[Rozovian]

...and mixing, sure, that too.

Basically, I'm looking for albums that are mixed and mastered really well. Dynamic but competitively loud, balanced, all that jazz. For ocr it's relatively easy to just dig up a handful of recent tracks and compare, but I need some professional works to reference while working on my original album. Dunno yet if I'll learn to master it myself or hand it over to a pro, depends on whether my ears and mastering stuff are any good. I know I probably _should_ let a pro master it, but I'm thinking I could learn at least some of it.

I'm looking for electronic music, but if this is gonna be a helpful thread for others, it might as well cover any and all sounds.

edit: to clarify:

What are the best produced electronic albums out there?

[AngelCityOutlaw]

Originally Posted by Rozovian

I know I probably _should_ let a pro master it, but I'm thinking I could learn at least some of it.

I'd probably still buy and listen to it regardless of whether you or a pro mastered it.

[Neblix]

Do it your OWN way, because you have experience. There are professionals who do mastering that people don't like, and there are professionals who do mastering that everyone likes. There's no correct method that professionals use that is a gigantic secret to hobbyists.

[DJ SymBiotiX]

Originally Posted by neblix

Do it your OWN way, because you have experience. There are professionals who do mastering that people don't like, and there are professionals who do mastering that everyone likes. There's no correct method that professionals use that is a gigantic secret to hobbyists.

No... they just know a whole lot more than you do about mastering, and they have tons and tons of experience in it.

[Neblix]

Originally Posted by DJ SymBiotiX

No... they just know a whole lot more than you do about mastering, and they have tons and tons of experience in it.

Experience doesn't always sound good.

People don't care about if the guy who mastered it was an experienced professional, and that's not even close to what you can call a factor in the enjoyability of the music. It seems you missed the point of my post.

Professionals don't all master the same way. Some do it in a way that certain people don't like. I don't give a damn if someone has 10 years of production experience. If he mastered something badly, it's not "secretly good and I just don't know it because I'm not a pro". It'll be good to some people because that's what they like.


Anyways, I like the mastering on Antigravity and Fittest - OST.

[AngelCityOutlaw]

You know, I'm gonna have to actually agree with Mr. Neblix here.

"Professional" typically means, "you get paid to do it". There's varying levels of professional as well. If you master your own track, you try it out in all the sound systems people are actually going to be listening to your music on and it's sounds great; then you have achieved the goal have you not?

I'm definitely not denying that someone who has many years of experience mastering tracks in a particular genre can produce slammin' results, but I don't feel that it is an absolute necessity to have it mastered by a pro. You can still get great, perfectly acceptable results by learning and doing things yourself. I think that OCR has actually proved that in some ways. Most pro mastering guys started by mastering their own tracks and getting better and better over the years. Nothing is ever perfect though. There will always be room for improvement. So if it were me, I would probably do it myself to keep improving.

[theshaggyfreak]

While this isn't material to listen to, many consider this book one of the best resources for understand the mastering process. I need to pick this up myself at some point:

http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Audi.../dp/0240805453

I often will refer to albums that I personally like the sound of. I then spend a lot of time listening to it on the same speakers that I plan on mixing/mastering with. That usually gets my mind in the direction I want to go in.

[Cyril the Wolf]

With mastering there are things. I like the Infected Mushroom's newest stuff their mastering is pretty tits as far as I am concerned, but that's becuase it's what i like.

Mastering is damn subjective. Once again, you like what you like. If it sounds good, great, if you have a song you are modeling another after then you have a good place to start. For instance:

I modeled something I did recently after a song by Avenged Sevenfold (in this case, Nightmare) so what did I do? Tweak my stuff until it sounded an approximation.

Learn the tools, know what certain plug-ins do to the sound (as some are modeled after vintage gear) and figure out stereo enhancers. Stereo enhancement isn't always necessary, but I find a bit is always nice with the way I mix, if the stereo field is already pretty wide, then no need etc etc.

I know how i like things to sound, pretty warm and pretty dynamic. But some people like squashed 0 dyanmic mastering. Also, you can forget about achieving the perceived loudness RMS of modern pop recordings, you'd have to have a perfectly treated room to get that. Just get as close as you can an hope for the best. <3

[José the Bronx Rican]

Starting with the understanding that 'mastering' covers more than what's being discussed here...

"Experience doesn't always sound good," but no one brings up what guarantees we hope to expect from LACK of it. And how about the 'education' part? Know-how does play into it. Also interesting that 'Antigravity' and 'Fittest' were brought up, both of which were done by someone who currently offers professional mastering services.
No one would argue that the pros can get it 'wrong' sometimes in the opinion of many listeners, but the implication that 'pro' is as much a crap-shoot as 'DIY' is a honking great conceit. You're much, MUCH more likely to get amazing results from someone who makes it his or her profession. But do your homework and find a good pro, if you care enough, like Rozo does, about getting your product to sound as polished as possible to as many people as possible. If the choice was between someone like Bernie Grundman, who's done everything from Steely Dan to Dr. Dre, and whose name is guaranteed to be found in everyone's album collection, or someone with Audacity and a soft-knee compressor/limiter VST... well, you'd be shit outta luck, because you probably can't afford Bernie Grundman. However, I'm comfortable recommending zircon, who likely is affordable, and is proven.

All that said, I don't think it's necessary to list examples of well-mastered albums, because I'm certain your all-time favorite albums will fill the bill quite nicely. And it helps to study each whole album, backwards and forwards, to understand as much as you can how peaks and dynamic ranges between tracks are controlled, among other things. Goes without saying we should keep learning, whether or not we let someone else do it for us.

[Rozovian]

Suggesting I not reference well-produced albums, suggesting lack of experience is a good thing, suggesting a book I already have (:P), suggesting mastering is so subjective anything goes, suggesting zircon who's already at the top of my list... :D

Yeah, no. Thanks, but this isn't was I was looking for with this thread, guys. I kind'a need more references because I honestly don't have that large a library of electronic music and not necessarily the ears yet to tell which albums are the best produced. Lemme rephrase...

What are the best produced electronic albums out there?