Lately I've been trying to do all compression and eq's at the group bus levels and leaving the master bus for very light compression with the sonible smart comp.

 

Yeah same. These days I just baaarely if at all compress the master bus. Most of the time I'm already happy with the group buses. I'm in love with sonibles plugins tho, really great tools for real.

 

I use the Stereo Spread stock plugin in Logic. I use the Sample Delay plugin and delay one side about 1 or 2 samples for small amount of Haas effect to gain a little bit wider image without need for a more sophisticated plugin. I only add them when I'm getting ready to bounce a file out of the DAW to listen to it, so they are inserted generally right before the limiter; and they are doing almost nothing.

Most of this stuff, I am already cooking into my stems as I make the track, prior to mixing. I never add my Pro-DS instance to my master if I do not need it. I am usually De-Essing while I bounce my stems if annoying brittle ~7K stuff is present in the channel audio, so it does not accumulate/sum from all the channels.

I thought about the chain differences a bit. I think that where your subtractive EQ is positioned, I am just using the stock channel EQ before the audio leaves that channel. Then the more precision Pro-Q3 subtractive/reductive EQ instance is placed after the Saturator/prior to compressor so any additional content added by the saturation processor may filtered again by Pro-Q3 (subtractive instance), if desired.
I think wether or not the second reductive EQ should be placed where it is, depends mostly on your Saturator. Some have few controls.

 

These 3 are the perfect combo. Actually you could go without Kotelnikov, since Limiter 6 GE also has good compression options on board. But Kotelnikov allows deeper refinement of the compression characteristics. Slick EQ Mastering is such a well designed mastering EQ. It's hard to make anything sound bad with it and very easy to improve the final sound of the master with it. Has many useful additions, typically not found in comparable EQs, like per band stereo widening and panning, stereo to mono collapse for the lower frequencies, separete high fidelity analog type saturation for lows and highs and more.

They eat a lot of CPU cycles though, especially in the higher quality modes (basically a more sophisticated variant of oversampling). I guess that's the price for the high fidelity. So I would reserve them for the mastering stage only.

 

Last edited: Aug 21, 2022

Ah, you're talking about mastering your own mixes. I'm talking about mastering other people's mixes. I work with mostly DIY bedroom artists so the reductive EQ is a pretty key step.
Yes, in your case, you should definitely do everything in the mix stage rather than iron out problems later in the mastering stage

 

I put Waves C4 or LinMB as the first insert, followed by iZotope Ozone.
In Waves C4/LinMB I choose "Multi Electro Mastering" preset and then tweak it to my needs (reduce compression range, make it 3-4 dB, sometimes change the position of bands).
I then use Ozone Equalizer for "surgical" work and Vintage EQ to get the overall shape of the sound. Then whatever I feel like using (exiter, tape, imager) for that particular track, then Maximizer with 24 bit dither output.
Sometimes I put Apogee Soft Limit in between if this track needs a bit more saturation/peak reduction.

 

Much the same as 2021, stem mastering mostly, but if one track only:
-Pro-Q3/brainworx digital
-Ivory AA/Sand AA
-Titanium AA
-Taupe AA
-StandardClip
-Pro-L2

 

only a few

Relab sonsig
Softube Console 1 with BCA channel, TL audio limiter/harmonics/weiss eq
Softube Overstayer M-A-S extended
arturia culture vulture
IKM Tape 80
SSL Violet EQ
SSL Stereo Widener
Drawmer 73s
Softube Mutator
SSL Bus compressor
Logic Noisegate
Loudmax

 

Soothe -> Split Eq -> Spectre -> PurestGain -> ClipOnly -> Tapedither

 

Pro-Q 3, a sound fat thing, I forget, and Maserati GRP. Unless there's major surgery to be done.

 

Usually something like this.

-TDR Kotelinov (1db GR)
-Sometimes Gullfoss with ~10% recover and tame
-DynOne3 (using a mod of the Bob Katz tonalization presets)
-MagicDeathEye sometimes (1-2db GR)
-Voxengo Peakbuster
-Voxengo TEOTE
-Acustica CelestialMB (so good!)
-Secret Sauce
-Limitless (not doing much final limiting, sometimes I tune the release time to BPM, -0.4db ceiling, ISP, HPF usually enabled)

I've been using Limitless for year and think there might be a better option in 2022, but haven't been bothered to really look.

 

You have mixes at -9lufs? Isn’t that loud already?

 

I make electronic dance (house, melodic techno, tech house), pop & synthpop.

-9 is a very good starting point. However my actual main target is the "density" of the song (the dynamic range in the most high-energy segment of the song).

Usually between 4.5 and 5.5 dB of dynamic range (while peaking at 0 dBFS) is the sweetest sweet spot. The mix still sounds dynamic (because as you will read further, I rely on master buss processing just to add a finishing polish, not for loudness heavy lifting) and the density is on point.

If the resulting loudness is still -9 LUFS, I won't decrease the dynamic range just to hunt a higher value. However if the resulting loudness for the aforementioned dynamic range is going towards -7 or even -6 LUFS then so be it, I won't dial back.

Every time the final loudness depends on the length of the kick, it's shape, and also depends on the bass (plucky vs long sustained notes give slightly different loudness values)

These being said, with -9 LUFS as target, I find myself in 90% of the cases at around 6 dB of dynamic range, so is fairly obvious that I have no particular issues in squeezing the master bus just a little bit, to achieve my target dynamic range (usually half db of wideband compression, half db of multiband compression and anywhere up to 0.9 dB of limiting - if I find myself over 1 dB of limiting I just go back to the mix to address the track(s) that are still too dynamic.

 

Note: No pretention here, I do mainly trial and error, I try to stick as closely as possible to the style of music, and I listen carefully to the advice of others... (by the way: I can't never thank you enough @Maani for your precious advices and words of wisdom! )

So my mastering plugin chain changes all the times, but what doesn't change for now: I use DDMF StereooeretS setted approximately this way:

​

The Crossover frequencies are set to 200 and 3500, the Width-Low setting is set to 0, the Width-High is set around 1.30.

So the result is: everything that's under 200 hz are in mono, and the stereo width of the high frequencies (above 3500 hz) is increased (this 'Width' setting is not definitive though, sometimes I feel better to lower it, some other times...)

Spoiler: Why?

Why I use this? Once I had a master being refused by an online radio platform because there was stereo "leaks" at the lower frequencies. This platform, who associates around hundred+ regional and local stations, is very picky when you submit audio files, the basses in particular (under 200 hz I think, or perhaps 180? can't remember exactly, sorry) must be in mono. It's why since then I always use this plug.

What I don't get though: what is the purpose of the "1st 2nd" case, at the bottom, near the "X-Over" faders? I've read the manual but I still have absolutely no clues about this switch... If someone have the answer, I'll be very grateful!

- - -

Second and last plugin I use often in the master chain: TC Electronic Brickwall HD.

​

Very easy to handle, nice presets, and above all: I really like the results I have with it!

 

Last edited: Oct 26, 2022

Filter slope. Looks pretty common for Low and High band but

Spoiler: is doing this with the Mid band (when checked)

But since these are just crossover freqs, I assume it's not doing any harm.

Presets? For a limiter? Err...

 

If I were to master my 2022 I'd just send it back to whoever arranged and mixed it. What an atrocious feckin year.

 

Free mastering chain.

 

I see a lot of people here that put everything mono under 100/200/300 Hz. That's good we all know why etc etc
but when i used to analyze 90s songs, i clearly remember club tracks that had the bass all fucked up, some of them had it panned, others completely stereo, etc. could someone explain?

- example, legend b - lost in love (sysex style).

 

it's there to clean up the low frequency![bottom end] as most club sound systems used to be in mono! & you dont want frequency clashes! But some music back in the day sounded shit!

 

Last edited: Oct 26, 2022