KVR Audio

imrae · Post by **imrae** » Sat Dec 31, 2022 9:01 am

Igro wrote: Fri Dec 30, 2022 10:16 pm Not sure why a musician needs to care about mastering. Musician has acces to raw tracks/channels. Musician should care about mixing process. Achieving good quality in that. Mastering is for not well done mixes and that's a different story.

I sort of agree in that it looks like some people are trying to do far too much at the mastering stage, and mix stage is a better place to fix problems where possible.

But for me mastering is a "release preparation" stage in which even excellent mixes benefit from being balanced against each other to make a cohesive collection. Then it becomes clearer that one would benefit from a bit more density, one needs a bit more width, one is a touch bright...

Ideally this comes from a second set of ears and fresh perspective. If mastering my own stuff it will at least be another day from mixing.

Ploki · Post by **Ploki** » Sat Dec 31, 2022 9:20 am

Igro wrote: Fri Dec 30, 2022 10:16 pm Not sure why a musician needs to care about mastering. Musician has acces to raw tracks/channels. Musician should care about mixing process. Achieving good quality in that. Mastering is for not well done mixes and that's a different story.

Technically, musicians shouldn't even care about mix stage, they should care about making music - song and arrangement, mixing engineers should care about mix stage.

I find these comments asinine since we clearly live in a terrible/amazing bedroom producer DIY era.

Mastering ideally is getting a second pair of experienced ears that tell you whether your mix is good and just needs some finishing touches - or isn't.
It's the process and the person, not merely smashing into a limiter and calling it a day

VELLTONE MUSIC · Post by **VELLTONE MUSIC** » Sat Dec 31, 2022 9:30 am

Boy Wonder wrote: Sat Dec 31, 2022 2:30 am I'm surprised I haven't seen Sonible mentioned in this thread yet. I kinda like smart:limit and smat:comp 2 m'self. Also, I consider Adapt Sculpt a winner. No?

got entropy and love it on some tracks ,but not suitable fot mastering purposes,have to check their other plugins,sonible is definitely serious plugin developer.
No idea what Adapt Sculpt will do on master channel...

VELLTONE MUSIC · Post by **VELLTONE MUSIC** » Sat Dec 31, 2022 9:33 am

plexuss wrote: Fri Dec 30, 2022 8:15 pm My recommendation for a mastering chain is based on what I use myself:

Sound Theory Gullfoss [mastering]
Kirchhoff EQ or FF ProQ3 or DMG Equilibrium
Tone Projects Unisum
[ other processors to colour/tone]
Leapwing CenterOne
Leapwing StageOne
Mathew Lane DrMS
Hugen Monofilter [if needed]
klanghabitat cassiopeia
[Demoing AA Diamond Saturator as a mastering processor - I generally do not like adding too much distortion during mastering but this processor has a lot of control and so far I prefer it to Tone Projects Kelvin for mastering]
IK Tape Machines 80 [456 / 30ips / clean levels ]
DMG Limitless
PA ADPTR MetricAB
PA SPL HawkEye
Youlean Loudness Meter

didn't overload master buss with so many plugs - i guess if apply just a touch it makes sense to use more plugins...

VELLTONE MUSIC · Post by **VELLTONE MUSIC** » Sat Dec 31, 2022 9:49 am

Igro wrote: Fri Dec 30, 2022 10:16 pm Not sure why a musician needs to care about mastering. Musician has acces to raw tracks/channels. Musician should care about mixing process. Achieving good quality in that. Mastering is for not well done mixes and that's a different story.

I had same understanding till recently - the benefit to make some mastering is to fix mixing mistakes before to send it to mastering engineer or if you get better to make your own for free.
Not sure how many of these 40-50 euro online mastering services are actually 'PRO' so prefer to learn much about so to have my own reference - a dj i know before told me that he was not satisfied with 50 euro mastering he use,so that's the reason for me to spend some money for mastering plugins.
Who knows, may learn it well enough to make it pro myself...

:):)
2013 start to turn knobs of vst synths,now i have my own sound design system/technology for reshaping the sound ,so nothing is impossible - for sure you can't do serious mixing and mastering with free plugins only,so discounted plugins are pure treasure

Cheers

ramseysounds · Post by **ramseysounds** » Sat Dec 31, 2022 10:25 am

This thread is full of the most amateurish comments I’ve read on this forum in like forever. (Not all). OP clearly doesn’t understand what mastering is and then he’s told ‘mastering is for not well done mixes’

Jeez

imrae · Post by **imrae** » Sat Dec 31, 2022 11:16 am

VELLTONE MUSIC wrote: Sat Dec 31, 2022 9:49 am I had same understanding till recently - the benefit to make some mastering is to fix mixing mistakes before to send it to mastering engineer

Not quite clear here if you mean to “fix” problems using “mastering plugins” before sending off to a pro; don’t do that. Adding your own bus processing will generally make things harder for the mastering engineer. There are exceptions like if you prefer to “mix into” a buss compressor but even then try not to go crazy (and do it as part of mixing). In particular you should not include any master-bus peak limiting, clipping or multiband compression; they can’t undo it. (Allegedly this is what happened to Death Magnetic...)

If you do a rough master and identify mix mistakes in the process (or, as I have been emphasising, balance issues between tracks across an album...) then that’s great. Take the information back to the mix session and improve things there.

VELLTONE MUSIC · Post by **VELLTONE MUSIC** » Sat Dec 31, 2022 12:48 pm

Yeah,i mean to make a reference before/after and eventually to point it as direction what you would like your mix to sound,some mastering engineers ask you about that.
I have an ambition to learn it better and to make my own mastering,the same way i can do my own sounds with synthesizers in 95% of time is better,than just browsing default library.
Some say plugins will never sound so good as hardware,but some acoustica audio plugins are almost identical,if not better in direct comparision.
Anyway i am happy that i can do like 5 min mastering and to listen a final mix,which sound like pro mastered.
If not other,i'm enjoing it a lot,as old sentence say : Pleasure is priceless

:):)

plexuss · Post by **plexuss** » Sat Dec 31, 2022 7:43 pm

VELLTONE MUSIC wrote: Sat Dec 31, 2022 9:33 am
plexuss wrote: Fri Dec 30, 2022 8:15 pm My recommendation for a mastering chain is based on what I use myself:

[deleted long list of plugins for brevity]
didn't overload master buss with so many plugs - i guess if apply just a touch it makes sense to use more plugins...

Correct. For my music I like to work the entire soundstage and keep things creamy with the right focus and balance. I also consider aspects of the "texture" and escoteric characteristics like that. I use a plugin or set of plugins to tackle each aspect. There is a lot of interplay with my approach - I use a combination of dialing in the aspect and then adjusting others as needed. The crux is getting consistency over time. My music is usually complex and intricate making it difficult to reign in to be pleasing. Sometimes I use a simpler mixing chain, eg. I don't always use all the plugins.

Have a great 2023!

chagzuki · Post by **chagzuki** » Sat Dec 31, 2022 9:07 pm

+1 Tokyo Dawn
+1 Metric AB

Also, Klanghelm SDRR.

VELLTONE MUSIC · Post by **VELLTONE MUSIC** » Sun Jan 01, 2023 7:51 am

plexuss wrote: Sat Dec 31, 2022 7:43 pm
VELLTONE MUSIC wrote: Sat Dec 31, 2022 9:33 am
plexuss wrote: Fri Dec 30, 2022 8:15 pm My recommendation for a mastering chain is based on what I use myself:

[deleted long list of plugins for brevity]
didn't overload master buss with so many plugs - i guess if apply just a touch it makes sense to use more plugins...
Correct. For my music I like to work the entire soundstage and keep things creamy with the right focus and balance. I also consider aspects of the "texture" and escoteric characteristics like that. I use a plugin or set of plugins to tackle each aspect. There is a lot of interplay with my approach - I use a combination of dialing in the aspect and then adjusting others as needed. The crux is getting consistency over time. My music is usually complex and intricate making it difficult to reign in to be pleasing. Sometimes I use a simpler mixing chain, eg. I don't always use all the plugins.

Have a great 2023!

Happy new year and success to all music projects,which wasn't released during 2022

I think most important part in a mix is always right sound combination and right fx chain so to touch listener

Happy new year

jamcat · Post by **jamcat** » Sun Jan 01, 2023 10:59 am

plexuss wrote: Fri Dec 30, 2022 8:15 pm My recommendation for a mastering chain is based on what I use myself:

IK Tape Machines 80 [456 / 30ips / clean levels ]

Studer and 456 is the standard for tracking.

But for the 2-bus mix / master tape, try GP9 or 499. 456 saturates nicely for individual tracks, but 499 and especially GP9 are better for mixdown because they're cleaner and more hifi and seem to preserve / bring out dynamics.

Also, try the Ampex 440 model for mixdown instead. The 440 doesn't do 30 ips, so you have to set it to 15 ips instead, but that doesn't really matter since it's not real anyways.

Historically, Ampex recorders has been the standard choice for mixing down rock, because they're known for delivering a lot of punch, and I've found the Tape Machine 440 model captures that pretty well. Tape Machine 80 / Studers are much too polite.

MJACau · Post by **MJACau** » Sun Jan 01, 2023 11:45 am

Is this Mastering stem prep?!
0r mastering it's self, involving some automation into a mastering chain?!

VELLTONE MUSIC · Post by **VELLTONE MUSIC** » Sun Jan 01, 2023 3:27 pm

ramseysounds wrote: Sat Dec 31, 2022 10:25 am This thread is full of the most amateurish comments I’ve read on this forum in like forever. (Not all). OP clearly doesn’t understand what mastering is and then he’s told ‘mastering is for not well done mixes’
Jeez

hahahaah another super Pro with nothing to say

Azbest · Post by **Azbest** » Sun Jan 01, 2023 3:33 pm

VELLTONE MUSIC wrote: Sun Jan 01, 2023 3:27 pm
ramseysounds wrote: Sat Dec 31, 2022 10:25 am This thread is full of the most amateurish comments I’ve read on this forum in like forever. (Not all). OP clearly doesn’t understand what mastering is and then he’s told ‘mastering is for not well done mixes’
Jeez
hahahaah another super Pro with nothing to say

He isn't wrong tho.

Mastering EQ and Compression