Comparison - unmastered & pro mastered by John Cornfield...

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Hi,

I decided to write a song for the 'International Songwriting Competition', to give myself some focus and for a bit of fun... I didn't get shortlisted so that was that, but I still enjoyed the whole process. I will difinetly have another go.

I decided to get it mastered by John Cornfield to give it that extra polish and as an experiment to see how it would sound.

Please have a listen and let me know what you think?

Mastered by John Cornfield - http://cornfield.co.uk

https://soundcloud.com/mechanism-music/ ... -masterwav

Unmastered version for comparison:

https://soundcloud.com/mechanism-music/ ... ed-version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjxIDJ4lVGQ

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There is a marked difference between the unmastered/mastered versions. I noted that the vocals on the mastered version are much more in the foreground, which is good. They were almost "hiding" on the original. The mastered track is a big improvement.

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Yes, sounds better. Great work on getting the music out there, helpful to have a challenge

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I'm curious what sort of mastering tool John Cornfield used to make the guitar so Vibrant in the mastered version of your song. I have some bell and mallet songs that I'm pretty pleased with the mastering of that utilize things like the Resonance Emotional Mallets bell sounds but I find the contrast between your self mastered song version and John Cornfields song version extraordinairily good in terms of the vibrant brightness. I personally love to EQ with the special 3 knob low/mid/high analog Waves API eq. There's also a 4 knob version. In addition I use other tools to make more of a mix dimension and traditionally only make low frequency cuts or high boosts on the individual mix channels but a 3 way presence boost is made with the API Waves EQ.

The API was most popularly used when it first released in I believe the 70's on things like voice and guitars but I love to master with it. It has a great analog appeal to it and wonderfully adds presence and dimensional lift to the mix, but what's John Cornfields mastering EQ brightness secret if it isn't a secret?? Maybe I'll put up some of my personal masters at some point. Some of them are on my youtube page. The song's "Painted People #1" and "Painted People #2" use my special mastering techniques and also have some special instrumentation. My Youtube tag lists a link to my YouTube homepage and I assembled a special Slideshow of wonderful interpretive dance imagery of painted people and also special other painted people imagery. Very classy and a perfect match like sometimes can be found on sites like google images and pinterest and even deviant art. Love to hear back about John's secret mastering recipe.

-Sam Abate
My YOUTUBE slideshows, etc. - https://www.youtube.com/user/samabate2k

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Thanks chaps for the replies and great comments :)

I too was curious to know what John Cornfield used for mastering, I did ask but didn't really get anywhere with my query...

It could be equivalent to asking a chef what ingredients and techniques were used in a dish...
(apparently only 2 people know the mixture of ingredients for Heinz Baked Beans!)

I hope he put it through some Neve hardware and a Lexicon at some stage though... at least 8)

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