Do you have a good handle on compression and multiband compression? These
are must know building blocks for mixing and mastering. Understanding
frequency responses and how they open up not only individual tracks and
instruments, but intire mixes when on a stareo bus are just as important to
understand too. You see, when your mixing a project you are baking a cake
with the right amounts of ingreadients, at the right temperture and
Mastering is the frosting and the decarations on top. Each part has a seprat
process, but they eventually need to complament each other as a whole. So in
this case, if a person tries to get the mastering down, without the mixing
concepts it is like trying to throw a beautiful topping/icing on acake that
taist like crap.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Krister Ekstrom" <kris...@kristersplace.com>
To: <ptaccess@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 01, 2014 9:27 AM
Subject: Re: Any good mastering plugin out there?
Thanks, i think that's good advise actually. I probably will have to learn
what plugs do what and what i can use.
/Krister
1 feb 2014 kl. 01:10 skrev TheOreoMonster <monkeypushe...@gmail.com>:
At this stage in the game i honestly don't think you should be looking at
any plug ins outside of what pro tools comes with. All the pro tools plug
ins has presets for most instrument types with a few final mix/master
presets as well. Presets are a great starting point, but learn why they
work and how they do what they do. and how to fine tune to your song. The
stock plug ins are great and there are even popular songs that were done
entirely with pro tools stock plug ins. Once you have a handle on those
and have a better idea of what you want, then you can start spending money
on plug ins with more confidence. First step get the best sounds you can
before recording. Choosing the right virtual synth/drum synth sounds, or
moving the one microphone you have around till you get the instrument or
voice you are trying to record sound the best it can before hitting
record. Also the firs t Plug in to hone in on and learn about is Eq. It
will be probably your most used tool for both mixing and mastering. you
can also grab the quizztones iOS app to do some EQ ear training. Next
important beast to tackle is compression. Come to grips with EQ and
compression along with getting the best sources of recordings you can and
you can get 80% to 90% of the way there before you add anything else to
your mix or master.
On Jan 31, 2014, at 4:34 PM, Poppa Bear <heavens4r...@gmail.com> wrote:
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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