Is this a good article on Mastering?
I'm trying to get my head around some of the software that I have, but don't use because I'm a complete knob.
http://www.propellerheads.se/substance/discovering-reason/index.cfm?fuseaction=get_article&article=part3
outside of mentioning the BBE sonic maximizer for mastering its a pretty solid article, some very good info... I would recommend, have an outside source master things since they give you a different set of ears to the project and might miss something you have overlooked or not heard, but also realize that isn't an option for most as usually it costs a fair chuck of change to get something mastered.
Some things that should be taken care of in the mix are mentioned here... It's fairly easy to avoid low-mid buildup in the mix, without eqing the entire mix at the end. And I would never recommend using a sonic maximizer or exciter to make the high end sound better. No thanks. But there is some useful information, too. Mastering is really a conceptual art, and not simply a "use this plugin at this setting" art. It's about stuff you hear. There's not a whole lot to be gained by mastering after you mix, on the same set of speakers, in the same room, with your same ears... sure, you can make it louder, but ideally, you already made the mix sound great, right?
I always want to hear it somewhere else for the master, and I always want someone better than me at mastering pushing the faders.
ugh...too many "magic" plugins mentioned...no good comes from a BBE plugin...only pure evil...
"magic" is a good mix...
Ah HA! So it takes bad suggestions to bring Rocket out of hiding, eh? ;)
I have both a Maximizer and an Exciter and they help live sound in a small room sound better, but they shouldn't be part of anything recorded in my opinion either. :)
A little off topic. I use the Waves Ultramaximizer 1+ in the finals of my Sonar Projects inside of the Sonar sequencer itself. So I mix a mastered project as I mix it. In fact I put the final plug ins at the start of every project as I print anything to audio live or from MIDI. Therefore what I export from Sonar is what I heard when mixed exactly, and it is already mastered from the get go so what I have inside of Sonar is what I get outside.
I used to master in Sound Forge, now all I use Sound Forge for is to dither it down to CD quality (to 16 bit 44.1k from whatever Sonar exports it as)(32 bit 44.1K I think I have Sonar set for) I also use Sound Forge to MP3 the file and put in fades and edit the 2 measures of silence I usually have in the beginning of each Sonar project and any silence that follows in the exported file.
All of my tunes are at the same level, not maximized to the max as some folks do. I set the ultramaximizer at -.03db not more.
This is the best method I have ever found, as mastering the file after it is exported from the sequencer usually adds frequencies that were not there in the mix.