What effects are in your Master Section?

[carvingcode]

I'm curious what effects you find useful to add to the Master Section? The default effects work great, but I'm interested in what other setups you may find useful.

Thanks

[ThatKevinHanleyGuy]

I've started to ask this question several times and just never got around to it. Glad you brought it up. I use iZotope products and like to rough master as my songs progress (can't help it, my ears are just that way) so my Reason template project has Ozone (mastering) -> Tonal Balance Control (to keep the rough master settings in the ballpark) -> Insight (loudness metering). Those last two, I usually don't touch until my song is almost finished. I have no idea if I have this set up technically correct since I'm a hobbyist learning as I go, so I'd curious for input if anyone has some. I can't figure out how to embed images here, so here are links to screenshots of the rack:

Front:
https://i.imgur.com/SjJb995.jpg

Back:
https://i.imgur.com/yZlyBTQ.jpg

[jam-s]

For me its usually just one of the default mastering suite combinators (which might get bypassed later on to export to then master in Ozone standalone).

[huggermugger]

Saturation, EQ, Compression, Waveform display, Spectral display.

[carvingcode]

I've started to ask this question several times and just never got around to it.

Thanks for responding.

I've been using the RE "4Dyne" that I picked up several years ago. I mostly use the preset that applies a bit of tape crunch. It's subtle, but works.

There are better ways...

[killhamster]

This is my current master bus, not including various speaker sim EQ curves, meters, and A/B mixer for comparing with rough mixes/reference tracks. Only the things that do stuff to the sound:



I'm constantly tweaking it though, I just replaced the old MClass EQ and Stereo Imager with that bx_digital EQ and am still getting the hang of using it.

[dvdrtldg]

I have Anansi for mono check, Ozone Imager for phase check, Omega Trimmer with steep cutoff at 250 Hz and 4 kHz for mix balance check, Voxengo Span for spectral display. I'll use these from time to time as the mix progresses

But when it comes to mastering, I like to build the setup from scratch every time. Favourites are

Kuassa MP5 EQ
Softube EQF-100
Klanghelm DC8C3 comp
Shadow Hills comp
Klanghelm VUMT (for monoing bottom end)
Waves Abbey Rd TG Mastering Chain
Kratos 2 maximiser
u-He Satin
Acustica Acqua Celestial master bus (amazing, but slows things to a crawl under Rosetta so I'm not using it atm)

[AdamMon89]

MClass Defaults
Flower Audio Loudness Meter
EVE-MP5 PE
Softube Tube-Tech classic Channel

[Jac459]

my Reason template project has Ozone (mastering) -> Tonal Balance Control (to keep the rough master settings in the ballpark) -> Insight (loudness metering). Those last two, I usually don't touch until my song is almost finished.

Hey Kevin, I am a big izotope user because my mixing and mastering skills suck and I love the visual feedback of their products.
I use neutron 4 and ozone 9 a lot but I don't have insights. The base price is quite expansive.
2 questions for you:
Is insight very good? And if yes, did you buy it full price or is there also good deal for this one? (izotope is very good at throwing crazy deals out of the blue).

[simonphinix1986]

The default one (Default preset) I put the compressor still on. And Kompakt Mastering (Preset) is still good and Hip Hip and Hard Rock are great presets.

I also turn on the Bus Compressor in the top right corner of the mixer. I put the Ratio to 2 or 4.

[Steedus]

Reason Master Bus Compressor
- I just like having all my master effects in the same spot so I've started using this here rather then the one on the Mixer page.

Fun fact: the default settings on the Mixer page one are different to the default settings of the RE! Uggggh


IK Multimedia Tape Machine 80
- Not always on for every track but it generally just adds some glue and give a slight bass kick.


IK Multimedia T-RackS EQ 81
- Again not always but if I need some general touching up, this EQ is pretty effective for me.


iZotope Ozone 9 Advanced
- Mostly just stick with the assistant feature, but I always add the stereo imager module and touch up the spread.

[ThatKevinHanleyGuy]

my Reason template project has Ozone (mastering) -> Tonal Balance Control (to keep the rough master settings in the ballpark) -> Insight (loudness metering). Those last two, I usually don't touch until my song is almost finished.

Hey Kevin, I am a big izotope user because my mixing and mastering skills suck and I love the visual feedback of their products.
I use neutron 4 and ozone 9 a lot but I don't have insights. The base price is quite expansive.
2 questions for you:
Is insight very good? And if yes, did you buy it full price or is there also good deal for this one? (izotope is very good at throwing crazy deals out of the blue).

I've found it to be quite accurate, though I'm probably a bare-minimum user looking for loudness metering, which I then always check post-master at https://www.loudnesspenalty.com/. I'll be honest, I obtained Insight via an upgrade path that went something like Neutron+Ozone (can't remember how I bought this combo originally) to iZotope Everything (on sale of course) to Music Production Suite so I could get all the upgrades this year. Insight is something I never thought I needed until I realized I did and remembered I had it because of the suite upgrade.

I've noticed several people here mentioned 2 things I also solve with iZotope since I have the suite. Tape plugins, which I only realized is one of the available modules in Ozone (yep, subtle but awesome) and Imaging. Imager is one of the free iZotope downloads here: https://www.loudnesspenalty.com/

Another thing I should mention is that I tend to drop Neutron instances on nearly every instrument, or at least my busses, and process them individually. So far I seem to get away with it but my projects probably aren't as complex as many others here are.

Not trying to push a 3rd party suite of tools here, I just happened to have recently circled back and narrowed what I use down as much as possible mainly because of my scattered approach to song-making. I'm easily slowed down and work mostly in small chunks of time, often coming back to in-progress songs months later, so re-inventing my workflow became problematic for me because I had to constantly retrace my steps.

[jlgrimes]

I'm curious what effects you find useful to add to the Master Section? The default effects work great, but I'm interested in what other setups you may find useful.

Thanks

KClip (versatile clipping plugin to catch stray peaks)

Ableton Glue (That said I'm finding the Reason Glue compressor has a punchier, cleaner sound and is a great substitute)

Pro-Q3 (for surgical EQ, Spectrum analysis)


Anything else is done on a case by case basis.

Ik multimedia Tape 99 (one of my favorite tape emulations, probably not the most "tapiest" but it warms up a mix without totally changing the integrity of initial mix (less of a bass bump)) as some tape emulations can drastically change mix. This one is one of the more subtle ones.

Fabfilter saturn 2 (Warm saturation)

TDR slick EQ (Great EQ for coloring, low CPU cost)

That said I'm not the heaviest Master bus tweaker as I tend to prefer minor tweaks on Master bus, and heavier processing downstream.

[Jac459]

Hey Kevin, I am a big izotope user because my mixing and mastering skills suck and I love the visual feedback of their products.
I use neutron 4 and ozone 9 a lot but I don't have insights. The base price is quite expansive.
2 questions for you:
Is insight very good? And if yes, did you buy it full price or is there also good deal for this one? (izotope is very good at throwing crazy deals out of the blue).

I've found it to be quite accurate, though I'm probably a bare-minimum user looking for loudness metering, which I then always check post-master at https://www.loudnesspenalty.com/. I'll be honest, I obtained Insight via an upgrade path that went something like Neutron+Ozone (can't remember how I bought this combo originally) to iZotope Everything (on sale of course) to Music Production Suite so I could get all the upgrades this year. Insight is something I never thought I needed until I realized I did and remembered I had it because of the suite upgrade.

I've noticed several people here mentioned 2 things I also solve with iZotope since I have the suite. Tape plugins, which I only realized is one of the available modules in Ozone (yep, subtle but awesome) and Imaging. Imager is one of the free iZotope downloads here: https://www.loudnesspenalty.com/

Another thing I should mention is that I tend to drop Neutron instances on nearly every instrument, or at least my busses, and process them individually. So far I seem to get away with it but my projects probably aren't as complex as many others here are.

Not trying to push a 3rd party suite of tools here, I just happened to have recently circled back and narrowed what I use down as much as possible mainly because of my scattered approach to song-making. I'm easily slowed down and work mostly in small chunks of time, often coming back to in-progress songs months later, so re-inventing my workflow became problematic for me because I had to constantly retrace my steps.

Thanks for your answer

[integerpoet]

Lately, I feel like nothing other than a mono switch for periodic quick safety checks should be in the master section.

This is a psychological hack against myself to keep me focused on producing the best possible mix.

It took me a long time to have the willpower to do this, but I kept reminding myself that mastering tools obscure mixing decisions, even if you tell yourself you'll keep them disabled most of the time. If they're too handy, they're too handy. If you're anything like me, you can fool yourself into thinking your mix doesn't need to be as good because you always have a rough idea of what mastering might do and problems can sound less like flaws and more like benign tasks you can or even should put off until later.

Anyway, this hack seems to be working because the mix I have in progress right now is head-and-shoulders above anything else I've ever done.

It turns out Ozone isn't a plug-in. It has a plug-in, but it also has an app. I'll be using the app.

[integerpoet]

Imager is one of the free iZotope downloads…

And it's great, but worth mentioning is that it's a simplified version of the one in Ozone, which is four-band with a "learn" button which suggests bands for you. This is fabulous because you usually want wider highs and narrower lows unless, I suppose, you make earthquake movies for a living, in which case you can do that, too.

[ThatKevinHanleyGuy]

It turns out Ozone isn't a plug-in. It has a plug-in, but it also has an app. I'll be using the app.

I'm so glad you said this (and everything else in this entire comment + your other comment about the differences between free Imager and Ozone's Imager module) because I completely forgot to mention this oddity about me: When I'm done, I sometimes bypass Ozone on my master buss anyway, export the mix from Reason and THEN finish the master in Ozone's standalone app, importing the current version of my Ozone preset for final tweaking. One reason I do this is that sometimes my WAV exports from Reason aren't the same level that Reason's master meters show. It's maybe .1 or.2dB difference tops, but it's no small detail, and it's also intermittent (probably from one update the the next, is my theory) so it's been hard for me to nail down.

Anyway, regardless of whether you master as you go (which again, is subject to scrutiny and rightfully so, since indeed it can affect mix decisions along the way) there are advantages to doing the "real" master outside of Reason. Or at least for me to do so. So thanks for bringing it up!

[miyaru]

I only use the tape echo and the RV 7000 in my master fx section, I'm kind of oldskool LOL.......

[arnigretar]

Waves: L3 Multimaximizer
Reason: MClass Compressor
FabFilter: Pro-Q

[integerpoet]

I only use the tape echo and the RV 7000 in my master fx section, I'm kind of oldskool LOL.......

It's fairly standard (not-quite-so-old-school) to keep reverb out of your master section but have a single unit for your entire mix as a common send effect.

And then send most if not all mixer channels to that effect and decide how much each of them contributes.

This is why Reason's auto-wiring works the way it does when you drop an effect just below the master section.

This is one way to chase a late-twentieth-century sound.

I'm not lying when I say my master section is essentially empty, but I may also be doing this at I say it.

[integerpoet]

I am a big izotope user because my mixing and mastering skills suck and I love the visual feedback of their products.

Don't be so hard on yourself.

People chant "trust your ears" as if the words have magical power.

I like being able to quickly pull down the threshold of the Kilohearts compressor until I can see I am "at the beach" with waves rolling in around my ankles.

That saves time. Then I start carefully trusting my ears.

[Jac459]

I am a big izotope user because my mixing and mastering skills suck and I love the visual feedback of their products.

Don't be so hard on yourself.

People chant "trust your ears" as if the words have magical power.

I like being able to quickly pull down the threshold of the Kilohearts compressor until I can see I am "at the beach" with waves rolling in around my ankles.

That saves time. Then I start carefully trusting my ears.

Yeah actually i start to get decent results and this vistula feedback help me to learn

[Popey]

My mastering chain is usually quite simple:
EQ: Fabfilter Pro q3 or better maker eq

Compressor: either reason bus compressor, Weiss compressor or free Tokyo Dawn kotelnikov

Limiter: Fabfilter L2

Occasionally I have a clipper before the limiter but usually not as I will have done most work in the mixing stage.