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What mastering plug-in(s) to get with $300 budget? (pg. 2)
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| tehlord |
I think Ozone is a bit of a burden unless you know what you're doing with it.
A decent EQ, light compression and Kjaerhaus Classic Limiter are all you really need for some clean home mastering. |
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| Raphie |
| Ozone presets are just plain danger in the wrong hands :D |
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| Looney4Clooney |
| any preset is dangerous . The vengeance mbc is probably the last thing any engineer in any field of music would turn to. He has 300 $, the ozone program is about that and it will actually teach you alot more. It is a nice package and does the job. |
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| Atlantis-AR |
| quote: | Originally posted by Raphie
You can basically do mastering with nearly any EQ, compressor and limiter. |
I so disagree.
Jake Benson, can you provide any samples of your level of mixdowns so far and I may be able to offer more help. |
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| Richard Butler |
| quote: | Originally posted by Atlantis-AR
I so disagree.
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Future Music gave good reviews to all these Mastering units;
Elysia Alpha Compressor £228
Slate Digital FX-G £149
Brainworx bx _ XL 298 euros
Brainworx bx_ digital (have no idea what is the difference) 398 euros
Any thoughts on which of these is, erm....'best'? Hard to define 'best' I guess.
I suppose to me it would mean loudness and clarity combined. |
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| kitphillips |
I disagree with all in one mastering units like Ozone for a number of reasons that I'm not going to go into here...
Obviously anyone who masters with presets should be shot. |
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| Lith |
These other guys are correct--your songs should be as close to mastered in the tracking stage before you even think about mastering.
You can't magically fix multiple tracks playing at the same time with one or two plug-ins, because you don't have the same amount of control. Meaning: if your bass (for example) is muddy and undefined before you master, you're likely only going to make it sound worse by running everything through a compressor/limiter/EQ because a hi-hat hit in the wrong place could end up working like a side chain compressor.
I have one of the older Waves bundles, and I do like some of the FX in it, but wouldn't use them on a whole track unless it was ready to fit within the confines of what it can actually do. Digital clipping can start happening real quick when mastering that way, which is why you have to be careful long before you actually get to the mastering stage.
Oh, and you can't master effectively without the right set of speakers. I would say what speakers you mix on (assuming you've learned their nuances properly) are far more important than the plug-ins themselves.
If you want to take an early stab at things, try using buses to mix the drums through one plug-in, and then start bringing in other tracks--you'll quickly see the limitations of your raw tracks if you haven't mixed them properly.
Good luck! |
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| cryophonik |
| Not to belabor the point too much, but I think that too many of us (yeah, including myself sometimes) take too literal a position when it comes to mastering. The term "mastering" these days encompasses a lot more than the traditional definition. Most bedroom producers refer to what we used to call "finalizing" or just putting the finishing touches on a mixdown to prepare it for submission to a label, or to send it their DJ friends to get work into a mix, etc. as mastering. If we would all just agree to put the semantics and idealism aside, these discussions could be a lot more productive. |
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| Raphie |
fully agree, mastering is about making your track "compatible" to a multitude of systems,depending on the quality of the track, either no correction is needed, or corrections in the frequency spectrum, or corrections in amplitude. When mastered well, the track sounds as expected on a multitude of systems & media.
Mastering is more about the monitoring chain & room and making informed decissions as one knows what the result should sound like, Then about the silver bullet plugin to make things "phatt"
This means that Ozone or MBC in the wrong hands will create the aesthetic effect one is looking for, but will not autocorrect any spectrum issues, neither does it provide a safe quard for bricking your tracks. What happens is that the track sounds nice in your room, but is either way to bass light, or bass heavy outside your room.
I would go even further saying that if budget is limited, my spending priority would be:
- buy a book to really understand mastering (i.e. Bob Katz, the art of mastering)
- Understand and invest in room akoustics (bass traps, diffussors, mic measurement etc)
- invest in monitoring (speakers, amp, DAC)
- invest in tools (first learn the limitations of the tools included in your DAW and then make informed buying decissions based upon what's lacking, not because you think a certain preset in Ozone just sounds fat.Most modern DAWs are fully capable to deliver with the included tools
- Once fully comfortable in VST land, you might want to start exploring outboard options.
so having 300$ my spend would be:
- 30$ book
- 50$ Behringer EMC8000 mic
- REW (free)
- 200$ rockwool and wood for trapping/diffusors (DYI instructions on Gearslutz, just go to local DYI store) |
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| Atlantis-AR |
| I'm still curious to actually hear the mixdowns and where the OP is at in terms of needing mastering. Different processors suit different material so I won't recommend anything before actually listening to the mixdown, and if mastering can even save it. |
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| Raphie |
| Agreed, GIGO counts (garbage in is garbage out) hence my advise to invest in akoustics, this will probably be most beneficial for improving mixes. |
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| kitphillips |
Well I can see why the OP's bailed. He asked for recommendations for plugins and everyone decided to give him their wisdom on mastering more generally, making heaps of assumptions about why he shouldn't master his own tracks without knowing anything about him, his skill level or his intentions as to what he was doing with the tracks.
This thread has turned into another one where people give their incredible wisdom about mastering without really knowing much about the OP.
Good work TA. |
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