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Old 02-15-2015, 03:34 AM   #1
macousticboy
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Default Okay, so how about that Mastering Tutorial for Reaper?

On at least 2 occasions, I mentioned the need for two things: 1) A tutorial for Reaper SPECIFICALLY for using it as a mastering platform and 2) A tutorial for ReaXComp. Has these been provided and I just missed the boat? I'm guessing no.

There are some threads I looked at when searching for "Mastering" as a topic that seemed to amount to not much more than a bunch of guys sharing what chain they use, but that's about it. Reaper has a Mastering Chain that I have used in the past. But I haven't seen where it's helped me get up to the quality of Pro-mastered, Radio-Ready audio.

There's also the fact that I have noticed a lot of the plugins people recommend here tend to bang levels in the red automatically, and are a bit pain to try and wrestle down to a decent level. ReaXComp is a good example. Everytime I load it, the meters on both sides are a bright red at 1st, and I always set the Master bus to -4 or lower if needed.

There are tons of tutorials on Youtube that are titled "Master with free VST plugins" and I've always found the results to be less than desirable. Those often recommended Variety of Sound plugins are a great example. Start piling those babies up high enough (like the videos say to do) and say "Goodbye song, hello exaggerated dynamics" (and STILL not as loud a a Pro can do!) BootEQmkII is the only one I found worth a damn - I can sweeten up a harsh sounding harmonica a bit, for example. But, I digress.

So how about it, Reaper? I'm a loyal user with a paid licence. You say I can master on this platform. What's the steps I need to take to get my tracks up to sounding like the Big Boys? When might we expect someone to come forth - even a blog post offsite or a Youtube video would help - with the keys to this mystery?
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Old 02-15-2015, 03:35 AM   #2
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Posting to sub to thread.
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Old 02-15-2015, 03:43 AM   #3
Lord Marceaux de Champs
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The so called "Big Boys" use a lot of analogue gear, ever thought about that fact ?

And most tracks that were produced on software basis only, sound like they were produced with plugins only,
and I am not only talking about loudness war!
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Old 02-15-2015, 04:21 AM   #4
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Originally Posted by Lord Marceaux de Champs View Post
The so called "Big Boys" use a lot of analogue gear, ever thought about that fact ?

And most tracks that were produced on software basis only, sound like they were produced with plugins only,
and I am not only talking about loudness war!
Funny, but I've heard stuff that was done mostly in the DAW without a lot of the bells & whistles of a "real" studio, and they manage to make it sound awesome!
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Old 02-15-2015, 06:19 AM   #5
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Funny, but I've heard stuff that was done mostly in the DAW without a lot of the bells & whistles of a "real" studio, and they manage to make it sound awesome!
You talked abot the "BIG Boys"

here the links to three of the best Studios in the world, please have a look at the gear !



http://electricladystudios.com/studios/studio-a/

http://members.bitstream.net/tgg/tgg.../studiob2.html

http://www.sunsetsound.com/?page_id=50
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Old 02-15-2015, 06:21 AM   #6
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Originally Posted by Lord Marceaux de Champs View Post
You talked abot the "BIG Boys"

here the links to three of the best Studios in the world, please have a look at the gear !



http://electricladystudios.com/studios/studio-a/

http://members.bitstream.net/tgg/tgg.../studiob2.html

http://www.sunsetsound.com/?page_id=50
one more Big Boy

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb0...es/jmjarre.htm
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Old 02-15-2015, 06:23 AM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lord Marceaux de Champs View Post
You talked abot the "BIG Boys"

here the links to three of the best Studios in the world, please have a look at the gear !

http://electricladystudios.com/studios/studio-a/
http://members.bitstream.net/tgg/tgg.../studiob2.html
http://www.sunsetsound.com/?page_id=50
So what? Do you think the OP would get better results working in such a studio?
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Old 02-15-2015, 12:57 PM   #8
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Originally Posted by Lord Marceaux de Champs View Post
You talked abot the "BIG Boys"
Yes. The producers I'm referring to are able to get a sound "like the Big Boys," without spending a lot of money.

ETA: You can find them anytime, day or night, residing on Gearslutz.com.

Last edited by macousticboy; 02-15-2015 at 01:02 PM.
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Old 02-15-2015, 04:00 AM   #9
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On at least 2 occasions, I mentioned the need for two things: 1) A tutorial for Reaper SPECIFICALLY for using it as a mastering platform and 2) A tutorial for ReaXComp. Has these been provided and I just missed the boat? I'm guessing no.

There are some threads I looked at when searching for "Mastering" as a topic that seemed to amount to not much more than a bunch of guys sharing what chain they use, but that's about it. Reaper has a Mastering Chain that I have used in the past. But I haven't seen where it's helped me get up to the quality of Pro-mastered, Radio-Ready audio.

There's also the fact that I have noticed a lot of the plugins people recommend here tend to bang levels in the red automatically, and are a bit pain to try and wrestle down to a decent level. ReaXComp is a good example. Everytime I load it, the meters on both sides are a bright red at 1st, and I always set the Master bus to -4 or lower if needed.

There are tons of tutorials on Youtube that are titled "Master with free VST plugins" and I've always found the results to be less than desirable. Those often recommended Variety of Sound plugins are a great example. Start piling those babies up high enough (like the videos say to do) and say "Goodbye song, hello exaggerated dynamics" (and STILL not as loud a a Pro can do!) BootEQmkII is the only one I found worth a damn - I can sweeten up a harsh sounding harmonica a bit, for example. But, I digress.

So how about it, Reaper? I'm a loyal user with a paid licence. You say I can master on this platform. What's the steps I need to take to get my tracks up to sounding like the Big Boys? When might we expect someone to come forth - even a blog post offsite or a Youtube video would help - with the keys to this mystery?
its not about mastering chains and its not about the plugins in that mastering chains. and of course its not about outboard gear, that is a stupid blahblahing that people do, that do not got anywhere but want to sound important and knowledgeable.

anyway ... mastering is to do to a track after it has been mixed that, what is needed to improve it. sometimes after mixing nothing is needed. so mastering in that cases is only to state, that there is nothing left to do. ready. mastering done by listen twice to a track.

sometimes there can be done a little bit of this or that, depends on the track, the mix, the mixer, the mastering engineer and hows the weather on that particular day. maybe moon-phases. no, I am kidding, not moon-phases, you get the picture.

so dont think from the point that mastering is needed. think from the track: does he need anything, that he cant get at the mix? if you can improve the track at the mix, do it. do everything possible at the mix. only if something cant be done at the mix, then you do it after the mix.

that is called mastering.

and mastering is to bring the track into the various needed formats. and for that is no mastering-chain needed but comversion tools, sometimes dithering. (Bob Katz says, that dithering is overrated. when in doubt, leave it out.)
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Old 02-15-2015, 04:25 AM   #10
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its not about mastering chains and its not about the plugins in that mastering chains. and of course its not about outboard gear, that is a stupid blahblahing that people do, that do not got anywhere but want to sound important and knowledgeable.

anyway ... mastering is to do to a track after it has been mixed that, what is needed to improve it. sometimes after mixing nothing is needed. so mastering in that cases is only to state, that there is nothing left to do. ready. mastering done by listen twice to a track.

sometimes there can be done a little bit of this or that, depends on the track, the mix, the mixer, the mastering engineer and hows the weather on that particular day. maybe moon-phases. no, I am kidding, not moon-phases, you get the picture.

so dont think from the point that mastering is needed. think from the track: does he need anything, that he cant get at the mix? if you can improve the track at the mix, do it. do everything possible at the mix. only if something cant be done at the mix, then you do it after the mix.

that is called mastering.

and mastering is to bring the track into the various needed formats. and for that is no mastering-chain needed but comversion tools, sometimes dithering. (Bob Katz says, that dithering is overrated. when in doubt, leave it out.)
I saw a video on dithering recently and I thought it was the silliest thing!

If I knew what I could do to boost the audio at the mixing level, I'd be doing that already. I suppose I should be looking at the Reaper mixing tutorials?

What conversion tools are you referring to?
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Old 02-15-2015, 04:38 AM   #11
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For "mastering" you need, above all, the ears and the experience. And an acoustically treated space with full-range monitors that you know. How does that come as a plugin?

The better the ears, the more demanding the specific sound or features of the tools. That doesn't mean you can't "master" within Reaper and its plugins.
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Old 02-15-2015, 04:58 AM   #12
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For "mastering" you need, above all, the ears and the experience. And an acoustically treated space with full-range monitors that you know. How does that come as a plugin?
Well, actually there's an avid Reaper user on Youtube - RealHomeRecording - who has a plugin he recommend to do just that - correct your "room" problems to give you an accurate rendering of what you should be hearing in your speakers!

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The better the ears, the more demanding the specific sound or features of the tools. That doesn't mean you can't "master" within Reaper and its plugins.
Okay so great! When can I expect to watch your tutorial? ;-)
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Old 02-15-2015, 05:52 AM   #13
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Well, actually there's an avid Reaper user on Youtube - RealHomeRecording - who has a plugin he recommend to do just that - correct your "room" problems to give you an accurate rendering of what you should be hearing in your speakers!



Okay so great! When can I expect to watch your tutorial? ;-)
My tutorial would consist of:
- listen to music
- compare different eras and mixes
- listen again, what do you find "pleasant" and what "unpleasant". Why?
- do this for about 8 years
- get speakers you trust
- after 3 years you might have found (or learned) them
- now that you know what you want you have to look for the tools to achieve that sound
- voilà
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Old 02-15-2015, 01:13 PM   #14
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I saw a video on dithering recently and I thought it was the silliest thing!

If I knew what I could do to boost the audio at the mixing level, I'd be doing that already. I suppose I should be looking at the Reaper mixing tutorials?

What conversion tools are you referring to?
what do you mean by "boosting audio while mixing"? do you mean to make it sound well? ok, you have to make to make the tracks sound good, each one of its own, and THEN to make them sound good together.

the crux is, that noone can explain really how that is done. because it depends. I know that that is the killer answer at all, "it depends" means all and nothing. you have a track and you listen to it and you think: doesnt sound good. so, what is lacking, what is too much? too dull? take an eq, make it brighter, or try Thrillseeker, or cut out some basses and make it louder. you have to change it so that you think it sounds good. refer it to CDs you know and like how it has to sound.

and so on and on ... you see, that it depends. it depends on the sounds you have.

so I dont think anyone can teach you how to mix, because it depends and its everytime a complete different story. and nobody knows your material. so you even cant use presets. or at least you can use them as starting point.

you surely can have a look at that lots of mixing tutorials @ youtube. but that can give you only ideas, some kind of glance at the ballpark.

sorry, there is no answer to the question how to mix. you learn to mix by doing mixes. but you can be sure, that they get better and better.

and it hasnt anything to do with the gear you use or ITB or OTB, that is really a bullshit discussion, thrown up everytime by stupid people. for mixing and mastering Reaper is out of the box really well prepared. and there is no shortage of 3rd party free plugins for whatever ...
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Old 02-15-2015, 01:17 PM   #15
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talking of "big boys":

Alan Parsons was asked what he uses for mixing. his answer was: whats around.

Lord LoudMouth, please enlighten us and post some of your elusive mixings and masterings out of your world class repertoire ... as a mixing and mastering guru you surely will have kinds show-reel ... we will all bow our heads and praise your godlike abilities if you would do us the favor ...

... or simply shut up. if the only thing you can do is posting links from all over the internet. that do mean nothing. I bet you have not the slightest thing to show ...
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Old 02-15-2015, 02:30 PM   #16
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You know, there are copious tutorials for Reaper on the internet. There's even a whole Youtube channel dedicated to it. All I ask for is ONE SIMPLE TUTORIAL for using Reaper as a mastering platform.

It's not true that you can't give someone tips or tricks. Example: "Mix is muddy? Try turning down your GRAPHIC EQ ;-) at about the 200k range."

So I guess I need to go beg the makers of those videos on their blogs & channels. Doesn't appear to be anyone interested in responding in the affirmative, here.
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