Hi Craig,
            I watched the Berklee Sonar video and I liked it.
I was wondering though if the Melodyne program you used was the stock one that came with x3 or  updated full version? 
                                                     

pierun
Hi Craig,
            I watched the Berklee Sonar video and I liked it.
I was wondering though if the Melodyne program you used was the stock one that came with x3 or  updated full version? 
                                                   

The stock one. I'm going to update soon, but wanted to make sure I was using what everyone else can access.

denverdrummer
Craig,
 
Finally got to sit down and watch this on You Tube.
 
questions:
 
I typical master by dumping the project out to a stereo track and mastering that.  Is there any advantage to the way you master vs. mastering on a stereo track?   FWIW, I used to do it the way you do, but I don't have enough self discipline to stop myself from trying to re-mix the song while I'm mastering. :)

 
I've done it both ways. These days by the time I'm finished with a mix, it's VERY close to what I want so all I need to do are a few tweaks in Sonar and it's done. This is not what I'd recommend if you're working with a mastering engineer, but as I'm both mixing and mastering, and the mix is 95% of the way there, adding a little overall dynamics and EQ isn't a big deal...and is usually pretty subtle.
 

You talk about 8 stages of EQ necessary for mastering.  I must be missing something but I can only count up to 4 or 5 levels  (track level, sub group, preview bus, mix bus, mastering bus).  Can you further explain what you mean here?

Michael (see above) is right, I'm talking about two instances of 4-band EQ to end up with 8 bands total.

Anderton
The stock one. I'm going to update soon, but wanted to make sure I was using what everyone else can access.

OK, last time I'll be asking about this. Does no FussRace make the guitar FX chain a nonstarter in X3 Studio?

Anderton

Check the net for public domain distortion plug-ins, and try one of those instead. It won't be exactly the same sound, but hopefully you'll come close.

TS 808 by Ongel, with TSE Audio. Great distortion plug in.

Here is the link:
http://www.tseaudio.com/software/tse808

BJN
I plan to go over the video and extrapolate as after watching the video I didn't know what questions to ask. LOL
What question should I be asking?

"Is there a way I can record the sick cow sounds when you move blobs around in Melodyne? I'm scoring a sci-fi movie with sick interstellar cows, those sounds would be perfect."
"Wow, those Mark Longworth songs are so much better than yours. Why didn't you just use all his songs?"
"Hey! Those track icons don't look like what came with Sonar. Where did you get them?"
"How did you get those great bass sounds in that song about politicians?"
"Can you tell me what happens during the video demo? Those ambient sounds make me go into a trance, and I fall asleep so I miss out on what you're saying."
"I missed the first part of the seminar. Is that a new version of Pro Tools?"

Grem
What I would like to hear Craig is how did you come up with the idea of side chaining the guitar to have it pulse in time with the beat like it does? I would have never thought of that. And wouldn't have even paid it no mind if I was told about it. But once I heard the fx, whoa!! Nice!!

I've been using vocoders to do "drumcoding" for years, i.e., drums replace the mic and serve as the modulator. This sounds particularly good with power chords.
 
So, when software sidechaining came along, it wasn't too much of a stretch to use the drums to modulate the gate. Although it's not as complex-sounding an effect as drumcoding, as you found out it's still pretty dramatic.