Banger vid, been dying for this video ever since I started producing. I love the comparisons that show the differences in methods and the emphasis on why not to necessarily always redline
I also recommend if you're clipping the master via your DAW then make sure to take the render and re render it with the volume down to -1db. This is just so your song doesn't clip when you upload it to a streaming site and the digital compression adds artifacts.
@@TheJohnsofDoes I'm referring to the fact that when you upload its going add additional clipping to the audio which wasn't an intentional choice from your end.
@@Fritztafer its a choice of the producer to do that but you will have additional clipping distortion to what you chose to do with hardclippers in your daw.
I believe that the whole "don't clip its bad" statement is pretty outdated and based upon what mixing engineers would say due to how way different music was prior to 2016-2017. I think clipping can also bring back the agressive edge after limiting a song(which could soften transients). Virtual Riot's Pray For Riddim song breakdown actually made note that his kick/clap/snare layer actually makes the master rise into 14 db(no not negative). As a result you can get punchy drums while still having a glued song. It does help to have limiting going on in busses or you will get an inconsistent clipping sound that could destroy your track.
Not clipping is generally good advice for a LOT of genres, and I think writing off the advice as entirely outdated just because we're all talking about this in an EDM/Dubstep scenario. It's just the kind of thing where Dubstep and EDM, in general, have pretty much been clipping since 2010, even earlier in some examples, but that more old-school engineers would avoid this (even Ahee said, you don't want this on your downtempo tracks), even more so, most old school engineers were also recording engineers, not just mixing engineers like a lot of us here are. We aren't often recording in whole band setups live and riding the vocal, writing down our desk positions for each song, etc. We're just throwing in midi, resampling, lining up to the grid and quantizing, and because of that we can do stuff like bus mastering and mixing as we go because the workflow is so different. Ultimately it's a sound. Having the drum go into 14db and having it that punchy can be achieved without modern Dubstep limiting practices, but that overcompressed, squashed, a sound that you hear on EDM is just what we are used to hearing. I mixed a Dubstep song two different ways, one by gain staging to -18dB and then boosting volume to -0.1dB in the mastering stage, and another by using my own form of bus mastering. The lufs of the -18db gain staging was (if I remember correctly), somewhere around -14-13lufs, and the bus mastered one was -6lufs (it might've been louder). Ultimately though, once bounced and converted to whatever platform you'll listen on (whether it's a streaming platform, CD, vinyl, etc.) the "loudness" drops down to the limitation of that given platform, sometimes I've even noticed that the bus mastered track sounds better when bounced, but awful when uploaded to a streaming platform. These things need to be considered, we need to understand what form of mastering to do depending on what platform we'll be releasing on. For example, a bus-mastered CD is going to absolutely slap (and likely why Skrillex developed his style this way, because he released CDs with From First to Last before streaming became what it is), or perhaps if you're going to DJ and you want the raw file (like you have a USB of your tracks) then that'll sound sick too (again, another reason why Skrillex may have developed this unique style), but on Spotify your -6Lufs gets squashed into a flat, dead track, compared to a gain-staged track that has headroom for the punchiness to truly pierce through once it gets processed by the streaming platform. It's worth thinking about, but I agree that you don't have to worry about clipping as long as you don't hear it. There are a lot of contexts where it takes a seriously good ear to clip your music without realising that you're destroying certain aspects of your song though.
@@travisgodfrey-evans2182 I wasn't saying that you have to clip your tracks. I was rather dispelling the argument that "clipping = bad". There are also times if you do clip its done rather on individual sounds with a soft/hardclipper. There are often times where pulling a limiter is more beneficial. Its depending on the situation.
I know this is a joke but I saw an opening DJ redline the entire 2nd half of their set… I had to hide in the green room my ears couldn’t handle it even with earplugs
I think you can do this with saturation and limiting with a lot more precision. Also, please level match your A/B. Basically cheating saying it sounds better cause it’s louder? Ofc
hey man, love your videos! could you possibly do a video on how to properly backup all of your Ableton files/sessions/tracks/samples in the case of a hard drive emergency? I think this would save lots of people from very stressful times!
Question. Because Live bounces at 32 bit float is that bounced version actually clipped or is Ableton using its float magic to just output the waveform to the speaker unclipped? I️ would have liked to see what that final waveform looked like when you turned its internal gain down. Was the waveform still clipped then? Or did the normal curved edges come back?
When you do this technique is the final track clipping? Even when you play it in you car or headphones? Or is there some type of compromise after the master is done?
@@OfficialAHEE wicked bro ill fully support this the uk jump up scene will love this one trust what is the track called so i can keep an eye out for it
man, its so funny. I remember YEARS ago, my brother was learning to mix his metal band and he was redlining the snare. and I told him not to do that because it broke the rules, and he was like "but I like the way it sounds better" now years later I'm the one eating my words. Been using clippers for a while now but I had no idea Abletons clipping was so unique like that. Thanks again for a great video!
Even when running a 24-bit session, my understanding is that Live still operates with a 32-bit audio engine. That may be why the master bus offers more detailed dynamics when redlining, compared to a plug-in/audio effect.
Dude, I've been using a Saturator AND Izotope Trash on the pre for about a year now. The harmonics of the distortion seem to just fill out the frequency range so much better. Love this .
I don’t understand this. The clipper is clipping at 0 so you see a flat line (understandably). But rendering at 32bit means it won’t clip even if it’s +12dB. So the redlining isn’t adding any distortion to the RENDERED wave as long as you’re playing back at 32bit. But if you take your +12dB render and play it using a 24bit playback it WILL look like the clipped version. You can easily test this: take your +12dB track and render at 24bit, it’ll look like the clipped version. The distortion you hear when the master is redlining is from your DAC clipping. This means the distortion you hear is dependent on the playback system so it won’t be consistent across systems. The point I’m making is this: your +12dB render isn’t really clipping because it’s rendered at 32bit. There’s nothing special ableton is doing by redlining that can’t be achieved by compressing or saturating the master.
Does that apply on the masterchannel? I know that it applies on the individual channels, but I think that the masterchannel has a built in hardclipper!?
@@SlayerDarkRaver if it was hard clipping the +12dB render would look clipped. The master channel can go over 0dB and not clip because Ableton uses 32bit playback. Rendering at 32bit also means that it’s not clipping when it goes above zero.
@@SlayerDarkRaver try it yourself. Export something at +12dB at 32bit then drag the wav back into your DAW. You should be able to turn down the gain of the sample and recover everything above 0. If the master had a built in hard clipper everything above 0 would be lost
I’m pretty sure you’re right. Came in to say the same thing. I also suspect that after rendering to the specifications of, say, Spotify, redlining would be an issue; given that Spotify suggests delivering audio under certain levels that are most definitely under 0dBFS.
I dont think I'll wrap my head around this technique. I'll stick to using the clip-2-zero technique that Baphometrix talks about. Has made my mixes go from Zero to 90 % (not hero yet 🤣), I feel my mixes are still punchy and heavy and dynamic at the same time and hitting ridiculous levels of loudness (-4.5 lufs short term and -6 lufs long term).
I’ve been trying to apply Baphy’s method to my tracks but haven’t quite found the sweet spot or hit the crazy LUFS everyone else seems to hit. How’re you getting your tracks like that?
@@LennonJCihak Its about controlling the dynamics. Let the kick hit 0 db and mix everything around it. I sidechain alot, not only kick - sidechain but carving out frequencies for each sound using sidechain (like Trackspacer but I use Abletons stock stuff). To control dynamics I use saturation and clipping. I'm applying clipping to almost every sound in my tracks. It doesn't have to be much, remember every db counts. I do it on individual sounds and on every group. Ive found that it's important to try and control the dynamics with saturation before clipping. Don't know which DAW you use, I use ableton so saturator is my king for saturation, but you can definitely use camelcrusher which is free. My go to presets in that is British Clean and more beef. For clipping individual sounds I use GClip, which is also free. On the bigger summing busses like all drums and pre-master I use KClip 3. Don't know if I helped you or confused you more 🤷
@@LennonJCihak yeah and I forgot to mention. I make like 2-3 tracks per week, sometimes more. So I got plenty of time to practice this. Practice makes perfect 👌
@@SlayerDarkRaver Thanks for that information! That's pretty much what I've been doing, except I haven't been saturating beforehand. I'm clipping every track and then clipping the busses. I'm wondering if I'm just pushing too much bass into everything. That could be eating up all of my dynamic range. I use FL Studio on Mac, so GClip, unfortunately, is a no-go for me. I have StandardCLIP, which I love, but I'd love to grab a copy of KClip since it's a bit more CPU friendly and apparently sounds better, according to Baphometrix.
@@LennonJCihak could be that. I set the bass to somewhere around -6 to -4 db. I use a pure sine as sub with NO processing except sidechain. You an try Free Clip from Venn Audio, I haven't used it but heard good things about it. You can also use the waveshaper in FL, or the free waveshaper from MElda productions :)
Hey man I watching all yo vids again I kinda call it the ahee course haha but I have a request for a tutorial from ya if you'd indulge me how do I ask you? In the commemts? Thanks😊
So basically I just confirmed that I screwed up my next release by doing proper mixing and bus mastering. I got the feeling that after doing the correct processing it was sounding much less "alive and vibing", but since I got rid of the +8dB clipping I told myself it was a worthy sacrifice... shame on me XD Thanks for sharing, at least now I know for next release :)
Honestly nearly every big producer just redlines the master In bass music transients and drums are so loud these days, combined with heavy sidechaining to the sub means limiting is kind of irrelevant and will only make your tune less dynamic
What your doing isn’t actually anything unusual your just doing controlled clipping all clippers generate different harmonics the whole ableton generates harmonics that you just prefer Kclip is a good clipper as well for this and it has a auto gain feature so you more hear when your pushing a sound to far will say this I would do this more on track ->bus->master level so you can make sure you get cleanest/distorted clip your looking for it’ll just give yah more control overall instead of doing one big clip at the end
correct me if I'm wrong but.. the harder u hit the celling the flatter ur mix is gonna sound. low end energy suffers tremendously as well. anything on that PA system will sound great and massive lol the mastering process uses the (available) headroom to increase punch/smack/energy of your mix. Now let's think about this for a second, if no headroom and your mix is not dynamic any more (because it's clipping) then I only went 90% on my mix instead of 100%. ps your other videos are awesome :)
its funny because as a trap producer thats like the one tip EVERYONE tells you lol. TR5 classic clipper is king! Soft clipping is magic, but make sure the production and mixing is good first.
I do se this one all the time and it does cause me Cognitive disconnecne cuz I had a more proper pdocution education and the idea was def not to clip the master. To me, its louder, but you lose so much of the roundness of the low end and the top end becomes all hissy and semi unpleasant if you push it too far. I think it also depends on your gear (computer, interface, ect) because clipping a shitty scarlette doesn't sound as good as somehting like clipping the way better converters on an apollo. I get it though, in electronic and these heavy genres, its about loudness and punch over detail - which makes sense when your songs being played on Funktion Ones being pushed to their limits too. I do wonder in the the long run what this is doing to our hearing since were going to get to a place where there is litterly no dynamics its either the son gis playing or its off haha. That being said, all those old rock guys used to clip the analog board (think David Grohl talks about this in that one documentry about Sound City - he talk about how you get the drums going through the Neve and they sound great, you then turn them up and clip them into the board and it sounds AMAZINGGG) but digital isn't as warm as analog and when you push it this hard i do feel like you're sacraficing warmth and low for loudness. This is probably whyy all dubstep songs sound so bright to me as well.
Read about 50 comments on the page and have to move on. Kind of bothers me that people don't know this is a hardware problem. If I sold speakers for a living I'd be a happy man. Anyway, will open up Ableton later and check this out. Clipping in Ableton isn't amplifier clipping nor a clipped signal. Not that it doesn't or can't create it.
Also everyone should take note that ableton provides spectral processing and with that being said everyone should produce chains which include a sense of space and movement . Not just a pattern and an envelope , not just The dynamics between transients , but don’t think that your brain is going to be able to imagine fx and movement happening while building a sequence , instead program spectral enhancements as you would variations in a drum sequence. Spend time cooking up a full spectrum mix and then judge yourself , but not before giving your project a good sense of movement and dynamics that groove and or compliment the sequence . I left so many projects unfinished because I refused to think about the big picture . You’ll be surprised how good your work will start sounding when you’ve got filters and phasers and chorus and all those tools ready to apply alongside your tracks so that you’re constantly creating more cohesion and quickly finding what frequencies to remove or emphasize according to the needs of the “WHOLE TRACK” and not getting lost tweaking a sound that isn’t sitting right or doesn’t belong . The processing will help you make those choices easier than moving the gain on the eq band a few db or fiddling with your snare and clap levels . Instead spend your time making it a habit to find ways of meeting your spectral desires . I find it much easier to lock my compressions and textures and you won’t end up cutting away too much because it will be very noticeable and the solution becomes easily apparent because you’re hearing difference much easier . The only problem with this loudness strategy is ear fatigue , a lot of people won’t be able to dial those settings before fatiguing , so as i stressed make sure you’re hearing and visually checking results from the processing through printing the processing and looking at it .
In all honesty it’s just easier to tell people don’t clip than explain fletcher munson curves , noise , frequency built up clashing frequencies . When the sequence is done right and the dynamics are sorted u should be pushing the levels because you have control of their dynamic ranges at this point , so as long as you keep the sounds to their pockets in regards to volume /dynamics relationships you can hit it hard . Wish someone had told me that ten years ago although You’d miss out on the educational engineering which makes it impossible to really be all you can be . I figured this out about 6 years ago , I showed my other staff engineers who were much older what I was doing and they looked at me like i was nuts . My take is that exciting harmonics and keeping their mix relationship cohesive will allow for this concept . But like you said you gain staged and I think once a producer gets his /her head around what we’re trying to achieve here they can begin to push the envelope of what’s “acceptable” “if it sounds good it is good “ ❤️
The reason you don't clip is that it will blow out the speakers. A lot of people don't seem to know this these days, but there's a reason you remove the clipping from audio and it's generally speaking because of this problem. It basically heats up the coil in the speakers beyond what most user systems are designed for. That said, there's a lot that goes into this. If your system has "Bass Boost" or settings akin to it, there's likely a good chance you wouldn't need to worry as much. You'll start to smell the problem if it's a problem because I'm not joking about it heating up the coils. This is more of an acoustical engineering and/or electrical engineering talk than what people call "production", as it doesn't really have that much to do with the mix so much as the systems in question. You don't know what the buyer is going to be playing your music on being the point.
I dont believe music has to be perfect to be good , there is alot of well produced highly forgettable music out there just be yourself in music, flaws and all and trust your ears till you are happy with your music and don't worry so much about what everyone thinks , Frank Zappa said it best ," my music is designed for people who like it not for ones who don't and if you dont like there's all those other names on the list "
AH amazing stuff!! Just took at class with Kll BLL and they showed something similar with us: a way of master where they digital clip into a saturator and thats it. I think its worth adding that your mixdown gotta come correct! nothing will save a rough mixdown.
More people need to know this. I've seen, time and time again, especially in the subgenre of hardcore that I make in which drops are nearly always 0db, people try to make headroom for things, that simply don't need that much space. A master is only useful to make a song sound good on different soundsystems, and will not help a shit mixdown.
What about “clipping less” on the Clipper plugin? (to achieve the same ‘interactive’ waveform result as the Ableton version). I’ve often thought of recording the analog outputs after slamming an Ableton channel…yes it can sound cool. I’m just wondering (from your waveforms)….is one just clipping more/less because of input/output parameter levels?
Seems like this is using Abletons built in master 'clipper' as your mastering limiter/ final dynamics stage. My take is that this is a less easily controlled method of clipping as you've got to print the master before you can really see any difference on an oscilloscope or check loudness/crest levels. I have a feeling that adjusting clipper settings might get you something similar sounding - newfangled saturate with detail preservation on maybe. But sure, this is an additional method of clipping and if it sounds good to your ears compared to other sources then brilliant.
I️ was thinking the same. I️ wondered what differences would present themselves if the waveform was clipped with a clipper at the exact same level as the Ableton master. Much difference?
Couldn't this potentially be really bad information to share as without any form of limiter you have the potential to blow drivers in sound systems??? At 7.17 you can clearly see the waveform that is redlined and exported, the peaks of the waveform are going off the scale at the highest points (no curve at the top just an empty section) You are left with a waveform that is trying to push the driver above 0 for an amount of time. So on many consumer sound systems at best will cause nasty distortion and a worst be blowing drivers? Correct me if I'm wrong but surely no actual mastered and comercially released music would be using this technique? It might work in certain scenarios but could be really bad in others with the wrong combination of equipment
Yo I thought the same but have behind the scenes confirmation that Skrillex, Griz, Virtual Riot & many others release tracks with this technique. Here’s one: open.spotify.com/track/1ztnDy21iJOc5eH7wvbEeV?si=fpReEbQMTt2bDhhuExAlVw
Dude so on to this. I've found the mix sounds better when the master bounces into the red by 2 db. Makes decisions so much easier than freaking eveytime the master meter flashes red periodically. Thanks bro.
Banger vid, been dying for this video ever since I started producing. I love the comparisons that show the differences in methods and the emphasis on why not to necessarily always redline
Yo Thanks! Btw you’re the winner! Congrats!!! What’s ure email? I’ll send you the Magic Racks Vol 5.
I also recommend if you're clipping the master via your DAW then make sure to take the render and re render it with the volume down to -1db. This is just so your song doesn't clip when you upload it to a streaming site and the digital compression adds artifacts.
Very smart!!
I just checked Ahee's SC, mans uploaded this track at 0db...so yeah. Many other artists do the same.
@@TheJohnsofDoes I'm referring to the fact that when you upload its going add additional clipping to the audio which wasn't an intentional choice from your end.
@@Fritztafer its a choice of the producer to do that but you will have additional clipping distortion to what you chose to do with hardclippers in your daw.
I believe that the whole "don't clip its bad" statement is pretty outdated and based upon what mixing engineers would say due to how way different music was prior to 2016-2017. I think clipping can also bring back the agressive edge after limiting a song(which could soften transients). Virtual Riot's Pray For Riddim song breakdown actually made note that his kick/clap/snare layer actually makes the master rise into 14 db(no not negative). As a result you can get punchy drums while still having a glued song. It does help to have limiting going on in busses or you will get an inconsistent clipping sound that could destroy your track.
In the cry some more vip breakdown he just straight up clips the song for the entire song +19dB. Also skrillex does this technique too for fuji opener
Not clipping is generally good advice for a LOT of genres, and I think writing off the advice as entirely outdated just because we're all talking about this in an EDM/Dubstep scenario. It's just the kind of thing where Dubstep and EDM, in general, have pretty much been clipping since 2010, even earlier in some examples, but that more old-school engineers would avoid this (even Ahee said, you don't want this on your downtempo tracks), even more so, most old school engineers were also recording engineers, not just mixing engineers like a lot of us here are. We aren't often recording in whole band setups live and riding the vocal, writing down our desk positions for each song, etc. We're just throwing in midi, resampling, lining up to the grid and quantizing, and because of that we can do stuff like bus mastering and mixing as we go because the workflow is so different.
Ultimately it's a sound. Having the drum go into 14db and having it that punchy can be achieved without modern Dubstep limiting practices, but that overcompressed, squashed, a sound that you hear on EDM is just what we are used to hearing. I mixed a Dubstep song two different ways, one by gain staging to -18dB and then boosting volume to -0.1dB in the mastering stage, and another by using my own form of bus mastering. The lufs of the -18db gain staging was (if I remember correctly), somewhere around -14-13lufs, and the bus mastered one was -6lufs (it might've been louder).
Ultimately though, once bounced and converted to whatever platform you'll listen on (whether it's a streaming platform, CD, vinyl, etc.) the "loudness" drops down to the limitation of that given platform, sometimes I've even noticed that the bus mastered track sounds better when bounced, but awful when uploaded to a streaming platform. These things need to be considered, we need to understand what form of mastering to do depending on what platform we'll be releasing on.
For example, a bus-mastered CD is going to absolutely slap (and likely why Skrillex developed his style this way, because he released CDs with From First to Last before streaming became what it is), or perhaps if you're going to DJ and you want the raw file (like you have a USB of your tracks) then that'll sound sick too (again, another reason why Skrillex may have developed this unique style), but on Spotify your -6Lufs gets squashed into a flat, dead track, compared to a gain-staged track that has headroom for the punchiness to truly pierce through once it gets processed by the streaming platform.
It's worth thinking about, but I agree that you don't have to worry about clipping as long as you don't hear it. There are a lot of contexts where it takes a seriously good ear to clip your music without realising that you're destroying certain aspects of your song though.
@@travisgodfrey-evans2182 I wasn't saying that you have to clip your tracks. I was rather dispelling the argument that "clipping = bad". There are also times if you do clip its done rather on individual sounds with a soft/hardclipper. There are often times where pulling a limiter is more beneficial. Its depending on the situation.
@@rebirth4119 Oh yea I get that you weren't saying that, I was just having conversation
@@travisgodfrey-evans2182 good analysis, I learnt a lot
If you ain't redlining, you ain't headlining
I like it lol
Ive heard this before lmfaoooo and it still gets me everytime 🤣
its true tho haha
🤣🤣😅💜
I know this is a joke but I saw an opening DJ redline the entire 2nd half of their set… I had to hide in the green room my ears couldn’t handle it even with earplugs
Awesome technique for specific circumstances. Cant wait to see how you use this on tracks in the future!
all knowledge aside, that remix you cooked up is HEAT
pretty slick man, every interesting outcome. dope tune btw.
Been subscribed forever man! Even got my hoodie a couple a weeks ago! Love the content, keep it up
I think you can do this with saturation and limiting with a lot more precision. Also, please level match your A/B. Basically cheating saying it sounds better cause it’s louder? Ofc
Fascinating and well explained. Thank you for your passion.
Im gonna try it on bass.
hey man, love your videos! could you possibly do a video on how to properly backup all of your Ableton files/sessions/tracks/samples in the case of a hard drive emergency? I think this would save lots of people from very stressful times!
Yet another great tip learned! Keep it up, thanks!
Bus mastering took my productions to the next level, excited to dive into this one
GREAT STUF😍
Thank you for explaining this!! Much love!
Congrats on the Wakaan lineup!!!!!! Bring all the deep dark wubz
Dude this is lit 🔥 thank you!!
Clipping transients before dynamic control is standard
I was watching some videos on Reason, and there was another guy talking about this as well. But not on this level. This is full on
Baphometrix has. Awhile in-depth series of several hours that goes into CTZ (clip to zero) mixing. Highly recommend checking it out.
A whole* fxkin autocorrect
Wow you teach everything i need to know ❤️ from the bottom of my heart thank you
Seth Drake is all about clipping into the master 🙃🙃🙃
Done and done
Super interesting
Been waiting on this one
Nice !
Question. Because Live bounces at 32 bit float is that bounced version actually clipped or is Ableton using its float magic to just output the waveform to the speaker unclipped? I️ would have liked to see what that final waveform looked like when you turned its internal gain down. Was the waveform still clipped then? Or did the normal curved edges come back?
So good
this is some good information
When you do this technique is the final track clipping? Even when you play it in you car or headphones? Or is there some type of compromise after the master is done?
Been hanging out with ol Moody
bro is that dnb tune at the start getting released lol i need it for my sets man
Yes! later this year
@@OfficialAHEE wicked bro ill fully support this the uk jump up scene will love this one trust what is the track called so i can keep an eye out for it
@@traviswheatley4250 it’s a remix of Reaper - Move Together
lets get dangerous!!!
legend
man, its so funny. I remember YEARS ago, my brother was learning to mix his metal band and he was redlining the snare. and I told him not to do that because it broke the rules, and he was like "but I like the way it sounds better" now years later I'm the one eating my words. Been using clippers for a while now but I had no idea Abletons clipping was so unique like that. Thanks again for a great video!
Why assume it's unique to Live?
Even when running a 24-bit session, my understanding is that Live still operates with a 32-bit audio engine. That may be why the master bus offers more detailed dynamics when redlining, compared to a plug-in/audio effect.
i think ableton does 64 bit at the faders when mixing signals and keeps it at 32 bit for the signal pre fader
Dude, I've been using a Saturator AND Izotope Trash on the pre for about a year now. The harmonics of the distortion seem to just fill out the frequency range so much better.
Love this .
I don’t understand this. The clipper is clipping at 0 so you see a flat line (understandably). But rendering at 32bit means it won’t clip even if it’s +12dB. So the redlining isn’t adding any distortion to the RENDERED wave as long as you’re playing back at 32bit. But if you take your +12dB render and play it using a 24bit playback it WILL look like the clipped version. You can easily test this: take your +12dB track and render at 24bit, it’ll look like the clipped version.
The distortion you hear when the master is redlining is from your DAC clipping. This means the distortion you hear is dependent on the playback system so it won’t be consistent across systems.
The point I’m making is this: your +12dB render isn’t really clipping because it’s rendered at 32bit. There’s nothing special ableton is doing by redlining that can’t be achieved by compressing or saturating the master.
Does that apply on the masterchannel? I know that it applies on the individual channels, but I think that the masterchannel has a built in hardclipper!?
@@SlayerDarkRaver if it was hard clipping the +12dB render would look clipped. The master channel can go over 0dB and not clip because Ableton uses 32bit playback. Rendering at 32bit also means that it’s not clipping when it goes above zero.
@@123string4 I'm still not convinced. Do you have a reference for that?
@@SlayerDarkRaver try it yourself. Export something at +12dB at 32bit then drag the wav back into your DAW. You should be able to turn down the gain of the sample and recover everything above 0.
If the master had a built in hard clipper everything above 0 would be lost
I’m pretty sure you’re right. Came in to say the same thing.
I also suspect that after rendering to the specifications of, say, Spotify, redlining would be an issue; given that Spotify suggests delivering audio under certain levels that are most definitely under 0dBFS.
I dont think I'll wrap my head around this technique. I'll stick to using the clip-2-zero technique that Baphometrix talks about. Has made my mixes go from Zero to 90 % (not hero yet 🤣), I feel my mixes are still punchy and heavy and dynamic at the same time and hitting ridiculous levels of loudness (-4.5 lufs short term and -6 lufs long term).
I’ve been trying to apply Baphy’s method to my tracks but haven’t quite found the sweet spot or hit the crazy LUFS everyone else seems to hit.
How’re you getting your tracks like that?
@@LennonJCihak Its about controlling the dynamics. Let the kick hit 0 db and mix everything around it. I sidechain alot, not only kick - sidechain but carving out frequencies for each sound using sidechain (like Trackspacer but I use Abletons stock stuff).
To control dynamics I use saturation and clipping.
I'm applying clipping to almost every sound in my tracks. It doesn't have to be much, remember every db counts. I do it on individual sounds and on every group.
Ive found that it's important to try and control the dynamics with saturation before clipping. Don't know which DAW you use, I use ableton so saturator is my king for saturation, but you can definitely use camelcrusher which is free. My go to presets in that is British Clean and more beef.
For clipping individual sounds I use GClip, which is also free.
On the bigger summing busses like all drums and pre-master I use KClip 3.
Don't know if I helped you or confused you more 🤷
@@LennonJCihak yeah and I forgot to mention. I make like 2-3 tracks per week, sometimes more. So I got plenty of time to practice this. Practice makes perfect 👌
@@SlayerDarkRaver Thanks for that information! That's pretty much what I've been doing, except I haven't been saturating beforehand. I'm clipping every track and then clipping the busses. I'm wondering if I'm just pushing too much bass into everything. That could be eating up all of my dynamic range.
I use FL Studio on Mac, so GClip, unfortunately, is a no-go for me. I have StandardCLIP, which I love, but I'd love to grab a copy of KClip since it's a bit more CPU friendly and apparently sounds better, according to Baphometrix.
@@LennonJCihak could be that. I set the bass to somewhere around -6 to -4 db. I use a pure sine as sub with NO processing except sidechain. You an try Free Clip from Venn Audio, I haven't used it but heard good things about it. You can also use the waveshaper in FL, or the free waveshaper from MElda productions :)
Hey man I watching all yo vids again I kinda call it the ahee course haha but I have a request for a tutorial from ya if you'd indulge me how do I ask you? In the commemts?
Thanks😊
Michael Jackson was a massive fan of your work btw. He even used to you use your name in his songs all the time. Ahee Hee!
I Need that racks bro! Much love from Brasil 🇧🇷
So basically I just confirmed that I screwed up my next release by doing proper mixing and bus mastering. I got the feeling that after doing the correct processing it was sounding much less "alive and vibing", but since I got rid of the +8dB clipping I told myself it was a worthy sacrifice... shame on me XD
Thanks for sharing, at least now I know for next release :)
If it sounds good, it sounds good!
@@0x44Monad agree. I am now just testing if it is gonna get destroyed when played in clubs where they apply strong volume limits
Honestly nearly every big producer just redlines the master
In bass music transients and drums are so loud these days, combined with heavy sidechaining to the sub means limiting is kind of irrelevant and will only make your tune less dynamic
so you are releasing a track at +11 ?? or am I missing something ?
Dangerous but that's what makes dubstep, dubstep!
Dude, thanks for being so willing to help others learn and gain knowledge from your experience! Truly a badass thing to do for the music scene!
I see what you did there.. Gain knowledge haha
What your doing isn’t actually anything unusual your just doing controlled clipping all clippers generate different harmonics the whole ableton generates harmonics that you just prefer Kclip is a good clipper as well for this and it has a auto gain feature so you more hear when your pushing a sound to far will say this I would do this more on track ->bus->master level so you can make sure you get cleanest/distorted clip your looking for it’ll just give yah more control overall instead of doing one big clip at the end
I think this is the thing that subtronics does, limiter turns off during drops
correct me if I'm wrong but.. the harder u hit the celling the flatter ur mix is gonna sound.
low end energy suffers tremendously as well.
anything on that PA system will sound great and massive lol
the mastering process uses the (available) headroom to increase punch/smack/energy of your mix.
Now let's think about this for a second, if no headroom and your mix is not dynamic any more (because
it's clipping) then I only went 90% on my mix instead of 100%.
ps your other videos are awesome :)
Hey, Chris, Purchased your LFO Pack's for Serum last night, Thank's for the work you across the music community.
its funny because as a trap producer thats like the one tip EVERYONE tells you lol. TR5 classic clipper is king! Soft clipping is magic, but make sure the production and mixing is good first.
I do se this one all the time and it does cause me Cognitive disconnecne cuz I had a more proper pdocution education and the idea was def not to clip the master. To me, its louder, but you lose so much of the roundness of the low end and the top end becomes all hissy and semi unpleasant if you push it too far. I think it also depends on your gear (computer, interface, ect) because clipping a shitty scarlette doesn't sound as good as somehting like clipping the way better converters on an apollo. I get it though, in electronic and these heavy genres, its about loudness and punch over detail - which makes sense when your songs being played on Funktion Ones being pushed to their limits too. I do wonder in the the long run what this is doing to our hearing since were going to get to a place where there is litterly no dynamics its either the son gis playing or its off haha. That being said, all those old rock guys used to clip the analog board (think David Grohl talks about this in that one documentry about Sound City - he talk about how you get the drums going through the Neve and they sound great, you then turn them up and clip them into the board and it sounds AMAZINGGG) but digital isn't as warm as analog and when you push it this hard i do feel like you're sacraficing warmth and low for loudness. This is probably whyy all dubstep songs sound so bright to me as well.
Read about 50 comments on the page and have to move on. Kind of bothers me that people don't know this is a hardware problem. If I sold speakers for a living I'd be a happy man. Anyway, will open up Ableton later and check this out. Clipping in Ableton isn't amplifier clipping nor a clipped signal. Not that it doesn't or can't create it.
Yeah redline version definitely sounds better. But would this mean you master the final file without true peak headroom just on that bass drop?
Also everyone should take note that ableton provides spectral processing and with that being said everyone should produce chains which include a sense of space and movement . Not just a pattern and an envelope , not just The dynamics between transients , but don’t think that your brain is going to be able to imagine fx and movement happening while building a sequence , instead program spectral enhancements as you would variations in a drum sequence. Spend time cooking up a full spectrum mix and then judge yourself , but not before giving your project a good sense of movement and dynamics that groove and or compliment the sequence . I left so many projects unfinished because I refused to think about the big picture . You’ll be surprised how good your work will start sounding when you’ve got filters and phasers and chorus and all those tools ready to apply alongside your tracks so that you’re constantly creating more cohesion and quickly finding what frequencies to remove or emphasize according to the needs of the “WHOLE TRACK” and not getting lost tweaking a sound that isn’t sitting right or doesn’t belong . The processing will help you make those choices easier than moving the gain on the eq band a few db or fiddling with your snare and clap levels . Instead spend your time making it a habit to find ways of meeting your spectral desires . I find it much easier to lock my compressions and textures and you won’t end up cutting away too much because it will be very noticeable and the solution becomes easily apparent because you’re hearing difference much easier . The only problem with this loudness strategy is ear fatigue , a lot of people won’t be able to dial those settings before fatiguing , so as i stressed make sure you’re hearing and visually checking results from the processing through printing the processing and looking at it .
In all honesty it’s just easier to tell people don’t clip than explain fletcher munson curves , noise , frequency built up clashing frequencies . When the sequence is done right and the dynamics are sorted u should be pushing the levels because you have control of their dynamic ranges at this point , so as long as you keep the sounds to their pockets in regards to volume /dynamics relationships you can hit it hard . Wish someone had told me that ten years ago although You’d miss out on the educational engineering which makes it impossible to really be all you can be . I figured this out about 6 years ago , I showed my other staff engineers who were much older what I was doing and they looked at me like i was nuts . My take is that exciting harmonics and keeping their mix relationship cohesive will allow for this concept . But like you said you gain staged and I think once a producer gets his /her head around what we’re trying to achieve here they can begin to push the envelope of what’s “acceptable” “if it sounds good it is good “ ❤️
The reason you don't clip is that it will blow out the speakers. A lot of people don't seem to know this these days, but there's a reason you remove the clipping from audio and it's generally speaking because of this problem. It basically heats up the coil in the speakers beyond what most user systems are designed for. That said, there's a lot that goes into this. If your system has "Bass Boost" or settings akin to it, there's likely a good chance you wouldn't need to worry as much. You'll start to smell the problem if it's a problem because I'm not joking about it heating up the coils. This is more of an acoustical engineering and/or electrical engineering talk than what people call "production", as it doesn't really have that much to do with the mix so much as the systems in question. You don't know what the buyer is going to be playing your music on being the point.
⚠️Headliners 😡HATE🤬 him for revealing their 🤢DIRTY🤮 little 🤫SECRET🤭😱❗
I dont believe music has to be perfect to be good , there is alot of well produced highly forgettable music out there just be yourself in music, flaws and all and trust your ears till you are happy with your music and don't worry so much about what everyone thinks , Frank Zappa said it best ," my music is designed for people who like it not for ones who don't and if you dont like there's all those other names on the list "
Haven't got into bass , step music but it's very interesting how this genrea is mixed different ly .. to it's maxed ...
wonderfully presented. this makes too much sense, simply put you're reiterating filling space within a freq spectrum
Why is clipping dangerous for your ears? Does that mean the clipping in RUclips poop is harmful?
Super interesting video! Not sure if you ever watch any of Dan Warholl's content but I'd be curious to see what he thinks of this lol!
AH amazing stuff!! Just took at class with Kll BLL and they showed something similar with us: a way of master where they digital clip into a saturator and thats it. I think its worth adding that your mixdown gotta come correct! nothing will save a rough mixdown.
where'd you take a kll bill class?
@@johnnystang41 yeah, I'd like to know too!
More people need to know this. I've seen, time and time again, especially in the subgenre of hardcore that I make in which drops are nearly always 0db, people try to make headroom for things, that simply don't need that much space. A master is only useful to make a song sound good on different soundsystems, and will not help a shit mixdown.
Me 3 !
Hide this video from Dan Worrall real quick, he’s gonna have a fever
What about “clipping less” on the Clipper plugin? (to achieve the same ‘interactive’ waveform result as the Ableton version).
I’ve often thought of recording the analog outputs after slamming an Ableton channel…yes it can sound cool.
I’m just wondering (from your waveforms)….is one just clipping more/less because of input/output parameter levels?
I am wondering the same thing
I’m curious are you still using limiters on your individual tracks ands bus groups
it's funny the moemnt i heard you talking about this saying aggressive dnb/dubstep reaper is the first name that popped into my mind
Amplifier Armageddon circa july, 14 2022
This is great news.
brb gonna redline my lofi chill-hop track
The eurobeat track Redline comes to mind. I wonder if that track redlines?
come to think of it i would love to hear some clipping downtempo 😂😂😂
The most gangrenous technique is you advertise using crapelton…
Seems like this is using Abletons built in master 'clipper' as your mastering limiter/ final dynamics stage. My take is that this is a less easily controlled method of clipping as you've got to print the master before you can really see any difference on an oscilloscope or check loudness/crest levels.
I have a feeling that adjusting clipper settings might get you something similar sounding - newfangled saturate with detail preservation on maybe. But sure, this is an additional method of clipping and if it sounds good to your ears compared to other sources then brilliant.
I️ was thinking the same. I️ wondered what differences would present themselves if the waveform was clipped with a clipper at the exact same level as the Ableton master. Much difference?
Your videos have excelled my skills like crazy over the years man… so blessed
way back in the day porter robinson said on a reddit interview he uses controlled clipping
Always love your videos thanks AHEE!
Great content as always. You can't find this shit anywhere else!
BAPHY!!!
I'm wearing trousers today. Not by choice they made me do it.
Intermodulation distortion :o creating harmonics through distortion
That BPM! Jeeeeeez you Americans make me laugh haha.
Very cool technique. I'll not overuse it ;)
Thanks so much for all of these incredible tips!
when my friend told me this i thought it was sketch but i guess not!
Nice 1 Ahee! Subbed, Liked and ready to win!
Couldn't this potentially be really bad information to share as without any form of limiter you have the potential to blow drivers in sound systems??? At 7.17 you can clearly see the waveform that is redlined and exported, the peaks of the waveform are going off the scale at the highest points (no curve at the top just an empty section) You are left with a waveform that is trying to push the driver above 0 for an amount of time. So on many consumer sound systems at best will cause nasty distortion and a worst be blowing drivers? Correct me if I'm wrong but surely no actual mastered and comercially released music would be using this technique? It might work in certain scenarios but could be really bad in others with the wrong combination of equipment
Yo I thought the same but have behind the scenes confirmation that Skrillex, Griz, Virtual Riot & many others release tracks with this technique. Here’s one: open.spotify.com/track/1ztnDy21iJOc5eH7wvbEeV?si=fpReEbQMTt2bDhhuExAlVw
Thank you!
liked and subscribed! thanks for this video homie
AO Magic Racks no i give No Fear ive not beard choose not 🖖
Are we still eligible for the free pack if are already subscribed?
Keep up the great vids man, you’re an inspiration.
Please see baphometrixs’ clip to zero strategy.
Dude so on to this. I've found the mix sounds better when the master bounces into the red by 2 db. Makes decisions so much easier than freaking eveytime the master meter flashes red periodically. Thanks bro.
Re liked because I really want to win a vol.5 rack 🥺
Very interesting, I’ll definitely be trying this!
ableton gods plz bless me w/ these RACKS
That’s a cool hat, pls give me the racks. *drops mic*
thanks Ahee!! that just blow my mind lol