Mastering Assistant Isn't What You Think (Logic Pro 10.8) 

I recently used this master assistant it was good, here is a solution on the limiter, just open the adaptive limiter before the master, then set it and then open master assistant it fully works!

I like the mastering assistant a lot. It's so well designed and, therefore, simple to use. And, at least for me, it delivers better results than other mastering plugins that I've dabbled with. I would not change a thing.

I use the assistant for the EQ curves only. Every other parameter is disabled. From there, i apply compression, limiting, etc after the assistant. People expect so much. Its a free update. Make do. Take the meat and leave the bones. Find a solution to your problem.

This plugin is not meant for you. For bands and artists who want to make quick and dirty demos of their contemporary-styled music to fundamentally market themselves via whatever platform, this is basically what they've been asking for.

I can see this as a potentially useful tool for improving the mix. A well mixed track should not require major adjustments at the mastering stage.

The simplicity is for people that want to make music but have no clue about the technical side of things. This is something that Apple is great at: Creating a tool that a beginner can use and get a good result that can also be implemented and tweaked by expert users in a way that a beginner wouldn't understand.

Absolutely agree. Particularly that the plug-in should be available on other busses. I send everything a mix bus before it hits the stereo out. Main reason being I use reference material a lot which I definitely doesn’t want to be remastered! If I could put the mastering plug-in on my mix bus instead I could send my reference direct to the stereo out as usual for a/b checks. At the moment, however good the mastering plugin may or may not be, it’s pretty useless in many of my mixes.

Agree! Thanx for the great stuff you're putting up!

THIS VIDEO IS AMAZING! SUPER UNDERRATED! THANK YOU FOR HELPING!!

Good points. I do like it as a starting point to then do some additional manipulation.

It doesn't have to be the last plugin on the stereo bus. I find myself using it all the time but I'm putting a final gain utility plugin and the Multimeter right at the end

I’m very new to Logic Pro coming from years with Pro Tools and I’m still in a steep learning curve. I looked briefly at this plugin but didn’t really understand some of it or how to use it. Thank you for being brutally honest in your assessment of this plugin. It helps me to understand how it can be used in the most effective way given it’s limitations.

What did you think about the "excite" button? It sounds good when you first put it on but after playing with a session for a few days I stopped using the excite button. My session sounded better without it.

Thanx so much. What you say counts for me. But as I always master with CloudBounce (didn‘t use Logic‘s mastering plugin so far) to - 14 LUFS, because I heard that Spotify wants the wav-file with -14 LUFS, I‘m quite uncertain now how to master the next song! I don‘t think I can do a better job than CloudBounce!

mastering assistant took my result track from a 4 to a 6, i was able to reach a 8 after placing after it a EQ, adaptive limiter e check again for LUFs (target around 11)

would you suggest implementing another dynamics plugin after the fact or before? wish there was some way to cut out the dynamics like in ozone, since I can't even tell what its doing. It sounds better than a rough ozone assistant preset I think, but definitely hard to tweak aside from the EQ.

Thanks for your presentation Chris. I've done some comparisons with iZotope OZONE and have been pleasantly surprised by the processing of Logic Mastering, which to my ears appears more subtle, and certainly less heavy-handed. I'm looking forward to its refining over the next year.

Hey Chris thanks for letting us know. No way to meter the gain reduction? Glad I didn't update yet. Great channel btw.

Great video. At 3:38, you say that one shouldn't target -14 LUFS. I'm part of the demographic you mention at 3:55 so, is your recommendation to let the Mastering Assistant just do its analysis, and then for the user to simply adjust the "loudness" parameter to their own taste afterward? If I do that for each song of an album individually, do I end up with a cohesive album overall without later bringing each bounce into a super session to "master" again? Genuinely seeking guidance here, thanks!

I agree with most of your points, but I have different issues. I think it’s perfect for giving a mix to a band for feedback. -14 is fine for that. My biggest issue with the assistant is that I cannot turn off the limiter and use my own. I would love a modular design so that I can control each aspect of the mastering and maybe get some insight into what I can change at the mix level for a more effective master and also turn off the elements that I don’t want. It’s a little bit too far to the simple side. I switched from the GUI view to the controls view, hoping there were more controls. There were less. Weird.

It’s a great tool for getting your mix to a point where you can play with the settings after using it.

I've gotten fantastic results with this new Mastering assistant. I have a couple goto mastering plugins (Ozone 11 and God Particle) and I try them all before tweaking either within or after they do what they do. Of course I also can just do it with various plugins from scratch. My main gripe is that I don't like to use the Stereo Out for my mastering work but rather have my own master 2-bus which then outputs to the Stereo Out. Mastering assistant can't go anywhere but the Stereo Out and this is frustrating! I also agree with not having any sort of meter on the limiter to know exactly at what point limiting starts and then by how much. But sometimes I get best results from this Mastering assistant. The AI EQ curve looks all the world like a match EQ to an "ideally" mastered EQ.

Very helpful, thanks.

Still missing Dynamic EQ 🤷🏼‍♂️ … 25 years ago I discovered my first multi-band compressor and it changed my whole outlook on mastering. When Dynamic EQ’s appeared it had the same quantum leap effect on my mastering chain … so, come on Apple, let’s see a native solution 😉

Agreed!!! 💯 nice video thanks 🙏🏼

Thanks for a great and informative video. i’m a musician short with tech knowledge but I believe Izotope have the best tools to get some serious results when mixning and mastering. Maybe you could make a video on how to work with Izotope?

Great video and I agree, I anyway don't switch that ON, putting Ozone in.

I try it and it’s not a big deal to start the mastering Assistent after an rough mix oder a composing stage, just as orientation and time safer. As Audi Engineer I prefer my own way over the a.i

Sounds like a tool to be used at the very end to just nudge the master. Like, it's helping the mastering process just a little bit. Maybe not helping, or collaborating. More like what a personal assistant would do, like Siri. I don't know, some kind of assistance for mastering type of thing.

I’m an avid Logic user too. I’m happily stuck with version 7.9.6 on an Intel iMac. What plugin or series of plugins would I use to master my mixes Chris? It seems to me that Apple is trying to make professional apps like Logic and Photoshop easier to use for those less skilled and just want to “get something out there”. And that’s okay! So, I don’t think you were ranting. You were speaking to us who are looking to produce more professional masters by honing our skills. Gianni❤

Yeah, I agree with all this. I’m very inexperienced with mixing and mastering - mainly just want to make songs at home for fun. So I am ok with something being simple, but this seems like an unsatisfying approach. And is it just me, or why can’t I fully see what it’s actually doing to the song? When I read about it I thought you’d load a bunch of plug-ins (eq, adaptive limiter, multi band compressor) and it would use AI to make a suggestion for how they should be set. Then I could see what it did and adjust from there (and/or learn). I also wish I could be far more specific about what kind of song/sound I a going for. The 4 characters for all kinds of music seems way way too limited.

You’re absolutely correct, I hope Apple hears you & those upgrades would really take mastering assistant & logic X to a crazy competitive level 🤞🏼.

Perfect 👍🏻 This is how RU-vid videos should be

Good points!

I totally agree with all said!!!!!!! Big Up!!!

just updated after whatching your video! now a lot of my plugins when you open them show ⍰ when it comes to selecting presets etc. any idea what to do there?

2:24 the reason they have this target loudness is exactly because your track will sound the “best” on their platform 😂 even though somebody in PR clearly wrote that extra last two sentences

its a bit disappointing that if you'd like to use all the "Character" features in the mastering assistant you'll need the Apple silicon

I tried mastering a track ,and then tried mastering the master, I wondered if it would do nothing, as it was already mastered, and supposedly perfect but no , it did it all again

"I understand that they want to simplify the controls to make them easier to use" No, you don't seem to understand. You seem to criticize this as if it's intended as a manual mastering tool. "Why not keep the scale of the tool relative to the actual LUFS increase or decrease" because the relationship is not constant, the increase or decrease corresponding to +1.0 in the knob can be different LUFS increases depending on other parameters chosen and the material, in an "adaptive"way (-14 isn't fixed, and will be even more dynamic as the AI improves in future versions).

I too have gotten fantastic results with this new Mastering assistant but I don't want AI to do everything for me?? We have to remember it's called "Mastering Assistant" for a reason. Like everything else in life, what you put in is what you get out!

Lots of good points….maybe print stems and use M Assist on them and then build a new project? It’s a work around BUT may be useful…..anyway overall it’s a great new tool and when sending mixes off to be listened to and referenced I find it most useful…nothing will ever compete with some Iron + excellent ears and monitors! JPMusic

hey, did you live in augusta georgia at one time as a kid? if so, was your dad named joe? I think we were neighbors lol, if not then my bad. my name is Duke, i had the 4 wheelers.

..totally right!

Have you let Apple know about this? they always take feed back pretty well

same strategy that Ozone began implementing awhile ago. they'll give us a little more in the next version, but mainly independent artists will suffer.

I’m really enjoying Mastering Assistant the way it is. And I know that I could do it my own way. But, why risk it? 😊

What I find especially confusing by this is both Apple Music and Apple Podcasts is -16 LUFS as their baseline loudness level

Some of the features of Master assistant only work if you have Apple Silicon.

My mastering assistant just isn’t it’s being displayed no matter what I do. Can you help???

Tag Apple and all of their alternative accounts. We need to get this fixed 🤧

Just use the assistant after applying the mastering chain you use.

My first impression was that anything MA can do, you could already do using nothing more than the plug-ins that Logic already has, assuming you employ them properly. As failed presidential candidate Walter Mondale used to say, 'Where's the beef?' There appears to be no beef in MA. IOW, it brings absolutely nothing new to the table. All it is, is a skin overlayed over tech already there in Logic. It probably was developed entirely from existing stock plug-in code. And what you seem to be saying is the controls on MA are even more rudimentary, meaning you can do LESS with MA than you can with the built-in plug-ins. And you can swap any of those out with 3rd-party plug-ins you might prefer. So what's the point? To gaslight the naive? To make users think they have some new killer tech (which they already have)? There is Nothing. New. Here. there is no There. There. It's all snake oil, and it can actually get in the way of learning how to master. Possibly the dumbest thing Logic ever did. Well, maybe the second or third dumbest. I'm probably sounding like a broken record when I say what I always say, which is 'This is not a shortcut. In art, there are no shortcuts. There never have been and there never will be.' Forget shortcuts. The only way to success is by doing the due diligence of being willing to do the hard work it takes to get there. MA is not a tool that helps. It only gets in the way. It's nothing more than a 'toy plug-in', like the toy cars we all had at age 4. Users should do themselves a favor and outgrow this (which can be done in under 5 minutes). On to the rubbish heap with it. It does nothing but confuse the issue. But then Apple has always had the arrogant attitude 'don't worry your pretty little head about it', as if knowing less is better than knowing more.

Maybe they'll listen to you. 👍🏻

Just use your usual "mastering" chain before the Ai Assistant

I DO HIGH END / ULTRA HIGH RESOLUTION AUDIO MASTERING!! CAN I MASTER A SONG FOR YOU SIR..

I think you miss the point of this plug-in - clearly you know a great deal about mastering, so why would you use it; you could probably do a better job yourself. However, for someone like me who is more a musician than an engineer, it gives me a cheap way of my mix sound way better than I could accomplish on my own. It's 'good enough' out of the box and that suits me fine. Sure, if my music was commercial rather than for just my own satisfaction, then presumably an expert would go in with all their bespoke plug-ins and do a more refined job, but for getting me 95% of the way there just by adding the mastering assistant, it does the job.

It's probably because Spotify is -14 LUFs

Almost sounds like Logic is becoming a jack of all trades and a master of none.

I say it is a wonderful tool. The genius in it is the simplicity. No gain reduction meter? You HAVE TO USE YOUR EARS. Which is a GOOD thing. Great training for you. By the way when applying the mastering assistant it INSTANTLY makes it sound good on every system. On your phone, in the car, on my TV speakers. Not professional, but you can easily release your mixes on Apple Music by mastering with it. The biggest strength of it is probably the EQ curve that it applies to you mix.

Mastering plugins should not be used on individual tracks ever, thats the general rule coming from imdustry mastering ngineers.They are a mastering plugin not a mix plugin . Though this plugin is good its best to soend some cash and get a real mastering engineer to master your finished product for all platforms.

Imagine if Apple made Logic for PC too!!! I guess they have to sell their overpriced/underpowered systems somehow, right?

If you want more control than do your own master chain. Looks like you don’t understand what this AI tool is doing.

Dude.. use your ears.. lol

Nitpicking galore. There is no gain reduction meter becuase if you understand what the meters are telling you its a moot point. 14 LUFs is right in the range for most streaming platforms. Guess what kids you still need to use your most important tools, your ears.