JVE Mastering

Ok. A couple of years ago I had two tracks that I wanted to get mastered.
I had built a new studio with the benefit of hindsight after loosing my first one. I had re designed it from the ground up, and it sounded really good (My current  studio and control room).
Of the tracks I want to get mastered, one is recorded and mixed really, really well. One is pretty darn good. So I start searching for MEs.
I look through “Gearspace” for recommendations. I go through all the web sites of the best MEs in Australia. I look at MEs in England and the USA. I settle on two.
I really wanted to use an Australian ME. Two reasons. One, I’m in Australia, and would prefer the money stay here. Two, it’s way cheaper with our Aussie dollar.

I settle for two USA based MEs. For a week I read as much about the two of them as I can. I watch all their Youtube interviews to try to get a feel for them. I contact them and get their rates. They are almost the same.

Eventually I decide. Two tracks, $730 au dollars. No vinyl.
I remember the morning I received the email telling me Rev 1 was ready. My partner also remembers the morning I received Rev 1.

I listened to 2/3 of the first track, stopped listening, and wrote an email back.
The assistant ME had sent me the notification email.
I wrote, “ did you master this, or did the primary ME master this?”.

I read this out to my partner who was making coffee. Her response, “oh no, reading that, he know’s some thing is wrong.”

The assistant ME got back to me within minutes. “No, I didn’t master it, I just sent the tracks out. Is there something wrong?”.

I explained to him that the hi frequencies were hurting my ears. That the intensity of the high frequency content reached where it was meant to be, at about 2/3 into the song. But there was no build. It was like an ice pick from the word go. I then said that I would go and listen in the studio, as I was having breakfast and I was just listening to drop box direct through head phones (not a good idea anyway, listening directly on dropbox can distort. Always down load the track and listen on a computer).

So I downloaded the two tracks and went to the studio. The ME had provided both digital versions as well as analog. The digital version was lifeless, the analog just plain unpleasant.
I had finally found it, a mastered song which has come back worse than when it was sent.
Not happy.

I spent the next week trying to repair the damage. To see if I could make it listenable.
My father said to me, “Jim, you shouldn’t have to do this.” He was right, but what was I going to do?  I’d done all the research. Risk another $700 plus?

It took me days before I listened to the 2nd track. It was a breath of fresh air. An unpleasant crackle in the intro, but the verse was beautiful. Then came the chorus…. crushed. All life gone. I could not understand it.

After a week, or sometime in that week, I decided out of pure necessity to demo as much mastering software as I could. And with the hardware I had, try to master a track myself. I had never tried. It had never even crossed my mind.

Within 20 min, an hour, I’m not sure, I had the verse of the track with the beautiful sounding verse sounding better than what the mastering engineer had sent me.
Amazing! Success!
I know the gear he has. He has some beautiful sounding gear. And yet I had improved upon his attempt within an hour. I ignored the destroyed track and completed mastering the track with the beautiful verse.

I then wrote up very detailed notes and sent them to the ME and the assistant ME.

They sent me Ref 2. The beautiful track was totally destroyed. Even the verses.
The track with the ear cutting hi frequencies, a lifeless blob. Unbelievable.