How to Get Loud & Clean Masters Every Time (Perfect Mastering Chain)
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- Опубліковано 12 чер 2024
- ►► Want to know if your track is ready for mastering? Download my mastering checklist here: bit.ly/3Ud24EA. In this video, I share my 7 step mastering chain that I’ve developed over many years, as well as how to use reference tracks whilst mastering. I also explain how you can check your mix is actually ready for mastering, as a bad mix won’t result in a good master.
We look at what loudness levels are appropriate for mastering, as well as how to master for Spotify - getting the maximum loudness whilst retaining dynamic range and making sure your track doesn’t get penalised.
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Tools and plugins I mention in this video. Some of these are affiliate links:
SoundID Reference: bit.ly/SonarworksSoundID
Loudness Penalty Analyzer: www.loudnesspenalty.com
Youlean Loudness Meter - bit.ly/2SGZ1rf
Tonal Balance from Izotope - bit.ly/3sQGR7F
Oxford Inflator - bit.ly/2SBlJ3U
Voxengo Span - bit.ly/3UhA96j
Bark of Dog - bit.ly/2HyJdQP
Fabfilter Pro Q3 - bit.ly/2u80ahR
Ozone 9 - bit.ly/2wsSNm6Pultec EQ - bit.ly/3NufLMVOzone Imager - bit.ly/2G1Kv6i
FabFilter Pro L2 - bit.ly/2sHTAgZ
👍 If you enjoyed this video, please hit the “like” button and consider subscribing to this channel!
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In this tutorial, we cover…
00:00 - Mastering (Intro)
00:34 - Why Mastering is important
01:53 - Mastering Set Up
05:09 - LUFS (Average vs Peak Volume)
07:02 - Spectrum Analyzer
08:01 - Is your mix ready for mastering
11:04 - Colouring Phase
14:09 - Reductive EQ
16:44 - Compression
18:27 - Multiband Compression
20:05 - Sweetening EQ
22:05 - Loudness
24:36 - How loud should you master your music
27:12 - Mastering your Music for Spotify
28:50 - Secret Hack of Mastering for Spotify
30:53 - Make Music Sound Professional on All Systems
32:11 - Biggest Mastering Mistake Most Producers Make
🐦 CLICK HERE to share this on Twitter: ctt.ac/jzYp6
📝…And here’s the blog version of this video: ???
Gear I use in this video…
🔈 My Audio Gear:
Monitors: bit.ly/AdamTV8
Headphones 1: bit.ly/MyHeadphones650
Headphones 2: bit.ly/TMA2Headphones
Audio Interface: bit.ly/ApolloInterface
MIDI Keyboard 1: bit.ly/ArturiaKeyLab61
MIDI Keyboard 2: bit.ly/AKAILPK25
Microphone 1: bit.ly/RodeUSB
Microphone 2: bit.ly/ShureSM7
Computer: amzn.to/3uYU28J
🎛 Discounted Plugin Deals:
bit.ly/2NGRIgL
💻 …And some of my Favourite Software…
🎤 Vocal Processing (I use all of these):
Celemony Melodyne: bit.ly/3l5cmaA
Antares Autotune: bit.ly/3MeBY0a
Waves CLA Vocals: bit.ly/3aGx4LM
🎶 My ENTIRE Music and Video Equipment: bit.ly/2K4eFHZ
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….AND SAY HI ON THE SOCIALS, BRUH:
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📌Web: www.edmtips.com
Cheers, and happy producing!
Will
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#mastering #masterchain #musicproduction
So many useful mastering tips here I’ve never seen on any other channel Thank you 🙏
Would like to say thanks! i´m producing music since 1998 but the Mastering was always a mystery for me. Now after 25 Years of making music, i can master my tracks myself with insane results. God bless you my friend!
Amazing! I am so grateful I found you! Thank you for sharing all this gold so generously and passionately!
Another great tutorial, Will. Very comprehensive and clearly presented. Thanks!
You've just showed amazing process full of details, so useful to learn, thank you!
It was the simplest and easiest to understand Mastering Tips I have ever seen.
In Japan, there were no engineers who could give such easy-to-understand explanations. It was very helpful. Thank you very much.
You're welcome, Yuge, Glad it was helpful!
Thanks Will. I had a similar chain and found that things are a bit easier to keep most of this inside of the full Ozone 10 chain.
7:06 if anyone wonders how he opened two different track's span plugin screen at the same time, go to your preferences > plugins > auto-hide plugin windows: off
Legend! I have been wondering that for a long time, haha
Mate this video was so helpful. Never really took the time to properly learn mastering, plus my mind was cluttered with so many tips and tricks from UA-cam tutorials. So I needed a new approach and dial down on just the basics. I found your video and applied this chain to my Mix... It worked wonders. None of my previous tracks have ever sound so furbished and clean. Brilliant video man. You're a lifesaver!
Funny meeting you here, dude! Wassup??
@@russellnashsynth Hey buddy! Nice to see you hanging out here😂
My fav tip in here was about the reductive EQ, cutting out the ultra low end below 30-40hz. I never imagined doing that, but I just tried it out and was able to get my overall master louder as you mentioned, without losing that low end energy. Another awesome video full of highly practical tips.
Yes, you cannot hear below around 30hz instead you can feel it more. Try it with a frequency generator app on your system.
Too much sub low end can take the energy out a track because the speakers have to move a lot of air.
Sometimes it can destroy your low end . I never do it and yet nobody complains . Also make sure when you eq your low end that your eq plug-in is set to linear mode otherwise your phase of the lows will change resulting in a different sound
Getting back in to producing and finding my way again these tutorials are brilliant many thanks for sharing
You're welcome, Nick, glad you found them helpful!
Anything else in particular you’re struggling with and would like me to cover on the channel?
Amazing video Will, just finished my first full track so timing could not be better! Thank you for all your work
You're welcome and congratulations on finishing the first track! Huge milestone! 🙌🏻
Thank you so much, Will. Your content is pure gold!
You're welcome, glad it was helpful!
Anything else in particular you’re struggling with and would like me to cover on the channel?
Been watching your videos on mixing and mastering and i got way better in one week!!!
You the Man💪💪💪💪
Awesome! You’re welcome :)
Great tutorial Will! Thank u so much!
Thank you for watching! What are you favourite plugins for mastering? Let me know in the comments below 👇👇👇
honestly i LOVE the shadowhills compressor. I nabbed a free copy when Plugin Aliance did that big give away to announce the partnership/merger. The three "metal" options at the bottom give so much color to the sound that complements my sound that i find myself using it on my bus for vocals (-1 db per each of the two compressors) and then zero compression just for saturation on the master chan all the time.
Your tips have immensely helped me. Thank you so much!
You are so welcome! Glad my videos have helped you so far! 🙂
One of the best tutorial on youtube... I did most of the things before watching this video... but now... my master just sound top end!!! Thanks Will!!! One of my fav channel together with @AlexRome
Thank you, Simone, I appreciate the support! 🙂🙌🏻
Very nice tutorial, thank you.
Thanks a lot for this video Will, it was amazing 🙏🏻
You're welcome, glad you enjoyed it! 🙌🏻
Hello Will. Happy New Year!
Great Video. I used that mastering chain on my latest track and it worked fine. Thanks a lot.
You're welcome, glad it was helpful! 🙂🙌🏻
reference track, reference track, reference track. Single most important stage. great video as usual.
hi! I do not really enjoy writing coments, but now I feel like I have to. I've stucked with my music few year ago, and fortunetly your videos started to answer my questions that I was analizing. I must say that it is truly the best edm tips channel on YT. Congratulations ! And thank you master. Greatings from Poland :)
Love to read such comments man! So happy my work helps you this much! :) Stay strong and all the best for you! 🙏
Excellent tips. Alot to take in and things to keep in mind.
Absolutely! I am glad you found this helpful 🙌🏻
Thanks for watching and supporting 🙂
Excellent needed this
❤ thanx .. that was really helpful and so well explained
Thank you, I feel i am a better artist after I watched your video! Can't wait to apply and practice all the new tricks!
Thank you for your comment! Happy to hear!
Excellent tutorial! thanks again! :)
You're welcome! 🙂
incredibly helpful, thank you!
Rock on! You're welcome! 🙂
Great video! So useful!
Glad you liked!
Thank you very much. This chain work fine, and is realy clean! less is more. Thank you
Learned a ton! Thanks
You're welcome! Glad you found it helpful! 🙂
That Bark of Dog plugin is already a hipass filter (with a resonant peak), and then you used another hipass filter again with Pro-Q, just so you know. Great way to get phase issues
One of your finest tuts sir!! 👌👌👌
Thank you! Glad you found it useful :) anything else you’d like to see me cover?
Thank you, I am glad you enjoyed it! 🙌🏻
@@EDMTips To be honest Will you've got it all boxed off...cant think of anything sir lol. 👍👍👍
As someone who does live sound mixing, even if a live system is capable of putting out under 40hz, it can just muddy up things anyways especially with edm where you can easily push any frequency to any level.
Since I'm also a bassist, on a bass guitar the low b on a 5/6 string bass is ~30 hz and the low e is around 41hz and many headphones you barely hear the low e and even cheap guitar tuning pedals can't even process the low b due to how they're built!
If you really want to, when you're playing a show have a live mix with some of those lower frequencies with a shallower HPF so it still attenuates and doesn't just rattle the subs, stage, etc!
Great tip!
Shallower? As in slope? Or a higher cutoff frequency?
Thanks again Will you’re a one man band music making machine - more great tips 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏❤
You're welcome, Micky, I am glad you found it helpful! 🙂🙌🏻
Thanks, great tutorial...
Best channel on UA-cam and that’s a fact, could you show us a video on how to make a full piano house track with just one hook vocal ? Like stuttered effects and chops, cheers
Thank you so much!
Great advice in this video
Awesome! Glad it was helpful! 🙂🙌🏻
Thanks Wlll, this is a great video to learn how to approach mastering EDM. A question: normally I use the PSP vintage warmer in the mixing stage to bring certain elemtents more forward and audible. Thus before going to mastering. Would you advise doing this or would it be better to adress is in the colouring phase?
Really helpful video, thanks so much.
You're welcome, I am glad you found it helpful 🙂🙌🏻
Thanks a lot for this awesome video! I'm producing Techno for clubs. Do you have any tips for bass heavy tracks?
Amazingly informative as usual! Thnx a Billion, Will!
Q: Now if i hv already used Bark of Dog on the low end bus while mixing (as recommended by u in a previous tutorial). Is it ok to be used again during mastering as u mentioned in this video?
Excellent video! I've learnt a lot from you, thanks a lot! just curious, how could I apply the EQ part if I don't own a fab filter license?
Will droping gold as per usual. Mr. Midas Touch himself.
I dunno about this one, there are a lot of problems with the info being shared.
Thanks a lot
You're welcome! Glad you enjoyed it! 🙌🏻
A "shortcut" way to master your tracks is to throw on a Linear Phase EQ on the Master. Roll off everything under 30Hz, make a 2-3db boost at around 2500-3000Hz, then add a 4-5db gain at everything over 8000Hz. This will give your track a lot more clarity from the get go.
Can you simplify that in Ableton terms? 🙂
Love it! Great tip 🤙
Ty man helped alot.
You’re welcome! Glad you found this helpful 🙌🏻
Great content 👏
Thank you 🙌 Really appreciate the support!
Really great video on mastering, thanks Will
You're welcome, Robin, glad it was helpful! 🙌🏻
@@EDMTips Question, how do you get both SPAN windows open at the same time? When I do it, as soon as I click on the other track to open its SPAN window the first one automatically closes. I don't know how you get both open at the same time?? (Yes, I'm on Ableton)
@@EDMTips Or I could have just Googled before asking, ha ha!! For anyone else who comes here with the same question it's Preferences > Plug-ins > Auto-Hide Plug-in Windows = Off
2 questions:
1. do u always master your tracks in a separate project or do you ever just do it in the original project file i.e. with all the tracks not just a stereo mix? 2. in this video, did u have compressors and eqs etc on your master bus in your original project? or do you save that all for mastering?
absolutely amazing info
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it! Any point in particular you found useful?
I think I liked the information the most, the part about adding warmth to the tracks and that mastering is very intensive 😮
hello will, thanks for your awesome content as always, did you have video about true peak limiting? i saw many people saying to stop using truepeak limiter, but its confuse, what is your professional opion about? Thank you!
شكرٱ ويل .. أنا أحترم عقلك يا رجل كل الحب لك
من ليبيا ❤
Appreciate it! 🙌🙏Thanks for watching and supporting 🙂
Quite a good walkthrough, I think. Thanks. One beef: when you said dynamic range at the end, you actually meant dynamics. These are terms of the art for us, and we need to use them correctly.
Amen brother, Hell yeah
Amen Brother! Hell Yeah!
Stop. Thank you so much for reminding me about that 808 State song.
A thousand likes.
Well done Sir ! A good video here ! I have to admit that all is here ... Good tips and tools, what, when, why ? ...Thanks
You're welcome, glad you found it helpful! 🙂
Thanks for watching and supporting the channel 🙌🏻
tysm for the info bro !!!
You're welcome, glad it was helpful 🙂
One more helpfull tutorial! Thank you so much! BTW, was your reference track in WAV or MP3?
Ideally wav, but 320 mp3 is fine
🎹Very helpfull! Thank you! 🎸🎤🎧
You're welcome, glad it helps!
Hi Will....apart from any EQ and compression processing on your individual tracks....do you do any processing work...eq, compression, saturation, limiting on your master track(2 bus) before you start to master your track completely or leave all of that for the actual mastering of the track.?
Thanks.
Amen brother, these tutorials are so so good and helpful. One question though: Should the reference track be in the same key as your own track? Because otherwise I think it is not that wise to compare exact frequencies down to the Hz. A track that has a bassline in C will of course have a lower frequency bassline than a track in G.
Thank you for watching and supporting the channel, Hans! 🙌🏻
Well, ideally, but the style will be more important than the key
Thanks for that Bark of Dog recommendation; I'm going to give that a shot!
Go for it, Russell! It's a great plugin 🙌🏻
'Livin' in a paradise..' is now in my head. I see what you did there. :)
😎
@@EDMTips Still using the Black Rooster Pultec?
Thanks Will. As a God Mode sound designer and producer I don't ever need to mix or master my perfect tracks. Mage! Mage, wake up! You're dreaming. 😄
😁 Don’t miss up on mastering, Mage!
Way to make it all about you. Lame.
I use SPAN to reference like you do here but, you can actually sidechain the reference and have both waveforms in one spectrum analyser. That's so much easier !
if your going the route with the seinheisers id recommend getting peace as its free and they have eq curves for the 650s. thats what ive been using as a free option.
Hi Will, thanks so much for your great content! 🎯
What do you think about the Sennheiser HD600?
They are not a bad choice. I prefer HD650 myself.
Soothe 2 is best way to get an anti annoying sound . Dynamically reducing the 3-4k frequencies makes your track sound less harsh and more smooth without lacking there . Also Tonal Balance Control helps me to make sure I have enough lows,mids,highs . Sometimes my tracks have waaaay to much highs and really quite bass . I only use eq and a limiter and those two plugins for mastering . No compression , no saturation, no Ozone 9 or 10 . And it always sounds completely dynamic, aggressive yet smooth and I peak around -5 to -6 LUFS . Perfect
Your channel and work is insane dude. Thanks a lot for all the good info shared.
It would be the channel of my dreams if you used FL Studio 🤭
It’s the same thing across all daws
legend
Thank you, I am glad you liked it! 🙂🙏🏻🙌🏻
that was useful, thanks :D
Stoked to hear that! Will you try this chain on your next track?
@@EDMTips actually, I'm playing around with it currently :) I don't have every plugin you use, but similar ones and it already sounds better than my previous setup. Less aggressive and I never used a limiter at the end and my glue compressor was also set up the wrong way.
I'm just a hobbyist who never is happy with the results, and I am usually just trying to fight my way through with the help of tutorial videos and this time I notice quite a difference that I like :D
Stoked to hear that! 🙌🏻
On the Limiter, you didnt touch the output. I saw some producers using -0.3db at output. They said, when the track is downloaded in mp3 tend to raise about 0.3db and it can clip. So, this way you lose a little bit of gain but avoid clipping when someone will buy your track in mp3, like beatport, etc. Can you confirm that?
Hey man thanks for the videos!! I was mentored by a Mastering Engineer. I was taught to master looking at RMS and to forget about LUFS. LUFS is perceived loudness while RMS is true volume.
Can you elaborate a bit more on how to monitor RMS levels?
@@danielecherivel7831 most DAWs come with “metering” plugins that show you the LUFS and RMS. If not pick up a 3rd party plug-in that does.
RMS is the old school metering, but it might be worth your time mastering in LUFS since the industry is changing its practices.
For LUFS mastering you want your target to be around -8 to -9 LUFS at peak energy the RMS should be around -10 or -12 if the stereo perceived is good, so yeah you are looking at that range for RMS. If the mix is good and the stereo field is lovely spread your LUFS will be a -3 DB difference usually. LUFS was developed to combat the loudness wars with the -14 LUFS but none of the professional engineers adapted it. All the top 20 tracks masters in the charts are ranging from -5 to -9 LUFS at peak energy. So do what the pro engineers do, not what Spotify or UA-camrs recommend. Spotify will level it out anyway. However if you master the -14 LUFS that’s when the problems occurs, it’s a quiet master and there is an option on Spotify to turn normalisation off to hear the true master.
So let’s say you are listening to Justin Bieber and his master is -6LUFS ( which one of his masters actually is). Then you flick to yours at -14 LUFS, it will just sound bad and people would need to reach for the volume or just skip your song. How long does it take for a listener to listen before the stream counts? See what I mean?
Hope this helps.
Following this video while testing things out for myself was very useful and for the first time I managed to master my track properly ! Thank you soo much :)
You're welcome, glad you found it helpful! 🙌🏻
May I ask what did you volume down the mastered track at 6:33 to -12 db and then changed to -10db while your unmastered track is peaking to only -7db? How will we understand if we are doing right like this?
Very good tutorial - as always! Thank you very much. And beside this: I really like the demo track. But unfortunately the Vocals are gone in both edits and they were really beautiful. What happend?
Unfortunately They aren’t mine to share….you’ll have to get them from Splice
What do you think of Ableton's default Multiband Compression?
The part you left out of your Spotify “hack” is that if your breaks are too low in volume the don’t contribute to the integrated LUFS. So if you want your “hack” to work the low volume song sections should be within 6 or 7 db of the loudest sections, that way they contribute to the integrated LUFS calculation.
Is the glue compressor something like a limiter also? If I put the threshold to 2db, will it limit all transients above that?
Hey! I am mastering a phonk track now and i downloaded a track from spotify as a reference, and it was taken down by -6db in volume, but then I downloaded the same track from youtube and it had loudness of -7 LUFS and it sounded right. Could it be that for very agressive genres you should upload your tracks louder? As I understood it will seem louder anyway even if spotify will take it down in volume
What about a transient shaper? Thanks a lot
Thanks for the amazing content. How do you open 2 plug-ins(in your case Span) side by side? For me only on the track which is selected I can see the plug-ins and when I click on the other track the first one disappears. I'm w windows user and Ableton 11. I even tried to keep the plug-in open on my second screen, but still the same. Any advice? Cheers!
ableton -- live--preferences--plugin--put second last box(auto hide plug in windows) to off.
Do you think the software Landr is ok for mastering? I’ve always been unsure about it
On the spectrum analyser i can't compare the two together. Is there a setting within ableton to help with this pls?
Saved. Hopefully this applies to non edm as well.
Indeed it does! Try it on your track and let me know how it goes :)
legend
Hey Will, isnt it much easier to just upload the -7 LUFS file to spotify and spotify will reduce the loudness to -14 LUFS?
Do you always export to a single track before you master? I’ve always mastered with a copy of my original project file
Sorry, i don't understand where do you apply those plugins, in the insert of the mixed track or in the stereo out channel?
You have 6-7 db of gain reduction on the limiter. This is a problem? I know many producers who think gain reduction on the limiter has to be a maximum of 3 db. Nice video!
any other alternatives for the oxford inflator
Hi, one question, why when he uses the limiter L2 he put it to sound to 7 LUFS but the signal in red in the plugin is distorsión? Isnt it a lot for the limiter? Dont sound muddy?
So if your low end has like a hill in it that means too loud right? In the frequency graph. I do mainly 808 heavy beats
Can you please make a video for us about multiband compression? I think that`d be amazing
Great suggestion, I will add it to my to-do list! 🙂🙌🏻
@@EDMTips Cheers Will , I'm 100% many people will much appreciate it as one of the most complicated topic and you always show us everything well depth but simple and clear, thank you for everything 🙏
I'm having problems putting two instances of span side by side, when i open one on my master channel then try to open one on my reference track, the span instance on my master track will minimise!
imagine being music youtube channel, reviewing the video and listening how your mic sounds, and still uploading it nonetheless. i am speechless
What exactly is the problem with the way my mic sounds?