When you jumped back from Landr to Ians master it did sound like there was something missing in the bass (its all relative to what you’ve just heard) but after about 3 or 4 seconds you realise that the bass on Ians is just right and sounds balanced to the rest of the track, there is no reason why this song / genre should have massively boosted low end, much better to have tight and defined low end which is what Ians version has. There is just no clarity just a big bass boost. The landr one sounds terrible, just sounds like its had a massive bass boost, doesn’t appear to have ‘fixed’ anything in the mid range, if anything it sounds more narrow in the stereo field than the original mix. Ian’s master sounds open, wide and balanced, I can hear everything clearly, which for me is the goal. No contest, the original mix sounds good to my ears, but its a bit ‘middy’ sounds a bit cluttered in the mid range, can’t really pick out the details of some of the guitar parts. As someone who does a lot of mastering work for clients and tries to keep prices affordable I think automated services are hurtful to the profession, so it’s nice to hear a human winning. Occasionally I actually missed a little bit of the mids from your original mix but I think overall I’d pick Ian’s – even handed, not hyped but more sculpted. Ian’s master doesn’t have a super distinctive footprint on the mix, he’s more doing subtractive stuff to my ear rather than additive, which in most cases is the best way to go. it squeezes out headroom for other elements and is just distracting from other stuff in the mix, and also if someone is going to listen to this in their car or home stereo with a bass-heavy EQ setting anyway that master would be way off. At first I didn’t have a powerful positive preference but more a distinct negative preference for the LANDR version – there are things I liked both about your mix and then Ian’s version, whereas the LANDR version is just way too heavy-handed with the bass – reminded me of those old types of consumer discmen/walkmen with a “bass boost” switch. I listened a couple of times on earbuds and then headphones. I read something yesterday (a quotation from someone important, I’m certain) that said in essence that trying to describe differences in music using words is akin to using dance to explain architecture. #LANDR MIXING PLUS#Plus Ian’s mix ‘seemed’ a little more wide in the field. By reducing that freq I was able to hear the main part of the vocals and guitars better. I did notice that Ian’s toms, snare and kick seemed more weighty (that’s good!), and he was able to locate a high-mid zone that seemed to be a little irritating. No offence intended Graham, but your choice of swooshy ‘verbs and delays isn’t my ‘bag’, and in some ways makes it difficult to distinguish the drums and bass the way I prefer. And ps I am listening on my AT-50m phones because some are sleeping in late. But there were a couple things from each mix that did jump out in variance to the others. All three are tons better than the pitiful stuff I am producing (boo-hoo), and it really seemed that all three were very LOUD and lacked noticeable dynamics (in other words, are radio-ready!). For the perfectionist, that’s a damn tough call…. The hardest part is when to know when to quit and say it’s done. And as with any master project, it might sound great in a pair of Bose QCs but awful on a cell phone which is what most people use nowadays, so yeah it’s a moving target in many ways. When self-mastering you kind of have to pretend you’ve never heard the track before and give it a whole new listen. I think by the time we’re ready to master, we’ve studied each millisecond of every single tracks countless times. Preference plays a huge role at that point and time. But it’s like my wife says, “You can’t make chicken soup out of chicken sh*t” meaning a recording can only be as good as the artistry, techniques and technology used to prep it for mastering. My ears are 58 years old too with a lifetime of loud music so don’t trust me. The bottom line really is all the mixing work that went into the project BEFORE mastering.
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