[TonyB]

Originally Posted by garageband

A nice two-track environment to work closely on your material is way more important than this or that plug-in. Look into something like Peak or Wavelab, depending on platform. Before I tried one (TC Electronic's Spark), I didn't think you need one. Wow, it saved me immeasurable time and provided really good results over the years.

For DIY mastering, THE most important part is your monitoring system (room, switching, speakers, headphones, etc.).

On the plug-in side, Roger Nichols' Frequalizer, a whole raft of the UAD-1 stuff and the very useful tools that come with Peak Pro XT. On the hardware side, I do a premastering step in a separate DAW project where I take a mix and run it through several things I have, depending on what it is. Usually I hit it with at least a Klark DN500 Plus and an Orban 642B.

I've tried various "mastering plug-ins" and none of them are that great. It's much better to take small, incremental steps rather than hop on a bus and see where it lets you off.

Well said. I'm almost impressed!