Musicians: Master Tracks Instantly with LANDR

Mastering is the final polish on your music, the finishing touch that makes it ready for the world to enjoy. But historically, mastering has always been expensive, very specialized, and time-consuming. It is one of the last barriers that keeps musicians from releasing more great sounding music. A new tool for musicians called LANDR aims to change that.

LANDR is an intelligent online mastering tool that gives musicians a way to professionally master tracks without learning complex software. It allows you to create a professional quality master, in seconds.

We spoke to Mixgenius, the startup behind LANDR (fellow Montrealers), about the company, the technology, and how they see this changing the game for indie artists.

To try LANDR for free, visit www.LANDR.com

Exclusive offer for Bandzoogle members: Get 3 months free when subscribing to the LANDR Pro account!

Q: Who is LANDR for? Can you quickly explain what mastering is, and why musicians should master their tracks?

LANDR is for musicians, producers, DJs, videographers, basically anyone working with digital audio looking to make their tracks sound better.

Mastering is the final step in audio post-production, the subtle manipulation of a finished stereo mix, to balance or correct resonant frequencies, overly dynamic performances, and essentially polish it so every detail comes through loud and clear.

Think of it as a final spot-check before sending a model out on the run-way. For amateurs, LANDR is revolutionary as it helps to level the playing field, so their music can sound on par with professional artists.

For a lot of talented artists, the technical hurdles involved in self-mastering are overwhelming, and we think we can help give them the confidence to share their tracks and finally call them FINISHED.

Q: Our CEO David remembers seeing the technology a few years ago, back when it was in its infancy and wasn’t a real product yet. Can you quickly tell us how it was invented?

MixGenius incubated and refined algorithms developed over eight years of academic research. Turning that research into a product has been a very challenging process, involving world-leading DSP programmers and engineers passionately testing and tweaking, designing a learning engine that not only sounds great today but is crucially built to improve the more we throw at it.

Q: Who works at Mixgenius now? Do you guys have a background in music?

Our team of over 25 is largely composed of music industry veterans - award winning mixing engineers, top-level DSP programmers, several musicians, EDM producers and a record label owner - all of whom know exactly what the mastering process needs to deliver.

Q: Is LANDR easy to use? What’s the process for a musician to get a song mastered using LANDR?

LANDR is drag-and-drop. It couldn't be easier. Preview the mastered file within seconds, enter your email and receive a mastered file immediately. We've included a simple tool to let users customize the loudness / dynamic range, but we feel it's critical to keep LANDR as simple and elegant as possible.

Q: But does it effectively replace hiring an experienced mastering engineer?

The polish and balance achieved through the labor of a skilled mastering engineer is not something we want to diminish. There are some very talented engineers out there with exceptional ears, capable of brilliant and nuanced work. It’s a beautiful art form, but there’s also a lot of science behind it. If Shazam can identify an individual song out of millions, and Google can make self-driving cars, it shouldn't seem like such a leap for A.I. to do a good job of mastering. Our system will calibrate itself to please users, so we think we'll give them what they want and ultimately, the differences in mastering are often very subtle and subjective.

In any case, what we've designed is a tool that’s so easy and affordable to use, we think it makes sense to try LANDR out first. If you’re unsure of the results, and can afford to invest more time and money, then pro mastering may be worth your while. Having a LANDR file as a reference can also be a useful tool, along with your feedback it will guide a mastering engineer in the right direction.

We're working hard to make LANDR sound better and better, and in our double blind testing it already performs very well against professionally mastered tracks. In the end, trust your ears and don't believe the hype one way or another.

Q: How does the cost of using LANDR compare to getting tracks mastered at a mastering studio?

Professional studios typically charge between 100 - 300$ per track. Our service is free for mp3s (fine for uploading to streaming services like Soundcloud or youtube) or just 9$ / month for 4 uncompressed wavs or 19$/ month for unlimited uncompressed files. This really lets users integrate mastering into their creative process, mastering samples, DJ mixes, live recordings... all applications which just aren't feasible with traditional mastering.

Q: Do you have other products you’re working on?

MixGenius is working on a series of tools that are designed to help musicians and producers FINISH their tracks. We believe that the soul of the music is mostly in the first take, the demo version... and we are passionate about making the final 5-10% of production, the more technical and scientific side, a straightforward and painless process.

For the next little while, we'll focus on teaching LANDR how to sound better and better, but we're very excited to release other products very soon.

The next big thing we're working on is a stem-mixing engine, but we've got some other very efficient tools coming that will help artists choose between mixes and share their work with their peers. We're very excited about what's coming next!

To try LANDR for free, visit www.LANDR.com

Exclusive offer for Bandzoogle members: Get 3 months free when subscribing to the LANDR Pro account!