Mastering The Mix Expose will help you improve tracks and get them ready for release in not just the streaming world, but also other formats such as CD.
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Mastering The Mix Expose 2 Review
This article will cover the second variation of this produce. Expose 2 is a recent release of the Expose product. Featuring the look and feel of the other Mastering The Mix plugins, this differs slightly in that it runs as a stand alone application and not as a VST plugin.
This product is aimed at the finished piece of music and (with the clue being in the name) this masters your mix to make sure that it is up to scratch with all the relevant formats you may want to release it on.
Initial thoughts
The installation threw me a little as I was expecting a VST plugin install as per the other products they have released. However having loaded my trusty Bitwig Studio 4, the product was nowhere to be seen.
So I had to revert to the manual. A quick read and then I understood what this was all about. It’s a studio tool as opposed to a DAW VST utility. The clue was really in the installation, when there was no option to pick a VST, AAX or similar. Just a tick box for Mastering The Mix Expose.
But that was fine. Once I understood this, I was able to search for Expose on my Windows laptop start menu and there it was.
The program loads in Demo mode with a 15 day trial. The product key can be entered at the top right, then once restarted it is ready to go.
Preset Choices
With a multitude of presets available, I was able to test Expose out on one of my tracks. I used the track Chips and Sauce from my album Diversion and put the utilities to the test to see where the track could be improved.
I chose to use preset Spotify Loud as my baseline test. This resided in the Mastering category. There are numerous presets in the following categories:
- Mixing
- Mastering
- Broadcast
- User
To my surprise there were some good action points made available quite quickly by clicking the “F” button to give instant feedback.
One of the interesting points it noted was that although the Left Right balance was well handled, it had detected some phasing issues in some parts of the track.
I found this interesting as I experienced this during mix down and some trouble identifying the areas in question. However, now knowing the points to look at, this is one for the list to review.
So what do they say?
To get started with Mastering The Mix EXPOSE it’s easy – (it’s a standalone app, so you won’t need a DAW). Just simply drag and drop your music into it.
It is easy to then select the preset based on your distribution method (streaming, CD, Club etc). The analysis of the track with provide you with feedback specific enough to help you to resolve the issues and optimize your music for release within your DAW.
This product helps you hit your technical goals, whether you’re aiming for a super-loud club master, or trying to optimize your music to sound great on streaming sites.
See how the average tonal balance of your song compares to your reference track, or our genre-specific presets. Best of all these presets are created using sonic profiles from commercially successful tracks.
Final Thoughts
Certainly a product I’ll be using going forward. It will become a key part of my workflow to run a track through it.
This will help eliminate tracks being too loud or quiet at various points. More importantly, Mastering The Mix Expose will help keep tracks all on the same level when producing an album.
It drops a point for the installation process as that’s a little fiddly and the GUI is not the most intuitive, but once set up it is a great tool for your studio.
