(this is an answer to the thread "HELP" of "urright". I just misplaced it)
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Hi,
indeed, I have to second Dietz. What you are aksing for is called "Mastering" and it is an art form by itself. In every serious project, you have the artists, the recording engineer and the mastering engineer. (And in TV, you have the whole broadcasting crew, too).
Every discipline is different. A good recording engineer, knowing everything from microphones, instruments, positions, moods of singers etc is probably a bad mastering engineer and vice versa.
But here is the short rundown on mastering:
You need a perfect balanced mix, that is ready to rundown.
You need the following chain of effects:
Mix down to stereo -->4BandEQ-->Bass-Cut-->Enhancer-->Leveling-->Expander-->Compressor-->Limiter--Record Out
For every step. you'll find a plug in on the market, probably
You can go the expensive route and do this in Pro Tools with TDM plug ins (the "Mercedes S-class" side )
I for myself use the Voxengo suite for mastering (www.voxengo.con)
It is really good and on the lower side of pricing.
I record and mixdown on external gear and run only the master chain in my PC.
Whatever product you are choosing and whatever Hardware you are buying. You and you're ears will be busy for the next year. It is for sure about techniques, but is also "listen" for impact. like what knob gets what for audible result.
A pro studio will do this in a short period of time, so why waste weeks of selecting plug ins, setting up a master chain and even then you’ll get no result above average?