CloudBounce Mastering Review
Verdict
Fantastic audio mastering, that’s criminally cheap, and incredibly quick. Although not as good as having a human pair of ears, if you paid an engineer the same amount as you paid Cloudbounce, you’d likely get a worse result.
If you want your music to sound the best, be in line with streaming-service, loudness recommendations, and compete with other music out there, you need to be mastering before your release it.
In this Cloudbounce review we’re going to go over everything you’ll want to know before deciding on parting with your hard earned music bucks, whether it’s worth the money and how it compares to real, human engineers.
Something quick to note before comparing AI to human engineers:
There are some great low-priced mixing and mastering services out there, but often they’re nowhere near as quick as cloud mastering, and won’t produce as good results for the same price you spend.
If you’re willing to pay the premium cost and have extra money, of course you’re going to get a better result than with AI. But if you’re paying a mastering engineer less than $10? You’re likely better off with AI.
That’s not to say AI is better!
Real, trained mastering engineers with experience in the industry will ALWAYS be the better choice if you have the money.
Contents
What Is Cloudbounce?
Cloudbounce is an online, AI mastering service that you can use to enhance your music, make it louder, and satisfy streaming loudness rules.
It’s an Abbey Road Red alumni company that was founded in 2015, that’s backed by some of the biggest companies in audio. Some of those names include:
- Focusrite
- ROLI
- CDBaby
Pros
✅ Affordable, professional mastering at as low as $9.90 per track on pay as you go plans.
✅ High-quality mastering which sounds better than a cheap engineer.
✅ Hi-res audio file downloads in 24bit WAV. You can also download audio as MP3.
✅ Tonnes of customisation and presets to master your track with.
✅ A custom desktop app which opens up more customisation options for your master.
✅ Unlimited cloud storage for your masters & different audio files.
Cons
❌ Not as good as the human touch you’ll get from a professional engineer.
❌ Cloud storage doesn’t come with single masters
❌ No refunds
Cloudbounce works by taking your track, and using a mastering engine to analyze and apply the right amount of audio processing, and effects to make your music loud, powerful and clear.
Using it’s precise machine listening technology, Cloudbounce can apply compression, multiband, EQ, limiting and stereo imaging to your tracks. And, provided you’ve got a great mix, you’re going to get some awesome results.
It also has a number of different mastering presets for you to choose from, so you can vary how much it’s pushed, compressed, or altered.
Cloudbounce does this all for $9.90/track, or unlimited mastering for $19.90/month.
Other CloudBounce Reviews (What Others Are Saying)
CloudBounce has a pretty negative reputation online, on services like Trustpilot, and forums like Reddit. There are very mixed reviews, with their Trustpilot score coming in at 2.6/5, over 23 reviews.
Out of these reviews, the company has responded to the majority of poor reviews, with fair solutions to the problems these people have been having.
However, it seems that from user reviews, CloudBounce has been poor on customer service in the past, which shocked us, because we had a great experience using CloudBounce.
The sound quality wasn’t on par with what a highly paid engineer would produce, but for the same price as CloudBounce, you wouldn’t be able to find a highly qualified engineer anyway.
And, it produced better results than if you were to pay a mixing & mastering engineer the same amount.
Do the user reviews mean that CloudBounce is bad?
Not at all. It certainly proves they’ve had a rocky past, and some customers have been left very unhappy. But when reading into the Trustpilot reviews, it seems that customers haven’t delved into using the service fully, before leaving a hot-headed review.
One of the main gripes of the reviews appears to be with the slow download times, or inability to master tracks during peak hours. This has been solved using the introduction of the desktop app.
Another poor review that comes up is the reoccurring billing, and not being notified.
Again, from reading the review replies, it seems it was a fault on CloudBounce’s mailing system, which they have since upgraded and refunded customers who were re-billed instantly.
Since these reviews, the company has come on a lot, and they’ve taken the feedback into account, upgrading their services continually.
Having personally used the service for a couple months to master tracks, we didn’t run into any of these issues.
And, we even tested CloudBounce in a shootout against other AI mastering services, and found that CloudBounce had the best sound quality, and customer service out of Landr, E-Mastered & BandLab.
Whether this was because we were given the app to review for free, and they wanted to impress us, we don’t know.
Either way you should preview your masters for free, and use the CloudBounce web mastering extensively to decide whether it’s for you before purchasing, because there are no refunds.
We’re not going to say that CloudBounce will give you mastering on par with a highly skilled engineer, for as little as $3/track. But what we will say, is that it will give you radio, & streaming service ready tracks, that will almost sound studio quality, for an extremely low price.
If you’re in a toss up between Landr, E-Mastered & CloudBounce – go with CloudBounce.
Is Cloudbounce Better Than A Mastering Engineer?
If you’re on a tight schedule (and budget), it’s worth using CloudBounce for mastering. It’s not anywhere near as good as the human mastering engineer counterpart, but it’ll do the job, and much cheaper.
Cloud mastering will save you a tonne of money and time.
The cheapest human masters that are decent will be around $30. Cloudbounce can master your music at $9.90/track, or unlimited at $19.90/month.
Services like Landr also offer 2 free masters/month just for having an account. And the results you can get with both services are shockingly good.
Like we said, it’s not gonna be a patch on a $300 master from a professional, but not everyone has $300. And, in that situation, cloud mastering is going to do an extremely good job.
Also, with the advancement in AI technology, each year this gets better and better.
Cloudbounce is also backed by some pretty big industry names including:
- Abbey Road Red
- CDBaby
- Roli
- Focusrite
- & more
So, in the grand scheme of things, Cloudbounce is only going to keep improving. Especially with the amount of investment it has into the platform.
AI (some day), whether we like it or not, is going to be better than a human at making decisions.
Right now, it’s not – but it is much cheaper than a human, and will produce better results than a human you would pay the same price.
How Does Cloudbounce Mastering Sound?
While we can talk about how great CloudBounce sounds for the price, we actually put it to the test against our own mastering and the other AI mastering services available.
You can also instantly preview mastering on the CloudBounce web app before purchasing, so we highly recommend you do that and listen objectively before purchasing.
Here are some sound examples from CloudBounce, E-Mastered & Landr for you below, to make your own judgement:
(scroll to the bottom of the SoundCloud widget to hear the CloudBounce examples)
For the same price you’d spend on a mastering engineer, Cloudbounce does a better job, much more quickly.
If you’re on a budget, Cloudbounce online mastering will save you money and time, and it’s definitely something you should consider if you’re not willing to spend more than $50/tack on a mastering service.
If you do want to spend money on quality mastering, check out our best mixing and mastering services guide.
However, Cloudbounce does have its drawbacks.
It heavily compresses, and limits your music to make it sound loud. To the ears, loud usually sounds better, but it’s not always the case.
In music we want to retain as much dynamic range as possible, while keeping the energy.
Although Cloudbounce does make your tracks loud, and makes them fit for streaming service duty, it virtually makes them an audio sausage of sound.
It’s a cookie cutter solution to something that is far, far more intricate than AI has the capability to understand just yet. And, even when AI does get good, will it be able to produce the same creative flair a mastering engineer would?
None of us know.
What we do know is, right now, for the price, Cloudbounce is an exceptionally good, online mastering service that’s going to get you professional sounding music, quickly and cheaply.
It’s the best sounding, affordable mastering we’ve heard anywhere.
If you don’t have the budget to pay a mastering engineer upwards of $50, then Cloudbounce is a great shout.
Features of Cloudbounce Online Mastering
In this section, we’ll go over all the mastering, user interface & other features of Cloudbounce.
User Interface
The user interface inside Cloudbounce is extremely clean, and easy to use. There’s not much else to click on apart from the big “drop file” button in the middle.
It’s as simple as dragging and dropping your audio in, choosing a preset from the range of mastering options, and then running the master.
Something to note is that, when using Cloudbounce, you will have to use either Chrome, Safari or Firefox. So, if you use Microsoft Edge, then you’ll need to grab another browser.
General Navigation
There is also a menu option to the left, where you can access your track downloads, account information & settings, subscription info, an awesome free downloads section, and a place to migrate your current account/subscription to a different account.
It’s a pretty self-explanatory area that doesn’t need much writing about.
Free Downloads
Alongside the online mastering service Cloudbounce provides, they also offer some pretty cool free downloads.
It’s definitely worth signing up for a free Cloudbounce account, because you can get some really awesome free PDF, video, & template resources for learning mixing and mastering.
The free downloads include:
- 53 page PDF e-book on learning how to mix
- A free Ableton Live song structure template
- Ableton Live mixdown template
- Free Ableton synth and bass instruments
- Logic Pro X starter mix template
Mastering Options
The mastering service is really what you want to know about with Cloudbounce. Like we mentioned above, it has a really simple interface – you just drag and drop and click master, then you’re done!
But cloudbounce does offer some customisation, and a number of different audio mastering presets to choose from.
This gives you some control over the AI mastering process, and you can choose from:
- Default
- Hip Hop/R&B
- Drum & Bass/Bass Music
- EDM
- Electro House
- Deep House
- Tech House
- Techno
- Trance
- Rock/Pop
- Metal/Punk
- Ambient
- World Music
- Classical
- Jazz/Blues
It’s an absolute blessing that Cloudbounce have included so many different audio mastering presets, because, there is no one size fits all for mastering.
Imagine if you were trying to master classical music through a default preset, it just wouldn’t provide the best results.
Of course not every classical song is going to need the same treatment, but this is where the mastering engine and listening engine come in.
Due to clever AI, Cloudbounce can make varying decisions based around the preset chosen, and it’s pretty good at doing so.
When cloud mastering services first came out, they weren’t good at all. But a lot has happened over the 6 years Cloudbounce has been in operation, and technology has got considerably better – with it, the quality of the masters have as well.
It’s the best sounding, affordable audio mastering we’ve heard anywhere.
Cloud Backup Storage
With Cloudbounce, you’ll also get access to unlimited cloud storage, to store your mastered audio files.
That means if you ever have a corrupted hard drive, lose your files, or you want to be able to download them between computers, Cloudbounce gives you the storage to do that.
Unfortunately this option is only available if you’re paying for the monthly, or yearly subscription. If you’re just paying the $9.90 per track, Cloudbounce will
How Much Does Cloudbounce Cost? (Solved)
Cloudbounce mastering services vary in price. They have a couple options you can choose from when making a decision for your music, so let’s dive into them.
- Single track music mastering ($9.90/track)
- Hi-Res WAV, & MP3 export (3 export options)
- Mastering online only
- 10+ mastering styles
- 15+ genre styles
- Cloud storage for 1 track
- Infinity Monthly ($19.90/month subscription)
- Unlimited masters
- Unlimited cloud storage
- Desktop app with more settings
- Online mastering app included
- Reference tracks for mastering
- Album mastering
- Hi-Res WAV & MP3 export options
- Infinity Yearly ($199.99/year subscription)
- Same as Infinity Monthly, but slightly less cost/month ($16.67/month)
How Do I Use Cloudbounce?
Cloudbounce is as simple as signing up for an account, dragging and dropping your track into the dashboard and choosing the mastering setting you’d like.
Wait for it to do its thing, and master is ready to go!
Cloudbounce Desktop App
You can use Cloudbounce online, or you can also download their Desktop App which gives you a load more post production options to choose from.
And it’s as simple as it is to use online with a few more options.
Just find the files you want to master, drag and drop them into the Cloudbounce mastering app, and then choose your settings.
In the desktop app you can change the specific mastering settings a little more.
For instance, you could choose the rock preset and control the amount of bass, the amount of warmth you want to inject and the brightness of your master. In the online version of Cloudbounce, you don’t have access to this.
You can also turn on different settings such as Multi-band compression, an Exciter, Stereo widener and High-pass filter.
Out of all the online audio mastering services, this is the most user experience driven we’ve come across. It’s also the most customisable.
Verdict
CloudBounce Mastering Review
Verdict
Fantastic audio mastering, that’s criminally cheap, and incredibly quick. Although not as good as having a human pair of ears, if you paid an engineer the same amount as you paid Cloudbounce, you’d likely get a worse result.
It’s the most user experienced based cloud mastering service we’ve come across, and the quality shows that too.
Other services might give you a select number of free masters per month, but none of them really compare to mastered tracks from Cloudbounce.
This is the cheapest online audio mastering you’ll get & you’ll also get cloud storage to back up your audio files.
FAQ
Is Cloudbounce Better Than A Mastering Engineer?
CloudBounce is not better than a mastering engineer. However, if you’re on a tight budget, and can’t get an engineer for $30+, CloudBounce will do a better job than a mastering engineer, for the low price of $9.90/track.
Using it for mastering will give you a radio, & streaming service ready tracks, provided your mix is also good. However, they won’t be anywhere near as good as a professional.
If you paid an engineer $9.90 for a master, you would likely get worse results than what CloudBounce is going to give you for the price.
When on a tight budget, go with CloudBounce. It will be better than what you might produce (depending on your skill), and better than what you’d get for that price anyway.
Is CloudBounce Any Good?
CloudBounce is a great option for mastering, if you don’t have extra money to spend on a real mastering engineer. For as little as $9.90/track, you will get radio ready masters. However, if you have the money it’s advised to get a real mastering engineer.
CloudBounce has a lot of customisation options, giving you full control over how your master sounds, and the desktop app produces masters rapidly, while giving extra mastering options.
You also get unlimited cloud storage for all your masters, which is useful when switching devices. And, in our experience, the customer service has been great.
There are a few negative reviews of CloudBounce online, which might put you off, but we didn’t experience any of what these reviews had problems with.
Make sure you check the free mastering preview before purchasing CloudBounce, because it will let you listen, and decide whether it’s worth it for you.
Is CloudBounce Better Than Landr?
Both Landr & CloudBounce are great services for AI mastering. In terms of sound quality and customisation, CloudBounce has the edge. However, Landr is more than just a mastering service, offering samples, mastering, music distribution and more.
If only want mastering, go with CloudBounce. If you want the extra features of Landr, go with them.
Both services have free previews of mastering, and Landr gives you 2 free masters/month at a low-res download.
CloudBounce has more option for control over your master, while Landr just seems to apply blanket presets. CloudBounce is also cheaper than Landr, but has some negative reviews online.
However, when using CloudBounce, we didn’t encounter any of these issues ourselves.
Is CloudBounce Better Than E-Mastered?
Both CloudBounce and E-Mastered are fantastic at AI mastering. E-Mastered seems to be more feature-rich, and easy to use, having better results on Rock. CloudBounce is better for more beat-driven productions, and has a better mastering quality.
It’s also important to mention that, E-Mastered is an entirely online service, meaning you have to use the browser to master your tracks, and CloudBounce, has a desktop app, which expands the features further than E-Mastered.
E-Mastered also costs less than CloudBounce, however, has bad reviews online. But, when using E-Mastered ourselves, we didn’t encounter any of those issues.
In terms of sound quality we’d go with CloudBounce over E-Mastered.
Is CloudBounce Better Than BandLab?
CloudBounce has the edge over BandLab. They are both great AI mastering services, but in terms of sound quality, and features CloudBounce is better. BandLab on the other hand is completely free, while CloudBounce costs money.
BandLab will give you decent results for 0 money invested, but doesn’t sound anywhere near as good as any of the paid AI mastering services.
If you don’t have any money to spend, go with BandLab. If you do, go with CloudBounce.
Is CloudBounce Good for Beginners?
Yes, CloudBounce can be great for beginners who don’t know how to master their music. However, if your mix/composition is bad, don’t expect it to be your track’s saving grace. It will just make it louder and ready for radio.
If your mixing skills aren’t up to scratch, there’s no point investing in CloudBounce. The same goes with your composition skills.
Make sure, before your invest money in mastering, you are sure that you have done everything you can to make your track the best quality possible. This will result in the best mastering sound.
A way to check whether your song is ready for mastering is to play the final mix with a limiter on it (to get the same volume levels), and listen objectively.
How does yours sound next to the competition?
If it’s 99% of the way there, get mastering. If it isn’t, don’t invest your money in it.
Does CloudBounce Work on Mac & Windows?
Yes, CloudBounce can be used on both Mac and Windows. You can use the mastering app online, or you can download the desktop app, on both systems. You can even use CloudBounce on iOS devices, and Android too.
CloudBounce also offers unlimited cloud storage that you can use to store your masters across different systems, and access them on others, by logging into your account.
How Much Does CloudBounce Cost?
CloudBounce has 3 pricing options to choose from:
1. PayG – $9.90/track
2. Monthly – $19.90/month
3. Yearly – $199.99/year
Each plan will give you access to different features. PayG only gives you a single master, in the web app, with no option for desktop app, and less mastering options. You get a high resolution download in either WAV or MP3, but your cloud storage isn’t unlimited.
For more information on the pricing, please check the pricing heading in this article.
