Mastering Chains 2023

[Ploki]

at least one master every week
base chain is 4 plugs
Teote
Pro Q3/VOS SlickEQ
Unisum/Presswerk
Pro-L2/Elephant

if necessary ProMB and soothe (bandlimited to problem areas)

Presswerk and Unisum are M/S 90% of the time

[legendCNCD]

Oh yes, very rarely Basslane Pro - because its usually during mixing phase already setup there, no need to do it in master. Have been using more blyss in mixbusses to give that great presence etc.

[MattLeschuck]

Mix Bus (when mastering personal music):
Slick EQ GE
Townhouse Bus Comp

Master:
Soothe (if needed)
Toneboosters EQ
Ozone (Exciter, Imager, MB Comp for lows and occasionally Match EQ)
Sonnox Inflator
Toneboosters Reelbus
Toneboosters Barricade (hard clip, limit)

[noiseresearch]

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[Recourt]

Obviously not using all of these all the time but it's what I would grab for these tasks.

Pulsar Massive for character EQ

TDR Nova for clean EQ or TDR Slick EQ if I need a tilt filter. Usually I'm not eqing when mastering.

Softube Weiss Ds1 mk3 for de-essing and clean dynamic range adjustment.

UA API 2500 for attitude compression if needed.

Pulsar Mu for glue. Parked in my template.

Softube Overstayer M-A-S or Tone Projects Kelvin for harmonic tone shaping.

Slate FGX 2 limiter replaces the mighty TDR Limiter 6 in 2023 (no one was more surprised than me about this one.)

PSP X-Dither, old faithful.

TDR Simulathe for virtual vinyl test pressing.

Adaptr Metric A/B, SPL Hawkeye and RME DIGICheck for analysis.

I think that about sums it up.

[foosnark]

For 2023 it's been:

Crave EQ 2 -> TEOTE -> Librae -> Sideminder ZL -> Barricade -> Span Plus -> Correlometer -> Youlean

(Noise Engineering Librae was just released today, but I was a beta tester).

[Halonmusic]

TDR Kotelnikov
TDR SlickEQ
Loudmax or W1 Limiter by George Yohng

[Ploki]

For 2023 it's been:

Crave EQ 2 -> TEOTE -> Librae -> Sideminder ZL -> Barricade -> Span Plus -> Correlometer -> Youlean

(Noise Engineering Librae was just released today, but I was a beta tester).

My metering is identical

[_leras]

Thanks that's a great run down on the TDR stuff. Always interesting to get the why of what people use.

Does Reaper have per clip FX then, or are you setting up your chain per track and then bouncing it out?

Yes, Reaper offers fx per clip – "item" in Reaper lingo

Nice. That's a really great feature for mastering on a group of tracks, when you want different things on different tracks but also need to balance that.

Not all DAWs have this.

Wavelab does, but that's really a dedicated mastering tool.

[Igro]

On 2bus:

Sonic Academy SA76 (best comp I ever heard)
.
VoS TesslaSE mk2 (warmth)

---

Not too many on the master:

EQ (Melda AutoDynamic EQ or FL Studio's)
.
Softube Drawmer s73 (I have TEOTE, but something in the high frequencies disturbs me). If ordinary comp is needed, then Sonic Academy SA76.
.
Limiter (TDR or ToneBooster)
.
Youlean

[jamcat]

1. Load up all songs for the album in the Project page in Studio One. Use some multiband compression and dynamic EQ (as needed) on a per song basis, to get uniform dynamics and tone across the project. Studio One's stock Multiband Dynamics and Pro EQ³ plugins work great for this.




2. Use the Loudness export options from the Project page in Studio One for each specific target platform and true peak limiting.

[Ah_Dziz]

Mdynamic EQ> soft clip> FFT EQ> comp> clip> limiter (sometimes)

I'll add filtering at any point to that to counter any serious problems. Generally all DC correction and technical problems are handled offline.

[_leras]

UA API 2500 for attitude compression if needed.

Interesting list you posted, and sharing what you use them for is great too.

I think the UAD 2500 is great. I use it on buses and have mixed into it.

I couldn't quite get it to work for me on masters, I think the release just didn't seem to play as nicely as the Elysia Alpha. The Elysia, when turning the release, can change really nicely from relaxed, to more on the beat peakiness. The 2500 hasn't given me that control of 'groove'.

Love the 2500 on my drum bus though.

[_leras]

Wow. So many things I want to check out from this thread.

There is one plug in that I thought I'd see listed many times, but hasn't show up at all, which is the Shadow Hills Compressor.

The newer version of this is supposed to be quite improved and it goes for $29. Really quite te surprised no one here has mentioned it...

[__Karlo__]

Basslane pro > TEOTE <> Unisum > Limitless