%100000 agree

 

There was a time (a bit before my time as well BTW) when one referred to post processes such as audio mastering for film or audio they were referencing a process that required a no comprises calibrated room and some very experienced ears and hardware that would extract the most out of what was thrown at it. The goal was to create the best compromise that would have the widest and most consistent translation on as many playback formats as possible.

There was also a secondary pair of ears that the studio / A&R / director / producer / w.e. trusted to tell them when stuff was shit.

As calibrated as mixing room is it was still and probably still is a few steps below a well calibrated mastering room with proper speaker placement and acoustic design from the outset.

The very general Eq usually is to tame some low end and whatever else you just couldn't hear even in a high grade mix room with the best equipment in the world, because the room was designed and optimized for mixing with a bunch of people in the room and racks of gear in way or to correct some of the unwanted color or tilts your 'mastering' gear added while it was doing what you wanted it to.

OK this is getting to long.

You are 100% right if you are working on your own stuff.

If the goal is just to make it louder and good enough and you are doing it yourself, you shouldn't need a mastering EQ, but a final compressor that isn't designed as an output buss compressor and has some options more geared towards the loudernizing of music with good control of transients and a pleasant sound when clipping isn't a bad option to have.

 

It must be some kind of a placebo effect, damn it. When you pay like 1500 euro for a piece of equipment you expect it to sound like a 1500 euro piece of equipment.

 

My master rack EQ's consist of:

Pro-Q3
Gullfoss
Soothe2
TR5 Master EQ432
Elysia Museq Master
Clariphonic DSP MkII

 

I really like the Variety of Sound Baxter EQ for slight boosts and cuts on the master bus. For more surgical stuff, I like to use the ReaEQ or the Fabfilter Pro-Q 2.

 

If you are the mixer, and have access to all the individual channels, why would you use an EQ on the 2bus? Got a bass issue? Fix it at the bass channel. Got midrange/highend issues? Fix it at the respective channels that are the source of the issue.

That being said, I currently use AlexB's Manley Massive EQ in Nebula4, then opto&vca comp with AA Aquarius (Shadow Hills) and m/s comp with Pulsar Mu, then limit with FabFilter.

 

Last edited: Oct 26, 2020

Because they like to follow the workflow of their favorite mix engineers.

 

Speaking from my 9+ years of experience. The best EQ is the one you're most comfortable with. Honestly, the differences between each are so small that it doesn't really matter (in my opinion). The listener of course would have no idea what EQ you used. Use whatever you're comfortable with, whatever you know best. I personally use stock plugins 80% of the time. Never got a single complaint from people I mix/master for.

 

Best EQ for mastering: Depends on what you know and how you work. But also, DMG Equilibrium.

Best Comp for mastering: Depends on the material and the type of compression you're using and why. TDR Kotelnikov GE is a good starting point (it's Weiss style dual release is often something you want for complex material like stereo bus).

 

BX Digital V3 +1 for me too

 

i kind of reaching a combination of Neve style to boost the top end and the Pultec style to boost the bottom end of the mix, but that's generally for shaping how i want my mastered mix to sound like. For actually mastering, ah shucks, i'm shilling for whatever emulates Sontec 432c, but the IK one is really resource-consuming lol. Mastering compression? can't go wrong with classic Bwi'ish bus compressor set with "THE GLUE" settings...

 

I bet the top engineers have dirty secrets they don't share about mixing cause it just makes sense to them and it comes out good. I mean it's sound. Why not do whatever sounds good? if one makes a dip on the 2 bus that sounds good. what else is there to talk about?

 

bx_digital v3, bx_2098 eq, shadow hills mastering compressor, ssl bus compressor (your choice, but most of them are nice), purple audio mc77 (personal choice for some cases)

 

Bro: https://www.alessandroboschi.eu/html/alexb/S432_eq.htm

 

cool, will look up for it later