What Audio Mastering Software Should I Choose? Options

[WhoForTheJoy]

Hi, just so you know, I'm definitely a newbee. I've been making some demos using Garageband 3.0, and have gotten to a good place on a couple of the songs, and I want to add warmth, fullness, sparkle and volume. I'm running OSX on an iMac. It would be ideal to get one that's user-friendly, but still with good quality.

Any reccomendations?

Thanks in advance!

[mortalengines]

I've been doing this for years & I STILL really can't afford any Manley or Avalon gear & Apogee converters are not exactly cheap either. Also keep in mind, truly accurate mastering requires some really expensive monitors & the properly treated acoustic environment. Having said that there is no shame in paying someone else to master your audio. If they have the gear & the room they will definitely do a better job & these days mastering can come inexpensively.

[aportman]

I've been doing this for years & I STILL really can't afford any Manley or Avalon gear & Apogee converters are not exactly cheap either. Also keep in mind, truly accurate mastering requires some really expensive monitors & the properly treated acoustic environment. Having said that there is no shame in paying someone else to master your audio. If they have the gear & the room they will definitely do a better job & these days mastering can come inexpensively.

I've been doing this for years & I STILL really can't afford any Manley or Avalon gear & Apogee converters are not exactly cheap either. Also keep in mind, truly accurate mastering requires some really expensive monitors & the properly treated acoustic environment. Having said that there is no shame in paying someone else to master your audio. If they have the gear & the room they will definitely do a better job & these days mastering can come inexpensively.

If at all possible go have your final project professionally mastered, unless, of course, you are extremely versed in mastering, and too, have a environemnt that is designed for mastering. I just had one of my client's projects mastered yesterday, which I struggled with having it professionally done. After listening to the final project with the Mastering Engineer, I was fully convinced that I had made the right choice.

Even though I have an upper-end home porject studio, with approximatly 30k worth of equipment & software for audio shaping, I tend to struggle with acquiring the consistency, mainly due to an inconsistent environment acoustically speaking. It is not that I do not have the ability to accomplished well polished product (sound), but I have to massage and compensate excessively for the inconsistent environmental that I am in. I find it much easier (if you can afford it) to leave these kinds of things up to a mastering professional. Some one who can listening objectively, and who is also seated in the sweet-spot. They will be the ones who can achieve most often in short period of time, with things that we struggle days (or months) for. They will solidify and achieve qaulity and conistency across the project's. You can have a rack full (plug-ins) of upper-end equipment such as Manleys, Avalons, SSL, etc, but unless you have the ear (fresh ear), or the environment, you will not conclude with a satisfactory resuls. We put way too much time, effort, energy, and money into our projects for it to end-up sounding not its best, due to a sub-par mastering attempt. My personal philsophy, is when my name goes on a project's cover as engineer/producer that I know is going to be distributed far and wide,I want the icing on the cake (product). When I plug-in a CD and the sound blows me away, I immediately flip to see where it was recorded, who engineered, and who mastered it.

I am in not way saying that smaller-scale studios/egineers (like myself) cannot accomplish a quality end-results. Many incredible results have and do come out of smaller studios. But if you are in doubt (like me at times) that the product is lacking or has not reached its potential and is in need of the mastering touch, then by all means beg and plead with the client to have it professioanally mastered. You will be amazed at the resluts when the mastering engneer lets you listen to the results by A/B the pre and post mastered product.

You guys are great in the Mac World. I absolutely learn a ton of new stuff from your postings on a daily basis. Keep it coming!

Allen