About mastering plugins...

[J4R1O]

Passive eq is ok, but the IK 432 to me seems more open and alive

IK 432 is nice and I was just about to buy it, but then I googled "mastering eqs", found NI Passive, demoed it, and finally bought NI Premium Tube Series for the same price (KVR Market Place).

Limiters in general: Hate 'em. I can find no way other than simply using them as a clip for stray peaks. I'll hear certain mixes that are not squished that have that "ooomph" and sound good. All they ever do for me when pushed is sound distorted.

Wanna buy more great plugins, hibidy? You have to try A.O.M. Invisible Limiter. It's a jaw-dropper.

[Uncle E]

The NI Passive is very good and on the same level as most of the other EQ's that people have mentioned here. However, the 432 is one of the best digital EQ's ever made, IMO.

Anyway, since you've got it, try the NI Enhance. I think of it as a hifi Pultec, it's a neat sounding EQ.

[J4R1O]

I can only describe sound like that I guess. But I guess all around bigger sounding would be the closest.

That's mostly evening out your lower frequencies and emphasizing the frequencies that are most present to the human ear. Inflator is really good for that, push up the Effect and Curve faders for instant "oomph".

SPL Vitalizer MK2-T is also worth trying...

[J4R1O]

Anyway, since you've got it, try the NI Enhance. I think of it as a hifi Pultec, it's a neat sounding EQ.

Yes, it's a really nice EQ. I've already used it on drums (kick, overheads).

[hibidy]

I can only describe sound like that I guess. But I guess all around bigger sounding would be the closest.

That's mostly evening out your lower frequencies and emphasizing the frequencies that are most present to the human ear. Inflator is really good for that, push up the Effect and Curve faders for instant "oomph".

SPL Vitalizer MK2-T is also worth trying...

I haven't gone the way of the UAD yet.

[J4R1O]

FabFilter Pro-DS (Preset: High End Transient Limiting)
NI Passive
Kush Clariphonic
bx_refinement (magic wand to fix my shitty mixes )
bx_solo (to check mono)
Waves Vitamin (well, I use this mainly for its band solo possibilities )
Slate FG-X (w/ IK Soft Clipper) or A.O.M. Invisible Limter (w/ TDR Feedback Compressor II)
Sonnox Codec Toolbox
IK Metering

Just updated my mastering chain with these two nice plugins: SPL Vitalizer MK2-T and Brainworx bx_control V2 (to replace bx_solo). Also using Sonitus:fx Multiband instead of Waves Vitamin to check out what's going on. (Thanks, Eddie!)

These are all fine. I don't understand why everyone is making such polarized statements, there are tools out there that do different things but that doesn't make yours bad by any stretch.

We all have different workflow, favourite plugins and opinions.

Here's my mastering chain:

UAD Massive Passive or Harrison
UAD Neve 33609 or SSL G Buss Compressor
Sonnox Oxford Dynamics
TC Powercore MD3
Sonnox Inflator
TC Powercore MD3 Brickwall

That's some serious mastering chain... Pro plugins!

I've demoed Sonnox stuff but they're just little bit too expensive for my budget. Have you tried out Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor (made by Brainworx)? I don't have UAD card, yet, but I already know what I would pick up.

[J4R1O]

SPL Vitalizer MK2-T is also worth trying...

I haven't gone the way of the UAD yet.

https://plugin-alliance.com/en/plugins/ ... mk2-t.html

[hibidy]

SPL Vitalizer MK2-T is also worth trying...

I haven't gone the way of the UAD yet.

https://plugin-alliance.com/en/plugins/ ... mk2-t.html

haha, oh.......

When I did the search the first thing that popped up was UAD. I should have known better...

[Uncle E]

Have you tried out Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor (made by Brainworx)?

I used to have a real Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor and I didn't like it. If I want the sound of an opto compressor feeding a feedback VCA compressor (which is just about never), I'd rather feed the UAD LA2A MK2 into the UAD Neve 33609.

[jancivil]

Are you "mastering" your own projects?

Yes.

Learn to mix first. Seriously.

[J4R1O]

Learn to mix first. Seriously.

I will. I'm trying.

After 28 years of playing guitar (and some other various instruments) I decided I want to record and mix everything by myself and maybe save some money (I was wrong about that). And this "mastering" stuff I'm talking about... well, I guess it's not really mastering. For me it's just something to wrap things up. If it sounds good, I'm happy. If not, well, then I just need to learn some more thru trial and error.

But at the end of the day, this is just a hobby. I'm not ruining anyone else's projects but my own. So no big harm done if it sounds like it came out of the martians arse. It's just me playing guitar and programming stuff in my bedroom trying to make it sound somehow decent.

There might be some other inspiring stuff to do in this vast universe than learning how to mix in the box, but I'll just demo this plugin first.

[fese]

But at the end of the day, this is just a hobby. I'm not ruining anyone else's projects but my own. So no big harm done if it sounds like it came out of the martians arse. It's just me playing guitar and programming stuff in my bedroom trying to make it sound somehow decent.

Same here (except I am in my living room:). And it's fun, too, even if spending hours on a mix and then finding out it is not near to what you want it to sound and miles away from any reference can be quite frustrating. But there are so many great learning resources out there on the internet nowadays, it's a great time to learn to mix, even if only as a personal hobby.

[Uncle E]

Just as long as you guys are doing this out of fun and for the sake of learning. If you're doing this out of necessity, get EZmix and use its presets. Toontrack puts their EZmix bundle (EZmix 2 + 6 MixPacks) on sale for really cheap a couple times a year, I highly recommend it.

[jancivil]

Learn to mix first. Seriously.

I will. I'm trying.

After 28 years of playing guitar (and some other various instruments) I decided I want to record and mix everything by myself and maybe save some money.

Pretty much everything you want lives in the mixing paradigm; you're subject to a lot of opinions on KVR and buying things for mastering, you believe but it's clear you're trying to fix a bad mix. Mastering just isn't as de rigeur as some people make it out to be. If you're not going to be putting out commercial product it probably isn't anything to you.

All of the these things, 'shiny', 'present', 'punchy' should be happening mixing. "Mastering" is finalizing; there is a great confusion of the two so often in these pages. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you seem to have a separate workflow; if so that may be overthinking the thing.

Some of these people are mastering engineers by trade and so they really believe in its necessity according to that.

Also, one might read a view, 'exciters' and 'multiband compressors' are deemed to be magical things which nobody at the mastering end needs.
That's on another planet than my experience. I don't use the latter very often, but the former I use all the time. That said, perhaps my own favorite drums mix was through a MB Comp.
Mixing. I don't have a ' 'mastering' ' process, I finalize a mix and by the time I'm at this stage there is almost nothing to do, because I was always mixing. Everybody's different, though. So one thing I would like to convey is, question everything you read here.

[Tp3]

Are you "mastering" your own projects?

Yes.

Learn to mix first. Seriously.

Best practice

+listen to A LOT of material you are trying to sound like.

If you don't know what (or where) you're aiming at, all the plugs in the world won't help.
OTOH, when you know the sound you want, you'll need very little options. that's the real difference between amateur and pro : the former needs a lot of options, the latter needs very little options...