I noticed mastering straining EFX in session and how to cure?

Donta Black

Active member
Good evening FP fam,

Ive heard that mastering can strain or lessen the efx such as reverb & delay when mastering. I finally opened up Izotope suite plugin today, attempting to master a hip hop instrumental and notice the reverb and delay began to fade.

To cure the issue I thought I could go to each audio track aux and apply more of the effect but that was unsuccessful, any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.
 
I feel Like mastering would improve the audibility of those effects. What are you doing when mastering for the track?
 
So your telling me that mastering brings out effects as well as the instrument its applied on? Just asking because I was told this by other engineers before running into this problem.

And im mainly multiband compressing is all, nothing else honestly.
 
If you want to raise the volume of aux FX like reverb you can easily pull up the level fader of the FX channel.

Your problem is caused by badly chosen attack and release times, so the mb comp pushes the FX down.
Play around with the attack and release time (especially those on the band that handles the bd) and you will understand what I mean.
 
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With compresstion and limiting, you should be able to reduce peaks of the loud parts while turning up the quiet parts (the reverb and delays). As mentioned above, attack and release will help with this.
 
Not sure what you're listening to, but I've never heard effects lessen due to limiting on the master track. I almost feel like someone misinformed you to the point that you expected to hear effects lessen and now you think effects are lessening. If anything, limiting will bring these out more.

The only thing I can think of is if a compressor (or limiter) is setup to tame tails of reverb and delay, but if that's not what you want, you just change the settings so that it stops doing that.
 
"Mastering" isn't some kind of an unified process that'll do this or that to the sound. Of course if we're talking about "bedroom mastering" which more often than not is a random set of plugins (or a "mastering suite") doing things the engineer doesn't quite understand, then yes, mastering can do a bunch of detrimental things to your sound.
 
If you want to raise the volume of aux FX like reverb you can easily pull up the level fader of the FX channel.

Your problem is caused by badly chosen attack and release times, so the mb comp pushes the FX down.
Play around with the attack and release time (especially those on the band that handles the bd) and you will understand what I mean.

I appreciate the response. Im sure this will help me immensely, looking back on the atk & release in my MB.
 
Ive been meaning to hit the books and watch some YouTube videos, just to grasp a deeper understanding. I believe I already possess some knowledge of the concept of, but obviously, not completely.

My issue was during multi-band compressing I was losing effect as I was controlling the tail of each band, not just limiting. I never approach any situation expecting anything, just to be aware of probable variables. In which I heard what I heard for the first time.

And, yes... unfortunately, I am indeed bedroom mastering in a not so random, but plugin suite, Izotope.

I do thank you gentlemen for wasting your spare time on me and my question.
 
Using a simple compressor is tough enough when starting out and multi-band compressors are that much tougher. Not that MBC's aren't useful, but if you have access to individual tracks, they're not necessary.

A MBC is useful when you have a certain band that needs to be tamed at the master level because the individual channel is not available. I've used it when I've gotten 2-tracks that had terribly harsh hi-hats, or loud synths, etc... and I had no way to turn those down so a MBC was useful in taming that general frequency area.

My suggestion would be to not use a MBC. I almost never use one and I almost never need it.
 
Using a simple compressor is tough enough when starting out and multi-band compressors are that much tougher. Not that MBC's aren't useful, but if you have access to individual tracks, they're not necessary.

A MBC is useful when you have a certain band that needs to be tamed at the master level because the individual channel is not available. I've used it when I've gotten 2-tracks that had terribly harsh hi-hats, or loud synths, etc... and I had no way to turn those down so a MBC was useful in taming that general frequency area.

My suggestion would be to not use a MBC. I almost never use one and I almost never need it.

I thank you, I think I will begin to do my best to avoid using this as well.
 
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