Okay, I had some time to run this through some plugs tonight. Here's the file.
http://www.markszabo.net/music/Rain09_Master.mp3
Here's what I did to it.
1. I put a de-esser on it. I was about to get a tiny bit of the sibiliance out, maybe 2dB. Any more than that and the track started to pump. If I had access to the main vocal track I could remove the sibilance from that alone.
2. I put a Neve 33609 compressor plug on the track, gently compressing at 1.5:1 ratio, with the meters coming down around 4dB. The meters aren't real accurate though - I think it was only compressing the peaks.
3. I put a Neve 1081 EQ plug on the track. I cut everything below 40Hz (rumble), boosted a peak at 100Hz (the bass of the kick drum), cut about 8dB at 270Hz (mud), and boosted about 4dB at 15k (for air).
4. I added a UAD Precision Limiter and boosted gain until I got a tiny bit of gain reduction on the track - meaning I made it as loud as I could without seriously dipping into the dynamics of the track.
5. I added an Apogee UV22HR plug on the master buss to smooth out the dithering from 24 to 16 bits.
Finally, I mixed it down to a 320K MP3.
I think it sounds a bit different. I recommend listening to the first 15 seconds of your original, then start this mastered version.
http://www.markszabo.net/music/Rain09_Master.mp3
Here's what I did to it.
1. I put a de-esser on it. I was about to get a tiny bit of the sibiliance out, maybe 2dB. Any more than that and the track started to pump. If I had access to the main vocal track I could remove the sibilance from that alone.
2. I put a Neve 33609 compressor plug on the track, gently compressing at 1.5:1 ratio, with the meters coming down around 4dB. The meters aren't real accurate though - I think it was only compressing the peaks.
3. I put a Neve 1081 EQ plug on the track. I cut everything below 40Hz (rumble), boosted a peak at 100Hz (the bass of the kick drum), cut about 8dB at 270Hz (mud), and boosted about 4dB at 15k (for air).
4. I added a UAD Precision Limiter and boosted gain until I got a tiny bit of gain reduction on the track - meaning I made it as loud as I could without seriously dipping into the dynamics of the track.
5. I added an Apogee UV22HR plug on the master buss to smooth out the dithering from 24 to 16 bits.
Finally, I mixed it down to a 320K MP3.
I think it sounds a bit different. I recommend listening to the first 15 seconds of your original, then start this mastered version.