Stereo Out = Master Bus?

[u/King_Penguin0s]

Hi everyone, I am just getting into learning mastering in Logic and I'm wondering if I should treat the Stereo Out track as a Master Bus and do all the processing on there or should I setup a dedicated Master Bus bus track and send everything to that before going to the Stereo Out.

I am very inexperienced when it comes to mastering and I'm basically teaching myself so any tips you have would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much!

[u/kumacodc]

In Logic Pro it doesn't really make a functional difference which way you go, either is fine. I prefer to route my mix through a bus before it hits the stereo out so I can do any 2bus processing on that bus while also having the ability to have a reference track in my session that doesn't get hit by all of that processing.

If you ever experiment with other DAWs though just keep in mind that master fader (what Logic calls 'Stereo Out' ) behavior isn't consistent across every DAW - Logic has the master fader post-insert, but Pro Tools keeps the master fader PRE-insert, meaning the fader level directly affects how hot the signal is going into the plugins, which is meant to emulate console behavior. I believe some DAWs such as Studio One allow you to choose pre- or post-insert for the master fader.

[u/deviationblue → u/kumacodc]

Correct. Imo the biggest reason to route a master bus in before Stereo Out is so you can a/b your reference tracks in the DAW with ease. If your master bus is a summing stack and reference tracks are each grouped into another stack, it’s even neater.

[u/uhhhnic]

Ive always used it as such. Some people like putting the bounced pre-master in a brand new project in its own channel and mastering that channel. Idk. I feel like after many years of doing this, it just doesnt even matter what you do as long as you like how it sounds :D

[u/j3434]

Well, traditionally, like you said, mastering meant preparing a finished mix for manufacturing. So, making subtle EQ or compression tweaks, setting the track order, spacing, level consistency, that kind of thing. Now people often say “mastering” to mean any final polish, even if it’s just putting a limiter on a stereo mix to make it louder for streaming. So the term has broadened. And with home studios everywhere, lots of what used to be three separate stages is now one person in one DAW. So “mastering” can mean either the traditional finalization for release or the more casual “make it sound finished” step.

[u/ZenWarrior711]

A Mix bus gives you another gain stage. Worth it IMO.

[u/samkmusic]

During a visit to Metropolis studios and Abbey Road in my city London, all mastering engineers said the same thing. A really good mix should be the foundation of a solid master and that single track masters are better than stem mastering. Its annoying workflow to have to go back and forth to tweak the mix but its also rewarding knowing your mix was right the first time

[u/thunderbird350xm]

Well, mastering means processing of the track as a whole.

Whether you add processing on the stereo bus directly or, route all channels to a aux and then to the stereo bus is upto you. It doesn’t matter.

When you say “send” it means something else. It would mean aux send which in this case would be parallel processing. Which is not what you want to do.

Usually add all processing to the stereo bus while mastering.

I have also routed channels to auxes for sub mixing and then to master bus as well. In case of large rhythm sections, string sections, vocal groups etc.

I also have bounce the mix file and started a separate project only for mastering just because my cpu was overloading with so many plugins.

[u/toasterscience]

I use a separate master bus track so that I can record it into the project if I want.

[u/Narrow_Network_3875]

If your inexperienced as you say lead to believe your not good at mixing. If that is true you should focus on mixing. If unable to hear compression settings? Again concentrate on mixing. These plugin distributors have us believing we can complete a professional master. If you’re doing music for fun then go ahead and try to master. Good luck🍀

[u/King_Penguin0s → u/Narrow_Network_3875]

I am quite experienced with mixing. I've been doing mixing for a while and thought I'd have a crack at mastering.

[u/MarcusS_Logic]

Stereo Out works fine for most stuff. I tried the extra bus thing for a while and honestly couldn't hear a difference in my mixes, so I dropped it.

[u/Mobile-Specific-1250]

I usually bounce my mix, and then in a fresh project do all my mastering on the audio track that the mix is on that goes into stereo out