mastering settings

When mastering your own track in Logic X, is there any settings you need to apply before you start?. By settings i mean sound options/speaker adjustment. Or do you simply drag the wave file in your arrangement window then start processing it?

do you simply drag the wave file in your arrangement window then start processing it?

Yup, that's what I do.

… Or do you simply drag the wave file in your arrangement window then start processing it?

 

Why bother bouncing it out in the first place when you are going to drag the same information back in?

i thought that was how you do it. Do you mean i should just put the processing on the project file, and once i have finished this, call that the mastered version then bounce it out? not sure what you mean

That is what I mean.

 

That is not to say you can't bounce it out and then pull it back in to do your mastering. Try it both ways and see which you like better.

Why bother bouncing it out in the first place when you are going to drag the same information back in?

It offers several advantages, the biggest one being able to cut up the song in different section and process the different sections differently. For example a chorus may need more compression than a verse, so you could have two tracks, the first one with a slight amount of compression where you place the verse region, and the other with more compression, where you place the chorus region.

mmm hmm.

 

You don't need to bounce out for that. They are a few ways to do that.

 

However, if the song is bounced out, you free up processing because your new file is free of all the plugins you used during mixing.

You don't need to bounce out for that.

I know, however bouncing is my favorite workflow for the technique I described. I can have 5 channel strips set up with various EQ/compression/other-effect settings, and quickly select a portion of the waveform with the Marquee tool, then drag it to the desired track so that that section of the song get that specific processing chain. You could do the equivalent with Aux channel strips and automation, but it would be quite convoluted and nowhere near as elegant a workflow.

 

They are a few ways to do that.

There are many ways to do many things. Just find one that works for you. Bouncing works for me.

ok thanks guys for the good comments, i think i shall just use a gain and adaptive limiter when mastering as i seem to make my track sound worse when applying multi pressor and other plugins. Is there any specific way you should try and master? What plugins should i use, i mean by this?

This is a good read: Re: Poor man's mastering question

thanks ill give that a read.