finalizing a song

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Davykib
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2017/01/08 09:22:10 (permalink)

finalizing a song

I'm new with Platinum, there are so many new things in...
In Sonar 3 there were some nice tools to finalize a song, limiter/compressor. etc.
In platinum I cannot find these, though I have almost all effects.
LANDR is only online available but I want to do it offline.
 
Which effect would you recommend in the final Stereo bus?
 
 
 
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    bitflipper
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    Re: finalizing a song 2017/01/08 10:39:33 (permalink)
    Everything you need is in there.
     
    Although many of us prefer third-party tools (e.g. iZotope Ozone) for mastering, it's actually quite feasible to do it all using only bundled tools. Some are conventional VST plugins and some are ProChannel modules (which are really just SONAR-specific plugins).
     
    There are four primary components used in mastering: EQ, compression, limiting and analysis. All are adequately covered, although I'd recommend adding at least one third-party component, the free Voxengo SPAN, to augment the fourth category.
     
    For equalization, in the mastering stage you're usually after subtle corrections. That means mostly cuts rather than boosts, mostly of 3 dB or less, gentle slopes (except for subsonics removal) and broad ranges, and often linear-phase equalizers. The ProChannel EQ works fine for this, but the linear-phase EQ (LP EQ) is, IMO, easier to use. There are a gazillion third-party options, e.g. the very popular FabFilter Pro-Q2, but I think LP EQ is perfectly adequate.
     
    Compression in mastering is also subtle, what's often referred to as "glue". That mostly means gently raising quiet parts for greater volume consistency, kind of smudging all the mix elements into a whole. Although there are several popular third-party compressors (one of the most popular is actually named "The Glue"), the ProChannel compressor does this quite well. 
     
    SONAR provides several limiters (Boost11, BT Brickwall, BT Limiter) but I personally can't comment on them as I've had limited experience with them. I'm sure others here will offer their expert opinions.


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    Jimbo 88
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    Re: finalizing a song 2017/01/08 10:58:47 (permalink)
    Didn't Dan from CakeWalk or maybe Craig Anderton once post plugin template for mastering? It used mostly Sonitus plugins, but everything was available with SONAR.  I remember A/B ing that template with my favorite expensive plugin and was very amazed at how good the Sonar plugins sounded.  Off the bat they sounded better in a lot of incidences.

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    35mm
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    Re: finalizing a song 2017/01/08 11:45:10 (permalink)
    I think I have seen templates in SPlat for mastering, which presumably have the plugins loaded. Not tried them though.
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    rwheeler
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    Re: finalizing a song 2017/01/08 13:10:04 (permalink)
    On the Cakewalk web page that compares product versions, we find a long list of tools available in Platinum: http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR/Versions#start . These definitely include tools for EQ, compression, limiting, etc., with many categories having more than one tool available. When I get in a rut only using familiar approaches, a look at that list reminds me of the depth and breadth of what is included, and often spurs me to learn more about the one's I haven't been using.

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