Hi everyone, it’s Meng here from BandLab :-)
As you guys know, we're big fans of the ProductHunt community - it's been really good to us! I’m very excited to share the launch of our integrated algorithmic mastering tool, which empowers everyone to create perfectly polished, radio-ready tracks - fast, simply and most importantly - for FREE.
We’ve got such incredible music makers, producers, composers and collaborators creating on our platform, so we are really pleased to be able to equip them with the right tools so they can produce their best sound - whether you record on your phone or through our incredible Web product (Google Chrome recommended).
Like our entire BandLab platform, this new service is free for all users and it seamlessly integrates into our Mix Editor. We mean it. Unlike other services - with our mastering tool there are no hidden charges, monthly fees, free up to XXX quality and most importantly - we don't take any credits on your production whatsoever.
At launch today, you'll be able to select from three track mastering options: CD quality, which is an incredibly versatile setting that boosts the overall volume and polish of the track; BASS BOOST, which enhances the bass of the tracks and is great for EDM and rap; and ENHANCE CLARITY, which adds audio brightness and pop-sensibilities, and lets each layer stand alone.
We're in live beta now so you can visit http://www.bandlab.com/mastering to check it out and it's only available via the Web - but anything you record on your phone is instantly synced with the cloud so you can re-master it with just a click when you get home to your desktop.
But here’s something I really want to take the time to stress: Mastering is an art, not a science.
While I am incredibly proud of the technological achievements of this release, the R&D and professional tuning of our algorithms and the results for our community, the human ear will always be the most accurate and delicate piece of music equipment ever created. As a technology company, we always look to see what the best performance we could get at scale and whilst I'm incredibly proud of the depth of our work - a good mastering engineer will take a little bit more time but will always be able to create better results than a computer, because it's about helping YOU best represent your sound and that is an incredibly subjective but beautiful thing.
Mastering engineers are people who have dedicated time to build experience in a craft and we know this by having them on our team and working closely with them for this release. That's why we made it free - if you're going to pay for mastering then don't pay us, pay a professional - it's hard enough to make a living with the changes in the music industry!
Ultimately, we hope that this service will achieve two things:
1) That our users will always have the ability to sound their best - whether they are collaborating on a project privately or sharing a track they've been working on with their fans on BandLab.
2) That this service will bring more recognition to the benefits of mastering and therefore opportunities to all the professional mastering engineers who are part of our global BandLab community.
I am really excited that mastering is now accessible to everyone on BandLab, so that everyone can just focus on creating great music. If you haven’t started creating with us yet - now’s the perfect time to jump online or download the app and try us out. We're always trying to make BandLab better, so please give us feedback whenever you have interesting ideas! As usual, I'm here to answer any related questions! :-)
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