How much is industry standard to master 1 song?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sk.....1
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No disrespect Don. I have never heard any of his material to cut him down. I was merely stating to be wary of people who don't charge a certain amount. True enough, L-ROX there are some really talented engineers around that aren't trying to rob you blind, but for the most part you get what you pay for. I believe the original question was about an "INDUSTRY STANDARD MASTER". To me that means highest quality possible. Ready for radio. Most engineers are not familiar with what a track is going to sound like on the radio when they are mixing at home. So if I am aiming for an "INDUSTRY STANDARD", I am going to have to spend money. I do agree with everything you said though. Especially about selling out of the trunk. In those cases you should definately conserve money.
 
SK, no doubt, that's how I earn a lot of my business (by doing free test masters). Check my site for details, you can also get my contact info from there.

Beejay, to be honest, I only work with Hip Hop and that's all I stick to 'cause I know the music and after being someone who buys Rap CDs on the regular, who's been mixing that type of music for the last (almost) 12 years and producing it, I know the sound and I master to aim at the quality of the Rap releases out there.

I actually had a call the other day from a Hip Hop/Rock band and they were interested in me mastering something for them and I turned them away 'cause I've never worked with that style of music before. I think people should stick to engineers who work with their style of music.
 
SK, no doubt, that's how I earn a lot of my business (by doing free test masters). Check my site for details, you can also get my contact info from there.
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Yo i mailed the CD out yesterday you should get it this week, thanks dogg..
 
Cool, SK. I'll be hitting the P.O. Box today and will call you when I get your track.

Thanks, Mano. Last I heard, Tactic has that track on vynil at Aarons in L.A. and the guy who produced that track (Silverback) is in the process of mixing his instrumental album.
 
it depends

I've just recently had 10 tracks mastered into a CD.

I rang around quite a few places to get quotes.

I've been studing audio engineering and I got 2 of the
lecturers to give me quotes.
1 guy charged $20 per track the other guy $30 per track.

I also rang pro studios and chatted with them
$150 per track for the senior mastering engineer
$85 per track for a mastering engineer
They also told me about a cheaper guy they knew who
charges $45 per track.

So there you go - you can spend as much or a little as you
like.
I mixed and produced the CD myself - what is the point in
spending $1500 mastering a CD if you spent $0 making it!
I got the $20 track guy to master my CD over 8 hours - he did a
great job - I'm really happy.
 
L-Rox

Where do you find these rappers? Heh why do they bother getting there stuff mastered.....Oh well that's my opinion... but hey Can u email me Craiz730@yahoo.com with the details on how to send the song? Preciate it fam.
 
LOL@ Craiz! Man, these guys come to me, I don't "find" them. It ain't like I'm out at Venice beach every Sunday passing out business cards, hahaha. Most of my business comes to me word of mouth, so there you go.

I think everyone who is seriously going after a career in music should have their material mastered, simply because nowadays having the best possible sounding demo, or single, or album is "the standard".

A few years ago, you could get away with passing out ****ty-sounding demos to labels 'cause once upon a time, record companies would invest in their talent by sending them to the studio to record an industry-standard quality demo. Nowadays, when it comes to hip hop, record labels don't wanna mess with you unless you have a) some kind of buzz and b) a good-sounding product.

A lot of these guys out there are hustling and selling their own product "out of the trunk" and the average head that buys a CD wants to hear something decent, not something that sounds like it's being played in a tunnel.
 
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