Mastering is the all-important final stage when it comes to getting your track ready for major release on streaming services. The difference between a final mix and a master can be huge, making or breaking a track in some instances.
Mastering a track can be quite expensive though, especially when you want the best result possible. However, the rising option of AI mastering services out there could help you get your track to the stage you want it to be.
Major Decibel is one of many AI mastering services out there offering you quick and reasonably priced masters. In this review, we’ll put it to the test on four tracks, each with a different genre. Let’s see if Major Decibel brings its A-game to these masters!
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Major Decibel Review
Major Decibel’s masters are not of great quality, and BandLab can give you pretty much the same if not better quality for absolutely free with roughly the same amount of customisation. It’s useful to hear what your music may sound like mastered, but beyond that, we aren’t quite sure.
A side note on AI mastering versus a real mastering engineer:
AI mastering is not better than a real, human mastering engineer. The advantage of being able to work with and talk to your mastering engineer can give you a far more personalised approach, with results that will have lots of character and consideration for your music.
The back and forth between you and an engineer will give you far more choices with your master, and numerous revisions usually will give you far more chance to arrive at the perfect sound that you want for your music.
Years of experience, expertise and style are what you get when you pay for a real engineer, and AI services do not replace or better that. Be mindful, however, of paying for cheap engineers, as usually the less you pay, the worse your result will be.
In instances such as these where you can only afford around $10 for a master, it might be a better option to go down the route of AI. Let’s see if Major Decibel is a good service for this option!
What Is Major Decibel?
Major Decibel is an AI Mastering service, an independent service for independent artists as the site says. It uses a personally crafted, signature mastering engine for your track.
This mastering engine is not created with any third-party plugins or effects, allegedly allowing Major Decibel to apply unique and advanced mastering techniques that rival the most professional equipment!
The service gives you all major file formats such as MP3, WAV, and FLAC for your track once it’s mastered. Major Decibel was founded by Adam Love, an audio professional with over 15 years of experience in the industry, including audio R&D for DistroKid.
Unique to other services we have reviewed, Major Decibel is developed and maintained by one person. Let’s see if it benefits from this personal touch!
How Much Does It Cost?
One of the most important questions is how much will this hurt the bank. In Major Decibel’s case, not very much! First of all, you can master two tracks a month in MP3 format for free, with no account required. This free option comes with three different mastering intensities.
When it comes to the paid options on offer, there are two passes. The monthly pass which costs $6, includes unlimited masters with five EQ options on top of the three mastering intensities. This pass also comes with all major file formats instead of just MP3s.
The second pass is a year-long and only cost $25! There are no extra features that the monthly pass doesn’t have, but the value for this upfront price is pretty amazing compared to the monthly fee.
However, if you want a commitment-free cancel-anytime option, the monthly pass has you covered.
Compared to other AI mastering services, Major Decibel does noticeably come in at the lower end of the price range. Now that we’ve gone over how much it costs, let’s get into how to use it!
How To Use Major Decibel
Once you have an account, or you are just using it for free, you can upload your mix to be mastered on the home screen. Once it’s uploaded, you listen to the original mix versus the master and choose between the three mastering options.
The three mastering options are low, medium and high. Low preserves dynamic range the most with the least loudness out of the three, medium is a balanced, dynamic master with some loudness increase, then high sacrifices dynamics for a punchy and loud sound.
You can either download your track at this point or go through the equalisation options. These options are warmer, warm, neutral, bright and brighter.
We would imagine these options either add a bit, or a lot of low end, then either a little or a lot of high end to the track.
Now that we’ve gone through how it works, let’s test it out on our four tracks!
Rock Song Example
All of the tracks we used to test out LANDR are from the Cambridge MT website. We started with the hard rock song ‘Flames’ by The Black Crown, and we used ‘Goliath’ by Karnivool as a reference, as they have quite a similar sound production and mix-wise.
Side note:
The unmastered tracks have been brought up in volume so you can tell the difference between the unmastered and mastered versions without being tricked by louder=better!
First off, Major Decibel doesn’t give you the option to hear the original mix and mastered track at the same volume. This is annoying as you have to use your volume when comparing them so that you can hear the difference between the two.
The initial master was done in under a minute and came out noticeably louder, with some big boosts in the high and low frequencies. Wideness was also largely increased too. However, overall this master initially sounded quite cheap to us and over-compressed.
To solve this, we thought to try the low mastering intensity, which did give a better result. However, this result came at the cost of loudness and richness in the mids and highs.
The high intensity compromised dynamics hugely, creating an even more compressed master that would be quite exhausting for the ears to listen to repeatedly.
With the low setting chosen, we went through the EQ options to see if we could improve it there. We found the bright setting to be a bit too much, making the drums sound quite clicky on the kick and overall quite amateurish.
The best result was achieved with low mastering intensity and warm EQ settings for this track. Not bad overall, the master was definitely an improvement on the mix, adding a sense of glue and enhancement.
But it really lacked customisation to get a truly good result and didn’t feel good enough to use in most situations.
RnB Song Example
For this master, we used ‘Bankroll’ by Tytillidie x Xollllinnnn, with ‘Don’t Tell ‘Em’ by Jeremih as the reference.
The vocal balance is quite similar in both tracks, with a noticeable yet smooth high end that is typical for the RnB/Pop genre.
Straight out of the gate, this master was quite loud. The medium setting two times in a row just seemed to be too aggressive, compressing the tracks to the point of sounding quite amateurish, with the high setting being even worse.
Even though there is some multiband/glue compression happening quite clearly, and the track is louder and wider, once again we wanted to test out the EQ options to improve this master.
The brightness added in general on this service is a little too much, and the warm EQ so far seems to be the way to go in terms of the two tracks we’ve tried.
Using the bright or brighter EQ added a tinny sound to this track, and warmer made it quite dull even if it was easier on the ears.
Comparing this track to the reference, the reference track was louder and of course, a lot easier to listen to at louder volumes whilst keeping clarity at low volumes.
Settling on the low mastering intensity with warm EQ we moved on to the next track for mastering.
Dubstep Song Example
For our third example, we used ‘Centauri B’ by Brennon Causey, with ‘Tears’ by Skrillex as our reference track. The latest Skrillex album is a showcase of a truly great EDM/Dubstep mix and master and makes a lot of sense for a reference with any modern EDM track.
The master for this track was a lot louder than the mix, competing quite well with the reference track for loudness. It also sounded decent on the medium and high setting surprisingly. Curious to experiment with the sound, we went through the equalisation options once again.
We actually found that the best result was to leave it on neutral. Making it brighter made the drums and hi-hats feel tinny and cheap, and warm dulled the track a bit too much across the board.
This was the best master so far, adding decent width, and increased loudness and balance for the track as a whole. With three out of four masters done, we aren’t hugely impressed with the results so far, however. Let’s see if our final song can get us on the track!
Pop Song Example
Our final master example will be ‘Never Let You Go’ by Brian C Cai Fei Hong, and our reference track will be ‘Closer’ by The Chainsmokers. With similar instrumentation and a bright, controlled, EDM-influenced pop sound this seemed to make sense as a reference choice.
To get this track as loud as the reference track we had to use the high setting, which worked on this track as well as the previous master.
However, it did highlight some sibilance on the vocal and make it quite taxing on the ears to listen to for the entire track, as well as mostly kill dynamics.
We took it through to the equalisation stage but weren’t able to solve this, now uncomfortable to listen to the vocal regardless of what setting we used.
With the best choice being to use the high mastering setting and the warmer EQ choice, we finished sadly on a low point for the review.
This master was louder, more compressed and boosted as usual for this service. But at the end of the process, it wasn’t better than the mix.
Sticking a glue compressor and some saturation on a master bus would achieve some more pleasing results, which is not what you want when you pay for a service.
What Are Other People Saying About Major Decibel?
There isn’t a huge amount of feedback online regarding Major Decibel aside from a few reviews and some discussion on forums. The reviews seem to put it in a similar category to BandLab, in that you get what you pay (or don’t pay) for.
People seem to think the quality is good for demos and starting out but ultimately, the lack of customisation and quality holds it back from being usable for releases or anything beyond checking out how your track might sound mastered.
Major Decibel doesn’t seem to have anywhere near as many users as big competitors such as LANDR or eMastered, so we would recommend caution when subscribing or paying in this instance.
Is Major Decibel Worth It?
Ultimately, no. Even though Major Decibel is on the lower end of the price range in the AI mastering market, there are considerably better alternatives for not a lot more money such as eMastered and LANDR. We even think that BandLab, a truly free service produces results of a similar quality.
We weren’t that impressed with the mastering overall, it often sounded cheap, too compressed and just lacked a sense of polish which mastering is supposed to bring to a song.
You would be better off trying yourself with some tutorials or better yet, finding a real person or a different AI service if you don’t have the budget for an engineer.
Besides hearing what your track may sound like mastered, we don’t really see what the benefits of paying for Major Decibel are.
When again, BandLab does what this service does for free. Yes, you can master two tracks a month for free with Major Decibel, but they will be in MP3 quality which is considerably worse than a WAV or FLAC file.
Major Decibel’s masters are not of great quality, and BandLab can give you pretty much the same if not better quality for absolutely free with roughly the same amount of customisation. It’s useful to hear what your music may sound like mastered, but beyond that, we aren’t quite sure.
FAQ
Is Major Decibel Good?
It’s no better than BandLab, which is free. We would recommend just using the free two masters a month on Major Decibel if you really want to use this service. As much as $6 is a very cheap subscription service.
For the money, you could definitely do worse than Major Decibel, but as said, totally free services such as BandLab give similar or even better results and are totally free.
Is Major Decibel better than a mastering engineer?
No, it isn’t. You get what you pay for, and whether or not that’s the small amount of $6 a month or the free option, your results reflect that. A mastering engineer of good quality will enhance your track and get it sounding as great as your favourite songs if your mix is up to scratch.
You can’t replace the communication and collaboration that you get with a mastering engineer. No AI mastering service is there yet, not even the most expensive ones. Making music and getting it to the finished standard takes years of expertise, good tools and experience, but it also takes great working relationships and attention to detail that is not yet detailed by an algorithm.
Will Major Decibel improve my mixes?
Major Decibel will not improve your mixes. Just like any mastering process, it will only enhance and add to what is already there. That works well with a great mix, but it goes both ways and can highlight issues in a bad mix.
When mastering, be sure your mix is at the best possible standard it can be. Treat it like it is the final product, then you’ll be amazed at what mastering can do for your track. It will sound bigger, richer and ultimately professional, which is what we all want.
Is it better to get a real mastering engineer?
Always. If you want your music to be as good as it can be, a real human mastering engineer is the best answer. If you really cannot justify it in your budget to pay someone, you can either try it yourself or learn something new. Or, you can try a more expensive service such as LANDR or Aria Mastering to get higher-quality results.
These results will not be better than the real thing though. The craft, communication and collaboration that come with a real person are irreplaceable and you will notice the difference in quality immediately when you work with a good engineer.
Is Major Decibel good for beginners?Â
If you want to use the free two masters a month to see how your music sounds, then yes it could be good. However, you will only be able to hear it in MP3 quality, whereas you can do this on BandLab and get it in much better WAV quality.
Is there a Major Decibel app?Â
No there isn’t, just the website.
