Aynone here master their own mixes? Or does the majority hire an engineer?

Yeah, I master my own, and sometimes when I do the PA system for local gigs I'll hook up my lappy to the mixer and record the whole show to MP3. There's no need to hire an engineer unless you're really serious... the common philosophy is to 'twist knobs' till it sounds good. ha

Get a decent compressor and reference off CDs you like and fiddle till it sounds good and roughly right.

Make sure for every hour of mastering that yu take a 15min break and go and watch TV or something to clear your ears. Your ears can get fatigued and start tricking you with what sounds good.

I used to master my tracks myself. But nowadays I'm too busy to bother, so I let others take care of it. Cost quite a bit of money, but gives me more time to do other things.

Napoleon Wilson
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Gotta smoke on ya?

Getting someone else to master for you can bring a fresh and objective approach to the project. It also allows you to walk in and out of the room to "save your ears". Pick a good place/person to work with and make sure they have good monitors, or else you might as well do it yourself. If you do decide to go it alone get some GOOD plugins or use analog gear(expensive), otherwise all your hard work up to this point will be wasted. NOTHING sound worse than bad mastering!

I agree dude, getting someone to take a peek can have its advantages.