Welcome to Sage Audio. Today we’re covering The Top 12 Free Mastering Plugins in 2022.
But first, If you have a mix that you need mastered, send it to us
to receive a free mastered sample of it with the link in the description.
The Split - The Zhe
The Split is a really interesting mixing plugin, but it has a lot of potential when
it comes to monitoring your mix or master. It starts out pretty typical by lettings you
monitor your mid and side, and then the low and high frequencies, with a set mid-point.
It gets interesting though by letting you monitor the attack and sustain,
and the louder and quieter parts of the mix.
Let’s listen to it and consider how it could be used for monitoring.
2. Bertom
Phantom Center - Bertom Audio
Bertom Audio makes some great free plugins, and their newest one Phantom Center works well when
mastering. Instead of affecting the mid and side, Phantom Center extracts the phantom center of the
audio, or the identical aspects of the left and right channels, then affects their stereo width.
I find it works well by duplicating the master and using -100% on this new track,
before blending it in with the original. Keep an ear out for phase cancellation though,
but I found combining these sounded pretty clean. Let’s take a listen to it.
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3. TUBA - Analog Obsession
TUBA is an emulated preamplifier that works well with subtle settings on a
master - it adds mild compression and harmonic distortion, in other words,
saturation to the signal. I recommend using the Low Gain, Line input setting,
and subtly increasing the gain until you find just the right amount.
The low and high shelves are a little too aggressive for mastering,
but maybe you could get away with the +3dB high shelf.
Let’s listen and notice how the mix sounds fuller.
4.
YouLean Loudness Meter - YouLean
Although it’s been around for a couple of years, the YouLean loudness meter is still the best free
LUFS and other metric measurement tools available. As you can see, it offers a great interface,
and the ability to measure short-term LUFS, integrated LUFS, true peaks, and more.
The monitoring can be mono, stereo, or various surround configurations,
and the display can be altered, and even exported as a png or pdf with various resolutions.
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5. Diablo Lite - Cymatics
Diablo Lite is a transient expander, combined with a soft or hard clipper - when used for mastering,
this type of plugin will work well as a parallel processor or at very subtle settings.
For the clip dial, this is a gain function that pushes the signal into the clipper.
Let’s take a listen and notice our enhanced transients, and greater overall loudness.
6.
ATK Stereo Limiter - Mattieu Brucher
Unlike your typical brick wall limiter, ATK Stereo limiter is better for developing a tone
than for protecting from overs. I find it sounds great as a parallel send
where I can lower my threshold, and then adjust my release and softness function to shape its timbre.
Let’s listen to it in parallel,
and notice how these 2 functions really change the sound of the signal.
7.
EQ Curve Analyzer - Bertom Audio
This is one of my favorite plugins and one I use a good amount - you basically sandwich a processor
between 2 inserts of this plugin - the second insert lets you observe the frequency response,
phase, and overall amplitude. This is perfect for EQs that don’t include a visual.
You can switch between full scale and logarithmic,
match the latency to the plugin’s latency, and zoom in on specific frequencies.
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8. Nova-67P or TDR Nova - Vladisolv Goncharov
Here we have a 2 for 1, where both of these free dynamic EQs were designed by the same guy, just
for different companies. Both let you introduce dynamic equalization, but I found the Nova-67p to
respond better, and have more options including an extra band, and additional dynamic settings.
Let’s listen to it on a full mix and expand some of the lows,
compress the mids, and expand the highs.
9.
Stereo - Yuri Semenov
Stereo is a stereo enhancement tool that gives you control over the low frequencies of your mid
and side image. At the bottom we have a high pass for the mids and sides,
as well as a shelf - in the middle, we can add gain to the side image.
Up top, we can pan between the mid and side, but keep amplitude
at a similar level. Let’s take a listen and notice the enhancement made to the side image.
10. Limiter One - CIS DSP Factory
This is admittedly an older plugin, but it has a fantastic sound and a very simple design
that makes creating a polished master easy. Lowering the threshold introduces auto-make-up
gain, the release can range from 200ms to 500ms, and the ceiling from 0dB to -6dB.
This plugin is great at making a signal loud but retaining and even augmenting
the transient detail. Let’s listen and notice how the signal becomes louder, and the highs brighter.
11. ClipMax - Rob Chokehold Designs
ClipMax has a similar sound to our last plugin, in which the amplitude increases but the detail
remains close to the original. With it you can increase the signal into the clipper/limiter,
which can have its ceiling lowered - clipping is indicated with the LED to the right.
You can reduce the output, but also increase it so be careful with this if you’ve already increased
the pre-gain. Automatic Gain Control attempts to keep the level similar to the pre-clipped level,
but I preferred this off. Let’s take a listen.
12. Chow Tape Model - Chow DSP
If you’re looking to add analog tonality to your master, or maybe make it sound slightly
lofi - Chow Tape Model is a great plugin. It allows you to add saturation, compression, control
the tone, and introduce forms of distortion and modulation that are specific to a tape machine.
Oversampling can go up to 16x, and the presets give you a good starting point.
Let’s take a listen to one of these presets and notice how full the plugin can make the mix.
If you have a mix that you need mastered, send it to us to receive a free mastered sample of it
with the link in the description. Thank you so much for watching.