Advanced Mastering - Focusing the Master Bus Compressor

The final stage of your mix, Reason's Master Compressor is a great way to give your song a little extra magic. But bass heavy music might benefit from an advanced mastering tip that helps focus the way the Master Compressor behaves. Ryan has made a short tip on the how and why of using the "external sidechain input" on Reason's Master Bus Compressor to focus the signal that the compressor is listening to and reacting to. The result is much better compression that doesn't get overwhelmed by Kick drums and bass frequencies, which can make the compressor overreact and squash the output too much or too universally.

[VANDYKEDAN]

For those of us who use the Control Room Out for our monitoring, I just used the Spider Audio Merger & Splitter, put the CRO to the Spider input, then one out to the in of the filter, and another out back up to the Audio IO, (and of course the filter output to the Sidechain Input).

[jeffbray]

So simple, feels like it was right under my nose and I refused to smell it. great tip.

[niqulusviii]

Did this using the built in Channel EQ. Put it on the rack the same way Ryan does using the High pass filter on the EQ and it does WONDERS! Just dial in what you're looking for.

[danpate]

This is an amazing tip I just picked up. I don't even think it's a subtle difference, I think it makes the world of difference! Just recently turned out one of the best beats I've ever made and I just chucked this sidechain onto the master bus compressor and it's added so much! Thanks!

[acespadesone]

This is exactly what i needed today. I was struggling mixing a bass heavy track the last couple of days. It seemed to lose it's punch and sparkle when it went past the Master Bus/ Mastering Suite stage. This works like magic thank you so much for this tutorial! 

[nickhindman]

Great tip as always Ryan. For those who have the RE, the Fxpansion Dcam bus compressor has a high-pass filter effortlessly built in, and is also modeled on the same SSL master bus compressor, so works great in the mastering chain. Softube's FET also has hp and lp detection filtering.

[taylorf]

I bought the extension after watching this video, wow what a difference. The double bass in the metal track I have was getting way too compressed no matter what settings I used to make my drum samples sound better. It makes the mids of the guitar, snare hits, and high hats sizzle much more nicely with a strong punchy bass to back it up. Thank you 🙏

[tothefinlandstation]

Would love to see more videos like this! Maybe another 52 weeks series?

[uhcrsol]

Ive been going mad about this - been trying all sorts of compressor settings and knew the bass was the problem but didnt realise this idea. Thanks!

[MixingGBP]

What a great tip! And all this time I have been avoiding the MBC like the plague because it made my tracks sound horrible. Now I see how to use it!

I tried it on a mix and already saw a great result! Thanks. You guys desperately need to do more vids like this one!

[hamtramckchronicles]

Now that we have the Master Buss Compressor as an individual rack device in Reason 11, we can group individual tracks and compress them that way as well. The M Class Compressor does a great job of this as well, to my ears. YMMV.

[Shane-zomg]

I just bought reason 8. So stoked to play around with every feature it has to offer!

[celestialBCF]

Short, succinct, audibly clear, and very focused tutorial!

[mangoaoa]

Gary Bronham talks about this concept in this video Reason 6 Mixing Masterclass mit Gary Bromham (Englisch) but he uses an MClass EQ to shape the keyed signal. Also, he splits the signal so you can still use the unaltered output signal to monitor the busses etc.

[callingband]

Could it be, that you guys are the greatest thing ever wandered this earth? I mean for real: Just look at you, really caring about what people want to know about your ingenious piece of software! Who else does this in such a manner? I am a fan from Reason 4 till now, really gets me going in my music! I deeply love what you are doing and how you are doing it! Reason 9 is a whole new level, I LOVE IT, period! Cheers, Calling! :-)

[crooked]

finally some tips/tutorials!  MOOOOAAAAR!

[RussDnB]

Seriously one of the best tips out there. But then again, so many of the tips on this channel are like that :p

[typhoonbluemusic]

Awesome!!  More videos like this, please!

[djbigpump]

Awesome, thank you so much. I knew that there was one thing I missed to brighten my song.

[sahawndada]

Wow i always used to just tailor the compressor back with my huge sublines this helped me so MUCH !!