Bouncing with or without master buss compression at first?

noah440 · 23rd June 2007

(This is posted in the Mastering forum, as well...sorry)

Greetings...I am finishing up an album project that is going to be mastered tomorrow. I work in Cubase 4, and wanted to get peoples opinions on whether or not they think that (A) bouncing the entire mix WITH buss compression is gone is a better or worse idea than (B) bouncing the mix WITHOUT master buss compression, then re-importing the stereo file and bouncing it again in a new session with only master buss compression.

My sound is dependent on using a bit of compression on the master, so it's going to be on the track, regardless...I just wanted to get people's opinions on the technical aspects of what I spoke of above.

Yes, I have listened to the difference and I couldn't really hear any (or if I did, could be the placebo effect), but my brain is nearly dead to the world at this point and I just would like to see other's real world experiences.

Cheers,
Noah

thermos · 23rd June 2007

Bounce with and without. Mastering engineers prefer it that way. I was sure that my mixes with 2 bus compression were going to be superior, until my mastering engineer tried my mix without 2 bus compression and put his own compression on it. Way better. But I was using very mild compression (Portico 5043 doing 1 db) so the balance of the instruments didn't change that much. If you are doing more dramatic compression, then you definitely want a version with what you were mixing to.

23rd June 2007	#1
noah440 Gear nut Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 114 Thread Starter	Bouncing with or without master buss compression at first? (This is posted in the Mastering forum, as well...sorry) Greetings...I am finishing up an album project that is going to be mastered tomorrow. I work in Cubase 4, and wanted to get peoples opinions on whether or not they think that (A) bouncing the entire mix WITH buss compression is gone is a better or worse idea than (B) bouncing the mix WITHOUT master buss compression, then re-importing the stereo file and bouncing it again in a new session with only master buss compression. My sound is dependent on using a bit of compression on the master, so it's going to be on the track, regardless...I just wanted to get people's opinions on the technical aspects of what I spoke of above. Yes, I have listened to the difference and I couldn't really hear any (or if I did, could be the placebo effect), but my brain is nearly dead to the world at this point and I just would like to see other's real world experiences. Cheers, Noah

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23rd June 2007	#2
thermos Lives for gear Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Brooklyn Posts: 3,553	Bounce with and without. Mastering engineers prefer it that way. I was sure that my mixes with 2 bus compression were going to be superior, until my mastering engineer tried my mix without 2 bus compression and put his own compression on it. Way better. But I was using very mild compression (Portico 5043 doing 1 db) so the balance of the instruments didn't change that much. If you are doing more dramatic compression, then you definitely want a version with what you were mixing to.