Simplest (1 knob) mastering VST?

[Ah_Dziz]

Also, who does mono compatibility these days? I’m asking for real.

Ones that care about reproduction over bluetooth speakers, people sharing or wearing one earbud, stores/moles/venues loudspeaker systems or anyone not sitting in perfect stereo position.

Aside from sharing earbuds, Norene of those thing have ever required mono from me. A good mix should sound pretty good from any listening position. Can’t really bother with folks trying to share headphones though. I can only imagine what half of the music from the 60s would sound like if you only get one channel. Also most media players will sum to mono if you tweak some settings.

The main point though is that ther isn’t much out there that will give you a single control for mastering songs.

[Ah_Dziz]

If the mixes are really well done then I would recommend any clipper with a variable soft to hard control. It is the best way to turn a few spikes into useful harmonics around. This is only for the on control setup that the guy wanted though.

[jochicago]

One more mention: Ozone 9 Elements is $9 right now
https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/ ... 9-Elements

The closest to click and forget.
Compared to the automated Standard version: it's missing the compressor stage and it won't do the resonance taming EQ. You can replace the compressor with any good compressor set to a mastering preset, like free Kotelnikov.

[SparkySpark]

One more mention: Ozone 9 Elements is $9 right now
https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/ ... 9-Elements

The closest to click and forget.
Compared to the automated Standard version: it's missing the compressor stage and it won't do the resonance taming EQ. You can replace the compressor with any good compressor set to a mastering preset, like free Kotelnikov.

My, that is a sweet deal! I would say Ozone as well. Not sure if it's included in Elements, but something I enjoy in Ozone is the multiband stereo width effect. This lets you make the bass mono, and stereoize higher freqs. I use it on all my recordings.

Then I use the Tonal Balance Control to make the song, well, balanced. For my life, I can't understand why the Master assistant in Ozone can't balance the song by itself - isn't that what it's for?!

[Jade_one]

I usually use AOM invisible limiter and crank it so im getting -6 to -11 gain reduction. Maybe check out greg wells mix centric from waves too!

[creativeforge]

I could then use this as a baseline to then hire professional mastering.

Can you explain this part in more detail? What's your plan here?

I'd like to not have to pay someone else to do my mastering some day. If I can do it for smaller personal projects, including video, I'd be happy.

Also, by "practicing" on projects I usually would hire out, it would give me something to say/compare to/experiment and discuss with the mastering team.

I think I see two slightly conflicting goals here.

You'd like a quick, easy option to finish small projects that don't need professional results. A "one-knob" tool might work for this; for a lot of video content you could probably slap an L3 UltraMaximizer on there and call it a day.

But if you want learn about mastering, one knob isn't going to cut it. You need to think about frequency balance, dynamics, stereo imaging and listen for "problem" resonance or harshness, as well as loudenating. Even if these could be reduced to "corrections" in one direction, you still kneed independent control over each - which leads to something like T-Racks One.

My favourite kit for playing with full mixes is TDR Slick EQ M with TDR Limiter 6 GE. PThe free version of Nova would be fine for most frequency-dependent stuff, but I like having access to the expander options in Nova GE. Apart from that I often add a different compressor/saturator after auditioning a few, and my "secret weapon" for stereo enhancement is actually Waves Doubler.

So basically my recommendation for mastering kit is the Tokyo Dawn bundle, but it can be built up over time starting with the free versions. T-Racks or Ozone would also be fine, but TDR is cheaper, less overwhelming in options and feels less "biased" towards over-processed modern music. The quality of processing is definitely not worse and probably better.

Hey sorry, I've been away from the forum for months, working on that song. I downloaded NOVA free and used it, though and like it very much.

Since I hired musicians to play on the project, I also used some plugins of the ERA bundle to correct issues mainly to do with vocals (mic noises, hums, mouth noises, etc).

So, tonight I just completed a MIX using as little processing as possible, focusing on placement and notching the bass at 240kHz with NOVA. I worked on the mix with the help of a studio that does my mastering. He thought my mix wasn't too far from the goal so we have been going back and forth, him sending notes on the mix and me implementing changes and sending back a new mix.

That's the best experience I could ever ask for in order to learn how to mix. I will leave the mastering to the studio, now that he has guided me on how to best prepare the mix to be ready for mastering.

This being said, I didn't try SlickEQ but it's on my wishlist when I'll need to go into that again. I did buy Grand Finale from Klevgrand, though and found it remarkable as an "audio finalizer."

[Pingafuego]

Maybe Softube S73

https://www.softube.com/drawmers73

39.00 with unlockable code offer

[teacue]

Since this thread has been resurrected one should mention that in the meantime there is:
Exonic AI Master
https://www.exonicuk.com/product-page/ai-master

This is under $100 and indeed a true one knob plugin.

Here the thread on KVR:
viewtopic.php?t=550480

And here the thread on Gearslutz:
https://www.gearslutz.com/board/new-pro ... lugin.html