Getting your loudness?

[grywolf627]

Well, I'm not Jeff...and my writing prowess doesn't even compare to his. But I really like the songs and the mix. These sound very good for unmastered versions! And I agree about using Slate's technique of gclip+gclip+voxengo elephant. After playing around with that and getting the hang of it...my masters (if you can call them that) definitely sound better now. The loudness I want, without the drums being squashed.

 

[MarcusD777]

Anyone else rockin the Waves API 2500 stereo compressor in their final buss/mastering chain? Ive been using it lately in my chain as a pre amp gain stage with the threshold all the way to the left not compressing anything... pushing it for color and a few dbs of gain... If you enable the makeup gain button it has a peak stopper at 0db that let you push the gain without clipping your DAW...

 

[JBroll]

I don't use Waves stuff, and if you got your Waves plugins like 95% of the people who get Waves plugs be careful with what you say.

Honestly, I think that having fewer things done automatically is better because they really just take control away, so I prefer to use bare-bones stuff... but I'm a silly little panda.

Jeff

 

[MarcusD777]

JBroll... Im not sure im following you with the whole "having fewer things done automatically is better because they just take control away"??? Please explain and whats it like to have little panda fur??

 

[JBroll]

I personally think that if you need a 'peak stopper' you've neglected something else in the mix and there should be a more elegant solution. That seems like the kind of thing that could be abused much too easily...

... and panda fur is nice, but it tends to stain easily.

Jeff

 

[MarcusD777]

Ahh yea i was just stating that the makeup gain knob is kinda set up like analog tape where you can drive the gain in the plug without actually clipping your bus channel thats all... I think it gives a better and fuller color than the SSL plug which tends to get brittle past .5 on the gain knob... and i dont need the peak stopper it just has that function available.... Is there anyway i can grow panda fur of my own?? It looks comfy...

 

[Baddo]

Ditto - are there any good Mac clippers?

Old question that was never answered but if you are still for a Mac clipper looking you might wanna check Airwindows' Crystal.

 

[ApolloSpeed]

Hey Steven..... have you ever implemented using Ferrox and TesslaSE or other saturation and/or tube and tape simulation into the mastering chain aswell?

 

[Slate]

If I need more harmonics in mastering I usually do it with the right eq..

 

[Demonstealer]

Okay I definitely got some insight after reading this thread. Definitely very helpful.

 

[brianhood]

surprised this was never stickied. I've seen people refer to this thread constantly on other threads

 

[Sean in Silence]

surprised this was never stickied. I've seen people refer to this thread constantly on other threads

+1

 

[jinxtigr]

Old question that was never answered but if you are still for a Mac clipper looking you might wanna check Airwindows' Crystal.

Oh no no. trust me, I AM Chris J of airwindows, not just a noob metal guitar player putting up mixes

No, the one you want is 'ADClip'- it's way better at the job than Crystal (mind you, Crystal is free...) But more than that, what you want is an approach- I started off mastering before I got frustrated at the loudness wars and stopped trying to get gigs (ironically, just around when I finally kinda knew what I was doing)

The approach I like is 'slow to fast'. You use compression, then limiting, then clipping- each one contributing only part of the loudness gain. Since I get to use my own stuff freely I go for 'VariMu' into a gain boost of any sort into 'ADClip'- since I also put out a hell of a lot of free stuff you can play with the basic technique running Pressure (like VariMu but more colorful) into say Drive (or if you're OK with softer saturation, Density, which is a very handy and very basic tool)

http://www.jinxtigr.com/f/Pressure.dmg
http://www.jinxtigr.com/f/Drive.dmg
http://www.jinxtigr.com/f/Density.dmg

and here's Crystal in case you prefer that- I will admit it gives you more control over soft vs. hard clipping (but people weren't as into the sound of that algorithm)
http://www.jinxtigr.com/f/Crystal.dmg

and here's a bass SVT cab plugin in case you need that kind of thing on hand
http://www.jinxtigr.com/f/CabSVT.dmg

I think I do pretty well at getting things loud, but more than loud I want loud and BIG and full-range, so that always makes it a lot more challenging

 

[Ermz]

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/new-...l-mastering-console-loud-just-got-better.html

 

[jinxtigr]

Nice pictures, but I can beat him. Maybe when he actually releases something we can have a battle using somebody's metal track

The LAST thing you want is for the dynamics processor to identify bass coming in on a kick hit and kill the sharpness of the attack transient...

 

[JBroll]

Somehow, whenever I see more loudness 'solutions' I can only think of Chipotlaway.

Jeff

 

[jinxtigr]

Somehow, whenever I see more loudness 'solutions' I can only think of Chipotlaway.

Yeah, but just try and get people to stop crapping blood all over their mixes!

 

[Ermz]

Fair call, but the chipotle ain't going anywhere.

 

[JBroll]

surprised this was never stickied. I've seen people refer to this thread constantly on other threads

Probably my fault, I really should have gotten more sleep... oops...

Jeff

 

[Timmm3]

hi!

i tried the clipper thing and it is surprisingly awesome.

But can someone explain to me why the clipper(s) come before the limiter and not the other way round?