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 … https://www.gvst.co.uk/gmulti.htm
KSHMR Essentials Kick … https://www.waproduction.com/plugins/view/kshmr-essentials-kick
Puncher2 lite … https://bedroomproducersblog.com/2021/01/25/puncher-2-lite/
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 … https://forum.audacityteam.org/t/free-v3-toneboosters-plugins/64538/3
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.