Emastered Vs ProOnlineMixing

     During the last years we have witnessed a true revolution in the audio world. Well, in the world in general, and in audio it could not be less. Technology allows us today to do wonderful things in our homes that were previously only possible in large studios with expensive and specific machinery and wonderful professionals. Well these are still needed.

This has also been moved to the mastering section. More than a decade ago, online mastering services emerged, like my own and today it is normal and established in the industry. Having the opportunity to work with a mastering engineer, regardless of where you live or have your studio, and getting the best result for your music is a great opportunity to improve your work.

     In recent years there has been one more step (I do not know whether forward or backward, we will see later) and fully automated online mastering services have appeared, in which we understand that artificial intelligence operates (I think that calling it that is something too ambitious (even if it works for marketing purposes) that analyzes our song and applies the processes it considers necessary to have a professional mastering.

To me personally it seemed a bit of science fiction and even an exaggeration. I did not believe that satisfactory results could be achieved with this method and I stayed on the sidelines.

But one day piqued by curiosity I did a test to upload a song that I had mastered for a client and I was surprised.

Is it really worth it?

That is the big question. Is it a quality service?

I’m going to be honest with you, maybe for someone yes, depending on what purpose you want to master your song.

So that you can create an opinion, I have taken two one-minute pieces of a song and uploaded it to Emastered to compare the result with what I did.
It is a complex track, with a lot of energy in the bass and with a lot of dynamics in which I had to automate processes in the mastering to achieve a consistent track, with volume but without abusing compression or limitation.

Here you have the result and you can compare what the «machine» did and what I did as a mastering engineer.

You can comment on your impressions and we can debate whether this way of working works or if it works only for certain productions or products.

What do I think?

For me these services have their public. If you are an amateur, you do this for fun and you want to give your songs a certain polish at the sound level to teach them to your friends and things like that, it is perfect.

Now if what you need is to get the best result for your music I would not recommend it. I believe that the advice and knowledge of a dedicated mastering engineer will give you a much better result, since for example, an engineer can be involved from the mixing process, advising you to have more consistent mixes and obtain an optimal final result. At least when possible so I do.

Besides, there is a slightly confusing policy regarding rates and customer service, at least in the specific case of Emastered, as you can see on the reviews website Trustpilot.

Still the debate is served.
I encourage you to give your opinion freely.
A greeting!

Alvaro Delgado