What do you use for mastering your tracks?

dacalion

Hands Of FIRE!
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 259
Ok, I just sent out $250.00 and I'm thinking wth? At first glance, looks cool but Im not digging the presets very much. I will give it a try, give me a week or 2.
 

dacalion

Hands Of FIRE!
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 259
Try it out and let me know if you don't just love Ozone.

hahaha! I'm talking about Ozone. Most cats around here are looking for some starter ish! Personally, I don't think anyone on this forum is trying to spend $10 grand + on some mastering gear...lol. I told you earlier it was overkill, Geez you're hardheaded!=) Cats want to sound good on the internet and they feel like mastering their tracks will help them get a better sound.

Actually there should be 2 different mastering categories, 1. for internet and doing what we do and 2. those that already have a deal and looking for that extra touch (these are the ones that should either spend $10 grand + or hire a professional to do the job).

OVERKILL!
 

Formant024

Digital Smokerings
ill o.g.
Well i think 98% of hiphopcats misinterpret what mastering implies and what's BENEFICIAL to be able to really master anything. ergo, wishful thinking lol. "owning" mastering plugins is probably the least demand for being able to do a mastering. Im not saying you need hardware to be able to master as currently its pretty much hybrid, but it will cost you in the least a 10K. If you'd master itb and have a good room then you'd still spend 5k on speakers (aside from room treatment). Proper ears and a proper setup makes you HEAR the difference between using cables, aside from the rest of the chain. If you cant hear such a difference, seriously...leave it alone.

You dont master anything for internet, you render an mp3 from a master. You do master for various media indeed, but this is regarding the limitations of the carrier. Vinyl for example needs different mastering since it susceptible to wide stereofields and bassheavy tracks. By this it doesnt make the track sound better but prepares a fail proof master for duplication. Mastering in this case implies keeping the dynamics of the track and keeping frequency ranges as much as possible.

Mastering for cd/dvd is the same as for broadcasting, since broadcasting uses heavy limiting already there is no need to treat it differently.

Anyway, in short, i consider these mastering's done by the 98% of homeproducers a gimmick to fix up a crappy mix, adding just more compression and brickwall limiting to gain the phatness...also refered to as the loudness war... imo in all those cases, work on your mixing skills and check up with a decent mastering studio.
 

dacalion

Hands Of FIRE!
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 259
I gotta admit, Ozone is pretty good so far. I've been doing the research and a lot of cats on the internet think that Ozone makes their beats sound better than a Waves chain. They never did say how they tested the two but I would say that at first glance, Waves offers alot more but Ozone is very user friendly. Waves presets are just average at best while Ozones presets pack a bit more punch. I believe this is why those guys felt like Ozone made their beats sound better, but it's not like Waves can't do the same thing and more with the right adjustments. Bang for the buck goes to Ozone by far. Had I known of Ozone before Waves, I just may have been a die hard Ozone man but I'm just more familiar with Waves now, so thats where I'm staying.

@dp - Why do you like Ozone better?
 

thedreampolice

A backwards poet writes inverse.
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 21
Waves offers alot more

Such as?

I like it better because it just sounds better, I don't do much with presets. But for example the L2-L3 limiters sound like crap compared to about every other modern limiter plugin on the market. Bottom line Ozone sounds better and once you learn it is MUCH more flexible. The only thing's waves do better at is the Studio classics, the Artist series and GTR. Every other plugin they offer has better sounding alternatives.
 

dacalion

Hands Of FIRE!
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 259
If you've throughly compared the two, you should know how much more Waves has to offer. Waves can do ish with music that Ozone doesn't even attempt to, but let me guess...it's probably things that you either don't use or you use other plugs to do the same...lol.

Man I would luv for you to come out to NC again, better yet, the next time you do be sure to call me. I got some ish for you that Mitch didn't teach you...lol. Granted I'm not into Zen and workflow like you are but I bet you'll leave enlightened.

Anyway, I'm liking Ozone but I still got more testing to do. =)
 

dacalion

Hands Of FIRE!
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 259
Thats what I said from the start, Waves offers so much more and you can add every izotope plugin and they still don't come close...

Here's something that I found as well...

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Edit: And the work process is easier in L3.
 

thedreampolice

A backwards poet writes inverse.
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 21
8.5 what? What are they measuring. And again I don't care how loud it gets if it sounds like shit and the L3 does not sound near as good as other options.

I still don't understand how you can compare a bundle of plugins that waves has been building over 15 years to a young company like izotope.
 

dacalion

Hands Of FIRE!
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 259
@dp - hahahaha! Seriously though, that chart really doesn't matter at all. Even if Waves or Ozone were off the charts it's still NO better than it's operator and thats my point when people (seriously) say that one thing is so much better than something else. Going back and forth over this is kinda like the great analog vs digital debate imo, senseless!

@everybody else - This goes back to Klangboks simply wanting to improve his sound and do his own mastering, there's nothing wrong with that, to suggest that he go out and buy a ton of gear or to pay a min. of $120 per hour for a professional mastering engineer when he's not a signed artist is overkill and senseless, no matter how much logic is "preached" behind it. PE said it well...Don't believe the hype! Have fun with you're music and be the best as you can at it.
 
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