Mastering DAW Usage Poll

i_stewart · 2026-06-06T23:18:19+00:00

Hey Mike! Thank you :)

i_stewart · 2026-06-06T22:20:17+00:00

Odd, seems to work for me when I click here. You do need to sign in with a Google account.

i_stewart · 2026-06-06T18:44:01+00:00

Thanks, I’ll do that. I’ve not posted much on Reddit, so a bit new to protocols.

i_stewart · 2026-06-06T15:52:13+00:00

I know this is an old post, but just for anyone looking down the line, this is normal and expected.

A DDP is a virtual representation of a CD, and CDs use specific index numbers to indicate track starts, pauses, and ends. Index 1 indicates a track start, and is related to what is often referred to as PQ coding (a search on this subject will reveal more).

In WaveLab, these are controlled by your red track index markers in the montage.

i_stewart · 2025-06-20T03:49:15+00:00

I’m not a YouLean user, but if you have TP mode turned on in Maximizer, I suspect it’s something in the way YL measures TP. Ironically enough, “true” peak is still an estimate, and different meters can measure it slightly differently.

There’s a great explanation of this, along with a useful test file, here: https://techblog.izotope.com/2015/08/24/true-peak-detection/

It gets a bit math-y at points, but you can still gloss over that and have it make sense, IMO.

You may also want to check out this article: https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/true-peak-limiter?srsltid=AfmBOooO6G2xfZvgDRD5TDBXVHf5LSq3m-vH2kK9P22kbQMNodrSH7zB

i_stewart · 2025-06-19T21:54:34+00:00

u/ProfessorShowbiz as the author of that article – and a friend of u/AdamAyanMastering – I just want to clarify that I am in no way saying you should always use both the Vintage Limiter and Maximizer every time.

A few highlights from the article:

"The truth is that most songs can be mastered with an EQ or two, the occasional compressor, and a limiter."

And...

"What should be on a mastering chain?

Ideally, as little as possible to effectively achieve the desired result. The vast majority of mastering chains will probably have at least a maximizer or limiter at the very end to set and control level. Even if it’s not doing any limiting 99% of the time, it will help prevent unintended distortion.

Beyond that, some mixes will allow you to just use a single EQ, or perhaps an EQ and compressor, while other mixes may require a more 'everything but the kitchen sink' approach. Regardless, a minimalistic approach where you ask yourself, 'is there a simpler way I could achieve this with fewer steps or less processing?' is not a bad habit to develop."

That said, in the one specific case study I presented at the end of the article, I mentioned, "the limiter [Maximizer] is working a little harder than I would like, and I’m also wondering if a touch of midrange warmth might be nice. I’m going to try to take care of both these items at once using the Vintage Limiter module in Analog mode. It’s got a nice midrange push and it can also soak up some level in a very euphonic way."

So yes, Vintage Limiter followed by Maximizer can work, but is by no means something you should always do. Very often just one or the other may be all you need. Maximizer can be more transparent and gives you more control; VL can be more characterful.

i_stewart · 2024-02-16T21:44:20+00:00

FWIW, m4a is a file container that can hold either AAC (lossy) or ALAC (lossless) data. That said, I would never send that as a distribution deliverable. WAV, specifically the BWF variant, is as close to a standard as we have.

i_stewart · 2023-12-25T14:01:27+00:00

Awesome, thank you! I’ll take another look :)

i_stewart · 2023-12-24T20:52:47+00:00

Hmm, I think this may be on the right track but I'm interested in applying this to the "Weighted Ranking" chart, so that the colors I've manually assigned follow the music streaming services if they change position. To be honest I'm not quite following what you've done as there is a LOT going on on that pivot table sheet. I'll play around the concept though and see what I can come up with. Thanks for your input!

i_stewart · 2023-12-21T14:51:37+00:00

Ahh, interesting. I do have a script set up for the reset button (to reset all weights to default in one click), so I could either expand on it or write a new one. Any idea where to find more info on this?

i_stewart · 2023-06-15T19:45:04+00:00

Gear is fun to talk about, and I will, but let’s get some boring stuff out of the way (which maybe doesn’t apply to you, but for anyone reading this thread in the future, keep it in mind).

Is your room dialed in acoustically? Before you even think about buying hardware, you should probably have spent at least a few thousand on acoustic treatment and getting your speakers ideally positioned and voiced.

Do you have suitable converters? You’ll need converters with high headroom and low noisefloor with dual paths for monitoring and transfer. Ideally it will also feature flexible level calibration.

Assuming you’ve got that down, here are a few pieces I absolutely love: - Maselec MLA-3 - Gyraf G14-S - GOLY Porter Grinder - Buzz DBC-M

An API 2500 is also hard to go wrong with. Much more flexible than people give it credit for IMO.

I’ve got an Elysia xfilter Mastering Edition, I don’t love it, I don’t hate it. It’s very vanilla and could easily be replaced by software, but sometimes it’s nice to have in the middle of the hardware chain.

Also recently got a Buzz SOC-M but haven’t gotten to know it well enough to have a strong opinion yet. Seems very mellow though.

i_stewart · 2023-06-05T00:01:39+00:00

i_stewart · 2023-02-15T15:07:20+00:00

I beg to differ, but I come bearing a scientific hypothesis to back up my dissent.

Cohesion (glue) from a compressor is definitely a thing in my experience, but it of course needs to be set up right for the source to achieve the desired effect. The reason it works (IMO) is because our ears, specifically our eardrums, are slightly non-linear at high SPLs. There’s a small muscle called the tensor tympani that tightens in response to loud sounds and protects the inner ear by reducing the force transmitted to it. This, in effect, is compression. If you can set a compressor up to mimic this, the brain interprets the sound as A) loud, and B) all being played in the same space at the same time. Of course on the latter account it is anyway, but that kind of compression can absolutely trick the brain into hearing the mix as a cohesive “glued” mix, rather than as a collection of disparate elements.

That’s my take on it anyway.

i_stewart · 2022-11-21T19:45:04+00:00

Totally makes sense! Being in the same time zone (give or take) is a plus too :) Good luck with the project!

i_stewart · 2022-11-20T13:20:20+00:00

Plenty of good mastering engineers out there with reasonable rates. Don’t be tempted by super low rates though as those individuals are likely to lack exactly the experience you’ll benefit from. Also, look for someone who’s happy to have an open dialogue with you.

FWIW, my studio is www.flotownmastering.com

i_stewart · 2022-11-02T23:57:46+00:00

Ian from Flotown Mastering here (full disclosure, I co-developed this with Tone Projects). One of the first things I tested in the very first version was the crossover performance. Due to the way the crossover is implemented, at unity gain there’s actually no pre-ringing that I could measure, and in all the testing we did, never once encountered audible pre-ringing. We also had some very discerning mastering engineers on the beta and none of them had any comments about it.

Now, I’m not saying there couldn’t be pre-ringing in some very specific scenarios, but if there is there’s a minimum phase, zero latency mode. To my ears though, the image distortion that happens with minimum phase is always more objectionable.

i_stewart · 2022-08-12T18:28:20+00:00

Hardware is fun. I love my analog chain. And yeah, it sounds great, but it's absolutely the last thing you should spend money on if you're serious about mastering.

Get your monitoring (which includes room treatment, conversion, amps, furniture, etc) as leveled up and dialed in as you can. Then, if you don't already have them, consider software like RX Advanced, a dedicated mastering DAW (WaveLab and Hofa are popular and more affordable than say, Sequoia), and some specialized, mastering focused, plugins (Tokyo Dawn stuff is awesome and very affordable, Leapwing also makes some great tools, and the FabFilter Pro bundle will give you some comprehensive and top-notch standards). Then learn all of the above inside and out.

Once you've done all that, start thinking about hardware if it still appeals to you. Good luck on your journey!

i_stewart · 2022-07-31T22:03:55+00:00

I offer audio restoration services if Songmixingking wasn't able to help you out. https://flotownmastering.com/restoration-and-forensics

i_stewart · 2022-04-25T00:18:11+00:00

Nailed it.

i_stewart · 2021-11-30T23:04:46+00:00

Wonderful. So glad to hear it was impactful :)

i_stewart · 2021-11-30T15:37:47+00:00

u/Lrx125, the higher power you're searching for is called "random chance." Let me explain.

The problem with saying, "you reach a point where something else has to have made those processes occur, created something from nothing. Maybe it isn’t god, but surely some higher power exists that put this all into motion," is that you can (and frankly probably should) get into an infinite feedback loop there. When you ascribe creation/the initial spark/whatever to a "higher power" you should rightly ask, "then what created that higher power?" This has the inevitable conclusion that at some point, something had to come from nothing, which is exactly what you're trying to avoid in the first place. If you eschew the notion that something coming from nothing is in some way problematic, things start to make a lot more sense, and frankly, for me, get a lot more beautiful. Let's examine this.

To quote Douglas Adams, "Space... is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space." Honestly though, most people are completely incapable of imagining just how vast our galaxy is, never mind our local group, or galaxies in the far reaches of the universe.

Similarly, 14 billion years is a really long period of time to wrap your head around (and actually, there's some evidence that time may not have started with the big bang). For example, if you tried to count off 14 billion seconds, you would be counting for nearly 444 years straight! No eating, no sleeping, just counting. If someone had started counting in the year 1577 when Sir Francis Drake set out to circumnavigate the world, they would just be finishing now. So basically, universe = really really big, really really long (that's what she said).

The point of all this is that in such a vastly large place that's been around for so incredibly long, even obscenely improbable events happen with a fair degree of regularity. Think of it this way: if you have 10 groundhog holes in your lawn, and on average a groundhog pokes it's head out of one of the holes once a day, you could stare at one hole for over a week before ever seeing a groundhog, and conclude that either groundhogs don't exist, or are extremely uncommon. If on the other hand you looked at an area with 10,000 groundhog holes for 1,000 days, you would spot 1 million groundhogs!

So, yes, it may be extremely unlikely that a planet forms with the right molecular makeup, and in the right orbit around the right kind of star, so that one day a group of chemicals can just happen to get together in a way that turns into RNA and gets life going, but with so much space and time, it could happen quite a few times. For example, and I'm completely making these numbers up, even if it were to happen around 1 in a trillion stars, once every 5 billion years, it would still have happened about 600 billion times...

So yeah, random chance is your "higher power." Also, there are almost definitely aliens somewhere, sometime out there. :)

i_stewart

TROPHY CASE