X2 - Mastering EQ - plug-ins and techniques

What is everyone using for mastering EQ on their master buss?
 
Which plug-ins are you using for EQ in this regard?
 
What settings/starting points are you using? I am particularly interested in hearing about how people are adding "sheen" to their mixes.
  
All serious replies appreciated.

Native Instruments' " Solid Bus Comp" is a great "mix glue" compressor for the master bus. I think a lot of people who have Komplete forget they own it!

What about the ProChannel "Pure" EQ setting? Isn't that to be used for mastering as well?

mastering should be the final tweak and polish.  If you have a standard EQ (or comp) on the master bus it will be part of the mix process. 

I usually have a "mix" track that I put the mixdowns on.  I have voxengo curve EQ and elephant limiter in the fx bin.  Once I plug a mix on the track I can tell, in general, what effect the mastering process will have.  But it is a general idea w/ general settings - roll off the bottom below 40 cps (or so), a bit of high end and + 3 to 4 gain into the comp set to the lopto or clean limiter.  Even for such listening only purposes I switch around the settings.

But for "real" mastering once Im finished playing I use outboard.

@

I like the FAb Pro Q for software and my starting points is everything set to 0. Then i listen to the song and decide what needs to be done to it.

There is no standard starting point. Your ears will dictate the settings that needs to be done to the EQ and every other effect in the mastering chain. Same goes for mixing as well

Thanks.

"it isn't such a sharp Q that it causes a peak elsewhere"

If you use, for example, 48 dB octave, does it create a peak elsewhere (and at which frequency) ?

I start off with Pro Channel light compression on the Master Bus. There's a Pro Channel Preset for this. As for EQ - it all depends on the track I am doing. A a rule, I low cut with a HPF on most of my tracks. Until I hear everything together - I won't attempt to do any Master Bus EQing.

"just go and goof with the the Sonitus EQ a bit and try a super sharp Q on a band and you'll see what I'm trying to illustrate"

yes i tried with the Sonitus Eq, and i saw the frequency peak with a high Q

but most of the high pass filters don't offer Q setting (like the Sonitus Eq does) ;
you can only choose between different slopes (like in the Quadcurve Eq)

and slope and Q don't refer to the same thing, no ?

Th
Nice, France

TS


"just go and goof with the the Sonitus EQ a bit and try a super sharp Q on a band and you'll see what I'm trying to illustrate"

yes i tried with the Sonitus Eq, and i saw the frequency peak with a high Q

but most of the high pass filters don't offer Q setting (like the Sonitus Eq does) ;
you can only choose between different slopes (like in the Quadcurve Eq)

and slope and Q don't refer to the same thing, no ?

Th
Nice, France

You can consider slope and 'Q' to be birds-of-a-feather, they're the same thing for all intents and purposes.

If I can help to clear some things...

Many channel strips will have a low cut filter, with a selectable cutoff frequency and 'slope'. This is meant to be a simple affair. The term slope is, well, easily understandable. We're only trying to remove some low end rumble and microphone pop here.

'Q' is more of an electronic engineering term, and refers to the quality of a filter. Why quality, I don't know, but really, it's the sharpness of a filter, which *is* a slope. The design characteristics of a filter will determine what you may see as you adjust its 'Q', many will develop an overshooting 'hump' near the selected frequency if too high. Really though, don't give it a second thought for a low-cut filter. It's not an issue.

We're stuck with a mix of musical and electronic terms here in the DAW world, because, well, sound reproduction, (and in cases like analog-style synths) is electronic. That, and in the DAW world, after all's been recorded, it's all electronic.

Recording engineers have always had a foot in more than one world...

For anyone interested in experimenting with different filter slopes using the Sonitus EQ, you can easily set one 2 or more filter bands to the same type (HPF), then using the same Frequency & Q (I find 1.4 is a good starting point), you can set up different slopes by stacking them

Rasure


I used to get bogged down with techniques and tutorials saying you should do this and this, seems to take way from the creative process. I just use my ears now, if it sounds good then I go with that :-)

Definitely! Many folks learn what works simply by listening in the same way that some folks can play an instrument without reading music. One the best things though, is to learn by watching what others do in similar situations - generally. For DAW plug-ins, the best place to look is presets. I remember iZotope Alloy or Ozone had a preset for cleaning up mud and giving a bit a definition to double basses - but this is also something that can be done with the plug-ins already included in Sonar too.