Best Mastering options for Cubasis

marmakin

In addition to loudness, mastering gives you a chance to analyze and EQ the song in its entirety all as one unit, which is a different consideration than the sound of each individual track. That being said I sure suck at it haha. I’ve always used Final Touch but I never think of the Waves CB plugins, thanks for the reminder!!

LucidMusicInc

@LinearLineman said:
Thanks, @McDtracy, I actually think this will help me in future mastering. Still, hen I normalized my last track, the kick got boomy and I reverted to my original, preferring the abnormalizer
as is my wont.

It’s a good idea to normalise samples and individual tracks, for example if you freeze a track you should normalise it to get the loudest bits as loud as they can get (0db?) but generally on a final mix down I usually opt not to normalise it because it usually muddies the mix. Keeping the master channel capped at -3db with loads of compression yields best results in my opinion but I’m no technician.

LinearLineman

@LucidMusicInc, but CB does not offer normalize for individual tracks, does it?

RockySmalls

@McDtracy said:

@LinearLineman said:
What, exactly is "normalize" ? My parents tried to do that to me for many years. Unsuccessfully.

You're pretty normal around here. It was not always the parents but your "normal" here. You match the "norm". Sorry. Welcome aboard, nerd. Now listen up.

Here's my take on the 3 major "automatic volume adjusters" (using some Wikipedia text for a reference).

1. Audio normalization applies a constant amount of gain to bring the volume up to a target level (the norm). Because the same amount of gain is applied across the entire recording, the signal-to-noise ratio and relative dynamics are unchanged.

2. Audio Compression reduces the volume of loud sounds or amplifies quiet sounds compressing an audio signal's dynamic range. This was used to abusive levels on CD's to insure your music would always be played loud on the radio to sell more product.

3. Audio Limiter allows signals below a specified input power or level to pass unaffected while attenuating (lowering) the peaks of stronger signals that exceed a threshold. Limiting is a type of compression intended to avoid Clipping in a digital system (trying to go louder than a finite number of bits would allow).

POP QUIZ:
Which Squashes the dynamics to a narrower range?

Which makes everything louder?

Which prevents the worst form of distortion and sometimes hardware damage (i.e. speakers get blown out)?

@LinearLineman is THIS you??

smallrocks.bandcamp.com/track/airship-graveyards

LucidMusicInc

@LinearLineman said:
@LucidMusicInc, but CB does not offer normalize for individual tracks, does it?

Yes in the audio editor you can normalise it. It’s a standard feature of any audio editor.

LinearLineman

Thanks, @LucidMusicInc. I will check it out!

ToMess

@richardyot said:

@Jmcmillan said:
I wonder what Mastering apps (Grand finale, Larsen, etc. ) differences are to Fabfilter plugins? I’d bought ProL,Q,MB,C, and G on sales and don’t want to buy more! Would rather replicate what other apps do with FF plugins

FabFilter Pro L2 is the best option for mastering on iOS. Lurssen and Grand Finale are the next best options.

IMO the only real purpose of mastering is to get your track ready for a specific platform (and that's historically all that mastering ever was). These days this means relatively quiet masters that are ready for streaming platforms.

Loud CD-style masters are a thing of the past, because if you submit a loud track to iTunes/Spotify/Youtube they will just make it quieter, to prevent sudden jumps in volume between one track and another. This is great news of course since it means music can have some dynamic range again rather than always being crushed by the limiter.

So IMO mastering should really just be achieving the desired output loudness of the track. Everything else should be done in the mix. If you're not happy with the EQ, fix that in the mix Mastering is for delivery to a specific platform.

I've posted this video a few times already, but as you mentioned LUFS in an earlier post I think you'll find it interesting:

I agree that you should get the track as perfect as possible in mixing, so that mastering requires minimal tweaking. However, besides loudness, i see getting the track to sound good in different stereo systems is also part of the mastering. When mixing you mix to flat sound of studio headphones/speakers and then master the track to sound good in as wide different sound systems as possible. For example a bass might sound good in flat headphones, but then suddenly turn way too loud and shitty sounding in some cheaper headphones that are not flat, or even some higher quality headphones made for casual listeners. Cheap car stereos might need a totally different type of adjustments. The idea of mastering is to find the best balance, not make something that only sounds good with your own studio system.

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Tarekith

Nope, haven't tried that one yet.