(in: jedna diskuze.. ;] klidne revidujte. nepochazi od cloveka v nasledujicim prispevku.)

the secret is, if you use any one process to excess it will sound thrasey, distorted, digital, etc. so get your tracks loud using lots and lots of little boosts which all act in slightly different ways

here's what i used to do

1) get your mix loud and punchy - compress, limit and drive individual channels just enough

2) dynamic EQ and singleband compressor with longish attack, about 1.5:1 - 2:1

3) multiband compression

4) multiband saturation

5) multiband enhancement (makes things sound louder and wider)

6) multiband limiting

7) singleband limiting

you can add softclipping after the single band limiting to get another decibel or two, but best not unless you're using hardware




yeah a chain of 7 or 8 dynamics processes was what we'd typically use at Phase, on dance or guitar stuff pretty much alike

your typical digital mastering processor is usually laid out like out anyway - so when you hear typical dance music mastering it's going on to look like this:

1. Manley Massive Passive
2. Manley Vari-mu
3. Masterflow/Finalizer/dbMax:
a) dynamic EQ
b) compressor
c) multiband expander
d) multiband compression
e) multiband saturation
f) multiband enhancement & width processing
g) multiband limiting
4. Pro Tools/etc.
a) final EQ adjustment
b) possibly further stereo adjustment
c) editing
d) singleband limiter
e) dithering, waveshaping


the 1st stage of compression is to even out the dynamics a little and add definition to the strong transients... so a 1.5:1 over the whole body of the mix with a 30-40ms attack is typical

sometimes there are extra stages like running the mix down to tape, or using a tape emulator - i used to do this between the dbMax/Masterflow and Pro Tools quite often to take the digital edge off, but it's more common to run the mix on to tape first then process... there was a trend for soft/hard clipping after the final limiter too, but it tended to produce very fatiguing mixes so thankfully went out of favour quickly

i'd often use an analog enhancer somewhere in the chain too, i wasn't using them at Phase but i've got really into them again recently

you're never compressing more than 4-5db's in any single stage - the most important thing is to get the bass, mids and treble as even and consistant as possible (in dance music) before heavier compression/limiting - this is how you optimize loudness and minimize side-effects

http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/DIAR ... t_dpid=109


John Dent of Loud Mastering in the UK. This is a man whose mastering credits include seminal albums by everybody from Bob Marley (never let it be said that one man is an Island), to Grace Jones to Motorhead to The Stranglers and a whole lot more. To answer the question ?Why even bother mastering?? John endeavoured to reveal some of the mysteries of the process, and conjured up a fantasia land of sound, saying that when he steps into his mastering studio, he hears things it?s impossible to hear anywhere else. And thanks to Kode 9, we already know the vibe-killing powers of those unknown frequencies.