MASTERING CHALLENGE - MastC004 October 2018 - Winners announced (no winners)

[Waleed Morris]

Hello everyone ,
Spent lot of the time for clearing the track (clicks and crackles).
I like the track atmo and music a lot , so I tried to kept it by expand side just a little.
Tried to more control in high and treble frequency range area.
Bring more mid range and very tiny bit of low end .
I used Tdr Nova eq , Fabfilter Eq ,MB ,Slate digital TM , Saturation plugins.
-For analyze i used reaper loudness and izotope insight 2.
Int-14.0 LUFS.
Range 4 LU.
True Peak -2db .
Max short-term -12.2 LUFS.
Added Tag in mp3 file and i used mp3 tag app.

Here is my submission file Wav (44/16) and mp3 (highest VBR encoding possible )in one file.

Zip File Redbook CD-Streaming
(Alternative )Rar File Redbook CD-Streaming

Cheers !

[davemcisaac]

Hey Kevin! I kept it pretty simple, focussing on the obvious problems - the hihat & cymbals were way too bright.

I worked in Wavosaur - great for single song mastering! I can render & see the results very quickly. Works especially well when I don't have to do any dithering.

My processing chain was:

MDynamicEQ - The hat had a very pronounced peak @ aprox 16.4 kHz which I tamed first with MDynamicEQ using a dynamic peak filter @ 16.4 kHz with the threshold set to only react to the stick. The cymbals were tamed with a dynamic High-shelf @ 3.16 kHz. I dropped the output volume -2.11 dB to create new peaks.

Dynamic Spectrum Mapper V2 - used for basic multi-band compression (which also helped tame the hats & cymbals).

smartEQ2 - to help with spectral balance.

bx_masterdesk - for mild wide-band compression, saturation, M/S enhancement, and low resonance filter to get rid of a slight amount of boominess.

Ozone 7 - for True Peak limiting.

I used Codec Toolbox for mp3 encoding & ID3 tagging.

I have included screenshots to show all processing.

mp3 - https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code ... 04YydGwu7X
wav - https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code ... 9xY0AXgY5X
Screenshots - https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?code ... IB3ukSq5e7

[Tapwater]

Hey, here's my submission.

I used Slate Digital VBC Rack for a very light touch of compression.

Softtube Passive EQ for a bit of tonal shaping

Ozone 5 to adjust the stereo image.

And Slate Digital FX-G to limit.

Mp3: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1seq-V ... 5jFQ0Iz7nL
Wav: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1P9GCL ... _M535Ec4-X

Thanks!

[MFTWC]

Hi there, I used WaveLab Pro 9.5 for this track.

-6 db level change (to get some headroom).

The GEQ-10 graphic equalizer for balancing (low-end boost, low-mid cut, a little high-mid boost and then some high-end cut).

Then I used MasterRig for some imaging, a little MBC and some final EQ corrections.

Final plug-in was the TB_Barricade V4 Limiter (just for volume adjustment to get -14 LUFS).

This tune would be perfect for some 80s style detective series.



Wav:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nfnlgD ... sp=sharing


Mp3:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yIkSgp ... sp=sharing

[Arthur Labus]

Thank you Kevin for such piece of Art.

Here we go:
WAV: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1K-k4q ... NQbhVnaf18
MP3: https://drive.google.com/open?id=13Dh4R ... nhhqHNAxPl

Workflow:
Set the input file to 0 VU, gain staging after every plugin in chain
Waves NLS Bus, Neve settings
Sonible smartEQ2 to clean up some trouble frequencies
Spitfish de-esser
Floorfish expander
Waves C4 multiband compressor as expander
VoS BootEQmkII as color EQ for clarity
VoS Thrillseeker XTC blue as exciter
Toneboosters TB_Sibalance v3 as de-esser
Softube Drawmer S73 multiband compressor for wide, punch and ambience
VoS Density mkIII compressor
NoiseBud Smile to avoid some harshness
VoS BaxterEQ as clean mastering EQ
Hornet Sybilla de-esser
Toneboosters TB_Sibalance v3 as de-harsher
PrimeStudio CharlyLimited gain
Toneboosters TB_Barricade v3 as final limiter
Youlean Loudness Meter

u-he Protoverb as receive on extra track for subtle ambience
Izotope Imager as receive on extra track for subtle more width

Files are -14 LUFS with -1db ceiling

Good succes everybody
Arthur

[Mister Fox]

A friendly reminder
We're in the last 24 hours for submitting your edit / master.

[dobebon]

Here is my submission

WAV https://www.dropbox.com/s/hmdopzgusl3rc ... n.wav?dl=0
MP3 https://www.dropbox.com/s/7vi0e8orj625h ... n.mp3?dl=0

I used some parallel compression to give a bit more weight to the low end, about 40% mix
EQ - small boosts at 60 and 160Hz
Some M/S EQ shaping, small boost on the mids at 1.8kHz and cut at 4kHz, side boost at 700Hz and 17kHz and cuts at 1kHz and 8kHz
Dynamic EQ at 100Hz and 15kHz to tame the bass and hi-hats
Added some harmonics with VSM-3
Stealth limiter

Enjoy and good luck everybody!

[MOA22]

Here it is !

My first mastering challenge. Nice song, a bit smashed !
Process
Linear Phase Eq (hi attenuation)
2 band Multband Eq (Hi mid and Hi reduction, only for the cymbals !)
Ozone Imager (to monoize lo and lo mid)
Bark Of dog (to recover some ultra lo)
API graphic Eq (in Ms)
Slate VBC FG-Mu (in MS) to attenuate the side fullness character
VBC red (in Ms) to help the FG-Mu (more drastic)
Limiter (almost nothin)
I wanted to let the center/lead breath more.
-14 Lufs i
4,7 Lu DR
TP @ -1.6 (louder would have increased the loudness), it is possible to increased the loudness
to -13,4 without sounding more limited.

The challenge was to recover the DR. So first I printed a track passed thru an expander
Heavy expansion ! Threshold @ -30, fast attack, medium release. ratio at 0,5 !
The graph is now more like a mix graph now !

wav
MP3
Good luck !!!!

[VasDim]

Hi all,
this is my attempt to master:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/xl4djg7ypu6j5 ... m.mp3?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ttmj5f47tabpe ... m.wav?dl=0

My Chain:

-Waves C4;
-Waves L3 MultiMaximaizer.

Good luck to all.
VasDim

[3ee]

mp3: https://app.box.com/s/9ld98yr26noi2ee69tu8pqo7h9ojwx23
wav: https://app.box.com/s/l3ebozjn4xwtbes52lfn8x7oayct5mvh

1st I did some tonal balance to open up the sound with a bass boost around 64Hz , some cuts in the low mids around 300-400Hz and some boosts around 6700Hz
2nd I tamed the hi-hat/ride with dynamic eq... as well as the low-mids and the very sub part of the kick..
Then some dynamic re-shaping with an SSL type bus comp doing about half a dB ... this comp is more about the color as it's modeling the in and out saturation..
I have a sort-of dynamic "spectral" eq but with many bands trying to catch some freqs that are poking out too much then I have a pulteq style eq for coloring more than gain per band (also a SPICE emulation, one can feel the 'color' of these units)

Then, at the very top of the chain, I put a stereo control unit making the image wider but when the wide panned elements such as ride cymbal are present it keeps it under control.

Some subtle stereo sends to some ambiance and stereo processors.. some some exciters

A parallel track doing too much limiting and tonal shaping and stereo widening... but blended at a very low level of about -22dB

On the final master channel I put a tilting eq to take away some of the low mids in favor of some highs, u-he Presswerk in M/S mode for glue doing about 1 dB of GR, tape saturation set very gently to pull some tone together some more and finally Limitless there only for leveling to ~ -14LUFS, it's not even doing any GR
...I bet no one reads these comments and even if they do, what help would it bring?