We are the music makers - producers?

I laughed as well because my other half teases me about the days I've spent making noise like that. The other day she was threatening to get the pots and pans out.

Just uploaded tonights mix. If you're not feeling 159bpm right now by all means pitch this down to a normal bpm.

https://soundcloud.com/monofever/this-is-techno

.https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/359182/?utm_campaign=new_comment&utm_medium=email&utm_source=notification&offset=100#comment15957287

Are you guys serious about this? I'd be up for getting involved.

I'd be up for it

Yup

Yes, it's been an aim for a while.

Anyone here good at mastering?

I've mastered my own stuff for release before now. I'm not an expert but I have a mastering chain of plugins

Likewise, I use a mastering chain. There is an art to mastering for vinyl apparently and that would be something to take into consideration.

Me too, although my stuff is at a bit of a tangent to the techno jams you guys are posting!

Not sure that matters. Seems like we could limit it to an EP or maybe get a few more people involved and have an LP length. It's a lot more complicated but might have wider appeal and the initial stake to get it pressed might be smaller per track.

EP is easier though.

Before I get all arts and crafts, anyone have soundproofing materials going spare?

^EP sounds cool, would be a interesting selection of tracks from what I've heard from you lot^

hello!
I've been trying to get into a bit of music production lately.
(just posted a track up on the music makering challenge thread)
does anyone have any good links to tutorials on mastering before I go through the YouTube wormhole?

I'm making kind of ravey-breakbeat-early 90s dance-stabs sort of stuff using fl studio

IMO, I think 'mastering' your own music at home is a waste of time. Practicing good mix downs is what you want, with maybe a bit of light bus compression.
Once you get good at eqing and have your mixes sorted, you can play around with a mastering chain, but you are usually better to sort problems out at the mixdown stage.

+1
Mastering is just the final tweaks to a perfect mix before release and should be mastered accordingly to format. Imo, if you've got a one off track going to vinyl it's worth paying a pro to get it right (and I'll plug Ant who has golden ears
https://www.instagram.com/antchapmanaudio/)
No harm in learning about it though, the SOS archive used to have some good stuff and should be available online still. Personally, I'd use my time perfecting my mixing though as it'd yeild greater overall results.

The mastering wormhole does lead to all kinds of issues with your room, equipment and ears. If you're a busy artist and quite productive it would definitely be worth having someone else do it.

If for example you're writing in headphones or on a small desktop setup, mastering is unlikely to be a real possibility as you do need the equipment you're listening on to be neutral or at least a known quantity that you can adjust to.

Or you can be like Ry Cooder, play it in your truck and if it sounds good in there then it's ready for release.

I'm having a little conversation with the guys I deal with for distribution. They don't organise pressing, apparently it's not profitable enough. They recommend dealing direct with the pressing plant.

If anyone has any connections to services who do press records now would be a great time to put them forward.

My own preferences would be :-

Vinyl Factory - UK based, quality output.
Pallas - probably the best in Europe.

Records coming from these factories are expensive though.

Cheapest in Europe is probably GZ Media. They are supposed to be very busy right now and they press for a lot of majors. Quality can be very bad.

I did a mastering class with Connor Dalton a couple of years ago. He's 'mastered' some tracks where the mix is so good, the dynamic range so solid, he's barely done anything apart from use some gentle limiting.

Tell ya the guy knows his onions. When he points out resonant peaks in tracks that you just can't hear until he uses a notch EQ to take them down, then A/B's. Incredible ears.

http://curvepusher.co.uk/ maybe?

Or you can be like Ry Cooder, play it in your truck and if it sounds good in there then it's ready for release.

In myths that probably never happened... My uni lecturer told the tale of the scrote from The Libertines sending the master back to be re-done because it sounded bad on his laptop speakers.

so mastering really isn't worth it for the bedroom producer?
if i'm just sticking stuff up on soundcloud i should just concentrate on a balanced sounding mix on the setup i have?
i'm mostly writing stuff on headphones, then listening back to it through my small studio monitors and a couple of different speaker setups in the house.

Pallas - probably the best in Europe.

A guy I know uses Pallas and everything I've seen has been super from there. Can string you along with delays for a couple of months beyond quoted times though.

We never "mastered" demos (which normally ended up on MySpace or something) or "punk" recordings when we was doing our little label. Mix - > hard limit to the point you just hear it take effect and back it off a bit - > play in front room, if OK give to DJ to play at club night - >take notes - > remix -> Hard limit as before - > play on several devices and through a PA one more time - > burn 100CDRs.

It's only when we started pressing 500/1000 cds, had distro etc that we started paying for mastering, we just didn't have the ears/speakers/room to do it justice.

All the stuff that makes a track sound good is in production and mixing techniques. Learning to make good decisions. Mastering is a technical process, literally the final half a percent that makes a great sounding track sound like a record (mostly meaning, aligning it with similar released music).

The tips here from Tarekith on mixdowns and mastering are worth a read:

https://tarekith.com/freestuff/