Remastered Song

Hello!
 
I posted a thread called "Educate Me" a few days ago and received some tips fro many people concerning how to boost the volume on my tracks to make them comparable to commercial radio and CDs.  I downloaded a demo of Waves L2 Ultramaximizer to try it out.  I only have until August 1 to decide whether to purchase it so I need your help.  Below are two links-One is the original non-compressed version and the new compressed version with the L2.  Yes, I already know that the L2 is NOT a compressor, but a limiter and yes, I know that this is not really "remastered" in the real sense of the word.  I just use those terms here to simplify things for now.
 
Using the L2, I set the threshold at 4.0db and the ceiling at 0db.  Also, the doubled vocal in the chorus ("you've done nothing but pay the price.....") was uncompressed on the original but I realized that compression was a necessity on the "remastered" version so I used a Scarlett Red Compressor plug in on it.  I also want to try the same experiment using the d16 Frontier (a freebie).  I just want your advise on whether or not to buy the L2.
 
Original Non Compressed-https://johnbowen.bandcamp.com/track/whatevers-on-your-mind
Remastered-https://johnbowen.bandcam...-on-your-mind-remaster
 
Also, as a reference track I used Charlie Daniel's  "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" which is a pretty hot track, volume wise.  My song here is pretty busy with a lot going on in it.  I was going to use a quieter song, but I wanted to try this out with something really dynamic.
 
Thanks.
John B.

When it comes to vocals, heavy compression has been the norm for decades. You could even compress these vocals a little more. Compressing individual tracks is fairly safe, and even if you do overdo one of them it probably won't trash the entire mix. But you do want to go easy on master bus compression, because the possibility of damage is so much greater.
 
I'd suggest raising the L2's threshold a half a dB or more. As it stands, the master is just a bit too hot for online distribution. By that, I mean that any streaming service or broadcaster is going to chop it down by 2 to 6 dB on playback. Use a LUFS meter while adjusting the limiter. Look at both short- and long-term values. Try to keep the hottest short-term value below -10 and the long-term value around -14. These are ballpark targets; many will argue for higher or lower values, depending on their personal preferences. 
 

chuckebaby
The L2 is nothing but a mere maximizer with cookie cutter shaping and dithering.
If you want to master this you need multiband compression, linear EQ and color.
 
You forgot to include the most important part "pricing".
How much are you paying for the L2 ? 29.00 ?
Yes its a good deal.
 

No.  $69.00!  With PA sales tax it comes to around $75.00.  But, as I said, I'm not expecting mastering in the real sense of the word.  Just want to boost the level as much as possible without crushing it.
JB

My only concern with the OP is that you are still trying things out, so agree with the suggestion to hold out for Ozone sales. Buying one component in a chain won't yield bang for the buck going forward. $69 easily gets you on iZotope's upgrade path as mentioned above.

Have you trialed Ozone 8 yet? If not, you can run the mastering assistant in that, accept what it does, then walk back through the modules to see exactly what it did (and question why). I meant to type this in your other thread, but that is a nice learning tool as well. I am also not sure how Ozone 8 behaves after the trial. If it only inserts noise you could still use it this way after expiration.

Ozone has done it for me.  I tried going alone and using what was included with Sonar, back in the "old" Sonar days (started in Sonar 6) and never really got good mix masters.  I tried demo versions of Ozone 5 and T-RackS and Ozone won out for me.  I bought Ozone 5 elements and have Ozone 6 elements and had a demo of Ozone 7 elements but Ozone 5 gets me great masters (for primarily traditional country).  I've done 6 CD projects (10 songs on each CD) of song demo sessions for a retired Nashville songwriter and major label producer and he has given me "great marks" for the final products.  Other clients like my mix/masters too.

Ozone looks promising.  I think I'll try it out.  It has a demo for 10 days and it's currently $130.00, but if it's as good as everybody says it is, it might be worth it.  Like I said, I'll try it.  Checked today.  Waves has the L2 Ultra on sale for $29.00 and the L3 Multimaximizer is currently the same price.  I'll read through Craig's "how to" on the L3 but the Ozone seems like a little less work, but less educational.  Gotta decide also if I want to have the software do the thinking for me or do I want to take the challenge and learn it myself.  Thanks for the suggestions and ideas.
 
JB

Johnbee58
Ozone looks promising.  I think I'll try it out.  It has a demo for 10 days and it's currently $130.00, but if it's as good as everybody says it is, it might be worth it.

We're talking about Ozone Elements, remember. If you wait, it is regularly discounted for $39 at Pluginboutique

L2 is a pretty decent brick-wall limiter. I find the best way to use it is to use the link button between the sliders to pull both down until the sound starts to get rubbish. Then delink the sliders, set the output one to below 0, say -0.3dB and the one controlling compression so that only the peaks are getting hit, and then only by a very few dB.

I agree with Anderton about the L3, it’s very good and very flexible.

Cakewalk’s Concrete Limiter is/was very good but I don’t think it’s available now. Frontier does a different kind if job to a brick-wall limiter. L2 and similar limiters should be the last thing in the processing chain other than meters, Frontier I think is better used as a more moderate processor.

Compression before final limiting can often be a good idea, the Waves SSL bus compressor is good for that and is often on sale these days. The idea is to do things a little at a time - mastering is adding final touches, not making major changes to the audio. At least, it is unless you’re mastering for vinyl where the physical requirements of the cutting lathe, press and playback equipment might mean some significant eq is required to tame frequencies vinyl can’t handle well and there’s also the reduced dynamic range of vinyl to consider. Vinyl mastering is a really skilled and demanding job.

Don’t add any dither unless you are reducing the bit depth. If the project is, say, 24 bit and the exported audio file will be 24 bit switch off dithering. If you don’t the dithering will just be adding unecessary noise. It’s a process that really should only be carried out once as the last step in reducing the bit depth to that required by the target media. As for which dithering algorithm to use, if you can hear significant differences between them on anything other than a very simple, open mix congratulations, you have more sensitive ears than 99%+ of the population. :-)

fireberd, thanks!
 
I downloaded Ozone Elements demo and I'm extremely happy with the results and I think I'll be going to buy this puppy.
I tried the Master Assistant on both Streaming and CD. 
 
STREAMING-Suggested a 0.00 threshold (totally open) and cut the ceiling back -1.0.
CD-Suggested ceiling brought down to -0.3db with threshold @ -3.2db along with EQ adjustments.
It sounds GREAT!!  Much louder but without much noticeable clipping. I uploaded the CD mix.  Have a listen (same link) but be warned.  IT'S HOT!!
 

bitflipper
 
It sounds like maybe you're putting your music onto a CD and then comparing it to radio broadcasts in your car. 
 

 
That's exactly what I'm doing, and I'm finding that different stations broadcast at different volumes.  The local country station (about 25 miles away) sounds comparable to my stuff (since my mastering experiment began) while the local rock station (about 5 miles away) is much louder and pushes more bass.  But I also have a home theater on which I can just load my tests onto a flash drive and listen to them on it, as well as a cheap boom box.

chuckebaby

Johnbee58

chuckebaby
 
How much are you paying for the L2 ? 29.00 ?
Yes its a good deal.
 

No.  $69.00!  With PA sales tax it comes to around $75.00.  But, as I said, I'm not expecting mastering in the real sense of the word.  Just want to boost the level as much as possible without crushing it.
JB

The Waves L2 Ultramaximizer is on sale right now for 29.00 dollars. https://www.waves.com/plugins/l2-ultramaximizer
I don't know maybe im missing something.
 
For what its worth I agree with Anderton about the L3 and that's also 29.00 on sale as well.
https://www.waves.com/plugins/l3-multimaximizer#image
 
The L3 is a great tool

Yeah, I saw that, but after trying it out I'm leaning toward the Ozone Elements.
 

 
 

Also a fan of Lurssen mastering console. wish there were more options/deeper editing available.
But its still a great little preset mastering tool.