In your professional opinion what NEEDS to be on the MixBus for the best ITB mix and master session. I currently use EQ on the mixbus or nothing at all Any tips and tricks would be great and appreciated. I'm new so any input would help.

 

i think a very common one would be a glue compressor

 

Rack Spacer on every track and apart from this there doesn't really "NEED" to be sth. It's more that you "WANT" to have sth. that's missing and this depends on each track.
EQ, Comp, Verb, etc. are maybe common, but as long as there is no need for an EQ, you don't have to use it.

 

-A good mid-side EQ, like Brainworx Digital.
-A good buss compressor; SSL type emulations are very popular for this kind application, like The Glue, Waves, Duende, etc...
-A good limiter, like DMG Limitless, Fab Filter's Pro-L, Voxengo's Elephant, etc...

That's mostly what you'll need if you mix things wisely, so you don't have to fix things dramatically in your master buss.

Aside from that, you may want to use a multiband compressor, like Fab Filter's Pro-MB, to tame some cumulative harsh frequencies and/or balance the energy before hitting the regular compressor.

You may want to use "mojo" plugins to distort things a bit, like tape emulations and things like that.

 

so thinking like this is almost a pre master ?

 

Check out some of the Slate Stuff. Love the VBC (foremost the "MU") and the Tape Machine on the mix bus for some subtle saturation and glue. The LinMB (Waves) can also be very helpful if you need some Multiband Compression.

Good Luck!

 

Wow the glue helped actually.. lol thanks

 

I have an Ableton reverb on my drumgroup. Just under 10% D/W. There is a drumsroom preset, just tweak it to you material and taste.

 

satin, comp and some magic eq from Air will do a great job with a limiter

 

Can you explain magic EQ? I've seen the VST

 

Proper metering is what comes to my mind first,
you need to know where the material is peaking and the dynamic range.

at least I find that mandatory, next I would shape the material so that it somewhat matches reference tracks
(not that I actually A/B, but according to my understanding of the type of material)

first by putting a limiter, then examine it's response. if it's lacking something I adjust things with other modules,
I tend to stay away from multi-band compression at first and most likely start with a low cut filter and low shelf/baxandall filter.

 

From what i've read I'm doing most of this.. The one comment about adding a glue compressor to smooth the peaks helped big time. Thanks again!

 

I guess it depends on the skill of the producer and the material but in this specific case added a 'kiss' of compression helps.

 

don't put anything on the master bus , just mix it good then send your track to pro master , let him put all his analog gear on your tracks

 

I mastered my track better than a well known studio before. For small guys like me I think they don't try hard they just take your money and do it quickly unless u pay a lot or they have something to gain. Not trying to be disrespectful here

 

Koala you can disagree with me all you want, ears do not lie.

 

sorry but i Disagree with you , master eng putting his heart in his job that the customers will return and not only return but be really really happy .

and i don't think you can achieve with your VST plugins , what a master enr can achieve with his analog gear . (color and vol) ,
plus he got golden ears and
knowledge .

but still a tip for you do not put anything on the master

 

Last edited: Feb 24, 2016

Yeah...Mastering can be really tricky and complex.

I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's unlikely that your home studio master will sound as good as a proper professional one, produced inside a professionally treated environment through expensive analogue gear, high-end monitors and (most importantly) a reputable mastering engineer with an extremely well educated pair of ears.

But...If you just want to upload a loud and correct enough mix to soundcloud, then it's ok. Make a good mix, throw an EQ, compressor and limiter in your master buss and you're done.

If you're preparing a commercial album or something like that, then I would vehemently recommend a mastering engineer.

 

"Magic! eq is just the vst plug Eiosis EQ, I like it a lot so I guess thats all the magic about it ;) But joke aside ... It's a nice plug for a sublime touch of air in the higher freq and for some middle cut and bass in your face ;)

I do mostly some sort of reaggie tunes so bass is all around if I don't do a master cut/add-eq on the whole mix ;)

 

Interesting. I wish I was a little better and understood this but i'll keep reading and watching tutorials.