Well, I've finally come to the conclusion that I can't master my own album.
After many days spent mastering, re-mastering and starting from scratch again and again, I've decided to have a professional do this. I've discovered that mastering is very different than the engineering I'm used to on the "frontside" of a piece of music.
While in the throes of this epiphany, I stumbled on this YouTube vid that made me chuckle, especially the bit about having your work professionally mastered! It's by a band I've never heard of and whose music I probably wouldn't ordinarily seek out but everything said is very sage advice indeed! Total respect - these guys use a lot of modular synthesis and processing! Many musicians never figure half of these things out:
I can't say I disagree with a single thing said. :D
...I do wish I had had a bit more humility from the get-go and decided earlier to have the new album professionally mastered and saved myself an infinite amount of screaming-and-hair-pulling frustration!
