The ABA Master Test
What is each plugin on your master actually doing?
Three versions of the same mix, measured the same way. The as-delivered file sets the baseline, your full chain shows what you do now, and the minimum chain keeps only the plugins that earn their place.
The baseline
- 01
On your computer, find the mix file exactly as the client sent it. Make a copy and rename the copy.
Name it . Don't open it in your mastering software or render it. The untouched file is the baseline.
- 02
Open AudioVibes (on this site it's Toolbox on the menu, then the AudioVibes icon on the wheel). Set the target to CD master and drop in the A file. Save all three reports.
You'll see the four criticals at the top, free: true peak, limiting, low-end phase and clipping.
Your full chain
- 03
In your mastering software, master the mix the way you normally would. Make the last step the conversion to 16-bit, 44.1 kHz, with dither.
Name it and use the same dither on each version from here on.
- 04
In your browser, drop the C file into AudioVibes, still on CD master. Save all three reports.
- 05
In your mastering software, bypass one plugin and render. Drop the render into AudioVibes. Log it below. Repeat for each plugin in the chain.
Keep a plugin only if removing it moves a measurement or loses something you can pick out blind.
The plugin log
| # | Plugin | Bypassed, what moved | Verdict |
|---|
Add each plugin in chain order. The log fills the file names in for you.
The minimum
- 06
In your mastering software, rebuild the chain with only the plugins marked Keep. Render it with the same dither.
Name it
- 07
In your browser, drop the B file into AudioVibes on CD master. Save all three reports.
The comparison
- 08
Open ABA Compare in your browser, load the A, C and B files, and pick your favorite blind, before you look at a number.
Compare matches the loudness for you, so the loudest version can't win just by being loud. The reports keep each file at its real level.
- 09
Fix the low end with what you have. In ABA Compare, switch between A, C and B and watch the bass on the frequency display.
You'll see where the bass sits and where it piles up, and which version moved it. Then check the low-end phase line in each AudioVibes report: it tells you whether the bass below 120 Hz holds up in mono.
- 10
Open the three full reports you saved for A, C and B side by side and read the measurements line by line: loudness, true peak, dynamics, phase.
Compare the measurements, not the overall score. Then check the whole album: the gaps and the level from song to song matter on a CD as much as any single master.
Membership
Ten steps. A report for each version. Keep them.
Signed out, what you measure here is not kept for you. This page only remembers your ticks, and only in this browser. Members get a page of their own where the readings they take while signed in are saved.
- A, C, B and each bypass, saved to your member page.
- Come back next week and the numbers are still there. Same file, same numbers.
- Your saved readings listed in one place, ready to compare against your next master.
- Sign up with your email address. No password to remember.
Your audio never leaves your machine. It is decoded and analyzed in your browser, and it is never transmitted.
The four tools