DON’T master your own tracks… BIG MISTAKE. Either pay to get it done, or have the label that signs it get it mastered for you!! This is yet another problem with music today… I remember when I started out many years ago we had to spend $150 to get a track mastered. Prices have come down a lot since then, but just make sure you are getting a real mastering job done and not some hokey digital job from your friend who has some neat plugins that he ripped from rapidshare…
Not trying to be mean, its just a word of advice. If you want to succeed in producing this will be something you will need to spend the cash on if the label isn’t going to get it done for you. Its just ONE of the things that sets the amateur kid from the kid who may actually go somewhere. I was once this kid, and I spent that money…
Decide for yourself what you want out of producing…
Most labels will do this now for you, because they know that you really need a track to hit in the top 100 on beatport to make some decent money. I certainly offer this, and I require that labels get it done for me when I sign something… Its only right!
well either get someone pro to master it, or spend 4 years at college getting an audio engineering degree… then you can master your own tracks… and other peoples on the side for cash jobs… definately helps me pay the bills when i dont have a busy club season or im in production mode…
Otherwise… if you want the overall level of the track to sound “bigger” try putting a Maximizer and Limiter on the parts of the track you want to sound bigger… maybe play around with a multiband compressor also? you may need to ajust the seperate channel levels to compensate as sometimes it may mask the rest of the sounds that arent maximized… you could try chucking a maximizer on the master track also… but usually this is a big no no as it muddles/distorts and ducks/emphasizes certain parts of the mix you dont want it to and you have far less control than you would with individually maximizing seperate tracks… (p.s. id try a maximizer on that kick) thats why you should do it on the seperate channels instead…
otherwise… descent production… i like the bass sound…
Thanks for your reply!Yes I know it’s not my job to master my own track…but…i don’t have a label so first I have to smash a great song on web (i mean make one reasonable good).I find out how to create better sound with ableton effects…thats my mastering!ahaha
well I like the bass but the song isn’t good…
If I were you I would leave the mastering to the pros. Unless this is just an experimental project where you’re trying to learn to master. I had a guy do a 17 track album for about $400 and the difference was amazing.
if i was to send a track to a mastering engineer do i have each track or stem bounced down that’s already been eq’ed,should all separate parts be at a certain db.just curious
yep, you need each stem/channel bounced down, usually in 2 parts one as a “wet” and one as a “dry” signal… the “wet” signal being the one with all your EQ’s, Effects and all that crap, and the dry one with NO plugins/EQ’s Effects on it… when you bounce a stem down… it should be at maximum level… if possible, peaking at exactly 0db, accept if its an externally recorded source like a synth/piano/drum machine/guitar… well if you recorded it “properly” it should be peaking at close to 0db anyway but dont raise the volume if you recorded it softer as it raises the noise floor.
with regards to the top 100 thing… do u mean top100 on like radio or charts and stuff? well if you get on any kind of top 100 list, you know your either not doing too bad, or your making commercial crap that the masses love… you should be making descent money from royalties by that point, and its also a great thing to be able to put in your CV/Resume… helps alot with getting booked for gigs and all that… but before you get to that point, you either have to spend bullshit amounts of money on publicity/promotion, have a really large fanbase… or make some really great music.
i meant the beatport top 100 as it was mentioned in the thread before.i was under the impression that there was not much money in the sales of tracks unless they reach mainstream-like success and an artist used this to boost profile and get dj bookings which in turn made them the dough.
yeah, beatport top 100 is a tricky one… beatport is great for sales as even though if your tracks are fairly “underground”, a lot of “underground” DJ’s like digging and searching for new tracks on beatport to play in their sets, and it IS possible to make some money through selling tracks on beatport… however you either have to own a label, or get signed to one because doing single releases on beatport isnt very cost effective. you can also look into paid promotions, in where you pay beatport a certain amount (whatever your budget limits you to) and depending on how much you pay them, they will suggest your tracks to artists when they are looking in a particular category… or when you get those emails saying “hear exclusive new music”, they may decide, depending on how much youve paid them to put you in their newsletters… if you pay them enough, theyll even do a feature article on an artist/label which is displayed directly on the beatport home page, and all this can lead to increased sales and potentially getting in the top 100… I am currently looking into this for my label, as we are scheduled for our debut release for all 5 artists at once, so im going to try get a descent “promotion budget” to try and get our stuff heard more…
another good way of getting your tracks heard/bought is if youve allready got them on beatport, upload it on soundcloud, and share/send the track to all your favourite underground AND “big name” DJ’s and artists… a lot of the time you wont get a reply from the big guys… but once in a while, if they like the track, they might ask you for it or ask if you would like to send it to them or where they can buy it…
this happened to me recently, where i sent a track to a few “big names”, and i got a reply from Tommy Trash (Australian DJ who mixed the latest Ministry of Sound Annual 2011) and DJ Chuckie (Dirty Dutch Records) who were both interested in playing my track, and DJ chuckie even offered to help me release it and was interested in doing a remix… so there you go… (still rather exited about this as it only happened a few days ago )
… if you wanna get heard, dont be scared to send your tracks around to big names, and you nearly have to spend as much time doing all this stuff as you do on actually making your tracks… its basically a full time job
That’s fucking nuts! CONGRATS! DJ Chuckie is pretty frigin well known! What track did he like? I’d love to hear it! I’m super new to the whole music scene and I would eventually like to get to that level - so if you have any tips along the way i’d love to hear them (I have been reading around a lot though, and through every thread I can find! It’s crazy, thanks to the internet there’s a huge wealth of information right at your fingertips! I love it!)
haha, thanks dude, yeah im still in shock about it a little… but it feels good to finally be getting somewhere with my productions, ive been producing for like 7 years now, and only really started taking it seriously the last 2 or 3 years…
like my page if u want… ive got about a dozen tracks which i havent posted yet, coz there meant to be for my upcoming EP/Album thingie… but ill be starting to post a few of them up because most of them are done and mastered and i want to see what people think of them… so yeah…
Do you mind if sometimes I hit you up with a couple questions here and there via private message? Especially so I don’t harass everyone else on the forums by posting my dumb questions!
no worries mate, i tend to be on techtools a few times a day… lol its worse than facebook for me now… haha, but yeah,if u have any questions about anything, im pretty techy with most stuff production wise and DJ wise aswel, so if u have any questions about production or DJ’ing regarding stuff like custom mapping and the like, just shoot me a PM and ill try and answer to the best of my ability
Its only right!
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