Ableton Forum

A really simple question here...

...is there any cheap or even better free mastering program to set tracks to the same volume?

Would be even better if someone could explain how to do this also!

Sorry to be such a nOOb

Cheap would be T-Racks, but I hate that app personally (I'll get flamed for this). Just sounds too harsh for something as delicate as mastering. Maybe Wavelab Lite if you can find a copy. What's expensive about mastering is the outboard and plug ins. Good mastering can't really be done too cheaply IMO, those guys use the best of the best when it comes to gear.

Tarekith wrote:Cheap would be T-Racks, but I hate that app personally (I'll get flamed for this). Just sounds too harsh for something as delicate as mastering. Maybe Wavelab Lite if you can find a copy. What's expensive about mastering is the outboard and plug ins. Good mastering can't really be done too cheaply IMO, those guys use the best of the best when it comes to gear.

Im quite agreed about you and tracks...it sounds the way it costs...TO ME!

Anyway, you can do your mastering already in Live..that would be cheapiest variant. Hook up your compressor, EQ, maybe Maximeizer if you have on master and tweak

I've never had professional mastering done but I think I am going to for my next demo.

Probably going to have Rob Acid master it.

http://www.ROBACIDMASTERING.de

For basic track levelling/EQ, everything is right in Live! I have an Audio Effects group that does compression, EQ, a little saturation and limiting. It lets tracks sit better when transitioning.

Admittedly it's not top pro stuff, but it works really well for me.

silliwilli wrote:A really simple question here...

...is there any cheap or even better free mastering program to set tracks to the same volume?

Would be even better if someone could explain how to do this also!

Sorry to be such a nOOb

Someone asked this a coupla days back in the General Forum mate - check out my post in this thread

http://www.ableton.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=29471

I'm afraid 'one click' mastering is essentially impossible but, using the tools I've mentioned in the above, should achieve the results you're after. Hope you find it useful and feel free to ask away.

Mastering....

Only a few in this world have the skillz to do so, mastering is a job of its own.

Takes realy good ears, and realy good equip.
Do it yourself and its easy to fuck up a lot.
There are a lot of plugins, with the sticker mastering on it, but are u tallented enough to contol it?

I would say, focus on yer mix, and let someone master who has the skillz,the room, the ears, and the equip.
It will cost some money, but at the end, u bennefit from it.


IMO.

lola wrote:Mastering....

Only a few in this world have the skillz to do so, mastering is a job of its own. Takes realy good ears, and realy good equip. Do it yourself and its easy to fuck up a lot. There are a lot of plugins, with the sticker mastering on it, but are u tallented enough to contol it?

I would say, focus on yer mix, and let someone master who has the skillz,the room, the ears, and the equip. It will cost some money, but at the end, u bennefit from it. IMO.

I concur that, if you have the budget, then making a record in a real studio with a real engineer and then using the services of an experienced mastering engineer IS the way to go.

IMHO Lola the lines are getting increasingly blurry these days. I've been involved in music a long time - and seeing the resources available to musicians today compared to when I started out is undoubtedly amazing. It is now possible with time, care & attention to produce a record that's almost indistinguishable, in terms of quality, from what were $100K+ productions just a few years ago.

Agreed mastering is one of the most technical areas of audio - but, like all the others, you can learn it. It's not a black art. And just as Live would have been inconcievable in the era of the huge studios now many free and cheap mastering tools are available to musicians with a twofold benefit:

1. They can learn 'basic' mastering by trial & error.
2. When they do walk into a cutting room they have some idea of what is going on, what questions they should be asking and what they are looking to leave with.

If they haven't already I'd recommend anyone with an interest in the field to purchase this book:

http://www.digido.com/portal/pmodule_id ... age_id=66/

Without a doubt, that book should be required reading for anyone doing electronic music.

Bob Katz is a legend

I would focus on getting the BEST MIX you possibly can. Even the top mastering engineers will agree that if the mix is near perfect it won't need very much mastering work. You can work towards the levels you want in the mix (just don't overdo any compression if your using it).

hambone1 wrote:For basic track levelling/EQ, everything is right in Live! I have an Audio Effects group that does compression, EQ, a little saturation and limiting. It lets tracks sit better when transitioning.

Admittedly it's not top pro stuff, but it works really well for me.

could you let us in on some of the finer setting on these effects please?

sounds like on the initially you could benefit from a maximiser in the immediate term...I hear good things about the W1 as a free copy of waves L1

there are some good free things around

the better something is mixed, the less it needs mastering, so if you give ALOT of thought to the frequencies every sound in your track is inhabiting and make sure nothing is fighting for frequencies and it's all really well balanced then you can often get away with just a loudness maximiser to give it more perceived volume and punch - so EQ/Comp every track individually and by the time it gets to the main output it should be sounding good....also remembering to keep all the faders lower so you dont saturate the limiter etc.

IMO these are the most valuable lessons to be learned.

I like to strip every sample down and work out which frequencies are the bits that I like about that sound and bring them forward and cut the rest, that way it leaves more room for everything else, and often you'll find when you do this everything fits together much better.

Personally I use the Waves platinum bundle, the Renaissance EQs are great and the L2 maximiser is alot better than the L1 which is what the W1 is a copy of.

in the end it depends what it's for, if it's a commercial production with cash behind it then you should pay for someones ears, but if not see how well you can do just learning more about EQing and compression/limiting, you might surprise yourself.

Forget mastering yourself. mastering is high skill and cant be done by bedroom users of live.

radeon wrote:Forget mastering yourself. mastering is high skill and cant be done by bedroom users of live.

twat