Would you recommend mixing and mastering in audacity for music? What are some effects you would use for a good mix and some effects you would do for a good master?
A multi-band compressor is useful for mixing & mastering.
Audacity is shipped with a single-band compressor.
Here are 7 free multi-band compressor plugins which work in Audcaity on Windows …
G-Multi … GVST - GMulti
KSHMR Essentials Kick … KSHMR Essentials Kick | W. A. Production
Puncher2 lite … W.A. Production Releases FREE Puncher 2 Lite Transient Shaper - Bedroom Producers Blog
OTT (which is OTT, i.e. extreme) … https://xferrecords.com/freeware
Rough Rider Pro (which is like OTT, but more controls) … https://youtu.be/eKu7fJdQZlU?t=519
ToneBoosters FIX … https://youtu.be/5fffEP5-N5o?t=133 (unusually can expand as well as compress)
ToneBoosters Broadcast … Free (v3) ToneBooster's plugins - #3 by Trebor
Mastering, yes.
Mixing, it depends on the number of tracks and the “complexity” of what you’re doing.
A [u]DAW[/u] will give you a master level control* and it will allow you to apply different effects “non-destructively” to different tracks so you can listen to what you’re doing and adjust before you render. But you’ll have a steeper learning curve, and most of them are not free.
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- Mixing is done by summation so without a master level control, if you are mixing two tracks the level has to be cut about in half (-6dB) or with 4 tracks they have to be reduced to about -12dB etc. Audacity uses floating point so it can go over 0dB so it’s not too critical as long as you export (render) to floating-point and then you can adjust the level down in mastering. But would be easier if we had a master level control.