mastering apps ? what are the good ones?

eross

what are the best mastering apps on ios. I recently tried using finaltouch after several years, and it seams to be broken, and not updated in a long time.
what all in one mastering apps are out there?
or do you guys just use multiple apps like limiters eq, widener, etc in a daw and master that way?

AudioGus

@eross said:
what are the best mastering apps on ios. I recently tried using finaltouch after several years, and it seams to be broken, and not updated in a long time.
what all in one mastering apps are out there?
or do you guys just use multiple apps like limiters eq, widener, etc in a daw and master that way?

Fabfilters in BM3 are the best route for me right now. Simply being able to rearrange AUfx is key and BM3 is the only one I have that lets me do that and has audio tracks. So i just pile on the tracks and pile on the Fabs...

oat_phipps

This is the only all-in-one solution I know of other than the Igor Vasilev one, which I’m not sure works anymore and requires more effort and know-how.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/grand-finale/id1294979704

The klevgrand does a pretty good job and is easy to tweak with just a few simple controls.

BiancaNeve

There’s also Ik multimedia’s offering

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/lurssen-mastering-console/id1059837456

Final touch seems to be working fine for me

eross

cool, that might be a little exspensive to get all the fabfilters right now. but maybe i will be able to eventually. thanks for the pics too > @AudioGus said:

@eross said:
what are the best mastering apps on ios. I recently tried using finaltouch after several years, and it seams to be broken, and not updated in a long time.
what all in one mastering apps are out there?
or do you guys just use multiple apps like limiters eq, widener, etc in a daw and master that way?

Fabfilters in BM3 are the best route for me right now. Simply being able to rearrange AUfx is key and BM3 is the only one I have that lets me do that and has audio tracks. So i just pile on the tracks and pile on the Fabs...

AudioGus

The problem with the standalone apps I have tried is that they do not allow for working on multiple tracks easily.

eross

interesting. i’m downloading the free version now. > @BiancaNeve said:

There’s also Ik multimedia’s offering

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/lurssen-mastering-console/id1059837456

AudioGus

@eross said:
cool, that might be a little exspensive to get all the fabfilters right now. but maybe i will be able to eventually. thanks for the pics too

They are so worth the price and currently on sale so this is probably as good as it gets for Fabfilter pricing.

That being said I would probably do just as well with the iOS Toneboosters stuff as it trickles in and gets updates etc.

eross

yeah, i bought the eq a while back and it is fantastic > @AudioGus said:

@eross said:
cool, that might be a little exspensive to get all the fabfilters right now. but maybe i will be able to eventually. thanks for the pics too

They are so worth the price and currently on sale so this is probably as good as it gets for Fabfilter pricing.

That being said I would probably do just as well with the iOS Toneboosters stuff as it trickles in and gets updates etc.

Tarekith

I'm definitely in the "Fabfilters in whatever host you like" camp. Some of the all in one options are nice if you like to just call up a few presets and go with what sounds best, but if you need to really dial in something specific in the mastering process I still find the FF the easiest and best sounding way to do it.

CracklePot

Is mastering a necessary step to achieve the best sound, in a general sense, or can it be achieved with just the regular ‘final mix’ stage?

I always thought mastering was more for best sound on a target medium, like vinyl, cassette, CD, streaming,etc.

Do people put their ‘final mix’ through a separate mastering stage for any other specific purpose?

Not trying to hijack the thread, but rather add to it.
Adding a ‘why’ to the ‘what’.

maxwellhouser

@CracklePot said:
Is mastering a necessary step to achieve the best sound, in a general sense, or can it be achieved with just the regular ‘final mix’ stage?

I always thought mastering was more for best sound on a target medium, like vinyl, cassette, CD, streaming,etc.

Do people put their ‘final mix’ through a separate mastering stage for any other specific purpose?

Not trying to hijack the thread, but rather add to it.
Adding a ‘why’ to the ‘what’.

Mastering Houses (good ones) have specialized equipment, perfect listening environments and a person with great ears that can fix problems you didn’t know existed, make all tracks of a record have uniform frequency balance and loudness etc..

Plus their signal chains and monitor setups are $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

AudioGus

@CracklePot said:
Is mastering a necessary step to achieve the best sound, in a general sense, or can it be achieved with just the regular ‘final mix’ stage?

I always thought mastering was more for best sound on a target medium, like vinyl, cassette, CD, streaming,etc.

Do people put their ‘final mix’ through a separate mastering stage for any other specific purpose?

Not trying to hijack the thread, but rather add to it.
Adding a ‘why’ to the ‘what’.

For me mastering is all about getting a collection of tunes to sound as cohesive as possible together.

For a one off, yah I can just throw plugins on the master output track and be done (assuming my CPU is not maxed (unlikely ). This is essentially mastering without doing a mixdown/bounce I suppose.

CracklePot

@AudioGus said:

@CracklePot said:
Is mastering a necessary step to achieve the best sound, in a general sense, or can it be achieved with just the regular ‘final mix’ stage?

I always thought mastering was more for best sound on a target medium, like vinyl, cassette, CD, streaming,etc.

Do people put their ‘final mix’ through a separate mastering stage for any other specific purpose?

Not trying to hijack the thread, but rather add to it.
Adding a ‘why’ to the ‘what’.

For me mastering is all about getting a collection of tunes to sound as cohesive as possible together.

For a one off, yah I can just throw plugins on the master output track and be done (assuming my CPU is not maxed (unlikely ). This is essentially mastering without doing a mixdown/bounce I suppose.

Ah...
Cohesiveness.
Good point.
👍🏻

CracklePot

@maxwellhouser said:

@CracklePot said:
Is mastering a necessary step to achieve the best sound, in a general sense, or can it be achieved with just the regular ‘final mix’ stage?

I always thought mastering was more for best sound on a target medium, like vinyl, cassette, CD, streaming,etc.

Do people put their ‘final mix’ through a separate mastering stage for any other specific purpose?

Not trying to hijack the thread, but rather add to it.
Adding a ‘why’ to the ‘what’.

Mastering Houses (good ones) have specialized equipment, perfect listening environments and a person with great ears that can fix problems you didn’t know existed, make all tracks of a record have uniform frequency balance and loudness etc..

Plus their signal chains and monitor setups are $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

These are good points as well.
They kind of argue against the need for Mastering apps, but strongly argue for the need of Mastering for ‘pro’ tracks.

Simon

@CracklePot said:
Is mastering a necessary step to achieve the best sound, in a general sense, or can it be achieved with just the regular ‘final mix’ stage?

This is a very good question.

I wonder if the big name artists still use the mastering process if they are just releasing to streaming digital format and not vinyl, cassette, CD etc.

Anyone know?

AudioGus

@CracklePot said:

@maxwellhouser said:

@CracklePot said:
Is mastering a necessary step to achieve the best sound, in a general sense, or can it be achieved with just the regular ‘final mix’ stage?

I always thought mastering was more for best sound on a target medium, like vinyl, cassette, CD, streaming,etc.

Do people put their ‘final mix’ through a separate mastering stage for any other specific purpose?

Not trying to hijack the thread, but rather add to it.
Adding a ‘why’ to the ‘what’.

Mastering Houses (good ones) have specialized equipment, perfect listening environments and a person with great ears that can fix problems you didn’t know existed, make all tracks of a record have uniform frequency balance and loudness etc..

Plus their signal chains and monitor setups are $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

These are good points as well.
They kind of argue against the need for Mastering apps, but strongly argue for the need of Mastering for ‘pro’ tracks.

I would totally spend money on mastering if my intention was to make money. Right now my intention is to simply hopefully offend peoples ears less than the last time.

Tarekith

@CracklePot said:
Is mastering a necessary step to achieve the best sound, in a general sense, or can it be achieved with just the regular ‘final mix’ stage?

Definitely not necessary. I know that for my own music making (and many other people), the "mastering" phase is just a nice limiter to get the overall volume a bit louder if needed. Otherwise the "sound" of my songs is all done in the mix. Mastering your own music as a separate part of the writing process is more or less the same, you're just using tools with a few less (and may be more specialized) options to shape what you hear.

The real benefit of "mastering" is when you go to someone else, because you're working with someone unbiased towards your music and with more experience to help you shape the overall sound of the song into something you'd likely never achieve on your own. Or at the very least a lot faster than it might take you on your own. It's both a collaberation with a specialist who does this all day every day, and a way to make sure you're not missing some issue you might not be able to hear. We have high end listening systems for a reason

auxmux

Is there a mastering app or Audio editor that supports AU fx? Or is the recommendation to record a track to audio like AUM, and then import into file player and applying FX on top of that? Wondering the most straight forward to generate quality stems just using iPad?

espiegel123

@auxmux said:
Is there a mastering app or Audio editor that supports AU fx? Or is the recommendation to record a track to audio like AUM, and then import into file player and applying FX on top of that? Wondering the most straight forward to generate quality stems just using iPad?

Auria Pro, Cubasis, Twisted Wave (though I don't love its AU integration despite liking its raw audio editing)

Not sure about AEM, BM3 and Stagelght.

auxmux

@espiegel123 Good point, I can use a DAW with an imported file and tweak it from there.

I was thinking about Twisted Wave? Not worth getting?

espiegel123

@auxmux said:
@espiegel123 Good point, I can use a DAW with an imported file and tweak it from there.

I was thinking about Twisted Wave? Not worth getting?

I use Twisted Wave all the time--for editing audio files. I find my DAWs more useful for mastering though. AUM can be good for that too.

auxmux

Thanks, I'll give it a shot.

DMfan

I can really recommend Graham at recordingrevolution on Youtube to learn more about mixing and mastering, and above all, the difference between them🤓... really interesting videos applicable to any DAW.

Cheers,
DMfan

maxwellhouser

Anybody serious gets their releases mastered, trust me.

The above point about it not being you (or me), in your same (likely) acoustically challenged room with speakers that possibly aren’t giving you the whole picture. Also with a song you have been working on at every stage and have an attachment to.