Evaluating the finished product

Now we’ve finished mastering the Freemasons’ track, let’s take a closer look at the finished product. The master has a weighty overall tone and dynamic, similar to our reference track, with a warm, saturated sound that brings out the analogue synths used in the track. When comparing the master to the original mix at a matched volume level, there’s a pleasing increase in weight with less focus on the high-mid frequencies that were too prominent previously. The stereo width EQ and gain tweaks have increased the width of the finished product, giving the master a polished sound that’s still impressive when listening on headphones.

Overall, the end result from using only freeware and plugins will translate well to any playback system. However, we feel that certain compromises had to be made as a result of not using the best quality commercial mastering plugins on the market. For example, Tokyo Dawn’s SlickEQ sounds great, especially for a free plugin, but the lack of fully integrated mid/side processing really impacts on both workflow and sound quality in a mastering scenario – a commercial EQ such as UAD’s Manley Massive Passive or Native Instruments’ Passive EQ would allow us to make the necessary adjustments using only one plugin as opposed to using two instances of SlickEQ alongside Voxengo MSED.

Another area that could have been improved by using commercial plugins is the final peak clipping and limiting. Limiters such as Voxengo’s Elephant, DMG Limitless and PSP Xenon are more configurable than the freeware offerings available, allowing us to get a similar amount of gain reduction with much less degradation in sound quality. For instance, Limitless features both clipping and limiting stages, allowing us to apply both processes using just one plugin and thereby gaining an increase in sound quality via a reduction in the number of plugins used.

“There’s a pleasing increase in weight with less focus on the high-mid frequencies”