Master Your Mix for Modern Listening — Stereo, Immersive, and More
As yesterday's volume wars give way to today's loudness standards, the need for beefier dynamics processors has been largely supplanted by the need for detailed loudness meters. MasterCheck 2, from Nugen Audio, takes up the mantle of its predecessor and brings detailed, diverse loudness metering to the modern era, and beyond. MasterCheck 2 introduces a deluge of prep tools for mixes and masters, including 7.1.4-channel support for Dolby Atmos, 3D, immersive, and further surround-sound audio formats. Classic streaming formats also make a return, spanning Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, YouTube, Pandora, Qobuz, Bandcamp, and SoundCloud, and more. MasterCheck 2 also lets you hear what your music will sound like when subjected to their standards. What's more, the plug-in lets you simultaneously compare multiple processing chains to see what effect they'll have on your mix after compression, so you won't be surprised after hearing your 24-bit master reproduced as a streaming file.
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Effortlessly meet contemporary loudness standards
Just as the era of the CD and tape are over, so is the standard of mixing to -3dB. On the plus side, this new age of mixing is finally putting to bed the practice of squashing the life out of every mix with brutal dynamics processing, but on the minus side, the serious mix engineer has to master a whole new scheme of loudness metering. Yesterday's -3dB is today's -16LKFS. Lucky for you, Nugen Audio's MasterCheck 2 plug-in makes life easy. Strictly from a metering standpoint, every important metric for loudness, whether it's program loudness, PLR (Peak to Loudness Ratio), PSR (Peak to Short-term Loudness Ratio), or true peak, can be found in MasterCheck 2.
Easily A/B processing chains
What is arguably MasterCheck 2’s most celebrated features are its Codec mode and "Offset to Match" function, which applies the reference loudness standard you've called up directly to your material. But what really blew away the engineers here at Sweetwater is the way you can combine this function with MasterCheck 2's Send plug-in. Insert the Send plug-in at the beginning of your processing chain, and you can effortlessly A/B your unaffected signal with your processing through the loudness standard of your choice, providing you with an instant comparison along with a loudness comparison meter. What's more, you can use this same external input function to check your mix against reference material.
Nugen Audio MasterCheck 2 Features:
- A fully-loaded loudness metering and comparison plug-in designed for modern streaming and compression standards, including 7.1.4-ch. immersive, Dolby Atmos, and surround mixes
- Service Presets include Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Pandora, Tidal, Bandcamp, SoundCloud, Qobuz, Pandora, and more
- "Offset to match" function lets you hear what your audience will hear, so you can produce with confidence
- Standards include ATSC A/85 (CALM ACT), EBU R128, EBU R128 S1, ARIB TR-B32, OP-59, AGCOM 219/9/CSP, Portaria 354, and DPP
- Measurements and industry-standard metering include program loudness, PLR, PSR, and ITU-compliant inter-sample peak for comprehensive dynamics support
- Color-banded target splits let you zero in on specific zones within the bar meters
- Included Send plug-in and external reference function let you A/B processing chains for quick comparison
- Flexible comparison tools let you check your mix against reference material to easily achieve your loudness goal