Відео

Thank you so much for the kind words! ☺

Thanks for watching! Yes you're right I really should be putting more emphasis on the fact that it's the original recording where you need to get things right, but in my experience, a lot of the artists I'm working with either prefer prioritising their creative workflow over getting their recordings perfect, or have difficulty controlling things like stereo width due to restrictions in their equipment (e.g using modular where there is no way to control the width of most stereo voices or effects). Yes it's not ideal, but I'd prefer that artists had a grasp of how and why the issue occurs, so that they can hopefully bear this in mind as far back as the recording process - but at the least they can try and mitigate some of the mistakes they've made at the mixing process, so things are in better condition by the time they get to me. I'm planning to bang on about mid/side in my next video, looking forward to hearing your thoughts on that 😋

Thanks for watching! Good question - I haven't had a chance to check these out yet. I took a look at Dan Worral's excellent in-depth video on it, and it looks like Elliptical and Arbiter could be useful for ambient, whereas the other two have very specific applications that might make them less often used. Also worth noting that these are intended for using on full mixes, ie for mastering. But they're on sale, I might pick them up and do a video on them!

@@holosuitemastering Arbiter seem very intressting and yur right the ultraInfrasonic filter juzz usefull for hi SamplingRate like 88.2 or higher then those are useful! Danke fürden Reply brudiee!!

Thanks for that, I mentioned that I did that in the video, but perhaps I wasn't clear enough 😅

@@holosuitemastering sorry if I missed it!

All good, it's buried in a pile of nonsense 😋

Thanks so much for watching! It's great to have one on hand - I often get the feeling something is out of phase, and it's handy to be able to check my suspicions 😉

Thanks! Nice to connect with others who share my perspective😊

Thanks for watching! I would appreciate more info on how this works - what you describe initially sounds like creating a null (copying a track and then reversing the polarity), which is useful for detecting distortion, but I wasn't aware it had other uses. I certainly agree that there is no right or wrong when it comes to music - although as a mastering engineer I have a responsibility to follow a set of established rules of thumb based on psycho-acoustic principles to maximise the playability (and hopefully enjoyability) of artists' music - only to the extent that it still gels with their artistic vision, of course!

@@holosuitemastering yes , null and then any difference is making sound but in a different way by changing small amount in values. EQ with frequency you don't want it's two moves on encoder or a Fader, mouse and that's it. Everything can be separated and later cleaned out from bleedings and tails. . But as long music is authentic everything is good without going to Overcomplicating what should be a simple process. I have job to solve the Audio and from that time I know that everything can be fixed without " A.I. " & Spectral Shapers. I don't worry and I usually finish music in several recording takes. I think that it's more important to find workflow and rest is up to Art and Honesty. I don't stream towards perfection because I already did something I was trying and I want to be short but to explain that it's about people, connections, making new contacts and later listeners and if my colleague want to be Free I won't stop him in his interpretation of my Track or in Collab. That's the thing I want to say. Freedom and I am getting all positive vibes no matter if it is something mine or from other Artists. Only together we can do more.

Agreed - it's no secret that a good recording makes a good mix, which also makes a good master - although from personal experience it can take years to get a good sense of what a good recording sounds like - I think spectral and AI tools are there to help us bridge that gap until we develop that sense on our own. But of course at the end of the day it only matters whether you vibe with the song, no matter how "well" or "poorly" it was produced!

Thanks so much for watching! Yes, exactly as you say - put Valhalla on a bus, then add an EQ before and/or after as needed😊

@@holosuitemastering Thank you so much for getting back to me so rapidly. Very much appreciated and thank you for such an insightful and useful video. Superb!!!

😉🙏

Oh nice, I had not heard of that! And what about it do you think makes it better over the Waves ones, out of curiosity?

@@holosuitemastering The Saturate Emulation with Oversampling think both are better than Wavez.

Thanks for watching! Are you referring to the hardware version, the EQP-WA? In which case, of course hardware beats software by default 😊 I haven't heard any appreciable difference between the different Pultec EQ plugins I've tried, but I appreciate that others have articulated some - but I'm quite happy with the Waves ones. Would love a hardware version tho!

Thanks so much for watching! I often use a small amount of reverb on a mix bus or in a master - as little as 2-5% wet can do a great job without causing too many issues. I would caution against going for more than 10% wet unless you want to make the mix sound drowned in reverb (which is totally fine if that's what you're going for!). Please share your album when it's done! 😊

Thanks so much for watching! Could you please clarify what you mean?

@@holosuitemastering stereoize is off i mean

Oh yes no stereoizer - that is only for making mono signals seem more like stereo. I tend to avoid using it unless I'm really desperate, as it really can mess with the phase pretty bad (even though Izotope have taken great pains to avoid it).

@@holosuitemastering so if its stereo signal goes through stereoizer it get more wide ryt n u think it will have phase issues

I guess so - I've never actually tried stereoizer on a stereo signal, to be honest! But yeah as far as I understand it, it uses a similar principle to the Haas effect (very short delay on one side), so that would be highly likely to cause phase issues on a stereo track

Thanks so much for the support! That would be awesome, I don't have a lot of knowledge about FL studio 🙂

Thanks so much for watching! It is tonal, but the biggest issue is really one of volume. If I'd tried to do the same using EQ, it would be far fiddlier, because I'd need to target all the frequencies that make up the kid's voice, without compromising all the other things happening in that track. Dynamic EQ might have done the job, but it would have to be relatively broad-band, and thus wouldn't be much different from compression. And I can't remember exactly what I did in the released version of this track, but I bet it was a combination of all these!

Thank you! 😊

Thanks for the feedback! Yes good idea for more before and after, as a mastering engineer everything I do is so subtle - easy to take for granted that others might not hear it😅 Yeah it's pretty impressive how much small differences in the mod and feedback controls can really transform a reverb - I tend to just use the one preset I know well, avoid touching those controls and just use volume and EQ to blend - a bit more of a "brute force" approach than yours, hehe. But then again it's kind of part of my "sound", so I treat it like an instrument in itself, rather than in a supporting role - I tend to add processing on top of it as well. When you say pre-EQ could be used to EQ some signals, but not others - what do you mean? I usually add it directly before the reverb, so it _should_ capture everything that's fed into it - right? The only thing it won't capture is the internal feedback.

@@holosuitemastering lets say hypothetically you didn't like the way the low or high end of one signal sounded through the reverb (and you don't want to eq the dry part of it), but you were ok with the way it sounded on other signals coming through, you could send just that one to a channel that just had that eq and then that channel can be sent to reverb, or at least that's how I would do it in fl studio. Also yeah that's kinda what I meant too; like an instrument.

Ah right I see what you mean! That sounds fiddly but definitely a good way to avoid cutting out the high end on everything, if it's just one instrument causing the trouble.

Thank you! Cheers!

Thanks for watching! Most people comment that the screaming kid is a kind of focal point in the released version of this track - I guess it adds a bit of a dramatic point, rather than just making it background noise. But each to their own! I just used this track as it was particularly easy to show the effect of the compression, which I think a lot of newer artists have trouble hearing. And of course I used other techniques in the original track to help it sit better in the mix, this was just a demo! I don't feel that there's anything wrong with adding compression distortion if it sounds good - particularly in a genre like ambient where kinda smudging things together actually adds to the vibe

I would argue that LUFS is in fact not a measure of perceived loudness - it doesn't take into account frequency balance, which affects perceived loudness. As far as I understand it, LUFS at its most basic is a measure of the difference between the loudest and quietest parts of a track (plus other magic I don't quite grasp). But you're right - if a track doesn't have any quiet parts because they're full of ambience, you're gonna get a high LUFS. All it really means is that we should take LUFS with a grain of salt, and just use our ears to judge whether a song sounds good on its own. And it also means we shouldn't decide that a specific LUFS measure is "too loud" for a particular genre!

Thanks for watching! I hope other genres have something to learn from ambient - I've certainly learned a lot from EDM!

Thanks for watching! Let me know if there's anything else you'd like me to cover!

Yay, another winner! 👏👏👏 Thanks so much for the support!

Thanks so much for watching! Happy to be of service 😁

Congrats winner! 💪 Hiss is a tricky one - like you I usually try and fix it with EQ. Depending on how pervasive the hiss is, you could experiment with gating it, or Izotope RX has a de-hiss function that can work pretty well. Obviously the best option would be to look at different field recording techniques that introduce less hiss - for example a shotgun mic, if you haven't tried one. And the other option is to just embrace it and sculpt it so that it isn't fatiguing to listen to (ie scoop out around 2-6kHz or so). The last option would be to have other parts of the mix provide the high end - I like to boost the top end of synths in my ambient so that they fill up that top end - I usually just keep the top end relatively low in the mix so it doesn't sound harsh. Hope that helps! 🙂

Thanks for watching! Agree on all those points. Really this is just meant to be an intro to compression - and an encouragement for ambient artists to start messing around with it in a way that will help them to think more critically about the dynamics of their tracks. Ambient and experimental music are also very broad umbrella terms, so it's hard to prescribe any specific methods because it all depends on the source material. I tend to do most of my compression in multiband cos most of the spiky stuff is in the top end, and apart from that stick to volume automation - but I'll tackle that in a later video 😉

@@holosuitemastering Ah nice, I imagine multiband would work even better for the example you used in this video

Definitely! Dynamic EQ also helps a lot too, it's so much more effective when you can target specific frequencies

Thanks for watching, winner! 🙌

Thanks winner! Ableton have packed a lot into that tiny-looking plugin!

Also, "Win!" lol

Another winner! Congrats 🙌 I'll add that to my list of future vids, thanks for asking!

Thanks for watching! Let me know if there's anything special you'd like me to cover!

Sorry about that! Not sure why they weren't showing. I've tried to re-add them, let me know if they still don't work!

Thanks so much for watching! Hope it helps!

Thanks for watching! Let me know if there are any topics you'd like me to cover in the future!

I mostly use multiband too! And will do a video on that later to supplement this one. Holy moly that spectral compressor is insane, will definitely be messing around with that! Here's the link to the AU5 video in case anyone wants to check that out: ua-cam.com/video/jo_ayanaKo4/v-deo.html

Glad it helped! 🙂

Dense indeed! That whole album is fantastic

Appreciate it! 🙏

My pleasure! Thanks for watching!

Thanks for the tip! However, not all DAWs have this feature - as far as I know, Ableton doesn't - it's just automation on or off.

@@holosuitemastering Hm, upon Googling "does ableton have latch mode", there is definitely this feature..."Touch Mode" sir

Got a link? This page mentions touch mode, but only in relation to recording automation. Under "overriding automation", it says the only option is to temporarily disable an automation - there is no way to leave it active while manually adjusting the same value. But I might have missed something! www.ableton.com/en/manual/automation-and-editing-envelopes/

I know, I know, clickbait titles are the worst aren't they😩

@@holosuitemastering Yeah really annoying

After some thought, you're right - I've changed the title - what kind of monster have I become

Thanks so much for the tip! 🙏 How's FL for ambient these days?

​@@holosuitemastering FL is great for ambient.. though i'm definitely a bit biased as it's the only DAW i've ever really used in my studio and on all of my releases to date. its open and interconnected nature accommodates a variety of both straight-forward and experimental workflows. much like Photoshop, there are several different ways you can accomplish most any task, and none of them are necessarily wrong. Benn Jordan did a great video a while back highlighting how powerful it's become over the years.. worth the watch, if you haven't kept up with its development. (edit: i just rewatched that video and i'm pretty sure it's where i learned the aforementioned automation trick back when.. genuine lol)

Awesome, thanks for the recommend! I haven't used it in like 15 years, so I have a lot of catching up to to! 😋

Sorry for the wait! Trying to put these out weekly where I can 😄

Thanks so much for watching! Happy to help 😊

Thanks so much for watching! Glad it was helpful!

Overlooking is Trend in all Genres and I tried to help but I didn't give up just made my conclusion about me and my time because I see problems and questions about something that is made up so I decided to be totally honest and if I can help I will do it gladly but to recreate the problem just to see that it's on purpose... It's hard it takes years to become accepted ect. so I like when I find good, efficient Videos , Channels like this and only possibly is possible and that's a good thing and I have friends that I meet over comment and there's so much more but basic principles are to easy to be true so I see how people are becoming Horders or they are spending time with several Compressors trying to... Find receptie for Magic.😃 It's not a secret it Awareness so you can only understand and improve, learn and do what you wished for. Many friends have hung up their guitars as if they are done with music because there is no band, but that does not mean that there is no Music. There's always a solution and it's always a simple one but if one person is holding objectivity and knowledge and it's a person to who you can trust and that's in some turning point very important because we all have emotional variations and we all make mistakes but together people are talking and critique is the only way for Improvement together with Ideas. Everything else is basic Volume, Pan, EQ and choice of instrument and it's half way finished but we are social beings and it's easier when someone tells you what he thinks then to let you go, so it's Honesty and Trust that will always be something that is behind Big Artist. Behind The Curtains.

#notallambient!

Interesting! I imagined that the internal dynamics of game music matter less than its relative volume to the other aspects of the sound design - dialogue, sound effects, etc - but I'm sure I'm missing something there

Thanks so much for watching! I realise I didn't actually specify in my video that the LUFS I was focusing on was the _short-term_ measurement. I imagine if I looked at the integrated values these tracks would have been closer to the values you've quoted. My intention was to show that music based on sustained tones has very little in the way of microdynamics, and thus can actually be raised quite loud without compromising the fidelity, but of course I'm a noob and didn't think to actually mention that in the video - and I neglected to look at macrodynamics! And good point, I missed a lot of classic artists in here - I was just picking the ones I love and listen to the most - but I will at some point do another of these videos about Eno, Roach, Oliveros, Tangerine Dream, etc - I'm particuarly curious to see whether I can compare the original vinyl to the remasters to see how much louder they are (my guess is a lot!)

Not really, you need headroom for transient, if the track is just pad, you really don't need much headroom.

@@holosuitemastering Funny you mention Oliveros. Two of my go-to references for ambient mixes are always she and Eno. That said: I quoted those numbers because after agonizing over my first ambient mix a few years ago, (Everything was hovering around the infamous -14 LUFS integrated and sounding awfully crushed with no nuance) I measured some classic ambient recordings and was blown away at how low they were. Once I gave myself permission to go there, my music had the life it needed. Grant it, this is my personal taste as my ambient is REALLY quiet. (I like to force the listener into a state of "Deep Listening" in the style of Oliveros). For me, it just sounds better with all the headroom. But not all ambient needs to be of course. Some of Eno's later recordings were somewhat higher as they tended to be not as quiet. So perhaps it's the "quiet factor" needed?

Definitely a horses for courses thing! As @olafsigursons mentioned above, dynamics is all about how big the peaks/transients are, so depending on the content of a track, it may not need all that headroom. All you really need to do is make sure that the peaks are just below 0dBFS (or I guess -1dBFS to account for inter-sample peaks). If there anything lower than that, then it's just wasted headroom (and some would argue you might degrade the signal as its quietest parts will be closer to the "noise floor", especially if you're dithering your masters)

🙏☺️