Should You Master Your Track for a Remix Competition? And How Bad is My Remix?

[Envinite]

Hello DJTT,

I was recently entered a remix competition on wavo.me, it's for a track called 'Save Me' by Gareth Emery Feat. Christina Novelli.

Now, this being the first time that I actually managed to finish a track (I don't take production seriously since the age of FL 10 ), I don't have any experience on mastering before, so I thought it was necessary to mastering personally before posting. Now to think about it, IF I were chosen to win the competition, surely Gareth's Garuda record label would be responsible for the mastering part, won't they? And that makes personal mastering redundant?

So due to tight deadline and beginner mentality, what my silly brain told me is to do a 3-hour DIY mastering without any experience in a definitely-not-acoustic-treated bedroom. Welp, after few listens with fresh ear, I think that mastering ruins my mix. For comparison, this is my mastered track :




While this is the unmastered one :




Yes, it may sound like shit and I regret it.
Now back to the original question, do you guys think it's necessary to master a remix or not? and on a scale 1-10, how amateur do you think of my remix & mastering, and which part of it do you hate the most?
Thanks for the help.

[tilldrop]

First off all, I'm not an expert, so take my advice however you want it ;-)

I think your remix has it's strengths and weaknesses.

I think the melodic parts are pretty good. I don't know whether it was given by the original or not, but the melody itself is good either way. Also the way you present it. You chose clear, but not boring sounds and understand to make the vocal work with the melody.

Also I like the style of your intro drums.The first few snare hits come hard and punchy. And I like the rest cutting there.

However, I don't like that bass (line). In the intro especially it feels too repetitive, but also later on it doesn't change to something more interesting. I think you should either cut it down to mainly a sub-bass or give it sonically and musically (melody+rythm) more character to justify the amount of "space" it takes in your mix.Compared to the drums, the bass is loud.I think the drums should be way louder in general. I think your drum programming is pretty decent, let us hear that ;-) Give it more punch.

Concerning your question whether or not your remix should be mastered for a competition, here's my perspective: If it is mastered it should sound better on most systems. What else does mastering do?! However, if you - like me - are not very good at mastering, I found that just doing it more gentle, was a good idea. I tend to screw up and overdo it.
Lastly, there are hundreds of submissions to these contests. So the chance of you winning, even if your remix is great, are not that big. So I personally, would always just try to get the best out of my remix, put it on soundcloud and at least use it to make some people happy (and maybe to get a like or two :P ). So therefore, keep mastering your stuff.

I hope this helps. I'd lie if I said that this is radio quality stuff, but you are on a good way! It it up!

PS: When tight on the deadline, just don't submit it. That's my experience. If it's half done, it does more harm to your image and noone will care anyways. Better work another day on it and happily put it on soundcloud.

[Envinite]

Sry for late reply.

I'll gladly take that comment. . I didn't aware with those amateurish part of the song and you helped me realize those parts. Yeah, the bassline gets too repetitive because there are only 2 chord progression, in opening and the drop. I was thinking to only use automation and extra synth to make it sounds different, but I guess it doesn't work very well.

About the mastering one, I was actually wondering about what does the remix contest owner usually aims for, Are they looking for tracks that is ready to get published like in mp3 format or tracks that have potential before they facilitate the mastering process, aka sending them stems / .wavs of separated channel. If I were master it myself and they asked me to send the original stems, it will surely sounds different compared to the mastered track that I submit, plus the self-mastering process becomes redundant.

I agree that if it was a tight deadline,it's better to stop instead creating a train wreck track that will ruin my name in a long run. But that will easily be an excuse to stop continue a track if I have something else to do and IMO, it's better to create amateur track that I can share and ask for review from other people instead creating a good track that takes decade but nobody to share with. Beside, if I managed to be a pro, I can always delete tracks that is too amateur for my standard, though I doubt I will delete them for reminisce purpose.

Thanks, this really helped me