Mastering Example in Reason 8.3

[SA Studio]

Hey all

Got a new video I made to show off one example-process of Mastering a song in Reason. Using a few key Rack Extensions, I show an example of Mastering a song and give some info about basic Loudness metering. Lemme know what you guys think

[decibel]

oh kool, will take a squint cheers

how do you think kratos stacks up against ozone, onyx 430i etc ?

[SA Studio]

Wow, 130 views and 1 reply, hahaha! I must be preachin' to the choir here.

I think the Kratos 2 is as clean or even cleaner when pushed hard then the Ozone. It really produces clean masters

Thanks for watching and commenting

[Emian]

the MP-5 is probably the best buy i did in Black Friday sales this year .

Thx for the RV700 MK2 tip, & also the experimentation with EQ after glue compressor, worth some experimentation

[XysteR]

I seen this today on a Facebook page. I have my options open for reason mastering. The main one I generally use is just a mastering suite included in Reason, but I replaced the eq for synapse GQ-7 and the mclass maximizer with iZotope maximizer, softtube FET compressor is in there now too, along with synapse deep reverb for glue if needed, the only thing I'm short of is a stereo imager but the mclass one does well. I'm surprised by the lack of choice on the Re store for stereo imagers. My other option is to master outside of Reason with iZotope Ozone 7 - I love the new analog stuff in that!

[SA Studio]

I actually have yet to try the new Ozone - I had 4 and 5 and just grew apart from it, but the new one looks nice for sure. I've heard good things.

[decibel]

Wow, 130 views and 1 reply, hahaha! I must be preachin' to the choir here.

I think the Kratos 2 is as clean or even cleaner when pushed hard then the Ozone. It really produces clean masters

Thanks for watching and commenting

i already have the others and seeing as kratos2 is on sale for december im pretty tempted, plus i like to support companies like kuassa who make great products for the reason enviroment, gotta show some love yeah

[Ronin]

Good video. I bought the mp5 in the sale too.
Personally I dont do much mastering in Reason. I have the master comp doing very small amount of levelling, with an mp5 to use similar to you. Then I export to cubase and put it through ozone 5, for limiting, compression and stereo imaging etc.

[XysteR]

I actually have yet to try the new Ozone - I had 4 and 5 and just grew apart from it, but the new one looks nice for sure. I've heard good things.

Does that stereo imager allow you to bypass any stereo imaging on the bass frequencies?

[decibel]

i think the whole mastering thing is part of the final frontier that reason needs to conquer , the app is great for so many things in so many ways but its obvious that when a lot of people reach a certain level of experience with reason they are often choosing to rewire into logic, cubase or whatever in order to do the final mastering on their tracks using third party tools.. it would be great to see them rope in some of the big name developers to create some channel strips for mastering in reason etc, their priority should always be keeping us locked into the reason environment yeah, maybe they could add this as a feature to include with R9 alongside with sample loading and all those other things people have been requesting for years now

[Wook]

Excellent video. Hats are a bit too hot for my taste, but i'm a bit sensitive to high freqs anyway so no big deal. Thank you.

[XysteR]

I've split the signal into two just before the stereo imager, one signal to the imager which has two combinators connected via the MID/SIDE connections on the back. Each combinator contains an EQ with high pass/bass cut filters set, solely to stop the low end being treated by the Stereo imager. The other split signal is merged back with both of the stereo imagers outputs (one from the unit, one from the connected combinators mixer) They both go back into the chain as normal. This way you don't let the Stereo imager mess up the low end. I've also got a reference track set up for the Flower Audio Loudness Meter which is handy for dropping in a track for referencing against the track you're working on.

I think this setup has some phasing issues with splitting the signal into two and rejoining it after the stereo effect?

[SA Studio]

I actually have yet to try the new Ozone - I had 4 and 5 and just grew apart from it, but the new one looks nice for sure. I've heard good things.

Does that stereo imager allow you to bypass any stereo imaging on the bass frequencies?

I should have demonstrated the Stereo Splitter does indeed make the center channel bypassable to where you can only hear the sides and vice-versa. It does a very good job of keeping things that weren't panned right down the middle and defeatable, if you need.

It's a cheap device and not bad at all.

The reference track capability of the Flower Loudness Meter is also a nice feature.

[XysteR]

I actually have yet to try the new Ozone - I had 4 and 5 and just grew apart from it, but the new one looks nice for sure. I've heard good things.

Does that stereo imager allow you to bypass any stereo imaging on the bass frequencies?

I should have demonstrated the Stereo Splitter does indeed make the center channel bypassable to where you can only hear the sides and vice-versa. It does a very good job of keeping things that weren't panned right down the middle and defeatable, if you need.

It's a cheap device and not bad at all.

The reference track capability of the Flower Loudness Meter is also a nice feature.

That's good to know, i'll look into it now. I think i'm getting phasing problems with splitting then rejoining the signal

*EDIT* Ah, I see why I was getting phasing problems. I had the main output of the stereo splitter in the chain and didn't need it

[Libraquaricorn]

Awesome video! Thank you so much for sharing.

Mixing and mastering is the bottleneck of my creative flow in a way, so it's nice to see how someone else have things set up under the hood of that master section for once. It's the rusty tap, so to speak, that my "finished" stuff comes running out of....and I'm afraid I'm not a(n audio) plumber....

I also have the mp5 first in my master chain, usually preset to "warm master". Then I have the mclass stereo imager, but I almost always bypass it (don't really know how to use it). Next I have the C1-L1 Compressor. I prefer "master glue 3" for some reason and I keep the dry/wet setting of the preset. Then I use the Onyx 430i Tube Limiter to make things louder. I use the "clean tube brickwall" preset with the margin set set to -0,10 and then I fool around with the gain and the treshhold until it's loud enough.... In the end of the chain is the Flower Meter and the info you just shared on using it is invaluable to me, thank you! Now I finally know what to aim for. I love that history of dynamic range reference chart btw...

I kinda tend to agree with some here that the final result was a wee bit too "hot" for my taste, but then again, that's probably just a matter of - yep - taste...

I wouldn't mind that Kratos in my rack after seeing this....

And by the way: Absolutely STELLAR track you've got there!!!

I'd love to see a video on how you mixed it

Thanks again and hope to see more from you soon

[SA Studio]

Hey, really glad you guys find it helpful!

Yes, the hats are a little hot and sizzly but, if it were a final version or product for sale, it would have got a little more time spent dialing it in. I knew I had a lot of ground to cover and had to keep moving. But yes, a lil' bit sizzly. And it's nice hearing you guys say that, because if this were my "right before print" version, and you guys were my second-set-of-ears friends I was sending it to to check out, that's exactly what I'd wanna hear.

I know on my CD, that should be in hand on the 12th, possibly with links already set up, the final Mastered version wasn't as hot. Thanks for saying you liked the track, it's one of the final mixes/pre-mastered songs from the new CD. I'll put up a link once it's ready to go.

the packaging turned out neat: http://www.oasiscd.com/AVLFlashViewer/? ... mIn2LgrK73 << That's a cool 3D Proof they got there.

I know I have the file for this song and others ready to go in Reason and I can very easily do another video, and since the response has been good, I'll definitely make another Thanks again, all

[Yonatan]

Really good video!

I bought the Synapse Vintage EQ because of this. I find it a nice coloring tool.

Kratos is great, but I missed out on the €39 sale, so will pick it up next time.
Have the Ozone one, but find Kratos a subtle bit more soft in some way. Could be psycological though.

When it comes to loudness measurment, this -11 rms was really helpful. I have not come that far yet
in my learning as to the final mastering levels. I can see 2 main meters in the shop:
Red Rock RE 128 Loudness meter
Floder Audio Loudness meter

Found this helpful link on FB from Anthony:
http://productionadvice.co.uk/lufs-dbfs-rms/

[Ostermilk]

Hey Ras, nice sounding track.

Some good sense advice on getting the final levels right there.

The thing is that going forward will mean that people that squash the heck out of everything to get a loud master with little dynamic range will actually find themselves ending up sounding quieter on broadcast media than masters that have a healthy dynamic range.

The proposals put forward for broadcast levels (on TV at least) are now having an LKFS level of -16 which gets broadcast at -21dBFS with a max digital peak of -5 dBFS meaning that if your LKFS figure is higher it will still get pulled back to -21dBFS IOW your peak levels will end up being quieter than everyone else because you'll end up not using the full Dynamic Range available, which hopefully will kill the loudness wars off once and for all.

It's a good video as well from the point of view the ordering of your devices, people might have there own preferences on what devices they use but you can see clearly as to why that particular order works well when you go through each thing in turn and hear what happens along the way.

Kudos, great vid.

I've also got to add given the mad ass exchanges we've had online in the past, you actually come across as a regular nice dude on the video...

[Wook]

I know I have the file for this song and others ready to go in Reason and I can very easily do another video, and since the response has been good, I'll definitely make another Thanks again, all

Please do. You are very articulate and obviously know what you are talking about. It would be cool to see how you go about mixing the track. Your bass is fat but clean. That's an issue for me.

[inthewind]

Thank you for your video and the dynamic range info.

[tt_lab]

Great video!
Waiting for more.
One question tho, it seems to me that the snare looses strength after the mastering proccess, like it gets squased. was this something intentional? because to me the snare pre master was sounding way more hard, and I wanted to know (not a pro here) if this is avoidable.
Thanx in advance

EDIT:
Nice song BTW kudos!

[XysteR]

Great video!
Waiting for more.
One question tho, it seems to me that the snare looses strength after the mastering proccess, like it gets squased. was this something intentional? because to me the snare pre master was sounding way more hard, and I wanted to know (not a pro here) if this is avoidable.
Thanx in advance

EDIT:
Nice song BTW kudos!

It'll be the Kvassa at the end of the chain. You gain db with limiting, but lose elsewhere in the process. It can be compensated for though.

[Skullture]

Wow, 130 views and 1 reply, hahaha! I must be preachin' to the choir here.

It's like teaching students in university and the kids are afraid to ask questions

[decibel]

Wow, 130 views and 1 reply, hahaha! I must be preachin' to the choir here.

It's like teaching students in university and the kids are afraid to ask questions

its like they say "there is no such thing as a dumb question " usually the kid in class who asks the so called silly question in class is helping a bunch of other kids who also wanted some clarity get a better understanding of the topic and just dont want to appear to be foolish in front of their other class mates

[ebop]

I bought the Synapse Vintage EQ because of this.

Same here, lol. Nice video alright and I learnt some good tips. Thanks heaps SA Studio