Thanks for the comment. I’m glad you enjoyed this mix. I’m slowly working through all her songs. :D

Yes, it is a great song. I’m always pleasantly surprised when I load Shannon’s stems into my app. The quality of them is awesome. Of course, then I have go figure out how to make the song shine even brighter.

Thanks for your comment!

Quote: commmorancyYes, it is a great song. I’m always pleasantly surprised when I load Shannon’s stems into my app. The quality of them is awesome. Of course, then I have go figure out how to make the song shine even brighter.

Thanks for your comment!

What soft do u use?

Quote: wellman
What soft do u use?

What I’m using right now is Acid Music Studio 7 with iZotope Ozone 4 for mastering. I also have Cubase 4, but I’m not using it for these projects. I’m using AMS 7 because it’s relatively bug free (a pleasant surprise from Sony), it’s a bit easier to use in places and I’m able to work a little bit faster than Cubase.

Ozone 4 is what lets me put the polish on the tracks. It’s probably one of the best and easiest mastering tools I’ve used so far. Well worth the money.

So you don’t rush out and buy AMS, I should point out that I also have Acid Music Studio 8, but I don’t use it. It’s exceedingly buggy and crashes far too frequently. I bought it to mix FLAC tracks (7 doesn’t support FLAC). Even though 8 is supposed to support FLAC, it doesn’t. I’m sticking with 7 until Sony can get an update of 8 out the door.

Thanks for the review. I’m glad you liked it. I’ll be releasing more soon.

Yep, that’s likely very true. Once each track has been enhanced with Alloy (or Ozone, in my case), there’s very little left to correct on the bus. The trouble for me, though, is that Alloy costs as much as Ozone. I had already invested in Ozone before learning about Alloy. So, buying Alloy wasn’t really on my radar. I’ve successfully used Ozone on the track bus without noticeable latency or processor difficulties. Of course, I’m using a Core i7, so there’s plenty of processor to go around. On a dual core system, though, Alloy may be the better option.

When considering Ozone vs Alloy, you have to realize that Ozone is intended primarily for master bus mastering, but can be used on the track bus. Alloy, on the other hand, was designed for low overhead use on each track bus, but not on the master bus.

Alloy is about 1/2 to 2/3 of what Ozone is, yet they are both priced the same. Seeing as Alloy is really an enhancer to Ozone, it should really be about half the price or less.

Honestly, though, iZotope should really be able to produce a plugin combining Alloy and Ozone together. A single plugin with low overhead, low latency, but designed for use on either the track bus or the master bus. Right now, what I see is that having both VSTs is just a way for iZotope to double its money rather than providing us with a complete tool. It smacks of profiteering over professional software design. Even though the software is professionally designed, the marketing people at iZotope need help.

Thanks for the comment.

Yeah, baby, a new processor would fix a lot of ills in my project studio but not ready to upgrade yet so Alloy is a life saver. Usually use Ozone after mixing to 32-bit format. Seems we got Alloy on sale when it first came out for a reasonable price. Ozone latency is real issue as a channel plug-in but the mixers try their best to compensate “:0)

Yes, faster processors always help.

I usually do my mixdown in one whole shebang. Ozone on some tracks with Ozone on the master bus. Then, mix the whole thing down to stereo in one go. If I run into any latency, skipping or other problems, then I’ll end up doing select track bounces to eliminate some effects. Although, it’s rare that I have to do this. Usually, this problem surfaces only if I start piling the effects up on a single track.

By the time I run into this problem, I usually need to rethink the mix anyway as too many effects tends to make a song sound overproduced.

Thanks.

None of the my ccMixter uploads are mastered. I export the pre-mastered mix to MP3.

Wrt using Ozone with 32-bit stereo or quad mixes, that is largely for portability. After reading several Mastering 101 pubs, the point that resonated was “don’t master your own work.” Sending all song tracks out for mastering is cumbersome.

Using Ozone on the FL Studio master bus for listening at high resoution is usually not a CPU problem on my 2003 vintage system until I punch in loudness. 50% of the time loudness during playback over works the 3.4GHz Intel P4 CPU.

Yeah, over processing is an easy pitfall … sometimes resulting from too much fun.

Quote: texasradiofishNone of the my ccMixter uploads are mastered. I export the pre-mastered mix to MP3.

Wrt using Ozone with 32-bit stereo or quad mixes, that is largely for portability. After reading several Mastering 101 pubs, the point that resonated was “don’t master your own work.” Sending all song tracks out for mastering is cumbersome.

… cumbersome and expensive. Of course, the mastering pros are going to tell you not to master your own work. They say that because they want you to use them for mastering (and pay them money). That’s not to say that they will or won’t produce high quality work on your tracks. It’s just that you won’t know until you get your tracks back (and you have paid them money). Then, if you don’t like the way it sounds, you’re back to square one and you’re out the money (or you have to argue for a refund). Even if it’s perfect, as you say, it’s a hassle to send the tracks out.

The main point to mastering, though, is to master the tracks in a way that’s consistent throughout the CD. Don’t master your tracks one at a time weeks apart. Master them all in one go using similar settings for each. This keeps the tracks sonically similar and, at the same time, makes the entire CD of consistent volume from track to track.

Quote: texasradiofishUsing Ozone on the FL Studio master bus for listening at high resoution is usually not a CPU problem on my 2003 vintage system until I punch in loudness. 50% of the time loudness during playback over works the 3.4GHz Intel P4 CPU.

Yeah, over processing is an easy pitfall … sometimes resulting from too much fun.

I used to have a similar problem until upgraded to the Core i7. I got a great deal on this Dell computer at Microcenter. Since then, I’ve had no issues with mixing down.

Wrt expensive … I send my stuff to a fellow musicians project studio to be mastered. The message I heard was don’t get too close to your music; using a second set of ears can be a good thing. Hadn’t thought about the mastering pros advertizing for business, maybe since I don’t have the money to order out.

Agree with your point about consistency within a CD.

Agree with your point about portable plugin software based on an open vst interface.

Oh, one other thing I should point out. I also use Ozone because it works on any mixing software that supports VSTs. So, I’ll get a similar quality of sound no matter the mixing package I’m using. Where, if I use Cubase with Cubase’s VST mastering tools, I won’t be able to easily duplicate the mastering sound on other packages (the VSTs won’t work outside of Cubase). So, with Ozone, I can hop between Cubase and Acid without compromising the final sound of the music.