#smartrapperbeats

Mastering Chain - (Mastering Plugin Chain) 

Mastering may be a little more complicated than vocal chaining but the process is very similar. Here are some basics:

Gain – Before you start your mastering session you need to add a gain plugin so you can give yourself some “head room” which lowering the volume of your mix in case it’s already distorting. 

EQ – EQ can be really tedious but you want to put it at the beginning of the chain so you can get a nice balance before you move on to other processors.

Multi-band Compression – Multi-band compression is preferable to normal compression because you want to treat frequency ranges differently.

If you want to get a juicy and compressed drum sound and low-end you don’t want to take the vocals and high-end with you. You want to keep the lows tight while making the highs breathe. That’s what multi-band compression lets you do.

Limiting – Is when you bring up the overall volume of the mix without it clipping. 

Be mindful that before you enter a mastering session make sure your mix is not clipping and at a good level before you add your mastering chain. 

How Plugin Chaining Works

Plugin Chaining - The order of audio plugins used on a mix bus usually for vocals or mastering. 

Plugin chaining comes in very handy in mixing and mastering. If you don’t know what plugin chaining is, it’s the simple process of choosing the order of plugins usually on aux buses, vocal buses, and mastering buses. 

There are many different ways you can approach a plugin chain. There are thousands of mixing and mastering pros and their techniques vary. So here is a basic plugin chain for vocals i think that this guy made it really simple for beginners. 

Vocal Chain

1. EQ

– I filter unwanted frequencies and cut first. Then I add what I think the vocal needs. EQ both in solo and in the mix.

2. Compression – I have a bunch of different compressors that can all do great things for certain voices. I often use the Waves CLA-76 the most. It gives the voice thickness without sounding compressed.

3. Saturation – This could be anywhere in the vocal chain and doesn’t have to be after EQ or compression. There are bunch of  different saturation settings I go for to thicken up the low-end of the bass or add mild distortion to smoothing out the vocal with some tape emulation.

4. EQ – this is where I  re-balance the frequency response of an instrument. I usually put an EQ after all of these plugins to add some more high-end again.

5. De-esser - I usually top it off with a nice de-esser to get rid of those ess and sibilant sounds from the vocals. 

Limiters

The limiter is often used in mastering to bring up the volume of a mix or to make it appear louder. 

This is how you get your mix (which should be a good mix) louder without clipping (which is audio distortion).

It is also used on singular instruments and vocals and especially guitars. 

A limiter can “catch” those unwanted or loud frequencies before they distort.

Limiter - is a tool used in audio production that allows signals below a chosen input power or level to pass unaffected while lowering the peaks of louder signals that exceed this threshold.

In most DAWs you can always find a “starter” limiter to practice on. In Logic Pro X I often use the Adaptive Limiter on my instruments and drums to keep them from distorting. 

In Pro Tools i use the Dynamic 3 Compressor/Limiter for the same function. If you’re starting don’t worry because most virtual limiters come with already dialed and easy to use presets. 

All it takes is a little imagination and experimentation.

How To Use A Limiter:

For mastering you can use a limiter to bring up the overall signal or volume of your mix without distorting. 

Remember before you add a limiter to your master bus you must always bring down the volume of the mix in your session. And how I do this is send every track (vocals and instruments) to an aux channel and here is where I control the volume of the entire song (all tracks together).