Mastering your tracks before release is an absolute must for your music to compete with other artists out there today. As of now, there are two options for getting your music mastered. The first is to hire a professional mastering engineer and the second is to use an AI service like CloudBounce. Both are viable options but which should you choose?
In today’s article, we’re going to be doing a CloudBounce review and teaching you everything about it. This review will cover in detail what CloudBounce actually does, what pricing and plans they offers, is there service good or not, and how it compares to other mastering companies like Landr. Stick around until the end to know whether or not CloudBounce is right for you. Lets dig in!
The company behind CloudBounce was founded in 2015 and is backed by some of the biggest players in audio, including Focusrite, ROLI, and CDBaby. CloudBounce functions as an online audio mastering service that operates entirely through AI. It's AI mastering, like human mastering, enhances the sound of a track, increases its volume, and allows it to meet the streaming loudness standards of today.
So, how does it work? CloudBounce enhances the sound of a track by utilizing a mastering engine to perform analysis to provide just the right amount of audio processing. This includes adding effects to make the music louder, more powerful, and most importantly more clear.
No CloudBounce review can go without mentioning the highly precise machine listening technology they use. Cloudbounce can apply several effects to any given track to enhance its audio quality. These effects include compression, EQ, limiting, stereo imaging, and several others. These types of processing will ensure you get a great result, provided you’ve got a great mix to start with.
CloudBounce comes in both web and desktop versions. Each version come with their own benefits. Everything that we’ve detailed prior is included with the CloudBounce web application. In this CloudBounce review, lets now take a look at what you can expect from their desktop application.
The desktop app for CloudBounce offers a few unique features. These features include uploading multiple audio files in batches, mastering tracks with every genre setting and mastering option included, and the ability to use a reference track for mastering. It also gives the user the ability to master full albums or song libraries, organize all tracks into one place, and the option to export tracks in multiple formats (Ogg, MP3, FLAC, AIFF, WAV).
As you can see, the desktop app for CloudBounce has some unique features and options that you won’t get with the web version. With that being said, the web version is still the most popular choice amongst users today. Now that you know all about what CloudBounce is and what it has to offer, lets getting in the pricing and plans.
As far as pricing and plans go for CloudBounce, you have a few different options available for purchase. They offer pay-as-you-go, monthly, annual, and lifetime plans. Lets first discuss the pay-as-you-go option.
This option is the cheapest coming in at $9.90 per track. This is great if you are only wanting to master a single track or don’t see yourself using CloudBounce regularly. This plan includes 1 Hi-res WAV, 1 320 kbps MP3, access to your tracks anywhere on any device, 15+ genre-specific mastering styles, 10+ post-mastering options, a shareable player page, and track statistics. However, there is a limited cloud backup with this plan.
The first plan is the Infinity Monthly plan which comes in at $19.90 per month. This plan offers you the ability to master as many tracks as you want with no limit, while offering all the features of the pay-as-you-go option. The monthly plan also comes with lifetime cloud backup, so you won’t have to worry about storage.
The next plan is the Infinity Annual plan, which signs you up for a year of CloudBounce use for $199.99. This is cheaper than paying monthly for a whole year, so this is the way to go if you want to be able to master tracks on a long term basis. If you are going to be releasing music every month then I recommend this plan.
I had to mention the Lifetime plan in this CloudBounce review. This plan is a rarity in the industry and not offered by any of their competitors. This plan will cost you a one time fee of $1990. With that price you can have unlimited masters for the rest of your life! If music is your passion and you like what CloudBounce has to offer, then this is something that should be considered.
CloudBounce does offer the choice to try out their services for free on their website. This free trial will work much the same as the pay as you go option, allowing you to master a single track to try out the app. If you’re unsure whether or not you want to commit to purchasing a plan for CloudBounce, this is a good way to get an idea of what they have to offer.
You may be wondering what the difference is between CloudBounce and other audio AI mastering providers like Landr. Which one is better and what different features do they offer?
Well, Landr works much the same as CloudBounce. The main differences between the two services are the pricing/plans and the sound quality. In this CloudBounce review, lets first take a look at how Landr's pricing compares.
​ | CloudBounce | Landr |
​Pay-As-You-Go | $9.90 | ​Not Offered |
Monthly | $19.90 | $24.99 |
Annually | $199.99 | $149.99 |
​Lifetime | $1990 | ​Not Offered |
As you can tell from the pricing above, it's not all that different except for the annual plans. The biggest difference is that CloudBounce offers more options than Landr. The fact that Landr doesn't offer an option to master a single track may be a turn-off to some potential users. With CloudBounce having the single-master and lifetime options, we put them ahead of Landr in this category.
The most important difference between CloudBounce and Landr is the sound quality. We tested both services using the same song and found CloudBounce far superior. CloudBounce produced a more professional result that closely resembled that of a human mastering engineer. Landr lacked in the overall sound failing to create a master as big, power, and clear as CloudBouce.
One important fact to note where Landr shines over CloudBounce is that they offer their customers marketing tools. Essentially, Landr provides a one-stop shop to master, release, and promote your music. CloudBounce does not have this business model and only focuses on the mastering side of things.
Related Link: LANDR Mastering Review - Good Enough To Replace A Human?
In this CloudBounce review I need to be 100% transparent. CloudBounce is not as good as a professional mastering engineer for mastering your tracks. Expert mastering engineers will almost always produce better sound quality than AI. However, a good mastering engineer will cost you much more than using software like CloudBounce to master your tracks.
For the price and the turnaround time, CloudBounce is a great alternative for mastering tracks. If you don't have the budget to hire an expensive mastering engineer then you should really consider using CloudBounce. With its suite of options and different payment plans, it gives you all the choices you need to have the optimal mastering experience, and for a relatively low price.
And the best part is that CloudBounce’s AI continues to improve year after year. So that means even though their AI isn’t as good as human mastering engineers, it will get closer and closer to this level of quality every year. Being backed by some of the biggest names in the industry helps move things along quickly too.
CloudBounce is the best AI audio mastering services available right now, offering a wide range of options for the best mastering experience. With a quick turnaround, you can get tracks mastered to streaming level quality on par with those of other music artists. With the backing from big industry names, you can be sure that CloudBounce will only continue to improve over time.
I hope the information we’ve provided you in this comprehensive CloudBounce review has answered all your questions and addressed your concerns. If you are interested in trying out CloudBounce or our mastering services, check out our links below. For more information and reviews on other tech related topics, be sure to check out some of our other articles.
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