If you had to pick one type of mastering plug in to start what would it be?
So I am going to learn the art of mastering, slowly. I am going to start with one type of mastering plug in. What type should I start with?
EQ?
Compressor?
other?
my gut says learn EQ first but what sayeth the forum?
The goal is over time to have a collection of mastering plug ins so I can master my own tracks, or other producers tracks.
There really isn’t a “all in one” mastering plugin. And the ones who claim to be are usually rubbish.
But more important than the plugins you use is your monitoring setup and room you’re in. If those are poor in any way then all the plugins in the world won’t be able to help you as you won’t be able to hear what you’re doing to the sound.
And while it’s okay to master your own tracks if you want to test them out in the club for example, but for an actual release I would advise against it. One of the many perks of going to a mastering engineer is that they have an unbiased perspective on the mixdown and can give their opinion, as well as have a proper monitoring environment so they can hear things that you’re monitors/room aren’t telling you, or are flat out lying about to you.
Before you start buying plugins I would start reading up on mastering and just audio engineering itself. Anything by Bob Katz is gold and worth looking into. Once you learn what the actual goals are of mastering and how they approach it, you can start to formulate what you need to make your own mastering chain and what order to put things in even.
Absolutely agree with JasonBay. The best tools in a mastering engineers arsenal are: a good room, reliable reference and a good pair of ears. If you haven’t already, I would do some research on mastering, be it reading (like JasonBay said), or preferably listening to examples. But this general advice won’t really help you get started will it?
It’s funny, a lot of sound experts like to give general advice, even though most of them started in very non-desirable circumstances. Just remember we all start out somewhere and that experience is the most valuable knowledge you can get, which is something these experts can’t just give you, unlike general advice.
That being said, while you research, get your feet wet. Try things out as much as you can, even if you don’t have the proper tools (yet).
In my opinion I would look at your budget, and see what can be done from there. Got enough money for decent monitors? Do it. You have space, likely to stay in it for a few years and can dedicate it to music related work? Start thinking about doing some sound treatment. These are good things in general, even if you don’t enjoy mastering, it will still help with any music work.
To directly answer your question. If you really need a plug-in, focus on getting a good stereo compressor. Waves makes great plug-ins, very professional quality, and they won’t break the bank. Hard to go wrong with a API 2500 or SSL 4000 Master Compressor. I say compression because it’s much more fickle to work with than EQ, especially when mastering! You’ll want to get a good handle on properly compressing stereo bands, and learning what the personalities of each compressor are. Once you do that, you can start chaining compressors, one after the other (which a lot of mastering engineers do). Also focus on doing as much as possible with as little as possible (less is more!). This does require you to really know and understand your tools through and through.
You can look into a good stereo EQ, but that’s less important, especially when you’re learning. In a proper mastering, with a proper mix, you will be boosting or cutting (large frequency regions) by 1 to 2 dB’s at most (if you even need to). So if you’re working on your own material, focus on having it sounding frequencially correct before it gets to the mastering stage. EQ-ing in mastering is generally just there to slightly enhance it, don’t think you’ll be making radical changes, or fixing problems with it.
In the end, just practice and get a feel for it. Mastering is completely different from mixing, and should be seen that way. A good exercise is to master a song quickly, only give yourself like 10-15min, take a break and master it again and compare. This will help you figure out what makes mastering sound better, and how to make better decisions based on what you hear. It’s also a good exercise because the pro’s master relatively quickly to begin with. If you decide to go through with mastering, look into buying a proper analog stereo compressor.
Hope this helps you get started!
My vote would be Fabfilter Pro-L or maybe Voxengo Elephant, that’s all you need to master your own music IMVHO:
http://tarekith.com/assets/pdfs/Mastering.pdf
Doesn’t need to be complex or require long mastering “chains”.
I’ll throw Ozone into the mix, absolutely love it
I’d say work with whichever fx and plug-ins that are bundled with your DAW to start with. that way you can learn how to use them, and also realize what your needs are.
Also, invest in some books and do some studying as to how each plug-in works. I find knowing how it works as well as knowing what it does better helps the learning and understanding process.
I’d be lost without a good multiband compressor.
The one in Izotope Ozone and Alloy works very well for my needs.
Same here!
I understand what you’re trying to do, but do you EQ and compress individual channels? and also, I would start with EQing. A little tip, during the mastering stage it should be minor adjustments of the EQ.
I EQ my channels, and use the different frequencies to do the job, but usually leave the master clean, depending. I treat compression in a similar way, compressing different parts of the track IF NEEDED. I use saturation IF NEEDED on the master channel when the track is a little quiet or doesn’t have the “in your face” dance vibe. No Limiter. Ever.
anything by fabfilter.
If I were you I would learn to use my daw plugin, logic and ableton basics are great tool and again if you dont have a studio go for a good pair of headphone. ( I get the Beyer Dt880pro 250 ohm one.month ago and everything Ive made in my bedroom with krk rp6 sounds crappy into them.)
EQ definately