Mentors In Music Mastering and Mixing

[jbandes]

I just received my UAD Satellite yesterday and now I am even more Addicted to Pro Tools and Mastering. I cant believe how amazing the plugins sound. Its amazing to me that a company can "model" a piece of analogue hardware and make an electronic plugin sound so much like the analogue hardware its mind blowing. No wonder its now possible to mix in the box.

I currently work as a Litigation Support Manager in an International Law firm (technology in a law firm) in Manhattan (My day job) but my love and passion for music and mastering has become an addiction. I wish there was an organization that I could join and get to meet some Mentors that could show me a real music studio. I would love the experience to hear a Manley Massive and other analogue gear live and in person.

I keep buying more and more gear and I am afraid that my obsession will soon lead to purchasing some analogue equipment to play with (huge grin)

God you have to love this music mastering field. its so fascinating.

[musicman691]

Considering what you've been talking about and where you live, before you invest in any more hardware or even software, you really should think about insurance coverage for all your gear if you don't already have it. Most homeowner's or renter's insurance won't cover your stuff unless you have a specific rider attached to the policy.

Talking about insurance - get ZDT (Zero Downtime) insurance for your iLok. At $30 per year it's a no-brainer. And get a backup iLok as well.

For another type of insurance think about your incoming AC power. Get a good ups to plug your major equipment into - it'll not only help during brownout/blackouts to give you time to shut down gracefully but a good one will also have spike and surge protection. I use APC ups's here and the one I currently have in my daw setup completely regenerates the incoming AC power to a true sine wave. A lot of ups's only use a stepped square wave approximation to simulate a sine wave. A tip - plug a low wattage lamp into the ups so that when the power goes out you can see your way around without banging into things

[jbandes]

Originally Posted by musicman691

Considering what you've been talking about and where you live, before you invest in any more hardware or even software, you really should think about insurance coverage for all your gear if you don't already have it. Most homeowner's or renter's insurance won't cover your stuff unless you have a specific rider attached to the policy.

Talking about insurance - get ZDT (Zero Downtime) insurance for your iLok. At $30 per year it's a no-brainer. And get a backup iLok as well.

For another type of insurance think about your incoming AC power. Get a good ups to plug your major equipment into - it'll not only help during brownout/blackouts to give you time to shut down gracefully but a good one will also have spike and surge protection. I use APC ups's here and the one I currently have in my daw setup completely regenerates the incoming AC power to a true sine wave. A lot of ups's only use a stepped square wave approximation to simulate a sine wave. A tip - plug a low wattage lamp into the ups so that when the power goes out you can see your way around without banging into things

Great advice. You are allowed to make a backup of your ilok

[mjslakeridge]

Book a few hours of time in a studio to overdub some vocals to some tracks you have recorded, and watch the engineer do some edits, and use Auto Tune to pitch correct the vocals. Watch him/her tighten up some drum tracks. Or if you are primarily interested in Mastering, book a couple of hours in a mastering studio and have the engineer talk you through the process. I don't know how friendly/accommodating the engineers are in the NYC area are, but here in Houston, I have booked studio time at a couple of really good studios (Sugarhill and Wire Road Studios), and have met some very good (Grammy Award Winning) and friendly engineers.

Booking hours in the evening or off peak hours is generally cheaper. Back in the day, I even took my old Roland VS 1680 DAW into the Pro Studio to sync up with ProTools to record some vocals and the engineer was happy to figure out how to get the DAWs synced together.

[jbandes]

Originally Posted by mjslakeridge

Book a few hours of time in a studio to overdub some vocals to some tracks you have recorded, and watch the engineer do some edits, and use Auto Tune to pitch correct the vocals. Watch him/her tighten up some drum tracks. Or if you are primarily interested in Mastering, book a couple of hours in a mastering studio and have the engineer talk you through the process. I don't know how friendly/accommodating the engineers are in the NYC area are, but here in Houston, I have booked studio time at a couple of really good studios (Sugarhill and Wire Road Studios), and have met some very good (Grammy Award Winning) and friendly engineers.

Booking hours in the evening or off peak hours is generally cheaper. Back in the day, I even took my old Roland VS 1680 DAW into the Pro Studio to sync up with ProTools to record some vocals and the engineer was happy to figure out how to get the DAWs synced together.

In the Mixing Engineers handbook 4th edition it also says that Engineets in this field are all very friendly and willing to share their knowledge. They said that this happens because even with the knowledge everyone masters and edits differently. It's nice to hear that that has also been your experience. What does it cost hourly to book time? I really like that idea.

[Drew Mazurek]

Book some time with Ted Jensen @ Sterling.

Buy him one of his favorite sandwiches and he'll tell you anything you want to know!!

https://www.numpangkitchen.com/menus...chelsea-market

[jbandes]

Originally Posted by jbandes

In the Mixing Engineers handbook 4th edition it also says that Engineets in this field are all very friendly and willing to share their knowledge. They said that this happens because even with the knowledge everyone masters and edits differently. It's nice to hear that that has also been your experience. What does it cost hourly to book time? I really like that idea.

Right now I am taking 100 Reel to Reels from the famous disco clubs from the early 80s and trying to digitize and make them sound better. I feed them into a focusrite 4pre on thunderbolt into Pro Tools and then I use Uad Plugins like Manley Passive and others to EQ and compress and try to make them sound their best. I would be willing to take a few into a studio to remaster. I wonder how much can really be done to make them sound their best. I would imagine that not much can really be actually done to improve them but I could be very wrong. I will research this and live your idea thank you very much.

[jbandes]

Originally Posted by Drew Mazurek

Book some time with Ted Jensen @ Sterling.

Buy him one of his favorite sandwiches and he'll tell you anything you want to know!!

https://www.numpangkitchen.com/menus...chelsea-market

Ah yes the way to any good man is through his stomach. Thanks I will give that a try. I think I will go crazy walking into a real studio. I will be like one of those rock groupies hahaha

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by jbandes

Great advice. You are allowed to make a backup of your ilok

But you can only have the license assets on one iLok at a time.

[jbandes]

Originally Posted by Drew Mazurek

Book some time with Ted Jensen @ Sterling.

Buy him one of his favorite sandwiches and he'll tell you anything you want to know!!

https://www.numpangkitchen.com/menus...chelsea-market

Drew, thank you I emailed his assistant and asked her to relay the message that I would bring him a sandwich as you have suggested and also asked for his rates to remaster one of these reel to reels so that I can see what is possible.

Thanks again for this post.

Regards,

James Bandes