Where to get mastering?

 

Well, my bands albums ready for mastering. Its 11 tracks, ranging from a little heaver rock, Acoustic, quiet/loud ballads. Where have you guys had your mastering done? Im looking for someone w/ expieriance in rock ( think the sound of appetite for destruction, firehouse-just the sound,production- Ace of spades, meets Dr. feelgood meets hotel california) at least thats the dynamic range of sound we are going for as far as overall power/sound.

1. Want someone thats easy to work with, if i need to tweak somethin on a track for him, he'll tell me not just "let it fly" we did record most of it ourselves, and we aint experts, but it turned out pretty decent. Someone that understands the sound we are going for, see above

2. Someone that doesnt just slap a maximizer/compresser on it and call it a day

3. Semifast turaround, if everything goes well, does 3 weeks sound like it could be done?

4. perfer local to keep the money round here, but will go out of state

 5. Who do i stay away from?

Go to Winterland. Brian or Todd will be all you need for mastering.

There are other places around but you won't get better quality in town.

 

I'd throw Magneto Mastering into the ring as well, I've heard them do some great work.

daryllh:

Go to Winterland. Brian or Todd will be all you need for mastering.

I'll second Brian (only because I've never worked with Todd).  He did an amazing on my band's album.

On a side note, I fixed your subject line for you. 

lol thanks

Dave Gardner = Highly recommended. http://www.magnetomastering.com/

 I was blown away by Karl from Atomic K.

Wowza.

I strongly recommend calling Greg Reierson at Rare Form Mastering. He's been a mastering engineer exclusively for more than 20 years and knows what he's doing as well as any of the majors. HIs rates are very competitive and he will give you exactly the sound you want. 

I've tried out most of the people in town who say they can do mastering and I've even hired a few of them over the years but Greg is the standard others are measured against.

Joseph 

Yea, Greg at Rare Form does awesome work. He gets my vote.

I'll add a little info why I was so happy with Dave Gardner at Magneto. Though not the ideal way to handle recording an album, we had 14 songs from 3 different sessions and wanted to release them together. Obviously each mix from each of these sessions was a bit different. He did an amazing job getting them to sound cohesive and accomplished all of the other goals we had. Plus he's a great guy to work with.

Joseph Frederick:

I strongly recommend calling Greg Reierson at Rare Form Mastering. He's been a mastering engineer exclusively for more than 20 years and knows what he's doing as well as any of the majors. HIs rates are very competitive and he will give you exactly the sound you want. 

I've tried out most of the people in town who say they can do mastering and I've even hired a few of them over the years but Greg is the standard others are measured against.

Joseph 

Holy man dude. Signing up at Music Scene just to post this advertisement. I couldn't help but respond when I read "the standard at which others are measured"

Winterland hasn't mastered anything for you. So maybe we are the standard?

In all seriousness most everyone suggested knows what they are doing mastering. It all comes down to personal preference. So far albums that we have mastered have been the preference over others by the client. 

Peace Todd

Rob Krueger or Brian Johnson from Gemini Studios.  Very good, only uses great gear, very reasonable.  Rob owns the huge PA that used to be in Star Central if you remember how nice that one was.  You could turn it up to a million decibles and it was still crystal clear.  I think he owns other ones all over too, like at the Press and somewhere in Faribault too, maybe others.  I know that live & studio stuff is different, but my point is all of their recording/and or live gear is great & they know their shit.

I got phone numbers somewhere if you want them.  I think Joe Spannbauer does too.

StuperDave:

Rob Krueger or Brian Johnson from Gemini Studios.  Very good, only uses great gear, very reasonable.  Rob owns the huge PA that used to be in Star Central if you remember how nice that one was.  You could turn it up to a million decibles and it was still crystal clear.  I think he owns other ones all over too, like at the Press and somewhere in Faribault too, maybe others.  I know that live & studio stuff is different, but my point is all of their recording/and or live gear is great & they know their shit.

I got phone numbers somewhere if you want them.  I think Joe Spannbauer does too.

So, a guy from the Doors and the lead singer of AC/DC got a studio? Wait, Brian works at Winterland.

I know where you were going with this; but if I could make a joke:

THE GUY MASTERS ON PA GEAR?!?!?!

Ha-  I didn't know how incomplete I was on my schshschchschpeeeel...

They master on computers hooked up to processortypestuff

ToddF:

Holy man dude. Signing up at Music Scene just to post this advertisement. I couldn't help but respond when I read "the standard at which others are measured"

 

Sorry dude! A friend sent me a link to this thread and asked me to respond. I'm not from your town but I have produced a couple dozen projects over the past 15 years at some very fine studios there. I expected to have a hard time finding a mastering guy but eventually settled on Reierson becasue he gave me what I wanted. Now I send a lot of my work to him. He's as good as anyone here but a lot less expensive.

Maybe some day I'll try Winterland. It just never came up as a matering studio when I was asking around.

Joseph 

You stated they master on great gear. Most mastering engineers wouldn't consider computer plugins or processing only great mastering gear. Mastering quality hardware compressors, EQ's, monitors and a well tuned room all cost big bucks. To do the critical listening needed in mastering these are a must.

When mastering all digitally recorded mixes, having hardware processing is really needed to get rid of some of the sterileness that can happen in all digital productions. It can really add depth and width to the sound. We hear it happen all the time.

No problem Joseph glad to see you responded and are for real. I know Greg Reierson. He is knowledgeable and a nice guy.

Peace, Todd

 

 

 We ended up goin with winterland. Todd did a little remixing and Brian did the mastering and it it tuned out great! They were really able to make our recording sound better, and make em sound alot more polished.  They also were able to stay within our budget ! Thanks again Guys!

Winterland is grrrrrrrrrrrrreat!

I hope to one day have a band again and record there: working with them was an enjoyable experience for sure.