Megadeal on a TC electronics finalizer 96K.. should i go for it!?

[Black neon bob]

Man, i always wanted some really nice hardware mastering software.. and TC finalizer is still on the top of my list.

Now i was going to buy one new, but i can for a really great deal from a studio who is ditching some of his stuff for low prices, however.. anyone have experience with it on this forum? does it really add that much more to the mix? easy to work with? will this beat my chain of r-comp/waves C4 and L2 on my masterbuss in nuendo?

I might just go for this deal because i could probably always resell it for the same amount of cash anyway, but i dont need the hassle of that and i really dont want to buy hardware i dont really need... so if anyone has this device or had it, let me know what you think of it!

Cheers.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

I have seen one used . In combination with a manley varimu.

Sounded ace.

 

[Aaron Smith]

I have the Finalizer Express, and to my knowledge the unit is of equal quality to the 96k version when you use it at 44.1 like I do. I've liked the sound of it from the first time I used it, although as is true with really any piece of gear, you need to use your ears and use it carefully. My main tip with the Finalizer is that you can't hit the compression stage very hard or it will destroy your recording very, very easily. Also, it's easy to get audible clipping on the guitars with it, especially in weird spots (like a guitar break, but not when the whole band is playing). I'm not entirely sure why this is, but normally with enough tweaking of the mastering chain, you can avoid it.
Overall, when you use it in conjunction with a more precise EQ and some other compression (I've used the C4 and it worked great), you can get great results. The last I heard, Andy will get a good mix going and then throw the Finalizer on the master bus and mix through it for a while, although I imagine by now he probably doesn't even need to make many changes to the initial pre-Finalizer mix based on all his experience with the Finalizer! I don't know about the rest of Andy's mastering chain- the most I've heard him say is that it involves "a few inserts". Whether or not he's being deliberately secretive is unknown to me...

PS
The Finalizer will not eat your snare near as much as the L2 will...