Introducing the Mastering forum "Post Of The Month" - sponsored by NUGEN Audio!
GEARSLUTZ.COM MASTERING FORUM - POST OF THE MONTH
Hey everyone!
Our friends at NUGEN Audio are sponsoring a "post of the month" for this (mastering) subforum only. The moderators here and the guys at NUGEN will put their heads together to choose the best post - whether that's the first post of a new thread or a super-helpful informative reply to an existing thread - and reward the person who posted it with a single NUGEN plugin of their choosing!
The only thing that we ask in return is that if you are selected, you provide a photo and a little text blurb about what you do and how you intend to use your new tool!
This is open to all members worldwide, whether you've just signed up or have been with us for years - we're looking for quality posts no matter who posts them.
RULE ADDENDUM FOR SEPT 2017 - due to the fact that we are having a bit of a problem with prizes going "unclaimed", we are now introducing a rule where you must claim your prize (i.e., reply to the PM where I've told you you've won) within 7 days - all prizewinners are notified by Private Message, so make sure that you have email notifications of them enabled if you do not check in often enough to know whether you've won or not!
Congratulations to @lucey who has won our first giveaway!!! More details on his prize and how he intends to use it soon...
Brian's thread "Bored with the norm" has been an absolute fountain of knowledge and he's been very generous with his wisdom. We particularly liked this post here: https://www.gearslutz.com/board/12213938-post111.html
Keep posting, there's a prize to be won every month!
After a small delay thanks to the holidays and NAMM we've finally nailed down our next winner - congratulations to @Nonlinear who has picked up the next prize in our competition! He has also chosen the ISL-2...
Here's what he has to say!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nonlinear
The multi-channel capability of Nugen's ISL-2 Limiter allows me to use it for mixing, stereo mastering and even 7.1 surround sound. I am using it here in mastering the song “You’re Mine” by JKB. The ISL-2 has features not found in other limiters such as the steering/ducking meters and the Auto mode that reduces bass distortion at fast release times. ISL-2 sounds great and is easy to use. It is a welcome addition to my plugin toolbox.
An enormous congratulations to our latest winner, @MASSIVE Master - John chose the Vis-LM H2 as his plugin prize and here's what he has to say -
Quote:
Originally Posted by MASSIVE Master
I'm not one to rely on meters much unless I'm calibrating equipment. But with the growing trend of 'target' volume along with the different standards of loudness for film & broadcast release, it makes sense to have the best possible metering available. The VisLM-H comes through where other loudness compliance metering falls short -- A highly customizable interface lets me see what I need to see, scaled how I need it. The popular loudness standards are in the presets and I can tweak those to fit my workflow if needed or save my own.
Just in the course of this afternoon, I rendered out a series of gaming convention spots (required approximately -23 LUFS), a bunch of dance tunes headed for Disney World and the YAGP (advised approximately -18LUFS) and the new Blackfinger album (requested "hit it hard but don't kill it" - subsequently tipping the scales at around -7LUFS). And as carefully calibrated as my monitoring chain may be, the visual feedback and confirmation that I'm in compliance during those extreme swings in loudness does come in handy.
And the fact that you can stretch the interface out to most of a HD screen keeps paranoid producers behind you at bay. No complaints there.
Super big congrats to @lowland who has been selected as our latest winner! He's walked away with a copy of Mastercheck Pro for his efforts.
lowland is a forum regular and a very valuable contributor in general but we singled out a brief but sweet bit of wisdom about one of the real purposes of hiring a mastering engineer that, as a piece of advice, is exceptional - https://www.gearslutz.com/board/12431511-post17.html - resident moderator @Riccardo called it "short but deep"!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lowland
I'm knocked out to win Mastering post of the month - big thanks to the forum and to NUGEN!
I've chosen MasterCheck Pro, here's a pic of me reviewing levels in SADiE. With the growth of online streaming and acquisition I'm seeing increasing client interest in loudness normalisation, and the ability of the 'Pro' part of MasterCheck to audition codecs and help avoid transcoding overs will sit well with existing tools here.
Congrats to GS member 'nxverxion' (of Synebridge Studios) for winning our latest NUGEN Audio Mastering Post Of The Month competition!
David scored a copy of the ISL-2 limiter for his superb post about the differences between what mixing and mastering can accomplish.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nxverxion
"My sincerest thanks and gratitude go out to NUGEN Audio and the admin at Gearslutz. I never saw this coming! It's an honor and I am humbled. The gesture is truly appreciated. It's no secret to those who know me (I work primarily on a personal level with independent artists) that I'm passionate about their audio. I go out of my way to help when I can, and I love what we do. I also enjoy auditioning new plugins, so when I learned that I had won this month's award I was stoked!
As expected, the ISL-2 follows through as a great option for eliminating inter-sample peaks at the end of any processing chain. You can safely rely on it to catch those ISPs for clean analog conversions."
Tim chose the the ISL-2 limiter - and has this to say -
Quote:
Originally Posted by loji
I like their concept of offering an input gain opposed to a threshold level in the ISL-2. The steerage and delta are welcome additions for that last bit of finesse in catching those few stray ISPs...
He's chosen the Mastercheck Pro - and here's what he has to say!
Quote:
Originally Posted by teebaum
Mastering has always been the link between production and end consumer.
While in the past mostly one medium dominated (vinyl, later cd) there are nowadays many different media and end formats side by side. cd, vinyl, youtube, audiostreaming services, television & digital and analogue radio.
This leads to completely different requirements for mastering
The NUGEN plugin MasterCheckPro is an incredibly practical tool for making the right decisions in this new mastering-everyday life.
not only that it is quickly recognized when certain codecs produce peaks with too little headroom, but also the practical acoustic comparative pre/post codec and the possibility of having the master quickly adjusted to the target level make it easier to make the right decisions.
In addition, with the MasterCheckPro you can show a customer very plausibly, that a too loud master on e. g. youtube or spotify does not sound the best.