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Hi all -

I'm doing my own mastering for a demo using the UAD set of mastering plugs. I'm wondering if there's any disadvantage to loading the master channel of a song's DAW session with the mastering suite, getting the sound I like, and bouncing the final from there vs bouncing the mix to a stereo track and mastering the bounce.

The former seems more pure to me - I have total control over the mix properties AND the mastering channel at the same time and one bounce would be the least amount of processing possible.

If I'm going to half-ass the mastering myself, why shouldn't I do it this way?

Comments

Link555 Tue, 08/25/2009 - 14:27

Welcome!

Congrads on the UAD plugs, fun stuff!

Mastering is more than EQ, compression and depth of a single track. It is more about, IMHO the way the whole album flows together.

It is often easier to leave the mixes without bus compression, EQ, etc... because you will have more control in the master when you string all the songs together.

As far as purity.... if your using digital all the way, it is less of an issue.

anonymous Tue, 08/25/2009 - 14:43

Thanks for the welcome!

I understand what you're saying and totally agree - that mastering, in my case, is the complete process of, yes, making individual tracks shine but also composing them into an album, burning a perfect disc, and on and on. I'm just more curious about whether there is a technical down side to dumping finished, mastered tracks off the master channel of the DAW.

As for processing, again I agree - it's staying 41000/24bit until the bitter end either way, so it's not an issue. But it's REALLY not an issue if I only bounce once.

Link555 Wed, 08/26/2009 - 21:39

Well no because you now have to reload your daw with each project and jump back and forth between projects, to make sure the each song works for the next track on the album. It would be very time consuming and A/Bing would be very slow. IMO its much easier and faster to load the mixed tracks into one mastering package and tweek within it.