My new mastering chain

ChrisWerner · Post by **ChrisWerner** » Tue Mar 23, 2004 7:26 am

Scary suggested me to decribe my new mastering plug in chain I use at the moment, I saw it in the Keys 03/04 magazin.

First of all I use a maximizer with Cubase but without any gain, just as a limiter that cuts my track to -0.2 dB.
Then I make a 32 or 24bit mixdown and import the wav to wavelab for the final mastering.
I could use cubase for the mastering process instead but mostly my cpu power is used up in Cubase.

So, the magazine suggests to load a Waves C1 Comp with the upward compressor preset, first.
Followed by an parametric EQ with as many bands as possible(Waves Q10,8..) to boost or balance the frequences of your track. Don´t be scared by such a huge EQ, mastering is a delicate and meticulious process.
After that a multi band comp (Waves C4) with the multi electro mastering preset, let you assign and boost four frequence ranges.
The fourth plug is a stereo basis spreader to spread your track in the panorama as you like it.
Finally a maximizer (L1,L2) will dither and finalize your track (Hi-Res CD master preset).
I wish I could affort these plugs but I can´t. So I use the fishfilets and the Voxengo EQ and a free scope Finalizer for my tracks.
Before the track goes into the final mastering process I use the Endorphin to prepare each single track for the final process and make it a bit tight. If any question are open, please ask.
It is important to have every plug accessable in one session, because you have to find the balance between each plug, so you can´t use the first comp, render the track down, then the EQ etc, everything must be tweakable in realtime before you render your final track.
There is no golden rule I can give you, you always have to trust your ears, though
Good luck.

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Music starts where any language ends

[ This Message was edited by: ChrisWerner on 2004-03-23 07:30 ]

Plato · Post by **Plato** » Tue Mar 23, 2004 8:09 am

I find with mastering less is more....I would steer away from using two maximizers for instance....if your mix is overloading why not deal with it manually?.....find the source of the problem and turn it down.....loudest is not always best, especially so early in the chain....what about subtlety/dynamics? Also, the more plugins you use, the more your signal is degraded.
An interesting topic though.

ChrisWerner · Post by **ChrisWerner** » Tue Mar 23, 2004 9:37 am

Well I agree and not agree Plato.
The first maximizer and comps on my single tracks are used to have a good tight base(depends on the music,anyway) I do not gain the sum in the first final mixdown.
After that, my described chain starts to work.
I agree that the whole music scene wants to press the last bit of loudness out of their tracks this times and I don´t like it too.
But this evaluation has a bitter side.
Imagine that you present a demo tape to a label and it is quiter than all the other demo tapes they got.
Anyway, I always try to find a good balance between the possibilties and my hearing, that´s what it is all about. I like this chain and its result.

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Music starts where any language ends

[ This Message was edited by: ChrisWerner on 2004-03-23 09:40 ]

Immanuel · Post by **Immanuel** » Tue Mar 23, 2004 9:54 am

Acording to Brad Blackwood (never heard his masteringworks - not knowing it anyway), who apears to have a name on the internet as being a very good mastering engeneer, most MEs use eq before compressing.

I think it depends quite a bit on the music. I have a feel, that he mostly(/always?) masters music with an acoustic origin.

wolf · Post by **wolf** » Tue Mar 23, 2004 11:12 am

For me, the waves maximizers have to much influence in the frequency balance, I've generally set up carefully before.
So I use them mainly, but very seldom, for limiting the peaks in a first step, but then a normal soft limit e.g. provided by the optimaster does exactly the same.

Before spreading the stereo image, you should look for room ambience and tweak this in the first place.
Then you won't loose the power/pressure of the track (which can easily happen, when spreaded).

Compressing to much before eq'ing might lead to fizzling/sizzling and aliased sounding highs (the other way -> too much highs and compressing then, too .. ).
I never worked with C1 (don't like the ui), so I don't know, what's possible with it in respect to the highs and mids.

In the meantime I do all mastering in sfp only and perhaps use wavelab as playback/analyze device. The chain here goes like this: GraphEQ (fast results) or TimeworksEQ or both > ambience > Optimaster > analyze / mixdown.

Optimaster imo does a far better job in NOT changing the overall freq. spectrum and getting a hotter level at the same time than L2.
If I still need a hotter level after that, Waves L2 can boost it perhaps 1 dB, but not more, then the kick might become dull or the mids come to far to foreground.

Dither I use, when it does something good to the highs (often enough not), otherwise I leave it like it is.

Most important is to recheck the unmastered version at the same received (!) level as the mastered one to hear unwanted changes, while pumping up the perceived volume.
Such a switch possibility should be present any time.
It is always a tradeoff between bottom, middle and highs, as well as deepness and loudness and finally in which context you wanna play the song in the end.

best
Wolfgang

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worldless productions
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[ This Message was edited by: wolf on 2004-04-01 12:26 ]