Tracks before Mastering

[kruzeman]

Hi,

When i make (electronic) music i find it very difficult to know when my tracks sound good/hard enough to finish my song.

When i compare it to a track on a (mastered) CD it sounds so good/fat and hard that the only way to get the same sound is to put an compressor/limiter on my Master-channel and i know that this isn't the right way!

Is it o.k. to go hard with plugins as long you do it in a Bus-channel and leave enough headroom at the master??

And is it a good way to use a Comp/Limiter on my Master-channel to A-B my tracks if it sounds like it's Mastered?

[Odeon-Mastering]

Originally Posted by kruzeman

Hi,

When i make (electronic) music i find it very difficult to know when my tracks sound good/hard enough to finish my song.

When i compare it to a track on a (mastered) CD it sounds so good/fat and hard that the only way to get the same sound is to put an compressor/limiter on my Master-channel and i know that this isn't the right way!

Is it o.k. to go hard with plugins as long you do it in a Bus-channel and leave enough headroom at the master??

And is it a good way to use a Comp/Limiter on my Master-channel to A-B my tracks if it sounds like it's Mastered?

Take your time practising mixing and eventually you ll figure it out without the need to add any processing on the the master buss....

Mixing is a serious job and in order to become a competent mixing engineer you need to spend time ...no easy ride imo.

It can be really enjoyable though ...so have fun.

[diogo_c]

Originally Posted by kruzeman

Is it o.k. to go hard with plugins as long you do it in a Bus-channel and leave enough headroom at the master??

And is it a good way to use a Comp/Limiter on my Master-channel to A-B my tracks if it sounds like it's Mastered?

I'd say yes for the first question - if master bus plugs are used for "artistic" purposes, not just for plain loudness and of course if you know what you are doing.

A better route for "plain loudness" is to raise your monitoring levels on the output of your audio interface. That simple.