mastering question/ tips needed

ki · Post by ki » Fri Aug 15, 2008 6:19 am

hi
can anyone suggest me a good mastering tip or vsti?
i am trying to press small quantity promotional cd's on my own. and maybe sell.
i did hire a professional to master before and it was costly and ineffective, so i want to just do it myself this time.

for now, i am relying on ableton and my ears..
but at the end, it's nowhere near the professional equipment of course.
so any suggestion would be great. vsti...tips etc.

thanks!

sweetjesus · Post by **sweetjesus** » Fri Aug 15, 2008 6:53 am

sonnox plugz rock the shizzle wizzle

ki · Post by ki » Fri Aug 15, 2008 6:55 am

thanks will check it out.
how about compared to waves? that's the only one i know/used on my old mac.

4.33 · Post by **4.33** » Fri Aug 15, 2008 7:05 am

if possible, mix&master to a reference.
find a record close to what you're doing sound wise and try to match it sonically. this will help to overcome possible problems caused by your room treatment/untreatment.

and this chap Tarekith here has some really useful tips on the matter:

http://tarekith.com/assets/Leveling.html
http://tarekith.com/assets/mixdowns.html
http://tarekith.com/assets/mastering.html

sweetjesus · Post by **sweetjesus** » Fri Aug 15, 2008 7:41 am

ki wrote:thanks will check it out.
how about compared to waves? that's the only one i know/used on my old mac.

waves stuff sux

C4 isnt bad but the sonnox limiter is so much more open sounding

ki · Post by ki » Fri Aug 15, 2008 7:51 am

4.33 wrote:if possible, mix&master to a reference.
find a record close to what you're doing sound wise and try to match it sonically. this will help to overcome possible problems caused by your room treatment/untreatment.

and this chap Tarekith here has some really useful tips on the matter:

http://tarekith.com/assets/Leveling.html
http://tarekith.com/assets/mixdowns.html
http://tarekith.com/assets/mastering.html

cheers 4 Tarekith.
i do reference to my favorite sounding tracks, and major difference is (beside the bass, comp etc) is simply the loudness.
maybe i find some info from tarekith 'bout that.

jahnlay · Post by **jahnlay** » Fri Aug 15, 2008 2:10 pm

There are some amazing ensembles being made for Reaktor if you have it. Do a search for mastering ensembles on the NI site.

I've been a mastering engineer for over 10 years and there are a lot of ways to do it. For digital mastering in the box, I'm using the UAD card, it rocks! As well as some PSP (Vintagewarmer) and Steinberg plug-ins.

EQ is still better via analogue, and a decent ouboard EQ unit is a big step up, as it gives a much better top end response.

I also find that upsampling your mixes, even if they were output at 44.1 16 bit, to 192 Khz and then processing gives a much, much, much smoother response.

Hope that helps a bit!

lola · Post by **lola** » Fri Aug 15, 2008 2:56 pm

Invest first in some good reference monitors i would say.

Aequitas123 · Post by **Aequitas123** » Fri Aug 15, 2008 3:23 pm

Waves most definitely does not suck.

Try the L3 to get a huge boost and compete in the Loudness Wars.

Landser · Post by **Landser** » Fri Aug 15, 2008 3:44 pm

Go for HarBal.

sroom3000 · Post by **sroom3000** » Fri Aug 15, 2008 4:41 pm

I prefer the Izotope Ozone 3 for mastering. It's about $250 and does everything you need to master. Loudness maximizing, multiband compression, frequency sweetening, matching EQ, etc. Take the time to learn it well and you'll be cranking out phat, warm masters in no time.

For just a quick boost to your overall mix, I suggest PSP Vintage Warmer 2. Easy to use, very analogish.

cheers

leedsquietman · Post by **leedsquietman** » Fri Aug 15, 2008 7:48 pm

If you must do this yourself, before you spend a ton on plugins, at least do some reading and experimenting yourself.

Read up especially on EQ, compression/limiting, and your mix needs to be great before you do mastering, crap in, crap out, so read up on mixing techniques too.

Excellent mixing book - The Mixing Engineer's Handbook 2nd edition, Bobby Owsinski.

Excellent mastering book (the mastering bible) - Mastering Audio : The Art and The Science (2nd edition) Bob Katz. His website also has some excellent articles http://www.digido.com/

Personally, I avoid Waves plugins, IMHO they are way overpriced and having to pay the Waves Upgrade Policy fee (WUP) is just a scandal. Probably 2/3 Waves users are running cracks because they can't/won't pay that kind of money. The quality is mostly OK, but I would use PSP Mastercomp, Sonnox, Sonalksis and even the Voxengo Elephant mastering plugin is better and only 1/3 the cost of buying the L2 limiter, it gives more flexibility. Waves limiters colour the sound too much.

Tarekith, Tone Deft, or even myself (don't usually offer as I am too busy, but being I am on vacation right now) are experienced and offer good quality mastering for good value.

P.S. - Avoid 'easy mastering fixes' such as throw this Ozone preset on it, this waves preset etc. Making music louder is easy, but unless you know what you are doing, you will kill the sound quality and introduce audible artifacts into your sound. And be careful to stay out of the loudness wars, overly compressed/limited tracks actually sound less punchy and weaker on the radio than a well mastered disc. Sure, you need to be competitive with the references in your field, but a good ME can get you more volume but with fewer compromises on the sound quality. Things like Harbal - Yes, OK, I have Harbal, but don't use the Intuit auto EQ correction. Learn about frequency balances and do it manually, otherwise it won't work across a range of tracks. Anything which sounds good on one track will probably not sound good on the next, there is no such thing as a preset 'EASY' button, one solution fits all.