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Mastering in Logic Pro X : The Basics. |
How to Master in Logic Pro X (Step by Step Guide).Mastering In Logic: 1
I always want to see the CPU usage so that I can be careful about my plugin usage. Some plugins can drain your CPU, so you have to keep an eye on this.
If it gets worse, I try to freeze my channels to keep adding big plugins to the project. Sometimes I have to figure out something, so I open a piano plugin to play with the song, and once in a while, I record extra back vocals. You can do this when Low Latency Mode is on. This one also saves lives. Sometimes I decide if there are any needs for a pad synth or some extra sub frequencies from a synthesizer. And the last thing that I want is to forget what I just found. This setting continuously records what you play on your MIDI, so you can always find the best part of your improvisation.
I discovered this one later, but I love it. Because it helps a lot to see the timing on the ruler with the bars. It was a habit when I was using Pro Tools, and I was missing that feature. I always think of the channels in groups because it helps to understand the song. For example, when you download a channels multitrack file and import it to your mixing project, it can be scary at first. Also, you can process the same kind of sounds together if you use those bus groups.
For example, I always tend to compress the drums together to get the most energy out of them. Therefore, I have to route all of them to a bus group. Having that group from the beginning is perfect for me.
The bus routings are on the second page of the buses, so your primary bus names can stay the same. You can see it below:. Set the bus groups from the beginning of a mix project, and delete the unnecessary ones. So this is why I put a VCA type compressor on the drum bus group. You can always tweak it to your liking, and I encourage you to do so because every song is different. But if you want energetic drums, this compressor will help you a lot.
Sometimes I want a big, powerful sound from drums. When I want that, I use the Drum Crush bus. It compresses the signal to hell and adds some distortion to make it even more powerful. I put there a compressor and an overdrive plugin, but you can always use its variations. For example, if you have something like a tape machine, you can add it with your favorite settings on every bus group, so you can always reach them with just a click.
Then, you can start mixing with those plugins bypassed, and you can open them when you need. There is a stereo out bus; why would I use a mix bus? Good question. I use it for a couple of reasons. Sometimes I need to send the whole mix to another bus group to parallel process it, or I can put some weird effects on it and dial with the mix.
So you can do that with the Mix Bus group. Also, I always use a monitoring plugin on my stereo bus, which decreases the volume. I always keep an eye on my mix bus, and I put my limiter on the stereo out when I need it. So, the groups work like this: the channels routes to bus groups, and the bus groups routes to mix bus.
Then the mix bus goes to stereo out. I realized that I almost always tend to use a compressor on my mix bus to get the most energy from the mix, so I put a compressor on the mixing template. You have to listen to the song and dial the settings of the compressor to your likings.
The best way to do this is to take the threshold all the way down to where it compresses around dB. And change the attack and release parameters there. When you find the best settings for your mix, take the threshold back. There is no rule for that, but around 3 to 4 dB will be nice. Once I'm happy with the first track, I drop it onto a spare stereo track in the Arrange window, where it can be played for direct comparison with the next track while I am fine-tuning plug-in and processor settings, the aim being to get the second track to sound as if it belongs to the same album as the first.
Obviously it's important to make sure that the faders of both Track Audio objects are initially at unity gain so that there's no level mismatch between them, but you may find that you need to increase the second track's limiter gain to achieve similar subjective levels. I usually start work with tracks that have similar instrumentation and style. I also favour working on all the heavier songs first, before working down to the ballads if the album is that varied.
Working from loudest to quietest helps you match the subjective levels of the different tracks making up the album with less risk of running out of headroom. You can make final level adjustments in your CD burning program, but if you turn down a track that has already been limited, you're wasting headroom that might have been better utilised by limiting less in the first place.
After all, limiting very rarely makes anything sound better, it just makes it sound louder, so there's no point in limiting the quieter tracks more than you have to.
There have been a couple of Logic -related upgrades recently. It's definitely more stable now, the undo feature finally works as expected, and plug-ins no longer crash or lose their parameter settings. Speaking of plug-ins, Waveburner can use all of your third-party AU effects plug-ins as well as Logic 's own, but with the strange exception of the Space Designer reverb. Apple's latest Pro Application Support 3. Another well-hidden Apple item is the availability of a free trial of Logic Express downloadable from www.
It's a day time-limited version, and a perfect way to dip your toes into the choppy waters of Logic , even if you're thinking of going for Logic Pro in the end. More problems with Logic 's half-hearted plug-in delay compensation PDC are appearing as users start to put it through its paces. The one I find most annoying revolves around the use of Universal Audio's UAD1 plug-ins and, as far as I can tell, has only appeared since v7.
If you insert a UAD1 plug-in into a track or buss and have PDC set to All, only the UAD1 plug-in inserted into the first slot will have its latency compensated for, which renders the feature almost useless in a lot of cases. One workaround seems to be to reorganise Logic 's memory by double-clicking the memory value below the tempo display in the Transport — although this doesn't always work for me. Apple really need to get PDC sorted out properly in the next release of Logic.
On a side note, the memory reorganisation tip I mentioned above is often useful when you're having spurious memory-related or CPU problems. It's often helped me to get a Song that's started to complain running again.
Another tip is to start and stop Logic 's transport, and then start it again. This has the added advantage of making sure Logic realises that both CPUs are actually being used on a dual-processor Mac, so you don't get CPU overload errors. Stephen Bennett. To me, the process of mastering is about making the songs on an album sound as good as they possibly can, but at the same time ensuring that they sit comfortably next to each other in terms of tonal balance and subjective loudness. This can be tricky when working on songs recorded in different studios, or when assembling compilation albums.
Often the bass end will need a little equalising to compensate for deficiencies in the original monitoring environment. Because I don't have a 'top of the tree' acoustically designed mastering room I'll also compare my results with similarly styled commercial releases that I deem to be well recorded. After that the album also gets checked on several other sound systems to ensure that it 'travels' well.
