9.1 Pseudo Mastering
The whole question of mastering can create a serious dilemma, especially for less experienced users.
Kind: concept (reamix-section) Chapter: 9 The Finishing Touches Source: ReaMix (October 2009)
The whole question of mastering can create a serious dilemma, especially for less experienced users. What do you do if you don’t have enough money to pay for a professional mastering engineer, don’t have enough experience to master to a professional standard yourself, but need to produce, say, a demo recording?
In an attempt to find a stop-gap solution, you can try applying the techniques outlined in this section. I have called the technique Pseudo Mastering. This practice may be more than a tad controversial, and by many will no doubt be regarded as heresy. You might wish to consider its use only if no other avenue is open to you.
In this section, you will be shown a few relatively straightforward techniques that if used carefully and sparingly should be able to at least improve the overall sound of your final mix. This Pseudo Mastering is not intended to serve in any way as a substitute for correct mastering. Pseudo mastering is only recommended if you really do have no other options, and then only as a short term solution. It’s up to you to try it and judge for yourself if you are happy with the results.
We will use four of the plug-ins that are supplied with REAPER in this example. They are:
Sstillwell’s Stereo Width – This is a plug-in which we briefly encountered in on of the earlier examples. As its name implies, it can enhance the feeling of width in your mix.
ReaEQ – This is an equalizer with which by now you should be extremely familiar.
ReaXComp – This is a multiband compressor. We encountered it in one or two of the very early examples in this primer when we looked at Corrective Mixing. In this example it will have a very different use.
LOSER’s masterlimiter – Up until now we have used only a simple limiter. The Master Limiter is used to help raise the overall volume level of a project. Another possibility is to usr LOSER’s MGA JS Limiter.