That plugins recommend me to do an AUDIO MASTERING of a song, so that it remain professional.

 

Not the plug-ins do the mastering, dude... and it does not depend on them, if the result is professional.

 

@ Musictyros5,

Let it as is, because : "so that it remains professional", means that it was already 'Professional' before an eventual 'Mastering' Process...

Joking aside, the 2 above Comments are very wise, trust me ! *yes*

The Comment of 'Artic Storm' is GREAT !

As stated, it will certainly not be Free (it depends who will do it for you), but above all, a different Pair of Ears will carefully listen to your Music, and perhaps have a different sense of hearing than you, leading to a different approach in the Final Mastering Process, and that simple reason could worth to make the Final Mastering by another person... *yes*

 

i am a big believer, that if you created the song/mixed the song you shouldn't master it.

it's better to have a fresh pair of ears.

that said you could try Ozone.

but most mastering engineers (and certainly a lot that i know) only use outboard when mastering.

 

From the Comment of 'Rickbarratt' :

*yes*

 

look bro , i understand , mastering and fx chaining and all this bollocks is strange to a noob that just happens to make some really great beadroom music , see we have put it upon ourselves to make it all hard and such , and only some pro-studio that wants $$$ is gonna produce us something good to go out it in the market ! WRONG ....all that crap skrillex and deadmau5 or whatever release they are just people like you and me that have put a couple of hours or more than us in producing and final mixing

here's a couple of tutorials

Dance Music Production Sessions - Vol.1 Reverb
Dance Music Production Sessions - Vol.4 Compressors
Dance Music Production Sessions - Vol.6 EQ
Groove3 - Compression Explained
Groove3 - Delays Explained
Groove3 - Effect Plugins Explained
Groove3 - EQ Explained
ADSR Sounds - EQ Masterclass
Ask Video - Audio Concepts --- 101 - Audio and Sound Basics ,102 - Audio Processing Basics, 103 - Acoustics ,104 - Delay and Reverb Effects ,105 - Sound Recording, 201 - Advanced Audio Editing
Computer Music - Advanced Mixdown Secrets
Dance Music Production Techniques - Mixing and Mastering v.1
Groove3 - Delays Explained
Groove3 - EQ Explained
Groove3 - Effect Plugins Explained
Groove3 - Fabfilter Effects And Synths Explained
Groove3 - FabFilter Mixing and Mastering Plug-Ins Explained
Groove3 - Mastering in the Box Explained
Groove3 - Mastering with T-RackS
Groove3 - Mastering with Waves Grand Masters
Groove3 - Panning Explained
Groove3 - Phase Explained
Groove3 - Reverb Explained
Groove3 - Waves SSL Bundle Explained
Home Studio Corner - Understanding Compression
Home Studio Corner - Understanding EQ
SoundMagus - Mixing For Beginners and Intermediates
SoundMagus - Compression Course
Trance Music Mastery - Guide To Compression
Groove3 - SoundToys Effects Explained
Groove3 - Sonalksis Plug-Ins Explained
Groove3 - Softube Amps and FX Explained


here's a couple of fx bundles , dont worry ,once you realize what a compressor or equalizer or enhancer is you will have mastered them all , its all up to what to listens better to you, try car audio systems , your Sony Hi-Fi , your Casio Alarm-Clock,

Waves.All.Plugins.Bundle.v9r21
Softube.Plugins.Complete.Bundle
IK.Multimedia.T-RackS.CS.Complete.v4.7.1
SoundToys.Native.Effects.v4.1.8
Fabfilter.Plugins.Pack
Voxengo.Complete.Everything.Bundle.2o14

of course you could always just check out these
iZotope.Ozone.5.Advanced.v5.05b
iZotope.Ozone.6.Advanced.v6.01
iZotope.RX.4.Advanced.v4.01b
Groove3 - iZotope Ozone 5 Explained tutorial video
Groove3 - iZotope RX4 Explained tutorial video


stuff from these packs are used extensively in the tutorials above, to be honest i feel nowadays the its famous and earns lots of $$$ is just a couple of ppl with good connections , who maybe broke some backs along the way, otherwise its just you and me posting our tracks on soundcloud and youtube hoping for some recognition

hopefully bro these stuff are gonna quickly give you an idea of mixing and mastering techniques, there is plenty of material out there , so good luck

 

Voxengo SPAN, FLUX Stereo Tool, Steinberg SLM128 and Brainworx bx_meter. All free. ;)

 

Brainworx bx_meter free???

 

@ Baxter,

Yes, but "a fresh pair of ears" or "a different pair of ears", as well as a different point of view about a particular 'Track', 'Project',... for 'Final Mastering' Purposes are not always FREE ! *no*

 

It's not called noobing, it's called mastering, and that for a reason.

A couple of thousand hours, that is.

 

Mastering is a concept, not a chain of plugins.

 

My bad. TT Dynamic Range Meter then.

 

Tools don't make professional results. They only help you get there. People make professional results.

Thinking that tools make you a professional is like saying that giving you tools to make a house makes you a house builder. *yes* But do you really know how to build a house?

Having said that, you need a good quality EQ, compressor, and a limiter with dither or a separate dithering plugin. Then you need a good metering plugin and possibly a good stereo tool. Tools that would get you there for free would be TDR/VOS Slick EQ or/and Voxengo Marvel EQ [great linear phase graphic EQ], VladG Limiter nr6 that includes both great compressor, limiter, and clipper. TDR/VOS has a great compressor for mastering, too: http://www.tokyodawn.net/tokyo-dawn-labs/ For monitoring the dynamics and frequencies you can use Voxengo SPAN analyser, TT Dynamic Range Meter, and possibly great metering tools made by Sleepy-Time DSP [ http://sleepytimedsp.com/downloads ]. For dithering you can use Asseca [ http://www.asseca.org/loser/index.html ] or MDA dither in triangular [TPDF] mode or with a little bit of noise shaping. That's pretty much it, but in a perfect case you also need good monitors, some bad generic sounding monitors *yes*, good headphones, good sounding room, and experience and knowledge is always good to have, too.

I would venture into explaining what mastering actually is but it would take a really hefty post and I haven't drank enough wine for that, yet.

But basic setup or a chain of plugins would be EQ>compressor>stereo tool>limiter>dither>metering and monitoring/analyser plugins. After dithering is done, there should be no editing afterwards. Never have peaks go beyond -0.3dB at least, especially when rendering to a lossy codec like MP3 or AAC.

Good luck!

 

here is a quick 10 min vid that will let you know what your getting into,

multiband compression is part of a lot of things you will have to learn by hart,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RtFP73lDTQ&list=UUzNleyBTjCeygAL3NaWwRig

he uses hardward as well,and he dont master his own tracks

as was said fresh ears is needed,

 

To avoid (inter-sample) clipping, you probably want a headroom of 0.5-1dB for lossless codecs, and 1-3dB for lossy codecs.

As for dither, I've almost stopped using it since a few years ago. Recorded material already has a noise floor which acts as dither. Even on pure digital material, there may be a few things which add a noise floor, so there may not be any need to use dither for that, and other reasons since the dynamic range of 16bit is quite good: http://wiki.hydrogenaud.io/index.php?title=Dither

 

Personally, if you have a good sounding mix you don't need to use multiband compression. I'm actually opposed to it as it sounds rather unnatural. Bass disappears then appears, highs too... not really nice sounding.

@junh1024: noise is not dither! Even when you have a noisy recording, dither can help keep the audio sounding nice and smooth all the way down to -96 or -144 dB depending on the bits we're talking about. Long time ago I thought the same that if my recordings contained noise that noise would act as dithering and I don;t need to dither, but it's not so *at all*! Dithering is not just noise. It's a special kind of noise that keeps the audio sound more analogue and smooth at as low dBs as possible

So if you want to preserve your analogue recordings the best way possible, dither always. Dithering is also so low in dB that I really can't see the issue. In analogue studios I worked in audio to noise ratio is usually between 60-70 dBFS! So you can't even hear the dithering noise that's down at -96dB or even lower, but you can definitely hear the smoother fade ins and outs... oh yes. *yes*

Remember folks that dB scale is exponential. -96dB is sooo low. But you can hear noise at like -60 dB or even -70 dB. Rare people can hear the noise at lower than 80 dBs. And speaking of noise, noise is natural. Our environment is noisy. You hear noise all the time. So I can't understand people who are against noise in their recordings. Noise is the most natural thing. Unless it's at like -40 dBs. ;) That's fucking too much!

Cheers!

 

@ SineWave,

*yes*

Maybe that 5 minutes Video can serve to enlighten... *yes*

 

Yep, great video Studio 555!

It's important to know that dither is not just noise. Analogue noise is random in its nature [in every way - audio as well as phase!], but dither is not. Dither helps to preserve the "analogueness" of the audio just like it helps to preserve the shades of grey of the picture. You can't downsample a picture with adding just noise to it. You have to use dithering.

I've been through discussions like this about a dozen times throughout the years at KVR [since '97...] And these discussions are great as some people will stumble upon these threads and learn something. We were all at one point at that stage, being puzzled and thinking "oh, dither is just adding noise to my recordings, yuck". It's great to learn and know how it works! And it's really important to keep in mind that dithering is so low on the dB scale that you can't hear it, only it's effect which is very pleasing. Even basic TPDF dithering can make a big change in how your recording sounds when truncated to lower bit depths.

One more thing. If you have a dithered master and you have to edit it in some way, changing the loudness especially, you have to dither it again. Never assume that since it's been dithered before it's alright not to dither it again.

Cheers !

 

@ musictyros5 did you read the posts here ,

http://audiosex.pro/index.php?/forum/60-mixing-and-mastering/

if your stuck for time pm fuad he should help you out,

http://audiosex.pro/index.php?/user/5842-fuad/

all the best