Hi, I'm looking for a mastering/mixing (sorry not sure about the right term) plugin that does not need much skills to use and I am not expecting it to make wonders, just something that would make my songs sound a little better, cleaner.
I used iZotope ozone 5, it's cool, it has great presets! I would like to get something similar that has presets, but preferably something that eats less resources and I can find it on the sister site to experiment with it before buying it next year.
My genres are varied, from dubstep to metal, hip-hop, I experiment a lot. Not looking to break the charts, to become a pro or anything, I just make music as a hobby for myself, literally no one gives a shit about what I make so as I said, I am not looking to get million dollar results. I am not a beginner, been making my own songs for years now but never been into mastering, I know how to use an equalizer but the rest is a mystery to me. Please no insults. I am a single mom of an low functioning autistic son and I don't have much time and energy to learn mastering at the moment so any help is appreciated in this matter.

 

https://www.eventideaudio.com/products/third-party-plug-ins/mastering/elevate-bundle

 

Try TC Electronics Finalizer or iZotopes Ozone 9 Elements.

People will shit on the latter, but it's a simple and straightforward tool. Also it gets given away for free every now and then, so can't complain.

 

My best advise is to stay with Ozone 5. I´ve tried the newest Ozones and didn´t like the sound. Also tried the IK Lursen mastering console and TC finalizer ( both are at the sister site, you can try them) with the same results, always returning to Ozone 5. Just find some good presets and tweak a little the parameters like reverb, imager, exciter and maximizer and save your settings. That´s all you need. Good luck.

 

Last edited: Dec 15, 2020

brainworx - bx_masterdesk

 

I have to agree with @rudolph Ozone 5 is probably going to be your best bet if you enjoy what it is doing to your music. I don't think anything more modern is going to use less computing resources.

It has been my experience that the contemporary stuff is a lot more resource hungry because the algorithms themselves are all trying to emulate A B and C there is just more math happening and that takes more CPU. If were just talking about single unit processors and no presets it might be a different story, though that also depends on what you are trying to do.

GL

 

Thanks for all the help so far. I take all the recommended plugins to a ride and see what I can come up with. If nothing else works then I stay with Ozone 5. Thanks for everything, I appreciate the help.

Ozone 5 is a tool that does the job for me already that was my point. I repeat: I am looking for an alternative that would make my workflow a bit more comfortable without all the stutters and lags when I turn on the vst. Probably you are not aware of it but iZotope plugins are resource hogs and many people already complained about bad performance even on high-end rigs and workstations, this goes on for years now. I am aware of how difficult is to learn mastering but as I said I don't need pro-level stuff, plugins are enough for me so you can take your elitism somewhere else and no, you are not helpful.

Made me cringe :D

 

Have a look at Softube Drawmer S73, it is preset based, and most of the time you'll be choosing between two or three viable options. Just need a final limiter after that and you might have gotten nice results.
But I would tend to agree with No Avenger, mastering is something that needs experience. You can trust automated tools to a certain extent but the results are gonna be "OK" at best.

 

Try out TC Electronics Finalizer, it´s a standalone!

 

But I said:
"just something that would make my songs sound a little better, cleaner."
I never said I want to have studio-quality or even good quality mastering, I even made it clear that it's just a hobby for me. I added all those details to avoid these kind of replies. So why are you still talking about how mastering needs experience? I am not stupid, I am aware of the fact that every skill needs experience, jesus. Okay thanks for everyone who contributed and actually helped I am outta here, this board is hopeless

 

I will second bx_masterdesk for your purposes. (Light on CPU + fast results + presets + good sound)

But learning is not something to dismiss to that extent. The people who insist on the learning response are not stupid or hopeless either. You'll be better off investing the time of testing 10 plugins to watch a few mastering tutorials. You want to improve the sound a bit, and this is exactly what will happen (plus, you can't stack two mastering suite plugins but you can stack knowledge + plugin).

 

@Aspirin
I understand. Still try out the Drawmer. It might just make your recordings sound a little bit better. To me it's astounding how much of a difference it can make. Also if you are aware of the limitations, Gullfoss would be an obvious choice. It can bring a lot of clarity to your mix. But again, it's not a final mastering plugin, a track needs more treatment after using it.

 

To me, it seems as if you are here just "trolling". If not, take what is being offered. Please.

There are no shortcuts in mixing and, especially mastering. Unless you have by chance completed a mix that works well with the presets included in Ozone & the like, you will still have to make adjustments to the components in the mastering chain. Even then, can the mix hold up under scrutiny.

One big question. If the sound & quality does not matter to you, why are you trying so hard to find solution?