Is automatic online mastering any good?
Mastering Engineer Ian Shepherd, who recently shared a series of videos on creating a home mastering studio, looks at LANDR, an instant online mastering service.
In the video, Shepherd tests the service out, using the song Choices by Project Divide, discusses the pros and cons of the results and compares it to a version of the song that he mastered himself.
His takeaway? LANDR can’t replace the experience and judgement that a mastering engineer brings to the job, but you can try it yourself for free and may find it a solution for some uses.
One of my uni lecturers tried this out with a couple of tracks he’d mixed, and then compared it with students’ mastering attempts. Even the first timers did a better job. File under cool idea badly executed
It would be cool if it used outboard gear, and gave you full control. I’d like to run sounds thru some nice vintage compressors from across the world.
NO it’s not any good simply because mastering is mainly about STYLE and a machine can’t analyse what is style…..it is so contextual…..
Ok if you are doing generic electro-press-button-mix-the-loop on a 200$ sound system it may help…..
tested this using a few different styles. it just simply can’t be done. there is no one-size-fits-all algorithm for successful mastering. And while it supposedly learns from every file uploaded, what if people are uploading the worst mixed audio ever? which I assume they are if they think an auto-mastering service is going to work.
I have used LANDR a few times now. I found it to be worse than my own attempts to master. I think your words for LANDR were kind and Tactful to say the least. Your explanations made far more sense. The key ingredient is a human. Many thanks Ian. You brought me back to reality.
You should try MixMaximizer.com
You should try MaximalSound.com too