Mastering your track.

[Blank Keys]

Small tip: Don't get in the habit of slapping a limiter on a mixdown and use it to make your songs sound "loud" by messing with the threshold. You should instead eq and mix elements together so they won't interfere with each other in the frequency spectrum and everything will fit in nicely and can be loud enough to be heard in the way you want them to be. I think you already knew that, but it's just an obvious tip I thought i share with everyone.

[benjackal]

Small tip: Don't get in the habit of slapping a limiter on a mixdown and use it to make your songs sound "loud" by messing with the threshold. You should instead eq and mix elements together so they won't interfere with each other in the frequency spectrum and everything will fit in nicely and can be loud enough to be heard in the way you want them to be. I think you already knew that, but it's just an obvious tip I thought i share with everyone.

Why not do a good mixdown and THEN slap a limiter on at the end. Nothing is wrong with a mastering limiter/compression if the mixdown is done well.

To the guys who say dont master your stuff. My opinion is that is 100% wrong, look at all the big guys in the scene, they usually master most of their stuff or atleast know how to do it. My rule is, keep doing it as much as possible, if you cant get it to where you want, then send it off and get it done. But you will never learn unless you try

[Sudanim]

To the guys who say dont master your stuff. My opinion is that is 100% wrong, look at all the big guys in the scene, they usually master most of their stuff or atleast know how to do it.

nah man you can never listen to your own tracks 100% objectively.
while I do master my own work at least 5-6 different colleagues and fellow producers will sit in on a playback and point out what I havent been able to hear.

also 'the big guys in the scene' will almost definitely not be mastering their own tracks.

[ksandvik]

It is not economically feasible to send out tracks for mastering for every possible track, freebies and so on. Also, if you earn maybe mostly $100 on a track (if you are lucky) and you spend $200+ for mastering, does not compute.

Anyone with critical ears, good reference monitors/headphones and good tools could do decent mastering jobs. Get Ozone or T-Racks to start with. Learn from all the good YouTube videos and Web articles. Spend 100 hours mastering and you get to decent to good level.

[AllDay]

It is not economically feasible to send out tracks for mastering for every possible track, freebies and so on. Also, if you earn maybe mostly $100 on a track (if you are lucky) and you spend $200+ for mastering, does not compute.

Not sure where you grab your info/prices from but you are a constant LOL