anyone tried Landr?

[Susanstunes]

Hi everyone,
Has anyone tried Landr for online mixing and mastering? Do you think it does a good job of improving sound compared to the old fashioned way? Susan

[Len911]

There have been past discussions on Landr. It sort of evolved from the Queen Mary University of London http://c4dm.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/automaticmi ... ering.html

This is Josh Reiss, a professor there giving a lecture on some of the general principles, I think he took part in the development of the program.
https://youtu.be/ft92zY6icKc?t=22m9s

[andygabrys]

Hi Susan,

This frequently comes up.

Here is another thread (that references two other discussion threads) about LANDR.

http://forums.taxi.com/topic131727.html

The bottom line is its highly dependent on what you feed into it - i.e. how good your mix is to begin with. If you mix sounds great, then your master will sound great. If your mix needs a lot of work, then the result will be a master that is loud and possibly has some professional "sheen" but people with ears are still going to hear the mix that needs work.

LANDR's results are also highly style dependent.

If you upload something in a "modern" style that usually makes a very loud master commercially (Pop, Hip Hop, EDM) then your results will be better than if you have a mix that is a genre that is more sensitive - especially Jazz, or soft singer songwriter or something similar.

Depending on the service level that you choose with LANDR (i.e. basically how much you pay per month) you have differing amounts of control on the final result, as well as the format of the final output (quality of file).

Hope that is helpful.

[Len911]

The bottom line is its highly dependent on what you feed into it - i.e. how good your mix is to begin with.

Ahh yes, I keep forgetting it's not part of the automatic faders, panners, compressors etc., if it used those for the mixing it would probably have much better results.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtnRkiWKuN0

[Susanstunes]

Thanks for the feedback. I think maybe it adds a little sparkle, but doesn't replace a human.

- Susan

[TheElement]

Hi Susan, I used to use it. I figured it was best in the first year or so of producing that I'd use it for mastering so I was able to concentrate on mixing and writing.

It was good to use in the first year or so but I had to keep uploading new mixes and that was time consuming. I still got some Landr mixes for tracks. Like 100's of uploads to get the final master where I liked it.

I eventually bought Ozone and messed around with that but I soon grew tired of that. I'm continually chasing that sound in my head but have for now settled on using 4 plugins on my master chain. I now produce and mix with this master chain on. So now right away I hear a polished sound right from the start. Some producers frown on this while the other camp like Steve Duda's recommends this approach. I like this way of "mastering". mix, produce and master as you go.

You could always deselect the master chain and send the unmastered stems to a studio to get mastered.

I'm rambling back to Landr ..you can get the same sort of sound by sticking a saturator plugin on the master channel. All that does and what Landr is doing is exciting the mix which creates harmonic enhancement.

also you just need a little imaging, little EQ and compression. then on end of chain just add a limiter.

you can do:

EQ
Compression
Imager (its a very subtle spreading of the mix you want. I use the Ozone Imager for this and can also make everything below 100HZ mono which is good to do and helps get a cleaner mix. so the imager is a good plugin to add to master chain)
Saturator
Limiter

For saturator and limiter I use The Sausage Fattener. It does both jobs. EDM producers like to use this plugin.

So you can get similar or better results doing your own mastering.

[Susanstunes]

Thank you for all that data and as a musician without a home studio I will keep your info for when I get my studio set up...hopefully in the next year. In the meanwhile I can chat it up with the engineers where I record.
Much appreciated! Susan

[Paulie]

Susan, do you have a Mac or PC yet? Don't let the concept of a "home studio" intimidate you. People can create great music with basic audio software. Garage Band on the Mac is an excellent starting point as well. At the end of the day it's not necessarily the gear, it's the musician.

[Len911]

Susan, +1 Paulie.

These days there is really very little reason not to start immediately, I mean an old computer, there is so much free or little cost software, even linux is free and has options, though a little more complex to get going,lol!

There are very inexpensive ways to get audio and midi in and out of the computer with usb. There are many inexpensive dynamic mics on ebay. $50 nano controllers...

just sayin'