Mastering software

[Gsuscares]

Hi all,
I've been doing some home recording lately & just getting a feel of it.Looked around for a forum to discuss & found this one.Not sure if this forum is viewed well so here's my tester question.
I'm looking for a mastering software.Someone told me that there are softwares that would automatically do your mastering-like compression,managing the levels & getting ready for production.Is this true & if so can anyone recomend a low budget software? I have different tracks on a cd with different levels,eqs etc.Is there a software that can bring all the tracks to the same level & eq setting?

 

[zed32]

i don't think there's any program that you can magically throw your mixes in and it will polish them all and have them sounding the same and ready for radio.

there's a ton of mastering software out there (use the search), but when it comes to EQ and compression, you are gonna have to use your ears and do it yourself. obviously, each track is gonna call for different EQ and comp/limiter settings so you cant just apply the same settings to every song and expect them to all come out sounding the same.

 

[XLR]

Someone told me that there are softwares that would automatically do your mastering-like compression,managing the levels & getting ready for production

It's like driving a car. When do I turn left? When do I brake? How hard? What about headlights? Do I need them?


Of course it all depends on the particular situation.

 

[bkkornaker]

probably the "Izotope Ozone" program is what your looking for. It inexpensive, and has all the basic features you'll need in mastering your own material.

it does come with factory presets for mastering all sorts of styles of music, but you'll soon find out you'll have to further tweak them to your likings......

i use it, and it does the job well.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

probably the "Izotope Ozone" program is what your looking for. It inexpensive, and has all the basic features you'll need in mastering your own material.

it does come with factory presets for mastering all sorts of styles of music, but you'll soon find out you'll have to further tweak them to your likings......

i use it, and it does the job well.

"Mastering" (technically, "pre-mastering") involves far more than just setting final track levels. A nice bundle that handles the whole 9 yards woul dbe the new Sound Forge 9 bundle, with includes Sound Forge for final editing, the Ozone app that bk referrs to for final polishing, and CD Architect for final prep for the actual mastering to the final media.

G.

 

[bkkornaker]

"Mastering" (technically, "pre-mastering") involves far more than just setting final track levels. A nice bundle that handles the whole 9 yards woul dbe the new Sound Forge 9 bundle, with includes Sound Forge for final editing, the Ozone app that bk referrs to for final polishing, and CD Architect for final prep for the actual mastering to the final media.

G.

good point Glen,.............I was not sure if he was referring to a wave editing program itself that he should use, or the actual plugins that could be used for the effects used in mastering for the final "sweetening"......

on another note, ......i use the OZONE plug in the Wavelabs app...............would it be wise for me to get the Sound forge 9 or CD architect? i normally just imported my songs into Wavelabs and used Ozone to "so called" 'final master' my material...............but i could be going at it the wrong way........i dunno........

 

[RAMI]

I was going to say something like what Glen said, though he said it much better than I could have.

But we might have a discrepancy in what certain words mean to different people in this case. I have a feeling that by "tracks", the OP means "songs", not individual tracks. And I think instead of "mastering", he means "normalizing". I may be totally wrong, but I think he has a bunch of songs and he just wants to be able to listen to them without adjusting the volume for every tune.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[bkkornaker]

I was going to say something like what Glen said, though he said it much better than I could have.

But we might have a discrepancy in what certain words mean to different people in this case. I have a feeling that by "tracks", the OP means "songs", not individual tracks. And I think instead of "mastering", he means "normalizing". I may be totally wrong, but I think he has a bunch of songs and he just wants to be able to listen to them without adjusting the volume for every tune.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

after reading the original post, it looks like he already has mixed his songs (compression/EQ'ing) and now wants to have them transfered to an actual CD in which all the songs volume will be the same with each other.......so he wants a program that will normalize all the songs, and maybe add some EQ for a final touch of all the tracks?

HMMM........Gsuscares......post again what you need..........

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

good point Glen,.............I was not sure if he was referring to a wave editing program itself that he should use, or the actual plugins that could be used for the effects used in mastering for the final "sweetening"......

on another note, ......i use the OZONE plug in the Wavelabs app...............would it be wise for me to get the Sound forge 9 or CD architect? i normally just imported my songs into Wavelabs and used Ozone to "so called" 'final master' my material...............but i could be going at it the wrong way........i dunno........

But we might have a discrepancy in what certain words mean to different people in this case. I have a feeling that by "tracks", the OP means "songs", not individual tracks. And I think instead of "mastering", he means "normalizing". I may be totally wrong, but I think he has a bunch of songs and he just wants to be able to listen to them without adjusting the volume for every tune.

bk, if you already have a good waveform editor that can host the Ozone plug, then, no, you don't need Sound Forge itself. And obviously you don't need ozone simce you already have it .

What's nice about CD architect is that it allows you to assemble one's songs together in the order desired for pressing to CD, allows you to set silence spacing and/or (when necessary) crossfade between song tracks and automate volume or plugs like Ozone across song tracks so that you can indeed put the album together at a fairly constant apparent listening volume,.

Plus you can set track change marker locations (if you don't want to just automatically do it in the middle of the 2sec track silence buffer, or if you want to set markers in the middle of a long jam somehwere, set up hidden tracks, etc.), do your PQ editing in preperation for mastering to class (if desired), Set TRACK ID info, etc.

What's nice about the bundle with Sound Forge is that CD Architect will automatically link to Sound Forge for more detailed edting of individual tracks while putting the album together, which can be a handy thing to do.

Another option drom another brand is Steinberg's Wavelab (not so much Wavelab Lite), which also performs all the same kind of pre-mastering and album editing/assembly functions that the Soundforge/CD Architect bundle will do. It doesn't come with Ozone itself, but it will run any "finalizing" VST plugs you can throw at it.

G.

 

[bkkornaker]

yeah, i run my final mastered songs into Wavelab 5 (ive got it) and thats where i do my final CD prep work. I dont do much "mastering" at this point, i just layout my song order, track list, and with song ID's here. At this point, all my songs have been individually mastered. The only thing i might run inside Wavelabs at this point is a limiter like the Waves L2 or L3, just to be safe..........

thanks again for the clarification..........your awesome!

 

[chessrock]

Really, anything that can apply plugin effects ... has a level meter ... and some sort of means of cutting and pasting.

... could qulify as mastering software.

Which would mean most of the stuff out there on the market.

But is there something on the market that just "does" all this shit for you, like automatically? So that you don't have to really think about it ... just run a program?

HA ! ! ! ! HA ! ! ! ! HAAA ! ! ! !


Keep dreaming.

.


.

 

[vadoom]

It's like driving a car. When do I turn left? When do I brake? How hard? What about headlights? Do I need them?


Of course it all depends on the particular situation.

Well, he actually means is to fly a plane on autopilot with a copilot... So basically something else/someone else taking care of everything...

 

[vadoom]

Really, anything that can apply plugin effects ... has a level meter ... and some sort of means of cutting and pasting.

... could qulify as mastering software.

Which would mean most of the stuff out there on the market.

But is there something on the market that just "does" all this shit for you, like automatically? So that you don't have to really think about it ... just run a program?

HA ! ! ! ! HA ! ! ! ! HAAA ! ! ! !


Keep dreaming.

.


.

Ok, maybe chessrock said it better...

 

[LogicDeLuxe]

But is there something on the market that just "does" all this shit for you, like automatically? So that you don't have to really think about it ... just run a program?

HA ! ! ! ! HA ! ! ! ! HAAA ! ! ! !

The worst part is that many CD's actually sound like mastered that way.

 

[noisewreck]

I can't wait until we live in Star Trek TNG era, where we can go:

"Computer, bring up the bass"
"Computer, now it sounds too flabby, tighten it up a bit"
"A bit more... there"
"Now for some reason the trumpet is covering up the sax, make them so they come out clearly"

Ahhh. those will be the days!

 

[bkkornaker]

But is there something on the market that just "does" all this shit for you, like automatically? So that you don't have to really think about it ... just run a program?


.


.

yes, there is something out there........its called a "mastering engineer". Just send your stuff to him, and he will do the rest for you. LOL

 

[Robert D]

Samplitude Master is a good mastering program, much more than just a host for plugs, but it is neither automatic nor low budget. Do a lot of reading on this subject before you do anything other than send it out for mastering.

 

[CoolCat]

The way i read it, is the poster has a CD with several (songs/tunes/tracks/) to get "master-like" processing. Coherent, uniform, etc..

The goal to get a consistent sound-level on all the songs on a CD is a very common request in HR, and thats the term I'd use too, "master-like". As, on the CD as a whole.

yeah, there's a bunch of cheap software packs out there for the HR novice. Several are free or free trials. What someone can do with the "tool" is another thread....just like anything else. a massive flux of everything is available.

a person can learn a few things about mastering, mastering terminology and all that before spending money, imo. and reading is good.

automated mastering software...don't they have that already, with presets for ROCK or preset COuntry or preset Beatles...blahblahblah

 

[bkkornaker]

yeah, thats why i suggested the Ozone software. It has all the essential tools for "mastering effects"......and there is about 30-40 presets in there, for all styles of music from rock, metal, blues, country, instrumental, etc ect ect....

its a great tool to learn from if your just getting started into learning mastering techniques. you can pop up a preset.....listen to it......pop up a different preset.....listen to it, and look at the setting for each preset to get a feel of how they work.

its a great learning tool.

 

[Trell Blaze]

I'm a Wavelab guy myself, but since I was forced into Windows Vista (my computer crashed and anything available at the time had Vista), I can't use it anymore.

CD Architect sounds interesting enough, though.

Southside Glenn: You've obviously used both. What are your thoughts as far as comparison (strictly in terms of preping your pre-master...sequencing/spacing/crossfading, ect...)?