Thread: Mastering
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Old 09-10-2021, 06:42 AM
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EGS EGS is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Chicago
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Default Re: Mastering

Here's an idea:
BEFORE you master, surgically find and tweak peaks in the mix. Temporarily put an L3 (or similar) on the master fader. Adjust threshold so it starts to hit some peaks. Play through the song and stop when the limiter finds a peak. Locate the offending element(s) in the multitrack (perhaps a snare hit or lead vocal consonant) and manually automate it down a bit at that exact moment. Continue through the entire song. Remove the temp L3, and bounce. Send to mastering engineer, or self-master in a separate session. I find this method of "manual limiting" (i.e. precise & careful mixing) ends up being less distorted than hitting limiters too hard during mastering. Limiters like L3 can definitely introduce distortion, so be careful!
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