I checked out the other long mastering thread. It seemed geared for people looking to master their final commercial album release. But what about just for your demos to post on SoundCloud when you want to quickly master something as loud and in your face as can possibly be done by a novice with the Waves Diamond bundle? I have decent luck just using MultiMaximizer and C4 compression, but in what order should I use them, and should I throw in anything else?

quote:

most mastering "engineers" can't do any better than a simple Ozone 4 preset with a few tweaks.

What program and what patch?
Is Ozone 4 much better than Waves Diamond?

As a side note I hear that a lot of TV production budgets are getting slashed and so they skimp on mastering engineers in favor of using software. Not sure if you can get way with that for Trance music.

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Mastering isn't as simple as putting a plugin with a preset on your track.

My advice:

Get your mixdown sounding as tight as you can.

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quote:

Originally posted by Alpha219 I checked out the other long mastering thread. It seemed geared for people looking to master their final commercial album release. But what about just for your demos to post on SoundCloud when you want to quickly master something as loud and in your face as can possibly be done by a novice with the Waves Diamond bundle? I have decent luck just using MultiMaximizer and C4 compression, but in what order should I use them, and should I throw in anything else? What program and what patch? Is Ozone 4 much better than Waves Diamond? As a side note I hear that a lot of TV production budgets are getting slashed and so they skimp on mastering engineers in favor of using software. Not sure if you can get way with that for Trance music.

A. mastering engineers use software not because it saves money. B. The catering food per day costs more than the mastering.

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AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Do us all a favour and search out the last 6-7 mastering threads that have been on here. You'll learn two things.

1/A vague idea of what's involved in mastering
2/ every mastering thread ends in a shit fight.

The moral being, don't start mastering threads.

Also, no, a preset from a cracked version of ozone 4 will NOT make your track mastered and radio ready. wtf

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quote:

Also, no, a preset from a cracked version of ozone 4 will NOT make your track mastered and radio ready.

Everyone missed my question. I'm not mastering a finished product for commercial release. This is for demos to post on SoundCloud.

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those doesnt need "mastering". nothing does.
1. render
2. upload
3.
4. success

no harm in trying. Read Bob Katz' book and that will give you a general idea of what mastering is. There are no real specific mastering tools. Some are more popular but they are all just variations of the same thing. ANd yes, the waves bundle is more than capable. Even if it was a pop recording playing on the radio.

___________________
"This is why Superman works alone." GC
old stuff from days gone by (2001-2004)
Mad For Brad's gay little contest

quote:

Originally posted by Alpha219 Everyone missed my question. I'm not mastering a finished product for commercial release. This is for demos to post on SoundCloud.

A preset will do more harm than good.

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quote:

Originally posted by Alpha219 I have decent luck just using MultiMaximizer and C4 compression, but in what order should I use them, and should I throw in anything else?

Mastering/ engineering isn't about luck. It's about knowing what you want to do, production-wise, and knowing your tools well enough that you can select the optimal settings to achieve your aim.

Should you throw in anything extra? It depends on whether the music needs it or not.

99% of the loudness/mix quality/overall sound/etc comes from the mixing process, not mastering. Your song should sound fantastic, and loud, etc, before it hits the mastering process.

In the end, you need to do the time. It takes a while to train your ears to hear what's happening in your mixes, to learn what to do and what not to do. You can reach for presets and quick fix bandaid solutions, but they're going to sound like bandaid solutions. There is no magic "make my songs sound better now" tool.

Just stick with it, just focus on improving your music each day.

my favorite analogy for mastering is : if making a track was like making a ferrari, then mastering would be putting the ferrari badge on the front. ie your mix should be good enough to play on a club system without being mastered, but mastering will make it even better. and translate better across different systems.

so basically in answer to the OP - just upload them, given your gonna turn it into mp3 anyway it will make hardly any difference

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First, I don't mind answering these mastering topics, and I agree SoundCloud previews don't necessarily need mastering. People have just gotten so used to the fact of music being loud they don't know what's it's like to listen to a real, dynamic mixdown. That being said, if you do feel the need to impress your audience, some subtle use ot limiting can help balance out any mix imperfections. Even if you get things 'perfect' in the mix, frequencies are still going to combine and the peak level is still going to increase; limiting is there to take care of this, but only a few dB. Anything more and you just start degrading sound quality.

Now the next question is listening for the right threshold: keep the volume low and the output ceiling the same as you're bringing the threshold down.

Also please don't mention the C4 and "Waves Diamond Bundle" as standard tools because it just makes you sound like a software pirate and meat-and-potatoes kind of person. Waves do have a linear phase multi-band compressor and do have a low-latency multi-band limiter by now.

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