Transparent Mastering Compressor

[bmanic]

Well - I'm not Bob Katz or bmanic -...

Eeep! I'm not worthy being in the same sentence! That man's a genious. Well, at least he writes a nice book that I can warmly recommend to everybody. It's called Mastering Audio as some might know.

Cheers!
bManic

[kylen]

That's odd. Endorphin is cool, but I definately don't think it is transparent.

I thought it was just me...Endorphin is very cool (bowing to Sasha) but I don't think it's the most transparent...hehe did I just repeat what you just said ?

[ObsoleteAcc99]

[DELETED]

[cromag]

if you want a free one : buzzroom buzmaxi
http://www.kvraudio.com/get/1249.html

[jens]

if you want a free one : buzzroom buzmaxi
http://www.kvraudio.com/get/1249.html

yep - very good but I usually prefer the TLS Maximizer over it

(but both can give something like 5-6dB without colouring the sound too obviously (I don't think that there is any mastering-limiter which doesn't colour the sound at least slightly ))

[airborne]

and also, this guy clearly asked for a brickwall limiter/volume maximizizer in his original post.

so why has no one offered, L2/L3, Elephant, Timeworks mastering compressor, etc, as advice?

First of all I'd like to thank you guys for the feedback!You're great!

ttoz, what I want is a mastering one band compressor that will be transparent(want to avoid pumping and other artifacts).
I already have L2 in hardware,and L3 from Waves.

Here is the case:the song has variable dynamics and many peaks this means low and loud passages AND really loud peaks.The limiter will not do its job well in the way the song is right now from the dynamic's perspsctive.
That is I will have to bring the threshold(I am talking for the limiter now) really low to raise the overall volume but the limiter will have to attenuate much more in the peaks and the loud passages than it will in the low passages.So I need a compressor to tame all this but as transparently as it can get.Do you get me?

[jens]

in this case you imo should use Khaerhus Golden Compressor - it offers several tools for very surgical compression if needed (second release stage, eq etc.)

[Funkybot]

I'm going to kind of side swipe a few other recomendations and tell you to look at the Kjaerhus Audio GPP-1. It's a peak limiter which is designed just for your purpose. If you use it on the smooth settings it's quite transparant, just make sure not to overdo it. Just watch those meters and make sure the Gain Reduction is only occuring during the peaks. The "O.C." light will let you know if you've gone to far. I've had a few similar songs where this has worked great at smoothing out the peaks before the final limiter that let me bring levels up.

[3*s]

Definitely try out TLS and BuzMaxi, TLS being the better of the two. I'm sure there are better commercial maximizers, but both are amazing considering they're free.

[kylen]

Here is the case:the song has variable dynamics and many peaks this means low and loud passages AND really loud peaks.The limiter will not do its job well in the way the song is right now from the dynamic's perspsctive.
That is I will have to bring the threshold(I am talking for the limiter now) really low to raise the overall volume but the limiter will have to attenuate much more in the peaks and the loud passages than it will in the low passages.So I need a compressor to tame all this but as transparently as it can get.Do you get me?

You mentioned earlier that you have ' a final mix' of a song - then you mention the above situation in a later post. I would suggest that maybe you don't have the final mix yet and you need to find the tracks with the peaks and deal with them there. However if you don't want to go back in and mess up your mix you might try looking at the full mix using Voxengo SPAN to identify any possible freq bands where excess energy exists from time to time and let some of the 'air' out of the peaks using some EQ notches (that way you don't have to push into the compressor as hard and get compression artifacts). If you have something surgical like GlissEQ that can make 1/10 octave cuts (or Equium that makes tighter cuts) you can bring some of the peaks down with EQ and some of them down with compression. That way things sound fresh but controlled - you might find that there are just 4 or 5 peaks in the mids or bass that are goofing things up - then again you might find more and decide to remix (using track EQ and compression) anyway.
2cents

[Jafo]

Any opinions on Classic Master Limiter? (I like to use sets of effects -- more elegant, somehow.)

[DwarfNebula]

...
I would suggest that maybe you don't have the final mix yet and you need to find the tracks with the peaks and deal with them there. ...

should be the way to go.

In this case you imo should use Kjaerhus Golden Compressor - it offers several tools for very surgical compression if needed (second release stage, eq etc.)

[dsp music]

[quote="airborne
Here is the case:the song has variable dynamics and many peaks this means low and loud passages AND really loud peaks.The limiter will not do its job well in the way the song is right now from the dynamic's perspsctive.
That is I will have to bring the threshold(I am talking for the limiter now) really low to raise the overall volume but the limiter will have to attenuate much more in the peaks and the loud passages than it will in the low passages.So I need a compressor to tame all this but as transparently as it can get.Do you get me? [/quote]

sorry i'm still a novice about mastering but is it really important to cut all peaks from all tracks, before mastering??
i mean what's the point cutting peaks on a "calm part" if they don't clip and in another part of the track the RMS is higher??? ....

i hope u understood what i meant,and sorry for my english

[airborne]

There is no problem with the mix.I have heard it through many monitor systems and on Hi-Fi's.There are no offending frequencies and all the instruments are very carefully compressed and equed in the mix stage.The song has a wide dynamic range and I don't want to over-compress it but if I just use the limiter only ,the Chorus-which happens to be the loudest passage- loses its impact.That means if I apply a threshold of -10 then the chorus gets so much attenuation,it gets squashed.So I need to tame the dynamics a bit with a compressor.When I talk about the "peaks" I mean mostly the peaks that are created by the kick and the snare.

I really wouldn't mind to leave the song as it is right now.I love it,every instument has its place in the frequency spectrum the dynamics are great...
BUT the level of music today is pushed to the limits and the commercial cd's are so loud that if someone plays your music after he has listened to a commercial cd he will have to turn the volume up.

I try to treat the songs in a "musical" way but I want them hot too.

[kylen]

There is no problem with the mix.I have heard it through many monitor systems and on Hi-Fi's.There are no offending frequencies and all the instruments are very carefully compressed and equed in the mix stage.The song has a wide dynamic range and I don't want to over-compress it ...

OK - wasn't trying to imply you you didn't know anything - just tossing out some ideas.

I'm kind of at a loss without hearing it but maybe what you're looking for is a multiband to just compress (or peak limit) the bass and very lo-mid bands... if that's the case Voxengo Sonifomer (MB) or Kjaerhus GCO-1 compressor (EQ-able internal side-chain) might be the thing.