Mastering on DAW or dedicated application?

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Pykon

New member
Hi!

I'd like to know Your opinion on (at least) one subject, Folks.

i'm preparing to release the first "single" CD with three tracks, everything made at home - playing, recording, mixing...

And when it came to the mastering, the loudness problem appeared: even though I'm quite happy with my mixes, they-re still much quieter when compared to commercial CD tracks.

I hate to apply an excessive compression, especially multiband, but it seems there's no way to avoid it as today pure peak limiting is not enough even on acoustic tracks.

Ang here comes my question: is it possible to do the mastering job on DAW (which I prefer, since it makes possible to come back to the mix) or do I need a dedicated soft, like Isotope Ozone or similar?

Mostly I mix by ear, and so I'm trying to follow with a mastering job, with referrence to other music when needed. My mastering chain on Sonar's 7 busses consists of eq, reverb, multiband, limiter - and that's all. No enhancers, exciters - I hate to overuse them and don't even touch as far as I can.

So coming back to the title question: do I need to use some sound-booster-in-one apps like Ozone for the mastering job, or can I fix it with DAW, where I know what is done to the sound and adjust the process precisely? Can I take part in loudness war (sadly to say, but I have to when thinking of CD..) with just simple compression/limiting, reverberatin anc modest eq-ing on DAW?

PS. Pease do not hesitate to write Your ideas, whatever they are - I'm aware of my inexperience, but some time ago decided to do everything myself and rather improving my own skills in discussions like this (and kilo-hours of listening...) than leaving the job to someone else... Maybe it's not the best idea, but I'm gonna try it.

Thx in advance,

mike
 
"Mastering is a process, not a tool."

The dedicated tools try to make it easier 'press one button', but if you understand the process you can do it in your DAW (and probably get a better result IMHO)....
 
TimOBrien said:
"Mastering is a process, not a tool."

The dedicated tools try to make it easier 'press one button', but if you understand the process you can do it in your DAW (and probably get a better result IMHO)....
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That's good news. I hate miracle boxes "doing something" out of my concious mind.
 
"Mastering is a process, not a tool"
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This is exactly right, I love the quote :). And yes, therefore you can use either toolset to perform the process.

But that said, "toolset" does not necessarily mean so-called "mastering software" such as Ozone. "Mastering software" in that context is a marketing term that means almost nothing; with very few specialty exceptions such as dithering tools, the exact same tools are used for mastering as are used for tracking and mixing. Calling an EQ or a compressor a "mastering tool" would be like calling a particular scalpel a "brain surgery tool", when in fact it's the exact same scalpel used to take out your appendix or perform a skin graft. Pick the tools of your choice based upon *sound* and *performance* - i.e. suitability to task - not on whether some marketing team decided to throw a few tools together in a bundled package and call it "mastering software".

Which does lead to a couple of (IMHO) advantages to the PC-based solution:

The first is the availability of "real" (for lack of a better adjective) mastering software such as CD Architect or Wavelab. I'm not sure what kind of DAW you have, but if it has limited ability to work on the packaging of the CD (i.e. volume balance, EQ, fade/crossfade, track marking, PQ editing, etc. of the CD as a coherent group of cuts to be made into a pre-master), you'll find the true heart of the mastering process (which has little to do with maxing out the RMS of individual songs) to come much easier in software designed to do just that. Additionally, unless you have a DAW equipped with an external VGA monitor and decent software to take advantage of it, you'll probably find the user interface of the PC software to be much better.

Second is the availability of all the different quality and quantity of "scalpels" for the PC in terms of plug-in EQs, comperessors, reverbs, etc. Again, while mastering is a process and not a tool, any tradesman will tell you being able to pick the best tools for the tasks at hand is important. Unless you have a DAW that can import RTAS or VST or other plug-ins, the extent of the tool kit available to you on the DAW will be much more limited.

G.
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
(..) software such as CD Architect or Wavelab. I'm not sure what kind of DAW you have, but if it has limited ability to work on the packaging of the CD (i.e. volume balance, EQ, fade/crossfade, track marking, PQ editing, etc. of the CD as a coherent group of cuts to be made into a pre-master), you'll find the true heart of the mastering process (which has little to do with maxing out the RMS of individual songs) to come much easier in software designed to do just that.

G.
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Well, I know almost nothing about formatting a CD-master, I was just talking about track sound processing to its final form. Wut - it you mentioned Wavelab and CD Architect - people who will make my CDs told me I can bring to them ANY recorded CD and they - after error checking - will make it go as it is.
Seems I'll have to give my "CD" after "mastering" it on DAW (Sonar 7 pro) to a professional to translate it to the right format, or you think I could handle in myself?
 
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Pykon said:
Well, I know almost nothing about formatting a CD-master, I was just talking about track sound processing to its final form.
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Sure, but you're putting together a CD of three tracks, right? That's not about just processing a track to be loud, it's about processing three tracks to work together as one coherent compilation.

Unless you want your disc to sound like three different songs from three different bands and three different CDs that were just randomly thrown together, then that's not an issue.

But if you want it to sound like a mini-CD, CD mastering software can make that job much easier.

G.
 
Pykon said:
And here you mean CD-Architect/Wwavelab, or Isotope Ozone & Co?
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CD Architect/Wavelab.

See, this is exactly why those marketing muckamucks that came up with the idea of calling stuff like Ozone "mastering software" should be hung up by their thumbs with piano strings, all it does is muddy up the reality and cause confusion.

This just in: my marketing people tell me those aren't piano strings, they are "behavior correction hardware".

:D

G.
 
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