What mastering software use for the future?

Hi people, how are you? I hope good! I am Marcos a mixing and mastering engineer from Brazil and actually I use Mac for mixing and mastering, but in the future I will go with a Windows notebook, because in the same computer my Pro Tools 12 opens with Windows and doesn't with OS X, I am convinced Windows is better, but there is a problem, mastering software. I use WaveBurner and soundBlade to master tracks, I really like these, specially soundBlade, it's amazing! But soundBlade is for Mac only. I want to decide already what I will use for mastering in Windows for the future. What you suggest? I live in Brazil and here the economy isn't good, I don't have money to spend with a very expensive mastering software. I was thinking about WaveLab, what do you think?

 

Have you considered networking your PT12 Windows computer to your Mac and transferring the mixes that way? You could then continue to use the Mac for running WaveBurner and soundBlade until you feel you can buy something like Sequoia.

 

I only have my Mac, Windows is installed on it hehe.

 

I'm not pretending to be a mastering engineer but when I do need to master, I keep using the same DAW as tracking/mixing with a combinaison of iZotope Ozone and Fabfilter Pro-L.
Until I find a better way

 

I prefer mastering softwares, I think they can have better resolution perhaps and they have metadata and DDP support.

 

Ozone can work on standalone mode to master an album like T_Racks and others..
Thing is, I was never able to get good clean levels without too much saturation damage to the audio with them alone. Pro-L did solve this problem for me, I can go up to -8db LUFS without having any problems or loose all dynamics.

Nonetheless you have a good point there.. Do soundblade or other mastering softwares sound better than a common DAW ?
I'm gonna monitor this thread and read what others think and use..

 

In that case, you don't have to set up any networking. You need a common disk area or an external drive that can be accessed by both operating systems.

 

Well, I rollback for an older version of Mac OS X and it's working very, very good with Pro Tools 10 and soundBlade. As mastered for iTunes is a standard I think I won't change from Macs. But I also want to know your opinion about a mastering software for Windows.

 

Mastering for iTunes - or for any distribution medium - is not OS specific.

You can do it on any platform if you have the right tools, accurate monitoring ( speakers and room acoustics)... and the knowledge.

FWIW

 

I use Samplitude pro x3, ozone and fabfilter pro L for mastering style stuff. Samplitude has some great mastering features and I think they added ddp in the newest version. The spectral editing can really help in mastering where you need to hit some vocal sibalance now becuase you brightened up the track. It's a cleaner simpler approach than just multi band eq/comp or some creative cut and paste / bouncing, or automation.

 

Wavelab is pretty amazing these days. I use it for all of the mastering work I do here... All done on a PC (Windows 10 64-bit).

 

Interesting, what does it do that other mastering software doesn't ?
What seems amazing to you ?

 

What does it do that other software doesn't? Well, you can buy software to do pretty much anything - most of the tools we use are similar - but some seem to work better/faster than others... some are more intuitive. Some do one thing better, and something else worse. Overall, Wavelab is excellent in all of the areas I am most concerned with.

The Wavelab montage is great for putting together a cd master, burning discs, DDP capability, dealing with meta data, ISRC codes, markers, fades, etc.. It includes clip based effects, track based effects, master effects. The plugin suite included has everything you need - limiters, eqs, reverbs, compressors, etc. The spectrum editor gives you incredible editing capability - you can remove p-pops often - even at the mastering stage - and you can do so in a very transparent way. The metering included is second to none -extensive, and very customizeable... The WAV editing features are awesome. For me Wavelab is amazing... I love working with it - mastering people's albums, doing editing work - it's a great tool. In addition, support is amazing - you can post on the Steinberg Wavelab forum, and the programmer himself is there working with people, answering questions, directly interacting with customers. I'm a happy customer, and I don't mind making the extra effort to help sell people on the product, because I believe in it. If you can't do great work with it, you don't know what you're doing.

I have many other tools that I feel are amazing as well - I've got an amazing selection of vst plugins I run within Wavelab, and some amazing outboard gear that I love to use. For some things, software is unbeatable, and there are some things I prefer to do with my analog hardware. You asked in particular about mastering software though. The majority of business I do in my studio is mastering, and Wavelab is at the center of it all. I use it on every project I do.

 

Wavelab has been my go to. I wish I could afford to move in the direction of Pyramix, but so far Reaper and Wavelab have been great. I have yet to have anyone ask for something crazy like a 5.6 MHz file in 5.1. So I think it should be enough for a while.

 

Yeah, no DSD capability in Wavelab right now... for those customers who absolutely must have it, gotta find another solution I guess - or send the customer to someone else. Maybe some day PG will add some DSD functionality...

 

Wavelab 9.5.25 is the best you can get for mastering IMHO.

 

I'm still learning Samplitude, but I think I will use it's CD/DVD authoring features along with ozone and Fabfilter ProL2.
After testing it on 2 projects, I kinda dig the workflow of having all songs on the same track and using object editor to adjust their initial volume and EQ. It does the space between the song automaticly and handle the metadata (name, artists etc..)
Then I just need 1 instance of Ozone and ProL2 on the masterbuss.

In the past, with sonar, I would have the songs on seperate tracks and run multiple instance of ozone.. which at some point would crash the audio engin...
Samplitude was clever by offering a special mastering workspace and tools..

 

Am i sensing a "Mastering in Samplitude" episode on your channel?

What are things you think make it stand out from the crowd? anything indispensable? Just curious, i have no experience with it.

 

When I get used to it, I will certainly do one !