Sound Forge and Mastering - Help a guy out?

[Rickenjangle]

I need to master some live material I recorded direct to 2-track this week. I have used Cool Edit Pro to do the fade ins and outs, and have used Sound Forge 6 for awhile now for mastering. It has a tool called Wave Hammer that can compress/normalized/boost n cut volume all that the same time. Well, I want to reverberate the track a bit, too. I used Wave Hammer last night, got the level up to about negative .2 decibels - then tried to reverb - my thinking was compress first, reverb last. But the process pushed me up into clip.

I was wondering if I have the process backward. Should I:

1. EQ if necessary
2. then reverberate
3. and finally Wave Hammer?

That way I could get the track to sound good, then apply some light compression to make the track sit a bit louder on the CD...

Anyone?

[Gravity Jim]

I'd go 'verb, then EQ, then the hammer. You shouldn't need anymore compression beyond that: Wave Hammer sounds like one of those "make the CD so freakin' loud you can't believe it" tools.

GO EASY. Listen long. Cut, don't boost. Less is more. Unless it's the 80s. Then too much is just about enough.

[Rickenjangle]

Thanks, guys.

I don't have any plug-ins, just using the built-in effects. I'll try the EQ thing next time I goof around with the tracks. Yes, I always save to a new track so that I can assess if each step makes a difference. I'll try to avoid going above -0.3dB. The compression in the Wave Hammer I've got set to the smooth setting, which is calculated on Peak, not RMS (whatever that means) and I'm only using 2:1 ratios. Reverb is a large hall but only a low output from the reverb. In fact, I can barely tell it's on until I stop the track, then I can hear the tail. Just trying to add a bit of ambience; the tracks were recorded in a movie theater, which is very dead acoustically.

No matter what I do, though, commercial CD's always sound a bit louder, more present. And of course, on the radio, levels always seem constant (probably because they compress them, right?). But, I can live with 1dB less than commercial CD's when I don't have to pay someone else to master my stuff. Sheesh, that's expensive!

[Gravity Jim]

Go, Fezz.

Yes, Truverb and L1+ ARE the shizzle (I've ended up using Waves C4 multiband compressor and the L1+ on every single track I mix. There's a sticker that came in the box with the first Waves plugs I bought that reads "Makin' every mix with Waves," and they aren't kidding.

Fezz, wouldn't you agree that you can go a bit higher on the compression ratio for this stage? 3:1 or even 4:1 isn't over the top, I don't think, and you can get some more level that way if you choose. But I seriously don't think a home studio is equipped to produce the kinds of track-slammer levels you'll get from a mastering lab. They've got some hardware you haven't got (including a Waves L2, most likely).

[pc]

I'm using Multiband on my album too, but basically using separate compressors since I can't really afford Waves.

When I Bounce my mixes to a WAV file, the tracks are individually EQ'd and Compressed as necessary, and there are FX send/returns for different reverbs, but the only thing I'm putting on the Main out is a basic compressor set at 1.5:1 with a fairly high threshold (but a sharper knee), just to get a little punch without squashing anything and still grab the occasional transient.

Then I reopen those WAV files as a new file and do my mastering plugin effects there, which is a 7-band EQ with slight cuts and bumps in just the places Fezz mentions, then three compressors in a row that are each handling a different range of the spectrum--this particular plugin allows you to set a "built-in side-chain" EQ so that the compressor is only applied to a specific range of the spectrum.

Per a really great article I read online about multiband, I have the middle range set to encompass the vocal range, and it gets the least compression; the highs and lows get a touch more.

Finally I use a limiter plugin with the threshold set very high, near 0.2 dB, but the usual right-angle knee associated with limiters so that nothing hits a peak that overloads.

One thing I did notice was that I had to be sure to pay attention to the input and output controls on the first EQ so that I wasn't overloading the signal to any other plugin down the chain. I'm getting some really pro sounding stuff now with all this.

Still wish I could afford Waves, if only for L1+, but I'm very happy with my results.

[Rickenjangle]

Like Ray Davies sez, "I'm on a Low Budget." How much can I expect to pay for the Waves bundle, ballpark figure only?

[pc]

Multiband compression is fun, ain't it Pete?

It is. Once I figured it out, I could hear how much it's used in everything out there. Judicious use can take a mix from blah to punchy very quickly. I realize that my stacked CL3 plugins won't do anything like what Bob Ludwig's fortress of solitude will, but it still makes a big difference in my masters.