what effects you put on your master channel in ableton?

[contakt321]

Nothing.

I try to make my mix sound as good as possible without anything on the master channel, IMO compression and limiting the entire track should be left to the mastering stage unless you're using it as some special effect.

Even if it was a special effect I'd be tempted to buss everything to another track and use that one for the effects, I've always just thought it's good practice to have an empty and unity-set master channel.

That's just my 2 cents, I'm sure there's people making better music than mine with compressors on their master, rules are there to be broken and so on...

Same

[macmurphy]

yet another minimalist 96khz 48bit nerdgasm with an award-winning low noise floor.

can i have your permission to put that on a t-shirt?

[pepezabala]

a limiter set to 0,3.

I usually don't come close to it, but during liveconcerts it always happens at some point after more than half of the set everything is set to 11 and squashing into the limiter.

[anybody human]

If it's going to be mastered for release, probably nothing (maybe slight compression but I'd ask the mastering engineer and send both).

For small project work or just sharing with friends I'll "master" it a bit but having had things mastered by experienced profesionals, I hesitate to call what I do in these cases mastering. Anyway, I really like Cytomic's The Glue, sort of like the famous SSL mix bus compressor. I'll use one or two, if 2 then one has a slightly slower attack, still letting through some peaks just rounding things together a bit, with the 2nd catching the rest of the peaks. These have a low ratio 2-1 (some compressors go even lighter 1.2 or 1.5 to 1). It's called the Glue for a reason, and one nice feature is that it has a percentage control for letting through more transients or dynamics, I'm not sure exactly how it works but it's powerful. Then I have a limiter, which is almost never actually limiting, just catching the very odd peak, not any consistent peaks, it's only there for volume. You have to be careful how you set up (and feed/push) a limiter, it's very easy to crush a mix and end up with a loud mix that sounds bad, squashing down while also bringing up softer elements into one non musical sludge. If you experiment with it can also bring things out and add clarity if done right. I'll have a linear phase eq as well, although again this is touchy because real mastering isn't just about one song but often balancing a collection of songs into a cohesive whole, so it might be impossible to tell unless you're looking at them together in context.

For many of our purposes, I don't have a problem with people mastering at home, or adjusting a mastering program like Ozone, mainly just because it's a good thing to learn about. For proper releases though, leave it to the professionals. They've seen and heard it all a thousand times over. It's not about it sounding louder, it's about it sounding better and the really good ones can get some astonishing results.

[Angstrom]

yet another minimalist 96khz 48bit nerdgasm with an award-winning low noise floor.

can i have your permission to put that on a t-shirt?

Available at all good stockists

[macmurphy]

yet another minimalist 96khz 48bit nerdgasm with an award-winning low noise floor.

can i have your permission to put that on a t-shirt?

Available at all good stockists

sweet!

[shuutobi]

Ya missed the "z" and uppercase H.

I'll let the uppercase H slide, due to minimalism.

[JEpic]

3 instances of Wave Candy by Image Line. 1 Meter, 1 Oscilloscope, and 1 Spectrum Analyzer.

[Tarekith]

I would buy that T-Shirt in a heart beat!

[anybody human]

yet another minimalist 96khz 48bit nerdgasm with an award-winning low noise floor.

can i have your permission to put that on a t-shirt?

Available at all good stockists

Stockists, ha!

[netwarrior]

wow , thank u chaps:))))
now something new got caught for my brain.

its pretty much clear now for me .

but - ok, and what bout putting limiter on separate channels ? drums ? bass ? so they sound tigther, without clipping?

[Hervé]

In whitch case ? Playing live or for a release ?

While producing, you should not have anything on the master bus.

If it's for a release do not add anything on it and leave approximately -3dB Headroom for the mastering engineer.
If it's for a live purpose, i'd go for some thight eqs . Most Club/Festival PA system already have compressor and limiters in their setup.
Soundcheck is where you will fine tune your sound accordingly to the space/system your on.

[netwarrior]

yes , only for producing. i do not perform (yet)

[outershpongolia]

Soundcheck is where you will fine tune your sound accordingly to the space/system your on.

So what type of things should you have ready to go in this situation?

[Hervé]

Soundcheck is where you will fine tune your sound accordingly to the space/system your on.

So what type of things should you have ready to go in this situation?

the guy at the PA console listening to your wants, your ears.