I'm struggling a lot with the mixing and mastering part of the process and I think hiring a professional mixing / mastering engineer will help me get a better sound for my tracks and learn something on the way.
Can you guys recommend someone? and how much should I expect to pay for the mixing and mastering?
I can recommend Hugo Paris at Tiny Crush Mixing for the mixing part, and Nathan Moody at Obsidian for mastering.
http://tinycrushmixing.com/
https://obsidiansound.net/
They are both stellar, neither are cheap. Like, not even near cheap. However, they're both worth every penny.
If I do another all-the-way album, I may find someone local to me for mixing, but I will definitely go back to Nathan for mastering. If I had label backing I'd request Hugo again in a heart beat.
One of the things to keep in mind is what you need. Are you looking for MIXing, or mixing? If you're pretty happy with how things are sounding and just need to make sure levels, EQ, etc, are good to go for mastering, I don't think you'd want to go with someone like Hugo. If you want a deep dive though, he's the kind of mix engineer you want.
Nathan's my guy for mastering, period.
There are many, many, MANY others out there though.
Inscrumental music for prickly pears.
If you want to learn instead of hiring out, then...
I took mix & master classes from a strong engineer (Friedemann Tischmeyer) at https://www.mastering-academy.com/ I would HIGHLY recommend this training if it is of interest and in budget. It greatly advanced my mix & master abilities.
Alternatively (and cheaper) IMO the mix videos on SonicAcademy.com are quite useful for EDM style genres. PureMix.com has great stuff for rock, pop, etc. Steven Slate's training videos and sessions (with CLA, etc.) are also very strong. So there's good stuff now available in video format.
Yes, learning the basics is in my roadmap, I'll check it out. Thanks!
