DIY Mastering Service LANDR Launches Desktop App -- Will It Change Music?

DIY mastering application LANDR has officially launched its desktop application after being just a website. At a launch party Wednesday, Music Times got a run through of the new desktop app, which now connects LANDR to various Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) such as Pro Tools, Logic, Studio One, Bitwig and Ableton and allows you to export files directly from the DAW into LANDR with the click of a button.

Other features being rolled out with the desktop app include bulk mastering, cloud storage and an easier to use interface.

"Our goal at LANDR is to make it easy for musicians to get the sound they are looking for without needing to learn complex audio tools. With this app, we're very excited to introduce that vision directly into musician's DAW's where our mastering is integrated into the process of creating music. With our bulk uploading features we hope to offer busy audio professionals a much easier workflow that gives them the great sound they are used to from LANDR, much faster." said LANDR CEO, Pascal Pilon in a statement.

LANDR is a mastering service that allows independent musicians, engineers or your grandma with some recordings of her cat to upload an audio file and get them mastered without paying for an expensive mastering engineer or learning how to do it yourself using plugins like iZotope's Ozone. It only takes about a minute to upload a file, where it is identified by genre by the program's AI. You can choose the three levels of mastering you want, low, medium or loud and based on these levels it may take a little longer to create your results. You are able to A B test between the various mastering levels and the original.

After testing out the program, the song definitely does get louder with LANDR and a little clearer, but there is definitely room for the high-end professionals who can master at the highest level.

LANDR has already some high-profile backers in the music industry. It raised $6.2 million in funding over the summer from various parties that include private equity firms and music industry players like Nas, Warner Music Group, Richie Hawtin, Pete Tong and more. Individuals like Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir, Tiga, Echosmith, recording engineer Frank Vasquez of Doggystyle Records and others have all used the program.

The future looks bright for LANDR who have big plans to try and automate a part of the industry that has been secluded into the far corners of studios for decades and out of reach for poor, aspiring professionals.

"We see this new iteration of the LANDR platform as the ultimate workflow experience for anyone finishing a song and craving to see how they'll sound on radio and on streaming services. We are already being pressured by our Windows users to release a version for them, and we hope to do that just in time for NAMM this January, along with many new features coming in the near future" says LANDR CEO, Pascal Pilon to Music Times.

You can sign up for the service on LANDR's website here. Download the desktop app here.