Cubase Mastering

Hi I have cubase 7.5 and I am working on how to master songs, but I don’t want to spend too much money on eq and other effects at this time. Do you think I could master a song and get good quality with all of the eq and effects in cubase already? If so, is there a tutorial? thanks!

Yes, absolutely you can master with Cubase…
Within reason, of course–my mastering guy I use; running his own, dedicated mastering business; masters through hardware that is mind-bendingly expensive and rare. He charges $100/hr. You can’t expect results such as this. Especially if you’re mastering your own stuff–half the benefit of using a mastering engineer is that he’s not you and he’s not listening on your system.

That being said, many of my clients don’t save that kind of cheddar for mastering, and I have to do it myself often.

You could totally master in Cubase with its suite of native plugins. The Multiband Compressor is really incredible. The Maximizer can be great. Magneto is fantastic. The EQs are very clean. REVerence is one of the best plugin reverbs I’ve ever used.
And, of course, you can always add new plugins over time, say, Waves’ L2/L3 or their Lin series.

Thanks so much! I am starting to buy a few mastering tools like waves and fabfilter, but until I can get al the ones I want I will stick to the cubase plugins. Thanks!

Dude, tell me you’re getting the Fab Filter Pro-L! That’s one of the best mastering limiters I’ve ever used.

YES! :wink:

I sometimes have to only use Cubase built-in tools to master a demo version of a project because the project will be shared between people who don’t have the same plugins as I do. You can get a fine job done! I also professionally master people’s work using many other tools including Waves and UAD, but I almost always use the Cb EQ in there as well for overall tweaks.

Mike.

+1 on the multiband compressor. The Cubase plugins are very good mixing and mastering tools.

For home mastering I think izotope ozone is a bargain. The voxengo EQ that comes with Cubase 7.5 is really good for mastering purpose. I prefer the free limiter6 when comes to limiters, try google limiter6 to find out more. But as always “use the tools you got”.

You don’t say whether you are using 64 or 32 bit.
There are a lot of free vst’s out there. If they are 32 bit you can use jBridge to uprate them to 64 bit.

Vendors like Bootsy and Sonimus are really excellent:

http://sonimus.com/products/soneq/

http://loudmax.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.vst4free.com/free_vst.php?plugin=Luftikus&id=1500.

This is THE BEST!

The Best Hardware!

Manley Mastering Version Stereo Variable Mu®Limiter Compressor - with HP SC and MS and TBAR Mod: $6,500 USD

http://manley.com/mslc.php


The Best Softwares!
Brainworx!

Plugin-alliance program and do 90% of all UAD2 plugins. SPL, elysia, shadow hills…

BX XL V2 - $329.00

BX Limiter - $160.00

BX Refinement - $199.00


IZotope Ozone, Voxengo Elephant, Waves L3 and others etc. are okay softwares.



Best Regards
Freddie

Hey, while we’re at it, why not recommend a Sequoia system, a $40k pair of Wilson’s, and an Apogee clock? LOL

Say, Freddie, you see UAD released an emu of the VariMu? Me want-y!

:mrgreen: :laughing:

Yes I know, UAD2 do the first emulation of Manley except for soft tubes at Native Instruments.

Apogee clock?..na it sucks. Antelope Isochrone 10M is the best clock. :wink:

Have a great weekend!

Best Regards
Freddie

We’re really OT, here, Freddie. OP wanted to know about mastering in Cubase with native plugs–not a shopping list of the very best gear in the world. We should do this elsewhere. :wink:

Sorry, OP!

Yes perhaps but great info for anyone else that cruise and looking for great mastering tools.


Anyhow, Cubase 7.5 included tools are in very high quality. Steinberg never add any crappy bad plugins to their DAWs. Cubase and Nuendo are all professional DAWs. Only the best works in Steinberg world.


If I would recommend any of the included tools I will recommend Magneto II that is really a high-end plugin.
$ 1.000 000 sound for sure and works both for tracks and mastering.


Other things that are also great are the include “Strip-plugins” in the mixer view. Transient shaper, Maximizer, Gate and don’t forget the included track EQ. All are great tools. I use myself the track EQ, Transient shaper, and Magneto II frequently. The Strip-gate with its frequency-filter feature is one of the best gates I have heard so far. Very musical.


Best Regards
Freddie

Yes, maybe so, but hardly a help to the OP hijacking his thread. Who States, by the way, that he does not want to spend a lot of money. However you did return to the point and I agree with your assessment of Cubase plugs.

With regard to your previous mentions of UAD gear - the Manley is ok but is way too expensive, like a lot of the newer UAD stuff. I am a UAD user - the worlds most expensive PCIe dongle and then you spend a fortune on their plugins.They are good, but there are cheaper alternatives.

I haven’t found any compressors that work nearly as well as UAD’s. At least for catching fast transients. Not that I’m a UAD fan-boy… I would gladly welcome a comparable non-dongle alternative in a heartbeat!

I do believe Cubase’s stock plugs are okay when used lightly. Be careful though, as the compressors are waaay too slow for situations requiring fast attack settings.

\


Started new thread so we’re no longer OT:

Let’s duke it out there!

Whoops!!

Totally getting it!

They have a very good take up of their ‘in-app’ purchase system! And like with apps, you can end up spending a lot more than the original purchase.