Whats your favorite Mastering Plugin?

[radib]

but I usually go gentle and then run that into Roger Nichols Detailor

went to the site of that little tool and seems like giving it a trial. thanks for information!

[leedsquietman]

+1 for knowing your equipment.

For 2 years I used cubase's in the box fx plugs almost exclusively and as most people know, they are not universally quoted as being great plugins - because, with a few exceptions, most of them are fairly poor, but I used VSTDynamics as my compressor for many songs published on my CDs and mp3 releases and very few people giving me feedback ever complained about the sonic fidelity and said 'Dude, change your compressor, this one sucks', because I just knew what I wanted it to do and dialled in the settings appropriate to each mix.

Now, I would NEVER use VSTDynamics these days but I have to admit part of this is being an equipment snob as much as there being superior 3rd party plugins.

Although having a great compressor such as Marquis from Voxengo and PSP Mastering Compressor (or waves if they rule your world) gives you more options and tonal possibilities...

[glu]

If you get the mix professionally mastered, it's a good idea to find place that will listen to your mix in waay advance to let you know what is problematic with it. There is a place here in Austin that will listen to your mix and tell you what will go wrong with the master because of it. IMO the best thing your money can buy.

If you roll your own- go with what's used in the albums you like- if finding out is possible. Most folks regard L2 as theeee GO TO plug for the extra juevos it gives, but it can equally destroy something imperfectly mixed as well. I A/B my own mixes, randomly playing different tracks. When one track is BIG and the next is weak, I go back to the weak song and then open it in Live and mute all tracks, reactivate the main tracks (drums,bass, guitar, some synth, vox) and make sure that part of the mix is spread adequately. Then I go to the more electronic sounds/ambiances and find out what's wrong with those tracks.

If the mix is UBER-tight, a little L2 will give it the push you are looking for- but always know- as soon as you think something is ready to be mastered, once you try, you may find yourself going back to remix. This happens to me all the time so I just consider it part of the mixing process.

[dinsync]

Maxxbass excepted, but that usually means the bass end was recorded or mixed ineffectively to start with

I'd be interested in hearing more about this. My experience with Maxxbass is actually quite good so far. I think I misunderstood the point when I first heard of it. When I use it now I cannot hear any difference in my main mix environment (subs installed, etc.), it is only outside on lesser system that I hear it enhancing the bass.

How can one mix to allow better bass on lesser speakers. My understanding is that maxxbass is just adding harmonics to help out. All comments are appreciated.

[dinsync]

Just wondering what people are using and why they choose one app over all the others.

As lame as this sounds, I had great results using Waves L3. Easy solution but ... it works. Any color it adds is favorable to my ears.

[leedsquietman]

yes, that's right dinsync, I like your response because Waves L1, L2 and L3 plugs do have a certain sound and imho they sound best on beat heavy music. and L2 especially to my ears has a distinctive sound of it's own.

And although they can be tweaked a lot, and that coloration can be diminished somewhat, that coloration is favourable for many, but it's not always appreciated by some, and I often fall into this category, especially when I hear people cranking up stuff like Tori Amos style pianos and vocals with wide dynamic range in a softer arrangement or a simple acoustic guitar and vox ballad etc with L2, then I feel a more transparent sounding plug such as Elephant in a transparent mode is better suited.

Although this argument is probably redundant for many on this forum, as Live is so popular for electro/hip hop/trance/prog house music etc, so they're probably wondering what the hell I'm talking about but I'm glad to hear you acknowledge at least the presence of some tonal coloration, many deny it even though most industry professionals acknowledge it and either embrace or reject it ...

[90's child]

Another vote for Wave L2. So expensive though!

I know 2 producers who use Waves L2 on their master o/p before rendering the track to CD. When they play their track through a club system I can't tell the difference between their track and other so called mastered tracks.

For pro, home listening albums I'm sure that it pays to have a mastering engineer work their magic.

Although Mylo mastered his own album in Pro Tools and it sounded good. It also sold alot of copies.

[leedsquietman]

Maxxbass is a great plugin, it's one Waves plugin that I really think is worth it's money, I was praising it's ability to rescue the bass in a mix.

However, a lot of the time, it's used to rescue a poorly mixed bass with no harmonic content and flat sounding low end, which means that perhaps the bass was not recorded or mixed as well as it might have been originally. Sometimes the original bass is fine and it just gives more options for a different sounding bass too, it can be used for either scenario.