mastering software

[mojovoodoo]

ok, here goes more rediculous questions..... i am sure there are other threads that answer my questions, but it's late at night and i just wanna post a new thread and ask more questions before i go to sleep. so......., in another thread i posted , i asked advice on cheap mixing speakers, and got some great responses, so now, i pose the same question on mastering software, again, let me reiterate, i know it is not possible to buy cheap mastering software, and i know that true master houses would say it is a crime against humanity to try to master on a computer versus a true analog 2 track tape.... but, i am really close with my mixes and the mastering process. i did a 2 track stereo master with the psp mix pack( i think it's tc electronics? or maybe it's it's own company called psp?) anyways, it sounds really nice, problem is, i think it's the demo version i downloaded( i thought it was free software) but it says that the demo version it will play a noise every 20 seconds(funny, i can't hear any noises, my ears must be shot) nonetheless, it does an awesome job. and it comes really cheap $149!! but then i went online searching, turns out everyone makes mastering/mixing software these days. anyone got any recommendations? or favorites? i know that t-racks makes something for $299(close enough to my price range) but there is so much to choose from. anyone with some good suggestions? whew, this is so long winded, sorry folks. and once again thank you for all the killer suggestions.

[Kevin Deschwazi]

Well I like T-racks but I know it's not popular with a lot of folks around here (many of whom are a great deal more experienced than I am).

It depends on your situation and what you want to acheive with your recordings. I record to make demos, have fun and learn, so T-Racks is fine for my needs. However if you're wanting to take things a little more seriously then I suspect you'll want something better (and more expensive).

People speak very highly of the UAD-1 card but I have no personal experience with that.

why's your question ridiculous by the way?

[ryanlikestorock]

If $299 is your price range, go with T-Racks.

[lpdeluxe]

If you want fast results, go with T-Racks. I use it for "mastering" provisional mixes for the talent to listen to riding around in their cars: it gives good enough results and then we can move on to more sophisticated mixes on the basis of what they hear.

[mojovoodoo]

what's the UAD-1 card? is it something i could use on my mac g4? i am recording in pro tools and i know that most mastering software is standalone , so i could just drop my audio files in it , right? with the psp mix pack i just use it as a plug in RTAS, but my setup won't handle more than 2 of the psp plug ins at a time. here's my set up:

the m box w/ pro tolls 6.4
mac OSX 10.3.5
Power Mac G4
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (2.0)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 733 MHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 256 KB
Memory: 896 MB
Bus Speed: 133 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.2.5f1

i know it ain't much, but it's all i got. thanks for the responses.( i juts feel like such an amateur sometimes that i can't tell if my questions are rediculous or not)

[kylen]

I like the sound of T-racks sometimes but I never use it - just play with it every once in a while. After talking to someone yesterday I think the thing buggin me is it let's transients thru, in other words eventhough it's got a limiter and clipper stage they don't brickwall.

What that makes me do in some cases is try to get T-racks to squish even harder to bring the transients under control, or lower the output to -3dBFS or so. Both of those manuvers defeat the purpose of using T-racks to 'finalize' something for a demo in the first place.

So the next time I drag out T-racks I'm gonna stick Elephant Mastering Limiter (Voxengo) after it to take care of any peaks. Then I'll get a reasonable sound with T-racks and push into Elephant a dB or 2 to finish the job. Elephant will dither too so I can still do that as the last thing right before writing to CD.

So long story short - IMO if you go T-Racks put a real Mastering Limiter after it.

[Kevin Deschwazi]

Originally Posted by mojovoodoo

what's the UAD-1 card?

http://www.uaudio.com/products/digital/studiopak/

It's not specifically a mastering tool but rather DSP card with a set of plugins which (faithfully) model old UA, fairchild, Pultec compressors & EQ's etc. which I understand are suitable for mastering use.

Like I say they are held in pretty high regard by some of the folks on here.

[fenix]

Originally Posted by kylen

, in other words eventhough it's got a limiter and clipper stage they don't brickwall.


So long story short - IMO if you go T-Racks put a real Mastering Limiter after it.

The sat knob has to be turned all the way down for the limiter to work like a brick wall limiter.

[kylen]

Originally Posted by fenix

The sat knob has to be turned all the way down for the limiter to work like a brick wall limiter.

Thanks fenix, interesting - I'll give that a shot !