Mastering Processor Recommendations?

[stryd_one]

Hey all,

I've got a big wish.... This forum is a wealth of knowledge on all things audio and DIY and I was hoping some of you might have some good suggestions for me. If you wouldn't mind giving your 2c I'd appreciate it :)

All I really need is something that can be kinda 'set and forget' to maximize the volume. I don't really want or need the thing to be full of controls and stuff, or anything like multiband limiting which would need to be set differently for each song. (EQing and multiband compression is already done)

Now, I just love Waves L1, it's perfect for what I need. I just set it to dice a few dB off the top and it cranks everything up. But I'm trying to eradicate software from the studio. I could get an L2, but I was hoping for something less wallet-vaporisingly-expensive ;) There are lots of commercial offerings out there, but in Australia there's nowhere you can go that has them all in stock so you can listen to them side by side :(

Anyone have any suggestions? I'd prefer DIY, but if you've got something commercial you like please pipe up :)

Thanks guys! (and girls? are there any girls around here yet? my g/f drew her first circuit diagram today :) )

[moxi]

hi Stryd_one,

from my side I use a Creamware sound card running the "Optimaster" pluggin:

http://www.creamware.com/page.php?seite=optimaster&lang=en&submenu=home

I know that is still a software solution, but it's the cheaper solution i've found (about 150E for a second hand Luna card and 150E for the pluggin), it's really difficult to find hardware mastering processor for such a price.

The optimaster feature a "wizard" mode: the pluggin analyse the song then propose a set of setting, and there is a lot of preset that could be used to start easily.

The other good point is that the A/D and D/A converters are really good on this cards...

In my opinion, this pluggin is less "destructive" than the waves L1 and the change in the sound are less drastic...

And it's really fun to play with Creamware gear...

[Screaming_Rabbit]

... try to get your hands to a used (they're not cheap when new) Jünger D02

http://www.junger-audio.com/website/products_menu/2chdynamics_frame.html

Greets, Roger

[stryd_one]

Wow that looks nice.... Even more than the L2 though  :o

[Mr modnaR]

;D

[stryd_one]

;D Yeh that's why I was thinking DIY might be my saviour... Nice analog saturation is sooo nice. Like PSP Vintagewarmer. Yum.

I just love tape saturation, which is typically unlucky for me because you can't really get tape saturation in real time  ::)

[seppoman]

Hi Stryd,

if you´re looking for DIY-projects, have you already heard of http://www.gyraf.dk? (go to "DIY Projects"). He is the man behind the very popular Urei 1176 clone and has quite a few nice comp, eq, micpre projects. As a mastering compressor, I´d go for the SSL MixBus clone:

It´s a clone of the main compressor of the SSL 4000 Series mixing desks. We have one of these desks in my university´s (now second-best) studio, and it sounds absolutely fabulous :)

The 4000 clone is a quite simple design. The only special part about it is the THAT2180 VCA. Everything else is cheap standard parts. There´s a PCB set available for 13 Euros, so if you build the case/panel yourself, the rest is around 100 Euros.

I have been wanting to build one of these for years now, and also an 1176 clone. The 1176 is also really cool, but adds too much character to be useful for mastering. But I´m getting distracted by all these nice MidiBox projects everytime I´d want to start one of these  ::)

Seppoman

[Screaming_Rabbit]

Wow that looks nice.... Even more than the L2 though  :o

... I daily worked with one for the last 7 years and I can tell you, it's a hell of a unit. I also worked a lot with the L1 and L2 plugs and I like them. - This might be a matter of taste, but I like the Jünger much more.

I handle it the way, that when I have to play out the mix (when having external effects involved), I use the Jünger and if I can render the mix, I use the Waves plugs.

Greets, Roger

[stryd_one]

Heh Seppo you must've read my mind.... I have been sitting here all night narrowing down the DIY options and basically was trying to decide between the GSSL and G1176... but not having ever heard either of them, I wasn't sure which way to go... Now I know, thanks :) Seems to be a lot of Aussie interest in these too, which is handy.... Now I've just gotta put together a parts list ughhhh... I wish all DIY communities had Smash and Mike selling kits!!!

For those who are just hearing about or are interested the GSSL pretty much everything gets covered in the META - SSL Clone posts thread. If you make one and want to troubleshoot, or feel like reading >125 pages of posts (!!!!) to really get to kow it, make sure you read SSL HELP THREAD!!! :)

Unfortunately it's not like our beloved MIDIBox forum  ;) and not everything I wonder about could be found by searching the forums. This page seems like a pretty good rundown though.

For example an external sidechain - I was thinking about giving it look-ahead capabilities by putting a delay line of a few ms on the input, but the external sidechain info in this thread on The Lab-forum is a bit fuzzy. I'm sure it makes sense to the pro's but it's mildly confusing to newbies :-\

Or modding for a higher ratio, which I'd like to do as it's the last limiter in the signal chain. There's some talk of it in this thread but it's not exactly a parts list ;) heheh

The PCB's FS SSL, G9, G1176 Ship to Australia, Asia, New Zealand Thread is intersting to us down-under :)

THAT Corp. 2180LB are on SmallBear and there's a guy from the GroupDIY Forum selling That 2180 IC's and also these LED based meters which should knock a bit off the price... they can also be found on his webpage. Unfortunately just *how* to get them working with the GSSL wasn't clear yet. There's a similar circuit mentioned in this thread but again it's not for newbies :)

All that said, it's really not that bad - where some specifics are missing, there is a great deal of excellent documentation to support the project and I feel that I won't have much trouble filling in the blanks... So I, think I might make the SSL now and start saving for the junger, that thing looks sweet :)

If I manage to figure it out, I'll post a parts list for the whole thing with prices. At my current rate of progress that'll be a looong time  ::)

[Jidis]

Now I've just gotta put together a parts list ughhhh... I wish all DIY communities had Smash and Mike selling kits!!!

I thought the same thing. Funny, because that "rounding up the components" task is probably the easy part for many. I went and looked at the SSL clone, then found that people were selling bundles of the chips on eBay for 20 bucks or so. I've got no problem etching some boards, and have a nice pile of copper here, but compiling a DigiKey order terrifies me. It'd be nice to just grab a Ziploc bag full of junk from one of them. ;D

Stryd-  Are you really dead set against plugs? I've moved just about every process I need now to stuff in the UAD bundle. Every time I start thinking about modding something here, or looking at DIY analog projects, I get to wondering where I honestly need them, whether I've already got something similar on the UAD cards, and whether it would be worth the loss of multiple instances, instant patching, automation, instant recall and everything else. Needless to say, the racks will start looking a little lonely, but you can always make "fake hardware" to run the UAD plugs with MIDIbox guts:

(that was for the Neve 1073 they put out a little while ago)

Their Precision Limiter is really nice. ( http://www.uaudio.com/products/software/UAD/limiter/index.html ) It stays on the last stage slot of my mains in Nuendo during exports. It's pretty open and clear sounding and takes a lot of reduction to get crunchy or anything (maybe not good for tape distortion though). I've only briefly used the Waves ones (over used more likely), but I do remember them being easier to "hear".  Universal also just brought out the Neve 33609 bus comp, and they already had the Fairchild, the LA-2A, 1176LN and everything else. (starting to sound like a Sweetwater salesman here)

Take Care,

George

PS- (back to Sweetwater mode) I'm really liking some of the fuzz I can get from their Space Echo emu too. If used just for the distortion, with too much input gain, it can add sort of an "exciter like" sound. 

 

[stryd_one]

Love that Neve EQ controller! I almost bought those same knobs a while back :)

Yeh to cut a long story short, I went software as soon as technology allowed it (IE around the time of the big latency drops in soundcards when it went from several dozen ms to several ms) and I hated it. PC's (including macs) just aren't stable enough for my purposes :( I mean, I can fix anything that goes wrong, that's no problem... I just don't want to do it when I feel like playing a song! :)

the loss of multiple instances, instant patching, automation, instant recall

If I need multiple instances I buy more gear :) Automated patching is the only thing I lose in the hardware realm, and I'm working on a switch matrix for that :) Although I don't like using a PC, that doesn't mean I will go without the advantages it brings... I'm just taking that convenience back to the hardware realm, so I still use a PC in the studio, for loading up and editing synth patches, storing and loading samples etc... There's a lot of math goes into my music and the PC does some of that for me too. I guess it's only the realtime stuff that I try to keep off the box.  Automation isn't something I use a lot of... I'll record MIDI CC's in the sequencers but that's as far as it goes. It's really aimed at live/improv music with very little post editing so it's pretty unusual I guess :)

[Jidis]

I had figured your interests were probably more toward the "live" end. :)

I stopped playing in bands many years back, and even then, I'm a drummer, so I never needed much outboard gear there. I figure if I was toting stuff to shows or even band practices, I probably wouldn't have much faith in a DAW either. ;D

George

PS- Those knobs have been here a long time (since back before they started showing up in smaller quantities on eBay). They look like cheesy crap on most stuff, but somehow they looked OK against that aluminum, and they happened to be a perfect match for a batch of cheap 10k PCB-mount pots I've got. Plus, I didn't really want a control for that Neve (it hasn't been hooked up). I've really gotten used to the whole recall thing, and the regular pots don't help there. I'd like a larger EQ control later, mainly for the UAD Cambridge, but I'll want something with encoders and all, so I can use it across the board (using Nuendo's "selected" channel item in the map).