Ableton Forum

hi all im thinking of buying some mastering software ,but havnt much experience with it .ive been looking at wavelab and adobe audition..are you guys using any of these?.. another qustion say i render a live track to disk as a wav file then open it up in the mastering software can you insert a live set into the mastering software so when playing live ive got the same mastered sound or are they just for radio ect .any help would be much appreciated nice 1

http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/ozone/

everybody raves about the ozone, well, lots of people do.

You can use it within live, so no need to use a seperate program like wavelab or audition

I'd check out the demo, do a little googling on the ozone for user feedback...

best o luck old bean.

mastering software : wavelab or samplitude on PC

mastering plugin : UAD-1 or Powercore or sony oxford bundle IMO

the worst tool : T-rack

the tools to avoid but are often use : PSP, Izotope, kjaerhus, waves ...

the tools always forgotten : acoustic treatement and mastering class monitoring

and never forget that mastering studio use rack processor that cost between 5000 & 8000 each rack

to conclude a skilled mastering engineer

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

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!

why should waves be avoided?!

Daim wrote:why should waves be avoided?!

it's my opinion,

because i think they are too expensive for the sound quality they give

to me, UAD-1 give us the best plugin (neve, pultec,fairchild, 1176 LN, Precision series, the best software limiter ever know, ect ect ect, ...)

so personaly, i use none other plugin than UAD's at mastering stage

so agree with eas /rogernichols inspector xl : very good metering and analysers

i'm looking for sonny oxford native bundle actually

Why Avoid Kjaerhus?!?! The MPL-1 limiter is amazing and many mastering engineers think it's the best software limiter (and better than hardware) ever...


Also Voxengo have some great plugins. Elephant and Marquis rule.

I've owned the Precision limiter when I had UAD-1. It's good, but not the best. Elephant and MPL-1 are better imho. Precision colored the mix too much.

all is in the personal taste,

i think also that Percision limiter is the most musical (no absolutely neutral)
limiter

to me kjaerhus are muddy

like PSP or nomad factiry are

so when i say i think, to me, IMHo, ... don't think i believe you have shit in the ears,

(but i truly think the people who love T-racks have shit in ears lol)

why do you suggest avoiding Izotope/Ozone ?
I've not used it - but I've read about it, you're the first person I've seen who's said to avoid it....personal taste, or is it rubbish for some reason ?

spill the beans!

studios210 wrote: 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!

I want to add something about the RMS of a final mix. I tried all the most important DSP cards and software bundles and I understood that using these technologies is really difficult to obtain a great master track with more than -9db RMS.

Scube

studios210 wrote:don't forget that usually excessive low end tends to "steal" a lot of dynamic range so proceed accordingly!

+1

i try and somehow slightly reduce the length of how long bass stuff rides out for by either gating/tauncating/clip envelopes to allow some space for stuff not in the low register to breathe

b0unce wrote:why do you suggest avoiding Izotope/Ozone ?
I've not used it - but I've read about it, you're the first person I've seen who's said to avoid it....personal taste, or is it rubbish for some reason ?

spill the beans!

1 personal taste obviously, since the first time i use UAD-1

2 the few mastering ingeneer i know or talk with tells me the only software plugin acceptable today (or consider as an effect not just a plugin) are UAD-1 's, and those people only use the best gear

3 i don't work for UA

I just picked up Ozone after playing with the demo - I have been very impressed with the software and their documentation and "mastering guide." This thing isn't going to give you great ears but the capabilities of Ozone are really amazing especially moreso given the price. I'm no expert, I only know what my ears tell me, but for $200US I'll take it. Really good stuff. Mind you, if you don't know what you're doing you can screw up a mix using ANY software!

Wavelab is awesome but still works better with plugins as the bundled ones range from good to fair but non are excellent but the editing and monitoring environment is amazing. The audio montage is awesome and of course for surround, 5.1 editing or DVD-Audio production it rocks.

I use Soundforge 8 with extra plugins, mostly by Voxengo, Kjaerhus and PSP. It's a great combination, soundforge is a simple to use editor with some great mastering functions but some plugins are a bit lacking, hence beefing it up with some 3rd party plugs. Wavelab and Soundforge are PC only solutions.

I do not agree at all with afone1977 at all about PSP or Kjaerhus plug ins and also Waves plugins are overly costly but some of them are exceptional (although I don't include L2 or L3 in this category, even if they are among the most used).

PSP's mastering compressor is as good as anything, including the UAD-1 compressors imho. I know several studio mixers and mastering engineers who have used this plugin. Maybe the PSP range as a whole is not all at this level of quality but I definately recommend the mastering compressor.

Kjaerhus's MPL-1 PRO limiter is amazing for it's money and gives many of the limiters in UAD-1 a run for it's money, people think you have to put 1176's or chandler emulations on everything to sound good but this is like saying that Pro Tools is the best DAW because the Pro Tools HD TDM system is the most used in pro studios, when in fact it has more to do with the fact it was the first one with a foot in the door and then people had too much invested in it to try anything else.

Elephant 2.5 limiter by Voxengo is also amazing. Although I certainly do agree that UAD-1 is an amazing DSP card with superb effects

Ozone is fine for it's money. Some of the plugins might not be the most excellent but more often than not, people don't know how to use many of these plugins to their peak optimization anyway, so then it becomes a moot point comparing plugins that cost many thousands of dollars to Ozone when most people don't know how to properly use a compressor etc.

afone1977 wrote:mastering software : wavelab or samplitude on PC

mastering plugin : UAD-1 or Powercore or sony oxford bundle IMO

the worst tool : T-rack

the tools to avoid but are often use : PSP, Izotope, kjaerhus, waves ...

the tools always forgotten : acoustic treatement and mastering class monitoring

and never forget that mastering studio use rack processor that cost between 5000 & 8000 each rack

to conclude a skilled mastering engineer

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

what do you have against t-racks?