How do I that smooth-loudness in mastering

[southpaw]

I use a multiband-limiter, ive come to prefer it over multi-compression, it really depends on the project and genre for me, as far as settings go. By the way: Great advice Rob, very helpful! I think i remember you saying last November that you used the Waves L2, and the UAD plugs, as well as the Empirical Labs Distressor for vox.... Would you mind mentioning some compression/EQ/limiter plugs and/or hardware that you've come to use a lot? Sorry to pry... But inquiring minds would love to know! ~Jamie

[mazz]

Jun 28, 2009, 11:04pm, robchiarelli wrote:Interesting thread... I see a lot of great suggestions here. Here is a secret:On the mix buss, if you want some punch & level try this:Set your mix buss compressor at 10-20ms attack and 100-300ms release. Allow 3-5 db of compression at about 4:1 ratio.That will give the mix some pop. For Hip-Hop and R&B, the attack can be closer to 20ms. For Rock, closer to 10ms. Then, set your limiter (10:1 Ratio) to 1ms attack and set the release at 1000ms (1 sec) release. Only allow 1 or 2 db of limiting. This will give the mix that smoooooth sound that makes your ears say "yum" and will also get you some gain.Then, follow that with another limiter (∞:1 Ratio) set at 0.01ms attack and 10ms release. Only allow 1 db or limiting to mash out the peaks. Your mix will smoke and the low end will sound natural and full. Rock on...Rob ChiarelliRob,This seems to support something I've always intuitively felt: the attacks need to get through to get the initial "hit" or "punch:" and then the compressor helps maintain the average level for the fullness. If the attack is set too fast, then the initial transients will trigger the compressor which will turn everything down and potentially suck the guts out of the mix and make the mix sound smaller. Am I on the right track? I've always gravitated towards the vintage "opto" style compressors for mastering because they seem to be more forgiving on the initial attacks.I can see why setting a limiter to a very fast attack but high threshold and low ratio could really help with the peaks while not really touching the "meat" of the mix.Great stuff. Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule to come here and give us some tasty tidbits!!Mazz

[rkopald]

Jun 28, 2009, 11:04pm, robchiarelli wrote:Interesting thread... I see a lot of great suggestions here. Here is a secret:On the mix buss, if you want some punch & level try this:Set your mix buss compressor at 10-20ms attack and 100-300ms release. Allow 3-5 db of compression at about 4:1 ratio.That will give the mix some pop. For Hip-Hop and R&B, the attack can be closer to 20ms. For Rock, closer to 10ms. Then, set your limiter (10:1 Ratio) to 1ms attack and set the release at 1000ms (1 sec) release. Only allow 1 or 2 db of limiting. This will give the mix that smoooooth sound that makes your ears say "yum" and will also get you some gain.Then, follow that with another limiter (∞:1 Ratio) set at 0.01ms attack and 10ms release. Only allow 1 db or limiting to mash out the peaks. Your mix will smoke and the low end will sound natural and full. Rock on...Rob ChiarelliHi, I'm new around here, but thought I'd chime in. As I was reading this thread, I was going over an old gravelly voiced rockish type thing I was working on, and I was pulling the vocals out in front of the mix a little more with some very similar settings. Here are my settings that I've been having some success withAttack/Release: 27.5ms/1023msRatio: 8.33/1I've been messing with the gain settings. I'm still not quite sure about that, but I'm currently at ~6-8dB Hope this helps...

[waltzmastering]

Jun 24, 2009, 8:23pm, ezpowell wrote:This is something i actually don't know how to do and I would assume it is not normalization but low compression It's hard to get a Smooth loudness without very good outboard analog compression.Digital limiter's can make the track louder, but it can lack the roundness or smoothness of analog compression.But that is the trick. Not only getting a track loud to commercial levels with out the distortion, but having it sound smooth and present.