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+++ AI can now master your music—and it does shockingly well +++ is a good look at how artificial intelligence can help a musician learn the art of mastering while providing a path for beginners to share "radio ready" music.


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Please wake me up when some of those AI mastered tracks are actually played on the radio, ok?


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Any day now.

People master

Corporations are people too.
corporate mastering through AI

Surrender to the shareholders.

Control the airwaves.

Resistance is futile.


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Algorithms that analyze a song and make or suggest EQ, compression and limiter settings have been available for a while. Calling it AI is IMO a stretch. In the photography world apps have been available for years to enhance photos, e.g., sharpening, remove unwanted bits, change the sky, etc. Only recently have those processes been referred to as AI. Were the first cash registers AI? Was the first punch card computer AI? The first PCs? Pardon the rant … reckon I just wish folks would step back and focus more on the bigger AI picture - meaning its cultural, political and financial implications.

Bud


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Originally Posted by Janice & Bud
Algorithms that analyze a song and make or suggest EQ, compression and limiter settings have been available for a while. Calling it AI is IMO a stretch. In the photography world apps have been available for years to enhance photos, e.g., sharpening, remove unwanted bits, change the sky, etc. Only recently have those processes been referred to as AI. Were the first cash registers AI? Was the first punch card computer AI? The first PCs? Pardon the rant … reckon I just wish folks would step back and focus more on the bigger AI picture - meaning its cultural, political and financial implications.

Bud

I read the article immediately thought was that this technology has been around for quite a while. Why are people suddenly calling this AI and getting their knickers in a knot?


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Originally Posted by JoanneCooper
... Why are people suddenly calling this AI and getting their knickers in a knot?
It's a marketing opportunity. New and Improved: Finley's Car Wax, now formulated with AI to really make it shine!


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Originally Posted by Matt Finley
Originally Posted by JoanneCooper
... Why are people suddenly calling this AI and getting their knickers in a knot?
It's a marketing opportunity. New and Improved: Finley's Car Wax, now formulated with AI to really make it shine!
I think you have it spot on😀


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For most people who want a polished track that sounds good and doesn't necessarily have to be perfect radio ready, any of the mentioned methods are fine.

With a bit of effort, one can get really nice results from these plugs. I've tried a few of the online ones and wasn't suitably impressed with the results compared to simply using default settings in my plug-in.

I use ozone 10 and have been impressed with the results. Quite often the only changes I make to the final result is to turn off the maximizer module since it seems to really push the output. It has an uncanny way of nailing the genre spot on 99% of the time. Give it a good mix and it'll give you a nice finished product.

I'm still trying to figure out how to get that professional studio mastered sound like I hear from the Nashville hits on the radio but I also realize that they're not popping ozone on the master buss and calling it done. They have mastering engineers in studios with state of the art gear and years of experience. A far cry from my humble in the box studio in the woods and my self taught experience garnered from talking with others about recording, mixing, and mastering/polishing in forums.

Just my 2 cents.


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Add nothing that adds nothing to the music.
You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.

The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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However there is a catch, Herb.

You can't make a purse out of a sow's ear.

As one example, that song that you recently produced with Josh is far more interesting and pleasant to listen to than anything that I've heard on the radio for a long long time.

I highly suspect that if you turned over that song to the so-called experts in Nashville and I heard their final rendition I would be slightly queasy. To my ears those people tend to ruin everything not make it better. They take all the life out of it and make it sound cornball and generic.

I try to listen to the radio, including country radio stations, from time to time, but I simply can't bear it and I don't care how many mastering engineers that they had on the payroll.

It sounds effing horrible so who cares.

I would rather hear someone with just a box in their lap who knows how to write a real song and sing and play it and put a smidgen of ozone on it any day of the week.

I honestly don't give a flying flip about 99.9% of the stuff I hear on the radio or discussions of how you need a real studio and a real mastering engineer to sound like that.

To me most of it sounds like crap so who cares.

I listen to far more music here on the forum where people are doing it themselves and using their homemade mixing techniques because at least it's interesting.

I repeat:

At least it's interesting.

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A couple things. AI has been around for awhile now. iZotope has been using in Ozone since v.8 (or was it v.7?) and RX since v.7.

Most of my mastering is for radio and YouTube. Knowing that the internal algorithms will turn a polished master to crap, my job is to ‘pre-ruin’ it in the most musical way possible so that the brick wall limiters and other tools cannot destroy a sound file further. A certain national network of 10 Watt stations is the most brutal and those publishers sending me work are my biggest customers. They want the song to remain intact at the edge of the listening radius and squashing the hell out of it (pardon the pun) is the only way that happens.


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That's good advice. Radio station algorithms destroyed dynamic range in music, and then Streaming added to the game of second guessing the platform. The listener is the loser.


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Band-in-a-Box® 2026 Mac Special Offers Extended Until May 31st!

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202 New RealTracks Released with Band-in-a-Box 2026!

With Band-in-a-Box® 2026, we've released 202 incredible new RealTracks (in sets 468-488) in a variety of genres—featuring your most requested styles!

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Our new rock & pop RealTracks bring a powerful mix of requested favorites, fresh genres, and modern chart-inspired styles! We have more of our popular “Producer Layered Acoustic Guitars (15)” featuring Band-in-a-Box favorite Brent Mason. We’ve continued our much-requested disco styles (10), and added new Celtic guitar (5) with a more basic, accessible approach than our previous Drop-D or DADGAD offerings. There are also highly requested yacht rock styles (17), inspired by the smooth, polished soft-rock sound of the late ’70s and early ’80s — laid-back grooves, silky electric pianos, warm textures, elegant harmonic movement, and pristine production aesthetics. Fans of heavier styles will love our new glam metal (13), capturing the flashy, high-energy sound of ’80s arena-ready guitar rock. We also have a set of rootsy modern-folk rock (18), with a warm, organic sound combining contemporary folk textures and driving acoustic strumming. And we’ve added lots of new modern pop styles (16) — the kinds of sounds you’re hearing on the radio today, featuring exciting new drums, synths, and cutting-edge RealTracks arrangements.

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  • MIDI Styles Set 92: Look Ma! More MIDI 15: Latin Jazz
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