Nice! Interested to hear your perspective on mastering. My chain is pretty simple - saturation, compression, EQ and a limiter to toggle on/off mono. Am I doing it all wrong? :)
My only tip is.....WAIT. By the time you've composed and mixed your tune. You'll have heard it dozens of times. You'll have no critical ability left. Save your project and don't open it again for a week or two. You'll be surprised by what you have or haven't done to the mix. If you've got good friends who produce similar types of music and have a similar skill level (or even better are far more advanced than you). Get them to give it a close critical listen and ask them to write some notes about what you are doing right or wrong. But don't give it to a friend who might get jealous of your work and just dent your confidence. If you can afford it, pay someone to master your tune, just once. Then compare your master to theirs and see how close you can get on your own. There's more than one way to skin a cat. All that matters is how it ultimately sounds.
That's good advice, wait for some objectivity. The reason I'm teaching mastering is some users would like to do a quick master so they can play their tune in a set and share it to DJ friends, and make sure it holds up in a DJ mix. I do encourage paying for a mastering engineer for an official release, unless you feel confident doing it.
Honestly this is some of the most priceless advice you can stumble across on the internet. One of those things you end up having to learn on your own over many many years lol, like me...
My masterin chain, utlity (bass mono below 150hz), fabfilter (cutoff at 30hz to 21k hz), mix buss compressor (OTT or other bus comp), ozone 9 elements, youlean loudness meter, span
My (ahem) ‘mastering’ 😂 chain: Pro-Q rolling off below 30hz, Glue Compressor, sometimes PSP Vintage Warmer *VERY* lightly with a GR of between 0.5 -1db, Ableton’s Utility to check my mix in Mono, finally Pro-L and then Metric A/B for referencing.
7:44 verly clearly said Alan. Thanks for pointing out this important detail, that the limiter is in fact at the END of the chain, despite being one of the first things that is inserted.
The mastering chain I use now is like this. 1. mono filter to control the low lows with a cutoff at 20hz and add some punch to the sub range and low mids with a 0.6- 1db boost to the overall low end. 2. eq taking out some 160 hz build up and some 600 hz build up and any other resonance or build I can find ,but small 1-2 db changes unless its really annoying resonance. 3. Saturation knob set to high and boost until it sounds ugly then back off till it sounds louder and not distorting in a nasty way. 4. Saturation knob set to neutral and same process as highs 5. Saturation knob set to low and same process as other 2 knobs. 6. Ott flavored to taste 7. Maximizer with the milisecond timing of every knob I can control set to the ms of the bpm im working at. I just play with the values until it sounds good. 8. Soft clipper set threshold to -0.6 db and play with it till it's as loud as possible without clipping red on the master. I may add a camel phat sometimes before the ott if it sounds good. It's such a dark art lol. It's cool to see other peoples chains, I like looking at the pop guys vocal chains, blows my mind. Eqing is the hardest thing to me because we all hear different and what might sound good to me may sound like butchered crap to someone else. Thanks for sharing your chain this is really great information and you covered a lot of what I also found on my journey through the internet for knowledge on this topic, thanks bruv.
i use EQ to cutoff anything below 20hz and above 20k hz, ozone imager to control bass below 100hz and highs above 13.8k hz, if needed i use another Parametric EQ, dynamic EQ or Gulfoss for tonal balance/control, SSL comp for dynamics and lastly ozone Maximizer for the gain and limiting. Span is my go-to spectrum analyzer and sonarworks reference 4 to improve my studio monitors.
10:34 it is important to note that these values and amounts should be based on the track itself. These are by no means 'presets', or values that are always to be adjusted. One must listen to the track and hear what 'actually' needs adjusting and go from there. What is good for one track, may not be the same for another and this definitely stands true depending on the quality of the original mixdown.
I have hold the believe that the best use of reference tracks is at the mixing stage rather than the mastering stage where you are very limited in the moves you can make to get close to the reference track .
@@STRANJAH If we pay attention to details and make sure that at the mixing stage we dot the i's and cross the t's at the mastering stage we might have to do a lot.
Very stoked to see this video. I have been struggling using Ozone and finalizing. Your workflow chart and knowledge were so helpful! Looking forward to improving my mix
THANK YOU FOR THIS!!!! I am struggling big time with wrapping my head around mastering and of course I'm probably overthinking too much. Going to sit down and watch this tomorrow morning! Big up! - Damyja
Your welcome, the intention of this video is help you get the basics so you can perform masters for tracks you want to play in a set. I dn't expect everyone to be Master Engineers, as that takes years. But this will give you a broad set of skills to start getting your tracks up to par so you play them out and share them.
@@STRANJAH Thank you! Question.....do you know, or can you recommend anyone who does such great tutorials like yours, but with Cubase, and focused on DNB? I do learn a lot from you, but it can be a little difficult to translate with a different DAW at times. No worries if you don't...just thought I'd ask and take a shot in the dark! Much appreciated!
Thanks a lot for this video, I loved it!! :-) On my Master Buss I have Ozone 7 Maximazer (acting as a Limiter), SPAN By Voxengo (Analitic tool) & Utility which I use to create a volume fade at the end, so tracks fade out into silence at the end.
This was Awesome! What stood out to me the most was what you did w the bass and mid bass in the Multiband compressor. It really controlled the sounds and made it much cleaner and smooth sounding.
Nice Vid... Thanks for sharing. At my mastering progress, I only use max 3-4 tools. Neve 542, Tegelere Creme, Kush Aaudio Silika and a Limiter (depends on the Song). Mastering can not do magic, if the mix is not good, only a few engineers could fix it... -14 LUFS is what I do. If you want it louder, turn up the volume. Smashing the Limiter in order to get -5 LUFS is not the right way for me.
Top one G! one thing to add is a linear phase EQ will help stop any affect the boost/reduction may have on the frequencies around it, so this can be useful as a first EQ
@@STRANJAH In hardware yes. I had the SSL 4000G plugin on my UAD system, but decided I wanted the hardware version, so invested in this top notch clone a few years back. www.audio-scape.com/products/buss-compressor
For me too many processors in the chain. I usually tend to use corrective EQ + corrective comp + color eq + color comp + limiter/clipper. Anyway, thanks for sharing!
I only use my headphones for everything. They arnt what most peoe use and I bought them for about 50 pounds about 15 years ago. Looked at getting a backup pair but they r like 250 quid now.
My mastering chain is Utility bass mono under 200hz (that’s what Ed rush and optical said they do) Eq Compression Saturation Multiband compression Ozone imager Gullfoss eq (cool plugin, it adds clarity to ur mix with just a few adjustments) Then I add a limiter at the end pushing it up so it’s being compressed 3-5 dB I have only been producing nearly six months so I could probably improve my mastering chain -any tips appreciated! Cheers!
Atta boy reppin Canada like a big boi.. Massive tips in this everybody take a chair and have a listen.. Canadas got some fire DNB comin! Big ups to ya homie!
Thanks I'm glad you picked up on that, as hand gestures and body lingo is something I'd like to improve on. I'll check out the JP Philips video. I also watch Charisma Matrix and Evan Carmichael for this kind of material. Much respects.
Very diligent work. I really enjoy when I see music editing done with care and from a Plugin Alliance fellow user at that. Shadow Hills and BAX EQ are really something to swear by. Still haven't tried the AMEK, though.
I once had a long chat with Dev Pandya (aka Paradox) once at a gig he was playing at (the promoter contacted me asking if I had any of the synths on Devs rider as he does not bring them with him for his live pa, he wound up playing on and signing my Yamaha CS2x as well as my akai S2000 sampler), I asked him at one point about how he references tracks and if he A/B's tracks, he laughed and said he never does, to this I asked why and he replied, "Don't want them to all sound the same, right?". I'm not saying reference tracks aren't important, but in the age of where a lot of electronic music sounds and is mastered the same, looking at Paradox' body of work over the years, I get what he was saying, this is not a statement against any producer / engineer who does infact reference, but just another take if you will from someone who has not only a plethora of experience in the matter, but an incredibly dynamic sound for being breakbeat based music, as well, I found it incredibly fascinating and very insightful, cheers.
Youlean loudness meter is a great one for tracking perceived loudness, it's a LUFS meter (which stands for Loudness Units relative to Full Scale btw, so calling it a "LUF" isn't really correct). It's free in any case and also really useful for things such as checking dynamic range, meeting level requirements for streaming services etc, and just for general metering since peak and even RMS can sometimes be misleading in terms of what sounds loud or dynamic
So just a quick question , when the limiter is at the end of the mastering chain … when you eq and it makes the track just a bit louder should you go back into your LUFS meter and make sure your tracks at the lufs it was before u eq’d … if that made any sense at all 😂😂 what a legend tho this has gave me a much better understanding of mastering !
Mastering means preparing audio material for certain purposes. E.g. Vinyl Mastering is something completely different than mastering for streaming services or CD Mastering. Loudness and Dynamic are two differing goals. Max Loudness means min Dynamic. So don't believe that one "master" is simply perfect for a "wide variety of audiosystems" ( 01:25 ) . Sorry - that should not be the message... in fact the opposite is the case. Mastering is for specific purposes. Radio Masters, Vinyl masters, CD masters, streaming masters are all different. And a "Dance mix" should not per se be louder, than any other mix. Every DJ has a mixer with a gain and a channel fader to compensate for differences . So if that's to much faders to work with, choose another job or hobby but don't cry for louder masters. :D And the louder you master your mix, the less punch it will have due to dynamic loss. If you think that's not true, just try to master punch into pink noise.
Setting the limiter to the loudness your reference seems to be smashing the peaks of your track immediately. I've always understood this as bad mastering practice if you're not preserving the full crest of the wave. Am I wrong?
Super nice video!, also wanted to ask if you still doing dnb tutorials could you try out macky gees black widow bass, its a super classic sound but im really strugeling to recreate it
I think the limiter should be last (EDIT - his is last, oops )because your Amek EQ could add gain (I know you tried to gain match but still). I also like the Elevate mastering bundle by Newfangled Audio/Eventide. Good transient control with that suite. Also, a lot of people use clippers to shave off a dB or two in EDM for extra loudness. In Ozone make sure to enable to True Peak button to catch ISP’s. DLR uses Ozone’s clipper mode for example.
Thanks for the suggestions for true peak. Good to know about the elevate suite. My limiter is last by the way. The tip from Break is to apply limiting at the beginning of the session but at the end of the chain so you can immediately hear any nuances from the preceding processors.
Ahh, cool, that wasn’t clear, thanks for clarifying. Break’s idea is solid and also what I do. Definitely check out Elevate and read the gearslutz posts about how to get the best out of it, it works a bit differently but the transient control is awesome.
Thanks will look into it. Ha I thought I made it clear I even made sure to explain at the end of the video it happens at the end of the chain because I knew some people would be confused by that!
@@STRANJAH My bad it was made clear at the end, I commented before I got thru it all, sorry. Btw all Hospital Records tracks are coming in at -6 LUFS that I purchase, it’s so ridiculously loud. I guess loudness wars are still happening for DJ’s using digital files. Even with 2 limiters doing 2-3db of gain I find it hard to get that loud without some breaking up of the sound:(
@@dolomick No worries! Yes I'm still trying to crack that one. I think its going to come down to your track. Some tracks are mixed in a way that you can never get down to -6 LUFS. I've come close with some tracks, you might have to give up some room in the bottom end to achieve it.
You should clip as early as possible, starting in the mix even; done properly you shouldn't need to compress the master for peak control, and only use a compressor for the compression itself if you'd like some. Trick I learned from a mastering engineer of whom I forgot the name, I ain't good with names, at least I'm good at remembering the important stuff 🤷♂. That's an oldish video, I suppose you learned that trick too by now :)
There barely is a difference, you're just creating overall tone and nuances with mastering. It can make a track feel better very subtly. Also ofc what stranjah said himself, YT audio isn't great
Appreciate that! I am still learning so happy to provide what I’ve learnt for free. I plan to really get good with this topic though so I can do some advanced techniques.
What do I need analog modeling for if the change to the sound is so minimal that you don't hear a difference? Tbh I don't know what this step is useful for.
It's a good point, I wonder myself, I am still learning. I will say there are some plugins when pushed harder give you really sweet analog distortion on the high frequencies, namely the VSM-3, but I haven't mastered that tool yet, so I didn't show it.
I'd say only use analog modelling if you want a "vintage" sound - sometimes clean and digital is way better. Also - if you've added tonnes of vibe/ grit/ character in the mix, adding more won't help your master.
Very good intro to mastering! Best of all, you demystify it. I have been on a similar journey over the past year and I have arrived at basically the same place you have. One question: why did you use only the clipper in the TDR limiter 6 GE? I think their limiter is also very good. It's actually a great starting point for getting into mastering as it has a pretty complete chain in one plugin for $50: hard to beat. I think standard clip is a great clipper, by the way. I should also give a shout-out to the bx-digital eq. I like to use it in mid-side mode. It's great for those small moves, as you illustrate. One more thing: you can use an analog-modelled eq for some bit of saturation. Try a pultec emulation (e.g., analog obsession RARE). The pultec is great for some punch in the low end (be careful with it!).
💡 What is in YOUR mastering chain? 😀
Nice! Interested to hear your perspective on mastering. My chain is pretty simple - saturation, compression, EQ and a limiter to toggle on/off mono. Am I doing it all wrong? :)
@@vnayini It sounds like you're doing the right things, is that the exact order of your process?
DMGaudio Equillibrium,
NI Passive EQ (even if it's older i have some settings that make things quick for me)
Elysia Nvelope,
DMGAudio TrackLimit
@@SerendipityForever Yep! For now. Looking forward to incorporating your insights.
@@0e0 Man I want the DMG stuff, I played with Multiplicity and it sounds so transparent and responsive! Expensive but I'll eventually get them all.
My only tip is.....WAIT. By the time you've composed and mixed your tune. You'll have heard it dozens of times. You'll have no critical ability left. Save your project and don't open it again for a week or two. You'll be surprised by what you have or haven't done to the mix. If you've got good friends who produce similar types of music and have a similar skill level (or even better are far more advanced than you). Get them to give it a close critical listen and ask them to write some notes about what you are doing right or wrong. But don't give it to a friend who might get jealous of your work and just dent your confidence. If you can afford it, pay someone to master your tune, just once. Then compare your master to theirs and see how close you can get on your own. There's more than one way to skin a cat. All that matters is how it ultimately sounds.
That's good advice, wait for some objectivity. The reason I'm teaching mastering is some users would like to do a quick master so they can play their tune in a set and share it to DJ friends, and make sure it holds up in a DJ mix. I do encourage paying for a mastering engineer for an official release, unless you feel confident doing it.
I agree with your method.
I like using Ozone for my home mastering.
Honestly this is some of the most priceless advice you can stumble across on the internet. One of those things you end up having to learn on your own over many many years lol, like me...
Someone give this man a medal!
Yep, he’s a legend in his own right
Come here to say this...dude is the real MVP
inorite. Legend!
My masterin chain, utlity (bass mono below 150hz), fabfilter (cutoff at 30hz to 21k hz), mix buss compressor (OTT or other bus comp), ozone 9 elements, youlean loudness meter, span
This is totally what I've been waiting for!
Your tutorial stack actually helped me to finish a track! Keep up your great work!
I've been looking for a video like this for years!
Great video Stranjah. Good luck on your mastering journey.
My (ahem) ‘mastering’ 😂 chain:
Pro-Q rolling off below 30hz, Glue Compressor, sometimes PSP Vintage Warmer *VERY* lightly with a GR of between 0.5 -1db, Ableton’s Utility to check my mix in Mono, finally Pro-L and then Metric A/B for referencing.
Again, incredible, relevant content delivered with clear explanation. Keep it up Stranjah! 🙏
This is what I've been waiting for!
7:44 verly clearly said Alan. Thanks for pointing out this important detail, that the limiter is in fact at the END of the chain, despite being one of the first things that is inserted.
Okay glad it was. I didn’t want to confuse people. But adding at the start of the session is an important step in this particular engineers process.
I made my first dnb tune after watching one of your videos. Thanks m8
The mastering chain I use now is like this.
1. mono filter to control the low lows with a cutoff at 20hz and add some punch to the sub range and low mids with a 0.6- 1db boost to the overall low end.
2. eq taking out some 160 hz build up and some 600 hz build up and any other resonance or build I can find ,but small 1-2 db changes unless its really annoying resonance.
3. Saturation knob set to high and boost until it sounds ugly then back off till it sounds louder and not distorting in a nasty way.
4. Saturation knob set to neutral and same process as highs
5. Saturation knob set to low and same process as other 2 knobs.
6. Ott flavored to taste
7. Maximizer with the milisecond timing of every knob I can control set to the ms of the bpm im working at. I just play with the values until it sounds good.
8. Soft clipper set threshold to -0.6 db and play with it till it's as loud as possible without clipping red on the master.
I may add a camel phat sometimes before the ott if it sounds good. It's such a dark art lol. It's cool to see other peoples chains, I like looking at the pop guys vocal chains, blows my mind. Eqing is the hardest thing to me because we all hear different and what might sound good to me may sound like butchered crap to someone else. Thanks for sharing your chain this is really great information and you covered a lot of what I also found on my journey through the internet for knowledge on this topic, thanks bruv.
Your videos are the best ...I already know like 50% of the knowledge but you boost that to like 98%
i use EQ to cutoff anything below 20hz and above 20k hz, ozone imager to control bass below 100hz and highs above 13.8k hz, if needed i use another Parametric EQ, dynamic EQ or Gulfoss for tonal balance/control, SSL comp for dynamics and lastly ozone Maximizer for the gain and limiting. Span is my go-to spectrum analyzer and sonarworks reference 4 to improve my studio monitors.
10:34 it is important to note that these values and amounts should be based on the track itself. These are by no means 'presets', or values that are always to be adjusted. One must listen to the track and hear what 'actually' needs adjusting and go from there. What is good for one track, may not be the same for another and this definitely stands true depending on the quality of the original mixdown.
Yes. One thing I admit I missed in this video is the use of the spectrum analyzer
Thanks for the work. Would be cool to know also more about using meters and what aspects to pay attention to.
This channel has literally taught me everything i know about producing
Same
I have hold the believe that the best use of reference tracks is at the mixing stage rather than the mastering stage where you are very limited in the moves you can make to get close to the reference track .
good advice
@@STRANJAH If we pay attention to details and make sure that at the mixing stage we dot the i's and cross the t's at the mastering stage we might have to do a lot.
Very stoked to see this video. I have been struggling using Ozone and finalizing. Your workflow chart and knowledge were so helpful! Looking forward to improving my mix
THANK YOU FOR THIS!!!! I am struggling big time with wrapping my head around mastering and of course I'm probably overthinking too much. Going to sit down and watch this tomorrow morning! Big up! - Damyja
Your welcome, the intention of this video is help you get the basics so you can perform masters for tracks you want to play in a set. I dn't expect everyone to be Master Engineers, as that takes years. But this will give you a broad set of skills to start getting your tracks up to par so you play them out and share them.
@@STRANJAH Thank you! Question.....do you know, or can you recommend anyone who does such great tutorials like yours, but with Cubase, and focused on DNB? I do learn a lot from you, but it can be a little difficult to translate with a different DAW at times. No worries if you don't...just thought I'd ask and take a shot in the dark! Much appreciated!
@@STRANJAH btw this is still Damyja...i have a few different accounts which is why my questions show on 2 different accounts here, lol
Thanks a lot for this video, I loved it!! :-) On my Master Buss I have Ozone 7 Maximazer (acting as a Limiter), SPAN By Voxengo (Analitic tool) & Utility which I use to create a volume fade at the end, so tracks fade out into silence at the end.
This video is a great help! Many thanks
loving it and loving your speech, you're awesome man.
Easily one of the most informative tutorials I've ever seen. Thank u bro!
1:31 big it up Alan! So great of you to do all this work, to help us all out!
Thanks man! I want to keep learning more and share knowledge :)
This was Awesome! What stood out to me the most was what you did w the bass and mid bass in the Multiband compressor. It really controlled the sounds and made it much cleaner and smooth sounding.
Very well thought out and accurate information, would be nice to stumble upon this early in one's audio journey. Kudos Stranjah!! Good job Keep it up
Wow! Well done Stranjah
This is great! Awesome tutorial
Thank you stranjah!
Never miss any of ur vids!
Nice Vid... Thanks for sharing. At my mastering progress, I only use max 3-4 tools. Neve 542, Tegelere Creme, Kush Aaudio Silika and a Limiter (depends on the Song).
Mastering can not do magic, if the mix is not good, only a few engineers could fix it... -14 LUFS is what I do. If you want it louder, turn up the volume. Smashing the Limiter in order to get -5 LUFS is not the right way for me.
genius thanks for taking the time and putting this together! learned a lot and you express everything really well. Props and keep up the awesome work
Top one G! one thing to add is a linear phase EQ will help stop any affect the boost/reduction may have on the frequencies around it, so this can be useful as a first EQ
The Amek 200 is amazing so smooth!
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR KNOWLEDGE. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Very interesting, thank you for your share
i use fab filter pro q 3 and ozone 8, limitless limiter and l2 maximizer
waves analog button just adds some annoying noise btw
i also recommend to activate true peak on your limiter
Can you consider to make tutorial about ghost triggers and multiband side-chaining 🦦? Great videos mate!
Awesome Vid Bro, really helped me a lot
Another great resource video and well explained. Keep going! You are helping me out a lot! Salute 👏
I love warmness in my bottom end!
Thank you very much,gold!
22:45 ah! The Mighty 'Glue'! I swear by this buss compressor. I have the hardware version and ALL my tracks go through this!
Ahh so you are familiar with this one too? I recently got it
@@STRANJAH In hardware yes. I had the SSL 4000G plugin on my UAD system, but decided I wanted the hardware version, so invested in this top notch clone a few years back. www.audio-scape.com/products/buss-compressor
Great video man ! Much Love! :)
Amazing tutorial!! I use Ozone Maximizer & SPAN on my Master!
For me too many processors in the chain. I usually tend to use corrective EQ + corrective comp + color eq + color comp + limiter/clipper. Anyway, thanks for sharing!
typically open-back headphones have better transient response than closed back.
Another amazing video - thank you!
I only use my headphones for everything. They arnt what most peoe use and I bought them for about 50 pounds about 15 years ago. Looked at getting a backup pair but they r like 250 quid now.
so helpful!
I"m on another genre, but the way you organized the process is very useful!
My mastering chain is
Utility bass mono under 200hz (that’s what Ed rush and optical said they do)
Eq
Compression
Saturation
Multiband compression
Ozone imager
Gullfoss eq (cool plugin, it adds clarity to ur mix with just a few adjustments)
Then I add a limiter at the end pushing it up so it’s being compressed 3-5 dB
I have only been producing nearly six months so I could probably improve my mastering chain -any tips appreciated!
Cheers!
Thanks That gullfoss EQ looks nice for sure!
STRANJAH
It is a great plugin
It makes any mix sound better haha 😂
Put a T Racks Classic Clipper on Master. Boom done. Sounding better than Diplo.
Amazing video, thanks for such a great lesson!
My pleasure!
You dah most underrated producer on youtube. luh dis shiiiiii
I had to do a couple of rewinds on that intro. Funny af.
glad you enjoyed it, I thought I'd do something more subtle this time haha
Thanks Alot For this Tutorial
28:27 big up the Macc! I get my stuff done by him too!
He’s a classy guy and does a great job!
Atta boy reppin Canada like a big boi.. Massive tips in this everybody take a chair and have a listen.. Canadas got some fire DNB comin! Big ups to ya homie!
Bigup man!!
Thank you for this!
true peak help you to prevent this analog clipping :)
thx I found out after this video!
gold.
..awesome tutorial..
5 minutes in, and I'm really looking forward to the rest! I love your content!!
Thanks I'm glad you picked up on that, as hand gestures and body lingo is something I'd like to improve on. I'll check out the JP Philips video. I also watch Charisma Matrix and Evan Carmichael for this kind of material. Much respects.
amazing!
Very diligent work. I really enjoy when I see music editing done with care and from a Plugin Alliance fellow user at that. Shadow Hills and BAX EQ are really something to swear by. Still haven't tried the AMEK, though.
I once had a long chat with Dev Pandya (aka Paradox) once at a gig he was playing at (the promoter contacted me asking if I had any of the synths on Devs rider as he does not bring them with him for his live pa, he wound up playing on and signing my Yamaha CS2x as well as my akai S2000 sampler), I asked him at one point about how he references tracks and if he A/B's tracks, he laughed and said he never does, to this I asked why and he replied, "Don't want them to all sound the same, right?". I'm not saying reference tracks aren't important, but in the age of where a lot of electronic music sounds and is mastered the same, looking at Paradox' body of work over the years, I get what he was saying, this is not a statement against any producer / engineer who does infact reference, but just another take if you will from someone who has not only a plethora of experience in the matter, but an incredibly dynamic sound for being breakbeat based music, as well, I found it incredibly fascinating and very insightful, cheers.
I like that approach. I’d go for that approach in that mixing stage while having some ear-calibration in the mastering stage. Good tip!
Thanks again for a great tutorial! Have you, or are you planning to do a tutorial on how to mix a jungle / DnB track?
Great video, nice and to the point. One criticism... talking in between A/B comparisons ruins the effect
amazing video mate! can you make a FJAAK type breakbeat techno tutorial?
Youlean loudness meter is a great one for tracking perceived loudness, it's a LUFS meter (which stands for Loudness Units relative to Full Scale btw, so calling it a "LUF" isn't really correct). It's free in any case and also really useful for things such as checking dynamic range, meeting level requirements for streaming services etc, and just for general metering since peak and even RMS can sometimes be misleading in terms of what sounds loud or dynamic
Wow didn't know about this tool, will check it out!
Thank you!!!!!!
and i have the same headphones! hopefully now my masters wont suck anymore
What do you think of them?
27:55 sounds pretty great to me!
Epic video. Thank you, I'm in the studio tomorrow working on my album. BTW your website is currently down : (
DUDE, THANK U X
Awesome advice! Thanks for making all these videos much appreciated! Also would it be possible to send you a track to get your input on it?
I have DT770pro 80Ohm :) also good for mastering
So just a quick question , when the limiter is at the end of the mastering chain … when you eq and it makes the track just a bit louder should you go back into your LUFS meter and make sure your tracks at the lufs it was before u eq’d … if that made any sense at all 😂😂 what a legend tho this has gave me a much better understanding of mastering !
19:21 Nice! Would be a great match for my Dangerous D-Box! ;)
It could be a nice addition for sure I heard it’s in virtually every mastering studio
mano tu é brabo
Mastering means preparing audio material for certain purposes. E.g. Vinyl Mastering is something completely different than mastering for streaming services or CD Mastering. Loudness and Dynamic are two differing goals. Max Loudness means min Dynamic. So don't believe that one "master" is simply perfect for a "wide variety of audiosystems" ( 01:25 ) . Sorry - that should not be the message... in fact the opposite is the case. Mastering is for specific purposes. Radio Masters, Vinyl masters, CD masters, streaming masters are all different. And a "Dance mix" should not per se be louder, than any other mix. Every DJ has a mixer with a gain and a channel fader to compensate for differences . So if that's to much faders to work with, choose another job or hobby but don't cry for louder masters. :D And the louder you master your mix, the less punch it will have due to dynamic loss. If you think that's not true, just try to master punch into pink noise.
Setting the limiter to the loudness your reference seems to be smashing the peaks of your track immediately. I've always understood this as bad mastering practice if you're not preserving the full crest of the wave. Am I wrong?
Great info but did anyone else find themselves imagining a tiny accordion between his hands? 😬
i was imagining jojo tricks while he was speaking
Super nice video!, also wanted to ask if you still doing dnb tutorials could you try out macky gees black widow bass, its a super classic sound but im really strugeling to recreate it
Shamefull I know .. but I only ever have analysers on the master bus and do all my tricks in the mixing stage. I still use references though.
I think the limiter should be last (EDIT - his is last, oops )because your Amek EQ could add gain (I know you tried to gain match but still). I also like the Elevate mastering bundle by Newfangled Audio/Eventide. Good transient control with that suite. Also, a lot of people use clippers to shave off a dB or two in EDM for extra loudness. In Ozone make sure to enable to True Peak button to catch ISP’s. DLR uses Ozone’s clipper mode for example.
Thanks for the suggestions for true peak. Good to know about the elevate suite. My limiter is last by the way. The tip from Break is to apply limiting at the beginning of the session but at the end of the chain so you can immediately hear any nuances from the preceding processors.
Ahh, cool, that wasn’t clear, thanks for clarifying. Break’s idea is solid and also what I do. Definitely check out Elevate and read the gearslutz posts about how to get the best out of it, it works a bit differently but the transient control is awesome.
Thanks will look into it. Ha I thought I made it clear I even made sure to explain at the end of the video it happens at the end of the chain because I knew some people would be confused by that!
@@STRANJAH My bad it was made clear at the end, I commented before I got thru it all, sorry. Btw all Hospital Records tracks are coming in at -6 LUFS that I purchase, it’s so ridiculously loud. I guess loudness wars are still happening for DJ’s using digital files. Even with 2 limiters doing 2-3db of gain I find it hard to get that loud without some breaking up of the sound:(
@@dolomick No worries! Yes I'm still trying to crack that one. I think its going to come down to your track. Some tracks are mixed in a way that you can never get down to -6 LUFS. I've come close with some tracks, you might have to give up some room in the bottom end to achieve it.
Why the 'dynamic phase' setting on the Pro-MB and not the 'liniar phase' one ?
You should clip as early as possible, starting in the mix even; done properly you shouldn't need to compress the master for peak control, and only use a compressor for the compression itself if you'd like some. Trick I learned from a mastering engineer of whom I forgot the name, I ain't good with names, at least I'm good at remembering the important stuff 🤷♂. That's an oldish video, I suppose you learned that trick too by now :)
God Bless Stranjah!
Big up!
Thanks Fam the tips! Much Love!
Great content as always. What's that reference track?
I'm listening on DT 770 Pros and couldn't hear a difference between pre and post, master 😃
It may be UA-cam’s audio compression. There is a very subtle difference. Mostly more openness in the highs.
There barely is a difference, you're just creating overall tone and nuances with mastering. It can make a track feel better very subtly. Also ofc what stranjah said himself, YT audio isn't great
what an awesome video. this shit shouldn't be free!
Appreciate that! I am still learning so happy to provide what I’ve learnt for free. I plan to really get good with this topic though so I can do some advanced techniques.
What do I need analog modeling for if the change to the sound is so minimal that you don't hear a difference? Tbh I don't know what this step is useful for.
It's a good point, I wonder myself, I am still learning. I will say there are some plugins when pushed harder give you really sweet analog distortion on the high frequencies, namely the VSM-3, but I haven't mastered that tool yet, so I didn't show it.
I'd say only use analog modelling if you want a "vintage" sound - sometimes clean and digital is way better. Also - if you've added tonnes of vibe/ grit/ character in the mix, adding more won't help your master.
Very good intro to mastering! Best of all, you demystify it. I have been on a similar journey over the past year and I have arrived at basically the same place you have. One question: why did you use only the clipper in the TDR limiter 6 GE? I think their limiter is also very good. It's actually a great starting point for getting into mastering as it has a pretty complete chain in one plugin for $50: hard to beat. I think standard clip is a great clipper, by the way. I should also give a shout-out to the bx-digital eq. I like to use it in mid-side mode. It's great for those small moves, as you illustrate. One more thing: you can use an analog-modelled eq for some bit of saturation. Try a pultec emulation (e.g., analog obsession RARE). The pultec is great for some punch in the low end (be careful with it!).
I don't have any other clipper other than the one in TDR, but I will look into the one you mentioned, thank you!
I master in Ozone, I use the automatic and them I twik to taste