automatic mastering plugin for live streaming, podcasts and internet radio.
here are the latest installers:
https://github.com/trummerschlunk/master_me/releases
Supported OS: Linux, macOS, Windows.
Plugin Formats: CLAP, VST, VST3, AU, LV2.
Standalone: Jack.
AAX is not supported (yet). master_me can be used in PROTOOLS via a VST-AAX wrapper (like Blue Cat's Patchwork).
Automatic audio mastering plugin for live-streaming and internet radio stations.
With the first Covid-19 related lock-downs in 2020, many real-life concerts, conferences and festivals were forced into the digital domain - and sounded pretty crappy. Having worked for almost 20 years in audio mastering, Berlin based engineer Klaus Scheuermann started to develop master_me - a word fusion of automatic mastering and mini-me - in order to make open source streaming sound better. After a few weeks of learning and development, master_me was first used at the 'Quarantine Sessions' - a weekly distributed electro-acoustic improvised concert, hosted at Stanford's CCRMA Institute. master_me was developed further to be an easy-to-use tool for all live streaming applications. In 2022 it was funded by the Prototype Fund, an open source software funding initiative by the german ministry of education and research. A stable release is available since September 2022.
master_me is for all live streamers and internet radio stations.
The term 'mastering' usually refers to the last step of sound manipulation in the audio production process. Historically the vinyl master was used to duplicate records. Nowadays a digital master is the file which is being duplicated and distributed to streaming or download platforms.
master_me is a multi platform, free and open source audio plug-in which optimizes sound in live streaming situations. Introducing no latency, it takes care of master levels and ‘polishes’ the sound with a chain of effects, closely modeled after the audio chain of Klaus Scheuermann’s mastering studio in Berlin, Germany.
Although tempting, it is NOT intended to automatically master your recorded music. Your art deserves closer, offline attention.
Nevertheless, certain modules of master_me can be a valuable tool as part of your music mastering chain.
master_me is licensed under GPL3, see the LICENSE file for more details.
master_me is available in LV2, VST2, VST3 and CLAP formats for Linux, macOS and Windows, plus JACK Standalone for some systems.
Due to faust and its open architecture, it can possibly be compiled to a vast variety of target platforms not mentioned above.
Concept and idea: Klaus Scheuermann
DSP: Klaus Scheuermann (trummerschlunk), Bart Brouns (magnetophon), Robin Gareus (x42), Jakob Dübel (jkbd)
GUI, Plugin: Filipe Coelho (falkTX)
Logo, Artwork: Peter Schlossnikel
More contributions from: Julius Smith, Dario Sanfilippo, Stéphane Letz, Romain Michon, Yann Orlarey, the Faust community.
master_me's DSP is written in Faust.
GUI and Plugin based on DPF (DISTRHO Plugin Framework).
The Faust community and everyone who supported the project.
master_me is sponsored by the Prototype Fund, an open source software funding initiative by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
After Installation, load the plugin on the master channel of your streaming software or DAW.
Choose a preset.
Adjust a target-loudness (optional).
The 'Easy' mode is a very reduced GUI to make master_me an easy-to-use tool for all content creators.
Only two choices can be made: choose a preset and set the desired target loudness
The main concept of master_me is the combination of a leveler and a chain of dynamics processors.
The leveler can be seen as a big volume knob which you would grab, when the sound is too low or too high for your taste.
The following chain is designed to result in a natural, balanced and consistent sound if it is hit at the right level (->leveler). It will take care of peaks in the audio, like short loud noises and balance the frequency spectrum.
There are some additional modules before the leveler for your convenience.
The ‘pre-processing’ module contains:
A simple noise gate with the following parameters:
The EQ offers some simple tools for frequency spectrum manipulation. The parameters are:
The leveler is the most critical part of master_me. It will listen to the incoming signal and adjust it's volume to meet the target loudness. In order to make this as smooth and natural as possible, a complex algorithm was designed. The following parameters can be set:
The knee compressor is a slow and soft mid-side compression module. It functions as a subtile, swinging compressor. Typical equivalents in the analog domain would be a Manley Stereo VARIABLE MU® compressor or a Vertigo VSC-2. The following parameters can be set:
Being perhaps the most complicated module of master_me, this module works like this:
The audio is first converted from stereo to mid-side and then split into 8 frequency bands. The parameters apply to the lowest band (low) and the highest band (high). For the 6 bands in between, the parameters are interpolated between 'low' and 'high'.
The parameters for the lowest and highest band are:
The 'limiter' it is rather a sound-shaping limiter than a clip-protection limiter. It's equivalents in the analog domain would typically be a Chandler TG-1 or a UREI 1178. Although the limiter can apply high compression ratios, it will not prevent from digital overshoots higher than threshold (which the brickwall module will take care of). The parameters are:
The 'brickwall' module is the last process in master_me's chain of modules. It is a fast brickwall limiter which will not allow any peaks above the desired 'ceiling'. The 'brickwall' process is a protection limiter and will not sound nice, if it needs to work a lot.
this process was custom developed for the Chaos Computer Club's VOC (video operation center). It constantly checks the phase of an incoming signal.
If phase == 1, all audio is made mono. If phase == -1, one channel is phase switched and the audio is monofied.
This helps detect and fix broken audio signals and unwanted panning.
Build requirements: gcc or clang as compiler, faust, faustpp and gnu make
On Linux the following extra development libraries are needed:
Runtime requirements: OpenGL2 capable graphics card (or software rendering via MESA on Linux)
Once requirements are in place, simply run:
git submodule update --init --recursive
make
faust2jack soundsgood.dsp
# then run as ./soundsgood