Is Melda's Mastering bundle as good as it sounds? Re: Black friday deal

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Vastman
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2014/11/26 21:26:39 (permalink)

Is Melda's Mastering bundle as good as it sounds? Re: Black friday deal

My funds are extremely limited this year.  Indeed, they are pretty much zero but I wanted to get one super tool for improving my mixes and understanding what's going on... Have considered Fab's ProQ2 and have also been considering Melda's MSspectral Dynamics, per all of the comments...
 
...Which led me to their bundle, which I've been reviewing videos of... It seems bristling with awesomeness and at $313 smackerooos, seems to cover both bases and way beyond... Indeed, why would I ever want anything else???
 
As I'm getting into more dense compositions I know I need to carve out space for things better than ever befor.  And these tools seem just the thing.
 
Would appreciate any thoughts on this.  I imagine I wouldn't ever use some of the included ditties but many seem quite remarkable... then again, as primarily a songwriter... I don't know if I'm being wowwwwed by baloney or...
 
I can get Fab's proQ2 for $100 and await another sale on Spectral ($100) and maybe even pick up PSP's xenon for $75 (unused coupon)... all of which are quality tools I know I'd use... for about the same price.... and I don't necessarily want quantity over quality... As I've never really spent much time with all these tools (primarily use all prochannel modules) I'm really somewhat in the dark but plan on shedding new light on mixes in the coming year...
 
Help!
post edited by Vastman - 2014/11/26 22:25:41

Dana
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    Grem
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    Re: Is Melda's Mastering bundle as good as it sounds? Re: Black friday deal 2014/11/26 21:55:58 (permalink)
    I find Melda's stuff very good. However, as others will tell you, the UI takes a little getting use to.

    I have the Mautodynamiceq which is a beast! This is almost new technology. Well to me anyway. I had never used anything like this before. It is taking me some time to really learn how it can be used.

    Then throw in their other plugs, and I could spend the better part of a month just getting to know the UI.

    Is it worth it? At first for me the results weren't immediate. It took some time. But once you do get the hang of it, you begin to see the immense potential these plugs have.

    Grem

    Michael
     
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    gswitz
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    Re: Is Melda's Mastering bundle as good as it sounds? Re: Black friday deal 2014/11/26 22:01:23 (permalink)
    I was kinda curious myself as the bundles are 50% off on Friday.
     
    Melda Productions
    Black Friday is the only opportunity for a long time to get MeldaProduction bundles with a huge discount, 50% OFF. This effectively means getting 85% OFF the included plugins!
    This one-of-a-kind action will happen on November 28th, 2014, 24 hours only, European time. No negotigations, if you don't make it...so set your alarm clock! ;)
    Upgrades will be allowed only from bundles to MTotalBundle, upgrades from separate plugins won't be possible.


    StudioCat > I use Windows 10 and Sonar Platinum. I have a touch screen.
    I make some videos. This one shows how to do a physical loopback on the RME UCX to get many more equalizer nodes.
    #3
    Vastman
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    Re: Is Melda's Mastering bundle as good as it sounds? Re: Black friday deal 2014/11/26 22:18:01 (permalink)
    Exactly, gswitz... It's that time again and fortunately I'm committing to NOT buying any more toys/samples... but my mixing/final sound could use some help and BF is almost here!
     
    Grem, while the interface is a bit daunting, at least they seem consistent among many of the plugs... And, what I like is Melda is constantly improving the entire line/UI unlike many other companies... It's why I've started with the Albion/Spitfire series.... consistant interfaces.  I'm easily confused
     
    the dilemma for me is I'm tired of buying things that gather dust... I KNOW I'd use ProQ2 and Xenon.... but I'd have to learn them anyway... and do I get comparable bits and more in the bundle...or am I just duplicating/cluttering up my vst folders with things I already have in the ProChannel (which I use a lot) Well, guess I'll keep watching the vids.  They're pretty good. And await the WISDOM of the forum!

    Dana
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    Grem
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    Re: Is Melda's Mastering bundle as good as it sounds? Re: Black friday deal 2014/11/26 22:50:25 (permalink)
    I agree vman about the UI being consistent across his plugs. That's the good thing. Some it's more advanced features are dependent on that UI. Which is really what interested me in the first place.

    A few years ago I needed something that was in the FreeBundle. On someone's recommendation I d/l the free stuff and started using it. I was so impressed with how well they were and that they were free I went ahead and paid for the free bundle upgrade.

    I kept an eye on them always, but some of the stuff was beyond me. Bitflipper did some reviews of a.few of their plugs and I was able to see where these plugs are going. An understanding after seeing someone use them. I was like.....I could see now.

    So on a sale I got the Creative Bundle. And I have picked up a few others in other sales.

    Do I need the Total Bundle? No. Do I want it? Hell yeah! But right now I am in the IK group buy. And I am leaning toward EZKeys sale. Plus I just got two pedals from Keeley, so I'm tapped out right now.

    I got to catch the mailman and UPS guy before the ol lady. Man she'll chop my ...... !

    Grem

    Michael
     
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    Vastman
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    Re: Is Melda's Mastering bundle as good as it sounds? Re: Black friday deal 2014/11/27 00:17:47 (permalink)
    Ah....Grem!  The joys of being single again... plopped on my urban farm, in an old cottage in the back... no one to say "What?????" I'm learning to exercise control, although it is hard without such "oversight"...
     
    But, the more I'm looking at it, the less appealing the bundle is looking.... sooooo much stuff I'd probably not use....or struggle to....and while it's a might grand discount, more selective purchases would be cheaper in the end... might just go for Fabs ProQ and PSP's Xenon, for a total of $185 for now... and buy them separately.... ie, the mmultibandharmonizer sounds interesting, MMultiAnalyzer and Bit's Spectral Dynamics...wish they had more vids on the others... but the bundle has loads of stuff I just can't imagine using effectively, if I'm going to continue composing songs! Plus the Pro channel has limiting/leveling pretty well covered I think.
     
    Guess I got another day to sort it out... OY! But I do love their totally scaleable UI... can't even use all the PSP plugs as my eyes suck... 
     
    Wish we could make our own bundle....there are things in each that intrigue me!
     
    Guess I just gotta get on the weekly deals instead... greater percentage but things I won't use.... hmmmm

    Dana
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    gswitz
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    Re: Is Melda's Mastering bundle as good as it sounds? Re: Black friday deal 2014/11/27 07:46:51 (permalink)
    I've been watching for a while. Bit Flipper (Dave) and Bapu seem to like the plugs. Bapu even called it a 'Gooderizer' or as close as it gets. ;-) 
     
    Mike McCue challenged the 'flatterner' feature which is one of the things Melda says about it saying, 'who wants flat?'.
     
    Bit came right back and said it was like a limiter; You could make great mixes without one, but sure is a nice to have.
     
    I must say, I think my wallet might be coming out tomorrow. Remember, it's European time, not USA time.
     
    Sure wish I knew when it might be handy to have the $ for X4 (hint hint).

    StudioCat > I use Windows 10 and Sonar Platinum. I have a touch screen.
    I make some videos. This one shows how to do a physical loopback on the RME UCX to get many more equalizer nodes.
    #7
    dcumpian
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    Re: Is Melda's Mastering bundle as good as it sounds? Re: Black friday deal 2014/11/27 09:08:13 (permalink)
    I own a few Melda plugins and the UI is awkward, at best. But (!), they sound great and I've even replaced a couple of long-used plugins from Waves with Melda's, which is saying something.
     
    Regards,
    Dan

    Mixing is all about control.
     
    My music:
    http://dancumpian.bandcamp.com/ or https://soundcloud.com/dcumpian Studiocat Advanced Studio DAW (Intel i5 3550 @ 3.7GHz, Z77 motherboard, 16GB Ram, lots of HDDs), Sonar Plat, Mackie 1604, PreSonus Audiobox 44VSL, ESI 4x4 Midi Interface, Ibanez Bass, Custom Fender Mexi-Strat, NI S88, Roland JV-2080 & MDB-1, Komplete, Omnisphere, Lots o' plugins.    
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    Grem
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    Re: Is Melda's Mastering bundle as good as it sounds? Re: Black friday deal 2014/11/27 14:43:37 (permalink)
    dcumpian
    I own a few Melda plugins and the UI is awkward, at best. But (!), they sound great and I've even replaced a couple of long-used plugins from Waves with Melda's, which is saying something.
     
    Regards,
    Dan




    When I first got the Melda Free bundle, (then upgraded the bundle) I wasn't really all that thrown off. But it was different for sure. And then trying to use it, that's when the learning started!
     
    But after using his plugs, I can see what he is going for. A UI that's the same all across his plugs, that makes the "multiband" feature really unique to his plugs. Like his free compressor, you can actually draw your own "knee" so to speak!  And the better the compressor plugin, the more "multiband" features are introduced. Till you get to the top of the line where you can draw your own EQ cure and have it be a compressor (with your choice of how much compression!) at the same time! And it sounds fantastic!!
     
    Really good plugs! Bit and Bapu are right. It really don't get much better for simple folk like me!!

    Grem

    Michael
     
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    gswitz
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    Re: Is Melda's Mastering bundle as good as it sounds? Re: Black friday deal 2014/11/28 07:00:01 (permalink)
    http://soundbytesmag.net/meldamdynamiceqpart1/
     
    I went ahead and took the plunge on the mastering bundle.
    http://www.meldaproduction.com/plugins/product.php?id=MMasteringBundle
     
    If X4 comes out tomorrow, I'm going to have to take a job driving pizzas to raise the cash.
     
    I must say, I do like the company (Melda Productions). I only have good interactions with them.

    StudioCat > I use Windows 10 and Sonar Platinum. I have a touch screen.
    I make some videos. This one shows how to do a physical loopback on the RME UCX to get many more equalizer nodes.
    #10
    peter434
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    Re: Is Melda's Mastering bundle as good as it sounds? Re: Black friday deal 2014/11/28 14:47:59 (permalink)
     I have not understood almost anything in my demo of the Mspectraldynamics and I don't grasp the logic of all their functions (it's a pity they have not the same direct interactive functions like Fabfilter !). I made a settings according my poor intuition and I got a big natural sound I don't remember to get with other major plugs ! But I don't know what I've done !
    By cons, the Mspectraldynamics induces a big latency and in particular, when I bypass the plug, there is a big offset which is not pleasant.
    Has the MautodynamicEq the same latency ?
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    Vastman
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    Re: Is Melda's Mastering bundle as good as it sounds? Re: Black friday deal 2014/11/28 14:56:27 (permalink)
    A friend in Canada has several Melda and is disappointed.... I just bought Fab... after demoing it.  For 362, your crazy not to...TH UI IS FANTASTIC and quality unsurpassed... been wankin' all night! http://www.jrrshop.com/fa...dir=asc&order=name
     
    you can always pick up Mspect... later at 50% off....
     
     

    Dana
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    peter434
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    Re: Is Melda's Mastering bundle as good as it sounds? Re: Black friday deal 2014/11/28 15:13:44 (permalink)
    Hey Vastman,
    On what point he is disappointed ?
    From my little poor experience, and I say again I don't understand almost anything concerning the logic of Melda, the Mspectraldynamics seemed to have a more natural big sound...
    I have to test the Dynamic eq... and Fabfilter apparently doesn't propose dyn eq.
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    Vastman
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    Re: Is Melda's Mastering bundle as good as it sounds? Re: Black friday deal 2014/11/28 15:40:20 (permalink)
    He felt they introduced distortions and were clugy to use... like me, he found fab more intuitive and exquisitely clean, easy to use with visuals us "artists" can relate to, thus not interfering with the creative process...
     
    Down the road I may get MSpectral...and Dynamics during one of their single plug sales but for mastering/tracking tweaking I've gone for the Fabulous deal...can't imagine better and they're a steal right now...
     
    YOU don't want to spend your time being confused.... rather than creating music!

    Dana
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    bitflipper
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    Re: Is Melda's Mastering bundle as good as it sounds? Re: Black friday deal 2014/11/28 17:50:49 (permalink)
    Re: FabFilter versus Meldaproduction
     
    FabFilter's forte is user interfaces, which are among the cleanest and most intuitive in the industry. Meldaproduction user interfaces are, um, quirky. But resizable.
     
    FabFilter is famously easy on CPU resources. Pro-Q on every track is no problem.
    Meldaproduction stuff can be much more demanding and some have high latency you cannot get around (but for good reason).
     
    For sound-quality, they're both in the same league, although FF is a little more forgiving of user-abuse.
     
    In terms of features, Melda has a slight edge. Case in point: MDynamicEQ is functionally equivalent to Pro-MB (despite the name, Pro-MB is actually a dynamic equalizer in its default mode, not a multi-band compressor). Pro-MB is much prettier, but MDynamicEQ actually beats it for ease-of-use -- once you "get" the Melda Way of doing things.
     
    Melda stuff demands more attention from the user. My favorite Melda plugin, MSpectralDynamics, will indeed distort if you overdrive the input even a little. You have to watch that and adjust the input slider accordingly. FabFilter plugins just don't do that (except Pro-C, and even then you have to work to make it sound bad).
     
    If you're not the type who likes to study and tweak and experiment, FF is going to be more instantly accessible. Ozone and T-Racks, even more so. So for the person who's 90% musician and 10% engineer, I usually recommend Ozone or FabFilter over Meldaproduction. But if you're like me, more of a 50/50 ratio of musician to engineer (or just a control freak), Melda is the ticket.
     
    Despite my ongoing G.A.S. problem, at least at the mastering chain I feel I'm completely covered. My master bus will often have only three plugins: MSpectralDynamics -> Ozone -> SPAN. Second-string players Pro-L, Pro-C, Pro-Q, Saturn and MDynamicEQ often come in off the bench in a pinch. Between Ozone and Pro-L I've got the full spectrum of limiter options available from slap-it-on to deep tweaking. Don't need nuttin' else.


    All else is in doubt, so this is the truth I cling to. 

    My Stuff
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    peter434
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    Re: Is Melda's Mastering bundle as good as it sounds? Re: Black friday deal 2014/11/28 19:56:20 (permalink)
    Thanks Bit for the infos !
    I surely will not explain clearly, but as far as sound is concerned, it seems there is an overall smoother response curve with the Melda (MSpectralDynamics). FabFilter (pro MB) is clearly the winner concerning its ergonomy, but maybe a little less "natural" while being pleasant...
    Concerning Ozone, I found that we can go very fast to a sound somewhat aggressive.
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    Vastman
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    Re: Is Melda's Mastering bundle as good as it sounds? Re: Black friday deal 2014/11/28 22:30:24 (permalink)
    Thanks, flipper... good thoughts as always... And, yea... for ease of visualization and can't FIUpedness... so I can concentrate on composing during these rains, seems the sale was ment for MEEEEEE.
    I plan on getting MSpectralDynamics next sale per your eloquent writeup for the epub thingy...
    but really like tracking with Fab... 
    imagine I'll pick up meldas multi track spectrum analyser also, as it seems awesomely primed to reveal spectral clashes amongst tracks I lean towards underpinning songs...
     
    Assume both pro C and pro L are on the upgrade path, like pro Q...
    Have you looked at Slates FG 116?

    Dana
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    #17
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