The Master Bus - What do you put on it?

[Indigo Spectrum]

Absolutely nothing.

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

I use a combination of Camel Crusher, Fruity Limiter, Maximizer sometimes and EQ's. I'd use sausage fattener, but I have no money.

[Raddons]

I've stopped using Maximus on the master. I seriously have no clue how Tomb and Glaze and such do it.

[Motivfs]

I've stopped using Maximus on the master. I seriously have no clue how Tomb and Glaze and such do it.

Yup, I did too, I steered clear of it and use compression only now (and try not to brick wall).

I don't get it either really... I went back, listened to what it's like with Maximus and it absolutely kills the song I have... It's amazing really.

[GumsOfGabby]

I've stopped using Maximus on the master. I seriously have no clue how Tomb and Glaze and such do it.

Yup, I did too, I steered clear of it and use compression only now (and try not to brick wall).

I don't get it either really... I went back, listened to what it's like with Maximus and it absolutely kills the song I have... It's amazing really.

Guis. Set Maximus to "Default".

Maximus opens as the Soundgoodiser "a" preset for reasons beyond comprehension.

[Seven]

...Maximus...Preset...Soundgoodiser...

Deja Vu...

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

Nothing. I tried putting a compressor on the master bus once, and it made everything sound bad. My mastering is usually just applying limiters, EQ's, compression etc to individual channel, then play around with all of those things until I feel it's satisfactory. If anything, the only thing I would ever recommend putting on your master channel is a DB meter.

[Nine Volt]

Compressor, EQ, maximizer, and a stereo imager. The standard for Reason

[XXDarkShadow79XX]

Dark Shadow, failing to understand what the OP said again. I thought we were talking about the mixing stage. When I master, I loosely follow this guide:

http://howtomakeelectronicmusic.com/how ... -fl-studio

But I also add an exciter and replace the limiter with a soft clipper. If I'm lazy, the track will sound very very bad and make my horrid mixing worse. If I work for it, my track will sound a bit better.

[Omegastick]

Spectral analyser and a quick master audio effect setup I made. I only use the quick master for seeing if my mix holds up under typical heavy mastering stuff (boost highs and lows, compressor, limiter). This way I can catch things early in the process.

As for how I actually master, I leave my track for a week or two while I work on something else and then come back to it. I make any changes to the mix I have to and then put a limiter with the gain making the track peak at around 3db if it didn't have the limiter, an EQ with a small cut at 250 and a small boost at 100 and I might put a compressor on if the track needs it. Obviously, I don't stick 100% to this if something else makes the track sound better but this is my general mastering workflow. If you mix your track right, you shouldn't have to do anything in mastering other than the limiter and maybe a compressor.

[VINXIS]

Put pro-q with 3 bands in it... pro-c with a fast-medium attack and medium-long release. Pro-L with usually +2 gain, -0.02 dB, same attack and release as the pro-c... and uhhh, eliminating the <20 Hz area... yea, I necroposted didn't I... shet.

Well since this IS on topic, I only put these three because

Pro-q: Three bands only, not higher or lower amounts(excluding the cuts), with a raise in the low end, a small dip in the mid, and a raise in the high end.Mostly because tome... it brings out the liveliness of the track more, since there;s not much being cut. Also with a -2 dB output...

Pro-c: I always think compression is a major part in mastering more than in mixing (aside from sidechaining) because it can bring the dynamics farther and closer to each other, rather than the pro-l only limiting/creating a brick wall. I use it mostly just to create a higher amount of dynamics so I have a attack time in the fast-medium range, while I have the release in the medium-slow range. I also usually have the compression at around -10 while the ratio is around 3:1 or so. Since the dry is at -inf at the beginning, I turn it up to around -52 and turn the wet down to -3 or so.

Pro-L: This limiter is by far the best limiter I've see imo. It has the K ranges, the stereo transients, and gain reduction bar (or whatever it's called lol). Anyways, I turn the output down by how high it is above zero, so if it's 0.1, I'd turn the output down to around 0.03-0.07. I'd then turn the gain up to 2.0, then change to K-14 dB bars, and work from there so the avg. RMS level is around 0-4 at most times.