What does everyone have in the mastering section?

[Heigen5]

Do you have a huge amount of devices in there or maybe you have only a Maximizer or what?

[Reminiscence]

....and yourself?

[Heigen5]

....and yourself?

I have the 'default mastering chain' in the nowdays. After switching my monitors to KRK Rokit 5's the natural sound is a way to go.

[Reminiscence]

So you tune your setup according to your monitors? And your headphones?

Oh wait, you shouldn't master with headphones? Gotcha - now I know why my neighbours hate me.

[Heigen5]

So you tune your setup according to your monitors? And your headphones?

Oh wait, you shouldn't master with headphones? Gotcha - now I know why my neighbours hate me.

My new monitors didn't sound good with my past custom mastering patch anymore - it seems like almost zero sound altering in the mastering chain is the best deal now.

[Reminiscence]

Thanks for the tip.

[Heigen5]

Thanks for the tip.

It's a good thing really, that you do your sound alterings in the mixing channels and not in the mastering channel. So far people have told that my mixes sound better than they used to.

[moneykube]

I have the 'default mastering chain' in the nowdays. After switching my monitors to KRK Rokit 5's the natural sound is a way to go.

It's a good thing really, that you do your sound alterings in the mixing channels and not in the mastering channel.

also my approach

[spacepluk]

Screenshot 2024-05-13 at 19.59.11.png (589.35 KiB) Viewed 1377 times

That's my master/fx/monitoring setup

[joeyluck]

Fiedler Audio's Dolby Atmos Composer and Spacelab Interstellar.

Otherwise I'm pretty minimal with effects aside from something like Ozone Maximizer.

[huggermugger]

The only thing missing is a maximizer, because I'm not afraid of dynamic range.

[robussc]

Depends on if I’m mixing or mastering.

Mixing I just use the bus compressor, a mastering EQ, the stereo imager and Fresh Air for a bit of sparkle.

Mastering is just a touch of mastering EQ, tape saturation for warmth, and maximizer, with the LUFs monitor at the end to make sure the levels are good, and SPAN as a sanity check that the mix is pretty even and the low end is tamed.

[deeplink]

Typically just a limiter, an oscilloscope and SPAN.

I have other things like the Synapse EQ, but those are generally used for filtering/ isolating specific frequencies when mixing/listening. They are bypassed when I bounce the mix down.

[Bes]

https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... equalizer/

[jam-s]

Imho any of these answers are pretty useless unless you also state for what kind of music/genre you're using the said FX chain as that's a pretty big factor in how much processing is needed during mixing/mastering.

[selig]

What is in my mastering section? Surprisingly not my mastering. The only thing currently in there is the HP filter for the Master Compressor.
Beyond that is my mastering Combinator (between the Master Out and the Hardware Interface), which has Ozone 10 in it, plus Youlean Metering. In Ozone, I use the widener on some projects, and a few dB limiting on most.
My approach is the mix like there's no mastering, so my mastering is typically not needing to do much. That comes from years of having mixes mastered by some pretty decent guys and getting feedback and making adjustments.
Genres include pop/rock/ambient/orchestral/film soundtrack/groovey stuff and lately AfroBeat. But I'm more of a jack of all trades guy than a specialist, fwiw…

[robussc]

What is in my mastering section? Surprisingly not my mastering. The only thing currently in there is the HP filter for the Master Compressor.
Beyond that is my mastering Combinator (between the Master Out and the Hardware Interface), which has Ozone 10 in it, plus Youlean Metering. In Ozone, I use the widener on some projects, and a few dB limiting on most.
My approach is the mix like there's no mastering, so my mastering is typically not needing to do much. That comes from years of having mixes mastered by some pretty decent guys and getting feedback and making adjustments.
Genres include pop/rock/ambient/orchestral/film soundtrack/groovey stuff and lately AfroBeat. But I'm more of a jack of all trades guy than a specialist, fwiw…

Right, that is the biggest lesson I've learned. If the mix isn't as perfect as it can be then its not ready to master. (and of course, learning when to draw that line comes with experience, so I'm still learning ) But you can't fix a bad mix when mastering, and to even think of mastering while mixing is a big mistake. Regardless of genre, IMHO. Just like we'd never bother to mix a bad arrangement.

Write -> Arrange -> Mix -> Master.

[motuscott]

For bouncing to 2 track, Softube FET, bypassed typically. Then onto actual mastering w/ that 2 track.

[robussc]

For bouncing to 2 track, Softube FET, bypassed typically. Then onto actual mastering w/ that 2 track.

Agreed, that export is definitely a good step to mark the end of mixing!

[miyaru]

Sometimes when producing, writing and working on a loud boomy song, I have a brickwall limiter in the masterpath to protect my tweeters/ cones (from both monitors and cans) and my ears. But once mixed and not so loud and boomy anymore, I remove the limiter again. You can also use a compressor with the threshold set at -1 dB and a high ratio, whilst the attack and release times are short. No rule, or wisdom, just my way of working……

[me-yourself-and-them]

i like to keep control over the mastering section. but when i first tried ozone i was really amazed...even though i really know a lot about mastering: ozone, even just elements, most times outstandingly won against my manual masterin setup. if any one wants to check: i got a 2nd license ozone 10 elements, 25€.

[motuscott]

Actually have a new combi bypassed in the master track. Have a Reason Master Bus Comp and Softube FET in a combi w/ switch 1 as A/B.
Gonna try that Turn2on Drawmer comp thingy in there as well
Flavors, sign me up
Though, as many of my followers know, my hearing is in the terlet.
As we all know, Motuscott is undeterred by such small shit

[RobC]

Honestly, I'd handle mastering as: whatever cool shit we can bring out of a perfect mix.

I might play around with multi-band dynamics processing (up/downwards compression/expansion, limiting, (soft)clipping, foldback, etc.), then set with a dry/wet crossover after matching levels, to hear if it does any good.

Same with stereo and mid/side trickery, but rather meaning messing around with width and depth modulation, and again, a dry/wet mix.

As for EQ? Eternal argument, but I'd personally center sub below 80 Hz. I might use linear phase EQ for that, (Mid/Side processing) because smeared dynamics in the side makes things punchier in the mid. In fact, reducing dynamics in the side sounded better for me.
When decoded to Mid/Side, I'd try emphasis/de-emphasis EQ with the side, and distort it while boosting somewhere below 80 Hz, and see if it creates something cool. I'd also distort anything below 80 Hz, to create overtones.
Maybe some dry/wet mix again.

But regular EQ/filtering? I'd only make changes (if beneficial) that I'd apply to all of my mix channels - otherwise it's back to the mix and change there.

It's not really about devices for me. I want to get into plugin creation, so of course I rather think in modules by now than what would be a keeper for the mastering chain.

Maybe master FX. You know, the DJ-type effects, like filtering, swapping channels, set to mono. I've done that for a decade. About time RS adds a Rack Device like that in R13. (Still, when I make my RE, it will be cooler! x P Mark my words, RS!)