Favorite Mastering Plugs and in what order?

[putte]

.. 2 orders:

- hydratone
- colortone pro

or

- hydratone
- vintagewarmer

putte

[krank]

The PSP Vintage Warmer has been mentioned several times so far. I played around with the demo for a while and was fairly impressed, but I think most of it may have had to do with the fact that it made stuff louder (I only started out with this about a year ago with quite inexperienced ears). I've read quite a number of people with less positive opinions ('farty' comes to mind), most of whom agreed that it's a no-no for mastering. But I'd like to hear more opinions in defence of it, or better yet, tracks mastered with it?

[Jafo]

Like everybody else, I first try to get the individual tracks and mix right; any errors with either will propagate up, and harm the final result. You can polish a turd, but polished gems look a bit prettier.

Ahem. Anyway, I'm terribly poor, and scorn warez, so I make do with freeware. Also, I tend towards more acoustic and vintage textures, so my so-called "technique" might not work for more modern or electronic music (which I also love and find just as valid).

I usually begin with EQ, perhaps Classic EQ or maybe posihfopit to shape the basic tones. Cut out the mud! Then, I'll use Ruby Tube and/or Sweety VST to saturate; I find that just a touch over the whole mix works best, lest the mix lose clarity.

I almost never use a master limiter or compressor. Part of this is philosophical: I feel the best results come when the tracks work together, so I try to get the dynamics right at this level. If a note is too loud, I prefer to fix it, not to squash the whole mix. The sort of music that I make seems to respond best to gentle if any compression. But I have to admit that my skills just aren't up to snuff, and I figure that I'll get better results if I use too little than too much.

I always put reverb at the end; I like just a touch for ambience (but I usually put some on the solo instruments), and find that Classic Reverb or OldSkoolVerb give the best subtle shimmer. I hate to argue with the Ozone Mastering Guide, but I like reverb as the last tone-affecting effect, and definitely after dynamics effects. To my ears, this sounds more natural -- but now that I think about it, the other way around might work just as well, and maybe sometimes even better.

Anyway, I'm no expert, but maybe this post will help somebody.

[Killvehicle]

The PSP Vintage Warmer has been mentioned several times so far. I played around with the demo for a while and was quite impressed, but I think most of it may have had to do with the fact that it made stuff louder (I only started out with this about a year ago with quite inexperienced ears). I've read quite a number of people with less positive opinions ('farty' comes to mind), most of whom agreed that it's a no-no for mastering. But I'd like to hear more opinions in defence of it, or better yet, tracks mastered with it?

No ,this can do wonders on mixes, YOu really have to know how to use plugs like this, and usually less is more, ONe of the suggestions by the devoploper is to use this not 100% but 30-70% and I found that this way it really makes for a more realistic tape warming sound. I usually follow this with Voxengo Elephant, casue I think that is a far cleaner limiter than the one in V.W, but I use V.W's limiter as well to add to the sound. It is a completly viable grade A mastering plug.

[electro]

Voxengo EL2 with slight Bessel filter to roll off the low end.

[IIRs]

The most important "mastering" plug in my collection is Inspector XL:

[Kriminal]

Multiband Comp, EQ, Comp(to up level if needed), BBE, Limiter.

sounds ok to me, but im sure it could sound better.

[Overflow]

Usually

1. Waves RenComp
2. Elemental Audio Firium
3. Steinberg Loudness Maximizer

In step 1 I'm compressing with ratio ~1:1.5 and just 3 db max. Step 2: boosting no more than 3-4 db.

o.

[iDavid]

Is anyone using Kjaerhus plugs

the CPU hit is so low, and latency nothing at all...

[IIRs]

I sometimes use GAC-1 for parallel compression on full mixes. Thats the only Kjaerhus plug I've got..

I like Firium as a mastering EQ.

Also the dynamic EQs I designed myself (apart from the irritating graphics bug that has stopped me releasing them ).

If the mix is seriously flawed in some way I might break out the multi-band compressors: usually the Mackie 3-band comp that comes with Tracktion does the trick, but sometimes I'll use Final Mix for really surgical stuff.. doesn't happen that often though: I will usually return to the mix rather than try to patch it up.

Pocket Limiter seems to do OK as I rarely apply much limiting anyway.

I have had my eye on Ozone for a while, but honestly the only thing I really want from it is the dither, and it seems a lot of money to pay just for that

[iDavid]

IIRs,

what do you use for dithering in Traction now?

I haven't mixed down in Tracktion yet, but sold off Cubase (long time coming)

thanks

[IIRs]

Usually mda dither, though sometimes I just turn on Tracktion's own dither if its just an mp3 or ogg export*, and sometimes I use Soundforge or Acoustica's dither to convert 24-bit exports from Tracktion.

My choice of dithers is something I'm still not totally happy with, but the MegaBitMax algo is the only one that has really impressed me so far.. I wish I could buy it on its own!

* there's nothing wrong with Tracktion's dither AFAIK, but it seems to include an "auto-black" that can't be turned off: I prefer my dither noise to be constant as I think it is less noticable, so I avoid the Tracktion dither when putting CDs together.

[Ildon]

LFX1310 and then Classic EQ. Seriously. The rest is just using my gear the right way.

[cptgone]

(don't know much about mastering)

(too lazy to EQ tracks)
(don't think I've EQed a mix yet, except one time to remove excess bass)
Voxengo Soniformer
Voxengo Elephant
dither (the cubase sx2 one, "uv22" IIRC)

[bduffy]

OZONE, WAVES DIAMOND BUNDLE, T-RACKS. (IN THAT ORDER)

Sorry, but all at the same time???