Favorite Mastering Plugs and in what order?

[iDavid]

What you guys using to master your tunes?


What order do you chain them in?

[vampire06]

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

[Ocean Zen]

PSP Master Q, or Hydratone
Ozone3's Dynamics (only if it needs it)
then Ozone3's Loudnes Maximizer/ Limiter

Also Ozone got a very good review in SOS's Limiter Shootout/ even against Waves and Sony Oxford

[Sidhu]

Mackie/Acuma Labs Final Mix -> Pocket Limiter. Pretty much covers it for me.
On occasion when im mastering a live recording SIR comes in handy.

Sidhu

[sounddesigner]

1.Plpareq and voxengo harmonieq/soniformer,marquis compressor,R8Brain pro,tapebus.
2.uad-1 fairchild,1176,pultec eq,wave arts multidynamics 5,precision eq and limiter (don't own these two but will soon and love their sound)
3.izotope ozone,steinberg mastering edition,Reason 3.0 mclass limiter
4.Whatever sounds good!

[Peter Martin]

Read Bob Katz's Mastering book for starters, but I have a little method of when I do stuff ITB

Upsample to 88.2khz.
Remove DC offsets
1) PSP master comp (if mix needs dynamic expansion) set to fat mode. If not skip to #2
2) PSP mix sat, Hydratone, Valvetone, or another sort of HQ sat plugin.
3) Waves LinEQ, or Algorithmix. If I want color I go for the Hydratone.
4) Waves LinMB
5) PSP master comp, ratio set 2:1, about 1-3 db of attn max
6) Sonalksis EQ with LP set to 20.0khz
7) downsample to 44.1,
Dither with the Megabit max.

I spend about 30 minutes each process. Constantly A/Bing to 'good sounding' dynamic recordings. Hard limiting is pretty much usless if you want it to sound good. Unless you want to rent a Manley Slam. Any of the Waves L2 stuff with distort and shrink your balls faster than an ice cold swimming pool.

NEVER hit 0db digital, most CD players distort at that level. Take a look at a good mastered CD like Sgt Peppers in something like Wavelab. YOu'd be suprised how good it sounds and isn't a freaking square. Dynamics are your friend.
ALso know when to hold em', sometimes a track won't even need help other than a little bit of compression. Serve the music and dynamics, not the loudness.

[krank]

Any of the Waves L2 stuff with distort and shrink your balls faster than an ice cold swimming pool.

Then how come it's so popular?

[coldmachine]

On our HD rig it has to be Waves Diamond and Sony Oxford, pretty much industry standard. Nothing else comes close except PsyQ and Optimaster for Scope.

[Killvehicle]

Any of the Waves L2 stuff with distort and shrink your balls faster than an ice cold swimming pool.

Then how come it's so popular?

Hype and trendiness!! Everything is squeezed to death nowadays,a lot of people would like to hear more dynamics back in the recording, but with that said the L2 or any other high end maximizer can do a good job of keeping percieved dynamics even when the Wave looks like a square. but many people push it too far.

As far as the question I wish I had a Golden set-up but I constantly change between plugs,, the basic order is usally
1. EQ(small amounts)I really like Harmoni-eq from Voxengo nowadays. Otherwise I use the Q eq in Wavelab.
2. Some type of saturator (PSP Vintage Warmer)
although I use this very sparingly, but I could skip this step
3. Compression if the song needs some solidness and punch(Single or Multiband)
4. PErhaps a spatial enhancer at this point or before the compression. Usually after compression.
5. Voxengo Elephant or Waves L2

[krank]

Any of the Waves L2 stuff with distort and shrink your balls faster than an ice cold swimming pool.

Then how come it's so popular?

Hype and trendiness!! Everything is squeezed to death nowadays,a lot of people would like to hear more dynamics back in the recording, but with that said the L2 or any other high end maximizer can do a good job of keeping percieved dynamics even when the Wave looks like a square. but many people push it too far.

I'm familiar with the debate about loss of dynamics through overindulgence in limiting and compression. What I meant was, why would L2 in particular 'shrink your balls faster than an ice cold swimming pool'?

[blaster78]

i have to say, i do everything in the mix... apart from a little limiting from nomads blue.

i know f**k all about this stuff.

[Killvehicle]

Any of the Waves L2 stuff with distort and shrink your balls faster than an ice cold swimming pool.

Then how come it's so popular?

Hype and trendiness!! Everything is squeezed to death nowadays,a lot of people would like to hear more dynamics back in the recording, but with that said the L2 or any other high end maximizer can do a good job of keeping percieved dynamics even when the Wave looks like a square. but many people push it too far.

I'm familiar with the debate about loss of dynamics through overindulgence in limiting and compression. What I meant was, why would L2 in particular 'shrink your balls faster than an ice cold swimming pool'?

Well I think he was refering to the debate of loss of dynamics, but also have you used L2? It really is in the simplicity that makes you just squeeze it to death. NOt that any limiter is really hard to use, but the L2 is so simple that it almost "makes" you squeeze until your mix is absolutely screaming. but Elephant or any other limiter will do the exact same thing. IM really just talking shit, but it makes a little sense to me!

[Peter Martin]

Just because its popular doesn't mean its good. On a well tuned accurate system in a good mastering room you'd hear the damange that darn thing does with even as little as 2 db of attn.

[Peter Martin]

Any of the Waves L2 stuff with distort and shrink your balls faster than an ice cold swimming pool.

Then how come it's so popular?

Hype and trendiness!! Everything is squeezed to death nowadays,a lot of people would like to hear more dynamics back in the recording, but with that said the L2 or any other high end maximizer can do a good job of keeping percieved dynamics even when the Wave looks like a square. but many people push it too far.

I'm familiar with the debate about loss of dynamics through overindulgence in limiting and compression. What I meant was, why would L2 in particular 'shrink your balls faster than an ice cold swimming pool'?

Well I think he was refering to the debate of loss of dynamics, but also have you used L2? It really is in the simplicity that makes you just squeeze it to death. NOt that any limiter is really hard to use, but the L2 is so simple that it almost "makes" you squeeze until your mix is absolutely screaming. but Elephant or any other limiter will do the exact same thing. IM really just talking shit, but it makes a little sense to me!

I've used both the software and hardware versions of the L2. I've also used it on my own music for years. After finally being able to work in a good sounding room and proper monitors I'm happier without it. I do a lot of dance stuff, and the mixes w/o the L2 sound far more dyanimic and better @ 110db. It does nothing but mush the bass and crush your highs.

To each his own though, he was just simply asking what people use as their preference in the mastering chain. Thats what I put.

Hard limiting is not 'musical' limiting to me.

[ugo]

not that i know anything really about mastering, but i use the following to make my stuff sound better than it did in the first place. (in order of favorite/most used.)

PSP vintage warmer
prosoniq dynasone
discoDSP thrillme

-ugo