What is your mastering suite?

[blue_luke]

Hello all!
This thread is directed more at the mastering engineers among us, which I am not.

I have read the mastering handbook from Bob Katz, and will read it again once I find it back!

I intend this year to develop and build a "mastering console" and was wandering how you guys would go about it?
I definitively can not afford CraneSong and Manley and the like stuff, but I can build myself pretty much anything I want.

I am more into choir and classical music recordings, Jazz and nature and such. Not at all into pop rock styles.

So what would be your 'dream' mastering suite and more importantly, why?

Right now I am at the design stage where I will build firstly the IN/OUT interface where I can select sources, manipulate the polarity, match gains before and after inserts, MS encoding/decoding, select monitoring inputs and outputs etc...
That's the "easy" part hee hee! (NOT!)
Then a mastering EQ and a mastering compressor.
What else would you include?

I intend to build a very precise set of VU/PPM/K meters, very good headphone amplifier, with scope output to see things in real time.
I am taking this one module at a time, with very careful attention to details.

Let's see what we come up with...

Luc

 

[kags]

Hey Luc -

I'm interested to see where you land on this. I master for a living (mostly) and I've been completely in the box for something like a decade. Granted, I do mostly top40 pop/rock/urban/EDM, but even the classical, jazz, and fusion projects I work on get the digital treatment. I have racks of analog gear, but I find the plugins more repeatable, easier to recall, provide less coloration by default, and ultimately my clients have preferred the results.

When I did master analog, I never used a proper mastering console, but I did use the Antelope Eclipse as a central controller, along with a patchbay for routing analog gear. The Eclipse allows playback and capture (with the same or different sample rates), along with vari-speed for DAWs, monitor control, and excellent clocking options.

You might want to consider that for jazz and classical stuff my clients often want to add reverb for creative or corrective reasons with IR reverbs, even after using ambience recovery processors.

Will you have attended sessions or mostly closed session? I ask because I always find that clients take some time to acclimate to a new monitoring environment and often that clouds the process. If a client asks for attended sessions, I ask if I can make my first passes before they come in and then we can finalize together. That way they get to hear my work on their familiar playback systems before they question what it sounds like in my room. That usually helps things along.

I look forward to seeing how you progress with your setup!

- Adam

 

[Gold]

This is what I did.

 

[Gold]

You should take a look at Wayne Kirkwood's KA Electronics. https://ka-electronics.com/shop/index.php?route=product/category&path=64

He has a lot of what you need already done. You can put together a very nice mastering console from his offerings.

 

[blue_luke]

This is what I did.

That's what I used also in late "60s at RCA studio in Montreal.
I was learning the trade with a master but then RCA was sold to Marko and I became service tech and assistant in the new place.
We did not have a console, it was RACK A and RACK B and my job consisted mainly at preparing the tapes with so many seconds of blank tape between the cuts etc...
The process was quite complex in those days. We had a Neumann engraver, driven with beautiful macintosh 300, on your photo is that a Scully?
SNB had a scully and also a Neumann...
These were the days! (I am 70 now! went really fast! )

 

[Gold]

on your photo is that a Scully?
SNB had a scully and also a Neumann...

It’s a Neumann VMS66.

 

[blue_luke]

This is what I did.

Actually this diagram helps me a lot!
Some of the readings from Bob Katz book make sense now.
I am in the process of designing/build a programmable "mastering EQ" type of thing, where the whole audio path is analogue, and the control path is controlled with a Micro-controller.
The only reason here is just see how much cost a Greyhill 24 step 2 decks switch!!
I have learned, ages ago, the basics of mastering when tape and vinyl was the means....
Nowadays DAW is more the norm but since the last 2-3 years I find myself mixing more and more outside the box in real time, using my DAW (reaper) as my "multitracks" going in my MIDAS Venice F console as the main mixer.
The stereo mix then goes in my RME Babyface pro as my "mastering tape" using Acon digital Acoustica mastering/recording suite.
This works very well indeed and for those who don't know about Acoustica, check it here: https://acondigital.com/products/acoustica

The tools are really good for mastering normal music but especially good for film edit and ambience recordings with many tools toward this part of the mastering job.
At this point, I would like to go back to a more analogue path, outside the software's and plugins type of technique.
Not because it's a fad, more because this is closer to the way I've learned and was taught. I find that I save much time going real time when I know what I am doing and what I want to achieve than going trough pages and pages of instruction manuals to accomplish what should be a very simple tasks!

Hence my OP!
Nowadays workflow has changed quite a bit, so I am trying to find a good compromise between analogue and digital workflow, and in the box or external real time processing....

 

[Graham Nystrom]

It seems like SPL is making a nice suite/ecosystem of products for mastering. Along with Orion, I think Burl makes a great central nervous system for AD/DA. I am biased toward equipment that is transformer isolated, even for classical and jazz. I think you might want to be in the box sometimes for some things and use an analog path for other things, so why limit yourself to one or the other? Also, you can go hybrid. Just be sure that your DA/AD and every device in between has a proven track record for being a "bettermaker". Otherwise, stay in the Bee Oh Ex. (Good example is the WAVES L2 hardware unit. It has a proven track record due to its excellent analog stages that make signals better just by flowing through them. And it has the L2 plugin with good conversion.)

 

[Gold]

Hence my OP!
Nowadays workflow has changed quite a bit, so I am trying to find a good compromise between analogue and digital workflow, and in the box or external real time processing....

I think it makes sense to start with the monitor. You need that no matter how far you decide to go. If you want to do do digitally controlled analog attenuation a monitor attenuator would be a good place to start. Rather than an EQ that has probably 16 pots.

 

[blue_luke]

I think it makes sense to start with the monitor. You need that no matter how far you decide to go. If you want to do do digitally controlled analog attenuation a monitor attenuator would be a good place to start. Rather than an EQ that has probably 16 pots.

I have watched some of your VDOs and found them quite interesting.
The cost of the equipment is staggering though!!
I want to revamp my "studio" this spring/summer and my post was a line in the fishing hole to get ideas as to where to go from the quite disorganised way things are setup now to a cleaner installation with a patch bay and a real piece of furniture at the proper place.

My monitors are Tannoy Gold 12", a set I made myself and a mid range hi-fi type, so 3 sets of speakers.
I can build pretty much any equipment I need and I will heed to your suggestion by setting the monitors properly, build a monitor selector, passive, and go from there.
I have looked at the equipment offered by Dangerous music, PSL and some others and it gave me quite a few ideas.
Also as you said, KA Electronics seems to have quite a bit of what I need at a more sane price!
Thank!

 

[Gold]

Also take a look at the the Maselec MTC-1x and the offerings from Jonte Knif.

http://www.maselec.com/products/mtc-1x/MTC-1X.pdf

https://knifaudio.com/mastering-controller/

 

[Neperdun]

Long Stereo Channel - one love )

 

[kags]

Long Stereo Channel - one love )
View attachment 126127

This is really a channel strip for tracking or mix processing - not a mastering routing controller. This company does seem to make some interesting mixing products, though.

 

[ruairioflaherty]

Hello all!
This thread is directed more at the mastering engineers among us, which I am not.

I have read the mastering handbook from Bob Katz, and will read it again once I find it back!

I intend this year to develop and build a "mastering console" and was wandering how you guys would go about it?
I definitively can not afford CraneSong and Manley and the like stuff, but I can build myself pretty much anything I want.

I am more into choir and classical music recordings, Jazz and nature and such. Not at all into pop rock styles.

So what would be your 'dream' mastering suite and more importantly, why?

Right now I am at the design stage where I will build firstly the IN/OUT interface where I can select sources, manipulate the polarity, match gains before and after inserts, MS encoding/decoding, select monitoring inputs and outputs etc...
That's the "easy" part hee hee! (NOT!)
Then a mastering EQ and a mastering compressor.
What else would you include?

I intend to build a very precise set of VU/PPM/K meters, very good headphone amplifier, with scope output to see things in real time.
I am taking this one module at a time, with very careful attention to details.

Let's see what we come up with...

Luc

I work in my dream mastering suite every day I guess as a full time mastering engineer.

The most important thing is the room and speakers, I work in a Northward Acoustics room built by my friend Dave Collins on ATC SCM110ASL speakers.

For gear we have an embarrassingly good collection of analog both custom and off the shelf but I work digitally almost all of the time, this is partly because of my aesthetic but also the sheer pace of the work I do here in LA.

For the genres you describe I would choose digital 99 times out of 100 but if you are building this for fun and creativity then look at the Barry Porter EQ and some form of opto compression.

 

[blue_luke]

I work in my dream mastering suite every day I guess as a full time mastering engineer.

The most important thing is the room and speakers, I work in a Northward Acoustics room built by my friend Dave Collins on ATC SCM110ASL speakers.

For gear we have an embarrassingly good collection of analog both custom and off the shelf but I work digitally almost all of the time, this is partly because of my aesthetic but also the sheer pace of the work I do here in LA.

For the genres you describe I would choose digital 99 times out of 100 but if you are building this for fun and creativity then look at the Barry Porter EQ and some form of opto compression.

I have found the Barry Porter EQ schematic and find it quite interesting and it seems quite popular.
My mastering 'suite' will be for the recordings I make of choirs, ensemble, classical and Jazz etc...
Right now my workflow is : premastering in Reaper or Harrison MixBus32C, Then final mastering and CD assembly in Acon Acoustica 7 (pro version).
I have the basic but quite good plugins from Wave and I like what I get so far.
But you are right when you say there is also the fun and creativity aspect of the project.
As far as room treatment I'm afraid that the corner in the basement I use will have to do.
Always a question of budget of course, and the fact that I don't do this professionally anymore can not justify much of expenses.
I like to think of myself as an "advanced amateur" (quite advanced in fact, boasting and puffing )
But I am also realistic, being 70 years old, with a rather bad case of tinnitus (tinnitys, English is not my first language) There is no point for me commiting too much money in this.
If I am stuck one day, I'll send you my files!

Luc

 

[kags]

I have found the Barry Porter EQ schematic and find it quite interesting and it seems quite popular.
My mastering 'suite' will be for the recordings I make of choirs, ensemble, classical and Jazz etc...
Right now my workflow is : premastering in Reaper or Harrison MixBus32C, Then final mastering and CD assembly in Acon Acoustica 7 (pro version).
I have the basic but quite good plugins from Wave and I like what I get so far.
But you are right when you say there is also the fun and creativity aspect of the project.
As far as room treatment I'm afraid that the corner in the basement I use will have to do.
Always a question of budget of course, and the fact that I don't do this professionally anymore can not justify much of expenses.
I like to think of myself as an "advanced amateur" (quite advanced in fact, boasting and puffing )
But I am also realistic, being 70 years old, with a rather bad case of tinnitus (tinnitys, English is not my first language) There is no point for me commiting too much money in this.
If I am stuck one day, I'll send you my files!

Luc

Hey Luc - fortunately the acoustic treatment needs to get to a professional level is not expensive - especially when compared to analog hardware. With some elbow grease, effective DIY acoustic treatment, even for a mastering room, can be accomplished for under $1k and possibly much less.

Without acoustic treatment your results will likely disappoint you, regardless of the gear, speakers, and DAW.