Rodney Mills mastered my CD. The dude is a legend in Southern Rock, and now is mastering mostly Hip Hop Dirty South peeps. No, I didnt recognize a single name, but, you know me, I don't keep up with that so much.

He's engineered for everyone from Journey to Skynard to Atlanta Rhythm Section to 38 Special. He's mastered TONS MORE: Pearl Jam, Cheryl Crow, some cool 80's bands, (the Cruzados for one). He's got dozens of gold records hanging on his walls. It was mind-boggling just to walk around his house and look at the stuff he's been involved with.

I've been having this on-going debate on some other forums about the value of mastering your CD. Its where some guy takes all the tracks on your CD, and makes them sound radio-ready, makes all the volumes match, puts some sparkle and shine on them, and then tracks out your CD - adding the right amount of space between each song.

I won't give you my usual 85-million-word dissertation on how it went, but, well, it was jaw-dropping. The dude is humble and awesome. While mastering the CD, he told me some stories about working with Skynard, hearing AC/DC's BACK IN BLACK before it was mastered (they compressed the hell out of it, just to see what would happen, and that's the version they ended up using).

But enough about him.

How does the CD sound? Does it SOUND worth the money I spent? I think so. Superhot Lady Cop has benefitted the most. Before, it was a too-slow forgettable song, and now I think it's got the umph that the original had, plus great sound overall.

Also on Friday, I sent off the final artwork for the CD, so, now it's just sit here and writhe in anticipation of getting my discs back. (HOW do they do this? I'm going crazy waiting for the thing, and it's going to take 3 weeks).

This whole thing has been exciting and fun and mind-boggling at the whole process. I don't know how bands can do this on a yearly basis. Honestly. I started work on the CD on May 1. Two months before that if you want to add pre-production to the process, and the discs will HOPEFULLY be in my hand sometime around August 23rd. What's that, 5 months of my life? Jeez.

beauhall said:

I always master it. I hear a noticable improvement when I do.

Yeah, I'm one of those bands that does this every year, lol. Its like Elton John said once (paraphrasing) "Songs are like stamps, you just lick em and send em out there"

Cool man, cant wait to hear it!

Mr. Hall,

I am forever greatful for these phenominal(sp?) posts of yours. The insight you bring to the musical side of life is priceless. Along with your knowlege, realness, and outright humor, the life you breathe into this site will forever be missed when you hit it.
OK, enough mushiness. I'm waitin' like you are for the finished product (i hate to call it that). Always enjoyed your music and wish you everything that's possible to fullfill your dreams. Damn, that was more mushiness. Sorry.

Schöne Gruß !

Would it do justice to Rodney Mills if you spelled the name of Lynyrd Skynyrd like it should?

But, apart from that flaw, a great story. Well done!

yeah boyeee!

Sifi said:

Oh I know man. To make it worse, when Rodney answered the door at his mansion, I stuck out my hand and said "RONNIE!!"

yeah. SOOOO professional.

Aaaaaahhhhh !!! This project just gets bigger, better, more interesting and funnier every day. Anticipating putting this disc in my player and listening so hard I get a headache

Rock on, dude.

Very cool! Would B nice 2 hear it!
/peace Manki

It's exciting to hear about your process. Thanks for sharing.

COngrats . gr8 news, wow, im sooooo happpppy 4 u, love mad