I am a seasoned professional (personal account ignore name haha) and this is one of those gems on UA-cam where the knowledge is real and puts knowledge first. I am glad I found this video. To everyone who might come across this video, there's a sea of info on the internet and it's hard to identify what info to actually use/take in, but I can vouch that this video gives solid info that the upper echelon engineers use and don't discuss about (forget about the wannabes on UA-cam, I'm talking about upper echelon professional engineers). I am just stunned you would share this! Great video and thanks!
Thanks mate; appreciate your support; I don't mind sharing these experiences in the studio; knowing how to do something is very different from knowing WHEN to do it; and WHY we SHOULD or shouldn't do something; so techniques like this; and hopefully more of what I share on this channel helps give people insight into the pedigree of work professionals like ourselves go to, to deliver results;
@@panorama_mastering Very well said! I will be staying tuned to your channel, I hope to see your content grow! :D Cheers! P.S: I've been swearing by Jaycen Joshua's "The God Particle" on my 2bus for mixing, picked it up as soon as it came out.
This video is the gold at the end of the rainbow. I have now realized that I have been doing parallel compression COMPLETELY wrong! Everytime I've used parallel compression, I've used an 1176. If you don't know, that is a F A S T compressor, which is exactly the opposite of what he suggests in the video. I am now getting punchy sounding masters at levels I never thought were obtainable. Thank you so absolutely much for this video!!!
I love your approach man, not really a fan of just relying on “if sounds good it is good” I like to understand the science and maths behind why certain processes work, it improves consistency when you understand it from a technical standpoint, I think.
Absolutely. My ears get tired and lose objectivity easily, I'm with you in understanding how this works so I don't make poor mixing mistakes and feel like I'm shooting into he dark. There is a logical reason why certain mixing techniques works the way they do, and figuring that out seperates the producers who rely on slapping a soft clipper on everything for maximum loudness to the ones who actually understand a good mix.
New York Compression in Mastering is a Mastering Engineer's best friend. Unless one feels compressing the entire frequency spectrum is needed to encompass punch and drive without altering the main track's transients, it is best IMHO to split the frequency spectrum into low, low mids, high mids, and highs (or lows, mids, and highs) using a linear phase EQ to avoid phase cancellation, blend each section accordingly. You have more control to determine which frequency spectrum area needs more or less than the other, instead of boosting the entire frequency spectrum all at once. I find this to achieve more punch, drive and cleanliness throughout. To add more punch, use SplitEQ by Eventide to boost the fundamental transient and backbeat's fatness and click using Mid based processing, bypassing the Side to avoid headroom increase, and keeping the low end overall in Mono where it is Mono-Compatible. Then, add Baselane Pro to ensure Mono Compatibility is in place.
To avoid harmonic distortion via compression, make certain the release time is 50ms minimum. Anything under 50ms will constitute harmonic distortion. The lower the ms below 50ms, the more harmonic distortion will take place. That is for all compressors, digital and hardware. Fast attacks follow the same principle. In your tutorial example, 33ms attack time will constitute harmonic distortion. Saturation and distortion are two related, but very different things. Distortion is a very broad term that refers to the altering of a waveform’s shaping. One form of distortion anyone envisions in Music is harmonic distortion, which can have a very pleasant, or very harsh timbre depending on the amplitude, the type, and the number of harmonics. 1) Saturation is the combination of harmonic generation and soft-knee compression. Saturation occurs when the electrical components of a piece of hardware are overwhelmed. 2) When an electrical component is saturated, it can no longer output a signal in a linear ratio to the input, resulting in Compression and Distortion. Overall, different electrical components like tubes, transistors, and the magnetic particles of tape, each affect a signal different during saturation, resulting in different harmonics, different amounts of distortion, and an overall different timbre. Although this topic is pretty complex, the most important take away is that the terms distortion and saturation should not be used interchangeably. When doing so, the meaning of one term may be conflated, or confused with the meaning of the other. In turn, making it more difficult for engineers to discuss topics clearly. That said, it is best to know these terms and what they mean on a technical level so that they are not used incorrectly.
This is the best mastering education video I've ever seen. Just put it to the test on a master and it works amazingly! This has been something that I've certainly struggled with on mastering all my mixes. Thank you so much for sharing this!
@@panorama_mastering your the goat man and an Aussie 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 can't believe the knowledge you drop I am in awe thank you infinitely man your my go to. Do you recommend mastering the actual track or mix down and master after signing off on the mix first 🤔 As I had it done than cooked it.🤦🏼♂️ Than tried changing it for the master that destroyed mix. So would you sign off on it makes it down and then just master the ab as I found it is a lot more forgiving this way. Please help 🙏🙏 Best most informative channel of all time thankyou bro 💪
Bro!!!! You saved one of my tracks! Basically, I had way too much harmonic distortion from my sources (loud trumpet and synths) as well as mixing too loud into UAD plugins, followed by making my limiter work too hard. I went from my track sounding like crap in my car at -14LUFS, to loud and clean at under -10LUFS. I'm using a few different plugins to get the results, but the workflow is basically the same. Thank you so much for the helpful videos!
It would be so much better if we could upload our finished songs without adding our own limiter and let Spotify's algorithm turn it up to the "appropriate level" if it's not up to the normalized standard. It makes perfect sense, since they have no problem turning it down if they deem it "too loud" It would remove all the guesswork for the inexperienced.
Despite all your interesting advices, there is still one major issue here in terms of mastering; this infamous loudness war is ruining thousands of mixes for only one purpose : to sound loud, and loud... No matter what you do, you're actually shrinking drastically the dynamics of the original mix (which is often horridly reduced to some 6dB of overall dynamics). When listening to most of the "modern nowadays mastered stuff", it's just a pain for ears : too much squashed, it doesn't breathe, very exhausting after a certain time. And it's stupid too, because every streaming site has an automatic levelling, so there is clearly no point carrying on with wanting to sound "loud" at all costs. The real purpose of mastering is to make a mix sound great with the great principle "primum non nocere". It doesn't have to be insanely loud! Make it just sound as good and balanced as possible. If more mastering engineers explained and educated their customers, instead of complying to the only loudness factor, we'd have much better sounding masters for years (as well as less terrible remasters). We now have the best possible digital resolutions and converters available (24 bits, 96kHz and more), we can have a sound quality way better than that was possible back in the 70's/80's... Still, all these records of the past sound way better, and that's because back then, there was no loudness war, engineers had taste and the listeners knew there was a volume knob on their Hi-Fi equipment (because back in the days we also had relatively decent Hi-Fi systems to listen on). Were all those legendary records like "Dark Side Of The Moon" (Pink Floyd), "Thriller" (Michael Jackson), "Synchronicity" (The Police), "So" (Peter Gabriel), "Parade" (Prince), "The Joshua Tree" (U2), etc. to name a few that loud and squashed? Certainly not ! So, what the hell has happened in the meantime? People got used to fast-food sounding records, listen on the most terrible gear (telephones, tablets...). Fortunately, Jazz and Classical Music have been spared from this madness. Don't you think it's time for people to get a decent overall listening culture (with acoustic music is a very good start) and get themselves some decent Hi-Fi systems?
Digital over analog, mastering tools in home environment, any idiot being left to run riot... you bang on with the whole idea of mastering being perverted to loud.... Back in the day Mastering engineers used to be magicians that understood ideas so advanced that you need a physics degree to understand... mix and master studios, not laptop in bedroom... I would argue the same applies in regards to music production...
as a music producers with 10+ years of exp, while i agree with you.. there is a problem playing live. i know people have volume knobs, but when you are in a festival not only you dont have access to it.. it is usually already at max value. so when the previous act finishes and you hit play, the crowd are gonna boo if the volume difference is too big (more than 3db is enough for everyone to think you are a bad producer). i dont like loudness war, but for an electronic music producer, this is a real problem. we dont make music for listen at home, we make it to play at festivals where volume is already at max.. so how the fuck can we sound as loud as the previous guy and not lose all expression in the process? its hard
You are so right! Apart from that (and I speak now as a hearing care professional), it’s ruining our ears too… Shouldn’t we just go back to normal levels…? If one insists on listening at high volumes: turn up the volume…. Quite simple, isn’t it. The best mixes though are those that still sound open/transparent and dynamic when listened to at low volume levels… regardless of where you are and which playback device you use.
Damn agree with you! And not mentionning that in this video at the end of this exemple it has indeed distortion (at least with headphones on) imo a master engineer should care about dynamics and make the song sounds good not squashed !.
This was extremely insightful and informative. Especially your specific use of the L2 parameters. Will definitely be applying your techniques on future projects. Thank you!
If any DAW supports 32-bit Float IEEE, use as recommended instead of 24-bit PCM. Also, to remove the possibility of Aliasing Distortion and Nyquist, use 96k Sample Rate (if your system can handle it). I use 96k sample/32-bit Float IEEE as a DAW Standard. Oversampling in over 95% chances is not needed, unless you want to remove all instances of A.D altogether.
The hardest lesson to learn about mixing and mastering is realizing that each technique or fact you think you have learned will influence conclusions you made about your process in the past, and some of the past conclusions may turn out to be wrong. Only when you understand the fundamentals - all the important ones anyway - will you then have the process stable on "all table legs", and then the real process begins - the aesthetic choices, which is a whole new world of thinking. And even with your fundamentals down, learned and earned, you'll always be learning, because you'll have new plugins, and you'll try new things.
Honestly one of the best videos i've ever seen explaining the relationship between gain-staging and compressors. Once you made it clear that EVERYTHING must have the same true peak and can adjust the output gain accordingly, is a GAME CHANGER. So that the final limiter is effecting everything evenly and can push the balanced mix to the limit without distorting. Thanks so much mate!
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching along! There are definitely two camps to gain staging; 1. Matching loudness (which I think is the best approach when mixing) 2. Matching true peak (which i think is the best approach when mastering, so you always know what headroom you have going into your cieling)
I do many of the things you've mentioned since I share the same mastering opinions; but so far, this is one of the most detailed explanations backed with solid foundational "facts". Excellent video and now a new subscriber. Cheers!
Very well done - I learned all this by reading about signal and wave form science + many, many years of experimenting with plugins, mastering processes, order, tonal balance, referencing. But I don't regret that process, because when you do it that way, you earn it and own it - you own that knowledge. But if if I had seen this video about 10 years ago, this would have saved me time. And as others have stated in the comments, many YT audio videos (mixing, mastering) doesn't matter - are either master of the obvious or are just junk information - this video is how you do it. The facts are correct, and the techniques are what I learned the hard way.
OMG i kept having a problem where my 808s would very audibly distort the SECOND they hit the limiter. the longer attack and release times on the master compressor completely fixed it!!! Thank you so much
This exchange got me to subscribe. That tip by mr fields made me go back to using the plugin! Its refreshing to find honesty and a amicable exchange and respect both of you very much. 🙏🏾
slight correction to your comment - soft clipping provides a more gradual transition between the clean signal and the distorted signal, but due to its soft knee, it introduces distortion before the signal hits 0, meaning a soft-clipped signal is actually *more* distorted than a hard-clipped signal.
hah this was so good! i always feel so intimidated by all the science and math when it comes to dialing in precise values and stuff but you made it look simple. and in 1 minute or so you even managed to explained how Pro L works in a way that it made so much more sense than how i used to approach it before. and great final result as well. brilliant. thank you for the content. subscribed.
Awesome video Nicholas. Great techniques. Also very humble of you to admit the bit about Standard Clip and soft clipping. As professionals we invariable are going to get something wrong when using plugins and their multitudes of features and UIs. That's the neat thing about UA-cam, in publishing videos and having viewers catch our slip ups, we learn and grow as well. I can't tell you the number of times I've missed something key about a plugin, and then read the manual and realized I was using it wrong. Please keep up the great content. Cheers mate.
Dialing in the compression attack and release time like that just blew my mind, i always was like slow attack fast release on the master and didnt really touched the attack and release parameters on the limiter but now you've really opened my interest to experiment in the right direction to get effective results. Thank you so much!
This is an advanced lesson! There are some great tips here about gain staging and other things, so I'll keep this as a reference to come back to later.
Hi! Thank you for all the good info. I'm not getting one thing. You put the Clip slider to -7.5 db (so it actually does -1.5 db of clipping) but then you put 6 db of gain in the output of the clipper and actually get -1 db true peak. Shouldn't you be getting -1.5 db of true peak? What am I missing here?
Gonna have to watch / listen to this at least five times to understand half of it. This definitely goes deep. I wish i was able to hear the difference between a and b on the fast and slow low end compression. It sounded exactly the same. i have the same trouble whenever i change settings on a limiter or compressor.
Thanks mate! Doing these video's help challenge my experiences and understanding of audio to better articulate and define what I do in the studio; so sometimes the science is needed;
This is neat stuff, particularly the bit about calculating the attack/release times based on the lowest fundamental. I’m normally not one to break out a calculator while mixing but when it comes to the master bus, I’m no mastering engineer so I’m happy to minimize any guesswork. Just wanted to bring up one thing though regarding internal clipping you mentioned in the gain-staging bit. As far as I can tell, you can’t internally clip (in my DAW at least). I can clip on the way in and the way out obviously but any individual tracks in between that feed into the master bus don’t audibly clip when going over 0db so long as the master bus has a limiter on it. So I don’t find it necessary to bother with gain-staging so long as the mix is balanced. If I need more headroom before hitting the limiter, I simply pull down the fader on the master bus.
A thousand thanks for this excellent video tutorial. To say it was illuminating would be my personal candidate for understatement of the year. Top notch my man. o7
@@panorama_masteringNo, thank you mate. I'm only being slightly hyperbolic when I say that this video was "life changing", at least in terms of my understanding of audio. And it wasn't for a lack of trying to find the right information, I've been making music myself for the last 38 years and producing ITB for the last 29 or so years. I couldn't even begin to estimate how many videos I've watched over the years regarding mastering, how to make it loud, etc. and the thing that gets me is that several key pieces of information I gleaned from this one video was never mentioned by any of the others and a fair number of them were well known professional mixing/mastering engineers. Thanks for sharing this information with the rest of us, you've forever changed the way I go about mastering my music. I've already tried it out in practice and the results spoke for themselves. Cheers and Godspeed, Diem
a little late to the game, but thanks for the awesome video.. the best I came across on this topic and cant wait to check out more from you. new big fan here. thank you!
Great explanation!ª How did you set it up at the end to compare, that solo alternate from tracks? I always have to solo one and unsolo the other... Thanks!
Such a great video and it's definitely made me look into Standard Clip more. I also love your presentation style on complex topics, keep up the great work.
Valuable vid mate. I don't know why i never thought of using parallel bus in mastering, nice Btw you gotta turn that auto focus off haha. Just manual focus it to a fixed spot, it's not like you're moving off the chair in the vids anyway :)
Thank you very much, so valuable! I have two questions about the compression times: The lowest note is not always the same as soon as the compressor starts working again after every circle. Do you focus exclusively on the lowest note or rather on the "average" of all notes? And: Wouldn't your approach to the lowest note even be applicable to limiters, which are ultimately just compressors?
Interesting to see your process. Not trying to nit pick, but there's some obvious distortion on the lower end, post limiting. Possibly a result of too much compression and pushing hard on the limiter?
Hey mate, I'm an amateur engineer trying to find my way. Studied for a few years, did a couple years in a small studio in my hometown etc. Always looking to learn, expand my box of tricks, & improve what I do. I've been chasing mastering for ages now, trying (& mostly failing), & absorbing every scrap of info I can find in what at times feels like a futile attempt to learn how to do it well. SO much of what I read & watch seems to tell me the same 2 things... either "Hey you want loud & distortion free? Try turning on oversampling!" or "You're dumb if you're trying to master loud because spotify turns it down anyway & it ruins the music, just don't do it." I found this video completely by accident & it absolutely blew my mind. I felt like I'd just found the holy grail like THIS is the kind of info I've been searching for. Something that goes into detail about the how, and more importantly, why, each step of the way. I just had my first truly successful mastering attempt before I saw this video, now I can't wait to try all the tricks you showed. Sincerely, thank you so very much for sharing your knowledge. From someone who truly doesn't want to do anything else but consistently feels like I'm falling short & not good enough, this was a complete paradigm shift & an absolute game changer!
@@panorama_mastering Well... I decided to go back to that previous master & give some of these tips a try. The end result... both louder AND cleaner than I managed before! 😁
Great video! Couple questions...Any reason for using the zero latency setting in your Pro-Q3? Also, any reason for not using true peak on your Pro-L2?...the final master true peak looked like it was going over by 2dB, have you had any issues on playback from streaming services with delivering somthin that hot? thanks!
@Panorama: Could you share your view on the DC Offset button in Pro-L2? Disabled seem to be 0.3 momentary and 0.2 short LUFS louder. I work 100% out of the box (VST + VSTi). In this case would you ever need DC Offset?
Is gain staging really that important? Even with 32 bit float? It's only REALLY clipping when you export the master track, right? IMHO it doesn't matter to leave the master at -6 or 0, because you're gonna clip/limit/compress either way. I really don't get the difference. [ I'M NOT USING ANALOG EMULATION, FULL DIGITAL STUFF]
Controlling the clipping; and having autonomy over how it's clipped is what's important here; Re- the -6dBTP going through the chain; some plugins architecture will clip at 24bits; and not have the 8bit float; that's why;
Seeing your process and hearing how you approach audio is such a nice perspective. Makes me realize the importance of getting more ears on a project. A lot of finer detail that just one person aka me, would miss. Getting a lot out of these vids :) Makes me want to get some one else to master my tracks when it’s time for that phase. You both offer mixing and mastering services for EDM productions correct?
I appreciate that! I do offer mixing and mastering for EDM productions; if you're interested in chatting about it hit me up via nicholas@panoramamastering.com.au !
I wish you would go through more of the settings for your upward compression. This was a great video but you speak really fast and as a English native speaker I was able to keep up but I'd imagine some people would have difficulty. Personally. I wouldn't mind if your video was longer but took more time to go through some details. That said, great job mate. I subscribed
Can I ask how does the side information sound when you flip it into the sides? Is it clean or is there audible artifacts present? Is this something that give much attention to? Thanks really enjoy your content 😊
That's something I do monitor from time to time; often when dialing in and pushing clippers / limiters; if artefacts begin to rear their head I tend to find that's the point where I need to back off;
Thank you for the reply... yes its a very fine balance 😊 would you use anything else to put those dbs into the master or would you just not push it anymore? Again thanks for all your work.
great tutorial! one note - turn off auto focus, you are usually in one place, you don't need this and you get out of focus non stop, and as it's my daily job - video making, this is really annoying ;)
this helped so much, thank you!!!!! funny how i always gain stage in live audio mixing or DJing, but didn't translate that to mixing at home. thanks again
9:47 great tip! Was trying this parallel comp thing on a master in logic today and was wondering why to use the clipper before the compressor? Just so it won’t clamp on the loudest transients or is there a different reason? Also my peak volume increases a lot if I blend it in, a standard clip gain plug-in wil do the trick to get it back to the initial volume right? anyway great video as always keep up the good work! 🥂
Thanks for the video. I've been struggling with this. The other piece would be while mixing or making a track. Would the concept be the same or similar for each channel? ie bass, drums, guitar, vocals, etc...?
No worries; my pleasure; While mixing or making a track; this is more-so dependant on each channels relationship to one another; so whilst the theory here is applicable it's always at the mercy or the arrangment / sound design of the production when mixing;
There's a tremendous amount of videos providing great technical advice on how to "professionally master" music, and the "sweetspot" of gain and keeping the audio from "clipping" and distortion, etc. However, I downloaded a bunch of top selling songs from the artists' own UA-cam channels and placed them in my DAW and guess what? All the audio tracks from these "top musicians" clipped like crazy - The VU meter lived in the red zone.
Some do not care about further clipping added during export and leave it as it, they think is not audible lol. I refuse to listen any music mastered like this video or with clipping on it. Is not good music to me.
Jas. - Wish You Well - open.spotify.com/track/6I56gU6RR784U5Tus65qet?si=3a18077bbe1e42b5 An EP I mixed for the artist and label is coming out next week too!
Great! I just discovered your channel. I already have subscribed to a lot of this kind but I had to subscribe to you too. Your approach is very professional.
:D time to turn off the auto focus I think mate, every time you gesticulate it tries to focus on your hands! I'm definitely going to try that parallel technique, I haven't used it on the master bus before.
Haha I was spitting chips when I saw this in post; my lense must have been dirty / battery getting a bit worn; I shoot all my video's with AF; this was the first time it really kicked me hard;
I am a seasoned professional (personal account ignore name haha) and this is one of those gems on UA-cam where the knowledge is real and puts knowledge first. I am glad I found this video. To everyone who might come across this video, there's a sea of info on the internet and it's hard to identify what info to actually use/take in, but I can vouch that this video gives solid info that the upper echelon engineers use and don't discuss about (forget about the wannabes on UA-cam, I'm talking about upper echelon professional engineers). I am just stunned you would share this! Great video and thanks!
EDIT: Even masterclasses of the pro engineers won't even share this (I watch a ton of masterclasses, that's why I can say this)
Thanks mate; appreciate your support; I don't mind sharing these experiences in the studio; knowing how to do something is very different from knowing WHEN to do it; and WHY we SHOULD or shouldn't do something; so techniques like this; and hopefully more of what I share on this channel helps give people insight into the pedigree of work professionals like ourselves go to, to deliver results;
@@panorama_mastering Very well said! I will be staying tuned to your channel, I hope to see your content grow! :D Cheers! P.S: I've been swearing by Jaycen Joshua's "The God Particle" on my 2bus for mixing, picked it up as soon as it came out.
@@zerberk Nice thanks for being along for the ride!
YES there is some very clever work they've put into that plug-in!
Thanks for sharing bud! Hey, those songs on your channel, you mixed and mastered them?
This video is the gold at the end of the rainbow.
I have now realized that I have been doing parallel compression COMPLETELY wrong! Everytime I've used parallel compression, I've used an 1176. If you don't know, that is a F A S T compressor, which is exactly the opposite of what he suggests in the video. I am now getting punchy sounding masters at levels I never thought were obtainable. Thank you so absolutely much for this video!!!
I love your approach man, not really a fan of just relying on “if sounds good it is good” I like to understand the science and maths behind why certain processes work, it improves consistency when you understand it from a technical standpoint, I think.
Absolutely. My ears get tired and lose objectivity easily, I'm with you in understanding how this works so I don't make poor mixing mistakes and feel like I'm shooting into he dark.
There is a logical reason why certain mixing techniques works the way they do, and figuring that out seperates the producers who rely on slapping a soft clipper on everything for maximum loudness to the ones who actually understand a good mix.
New York Compression in Mastering is a Mastering Engineer's best friend. Unless one feels compressing the entire frequency spectrum is needed to encompass punch and drive without altering the main track's transients, it is best IMHO to split the frequency spectrum into low, low mids, high mids, and highs (or lows, mids, and highs) using a linear phase EQ to avoid phase cancellation, blend each section accordingly. You have more control to determine which frequency spectrum area needs more or less than the other, instead of boosting the entire frequency spectrum all at once. I find this to achieve more punch, drive and cleanliness throughout. To add more punch, use SplitEQ by Eventide to boost the fundamental transient and backbeat's fatness and click using Mid based processing, bypassing the Side to avoid headroom increase, and keeping the low end overall in Mono where it is Mono-Compatible. Then, add Baselane Pro to ensure Mono Compatibility is in place.
Commenting tk come back
you must be getting some shitty mixes
To avoid harmonic distortion via compression, make certain the release time is 50ms minimum. Anything under 50ms will constitute harmonic distortion. The lower the ms below 50ms, the more harmonic distortion will take place. That is for all compressors, digital and hardware. Fast attacks follow the same principle. In your tutorial example, 33ms attack time will constitute harmonic distortion.
Saturation and distortion are two related, but very different things. Distortion is a very broad term that refers to the altering of a waveform’s shaping.
One form of distortion anyone envisions in Music is harmonic distortion, which can have a very pleasant, or very harsh timbre depending on the amplitude, the type, and the number of harmonics.
1) Saturation is the combination of harmonic generation and soft-knee compression. Saturation occurs when the electrical components of a piece of hardware are overwhelmed.
2) When an electrical component is saturated, it can no longer output a signal in a linear ratio to the input, resulting in Compression and Distortion.
Overall, different electrical components like tubes, transistors, and the magnetic particles of tape, each affect a signal different during saturation, resulting in different harmonics, different amounts of distortion, and an overall different timbre.
Although this topic is pretty complex, the most important take away is that the terms distortion and saturation should not be used interchangeably.
When doing so, the meaning of one term may be conflated, or confused with the meaning of the other. In turn, making it more difficult for engineers to discuss topics clearly.
That said, it is best to know these terms and what they mean on a technical level so that they are not used incorrectly.
I am a mastering engineer myself but I'm very happy to say: you taught me something today, THANK YOU :)
This is the best mastering education video I've ever seen. Just put it to the test on a master and it works amazingly! This has been something that I've certainly struggled with on mastering all my mixes. Thank you so much for sharing this!
Glad it was helpful!
@@panorama_mastering your the goat man and an Aussie 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 can't believe the knowledge you drop I am in awe thank you infinitely man your my go to.
Do you recommend mastering the actual track or mix down and master after signing off on the mix first 🤔
As I had it done than cooked it.🤦🏼♂️ Than tried changing it for the master that destroyed mix.
So would you sign off on it makes it down and then just master the ab as I found it is a lot more forgiving this way. Please help 🙏🙏
Best most informative channel of all time thankyou bro 💪
Bro!!!! You saved one of my tracks! Basically, I had way too much harmonic distortion from my sources (loud trumpet and synths) as well as mixing too loud into UAD plugins, followed by making my limiter work too hard. I went from my track sounding like crap in my car at -14LUFS, to loud and clean at under -10LUFS. I'm using a few different plugins to get the results, but the workflow is basically the same. Thank you so much for the helpful videos!
Super glad to hear! Happy to be of assistance
LOVE THE HONESTY ABOUT MISTAKE..... WHAT A REAL GUY.
A goldmine of information in literally every video. Keep it up man, you're doing gods work!
Thanks m808
It would be so much better if we could upload our finished songs without adding our own limiter and let Spotify's algorithm turn it up to the "appropriate level" if it's not up to the normalized standard. It makes perfect sense, since they have no problem turning it down if they deem it "too loud" It would remove all the guesswork for the inexperienced.
Despite all your interesting advices, there is still one major issue here in terms of mastering; this infamous loudness war is ruining thousands of mixes for only one purpose : to sound loud, and loud... No matter what you do, you're actually shrinking drastically the dynamics of the original mix (which is often horridly reduced to some 6dB of overall dynamics). When listening to most of the "modern nowadays mastered stuff", it's just a pain for ears : too much squashed, it doesn't breathe, very exhausting after a certain time. And it's stupid too, because every streaming site has an automatic levelling, so there is clearly no point carrying on with wanting to sound "loud" at all costs. The real purpose of mastering is to make a mix sound great with the great principle "primum non nocere". It doesn't have to be insanely loud! Make it just sound as good and balanced as possible. If more mastering engineers explained and educated their customers, instead of complying to the only loudness factor, we'd have much better sounding masters for years (as well as less terrible remasters).
We now have the best possible digital resolutions and converters available (24 bits, 96kHz and more), we can have a sound quality way better than that was possible back in the 70's/80's... Still, all these records of the past sound way better, and that's because back then, there was no loudness war, engineers had taste and the listeners knew there was a volume knob on their Hi-Fi equipment (because back in the days we also had relatively decent Hi-Fi systems to listen on). Were all those legendary records like "Dark Side Of The Moon" (Pink Floyd), "Thriller" (Michael Jackson), "Synchronicity" (The Police), "So" (Peter Gabriel), "Parade" (Prince), "The Joshua Tree" (U2), etc. to name a few that loud and squashed? Certainly not !
So, what the hell has happened in the meantime? People got used to fast-food sounding records, listen on the most terrible gear (telephones, tablets...). Fortunately, Jazz and Classical Music have been spared from this madness. Don't you think it's time for people to get a decent overall listening culture (with acoustic music is a very good start) and get themselves some decent Hi-Fi systems?
Digital over analog, mastering tools in home environment, any idiot being left to run riot... you bang on with the whole idea of mastering being perverted to loud....
Back in the day Mastering engineers used to be magicians that understood ideas so advanced that you need a physics degree to understand... mix and master studios, not laptop in bedroom...
I would argue the same applies in regards to music production...
as a music producers with 10+ years of exp, while i agree with you.. there is a problem playing live. i know people have volume knobs, but when you are in a festival not only you dont have access to it.. it is usually already at max value. so when the previous act finishes and you hit play, the crowd are gonna boo if the volume difference is too big (more than 3db is enough for everyone to think you are a bad producer).
i dont like loudness war, but for an electronic music producer, this is a real problem. we dont make music for listen at home, we make it to play at festivals where volume is already at max.. so how the fuck can we sound as loud as the previous guy and not lose all expression in the process? its hard
You are so right! Apart from that (and I speak now as a hearing care professional), it’s ruining our ears too… Shouldn’t we just go back to normal levels…? If one insists on listening at high volumes: turn up the volume…. Quite simple, isn’t it. The best mixes though are those that still sound open/transparent and dynamic when listened to at low volume levels… regardless of where you are and which playback device you use.
Damn agree with you! And not mentionning that in this video at the end of this exemple it has indeed distortion (at least with headphones on) imo a master engineer should care about dynamics and make the song sounds good not squashed !.
Totally agreed. I started late 80s. Fast food music is so awful.
This was extremely insightful and informative. Especially your specific use of the L2 parameters. Will definitely be applying your techniques on future projects. Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it!
If any DAW supports 32-bit Float IEEE, use as recommended instead of 24-bit PCM. Also, to remove the possibility of Aliasing Distortion and Nyquist, use 96k Sample Rate (if your system can handle it). I use 96k sample/32-bit Float IEEE as a DAW Standard. Oversampling in over 95% chances is not needed, unless you want to remove all instances of A.D altogether.
I just love how you break down things to it's most atomic form 🔥🔥You make mastering look amazing, keep up the good work 💪🏿💪🏿
Thank you so much for watching; appreciate you mate!
The hardest lesson to learn about mixing and mastering is realizing that each technique or fact you think you have learned will influence conclusions you made about your process in the past, and some of the past conclusions may turn out to be wrong. Only when you understand the fundamentals - all the important ones anyway - will you then have the process stable on "all table legs", and then the real process begins - the aesthetic choices, which is a whole new world of thinking. And even with your fundamentals down, learned and earned, you'll always be learning, because you'll have new plugins, and you'll try new things.
Honestly one of the best videos i've ever seen explaining the relationship between gain-staging and compressors. Once you made it clear that EVERYTHING must have the same true peak and can adjust the output gain accordingly, is a GAME CHANGER. So that the final limiter is effecting everything evenly and can push the balanced mix to the limit without distorting. Thanks so much mate!
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching along!
There are definitely two camps to gain staging;
1. Matching loudness (which I think is the best approach when mixing)
2. Matching true peak (which i think is the best approach when mastering, so you always know what headroom you have going into your cieling)
@@panorama_mastering Of course man!
Very concise summation. Keep up the solid work!
I do many of the things you've mentioned since I share the same mastering opinions; but so far, this is one of the most detailed explanations backed with solid foundational "facts". Excellent video and now a new subscriber. Cheers!
Thanks for the love mate!
Very well done - I learned all this by reading about signal and wave form science + many, many years of experimenting with plugins, mastering processes, order, tonal balance, referencing. But I don't regret that process, because when you do it that way, you earn it and own it - you own that knowledge. But if if I had seen this video about 10 years ago, this would have saved me time. And as others have stated in the comments, many YT audio videos (mixing, mastering) doesn't matter - are either master of the obvious or are just junk information - this video is how you do it. The facts are correct, and the techniques are what I learned the hard way.
Thanks mate! I appreciate the grind!
OMG i kept having a problem where my 808s would very audibly distort the SECOND they hit the limiter. the longer attack and release times on the master compressor completely fixed it!!! Thank you so much
Amazing! My pleasure!
Brilliant video, thanks mate. Learn a lot from your videos and appreciate you sharing your knowledge.
Happy to help! I appreciate your transparency! 😊
Always!
This exchange got me to subscribe. That tip by mr fields made me go back to using the plugin! Its refreshing to find honesty and a amicable exchange and respect both of you very much. 🙏🏾
slight correction to your comment - soft clipping provides a more gradual transition between the clean signal and the distorted signal, but due to its soft knee, it introduces distortion before the signal hits 0, meaning a soft-clipped signal is actually *more* distorted than a hard-clipped signal.
I switched to ELEPHANT for my limiter, recommended, cleanest of 10 limiters when i smashed them to -5 LUFS in my test yesterday
hah this was so good! i always feel so intimidated by all the science and math when it comes to dialing in precise values and stuff but you made it look simple. and in 1 minute or so you even managed to explained how Pro L works in a way that it made so much more sense than how i used to approach it before. and great final result as well. brilliant. thank you for the content. subscribed.
Awesome video Nicholas. Great techniques. Also very humble of you to admit the bit about Standard Clip and soft clipping. As professionals we invariable are going to get something wrong when using plugins and their multitudes of features and UIs. That's the neat thing about UA-cam, in publishing videos and having viewers catch our slip ups, we learn and grow as well. I can't tell you the number of times I've missed something key about a plugin, and then read the manual and realized I was using it wrong. Please keep up the great content. Cheers mate.
Yeap; I couldn't agree more; this channel is much a learning tool for me as it is for others watching :)
Dialing in the compression attack and release time like that just blew my mind, i always was like slow attack fast release on the master and didnt really touched the attack and release parameters on the limiter but now you've really opened my interest to experiment in the right direction to get effective results. Thank you so much!
This is an advanced lesson! There are some great tips here about gain staging and other things, so I'll keep this as a reference to come back to later.
Thanks for watching!!
Hi! Thank you for all the good info. I'm not getting one thing. You put the Clip slider to -7.5 db (so it actually does -1.5 db of clipping) but then you put 6 db of gain in the output of the clipper and actually get -1 db true peak. Shouldn't you be getting -1.5 db of true peak? What am I missing here?
Best video on youtube for mastering use inf eq for the global curve as a substitute
I love how youre showing us this in real-time.
The track sounds great 👍🏻.
My pleasure!
Thanks man, this actually worked wonders on my mix and now I 'm a happy man.👌🤙
Super chuffed to hear! Congratulations!
Gonna have to watch / listen to this at least five times to understand half of it. This definitely goes deep. I wish i was able to hear the difference between a and b on the fast and slow low end compression. It sounded exactly the same. i have the same trouble whenever i change settings on a limiter or compressor.
You explain so much with the science to back it up and it sounds great
Thanks mate! Doing these video's help challenge my experiences and understanding of audio to better articulate and define what I do in the studio; so sometimes the science is needed;
Gratitude & Appreciation 💯
This is neat stuff, particularly the bit about calculating the attack/release times based on the lowest fundamental. I’m normally not one to break out a calculator while mixing but when it comes to the master bus, I’m no mastering engineer so I’m happy to minimize any guesswork.
Just wanted to bring up one thing though regarding internal clipping you mentioned in the gain-staging bit. As far as I can tell, you can’t internally clip (in my DAW at least). I can clip on the way in and the way out obviously but any individual tracks in between that feed into the master bus don’t audibly clip when going over 0db so long as the master bus has a limiter on it. So I don’t find it necessary to bother with gain-staging so long as the mix is balanced. If I need more headroom before hitting the limiter, I simply pull down the fader on the master bus.
You're spot on correct; the gain-staging is more like house keeping between plugins more than anything;
That's so cool. Not only a guide to avoid distortion but a guide to how to get distortion too. Thanks!
baphometrix is the channel you're looking for
A thousand thanks for this excellent video tutorial. To say it was illuminating would be my personal candidate for understatement of the year. Top notch my man. o7
Thanks mate! Thanks for watching!
@@panorama_masteringNo, thank you mate. I'm only being slightly hyperbolic when I say that this video was "life changing", at least in terms of my understanding of audio. And it wasn't for a lack of trying to find the right information, I've been making music myself for the last 38 years and producing ITB for the last 29 or so years. I couldn't even begin to estimate how many videos I've watched over the years regarding mastering, how to make it loud, etc. and the thing that gets me is that several key pieces of information I gleaned from this one video was never mentioned by any of the others and a fair number of them were well known professional mixing/mastering engineers. Thanks for sharing this information with the rest of us, you've forever changed the way I go about mastering my music. I've already tried it out in practice and the results spoke for themselves.
Cheers and Godspeed,
Diem
Only gold and 🔥 in your tutorials. Thanks for sharing your knowledge brother.
a little late to the game, but thanks for the awesome video.. the best I came across on this topic and cant wait to check out more from you. new big fan here. thank you!
Welcome aboard!
gold, thanks for this mate one of the best vids ive seen :)
This is out of my league but I'm trying to understand this. I've lots to learn. Will definitely rewatch.
No worries; any questions you have shoot em across;
Great explanation!ª How did you set it up at the end to compare, that solo alternate from tracks? I always have to solo one and unsolo the other... Thanks!
I set the attack release to the tempo of the song, usually makes the plugins work to full potential
Good practice in concept; but here's some further watching for you ;) ua-cam.com/video/d-CvbKULDUY/v-deo.html
Cool vid, but I'm here trying to make -5 to -6 LUFs sound less crunchy LOL.
Bought your course. Let's see if I can pick up some new tricks!
Amazing; thank you so kindly; please DO let me know how you get on with it; if you need any help I'm here along the way to do my best!
@@panorama_mastering Awesome, Thanks! Will do.
Such a great video and it's definitely made me look into Standard Clip more. I also love your presentation style on complex topics, keep up the great work.
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching!
This video is PURE GOLD
Thanks mate!
Valuable vid mate. I don't know why i never thought of using parallel bus in mastering, nice
Btw you gotta turn that auto focus off haha. Just manual focus it to a fixed spot, it's not like you're moving off the chair in the vids anyway :)
Thanks mate; appreciate you watching; I KNOW!!! (Regarding the focus.... ) :(
Trust the Aussie to put up the gem🔥
Thank you very much, so valuable! I have two questions about the compression times:
The lowest note is not always the same as soon as the compressor starts working again after every circle. Do you focus exclusively on the lowest note or rather on the "average" of all notes?
And:
Wouldn't your approach to the lowest note even be applicable to limiters, which are ultimately just compressors?
Always the lowest because it will be most succesptibal to the distortion, limiters I work a bit differently
@@panorama_mastering Thanks for responding, appreciate it 😄
awesome vid! cant wait to try out some of these tips on the next master! also shoutout to the license plate for hogging the camera focus spotlight 😂
This video is what I really looking for! Thank you for sharing bro
Wow this is REAL knowledge here thanks so much. Impossible to find this stuff on YY. Instant subscribe here
Welcome aboard! Thanks for watching!
Interesting to see your process. Not trying to nit pick, but there's some obvious distortion on the lower end, post limiting. Possibly a result of too much compression and pushing hard on the limiter?
All good; we should ALWAYS pick! Send us a time marker!
@@panorama_mastering 20:50 and 20:58 . Cheers!
Hey mate, I'm an amateur engineer trying to find my way. Studied for a few years, did a couple years in a small studio in my hometown etc. Always looking to learn, expand my box of tricks, & improve what I do. I've been chasing mastering for ages now, trying (& mostly failing), & absorbing every scrap of info I can find in what at times feels like a futile attempt to learn how to do it well.
SO much of what I read & watch seems to tell me the same 2 things... either "Hey you want loud & distortion free? Try turning on oversampling!" or "You're dumb if you're trying to master loud because spotify turns it down anyway & it ruins the music, just don't do it."
I found this video completely by accident & it absolutely blew my mind. I felt like I'd just found the holy grail like THIS is the kind of info I've been searching for. Something that goes into detail about the how, and more importantly, why, each step of the way. I just had my first truly successful mastering attempt before I saw this video, now I can't wait to try all the tricks you showed.
Sincerely, thank you so very much for sharing your knowledge. From someone who truly doesn't want to do anything else but consistently feels like I'm falling short & not good enough, this was a complete paradigm shift & an absolute game changer!
Hey thanks for watching!
Glad to hear you enjoyed this video!
Thanks for stopping by!
@@panorama_mastering Well... I decided to go back to that previous master & give some of these tips a try. The end result... both louder AND cleaner than I managed before! 😁
Amazing! I'm so glad to hear!
Great video! Couple questions...Any reason for using the zero latency setting in your Pro-Q3? Also, any reason for not using true peak on your Pro-L2?...the final master true peak looked like it was going over by 2dB, have you had any issues on playback from streaming services with delivering somthin that hot? thanks!
You sir, are a wonderful human being. Many blessings to you. Subscribed!
@Panorama: Could you share your view on the DC Offset button in Pro-L2? Disabled seem to be 0.3 momentary and 0.2 short LUFS louder. I work 100% out of the box (VST + VSTi). In this case would you ever need DC Offset?
Man! This is awesome! I am
Still learning Mastering but this will help a lot! Thanks! And Cheers😊
Glad it was helpful! My pleeasure!
Hey Nicholas, love your videos! Wondering if you had a video about your routing for mastering in pro tools or any insight into this? Cheers!
Boy ! I need to update this!
ua-cam.com/video/CxTiZ9I9jRU/v-deo.html
@@panorama_mastering Great! Thanks mate
thx for sharing your knowledge! you do great and really informative videos :)
Thanks you! Appreciate the support;
These videos are very good man appreciate the insight and tips!
Glad you like them! My absolute pleasure!
Is gain staging really that important?
Even with 32 bit float?
It's only REALLY clipping when you export the master track, right?
IMHO it doesn't matter to leave the master at -6 or 0, because you're gonna clip/limit/compress either way. I really don't get the difference.
[ I'M NOT USING ANALOG EMULATION, FULL DIGITAL STUFF]
Controlling the clipping; and having autonomy over how it's clipped is what's important here;
Re- the -6dBTP going through the chain; some plugins architecture will clip at 24bits; and not have the 8bit float; that's why;
I don’t understand it all but this is definitely opening my eyes to mastering vs just slapping a compressor
Thanks for watching! Any Q’s or things I can further clarify?
Seeing your process and hearing how you approach audio is such a nice perspective. Makes me realize the importance of getting more ears on a project. A lot of finer detail that just one person aka me, would miss. Getting a lot out of these vids :) Makes me want to get some one else to master my tracks when it’s time for that phase. You both offer mixing and mastering services for EDM productions correct?
I appreciate that! I do offer mixing and mastering for EDM productions; if you're interested in chatting about it hit me up via nicholas@panoramamastering.com.au !
I really appreciate your honesty. Great work and very informative.
my pleasure! Thanks for watching!
most helpful channel I found recently! Thanks for sharing your tips and tricks!
You're welcome happy to share along!
I wish you would go through more of the settings for your upward compression. This was a great video but you speak really fast and as a English native speaker I was able to keep up but I'd imagine some people would have difficulty. Personally. I wouldn't mind if your video was longer but took more time to go through some details. That said, great job mate. I subscribed
This channel is liquid gold. Thank you!
Glad you enjoy it! My absolute pleasure!
Thank you, this video is very useful. Really appreciate it, everyone needs to know this stuff.
Glad it was helpful! You're welcome!
Can I ask how does the side information sound when you flip it into the sides? Is it clean or is there audible artifacts present? Is this something that give much attention to? Thanks really enjoy your content 😊
That's something I do monitor from time to time; often when dialing in and pushing clippers / limiters; if artefacts begin to rear their head I tend to find that's the point where I need to back off;
Thank you for the reply... yes its a very fine balance 😊 would you use anything else to put those dbs into the master or would you just not push it anymore? Again thanks for all your work.
15:40 made me give you a like on this video. Keep learning, keep teaching 🙏
I understood it, all of it, that has blown my mind haha
great tutorial! one note - turn off auto focus, you are usually in one place, you don't need this and you get out of focus non stop, and as it's my daily job - video making, this is really annoying ;)
this helped so much, thank you!!!!! funny how i always gain stage in live audio mixing or DJing, but didn't translate that to mixing at home. thanks again
big ups for this video! you're by far my favorite mastering engineer on youtube :)
Thanks for watching! And thanks a bunch; appreciate the support;
you're a godsend. thank you SO much for these videos. 🙏🙏🙏
You're so welcome!
9:47 great tip! Was trying this parallel comp thing on a master in logic today and was wondering why to use the clipper before the compressor? Just so it won’t clamp on the loudest transients or is there a different reason? Also my peak volume increases a lot if I blend it in, a standard clip gain plug-in wil do the trick to get it back to the initial volume right? anyway great video as always keep up the good work! 🥂
Ah just read in one of your answers below the clipper in parallel was just to control peak value over the compressed signal so that’s clear.
Thanks for the video. I've been struggling with this. The other piece would be while mixing or making a track. Would the concept be the same or similar for each channel? ie bass, drums, guitar, vocals, etc...?
No worries; my pleasure;
While mixing or making a track; this is more-so dependant on each channels relationship to one another; so whilst the theory here is applicable it's always at the mercy or the arrangment / sound design of the production when mixing;
One of the best videos on mastering I've seen man 👍🏻
Appreciate that Thanks for watching!
Smashed to bits
Wow! Amazing messaging ability.
Thanks!
Glad you liked it! A real pleasure!
Question. How are you finding the lowest fundamental frequency? Are you just looking at a spectrum analyser?
Some great tips! Thank you
There's a tremendous amount of videos providing great technical advice on how to "professionally master" music, and the "sweetspot" of gain and keeping the audio from "clipping" and distortion, etc. However, I downloaded a bunch of top selling songs from the artists' own UA-cam channels and placed them in my DAW and guess what? All the audio tracks from these "top musicians" clipped like crazy - The VU meter lived in the red zone.
Clipping and distortion two different things!
Some do not care about further clipping added during export and leave it as it, they think is not audible lol. I refuse to listen any music mastered like this video or with clipping on it. Is not good music to me.
@@andreaboi8566lol you must be an expert
This is a GEM of knowledge
Hey! Thanks!
So happy I've found your channel, such amazing stuff you share with us
Thanks for watching and my pleasure!
Great video!! This will be my homework this weekend. BTW Can we stream this track? 😊
Great info! Thanks so much.
Glad it was helpful!
Solid tutorial full of proper knowledge
Thanks mate!
Very Nice! Thanks for posting this.
So beautiful I cried😭💯🙌🏼❤️
Ha! Thanks for watching!
Nice video! I also dig that track you’re processing, where can I find it?
Jas. - Wish You Well - open.spotify.com/track/6I56gU6RR784U5Tus65qet?si=3a18077bbe1e42b5
An EP I mixed for the artist and label is coming out next week too!
So you are using parallel compresion on the master?
Sometimes
You are amazing my friend
Thanks mate! You are tooo!
Great! I just discovered your channel. I already have subscribed to a lot of this kind but I had to subscribe to you too. Your approach is very professional.
Thanks for subbing! Muchly appreciated!
i notice in this video towards the end you have a true peak of 2.4. Is that okay to have a positive value or would that be a problem when exporting?
:D time to turn off the auto focus I think mate, every time you gesticulate it tries to focus on your hands! I'm definitely going to try that parallel technique, I haven't used it on the master bus before.
Haha I was spitting chips when I saw this in post; my lense must have been dirty / battery getting a bit worn;
I shoot all my video's with AF; this was the first time it really kicked me hard;
Does your upward compression send then go directly into your limiter or does it go directly to the master output?
awesome video! thank you!
Glad you liked it! Thanks!