Master By Mail???

[sethbrand]

Hey guys,

Have any of you ever heard of masterbymail.com??? Is it any good. They charge like $99 bucks for a full album to be mastered and a lot of the bands I deal with are on an extremely low budget, including my own, and this is very attractive, is it worth the stamps???

Seth

[superpenguin79]

Seth: I will share with you man what I have learned the hard way over a long period of time.. A good mastering engineer is worth his or her weight in gold. Honestly this site looks like they have something setup in a bedroom with some form of software presets that they will run your music through and it will not sound the way your band has meant it to sound. I can however reccomend a few great folks from the DUC and otherwise that are reasonable with their rates to master. Believe me when I say that if you want to show the world your bands true potential, check out a bunch of different folks and ask for samples of their work and give them a listen, then decide which one fits your budget and sounds the best. Price is not always best for audio.. If you are interested in a few folks that could help you out, please e-mail me off the boards and I'd be happy to reccomend some great engineers I have come across. Goodluck with your music. peace

[sethbrand]

Hey thanks for the help. I would love to hear some of your recomendations. I shot you an email so get back to me when you can. Thanks again!

Seth

[Julio Serrano]

That´s no new...

Until now, technology and marketing are growing up in big steps, in response, some prices (of above Services) are, in many cases, very low... independent of knowledge and equipment of the Company, Studio or Techs.

I live in Mexico and many times I need to make some Services with low budget, its because ever appears somebody who say "I can make the same work in a half cost"... maybe just with a CPU, Headphones and Soundforge, and the Client don´t know if that work is really the same (and he doesn´t interested); in the many times the Client is just looking for the lower cost...

In change, I have some Clients in USA and Europe and they are very gratefull´s with my work, because many of they are looking first for sound, second for cost and then for CREDITS... meybe MEXICO is a thing exotic for the Album.

So now you know... when you´ll need an Audio Service, try to write me... Please be shure that my work is good and the services many times is flexable to your budget.

Un abrazo.

[I'm a Rocker2]

Hello,
I recommend you stay away from master by mail. My band was in a pinch to get our disc mastered fast, and they seemed like the best way to go. What a mistake. Their average turnaround time of 3-5 days, is more like almost 2 months and still nothing. Emails from them are full of lies. Don't trust them! I joined this forum just to post this warning. If I can save a few bands who do their homework a hundred bucks I'll be happy. Good Luck - John Elwert

[badboymusic]

Whomever you are considering, ask to listen to samples of before and afters in your style of music. It's the quickest way to get an idea if you are likely to be happy with the results. If you like the way they mastered someone elses music, check references and give them a song to do. If you negotiate the package for all of the songs ahead of time, many engineers will give you a credit for the first higher priced one. Example: They would charge $175 for one song, if you like it and hire them to do 9 more, they charge you $100 per song for a 10 song total package of $1000 minus the $175 you paid for the first song. If you decide not to use them for the rest you are out $175, but you still saved most of your budget and get to keep shopping for an engineer that is a good fit. (I'm just throwing out the figures above for example)

[savedinc]

We sent our cd to be mastered by master by mail. When we got it back, it was extremely bassy. The vocals were set way back and you could not hear them clearly. This was our first impression, then when we sent our cd to the radio station for airplay, that was what they also told us. We have been trying to contact master by mail for the last 2 weeks to get them to correct the problem. They said they guarantee their work. We already paid them and now they do not seem to want to fix the problem. They do not offer a phone number for contact. They have been ignoring our emails. We are about to contact the Attorney General's Office.

Sincerely,
Monica

[lemix]

Hey Seth,

Contact me privately...
GO BLUES !!!

andrew