I found a great mastering tool!!

[S.An]

Hello Everybody,
Well, it's my first post here. So welcome to myself ...!

I was searching for some answers about audio mastering and level problem when I discovered this forum!
My problem was simple. Even with loud compression, it was very hard to obtain a good RMS power level in a whole music file without losing something.

Thank to a post here, I discovered the tool I was looking for since so many months!

It's called ENDORPHIN, and you can find it here: (it's free but it doesn't mean quality is bad!) www.digitalfishphones.com (http://www.digitalfishphones.com)

It's a powerful 2-band compressor with a real analog feeling. I really don't know why it's free. I tested so many compressor like ME Compressor by Steinberg, L1 by Waves, C1 ... but endorphin is at a higher level!!

It is designed to master entire mixdown, and it really works.
In fact, one of my tune had a RMS level problem. Everything was ok, but the RMS was unable to go higher than -14 dB without being affected.

I just used Endorphin. The RMS level is -12 dB and it sounds loud! The low frequencies are deeper and the high frequencies became "sweet" without being metallic...

There is a real Endorphin sound. Just try it!
Really.

S.An.

[mr. tunes]

yes, this is a phenomenal plugin

sorry you didn't know about it earlier

sascha just released a new plugin at the digitalfishphones site(i forget what it's called)

I like endorphin because I don't know much about mastering, yet it seems to do the trick for newbies and pros alike. Very essential IMO

[progfusion74]

Originally posted by mr. tunes:
yes, this is a phenomenal plugin

sascha just released a new plugin at the digitalfishphones site(i forget what it's called)


Dominion?

[Nigel Tufnel]

S.An, thanks for the post, I'm checking it out now and it sounds pretty good. Wow, a cool plug-in and it's free. Sascha deserves a round of applause for releasing a quality plug-in for free.

[Dumdum]

"Great" mastering tool?

Hmmmmmmmmmmm....Endorphin to my ears is just a different flavor of bash and squash DSP, like the L1, Loudness Maximizer, etc... Works on some songs better than others.

If you want to talk GREAT!!!! mastering tools, try these out:
http://www.requisiteaudio.com/rcomps.html#compressors
http://www.massenburg.com/cgi-bin/ml/mod9500.html?id=VbyJUS2q
http://www.massenburg.com/cgi-bin/ml/mod8900.html?id=VbyJUS2q
http://www.manleylabs.com/Manley_mastering.html#pictures
http://www.manleylabs.com/containerpages/elop99.html
http://www.manleylabs.com/containerpages/mu99.html

I could go on and on with the real "great" mastering tools.

http://www.audioforums.com/forums/smile.gif Just having a little fun here really. But I have used all of those toys at one point, and I can assure you that they all kick the poop out of PC plugin's for "mastering". "great" is relative to what I ask you?

Dumdum

[Nigel Tufnel]

Dumdum, I was gonna get some of that Manley and Massenburg stuff but then I thought 'why hold myself back?' For my latest masterpiece, recorded with my Zoom drum machine and an acoustic through an Oktava mic, I've decided to let Abbey Road have a crack at mastering it. I'm sure that old fart George Martin will jump at the chance to get back in the game once he's heard my tracks. http://www.audioforums.com/forums/wink.gif

BTW, I've enjoyed your comments on the '16vs24 bit' thread, very informative.

[Robert D]

Sorry Nigel, but I have George busy working on my stuff right now. I'll let yiu know when I'm done with him. http://www.audioforums.com/forums/wink.gif

[Dumdum]

Thanks for the props Nigel.

I suppose I just needed to post the above because it is so easy for people to lower their own threshold of what "great" is. I asked at the end of that thread "Great relative to what"? Compared to other plugin's? It might be, but how "great" are those other plug in's compared to the "real" great mastering tools?

Maybe what I am saying is the thread might possibly been more literally titled:

I found a plugin you can use for mastering that I think sound better than all that others I have used.

Then I could have came on and just said "I don't agree. I have found the Steinberg stuff to sound better to my ears". Then everybody could pipe in with their own preferences. Thing is, I tried Endorphin. It isn't too bad, but it didn't work too well on many things I tried it on. So now, it isn't so "great" in my mind.

It IS great that it is free!!! http://www.audioforums.com/forums/biggrin.gif

Dumdum

[Plec81]

I agree with you Dumdum. It's very sad to see the way companies market their new gear these days. One of the most vicious is probably the TC Electronics Finalizer. It makes everyone think that mastering is just running your audio through a box and then you get exactly what you would get from a professional masteringhouse. Even if the Finalizer can sound pretty decent if it's used in the right manner, the majority of users haven't got a clue of what mastering really is, and the result of that is 99 out of a 100 times an inferior sounding master that would've sounded a lot better without that extra tweak.

The same thing applies to plug-ins. I think that about every compressor, eq or other effect on the market is recommended for mastering purposes in some way. The one thing that they have in common is that they do your music more harm than good.

Mixing is a lot easier for the average musician to grab on to and understand than mastering. Mastering requiers you to think in a whole different way than you would mixing. It also requiers very specialized tools in order for a session to be successful.

I usually tell people that wants to master on their own to take a look at the DAW or board that they're using for mixing, and see if they can find a button labeled something like "MixWizard". Pushing this button would instantly turn your recorded project into a very well mixed album.

Pretty silly, ain't it?

[KeithW]

Here is a supposed magical mastering tool:
http://www.amp1.demon.nl/unsuckplug.html

Especially if you want a good laugh. Check out the interface on this thing.

[Bluesbrother]

Nice interface indeed ;-)

[This message has been edited by Bluesbrother (edited 06-07-2002).]

[jbsongs]

After initially getting excited about all the mastering tools out there (from Waves, Izotope Ozone, PSP, etc) I realized again that it's best to have fresh professional ears listen to my finished product and to do the mastering - especially when it a full cd with about 12 songs. I'll master myself for one song deals or to send to a publishing house or share with friends - but the pros do it better than I. Like many of you, I write the songs, record, produce and play many of the instruments - but it's hard to be good at all things - and it's easy to lose objectvity. That said, using these tools increase your skills, save some bucks, and is heck of a lot of fun!

[narcoman]

As an addition to jbsongs comments above, which i agree with. ATTEND YOUR MASTERING session. I've done a lot of singles for a well known uk indie label, and everytime i dont attend the mastering session, they just do as the A+R guy says or even sometimes the band. As a producer, you are producing the entire record, so make sure the mastering engineer does what you want and talks to yopu and offers advice. One project in particular i'd mixed with the vocals deliberately too loud so that some severe compressing could be done in mastering to get that stooges/ MC5 effect of pushing the music out of the way when the gruff vocal hits. I did this in my demo of the master. Unfortunately the damn thing didnt get played to the mastering engineer and he did a technically brilliant job of bringing out the kick drums nicely and all that. Sounded great, the drummer was very happy and there was a lovely gloss to the master. However, the artistic point of the mix had been entirely lost such that on radio (with there extra compressing) the single sounded great, but the CD version sucked. The vocals were too loud. The whole point of the mix was lost because i follishly didnt attend the mastering on this occasion . I'll NEVER make that mistake again..

cheers

[Plec81]

I'd like to agree with narcoman. As a professional, I'd say that it's always best if the client can attend the session. This applies to new clients especially. It takes a couple of sessions to get to know the client and what it's values are which sometimes differ from your own.

But when you do get to know each other it's usually a piece of cake to master the clients projects without any fuzz.