- Multiband compressor.
- Stereo Enhancer
- Maximiser
- Limiter
- UV22HR
Multiband Compressor
I solo'ed each band in turn and moved the edge of each band left and right while listening to the track being played. The top band was set to mainly filter the very high hissy sounds (e.g. top end of cymbals). It is these sounds that add sparkle to the mix. The bottom band was set to mainly filter the kick and low bass synthesiser sounds. The low-mid band was set mainly to capture the snare as I wanted to be able the emphasise the snare hits to ensure that the strong rhythmic feel of the track came through in the mastered mix. The bottom end of the vocals also appeared in this band. The remaining high-mid band filtered the synthesiser sounds and the higher vocal frequencies. I used a compression ratio of 2:1 with a medium threshold for the 1st and 4th bands. I also increased the gain on the 1st and 4th bands to compensate for the medium compressor threshold. This had the overall effect of producing a strong bass without it becoming muddy. I used a ratio of 3: 1 and a higher threshold value for bands 2 and 3. This allowed the vocals and synthesiser sounds to sit well together in the mix without seeming to be over-powered by the strong bass synthesiser and kick. I slightly increased the gain on band 2 to further emphasise the snare hits.
Stereo Enhancer
The stereo enhancer adds width and delay effects to the mastered track. The overall width control allowed me to give the track a larger sound stage. The small delay also gives the track a big 'larger than life' 80's vibe which I wanted.
Maximiser
For commercial reasons, it is important that the track be as loud as possible when mastered. I used the maximiser to increase the overall level of the stereo output. The maximiser can also be used to add some harmonic distortion via the Optimise control. I kept the optimise control turned down quite low to ensure that the clarity of the track was not lost.
Limiter
The limiter was used to prevent the stereo output from exceeding 0dB (which would introduce undesirable clipping distortion). I used the input control to drive it reasonably hard so that it was squashing the output signal by 2 dB. I found that this helped the guitar solo stand out in the mix.
UV22HR
This is used as the last plug-in in the mastering chain. It dithers (i.e. randomises) the least significant bit of the digitised waveform to reduce harmonic distortion due to rounding errors when the analogue waveform is re-created from the digital output data.
