musik hack master plan TEAM TEST: Musik Hack Master Plan

[Anderton]

1 hour ago, Dr Mike Metlay said:

Craig, the plug-in has a setting called Faceplate. You've been working with the Black setting this whole time, or so it seems; the White setting looks like this:

 

I've worked with both the white and black one. The buttons are readable when they're on with either faceplace, it's when they're off that they're difficult to read (look at the bypass button in the upper right of your screen shot, that's the kind of problem I mean).

 

One option might be to leave the lettering lit at all times, and add an outline around the button when it's active. This is just a rough, but you'll get the idea:

 

 

I don't mean to harp on this, but any time I can save even a fraction of second parsing something, I'll do it. For example, I color-code my mixer channels to a standard - green for vocals, blue for guitar, brown for bass, etc. I don't even have to read the track label - which usually squashes a name with too many letters anyway - to immediately go to a cymbal track (bright yellow) or percussion track (dark yellow) when dealing with a project that has lots of tracks. I also fine-tune a program's brightness, contrast, and saturation settings for maximum legibility. I don't know how many hours this saves me over the course of a year, but I think it's probably significant.

 

[Musik Hack Sam]

@Anderton aha! Now I understand the full picture you're trying to paint with presets, thanks for clarifying! Hm.... doing that with a "parameter lock" on unity, input, output, and loud would be a really interesting way to scroll through presets. Even for more experienced users frustrated with a troublesome mix, that could dislodge creative blocks.

 

EDIT: Legibility updates, all understood. I wouldn't say you're harping! Knowing what exactly about the interface gets in your way is the most helpful possible thing to know in order to fix it. These issues can take a bit of time to address because they involve the graphic artist as well, but we're actively looking at it, so the timing is good.

[Anderton]

1 minute ago, Musik Hack Sam said:

Hm.... doing that with a "parameter lock" on unity, input, and loud would be a really interesting way to scroll through presets.

 

I really like that idea!!!!

[Anderton]

Okay, more nit-picking from an aesthetic standpoint: There's a disconnect between the elegance of the main interface, and the "stats" section at the bottom. 

• Unless you're actively seeking help, there's that big blank space underneath the stats.
• The upper interface is open and clean. The lower part is squeezed and cluttered.
• The stats typeface looks old school.

Perhaps you could move stats lower, and use a more solid-looking typeface. This would open up a blank space between the lower row of buttons and the stats, which would eliminate the "squeezed" feel. The help could appear in this blank space. Because you'll only want to see it for a few seconds, after seeing the help the panel would go back to its more open feel. Again, a rough sketch:

 

 

An alternate option would be to embrace the old-school nature of the stats typeface, and make it the same bright green or yellow color that old-school monitors used. Both those colors are also more readable compared to gray on black, or even white on black under most conditions.

[Anderton]

Am I being too picky? Hey, it's a great plugin, so my comments are given in the spirit of "why not make it insanely great while you're at it?"

[Musik Hack Sam]

@Anderton Nah, just voicing your opinion and sharing your experience, I appreciate the enthusiasm! It's a compliment when anybody feels attached enough to Master Plan to share potential improvements or praise.

 

A bit of philosophy: I like to get behind the "why" for each improvement suggestion. Many suggestions that look different on the outside tend to glom together and expose a much smaller amount of weaknesses in the product. When we make a change, the idea is to fix as many of those weaknesses as we can with the least complicated solutions, so that we don't create new weaknesses or make the product more confusing. That takes time, but I think it's the best way to make something great. In other words, we're always always listening, but our exact changes might differ from the suggestions we get, and I don't want anybody thinking they're talking into the void

 

EDIT: I mean complexity and confusion from a usability perspective, regardless of how easy or hard it is to develop a change. I'd hate to refuse to improve a product solely because it's hard to code up!

[Anderton]

19 minutes ago, Musik Hack Sam said:

When we make a change, the idea is to fix as many of those weaknesses as we can with the least complicated solutions, so that we don't create new weaknesses or make the product more confusing.

 

I don't know a thing about coding, but I've done a lot of beta testing and consulting. I've learned some changes that I think would be easy to implement are hellishly difficult, while others that I think would be hellishly difficult end up being done by the developer in an afternoon.

 

For example, I always wondered why Live couldn't record solo button presses when recording a performance. Easy, right? Apparently not. In Live, solo was designed as a diagnostic tool for the studio, not a live performance feature. They said the functionality was buried so deep in the code that coding the change would lead to too many unintended consequences.

[Dave Bryce]

On 6/10/2023 at 6:52 PM, Dave Bryce said:

I’ve got a track I’ve been working with on which I want to try putting Master Plan across the Master buss - I suspect it’ll be of great help to me.  Your deep dive should make using it even easier.  

 

Will post my results shortly.

Okay, as promised....

 

Here are two versions of the same (fairly dense) tune - one with Master Plan, one without.

 

Here's the first version, unprocessed:

 

 

 

 

For the processed version I started with this preset (True Peak Quick Master):

 

Then I modified it a bit.  I added the TAPE parameter set to about 40%, bumped the THICK and CLEAN values up, opened up the WIDE parameter a bunch and pulled the LOW boost back to zero, and the LOUD parameter halfway, back to 2 from the original preset's value of 4.

 

Looked like this when I was done:

 

Here's the file with Master Plan.

 

 

 

I'm pleased with the results - evened it out and opened it up really nicely and gently.  Refreshingly easy to use.

 

FWIW, the mix can probably still use some tweaking here and there...as I said earlier, dense track. 

 

dB

 

[Tusker]

Please accept my apologies for this TLDR question. This is precisely the type of application which is perfect for me: somebody who wants to spend more time on music than on mixing and mastering. I currently use the Izotope suite and would like something simpler than having to engage Neutron on every track, etc. Though this would be more like Ozone than Neutron wouldn't it? Perhaps a mixing tool would be next? 

 

So my TLDR question ...

 

The eq part of it ... is it a static or dynamic eq? 

 

Now it's time for me to being to read the graphs and posts and listen to examples. Loving dB's audio example. Simple and clear. Thank you all! 🙏

 

 

[David Emm]

I appreciate the detail that's been provided, which has the lush aroma of the old Keyboard Reports. Long-short, I bought it. I'm well-satisfied with the quality of the audio examples. The plug lifts all the boats in the bay.

 

I know its going to be like a new synthesizer: you meander through it until one day, you look up and say "Yeah, I have a grip on this one now." I get the feeling that this will become a permanent part of my master chain. It fits what I need like a glove. Fine work.

[Musik Hack Sam]

On 7/6/2023 at 4:07 AM, Tusker said:

So my TLDR question ...

 

The eq part of it ... is it a static or dynamic eq? 

It’s a static EQ. We wanted to make sure clarity and preserving a good mix were paramount, so there are no frequency-dependent dynamic processes unless you engage the multipressor.

[Anderton]

On 7/7/2023 at 10:41 PM, Musik Hack Sam said:

It’s a static EQ. We wanted to make sure clarity and preserving a good mix were paramount, so there are no frequency-dependent dynamic processes unless you engage the multipressor.

 

...which is a standout feature of the program, actually. It's much simpler to use than dynamic EQ and gets you 80% of the way there with a lot less effort.

[Dave Bryce]

It’s actually pretty surprising how quickly this product has made it into my go-to lineup.  I’ve even reopened a couple of older projects to try it on them, all with positive results.

 

dB

[Musik Hack Sam]

On 7/11/2023 at 5:33 PM, Dave Bryce said:

It’s actually pretty surprising how quickly this product has made it into my go-to lineup.  I’ve even reopened a couple of older projects to try it on them, all with positive results.

 

dB

 

So glad to hear it Dave!

[Mike Martin]

On 7/11/2023 at 7:33 PM, Dave Bryce said:

It’s actually pretty surprising how quickly this product has made it into my go-to lineup.  I’ve even reopened a couple of older projects to try it on them, all with positive results.

 

dB

Downloading the demo. Very anxious to try this out. 

[marino]

Finally, very very late, I'm able to share my experience with Master Plan.

Before I begin, I'd like to say something about my own relationship with audio: Although I have been recording music my whole life, I have no specific education in audio engineering; however, I have certainly learned something by working on countless recordings in different music genres: Jazz, rock, classical, ethnic, electronic. I have mixed and mastered a few things by myself, like stuff for videos, television or theater – but for actual records, I have always mixed and mastered in a real studio, alongside some good tech. I have certainly learned a lot this way – mainly that my space and equipment at home are hopelessly inadequate... which has not prevented me from mixing and mastering my latest record at home. Being a work of rather abstract electronic music, I thought I'd take the risk.

 

Back to Master Plan. I think that the various functions have been described wonderfully by Craig – which kind of frees me to just share my very personal impressions.

 

The whole idea seems to present an unintimidating system for the *musician* who has limited confidence with technical terms and procedures – in other words, people like me. However, I have some experience with eq, compressors, limiters, etc. - so I find this approach a two-edged sword: Quite often, I would have liked to know what exactly was going on with the various functions, 'without' needing an analyzer to find out. (thinking about it, maybe a built-in analyzer could have been educational)

 

I tried Master Plan with a whole bunch of different materials: From older pieces from the times when “mastering” meant just to put a bunch of songs in the right order and to balance their volumes, to simple stuff like demos for bandmates, to finished works (both mastered and unmastered), to songs from my published records. In all cases, music I'm extremely familiar with.

 

I started my tests with the most obvious parameter, the “Loud” knob.

Wow! I mean, wow.

Even with material that had been already compressed and brought close to max loudness, this thing was able to increase the perceived volume by... a whole lot. And most important, it did without the slightest sign of squashing or degrading the sound. Of course, when brought to the extreme limits, it started actual distortion. But used in the reasonable range, the efficiency of this algorithm, coupled with its great “musicality”, is uncanny! And the reasonable range is very wide anyway. To my ears, it also seems to gently emphasize attack transients, but perhaps that just goes together with the increased loudness. In any case, hats off for this magic knob; even with just this one parameter, the program would have been worthy in my opinion.

 

The “Wide” function does what you expect: It widens the stereo image. Again, it does so in a rather musical way; and like several other parameters in Master Plan, it seems to work in a gentle manner, even when pushed to the max. In fact, this also applies to the Clean and Calm functions, which sound like mild adjustments in eq – and also to Thick (a gentle saturation) and Smooth (slight compression). Craig has already described what they do in some detail.

Now, all these parameters are very well designed: Their frequencies, curves and dynamic responses are set in a masterful way, and are useful in a variety of situations. However, the effectiveness of this kind of processing is very dependent on the source material. Sometimes I found myself thinking, “if I only could move the center frequency just a little bit..” Also, I miss the possibility of cranking a parameter to more extreme values. I find that sometimes, momentarily setting a function to exaggerated levels helps finding the actual level or frequency that the piece needs.
That said, if the target is the musician who doesn't want to mess with more complex details, the parameters are very well thought, and useful in most cases.

 

The “Unity” button is incredibly useful!

In conjunction with the Bypass function, it allows you to check what you have really done to your sound, independently from the perceived volume. Every mastering program should have this function.

 

Now for the part that I didn't like too much: Fixed low/high eq, and especially fixed 3-band compression, with no other parameter than compression level.
Once again, the frequencies, curves, etc. are set in a meaningful and musical way, and can be useful in many situations. But for control freaks like me, the compromise is a bit too high here. I absolutely need a good graphic or paragraphic equalizer. And for multiband compression, for every band I need to set the center frequency, the range, and other stuff like the attack/release parameters, according to the type of material.

I apologize for not including audio material; my music computer is ko at the moment, and I was forced to work in a different environment. I'm also fighting a number of other troubles, of which I'll spare you the details.

 

So the big question is, would I use Master Plan as the sole mastering tool for a project?

For music intended for publication, I'm not sure. I would probably proceed as usual, with a chain of different specialized programs... then I would use Master Plan at the end of the chain, using mainly the magic “Loud” knob, and maybe a couple of other, final touches.

But for non-critical material, probably I would. It's very friendly, fast, easy to use and musical. If the source material doesn't need any drastic adjustment, you can set a good sound in minutes.

Once again, the intended user seems to be the musician who prefers not to deal with too many technicalities; the presence of presets seems to confirm this. For this type of music maker, Master Plan could be a godsend.

 

[Anderton]

2 hours ago, marino said:

So the big question is, would I use Master Plan as the sole mastering tool for a project?

For music intended for publication, I'm not sure. I would probably proceed as usual, with a chain of different specialized programs... then I would use Master Plan at the end of the chain, using mainly the magic “Loud” knob, and maybe a couple of other, final touches.

But for non-critical material, probably I would. It's very friendly, fast, easy to use and musical. If the source material doesn't need any drastic adjustment, you can set a good sound in minutes.

Once again, the intended user seems to be the musician who prefers not to deal with too many technicalities; the presence of presets seems to confirm this. For this type of music maker, Master Plan could be a godsend.

 

 

I see Master Plan as being incredibly useful for bands that want to put a live recording on their web site, and not spend money on a mastering engineer that's almost certainly not justified. I also see it as a big deal for post-production - budgets suck, time is short, and what Master Plan does best is what audio-for-video soundtracks need - consistent level and timbre so as not to overshadow narration and video, done as quickly as possible. MP also makes it easy to generate multiple masters so the client can decide which they prefer (generally a minefield, but important for works-in-progress where the sound has to be in on Tuesday for the roughs that haven't been shot yet, but go out on Wednesday).

 

Also, people who do podcasts, narration, or audiobooks and don't have experience in mastering should probably download a copy yesterday   Yeah, it's for mastering, but it can do really great things with spoken word (other than surgery, like removing mouth clicks, p-pops, etc.).

[marino]

12 hours ago, Anderton said:

 

I see Master Plan as being incredibly useful for bands that want to put a live recording on their web site, and not spend money on a mastering engineer that's almost certainly not justified. I also see it as a big deal for post-production - budgets suck, time is short, and what Master Plan does best is what audio-for-video soundtracks need - consistent level and timbre so as not to overshadow narration and video, done as quickly as possible. MP also makes it easy to generate multiple masters so the client can decide which they prefer (generally a minefield, but important for works-in-progress where the sound has to be in on Tuesday for the roughs that haven't been shot yet, but go out on Wednesday).

 

Also, people who do podcasts, narration, or audiobooks and don't have experience in mastering should probably download a copy yesterday   Yeah, it's for mastering, but it can do really great things with spoken word (other than surgery, like removing mouth clicks, p-pops, etc.).

 

I agree with everything you said. Dealing almost exclusively with music, the other applications that you mentioned escaped me... but you're absolutely right about spoken voice treatment and quick-delivery projects. In fact, I can imagine using it for instantaneous treatment of singers (to set a quick voice sound for immediate listening).
And yes, presenting multiple masters to a client is playing with fire... usually   

[Anderton]

2 hours ago, marino said:

And yes, presenting multiple masters to a client is playing with fire... usually   

 

At the point in my life when I was mastering hundreds of tracks, clients usually wanted a master that was as loud as possible. So that's what I did, but I also took the time to create a master the way I'd want to hear it. Almost invariably, when given a choice, they chose the one with more dynamic range.

[Musik Hack Sam]

@marino thanks for your detailed rundown and comments! Very happy to hear Master Plan is doing right by you; Stan spent so many years working with so much different material at Larrabee and after, that there really is an unbelievable amount of care in the algorithms and parameters. I made it my job to get as close as possible to anything he described or sent to me without compromise, and I think software developers and audio legends being able to work so closely together for so long is a rarity. Master Plan is the fruit of that kind of labor.

 

I can appreciate and respect the control-freak mindset 100%. When I'm building tools like this, I make interfaces that have a positively insane number of dials so that I can listen to what works and doesn't. In the end, Stan and I decided we wanted Musik Hack to be the kind of company that makes products that ask people to focus on their expression and creativity rather than flex their analytical muscle, so making expressive, musical controls and removing technical decisions became the priority. I'm working on some kind of catch phrase for this thought, but it's something like: "We'll be technical. You be creative."

 

 

 

[Anderton]

On 7/17/2023 at 1:21 PM, Musik Hack Sam said:

In the end, Stan and I decided we wanted Musik Hack to be the kind of company that makes products that ask people to focus on their expression and creativity rather than flex their analytical muscle, so making expressive, musical controls and removing technical decisions became the priority.

 

I believe there's more of a need/demand for that kind of product. The people who have spent years mastering and whittling down their plugins to what they use all the time are in a minority. Making carefully crafted technology available to those starting out, or who really don't have the time/inclination to dive too deep into mastering, gives them a way to take their music just that much further.

[Mike Martin]

I spent some time with Master Plan today. 

In a word, WOW.

 

I'm not a mixing novice but there are clearly areas where I struggle especially when it comes to getting my mixes to have the power and polish without sounding compressed.

I have tried countless solutions to try to help get my mixes to the next level. Things like Oxford Inflator and "Master the Mix" are a couple that come to mind along with the 'ol Waves L3. I recently got Ozone 10 as part of an Native Instruments upgrade bundle but I honestly haven't tried it. Another I've used that is very similar to Master Plan at first glance is something called "RICH" from 2gether audio which is honestly one of my favorites of everything mentioned to add a little boost and presence but this plug-in has to be used very subtly.

With Master Plan, I didn't even go to any of the presets. I had obviously read this whole thread and the interface is intuitive but this is so simple and intuitive. A 7dB boost of that loud knob alone was a shocking and dramatic improvement. 

 

I promise to add some audio examples as soon as possible. I'm actually going to go listen to what I've done with it in the car and a variety of other places to confirm what I've experienced in just a few minutes. 

 

[David Emm]

3 hours ago, Mike Martin said:

With Master Plan, I didn't even go to any of the presets. I had obviously read this whole thread and the interface is intuitive but this is so simple and intuitive. A 7dB boost of that loud knob alone was a shocking and dramatic improvement.

 

Likewise. I wanted to add that I chose a thick, prog-ish epic and a more chamber-orchestra item from my collection as test pieces. Although its a bit of a no-no, I've often added just a touch of compression to my master chain. In both cases, I removed it and let Master Plan handle that aspect. I was pleased enough to re-save the pieces with the new treatment. I'm likely to build a few presets of my own as I become more familiar with the subtleties, but I'm already getting in touch with the feel factor. You often take up something because it makes a splash. This is the first time I can recall doing so for the CREAM. I'm going to be making more refined compositional choices in a couple of places as a result.

[Mike Martin]

Here is a quick before / after. 

 

Before: 

 

 

After:

 

Settings (apparently I need to install an update): 

 

 

[Musik Hack Sam]

Awesome @Mike Martin! Great vibe!

 

Quote

Settings (apparently I need to install an update): 

 

About that update: we just released it a few days ago. There are some changes related to discussion here with Craig, but not all of them! For example, switching presets keeps whatever you have currently set for input, loud, output, and unity, but I don't have a bunch more presets or quick buttons for blasting through them yet.

 

The major overhaul is a reworked oversampling engine that allows you to select what you get, and was the highest quality I could accomplish without a brain graft. The previous version was not as finely tuned. I had to do an insane technical deep dive into the area, so I've got two resources on that topic that I put together. One is educational, the other more entertaining:

• Sampling, Aliasing, and Oversampling - A paper I wrote on the topic, hopefully for the betterment of all!
• White Sea Oversampling Interview - Wytse from White Sea Studios has some controversial takes, but he talks a lot about this topic so I went in headfirst for an interview about it. It was great fun geeking out with him.

I have a couple more avenues to get this information out and help both devs and engineers get the most out of their plugins, but I'll have to keep that under wraps for now 😉

 

-Sam