What Waves Mastering VSTs on Master Out when DJ'ing

markone · Post by **markone** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 5:49 pm

Any tips would be greatly appreciated

Renaissance Compressor
L1 Ultra Maximiser
True Verb

etc

and what settings?

Any other companies you would recommend?

Thanks

donnydonny · Post by **donnydonny** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 6:28 pm

if you're gonna use Waves, toss a light L1 or L2 on the Master buss with an average around 1 or 2 db of gain reduction. you could use a compressor for that, but the limiter will guarantee that it won't go crazy high.

personally, i use a FW410 that give's me 4 stereo outs that i patch into the DJ mixer so i just use the mixer's natural compression/preamps.

M. Bréqs · Post by **M. Bréqs** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 6:54 pm

DON'T USE ANY!

If you're making your own music on the fly, fine then; some multiband compression (used lightly) and some limiting (again lightly, no more than -3 db or so) will help.

BUT

For DJing?!?!?! Those tracks that other people wrote are mastered already. Then, the house system has compressors or limiters on them too. For god's sake, don't squish 'em even more. Keep your levels reasonable and you won't have problems.

If you MUST use a mastering plug, keep your hands off the dynamics. Use an EQ at most!

stinky · Post by **stinky** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 1:55 am

PSP VintageWarmer

jack rock · Post by **jack rock** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 12:05 pm

M. Bréqs wrote:DON'T USE ANY!

If you're making your own music on the fly, fine then; some multiband compression (used lightly) and some limiting (again lightly, no more than -3 db or so) will help.

BUT

For DJing?!?!?! Those tracks that other people wrote are mastered already. Then, the house system has compressors or limiters on them too. For god's sake, don't squish 'em even more. Keep your levels reasonable and you won't have problems.

If you MUST use a mastering plug, keep your hands off the dynamics. Use an EQ at most!

Agree.

BUT... a limiter with a threshold of 0 will keep the laptop from producing digital distortion if the levels go a bit too high anyway.
Dj's allways push the meters into the red area, but in the digital domain this will create a horrible distorion compared to just pushing the levels on a normal dj-mixer.
So a threshold of 0 and keeping the levels sane will ensure good sound quality and just-in-case safety.

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 12:33 pm

Lower the volume of all your clips to about -4 or -5dBFS when you're warping them and you don't have to use any limiters. Waves are pretty CPU hungry anyway, not something I'd want on my master buss all the time.

forge · Post by **forge** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 12:40 pm

L2 is alot better than L1 - but I tend to agree for mixing mastered tracks DJ style I would try and live without or keep the threshold just to zero or slightly under just so it catches the extremes

spiderprod · Post by **spiderprod** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 1:00 pm

i use r vox on the master output ,then the limiter .
with hardwares i always put a compressor before a limiter as the limiter distord the sound too much ,the compressor is used to smooth the sound & to avoid triggering the limiter .
i do the same with softs , it's always better that your limiter is only working if there is a very high peak in your signal ,when there is no peaks the compressor can do the job .

Dr. Zoiberg · Post by **Dr. Zoiberg** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 3:48 pm

if you use a soundcard with 24 bit D/A, then it shouldn't clip till levels reach +6db (digital) at the output.
So you can try to stay around 0db and insert a brickwall limiter with at +4,+5 db.

John Sweet · Post by **John Sweet** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 5:20 pm

I've been trying AJ's method from this tread (but with a default drive setting of 0) for my last few shows. I like how I can make it really subtle or completely murder the mix:

http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic. ... highlight=

ethios4 · Post by **ethios4** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 5:26 pm

Saturator in Clip mode (i think) acts as a limiter, and a very CPU-friendly one at that. I just rocked set with only Saturator on the master, and no red metering! Very nice...

I think Ableton won't let you have digital distortion anyway...that issue came up on a recent thread....

John Sweet · Post by **John Sweet** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 5:34 pm

Saturator is great because the same tool you use to polish yr sound can become a sledgehammer for it antime you please. That dichotomy is what I love about Live in general.