redbarchetta


Maybe you should be the next person to create a Sonar video for Groove3... I'm watching a mastering video now where he has plugins from all different manufactures... Kind of off putting.  Makes you think you NEED to go get that plugin.  His toys are not cheap either. 

Same here though brother. Unfortunately, when I master something, I don't use any Cake plugs other than that 64 eq...forget the name of it. LOL! All my other stuff is Waves and UAD stuff.
 
For example, this is one of my main mastering chains. It's not pretty, but it works incredibly well for me.
 
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4909348/Mastering%20Chain.JPG
 
Quite a few dollars in those plugs you see. But each has a reason and a purpose. Honest, they aren't just random things I threw all over the screen. I can explain the use for each one and why they are there if needed. :)
 
-Danny

Well, I was referring to just a Mixing with Sonar X2 or a Sonar X2 tips and tricks like there is for Sonar X1.  And of course, sticking to stock plugs as much as possible. 

For mastering, I find the Sonar plugs don't get me where I need to be. It can be done and I've done it before, but the ones you see that I use, do what I need to be done better in my opinion.

Just a quick example of why those are there and what I find wrong in Cake plugs that do the same thing.

I love that LP 64 eq for high passing and low passing. That's all it does. Nothing in my opinion handles things the way it seems to. And it sounds great and now that the Bakers have fixed the glitches in it, it's a breath of fresh air to use.

There are 3 Roger Nichols eq's that you see there. The reason there are 3 is because you can customize them to have as many bands as you want as well as pick the bands and settings you want. It's one of the most powerful eq's I've ever used for both sound and flexibility. Nothing else I've tried tops them. I use three because I have one dedicated eq for lows to low mids, one for medium mids to mid-mids, and one for high mids to high-highs. This allows me to instanlty control a frequency that needs to be controlled without having to constantly scroll through or create new bands. Each eq has like 14 different band settings and if I need to scroll through some bands, chances are I'm close to a band that needs to be controlled.

Next is my API compressor. I use this because it's simply one of the best mastering compressors I've ever used in plugin format. It's so versatile, transparent and loaded with options, you can't wreck a mix with it. Though I like the Sonitus compressor and all the other Cake compressors we're given, something about this particular compressor just speaks to me in how it deal with audio. In the mastering realm, I just want it to control all the little peaks and valleys I may have created with the eq's. This also keeps the mix a little tighter without artifacts.

From there, I like to run my UAD Multiband. This thing is so incredible, I've never used anything else that comes close. It's the perfect "policeman" for mastering as it will just gently push the crowd back off the line if they try to push forward. It is also transparent and near impossible for it to ruin a mix. The Sonar multiband is also good...but it works a bit differently than this does and starts to get artifacts where this never does.

Once all that is where I want it, I like to increase the level of the mix yet still keep it tight. This is where the Waves LL3 comes in. I just use it subtely without going over -2dB at this point. The audio I'm mastering was already pre-leveled manually and cured of all rogue peaks in my pre-mastering session, so using a little bit of the LL3 here just keeps things tight as we raise the volume just a bit. I could probably use the Concrete Limiter to do what the LL 3 is doing here. However, I find the CL is not quite what I like to use in a real mastering situation. Waves to me just has a handle on this a little better for me...which is just a personal preference.

From there, there's a Waves S-1. The S-1 only gets used if I seem to get a little stereo field smearing from the processing I've done. It's rare for me to use this as I never over-process to where the stereo field has been narrowed up. Sometimes though, a client may mix a bit too tight...so a gentle bump in the width here by like 110-120 may be the fix and allow things to spread just a bit. I could use the Sonitus Phase plug in place of this. But I prefer the graphic look of the S-1. They both do about the same thing really.

From there, the Waves L2 goes on and I kick the mix in the butt. I don't actually use it here though because I will use it in Wave Lab to finalize everything. But I will kick it on to see what I'm getting at this point. I use the L-2 or a PSP Xenon which is really nice. The Xenon can be a bit too clean for hard rock or metal though, so the L-2 is the better choice for me. Boost 11 and the Concrete Limiter choke when used passed -6.0 threshold. They just don't hold up and distort where the Waves maximizers give you much more output before they start to crap out on you in my opinion. The L-2 is great for 24 bit stuff...the L-1 and L-3 seem to do better with 16 bit.

After that is the Waves PAZ analyzer so I see what things look like. I don't rely on what I see as much as what I hear, but it's also nice to keep a nice eq curve in mind. I'll use this or the Blue Cat analyzer. To me, they give me what I need to see in a seconds glance as well as no mistake in the frequencies I'm looking at. And they are big enough to see at all times. So though we can definitely use alternative plugs, these are the reasons I use what I use on this end. :) Hope that explains it brother.

-Danny

Nice, for the foreseeable future, I plan on sticking with the Cake stuff. In fact, I just purchased the extr Pro Channel plugs that don't come with X2 producer.   I got into this to have the ability to make and record my own music. I guess if I ever get to the point where I need to create something that is radio ready I'll start looking at high end plugins. 

I'm sure out of the box will get me quite far for a while.  I hope.

Oh yeah, and there's no hoping about it. What you got will work quite well. The thing is, when you do this stuff for 100 years like me, you get to learn how these things work in different applications which is why you too will start to add some of the other tools in your box. You find that as you grow, you start to hear things differently that you might not have heard before.

You'll see posts from dudes like me that claim "you may get some distortion if you use this plug like this" and when you try it, you may hear it too and then you know what I mean. Or...it may not happen to you at all and you can chalk it up as me being out of my tree. LOL!! But you should be fine. At the end of the day bro, all this stuff is a matter of personal preference really and what works for you. If it works and you are happy with the outcome, you're right where you need to be.

But as you grow and decide to try a few more things that may hold a higher price tag, you'll see how they make differences for the better in some situations...and they may very well fail in others. That's just the nature of the beast though and why it's good to collect a few of these tools and throw them in your box over time. :) On that note...I'll check back in with you guys later. I gotta start my next job. I love these long render jobs...they give me a chance to hang out a bit. LOL! :)

-Danny

Danny, Your video's are great. Thanks for taking to time to do them.

Always funny to hear people from home. I have totally lost my Jersey... but I am sure if I came up for a couple of weeks, I'd get some of it back!

Thanks for posting these, I(we) always appreciate your contributions here.

Excellent job Danny - a video is worth 200,000 words.

I have to say, the SPL Transient Designer sounds sweet on the snare.

Regarding my buddy, Ringo - I know what you're saying, but give another listen to 'Ticket to Ride' - a fricken' innovator - with some direction from Paul.  

Danny, thank you for taking the time to make these videos!

Thanks for the kind words guys...glad you enjoyed the vids and you're quite welcome. :)

pb: Oh I hear ya...trust me brother, I'm a drummer first and foremost...and when I was learning to play, Abbey Road and The White Album were always on my record player to jam along to. So I do respect Ringo and know he pounded here and there and was an innovator. :) It's just that when you do lots of recordings with bands of today (it's rare I get any 70's sounding guys in here unless a cover band that does that stuff needs to do a demo) it doesn't do the music any justice if the guy doesn't whack the kit a bit.

I mean within reason of course. I had an arena drummer in here once that was so vicious, I literally had to tame his kit down. The dude had like 4 snare drums epoxied together....and man let me tell you, that thing sounded like a shot-gun blast every time he hit it. LOL! Even during their ballad...he was just killing that thing. Hahaha! So sometimes, it's definitely not the right way to go. But for the most part, in the rock stuff or even the pop or current country rock stuff, it sure does help when the drummer can play dynamically and hit with some conviction. :)

-Danny