The Loudness War

[MaseedProd]

I'm new to the forum, seems like a nice crowd of producers on here with a wide range of skill sets, definitely looking to build with yall.

So after you've made that dope track, of course you want it to sound just as loud as any other commercial track that you put it up against. Mastering is an art in and of itself, personally I've been using Ozone and it's definitely a great platform. It can be a bit complicated at times though...I can get pretty decent loudness from it but I still wanna go louder. I've been checking out Slate Digital's FG-X Virtual Mastering Processor
http://www.slatedigital.com/fgx.php
This thing seems to be amazing because it doesn't actually use a limiter to achieve loudness. I've seen demos on youtube and these guys are get high levels without sacrificing dynamics, getting distortion, or loosing punch. Wondering if any of you are using it and if so, what are your opinions on it?

 

[Fade]

I don't know about the Slate Digital one, but I have Supercharger from NI and it works really well, although it's not mastering really, it's more just compression http://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/effects/supercharger/

But still, it's nice for boosting.

If it's just mastering you're looking at, well Izotope Ozone is really good as well. I've been using for years but like you said, it can be complicated because of all the features, but it does do a great job.

Maybe some others can get in on this thread.

 

[tomkillsjerry]

If your thinking about getting and of those Slate plug-ins try the bundle for a month you do need ilok though. but I use the Virtual Mix Rack, The Virtual Bus Rack on every Mix and Master I do. They sound amazing.

 

[MaseedProd]

@tomkillsjerry - That Virtual Buss Rack is a beast too, I just ordered a new ILok so I will install the FGX once it arrives. It kinda sucks that you need an ILok but now that I've paid for it once, I no longer have to pay for it again...thinking of getting the Virtual Buss Rack next. It sounds amazing, you can hear the difference in tone just by running your track through it without applying any processing. It's a beautifully modeled plug in.

 

[tomkillsjerry]

yea for me its a must have