Snow,

It depends on what you wanna do. If you are interested in pure level control (limiter) then I'd recommend the L2 Ultramaximizer. If you are looking for a box
that can convert/edit/burn, then the Masterlink is the only choice. I'd be hard pressed to recommend the Finalizer for much. They are totally different boxes. Can
you be more specific about your needs?

Originally posted by coldsnow:
Which will give me the best finalizing tools? TC Finalizer, Waves Ultramaximizer, or Alesis Masterlink?

I never have been a big fan of the TC stuff...it is not bad, just not great. The Waves is ok, but not enough features to justify the price. Alesis Masterlink? Good for lower budgets, I personally wouldn't use it for a "mastering" box. IMO the Drawmer Masterflow DC2476 is better than all three. The A/D is excellent compared to the TC or Waves. It can slam levels just like those two, but the processing sounds just plain great. You can see it here:
Mac support

Good Luck with your search, feel free to email or call if you have any questions.

Best Regards,
Nathan Eldred
Atlas Pro Audio, Inc.
http://www.atlasproaudio.com

Hi Mike,

What digital processor do you recommend? Perhaps you could make a contribution to the board rather than being critical.

Originally posted by atlasproaudio:

IMO the Drawmer Masterflow DC2476 is better than all three. The A/D is excellent compared to the TC or Waves. It can slam levels just like those two, but the processing sounds just plain great. You can see it here:

You're kidding, right? The converters are better than the L2? The DC2476 A/D is *useable*, but hardly as good as the L2...

The reason to buy that box is for the processing, which is good for an all-in-one box, but you still can't get the same peak-limiting that you can from the L2 (or a Weiss DS1mkII)...

Originally posted by Brad Blackwood:

You're kidding, right? The converters are better than the L2? The DC2476 A/D is *useable*, but hardly as good as the L2...

Ya, I'm kidding. :roll: I really like the A/D on the 2476, but I suppose it would take a very controlled experiment to quantify either one of our statements...otherwise it is subjective. Probably pointless though since most guys looking for these units most likely have or plan to get dedicated A/D, I could be wrong though. Who knows the Alesis might have the best A/D with the proper clock.

The reason to buy that box is for the processing, which is good for an all-in-one box, but you still can't get the same peak-limiting that you can from the L2 (or a Weiss DS1mkII)...

I haven't heard the Weiss, but as far as I've been told it is out of the league of ALL of these boxes. The peak limiting on the Drawmer slammed the hell out of the signal in a very clean way. Again YOMV

Best Regards,
Nathan Eldred
Atlas Pro Audio, Inc.
http://www.atlasproaudio.com

It will be coming off of an O2R digital mixer. Probably never leaving digital, so the converters don't matter (although at times I might try patching in an analog compressor.

Originally posted by coldsnow:
It will be coming off of an O2R digital mixer. Probably never leaving digital, so the converters don't matter

Thanks Coldsnow, that solves that problem...

Nathan Eldred
Atlas Pro Audio, Inc.
http://www.atlasproaudio.com

Do you guys actually read the names of these forums? The mastering forum is upstairs...which is where this has been moved...so if you're interested in this topic, it's now in the mastering forum.

Enjoy!!

You're kidding, right? The converters are better than the L2? The DC2476 A/D is *useable*, but hardly as good as the L2...

I have to say, I had a the Drawmer unit for a few weeks and I did like it but as soon as I swapped it for a Finalizer my studio just sounded a lot bigger. It depends what you want to use it for really...I would still love to own a DC2476 to process and bounce sounds into the computer. The Eq and the tube saturation emulator are great for this purpose. But on the whole mix I found all these features a bit too radical. Therefore, for mastering I personally think that the Finalizer excels, especially in the three-band compression department. The digital radiance generator is pretty tasty too.

I've been useing the finalizer for over 5 years. In those 5 years i've had it in many different applications. Once off an analog board useing it's converters, and off a digital console useing the AES digital in's and out's. At one point I was going to sell it because I thought it was making the mixes worse, and almost did.

One thing I did find is that if there is a problem with the mix, the Finalizer well make it more revieling. This can make it seem that the TC unit is making it worse, where as the problem is actually already there.

Now I use it lightpipe i/o into sound forge, useing an aardsyncII distributed to the board, the sound card and Finalizer, and i'm getting good results. How you have it interfaced with the other gear and how you use it well affect the results.

What I get back from my PC is exaclty what leaving the board with all processing off, like multiband compression make up eq. With it on, I really like what it does. This also allows me to get very hot mixes to the HD because the limiter is extremly transparent.