steve@baselines.com

Yes, that is what I normally do at the very last stage. I master in the Ozone standalone. You only have to be careful about the output fader, because it is after the plugins in the chain. So if you have Insight as the last plugin, it is measuring pre output fader.

I thought I'd share - perhaps it is something you already do, but in case it's a new idea to you, it may be helpful. Up until recently, I would get the mix sounding balanced in Cakewalk and use iZotope Ozone, Tonal Balance 2 and Insight 2 on the master track to help me. I'd use the mastering assistant and then export without dither at 24bits to a wav file. Then I would load up the same plugins outside of cakewalk to master the track. The mastering assistant within iZotope will set the maximizer based on a small segment of the song. They say to take the loudest part and use that while the mastering assistant does its work. Recently, I tried to use the W feature in Cakewalk to allow me to change EQ and Maximizer level, but of course my machine is not quite powerful enough to do that. So now, I will get the Cakewalk track close using my old method stated above and export the wav file. Then I will start up a new Cakewalk file and load in the wav track only. I put the iZotope Ozone, Tonal Balance and Insight onto the master track and use the Cakewalk W to record actions related to the Ozone equalizer and Maximizer. I may have to do this on more than one pass if it gets complicated...each time saving off a wav and loading it into Cakewalk for more processing. When I get to a good point, I output the final wav file and then do a pass through Ozone standalone with Tonal Balance and Insight plugins. This allows me to get the proper volume levels throughout the song and adjust any frequency ranges that need it at individual parts of the song. You may have simpler methods, but this one seems to work really well for me. At the end of the last iZotope process, I have a master that I generally like.

Hi Nigel - I like THU, between that and Guitar Rig I can make it almost sound like I know how to play guitar :-). The Jazz guitar settings are the ones I use most from THU - I think they are in TH3 as well. Cheers! Steve

Nice job Wookie - I like the way that very low end on the bass comes through right on time with the kick. Steve

Thanks for leaving a comment! Rudy has really been a joy in our lives here. We've had other dogs...not so much joy with some of them. But this one was a keeper!

Thanks Rick - same here, been using it since the late 90s. It's great that Bandlab took over keeping it up to date. I just updated Amplitube and those crashes are not happening now. Steve

Here's a video I made a while ago. I just updated the music that went along with it. Our dog was named for the Rudy of Notre Dame fame. Our son went to ND and we took along Rudy for some photo ops when he was just a young pup. He's 10 now but still has the energy and right outlook on life, although Thunder still does him in!

Hi Chris - the envelopes definitely seem to be related to older songs. I have been trying to modernize some older projects. In one case, I actually had to copy tracks into a new project and start from scratch to get envelopes that worked. I'm going to spend some time cleaning up the plugins on my side and see if it corrects the issues I see. Thanks, Steve

Hi Noel - I understand that. I'm going to update all plugins and then make a list of what I see. I always used to send the crash dump, but nothing ever seemed to come from that activity. I will do that again if I cannot get the issues fixed on my end. Thank you, Steve

Thanks for the info on your situation Jackson. I've been spoiled because up until recently everything was rock solid. Steve

Thank you for the info. I do think most of what I see is plugin related. I'm going to try and update everything.

Thank you Craig - I feel most of the issues I see are plugin related. One is THU. It works fine but suddenly it will show no input or output activity within the plugin. I restart everything and it is fine for a while.

That's good! You are lucky.

Thanks Tim - I am going to do what you said.

Thanks Mark - I am going to make a list of the recent things I have seen and I will post here.

I've had a pretty stable system over the past few years, and always kept up with the updates. I'm beginning to think that is not a wise thing. Lately my system has been acting like the bad old days of early Sonar releases. Normally reliable plugins are sometimes crashing. And the automations don't seem to make any difference on older song files. The dreaded foggy white screen of death is once again visiting. Has anyone else had a similar experience?

Thanks a lot for watching!

Thanks Mark - I always liked Bill Withers and wanted to do this song for a long time. Luckily I found Darren Garrett to help with the vocals.

Thank you for watching!

Thanks Jim!

Interesting video and all of the instruments sound great. Very well done mix. Steve

Nice job Doug. I like the vocals. The snare sounds full and love the guitar as well. Steve

Very cool - it's got a Steely Dan vibe which I love. Steve

Nice job on this. I like that flangy (is that a word?) synth sound you got, and the switch to minor in the middle. Steve

Thanks Wookie - it was a lot of work and a lot of fun at the same time!