Ableton Forum

are ableton's plug-in's good enough for mastering the master out?

if so, what is the best way to use them?

if not, what should i buy to replace them?

thanks,
-chris

I think the most important factors in mastering are your monitoring environment, and your ears. It takes amazing ears and experience to be a mastering engineer.

yes. i think they are good enough if your going to be playing some songs in you friends basement,but never for a real release.for proper mastering you need hardware.also,nobody on this board knows how to master a song the right way,it takes years and years to become a pro. dont even try to master your stuff.send it out!!!!!

i think you're as likely to be able to do your own mastering as whatever somewhat crap engineer is within your budget. the true gods of mastering are pretty unbelievable, but there's a very quick drop off in quality. since it's all about the mixing for most folk, lives plugs should be enough (because you shouldn't be doing dramatic changes in sound via mastering).

all that said, of course you'd prefer to master with sick outboard gear or the best mastering software plugs. but most people don't need that, and most can't afford it. this will likely go down the path of many other threads, but there are some unbelievably good records made with "bad" technology. so it's possible (which doesn't mean you're going to be able to do it, but if you can't do it with what you've got, you're not much more likely to be able to do it with the best gear in the world).

uh john, i know how to master a song the right way. go call a hooker.

john gordon wrote:nobody on this board knows how to master a song the right way

might be a bit of an overstatement man

that mastering-shit is overrated and mostly idiots talk.

though it is true that gives it the final kiss. but a soft one. further good music not really depends on it that, there´s no rule or law for "the sound" and never should.

nevertheless the plugs provided in live aren´t enough for good producing in general. they´re more of those nice tools for creation. for example the hall is a bad joke compared to an m2 for example or to an average hardware reverb. also the compressor does nice on drums and maybe some synth, but it´s not good in edging bigger issues or the whole thing. last but not least: the equalizers. nice to play around with em and use them in a creative way, but it´s hard to finetune a sound with it.

@ technochris81 do you mean mastering or mixing down?

apples and oranges

Somehow I think pitting a free software EQ against a $10,000+ analogue mastering EQ box is likely to sound like night and day.

I vote no.

Mind you this is a completely vague question so I just pulled this out of my ass.



Is Live a good sequencer for trance!?

for a quick and dirty indie release, sure why not.. for a proper release on even a net label you would probably want to get someone with the experience and the equipment..

Not by far

as to what to buy to use instead of lives fx, waves is somewhat of an industry standard, though there are higher end plugs for mastering. sonalksys makes some nice plugs, there are many other options. (and if you really want to try to master, go with one of the highend HW stereo compressor/eqs.)

again, it depends on what you're really trying to do (e.g., just make the master out sound somewhat better or actually master). if you're asking, odds are pretty you're not really trying to master (if you could really master, you wouldn't need to ask because you'd already be familiar with all the gear) but instead just trying to give your mixes some xtra punch or whatnot. so download demos of all the various plugin options and try them out, see what sounds good to you or you like working with.

Well you cant master a shit!

If quality mastering is so important, how come no one gives a shit about remastered editions of 70s records? Seriously, Sgt. Peppers was the world's best record already before it got remastered.

stew wrote:Sgt. Peppers was the world's best record

i hope you do mean "was". Thriller dude, Thriller. just kidding. or am i?