Anybody got suggestions on plugins to place in the chain for my master track and in what order? Specifically for techno production would be ideal!

Cheers in advance all!

 

Hi.
After many years in this profession, I for one do not believe that this way is the way to go; if anything it may hinder your track hugely.
I suggest learning the stock plugins of your daw or 3rd party plugins you have, and then seeing what your bounced track needs.
Every song is different, and there are many ways to put plugins on your 2buss for mastering, in all sorts of different orders.

Hopefully someone who has success in your genre may tell you what they use, and then you can experiment. But nothing is set in stone.

 

Yeah, I totally agree with this and would obviously tweak as I go to suit my needs, both in terms of plugins settings and the swapping plugin out to my taste. I'm more looking for a rough advisable starting point.

 

Yeah, I get you. It's just all so hypothetical.

After bouncing down your track to a stereo file and putting it in a new, blank project, any mastering chain will be something along these lines:

Bare minimum is:
A linear phase EQ with a low cut at 30hz or abouts. Maybe a slight 2db @ 9k for electronic stuff with hihats etc (totally hypothetical/related to track)
Then maybe a Linear phase MultiBand compressor. With your music, probably turn the bass portion off.
Does it then seem to require some Dynamics warmth? If so, maybe Oxford Dynamics, Warmth @ 60%.
Then your standard musical compressor, like Waves SSL Comp. Attack open/slowest, or medium slow, release quick.
(Optional mix saturator here. PSP?)
Then final Limiter. Waves LA whatever.

Of course, before the limiter you may even experiment with things like the EQP1A, maybe 1 or 2 instances for different things (just as you could also use two compressors very subtley to do a more transparent job than one).
With the EQP1A, you could for instance set bandwidth to 0, HF to 10, Boost at 2 or 3, to give some smooth overall EQing.
Sometimes I add another with HF set at 16 and on 5 or 6.

A Gain utility at the start can help get the track to the right ouput for the first plugin, and try and level match every part of the chain with the ouputs of each plugin. Or use other Gain plugs inbetween each plug if you have to.

I never like responding to questions like this because it's all so hypothetical, and dependent on the programme material.

 

Last edited: Apr 5, 2020

There's also this way. Lol.

 

Just use OZONE latest version...

 

I think the op wants it to sound good though.
But in all seriousness, if you have to use it, not the latest version but 4 or 5.

edit: the op has Focusrite Liquid Mix! That's all you need. I've done chart tracks just with that! lol.
Imo, Ozone would be going backwards from that.