What's on your Master Buss if anything?

[Zukan]

I vary it depending on the genre I am mixing. I do like to try new products so never stay with one set of plugs.

However, as a guide, I tend to use eq for some mix corrective stuff, maybe a tiny bit of harmonic distortion or some form of glue, a tilt eq to check the balance of the mix or for anything that pokes out when tilted, a limiter to hone the LUFS info....

[Arpangel]

Right now, you mean, this minute!?
Valhalla VintageVerb
ReaEQ
ReaComp
JS Stereo Widener

[Zukan]

Dude, no one puts a verb on the master bus. Remove it now!

[Arpangel]

Dude, no one puts a verb on the master bus. Remove it now!

Iv'e even got a hardware compressor on my main mixer out, Sacre Bleu!

[ore_terra]

Tegeler Audio summing mixer and Klark Teknik pultec clones (x2), and back to Cubase I usually have an UAD SSL bus comp slow attack and fast release with the needle never beyond 2-3 db of compression and the Waves J37 tape plugin.

last week I bought the plugin alliance SPL Iron. I'll start trying it VS the SSL

[CS70]

Tegeler Audio summing mixer and Klark Teknik pultec clones (x2), and back to Cubase I usually have an UAD SSL bus comp slow attack and fast release with the needle never beyond 2-3 db of compression and the Waves J37 tape plugin.

last week I bought the plugin alliance SPL Iron. I'll start trying it VS the SSL

How do you find the KTs on the master bus? Do you have them on, but bypassed, all the time?

I was toying with the idea of getting another one to do the same as you, but I still haven't managed to install the Dangerous Music D-Box that I got a couple months back, so I will refrain until that's settled (there's something in unwiring and replacing the monitor controller that screams "nooooo!" ).

[Sam Inglis]

I am another big fan of Acustica Taupe. I probably use it on 75 percent of my mixes, and if you choose the right tape preset you can often do without additional EQ. When EQ is needed it's usually Eiosis Air-EQ, FabFilter Pro-Q 3 or Acustica Diamond.

Compression-wise it can be almost anything. Sometimes I want fast attack and release to push the drums down into the mix, sometimes slow attack and fast release to emphasise the drums. If I want everything to sound smooth and gooey I'll quite often use the IK White 2A plug-in. A little-known plug-in that I really like is HOFA's IQ-Compressor, which has a really neat way of combining dynamic control and tonal changes -- it lets you 'dump' the gain reduction into specific frequency areas, or protect other areas from being compressed.

I recommend that anyone who doesn't want to be tempted into buying things should absolutely not try the McDSP APB system, and definitely avoid hearing the Moo-X mixer... once you've heard that on the master bus and a few select auxes, your life will never be quite the same again...

[Watchmaker]

I recommend that anyone who doesn't want to be tempted into buying things should absolutely not try the McDSP APB system, and definitely avoid hearing the Moo-X mixer... once you've heard that on the master bus and a few select auxes, your life will never be quite the same again...

Oh, thanks. You should come with a warning sticker.

[ore_terra]

Tegeler Audio summing mixer and Klark Teknik pultec clones (x2), and back to Cubase I usually have an UAD SSL bus comp slow attack and fast release with the needle never beyond 2-3 db of compression and the Waves J37 tape plugin.

last week I bought the plugin alliance SPL Iron. I'll start trying it VS the SSL

How do you find the KTs on the master bus? Do you have them on, but bypassed, all the time?

I was toying with the idea of getting another one to do the same as you, but I still haven't managed to install the Dangerous Music D-Box that I got a couple months back, so I will refrain until that's settled (there's something in unwiring and replacing the monitor controller that screams "nooooo!" ).

Really good!

I dont have them flat. 2-4 raise both ends, broad Q and the frequency varies for each project. I get it set at the beginning at 30 Hz and 16 kHz, and will touch it if I feel it doesnt work well at those frequencies.

Note: this doesnt keep me now and then from putting another pultec plugin back in Cubase

I started using them at the same time than the tegeler so I dont know who to blame, but I can say (and I’ve told so) that the deepness I get now I didnt get it before

[Arpangel]

If I suddenly got the news that I had some sort of fatal illness, god forbid, I’d immediately rush out and buy two things the Inward Connections Vac Rac compressor, and the Neve Master Buss Processor.
Just so that I could sit back in my remaining time and enjoy the 150% pure creamy goodness that these units can offer, totally OTT for my music, but nice, all the same.

[TheLegit]

Tegeler Audio summing mixer and Klark Teknik pultec clones (x2), and back to Cubase I usually have an UAD SSL bus comp slow attack and fast release with the needle never beyond 2-3 db of compression and the Waves J37 tape plugin.

last week I bought the plugin alliance SPL Iron. I'll start trying it VS the SSL

What settings do people use on the J37 - I just whack one of the Mastering presets on sounds great!

[CS70]

I stick to one of the "as flat as possible" modes, usually the 15ips, and do some tweaks. My idea is not to get color out of the plugin, but something that one would get from printing to tape (I guess).

But if it sounds good to you, it's good!

[nathanscribe]

I run my master bus through a hardware compressor (right now it's an ART Pro VLA II) after I've got a rough mix.

I used one of those for years until it conked out one one channel... using a Drawmer 1978 now, which has some very useful features and sounds great.

Harrison Mixbus has some useable saturation on the main stereo bus as well, it's been my favoured DAW for a while.

[Martin Walker]

This has turned into an absolutely fascinating read, giving rise to lots of further on-line searches.

We all have our favourites it seems, and there are a host of different ways to add clarity, space and glue to the mix

Martin

[Andy McBain]

Sonnox Inflator at default settings, and about 2% effect gives my electronic mixes a nice touch of extra density

[Watchmaker]

I run my master bus through a hardware compressor (right now it's an ART Pro VLA II) after I've got a rough mix.

I used one of those for years until it conked out one one channel... using a Drawmer 1978 now, which has some very useful features and sounds great.

Harrison Mixbus has some useable saturation on the main stereo bus as well, it's been my favoured DAW for a while.

Whew! I'm sometimes embarrassed to name my gear cause none of it says Neve, SSL, API, etc.

Good to know others are using the "modestly priced" gear too

I've never even heard of Tegeler!

[Rich Hanson]

Very often I will have the T-Racks Opto Compressor on the main bus, doing a bit of light levelling (generally starting with the Transparent Leveller preset and working from there)

[Zukan]

That Opto is quite nice. Glues things well. White 2A also works some magic.

[w oxo cube]

Expensive thread

I tend to write a lot on my laptop and then take it over to my studio to mix properly. When I'm on the laptop 99% of the time use the Waves SSL compressor followed by a Fabfilter Limiter.

If I get it into the studio and it sounds great, I'll print it digitally there and then but more often than not it will need a little rebalance especially at the low end (I write dancefloor based electronic music) I'll run it through the Drawmer 1978 bus compressor. I find this great for tightening the low end and generally give the mix more punch. The EQ section is very useful for a touch of lows or tops.