For the most part I actually liked the tone of the record and didn’t want to get too far away from the original sound. In this particular case, I listened to the record a few times so I could decide what needed to be done. We need to have some objectives when we’re mastering a track and since every track is different that means our goals will be different. You could always try and use that VST to RTAS wrapper from FXpansion but from my understanding some VST’s don’t work when they are wrapped, so there are no guarantees. I probably could have done something decent but for the most part the best sounding freeware is definitely in VST format.

I honestly don’t feel like I could have done quite that same job using only FREE plugins with Pro Tools.

I wanted to show that even with FREE or cheap plugins you can get really good results.

There’s so much great freeware out there that I felt like I could get a better sound using the FREE VST’s that are available as opposed to the FREE RTAS/AAX plugins.

I chose to use these VSTs for this article for a couple of reasons: That said, there are still some great tips here for those situations where maybe you don’t have access to a full breakdown of the track, like when you’re mixing vocals into an instrumental. That way I can make tweaks as I’m mixing the song, in real time. I actually prefer to do any “pseudo mastering” while I’m mixing, just in case something sticks out that I may not have noticed before. The difference with this track, that I “mastered”, is that I’m applying the plugins to a two track and not to the master bus of a mixing project. In my post How to Treat the Master Bus, I showed a fairly minimalist approach on how I treat the master bus and to be honest I still approach it very similarly today. If we can’t get it to sound even somewhat competitive than chances are that our mix may seem inferior to everything else.

Even though I think that the final stage of mastering a track should really be left to a mastering professional, us mixing engineers canget a “pseudo master” ready for the client to listen to. Be sure to see my latest post regarding how I like to master my mixes: How to Master a Song (My Current Technique)ĭepending on your role in a particular project, you may get to a point where you have to squeeze just a little bit more from the record.

Master my track