Whoa, "Mastering" Cheat?

T

TheOneTrueMatt

New member
Ok so I'm totally in the non-self-mastering camp here. When I was using Sonar 2.2 XL it had those two Timeworks mastering plug-ins and whenever I tried to use them to "master" my tracks (I know, much more to real mastering than simply EQ/compression) I'd only make things worse and lose the feel of the original mix by overboosting highs/lows or crushing the dynamics with compression.

So I just upgraded to Sonar 4 Producer and got the Sonitus FX suite with it. I was recording/mixing a song for a project (for my dad's company actually, so semi-real client) and originally we were going to get it mastered elsewhere. If we had the funds we were going to go to a real mastering studio (there's one in Milwaukee, $200/hour but billed in 1/4 hours, and this tiny 2:30 track would probably not take long) and if we didn't we were gonna go to a recording studio and have them do the half-assed plug-in mastering they do (like the studio my band is recording at offered "We run it through some plug-ins in Nuendo" Uh...yeeeaah...) but it's super cheap/fast. Either way I said "If I try to 'master' it, I will kill it."

Aaanyway, we're running short on time and since this isn't going to be "released" per se (just being used in a multi-media show once) my "client" said see what you can do for fake mastering. Soooo, I pulled up the Sonitus multi-band compressor plugin, popped on one of the medium Mastering presets and BAM, all I could possibly want in half-assed mastering. The highs and lows came way up while keeping the mids reasonable, and w/the limiter I could boost the overall level to my heart's content to answer that age old "How do I make it loud like professional stuff?" question. Now I knoooow real mastering would be better, and my band is planning on going to an actual Mastering Studio if funds allow, but it seems like this is a real nice option for when I just want a well-mixed track to sound a little fuller and get louder so when I play it for friends they don't whine about turning up the stereo so much "Why's it so quiet!?" Maybe down the road I'll find a reason to adjust the actual multi-band comp parameters so I don't feel like I'm 100% cheating.

Anyway, this probably isn't news to anyone, but I just found it an amusing sort of paradox. "Self-mastering bad, right, but...hey look it got louder and fuller sounding!"
 
You've stumbled upon one of the most abused plugs on the planet for "quick 'n dirty" work.

But for cryin' out loud, be easy on it. I know there's some big myth that M.E.'s use MBC's all the time - I haven't touched one in months.

I might even go as far as to suggest going back into the mixing phase and seeing if there's something that you can make "more exciting" in one way or another to get the MIX sounding closer in the first place.
 
Yeah, I do realize it could easily be abused. And in fact I later put another track into it just for experimentation's sake, one which I think has the best mix I've done so far, and the difference was far less dramatic. In fact, it was almost tough to say if it was an improvement with that track, as it sounded "bigger" or "thicker" but it felt like it lost some of the space between parts. Listening back to back if I wasn't paying much attention I'd forget which version I was listening to. Also it turned out that track really didn't need much of a level boost either. I could only give it about 3db before one part had some odd anomalies from the limiting. So basically confirming what you said, if it benefits that much from the quick and dirty fix, the mix probably could be better (or in this case, I think the sound of some of the original tracks, guitars were really thin and harsh [POD, bleh] and smoothed out a lot w/the MBC).
 
Do this.....

Do the quick and dirty master yourself. Use the MB and the Limiter and set things up to what you think sounds good. Put the master to the side for a few weeks and work on some other projects. Pull up the old master and listen to it again.....

When I first discovered the MB and Limiter "master" I was so shocked. I said to myself this could not be real. After about a month or so of mixing and listening to other projects the old mastered stuff ended up sounding less and less like the way I thought I heard it.
 
That's EXACTLY the problem with using them 90% of the time. It's like an aural exciter... Seems to be really cool at that very second, but quickly turns fatiguing without even noticing it.

Until you listen to it a few months later and say "What the HELL was I thinking?!?"
 
This same thing happened to me about 2 years ago, when I demo'd the waves multiband compressor and L2.

I still could never afford real mastering as it is, but I've found my mixes don't suffer as much from boosting volume if I just have a little compression and some limiting for volume. Sometimes I take off some low end after I listen to it in the car and don't feel like re-mixing the super low end, since I don't have any good subs anyhow.
 
MBC can really tighten up the lo end I have noticed. Ill use it sparingly.
It can be hard to get a tight lo end at mix down sometimes depending on the monitors and room being mixed in.
But im sure Massive is right about it being able to kill a mix.
 
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