Boost 11 in Sonar 8 as a Mastering Plugin ???

[Newysurfer]

G'day guys,

Cakewalk push Boost 11 as a mastering plugin for Sonar 8 and this is included as part of the program. Having used it I'm not entirely happy with it cause it seems to squish the crap out of anything very quickly so you can only boost a few dB normally and then it can make things overly bright / harsh.

IMO Boost 11 is a lot better than Excita though - which is also part of the Sonar 8 package.

Soooo just wondering what people's opinions here are of Boost 11 as a mastering tool and what might be better as a free, or low cost, master plugin.

thx

[boabstewart]

I have used boost 11 on backing tracks for my pub duo, can't say it made the sound bright or harsh. It does sound crap if you overly boost the signal. I use it more as a limiter.

[cakewalkgg]

try stillwells event horizon.. free to demo.. its a pretty musical limiter/soft clipper (by musical, I mean transparent).. It may not satisfy the loudness war fanatic, but I like using it on the master buss for overall limiting.

[boabstewart]

Will do thanks!

[bozmillar]

Calling a boost 11 a mastering plugin is like calling a steering wheel a car.

Boost 11 can be used as part of the mastering process, but to call a signal before going through boost 11 unmastered, and after boost 11 mastered is complete marketing BS on the side of cakewalk. I know that's not exactly what they are saying, but they are implying it, and a lot of people get that impression.

Boost11 can sound fine, as long as you don't push it too hard, but as you said, boost too much and it sounds squashed. Some limiters can take more boost than others before sounding bad, but they all have the same limitations.

[garageband]

What boz said. When I master something, I'll typically use between 4 and 7 plug-ins in some capacity, not including spot gain reduction and normalization steps. Most of those plugs see some (if not a lot) of use at the track level. The idea of a "mastering plug-in" in somewhat fallacious and should be avoided.

[TonyB]

Boost11 is basically a limiter, which is one component in a mastering chain.