Audiobus: Use your music apps together.

What is Audiobus?Audiobus is an award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you use your other music apps together. Chain effects on your favourite synth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app like GarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface output for each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive a synth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDI keyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear. And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.

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Audiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.

Simple Man One Shot Mastering: Best bet?

I haven't done any finishing off for ages, but today had a short piece that I wanted to polish up a little bit for mother. I dug out Final Touch, picked a preset and, yes, actually, it does sound a bit more glued together.

Any thoughts as regards your own favorite clever application for a bit of sauce on the top to help out etc? Has to be as close to a single button push as possible please :)

Comments

  • wimwim
    edited August 2020

    Grand Finale all the way. I suck at mastering but have never failed to get marked improvements out of that app.

  • Barkfilter Tripleband Preset, and switch the limiter to "on". :lol: Doesn't get much simpler than that really. Recommended to have a gain plugin/effect before BarkFilter in the effects chain so as to not oversquash the mix.

  • JG scurries off to the corner of Bark and Grand.

    @Wim @jwmmakerofmusic Thank you men.

  • @JohnnyGoodyear said:
    JG scurries off to the corner of Bark and Grand.

    @Wim @jwmmakerofmusic Thank you men.

    You're welcome mate. :) Best of luck to ya.

    I can also vouch for Grand Finale by the way. It does have a lot more knobs to twist than Bark Filter, but it's what I used on my iPhone before TB Barricade came along. ;) (Although TB Barricade is not for chaps, ladies, and nonbinaries looking for one-button solutions.)

  • I use Final Touch myself. Good feedback and control (which I don’t get from Grand Finale) and more of a hardware feel. There are some good YT videos. To me Bark is kind of gimmicky. FWIW

  • edited August 2020

    I’ve been using quite a bit of Klevgrand Luxe lately. If material sounds too thin and tinny the red mode is warming it up and gluing it together with it’s compression if material is too dull then the blue mode can be quite magical. After that I just put some Pro-L and increase the volume to my liking. That’s it :)

  • edited August 2020

    @jacou said:
    I’ve been using quite a bit of Klevgrand Luxe lately. If material sounds too thin and tinny the red mode is warming it up and gluing it together with it’s compression if material is too dull then the blue mode can be quite magical. After that I just put some Pro-L and increase the volume to my liking. That’s it :)

    Somehow, despite seeming to have a wadrobe full of Klevgrand stuff, this one's passed me by. Perfect late night snack. Tak :)

  • @JohnnyGoodyear said:

    @jacou said:
    I’ve been using quite a bit of Klevgrand Luxe lately. If material sounds too thin and tinny the red mode is warming it up and gluing it together with it’s compression if material is too dull then the blue mode can be quite magical. After that I just put some Pro-L and increase the volume to my liking. That’s it :)

    Somehow, despite seeming to have a wadrobe full of Klevgrand stuff, this one's passed me by. Perfect late night snack. Tak :)

    Hahah enjoy

  • It is fun to use a one shot app, listen to the results, and then see what results you can get on with your own attempt at EQ, compression/limiting, stereo, saturation (pick your final chain as you like).

  • Same here! Love it! Problem is can’t decide which preset to use. Is anyone mastering to 0db anymore? I heard or read that everything is at -12 db i think?

    @wim said:
    Grand Finale all the way. I suck at mastering but have never failed to get marked improvements out of that app.

  • @anickt said:
    To me Bark is kind of gimmicky.

    Un-believer. Mix your track as good as you can... then offer the client the final mix with and without BarkFilter. In most cases they will prefer the gimmicked track. Call them an idiot and tell them to take their business elsewhere. Un-believer.

    Most religions are based on less evidence that your own ears will provide.

    Magic Death Eye is a lot less controversial.

  • wimwim
    edited August 2020

    @Tones4Christ said:
    Same here! Love it! Problem is can’t decide which preset to use. Is anyone mastering to 0db anymore? I heard or read that everything is at -12 db i think?

    @wim said:
    Grand Finale all the way. I suck at mastering but have never failed to get marked improvements out of that app.

    I usually have a vague feeling which preset to start with based on the type of material and how it seems to be lacking to me. There are few enough presets that some quick trials usually yields a favorite, then I do a few tweaks and call it a day before I muck things up.

    I try to target a LUFS of around -14 by eyeball. That is the one thing I really feel is missing from Grand Finale - a calculated LUFS for the whole piece. Or, even better a target LUFS that the app would auto-set for. But eyeballing it is generally good enough for my purposes.

    I could run it through Pro MB to get a more accurate automatic LUFS, but nothin’ I produce is really worth the FabFilter prices. 😂

  • edited August 2020

    I don’t master. It never sounds as good as the final mix to my ears. I just eq every track, pay a lot of attention to levels and panning, and that’s it. I also listen on monitors, good headphones, bad earbuds, and a really bad kitchen speaker.

    One other tip — listen with another person. Suddenly, all kinds of problems will jump out!

    EDIT: I also figure that mastering is such a subtle art that I would have to spend far too long learning it. If I’m ever in a situation that demands it, I’m sure I’d also be in a position to pay someone who knows what they’re doing ;)

  • @mistercharlie said:
    I don’t master. It never sounds as good as the final mix to my ears. I just eq every track, pay a lot of attention to levels and panning, and that’s it. I also listen on monitors, good headphones, bad earbuds, and a really bad kitchen speaker.

    One other tip — listen with another person. Suddenly, all kinds of problems will jump out!

    EDIT: I also figure that mastering is such a subtle art that I would have to spend far too long learning it. If I’m ever in a situation that demands it, I’m sure I’d also be in a position to pay someone who knows what they’re doing ;)

    Realistically this is probably the best advice given here. 😆

  • @McD said:

    @anickt said:
    To me Bark is kind of gimmicky.

    Un-believer. Mix your track as good as you can... then offer the client the final mix with and without BarkFilter. In most cases they will prefer the gimmicked track. Call them an idiot and tell them to take their business elsewhere. Un-believer.

    Most religions are based on less evidence that your own ears will provide.

    Magic Death Eye is a lot less controversial.

    I jumped in an got Barky in my arsenal. I hate mixing and mastering Since it’s always connected to frustration... excited if barkfilter will open my eyes ehhh ears

  • @Tones4Christ said:
    Same here! Love it! Problem is can’t decide which preset to use. Is anyone mastering to 0db anymore? I heard or read that everything is at -12 db i think?

    @wim said:
    Grand Finale all the way. I suck at mastering but have never failed to get marked improvements out of that app.

    You're thinking of LUFS and streaming releases, which typically target -14LUFS. You don't have to, it's not a rule, most of my clients still end up higher than that even if it's going on streaming platforms. You're final output level is still peaking around -0.5dBFS.

  • edited August 2020

    Thanks all. I feel far less lost on an island of one etc. @mistercharlie very good :)

  • have you considered LANDR?

    https://www.landr.com/

  • Bark is amazing on some tracks, and terrible on others even within the same genre of music. My ears aren’t good enough to understand why that might be though.

    I’ve used Grand Finale a lot, it’s pretty good but can overly lift the bits of your track that you actually wanted quiet if you’re not careful. On a couple of tracks I had to make the quiet bits super quiet in order for the end result to come out nice.

    Last track I did, I imported the entire thing into Cubasis 3 just to try out the master strip tools. They’re actually pretty great, but if you need to adjust the volumes of your quiet bits in CB3 you then have to fight with the worst automation editor ever conceived, so I don’t think I’ll be trying that again.

    @mistercharlie’s advice to listen on various speakers and headphones is a great tip, but I’d also suggest trying various volumes on those devices: https://ehomerecordingstudio.com/fletcher-munson-curve/

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