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cosmicwarrior



Joined: 18 Oct 2005
Posts: 3

PostPosted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 5:02 am    Post subject: basic questions before i start Reply with quote

hi,

i want to use your service for remixing two songs, (progressive instrumental) but first a few ?"s...

i am a drummer and i recorded some songs with a guitar player who did the recording. i know very little on recording and mastering because it was always done for me in the studios. i know by ear but not by turning knobs! he used a yamaha aw16, but i have the songs converted in wavs. we recorded the drums first and i didn't have any drum mics at the time so i had to borrow some cheap ones and record everything in a hurry, doing almost everything in one take. afterwards the gutar player recorded directly with more time, although he did alot of it in parts with a lot of volume fluctuations within the seperate tracks. we did our best for a rough mix, but the overall sound lacks alot. i would love to just record these songs over again in a good studio, but the guitarist left town, and he was definetly a better guitarist than engineer! so i'm stuck with poor mixes and the poorly done masters. anyway..

1. i would like you to work your magic on these songs, also maybe do some cut and pasting of some drum measures, or perhaps i can do that later once i get the properly mastered individual tracks??

2. i feel to do it right i would want to listen to actual cd's rather than on the computer, but i live in mexico at the moment and the mail system is not the best. also, i'm just on a 56 dialup. do you think there will be problems doing everything through snail mail?

3. if i do use a puter.. how are files sent to you? wavs?

4. i would also like the final masters in different forms. (final stereo mix, mix without drums to use in drum clinics, final mix of individual tracks ready to add more instruments later.) would these different mixes be available in the same deal?

i'm sure i will think of more questions later,

but for now, i look forward to working with you.

thanks,
eric

p.s. you probably are too busy but if you have a min. you can find my songs on garageband.com in band search go to cosmic warrior. there you can find the bad mixes in mp3. there are four songs but i only have the masters for "the last mirage" and "mission possible"
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cosmicwarrior



Joined: 18 Oct 2005
Posts: 3

PostPosted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 4:50 am    Post subject: i think i misunderstood the services you provide Reply with quote

since i will need corrections in individual tracks before the 2-track mixdown.

anyway, let me know what you think

thanks again
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Lorenz @ XARC Mastering
Site Admin


Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 62
Location: Germany

PostPosted: Thu Oct 20, 2005 2:11 am    Post subject: Re: basic questions before i start Reply with quote

cosmicwarrior wrote:
hi,

i want to use your service for remixing two songs, (progressive instrumental) but first a few ?"s...

Hi Cosmicwarrior,

I hope you are doing fine and nice to see you found the long way through the internet to the XARC forums - welcome on board!


i am a drummer and i recorded some songs with a guitar player who did the recording. i know very little on recording and mastering because it was always done for me in the studios. i know by ear but not by turning knobs! he used a yamaha aw16, but i have the songs converted in wavs. we recorded the drums first and i didn't have any drum mics at the time so i had to borrow some cheap ones and record everything in a hurry, doing almost everything in one take. afterwards the gutar player recorded directly with more time, although he did alot of it in parts with a lot of volume fluctuations within the seperate tracks. we did our best for a rough mix, but the overall sound lacks alot. i would love to just record these songs over again in a good studio, but the guitarist left town, and he was definetly a better guitarist than engineer! so i'm stuck with poor mixes and the poorly done masters. anyway..

1. i would like you to work your magic on these songs, also maybe do some cut and pasting of some drum measures, or perhaps i can do that later once i get the properly mastered individual tracks??

I am sorry to hear the problems you are having with your mix, upon a first evaluation I am sure I can tell you what I can do and what possibly not. However, when sending your mix(es) any editing should already be done. This is because of the various "final steps" that I will do during the mastering and to keep everything intact. Basically said, the only thing you should do with the files you get back from me is to burn them to CD and/or publish them exactly as they are. This way the final peak-limiting and especially the dithering to 16bit will stay intact.

2. i feel to do it right i would want to listen to actual cd's rather than on the computer, but i live in mexico at the moment and the mail system is not the best. also, i'm just on a 56 dialup. do you think there will be problems doing everything through snail mail?

In case you have a flat rate for your dial-up the upload might still be faster (and more flexible when you possibly want to send a new mix of a song) than sending a CD in the snail mail. To calculate how long the upload of your files would take approximately, you can use the Upload Calculator over here: http://www.xarcmastering.com/faq/upload_calculator.html Though you can of course also snail mail your material, but we would be less flexible and it would be more costly (shipping fees) of course.

3. if i do use a puter.. how are files sent to you? wavs?

Yes, WAV or AIFF and preferable in 24bit+ and at the sample-rate you mixed / recorded at. For some more details on what to do and not to do prior to the mastering please refer to here: http://www.xarcmastering.com/faq/#q9

4. i would also like the final masters in different forms. (final stereo mix, mix without drums to use in drum clinics, final mix of individual tracks ready to add more instruments later.) would these different mixes be available in the same deal?

Yes, as lined out on the rates page they can be included for a small extra-fee (http://www.xarcmastering.com/rates/):

"Intro- and interlude-type tracks that don´t require any processing as well as instrumental mixes from vocal versions (if their sound is exactly identical to the main version just with the vocals or other tracks turned on or off) can be included for a flat fee of €9 Euro each."


i'm sure i will think of more questions later,

but for now, i look forward to working with you.

Please feel free to ask more questions, I would be glad to help and thanks again for your post. Let´s speak soon hopefully.

thanks,
eric

p.s. you probably are too busy but if you have a min. you can find my songs on garageband.com in band search go to cosmic warrior. there you can find the bad mixes in mp3. there are four songs but i only have the masters for "the last mirage" and "mission possible"

I will definitely take a listen to them when I find a moment, but actually we should do a real in-depth evaluation of the mixes at the time we decide to look into the project - preferable from "real" and full-quality WAV/AIFF sources (not converted back to WAV from MP3).

Thanks and best regards,
Lorenz
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cosmicwarrior



Joined: 18 Oct 2005
Posts: 3

PostPosted: Sun Oct 23, 2005 6:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

hi,

thanks for the response.

like i said in my 2nd post.. i think that the work i need done (editing, cut and pasting, remixing) is not really the services you provide.

i really need to learn a puter program like sonar. Smile

just wondering if there are any online services that provide this kind of work?

anyway, thanks for your time and suggestions.

regards,
eric
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Lorenz @ XARC Mastering
Site Admin


Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 62
Location: Germany

PostPosted: Sun Oct 23, 2005 10:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi Cosmicwarrior,

I don´t know any online services that do provide this out of sudden, but if it is just basic editing we can see if I can do this during the mastering. I just would need to talk with you about what exactly is needed and hear the material as well.

Please just let me know if I can help and I wish a nice week ahead.

Regards,
Lorenz
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