You've spent a few thousand dollars on some decent recording gear and finally have 10 songs recorded in your "home recording studio".
Now what?
Do you want radio exposure? Sell some copies at your live shows?
1) Continue through the process and do your own mixing and mastering. Rent some high end Lexicon or Eventide outboard fx units, and/or purchase some hot fx or compression plug ins. Hopefully your set up is recallable because it would be nice to tweak the mix over a few days, listening on a variety of different speakers in different rooms.....don't forget "the car stereo", commonly known as Studio B. Make some notes and keep perfecting your sound. DO NOT oversaturate the levels in mix mode, you can get maximum levels in mastering, but be careful of how you maximize cause I've heard mixes that just have too much grunge. Distortion takes the life out of your mix never mind that it sounds very unprofessional and will not be played on the radio. If all you need is an mp3 for My Space players, then by all means, save a few dollars and do it yourself.
OR....
2) Get some final help from a professional recording studio. Find a studio or engineer that fits your budget, don't forget that most individuals will tailor a rate to your needs. If you are going to mix in Pro Tools, look for an HD studio, preferably HD3 or more, as opposed to an LE system. The quality of your final CD will have more Punch, more Bottom end, size, depth and width. A good mix (24 or more tracks) could be done in about 4 hrs, with maybe some recall and tweaks on another day. If you want radio play then spend a bit more, the engineer may want to Auto Tune the odd phrase or Align the kick and bass here and there as well as automate some levels to build dynamics lost in the recording process. By choosing a professional to lend their "ears" and "experience" to your project you'll save time in the long run, especially in the Mastering phase......if all you can afford is to Master in a good studio....then DO IT!!! You will not be wasting your money......I've had clients falling to their knee's with excitement on hearing the final mastering of their Home Recording.
Now what?
Do you want radio exposure? Sell some copies at your live shows?
1) Continue through the process and do your own mixing and mastering. Rent some high end Lexicon or Eventide outboard fx units, and/or purchase some hot fx or compression plug ins. Hopefully your set up is recallable because it would be nice to tweak the mix over a few days, listening on a variety of different speakers in different rooms.....don't forget "the car stereo", commonly known as Studio B. Make some notes and keep perfecting your sound. DO NOT oversaturate the levels in mix mode, you can get maximum levels in mastering, but be careful of how you maximize cause I've heard mixes that just have too much grunge. Distortion takes the life out of your mix never mind that it sounds very unprofessional and will not be played on the radio. If all you need is an mp3 for My Space players, then by all means, save a few dollars and do it yourself.
OR....
2) Get some final help from a professional recording studio. Find a studio or engineer that fits your budget, don't forget that most individuals will tailor a rate to your needs. If you are going to mix in Pro Tools, look for an HD studio, preferably HD3 or more, as opposed to an LE system. The quality of your final CD will have more Punch, more Bottom end, size, depth and width. A good mix (24 or more tracks) could be done in about 4 hrs, with maybe some recall and tweaks on another day. If you want radio play then spend a bit more, the engineer may want to Auto Tune the odd phrase or Align the kick and bass here and there as well as automate some levels to build dynamics lost in the recording process. By choosing a professional to lend their "ears" and "experience" to your project you'll save time in the long run, especially in the Mastering phase......if all you can afford is to Master in a good studio....then DO IT!!! You will not be wasting your money......I've had clients falling to their knee's with excitement on hearing the final mastering of their Home Recording.
The amazing new technologies we have today have made it possible for home recording artists to add these final touches online, remotely or by email. Even though our recording studio is in Toronto, Ontario we have worked on many projects for artists from far and near this way, including artists in Buffalo, New York, Montreal, Los Angeles and more exotic locales like Sydney Austraila and Sweden.
- Jim Zolis, Toronto
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