Tell us your master chain!

[Volant]

I never EQ the master bus, recently my master bus usually looks like this:

ozone maximizer (loudness)>oxford inflater with the clipping off (for filling in harmonics very slightly)>camel phat with everything off (to bring it back to 0)>oxford limiter (for a bit of extra loudness + slightly filling in harmonics again and limiting obviously)

I'm a bit surprised to see that people are using so many plugins on their master channels. Is there a specific reason you apply more effects to the master instead of doing it inside the mix somewhere or does it not matter?

[Blakelight]

I never EQ the master bus, recently my master bus usually looks like this:

ozone maximizer (loudness)>oxford inflater with the clipping off (for filling in harmonics very slightly)>camel phat with everything off (to bring it back to 0)>oxford limiter (for a bit of extra loudness + slightly filling in harmonics again and limiting obviously)

I'm a bit surprised to see that people are using so many plugins on their master channels. Is there a specific reason you apply more effects to the master instead of doing it inside the mix somewhere or does it not matter?

It's just about adding some more thing you can't achieve in the mix or is painfull to do

[Blakelight]

Btw what you guys think about reverb in mastering , lots of engineer use it to glue thing together as well , what's your opinion on that ?

[SirMeowMusic]

Btw what you guys think about reverb in mastering , lots of engineer use it to glue thing together as well , what's your opinion on that ?

I think the biggest reason for doing that is so that your track can have a specific room tone. Like if a band wants to have the same sound as if their track was done at Abbey Road instead of a shitty home recording studio.

[Mat_Zo]

I never EQ the master bus, recently my master bus usually looks like this:

ozone maximizer (loudness)>oxford inflater with the clipping off (for filling in harmonics very slightly)>camel phat with everything off (to bring it back to 0)>oxford limiter (for a bit of extra loudness + slightly filling in harmonics again and limiting obviously)

I'm a bit surprised to see that people are using so many plugins on their master channels. Is there a specific reason you apply more effects to the master instead of doing it inside the mix somewhere or does it not matter?

I colour the sound within the mix, but on the masterbus i find bringing it up gradually plugin by plugin is better than just putting a limiter and cranking it up. My limiter is never pushed more than 1 or 2 db because of this and it allows for a better dynamic range

[Dap]

I never EQ the master bus, recently my master bus usually looks like this:

ozone maximizer (loudness)>oxford inflater with the clipping off (for filling in harmonics very slightly)>camel phat with everything off (to bring it back to 0)>oxford limiter (for a bit of extra loudness + slightly filling in harmonics again and limiting obviously)

You don't EQ it at all?, correct me if I'm mistaken but from what I've learned it is better to EQ in the master because you can get rid of frequencies that are below 20Hz and maybe to adjust the high end a little bit, or you could just have an incredible mix.

Also, the harmonic filling process that you are talking about its like saturation/colouring? or they are different things?, sometimes terminology isn't very friendly to be honest

[atris]

Ableton stock glue compressor, ableton stock eq, ableton stock limiter.

[Mat_Zo]

You don't EQ it at all?, correct me if I'm mistaken but from what I've learned it is better to EQ in the master because you can get rid of frequencies that are below 20Hz and maybe to adjust the high end a little bit, or you could just have an incredible mix.

Also, the harmonic filling process that you are talking about its like saturation/colouring? or they are different things?, sometimes terminology isn't very friendly to be honest

I take out below 20hz and above about 18-20khz on each group/bus/element instead, when necessary.

Filling in harmonics isn't colouring in the same way that EQ colours the sound, it's literally just filling in the gaps a tiny bit to make it a bit more robust, but not more than a tiny tiny tiny tiny bit

[MaorLevi]

mine is constantly changing but key plugins will be Fabfilter Pro-Q 2, Ozone 6 Dynamics, UAD Precision Maximizer, Sonalksis Stereo Tools and Ozone 6 Maximizer

[psychictype]

Pro-Q 2 to cut below 30hz, OTT on 5-10%, Ableton Utility automating the gain here and there to make hype sections hype, and AOM Invisible Limiter.

[ocularedm]

Pro-Q 2 to cut below 30hz, OTT on 5-10%, Ableton Utility automating the gain here and there to make hype sections hype, and AOM Invisible Limiter.

AOM Invisible Limiter is a godsend. Any particular reason you cut below 30hz though?

[Kinesthetics]

Fabfilter Pro-Q (can't afford to upgrade it), TDR Kotelnikov (brilliant free buss compressor, very smooth sounding!), and Limiter6 (another freebie with an awesome sound). I try to keep the mastering as simple as possible; everything else such as stereo, harmonics, and brightness, I do in the mix.

[Eskai]

If I'm creating a homemaster of my stuff, which is mainly just used for submitting demos I run the following chain:

UAD bx_digital V2 (used solely to Mono sum everything below ~120 hz), VBC FG-MU (running very lightly about 1-2 db of compression max), UAD Precision Maximizer, Virtual Tape Machines and then Invisible Limiter.

If I'm sending to a label to be mastered I generally leave it with the UAD bx_digital (again solely for the Mono on the low end) and the Virtual Tape Machines. I find the VTM smooths things out subtly and in a pleasant way.

[BorderCity]

I just use Ableton effects at the moment; could anyone give an honest opinion on whether they believe it is worth buying plugins such as Fab-Filter, Waves etc. based on how much they cost compared to how useful they are?

I use the Multiband Dynamics effect to separate my low, mid and high frequencies, then compress each one individually. Then I have a master EQ 8, Saturator and Limiter

[ERLAND]

pro q-2 linear phase maximum to cut out around 18-19000hz and the lows that I don't need.
glue compressor, because fuck yeah!
random ozone shit, then ending with maximizer.
sometimes I use the fab pro-L to make everything a tiny bit louder.

(I have no fucking idea what I am doing)