Mastering Tools... Whats your favorites?

[Rave]

I use pro l too on my mastering chain.

I use pro c on vox and pro q on any channel that needs it fabfilter are an amazing company.

[k-toh]

Pretty much use Live's own tools thus far, though I have a hankering for some Fabfilter stuff as I've used some of their gear before and various reviews are positive.

I too like Live's Analogue Warmth mastering string, and have adapted it's setting to suit my needs, adding in a limiter to prevent clipping at the final stage. Using gentle compression and limiting on individual tracks within the mix more often then not these days too, which leaves the 'mastering' as more of a final polish as opposed to a fix up solution

[The Carpet Cleaner]

L3

[Mint Invader]

I use pro l too on my mastering chain.

I use pro c on vox and pro q on any channel that needs it fabfilter are an amazing company.

I had a friend with a fab filter licence for the C... holy crap its awesome.

[mholloway]

I use PSP Neon EQ, Ozone 4's Multi-band compressor, Sonalksis Stereo Tools (when necessary) and the Sonnox Limiter. The last of those is by far my favorite mastering plug-in.

When I can't get things right no matter what I try, I use Tarekith

-M

[DangerousDave]

Utility pushing the signal until right before it clips.

[timothyallan]

First in my plugin chain is Ozone's EQ matching function, using 2Unlimited mainly as the source file.

Then I open up a custom rack I've made with 1024 Ozones, each with a multiband compressor operating on a certain range of frequencies. This way I have a compressor for each 19.51hz sized section for the entire 20hz-20kHz spectrum and can adjust the compression accordingly.

I then run the file through a custom programmed "Bit harmonizer", which takes each of the odd 24 bits (1,3,5, etc) and converts them to even bits... which of course invisibly removes inharmonic frequencies.

Finally, I open up SoundForge and manually select and gain adjust each peak and trough of the waveform until it reads -0.1db (so as not to make home CD players skip when played).

HTH!

[slatepipe]

i been using the t racks deluxe mastering package although it doesnt work with ableton so i have to use it in reaper. ableton would continually crash when i tried using one of the vsts in it and now it wont recognise them at all, so eventually i gave up. currently i do all my tunes in ableton then generally render each track out separately for reaper (or just the master, depends) and mostly use the eqp1 tube equaliser with the brickwall limiter. sometimes a bit of the compression and eq modules too.

i wasnt really interested in them at first (i won the package in a prize draw) but now i really like them.

they sound good for me anyway

[Rave]

First in my plugin chain is Ozone's EQ matching function, using 2Unlimited mainly as the source file.

Then I open up a custom rack I've made with 1024 Ozones, each with a multiband compressor operating on a certain range of frequencies. This way I have a compressor for each 19.51hz sized section for the entire 20hz-20kHz spectrum and can adjust the compression accordingly.

I then run the file through a custom programmed "Bit harmonizer", which takes each of the odd 24 bits (1,3,5, etc) and converts them to even bits... which of course invisibly removes inharmonic frequencies.

Finally, I open up SoundForge and manually select and gain adjust each peak and trough of the waveform until it reads -0.1db (so as not to make home CD players skip when played).

HTH!

Wow you have skills. You must be a pro

[regretfullySaid]

I've been playing with Soniformer for some time now and I think it'll be a regular in the pre/master chain.
I love the amount of control and resulting eq at the top. Curious about the Pro-C though with all the raves.

I was trying to think of the name of a multi-band compressor that's gotten a lot of raves from studio vets but I can't remember the name (kind of funky title). I think it was made from a vet engineer. It came out last year. You don't hear much talk about it but when you read reviews it's usually raves. Any guesses? Oh and the GUI is kind of ugly.

2Unlimited

EDIT: Ah it's DMG Compassion. Anyone use it?

Also, this is kind of sexy:

[MacGuffin]

First in my plugin chain is Ozone's EQ matching function, using 2Unlimited mainly as the source file.

Then I open up a custom rack I've made with 1024 Ozones, each with a multiband compressor operating on a certain range of frequencies. This way I have a compressor for each 19.51hz sized section for the entire 20hz-20kHz spectrum and can adjust the compression accordingly.

I then run the file through a custom programmed "Bit harmonizer", which takes each of the odd 24 bits (1,3,5, etc) and converts them to even bits... which of course invisibly removes inharmonic frequencies.

Finally, I open up SoundForge and manually select and gain adjust each peak and trough of the waveform until it reads -0.1db (so as not to make home CD players skip when played).

HTH!

most bestest answer yet!