Mastering Ideas? Options

[kundama]

hi all new to the forum so i thought i'd start with an easy one :-)

i've been writing tunes for a while now, and always get to the same stage in the prossess before encountering problems...Mastering.

getting the compositional elements right isn't a problem (well it is it just takes a lot of time but when i come to bouncing down my tunes and compare them to oh i don't know some one like prefuse 73, the quality of sound is different. They always seem to be able to get it that little bit louder than me. Obviously they've got all that fancy equipment, but i'm sure it's just a question of time again, and knowing the right steps to take.

at the moment when bouncing down i simply make sure all the volumes are right, nothing is clipping, the panning is nicely spread and there is't too much frequency intrerferance, (everything has its own space) idon't use any compression, or effects, (just a bit of limiter) because i want to keep the dynamic range. iwas wondering if anyone had any tips for me, coz iwant to put up a websight with all mi tunes on , but none of them really feel finnished, ya know.

wicked well if any one has any tips let me know
thaks for your time

take it easy
kundy

[gonechan]

hi everyone!
in response to Nels posting,i think anything is possible on this matter in some extent.to tell you the truth you don't need waves or
all those fancy plugs to get a good sound,of course they'll help a lot
,but the most important thing is to keep focused and think if the piece that you're working on really needs "mastering" or not.nowadays the level standards on cd's went really high,everything you listen to is very hot,that's why you'll always get the feeling that there's something missing....
i had the chance to master an album and a single at a proper mastering studio and you can't compete with that,BUT the important thing i learn there was that the best mixes were almost untouched,of course they crank the volume up while leaving a nice balance between quiet passages and loud ones.
so what i can say is that as long as you do a nice mix,you don't really need to compress or limit anything,after all there's a volume knob on every playback device out there...
cheers
gone.