Mastering routing?

[Orbitutle]

Hello..

When composing in your host, do you then use per track compression, sub. group compression or do you first use compression on the finished mixed track?

Furthermore.. I have read that a lot of people use a limiter on the master output while composing.. Do you bypass this limiter before exporting, and then master the finished mix, or do you leave the limiter on and then master the allready limited finished mix?

I just want to know if it's only a matter of openion, or if there are some pros/cons with the defferent setups?

Thanks

[orangesuite]

I never put anything on the master channel during composing or mixing. Reason being, if you take off the effects on the master buss, you might find you are compensating for those effects in your mix. Its good practice to get a decent sounding mix first before putting something over the entire mix. As per composing and compression, if a track needs compressing then I use it. Depending on the material, esp. drums, I'll compress the individual parts and then buss them off to a sub-group and then compress as needed again.

[M'Snah]

While composing and arranging I only use effects, no mastering tools (e.g. no EQ, compression) or CPU-intensive effects. It's useless to have compression etc eat your CPU while composing, and IMO also useless to spend your time at perfect balancing of tracks and sounds at that time.

Usually I export all tracks to WAV, and do the mastering on audio tracks, without soft synths etc.
Depending on the instruments I'll have a compressor e.g. crunchessor or GPP on a track, and maybe GlissEQ as well. Then GCO on the total mix. (I'm not sure if it's necessary, but it feels good to me ).

--HansM

[justified]

Usually I export all tracks to WAV, and do the mastering on audio tracks, without soft synths etc.

Isn't it called mixing?

[M'Snah]

lol. Yes it is, isn't it? I tried to adapt to the question at the top of this thread. (but I'm not so sure now).

Anyway, feel free to add to the answers in this thread, justified.

[nibbzious]

I prefer to mix on the fly using EQ and compression as needed. It can be daunting being done with a huge track while my computer is choking at 80% and having to mix everything because everything's a muddy mess. If that happens I just toss the track out of laziness so I just make sure everything's perfect before I start adding more stuff. It doesn't take too long to mix a track, maybe a minute, and it's worth it when you're at the end and you don't have any mix work to do. You won't have to do as much mastering work either.

On the other hand, I'll skip some parts of the mix and come back to them later because I don't want to get bogged down. This usually happens with the kick drum and bass, so I just work out the track then worry about getting the bass and kick to contrast nicely. And adding new tracks can interfere with work in this area so it's better to do this last.

Then when I go to mastering I've already got a loud mix cause of all the work I've done so I really don't need to do much. Just a transparent limiter to fix the odd nasty peak and a careful EQ. I won't have to compress and limit my track for loudness and lose dynamics.

[justified]

Sorry for being an asshole HansM.

I never use mastering tools on master chanel during composing. Usually I do compress drums bass and some other tracks separately if it's needed. Sometimes I apply limiting (non-transparent) on drums to make them sound fuller.

[M'Snah]

Sorry for being an asshole HansM.

No problem. Feel free to work on your public image whenever you want to

--HansM

[kritikon]

I just want to know if it's only a matter of openion, or if there are some pros/cons with the defferent setups?

There are pros/cons to every way that everyone has mentioned so far. No matter how good anyone feels their own method is, they are not "right"...there isn't a rule book.

Myself...yes, I will often have a masterFX rack set up. I'll regularly switch it in and out to get a general idea of how a sound will fit into the final mix. My final mix will inevitably sound completely different to the rough mixing and track-laying stages, and often something that sounds good initially just won't work in the final heavily processed mix....or vice versa. As a flip to that idea, I don't pay too much attention to basslines at the start - I know for 100% certainty that I can make a bassline as powerful as is possible within human mental conception, and it'll sound completely different in the context of a mix that is compressed.

I don't tend to have the limiter on for this process, but certainly a compressor of some kind. And I find it extremely useful.

yes, I use channel compression to varying degrees. Sometimes on almost every channel, sometimes on almost none. (And there's a good tip - if you want a stand-out sound, most sounds will stand out if many of your channels are compressed, leave your stand out channel uncompressed.).

Yes, I use group compression to varying degrees - almost always on a drum group.

Yes, I use limiters on groups - as mentioned by someone else, it can be a good effect on drums. No, I don't use limiters on channels (unless it's a drum).

As for limiting the final mix and exporting. I tend to do the whole process as one. I don't render a mixdown and then work on that...personally I don't see any point. I finalise my mix with audio and midi channels all running (mostly audio, simply to preserve CPU).
I will, however, always do a render with either very little or no processing such as compression/limiting and name this as as a premaster, and then go on to do my real mixing/processing on the mix. Then if I don't like what I've done with the processing, I can go back if I want to. I also do this so that if I should ever want to get external mastering done, I have something useful they can work with, rather than something I've butchered

But mixing is my mastering usually. I consider the master buss simply as an extension of what I'm doing while mixing. Which will no doubt horrify some people, but that's their problem, not mine.

[cthmusic]

Its true, theres NO RULES! that being said, there are guidelines. Typically, for the mastering session you do not want an overcompressed, overlimited mix to work with because theres not much you can work with after all of that damage (unless thats the sound you want!).

I compress individual tracks and subgroups depending on the genre Im mixing. Pop: Needs a lot of compression to get that "pop" sound. Same goes with Rock: certain ways that compression is used (chaining) that can get that in your face yet not overly squashed sound.

Also, when Im composing, I try to let the selection of instruments and composition get the "sound" im looking for and I try to reserve EQ and compression for the mixing stage. That being said, I almost always use light compression and EQ to get started with. Really just depends on the song!

There are no rules!