Mastering Engineer recommendations?

[Girru]

Word.

Anyone used service or bod to send their tracks off to for some jiggery pokery?

I recorded what is probs my favourite stuff of mine during covid lockdown. Unfortunately, it had been the first serious thing I'd tried recording for myself in about 16 years so I was well rusty (not that I was ever shiny) and being as it was to tape it was even easier to fuck up. I was also massively stoned the whole time and not entirely sane. I'm also just generally bum at recording. Therefore it mostly sounds like hairy balls.

I just temporarily bought an SPL Vitalizer (as I had always read that one of their purposes was to brighten up dull tape recordings) and was going to try, ahem, "remastering" them using that and the lovely 303 eq and see if I could make any improvement. Alas, I could not.

Therefore, I'm looking for a magician to send them to. The multi-track I used (Akai MG614...mmmmmmmm) is long gone after I went nuts and sold all my best gear, so I only have the "stereo" (they're basically dual mono) tracks; no 'stems' obvs - I therefore suppose a mastering bod would be better for this purpose than a mixer? I just want a pro to do what they can with some fancy surgical eq bizznezz to get whatever best out of them there may be.

Any recommendations?

[13th of 36]

How many songs?
I can possibly do it for you, if you want.

Send me a msg and we can discuss further.

[Girru]

How many songs?
I can possibly do it for you, if you want.

Send me a msg and we can discuss further.

Cheers. I ended up sending one to a geezer on Fiverr to test what he could do. £9 for one song, so was worth a punt. He reckoned it was all done with analogue gear onto tape before being re-digitised. Did a fair bit for the loudness but not so much the eq side of things, which is the main problem, really. Everything sounds woolly and/or flat...and one song has the worst signal to noise ratio you'll ever hear.

6 tracks, total time approx 26mins.

[13th of 36]

send me a link to the files.
if you like what I do to them, you can pay me afterwards.

[U_J_F_R]

How many songs?
I can possibly do it for you, if you want.

Send me a msg and we can discuss further.

Cheers. I ended up sending one to a geezer on Fiverr to test what he could do. £9 for one song, so was worth a punt. He reckoned it was all done with analogue gear onto tape before being re-digitised. Did a fair bit for the loudness but not so much the eq side of things, which is the main problem, really. Everything sounds woolly and/or flat...and one song has the worst signal to noise ratio you'll ever hear.

6 tracks, total time approx 26mins.

If it’s done on SP and bounced to 2 channel with noise in there, it’s done
EQ would help if you combed through it looking for the noise, but it’ll lose fidelity
Same with using a denoiser desser etc.

Why not make all the tracks sound like the worst track. Eq backwards to make it cohesive
Then simply eq the full thing with an 8 band digi or analogue mixer?
Just my 2 cents.. I know that lo fi ish sound is not your cuppa tea

[Girru]

It was SP1200/S950 to thru Tascam M106 to Akai MG614 to Akai GX912. It had been about 16 years since I'd done any real recording so I ballsed it up. If i'd have gone digital by then and was using the VS recorder my later stuff used, it it might've sounded a lot better. I always over-cooked with tape. There were 2 albums I did on the Amiga to tape, after the SP/S album, and they sound pretty arse too...altho that was more to do with the Amiga being 8-bit and noisy as hell and the steps I had to take to counteract.

I know EQ can't add what's not there but only boost or cut what is, so miracles can't be done, but, as I say, I think with some surgical eq bizznezz, improvements could be made. Not being au fait with programs that do that stuff myself, I gotta outsource.

you can pay me afterwards.

Well, how much we likely talking? Am I gonna get a bill for £350 drop? lol

Why not make all the tracks sound like the worst track.

I know that lo fi ish sound is not your cuppa tea

It doesn't sound lofi in a way that'd get you guyses trousers flapping. It sounds lofi like it was recorded on a low quality tape deck made in 1976 in Belarus when actually it was all really good gear.

The worst track has really high peaks but also a LOAD of useless, non-musical high end, so the rest of it is quiet and muffled and can't be boosted without cutting that out. Like I say, surgical eq required, perhaps...or maybe it's beyond saving? The Fiverr guy reckoned he could do summat with it...but, as I say, he only seemed interested in the volume side of things, not the eq.

[13th of 36]

I usually charge around 100 bucks per song, 500 for EP, and 1000 for LP.
I'll give you an sp homie discount but I need to hear them first to see what I can do, if anything.

I'll process them through my outboard shit.

[Girru]

Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit, that's some gear! And it doesn't pay for itself! And I'm sure you're very skilled with it and $500 is a bargain. However, I ain't looking to drop anything like that on it, tbh. I don't sell my stuff; it's just for my own amusement and would like the fave stuff of mine to sound better if possible for my own satisfaction. Nonetheless, if you wanna check it out and have any suggestions. Track 1 is probably the one that sounds least worst and track 5 is the one with the terrible s/n ratio. If I had to prioritise, 1, 2 and 6 are the ones I really care about most.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/lrdqn1ig ... kny26&dl=0

[13th of 36]

I have some time today. I'll take a jab at them.

[13th of 36]

Check your messages.

[Girru]

It's finally occurred to me what went (most) wrong. The stuff that sounds the worst to me (mostly drums, sounding 'flat' and too muffled/dark)...it mostly went through the Tascam mixer I was using.

I had the Tascam M106 submixing and the integral mixer on the multitrack, the Akai MG614. The drums and a few other things went through the Tascam, iirc, everything from the SP1200. Everything S950 went through the Akai.

The Tascam had no mid on the eq; just 2 band non-parametric hi and lo. Hence the snares not cutting through (one might even say that they are flaccid). The Akai also only had 2 band eq...BUT both bands were properly parametric, i.e. sweepable, so more clarity could be brought. And it was just a better sounding mixer. However, I remember the Akai lacked low end, hence probably why I choose the 106 for drums.

To prove the point, the first track's main drums were from the S950 and therefore probably went through the Akai's mixer...and that's the track that sounds the best, imo. Or least worst. The 'layer' drums (that actually come in first and then layer later) sound cheap and crap...Tascam.
Track 3 also doesn't sound too bad...and I recently rediscovered a video of me playing it and the whole thing, including the SP1200, appears to be going through the Akai, proving the point further.
The tracks where I'm most disappointed with the drums (2 and 6), it was SP1200 through the Tascam for them.

Imagine having an SP1200 and not using a mixer suitable for getting it to sound its best. I should be shot.

Don't be get me wrong, I still did a shite job recording (see: 5th track), so it's not entirely a case of "A bad workman blames his tools"...but now I realise that the parts of the sound of the EP that I feel are most ruined are nearly all things that came through the Tascam, it makes sense.

It's all about that Mid. Man.

[404forfashire]

Word.

Anyone used service or bod to send their tracks off to for some jiggery pokery?

I recorded what is probs my favourite stuff of mine during covid lockdown. Unfortunately, it had been the first serious thing I'd tried recording for myself in about 16 years so I was well rusty (not that I was ever shiny) and being as it was to tape it was even easier to fuck up. I was also massively stoned the whole time and not entirely sane. I'm also just generally bum at recording. Therefore it mostly sounds like hairy balls.

I just temporarily bought an SPL Vitalizer (as I had always read that one of their purposes was to brighten up dull tape recordings) and was going to try, ahem, "remastering" them using that and the lovely 303 eq and see if I could make any improvement. Alas, I could not.

Therefore, I'm looking for a magician to send them to. The multi-track I used (Akai MG614...mmmmmmmm) is long gone after I went nuts and sold all my best gear, so I only have the "stereo" (they're basically dual mono) tracks; no 'stems' obvs - I therefore suppose a mastering bod would be better for this purpose than a mixer? I just want a pro to do what they can with some fancy surgical eq bizznezz to get whatever best out of them there may be.

Any recommendations?

I am a recording arts graduate from Full Sail University and run my own record label/small business. One of the main things we do for people is mastering/remastering/restoration work and I am very good at it. If you need anything please feel free to shoot me an email at [email protected]