Mastering Chain - what say you?

And on the waves stuff, I don't care one way or another about the l3. But the l1 and l2 are very crunchy sounding. I've never liked the results from either of those.
 
And on the waves stuff, I don't care one way or another about the l3. But the l1 and l2 are very crunchy sounding. I've never liked the results from either of those.

Neither (the L1 or L2) are considered very good, even by Waves own standards (hence why the L3 is more expensive and/or only included with decent bundles).

Waves has a distinct tier to their product line, every item (reverb, compression, eq, etc) have multiple grades within them. For simpler, one off functions some of the lower end (and cheaper) effects work fine (like center, doubler, deesser). You'd want to get their higher end products for mastering.

That's why I wondered why you mentioned L1, since it's not intended to be of the caliber and class one would expect when doing fine mastering adjustments. Quick and dirty track level stuff perhaps. Apples to oranges. I'm sure some people use it for mild limiting, like some people run summer tires in the winter. It works fine so long as no one's around. :p

Fwiw, the L3 is on sale right now and a good bargain at $129. But if you're going to do that, mind as well get the bundle I did which is also on sale for the same price and includes the L3:

Dave Aude EMP Toolbox | Bundles | Waves
 
Last edited:
if the waves L1 and L2 are too 'crunchy' when you use them,
then you are not using them correctly.
 
Gonzo, do you have any L3 experience as well to give us a bit of an overview/comparison of the three limiters? I've often wondered what practical difference there was in some of the Waves product tiers.
 
Damn, I should've read this thread before I posted my previous, because this also gives me a point at which I say my piece. Because I now have matering software available AS plug-ins (in days of yore, I used to HAVE to mix to 16bit and then load the mix into an early T-Racks version) Now, I can pop something on the strereo outs insert, I find myself jumping between the real mix and the plug-in version. Oh, I know it's all wrong, but what happens is the mix proper gets tailored as I go and the settings on the plug-in gets tailored, too as at different points I switch in and out - 10 pence worth.................. I learn more about the mastering software this way - like pulling back on it :-)
 
Now, I can pop something on the strereo outs insert, I find myself jumping between the real mix and the plug-in version. Oh, I know it's all wrong, but what happens is the mix proper gets tailored as I go and the settings on the plug-in gets tailored, too as at different points I switch in and out - 10 pence worth.................. I learn more about the mastering software this way - like pulling back on it :-)
I usually mix to a certain nebulous point of "doneness", and then drop my typical mastering chain on the master bus and finish mixing into that, though I of course will end up adjusting the settings on the master in the process when necessary. Maybe I'll bypass it once in a while for a sanity check. What happens from there depends on what I'm doing.

If this is for an album, I usually render the individual songs without that mastering chain. That way I can bring it up in another session with all the other songs it has to live with and have some room to get everything sounding more like it belongs in the same place. At the end of the day, it ends up going through something very similar to what I was mixing into, except there might be a little bit of individualized EQ and gain adjustment on the way in.

If it's a "single" or a live recording or whatever, I just render it and done.
 
I'm working on my first iteration of "album." My two previous releases have just been a throw together of five individual songs with no attempt to make a "whole." So, I'm really quite interested in how to make that happen. I've got each song laid out on it's own track in a separate project with intro/outro stuff going on and I'm getting to the point where I'm fairly comfortable with the process. Thanks, Ash, for the idea of leaving the mastering off of the tracks. Going to do that when I get everything done. (got several tracks yet to be recorded and several that aren't mixed to where I want them). I've been trying to get the sound similar outside the final...that's a nightmare. Will be so much easier getting the sound right with the mastering and EQ at that stage. The next question will be how to re-divide them once that's accomplished. i.e. when I burn that file to a disc, which software do I need to separate those tracks back out, and how do I keep them contiguous on the disc without extra blank space between?
 
i.e. when I burn that file to a disc, which software do I need to separate those tracks back out, and how do I keep them contiguous on the disc without extra blank space between?

I have an older copy of Nero that I use for creating the CD Audio from the WAV files. It allows you to specify length of pause between tracks, which i usually set to 0 for my own stuff since I use the fade outs at the end of the tracks to pace the album, and usually start the tracks with very little dead air/space. But some people like a second or two between songs as the CD is playing.
 
I missed the part where you said what DAW you're using, and don't feel like looking back. I use Reaper. Once I get everything laid out just right with the spacing and flow that I want, all I have to do is make a region for each song and then use the Region Render Matrix to render the Master Mix for each of them. I don't do physical media, but Reaper will burn to disc and/or a couple different disc image formats. While I've never actually done it and don't know the specifics, that process uses Regions about exactly the same way.
 
I use Reason. I have Reaper. So, when I get ready, if I can't figure out how to do this in Reason, I'll render a single two track and cut it up in Reaper. I may even master there, since I have density mk III and Kjearhause and a few other decent free limiters on that side...
 
Back
Top