MBox 2 Mini (Mastering)

[digidesignboarder]

Is it possible to master just with the plug-ins coming with the MBox 2 Mini and of course to sound like a professional?

Or do you think it's better to invest in other plug-ins like the Sonnox or McDsp for mixing and mastering?

Thx a lot!!!

[Smithcok]

There's a LOT more to making "professional" records than buying the right plug-ins. If you want pro mastering work, send your files to a professional mastering engineer.

Before talking about plug-ins for this application, its more important to first look at your room acoustics and monitoring system. Mastering is very much a critical-listening-centered practice. All the gear in the world can't fix a bad room. (I still think you should send out to an established M.E.)

Before making any upgrade, I'd take a look at your whole setup (everything from room, monitoring, computer, mics, A/D/A, preamps, etc.) as well as your needs.

[bzldzl]

The chances of you getting the results that you would call "proffesional" are very slim if not impossible, even if you buy some new plug ins. Mastering on that level is an art all in itself, that is usually done in a room designed specifically for mastering with gear tailor fitted to the mastering engineer's ears.

You could likely get workable results with what you have now though. At least make the songs louder using a compressor, limiter and eq. I would save your money for things mentioned by the poster above me before you invest in mastering plug ins.

If people ask me to master their work, I only agree to do it if it is for mp3s or some online stuff. I wouldn't want to waste all the hardwork we did recording and mixing just to try and help them save a few hundred dollars by not taking it elsewhere for mastering.

Besides all that, you really want a fresh set of ears in a different room for mastering. You are likely way to familiar with your mixes to get the perspective you need to master the material properly.

Try what you have now though if you are not ready to take the stuff to be mastered. I would do eq > compressor > limiter and just give it a go until it sounds good in your room, then take a cd to your car, friends house, stereo store and try a lot of different systems and take notes, then fine tune.

[The Dougfather]

If you want good results fast then izoptope ozone has some great presets to get you going.

[digidesignboarder]

Originally Posted by bzldzl

The chances of you getting the results that you would call "proffesional" are very slim if not impossible, even if you buy some new plug ins. Mastering on that level is an art all in itself, that is usually done in a room designed specifically for mastering with gear tailor fitted to the mastering engineer's ears.

You could likely get workable results with what you have now though. At least make the songs louder using a compressor, limiter and eq. I would save your money for things mentioned by the poster above me before you invest in mastering plug ins.

If people ask me to master their work, I only agree to do it if it is for mp3s or some online stuff. I wouldn't want to waste all the hardwork we did recording and mixing just to try and help them save a few hundred dollars by not taking it elsewhere for mastering.

Besides all that, you really want a fresh set of ears in a different room for mastering. You are likely way to familiar with your mixes to get the perspective you need to master the material properly.

Try what you have now though if you are not ready to take the stuff to be mastered. I would do eq > compressor > limiter and just give it a go until it sounds good in your room, then take a cd to your car, friends house, stereo store and try a lot of different systems and take notes, then fine tune.

At first, thx for the answers!!!

bzldzl, do you mean to eq, compress and using a limiter for each instrument in the mix or do you mean it for doing it during the mastering??

[bzldzl]

I would bounce your mix to a non-interleaved stereo mix and then bring that into a new session. If you have enough cpu power you could just put the eq>comp>limiter in that order on your master fader.

Give yourself a day or two not listening to your mix if you can to let your brain refresh a bit.

Then start off compressing your mix, use the bypass button a lot to make sure as you are doing any compression etc that it doesn't make your mix sound worse. Once you get your mix to where the instruments etc are a bit tighter and bigger then eq out any frequencies that are now to much because of the compression.

Then use your limiter to get rid of the transients that pop up on the meters way more than the average level of the mix. Dither to 16 bit and bounce it.

I am not a mastering engineer and their are books dedicated to just mastering so take this for what it is worth. You should be able to get something that is pretty decent. One really tough thing about mastering is making the mix sound good on a wide range of systems, which is why I like to listen to anything I do master on a number of different systems.

[digidesignboarder]

Okay, I will give it a try!

So when I'm putting it into the following alignment (eq>comp>limiter),
why should I start with the Compression and then using the Equalizer?
Wouldn't it be more useful the other way round or is that foolish?

'Cause I remember a magazine, in which they had done a provisorily Mastering in the way I'm asking you now!!

Although big thx to you!!

[bzldzl]

Generally I find my mixes sound the way I want them to in regards to EQ but when I start compressing the mix things start to change in the sound and that is when I use the EQ to adjust.

Just A/B everything you do to make sure you are getting a better sound with each change.

Another thing is if you don't have a subwoofer in your studio be sure to listen to some systems that do. I lot of systems people listen to music on have subs of some sort and you want to be sure your low end isn't over the top. A crappy set of PC speakers with a sub would be a good thing to listen to you mastered copy on for example. It's pretty crazy how much different things sound on different systems, which is part of what makes mastering such an art, to be able to get a good sound that translates well from system to system.

The only thing set in stone is that the limiter is last in the chain. If something isn't working out right try a different combo of signal chain or plug ins.