive subwoofer I built myself. The room I'm in doesn't have room modes, it's open to other rooms several different ways and there's a lot of reflection and diffusion involved. Corners are damped with absorption in six places.

There's no point to any of that if it doesn't sound good- and that is inevitably so subjective that like the fanfic critting, I need to do it in public as part of a community. I'm sure I have as much to learn as anybody, but what really fascinates me these days is EDM and the dancefloor- I understand some things about getting stuff to sound big and I kept a crowd shaking the convention center when riding EQs on everypony at Bronycon. However, there's gonna be a lot I don't know too. I'm going to be talking with protocollie who's been coordinating DJs for Anthrocon for some years (he wants to pick my brain about mixing so it's a fair exchange) and I want to get good at this stuff- I can get a mix to do anything I want, but learning what to want is a process of its own.

Fair enough? I was perfectly happy to let this thread die if nopony felt like participating, but I'm just as happy to do stuff for the community if it turns out useful. I can't offer a mastering room with Duntech Sovereigns or B&W Nautilus, but on the other hand I'll put my Lavry Black up against anything, Tripath amps with really good power supplies (huge toroidal transformers, not switch mode) do give amazingly uncolored tubelike power, and if I need to get real analytical I can always pull out the hotrodded Sennheiser HD600s (stripped so the diaphragms are bare, if I ever poke them with a finger they die)

I _will_ hear what is really in your track, and I _have_ spent many years studying sound (remember, I'm an old nag of 44). Whether what I do with it is useful- that's more subjective and you don't have to agree, I'll do my best, that's all. If y'all are really so concerned about trusting me to be allowed to hear high-res versions of your tracks, don't. The entire industry is imploding financially, and trying to control access to particular pieces of music is not gonna save you. Building relationships and getting good at stuff is what's gonna save you, and you're just going to have to trust this Applejack poster that I'm not going to be doing anything with the mastered tracks other than publically giving them back in a way that people in this thread can hear what I did- and I won't even be keeping that around for long, because I need to clear out space on the Soundcloud from time to time.

I can ask that only the ponies whose track it is, download the high-res (or turn downloads off once the original creator grabbed their copy?). This isn't about privately doing mastering work for people. I mean, it still remains to be seen whether it's WORTH having it done. I might need to develop some new software for the needs of EDM- my rock-oriented mastering chain isn't working perfectly for all sources, that I know already.

Naw, I'm not a kid with Rokit 5s and a stack of Waves plugins. I'm somethin' different. Let's see how this goes.

[Matthew N.]

Just be aware that if you don't like something about your remastered song by the OP (anything, even the smallest thing), he is going to tell you that he wasted his precious that that he could have spent on something more important.

That's what he told me, when it was he himself who offered to do it. Slightest bit of criticism (I believe I said that the kicks got a little too high on medium ranges and that vocals in some parts [or perhaps even one part] got clippy and distorted.)

Offering free help is a nice gesture, but saying stuff like what you told me shouldn't ever be said.

/done

[Legion]

Just be aware that if you don't like something about your remastered song by the OP (anything, even the smallest thing), he is going to tell you that he wasted his precious that that he could have spent on something more important.

That's what he told me, when it was he himself who offered to do it. Slightest bit of criticism (I believe I said that the kicks got a little too high on medium ranges and that vocals in some parts [or perhaps even one part] got clippy and distorted.)

Offering free help is a nice gesture, but saying stuff like what you told me shouldn't ever be said.

/done

I don't care who was to blame for what, but you really shouldnt be carrying around petty grudges across the forum like this. Forgive and forget, amirite?

[Matthew N.]

I don't care who was to blame for what, but you really shouldnt be carrying around petty grudges across the forum like this. Forgive and forget, amirite?

How would you feel when it was you who got such a load smacked at you when you didn't like the slightest, tiniest thing about it? I for once like constructive criticism, but then again I do things for myself, not for others.

I wouldn't dare to say anything bad about him if he said something like: "I'm sorry that you didn't like it, but I am currently really busy and don't have time to fix it." They way he said it was more like "Oh, really? Whatever, I'm not gonna waste any more time on that."

[Applejinx]

Oh dear... this actually has something to do with why I no longer want to do stuff privately. Nobody will ever know if I did terrible things to your track but you're happy to suggest I did, so I guess we just ended up not getting along. I know I publically quoted every word I said to you and don't remember anybody going *gasp* at it. I honestly wasn't attacking you- sometimes you get sucked into 'recall hell', and this time I made pretty clear I'll do my best and leave it at that, up front.

If you manage to get a whole herd of ponies to think I'm bad news, I guess you saved me a whole bunch of time and taught me not to try to give folks anything. I'm a lil' stubborn though so I'm not going to assume you speak for everypony.

In fairness, I should say that all of the professionals I know in this industry ARE perfectly content to hurt feelings and say rude things, and some of them are hilariously extreme at it. I'm not going to be like them, but I think it's perfectly legitimate to warn about, so I'll confirm that- I might say your track isn't good, or that it badly fails at something, or that there's little point to me mastering it because what I can get out of it is too limited. That wasn't really the case for Matthew, but point taken.

Consider it a rather gentle form of what the real music business is like, in which I've made my living for some years now (and am connected with folks who are a LOT more important than I'll ever be).

My Little Remix is always sorta weird...