Cheap CD Mastering - Read this before you spend your money...

You'll find services online which offer cheap CD mastering for your music.

I want you to know however that you won't find a good mastering engineer for cheap.

Why?

Mastering engineers specialize in the "voodoo art" of music production called mastering, as you probably already know.

This art requires a pair of excellent ears and takes years of training and experience to master. The equipment used in mastering studios also falls in the high-end (read VERY expensive) range. Good mastering engineers are therefore rare and can charge a lot for their services.

So, you get what you pay for.

You'll find some people think they can do real mastering using software in their home studios, and these same individuals often advertise cheap mastering services. Please don't be fooled. Your music will not be at the commercially viable level when you go with these cheap services.

I recommend the DIY route in almost every area of your music business EXCEPT for mastering. Yes, you can use various tools to make your music sound louder and more exciting in your home studio. This is not mastering though and will never sound as good as professionally mastered music.

"Cheap" mastering ends up being expensive because you'll most likely be disappointed with the results and then have to send it to a real mastering engineer, which means you pay twice where you could have paid only once.

You'll want to therefore work mastering expenses into your production budget as this is a vital for your music to be ready for public consumption.

All the best,
Marius van Dyk

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