Mastering plug-ins needed: Simple, comprehensive, intuitive, simple, easy, simple...

[Ben F]

A decent mixer will have most of those plug-ins mentioned plus probably more.

Why would they send their mixes away to some hack with a bunch of the same plug-ins to get mastered? Missing the point completely.

You may also notice that using an EQ properly is the weapon of choice. Of course to do this you need a well treated room and monitoring. And years of experience.

Anyways....

[Peaks]

Originally Posted by Ben F

Why would they send their mixes away to some hack with a bunch of the same plug-ins to get mastered? Missing the point completely.

Just cause they have the plugins doesn't mean they are experts at using them.

[soss]

Originally Posted by cdog

If you have to ask this question, you definitely should not be doing your own mastering. In fact, I think very few people are able to do it. Mix it how you want it to sound, then send it out for mastering. For the prices this can be done for these days, its silly not to rely on someone who specializes in it.

Is there any harm in trying? Maybe it won't be quite as good as an experienced pro would get it, but at least he be saving a boatload of money better spent elsewhere.

[huejahfink]

Originally Posted by soss

Is there any harm in trying? Maybe it won't be quite as good as an experienced pro would get it, but at least he be saving a boatload of money better spent elsewhere.

Originally Posted by Peaks

Just cause they have the plugins doesn't mean they are experts at using them.

Agree! I'm sure I have been guilty of it myself from time to time but there seems to be a lot of overly defensive posts directed at people who just want to learn.

[dxavier]

Originally Posted by huejahfink

Agree! I'm sure I have been guilty of it myself from time to time but there seems to be a lot of overly defensive posts directed at people who just want to learn.

Perfectly said

Although we are here because we love studio gear, software or hardware, good or bad, cheap or expensive, the whole purpose of gear is to make music. There are so many tossers that tell you, you cannot do this or cannot do that because your not using top end this or that. It is total utter tosh. If I had a penny for every time I got picky and obsessive about only using and buying high end gear, only to see a mate knocking out good sounding mixes and masters on a mac using Ozone with a pair of £100 monitors. Now, that is not my way and I still like and believe in good gear, but I know there is no set rule to what you should use to achieve good results. There are many ways of doing it, so we shouldn't be so elitist all the time. If the results are good at the end, that is all that matters...

[polybonk]

I see a lot of people who post with the usual questions like: Whats the best plugin for..... Which all in one mastering......How can I get as loud and wide as X on my laptop.... etc etc

And I think that they get annoyed because professionals on here will tell them that if you want to get top tier results, you need top tier equipment plus the thousands of hours of experience to operate such precision engineering appropriately. This coupled with the fact that most of the results that people are hearing comes with mixing and not mastering. I mean correct me if im wrong but it seems that most ME's consider (pre)Mastering the art adding maybe %3 to %5 polish when talking solely about "enhancement" of material.

There is most often a massive disconnect between the quality of the question and the quality of the answer.

Nothing wrong with learning, however half the time questions asked on here are better off being asked in the mixing forums. Then there are all the 14 year old kids wanting advice on which plugin they can go and look for cracked copys of that has a preset that will make them famous! That seems to happen every week going on years now.

[orangepegs]

You guys all got off topic, which is funny. I come to Gearslutz because there is less judgement here than in other forums. When the "experts" have nothing nice to say, they should probably just keep quiet... clearly missing the point of the forum. Even when you are right, the nastiness is unappreciated, and overpowers everything meaningful you have to add to the conversation. It's just stupid, and who has the energy for stupid shit anymore?

That said, I went with the fabFilter Pro bundle thanks to the many suggestions here. It was exactly what I needed, and I thank you for the direction. I agree that I need to work on my mixing prior mastering, but these plug-ins are useful there too. I should also mention that the result from popping in the limiter to the Master track was astonishing. Again, it's not perfect, but WHAT a difference! Very easy to use (i've read zero directions), and the sound did not feel squished together like it has with other plug-ins I've used. It is extreeeeeemely helpful for mixing too. There were a lot of things I was missing, and the limiter on the master track helped pull it apart, since I wasn't losing anything due to distortion, etc. Good CALL!!!

[dcollins]

Originally Posted by orangepegs

The music style is similar in nature to Pink Floyd and Radiohead with the sweeping synth's and abnormal structural changes. It also has dynamics similar to those found in grunge era music such as Nirvana, Soundgarden, etc. There tends to be a lot going on during the chorus', bridges, and general whatevers, and I end up layering a lot of sounds. Because of the rollercoaster dynamics, there tends to be consistency issues throughout the mix, so a good limiter, compressor, and probably EQ, like you mentioned, are in order. I already have the Sonar EQ, and because I have solid recording equipment, I don't use it very much, except maybe to tweak the vox here and there.

The arraignment and mix are what make the dynamics work, not some magic compressor that suddenly brings "consistency" to the track. If the layers don't blend on their own, no piece of gear will save you.

DC

[orangepegs]

Originally Posted by dcollins

The arraignment and mix are what make the dynamics work, not some magic compressor that suddenly brings "consistency" to the track. If the layers don't blend on their own, no piece of gear will save you.

DC

Like I said, to those that offered useful advice, thank you for directing me to the Fabfilter Pro series. It was exactly what I needed. For the rest of you... well... go frak yourselves.

[Jerry Tubb]

Originally Posted by dcollins

The arraignment and mix are what make the dynamics work, not some magic compressor that suddenly brings "consistency" to the track. * If the layers don't blend on their own, no piece of gear will save you.

DC

Originally Posted by polybonk

I see a lot of people who post with the usual questions like: Whats the best plugin for..... Which all in one mastering......How can I get as loud and wide as X on my laptop.... etc etc*

And I think that they get annoyed because professionals on here will tell them that if you want to get top tier results, you need top tier equipment plus the thousands of hours of experience to operate such precision engineering appropriately. *This coupled with the fact that most of the results that people are hearing comes with mixing and not mastering. *I mean correct me if im wrong but it seems that most ME's consider (pre)Mastering the art adding maybe %3 to %5 polish when talking solely about "enhancement" of material. *

There is most often a massive disconnect between the quality of the question and the quality of the answer. *

Nothing wrong with learning, however half the time questions asked on here are better off being asked in the mixing forums. *Then there are all the 14 year old kids wanting advice on which plugin they can go and look for cracked copys of that has a preset that will make them famous! That seems to happen every week going on years now.

Quoted for Truth!

Originally Posted by orangepegs

I'm probably the smartest person I know, but I have the patience of a 2nd grader.

Probably the smartest move you could make would be to take your music to a real mastering engineer for the final tweak.

It needn't test your lack of patience.

JT

[orangepegs]

There are a ton of forums out there for bitching about this and that.... THIS forum is for people who love gear and music and being all DIY... Truth or untruth... these inquiries do not warrant arrogance and condescention...

[Jerry Tubb]

Originally Posted by orangepegs

There are a ton of forums out there for bitching about this and that.... THIS forum is for people who love gear and music and being all DIY... Truth or untruth... these inquiries do not warrant arrogance and condescention...

OK, but when you start a thread with:

I'm probably the smartest person I know...

A bit of irony there.

Cheers, JT

[orangepegs]

I can see why that' confusing... pure sarcasm. I thought I was clear with how ridiculous of a statement it was.. followed by all of the areas I'm not smart...

[Jerry Tubb]

Originally Posted by orangepegs

I can see why that' confusing... pure sarcasm. I thought I was clear with how ridiculous of a statement it was.. followed by all of the areas I'm not smart...

Aha! Thanks for clearing that up, a simple misunderstanding then.

Sometimes a sense of humor is difficult to convey via Internet.

I wouldn't want to be a cyber-bully in any form or fashion.

Glad you found a solution to the OP, sending you best regards.

JT

[Plex Sonance]

Originally Posted by polybonk

Ozone 5 is about to drop.

Its probably got another one button solution that saves people from wasting $100 a track on an ME with decades of experience, full range monitoring, treated rooms and the best custom modified dedicated mastering hardware.

Plus its got 3d metering!

Hell yes, ozone 4 itself is such a time saver, so easy and simple once you figure it out, got it with alley in a package but alley didnt really seem to be good at all, did anyone else like alley?

But yeah 100% agree , for sure if ozone 5s dropping soon, thats a pretty viable choice.

[orangepegs]

Originally Posted by Jerry Tubb

Aha! Thanks for clearing that up, a simple misunderstanding then.

Sometimes a sense of humor is difficult to convey via Internet.

I wouldn't want to be a cyber-bully in any form or fashion.

Glad you found a solution to the OP, sending you best regards.

JT

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