Do my own mastering. Unless you're popular enough to be able to release an album, or submit commercial work to guarantee $$$ returns it's a waste of cash. The people who support you are going to support you anyways, and they aren't going to care about the difference between a professional master and a home master. For personal projects at least, as long as the music is presentable and the mix isn't distractingly bad people will enjoy it. I find this in pretty much every field in life... you can always pay experts to do everything for you, but it's so much more cost effective in the long run to just spend the years/time to learn various skills for yourself.
This. I spent so much money on my plugins and chains that anything else spent elsewhere would be stupid, if you have a relatively good ear and it’s decent the average listener won’t care, other musicians nitpick the first few notes without ever listening to the SONG for what it is, and it all comes down to that, not how much $ you dropped for a master of a song that isn’t even good lol Remember, the Beatles recordings were “ass” by todays standards “depending on your preference” yet they’re globally known and revered. Let that sink in :)
Exactly! A lot of genres don't want a polished mix or master, and even if they do, as long as it doesn't sound like total garbage then it's fine. People need to learn to use the volume control on their stereo if they want a "loud" song.
I would be very careful with linear phase EQ on your master since it can cause Pre-Ringing, which can smear your transients and reduce the punch. The phase shift on your master barely matters, because you're not adding the EQ'd signal back to the original, where the out-of-phase frequencies would be reduced in level. Don't be afraid to use minimum phase filters on your mix, especially if they're shelf/bell filters that barely affect the phase.
Wow! Nice video and in a concise matter. In a short amount of time, this video goes where other YT mastering videos don't. Great work JST! VERY helpful!!!
Man, I just found the JST UA-cam channel within the last week. It is my new favorite audio-related channel! Thank you for the high quality content! Subscribed!!
Hi Joey. Thanks for this concise walkthrough. Great content. I switched from Pro-C2/Pro-L2 to the Weiss DS1-MK3. No more distortion. I'm in limiting heaven.
Right now I add a compressor, EQ, stereo widener and limiter. I've only been recording, mixing and mastering for about a year so I still have alot to learn. I'm glad I'm on the right path thanks to your videos and other sources I get tips from.
Thx for the clarification on making separate masters for different platforms containing different loudness guidelines. I was having these ideas a few months ago and was starting to believe I was overthinking it. But to hear this from you helped me to understand that I was on the right track with how I was wanting to approach things. I've also thought it would be a good idea to make a master that was in mono for club systems and a separate one for stereo. This mainly applies to dj's who want to make good mixes that sound great in cars, headphones or any good stereo setups and then also have a mono mix thats hitting really well for club systems or any other systems that are only using mono.
Great video! One question: On the "EQ" section of the video, you said you like to EQ only specific frequencies that are standing out too much. Is there a reason you do this in mastering, instead of going back to the mix, diagnosing the awkward freq, and then, back to mastering (besides the "commit to the mix" philosophy)?
I master my mixes! I use T-Racks classic clipper and some iZotope Ozone stuff, adding harmonics in the lower frequencies if the mix sounds thin on smaller speakers, and also its limiter which I really love! IRC4 for lyfe. Also bus compressor to start the chain off,, sounds so nice.
Thank you very much, I haven't noticed anybody talking about dithering at the end of the chain, so I'm going to try that right away on a song I'm working on. BTW, please, can you, Joey, or anybody else tell me what Reaper theme is that you are using in the video?
My BUS is filled with: PRO-Q 2 (mid/side EQ control), SSL BUS compressor, iZotope Ozone, LoudMax, SPAN, YLSM, VU Meter. Just these four, to have complete control.
Great video. This all makes perfect sense for someone like yourself who preps his mix properly and has plenty of color and excitement in the actual mix. As someone who's gotten out of mixing almost entirely (other than stem mastering), I find myself needing to breathe life into often overcompressed or dull mixes. So many mix guys send me tracks where it doesn't even sound like they tried to get a cohesive balance between drums and strings. In these cases where lets say the close drums are way too loud, or you need to fake a reverse compression (sometimes using more compression with a multiband and some clever eq tricks, or sometimes distorting, clipping, or exciting some tracks), where do you generally do this step? I do it usually just before mastering linear phase EQ, or just after, and then often another broad eq to tame anything that gets wild.. But in these cases where we cannot request mix corrections, what is a good approach? Just flavor to taste against refs? Also, how do you easily get refs in session. I've been doing this for over a decade, successfully, but I always hate this workflow (at least in Logic and Pro Tools). Is there an easy way to leave my master plugs engaged for referencing MY master, while outputting the refs to just plain stereo? Prob a n00b question, but I never got around to tackling that issue. Thanks for another great vid, and the content Miami has been churning out has been great too. Loving this refresh from you guys. SKYBOX RULES.
I mix and master for fun. To understand my perspective: never had monitors, I was using Superlux hd668b headphones with EQ profile from AutoEQ project for a long time, then I recently got DT990pro and Realphones plugin. My mastering plugins are kinda part of the mixing. Separating mixing and mastering is just inconvenient when you are an amateur. I never liked how it sounds in various mastering lessons on youtube when they "abuse" limiter with constant gain reduction, so I'm doing it my way. I put multiband first, select some mastering preset with 4 bands, adjust treshold to apply gentle (1, maximum 2dB) gain reductions; then SSL bus compressor with 30ms attack, auto release, adjust it to reduce around 2 dB; Then ozone imager to collapse low frequencies to mono just in case; then ozone exciter; then finally limiter (fabfilter Pro-L 2 because I like it) to catch peaks : usually it's a snare drum and rarely kick, maximum 6dB of gain reduction. And that way I get not "modern" loud, but more like "classic" loud mix with a "snap" and dynamics I love, and that I can listen at high volume. What is bothering me that limiter tells me I get from -9 to -11 LUFS, but "modern" mixes that are definitely louder than mine are -14 LUFS.
From what I understand as I read the last part of your comment as people making louder mixes that result in quiter LUFs numbers makes me think of one or two things at first. They probably clean a lot more unnecessary frequency areas over channels to leave more headroom for frequencies that are important for the characters of each element of the mix. Usage of group channels and parallel processes make it a lot easier to achieve balanced mixes. Side-chaining important parts to groups is also an essential part of getting perceived loudness to an ideal point in mixing process. They most probably get rid of sub and extremely high frequencies all together to create even more headroom in mastering process. They sometimes literally use a clipper to cut peaks, then push the volume levels through limiters separately to achieve maximum loudness. I’d say focus on the difference between what makes something loud in the way that our ears perceive it and the way that it’s just loud in LUFs meter.
Well after I watched this video I realize that I am stupid and I have been adding eveyrthing in the mix then adding more into the rendered mix to master it well now I know at least. Any clue how I can make a song lead right into another song when I distribute the songs?
Joey, my room absolutely sucks in terms of accurate acoustics, so I went for a headphone mixing setup. I'm currently using: Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro Goodhertz CanOpener Studio Crossfeed VST Sonarworks SoundID Reference Headphone to flatten my headphones Do you think headphones are a usable medium for mastering, specifically? My mixes have definitely improved overall but it's still hard to gauge IMO.
Hi, Joey!, my master chain is CLA Mixdown, VMR (only ssl) , Infinity EQ, VTM, Ozone Elements 8, API2500 (as a limiter), L1, dither and Reference 4. I've learned how to mix like CLA (honestly i'm still working on it), Do I have any opportunities that you can listen one of my mixes? I think I need professional feedback. Anyhow, un abrazo, amigo.
What a refreshingly useful video - but just to check, you always have to boost 60, cut 500 and boost 14K right, and add 3 dB of master buss comp..... 😆
Great video! I just have some questions though. I've seen mixing videos here on UA-cam where they add a mix buss compressor in their master buss. Would it be necessary still to add compression in the mastering phase, since the mix has already been compressed? Same with EQ.
Yeah that's one thing about mastering that confuses me a lot. I always use bus glue compression in the mix but a lot of mastering tutorials also do it in mastering and now I have no idea what to listen for if it's necessary or not. Or needs a different approach with different settings
It depends on the situation. It is quite common to have multiple compressors in series, each with their own goal. Sometimes I start with multiband compressor to avoid the kick influencing the next compressor to much. Usually I start with low-ratio compressing, and further in the chain using higher ratios, until the last one: a limiter. How this helps.
Just to slightly glue the mixdown all together. I typically will have the master bus glue barely triggering the limiter, then use a clipper like submission audios, then ozone imager, then a ozone exciter, last I’ll use the maximizer as a limiter. At the very end I have a LUF meter by youlean. I think my masters sound very professional so far with just that rack. Typically everything I’m using is all just being used lightly though. The most work is done in the mixing phase. I hope this helps a bit.
Does anyone here also use MID/SIDE EQ on their mastering? Ive found it to be super helpful usiong this before hitting a glue comp and stereo widening, but would love to hear anyone elses chain?
You could but it's just going to get converted/compressed down to essentially a 320kbps Ogg Vorbis audio format anyways. Might as well save yourself a few MB and render to 16 bit.
i never been able to make my mixes loud as pro mixes in cubase doesnt matter what i do commercial releases as refferences alway mark on .05 db in my meters and always peak when i imoort them into cubase if i try to get the as loud i just end up with a complete distorted p.o.s mix. i surrender
A few tips to help you: 1. Really check your low-end and be sure there isn't any excess sub info (this will often be the area that distorts first) 2. Use a softclipper (my favorite for mastering is Standard Clip) 3. Keep your final True Peak volume level at -0.6 (or -0.5) 4. If you're using stock cubase plugins- use multiple, yet far more subtle instances of maximizer (on modern mode), don't go past 15-20% on either plugin, it's cleaner and louder than just using one instance and cranking it. One trick is to get your mix to the ideal target loudness; then go through the mix and identify which elements are distorting, and gently EQ out the distortion as needed. You'll be surprised what a HPF cut on the kick at around 50-60hz or a small 2-3dB notch at around 80-100hz can do- and still allow plenty of sub information to exist! :)
Do my own mastering. Unless you're popular enough to be able to release an album, or submit commercial work to guarantee $$$ returns it's a waste of cash. The people who support you are going to support you anyways, and they aren't going to care about the difference between a professional master and a home master. For personal projects at least, as long as the music is presentable and the mix isn't distractingly bad people will enjoy it. I find this in pretty much every field in life... you can always pay experts to do everything for you, but it's so much more cost effective in the long run to just spend the years/time to learn various skills for yourself.
So true, cheers
Facts
This. I spent so much money on my plugins and chains that anything else spent elsewhere would be stupid, if you have a relatively good ear and it’s decent the average listener won’t care, other musicians nitpick the first few notes without ever listening to the SONG for what it is, and it all comes down to that, not how much $ you dropped for a master of a song that isn’t even good lol
Remember, the Beatles recordings were “ass” by todays standards “depending on your preference” yet they’re globally known and revered.
Let that sink in :)
Exactly! A lot of genres don't want a polished mix or master, and even if they do, as long as it doesn't sound like total garbage then it's fine. People need to learn to use the volume control on their stereo if they want a "loud" song.
I agree. I play slam, I can do this myself. It’s fun also and a good skill to have.
Izotope Ozone 9 has been my friend.
This was pure gold! 🏆 Thanks Joey!
I would be very careful with linear phase EQ on your master since it can cause Pre-Ringing, which can smear your transients and reduce the punch. The phase shift on your master barely matters, because you're not adding the EQ'd signal back to the original, where the out-of-phase frequencies would be reduced in level. Don't be afraid to use minimum phase filters on your mix, especially if they're shelf/bell filters that barely affect the phase.
Good points!
Great explanation of the concepts, tools and process. Subscribed!
Awesome quick guide, Joey. 🤘😎
Wow! Nice video and in a concise matter. In a short amount of time, this video goes where other YT mastering videos don't. Great work JST! VERY helpful!!!
Man, I just found the JST UA-cam channel within the last week. It is my new favorite audio-related channel!
Thank you for the high quality content! Subscribed!!
Thank you Joey, love your videos, I have a huge wish to get used to mixing!
Really good tutorial here and I'm actually glad you didn't showcase the actual song but showed us your workflow instead. Quick and efficient!
Ohhh man! The last time I remember to hit the pause button soooo many times was when I was watching "death note" back in 2006.
Pure gold!
Love your process man! 👊🏻😁
Hi Joey. Thanks for this concise walkthrough. Great content. I switched from Pro-C2/Pro-L2 to the Weiss DS1-MK3. No more distortion. I'm in limiting heaven.
Right now I add a compressor, EQ, stereo widener and limiter. I've only been recording, mixing and mastering for about a year so I still have alot to learn. I'm glad I'm on the right path thanks to your videos and other sources I get tips from.
Thx for the clarification on making separate masters for different platforms containing different loudness guidelines. I was having these ideas a few months ago and was starting to believe I was overthinking it. But to hear this from you helped me to understand that I was on the right track with how I was wanting to approach things. I've also thought it would be a good idea to make a master that was in mono for club systems and a separate one for stereo. This mainly applies to dj's who want to make good mixes that sound great in cars, headphones or any good stereo setups and then also have a mono mix thats hitting really well for club systems or any other systems that are only using mono.
thank you. this was exactly what I needed
Joeys videos have been bubbling to the top of my algorithm for a few days now. I must say they are extremely well made and have really good tips.
Wow, thank you!
Perfectly explained!
Super helpful video!
Thanks for that video!
Great video . The Fab-L offers dithering inside the plugin .
Quick referencing info 👍👍
I am nowhere near mastering any of my half baked songs but I still insta-subbed because of this great video. Thanks!
Gonna master my songs so hard now
Great video! One question: On the "EQ" section of the video, you said you like to EQ only specific frequencies that are standing out too much. Is there a reason you do this in mastering, instead of going back to the mix, diagnosing the awkward freq, and then, back to mastering (besides the "commit to the mix" philosophy)?
Cool!!
I master my mixes! I use T-Racks classic clipper and some iZotope Ozone stuff, adding harmonics in the lower frequencies if the mix sounds thin on smaller speakers, and also its limiter which I really love! IRC4 for lyfe. Also bus compressor to start the chain off,, sounds so nice.
lol yeah OK!
@@deanivan3951 The fuck are you being snide for? Sounds like a perfectly decent chain.
Thank you very much, I haven't noticed anybody talking about dithering at the end of the chain, so I'm going to try that right away on a song I'm working on. BTW, please, can you, Joey, or anybody else tell me what Reaper theme is that you are using in the video?
My BUS is filled with: PRO-Q 2 (mid/side EQ control), SSL BUS compressor, iZotope Ozone, LoudMax, SPAN, YLSM, VU Meter.
Just these four, to have complete control.
Im using JST MIX and eq only for mastering thats enough for me!
the video editing in this is really good! what did you use for it?
Love this! Genuinely curious… would you ever consider making an all-in-one mastering plugin based on your mastering approach?
like howard benson but for mastering
Take Ozone!
@@aninnervoice6546 you can control everything in ozone
Master assistant is just a starting point
It takes you far enough with a lot of possibilities!
Great video. This all makes perfect sense for someone like yourself who preps his mix properly and has plenty of color and excitement in the actual mix. As someone who's gotten out of mixing almost entirely (other than stem mastering), I find myself needing to breathe life into often overcompressed or dull mixes. So many mix guys send me tracks where it doesn't even sound like they tried to get a cohesive balance between drums and strings.
In these cases where lets say the close drums are way too loud, or you need to fake a reverse compression (sometimes using more compression with a multiband and some clever eq tricks, or sometimes distorting, clipping, or exciting some tracks), where do you generally do this step? I do it usually just before mastering linear phase EQ, or just after, and then often another broad eq to tame anything that gets wild.. But in these cases where we cannot request mix corrections, what is a good approach? Just flavor to taste against refs?
Also, how do you easily get refs in session. I've been doing this for over a decade, successfully, but I always hate this workflow (at least in Logic and Pro Tools). Is there an easy way to leave my master plugs engaged for referencing MY master, while outputting the refs to just plain stereo? Prob a n00b question, but I never got around to tackling that issue.
Thanks for another great vid, and the content Miami has been churning out has been great too. Loving this refresh from you guys. SKYBOX RULES.
I reaper (which Joey is using nowadays)
There's a way to route tracks after the master track. So it isn't impacted by the plugins on the track
I mix and master for fun. To understand my perspective: never had monitors, I was using Superlux hd668b headphones with EQ profile from AutoEQ project for a long time, then I recently got DT990pro and Realphones plugin. My mastering plugins are kinda part of the mixing. Separating mixing and mastering is just inconvenient when you are an amateur. I never liked how it sounds in various mastering lessons on youtube when they "abuse" limiter with constant gain reduction, so I'm doing it my way. I put multiband first, select some mastering preset with 4 bands, adjust treshold to apply gentle (1, maximum 2dB) gain reductions; then SSL bus compressor with 30ms attack, auto release, adjust it to reduce around 2 dB; Then ozone imager to collapse low frequencies to mono just in case; then ozone exciter; then finally limiter (fabfilter Pro-L 2 because I like it) to catch peaks : usually it's a snare drum and rarely kick, maximum 6dB of gain reduction. And that way I get not "modern" loud, but more like "classic" loud mix with a "snap" and dynamics I love, and that I can listen at high volume. What is bothering me that limiter tells me I get from -9 to -11 LUFS, but "modern" mixes that are definitely louder than mine are -14 LUFS.
From what I understand as I read the last part of your comment as people making louder mixes that result in quiter LUFs numbers makes me think of one or two things at first. They probably clean a lot more unnecessary frequency areas over channels to leave more headroom for frequencies that are important for the characters of each element of the mix. Usage of group channels and parallel processes make it a lot easier to achieve balanced mixes. Side-chaining important parts to groups is also an essential part of getting perceived loudness to an ideal point in mixing process. They most probably get rid of sub and extremely high frequencies all together to create even more headroom in mastering process. They sometimes literally use a clipper to cut peaks, then push the volume levels through limiters separately to achieve maximum loudness. I’d say focus on the difference between what makes something loud in the way that our ears perceive it and the way that it’s just loud in LUFs meter.
thanks for your tips ... I usually use izotope ozone for mastering chain .
Ozone is great!
Well after I watched this video I realize that I am stupid and I have been adding eveyrthing in the mix then adding more into the rendered mix to master it well now I know at least. Any clue how I can make a song lead right into another song when I distribute the songs?
Joey, my room absolutely sucks in terms of accurate acoustics, so I went for a headphone mixing setup.
I'm currently using:
Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro
Goodhertz CanOpener Studio Crossfeed VST
Sonarworks SoundID Reference Headphone to flatten my headphones
Do you think headphones are a usable medium for mastering, specifically? My mixes have definitely improved overall but it's still hard to gauge IMO.
Absolutely but you should definitely check on some larger speakers to see the weight of your mix on bigger drivers.
Ozone is the way to go for me.
Hi, Joey!, my master chain is CLA Mixdown, VMR (only ssl) , Infinity EQ, VTM, Ozone Elements 8, API2500 (as a limiter), L1, dither and Reference 4. I've learned how to mix like CLA (honestly i'm still working on it), Do I have any opportunities that you can listen one of my mixes? I think I need professional feedback. Anyhow, un abrazo, amigo.
Love the video, but what is the name of the song at 2:37 (at the intersection)?
What a refreshingly useful video - but just to check, you always have to boost 60, cut 500 and boost 14K right, and add 3 dB of master buss comp..... 😆
Great video! I just have some questions though. I've seen mixing videos here on UA-cam where they add a mix buss compressor in their master buss. Would it be necessary still to add compression in the mastering phase, since the mix has already been compressed? Same with EQ.
totally depends on the song! sometimes yes, sometimes no
Yeah that's one thing about mastering that confuses me a lot. I always use bus glue compression in the mix but a lot of mastering tutorials also do it in mastering and now I have no idea what to listen for if it's necessary or not. Or needs a different approach with different settings
It depends on the situation. It is quite common to have multiple compressors in series, each with their own goal. Sometimes I start with multiband compressor to avoid the kick influencing the next compressor to much. Usually I start with low-ratio compressing, and further in the chain using higher ratios, until the last one: a limiter. How this helps.
Just to slightly glue the mixdown all together. I typically will have the master bus glue barely triggering the limiter, then use a clipper like submission audios, then ozone imager, then a ozone exciter, last I’ll use the maximizer as a limiter. At the very end I have a LUF meter by youlean. I think my masters sound very professional so far with just that rack. Typically everything I’m using is all just being used lightly though. The most work is done in the mixing phase. I hope this helps a bit.
My master bus is really simple... Three Plug-ins. SSLs bus compressor, Brainworx SPL IRON compressor and Brainworx SPL Passeq...
Any reason why you use YLM instead of the new REAPER stock loudness meter? Just curious
ylm is just prettier and histogram is pretty helpful. REAPER's stock loudness is just as good tho!
YLMS works more detailled imo.
Of course you can use whatever you want to capture your RMS
Does anyone here also use MID/SIDE EQ on their mastering? Ive found it to be super helpful usiong this before hitting a glue comp and stereo widening, but would love to hear anyone elses chain?
I sometimes will use MID/SIDE to a cut a bit more lows on the mid, and maybe add a tiny bit more air on the sides
If my songs are going to have videos for UA-cam or Instagram, should I export them in 48 khz for the final editing?
Yes you can do 48khz audio on UA-cam
0:42 What song was that?
I master on master fader in mix session, see no need to export a song then master it, it’s waste of time imo if you do both things
so if I'm sending the final master to Spotify I can not upload it in 24 bit?
You could but it's just going to get converted/compressed down to essentially a 320kbps Ogg Vorbis audio format anyways. Might as well save yourself a few MB and render to 16 bit.
Newbie question here… i’m a fan of your tutorials.. I am curious what DAW do you use?
Reaper
Does anyonw know which Repaer skin is Joey using? It looks awesome!
Smooth 6
@@joeymusic Thanks!
I still am so confused about how to use a limiter after a song is done
My luf was -9 but in the car it sounded quiet any suggestions?
What app did you use to play it?
@@joeymusic app on my phone I used drop box and mastered using Ozone 9
You follow Jon Sine?
i never been able to make my mixes loud as pro mixes in cubase doesnt matter what i do commercial releases as refferences alway mark on .05 db in my meters and always peak when i imoort them into cubase if i try to get the as loud i just end up with a complete distorted p.o.s mix. i surrender
A few tips to help you: 1. Really check your low-end and be sure there isn't any excess sub info (this will often be the area that distorts first) 2. Use a softclipper (my favorite for mastering is Standard Clip) 3. Keep your final True Peak volume level at -0.6 (or -0.5) 4. If you're using stock cubase plugins- use multiple, yet far more subtle instances of maximizer (on modern mode), don't go past 15-20% on either plugin, it's cleaner and louder than just using one instance and cranking it.
One trick is to get your mix to the ideal target loudness; then go through the mix and identify which elements are distorting, and gently EQ out the distortion as needed. You'll be surprised what a HPF cut on the kick at around 50-60hz or a small 2-3dB notch at around 80-100hz can do- and still allow plenty of sub information to exist! :)
What is your reaper theme?
I need to know too! Its beaautiful!
Smooth 6
Joey is using Reaper now.. hahahahaha
what the name repaer theme is that?
Smooth 6
@@edunogues23 thanks sir
But... I just wanna make a chunky chunk song with absolutely no skill :(
outdated techniques!
What techniques are outdated? What does that even mean? Do his mixes sound bad?