Mastering plugin vs stand alone program
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Posted on Sep 06, 2004 10:34 am
Otakar Sroubek
Member Since: Sep 06, 2004
I'm new to all of this but I was testing out the demo version of Waves Native Power Pack for mastering. I'm using Logic Pro 6 on a Mac Powerbook. The NPP seems to certainly add more to the final mix before the final burn to CD but is there a difference in using a plugin(s) inside of Logic or work on a 24bit waveform in a program such as Wavelab which is outside of Logic? I have access to a PC and can consider using that for mixing. Putting a burden on the CPU does not seem to be a real big problem at this time since freezing tracks in Logic helps relieve the stress on the CPU. I have not found out whether people prefer plugins or a separate program. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks
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Sep 06, 2004 10:37 am I use plugs and a standalone. I start in WaveLab with NPP, which does the final processing of the mix, as NPP is the bomb, totally awesome plugs. But, after that, I find it essential to run the tunes through Har-Bal to achieve proper harmonic balancing. And there is no plugin that does harmonic balancing as quickly and as accurately as Har-Bal. Tho, the Har-Bal peeps are currently planning a VST version of the app.
Sep 06, 2004 11:45 am Thanks. If I wanted to stay in the Mac platform, do you think that NPP is sufficient or does Wavelab really make a difference since Wavelab+NPP is not an inexpensive combination. Thanks again for your comments.
Sep 06, 2004 11:56 am There is plenty of options for Mac and PC, but I just personally prefer WaveLab, and as far as I know there is not only no Mac version, but never will be because much of what WaveLab does cannot be duplicated on the Mac platform with the same performance levels...
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Sep 06, 2004 01:34 pm Many peeps do use only NPP or the like inside their mixing program'a, like Logic, Sonar, Cubase and so on. It definately will do the job. But as dB stated, a dedicated mastering app will definately give you more options. It is not something you need to start out with by any means, but should be something to plan for in the future if you intend to take it seriously to the next level. I use both Wavelab and SoundForge as I also do a lot of sound design and such. The dedicated 2 track editer will just give you more options for flying tracks in and out for special editing that you just cant do in most of the other apps.
Sonar and Cubase are only steps away from being able to be used for the whole thing from mix to finish as is Logic. But that is a ways off yet I think and as I said, it is nice to have dedicated editer for certain things.
