The solution which works for me (so far), is to use a digital desk with end-of-the-chain compression and EQ. A&H QU24 in my case, gives me a parametric EQ, compressor and graphic EQ just before the master outputs.
I also have an old TC Finalizer 96K which I’ve considered using on the output from the Finalizer, but haven’t felt a real need so far.
You can do effectively the same thing with a multi-effects pedal like the Mod Duo, if you want something a bit more rugged.
The closest I’ve that could be a “mastering” chain for my live setup is an Analog Heat, Suonobuono nABC+ compressor (or a FMR RNC depending if I want sidechaining or not) plugged into my A&H Xone 96 mixer. The Heat + Xone 96 let me roughly EQ the sound without having to fiddle too much, the compressor and the Heat glue everything together. The Xone 96 also allows me to EQ the FX return tracks with a rough parametric EQ.
I don’t use this setup to record tracks though, it’s supposed to be more hands-on possible and use the mixer + Heat to be played a little. So maybe it’s more a master FX chain than a mastering per se, but it works so far.
Using a Model 1 mixer providing analog overdrive + hp/lp filter+ single-band parametric eq on each track + selective master hp/lp filter + 3-band master eq; combined with an Elysia qube xpressor on the L/R out for master compression duties.
thanks for all the interesting and great answers. i know and own / owned devices like suonobuono, fmr, analog heat, and so on. maybe i used them incorrectly, but i if i use for example the AH on the master, i can get a good sound out of it, but i would need another device again to e.g. sidechain a track of my digitone keys to a kick, right? or if i want to EQ only one track, i would need a hardware EQ for that track. Am i overthinking this?
thats why here seems to me an ipad + audio interface with may inputs (ipad because it is small, possibly with rugged case and because there are more and more professional plugins for ios) a more flexible solution, no?
This is has been discussed already here: Stimming’s Instant Mastering Chain
It’s not so common which hopefully gives you a hint about it being a good idea…
edit:
when i jam and record daw-less, the stuff i do often sounds pretty crappy.
What you find crappy may well be what makes your sound “alive” on stage. YMMV of course, but don’t overlook this.
A decent digital mixer will give you the flexibility you’re looking for here, or yes, you can do it by bringing every track into the box and mixing there. If you’ve got a lot of tracks, soing this in hardware will be quite expensive, and if you want midi recall it may not be possible at all.
This is a great point. Don’t kill it with polish. I was listening to some old Slow Dancing Society albums in the car on Sunday, and realised how “unpolished” the production on Sound Of Lights When Dim and Slow And Steady Winter was. But also that it gave it a rawness, an honesty, and a “liveness” later, more polished albums lacked.
It’s sometimes hard to avoid the “louder sounds better” pitfall when it comes about judging your (live) sound before and after you used ableton to polish it.
Try to listen to the dawless mix and your ableton mastered version at the same levels. Does it still sound better and if so, why?
Then you can adjust the sound you like with your dawless gear only, by using the tools your setup has. Process samples if needed (or resample them).
Note that most of the time in a live situation the requirements of how your sound is mixed is different as for a mastered recording. Think of stereo imaging, frequency range, the amount of details, etc. You can use this in your advantage.
There is no need to “max out” the levels of your music when you are performing live with your gear. That’s also the charm of live: That you can have a different sound and have more dynamics compared to fully polished squashed tracks.
Do you play after a DJ who maxed out all gain and just played a -4dB RMS track? Start with an interesting intro / sounscape first. Ears calibrate volume within a minute and it makes your liveset more interesting too.
Then in the end you maybe don’t need a “mastering chain” after all.
It will be more flexible, and I went through a phase where I was always looking for more flexibility instead of immediacy. In my case it doesn’t really work, I want the immediacy because flexibility only brings more and more questions to be answered. The adage that limitations foster creativity is very true, and very frustrating at points.
What I learned from having a lot of flexibility and scaling back is that with flexibility you start with almost limitless possibilities and shave it off until you mold it into a template to be re-used, so all the flexibility works until you cement on one workflow and stick to it. Instead I scaled back the other way, removed some of the flexibility and focused on a few things I thought were absolutely needed for my workflow, e.g.: being able to always record whatever is playing through my mixer into the Octatrack (with the option to isolate which mixer channel I want recorded or the master mix); having 2 return tracks with EQs for 2 FX pedals; having a “playable” mixer that I can use as an instrument; having a sidechain for the master mix (I make dance music so pumping with a sidechain is kinda required a lot of times), and so on.
Unfortunately all of this took time and experimentation with different hardware to learn what sticks or not to my workflow. I’m only an amateur but I realised that having a workflow that works for me is the most important thing, and that only comes through iterations and iterations of trial-and-error, hehe.
very interesting approach - I will meditate on this!
this comment is absolute gold and I had the same experience. I scaled back a lot and slowly I’m about to find my path. Thanks for your comment!
This might be a shot on an open goal, but still should be mentioned. Going by this sentence you wrote:
First make sure your jams sound as good as possible in the mixing stage (during the Creation proces). There’s no such thing as a magical device that will make a bad mix sound good. Start from the root and make eveything sound as good as you can. Using something like heat on the master is nice to add a little extra loudness and to glue a mix together, but that’s it.
Regarding sidechain compression: use plocking on amp volume, LFO on amp volume. Also great to use midi LFO’s for this stuff. But best to not use it mainly to fix something that doesn’t sit well in the mix to begin with. Use it for creative reasons and/or to add energy to a groove. And maybe just that little nodge no make it part of a mix.
I was about to write something alike.
@Procyborg maybe analyze your mastering actions, and make sure your jam ensure these are covered from the root?
E.g. if you use your EQ to filter the bass from an instrument, apply some HP filter on this instrument from the start…
One thing to always keep in mind for a live setup is that you will never get to studio levels of quality. The best way to handle that is to accept it and embrance the rawer sound.
Think about it, when a DIY songwriter gets on the stage alone with his guitar, what’s the maximum you can expected from him? His voice, his guitar, and maybe some looping and/or a drum machine if he’s ambitious. Levels are usually left to the sound guy. Do you really think you will get that polished studio sound with all the added flourishes and instrumentation you’ll get on an album?
Now transpose these expectations to yourself. Suddenly, because we make electronic music, we should be able to improvise a whole polished studio album with mixing and mastering included with three boxes in front of us.
Because electronic music has been so much linked to DJing, expectations on what one single person will produce live are impossibly high, and for the sake of our peace of mind, we should not listen to them.
Funny thing is that the opposite is true a lot of the time. People actually love the sound of a proper live set compared to the completely squeashed mastered DJ tracks. Because a bigger dynamic range sounds nice and punches more potentially when done right.
Exactly, embrace it!
And in my case, I much prefer to dedicate the master effects on my OT setup to some dramatic stuff like a reverb and a filter, than to an EQ or a compressor.
I used an iPad with TB EQ and TB Barricade for my master track compression. I run my main outs into that. I find it works well enough. I have been using the OT master channel, but I think I need that extra track for samples.
To me, “Live mastering” sounds like cooking a meal of fresh ingredients, then adding preservative agents for flavor. Or riding a bike while pumping up the tire.
Maybe I’m just an old fart, but I wouldn’t have thought about using these words in context.
It’s probably for lack of a better descriptive, i know.
great advice from the master ! 
regarding plocking/lfo as “fake”
sidechain: i always tthink that it’s not precise like a real compressor in terms of attack and release and my ears tend do suggest that it’s complete off - even if in reality probably it’s not