OK, right now...To those mastering your mixes...
- Thread starter nwright
- Start date
Sean in Silence
Member
But I asked who is using one "pretty much" all the time, say 90% of the time...Just curious is all.
To say it depends on the song is really more correct. The more out of control a mix is, it's more likely to need multi-band. It just so happens that more often than not for me, there is a frequency range that needs the squish.
TheDriller
Member
Erkan
mr-walker.bandcamp
If you spend more time on making your individual tracks sound good and in "shape", you can pull a lot of crap off of your mastering chain. When I think about it... I don't use multiband compression on the mastering, but I certainly have an instance of GMulti on a lot of tracks. God I LOVE that freakin' compressor, even though it has its limitations...
Fox Mulder
The Truth Is Out There
I use an mbc all the time, mostly for corrective purposes. I have yet to learn to use it in a creative manner, though. It can do wonders if you really know what you're doing. As we all probably know, mastering is the last step of the creative process. 
mick thompson
AKA: Ross Canpolat! SM!
i do... kind of...
its not really a multi-band but its a tonality comp - adds warmth on the master bus
stairwells rocket compressor: usually on the LA (high res) preset for metal mixes (setting changes obviously depending on the tonality of the mix) and sometimes the NME preset dialed back on the side chain and compensation to get some pumping going in rock/indie mixes
i love the plugin so much - works below 22 milliseconds if i remember correctly so i have almost complete control over every single wave spike thats humanly audible
the only multi-band i have is KRV's C3 and to be honest i rarely use it which is a band habit of mine - i should really start forcing it where necessary in my mixes
its not really a multi-band but its a tonality comp - adds warmth on the master bus
stairwells rocket compressor: usually on the LA (high res) preset for metal mixes (setting changes obviously depending on the tonality of the mix) and sometimes the NME preset dialed back on the side chain and compensation to get some pumping going in rock/indie mixes
i love the plugin so much - works below 22 milliseconds if i remember correctly so i have almost complete control over every single wave spike thats humanly audible
the only multi-band i have is KRV's C3 and to be honest i rarely use it which is a band habit of mine - i should really start forcing it where necessary in my mixes
Yes, but that isn't what I asked.
I would agree that it depends on how out of control the mix is, but if you "control" the mix before mastering, the need is lessened, no?
It was more a general question than anything. In the few years I've been here I've seen the tide and opinion shift, and my personal journey through all this stuff has led me to ask the question. I had grown accustomed to just throwing it on my mastering chain without too much thought as to "why" or if I really needed it. After spending a whole evening setting parameters and then rendering mixes, I was left a little frustrated, as what I had was a shitty, muddy mess. Simply throwing it out instantly made everything tighter, clearer and better...Then, tweaking the mix became much less difficult.
Seeing how it had become a crutch for me and realizing that I don't need it made me wonder how many here used MB compression as a rule...
Nah, no mutli-band for me on the 2-buss when mixing, as it is TOO fucking easy to totally SLAUGHTER your mix, even though you 'think' it sounds better.
the only time i've used a multi-band when mastering was using the Waves LinMB which has kind of a cool sound to it. It's very easy to totally clamp your mix down so it doesn't move at ALL, which sucks IMO and part of the problem I have with my older mixes listening back.
the only time i've used a multi-band when mastering was using the Waves LinMB which has kind of a cool sound to it. It's very easy to totally clamp your mix down so it doesn't move at ALL, which sucks IMO and part of the problem I have with my older mixes listening back.
GarethSE
New Metal Member
- Jul 5, 2008
- 7,595
- 1
- 0
- 34
When I've mastered stuff for other people I've actually tended to use it nearly every time to smush 300-900hz a littleee bit for a bit of added "bigness." Accentuating the bass and and highs a little bit like.
I don't ever do it to my own stuff though. Just goes to show that having someone else master your shit is better. Another set of ears and all that.
I don't ever do it to my own stuff though. Just goes to show that having someone else master your shit is better. Another set of ears and all that.
I can say without a doubt, just running my mix through my Finalizer Express in general tends to make it sound better. My favorite part about the unit is the high end. You can get a nice "warm" but completely clear high end with it. For this mix in particular, I'm doing it completely ITB...Maybe that's my problem!
I was mainly referring to the waves LinMB, as someone mentioned above. I've got a project currently that I'm mixing that I'm not gelling with like I'd like. Guitar tones are funky (Randall SS), and the bass is bad...I thought I could use LinMB to help clean up some stuff after a looong day of mixing. By the end of the night I thought I had pretty much remedied my problems...But, tire ears and MB comp overuse became apparent the next morning listening in my car (reference). Once I got back to the studio, I took it out and instantly everything cleaned up.
It bums me out to admit it, but I had become a "preset guy". Not that I used presets from the plugs themselves, but I just fell into the habit of using my "standard" plugins at the standard settings...Lazy mixing. If I had actually listened and worked on my mix, I would have saved a days work AND had a better mix. Just sucks. And because of my deal, I was curious as to how many people use it somewhat as a crutch like I did.
Demonstealer
Member
i never use a MB if i'm "mastering" my own mixes, because i make sure to fix any of that shit at the individual track level
