First, up, I really enjoyed the music.
It didn't get boring during the whole mastering and listening process. Great stuff!. It reminds me a bit of some Tuxedomoon tracks ...
As I had a few comments about the level in the previous WUMPS and I had promised I would crank up the next one, that is exactly what I did. It was an experiment and I would probably leave 3dB of extra breathing room (or more) if this was in another context.
I considerd doing some level automation on the crescendos but found that with all the compression and especially limiting, things smoothed out quite well level wise.
Also, In my home studio, I have really bad accoustics. I tried EQing out some of the resonanance in the strings but it was more guess work than anything else so I turned off those EQ bands before printing. (When in doubt, abstain).
Two of the PSP plugins have FAT turned off. This was purely due to lack of processing power. I had intended to listen to the difference with it turned back on during bouncing but things got really hectic before I left for Italy and I just forgot to test this.
Anyway, here is my chain:
Track loaded in Sonar 5
Voxengo SoniformerI Started off with the tape compression preset and tweaked from there. There are ALOT of things that can be changed. Too many to list here and anyway, most of it is graphical so can't be written down exactly.
PSP MasterQ Hipass @ 30Hz with Q 0.71 and 24dB/oct
Low-shelf @ 100Hz with Q0.5 and 2.1dB Gain
Peak @ 249Hz Q 1.02 and gain -1.06 dB
FAT off
PSP MasterCompRatio 1.4
Attack 48.1ms
Release 389ms
No sidechain filters
No stereo linking
Mix 50%
Make-up gain auto
FAT Off
Between 0 and 2 dB gain reduction usualy hovering arround 1dB.
Voxengo Marquis CompressorRatio 2.0
Attack 0.05ms
Release 150ms
Force 100%
Dry 80%
Makeup off
Knee off
C.Mode Forward, Sharp
Param 1,2,3 set to the default 1.80
There is about 1.5 dB of GR throughtout the track. The intension was to add density more than anything else. Anyway, only 20% of the signal was the compressed signal. So there really isn't much gain reduction on the overall signal.
PSP MasterQHipass @ 20Hz with Q 0.71 and 24dB/Oct
Low-shelf @ 100Hz Q0.5 Gain 1.94dB (This was probably too much. I could have left this band out and have a leaner low-end).
Lowpass @ 20.1Khz Q 0.71 24dB/Oct
FAT on
Voxengo WarmifierType 6550
Prm V -9dB
Prm I -3dB
I am using this very hard. This is to add more colouring or thickness or harmonic distortion or whatever you want to call it. I'm really liking this plugin.
Voxengo ElephantLim mode: EL-3
Lim Speed: fast
Shape: 0
RShape: 2ms
St Linking off
4x Oversampling.
No dithering or DC filter.
I'm hitting this really hard. There is nearly constant peak limiting and at its max, it has 9dB of peak reduction! At this sample rate (+4X oversampling making it 352.8Khz) it still sounds amazingly clean.
Sligth fade in/out.
Exported to 88.2Khz/64 bit. Converted to 44.1/16 with Voxengo R8brain.
My version was 1234.
Alistair