Pardon My Ignorance, Newbie Mastering Question

[KennyS]

Hey all compared to some setups and skill levels i have seen on here I would hardly call my self mastering over here. But I do have a question for everyone involving a smaller scale mastering project i'm working on...

I'm using Ozone 5, I have the master where i'm happy with it... but when ever even half a db hits my brick wall limiter in ozone i'm getting static and the ozone meters aren't even close to being in the -5 zone and up for peak...


Any help? Am I doing something wrong i'm no mastering engineer here.

Cheers and Thanks,
KennyS

[Waltz Mastering]

Possibly the distortion is coming from your play back/monitor system and not the output of your daw. Can you hear it on phones direct? Check the signal path for clipping and with the process of elimination.

[KennyS]

Ok I was thinking along those lines. But I never just plugged a set of headphones into the Apogee system. I will try it and repost here.

Thanks,
KennyS

[KennyS]

Still there. Could it be the auto gain or wrong release time?

Cheers,
KennyS

[OKB]

Originally Posted by KennyS

Still there. Could it be the auto gain or wrong release time?

Cheers,
KennyS

You'd probably be smart to just call iZotope, and talk to them about your issue. Let them troubleshoot it over the phone. That would probably be the quickest path to a solution for the kind of problem you're describing.

[Joelistics]

A common beginner mistake in Logic is to have the master fader 2 doing some gaining post limiter on master fader 1.. Double check!

[CJ Mastering]

Just go over your signal chain from start to when it goes into the limiter and make sure the gain stages are all correct. It sounds like a faulty gain stage

[KennyS]

Thanks for the support guys. I have realized that I should probably just jump on the phone with them.





Here is what I did... btw... Mixed the songs through the analog console. took the stereo file to the client... they wanted me to master it... I said i could try but it would be best to go somewhere on a pro mastering level. They ended up being happy with my roughs.

Anyway just dropped the stereo file (44.1, 16)into a file in PT 10. Plugged in Ozone 5, just set it to a preset... adjusted the limiter and maximizer so the track wasn't hammered. Thats where I am right now. My track before the plug was at a peak of 5 db and some where at least with a 15 db crest factor to the RMS.

I will call. Maybe i just had the piano a little toasty but that doesn't make sense I always have everything come in at very low levels.



Cheers,
KennyS

[Riccardo]

If they are happy with your mixes just give them a bit of "level"
Move your presets folder to the trash immediately.

[KennyS]

Originally Posted by Riccardo

If they are happy with your mixes just give them a bit of "level"
Move your presets folder to the trash immediately.

Haha I can assure you that I do not use any presets usually ever... how ever if they did exist for a couple of my pieces of hardware... no just kidding. But yes I like to use some of the presets on a plug just to get a feel for the different sounds occasionally. Then I will tweak to taste.


Cheers,
KennyS

[MAzevedo]

You have the margin on the limiter set to -4.2 it looks like. (The screenshots are really low-res, hard to see exactly what it is.)

Try setting it -0.3 and see if that clears up the issue.

(Also, if the mix is loved by all involved maybe just try using just the limiter to get it to it's final level? If you were happy with the tone and balance on your speakers when you mixed, why change it now that you are 'mastering'?)