The course contains three complete mastering demonstrations: a Pop/EDM song, a country song, and a 3-song rock EP. And when your mastering is completed, it’s time to export your songs or burn them to CD! So 'master' the art and science of mastering using Studio One 4 in this 20-tutorial course, with trainer and mastering engineer Joshua Carney! Oct 09, 2016 I spent some time with studio one V3 for mastering - Ultimately it's pretty cool, but I found the CPU optimization was the worst of all modern daws by quite a bit. Was a deal breaker for me. Reaper does everything studio one can do for mastering and sooooo much more.
Studio One 4 Mastering Tutorial
One of the great features of Studio One is the ability to save preset chains that can be recalled when needed. I have one called 'Russ Master' which features plug-ins I find invaluable when mixing.
SSL 4000 G Series Master Buss Compressor
![Studio One 4 Mastering Studio One 4 Mastering](/uploads/1/2/6/0/126032942/143802158.jpg)
This plug-in comes in several flavours with versions from both Waves and Universal Audio on their UAD platform. Rather than use the SSL 4000 G Series mix buss compressor for adding loudness it has the effect of gluing a mix together, which I find works best when used in a subtle fashion.
I get a rough level up and then set the threshold so the meter is showing no more than 4db of compression, in fact barely kissing the first segment of the VU markers. Then I add a little make-up gain and mix into it adjusting the rest of the settings to taste and depending on the genre of music.
The SSL 4000 G Series master buss compressor is magic.
Slate FG-X MASTERING PROCESSOR
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Second in the chain is the Slate FG-X MASTERING PROCESSOR, which is used to add some energy and loudness in the mix.
I find the Slate FG-X MASTERING PROCESSOR is able to increase the level of a mix without any audible effects like nasty pumping or crushing. In fact, you can push it quite hard before noticing it.
The unit is split into a compressor and leveler, when combined the two sections are powerful compression and leveling tools with some smart features like Dynamic Perception and Transient Preservation.
Non-Lethal Applications Snapshot
Snapshot is a simple concept and invaluable for those using hardware on their mix-buss - but as the guy who invented it, I'm bound to say that.
Snapshot lets you take a photo of your hardware settings then store them on the tracks in your DAW. So if you ever need to recall a mix that uses Pipeline attached to hardware then you can see how things were set.
Sonarworks Reference 4
Sonarworks is a room calibration software plug-in that once set can dramatically improve your mixes. Used with their reference microphone, the set-up process takes less than 30 minutes, after which your speakers should give a truer sound in the room.
Studio One 4 Mastering Tips
When I first used Sonarworks I found my mixes had better mid-range and spatial positioning. You can use Sonarworks with headphones too so that you can have a consistent sound across all transducers you mix with.
Studio One 4 Mastering 1
It's well worth considering something like Sonarworks to help give you a better-calibrated mix environment - this leads to your mixes translating better in the real world.