i have no idea how to do a mastering. can someone point me towards a tutorial, vst, or something please ?
The following site has a few nice tips, not only regarding mastering
http://www.johnvestman.com/secrets_of_mixing.htm
A few freeware mastering plugins:
http://www.digitalfishphones.com/main.php?..2&subItem=3
http://www.digitalfishphones.com/main.php?..2&subItem=5
http://www.aodix.com/pagestardust.html
I can do mastering if need be. Just ask.
My chain:
- A0 Parametric -or- ddmf LP10 (reductive)
- DSPFX Aural Activator (additive)
- PSP Vintage Warmer (limiter, rarely with a knee)
- rms-buddy (aiming for around -14dB rms song average)
- SSL X-ISM (to detect intersample peaking)
thanks everybody ! i’ m learning allready.
foo?, would you have a go at my “churchmusic” track ? 
it’s getting played on a frog radio and it would be nice to have it sounding better, and it would give me a good example for learning myself…
btw your email machine is not working !
Ok that’s weird, I’ll have to look into that.
PM me the xrns.
Interesting, the site talks about grouping your instruments into groups based on timbre or tone color, and then mixing the groups together into the final mix. This could be done using the sends in Renoise. Has anyone or does anyone use a method like this? How well does it work?
It’s a technique favored by mastering houses because they can get deeper into the mix by selectively editing each part of the sound, rather than globally which is more destructive an inaccurate.
In 99% of cases I would NOT do stem mastering in Renoise. There is little point when you can solo each track or send and get that sound right. Or you could solo groups.
It would be more worth your while in understanding these areas first: accurate monitoring; familiarization with excellent mastering; the loudness-war; and basic reductive equalization.
Read anything that Bob Katz has written, basically.
do best mixdown you can then send to pros for real mastering
I’ve been trying to learn more about mastering lately as well. Would you all recommend using mastering plugs on the individual tracks and avoid any grouping or global mastering methods?
You’ve got to get your mix right. I won’t go into that here, but basically that’s getting all the individual tracks right as well as together.
Mastering is the process after that. This is what you do to the master channel once the mix is done. It’s grouping the lot and running it through quality plugs. This method is fine if your mix is good.
The plugs I mentioned in my first post are the ideal tools for the job.
Awesome, thank you so much for your help. I’ll try out the plugs you mentioned.
This man speaks the truth.
Dont worry about Mastering, unless you want to be a mastering engineer (in which case you would know what mastering was already)
Concentrate on your mix.
If you do want to try mastering on your own instead of going to the pros, i would advise you to try harbal:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2X9oDRKu9ho
(A tip i got from Mick Rippon)
You can the work on your mixdown in Renoise, render the output in a way that you can match it to a commercial or styled profile inside HarBal and test it. You get a visual mastering tool that can give you roughly a good profile even if you have shitty monitors.
If you look at the price of this tool its not even that expensive.
http://www.har-bal.com/
btw, check out the other mixdown video tutorials on youtube while you are watching anyway.
alrite ppl im new 2 thid renoisee malrky i was jus wonderin if neone can help me wiv gettin started wiv a gd beat i ent gt a clue ow 2 use it thnx 4 ya help wb 
izotope ozone is great for mastering
izoope ozone is alright for some types of music but for harder kinda stuff i find it best to get the mix as level as you can using a spectrum analyser if possible and then - in this order - eq, compress, eq, limit - on the master channel with the best stuff you can find - oxford audio or waves if you’re rich otherwise check CM’s freebee’s or kvr - or just use warez if yr totally poor and morally bankrupt also!
I can mix anything so it sounds harder in Ozone 
… it’s all in knowing what to do to achieve a hard sound.
On that note, the loudness wars are absolutely shite imo… there’s no need to make your track as “loud” as possible … people have volume knobs, they can damnedwell turn it up 
… having enough dynamic range to make your track pound is the important part… you don’t see photographers turning the brightness up on all their images to the point of whiteout, so why do people do it with sound? Good photographers instead try to increase the contrast of their images, and bring out the detail in the textures so that you can see it more easily… so that the detail stands out. Sound producers have a lot to learn from the graphics community imo