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Old 17th May 2009 , 04:48 PM
terminal3
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Well, the correct answer is "send it for mastering."

But if you wanna try stuff at home, start playing with buss compression and/or limiters. Limiters can smash it (if you want to do that), buss comps can add glue/colour.

My favourite software 2-buss comp is the SSL Duende G comp... there's a Waves version as well (and possibly a UAD fake-out as well now) that are all nice. They tend to work better on aggressive material, but they add that elusive 'glue' and lots of punch as well when done right.

Other decent options that I've personally used are the PSP Vintage Warmer or Mastercomp, Waves API 2500 (not as good as a real 2500 but pretty cool nonetheless),
Flux Solera or Alchemist (the former being very transparent, the latter being whatever you want it to be), the SSL Duende X-Comp (also quite flexible), ProAudioDSP's DSM, Abbey Road TG Comp (colour-city).

T-Racks 3 Deluxe might be worth a look too, because the individual modules are available seperately now so you could try the Fairchild model for example, it's allegedly pretty good (I have it here but haven't used it yet!)

In limiters, the best one so far IMO is the Massey L2007 but it's Pro Tools only.

However, if you have Ozone try the limiter in that.

One thing I've discovered is that there is no one-size-fits-all limiter. The L2007 works on most things but sometimes there is a better option, so it's nice to have a few. It depends on the source material.

Now, all that said, try the basic tools that you have first! If you have a decent compressor, give it a go. Pop a limiter at the very end just to catch stray peaks if you have to, but try using the comp for your make-up gain rather than the limiter itself.

The EQ is fully optional - if it's necessary, go for it - as you have said, yes, you can restore some 'air' or gently bump some other frequencies if they need it (a mastering engineer may use a good EQ but I doubt you'll see more than 2-2.5db of action on any given band) but in any case it's not necessary for outright level.
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