How to Re-Mastering?

[vicnest]

I know the simple way is to get the original un-mastered file, but the client had difficulty to retreive them again.

The original mastering is quite loud around -8dB RMS and a bit squashed.
The client demand widen image and more balanced EQ which is possible.
But I am not sure how to bring back the level to original level with normal limiter.

I tried in OZone4 but only the soft limiter one, which lead to above 0dB clipping in DAW master bus , resulted in less noticible limiting squashed sound.
However, this method distorted the cleaner parts of a song.
I guess if I output and record it to a decent AD converter, the signal would be controlled and without too much limiting.
But I wonder if there's a way to do it in the software?

Thank you for helping.

[Waltz Mastering]

Imo, whatever you do is not going to be pretty.

You could attenuate the levels of the already limited material 3 - 4 dB, use an eq in m/s mode to re-adjust balance and space and return level to right below full scale. Unless your losing a lot of head room through the eq that you're applying it should be relatively easy to knock the level back up to where it was.

[vicnest]

Originally Posted by Waltz Mastering

Imo, whatever you do is not going to be pretty.

You could attenuate the levels of the already limited material 3 - 4 dB, use an eq in m/s mode to re-adjust balance and space and return level to right below full scale. Unless your losing a lot of head room through the eq that you're applying it should be relatively easy to knock the level back up to where it was.

Thanks. By bring the level back up, you meant using gain and ignore the clipping or using some kind of transparent clipper?

[Waltz Mastering]

^^^ You could try bringing the gain up to a hair below digital zero and then limit with a half a dB gain reduction. I don't think there would be any reason or advantage to hard clip anything further than it might already have been since you'll probably have some saturation issue's with the files just having gone through the dither and processing twice.