'Finishing'/mastering programs

[paravrais]

Ok, it has come to my attention that my previous post had too many words in it for a lot of people to understand XD So here is my question in the simplest and most concise way possible.

Does anyone know of any audio editors for less than £200 that support exporting of 320kbps CBR mp3s but also allow real time external VST use and have a clear/user friendly display of the waveform you're working on?

[societyloser1]

Just put the limiter and eq on your master channel in ableton and export it as wav file and export it to mp3 in iTunes...
Why make it difficult?

[Wrigzilla]

Soundforge maybe?

[filthy_]

bias peak pro

[paravrais]

Just put the limiter and eq on your master channel in ableton and export it as wav file and export it to mp3 in iTunes...
Why make it difficult?

OK. A: converting to mp3 in itunes makes it sound like cack. and B: I need to have a totally naked wav back up of all of my songs. Ideally I'd like to only have one wav version of each track and have that be unlimited. Like I said I used to put compression on the master and then export two wavs of each song but that's getting tiresome and confusing so I want to be able to easily and quickly make myself a naked wav and a compressed mp3.

If a label wants to sign one of my tunes I don't want to go back through all my project files called "garage thing 1111" or "hip hoppity word" etc trying to find the track that I ended up naming "Jacob". I want to be able to just grab the wav and send it straight to them knowing it's clean and uncompressed.

[paravrais]

bias peak pro

Aaah, that's exactly what I'm looking for but about £200 out of my budget

[filthy_]

bias peak pro

Aaah, that's exactly what I'm looking for but about £200 out of my budget

oh... that shits like 1k.

maybe this?

http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/ozone/buy.asp

[paravrais]

Isn't ozone a vst though, like I already have the tools I need to limit and EQ my master. I literally just need a program to do it in before exporting to mp3. If Reaper has a way of viewing a waveform as you edit it then I'll happily purchase that I think.

[jyro]

I always see iZotope Ozone mentioned on this forum and have liked it anytime I used it.

Just an aside from the main post, does any use T-Racks? I have heard good things...

http://www.ikmultimedia.com/t-racks/features/

[thor_beatz]

(cough) http://audacityteam.org/vst/

[paravrais]

Yes yes audacity is what I'm using at the moment but applying vst effects is far too laborious as you have to wait for it to render the whole track every time you tweak something.

Does nobody actually read threads anymore before they post?

(cough)

[Pedro Sánchez]

Just set up a mastering template in Ableton, import your mixdown and add a plugins chain that works for your needs. There are vst's that show you what the waveform will look like rendered, but you should trust your ears.
edit: as for the mp3 thing just use a LAME converter.

[paravrais]

People seem to be misunderstanding my problem here. I don't have any trouble converting to mp3 or using audacity or vsts XD I'm just asking if there are any programs that will let you see your waveform, have mp3/ogg export and easy + intuitive vst support for >100. That's all. I know how to mix my tracks and I know what I do to prepare them for mp3 export too. I can't set up a template because not every track is gonna need the same treatment to it. I only want to see the waveform to CHECK there aren't any spikes I missed with my ears. It just makes me feel more secure. I don't mix by eye I do it by ear but it's nice to have something to look at when your about to render to mp3.

I swear one of the problems round here is if you ask any kind of question people immediately assume your a complete n00b and need to be told what a DAW is :s

EDIT: and Ableton has NO WAY of exporting mp3, that's the reason I'm having this problem in the first place.

[Pedro Sánchez]

s(M)exoscope VST will let you see a live waveform as you edit it but you have to use it in a DAW on the end of a plugin chain, so you still need to output the final result to a wav in Ableton then convert to a mp3.

EDIT: I think Audacity might support vst chaining now.

[nowaysj]

I kind of think you're going about this wrong, but that is a larger discussion.

What I can suggest is that you put your home mastering plugs on ableton's master, make your adjustments, save the settings you've used as a preset, then turn the mastering fx off, render your wave, open the wave in audacity, put on your vst, and use your presets that you just saved.

That way you can make all kinds of fine adjustments in real time in ableton. and just apply the fx later in audacity.

But again, I'd go about this totally differently.

[nowaysj]

pedro, your avatar was blocked.

[Pedro Sánchez]

pedro, your avatar was blocked.

[paravrais]

I kind of think you're going about this wrong, but that is a larger discussion.

What I can suggest is that you put your home mastering plugs on ableton's master, make your adjustments, save the settings you've used as a preset, then turn the mastering fx off, render your wave, open the wave in audacity, put on your vst, and use your presets that you just saved.

That way you can make all kinds of fine adjustments in real time in ableton. and just apply the fx later in audacity.

But again, I'd go about this totally differently.

How would you go about it?

I've tried so many different ways of working around abletons lack of mp3 support and none of them have been particularly workflow friendly so I'm open to any/all suggestions!

Also I already use smexoscope

[nowaysj]

This what I do:

mix the song. When finished, I save the project file as song name FINAL. Then I render out a stereo wav, name that song name PREMASTER, and open that in a new project, call that song name MASTERING. Apply my mastering fx and render out into a stereo wav, save that as song name MASTERED. Save that mastering project.

N.B. When I'm mastering I'll use a limiter to push everything up to -o.1 db just to be safe (hopefully no intersample peaks and general software funniness), so I don't need to normalize.

Then I open up my encoder, and mp3 encode the mastered wave file.

That's it, nothing revolutionary by any stretch of the imagination.

I guess your only issue with this workflow would to be actually name your project appropriately... no help there, just do it.

If you wanted to be cheeky, for no real reason, you could buy image line's edison audio editor, and put that as a vst fx on ableton's master channel, record in the audio, and render out of edison as an mp3...

[Recessive Trait]

you should try audacity.