Also, remember this, if you don't have good mixing skills, these Mastering
plugins will often only magnify any lack of mixing skills, or even worse,
mask the problems leading a person to think they did a good job. At that
point the Mastering plugs can become a crutch that cause people to think
they have a good sounding project until it is matched up against good mixes
and mastering skills. I find people who have the same plugins as me, and
bring their stuff over to the studio to play it and once I play a few
projects they can't believe that we have the same tools. They just haven't
paid their dues, in the excitement to find the magic bullet to fix their
mixing problems they have looked for band aids to cover up their ear sores
instead of really learning the anatomy of a good mix. I am finding that my
understanding of mixing is growing much more as I get back to the basics of
engineering/mixing. I realize how silly I was when I got my first bundle of
mastering plugins. Getting into the basics of compression, multiband
compression, Limiting, EQ frequencies, how those frequencies affect
instruments, vocals, mic proximity affect, room acoustics and so on and on
will be so impacting that a person won't even need to ask about mastering
plugins because once they read about that plug they will be able to tell if
it is exactly what they need or not.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Smart" <csma...@cogeco.ca>
To: <ptaccess@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Friday, January 31, 2014 6:16 AM
Subject: Re: Any good mastering plugin out there?
As someone who does mastering, I am dead set against using presets in that
manner. There is far too much of that homogeneity now. It reminds me of
the equalizer presets on my mp3 player. One is called rock, another is
called classical, another is called jazz. Wow, you mean if I pick one, it
will make everything sound poppy or rocky or jazzy? That's so cool!
(sarcasm)
That said, just about any limiter, compressor, equalizer etc. will have
presets for various tasks, and of course you can use said presets as a
starting point. Learn from them, but all source material is unique.
Read the Bob Katz book (2nd Edition), and do lots and lots of listening to
world-class recordings. Mastering is much more subtle than mixing, and
requires a holistic mindset. As long as you have a nice transparent
compressor, a linear-phaze equalizer, and some mid/side tools, you can do
a heck of a lot. The tools aren't as important as your ears, your
listening space, and your experience.
The idea of taking a full mastering suite like Ozone or Fab Filter Pro and
picking the rock preset for your rock mix, thinking it will somehow be
"better", is anathema to what I do. Talk about kill a butterfly with a
sledge hammer! I apologize if that is not your intent at all. I'm seeing a
lot of that cookie cutter homogeneity these days, along with four steps to
mastering at home type articles.
Ok, rant over. LOL I really need to have that first coffee of the day!
I'm a Windows guy, but check out Slate Digital FG-X for an extremely
transparent compressor and a really nice limiter. Also check out their
Virtual Bus Compressors for really colored analog-sounding options. Their
tape simulator VTM is wonderful, in case you want things to sound like
they've gone through a 1/2" deck at 15 IPS.
There are lots of m/s and phase adjustment plugs out there, many of them
free. When I don't like the limiter section of FGX, I usually reach for
Voxengo's Elephant. It has several algorithms to chose from, and you will
want to try them all to find out what gets you the results you are after
for the mix you are working with.
I haven't used it, but the mastering guys rave about Algorithmix Red and
Orange as a pair of excelent linear-phaze equalizers, but just about any
linear-phaze EQ will do the job, as long as your ears can home in like a
lazer on the part of the spectrum that needs tweaking. Waves make one,
Ozone comes with one, Fab Filter make one, etc.
Chris
P.S. For those of you wanting extremely transparent EQ with seemingly no
ringing, keep an eye out for Eiosis Air EQ. It is almost out of beta
testing and it's magic! We're so used to the effects of typical EQ that
for a minute, you think the plug-in must not be doing it's job, because it
isn't as obvious.
At 06:55 AM 1/31/2014, you wrote:
Hi there.
I don't know if this even exists in the world of recording to a computer,
but on the digital porta studios i've seen, there were mastering tools you
could use with various presets for different genres, are there such
mastering plugins out there that don't cost an arm, a leg and half the
body to get?
/Krister
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