FASTER MASTER Manual

Quick Start Guide:

1. Load FASTER MASTER as the final plugin in your mastering chain.
2. Play your track’s loudest section and click “Analyze.”
3. After analysis, Smart Presets deliver 10 tailored presets for your track’s vibe.
4. Click “Let’s Hear It” to instantly hear your mastered sound.
5. Use the preset arrows to flip through presets for quick inspiration.
6. Open the preset panel to explore genre-specific options or import reference tracks for custom profiles.
7. If using a reference-based preset, preview the level-matched reference to compare with your track.
8. Tweak EQ, Transients, Compression, Stereo, or Limit modules; every adjustment is auto-leveled for honest, confident decisions.
9. Use the level-matched Bypass to objectively compare your mastered and unmastered track.

Presets:

FASTER MASTER’s presets aren’t like most plugins. Each preset has a sonic goal, and after analysis, FASTER MASTER knows what processing to apply to your unique song to achieve the sonic goal.

FASTER MASTER offers hundreds of expertly crafted presets based on the sonic characteristics of outstanding tracks across various genres. This extensive library ensures that no matter what style of music you're working with, there is a preset tailored to enhance it perfectly.

If you want to undo manual tweaks and return to the original preset setting, click ‘REAPPLY PRESET’.

Importing Reference Tracks

To import reference tracks, click the file + icon and drag and drop your tracks into the window. FASTER MASTER will analyze these references, extracting their tonal balance and stereo width information to create custom sonic profiles. Once imported, they remain in the Reference track folder and can be recalled.

When using a preset created from a reference track, you can compare your mastered track to the reference track. Click the ‘Play’ button in the preset display to preview your reference track level-matched to your mastered song. Click the red ‘Stop’ button to switch back to your mastered song.

EQ:

Specifically designed for mastering, the EQ module features pristine filters that minimize phase distortion and transient smearing, ensuring your tracks maintain their clarity and impact during the mastering process. All EQ adjustments you make are level matched in real time, so when you hit bypass, you can fairly compare the before and after.

After analysis, we suggest you flick through the 10 smart presets to quickly preview different EQ approaches. Choose your favourite starting point, then fine-tune it to match your preference.

When you load a preset, it takes a second to calculate loudness matching for the processing adjustments. However, once a preset has been loaded, it is cached and will load instantly when selected again.

Click and drag the “100%” readout to adjust the mix percentage.

Transients:

Refining transients is key to achieving a pro sound. The Transient module handles the complex processing in the background behind an intuitive interface. Drag up to boost punch, down to soften it. The adjustments you make are level-matched in real-time, ensuring you only hear the effect of the transient processing without being influenced by a change in loudness.

Compression

Compression balances the dynamic range, ensuring all the elements of your mix are clear and cohesive.

The compression module provides exceptional sounding mastering compression with simple controls. You only need to adjust the amount to suit your preferences.

Under the hood, the threshold is intelligently set based on your audio's peaks. Other parameters are set automatically based on your chosen compression level: Off, Light, Dynamic or Tight.

The low-cut sidechain filter icon in the top right corner removes frequencies below 250Hz from the input signal to the compressor. This prevents loud kick and bass peaks from causing unnatural pumping.

Of course, any adjustments you make are instantly level-matched, so you hear the true impact of the compression without being misled by variations in loudness.

Stereo:

Setting the appropriate stereo spread for your track enhances spatial clarity and depth, resulting in a more immersive and balanced listening experience.

The stereo module gives you control over the width of your song using filters that maintain your audios integrity and avoid any unwanted phase issues.

Frequency Ranges

• Low-end range: 20-150Hz
• Low-mid range: 150-600Hz
• High-mid range: 600Hz-3kHz
• High-end range: 3kHz-20kHz

Adjusting The Stereo Width

• Narrower Stereo Spread: Drag the node towards the middle to reduce the ‘side’ EQ of that range by up to -8dB.
• Wider Stereo Spread: Drag the node towards the sides to increase the ‘side’ EQ of that range by up to +8dB.

Hover over a node to display a readout popup with the exact changes made. You can hide the pop-up in settings.

In the presets, the low-end and low-mid range nodes are set to cut only (or remain at 0 if the preset technically called for a boost) because boosting these frequencies can sound unnatural, so boosting is disabled by default through the presets—but you can still adjust them manually.

Limit:

Limiting can make or break your music. Bad limiter settings can ruin your track instantly. FASTER MASTER gives you optimized limiter settings tailored to your unique song. All you need to do is set your preferred loudness.

Selectable Loudness Nodes

The 6 selectable nodes offer different loudness options:

Streaming Options (left side):

• Maximum loudness of -10, -9, and -8 LUFS short-term

Loud Options (right side):

• Maximum loudness of -7, -6, and -5 LUFS short-term

Click -0.1 to enter your ceiling/output level.

Click dB to switch from peak limiting (dB) to true peak limiting (TP).

The drive slider introduces harmonic distortion that increases the perceived loudness, power, and presence of your master.

The moving white line displays the current short-term LUFS value of your music, helping you monitor loudness in real-time.

The refresh button (next to the limit bypass button) reanalyses the audio to correct the loudness without affecting the other settings. This is useful if you add plugins before Faster Master in your chain that change the loudness.

Lock

Locking a module keeps the settings unchanged when switching presets.

Bypass

It’s impossible to make fair comparisons between two audio sources that have different loudness. FASTER MASTER accurately level-matches the bypassed signal to give you a clear representation of the difference between your limited audio and the original audio, with the latency adjusted.

Level-matched bypass can be turned on or off in settings.

A/B

The A/B button allows you to quickly switch between two different states of the plug-in. This enables you to try a different approach to your audio to see what works best.

The arrow above the A/B button copies the active state to the inactive state. This allows you to keep the current settings of the plugin in the inactive state and make a few adjustments in the active state to see if you can improve the sound. You can then jump between A/B to see which you prefer.

Undo Redo

The Undo button reverses your last action, while the Redo button reinstates an action you've undone. Undo is limited to the last preset you selected.

Settings

You can change your preferences in settings, as well as the plugin size and theme.

Thank you

Thanks so much for watching. We truly hope FASTER MASTER helps you create your best-sounding masters. We’re here to help if you run into any problems or have any questions.

Help

System Requirements

FASTER MASTER is available in, VST3, Audio Unit, and AAX formats.

MAC OSX Requirements

• OS X 10.15 or higher. 64-bit AU, VST 3, or AAX host.

WINDOWS Requirements

• Windows 7, 8, or 10. 64-bit VST 3, or 64-bit AAX host.

Installation

When running the Mastering The Mix Global installer you can choose which of our software to install. If you wish to install further software at a later date then just re-run the installer and select the software you wish to install. Installed software will have a tick next to it and it will be greyed out.

(Please note to reinstall software you will first need to uninstall that particular software, see below for details).

• AU - (Ableton Live, Logic Pro, Cubase, Garage Band, Presonus Studio One, and more).
• VST3 - (Ableton, Ableton Live, Acid PRO, Cubase, Nuendo, FL Studio, and more).
• AAX - (Pro Tools).

The support files and software are installed to the following default locations.

On OSX these are:

/Applications/MasteringTheMix - for the Uninstaller program

/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components - for AU plugins

/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST - for VST plugins

/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3 - for VST3 plugins

/Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio/Plug-Ins - for AAX plugins

On Windows these are*:

C:\Program Files\MasteringTheMix\FASTERMASTER.exe

C:\Program Files\MasteringTheMix - for the Uninstaller program

C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3 - for VST3 plugins

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Avid\Audio\Plug-Ins - for AAX plugins

Following installation, you can move the files to your desired location if required.

* The exact drive letter may vary according to your system.

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Please note that all of our plugins are now 64-bit only.

To uninstall, simply run the Uninstall program and then select the required options.

Authorization

After you have purchased, you will receive an email with a serial code in this format...

XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX

Online Authorisation (Default)

Open your Mastering The Mix Plugin in your DAW and click the KEY icon in the top right-hand corner of the plugin wrapper. This will open an authorization page where you can copy and paste your authorization key. Click ‘Authorise’, and you’re good to go! You will have two activations per license purchased.

Offline Authorisation

1. Copy and paste the license code sent to you via email into the box below that says ‘Product Key’. Your license code will have this format: XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX.
2. Click 'Generate' to generate your Offline Activation Request XML. This file will be saved to your desktop.
3. Transfer this file to an online computer.
4.  Upload the file to our website and you will receive an Activation Response XML file download.
5. Transfer that file onto your offline computer.
6. Click 'Load' then locate your Activation Response XML file to authorize your software offline.