External mastering plugins

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
Post Reply
aklisiewicz
Posts: 625
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2005 3:33 am

External mastering plugins

Post by aklisiewicz » Wed Jun 16, 2021 5:38 am

I would like to ask for opinion those who are really experienced in mastering.
What is your opinion on p[purchasing mastering plugins suite(ie. like OZONE etc) vs LIVE-11 stock components ?
To be more precise - from the standpoint of rather inexperienced (mastering) user ? Is it really worth to pay $300-500 ?
...mostly for ambient type of music (little or no vocals). Is it better to invest time to learn it or use more automated AI approach ?
"You are what you think you are"
Sadarahu

dylandigits
Posts: 65
Joined: Tue Aug 04, 2009 2:16 am

Re: External mastering plugins

Post by dylandigits » Fri Jun 25, 2021 1:48 am

I've had great results with the stock audio devices in Live, and I attribute that mostly to the attention to detail I put into the mixing stage. I self-release a lot and master my own stuff; when I release on other labels I often get asked how I got it sounding so good or the unmastered mix I send is mistaken for a mastered version. So, I'm certain the stock devices can do the trick... if you have the ear to make the mix sound good, first.

If you don't have the ear for it- and not everyone does, which is 100% ok!- then it's better to trust it to someone who does, rather than try to accomplish it with expensive plugins.

Tarekith
Posts: 19065
Joined: Fri Jan 07, 2005 11:46 pm
Location: Ableton Forum Administrator
Contact:

Re: External mastering plugins

Post by Tarekith » Fri Jun 25, 2021 4:10 am

If you're not crushing the volume trying to get it super loud, the stock Live plug ins are great. I love EQ8, Compressor and the Glue are solid, too. Limiter is ok, not excellent. Fine for lite limiting duties, but if you're really getting heavy with it the third party options are much better. Usually I only recommend people look into a better limiter, the rest of the stuff in Live is fine.

TDR has a really nice limiter for very cheap considering what you get (applies to all their plug ins actually):

https://www.tokyodawn.net/tdr-limiter6-ge/
Tarekith
Ableton Forum Administrator
https://tarekith.com

Calagan
Posts: 268
Joined: Fri Jul 24, 2015 4:44 am

Re: External mastering plugins

Post by Calagan » Sat Jun 26, 2021 12:38 pm

+1 for TDR plugins. Kotelnikov, slickeqM and Limiter6 are among the best mastering plugins, and cost nothing.

Post Reply