![]() In an ideal world, mastering shouldn’t begin until you have a decent mix to start with, and having a vision of where you want to end up sonically in reality of course it’s not always that simple, but we can dream. ![]() For those occasions, you can use more unique plug-ins such as PSP Vintage Warmer, Waves Kramer Tape and J37, and most recently we’ve used the IOx Audioware Onyx 340i Tube Limiter running inside the Reason 11 plug-in host – across an entire album, no less! Live 10 has the Pedal and Echo devices, which can both come into play here, although sometimes it’s more convenient to use third-party plug-ins if you’re after a specific quality of sound. It’s best to use these only if it suits the specific project. There’s another way to make big changes at the mastering stage – by using more ‘characterful’ devices that make their own imprint in terms of tone, a bit of saturation, or even full-on tape emulation. ![]() The final item in your mastering chain should always be a Limiter, that’s your last chance to boost and optimise the volume, making sure that your rendered stereo file will be as ‘loud’ as possible – or rather, will have the best possible dynamics and in this case, ‘best’ means most appropriate for your project, usually a decision based on genre. Try putting this before EQ Eight if you’re going to use M/S processing. EQ Eight handles the EQ or filtering of the Mid and Side sections, while Utility can make further changes to the stereo image – by defining how much of the mix is mono, and editing the stereo width of the remainder. In Live this is achieved through EQ Eight, and the Utility device pairs up very well with that. Mid/Side processing is the term used to describe when the centre, mono, portion of a stereo signal is separated from the ‘outer’, stereo section – the parts that are not common throughout the stereo image. Stereo imagingĪnything with a Dry/Wet mix can be really helpful with mastering, where you can set a more extreme amount of compression, then dial back the Wet mix to retain more of the original unprocessed sound. It’s quite easy to hear the differences between the presets they can be a fast way to get close to your desired result and edit from there. You can start from scratch, building your own settings, or use the device presets, or audio effect racks that include it. The thresholds, levels, and frequencies of each band are adjustable, making this a powerful tool for improving stereo mixes. Multiband Dynamics is like having three compressors in one, covering low, mid, and high, between them: you could replicate this by making a rack containing three separate compressors, but it’s more convenient to use, and easier to visualise with Multiband Dynamics. ![]() As a general rule of thumb, we’d recommend you not to warp a track that you’re mastering unless there’s a specific request to change tempo, which isn’t usually something that you should be dealing with at this point. ![]()
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