RedStone
Member
I have a couple of mixes that I've been working on as I've learned Mastering techniques. One track in particular gave me a lot of trouble and when I got it to a place I was happy with, I decided to try Mastering the track through a variety of services, and thought it might be interesting to compare them with the final version I decided on after much comparing and auditioning and getting feedback.
Even with the final master, I found there were trade-offs. But I was happy with the trade-offs I settled on (and that is the most important part).
I used Reaper to compile the various versions and loudness matched them to avoid the perception of louder = better. I was going to do this as a blind test, but I decided to leave the service names in.
Here's what I used and some thoughts:
Waves Online Mastering - Pleasantly surprised. I liked what it did for the most part. Controlled high end, nice midrange, but the low end wasn't quite there. I wanted a bit more thump in the kick and a bit more presence in the bass guitar. If I had to choose between only AI services. I'd have probably gone with this.
AAMS - brittle upper mids, uncontrolled High frequencies, and low end was lacking. Trying a few presets could probably help and I just used the free version so no customizations.
Self-Master - Ultimately, this is what I decided on for distribution. For the self master, I used Ozone (not the AI section, just a bunch of the modules), Soothe 2, Townhouse Bus compressor and the Bx_true peak limiter. Would you have gone with this?
E-mastered - barf. terrible midrange, low end lacking. truly awful. I liked the v1 of this service better, though v1 was always too heavy on bass for me.
LANDR - Not bad, but not incredible. I used balanced and normal loudness settings.
Here's a link to the test. I zipped it for easy download
Even with the final master, I found there were trade-offs. But I was happy with the trade-offs I settled on (and that is the most important part).
I used Reaper to compile the various versions and loudness matched them to avoid the perception of louder = better. I was going to do this as a blind test, but I decided to leave the service names in.
Here's what I used and some thoughts:
Waves Online Mastering - Pleasantly surprised. I liked what it did for the most part. Controlled high end, nice midrange, but the low end wasn't quite there. I wanted a bit more thump in the kick and a bit more presence in the bass guitar. If I had to choose between only AI services. I'd have probably gone with this.
AAMS - brittle upper mids, uncontrolled High frequencies, and low end was lacking. Trying a few presets could probably help and I just used the free version so no customizations.
Self-Master - Ultimately, this is what I decided on for distribution. For the self master, I used Ozone (not the AI section, just a bunch of the modules), Soothe 2, Townhouse Bus compressor and the Bx_true peak limiter. Would you have gone with this?
E-mastered - barf. terrible midrange, low end lacking. truly awful. I liked the v1 of this service better, though v1 was always too heavy on bass for me.
LANDR - Not bad, but not incredible. I used balanced and normal loudness settings.
Here's a link to the test. I zipped it for easy download
A.I. Mastering vs Human Shootout – Google Drive
drive.google.com