# Recommendations for basic mastering plugins?



## alligatorlizard (May 30, 2010)

Hi, I'm just looking to buy some simple mastering plugins - eg multiband EQ and maximiser. Something fairly basic that will be good for enhancing more bombastic orchestral stuff, but also for more pop/rock productions - nice presets are always good so I can do all the production within Cubase, then just stick the finished audio file through the mastering plugins for a bit of extra oomph without having to think too much about it.

I've used thing like waves ultramaximiser in the past, but this always felt a bit heavy handed - to be honest have never delved much into the techniques of mastering, so not sure what's on the market at the moment.

Any suggestions?


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## Ranietz (May 30, 2010)

Ozone 4 by iZotope.

http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/ozone/


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## JohnG (May 30, 2010)

I never personally use any of this stuff, but...

http://www.uaudio.com/webzine/2010/may/ ... rview.html


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## José Herring (May 30, 2010)

I've gone back and forth over the need for mastering orchestral tracks. I use to use Ozone quite a bit and still do from time to time, but I've found out lately that if it isn't sounding finished at the mix stage then mastering does little to nothing. So now I concentrate on making each part do what it's suppose to do.

One thing you can do is once your mix is going along is to slap a compressor and some EQ on the master channel. UAD stuff is really, really good. The LA-2A is a great final limiter.

Also, believe it or not the saturation plug in Kontakt is really good as well as long as you don't over do it.

I remember reading an article by Alan Meyerson where he was saying that it's better to do a lot of little things that one or two big sweeping things in a mix. I started following that advice and a lot has improved. Putting a little saturation on the kontakt outputs is helpful on samples. Also, slightly reducing the low mids helps prevent that sample build up. Light compression on the brass adds a little pump. All slight amounts. Every thing is a small drop in a big bucket, but it starts to add up and makes all the difference.

My favorite plugs are UA, Sonalksis, Ozone and Voxengo has some good stuff.


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## RMWSound (May 30, 2010)

EQ: DMG Equality. It has pretty much every feature I could want in an EQ. The "auto-listen" helps really pinpoint frequencies you're trying to adjust (by soloing the band you're adjusting). It also has multiple processor modes, so you can use it on every track, or go full linear-phase for mastering. Plus, it's very clean, and there's plenty of boost/cut available.

Loudness: I also use the iZotope Ozone's loudness maximizer when I'm mastering for general listening (I'll usually stay away from this when I'm delivering for a job). 

Compression: I like the Waves C4 multi-band compresser to tame some of those low-mids that build up without sounding squashing the whole mix.

-RMW


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## C M Dess (May 30, 2010)

This looks good for what you've mentioned. I have some sonnox which is pretty good, this seems to be a culmination of their mastering concepts. Also, sonnox will be included in Nuendo 5 (as demos?)...Probably a good reason for that.
http://www.proaudiodsp.com/products/dsm/


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## Dietz (May 31, 2010)

josejherring @ Sun May 30 said:


> [...] I remember reading an article by Alan Meyerson where he was saying that it's better to do a lot of little things that one or two big sweeping things in a mix. I started following that advice and a lot has improved. Putting a little saturation on the kontakt outputs is helpful on samples. Also, slightly reducing the low mids helps prevent that sample build up. Light compression on the brass adds a little pump. All slight amounts. Every thing is a small drop in a big bucket, but it starts to add up and makes all the difference. [...]


This is so true! Yet it's hardly the advice people like to read on these pages, as it means that the "everything-perfect-out-of-the-box"-myth is just that: A myth.


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## Lex (May 31, 2010)

Ozone 4 & Voxengo stuff...

aLex


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## Ned Bouhalassa (May 31, 2010)

Sonnox rocks my world for mastering. As do plugs by Softube and IK Multimedia's Pultec EQ emulation.


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## Stephen Baysted (May 31, 2010)

Vienna Suite, Sonnox or UAD. Can't go wrong.


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## Frederick Russ (May 31, 2010)

UAD or FLUX - incredible tools for all kinds of music.

Flux: http://www.fluxhome.com/


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## Danny_Owen (May 31, 2010)

Just out of curiosity, how does everyone find Logic's standard tools for mixing/mastering? I tried the Sonnox EQ demo and I found I was able to do things that I just couldn't do with the Logic EQ, it didn't seem to colour the mix as badly... do you think that's just a placebo of trying an EQ that actually costs money, or are Logic's EQ's pretty bad (and if so why?)


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## Nick Batzdorf (May 31, 2010)

It's absolutely not a placebo: better EQ really is better. I don't think Logic's EQ is bad, but you're certainly not just hearing things.

What really makes a difference is the compression and limiting plug-ins.


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## alligatorlizard (May 31, 2010)

Thanks, some really useful suggestions and links here, the Ozone stuff does look very good (and affordable) as does the Flux and Pro Audio DSP. In fact they all look great, but some are a little out of my current budget.

I totally agree with the concept of gettings things as good as possible with lots of tweaking of various elements in the mix, but a well mastered track undeniably sounds more impressive than an unmastered one so I figure its about time I got into this side of things!

Just out of interest, has anyone got any thoughts on mastering orchestral music? I've always followed the rule that if I'm going for a realistic live-orchestra sound, it's better left alone, but if it's more of a Zimmer-style track, it would probably benefit from a bit of mastering.


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## Waywyn (Jun 12, 2010)

To me either the L316 or L3LL in combi with the Sonnox Inflator and Voxengo GEQ rulez!


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## Hannes_F (Jun 12, 2010)

Waywyn @ Sat Jun 12 said:


> L316



USD 930 .... ouch! :roll:


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## Waywyn (Jun 12, 2010)

Hannes_F @ Sat Jun 12 said:


> Waywyn @ Sat Jun 12 said:
> 
> 
> > L316
> ...



Hehe yes, ouch, but worth every penny ...


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## synergy543 (Jun 12, 2010)

VSL Suite is really quite cost-effective for what you get and very well designed. 

I also like PSP (Xenon) and Sonalksys EQs (ugly, but they sound sweet).

[EDIT] - Agreed Ozone is a great starter plugin and presets are great - although the structure can be a bit visually overwhelming and might inhibit learning.


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## c0mp0ser (Jun 12, 2010)

+1 for Ozone as your first mastering plug. Lot of great sounding presets.


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## gsilbers (Jun 12, 2010)

alligatorlizard @ Mon May 31 said:


> Thanks, some really useful suggestions and links here, the Ozone stuff does look very good (and affordable) as does the Flux and Pro Audio DSP. In fact they all look great, but some are a little out of my current budget.
> 
> I totally agree with the concept of gettings things as good as possible with lots of tweaking of various elements in the mix, but a well mastered track undeniably sounds more impressive than an unmastered one so I figure its about time I got into this side of things!
> 
> Just out of interest, has anyone got any thoughts on mastering orchestral music? I've always followed the rule that if I'm going for a realistic live-orchestra sound, it's better left alone, but if it's more of a Zimmer-style track, it would probably benefit from a bit of mastering.



2 funny things

zimmer doesn't use compression (not a lot) maybe his mix engineers.


Zimmer style is a bit outdated IMO. He hasn't done a zimmer style in ages. But his protegees do.
But we do understand when u say zimmer style.


As for masteing itself, it depends;


If it's a modern style of music like pop hiphop and electronica then I say mix your tracks with already a lot of compression eq and limiting onthe master bus. 
Crazy thought for a lot of engineers but that's how it's done and it takes a long time to learn.

For orchestral many say just don't use anything but good ears and mix chops. Maybe a tad of gentle mastering compression.

But filmscore has the issue that it has to compete with sfx and dialog so u want to use something to compete.

I use the ssl waves. And the eq is amazing. Makes the whole tracks sound "profesional". Gel and seems it levels out dynamics!! but the price is high.

at the end it has to do with what works for u and your mic and mastering chops.
We all know that mastering is an art on it's own and takes a lot of years to master.

For plugins u can download the demos of waves, flux, isotope, 
fabfilter (forgot the name of the conapny but check out the video of the compressor amd download it.)


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## Hannes_F (Jun 12, 2010)

Waywyn @ Sat Jun 12 said:


> Hannes_F @ Sat Jun 12 said:
> 
> 
> > Waywyn @ Sat Jun 12 said:
> ...



What would you say can it do better than for example Voxengo Elephant?


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## Waywyn (Jun 12, 2010)

Hannes_F @ Sat Jun 12 said:


> Waywyn @ Sat Jun 12 said:
> 
> 
> > Hannes_F @ Sat Jun 12 said:
> ...



Hey Hannes,

well, if you consider the very basic functions, the Elephant is a Limiter or Maximizer, the L316 is a multimaximizer.

The advantage of a multimaximizer is to handle several bands and to set priorities on which signals will get treated and how.

Elephant is a stereo limiter. So you can just set a threshold and do some minor tweaks, but with a multimaximizer you can e.g. limit the low basses or the high freqs more than the rest ... or if you have very important parts in the 3000-5000Hz area, you can let the L316 know that these bands need absolute priority on no bass signal or a deep hit might "disturb" the important signals. By treating bands individually you might get several advantages. You can either pull your track up more or you can treat dynamic in a totally different way.

We all know the effect, you pull up a limiter and at a certain point or freq band it starts to sounds squashy, squeezed. With a mulitbandmaximizer you could then e.g. simply lower the limiting effect on that certain freqs to reach a good loudness level but don't squash it.


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## gsilbers (Jun 13, 2010)

forgot about these... very good

http://www.airwindows.com/


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## sinkd (Jun 19, 2010)

Since first lurking on this thread, I have picked up the Vienna Suite and the Numerical SOund FORTI IRs. For under $600, this set of tools is pretty fantastic for orchestral mixing. +1 to those who are emphasizing getting it right in the mix.

Damon


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## alligatorlizard (Jul 21, 2010)

Finally getting around to looking into these various plugins... thanks again for al the suggestions. I'm now experimenting with Ozone 4 (you get a ten day trial before having to purchase license). 

Without asking anyone to give away their secrets, am wondering if any Ozone users could give any tips? For example, I'm currenty mastering an orchestral track with choir and solo female vocals (from VOP actually) and some big drums in places - am playing around with various parameters of the "orchestral" preset in Ozone. Does this sound the right way to go, or would anyone recommend any of the other presets for this sort of soundtrack/trailer music? To ward off all the "fix it in the mix" type comments, I'm perfectly happy with the the balance and eq of everything in the mix, just want to give it that final sheen, and boost, and punch that'll put it sonically (or at least level-wise) on par with commercial recordings.

Any pointers much appreciated! I know what I'm doing with EQ/compression/limiting etc, but applying this to the finished track (or to the stereo output bus to be precise) is admittedly pretty new to me.


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## EnTaroAdun (Jul 21, 2010)

If you master your own music, you actually don't _have_ to do very much on the master ... for most things it makes more sense to fix it in the mix.
Still a limiter as last part is always a must, and a bit of adjusting the frequency balance with an EQ makes sense.


But what else could be done?:

Generally you can throw something like a vitalizer/exciter on the master or add some sort of "magic reverb" (really only a very tiny bit). Some people like this, others totally avoid it.

For stuff like rock/pop/electro/etc. you can put in a singleband-comp to give the sound the right "swing" (probably the wrong word .. I mean a little bit of rhythmic pumping).

Generally you can do multiband-processing .. for example like:
- Compress some of the highs (with fast timings) and pull them up a bit to give it more "air".
- "Gate" the very deep lows a bit using a side-chain, which is feeded by some higher lows to make the deepend tighter.

But actually in most cases I'd just stick with the EQ and limiter (for orchestral music) + a single band comp for rock/pop/electro/etc.


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## ceemusic (Jul 28, 2010)

Less is more if mastering your own material. Most ME's will tell you to avoid mixing & mastering in the same room.
Dependent on the material classical, orchestral & dynamic music in general shouldn't require a great amount of eq, limiting or compression. 

Fix any problems that you may be having in your mixes first since mastering isn't for that purpose.

Here's a good book on the subject-
http://www.digido.com/


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## germancomponist (Jul 28, 2010)

And not to forget the very good plugins in Cubase. The multicompressor in combination with ò÷   Þ-¿÷   Þ-À÷   Þ-Á÷   Þ-Â÷   Þ-


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