What's The Best Mastering Program For Os X?, Mastering Original Songs - CD Production Options

[horvath]

I'm an old pro at songwriting, performing and recording (I'm presently recording with a Roland VS-1880 Digital Studio) ... but now I'm getting into mastering my own tracks on my Mac G4 - OS X and trying to educate myself on the processes.

I'm trying to decide which one of two mastering programs I want to purchase:
1 - T-RackS - my favorite so far ... tube sounds and mastering ONLY.
2 - Sound Forge 7.0

Is anyone familiar with either of these? Or do you have other suggestions? ProTools is a bit pricey ... especially considering I ONLY want a mastering suite.

Thanks.

Ce message a été modifié par horvath - jeu. 9 oct. 2003, 14:49.

[pdgood]

I've just begun learning about mastering recently myself, so maybe I can save you all some time - here is the condensed version of what I've learned so far. All of this is highly debatable, but at least this will be a good starting point.

Mastering=the act of taking tracks recorded at different times and places and making them all sound like they belong together. Most people think of it as also putting the finishing touches on a project.

First step=Do everything you can on a track level to get it mixed as well as possible before you master.

EQ=When you have it down to a stereo mix use Mastering equalization to make tracks sound similar. They call this type of eq non-linear or some such. It means that it avoids small phasing issues that would be apparent if the mix is played in mono for some reason.

Normalize=This task analyzes your mix, looks for the loudest point and raises it to the maximum allowable and then raises everything else an equal amount.

Multiband Compress=This is highly debated. Compression reduces dynamics. If you're in a car (with road noise) and you don't compress, then when you set the loudest part to a comfortable level the soft places will be too low. If you set the softest place at a comfortable level, then the peaks will be painful. Purists will say that dynamics should not be messed with and that this is a worthwhile sacrifice. I personally find multiband compression desireable.

Limit=A limiter seeks the peeks in a song, reduces them and therefore allows the whole thing to get much louder than you can accomplish with normalization.

The exact sequence that you should perform these tasks in is also debatable.

You can chose software such as Izotope Ozone which handles many of these tasks or look for small companies that do whichever individual ones seem most important to you. I have found the Apple Limiter which came free with my sequencer to be quite useful to a point. Others disagree, and think this is a good place to sink your money. Wave Arts has good multiband compression and academic discounts which make it a steal if you're a student. Elemental Audio has amazingly high quality products at very reasonable prices and also has academic pricing. Their non-linear EQ, Firium, is a great value, but being the amateur I am, I use their Eqium which isn't non-linear and works much easier for me and sounds fabulous to my ears. I like Ozone for an all-in-one thing, but am not crazy about their limiter. PSP makes good track plugs, and their Vintage warmer is a popular tool (limiter, I think) although I find it not to be clean enough for me. Those playing differnent kinds of music may find this desireable. Almost everyone agrees the L3 limiter by Waves is the most desireable, but also the most expensive. They have angered many with their hefty pricing for upgrades after initial purchase.
Some people add reverb to the final mix. This one puzzles me, but it is even part of Ozone, so someone must think it's important.
Hope some of this helps save you the many hours I spent accumulating this basic info.