mixdowns and mastering

[@1]

I'm interested in getting a track mastered by XARC. My mixdown / general engineering skills are pretty average though. Can you recommend a studio to do the mixdown pre-master for me before I submit it to XARC for the final master? I'd prefer to submit parts over the internet for this.

[Lorenz @ XARC Mastering]

Hello @1,

thanks for your interest. I can recommend Johannes Lõhmus from Downtown Studios. I work with him on regular basis and he is a very good mix engineer with a impressive portfolio. On top of that everything can be done online as well. You can reach him via http://www.dts.ee/index.php?lang=eng&mid=68,81 or directly at johannes@dts.ee

If you have any questions, you can reach me anytime at lorenz@xarcmastering.com

Regards,
Lorenz

[9b0]

Hi XARC team!

We are a VST developer team, and we announced nowadays a competition!

Please, if you have a minute, take a look at our competition site:http://www.wwaym.com/loudness_competition.html

We would be really glad to listen to your entry!

Thanks for your attention:
Balázs Gyutai / WWAYM

[Lorenz @ XARC Mastering]

Hello Balázs,

thanks for your post but unfortunately my schedule is to tight to take place in your competition. Additionally I would (after listening to the file to be mastered on your site) not want to make this one as loud as possible since it does not really translate for this style in my opinion. Loud does not mean quality - most often it means the opposite and it is sad so many good recordings are being treatened this way nowadays. The loudness, like any other processing (be it EQ, Stereo Image, the choice of the right unit for each process...) during the mastering, should always go along and underline the message and charm of the record. Making it incredible loud at all costs (except the song (or the label;) *really* needs that) without taking this into account is definetely the opposite of creating a fine and emotional master.

A interesting related article (by Bob Katz from Digital Domain) that explains my point a bit more in detail can be read here: http://www.digido.com/portal/pmodule_id=11/pmdmode=fullscreen/pageadder_page_id=93/

However, I wish best of continued success to you and your company and will take a look at your site from time to time

Regards,
Lorenz

P.S.: There is a little typo on the competition site, the RMS of the file really is: Left: -19.53dBFS Right: -19.52dBFS

[9b0]

Thanks for the quick reply and the help Lorenz!

I want ot make clear, that we dont force people to just make it loud and overcompressed. We just try to mess our software with others gear. We ask everyone, to make it as loud as possible, but with taste. This means that we dont want to hear an overcompressed record, we want to keep it as clean/warm as possible, so we can show that our stuff is able to do it. As loud as possible means no quality lost, just make it as loud as you can by sounding as good as you can. This is what we want to force, and the jury will choose the winner also this way.

I just wanted to make this clear. We dont want to destroy the music, we just want to show, that our product can do what people need.

Thank you very much for taking the time to visit the contest, i will correct that typo failure!

Best regards:
Balázs Gyutai / WWAYM

[Lorenz @ XARC Mastering]

Hello Balázs,

thanks for explaining. I misunderstood the approach of the competition then when I was viewing the competition page.

Keep up the good work and best of success to you and your company and your further developments.

Regards,
Lorenz