Words by Stuart Kettridge | Kettridge Mastering.
Don't release your tracks unmastered, you're cheating yourself, it's your advertising platform, whether we do it, or another company.. And these five points as to how you warrant spending £20.
- As said, your tracks are to advertise you. If they don't sound right they are not going to get played by the DJs that can advertise you the best.
- I hear you say that you won't make that money back... No you won't, if you don't spend it to advertise yourself properly ;)
- Imagine giving the track to a big artist to play who isn't necessarily clued up on how a track should sound until they play it on the rig instead of the laptop and it falls flat .. Whoops .. Not going to picking your stuff up again are they ..
- If you don't invest in yourself then why should a promoter or label invest in you ... Plus you will more than likely piss off any distributor that gives a shit because it's those guys that will be delivering your work to the sites and it can make them look bad.
- It won't sound the same mastering it digitally, or at your home ... I said the same, not wrong, I've mastered for years digitally and the only thing that comes close is UAD emulations, and I mean really close..
Why do we know this ? Because we have made those mistakes in the past ourselves.
Also beware of engineers that charge a ridiculously low fee and then say 'it's because we are only starting up or we don't have much gear or outlay' ... Brilliant, pay someone else to ruin your work. Either they can do the job or they can't .. You can pay me 5-10 quid if you like and i'll run it through ozone ... No, no I won't ;) .. You might as well of done it yourself then .. Oh, back to square one :D
I've had quite a few tracks sent to me in the last 6 months to check if they are ok ranging from small bedroom digital engineers right up to very well established high end analogue companies ... You would be surprised at how many engineers have a bad day. If your not happy with what you've had returned then speak up :) ... I've messed up in the past for having an off day before, I've been pulled up on it, it has then has been amended .. Simple .. Any engineer that thinks they are god or that they know it all and are right every single time are the type of engineers you want to stay away from ... Like I've said before even the big guns get it wrong now and again and they would gladly admit it .. Don't shoot yourself in the foot ..
Think positive. Be happy. x