Wanna share your upstair i.e. your mastering chain with us?

[Heigen5]

Yo! Zzup?

I thought to ask what people use for the mastering section to master their tracks with.
Once again, I want to share what I use. And I want to tell that my chain needs one extra RE to be able to be loading it, which is a Synapse GQ-7 EQ. You also need a ReaXcomp VST, which you can download here as it's FREE: https://www.reaper.fm/reaplugs/

My mastering chain combi: http://www.reflexion-x.com/downloads/RX-Melted.cmb

Basically I usually just tweak the input gain (the first knob) and the fourth knob for the loudness levels and that's it. But increasing the second knob is just to add more 'knock' and the third knob some more 'sound'.

Try it out and let me know please.

[PhillipOrdonez]

I don't have a mastering chain, I build it from scratch every time. Usually start with an eq, then compressor, then another EQ, then a limiter, then another limiter, then a metering tool. Few things can happen in between and some settings vary a lot, some don't vary too much. One thing never varies is a tool to keep everything level matched throughout the entire process.

I only use vst for mastering, and never do it in Reason anymore, by the way.

[selig]

Selig Gain, Ozone Elements - more than I need in most cases!

[Kalm]

This is where it starts

[Goriila Texas]

I make sure everything sounds good before it hits the master channel first! Then on the master I have only Ozone 9 and lastly Fabfilter Pro L-2 to check loudness and to get rid of all aliasing from all the processing with oversampling as high as my cpu can take.

[DaveyG]

Just Ozone for me. I tend to look after levels pretty well during writing and mixing so it doesn't need much.

[guitfnky]

for the album I’m working on, it’s all going through Native Instruments’ Passive EQ, the stock Reason width device (the name escapes me at the moment), the Ozone RE, and Youlean Loudness Meter for LUFS checking. I’ve only just started—still have another song or two to finish up before it’s all ready to master—so that could end up changing a bit.

[Benedict]

Post removed

[PhillipOrdonez]

I make sure everything sounds good before it hits the master channel first! Then on the master I have only Ozone 9 and lastly Fabfilter Pro L-2 to check loudness and to get rid of all aliasing from all the processing with oversampling as high as my cpu can take.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you cannot remove aliasing with a second device, can you? If your synth aliases, no matter what you put afterwards, it will stay there, right? That's why you have oversampling on the devices themselves, there's not an aliasing remover...?

[Benedict]

I make sure everything sounds good before it hits the master channel first! Then on the master I have only Ozone 9 and lastly Fabfilter Pro L-2 to check loudness and to get rid of all aliasing from all the processing with oversampling as high as my cpu can take.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you cannot remove aliasing with a second device, can you? If your synth aliases, no matter what you put afterwards, it will stay there, right? That's why you have oversampling on the devices themselves, there's not an aliasing remover...?

Correct, you cannot remove aliasing on device 1 with device 2. Once it is there, it is part of the signal. I have tried it out a time or two.
It would surely be brilliant if there were a de-aliaser - I trademark the name ReAliaser right here & now - but it would be as damaging as FFT de-noising or a comb filter.

[PhillipOrdonez]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you cannot remove aliasing with a second device, can you? If your synth aliases, no matter what you put afterwards, it will stay there, right? That's why you have oversampling on the devices themselves, there's not an aliasing remover...?

Correct, you cannot remove aliasing on device 1 with device 2. Once it is there, it is part of the signal. I have tried it out a time or two.
It would surely be brilliant if there were a de-aliaser - I trademark the name ReAliaser right here & now - but it would be as damaging as FFT de-noising or a comb filter.

Thank you, sir!

[rgdaniel]

My mastering chain (bypassed until towards the end of mixing) : Selig Gain (to see what's coming in) > Wider VST (if needed for a little extra breathing room) > a bit of final EQ Synapse GQ-7 (also in most mix channels, everything's about where I want it by this point) > Maximizer/Limiter (as needed, either Kratos 2 RE or kHs) > Here I''ve just started playing with Selig Leveller, which I THINK is supposed to replace the previous Limiter device, so I would have one or the other bypassed > then a final Selig Gain, just to see

Final compression is via the Master Compressor, not in this chain, being fed only mid-hi range, very subtle settings.

It's a work in progress, gets tweaked from time to time (e.g. recently added Selig Leveller, which I think may be awesome but not sure yet)

[VariableX]

mines is
flower audio loudness meter
( on the top and bottom to see starting and finishing levels)
kaussa eve-mp3
quadelectra stereo splitter
redrock c-1 alpha
rv-7000
synapse ve-3
kaussa kratos

do i know what im doing - absolutely not.
did i copy most of this? - ofcourse.

does it work and sound good - yes! to my ears

[esselfortium]

Ozone 8 Advanced, Tonal Balance Control, Insight 2. Sometimes RE-2A and Gullfoss beforehand for sweetening. Selig Gain for fadeouts or other pre-mastering gain adjustments.

[Goriila Texas]

Maybe I wasn't clear the Pro-L is my final loudness weapon in my gain stage so some processing can cause aliasing so I use oversampling for that purpose.

I make sure everything sounds good before it hits the master channel first! Then on the master I have only Ozone 9 and lastly Fabfilter Pro L-2 to check loudness and to get rid of all aliasing from all the processing with oversampling as high as my cpu can take.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you cannot remove aliasing with a second device, can you? If your synth aliases, no matter what you put afterwards, it will stay there, right? That's why you have oversampling on the devices themselves, there's not an aliasing remover...?

[WOO]

Selig Gain and ozone 9

[jam-s]

Usually just Ozone Advanced standalone for the final master and various Reason FSB mastering chains for some quick preview on how a mastered version might sound.

[guitfnky]

mines is
flower audio loudness meter
( on the top and bottom to see starting and finishing levels)
kaussa eve-mp3
quadelectra stereo splitter
redrock c-1 alpha
rv-7000
synapse ve-3
kaussa kratos

do i know what im doing - absolutely not.
did i copy most of this? - ofcourse.

does it work and sound good - yes! to my ears

you may want to consider taking the reverb out of your mastering chain. generally, it’s best to apply reverb during the mix stage so you have more control over it (e.g. you can slather that vocal and the snare in reverb, but leave the kick and bass dry). if you’re adding reverb at the mastering stage, it’s applying to the whole spectrum (unless you’re doing additional routing to carve out certain frequencies so the reverb doesn’t get them). that said, there are no wrong choices, so a reverb applied to everything overall may be exactly what you want. just something to be cognizant of.

also, the synapse VEQ3 is awesome, but be careful with it on a master track—pretty sure it colors the sound even with all settings at default.

[Loque]

If everything worked well, i just use a limiter to crank up the loudnes to all those "standards" out there to catch a few spikes...

If i could/should/would, i keep the levels as they are and just increase the volume/gain until it reaches the analog limit. And ofc i should increase my mixing capabilities to ensure a clean and balanced mix (just notices, that i might be a victom of comb filtering in my "studio")...

All additional mastering, especially if heavily done, is a fail in the mixing stage imo. Except if you want to balance out everything to "sound" quite common, like for an album or mix...

[littlejam]

hello,

not to derail this wonderful thread which is very informative
but maybe to add a side car:
after the 'mastering chain' is complete
how are users exporting the audio track?

i use the selig gain, flower meter, ozone elements within reason 10 / windows 7 to 'master'
export to a 24bit wave file stereo mix
and then import into acidpro8 as a 24bit stereo file
and then use ozone 8 advanced to make adjustments and use the dither down to 16bit cd

i like using a separate daw to master because it makes me complete a stereo mix that i commit to
mixing and mastering in the same daw i seldom get anything completed

the quality of said audio file depend on where it's going:
into your iphone, into your car, broadcast quality material, youtube, soundcloud, an album, sending to someone who actually masters to be mastered, etc

and then as an aside, which of us are still participating in the 'loudness wars'
i prefer dynamic range that takes the listener on a journey: like dark side of the moon

cheers,

j

[VariableX]

mines is
flower audio loudness meter
( on the top and bottom to see starting and finishing levels)
kaussa eve-mp3
quadelectra stereo splitter
redrock c-1 alpha
rv-7000
synapse ve-3
kaussa kratos

do i know what im doing - absolutely not.
did i copy most of this? - ofcourse.

does it work and sound good - yes! to my ears

you may want to consider taking the reverb out of your mastering chain. generally, it’s best to apply reverb during the mix stage so you have more control over it (e.g. you can slather that vocal and the snare in reverb, but leave the kick and bass dry). if you’re adding reverb at the mastering stage, it’s applying to the whole spectrum (unless you’re doing additional routing to carve out certain frequencies so the reverb doesn’t get them). that said, there are no wrong choices, so a reverb applied to everything overall may be exactly what you want. just something to be cognizant of.

also, the synapse VEQ3 is awesome, but be careful with it on a master track—pretty sure it colors the sound even with all settings at default.

Hey thanks for the tips.
My thinking was this gives all my music a 'signature sound' so to speak..
The reverb is really minute and the VEQ3 very subtle too...

[Benedict]

Reverb within the Msterting chain was pretty common and a thing for a decade or so, I have done myself from time to time when needed.

[guitfnky]

you may want to consider taking the reverb out of your mastering chain. generally, it’s best to apply reverb during the mix stage so you have more control over it (e.g. you can slather that vocal and the snare in reverb, but leave the kick and bass dry). if you’re adding reverb at the mastering stage, it’s applying to the whole spectrum (unless you’re doing additional routing to carve out certain frequencies so the reverb doesn’t get them). that said, there are no wrong choices, so a reverb applied to everything overall may be exactly what you want. just something to be cognizant of.

also, the synapse VEQ3 is awesome, but be careful with it on a master track—pretty sure it colors the sound even with all settings at default.

Hey thanks for the tips.
My thinking was this gives all my music a 'signature sound' so to speak..
The reverb is really minute and the VEQ3 very subtle too...

yep, only mentioned it since you said you had no idea what you’re doing—sounds like you’re already living by the audio engineer’s axiom; a little bit goes a long way

[VariableX]

yep, only mentioned it since you said you had no idea what you’re doing—sounds like you’re already living by the audio engineer’s axiom; a little bit goes a long way

Thanks for mentioning it as i was unaware, and will think twice before playing with said devices settings!

Great thread btw.

[gullum]

this is always in there nothing else is used every time

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