Toontrack Mastering III EZmix Pack

50 ready-made effect chains covering a broad range of mastering needs.

The magic of mastering can't be overstated. Done right, it's that inexplicable alchemy that transforms a song from rough to broadcast-ready without infringing the slightest on the integrity or dynamics of its original mix. No easy feat and by all means an art and a craft in itself. That's why this EZmix pack is a great starting point. Organised in three different categories, each with a distinct end goal or workflow in mind, this pack will make it easy to find what you are looking for, creating your own mastering chains or fixing a potential issue that you've singled out as a problem in your mix.

If you're looking to make sure your mixes sound as good as possible to anyone and anywhere, this is your new secret recipe. Launch your EZmix 2 and get started mastering faster and compressing less - but all with better success!

• 50 mastering presets for EZmix 2
• Includes ready-to-go settings tailored for pop, rock and metal
• Comes with presets that address specific mix issues
• Includes Zone presets that you can add in sequential order to build your own mastering chains with
• By Thomas Plec Johansson, one of Sweden's premier mastering engineers

These mastering presets have been calibrated to work optimally with a 0 VU (-18 dB RMS) input signal in order for gain staging to work optimally and as intended.

Presets that are good to go - but leave you in control!

In order to help you find what you're looking for in an instant, the preset content in this collection was organised in three different categories. However, as with any EZmix setting or creative endeavour, there are no rules or universal truths: mix, match and be creative!

ZONES

Zone 1: EQ | Zone 2: Dynamics | Zone 3: Saturation | Zone 4: Special FX | Zone 5: Loudness

These settings were designed to offer presets in the form of layers that you ideally would add in the sequential order that they are labeled. This will give you detailed control of your mastering chain and offer surgical precision in every step of the way to the finished product. To get started using these settings, you add an instance of EZmix 2 to the end of your mastering chain. From there, you select any "Zone 5 (Loud)" preset, which at 100% will get you a competitively loud -6 LUFS short-term output (given the correct input level). It's very much not recommended to go past this point, unless you are a very experienced user, since distortion increases exponentially. The 'Ceiling' knob is always set up to give you an output level of -0.2 dBFS and can be adjusted down to -2 dBFS to protect against unwanted distortion from the audio codecs used by streaming services. By doing this, your entire chain is now calibrated and you can go ahead and experiment going from Zone 1 to 4 and add processing in that order before the ˜Zone 5 (Loud)" preset.

Pro tip from the engineer:
"If your source signal is too loud, either clip-gain your audio down, use a gain plug-in or other feature in your DAW before it's hitting your EZmix 2 chain. Don't use the "Input" knob of the ˜Zone 5 (Loud) preset for this unless it's the only instance of EZmix 2 that you're planning to use. If you do that and then add processing before it, the input level going into that stage will already be too loud for the intended gain staging."

GENRES

In the section of presets preceded with a genre label, you will find multipurpose starting points tailored for different genres (metal, pop and rock). That being said, don't let any of the labels scare you from using the presets in other types of genres as well! The main idea with all these these settings is that they involve elaborate and complete processing chains with the intent of producing finished masters.

SPECIFIC

These presets are meant to handle very specific hurdles that might pop up during a mastering session. Maybe you need a de-esser tailored for vinyl mastering? Or you might have a vocal pop out a little too much? You will find the solution to these kinds of scenarios within this category of presets.

THE PRESETS.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS.

This is an expansion product that requires a working copy of EZmix 2 to operate.

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