Music Gear
How 7 of Our Favourite Musicians Use LANDR
Our mission at LANDR has always been to help musicians create and get heard. The best part of doing that? Seeing how creators all over the world are using LANDR in their workflow to make incredible music.
Here’s how some of our favourite producers, songwriters, rappers, DJs and film composers have put LANDR into their creative processes. Not only for mastering and music distribution, but to improve their workflow, save time, reference their mixes and get inspired!
Machinedrum
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Producer and Songwriter
“LANDR makes something instantly playable when I get to the club that night.”
I’ve tried using mastering VSTs on my tracks before and got varied results. LANDR makes it pretty painless and brainless to have something ready to play in the club the same day you make it. Especially when I’m on the road and don’t have a chance to check a track I’m working on on proper monitors.
As long as I have a good amount of headroom, LANDR makes something instantly playable when I get to the club that night. I don’t have to be worried about it being too quiet, distorted or squashed sounding. It also gives you a good idea of what it might sound like once you send it off to be mastered by a human.
A lot of times if you have something that’s standing out too much in your mix, it will stick out like a sore thumb when you get the master back. When you have crazy short deadlines like I sometimes do, you don’t have the luxury of waiting to hear the master to make those changes.
Adrian Belew
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Songwriter and Guitarist for David Bowie, Frank Zappa, Talking Heads
“Mastering is a very important stage and I think many people were starting to skip out on that stage.”
LANDR is exciting to me because it used to be a whole process to get mastering done—an interesting process, I really enjoyed being there—but it was also very expensive! I got to a point in my life where I thought: ‘I don’t know if I can do mastering on every little thing that I do, because it’s too expensive.’ I’m glad it’s available for everyone at a reasonable price.
Mastering is a very important stage and I think many people were starting to skip out on that stage. Especially when you’re producing your own music, and you’re paying everything. If someone’s releasing a CD, they can’t afford 3000$ for mastering. So it’s great that this technology is here. It’s just another example of something that’s right there, you can do online—that’s pretty amazing!
Joel Shearer
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Songwriter, Film composer, Guitarist
“A platform that allows musicians to drop in their music and have it amplified in a way that’s presentable and competitive in the market—that’s amazing.”
I’m very moved by the technology that LANDR has created for people. There are so many young musicians that are making music who don’t have money to get their songs mastered. And everything has to be competitive now—it needs to be hot and loud.
A platform that allows musicians to drop in their music and have it amplified in a way that’s presentable and competitive in the market—that’s amazing.
And then I started thinking, what about the professional musicians? I don’t always want to pay for mastering. Every time I make something I’ll throw a plugin on it. But I don’t know what I’m doing, I’m not an engineer! So LANDR is an amazing platform for the ambient music that I’m doing, or if I write a song with an artist. Instead of just putting an L2 limiter on it and calling it a day, I’ll send it into LANDR and it’ll sound better.
Now you have the digital distribution, and it’s a one-stop shop. I find it inspiring, and I’m super grateful to be a part of the community. I don’t know if I’ll use LANDR mastering for everything I do, but I’ll definitely throw my tracks in there to see how they will sound. I can make creative decisions based on the master I get back.
Rsonist
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Beatmaker and Producer
“It takes literally 5 minutes. And it’s worth it. That extra boost might help sell your track.”
When I make a track, after I arrange it and put a light mix on it, I run it though LANDR to see what mistakes I might have made in the mix. If I had the bass too loud, the kicks too low, etc. It helps for that.
It’s worth it. That extra boost might help sell your track. And its quick. It takes maybe no longer than 6-7 minutes. A lot of my tracks are snippets. If I’m sending tracks to people, I’m not sending a full track. I might send them 1.5 minutes, 2 minutes, so if I master that, it takes literally 5 minutes. And it’s worth it. That extra boost might help sell your track.
Most people won’t know that you mastered it. They’ll just think that your shit sounds that good. That’s the cool thing about it!
Daniel Rowland
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Film composer and Producer
“It was much easier to let LANDR do the mastering—things were consistent every time I sent a file off.”
I used LANDR nearly every day we worked on the animated short-film Piper. Basically every mix I exported out of Pro Tools would end up in LANDR.
Adrian Belew (the composer) and I would come back at the end of the day to listen to the masters with fresh ears. I’m often sending these tracks to the director to listen to and make comments on. It was much easier to let LANDR do the mastering—things were consistent every time I sent a file off. These are essentially demos you’re sending out for approval, so they have to sound great or you risk tainting someone’s opinion because the track isn’t sonically right.
Suzi Analogue
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Producer and Songwriter
“LANDR has helped me get more control in my composition process that I wished for so long. Finally.”
LANDR has been super helpful for the way that I work. I create tracks at a quick pace and often have the need to get the song ready to go right then and there—so that I don’t get caught up with it.
I definitely have used LANDR in many ways, like checking song mixes in order to see what instrument is too loud or too quiet, or what could be bumped up or taken down a bit. I have also used it to master raw sounds I’ve sampled so when I go to mix, I don’t have to compress them—they are balanced and come alive. LANDR has helped me get more control in my composition process that I wished for so long. Finally.
TT the Artist
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Rapper and Producer
“Using LANDR has actually encouraged me to produce more music.”
As an independent artist I’m always looking for ways to make my music sound better but cut costs from my budget. I tested out some of my pre-masters and it was easy and fast!
Using LANDR has actually encouraged me to produce more music and have faster turnaround time because you can get your masters back same day.
Try LANDR for yourself and comment below to let us know how you use it in your own creative process!
Leticia is a lover of acid basslines and hypnotic techno. She DJs and produces under the name softcoresoft. Writer at LANDR.
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