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Mastering dance music with UAD stuff?

necho

Member
I've read some great threads on this forum about mastering techniques using UAD stuff... but I have a feeling most of you are engineering \"real\" music :wink:

has anyone got any tips for mastering tracks with electronic beats? The tune in question is pretty slow (105bpm) has a deep and punchy 4/4 kick, synthetic snare, \"ethnic\" percussion, and a deep dubby bassline.... instrumentation is pretty spacey and atmospheric with a couple of synth lines... I really want to preserve the space in the mix (there's a fair bit of verb) but I want the bottom end to pump and bounce (and I'd like to get it a big as possible)... Its a remix for the b-side of a live psychedelic funk release, so its gotta sound phat through a big system (while preserving the atmos, of course)...

sorry for the very specific thread, but I hope it'll be of use to people other than me!
 

Plec

Venerated Member
IME no UAD compressor sounds good for electronic where you need lots of low-end punch. They are too colored overall for that. Same goes for the EQs if we're talking mastering, except the Precision EQ which can sound really good.

However, the Precision Limiter is da bomb for electronic mastering.
 

Sonic

Active Member
Plec, what do you suggest for electronic music compressor??
 

klaatu

Active Member
Everything really depend on how you will use it.I would suggest you compressor from channel strip CS-1. And for other side i do electronic music and i found almost every compressor from uad is doing it for me. LA-2A especialy. New neve88rs. Fairchild too. Keep in mind that you must know what you are doing. Not to menton pultec which is not comp but can do wonders for your deep electronic kick. But again start with basic CS-1 channel strip. You will get there soon.

Regards!
 
I totally agree with mpodrug. I'm an electronic music producer and i bought the UAD for mastering purposes. So far, i'm very satisfied with the results no matter the style(i produce a variety of styles from ambient to trance). Currently i'm working on a hip hop album and using the UAD plugs is just amazing.

Usually i apply a Pultec on the kick along with a comp. For vocals the Fairchild is the one for me and is present always with a pultec too.

I don't use a lot of UAD plugs into the project since i have only one card, and when i do i have to bounce quite a lot.

When done with mixing down, i apply on the master bus the Fairchild-Helios 69-Ozone 3-Precision Limiter and that's all. This sequence i find it to work really good on all my tracks no matter the style. And the best is that noone(fellow producers, labels) till now ever had any complaints about the sound. On the contrary, they were amazed and very satisfied with the final result.

Alex.
 

Fundy

Established Member
Thus far, the only real complaint I've seen about UAD plug-ins is the load balancing and power-consumption issues. Alas that's more of a hardware thing.
 

Plec

Venerated Member
Best compressor for electronic music is the Sonalksis 315. Waves C1 can be very good also! Those two are the reference points. You need compressors that will have good interaction with the rhythm, and so LA2A, Fairchild which you can not tune very accuratley in time tends to sound spongy and working against the flow, not to mention the color that IME not sounds good for house, trance etc... but can of course sound great with ambient, hip-hop, rnb where grunge may be an important factor.
 

csl

Active Member
Apart from the Precision Multiband, PEQ and P Limiter, which are all perfectly fine for mastering electronic, I'd go for the EX-1's compressor. It's clean enough to compress without affecting the low frequencies, though you'll have to watch out for the auto make-up gain. I wish we had a switch for that...
 

klaatu

Active Member
Plec said:
Best compressor for electronic music is the Sonalksis 315. Waves C1 can be very good also! Those two are the reference points. You need compressors that will have good interaction with the rhythm, and so LA2A, Fairchild which you can not tune very accuratley in time tends to sound spongy and working against the flow, not to mention the color that IME not sounds good for house, trance etc... but can of course sound great with ambient, hip-hop, rnb where grunge may be an important factor.
Compared Sonalksis SV-315 with CS-1 channel strip compressor and to me CS-1 version is way better. Keep in mind that i dont like modern dance sound i like sound from 90...So it is really up to him. Best thing is that he can download and try Sonalksis which is fully fuctional for 30 days i think.
 

XAXAU

Established Member
the PL is nice but id rather just clip the master. but to get the same RMS with the PL as i get with clipping colors the sound a lot and makes it way less spacey and flat. but then again whos gonna notice when youre whacking it on a big soundsystem? not me anayway.

dont have the PMB but id use it on the master with all the bands working in the low frequency region.

i like the la2a not moving. but whos gonna hear it?

get the punch and loudness while mixing/producing then bounce youre masters back and forth with a mastering engineer and have him correct your frequencies and tell you what he altered. after a while you hopefully wont have to send your mixes anywhere :)
 

Fundy

Established Member
Who is going to hear it?

Everyone else.

OK over a PA system I might not be audible to an already wasted bunch of reprobates. However once something is printed to a master, without the original track it could be difficult to change things later if requested say by a record company.

Precision Limiter shouldn't colour the sound as it's meant to be a transparent brickwall limiter.
 

XAXAU

Established Member
yeah try explaining to someone in a k-hole that the reason the sound is so nice is because you put a la2a on the master :)

The PL colours too much compared to just plain clipping if i want the same rms. it works better if i clip a few dB then smash it a bit with the PL. clipping to protect the limiter :)
 

tekkhaus

Member
my trick of choice for comp's is the \"Compadre\" on the bassline run in side-chaining mode...there's a video on YouTube which goes through the tutorial (in which he uses the Compadre; reason I bought it). Will get that \"bassline pumping\" sound, its called \"ducking\" if you wanted to know.

As for mastering:
Prec. MB
PultecPro
Ozone3 (Stereo Imaging and Exciter)
LA2A
Prec. Lim

Its a lot of spices, but only a dash of each, makes the best curry and goes down smooth...no upset stomachs here!
 
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