I was really pleased with the CD I made at home, but when I took it round to my mates to play it to him, it sounded terrible on his Hi-Fi. What did I do wrong?
Mixing a song at home is all very well. You may even be lucky enough to have a room which is acoustically sound. Even so, you must get into the habit of setting your system controls to a reference position before you start, and listening to the mix on as many sound sources as possible. After that the track needs to be mastered to bring out its full potential and balance it with the other songs on your CD. If you are already happy with your mix, Mastering may be all that it needs. It’s always best to have a different pair of ears mastering it for you. We recommend spending as much as you can afford in taking it to a good mastering studio. However, if your budget is too low for that, we do sometimes master external projects here from as little as $27 per song.
