How Far Do You Go ???

[DYEONE]

Can somebody please offer me some advice on this.

I started producing music almost 1 year ago and over this period of time i have come up with a number of tunes which i feel are worth taking that bit further with regard to final production and mastering. I use various hardware & software synths & samplers to create my sound but the only thing i use to come close to mastering my tunes is an old copy of Cubase 24.

Don't get me wrong Cubase is very helpful and the problems i've come across are probably down to my lack of understanding how it works fully but it has allowed me to get fairly decent sounding results, but it isn't hard to notice the difference in sound quality between my tracks and the stuff you hear everyday on the radio.

Basically what i want to know is, you hear about all these unknown bedroom musicians who've made the best sounding thing since sliced bread, but how much of their tracks were actually created in the bedroom (or project studio), and at what stage did they go to some plush professional studio and fork out the cash to mixdown their tracks by a professional sound engineer ?
, and how much does/should this all cost ? (uk prices please).

I know all this is a little 'finger in the air' as i haven't stated my exact needs. This is becasue basically i'm still a beginner and i don't know what i need to do to my tracks to make them sound that bit better.

Thanks in advance, and take it Ez !

Rich

 

[STASIS]

I don't know anything about sending mixes to professional studio for final mastering, but I can tell you this: get T-Racks. It is supposed to be the best thing you can do for your music other than sending it to a professional studio, and even some big studios use it as a mastering tool to some degree.
It emulates analog equipment pretty efficiently, it has tube compressors, eq, and a limiter, and it meant for use as the very last stage of mastering. So when youre done your track, and finished getting the levels and all just right, load the file into T-Racks and it will really breathe life into it.
It does require MMX technology to operate on your pc, but most processors have this nowadays. It costs 300 bucks, but its worth it if you can afford it (or manage to get it in some other way).Check out the link- http://www.t-racks.com/. Get this and most of your problems will be solved, its still not the best you can do but it can definitely do the job. Hope this helped-

 

[inocybe]

one word.. experience.

you can have a zillion mastering devices and software tools to pollish your music, but in the end it comes down to personal experience, good and trained hearing and a solid view on the sound you're trying to reach. If you're only one year in music production, dig deep into that mixing desk and try to make your mixes right from the beginning. Try to listen to your music repeatably and try to see what's wrong with it. Then go back and try to fix it.. You'll notice after a while that your mixes will get clearer and better and have more punch.. The dynamics ought to be right from the start or even the best mastering engineer can't make it better.

 

[i-clan]

the thing i use sometimes is T_Racks. it is pretty good. in conjunction with actually mixing levels and eq's of different sounds on my sampler beforeheand, tat sort of thing.