Great comments! I would add that there is much debate regarding how "hot" one's mastered tracks should be relative to other people's music, vs preserving the dynamic range of one's own music (i.e. the "loudness war").   There is definitely a tradeoff, and you'll want to hear the difference.   Luckily, most mastering engineers will for the same price give you a set of hot masters for the web / broadcast / iTunes (where dynamic range is less important than impact), and another full-range set for mastering to CD or vinyl. 

IMHO, mastering is most useful in making tracks hang together as a collection.  So, if your tracks a) all come from the same recording/mixing session, or b) aren't destined to be released as a CD or LP, one could argue that mastering just offers a final opportunity to tweak the eq, compression and loudness of your tracks.  If that is indeed the case, and the untweaked versions sound just fine to you, heck, save your money.

In the end you have to trust your ears.  When THEE DIRTYBEATS mastered its debut, we went with light compression (ie broader dynamic range) mastering for everything.  That just seemed to sound more like the vintage garage rock records we loved. 

THEE DIRTYBEATS - maximum vintage garage
Free download at http://theedirtybeats.bandcamp.com

I generally agree with G. Wood's comments.  Mastering does affect the overall volume level but it also can shape the sound of each track.  Shmo, I can't tell from your post whether you attended the mastering session, or whether you sent the tracks to someone to master and they sent them back to you.   I recommend that if you get the opportunity to attend a mastering session, that you do it.  And while you are there, ask all of the questions you have about the mastering process.  I also recommend that you have the tracks mastered by someone other than the person who mixed (and/or recorded) the tracks.

Yeah, good question. Mastering consists mainly of setting EQ, and making it consistent throughout the album, applying compression, and setting master volume. At 58, my ears are pretty much unreliable. What sounds good to me is a lot of highs, but this sounds too brash to most people with better hearing. Compression is a tricky thing, the right amount sort of glues everything together, too much makes everything sound kind of muffled. 

Garage fans like a rawer sound than regular humans, so we're sort of disabled in that way. In the end, I'd say, Mastering: Yes. Then there's the little issue of finding someone who knows what they're doing. Different people will produce a different sound. Your mileage may vary!

anybody out there that leans towards not mastering your recordings despite any downsides like radio stations won't take it, and what ever else. I'll be the first to admit that i don't fully understand mastering, and that i'm paranoid that it is just an up-sell. ( it's the underbody protection of the music industry). but we just got our album back from mastering, and besides it playing louder i didn't really notice much difference. if i can tell a difference i think i like the raw better. OR is that because i've been listening to the raw for 2 weeks and now the mastered is here, and it is not what i'm used to?

I've recently come across an ace band from Valencia by the name of La Moto De Fernan by way of this, perhaps one of the best videos I've seen in a long while. Takes me back to the days of Ren & Stimpy!

There's a band coming out of Salford, England right now as well called The Calimocho Club. They're playing stipped back blues like early Black Keys, but before that they Were The Black Knights. Glorious trash blues...and not a bass note in sight.

One of my bands, Tombstone Hearts, has no bass player; my other band, Nero Burns, does - the best of both worlds! It's apples and oranges, really. Gotta admit, I love the sound of early Cramps, but when they added the bass....it just wasn't the same. But then again, where would the Ramones have been without Dee Dee? It's apples and oranges, really.

Glen Matlock was/is a good bassist. Now Sid on the other hand...

don't forget the sex pistols.... haha.

yeah, we had a guy approach us and said almost the exact  same thing.... we never got to try him out for geographical reasons, but i would bet dollars to donuts that he would have chopped the tops off the sound we are going for. and, in turn put everybody in the audience in a comfortable upright, head bobbing toe tapping position. people like bands like THAT because they don't have to worry about missing a show.... there will be another one just like it.

i sincerely mean no disrespect... but we get the "where's the bass player" thing a lot. usually before they have heard us. and i am way more concerned about where the energy is, and where the emotion is than where the bass player is.

John Carlucci said:

Well I have to admit, I'm biased about this topic.  Yes there are bands that sound okay without a bass player, but IMO, they would sound better with one. Just about any band I've ever seen live that had no bass player, whether it was Suicide, The Cramps, Black Keys, or even my good friends the Vooduo, when I'm there watching them play, I'm playing along with them, on bass, (in my head) & I hear things that would help tie everything together.  @ John B above...Lee Michaels played bass pedals on the Hammond live. Suicide used a bassy tone on their keyboards & played repeating bass patterns much like a bassist would do. No-one mentioned The Doors, they had no permanent bassist, In the studio they used session bassist Harvey Brooks & live Manzarek played Fender Keyboard bass. The Dead Boys used local NY musicians to play bass with them until Jeff made the move from Ohio. One of which was Rudi from The Fuzztones who played live with them at least once at CBGB's.

Also, IMO most of the bands doing the no-bass thing are doing so out of convenience.  Take my own former band, The Speedies. They played out for 6 months without a bassist before I came along. I saw them play at Max's and I could feel what they were missing. I walked up to Allen, the drummer & flat out told him, you need a bass player & I'm him. We tried it out the following week, and they never went back to playing without one.

 

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion!

I could not agree more. Where's the interplay and harmony? A troubling trend in rock music today. You need at least three people in a band! Of course there are exceptions but most people are not as talented as The Cramps or White Stripes or whoever...

I like bass too, but THE HONEY HARLOWS use a 70's Fender Super Six 6X10 combo, everything turned up to "11", and it's actually better than the 5-piece Ampeg/Marshall assualt--don't get me wrong, I like that!--but the heavy low end and treble with reverb, you can't go wrong and our recording has a lot of punch and lo-end for a 2pc.! Possibly the equipment has a lot to do with what the ear hears, for me anyway.

Good call on Atomic Suplex! We played with them earlier in the year and they damn near brought the pub crumbing to it's foundations. Amazing band.

Gotta love Clinic as well, especially the first few records. They've gone a wee bit softer in their old age, but are still an amazing band.

Just gonna chime in quick here. I grew up in Greg Shaw's 'Cavern Club' in L.A. in the '80s. I saw all the bands playing in those days like the Unclaimed, Pandoras (Paula taught me how to drive!), Gravedigger V, Untold Fables, Thee Fourgiven, The Miracle Workers (who I lived with), Primates, Tell Tale Hearts, etc. Here's a pic of John Carlucci and I (plus some others) at the Cavern in 1986:

Agree wholeheartedly with John C. bout The Miracle Workers and The Pandoras.They were my faves too.

One question that always came up in our little clique was "The Chesterfield Kings or The Tell Tale Hearts?"

Yup. I was around then. Played bass in The Fuzztones from 86-90. Did gigs with a lot of the bands that were mentioned above. My faves from back then? Miracle Workers & Pandoras

This is a really cool sound. Just listened to the 2nd song -- She Wants Me Dead -- thanks for posting to the cloud for all to hear and appreciate. And incidentally, two and a half minutes might just be the perfect song length. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate all kinds of music, and dig on opus-like songs from Pink Floyd, Mars Volta, Sleep, Grails.... but sometimes bands just need to get to the point and kick out the jams.

Polyvinyl Craftsmen said:

Wobbly Lamps from the UK. Check their new single here

Good recommendations all around. Now I've got plenty of new stuff to listen to throughout the summer.

Err... yeah...

Whoa! Perfectly horrible.

Yes, KKBB has a CD out called "Kaboom" it's on Itunes.  BTW, I have the ORIGINAL Quick lp on vinyl.

Wow cool, do you guys have anything recorded? Any releases out? I loved that Speedies lp! So good!

John Carlucci said:

I still have the Speedies release for sale on Itunes& Amazon. It's also on spotify. A friend of mine found the vinyl copy of the Radio Heartbeat lp at Amoeba in LA. Otherwise Ebay is your best bet.

For any Speedies fans out there living in the NYC area, my new band Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is playing at Cavestomp on July 28th, and we will have a special guest (Eric Hoffert, my former Speedies bandmate) will join us on guitar for one song.

 
Duke Of Earl said:

Where can you buy the crushed butler and speedies records?

Yeah, there was a couple years there where Radio Heartbeat stuff was all over and I picked up most of them, trying to find the Quick lp though. The Crushed Butler LP is awesome if you can find one.

I just received my North Effects Rite pedal today.  Man, I got to thank you waveclipper for hipping me to this great pedal.  Yeah, this is the fuzz sound I was looking for.  I've been terrorizing the family with this pedal.  To cite my 10 year old daughter, "It sounds too ugly to listen to."  Gotta love it.

Rock And Roll Dance Party 07/10/12