Greetings all ,

I am a poor old musician with a pc and a few synths and sampler.I make music from home and want to master my music.I'm not Really poorbut on a budget and i need some advice.

Whats my money best spent on ? i have good monitors ,acoustic room is done and i am happy with it.I have a good mixer .I run Cubase sx and have now come to the final (i hope )hurdles.

I would like to buy something to make my synths sound a bit better when recording into the daw aswell as something to master with and make my digital music more analogue and warm.( a send whoe mix back through box which levels out and slightly beefs up)

Bang for buck whats my money well spent on ?

after reading posts i narrowed my list of possible ' studio ' investments down to

Uad Card and some plugs (improve whjat i record after its in daw )

Voxengo vintage warmer plugin ?

i also consider some hardware boxes.

Art Pro Vla (for final sending of my mix from daw through and back to daw ?)

Spl Charisma ( for the same as above ?)

FMR Audio RNLA 7239 ( for the same as above ?)

Ireally need stuff which can improve my sound and maybe level things out ,and stuff which can improve or spice up whats recorded in and add some valve colouration of richness.I like warmth and creme like analogue synth tones and music.

I am on a budget of about £700 in total.Ok so i am not so poor ! The uad temps me with its huge selection and would mean i have decent compressors and eq which i dont right now (using some cheap vst's)

How would Uad card and plugs plus a Vla pro sound.The FMR Audio RNLA 7239 also looks nice as does the charisma !

The uad seems a odvious choice and maybe an essential first buy ?and i could maybe do with the outboard 'finalizer ' type device.(without killing my mix Tc style !)

the ' box to send my mix back into realworld ' seems a hard choice.It has to level i feel and bring all my sounds together in a way ? .mastering Eq i do inside daw and adjustments like this.

My music is samples electronic and some acoustic samples.

Hope i make sense and please all list boxes which you would buy if on a budget and maybe advise me on whats The 'bang for buck ' buy.

many regards

jack

I can't comment on the hardware stuff (never used any of it).... But check out the demos for Tritone Digital's ColorTone Pro (there's also a stripped down freebie version) and ValveTone for "warming" type plugins.

TritoneDigital and Voxengo would be my two top choices as far as plugins go. Both make excellent stuff!

-tkr

Greetings Jack. I would definetly get the UAD1 instead of outboard gear not designed for mastering. The ART and RNLA are not going to give you the flexability or power the UAD1 has. If your ad/da converters are not really good, it's nice to stay ITB.

Jeff

I suggest the AMS Neve 88 Series
(just kidding if you're a *real* ol'poor guy)

Well, you can check the Focusrite Liquid Mix instead...

Mastering always starts with the monitoring chain and the room.

Actually, *all* recording should start with the monitoring chain and the room. Anything else is hit-or-miss if you can't hear it accurately.