Mastering with Reaper

[scotia80]

Im still pretty new to the whole DAW processes
And im still using my zoom for the basic recording and EQing but im now transferring everything over to reaper for ease of use so I can tinker for my final edit for but im looking for some pointers for the final master ie plug-ins and any tips in general for a nice loud and full sounding end result.

Thanks

Scott

[TimOBrien]

Mastering is a PROCESS, not a tool.
Learn the process and you can master in any daw, but don't understand the process and you can do more harm than good.

Here is a college course in mastering from the master:

Mastering Audio: The Art and Science
by Bob Katz

Far better than you spend $30 for this book and learn what to do than to spend money on a plug-in with vague 'presets'.

[rayc]

Atr the very least you render your mix to a stereo file (preferably with NOTHING on the master stereo bus) and then import that file/media into a new project and fiddle around with EQ and whatever else you want on the main out until you get what you like & then render that as your "master".
Other than that - read & learn as there are no satisfactory shortcuts.

[allegro1650]

TimOBrien +1.

There's a tool kit that mastering engineers like to have handy, but it's a specialized job.

Mastering is often the last chance anyone has to change the way things sound. Do it right, and people notice ... they'll notice if you do it wrong, too .

[jaynm26]

Mastering is a PROCESS, not a tool.
Learn the process and you can master in any daw, but don't understand the process and you can do more harm than good.

Here is a college course in mastering from the master:

Mastering Audio: The Art and Science
by Bob Katz

Far better than you spend $30 for this book and learn what to do than to spend money on a plug-in with vague 'presets'.

We need to screen posters before we allow them to give advice we need more peeps like this guy posting

[CoolCat]

scotia80,
I have been tinkering in this too, polishing the turd, getting the volume up as many HR's do.
Using Reaper even more so, as the vst's come with the Reaper for free.

One thing, imo, that really seems to magnify the home recording weaknesses is sitting your HR tune beside a professionally done one.

Id just noticed how awfully muddy and lower volume my levels were, so I ran one through Reaper to match the volumes of the online/pro demos.

The first thing I noticed was on my interface, the volume on the pro tunes were 6 and above, sometimes hitting peak of 0+, while my hr tunes were way lower at 18-12.

So for kicks, I ran one through Reaper, bumped up the volume, ignoring the peak lights , used ears for the distortion, and took out some harsh highs with Reaper eq, and a little comp in Reaper, and mainly focused on the volumes on the interface VU meter to match the pro demo's.

heres before
SoundClick artist: CoolCatbro Grooves - anything goes

heres after some Reaper "mastering/polish" and volume.

SoundClick artist: The Office Chairs - page with MP3 music downloads

interesting...little test.

[gecko zzed]

We need to screen posters before we allow them to give advice

A nice thought, but highly impractical. Seeing as about nearly everybody who responds to a question is providing advice, we'd have to screen nearly everybody. And what do we screen for?

we need more peeps like this guy posting

Agree

[CoolCat]

Here's a video I like, he gets into Mastering on Reaper at 7:20....kind of a hands on approach, but its a visual with audio.

Tutorial: Mixing & Mastering - YouTube