FATSO followed by 20hz cambridge high-pass (fairly steep) - would like to buy Sonalksis sv315 and use it instead of the FATSO but i aint paying 200 notes for it.....

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Is the track finished? How does it sound? What do you think it needs?

Last edited by music2dance2 on Mar-04-2010 at 14:57

quote:

Originally posted by EgosXII i mix quite low, so i just wack an adaptive limiter on the master to raise the overall volume so i don't have to have my speakers cranked... i leave all the n00b mastering plugs till i'm finished just so i know when i get it professionally mastered and have to take off the n00b plugs it'll still sound good... plus the n00b mastering plugs really do sound better when you put them on at the end and just add a tiny bit of extra polish

Agree.

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Nothing while mixing.

EQ + PSP VW + Waves L2 when doing final renders. Actually, to be accurate, I render the final WAV with nothing on the master, load the WAV into a new channel in a new project file, and put the above effects (one at a time) on that channel and render a new WAV each time until it's finished.

quote:

Originally posted by evo8 FATSO followed by 20hz cambridge high-pass (fairly steep) - would like to buy Sonalksis sv315 and use it instead of the FATSO but i aint paying 200 notes for it.....

Interesting.....care to elaborate? Looks as if you're comparing the FATSO to the Sonalksis sv 315? Would really like to hear more about your opinions on this...

As another poster said above, I don't put anything on the master channel. This is just for preservation of dynamics while creating the track. I would highly recommend you do not put things on the master because #1 if you're going to try and get a professional master it's going to cripple the engineers efforts and #2 it's going to crunch your dynamics before you really do master the project. (unless you want to do EVERYTHING at once, mastering included, which I also do not recommend)

Export everything at 32bit float with no dithering if possible and load it up in your DAW and THEN start trying to decide how you want to master your track. There are so many ways to do this mate....I'm reading a 500+ page book right now on mixing audio written by "Roey Izhaki" called "Mixing Audio" (Highly, Highly recommended)

There is no cook book when it comes to mastering but there are many things that you should rarely ever do. The most important thing when it comes to mastering is practice, practice, and more practice. (And of course a good monitoring system)

For bedroom mastering - T-Racks 3 will get the job done just fine. It has a great nonlinear EQ (the best for transparent EQing) along with two very good coloring plugs (Fairchild compressor, Pultec EQ)

Also, 95% of your mastering is done on your individual tracks. "Mastering" on the master channel is just a little glue and EQ to polish it off.

Again, I cannot recommend the book mentioned above enough. I have learned so much from it and I'm half way through it. My mixes literally sound like night and day since I have employed some of the techniques it has suggested. Even simple little things about controlling dynamics in a left to right manner (large Q waves) instead of boosting and cutting with small Q waves. Other things like the humans ability to easily "replace" lower frequencies, thus making high pass filters much, much more desirable when working. (Your brain does not "replace" higher frequencies) - I know this sounds weird and is not very articulate but if you'll read the book you'll see what I'm talking about. Then you'll do it and HEAR what I'm talking about.

quote:

Originally posted by DjStephenWiley As another poster said above, I don't put anything on the master channel. This is just for preservation of dynamics while creating the track. I would highly recommend you do not put things on the master because #1 if you're going to try and get a professional master it's going to cripple the engineers efforts and #2 it's going to crunch your dynamics before you really do master the project. (unless you want to do EVERYTHING at once, mastering included, which I also do not recommend) Export everything at 32bit float with no dithering if possible and load it up in your DAW and THEN start trying to decide how you want to master your track. There are so many ways to do this mate....I'm reading a 500+ page book right now on mixing audio written by "Roey Izhaki" called "Mixing Audio" (Highly, Highly recommended) There is no cook book when it comes to mastering but there are many things that you should rarely ever do. The most important thing when it comes to mastering is practice, practice, and more practice. (And of course a good monitoring system) For bedroom mastering - T-Racks 3 will get the job done just fine. It has a great nonlinear EQ (the best for transparent EQing) along with two very good coloring plugs (Fairchild compressor, Pultec EQ) Also, 95% of your mastering is done on your individual tracks. "Mastering" on the master channel is just a little glue and EQ to polish it off. Again, I cannot recommend the book mentioned above enough. I have learned so much from it and I'm half way through it. My mixes literally sound like night and day since I have employed some of the techniques it has suggested. Even simple little things about controlling dynamics in a left to right manner (large Q waves) instead of boosting and cutting with small Q waves. Other things like the humans ability to easily "replace" lower frequencies, thus making high pass filters much, much more desirable when working. (Your brain does not "replace" higher frequencies) - I know this sounds weird and is not very articulate but if you'll read the book you'll see what I'm talking about. Then you'll do it and HEAR what I'm talking about.

A lot of people in here are answering a completely different question to what he asked. He asked what to put on the master channel, a lot of people are giving him advice on how to master, or what to put in a mastering chain.

These aren't at all the same things. Sometimes putting a few plugins on the master is just a part of the mixing process, part of making the track balanced and ready for mastering. Its definately not the case that its always better to put nothing on the master until the end; I tried it for years, and it didn't work half as well as what I'm doing now.

Now I run sonalksis EQ >> SSL 2500 compressor emulation for the mixing, and then a multimaximiser and some metering plugins for the mastering. The two are done in the same session, if a mastering engineer wants it at a later date then I may well go through and take off the limiter, but probably still keep the compressor.

Theres no reason why you shouldn't put your track through an EQ and compressor if it sounds good. If it sounds good it is good, provided you actually know what your doing with a compressor and don't just assume that more is better. I only ever have about 1 dB of gain reduction going on, usually on the two and the four beat since thats where the snare hits.

I agree with what you were saying about the mastering being done on the channels though, mastering really shouldn't make that much difference if the mix is good.

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Well the Sonnox Inflater part was a joke.....thats probably the worst thing you could put on there in my opinion.

I would put an SSL 4k Compressor with the mastering preset on or the Neve 88RS with mastering preset. They use very light compression which is important. You can't create a dynamic mix if you're squeezing the master to death from the get-go.

True, but its really a question of when the dynamics become squashed. I find about 1 dB of gain reduction is a good amount because it keeps the mix a bit more managable and pumpy while still allowing more than enough dynamics.

Of course, if I were producing commercial electro then I'd put more gain reduction on again. Compression on the master is another tool producers can use to achieve a certain aesthetic, which is why I now tend to disagree with the schol of people who rigidly insist that nothing at all should go on the master. I know lots of people who buss all sorts of strange combinations of channels into a compressor and get a great result.

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I thought the same, most posts here arent answering the question. Although some of the answers given he will be able to gather an idea of what he can start to do.

Trial & error is best and see what sounds good.

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Originally posted by kitphillips True, but its really a question of when the dynamics become squashed. I find about 1 dB of gain reduction is a good amount because it keeps the mix a bit more managable and pumpy while still allowing more than enough dynamics.

Good point.

quote:

Originally posted by kitphillips A lot of people in here are answering a completely different question to what he asked. He asked what to put on the master channel, a lot of people are giving him advice on how to master, or what to put in a mastering chain.

Everything I said is relative in the end.....to only be concerned with your master channel and not how it relates to the mix as a whole is idiotic. If he throws a limiter on there, goes through his entire mix and gets it ready to mix down, then takes off the limiter because his engineer requested so, then guess what?