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Music

Meet LANDR: A Service That Masters Your Tracks Instantly

This groundbreaking new software claims it will change music production forever

Bedroom producers worldwide, take note. A new software named LANDR claims it'll master your tracks with studio quality, instantly, and for cheap. The program has won awards at CMW and SXSW already, and we spoke with developer Mixgenius' Thomas Sontag to get the scoop on this potentially game-changing software.

"I've run Turbo Recordings for 8 years, through that process have had 200 records mastered." he tells THUMP. "The cost, the hassle of getting records mastered is a constant thing. When you're a tiny label, pressing a few hundred copies and your margins are really small, it's a big production cost. The idea that this could be done was exciting to me when I got involved."

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It all sounds too good to be true. And of course, there'll be those who suggest that LANDR removes the human element. To that, Sontag responds, "I would urge people to compare the results. The bulk of the creativity, let's face it, is in the performance, the mix, the stuff that goes in up to the point of mastering. Mastering is the last 5%, the polish and balance. What we offer is the little bit that's missing for people to feel confident about putting it out there into the world."

The tech behind LANDR is kept under lock and key, but we got a little info as to how it all works. Sontag explains, "It's certainly not anything close to one size fits all. It's pretty complicated how it works. Essentially, the system begins by listening very carefully to the sounds. It decides on basic genre detection that informs an overall mastering style. It responds uniquely, it never does the same thing twice, and the beauty of it is that really learns from user reactions."

We asked him to walk us through the process for a producer: "The process couldn't be much simpler. You just drop the track on your website and in a matter of seconds you'll have a preview. We've made it free right now for 192kpbs. It's good enough to upload to Soundcloud and use as a demo. But it's $9 a month for four uncompressed .WAV masters and it's $19 for unlimited. I think it's nice to have the unlimited version. I've been using it like crazy for stuff like ripping vinyl records and recordings of DJ mixes. It's super useful for when you receive a demo or someone remixes your track. It really does perform very well and it's instant. That immediacy changes your whole perspective on it."

So does it work? We dunno. We're writers, not producers. You try it out and tell us!

Visit LANDR here

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Jemayel's gonna send you his tracks as soon as he gets them mastered - @JemayelK