Tools/Plugins #4: Low Pass Filtering for 16.5 KHz
Most commercially mastered recordings are applied with low pass filter at 16.5 KHz. If you do a frequency spectrum analysis of any commercial song, this is how it looks like:
Low pass filter mastering cut off
When to use Low Pass Filtering: To save dynamic range and assigned it to a much useful frequency range (mostly 10Hz to 16000Hz). In Adobe Audition, you can use the Scientific Filters (Effects – Filters – Scientific Filters). I use the Butterworth filter behavior. You can read some tips here about Butterworth filter.
Tools/Plugins #5: Waves L1 Limiter
When it comes to limiter; my personal favorite is Waves L1 Limiter. This will allow me to maximize the volume of the audio track in the mastering process without getting distortion.
When to use Limiter? You will use this to get the maximum volume out of your music. Mastering is all about getting loud without compromising quality. The most useful tool here is the limiter. My favorite settings: Preset= > L1 Full Reset, then adjust threshold (-5dB for example) and out of ceiling (0.0) accordingly.
Tools/Plugins #6: Reverb
When to use Reverb? I seldom use reverb in mastering process. I only use reverb when the track is very dry compared to normal standards. I use the Adobe Audition built in studio reverb: Effects – Delay Effects – Studio Reverb. Select Room Ambience 1; you can set the decay from 1000ms to as low as 200ms just to get that reverb you need. Overdoing does not sound nice.
Tools/Plugins #7: Voxengo Sample Rate Converter
When to use Sample rate converter? You will use this to finally convert the 96 KHz sample rate to 44.1 KHz. The best sample rate converter is the Voxengo R8Brain. This is free to use. Read here for more details about sample rate conversion in mastering.
Tools/Plugins #8: Dithering
When to use Dithering: Dithering is used when converting a higher resolution bit depth into lower bits. For example to convert 24-bit depth to 16-bit depth, you need to use dithering tool. My favorite dithering tool is Waves IDR.
Tools/Plugins #9: CD Project Red Book standard
In Adobe Audition 2.0, you can burn your masters to CD using red book standard. You can read the manual here.
Tools/Plugins #10: MP3 project
You can also distribute music albums in terms of MP3 which is one of the most common digital means of distribution. In Adobe Audition, you can use the LAME MP3 encoder to create quality mp3 tracks.
Content last updated on June 29, 2012