Home Mastering - What Do You Use?

Just browsing over this thread so this is not directed at any one poster..

Having a stubborn attitude will not get you anywhere and by the same token listening to pro ME's telling you that you can't master yourself will get you nowhere.

I think what you need to take from it is that the pro ME's are saying that a guy on his first attempt is not going to get the same results as a 30 year veteran, even if you use his rig. And I think it is pretty obvious that they are right.

Can you beat a pro golfer the first time you play even if you use his clubs ??

Your observation is pretty good, but the thread is four years old, so maybe no-one is listening anymore.
 
I use a Peavey PV-14 Channel Soundboard, For my drums I have the Samson 7 Mic Kit, and guitars I run them directly into the mixer. I record each instrument onto my recording software, in which I use Acoustica Mixcraft 6. I use hardly and plugins and effects for my mastering, I use simple Compressors, Reverb, Noise gate, And EQ. All these simple things, and I STILL get an amazing professional final product :)
 
I use a Peavey PV-14 Channel Soundboard, For my drums I have the Samson 7 Mic Kit, and guitars I run them directly into the mixer. I record each instrument onto my recording software, in which I use Acoustica Mixcraft 6. I use hardly and plugins and effects for my mastering, I use simple Compressors, Reverb, Noise gate, And EQ. All these simple things, and I STILL get an amazing professional final product :)

What the heck is there use for a noise gate on a mastering project?

I am sorry if you are misunderstanding the definitions of mixing/mastering. Time to get that figured out. :)
 
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That's amazing considering you just illustrated that you have no idea what mastering is.

I suppose.. lol I guess I am getting mixing and mastering switched around just a bit, so I apologize for that for posting this in the wrong area :P. it's not that I know absolutely NOTHING about the two, I guess the way I word things out makes it sound real noobish... regardless, it sounds amazing.


Noise gate and reverb eh? Do tell...

Remove noise and then add reverb.... That's all I do....... lol


What the heck is there use for a noise gate on a mastering project?

I guess I am getting mixing and mastering mixed up... I use it to eliminate background noise like and other noise reduction tool.

I am sorry if you are misunderstanding the definitions of mixing/mastering. Time to get that figured out.

Yeah, I figured that!


All your missing is a flanger.

Eww...
 
It's not that, I'm just learning as I go. lol

Nothing wrong with that. But you might want to learn some humility, because claiming your mixes are an "amazing professional final product" to a bunch of musicians who have heard it all before, without being able to back it up makes you sound like an amateur.
 
It's true enough Atrey.
If your comments advocate a certain approach or even just suggest that X results can be had from Y, it might be good to give an example or two.
If for no other reason than your credibility may be questioned, and words like amazing and professional are subjective.

You don't have to post anything. It's just a friendly suggestion.
 
I suppose.. lol I guess I am getting mixing and mastering switched around just a bit, so I apologize for that for posting this in the wrong area :P. it's not that I know absolutely NOTHING about the two, I guess the way I word things out makes it sound real noobish... regardless, it sounds amazing.




Remove noise and then add reverb.... That's all I do....... lol




I guess I am getting mixing and mastering mixed up... I use it to eliminate background noise like and other noise reduction tool.



Yeah, I figured that!




Eww...


Sorry dude,

When you mentioned a noise gate I thought you were joking
 
I record and mix in Pro Tools HD11...

For mastering, I am using DSP Quattro - AWESOME software.... has a couple quirks, and is on version 4.2.4 currently, however, Stefano is a great dude, and is working on an update right now that will incorporate a bunch of stuff a lot of us users have been suggesting and requesting. We will see this update very soon. Great price, and even cheaper if you are cross-grading.

For plugs, I am using nearly exclusively Waves plugins, and love em. Q10, Linear Phase EQ, C6 Multiband, L3 Multi, L3LL / L316 - Vitamin, WLM Plus for metering... the list goes on... GREAT STUFF!!!!!

There was mention of CD Architect here.... I have a legitimate copy I am not using... the latest version 5.2 - I will sell it for $75. Sony allows the sale and transfer of the license. If anyone wants it, we can do it via PayPal and can LEGITIMATELY transfer ownership to you with Sony
 
I've only been here for a day and I've read some of Massive's comments. I was in this business for a very long time and I grew to understand that those who were brutally honest were the only ones you could really trust to give you helpful feedback. You've got to have very thick skin to continue in your music endeavor. That said, he made a comment about Ozone's presets ruining tracks and I would wholeheartedly agree. Don't use presets in any plugin. Or only use them as starting points. Your mix is an individual thing and only your ear can know what it needs.........plus or minus. I almost never look at Ozone's preset menu..............you need to learn how to use these things. Some of them are great........Ozone included.........just don't rely on presets. I think Massive is a mastering engineer so he's way beyond plugins for mastering. If you're on a budget ......learn how and why to use these plugins and it will pay dividends. You'll learn about recording and......you'll learn to be brutally honest with yourself. This is hard work.
 
I'm sure it's been mentioned, but you should always start with a good mix, bounced with mastering in mind.

Every mix I finish, I use WLM Plus on the final insert of my master, to monitor the overall loudness of the mix, and where my peaks are.
There is also an intersample peak aware limiter in it, but I don't use this for my final bounce, instead, I make sure I have some headroom for mastering.... I like anywhere between -3 and -6 dbfs for my loudest peaks.

I can also monitor Loudness Units. Keeping every mix within the same loudness and peak ranges, I'm ensuring very good matches coming out of every mix - less fussing about to match things up in mastering.

After I've bounced all my mixes, I bring them all back into a PT session, as I'm using Distressors for some final comp and saturation.
(I use this step, because I am also using them on Vocals in my mixes, so they are unavailable for the master bus)
I may also add some multiband comp, para eq, etc, as needed between tracks to match up tones and relative loudness as necessary.

Now, I take all those bounces and fly em into DSP Quattro to lay out my CD - Fades - Text, Etc, and I'll use WLM Plus again with the limiter on this time, with the peak set to -1

I've gotten great results with this workflow and have been very very happy, as have my clients.

I would like another pair of distressors at some point to save myself the additional step of importing tracks back in for that step, but hey, it's working GREAT
 
Most recently I have been using Ozone 5's EQ, multi-band comp, and the stereo enhancer modules. I've been using Slate's FG-Red for compression and VCC/VTM for console/tape saturation. Topping it off with Fabfilter's pro L limiter for loudness. I seem to get much better results with this limiter than with Ozone's.
 
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