Mastering what do you all use?

[Muff Wiggler]

my most valuable mastering tool, other than ears and speakers, is pink noise

honestly

Err... Please explain...?

sure, no problem, i posted this recently in a different thread,

http://www.kvr-vst.com/forum/viewtopic. ... c&start=15

Here's what I wrote:

I always start my 'mastering' by setting up a noise floor of injected pink noise, and making sure that each instrument is barely audible over it, this is the easiest way I've found to make sure the mean level of everything is right. Then it's easier to make your highightted instruments stand out a bit with some more volume

and I posted in that thread a bit later, because I felt that I need to attribute that tip to Craig Anderton, who first brought it to my attention.

Cheers

[Igor 4000]

That's actually my approach as well. Just HarBal along with something like TLS_Maximizer.

Heard of Harbal...what exactly does it do?

www.har-bal.com

[christianmusicmaker]

my most valuable mastering tool, other than ears and speakers, is pink noise

honestly

Err... Please explain...?

sure, no problem, i posted this recently in a different thread,

http://www.kvr-vst.com/forum/viewtopic. ... c&start=15

Here's what I wrote:

I always start my 'mastering' by setting up a noise floor of injected pink noise, and making sure that each instrument is barely audible over it, this is the easiest way I've found to make sure the mean level of everything is right. Then it's easier to make your highightted instruments stand out a bit with some more volume

and I posted in that thread a bit later, because I felt that I need to attribute that tip to Craig Anderton, who first brought it to my attention.

Cheers

Thanks for the feedback I have heard alot about Craig...I think he has written so many articles and I think he has few books on Sonar as well.

Igor4000...Harbal looks really good. It seems a cross between GlissEQ, Ozone and Elemental Audio's Inspector! $95...not bad.

[keano]

I have spent many, many, many, many hours, days, months.... mastering myself and wasted hundreds of CD's. I usually use T-Racks which is a great program but it won't get great all around results. I took a self mastered mix, and gave ti to a masterer and when I heard it, it was better. Thats there job.

Someone here earlier saud that the quality is in the song 90%, Mix, 9% and mastering 1%. I disagree. I think a great song is a great song no matter what. but quality can greatly enhance a badly recorded or mixed track. So imagine what it does for a good one.

[oxbee]

the best mastering tools are limiters and a bit of enhancer.
You should not have to use something more than these tools. If you need to use compression/spatial/eq at mastering, it's because your mix/sounds are bad.

[Druu]

Actually, that's not 100% true. A light touch of compression and EQ are both commonly used during mastering.

Mastering is an essential part of the recording process and should not be discounted. The polish and sheen that mastering provides to a track can make all the difference in the world.

My last point, and I know I'm likely about to start a fight with this one, is that if you're serious about your music and want the mastering done right, don't do it yourself. Have a mastering engineer do the job. Ok, it's cost a little cabbage, but just because you can play and write doesn't mean you can master. Most label releases don't even use the same engineer for tracking and mastering. Plus, a mastering engineer is another set of ears to check your mix.

There's my 2 cents...

Druu
www.druu.net

[rpc9943]

I say if youre into mainstream industry then go spend money on a mastering engineer. Otherwise, if, like me you are an independant solo musician who likes to have complete control, I say it's possible to at least have some sort of friend or mastering individual to coach you through some of the processes involved with mastering. You don't really even need any of the fancy programs to actually master. It's probably more simple than everyone thinks, but it does take patience and objectivity to master your own works. Thats my two cents

RonC

[jtxx000]

I use Ozone 3.

[gullfo]

I generally work to get a consistent mix then add a bit of compression/limiting and (seldom) a touch of EQ. Export as 96Khz/24bit then open in Soundforge and apply a very slight maximizer to it.

IMHO, having a proper mix with the EQ balanced makes "premastering" (mastering is really only performed by a true mastering studio in preparation for CD or DVD cutting - not something you can truly do at home, but you can do a reasonable job...) easier and if you're only cutting to MP3 and WMA, you're not likely to be critical anyways...

I like the pink noise technique, I generally don't do it (I usually cut a CD and test it in my car and on my boombox + test MP3 stero/mono on several PC systems). Lately, I'm been trying to use the surround features in S4 so I'm going to try to also test on my living room surround system... should be an eye opener...