Steve PMHOnce you’ve recorded your songs, mastering is the final step to a professional, great-sounding set of tracks. If you don’t have access to a local studio capable of handling it, an online mastering option can help you finish up.
MajorDecibel is an online mastering studio designed to get your tracks into shape and facilitate your launch. Now, you don’t need complex engineering services; just a simple mastering package from this online option. Let’s take a look at what that includes.
Introducing: MajorDecibel Online Mastering
MajorDecibel is designed to be simple to use. It uses an automated online mastering engine — meaning no wait times for third party services or equipment. You simply upload your songs to the system, and within minutes, they return in a mastered form.
The automation is great for those who need some quick demos or who already have a seriously great recording setup, but it can be a little trickier if you don’t know how to maximize your raw recordings. Nevertheless, it’s a solid place to start to get your album out there.
The engine uses various mastering techniques, including stereo enhancement, bass and sub-bass enhancement, and stereo-linked multiband compression. Algorithms decide the best course of action for bringing out the rich sound of your songs, and you don’t have to go through a complex, overwhelming decision-making process to get it done.
MajorDecibel is an independent project designed to appeal to scrappy, upstart musicians who need more affordable choices than what traditional and expensive studios can provide. It allows for creativity to flourish by providing instant results you can release whenever you want—no more waiting to get that concept album off the ground.
With a trial option and two different, highly affordable plans, MajorDecibel could be a great starting point for launching your independent music career or building that concept album or collaboration project. It keeps the budget low while giving you a quality sound for uploading to the internet or sending as a demo.
According to the site, MajorDecibel is maintained and improved by a single person. It’s unclear who this person is, but the site’s mission is to lower the gates for musicians to get their music out there. If you’re clear about what you’re getting, this could be a suitable way to get your tracks to their final form.
Features and Benefits of MajorDecibel
The premise of MajorDecibel is simple. You create an account and upload your tracks to the site. Within minutes, you get the final versions.
It seems simple enough, but there are a few compromises you make when you go this direction.
First, this site isn’t meant to replace the talents and expertise of an actual sound engineer. However, because that talent comes at a premium, this service covers the basics so you can get rolling. If you’ve got a decent recording, you can smooth out the bumps and inconsistencies.
You retain full commercial rights to your music, and there’s no need to credit MajorDecibel for the mastering efforts. All mastering tools are in-house, so the finished product takes minutes instead of weeks, and the site continually searches for ways to improve.
It allows you to finish your demo affordably or handle your music yourself if you don’t have the skills to master yourself. You have several choices for mastering options — low, medium, high. It allows you to customize your sound a bit and decide your priorities for the final product.
Premium users have five additional choices for the final product: warm, warmer, neutral, bright, and brighter.
Toggle back and forth between a few of the settings to see the result on the final track. Once you’ve made your selections, you can download your final product. This gives you even more control and ensures you have the sound you want.
How does it work?
The site prioritizes simplicity. You first choose your membership package, which includes a free version and premium options.
You’ll have a few choices for how your final product sounds, and the entire process takes just a few minutes to come back to you. You can even change the mastering choices before you download the final version.
You’ll upload your music to the site. Free users get file sizes up to 250 MB in size, but premium users can up that amount to 1GB. Within minutes, your tracks will come back, allowing you to toggle between different choices until you’ve got exactly the sound you want.
Because the system doesn’t use a person, you must take some precautions before uploading your music. The system cannot fix low-quality recordings. To get the best results from mastering, you’ll need to upload your tracks in a WAV format if possible to allow the richest sound.
It’s also crucial that you don’t perform any dynamic processing before uploading your songs. It can interfere with what the software can do for your song. Also, the software doesn’t perform any active noise reduction, so ensure your recordings are as straightforward as possible for a good result.
Why choose this service/product over its competitors?
It has a good free and premium option that will cost you less than your amp. With easy to use features and a reliable set of choices for your final sound, it’s suitable for beginner musicians and those bootstrapping their way into a music career.
Other services may be more pricey or have more features, but few of them return results so quickly. And with toggle choices, you’ll have instant final say over your downloads.
Prices and plans
There are three basic choices for your mastering needs:
Free account
You can master two tracks for free every month without ever having to get an account. It’s not a trial or a temporary thing. You get the three mastering choices with this option and a standard Mp3 download format.
For $6, you get three intensities plus five EQ options. You have unlimited mastering for a single artist or band and three file formats (Hi-Res Mp3, FLAC, and HD WAV).
For $25, you get the same choice as the one month pass, but with significant savings. Month to month would cost you $72. If you think you’ll need more than one month, this is the best choice.
All three offer excellent value for the price and allow even the most budget-minded musicians to get their work to its final stage.
MajorDecibel Pros and Cons
It’s an excellent service to work with if you don’t have a lot of resources or options, or if you’re just testing the waters for your music career. However, you should know what you’re getting into before you decide this is the way to go.
Pros:
- Affordable access to mastering services
- Simple user interface
- Multiple toggles for sound customization
- Year-long premium access makes long term projects possible
- Independent software for independent artists
Cons:
- Cannot work miracles (you need a good recording first)
- Choosing high compression dampens the details
- It may take some practice to get the right type of recording
- Limited scope
Ultimately, this option is for musicians who aren’t ready to work with an official sound engineer just yet. It’s suitable for independent artists without access to mastering studios or those working on initial projects who want to keep budgets low.
If you’re working on a high-quality demo, this can help you bring your songs to a finished stage without investing tons of money upfront. Once you’ve figured out the best quality recording to upload and which type, it’s easy to use this software to finish the job.
Frequently asked questions
Is mastering necessary?
Mastering helps balance the sound and volume of multiple instruments and vocals, creating a harmonious sound. If your levels are perfect across the board, it’s an unnecessary step, but that’s best-case scenario.
Does mastering make a difference?
Working on the stereo mix can make a huge difference once you’ve recorded all the pieces. It smooths out volume levels and ensures that all parts play well together.
Verdict
MajorDecibel is an excellent way to get started making professional-sounding recordings. Its low entry fee ensures you have the funds for experimentation and the free plan helps you get the hang of what you’re doing. It can help you polish your recordings and ensure that the sound is uniform and distinct.
You’ll have to get a good recording in the first place because it cannot fix poor or even mediocre recording. With free plans, you’re limited in scope.
Premium plans are also somewhat limited but should be sufficient for artists that don’t need a lot of fancy polishing. For demo work or uploading to the internet, MajorDecibel should do just fine.
