What Audio Mastering Software Should I Choose? Options

[mortalengines]

I've been doing this for years & I STILL really can't afford any Manley or Avalon gear & Apogee converters are not exactly cheap either. Also keep in mind, truly accurate mastering requires some really expensive monitors & the properly treated acoustic environment. Having said that there is no shame in paying someone else to master your audio. If they have the gear & the room they will definitely do a better job & these days mastering can come inexpensively.

[TKO]

Hello to all
I use Magix sequoia for mastering and Plug in Like SSL plug from Wave and BBS somix maximazer but the best is still outboard Like Manley MU COMP/LIMIT Or Weiss EQ1 LP and Sysytem 6000 from TC electronic and the Avalon comp/limit.
And you also need a very good sound card Like Apogee or Lavry engineeering
I thing T-rack is very bad and too rought I call it the cruching machine and azone make everything sound the same and kill the soul of the sound.
But one of the most important is monitoring and you ears.(you got to listen like a mastering emgineer.)
I hope this is some help to you
C
http://ww.audioplexus.com
http://ww.audioplexus.co.uk
http://www.idmastering.co.uk

All that stuff sounds really nice. I bet it sounds really good. You have to remember that the guy that asked the question is completely new to all this and doing demo's in garageband. I dont know about you but when I started I have the resources to buy manely and avalon comps. Just a thought

Josh

Hey guys,

Do yourselves a favour and check out Roger Nichols´ plugins at roger nicholsdigital.com
They are not expensive at all for the quality.The man knows his stuff !

[aportman]

I've been doing this for years & I STILL really can't afford any Manley or Avalon gear & Apogee converters are not exactly cheap either. Also keep in mind, truly accurate mastering requires some really expensive monitors & the properly treated acoustic environment. Having said that there is no shame in paying someone else to master your audio. If they have the gear & the room they will definitely do a better job & these days mastering can come inexpensively.

[aportman]

I've been doing this for years & I STILL really can't afford any Manley or Avalon gear & Apogee converters are not exactly cheap either. Also keep in mind, truly accurate mastering requires some really expensive monitors & the properly treated acoustic environment. Having said that there is no shame in paying someone else to master your audio. If they have the gear & the room they will definitely do a better job & these days mastering can come inexpensively.

I've been doing this for years & I STILL really can't afford any Manley or Avalon gear & Apogee converters are not exactly cheap either. Also keep in mind, truly accurate mastering requires some really expensive monitors & the properly treated acoustic environment. Having said that there is no shame in paying someone else to master your audio. If they have the gear & the room they will definitely do a better job & these days mastering can come inexpensively.

If at all possible go have your final project professionally mastered, unless, of course, you are extremely versed in mastering, and too, have a environemnt that is designed for mastering. I just had one of my client's projects mastered yesterday, which I struggled with having it professionally done. After listening to the final project with the Mastering Engineer, I was fully convinced that I had made the right choice.

Even though I have an upper-end home porject studio, with approximatly 30k worth of equipment & software for audio shaping, I tend to struggle with acquiring the consistency, mainly due to an inconsistent environment acoustically speaking. It is not that I do not have the ability to accomplished well polished product (sound), but I have to massage and compensate excessively for the inconsistent environmental that I am in. I find it much easier (if you can afford it) to leave these kinds of things up to a mastering professional. Some one who can listening objectively, and who is also seated in the sweet-spot. They will be the ones who can achieve most often in short period of time, with things that we struggle days (or months) for. They will solidify and achieve qaulity and conistency across the project's. You can have a rack full (plug-ins) of upper-end equipment such as Manleys, Avalons, SSL, etc, but unless you have the ear (fresh ear), or the environment, you will not conclude with a satisfactory resuls. We put way too much time, effort, energy, and money into our projects for it to end-up sounding not its best, due to a sub-par mastering attempt. My personal philsophy, is when my name goes on a project's cover as engineer/producer that I know is going to be distributed far and wide,I want the icing on the cake (product). When I plug-in a CD and the sound blows me away, I immediately flip to see where it was recorded, who engineered, and who mastered it.

I am in not way saying that smaller-scale studios/egineers (like myself) cannot accomplish a quality end-results. Many incredible results have and do come out of smaller studios. But if you are in doubt (like me at times) that the product is lacking or has not reached its potential and is in need of the mastering touch, then by all means beg and plead with the client to have it professioanally mastered. You will be amazed at the resluts when the mastering engneer lets you listen to the results by A/B the pre and post mastered product.

You guys are great in the Mac World. I absolutely learn a ton of new stuff from your postings on a daily basis. Keep it coming!

Allen

[aportman]

Sorry mortelengines!

I attempted to reply to the overall posting, but for some reason I replied on top of your posting 2 times. I have not a clue how it happened or what I did. Just did not want you to think I was trying to mimic or do anything vehemently in my response to your posting. I guess I just need to slow down when I post!

Keep the awesome postings rolling!!!

Allen

[audiopl]

Hello all
I thing many of your comments are right and some are not so right
At AudiopleXus we have a motto (Don't believe at what we say beleive at what we do)
Every customer can have a free trial of them mastering so if you are not %100 happy with the result you have nothing to pay it's that simple and it's what made our reputation and now we are almos booked solid.
So yes you need the gear and yes the room the monitors and the engineer but also the skill the experience and the PASSION for it without all of them..............
When you do mastering it’s not just the sound it’s also the feeling in the song what the song mean to who ever wrote it and never change the mix and making sound big beautiful and loud.
The best format to send to the studio is Music track vocal track and back vocal track.
And by doing that we have made our reputation
The studio was build by pro acoustician and I did the wiring by hand I got a 600 meters balanced microphone cable roll and all Neutronic plugs and solder them all by hand. The digital too but not the toslink optical
By the way we are using now the Weiss EQ1 DYN/LP and Weiss Comp/Limit and the only digital gear that do not sound digital it’s just so transparent.
So if you want to know how your music will sound mastered by a pro let me know ….it’ll cost you NOTHING on a FTP or on the you send it site (if by post or delivery service you’ll get that cost.)
New at making music in your bed room garage or in a pro studio we take them all very seriously as we take making a dream to reality very seriously.
Agreeing and disagreeing that what make thing change .
Anyway happy Christmas to all from AudiopeXus and if you don’t celebrate it happy what ever you're celebrating.
C

Ce message a été modifié par audiopl - lun. 11 déc. 2006, 13:02.

[mancalledclay]

it's ridiculous to say t-racks is a bad crunching machine. sure in some bad crunchy hands..it CAN crunch...it can smoosh...it can muffle...it can do anything ...and yes> it's easy to overdo.
but it is also a great mastering unit for the money....easy to use and efficient.
you can store your own presets etc.

bias peak is good too but costly.
izotope's ozone a really good deal especially if you can get izotope's 3-piece bundle.

just for fun (and some actually good results at that ) i've used ik-samplitube2 at the back-end for mastering and well.....to be sure it will give you a bigger, warm sound.
again though...easy to overdo but really any good unit will be.
that's like saying don't get a fast car because it goes too fast.
it's all in your foot baby.
you have to really listen to your mixes and try different things.....usually a day or two after you've done your mastering and listened to some other stuff in between so as to remove yourself from it a bit.

plus...with samplitube you also get all those great effects. that would probably be my advice.
or the izotope bundle.


bad crunch...that's funny. try the level controls!

mcc>