Grand Finale vs Final Touch

[Deleted User]

@jwmmakerofmusic said:
-If you’re a complete noob to mastering, you’ll want Grand Finale.

Edited for brevity. But very good post, explains things well.

guidinglight

Grand Finale is so amazing—easily competes with online mastering services. I just wish the export function worked properly for me.

jwmmakerofmusic

@branis said:
I own Final Touch and have demoed Grand Finale on my PC (I suppose the iOS version sounds just the same).
I can say that they are both excellent apps that can make your tracks sound better and more polished.

I see the difference mainly in the approach - Final Touch gives you more control over it's modules while Grand Finale has a simpler one-screen interface.

While Final Touch has two EQs and a mastering reverb, Grand Finale has two compressors and a parallel section.

Final Touch has a dithering section while Grand Finale has LUFS metering.

I don't see a clear winner here. They are both doing the same job, but in a different way.

Both apps are excellent at what they do. I’m just saying that while I can get excellent results with literally everything else, Final Touch and I just never seemed to get on with each other. I haven’t used it in so long that I was unaware of the unfixed bugs introduced in iOS 10.

jwmmakerofmusic

@Zen210507 said:

@jwmmakerofmusic said:
-If you’re a complete noob to mastering, you’ll want Grand Finale.

Edited for brevity. But very good post, explains things well.

Thanks mate.

Tarekith

@Zen210507 said:

@RockySmalls said:
Izotope has it.. and its essential if you seriously want to release yr music into the wild.

>

So are you discounting Fab Filters as not serious?

Pro-L actually has this functionality, it's just not enabled by default. Just hold down ALT while changing the Gain.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Tarekith

Option, sorry.

[Deleted User]

@Tarekith said:
Pro-L actually has this functionality, it's just not enabled by default. Just hold down ALT while changing the Gain.

I think you are talking about Pro L 2 because I can’t see this function in Auria ´s Pro L on IOS. Will it be an upgrade to have Pro L2 (if we already have Pro L 1 ) in the next update of Auria or shall we buy again the Pro L 2 at the full price ?

AlexB

@RockySmalls said:
The problem with Grand Finale is it doesn't have a gain matching A-B setting so just switching the processor off means you will go from hearing the probably much louder mastered version to a 'meh!' quieter version.. this is not a good way to master anything as you are not actually able to hear what good ( or bad ) you have really done to your track, the mastering will nearly always sound better though you may not have improved things at all.
afaik final touch or Audio Mastering apps don't have this either.
Izotope has it.. and its essential if you seriously want to release yr music into the wild.
I can't think of a good workaround for this problem.

Hi, what izotope do you own? Elements is enough?

wired2moon

I’ve yet to get to mastering stage, but (and I ask this knowing they don’t have everything) how far will the recently added Waves plugins for Cubasis get me? Also, as far as the Waves plugins go, how would the quality compare to FT, GF, FF et al.

RockySmalls

@AlexB said:

@RockySmalls said:
The problem with Grand Finale is it doesn't have a gain matching A-B setting so just switching the processor off means you will go from hearing the probably much louder mastered version to a 'meh!' quieter version.. this is not a good way to master anything as you are not actually able to hear what good ( or bad ) you have really done to your track, the mastering will nearly always sound better though you may not have improved things at all.
afaik final touch or Audio Mastering apps don't have this either.
Izotope has it.. and its essential if you seriously want to release yr music into the wild.
I can't think of a good workaround for this problem.

Hi, what izotope do you own? Elements is enough?

no Elements looked a bit simplified to me.. but it might be an equivalent to Grand Finale maybe? I have the next one up Ozone standard ,, it has a couple of the vintage plug ins like the limiter etc.. you can get educational discount versions.. i think i only payed £70 or £80 for mine.. not so much more than the elements version...
I actually prefered Ozone 4 as that had a parallel slider that once you had all the mastering parameters to yr liking you could dial back the amount of the whole chain effect to get a more subtle and possibly nicer mastering level..
Elements might do the job, i can't comment really on that?

RockySmalls

this whole thread has got me thinking I should maybe build a default project in Cubasis ( or auria or aum? ) with certain plug ins and see if it can yeald better mastering results..
I guess any old school mastering studio would hand pick all its hardware so it has a 'house' signature sound.. so maybe this is a good way to go ( for us self-unemployed cheapskates of course ;-] )
anybody here done that? any tips or plug in thumbs ups?

JRSIV

I like to have a few options when it comes to mastering, for A-B comparisons mainly, but I also think while some mastering tools will work for a lot of different material, they won't work for everything.

I always mix stuff into its own file for that reason. If you "mix & master" simultaneously, even with full automation, the chance to have a "best mix" to then try to master on different software is lost. Putting a mastering plug or collection of "mastering" apps , on the master bus does work, I just prefer to go old school with three generations of recordings: the session tape/hard disk, the stereo mix and then the finished mastered song/file. Today there's even a fourth stage of preparation of a streaming/download/MP3 version.

I have Fab Filter Pro Q2, Pro C2 & Pro L for Auria and they work great. Pro MB is very well reviewed but I am content with having a pro grade great limiter & EQ. GrandFinale sounds interesting and I may get it just to have another perspective.

I like Final Touch but for awhile now the monitoring volume is just so low. You play a file, and unless the iPad is cranked the playback volume is quite low, during a time when it requires a decent amount of level while adjusting the modules. When the song is exported however the volume and level sound great.

Anyone else notice this? Is it an anomaly for iOS11, since Final Touch hasn't been updated quite so much lately?

Air 2 64gb on 11.2.2

LeeB

@JRSIV said:

Anyone else notice this? Is it an anomaly for iOS11, since Final Touch hasn't been updated quite so much lately?

Air 2 64gb on 11.2.2

I haven't ever had this problem on iPad 4 iOS 10.something. The first time I heard of it was in this thread.

sundhage

thanks johan, I get what you are saying .. but it doesn't seem an entirely satisfactory workaround? does that mean you are unlikely to code in a simpler way to help people gain match?

Your right, it's not a perfect solution (beacuse of the post limiter). We might add a better solution in an upcoming version, I'll add this to the wish list.

Peter321

@Zen210507 said:

@Peter321 said:
However GF is even better if you (like me) don't know what you are doing and are "feeling" your way around - it sounds really great and is extremely easy to understand.

FWIW, Peter, the Fab Filters plug-ins (which only work under Auria Pro for IOS) are very good for music makers like you, and me, who aren’t trained sound engineers. Each filter comes with a massive range of expert made presets, so making a start is pretty easy.

If you want to take a look, there are some great videos on YouTube for -

Pro-L
Pro-MB
Pro-Q2

Then there are the effects FF such as

Timeless 2
Saturn
Volcano
Pro-R

Thanks, but I'm mainly using Gadget and Cubasis, so not really an option for me ;-)

Also, what I like about GF is that, it's so easy to tweak and just use your ears - so it works great even without using presets (because of the limited, but useful parameters included) - at least that's my experience.

[Deleted User]

I agree, would love I though if it allowed you to use it as an AU effects processor. This would put this app over the top IMHO.

@Peter321 said:

@Zen210507 said:

@Peter321 said:
However GF is even better if you (like me) don't know what you are doing and are "feeling" your way around - it sounds really great and is extremely easy to understand.

FWIW, Peter, the Fab Filters plug-ins (which only work under Auria Pro for IOS) are very good for music makers like you, and me, who aren’t trained sound engineers. Each filter comes with a massive range of expert made presets, so making a start is pretty easy.

If you want to take a look, there are some great videos on YouTube for -

Pro-L
Pro-MB
Pro-Q2

Then there are the effects FF such as

Timeless 2
Saturn
Volcano
Pro-R

Thanks, but I'm mainly using Gadget and Cubasis, so not really an option for me ;-)

Also, what I like about GF is that, it's so easy to tweak and just use your ears - so it works great even without using presets (because of the limited, but useful parameters included) - at least that's my experience.

RockySmalls

@sundhage said:

thanks johan, I get what you are saying .. but it doesn't seem an entirely satisfactory workaround? does that mean you are unlikely to code in a simpler way to help people gain match?

Your right, it's not a perfect solution (beacuse of the post limiter). We might add a better solution in an upcoming version, I'll add this to the wish list.

well!! colour me a lovely shade of purple and hugely impressed... massive thanks if you do manage to implement some foolproof way to achieve this.. I think it will put you ahead of the game a little on ios.