![]() ![]() The Tone stack is four knobs with hard-set frequencies. I just noticed that right on the plug, Volume is labeled “1.”, Foundation is labeled “2.” and Tone is labeled “3.”. ![]() Step two is a simple one-knob tone control to easily balance the overall sound. Through clever metering I feel confident that this Foundation knob is a simple tilt EQ with the fulcrum set at 2K. Secondly, we are told to set the Foundation, intended to get the low end to your liking. To a degree this is mastering for dummies, but I can opine that the settings are very very good. This has been taken care of for you and both the compression and limiting are mostly invisible to you. Special note: You have no access to attack and release parameters in the built-in compression and limiting. Review: Chandler Limited® Germanium Compressor from Softube This is not at all hard to do, but unfortunately it is wordy to explain. So, you raise or lower the volume to get nice action around the Comp Mix knob, and also to get the Dynamic Range meter into the green, or more likely to avoid moving outside the green zone. The manual strongly recommends you be in the green area, between 6-8 dB, of dynamic range. That is a Dynamic Range meter showing the difference between your peaks and the body of the sound. You can see the gain reduction for the left and right channels surrounding the Comp Mix knob.ĭo not confuse gain reduction with the pretty meter provided top center of the plug. This knob goes from -12 dB to +12 dB, and if this range is not giving you a sweet spot of gain reduction then you need to precede bx_masterdesk with a simple gain plug. As already stated, you are doing this to set the threshold for limiting and compression. Just keep in mind that the frequency ranges I share are my measurements and were not provided by the vendor, Brainworx. The manual does not reveal what frequency ranges the Foundation and Tone Stack affect, but I have very good approximations I can share with you. ![]() Adjust the Tone Stack (A set of four fixed bands of EQ)Īs we go through the actual process, I will reveal my measurements of the tone controls which I determined using pink noise and a spectrograph. Set the Foundation (The Foundation is a big knob, really a tilt EQ).ģ. Turn up the Volume knob (consider this setting the threshold for compression and limiting).Ģ. The manual states that it’s easy as 1, 2, 3:ġ. ![]() Once I turned off all the plugs in my mastering chain bx_masterdesk showed its true colors. It is very important when trying out any plug that you first turn off anything before of after it that does the same thing. That didn’t work out so well and basically made it sound like bx_masterdesk was doing between little and nothing. My first shot at trying out bx_masterdesk was to put it at the end of an existing mastering chain, like the song was already mastered. The very easy to read manual suggests an order to adjust things and for my own convenience I’m going to follow it here to introduce the main features and I’ll make comments and value judgements as we go through it.īefore we begin, I have to alert you to a mistake I made initially. I currently have several packaged mastering solutions: Ozone 8, Elevate, Lurssen Mastering Console, and now finally the star of today’s show: bx_masterdesk. First you get rid of a little bad and then you add a little good and then bring it up to loudness standards in a compelling way with compression, limiting, EQ, and saturation. You take a hopefully nice mix rendered to a stereo file and make a number of subtle moves to give it polish and sheen. Mastering is supposed to be a subtle art. Well, friend, I’m here to tell you that Doctor Dirk’s Magic Mastering Mixture is here to cure what ails you, and lift you and your mix to masterful heights! Are your songs anemic and wimpy? Do bullies at the beach kick sand on your masters? Have you ever wished you could get the hot bikini girl standing next to the red sports car, just like the big-time music producers? ![]()
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