Mastering chain - recommended plugins

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Dr. Jeep

New member
I want to do a "master" of my mix at home - I know its not the same as going out of house.

Can anyone give me a plugin chain for how to master my mix - in some particular order. I am running ProTools LE out of MBox. If you have specific compressor or EQ or limiter plugins - feel free to recommend them.

I want to know how people are getting the best results.
 
There is never a particular order or preset. You need to do what the mix is asking you to do.

Listen to the mix -

Visualize what the mix "should" sound like when done -

Establish the chain and set it up to do what you're looking for -

Turn it back on and tweak from there.

The only "rule of thumb" that's fairly solid is "correction before enhancement." That is, working on anomalies FIRST. Sibilance, hiss, rumble, clicks, pops, etc.

As far as particular plugs or what not - I'm more of a hardware type, but if I could only have one set of plugs, it'd be the UAD collection without question.

What NOT to get caught up in -

Twisting knobs in no particular order on a mix that "counts" - Experiment and learn on things that don't matter. The point is to listen to the mix and *know* what it needs to get it to sound the way you want it to. Knowing comes from experience and experimentation, but objectivity plays a HUGE role in establishing a mix's needs. If you've ever "mixed yourself into a hole" before, you know where I'm going...

"Maul the band" compression (and truckloads of other "mastering" tools) unless it's actually required for some reason. There are good reasons to use them - rarely, but it happens. Slamming a mix until your ears bleed and your tweeters fall apart isn't a good one.

Volume wars in general - The mix will *tell you* what level it wants to be at if you're listening to it. Pushing it beyond that point is a compromise. Finding how much you want to compromise is up to you...

There's more, but hopefully that makes some sort of sense...
 
Massive Master said:
You need to do what the mix is asking you to do.

Listen to the mix -

Visualize what the mix "should" sound like when done -

Establish the chain and set it up to do what you're looking for -

Turn it back on and tweak from there.

The only "rule of thumb" that's fairly solid is "correction before enhancement." That is, working on anomalies FIRST. Sibilance, hiss, rumble, clicks, pops, etc.
Click to expand...
Good one Massive - that's the whole game right there IMO. Better than naming specific plugs , most of which change from project to project. The better thing is to work on listening for things that need correction, identifying a toolset - then listen to what needs sweetening if anything and identify some tools for that. It's taken me several years to get to that point. In fact I just added my last piece which is a mastering compressor from PSP called MasterComp (oddly enough!). That was a long search - I work in the box but don't have Waves or UAD. One other thing I always use is Voxengo Elephant mastering limiter (for setting loudness) and the free Span spectrum analyzer (K-scale loudness - I use K-12). I have 2 or 3 of most tools depending on what I need for a job - only one mastering limiter that I always use though.

For hum removal (not hiss removal) I always use adobe audition noise reduction tool. If you've ever tried to notch out hum and harmonics with an eq you'll notice you're left with swiss-cheese in the lomids and bass. The noise removal tools lets you pull out the hum - only enough to do the job.

Over time I've picked up a tool here, a technique there, after a while it adds up and I don't worry if all my settings get blown away - I can dial them all back in by ear now. There was a time though when I was saving all presets - sure I could never get that again, and afraid to twist the knobs.

Identifying problems, imbalances and appropriate tools - fun stuff! Assuming your monitoring is sufficient so you can hear what you need to...that's an essential part of the chain too. :)
 
To be specific - I essentially want to compress the mix - maybe bring out some mids. Right now the low end is nice and tight - not muddy. The highs are good too - without being tinny or shrill. The mids are clear - but what I "think" I want is a nice spectrum. I know that I can compress the mix a bit - I have intentionally let things breathe a bit. I have used compression on bass - drum submix - and vocals.

I want there to be depth within the master, not squashed all to hell. Plus, is there any merit in pushing the stereo field?
 
sure, you can play with the stereo field. believe it or not, on my last recording, I actually narrowed the stereo field during masterig...sounded better after compression. I would set up an eq and a limiter and a compressor. I would use the eq to cut out the frequences that are messing up the balance and tighten up the rest with the comp at 1.3:1 and very slow attack and release. maybe even a limiter. one or all of those should move towards your goal.
 
Oddly enough I just pushed my stereo field in too Falken using Voxengo Soniformer, I left the highs alone mostly but pushed the bass and mids stereo fields pretty tight. Soniformer makes for a good repair or balancing mastering compressor - PSP MasterComp I just picked up and am learning - I wanted something that would bring out the good stuff in the music without getting that crushed sound - unless I want it that is... :D
 
thats cool, I really wish I had a way to just bring the bass end more and not the whole mix...

I brought my LR mix into channels 1 and 2 of my outboard mixer. I then ran both of those into a stereo aux send, and adjusted my stereo spread that way. you can't really make it more stereo that way but you can make it less stereo. you can make it more stereo by reversing phase and panning, and bring up slowly, but i find this degrades tonal quality.
 
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