Pre Mastering process

[albee1952]

Good advice above, which got me thinking more(usually a dangerous thing). As much as I recommend youtube as a source of tutorials, one thing that always makes me cringe is when someone tries to do something because they saw somebody doing it. Its usually best if you fully understand WHY someone does something a certain way(just because it works for them, doesn't mean it is the best way for you). Plugins on a Master track are post-fade, but I think you are over-complicating things. If you bring your bounced file into a "mastering" session, you don't even need a Master track. Do all your "mastering" plugins on the audio track with your 2-mix. Since those plugins will all be pre-fader, that works in a totally logical(to me) way. Also, you can complete all your processing and the commit the track(which gives you your final stereo audio file), and when you Export Clips as Files, if you export to 16 bit(from a 24 bit session), dither will automatically be applied(so remember to NOT dither twice).

2 more cents; Maxim is really not very good(I would never use it). There are lots of better plugins for this purpose. Massey L2007 is quite good, as are the Waves L1, L2 and L3. PSP Xenon is also quite good, though I tend to use iZotope's Ozone.

(okay...3 more cents), The best things about using a real Mastering person is actually 2 things that most of us won't have; a fresh set of ears(its tough to be objective when you've heard the song 1000 times), and extremely accurate monitoring. Not much we can do about the former, but re the monitoring, be cautious about getting radical with EQ and do check your work on the best headphones you can afford, specifically to check the bottom end(bass, kick, toms, low synths...) because that range(35Hz up to 150Hz or so) is the toughest to get right on the average home studio speakers and room