Mastering Plugin Recommendation

[JD01]

Not getting much chance to write/record at the moment for obvious reasons. So I figured I'd try and spend an hour a day working on mixing and mastering.

Now, my "mastering" is pretty primitive. I just use Reaper's Event Horizon in conjunction with ReaEQ and a free loudness meter.
As far as I can tell mastering pretty much just is limiting, EQ and bringing things to the correct level. However, I've listened to some demos of mastering plugins and they seem to make things better.

Anyone got any recommendations?

[Armistice]

I'm not sure what a mastering plug in actually is... what demos have you found? Wouldn't mind checking them out myself.

I used a different limiter but then I went back to Event Horizon - but the evaluation version from whoever made it. Now that I've learnt it also comes with Reaper I don't feel so bad about not paying for it for 10 years...

My chain is an (evaluation) EQ from Melda, which has a "mastering starter" preset which, indeed, is usually a good start for EQ.

Then a tape emulation plug set to "classic tape"

Then G Clip - a (free) oft clipper

Then Event Horizon

(then Voxengo Span and another loudness meter, which are just meters).

I find once I get in the ballpark in terms of LUFS, all the action is in G-Clip and not Event Horizon. Bit more or less gain or clip - easier to wrangle than EH. Also loving the Reaper Dry Run rendering feature to save me having to actually render stuff to check how the levels end up, seeing I do it in real time.

[JD01]

I'm not sure what a mastering plug in actually is... what demos have you found? Wouldn't mind checking them out myself.

I used a different limiter but then I went back to Event Horizon - but the evaluation version from whoever made it. Now that I've learnt it also comes with Reaper I don't feel so bad about not paying for it for 10 years...

My chain is an (evaluation) EQ from Melda, which has a "mastering starter" preset which, indeed, is usually a good start for EQ.

Then a tape emulation plug set to "classic tape"

Then G Clip - a (free) oft clipper

Then Event Horizon

(then Voxengo Span and another loudness meter, which are just meters).

I find once I get in the ballpark in terms of LUFS, all the action is in G-Clip and not Event Horizon. Bit more or less gain or clip - easier to wrangle than EH. Also loving the Reaper Dry Run rendering feature to save me having to actually render stuff to check how the levels end up, seeing I do it in real time.

Can't remember - I'd just been YouTubing "mastering VSTs". I'm sure I could find them again if I looked. I just don't trust anyone on YouTube recommending anything except the bloke with the Elvis hair and possibly Fricker - while he's an arse, he does mostly know what he's doing. And none of the videos I saw were from them.

Your "mastering chain" is way more complex than mine. Mine is just ReaEQ>Event Horizon>Loudness Meter. Might have the EQ after EH can't remember.
I use the YouLean loudness meter - I just googled "best free loudness meters" or something like that.

[Armistice]

I'm not sure what a mastering plug in actually is... what demos have you found? Wouldn't mind checking them out myself.

I used a different limiter but then I went back to Event Horizon - but the evaluation version from whoever made it. Now that I've learnt it also comes with Reaper I don't feel so bad about not paying for it for 10 years...

My chain is an (evaluation) EQ from Melda, which has a "mastering starter" preset which, indeed, is usually a good start for EQ.

Then a tape emulation plug set to "classic tape"

Then G Clip - a (free) oft clipper

Then Event Horizon

(then Voxengo Span and another loudness meter, which are just meters).

I find once I get in the ballpark in terms of LUFS, all the action is in G-Clip and not Event Horizon. Bit more or less gain or clip - easier to wrangle than EH. Also loving the Reaper Dry Run rendering feature to save me having to actually render stuff to check how the levels end up, seeing I do it in real time.

Can't remember - I'd just been YouTubing "mastering VSTs". I'm sure I could find them again if I looked. I just don't trust anyone on YouTube recommending anything except the bloke with the Elvis hair and possibly Fricker - while he's an arse, he does mostly know what he's doing. And none of the videos I saw were from them.

Your "mastering chain" is way more complex than mine. Mine is just ReaEQ>Event Horizon>Loudness Meter. Might have the EQ after EH can't remember.
I use the YouLean loudness meter - I just googled "best free loudness meters" or something like that.

Yeah, that's the one I have too. YouLean - but all the info is now on the Reaper render screen anyway, so I'm not really using it this album to date - perhaps when I do the proper master...

I don't know where I got it from but I did read somewhere that stacking limiters in the mastering chain was a "thing" - hence the G-Clip. I actually used to run 2 instances. No idea if it's of any benefit or not, but I do find I can more easily get to a target volume via the G-Clip interface than via the EH one, so it stays there.

Be nice if there was an all-in-one mastering plug in though.

I still have relatively little idea of what I'm doing at the pointy end of the process...

[JD01]

Basically I finally have the time do learn this so I figured I might as well start trying to learn about it.

[Greg_L]

I've been using Ozone stuff lately.

[paulman]

I've been using Ozone stuff lately.

Me too. Don't Let Me Down is the first thing I mastered with it. Right now I'm doing a subscription so I can try out all their stuff, but Ozone is probably the only thing I really need. I think it costs $199 to buy it outright. My subcription (which includes a lot more than just Ozone) is $20 a month. I've been listening to a podcast lately with a pro mastering engineer, and while he doesn't use AI or presets himself, he says positive things about Ozone. And that was in old episodes from years ago, before the current version 10 that I'm using.

[Greg_L]

Me too. Don't Let Me Down is the first thing I mastered with it. Right now I'm doing a subscription so I can try out all their stuff, but Ozone is probably the only thing I really need. I think it costs $199 to buy it outright. My subcription (which includes a lot more than just Ozone) is $20 a month. I've been listening to a podcast lately with a pro mastering engineer, and while he doesn't use AI or presets himself, he says positive things about Ozone. And that was in old episodes from years ago, before the current version 10 that I'm using.

I don't know how, when, or why I got Ozone but I'm certain I didn't pay for it. I think I got it for free, legitimately, through some promotion/bundle for something else. I very rarely, super rare, will pay money for a plug in. None of them are so good that I'd feel I need them bad enough to pay for them.

But Ozone does seem to work well for "mastering".

[JD01]

I've been using Ozone stuff lately.

Cool, what one - I'll look it up.

[Greg_L]

Cool, what one - I'll look it up.

I think it's called Elements or something like that.

[paulman]

I've been using Ozone stuff lately.

Cool, what one - I'll look it up.

https://www.izotope.com/en/products/ozone.html

Now's the time with Black Friday deals.

[JD01]

Cool, what one - I'll look it up.

I think it's called Elements or something like that.

This guy?
https://www.izotope.com/en/shop/ozone-elements.html

[Greg_L]

This guy?
https://www.izotope.com/en/shop/ozone-elements.html

That's a newer version than mine, but yeah I think that's it.

[JD01]

This guy?
https://www.izotope.com/en/shop/ozone-elements.html

That's a newer version than mine, but yeah I think that's it.

Great, seems cheap - I think I'll buy it to have a play with.
What is does it include? Sort of like a combination limiter, EQ and meter?

[Greg_L]

Great, seems cheap - I think I'll buy it to have a play with.
What is does it include? Sort of like a combination limiter, EQ and meter?

Yes that's all I use it for. It does other stuff though. I just don't know what else it does. It has all kinds of settings and models of compression and stereo processing that I've never explored. I just use it is an EQ and compressor.

[JD01]

Great, seems cheap - I think I'll buy it to have a play with.
What is does it include? Sort of like a combination limiter, EQ and meter?

Yes that's all I use it for. It does other stuff though. I just don't know what else it does. It has all kinds of settings and models of compression and stereo processing that I've never explored. I just use it is an EQ and compressor.

Brilliant - thanks, mate. I'll get this and then A/B my most recent decent mix (the Waste Land) which I made a decent job of to see if this adds any special sauce.

[Greg_L]

Brilliant - thanks, mate. I'll get this and then A/B my most recent decent mix (the Waste Land) which I made a decent job of to see if this adds any special sauce.

What I like about it is that to me it doesn't add any special sauce. It's pretty transparent. My finished mixes sound more like my raw mixes, just a little more refined and naturally louder. It's like a good clean boost.

[JD01]

Brilliant - thanks, mate. I'll get this and then A/B my most recent decent mix (the Waste Land) which I made a decent job of to see if this adds any special sauce.

What I like about it is that to me it doesn't add any special sauce. It's pretty transparent. My finished mixes sound more like my raw mixes, just a little more refined and naturally louder. It's like a good clean boost.

So, this brings me back to my original query... what is the difference between a plugin like this and just using a limiter like Event Horizon coupled with a bit of ReaEQ?

I'm going to try it anyway

[Greg_L]

So, this brings me back to my original query... what is the difference between a plugin like this and just using a limiter like Event Horizon coupled with a bit of ReaEQ?

I'm going to try it anyway

I don't know, probably nothing? If you're just gonna EQ and limit like you always do anyway then everything will still sound the same as it always has.

[JD01]

So, this brings me back to my original query... what is the difference between a plugin like this and just using a limiter like Event Horizon coupled with a bit of ReaEQ?

I'm going to try it anyway

I don't know, probably nothing? If you're just gonna EQ and limit like you always do anyway then everything will still sound the same as it always has.

This is why I don't understand what the point of specific mastering plugin is.
What do you find the difference is? Just simplicity and a nice interface?