Mastering Program?

[Heaven And Hell]

Do you master in your music host, the same one you record your music in, or in a dedicated editor like Audition or Soundforge?

[seismic1]

I record and mix in EnergyXT. I master in T-Racks3/T-Racks CS

[MetaDronos]

Audition is both my FX host and mixing/editing platform.
I use a chain of freeware plugins: Molot, MHorse P3 and T-SLEDGE sometimes aided with IQ4, Limiter No.6 and Proximity.

[Thought Experiment]

Very occasionally I use Project 5 (!) to throw together loops or fx/transition noises, but I record and mix using Reaper, then import the rendered audio back into a Reaper project I have set up specifically for mastering. I use a combination of Ozone3 for low-and high-end excitement, and a couple of Nomad Factory plugins for warming and (gentle) limiting.

[S1gnsOfL1fe]

T-Racks CS Grand! With the amount of Gear Credits you currently are holding, I bet you could buy the whole thing.

Worth it to get the standalone too, not just buy the stuff in pieces. Can you buy software outright with gear credits? :

[manducator]

I do everything in reaper; creating mixing and mastering but I use zillions of 3rd party plugins.

And I do everything in a separate session.

[Ciberithm]

I record and mix in Cubase, and then master in Audition, although the word "master" sort of implies you know what you are doing, which I cannot claim.

[aoVI]

record, mix, and master in Pro Tools 10, using Reaper as a rewire for VSTs. I use Ozone, but was using T-Racks for a while.

and I fall in the same category as Ciberithm--I wouldn't claim to have the best of ears, so often I do not even master if I feel it doesn't need a final "coat".

[Heaven And Hell]

T-Racks CS Grand! With the amount of Gear Credits you currently are holding, I bet you could buy the whole thing.

Worth it to get the standalone too, not just buy the stuff in pieces. Can you buy software outright with gear credits? :

I have 2 Gear Credits left.

But that's because I bought T-RackS Grand and various amp sims. :biggrin:

I honestly didn't know that T-RackS was a standalone program. I thought you used the individual modules in your host. :blush:

[Nemo]

Wavelab with mostly Flux and Sonnox plugins as needed. Over the years I've gone through several different combinations of plugins beginning with Waves and the first version of Ozone. Just trying out different combinations of tools that seemed to work (or not work) for me.

I started out with Wavelab version 3... so part of the reason I continue to use it is just that I'm used to it. What I like about it is that it's very fast. I also like the visual feedback via the various meters and that you can run things in batch mode if you need to do specific things to a bunch of files. Did I mention that it's fast?

I hesitate to call what I do "mastering" but at the same time, things do tend to benefit from that final polish and adjustment. Some day when my music merits the expense I may try a real mastering house with a real mastering engineer.

[seismic1]

I've been using T-Racks for over 5 years, and in that time, I have to say that I'm more than happy with the results that it produces. Over the years, I've added to the modules I originally purchased, and have a range of EQs fit for a king. I have a couple of the Quad band units too, and recently used the Imager with some pleasing results.

I'm now considering purchasing the Izotope Music Production Bundle 2, not because I'm unhappy with T-Racks, but because I fancy trying something different, and shaking things up a bit. I'm also in the process of learning a new DAW, so this could be quite a steep learning curve.

Does anybody have any useful Ozone/Insight/Trash/Neutron experiences or comments?

[aoVI]

Since my previous post, I have moved on from Ozone/Alloy and ProTools. Not that the results weren't good, I just found a few things I liked better. I seem to have moved away from Izotope in general. I own Iris, Alloy, Trash, and Ozone and none of them seem to be first stringers in my work anymore. Again, not from poor results(well, besides Iris), just feel like other things work better for me.

I kind of feel like Izotope (like AIR) focus more on bringing new customers in than keeping old ones. I may be off base in my feelings.

Currently I finalize projects using Studio One's project feature. Plugs at that point generally include Waves (Abbey Road RS56/J37, SSL Bus Comp), Slate VBC/VTM/VCC, Nomad Factory Magnetic II, T Racks MEQ432, TDR Kotelnikov--if any. I'm sure in a year or more it will change again.

[Maharg]

I do everything in Logic Pro including mixing and mastering. If I ever upgrade it will probably be Albeton Live.

[synkrotron]

I used to think I did mastering, and then I started to understand that, no matter how many tools I purchased, I could never say that I had "Mastered" my sound files.

In the early days I used Sound Forge and I liked the effects chain that comes with 10. Very handy that. But nowadays I do most of my *ahem* mastering within Sonar and I only use Sound Forge to trim, and fade if I didn't get that quite right in my DAW (which I could also do within Sonar, but I like doing it in Sound Forge). Might sound like a waste, but I already have the software, so I may as well use it, seeing as I am conversant with its functions.

[ian]

Does anybody have any useful Ozone/Insight/Trash/Neutron experiences or comments?

of those i own trash since it's the only one i could justify getting for the price i got it at (found it on sale for $40). i almost only use it for distortion (not to say its other modules aren't good too, they just don't always fit super well into my workflow) and i think it's a very great distortion model that was worth getting for that cheap. have been able to fit it in everything from drum and bass to dark ambient to orchestral music. if you own fl studio, it's basically like the built-in waveshaper there except loads more versatile. you can't make every waveshaping algorithm with it but it does tons of stuff i haven't seen other distortion modules come close to doing. it's also very useful in a mastering sense, particularly as a harmonic exciter. i don't think i would have bought it at its original price but if you can find it on a big sale it's worth it.

considering we're close to the holidays, if you're making any music purchases you should probably just wait until then to buy anything anyway though.. unless you can find stuff for cheaper beforehand.