mastering software????

[the ar]

Anything can do it, just don't believe the hype surrounding all these 'mastering combo ultra suite tools' nowadays.
Don't get me wrong, most (if not all) of these tools can help you achieve a great sound if you use them properly, but most of the time people just start chaining compressors, expanders, limiters and so on, with the only result being an apparent boost in SPL, and a squashed and zero headroom, zero dynamics sound.
Dynamics, and then clarity/definition has to be the main goal.
High volumes are just the new millennium panacea.
But you need to have very GOOD ears, know EXACTLY what you are doing AND possibly have an EXPERIENCED sound engineer at your side (or even be one yourself, that counts too )
Just my two cents.

[earsmack]

One more thing about Ozone...I don't like their reverb too much...I prefer the Ableton's reverb personally for the master track.

[leedsquietman]

The point about using a mastering engineer and home mastering is mostly accurate, certainly they use a lot of outboard gear that plugins can't match but then again most of us are producing music for free or just for a CDBaby type small commercial release, so using a mastering engineer just isn't cost effective. You can still achieve great results with the correct application of mastering suites and/or mastering plugins. Pro engineering will always have a little extra gloss and punch but for 95% of the population, they could barely tell any difference anyway...

[the ar]

My weapons of choice for mastering are:

Izotope Ozone 3: Amazing multiband exciter, multiband stereo imaging, eq and multiband dynamics.

Waves SSL Compressor: With subtle compression settings (1 to 2 dB gain reduction). Adds a very nice analog warmth to the mix and introduces some extra punch.

BetaBugsAudio SimpleSqueeze: A free plug in, works nice for extra punch with a moderate setting.

Live's Utility: For DC offset correction.

PSP Vintage Warmer: One of the best native plug in compressors available. Multiband setting, moderate compression. The Knee Function works very well for a plug in. Adds extra punch with a moderate setting once again, and sounds amazing.

Waves L2 or L3: Very nice for native plug ins once again. Use no more than -3dB of Attenuation as they tend to sound crappy after that.

Elemental Audio Inspector: Last but not least Inspector is a must have tool for metering. Very nice customizable meters with spectrum analyser, Peak and RMS metering. Unfortunately modern productions tend to get louder and louder and the -9dB RMS margin seems to be the threshold of a professional and ... expensive sounding production. So aim for that and don't forget that usually excessive low end tends to "steal" a lot of dynamic range so proceed accordingly!


Try mixing with this chain on, in your master track, in the final stages of your productions as mixing through such heavy compression is a totally different thing. If you are out of horse power though you can get a hold of the amazing FXTeleport and... a second PC probably! Plug in hosting over LAN. A blessing!

Not to bash or rant against anyone, but this is what I'm talking about.
Do you REALLY need all that stuff on your master chain to achieve a good sound?
Good mixdowns sometimes don't even need to be equalized during mastering, just limited to 'squeeze' the volume (obviously without affecting the dynamic range).
And this is no bullshit.
I have a sound engineering degree, but I still put myself in the hands of a skilled technician that knows PERFECTLY what he's doing, when it comes down to mastering.
And I'm not saying you can't achieve a good sound in your home studio, with a software 'mastering' suite.
I'm just saying that, nowadays, the tendency is to overly saturate the master chain with just too many plugins, with the only result of squashing the sound, instead of improving it.
The lesser, the better (when used correctly).

[the ar]

The point about using a mastering engineer and home mastering is mostly accurate, certainly they use a lot of outboard gear that plugins can't match

The 'outboard gear' does a 25% of the job, soundwise.
A good sound is based on good and basically 'essential' tweakings.
You need to know exactly what you're putting your hands on, that's all.

You can still achieve great results with the correct application of mastering suites and/or mastering plugins.

No doubt about it, but I totally dissent on how most of the people do it.
Sticking 10 plugins on the master chain and calling it 'mastering' is erroneous.
My advice is: learn to use your tools.
You could 'master' with a good 1/3 octave graphic equalizer and a good compressor/limiter.
All this fuss about multiband compression that I'm reading lately is just nonsense, in my opinion.
Multiband is extremely complicated, and usually it's use is AIMED at particular medias: radio, broadcasting, etc

Pro engineering will always have a little extra gloss and punch but for 95% of the population, they could barely tell any difference anyway...

Unfortunately this is true.
Well, enough blabbering.
I'm heading out for some clubbing.
Have fun, lads.

[Anderton]

I'm of the "old school" of mastering. I just got an award for the mastering job on a vocal quartet, so somebody must like what I do

To me, mastering is 90% equalization and 10% dynamics. I also do what I call "micro-mastering" - reducing the level of individual cycles of peaks in a digital audio editor, so that I can raise the overall level without having to use compression. This lets me get close to the "loud" sound people seem to like but there's sitll dynamics.

For EQ, I use Har-Bal. I don't use any of the automated EQ functions. Go ahead and laugh, but I get great results with it. It's not a plug-in; you load a file and work on it. Basically, it's an 8,192 FIR linear phase EQ so you can really zero in on "rogue resonances."

Once the EQ is squared away, I'll sometimes add a bit of multiband compression or limiting. But if the EQ is done right, you won't need to add much compression at all to get a good, solid sound.

And of course...start with a good mix!!

[eyeknow]

Mastering.....what a concept.

that process is something that has too many sides to even be classified as a geometric shape!

I think type of music is very important for a starter point......for example, electronic music benifits well from mastercomps and such I'm guessing mostly since it's a digital product in the first place, er....more or less.

Guitars, bass, "real" acoustic drums (actually recorded/not bfd for example) but of the rock "type" could use a bit less of that. EQ and analog outboard gear are generally going to provide livelier results. It's a physics thing, but those instruments have a completly differnet timbre and require allot more attention.....in general....your milage may vary.

You start getting into pure acoustic instruments and you benifit from analog gear even more. Man, to sound right....that shit needs to breath, and the garden variety multiband comps and such are just too harsh by and large.....better off (like has been mentioned) using eq to the max and using a really subtle comp/limit action on the end-chain.....

[eyeknow]

I needed to ad, anyone frequently take like itunes stock and put them into live for various purposes? Ya ever notice how so much of it comes out looking "black"? It's like every single form of dynamic is crushed beyond belief.....where you have to zoom in really tight to distinguish that anything is different?

That's what I'm talking about......that visual representation is a clue (to some degree anyway) of what kinda "mastering" has been done.

[Johnisfaster]

someone said "avoid t-racks"
I just wanted to say that even though I don't absolutely love t-racks I don't think they are something avoid worthy either. they sound good and are quite handy.

personally I'm one of those vintage warmer freaks though. I run each individual drum sound through vintage warmer one at a time, also on the master, slight knee up, maybe 1db of drive if any. it's not perfect but it's easy and sounds good.

lives eq8 all the way. find the frequencies that suck balls and drop them entirely out of the mix.

[eyeknow]

I've never used t racks.........I wish I has some concept of what they do......

vintage warmer.....the original rocks. Does what it says.....sorry I had to let it go since I'm macintel and I don't care for version 2

eq 8 is an excellent addition to the live set up.........certainly nothing wrong with that!

[Johnisfaster]

I've never used t racks.........I wish I has some concept of what they do......

vintage warmer.....the original rocks. Does what it says.....sorry I had to let it go since I'm macintel and I don't care for version 2

eq 8 is an excellent addition to the live set up.........certainly nothing wrong with that!

I felt like version 2 of vw was basically just vw with some extra stuff, just avoid the extra stuff and it sounds fine I think.

[afone1977]

mastering software : wavelab or samplitude on PC

anyway, mastering at home = poo (me too, i do poo at home)

what do you have against t-racks?

i try many plugin : Waves (limiter are good but too expensive), waves art (too neutral), elemental audio system (too modern, inspector is excellent), kjaerhus (good but a bit muddy), PSP (a bit muddy IMHO, the filter is excellent), URS (very good but i find them so cheap compare to UAD-1 EQ's and Comp 's ), T-rack (very very muddy on a master track IMHO), Voxengo (very good, too modern,but horrible GUI)....

to me, muddy refer to a not neutral, not transparent sound, a bit distorted,....

only personal taste, (hey we talk about art and subjective point of view), i prefer "vintage" way of thinking during mix down and (pré)mastering also (few buttons and pots, but when you think it's sound good, it's good).

that why, to me, UAD-1 all bundle is actually the graal, because it give me the best pluggin i ever use (few controls, very caracter-full sound, not so expensive (compare to others you will see) ... and also beautiful vintage GUI)

i think it's good to make music with ears not with eyes, (but mastering need analyser and meter to confirm your own opinion during mixing)

thats also why i get a liquid mix (control surface and mutiple colorised sound emulation, not so realistic, but pleasant sound)

i'm waiting for an ilok to try : flux bundle, oxford bundle, Waves SSL ...

i expect oxford bundle gives me the native tool i want : polyvalent modern dynamic processor, good oxford eq emulation (the UAD-1 cambridge EQ is good but not as good as it should be), a good transient modeler processor and a reverb to add to the exceptional UAD-1 plate, perhaps a more musical and transparent limiter ...

if you think t-rack sound good, use it, it's your personal/artistic choice,

[Funkstar De Luxe]

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea ... 8828e7f7ab


Most software isn't good enough for professional mastering. Why do you think a mastering house will spend thousands on one compressor if a VST would do the job? It's not about gear though, the room is by far the most important part of any mastering environment.

I've been using the guy at www.bassdress.com for a long time now, all our physical releases go though him.

[the ar]

That bassdress seems quite interesting.
Funkstar, got any snippet you can share with me?
'Pre' and 'post' master?
That will be appreciated, since I'm interested in the service.

[Tarekith]

Mastering your own music should be the simplest thing in the world, just a little bit of limiting to get the volume up a bit, and dither to 16 bit. There's no need to massively EQ and compress your own songs in mastering, just go back and FIX THOSE ISSUES IN YOUR MIXDOWN.

Seriously, most mastering tools are there because mastering engineers don't have the luxury of going back to the mixdown to solve any issues. Thus we have tools like multi-band compression which give mastering engineers more power when working with "fixed" stereo recordings.

If you're just mastering your work, spend you time getting the mixdown right and stop worry about mastering processors so much IMVHO. If you need tons of plug ins to master your song right, then obviously your mixdown is not done right. Fixing the mixdown is also by far the better sounding option too IMO.

Just my $.02.