There are enough videos and tutorials out there about about mixing to allow someone to teach themselves that skill. I can't say the same for mastering, though; this is THE single most comprehensive video I've seen on mastering out there. Thank you for taking the time to make this!
The "problem" with mastering tutorials online is that it is very difficult to hear the subtle changes to the audio. Expert mastering tips and techniques are often given without a context and most (great!) tutorials are highly genre dependent. The result - you might not be able to accurately apply the tools and techniques to your own music. My solution to this is a 5 step mastering system that will give you consistent, repeatable results in any genre and using the skills you already have. My usual long-form content includes many "before and after" audio examples and demonstrations. Learning to listen for these subtle changes takes many examples, lots of time and plenty of practise on your own music. I decided to outline the whole process here instead of wasting time on overly specific audio examples.
@@AnymMusic This is why I opted to not show lots of before and after demos on RUclips (as I do in my other long-format mixing and mastering videos). I just don't think they are helpful when trying to get actionable advice like this. I hope this guide helps!
@@inthemix One of the issues is their listening environment. It really does make a difference. Tweaks that would be +/- 1 dB on 8" two-way speakers sitting behind a computer desk become far more precise and less drastic. There's a difference with headphones too because we don't just hear directly through our ears - the sound waves collected by our sinuses and transmitted internally to our ears affect our understanding of what we're hearing (likely why we can handle volume levels on headphones that would have us backing away from speakers). Until I made the investment, I really didn't understand why there was all the fuss about speakers and rooms - frankly I thought it was gatekeeping. But I had ambitions to be a mastering engineer back then and bought moderately priced audiophile tower speakers (PSBs) and built a room aimed at mastering (no desks or mixers between speakers and ears). Even my wife could easily hear the difference and usually she only cares as long as she can hear the words of the song!
As I have gone through steps to master I have found these things to be true too. It is a reality check to do that last step of comparison. Sometimes after all that time and effort you find yourself back at just about the same place and it really teaches you something important. Volume is key. Everyone turns up songs they really like. So, don’t be fooled by gain. This is a profound lesson.
Never thought about the last step, comparing the mix before mastering with the mastered one at the same volume. With mastering all sounds much clear and louder, but sometimes the normal mix have details or freqs that you loved while you was making the song, and they get lost at the mastering, but you don't realize because of the loudness. Very helpful video as always 😊
It’s a real eye opener. When I was starting out it really did humble me to hear than many of the benefits were simply increased volume! I now regularly do ABX tests to be sure I’m not biased.
Back in 2012, I was making my first steps in mastering, for a band of friends: they presented me a test-master they made at a "pro" mastering studio from the area, really satisfied how "good" it was... I made them listen to their track before and after, but setting the test-master at the same average level as the source and their face grew long as it was then obvious that not only the test-master was just louder but their song had lost a lot of punch and brightness in the process. So yes, comparing before and after is essential, and if it doesn't sound better, there might be something to change. 😉
Michael, all I can say is that you are an incredible teacher. Though I follow many good mixing and mastering RUclips channels, I have learnt more from your channel by far. Thank you for helping me improve my knowledge and skills in the world of audio recording and mixing 👍
I’ve been trying to mix and master my own music for about 5 years now. And through this journey I’ve slowly developed more and more mixing skills. And for the past year no matter how much I loved my mix, I hated the final result. Today, thanks to this video my track has been saved. I finally feel for the first time proud enough of something that it’s ready for release to my ears. Might do that soon :) Thank you!
Streaky did a video purported to be like this one but when I watched it it was obviously click bate which was very disappointing. This has been the most practical, straight-to-the-point, relatable, and understandable video I have watched. The quality I would expect from a paid module on the subject. Cheers.
@@drinkinouttacups2665The video didn't provide on the description at the introduction and wasn't much help for me in contrast to this video. The method you used was far too generic and lacking in explanation or examples of practical application. There was no example of techniques that could be applied that would be useful going forward that would advance the mastery of mastering and then at the end there was a push of fully paid advanced courses that were well beyond my budget. Same with the fabfilter free setting video. Pushed me to a site to purchase a complete bundle of presets with mo description or list of what you would get for your 90 quid.
You could do so many "The problem with ____ tutorials" videos. There's so many that just say stuff like "don't use this plugin on your bass/kicks because it's____", and it's so stupid because many beginners won't know that you're becoming a much better engineer if you just study your tools and how they work. Dan Worrall recently released a video about how to test your plugins, and how not to test them that somewhat tackles similar issues, and I feel like you can do something similar in regards to mixing and mastering, you're one of the few audio engineering/music production channels on RUclips that I actually trust.
Great idea, without trying to be too negative this would actually help clear up a lot of misconceptions. I know, technically, there are no "wrong" ways to do things in a creative field, but there are certainly wrong interpretations of what plugins and processing actually do!
@@inthemix Exactly! that's also another reason. Your videos are so pleasant, zero negativity, you don't yell for clicks but you actually treat your audience as intelligent people.
Never heard anyone touch on mastering like this that can be applied to basically any genre. This one is definitely going in the archives! Thanks for this brother! 👑🙏🏾
As he mentioned, going beyond -8 LUFS needs some critical decisions. If you want heavy bass and big dynamic, then you may achieve -6 in short term, but it is not easy to get -8 integrated.
One final tip: if you save your pre-master to 32-bit float (or 64-bit like some daws support) format, there will be no digital clipping as you are importing your file to your mastering project. So you don't have to worry if the pre-master is too loud.
Thank you so much Michael this is THE best and most comprehensive framework I’ve watched for mastering. You are a one in a million teacher, all of your time and hard work is immensely appreciated by us.
2:12 Oh god do I relate to this a little too much. I had a track 2 years ago and the last project file name was "ACD_18 Master Mk2 (Final2) FML Edition". It was a heavy track and was a nightmare to master. I still couldn't get it right and while the LUFS were ok, it was still sounding crushed to death no matter what I did. After a combined 23 versions, I caved and released anyway lol. That's not even the worst, I've had version up to 36 on one track, not including the 12, yes *TWELVE* master versions. The lesson here is to not be discouraged when you see that number climb, but also don't get tunnel visioned on the LUFS. If it sounds good, it is good. Oh and most importantly... Take breaks! Can't hear the difference? Come back later.
make a video explaining the spotify stuff! i know its important to not be negative, but it also would be awesome to have the opinion of someone who know the how and whys. great video!
Best content as always. Michael, i think you are the most professional mixing and mastering teacher out there on RUclips. Really love your content im watching yoi for 4-5 years now and i have learnt a lot from you. Thanks❤❤
Lol, here I was measuring all my masters to be -14 Lufs or below to be sure it sounds good on Spotify and Apple Music. Thanks for the heads-up that loudness won the war.
Thank you VERY much! Nice video format. Talking about clipping, just a thought... The "issue" (not an issue per se, but a motive to keep an eye on it) is that HARD clipping really cuts the "clicks" of the material processed, but if "properly set up", it will help a LOT. We just need to have in mind that when a hard clipper is activated by the material trying to pass thru its threshold it will cause a "click" on this material. So, that's not a very good idea to use a hard clipper on TONAL material (ex. vocal, bass, violin, pads, flute...). On the other hand, soft clipping starts to affect the material BEFORE the threshold set level. So, it starts to saturate the material as before as you push the material downwards with the threshold... ...and this may cause undesirable results and make you ask "What's wrong?". I deeply suggest you (😉) use a good oscilloscope like Psyscope (it's free). By the way, FreeClip is free, too and it performs THE VERY SAME result of some paid clippers. So, clipping is Major League playball time... ...try it, crank it, twist it, but after that, use it with extreme care... ...because it bites.
Could you maybe make a video about how to deal with those kind of peaks that you have shown in this video? Maybe with alternative free plugins? Kind of a phase issue video? That would be so much helpfull. All the best :)
I have watched hundreds of videos I had I have watched more than I can count you are the best I've ever seen all of all the people you remind me and speak as though our speaking to myself. You're smart about it you're logical and you keep my thing is keep it simple you are very good😊 my name is William
I noticed that newer songs tend to become louder and louder. I recently listened to "Kings and Queens" by Ava Max on my 770 Pro X's and was absolutely baffled by how much distortion there was in the mix. Thats probably not a big issue on Air Pods f.E., but its still weird having such a big song missing the quality of a well balanced mix.
That’s true, the average music is become louder and louder, also because they are trying to push the limits. I recently seen two albums mastered at -2LUFS that's stupid and one looks like a wrong bouncing export from the DAW with literally 0 dynamic range and no low-end. I've even better headphones connected on a high performance class A amp, on my Focal this music is pure garbage. I refuse to listen anything with clipping, distortion and too much compression/limiting.
The concept of a high pass filter increasing headroom... depends on your definition of "headroom". Due to the resonance of program material around the cut-off frequency, you can often increase your peak reading of the overall waveform - which you could validly argue reduces headroom. In general your advice is great though - subscribed :)
9:13 True peaks over 0db probably caused by lossless to lossy conversion. Peaks get louder as bitrate lowers. That's why Spotify is recommending -1db to -2db tp. Maybe pros should listen to them at that atleast 😄 I'd like to know how true peaks in lossless Qobuz looks like.
Yep that it definitely why they peak over after the conversion! However, testing with Qobuz (incredible music service btw!) showed that some were still peaking over 0dBTP. This might have been a rounding error but it is still a long way above the standard they state they are mastered at. Many of the mixes I chose were allegedly "Apple Digital Master" and "Dolby Atmos" spec but the loudness stats clearly show this is nonsense...it really does make you wonder how/why/where these standards come from and who they apply to!
@@inthemix So they are actually mastered that way... Today we have many amazing transparent limiters around so "squeezing" against a set tp limit shouldn't be an issue. Interesting stuff 🤔 I'd like to know why these mastering engineers decided to let those peaks go through. My guess is that they don't care because by default almost all of the streaming services use loudness normalization. Those true peaks will be turned down quite a bit considering how much louder these masters are compared to any normalization target.
Since I frequently export to a particular lossy format, I took a measurement of where my peaks stand after the conversion. That way, I know how much headroom to allow. In my case, it's -.6db. I'm not going to Spotify or any of the other streamers, so I don't need to go to 1db, unless my work is going to someone else where I can't be sure of what they will do.
Hello bro. Do these tutorials work for all DAWs? I use FL Studio 20. If I need to master my track, can I do this using only FL Studio 20 stock plugins?
i'm not sure how you mean. there is no way spotify is playing songs at -5LUFS, nearly twice the intensity than -14LUFS. You would VERY much notice it without a meter. if it was uploaded to youtube before they started doing loudness normalisation ~2017, then there are many loud songs but right now i don't think there's a difference on any big site of more than 0.2LUFS
Tested on 2 computers with 3 playback capture methods. I was incredibly surprised when researching for this video! I used a direct feed from the app and did not apply any normalisation or post processing. I then tested a capture via my audio interface and experienced the same numbers. Finally I captured using an external audio recorder just to be sure, again same numbers +/- 0.1dB. Trust me, I would rather that these apps either: 1) normalised perfectly 2) left the audio alone They just don’t work well at the moment.
I have watched many of your videos for years, they are all great. This is the first time I have commented, couldn't resist giving your a serious thumbs up for this one. Very comprehensive explantion of the mastering process.
I love the video, but by any chance could you make a template? With fabfillter I got the in the mix template just wondering. Oh I also have your new plug-in. Add it to the template please😊
It's a great idea. Unfortunately, mixing templates cause more harm. than good. It's usually because the gain of the mix (or track) is unknown to the template designer and this causes any dynamic processing to either overload or simply not be triggered. My best advice here would be to watch the video in parts and load the plugins you need on your mixer, then save that as a template.
Incredible video Michael!!! The 5 step system looks pretty good And personally, I used to had the most problems when dealing with phase and target loudness haha! I might end up checking this video a few more times when the time comes :P
Great video 👏 I will for sure comeback to it when trying to master my music. If you will have time, I would sincerely appreciate to know your opinion on tools like Gullfoss and Sonible Smart’s (EQ, compressor, limiter), which are supposed to give great results with much less effort on the several areas at stake in the mastering process. Cheers.
This is great!!! I would love to see a step-by-step video where you go deeper into each subject and show the tools in detail for each step. I have Ozone 10 Advanced and saw you're using that, but I'm unfamiliar with all the tools because I just started learning to master.
not many people listen to music and say what a great mix. they say what a great album. clever lyrics and a good story dont need a lot of anything else. either the music is up front and thr vocals are not or vise versa. people eq music the way they want to hear it its personal pference. nobody has the same system. the idea is to know what you want before you start, either you can get the sound on input or you cant you cant fix that by mixing later.
Honestly I agree with most of that. I’m just trying to make sure that the artist is completely happy with the song and that it sounds great on all systems. You’re 100% right that if it the lyrics, song, recording and arrangement are poor there is no saving it in the mix or master!
The world is full of tips and advice. The most important thing is to trust your ears and what you want with the music Much of the other stuff is details or polish Don't be slave to it or focus on that too much
I appreciate your explanation of certain things. I've heard the term "glue" a lot and never had a concrete idea of what people were referring to. I also appreciate the visualizations you provided when discussing the differences between things, like with the clips vs. limiters part.
Every technique used in this video can be achieved in FL Studio with stock plugins. However, I also made a dedicated FL Studio mastering guide on RUclips: ruclips.net/video/uQ57_VLPDAA/видео.html
I'm not fond of the technique. It might have some utility but I always found it left my midrange imbalanced and after trying it for a week I gave up! It's just not the way I like to balance tracks and it didn't give me the results I liked. Did it work for you or give you a good starting point?
@@inthemix thanks for the reply, i saw a mastering tips video by Fox Stevenson yesterday where he presented that technique and it really made the track come to life more, i intend to just try it out on some future projects and see what it does to the track
Great timing. Just load this up side-by-side when you get your project done and you will be on the right track! Of course, add in other tips and techniques you want to try too :)
This was a very short and yet powerful video! Thank you Michael!!...request please...how to mix vocals while into your mix/song...not on a mastered beat..not many of those on the internet.
I have to say this video was super helpful, even compared to previous mastering tutorials, having it all laid out in distinct sections which are clearly labelled by purpose and what kind of plugins you're going to be using! Definitely going to be coming back to this video next time I master a track, thank you so much!
As an independent hip hop artist.. I think it's best to hire a professional mastering engineer.. I have tried all the online AI sites and even tried mastering my own and they always sound better with a industry mastering engineer.
Hey JRClark, I am an indelendent hip-hop artist getting to the stage where my music will need mastering, can you share the contact to professionals you recomend?
Ive lesrned compression. Sterio separation & widening. Sterio. Some mastering elements. Decibels. Side chaining. Buss. All sorts of effects. And it's thanks to the help pf peolle like yourself. And i thank you.
Thanks for your advice. I mainly make EDM/rock and I'm not a pro so I may be wrong for sure, but I have some different practices, i.e. I use to put saturation before any compressor on the master so the latter won't overdo its job. For the same reason, I might put a transient shaper before the clipper so that I still get more power on the transient without needing to level it again with a limiter. Also, I work a lot with reference tracks. Other than that, I still am not so able to find and isolate problematic frequencies on the master.
Have been checking out this thing with loudness penalty on Spotify using some of the examples you gave in the video, I'm using the loopback on the audient EVO 16 interface to send Spotify's audio into FL studio with loudness meter to check the loudness, I'm getting a flat -14 LUFs on alot of Tracks (for the whole), haven't tested on browser just on the desktop version so far, It's very very confusing and even more annoying that Spotify will apply the same penalty to an entire album rather than the individual songs, if you do read this it might be worth investigating further to see what you get, I'm pretty sure you could achieve the same with a virtual audio cables but I know that the mix you download off of Itunes will probably be louder than the one outputted by Spotify, No Hate or Anything just trying to get my Masters at the right level and thought I'd do some investigating. Let me know if you guys find anything different.
Mine changes on all apps/devices and browser mode. Enabling loudness normalisation does not give me a flat playback like you experienced! You did get that result though and I trust you. It just goes to show that we are all getting a different experience and certainly not hearing the music as it was intended to be played…
I'm a professional musician/studio engineer..excellent content,clear and concise accurate information being presented..I mastered my band's last album..our new album will sound even better..thanks again for an excellent presentation..even a veteran can learn..
This was one of the fi st and few channels I'd subbed to when I first started producing. And hand over heart, I found the material so digestible that when I decided to make the leap into mixing and eventually mastering my own songs, this was one of the first places I'd come to fot an "all in one" tutorial. The other mastering videos on the channel are exemplary, no question; but yes, the lack of an aio mastering video was glaringly absent to some of us 😂. Thank you.
Hey man :) love your channel !! I would love to hear your thoughts on psytrance music and how to mix and master it! It's not just one guitar and bas, some drums and vocals. It's a lot going on and would like you thoughts about the difficulties I may come across. You say, that i could flip the polarity in a section of the track to fix peaks and whatnot. When you do so in psytrance I would hear the difference in just that section and that's not good. ( in my opinion, but what do I know 😂) The psytrance rolling kick and bas would definitely be different in just that part :) When I'm writing I realized that I could go back in the mix and adress that peak problem. But what's you take on in ? :)
Fantastic Video! So much effort went into each example with the photos being a massive help! Would love to see a similar video, but in the mixing stages, explaining how to nicely balance a mix, preparing it for the mastering stage 🙌 love it
Greetings for your wonderful work and your great ideas in benefiting every product around the world by explaining the work of each machine, how to operate it and the basics of its work .. Really, thank you... 🇱🇾 From Libya - Benghazi city [ Outlaw Beats Studio ] Producer)
I watched a lot of tutorials about mastering but it's really hard to collect all information about it at one place. You did a really great job with this video. I will save it for later and rewatch it when i try to improve my mastering skills :) The last tip to compare your final Master with your previous mix at the same volume level makes sense, but is often overlooked by me :). I heard before about this WAVEFORM Asymmetrie from another great youtube Channel "Sage Audio", he also has multiple tipps to mix and master tracks. But now i finally understand it :) Thank you for your efford you put into to make top quality videos about Mixing and Mastering :))
How is this even possible to have it at -5 Lufs though. I thought Spotify is turning everything over -14 down. So therefore I thought if you go at -10 Lufs with let's say 0dbTP Spotify will turn it down 4db to -14 Lufs and -4dbTP and therefore you would sacrifice too much Headroom.
There is a lot to take from this video! Also, can anyone throw an explaination/video about the whole LUFS thing? I go by peak vs. rms and these "new" terms kinda baffle me o_o'
12:45 Why would you apply 24bit dithering when exporting to the same session quality format such as 48kHz/24bit? You are not changing the bit rate, so there's no need. You use 16bit dithering in a 24bit session, when you're exporting a .mp3 file. That's my understanding of it.
Default hang out for music engineering, I mean how many YT channels have a million subs talking engineering ? Love it…thanks for the thought and prep that goes into the content here 🖤😎🍭🙌
I'm a bit confused about dithering. Did some reading and most say only dither when exporting and reducing the bit-depth from let's say 24 to 16. If I recorded at 24 bit 44.1 khz and export at 24 bit 44.1khz, should I apply 24 bit dither anyway or dont dither? The exported files are intended for distrokid to upload to streamingservices. Thanks in advance.
How can I find out if there's more issues with my soundtrack such as spikes or something else to further clean up/improve it's mix? Also Tonal balance control cost money correct? By the way great video! This will definity help those to compose soundtracks.
Excellent! I'd add one more step which is to listen to your mastered track on cheap speakers. For example bluetooth speakers, phone speakers, car stereo with or without sub woofers. And that's all folks!
Interesting workflow, not easy in few minutes...we can think also to the DC offset check, phase correlation in multiband check, test the right mid/side ratio and mono compatibility, and the option to use more than one limiter in sandwich way...😊
There are enough videos and tutorials out there about about mixing to allow someone to teach themselves that skill. I can't say the same for mastering, though; this is THE single most comprehensive video I've seen on mastering out there. Thank you for taking the time to make this!
@@eroero830 cohm-pree-hen-siv. 1.
complete; including all or nearly all elements or aspects of something.
"a comprehensive list of sources"
Not true...
Thnx for the video!
The "problem" with mastering tutorials online is that it is very difficult to hear the subtle changes to the audio. Expert mastering tips and techniques are often given without a context and most (great!) tutorials are highly genre dependent. The result - you might not be able to accurately apply the tools and techniques to your own music. My solution to this is a 5 step mastering system that will give you consistent, repeatable results in any genre and using the skills you already have.
My usual long-form content includes many "before and after" audio examples and demonstrations. Learning to listen for these subtle changes takes many examples, lots of time and plenty of practise on your own music. I decided to outline the whole process here instead of wasting time on overly specific audio examples.
love it when you hear master engineers say "and it really opens up the sound" whilst you can't hear ANYTHING different from the .1dB they added😅🥲
@@AnymMusic This is why I opted to not show lots of before and after demos on RUclips (as I do in my other long-format mixing and mastering videos). I just don't think they are helpful when trying to get actionable advice like this. I hope this guide helps!
@@inthemix One of the issues is their listening environment. It really does make a difference. Tweaks that would be +/- 1 dB on 8" two-way speakers sitting behind a computer desk become far more precise and less drastic. There's a difference with headphones too because we don't just hear directly through our ears - the sound waves collected by our sinuses and transmitted internally to our ears affect our understanding of what we're hearing (likely why we can handle volume levels on headphones that would have us backing away from speakers).
Until I made the investment, I really didn't understand why there was all the fuss about speakers and rooms - frankly I thought it was gatekeeping. But I had ambitions to be a mastering engineer back then and bought moderately priced audiophile tower speakers (PSBs) and built a room aimed at mastering (no desks or mixers between speakers and ears). Even my wife could easily hear the difference and usually she only cares as long as she can hear the words of the song!
Big shoutout to firewalk, legend of the game. So clear and easy to follow. These days i only watch you and that legend
As I have gone through steps to master I have found these things to be true too. It is a reality check to do that last step of comparison. Sometimes after all that time and effort you find yourself back at just about the same place and it really teaches you something important. Volume is key. Everyone turns up songs they really like. So, don’t be fooled by gain. This is a profound lesson.
Never thought about the last step, comparing the mix before mastering with the mastered one at the same volume. With mastering all sounds much clear and louder, but sometimes the normal mix have details or freqs that you loved while you was making the song, and they get lost at the mastering, but you don't realize because of the loudness. Very helpful video as always 😊
It’s a real eye opener. When I was starting out it really did humble me to hear than many of the benefits were simply increased volume!
I now regularly do ABX tests to be sure I’m not biased.
Back in 2012, I was making my first steps in mastering, for a band of friends: they presented me a test-master they made at a "pro" mastering studio from the area, really satisfied how "good" it was... I made them listen to their track before and after, but setting the test-master at the same average level as the source and their face grew long as it was then obvious that not only the test-master was just louder but their song had lost a lot of punch and brightness in the process. So yes, comparing before and after is essential, and if it doesn't sound better, there might be something to change. 😉
@@caremeprenantI felt like I was the only one who faced this but I’m not
Michael, all I can say is that you are an incredible teacher. Though I follow many good mixing and mastering RUclips channels, I have learnt more from your channel by far. Thank you for helping me improve my knowledge and skills in the world of audio recording and mixing 👍
I’m happy to have helped!
Same here.. ❤
By the way, your hairstyle is very nice, bro. Keep up the good work!
I’ve been trying to mix and master my own music for about 5 years now. And through this journey I’ve slowly developed more and more mixing skills. And for the past year no matter how much I loved my mix, I hated the final result. Today, thanks to this video my track has been saved. I finally feel for the first time proud enough of something that it’s ready for release to my ears. Might do that soon :)
Thank you!
Streaky did a video purported to be like this one but when I watched it it was obviously click bate which was very disappointing. This has been the most practical, straight-to-the-point, relatable, and understandable video I have watched. The quality I would expect from a paid module on the subject. Cheers.
His response on the pinned comment was very on brand for him
@@drinkinouttacups2665The video didn't provide on the description at the introduction and wasn't much help for me in contrast to this video. The method you used was far too generic and lacking in explanation or examples of practical application. There was no example of techniques that could be applied that would be useful going forward that would advance the mastery of mastering and then at the end there was a push of fully paid advanced courses that were well beyond my budget. Same with the fabfilter free setting video. Pushed me to a site to purchase a complete bundle of presets with mo description or list of what you would get for your 90 quid.
You could do so many "The problem with ____ tutorials" videos. There's so many that just say stuff like "don't use this plugin on your bass/kicks because it's____", and it's so stupid because many beginners won't know that you're becoming a much better engineer if you just study your tools and how they work.
Dan Worrall recently released a video about how to test your plugins, and how not to test them that somewhat tackles similar issues, and I feel like you can do something similar in regards to mixing and mastering, you're one of the few audio engineering/music production channels on RUclips that I actually trust.
Great idea, without trying to be too negative this would actually help clear up a lot of misconceptions. I know, technically, there are no "wrong" ways to do things in a creative field, but there are certainly wrong interpretations of what plugins and processing actually do!
@@inthemix Exactly! that's also another reason. Your videos are so pleasant, zero negativity, you don't yell for clicks but you actually treat your audience as intelligent people.
@@ethai1 I just started watching Dans recent video (it's over an hour long so not done yet haha). He brings up so many interesting and funny points!
Never heard anyone touch on mastering like this that can be applied to basically any genre. This one is definitely going in the archives! Thanks for this brother! 👑🙏🏾
Never? I thought everybody did it...
@pullmyfingerish Yes but clear and easy to understand format. This helped alot.
As he mentioned, going beyond -8 LUFS needs some critical decisions. If you want heavy bass and big dynamic, then you may achieve -6 in short term, but it is not easy to get -8 integrated.
I would aim at like -12 to at most -10 LUFS :D This is how I export audio when sending to someone because otherwise it's just ripping ears off.
One final tip: if you save your pre-master to 32-bit float (or 64-bit like some daws support) format, there will be no digital clipping as you are importing your file to your mastering project. So you don't have to worry if the pre-master is too loud.
The biggest problem with mastering is piss poor mixing.
Thanks for coming back and looking forwards to whatever's next bro!
Just noticed the channel is on 1m+ subs, congratulations
Thank you so much Michael this is THE best and most comprehensive framework I’ve watched for mastering.
You are a one in a million teacher, all of your time and hard work is immensely appreciated by us.
Very clear, very concise - always to the point. The best youtube advice regarding mixing and mastering. Thank you.
As usual, great work Michael!
Going to try it next time
you are AMAZING thank you so much for spreading your knowledge in such an aesthetically pleasing, informative, wonderful, masterful way!!
2:12 Oh god do I relate to this a little too much. I had a track 2 years ago and the last project file name was "ACD_18 Master Mk2 (Final2) FML Edition". It was a heavy track and was a nightmare to master. I still couldn't get it right and while the LUFS were ok, it was still sounding crushed to death no matter what I did. After a combined 23 versions, I caved and released anyway lol. That's not even the worst, I've had version up to 36 on one track, not including the 12, yes *TWELVE* master versions. The lesson here is to not be discouraged when you see that number climb, but also don't get tunnel visioned on the LUFS. If it sounds good, it is good. Oh and most importantly... Take breaks! Can't hear the difference? Come back later.
make a video explaining the spotify stuff! i know its important to not be negative, but it also would be awesome to have the opinion of someone who know the how and whys. great video!
Best content as always. Michael, i think you are the most professional mixing and mastering teacher out there on RUclips. Really love your content im watching yoi for 4-5 years now and i have learnt a lot from you. Thanks❤❤
Lol, here I was measuring all my masters to be -14 Lufs or below to be sure it sounds good on Spotify and Apple Music. Thanks for the heads-up that loudness won the war.
Now *this* is the tutorial we need! tysm
Also congrats on 1 mil subs :)
I want to echo the comment that said . This was an amazing tutorial, among your best work to date. Cheers!
Thank you VERY much!
Nice video format.
Talking about clipping, just a thought...
The "issue" (not an issue per se, but a motive to keep an eye on it) is that HARD clipping really cuts the "clicks" of the material processed, but if "properly set up", it will help a LOT.
We just need to have in mind that when a hard clipper is activated by the material trying to pass thru its threshold it will cause a "click" on this material.
So, that's not a very good idea to use a hard clipper on TONAL material (ex. vocal, bass, violin, pads, flute...).
On the other hand, soft clipping starts to affect the material BEFORE the threshold set level.
So, it starts to saturate the material as before as you push the material downwards with the threshold...
...and this may cause undesirable results and make you ask "What's wrong?".
I deeply suggest you (😉) use a good oscilloscope like Psyscope (it's free).
By the way, FreeClip is free, too and it performs THE VERY SAME result of some paid clippers.
So, clipping is Major League playball time...
...try it, crank it, twist it, but after that, use it with extreme care...
...because it bites.
Could you maybe make a video about how to deal with those kind of peaks that you have shown in this video? Maybe with alternative free plugins? Kind of a phase issue video? That would be so much helpfull.
All the best :)
I will take a look around and hopefully make a video or update the description!
I have watched hundreds of videos I had I have watched more than I can count you are the best I've ever seen all of all the people you remind me and speak as though our speaking to myself. You're smart about it you're logical and you keep my thing is keep it simple you are very good😊 my name is William
I noticed that newer songs tend to become louder and louder.
I recently listened to "Kings and Queens" by Ava Max on my 770 Pro X's and was absolutely baffled by how much distortion there was in the mix. Thats probably not a big issue on Air Pods f.E., but its still weird having such a big song missing the quality of a well balanced mix.
That’s true, the average music is become louder and louder, also because they are trying to push the limits. I recently seen two albums mastered at -2LUFS that's stupid and one looks like a wrong bouncing export from the DAW with literally 0 dynamic range and no low-end. I've even better headphones connected on a high performance class A amp, on my Focal this music is pure garbage. I refuse to listen anything with clipping, distortion and too much compression/limiting.
Thanks as always Michael. You've taught me a lot! Also, Vanity compliment incoming- your hair is just fantastic.
This was really helpful. For some reason I find mastering to be the hardest part of the creation process.
Great video! StandardCLIP from SiR Audio is very good, so much controllability over how the audio is clipped. Highly recommended.
THANK YOU SO MUCH IT WAS REALLY HELPFULLL
Learning HOW to learn something is as important as learning the subject itself, so this is a great video.
best mastering video ive ever seen, thank you.
Video title should be the IN THE MIX MASTERING SYSTEM
The concept of a high pass filter increasing headroom... depends on your definition of "headroom". Due to the resonance of program material around the cut-off frequency, you can often increase your peak reading of the overall waveform - which you could validly argue reduces headroom. In general your advice is great though - subscribed :)
"maybe youre just over-processing because different is starting to sound good"
oops
9:13
True peaks over 0db probably caused by lossless to lossy conversion. Peaks get louder as bitrate lowers. That's why Spotify is recommending -1db to -2db tp. Maybe pros should listen to them at that atleast 😄
I'd like to know how true peaks in lossless Qobuz looks like.
Yep that it definitely why they peak over after the conversion!
However, testing with Qobuz (incredible music service btw!) showed that some were still peaking over 0dBTP. This might have been a rounding error but it is still a long way above the standard they state they are mastered at.
Many of the mixes I chose were allegedly "Apple Digital Master" and "Dolby Atmos" spec but the loudness stats clearly show this is nonsense...it really does make you wonder how/why/where these standards come from and who they apply to!
@@inthemix So they are actually mastered that way... Today we have many amazing transparent limiters around so "squeezing" against a set tp limit shouldn't be an issue.
Interesting stuff 🤔
I'd like to know why these mastering engineers decided to let those peaks go through.
My guess is that they don't care because by default almost all of the streaming services use loudness normalization. Those true peaks will be turned down quite a bit considering how much louder these masters are compared to any normalization target.
Since I frequently export to a particular lossy format, I took a measurement of where my peaks stand after the conversion. That way, I know how much headroom to allow. In my case, it's -.6db. I'm not going to Spotify or any of the other streamers, so I don't need to go to 1db, unless my work is going to someone else where I can't be sure of what they will do.
This is definitely the cleanest and most fleshed out mastering video that I've watched
Great video, i will add that the perception AB plugin for the final step is gold :)
Cheers
Why do you have to be so reasonable. I don't want to watch your videos, but you keep saying things in a reasonable way that make sense.
😃
Good stuff.
Million subs live stream / Q&A party incoming??? Congrats Michael honestly what a milestone you deserve it!
Hello bro. Do these tutorials work for all DAWs? I use FL Studio 20. If I need to master my track, can I do this using only FL Studio 20 stock plugins?
i'm not sure how you mean. there is no way spotify is playing songs at -5LUFS, nearly twice the intensity than -14LUFS. You would VERY much notice it without a meter. if it was uploaded to youtube before they started doing loudness normalisation ~2017, then there are many loud songs but right now i don't think there's a difference on any big site of more than 0.2LUFS
Tested on 2 computers with 3 playback capture methods. I was incredibly surprised when researching for this video!
I used a direct feed from the app and did not apply any normalisation or post processing.
I then tested a capture via my audio interface and experienced the same numbers.
Finally I captured using an external audio recorder just to be sure, again same numbers +/- 0.1dB.
Trust me, I would rather that these apps either:
1) normalised perfectly
2) left the audio alone
They just don’t work well at the moment.
Your skills, your way of explaining, the examples you give, your honesty are a continuous inspiration.
Awesome. This is a really great video. Thanks!
I have watched many of your videos for years, they are all great. This is the first time I have commented, couldn't resist giving your a serious thumbs up for this one. Very comprehensive explantion of the mastering process.
I love the video, but by any chance could you make a template? With fabfillter I got the in the mix template just wondering. Oh I also have your new plug-in. Add it to the template please😊
It's a great idea. Unfortunately, mixing templates cause more harm. than good. It's usually because the gain of the mix (or track) is unknown to the template designer and this causes any dynamic processing to either overload or simply not be triggered.
My best advice here would be to watch the video in parts and load the plugins you need on your mixer, then save that as a template.
@@inthemix can I purchase some of your templates. To practice with. I have bad Internet service offshore.
LOL...final mix version 127_xyz_real final mix. So, I am not alone.
Incredible video Michael!!!
The 5 step system looks pretty good
And personally, I used to had the most problems when dealing with phase and target loudness haha!
I might end up checking this video a few more times when the time comes :P
Great video 👏 I will for sure comeback to it when trying to master my music. If you will have time, I would sincerely appreciate to know your opinion on tools like Gullfoss and Sonible Smart’s (EQ, compressor, limiter), which are supposed to give great results with much less effort on the several areas at stake in the mastering process. Cheers.
This is great!!! I would love to see a step-by-step video where you go deeper into each subject and show the tools in detail for each step. I have Ozone 10 Advanced and saw you're using that, but I'm unfamiliar with all the tools because I just started learning to master.
My friend are giving me the best explainations
You my friend are a hero. One day I'll buy you a beer 🔥
not many people listen to music and say what a great mix.
they say what a great album.
clever lyrics and a good story dont need a lot of anything else.
either the music is up front and thr vocals are not or vise versa.
people eq music the way they want to hear it
its personal pference.
nobody has the same system.
the idea is to know what you want before you start,
either you can get the sound on input or you cant
you cant fix that by mixing later.
Honestly I agree with most of that.
I’m just trying to make sure that the artist is completely happy with the song and that it sounds great on all systems. You’re 100% right that if it the lyrics, song, recording and arrangement are poor there is no saving it in the mix or master!
Final mix version 17 A is very reassuring! Thought it was just me ...
The world is full of tips and advice.
The most important thing is to trust your ears and what you want with the music
Much of the other stuff is details or polish
Don't be slave to it or focus on that too much
I appreciate your explanation of certain things. I've heard the term "glue" a lot and never had a concrete idea of what people were referring to. I also appreciate the visualizations you provided when discussing the differences between things, like with the clips vs. limiters part.
Can you demonstrate these methods using FL Studio and it’s stock plugins?
Every technique used in this video can be achieved in FL Studio with stock plugins. However, I also made a dedicated FL Studio mastering guide on RUclips: ruclips.net/video/uQ57_VLPDAA/видео.html
@@inthemix thank you for your, time, knowledge, and generosity.
Thank you man! Very helpful and clear explanation! I wrote the steps down and will try it out in mastering 👍🎶
thanks Michael
Whats your opinion/experience on eq matching the busiest part of the track to pink noise?
I'm not fond of the technique. It might have some utility but I always found it left my midrange imbalanced and after trying it for a week I gave up! It's just not the way I like to balance tracks and it didn't give me the results I liked. Did it work for you or give you a good starting point?
@@inthemix thanks for the reply, i saw a mastering tips video by Fox Stevenson yesterday where he presented that technique and it really made the track come to life more, i intend to just try it out on some future projects and see what it does to the track
That last tip is pure gold! I will definitely be adding this as a final (hopefully) step in my process. I appreciate your channel, thanks!😊
bro I was literally getting ready to do my first master and then you drop this 😭 thank you
Great timing. Just load this up side-by-side when you get your project done and you will be on the right track! Of course, add in other tips and techniques you want to try too :)
This was a very short and yet powerful video! Thank you Michael!!...request please...how to mix vocals while into your mix/song...not on a mastered beat..not many of those on the internet.
I love this man with my whole heart. He is a true treasure
I have to say this video was super helpful, even compared to previous mastering tutorials, having it all laid out in distinct sections which are clearly labelled by purpose and what kind of plugins you're going to be using! Definitely going to be coming back to this video next time I master a track, thank you so much!
I just use the bandlab mastering feature
Smoothest explanation and slickest hairstyle on RUclips.
Excellent tutorial. Thanks a lot
Premium information for free. 🔥📀💿.
Brilliant!!! Highly informative this many thanks!!!! 👏👏👏👏👏
As an independent hip hop artist.. I think it's best to hire a professional mastering engineer.. I have tried all the online AI sites and even tried mastering my own and they always sound better with a industry mastering engineer.
That's because they're using thousands of dollars worth of REAL ANALOG hardware. Just running your audio through it makes a difference.
Hey JRClark, I am an indelendent hip-hop artist getting to the stage where my music will need mastering, can you share the contact to professionals you recomend?
Ive lesrned compression. Sterio separation & widening. Sterio. Some mastering elements. Decibels. Side chaining. Buss. All sorts of effects. And it's thanks to the help pf peolle like yourself. And i thank you.
Thanks for your advice. I mainly make EDM/rock and I'm not a pro so I may be wrong for sure, but I have some different practices, i.e. I use to put saturation before any compressor on the master so the latter won't overdo its job. For the same reason, I might put a transient shaper before the clipper so that I still get more power on the transient without needing to level it again with a limiter. Also, I work a lot with reference tracks.
Other than that, I still am not so able to find and isolate problematic frequencies on the master.
Wow great stuff. This was very helpful. Some of the stuff you said I do but some I didn't know about. Thanks you for your videos.
Have been checking out this thing with loudness penalty on Spotify using some of the examples you gave in the video, I'm using the loopback on the audient EVO 16 interface to send Spotify's audio into FL studio with loudness meter to check the loudness, I'm getting a flat -14 LUFs on alot of Tracks (for the whole), haven't tested on browser just on the desktop version so far, It's very very confusing and even more annoying that Spotify will apply the same penalty to an entire album rather than the individual songs, if you do read this it might be worth investigating further to see what you get, I'm pretty sure you could achieve the same with a virtual audio cables but I know that the mix you download off of Itunes will probably be louder than the one outputted by Spotify, No Hate or Anything just trying to get my Masters at the right level and thought I'd do some investigating. Let me know if you guys find anything different.
Mine changes on all apps/devices and browser mode. Enabling loudness normalisation does not give me a flat playback like you experienced!
You did get that result though and I trust you. It just goes to show that we are all getting a different experience and certainly not hearing the music as it was intended to be played…
@@inthemix Yeah absolutely it's a complete mess, I'm pretty sure that RUclips "music" and RUclips "videos" have different loudness rules as well
Bro I love you, unbelievably helpful
I'm a professional musician/studio engineer..excellent content,clear and concise accurate information being presented..I mastered my band's last album..our new album will sound even better..thanks again for an excellent presentation..even a veteran can learn..
This was one of the fi st and few channels I'd subbed to when I first started producing.
And hand over heart, I found the material so digestible that when I decided to make the leap into mixing and eventually mastering my own songs, this was one of the first places I'd come to fot an "all in one" tutorial.
The other mastering videos on the channel are exemplary, no question; but yes, the lack of an aio mastering video was glaringly absent to some of us 😂. Thank you.
Hey man :) love your channel !!
I would love to hear your thoughts on psytrance music and how to mix and master it! It's not just one guitar and bas, some drums and vocals. It's a lot going on and would like you thoughts about the difficulties I may come across.
You say, that i could flip the polarity in a section of the track to fix peaks and whatnot. When you do so in psytrance I would hear the difference in just that section and that's not good. ( in my opinion, but what do I know 😂)
The psytrance rolling kick and bas would definitely be different in just that part :)
When I'm writing I realized that I could go back in the mix and adress that peak problem. But what's you take on in ? :)
Fantastic Video!
So much effort went into each example with the photos being a massive help!
Would love to see a similar video, but in the mixing stages, explaining how to nicely balance a mix, preparing it for the mastering stage 🙌 love it
Long time no see, great to see you’ve hit 1 mill subs 🎉 congrats!
Thanks! Did you not get notifications for my recent videos?
Greetings for your wonderful work and your great ideas in benefiting every product around the world by explaining the work of each machine, how to operate it and the basics of its work .. Really, thank you... 🇱🇾 From Libya - Benghazi city
[ Outlaw Beats Studio ] Producer)
Thank You Michael. Please I use a Scarlett 2i2 on a PC and I’m tryna get the DT 770s. How many ohms should I get. Thanks in advance.
I watched a lot of tutorials about mastering but it's really hard to collect all information about it at one place. You did a really great job with this video. I will save it for later and rewatch it when i try to improve my mastering skills :) The last tip to compare your final Master with your previous mix at the same volume level makes sense, but is often overlooked by me :). I heard before about this WAVEFORM Asymmetrie from another great youtube Channel "Sage Audio", he also has multiple tipps to mix and master tracks. But now i finally understand it :) Thank you for your efford you put into to make top quality videos about Mixing and Mastering :))
How is this even possible to have it at -5 Lufs though. I thought Spotify is turning everything over -14 down. So therefore I thought if you go at -10 Lufs with let's say 0dbTP Spotify will turn it down 4db to -14 Lufs and -4dbTP and therefore you would sacrifice too much Headroom.
There is a lot to take from this video!
Also, can anyone throw an explaination/video about the whole LUFS thing? I go by peak vs. rms and these "new" terms kinda baffle me o_o'
12:45 Why would you apply 24bit dithering when exporting to the same session quality format such as 48kHz/24bit? You are not changing the bit rate, so there's no need. You use 16bit dithering in a 24bit session, when you're exporting a .mp3 file. That's my understanding of it.
Default hang out for music engineering, I mean how many YT channels have a million subs talking engineering ? Love it…thanks for the thought and prep that goes into the content here 🖤😎🍭🙌
I'm a bit confused about dithering. Did some reading and most say only dither when exporting and reducing the bit-depth from let's say 24 to 16.
If I recorded at 24 bit 44.1 khz and export at 24 bit 44.1khz, should I apply 24 bit dither anyway or dont dither?
The exported files are intended for distrokid to upload to streamingservices. Thanks in advance.
I'm a noob to music production but man your tutorials are so incredible and easy to understand. keep it up brother
How can I find out if there's more issues with my soundtrack such as spikes or something else to further clean up/improve it's mix? Also Tonal balance control cost money correct? By the way great video! This will definity help those to compose soundtracks.
Definitely very, very useful. Clear and concise. Will be applying these soon enough. Thank you for taking the time to make and share this!
This is the most clear video about what mastering is about! 💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽
I stole few good advices from this video
Excellent! I'd add one more step which is to listen to your mastered track on cheap speakers. For example bluetooth speakers, phone speakers, car stereo with or without sub woofers. And that's all folks!
Interesting workflow, not easy in few minutes...we can think also to the DC offset check, phase correlation in multiband check, test the right mid/side ratio and mono compatibility, and the option to use more than one limiter in sandwich way...😊
Wow. Thanks German looking stud, but with a young Liam Neeson accent. This was surprisingly life changing. Thanks.