Within days of mastering his album, the lead track was #1 on Hypem: Tom Cascino’s tracks feature a characteristic richness and warmth, with plenty of deep bass. You can see visually how little dynamic contrast there is, compared to my master at pretty much the same volume. Worse, this version is even more compressed (as opposed to peak limited). It’s easy to trade low frequency energy for volume. There’s more of everything I didn’t like in the previous version - the thinness is more pronounced and the lows are even more lacking. Let’s turn it up to 11 and try again at “high” intensity (a paid option):īetter? Not to my ears. Unfortunately, the track would be the quietest in any EDM playlist. On the plus side, I appreciate that LANDR doesn’t win the Loudness War by default. This tonal balance might be perfect for folk or classical, but it doesn’t cut it for EDM, hip hop, or even pop. Keep in mind, LANDR uses the same algorithm for all genres of music. The result is thin and narrow and just “off.”
To my ears, the biggest problem is the lack of low end. Is it just me, or does the LANDR version sound like it was mastered by an astrophysicist? Here’s LANDR’s master at the default (medium) intensity:
I was asked to give it “the full EDM treatment,” which I interpreted as, “make it loud!” Here’s a taste of the chorus, unmastered: (Click Image to Listen)
All files were encoded to mp3 at 320 kbps using LAME at the highest quality setting. wav masters, to compare to my uncompressed 16-bit. While differences in volume are important for the purposes of this evaluation, you should try to match playback levels when comparing the examples for sound quality.ģ. Louder pretty much always sounds better to the human ear. Am I biased? Perhaps, but who’s more qualified to evaluate a mastering service than a mastering engineer? Let your ears be the judge.Ģ. Three notes before we get our hands dirty in this mano-a-microchip match-up:ġ. To find out, I selected tracks from three recent mastering jobs, to compare my results with LANDR’s. Guess this mastering engineer is out of a job, right?
Their algorithms were refined over eight years of university research, and they even have a resident astrophysicist. Paid users also get to select the “intensity” of the mastering: low, medium (the default), or high. Pricing is very reasonable at $9 for four or $19 for unlimited masters per month. If you like what you hear, you can pay for uncompressed 16-bit. LANDR provides unlimited 192 kbps mp3 masters of your tracks in seconds. Making the Most of the Recording Studio (15)ĭrag-and-drop online mastering is here, and it’s free to try.Internet Strategies, Resources, & Websites (97).