Pinky
and The Brain...
Today I spent some youtube time checking out mastering chains that the professionals use. In the past I tinkered with some filters, limiters, compressors, and whatever else I had laying around that I could chain in Soundforge to learn how they all played (or didn't) together. The results were underwhelming so I went back to a basic EQ --> Waves L3 chain [now with a RMS meter] and focused my effort on getting the mix sounding right and doing minimal adjustments at the mastering stage. This is on my own tracks, for the bit of mastering work I've done for others I have to adapt to the song or artists needs. Usually for extra loudness I use one of the compressor plugins I have in front of the limiter, with varying degrees of success, which is one of the reasons I'm starting this thread.
I'm curious what others do in a purely virtual mastering setup (all plugins/daw). Mastering is definitely my weakest production area, the only technique is what I've gleaned off the internet or discovered on my own as described above. It's time to lean on the better mastering people here to see what tools/techniques I need to add and learn. Links are welcome if you know of a good tutorial to share.
I have a decent set of 8" studio monitors (Samson Resolv A8, I'd say they're comparable to the Yamaha HS8) on iso acoustic stands, and a small 8" energy sub wired in with the crossover set to prioritize only lowest frequencies the Samsons don't handle quite well enough. The room lacks formal treatment, but speaker positioning and other articles in the room (it doubles as a outdoor gear storage room, so lots of backpacks, climbing rope, and sleeping bags, etc) aid greatly in helping to dampen enough I haven't felt the need to add anything. It's also only a medium sized room so for near field my setup is decent enough. Playback wise this setup has served me well for the past couple years, as I've done several albums now with it and the results have been good on all playback systems.
My primary DAW is Sonar Producer X3, as I mentioned I do mastering in Soundforge though I'm considering perhaps trying it in Sonar. I have quite a few Waves plugins, a bundle from IK Multimedia, and numerous other VSTi and mix/match plugins I've been accumulating when they go on sale. I managed to snag a few useful Soundtoys when they went on sale recently. I mention this to say that I may not have exactly what you use, but probably something comparable somewhere in the library.
Hope this was enough info without being TMI.
I'm curious what others do in a purely virtual mastering setup (all plugins/daw). Mastering is definitely my weakest production area, the only technique is what I've gleaned off the internet or discovered on my own as described above. It's time to lean on the better mastering people here to see what tools/techniques I need to add and learn. Links are welcome if you know of a good tutorial to share.
I have a decent set of 8" studio monitors (Samson Resolv A8, I'd say they're comparable to the Yamaha HS8) on iso acoustic stands, and a small 8" energy sub wired in with the crossover set to prioritize only lowest frequencies the Samsons don't handle quite well enough. The room lacks formal treatment, but speaker positioning and other articles in the room (it doubles as a outdoor gear storage room, so lots of backpacks, climbing rope, and sleeping bags, etc) aid greatly in helping to dampen enough I haven't felt the need to add anything. It's also only a medium sized room so for near field my setup is decent enough. Playback wise this setup has served me well for the past couple years, as I've done several albums now with it and the results have been good on all playback systems.
My primary DAW is Sonar Producer X3, as I mentioned I do mastering in Soundforge though I'm considering perhaps trying it in Sonar. I have quite a few Waves plugins, a bundle from IK Multimedia, and numerous other VSTi and mix/match plugins I've been accumulating when they go on sale. I managed to snag a few useful Soundtoys when they went on sale recently. I mention this to say that I may not have exactly what you use, but probably something comparable somewhere in the library.
Hope this was enough info without being TMI.
Last edited: