| Home recording and general music post from the archived Yabb Recording Website Message Board. Some of the info here may be outdated but many of the audio recording and home studio tips are still good. Note: The only tags I made and attempt to convert are italics, bold, center and underline. So if you see some gibberish surrounded by brackets, just ignore it.
Recording Website Archived Yabb board Post
Febuary 2001 Yabb Message Board Archive
Subject: mastering gear
by oesmghroth | 04/12/01 at 09:57:50
what is the best aural exciter/sonic maximiser/spectral enhancer thingy on the market money is no option
Subject: Re: mastering gear
by Maury | 04/12/01 at 12:19:34
The best thing on the market for that is probably a great "live" sounding tracking room, good mics (as well as great mic placement) and careful subtractive EQ in the mix. I used to search for similar units and then I heard Tim Z's last production. It had a beatutiful "air" and spaciousness about it. I asked Tim what "effect" he used, and he told me it was just the sound of the room & the recording. And the mic pre's. I'm not saying I'm good at it yet, but I'd bet the best processors out there (sonic max's, etc) will never sound as good as the sounds they simulate. Just my 2 cents. Maybe Tim Z can comment - he's the man! On the other hand, if you don't want to explore this route (which is OK too) a few years ago I had an Aphex Aural exiter and I thought it was noisy, but that's the only one I can comment on. Good luck either way.
Maury
Subject: Re: mastering gear
by Puke | 04/13/01 at 20:00:09
If money was no option you definitely would have no chance of even needing or wanting one. The sound would be correct and good in the first place, and you wouldn't need to screw it up trying to fix what a low budget caused.
Subject: Re: mastering gear
by oesmghroth | 04/15/01 at 12:41:10
??WTF
i said mastering not recording
you dont use mic to master DUH!
i dont need a great room and great mics ect ect for mastering
why dont you two read up on what mastering is
mastering has nothing to do with the actual act of recording
heck most mastering labs dont even share the same space as the recording studio
PUKE: wtf are you talking about
what has this world come to
Subject: Re: mastering gear
by Maury | 04/15/01 at 15:19:39
First of all, I was trying to be helpful. At one time I was curious about those enhancer effects too, and I thought that I might share my experience with you and everyone else reading this post. Second, if you know so much about mastering, why don't you already know the answer to your question? Also, you probably already know that mastering is the art of putting the "finishing touches" on an already good recording, and NO AMOUNT OF MASTERING can turn a bad recording into a great sounding master. I especially like your comment that mastering has nothing to do with the actual act of recording. If you can't see how the two go hand-in-hand, you've got more problems than trying to find a top of the line exiter. BTW, Puke's right - record it correctly & all the mastering engineer has to do is lightly polish it, tweak levels, etc. If money's no option, buy a book on the subject and educate yourself. Thanks for the kind words & happy Easter.
Maury ;D
Subject: Re: mastering gear
by Crippled_Rich | 04/15/01 at 21:06:06
I agree with Puke.
Besides there is no such "fix it" box. There are tools however . . . . EQ . . . maximizers . . etc.
Many home recordists (including this one) have used the BBE Sonic Maximizer with some success to add some high end detail to recordings.
Recently however I use a Behringer Ultra-Maximizer (compression, Tube emulation etc) and Behringer EQ as my main mastering units.
On the PC I use TC works Native bundle for compression and finalizing EQ.
Subject: Re: mastering gear
by Silent Bob | 04/15/01 at 21:42:29
I'm with Crippled Rich on that Behringer compressor.
As far as enhancers go. I have 3 or 4 different "enhancers" and I've probably used one of them on one mastering job out of dozens. Don't waste your money. Get a good EQ and a good multiband compressor.
But if I had to choose I'd have to say an Aural exciter. The other tools like the Sonic Maximizer and Behringer's enhancer are designed to help undo damage done by bad equipment.
Subject: Re: mastering gear
by pcrecord | 04/16/01 at 08:45:05
I guest what Maury wanted to say is since it's a forum on recording we often focus on capturing the purity of sounds before trying to fix it.
What oesmghthroth (my french thong can't say your name aloud, I'm sorry nothing wrong with it tho);)
Anyway what you're looking for can't be answer by one gear. It depends of the style of music you're doing and any gear you buy can make things better or whorse (depends how you use it).
So for my part a good multiband compressor is a good start for mastering, exciter etc... would be seperate units ( more options and settings than bundled ). If you go software, try http://www.t-racks.com/ . If you go hardware : T.C. Electronics Finalizer Plus 96K + Focusrite Blue 315 - Stereo Mastering EQ.
Those are pretty complicated stuff and no preset will be perfect for your music (what ever that is).
You might want to check what pros uses, sometime they put equiment list on their web site.
Good luck !!
P.S. Be more polite to the people here, nobody get payed to answer your question.
Subject: Re: mastering gear
by oesmghroth | 04/18/01 at 23:06:52
first of all
READ MY FIRST QUESTION AGAIN!
i never said anything about fixing anything or doing any music ect
i asked about some gear thats all
i did not ask about the zen of recording
and fr yr info mastering has nothing to do with mics and recording the sound (if so every joe shmo out there would be doing it)
and yes... its in the same domain as recording... cause its all about audio
i just wanted to know straight up about a particular item.
and sofar it seems only pc, bob, and rich, have anything to say about my question
many thanks to you
humble apologies about my name
there seems to be little known about those tweak boxes and i want to know more thats all
and if all yous think that a box like that is just for fixing bad recordings then down a jelloshooter and find out what a + it might be
you cant polish a turd but you can polish a stone or even paint a stone
Subject: Re: mastering gear
by hellbanga | 04/21/01 at 09:15:09
To answer the question origionally asked.....
Tc Electronics makes a good all in one mastering unit called Finalizer. Its a bit pricey but if money is not a problem this is probably what you are looking for. It has all the features you would look for in a mastering tool and Tc Electronics has been around the block as far as fx and other audio tools is concerned. If you are into software I can vouch for the T-racks 24 mastering tool. It is basically 4 fx. EQ, Comp, Limiter and soft clipping output stage. You'll need some good monitors and patience but I have found this tool to be well worth the effort since the sound I get is great. Hope this helps.
Subject: Re: mastering gear
by oesmghroth | 04/23/01 at 09:53:22
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
omg that rocks thanks for the info
HELLBANGA
is the software bundle a plugin for any platform
or can i use it with soundfordge
or qbase
or protools
Subject: Re: mastering gear
by hellbanga | 04/23/01 at 10:20:39
It's a stand alone app for PC. They just upgraded it to handle 24 bit and added a few other things. Check it out at www.t-racks.com
Subject: Re: mastering gear
by JR#97 | 04/25/01 at 10:38:39
I'll 2nd the opinions on T-Racks. However, be aware that the program is designed to add tube coloring. A little goes a long way baby. You may also want to check out the waves native powerpack bundles. www.waves.com. They're Direct X plugins that work great. They can be as transperant or as blatent as you want. As far as enhancers, there are also some enhancer type plug-ins out there. Hyperism,DSPFX are some just to name a few.
As far as hardware goes, the upper line Aurel Exciter's aren't too bad. I can't recall model numbers... they're not usually listed in your typical Pro-sumer catalogs... but again, with those, a little goes a long way.
Subject: Re: mastering gear
by Jon | 04/25/01 at 12:23:39
:D >:( ;D.........and thanks to oesmghroth for laying down the law and keeping people on the question. Sometimes you just want a simple answer and not a mile of now-it-all engineer mumbo jumbo (yeah, yeah, yeah...I know that not all answers can be simply answered..insert your foot here>>>:o!!!) I just wanted to step in because I got a ton of S**T once for POLITELY asking a certain someone (Z MIT) to "please stick to the question". :P :P :P
Subject: Re: mastering gear
by Puke | 04/28/01 at 21:37:27
OK, MR. money is no option.
Since when did an aural exciter become mastering gear.??? I'm still trying to figure that out????
Since I've got a couple minutes, I'll try and get philosophical to humor you, me, and everybody else in this quite entertaining non-discussion.
First of all?
When you say best. What do you mean.?
The basic "lowest noise, most headroom, least <unwanted> distortion".???? I'll have to assume you can't read (the specs yourself), or you would have already. One thing for sure is that the "best" co. out there making one is probably not lying about their specs. (unless, of course, there is not a "best" company out there making one, which could certainly be the case).
No matter what ANYBODY OUT THERE says, HONEST specs do NOT lie.
(McIntosh is a good example, generally close to NON-Measurable distortion, etc., I've never met anybody anywhere who disagreed or said they overrated themselves).
Now, when you say "best", if you mean best looking, then I must assume you are blind, and can't see and dtermine for yourself, and I would hate to assume that, so I throw that one out completely and not entertain that thought any further.
By the way, when you say "money is no option" are you trying to say that price is of no concern???
The gear you named as mastering gear, by the way, would probably be better termed "non-mastering gear". Let me tell you, aural exciters etc., probably do not excite anyone or anything at all, as far as mastering goes (well, maybe just a little, if you have a small tallywacker)..
I don't work at a mastering house, so I can't say for sure that they all don't have at least 15 aural exciters going all at the same time 24/7. Ha Ha ha.
Hope someone out ther likes the humor. If not, take a stab at me,...And I'll check in later to see if I have to pull some arrows out or something.
Been fun!
Subject: Re: mastering gear
by Jim | 04/29/01 at 17:12:36
I must say I am really disappointed at this post. I agree that you (oesmghroth) asked a pretty straight foward question looking for a straight foward answer. However, having folks add their own "2 cents worth" by way of approach and philosophy, is what enthusiasts do and to out right blast somebody for responding to your post is rude and terribly uncalled for.
I have come to this sight having been to others and No Where else have I been able to post a question and not learn something from those who have responded. Sometimes a simple straight foward answer is all that is dersired, but hey if someone cares enough to reply philosophically then that should be respected even if that is not what is wanted...heck you may just learn something.
I find that if money was no object coupled with the attitude exhibited in your responses that you would find yourself enrolled in a recording institute somewhere being run by pros with all of the knowledge of equipment and approaches in either recording or mastering.
Nuff Said
Subject: Re: mastering gear
by Puke | 04/30/01 at 23:40:40
Does anybody else out there think that asking what the best "aural exciter" (or, insert your own non-mastering gear name here)is, is a bit like asking what the best peizo electric tweeter is???? (even though it's a tweeter, it's not one anybody or anything I know would want).
Or, maybe one should ask what the best buggy manufacturer is even though the rest of us have cars and you still insist you are going to run your buggy in the daytona 500. SHOULD THE REST OF US NOT TELL YOU THAT YOU ARE ILL-INFORMED IF YOU THINK YOU ARE GOING TO RACE YOUR BUGGY IN THE DAYTONA 500????
If someone takes the word "mastering gear " out,
things may be different.
Subject: Re: mastering gear
by oesmghroth | 05/06/01 at 14:05:25
PUKE!
as far as i am concerned your sense of humor is taking every word i said LITERALY! whats funny about that?
literaly makeing every thing i said a question in itself?
ill answer yr questions though
"money is no option" means that i dont want anyone to hold back on their comments where prices are concerned
"mastering gear" is just the fricken title of the post
and on the subject of what many people regard, some of the gear that was listed
you think that a aureal exciter is not masering gear(it sure as hell aint for tracking) while some of the othere post i get say that it is
there seems to be lots of myths regarding that kind of gear and thats y i posted the question, so as to see what a major consensus would be
i have only used them for premastering but not for mastering and yes a little goes a long way with them
by the word "BEST" i mean high quality or class A
pretty general question if you dont overthink it
and wtf do you mean by specs i said nothing about specs and looks? ...hmm????
your pretty cool with yr big interpretaions on what best is.... when you find out let me know
JIM! thank you for telling me about yr morals and your intuitve nature and insight, but dont you think that yr in the wrong line of work to be talking the good word, nice try...8)
BTW the only people keeping this post up are you those respond and look it
i am greatly sorry to all those who are offended
i just wanted to know somthing about the myth of ...
well you know...if not read the question...and a peice of gear is only a wast of time if the user thinks of it that way, so why cant you pessimist dogs see my question as a +... my replys were harsh but my question was met with harshness also...
THAT is the real disappointment
Subject: Re: mastering gear
by oesmghroth | 05/06/01 at 14:11:24
PUKE!
just a question
what do you know about phylosophy
cause i thought it was about looking beyond the litteral view and reading deeper into things