Andy, a mastering question.

[Tzek]

Hello Andy...

Here's a quote by "evildonkeymaster" from another thread:

"I love how Andy's masters sound louder than everyones but are deep warm and powerfull. And if you drop them into a wav/aiff editor and take a look there are very few flat tops generally just an excellently compressed and maximized wave with "fuzzy" tops and bottoms."

I always wanted to ask this but i didn't know how to describe it. I like how evildonkeymaster describes it and i take this opportunity to finaly ask you.... How do you do it???... what plug'ins you use for mastering?... I find it impossible to have a loud mix that's not "flat topped".

 

[Frank'nfurter]

As far as I know Andy uses a extern TC-Finalizer Plus with "fits to the song" adjustments.

 

[Andy Sneap]

On the finailzer you can set the % between soft and hard limit, so I'll usually set that to around 5% soft, though sometimes I'll go 100% hard limit if I'm loosing the attack on things. My masters are actually a touch quieter I think than alot of peoples, I'm sick of hearing quality sacrificed for volume, so many mixes are crushed at the mastering.

At the end of the day, can you hear the flat wave?? If not, don't worry

 

[Tzek]

On the finailzer you can set the % between soft and hard limit, so I'll usually set that to around 5% soft, though sometimes I'll go 100% hard limit if I'm loosing the attack on things. My masters are actually a touch quieter I think than alot of peoples, I'm sick of hearing quality sacrificed for volume, so many mixes are crushed at the mastering.

At the end of the day, can you hear the flat wave?? If not, don't worry

Ok... that's really helpful andy.
Thanks for answering.

 

[Frank'nfurter]

Btw, would be interesting how tight you go in the TC-normalizer section, Andy?
zero clips or 2-3 clips in about 10 sec?