Three Unpronounced Pitfalls of Unpaid Mastering That Could Sabotage Your Recordings
In the world of music production, the final touch that brings together all your hard work is mastering. This crucial step, often overlooked, can make or break a track's potential success. Two popular choices for automated mastering are iMusician Instant Mastering and Waves Online Mastering.
These professional automated services, launched in 2014 by iMusician, stand out from free mastering services in several ways. They employ advanced AI and adhere to industry mastering standards, delivering polished, release-ready tracks that optimise tonal balance, dynamics, stereo imaging, and loudness, tailored for various playback environments.
One key feature of these services is the ability to upload your track and optionally a reference track to guide mastering towards a desired sound. They use smart, automated settings based on industry norms and reference matching, ensuring consistent mastering results optimised across platforms and playback systems through AI-driven custom-tailored processing.
Paid automated services offer more than just loudness enhancement or basic EQ. They provide greater attention to dynamics, stereo image, and tonal balance, leading to a more professional, polished sound. The high-fidelity processing and mastering-grade algorithms used in these services are tailored for commercial distribution, providing a better final product consistency.
In contrast, free mastering services often lack the processing sophistication found in paid tools. They may focus primarily on simple loudness enhancement or basic EQ, without the nuanced dynamic and tonal control provided by paid services. Free services typically lack options for reference track matching, professional-level tonal balance, and output format flexibility.
While free services may be useful for initial experimentation or rough mastering, paid automated services offer more reliable quality. They utilise advanced AI and expert mastering knowledge, handle multiple sonic elements with precision, and often provide previews and revision opportunities before finalising your purchase.
Moreover, the limitations of free services can cause artifacts such as smeared transients, imaging, brittle high end, distortion, and pumping that can damage your track. These limitations can lead to a loss of potential listeners, fans, and opportunities.
In addition to mastering services, both iMusician and Waves offer a range of benefits, including Mastering Revisions, allowing for subtle changes to get closer to the ideal sound, and unlimited mastering and distribution, 30+ plugins worth over $2,000, and a weekly newsletter with updates from the website's team of music mentors. iMusician also offers a blog with gear guides, tips, tutorials, inspiration, and more.
In conclusion, for those seeking a high-quality, professional mastering service, paid automated options like iMusician Instant Mastering and Waves Online Mastering offer a more sophisticated, polished sound and better final product consistency than free mastering options. These services provide a comprehensive solution for mastering your music, ensuring it is ready for potential fans, managers, and labels to hear.
[1] iMusician Instant Mastering. (n.d.). Mastering. Retrieved from https://imusician.com/mastering
[2] Waves Online Mastering. (n.d.). About. Retrieved from https://www.waves.com/online-mastering/about
- The automated mastering services offered by iMusician Instant Mastering and Waves Online Mastering, launched in 2014, stand out from free mastering services by employing advanced AI, adhering to industry mastering standards, and optimizing tonal balance, dynamics, stereo imaging, and loudness for various playback environments.
- Paid automated mastering services like iMusician Instant Mastering and Waves Online Mastering offer a more reliable quality than free mastering options, providing a comprehensive solution for music production by offering features such as Mastering Revisions, unlimited mastering and distribution, and a range of beneficial tools for music distribution and entertainment.
