I think mastering is my least favorite part of the production process for many reasons.
For one, it can be so tricky to nail down. There’s a reason mastering engineers can make a living on just mastering: being able to polish tracks for listening is an art form – and it’s one that I simply have not mastered yet (pun somewhat intended). Also, I find myself suffering with impostor syndrome a lot when listening to my masters compared to my peers. Am I not hitting -7 LUFS like my friend is? Might as well give up. These factors combined have made me really dread final masters.
Luckily, a lot of tools exist for everyday producers like me who just need to get a quick master done. One of the newest is by Mastering The Mix (with a name like that, you’ll never guess what kind of plugins they put out) and it’s called FASTER MASTER. They describe it as a tool that gets you 95% of the way to a finished master, with a quick analysis process, tons of smart presets, and a user-friendly interface that makes final tweaks easy.
Oh, and it was developed in partnership with David Guetta and Nicky Romero. If those two legends had a say in this plugin’s development, then it’s really gotta be something worth checking out.
So, that’s exactly what I did. Here was my experience with FASTER MASTER!
Layout
I’m a huge fan of plugins that are instantly understandable. This is one of them.
When you open up the plugin, you can either select a preset to start with or hit “Analyze”, play the loudest part of your track, and it’ll generate a bunch of smart presets for you in about 15 seconds. Massive brownie points to Mastering the Mix for adding a volume warning whenever the analysis is done – it tells you exactly how many dBs your track is going to increase by so you don’t accidentally blow your ears off.
You’ll see a screen like this when it’s mastered. It’s not going to be perfect, but that’s the point: the rest is up to you to polish it off and truly make it yours. I really like that: this tool makes a difficult process easier, while also enforcing you to actually put some work in.
As you can see, it’ll generate a bunch of smart presets based on your input audio. If you want it to match the qualities of a reference track, you can do that, too. Just drag one in and it’ll analyze your audio and create a custom preset based on it.
Now, let’s talk about getting your master across the finish line. You can adjust the EQ, transients, stereo width, compression, and limiting by using each of the five modules in the bottom. They’re so simple to use – you don’t have to click any buttons, you just have to drag nodes. This is both good and bad. It makes adjusting your EQ simple, for example, but you’re not able to move any of the nodes left or right, or add a new one if you need more. Luckily, they have a lot of nodes instantly added onto the EQ function, so that might not be an issue for you.
The transient editor is super simple. Move it up and your track’s transients will be more defined. Move it down and the opposite happens. You can’t move the node left or right, but you don’t really have to.
Here, you can determine just how wide your track’s frequency ranges are – perfect if you want to make sure your sub bass and low end are entirely mono, for example. Just drag each node left and right.
This is about as simple as I’ve ever seen compression explained. You can get a visual aide of how compressed your track is – super nice for visual learners like me.
Lastly, the limiter stage is pretty self explanatory. Click a node and the track will hit that loudness level.
You can also lock any of these stages while scrolling through presets, and every adjustment you make is automatically loudness matched, meaning that you’ll hear the real impact of the changes you make without being distracted by a loudness change. That’s a super nice touch.
That’s pretty much it when it comes to using FASTER MASTER. So, how is it in practice?
Results
Usually, I provide an audio sample of me playing with the plugin so you can get a good example of what it does. I’m not doing that this time, as I tested this plugin on an actual track I needed to master. My label won’t be too happy if I share that, so I’m gonna just ask that you trust me when I say this: it works great.
You can fine-tune every module super easily and get your masters sounding top-tier in a matter of seconds. I’m not just saying that – I’m genuinely super impressed by how this thing works. It’s likely going to become a crucial part of my mastering chain moving forward. You’re just gonna have to try it for yourself if you don’t believe me.
Pros & Cons
Pros:
Easier masters than ever – and they legitimately sound great.
The product works easily, it works quickly, and it provides great results. Can’t ask for much more than that.
Super simple reference mastering.
I always like having a reference track on standby, and I really like how this plugin handles those. It’s quick, easy, and gets you a really good mastering preset every time.
Automatic loudness matching!
There are a bunch of mastering plugins that do similar things on the market, but none of them that I know of provide automatic loudness matching like FASTER MASTER does. That’s brilliant.
Reasonable pricing.
For a tool like this, 67 USD seems like a fair price. Plus, you can get a 30 day free trial on the website to determine if you want to spend the full price on it.
Cons:
Static nodes.
I would really have liked to have been able to adjust nodes freely, specifically when it comes to EQ. As I said, there are enough nodes there to where not being able to move nodes horizontally is not a dealbreaker, but it’s still something I’d like to see possibly addressed in future versions.
Don’t set it and forget it!
Don’t get lazy. You should put some work in when using this plugin. I know the initial analysis sounds great, but that’s not meant to be a final product. Please don’t get fooled by the ease-of-use here: play with it a bit and you’ll thank yourself later.
Conclusion: Should you get it?
If you’re struggling with your masters, absolutely! This is a great tool that I think everyone, regardless of skill level, could benefit from having.
Grab FASTER MASTER here.
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