Software Mastering...

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djdarwin

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Basically what i got:

Protools
Reason 2.5 (using rewire)
MXL 990

What im doing:

Making beats. Selling Beats to artists. Selling studio time to those same artists if they choose to record their "songs" in my "studio."

My questions:

I need a way to master my beats. The only reverb, delay and compression i have came with reason and protools.

Anyone know if the default ptools plugins for compression and reverb are any good?

What are some good software mastering suites that would be compatible with my setup?

Reason 3.0 has a mastering suite but it will cost me over a hundred to upgrade and i know there are lots better mastering suites out there.

What should i do?

Ready to take mine/their mixes to the next level and i dont feel like the reverb, compression and delays of my current system are cutting it.

If i had 500 to spend what should i purchase to get started on mastering?
 
I have a feeling you're in need of some edumacatin'...

Start with Bob Katz's "Mastering Audio" (Bookstores, Amazon, etc.).

You need to understand what you're asking before you'll understand the answers.
 
Thanks...

Thanks for the response Massive.

I have been doing alot of reading on mastering. Its exactly what my mixes are missing. Production (in my opinion) is pretty good.

Now i need that final product. My tracks need that final pollishing which mixing and mastering give.

I got Protools. I got Reason. Each comes with its own EQ, Compressor, and Reverb unit.

I try to mix and master as best i can. "notching" freq, panning and adding reverb. Bouncing the final Ptools session down to .wav and then compressing that with the protools compressor.

Just not getting the results i was hoping for.

I got 1000 to spend and another 60 years to learn.

What should I do?

Are the components i have "good enough?" to master and just need more tweaking and practice from me?

or...

What, if anything, should i get with the 1000? Im thinking a nice compressor. Protools compressor gives me some wierd effects on individual tracks and on the final mix.

???
 
 
 
you do need to read up on mastering. there is a lot more to mastering than "compression". learning how to compress is crusial in the mastering stage. there are also other procedures that take years to "master". i outsouce all my mastering. i dont have the proper room, proper equiptment, or proper experience to provide a quality service "YET". learn with me my friend. start reading about mastering procedures, all the way to learning a compressor inside out. and experiment! good luck! :D :cool: :D
 
There's also a great plug-in called Izotope Ozone, not sure of the price though. My friend has it and allows us to use it for our own stuff, I think it works sweet!
 
djdarwin said:
I got Protools. I got Reason. Each comes with its own EQ, Compressor, and Reverb unit.

I try to mix and master as best i can. "notching" freq, panning and adding reverb. Bouncing the final Ptools session down to .wav and then compressing that with the protools compressor.
Click to expand...

Err... hmmm... what have you been reading?

How do you know your final mix needs compression? Why does it need compression? What exactly are you trying to accomplish with compression? Are you sure what you think you need the compressor for can't be better accomplished at the mixing stage?

What about EQ? What's wrong with your mix that you think EQ on the actual final stereo mix will help? What if it would be better to get the actual mix right in the first place?

Again, I am not saying it should or shouldn't need compression or EQ, I just want to ask the questions that you should be asking yourself, before even turning to these things.

One more thing, reverb is not really something that should be needed at the mastering stage.

Finally, mastering isn't just about EQ and compression. There are a whole lotta stuff that can be done if necessary.

Just wanna give you a little story from personal experience. I did this mix, burnt it on a CD so I could listen to it on some other systems. Very quickly it became evident that it was rather too bass heavy. So, I go to my DAW, load up the two track mixdown, strap an EQ over it and shelf out the bass. Then I loaded the working file and did another mixdown where I just lowered the volume of the bass track... Guess which one sounded better and more punchy ;)

Oh, BTW because I lowered the volume of the bass track, all of a sudden my whole mix gained more headroom, so I could actually push it up a bit more, before even needing a limiter :)
 
I posted this before, here it is again:
"The secret of the Mastering Engineer" downloadable PDF by Bob Katz

That is a good place to start. Mastering is really a process that requires an advanced understanding of levels, audio frequencies and how they all effect the sound of an audio recording. I have been studying it for a few years now, and am just now to the point where I feel like I am not completely embarassing myself when I try to master something - and instead am just embarassing myself a little bit...

- read everthing you can about levels (relating to the digital realm)
- read everything you can about advanced Eq techniques
- read everything you can about compression and be sure to understand fully how it can be used

Right about then you will probably see exactly what tools you need to do some 'basic' mastering. But by fare, the knowledge and understanding of the process must come first....

peace
Amra
 
djdarwin said:
Thanks for the response Massive.

I have been doing alot of reading on mastering. Its exactly what my mixes are missing. Production (in my opinion) is pretty good.

Now i need that final product. My tracks need that final pollishing which mixing and mastering give.
Click to expand...
The point is to get the best mix you can - My mixes normally need a little tweaking in the mastering stage also - But it's going to be another mastering engineer that does it. If I make the mix the way I want it in the first place, I'm not going to plan on fixing anything else myself.

This is generally why mastering your own mixes isn't a really great idea... It's second-guessing your own mixing. That isn't mastering - That's throwing a bunch of stuff against a wall and seeing what sticks.
 
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