How do you master yours?

[ernstinen]

Sept 28, 2008, 10:12pm, mojobone wrote:Old-school analog guy myself, and I don't believe it's necessary to limit live vocals going to tape/disc, unless you have a vocalist with an enormous dynamic range, which happens from time to time.How about 99% of the time! I've only recorded a singer ONCE in all my years as an engineer without a limiter/compressor, because I was young and couldn't afford one. The guy was one of the top session singers in L.A., Joey Scarbury, and all I had was a 58 and a good board. Since he was a real pro, he knew that I was inexperienced, but worked the mic like a live vocalist. Sounded pretty good!But I'll never forget the first time I borrowed a friend's dbx 160x. It was like the WORLD of singing and recording opened up to me. I thought "Ah! THAT'S how the pros do it."I literally thanked my friend for "Saving My Life" as a vocalist. I could finally concentrate on the performance, and not just on levels. --- And I'm no "screamer" with wide dynamic levels, just an average pop/rock singer."No brag, just fact" (where is that line from?) --- I've recorded probably 100 different singers while I was still producing demos/CDs for artists, and they uniformally remarked on how great I made their vocals sound. And this was using a $400 condenser mic, not a $3000 Neumann!That's my story, an' I'm stickin' to it! Ern

[prez]

I'm a die hard believer in not mastering my own material. I get the best possible mix I can and if it needs to be mastered, my client can get someone else to do it, or I'll pay for someone else to do it. I try to stick to what I'm good at which is composing, mixing, songwriting, and just general producing. Jude 2