doing a mix is like facing the devil in hell with no weapons and you have PTSD mix with insomnia hunger dehydrated and schizophrenia...... while blindfolded........with 150 pound body weight......
This may be your best and most important video yet! Solid advice. You listen, then listen again and just do the best you can at that time. I know that I could tinker on a mix literally forever, tweaking things a little here and a little there, but there comes a point when you lose your objectivity and start to overdo things. Learning when to 'stop' and let it go is important.
You mention other people in your building... I’d like to hear more about the soundproofing that went into the studio design so they can’t hear you. Maybe when you do your speakers/acoustics/studio rebuild video.
When my mix studio was in a bedroom, when I wanted to take some distance from the production, I lay down on... the bed! I always heard stuff I didn't notice when in the sweet spot.
The in-phase out-phase test is called a null test! It's an absolutely useful technique to see what a plugin is actually doing, besides checking differences between masters.
I've already wrote that somewhere, in an other comment maybe about an other video from an other YT channel, but listenning you mix at physical distance, doors open, in an other room and doing something else is a great tool. Realy. It gives you either the physical distance, the mind distance and the "EQ/bandwidth distance". You hear the music thru "bad conditions" and if the music is good despite thes bad conditions, the music is good. And if there's an issue on a detail you hear it. It's like hearing your favorite piece of music thru a crappy AM radio or when you're in the shower with the noise of the water on your head.
Overuse of compression in the "loudness wars" ruined the dynamic range of CDs. Good point about genres requiring different loudness levels. I try not to overcompress the mix just because I have room to make it louder. For me, the CD remasters done by Barry Diament in the '80s still sound the best compared to subsequent remasters of the same albums he worked on.
-10 integrated LUFS is the happy medium I find. It’s close to cd loudness and streaming services will turn it down as needed and I find no degradation in the sonic spectrum when streaming. Just my opinion based on my experiences. You can drive yourself fucking bananas mastering multiple versions to match each format.
The reason why mastering exist is not to to have to produce multiple mixes in the fist place. That's literally what mastering engineers do, ensuring your final mix will sounds good on every platform. That's the definition of mastering, and the reason for it's existence since we had radios and vinyls, then clubs and CDs, then streaming services, so yeah ;)
So true about mastering studios, it got alot cheaper then they used to be so i noticed for myself that they also don't take it so serious anymore and get lazier and lazier on the job, resulting in better investing in learning how to master yourself instead
Thanks for this vid - I completely agree with the cafe comment where you then notice that the hi hat needs to be tweaked etc. I thought I was perhaps alone in this technique where I have a fair amount of paperwork that's associated with my audio business and will typically play a mix in the background while doing admin work. I'm always amazed on finding things to help improve the quality of the mix that as I'm "mixing", I'm overlooking. Although I do enjoy all of your tech vids / product reviews, this video for me was probably one of my favorites because you explain some of your process which is not something you can find in a classroom or text book.
So many good tips for mental and sonic fatigue, plus the technical tools that you use!! Thank you Great vid all around m8! As for the phase trick, I think it's called phase cancelling which btw the way you're using it seems really worth trying !!! (ps.: please don't mind my comment but.... 0:10 the correct is arose or rose. 6:13 caught instead of catched. :D)
That method for checking the distortion looks awesome, great tip! I would insert the same plugin on the duplicate-phase-inverted track to match the delay and just make sure all the parameters are set to zero, that should sort out the alignment issue for perfect 180° phase cancellation - and then dial in some distortion on one track..
THANK YOU for saying what you did about speakers and acoustics. If it was all just EQ we'd just download the EQ curve for a Neuman U67 and apply it to an off brand sm58. You can't hear what you can't hear; you said it best. Thanks for your scientific approach to the techniques and your artistic approach to the music.
such practical advice! distancing… it is more difficult to do in music than in visual arts (i am a Designer). i can step away from my design ‘process’ easier than i can with sound. it travels INSIDE my skull, and in my skin!
Ive always found he name of the game to be tonal balance. Which is usually better done in the mix. Then bring the track to level. Another way to know if your Master is good is if your Mix is good. Then you just dont have to fuck it up.
Hey, sometimes that's all you can do. I find myself dealing with a lot of noisy laughter for live comedy and there's no amount of eq and compression that deals with the peaks of those claps🙄
ah! good to hear that I am not the only one that is a bit lost when it comes to master level. a lot of the tracks that I buy for dj'ing are on -10 LUFS. why!? when we finally seem to have a standard we mess it up again.
Hey man, I had a very specific question. But idk if its nessecary to make a video on it, but I genuinely would like to have some tips from anyone possible. I have been producing since 1998 and I always had mental difficulties due Autism, ADHD and later on also an anxiety disorder. And lately I have quite some difficulties with producing due anxiety. Anxiety while producing is one of the most frequent moments when my anxiety pops up. I is not triggered by any concious thoughts, but I am pretty sure it is caused by a fear of failure. Even though I am just an hobbyist, and I mainly produce to have fun and to express. Does anyone have tips or tricks on this? maybe Mr whitey white? ^^ I am also from The Netherlands btw. :) I like your vids man! :D
loudness depends on the energy of a track and how many elements are playing at once a pefect sidechained mix with energetic music like drum and bass can be around -4lufs... rock too but slow stuff and acustic stuff doesnt need that much energy so it doesnt need to be that loud... it depends on the track genre and vibe of each track... who cares if they lower my volume by 7db if i want that energy it will still be preceived loud enough and has a short dynamic range so its energetic.
Ok here we go. Tom Lord-Alge taught me and my fellow students - "To be a successful mixer you need to learn to live and die by your decisions". The concept of correcting things in the mix after the mastering has been done really is a worst case scenario, as well as a huge luxury which I'm not sure we should always have. The things you want correcting are likely to be small differences which may sound big to the artist, but are relatively inconsequential to the listener. That being said, a listener will care about a good master, subconsciously. A good external mastering engineer of course gives you the opportunity for it to really shine and translate across multiple systems. As a mixer you are too close to the project. I've found that maybe after a month or two I can get that objectivity back to master my own record, but I'm still mastering in my room on the same system. I'll still miss stuff. I've worked with Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound twice over the last 6 months and hands down it's been worth it every time. Yes there were things that were revealed that made me think I'd do things differently next time, but that's how you learn. This quest for perfection is a bit of a lost cause. My coach says to me "It's the lowest standard because it doesn't exist". On balance, for better or kind of for worse, get an outside mastering engineer to master your track. Commit to your decisions and accept what is. Doing your own quality control is a little oxymoronic. It'll hurt the band, the music and the mixer. Finally, with respect to LUFS levels. I'm working with a big mixer at the moment who mixes are hitting like -9LUFS without any limiting. This -14LUFS nonsense is really damaging so I'm glad you've mentioned the -4LUFS thing. I don't think it's something clients should be asking for though, if the mix is too dynamic then getting it to -4LUFS will be a car crash. One thigh that Ted Jensen said that really stuck with me is that he's really just trying to make the track the best it can be. His decisions are creative and not competitive (with regards to loudness). Mastering costs are very reasonable these days and for my money it's an absolute no brainer. You'd be surprised at how different some chart topping mixes sounded before mastering. Sometimes it's a good 20-30% better. To my ears, the difference between that song being a hit and not. So, essential. Basically.
Polarity switch would technically be the correct term. Phase is connected to the time domain. Though it's very common to use the term phase switch instead, which i also do most of the time.
Maybe one of your best videos for me. How good is my mix/master in front my hearing perspective, focus and unfocusand metered. Nice inverted phase checking out method as well (complement of your previously video of harmonic distortion about the harmonics that this types of plugins add). Well, use your ears above all.
Best trick I was ever shown was to set your master mix to mono, and A/B compare it to stereo. All the conflicting sounds and frequencies will jump out. If it sounds good in mono, and better, or at least as good when I flip back to stereo, I know there is not much else to do other than keep spinning in circles, or going over board with additional changes. It's a very objective way to get to the point where you just render it out, and call it done. Then play it in the car, and on some shitty ear buds. If that still doesn't bring anything horrible to the surface, I'm usually done done.
Always enjoy your uploads. Listening outside your mixing room can give another perspective. But I wonder about acoustic coloration and reflections, even though I do the same thing! Pindrop listening is another useful habit and finally, having a reference track or some sort of eq matching plugin. The inescapable fact is that finalised tracks have to conform to the industry standard eq paramaters (keeping genre in mind!) and that is where pink noise is a valuable ref' plot. There are othets, but p/n is the default. Its what all successful masters are adhering to and why a great mixdown translates. Sadly, most prople are listening on tablets/notebooks/smartfones /mp3 players and earbuds. Mp3 gives a weird low end bump and you have to account for all these deficencies and variables! No wonder people have a nightmare self mastering! But if your mixdown is AOK, finalising shouldn't be such a headache. You can't polish a tutd!
In The Mix has an interesting piece of advice: Take your monitoring headphones off, crank them, and listen to your track play out loud from the headphones. I find that if your mix/master is clean, your track should still sound recognisable and "balanced."
Mtt Lsa I’m not advocating for this but I can at least help explain it. It’d be similar to: Listening from another room. Or. Listening like it’s elevator music, off axis and further away. If it still sounds cohesive all while gain is being pushed, nothing distorting or piercing, then it might play nice on sub par devices. Most likely focused on midrange. Of course a phone might offer a similar thing. Who knows?
I read a quote somewhere once, and I seem to think it was attributed to Sting. However, I have not been able to find the quote again, so I’m going completely off of memory. Anyway, the quote goes, “You never really FINISH an album, you just give up.”
Louder = grabs the attention of the listener more. Louder tricks the ears into thinking it sounds better than the tracks that play before and after it. Louder mix = more competitive mix. This is why the loudness wars happened.
Nice video, but with one detail you are very wrong: You simply can't hear the saturation of staturn 2 by playing a phase inverted dry track in parallel without EXACTLY compensating the PDC introduced by Saturn also on the dry track. Try two tracks, phase invert one, and delay the other by some samples: You will already hear a lot going thru, it will sound like some kind of highpass or lowpass filter actually. So without perfectly aligning to the PDC of your current Saturn settings (since it varies by quality setting), you can't judge about the saturation/distortion delta.
I use a pro mastering engineer. It’s not that I can’t master, as I have the knowledge and skills; I have several pairs of good monitors, in a well-treated room which provides me with confidence. It’s because the mastering engineer I use is someone who’s ears I trust, and rely on for objective critical analysis, (and he’s super picky) which for me, is necessary. I tend to lose my honed aural perspective after I’ve finalized a mix; and I think it’s because of the time I’ve spent working on a project, where I’m there from the very start with tracking, overdubs, arrangement, editing, to the very end when I’m printing the final mix. During that above process, I’m hearing hundreds of passes of the tracks and the songs, and after the mix is done, I find that I’ve reached a point where I’m too “saturated” with the music (and the overall sonics) to feel confident enough to master them (which we know is a lot more than just making a mix LOUD) with a level of quality that matches the mixes. I’m very fortunate to have used one pro M.E. for nearly 30 years now, (who is not only highly knowledgeable and skilled, but who also has top level analog gear, an incredible room and monitoring). It’s a professional relationship that has been cultivated over that time, where we have become very familiar with each other’s methods, styles, dynamics preferences, and in turn, each one’s expectations. I’m speaking only for myself here; I would never suggest to anyone that they not do mastering themselves, because if what they are doing is working for them, that’s all that matters. IMHO. 🙏
A point to take note ! music will played back in many ways , mayb on vinyl or CD now they don't sound the same , good record deck with a £500 Cartridge will also sound better than a £20 Cartridge , then with spotify thats another thing all that compression same as radio . Then put the speakers into the mix or headphones , THEN at the end of this chain ADD EQ , how many people have never changed the Eq in there car A LOT of people , then look at who does . the whole mix will change many times on many systems and you can't mix for just one format. Do the best you can, make it as load as you can , If someone wants it to be mastered at a way they need it to be , send it to to mastered who knows what he is doing he or she has prob been doing this for 30 Years and knows what they're doing , its not a con they will be using gear that costs 300k .Or just use a izotope pre set if you dont know what your doing and have no gear.Play a song that sounds lie your tune your mixing see how they sound next to each other . Theres a reason your mix doesn't sound as good . Rome wasn't built in a day and no matter how much i think everyone should have a studio set up in there bedroom it don't mean every one should stop using pro studios .Yeah use reference music that's always a good way to put u off mastering it yourself lol
Hey, have you seen the new compressor from denise? It's called Dragon Fire and they call it a tonal compressor although to my "expert" ears it seems like just a multiband compressor with a fancy EQ-esc curve. right up the alley of this channel I would think :)
I would just call it an A/B comparison for phase, or a phase A/B comparison lol There's probably a better term but that would be easily understood by most people. Also that's a killer idea, never heard of or thought of it before but it's actually amazing I never knew you could single out the distortion like that, definitely gotta try it in the future
Great tips dude, I'm just an enthusiastic on music stuff and productions, more on the live shows side, anyway one of my complains about music now in days is the mastering process add a lot of loudness who distroy good albums or good songs, like "Californication" by red hit chilli peppers is a great album but a pain listen on a decent audio equipment also the album "sonic highway" is another case but luckily they released the documental on tv, so the difference between cd released and tv stream is HUGE, the tv stream sounds more natural with great stage and deep field and in the other side the cd sounds so boring plain without live at all, because they Opted for the brick mode, anyway..... so in my constantly music research (buying music on cd or digital media) I always check for the dinamic range, between -10DB And in the worse case -7db more than that is almost sure than going to sound really bad on my system
My 5 cents on this :D The null check to hear the distortion requires correct PDC (plugin delay compensation) not all plugins support that... Fix wrong PDC in Reaper by adding the plugin on both channels and turn the wet knob (top right corner) to 0% Some good Mastering Limiters offer a delta preview. (You hear what the limiter removed) When using FFT Analyzers, check the integration time if you are want to see the real peeks of your kick and base accurately. That Flux Flux Analyzer is nice in color but not so accurate in meter levels. I prefer the stock reaper FFT Analyzer. Spectral quality: Compare with clean unprocessed pink noise, Sharp highcut (with ReaFIR) between 16kHz and 18kHz before the final limiter, 300Hz and 3kHz are "in control" Stereo Quality: Bass is Mono below 90..170Hz, Width and depth feels right Level quality: LUFS Target, Dynamic Range, Side channel peaks 3-5dB lower than Mid channel, overall gain progression Finally: If it sounds good, it is good
I think "dissociate" and "dissociating" is what you're looking for, which is a term in medicine or psychology. I only really know it because I've smoked salvia and salvia is a "dissociative."
Loudness has been driving me nuts too. I really don't think it's in the best interest of the song to boost the loudness to extremes (just for the sake of being super loud). Here's a quote from the loudness penalty website - "these numbers are not targets. Streaming services apply loudness normalization so we don’t have to. Use them to Preview your music and compare with suitable reference material. If the results sound good, you don’t need to take any action. However, you may decide you’d like to experiment with lower levels to see if you prefer a more dynamic sound. We do!"
My experience is that you can not allways "see" high frequencies. Even if you don't see a lot of highs (amplitude) in the frequency plot, a good mastered track can have a lot of them. The consequence: I turn up the highs (amplitude) in my mix visually to the same amount as in the compared mix and still have less highs when listening. Why? - Probably it's more about the energy not the amplitude alone. The energy you get by compression (less peaks) and the visible amplitudes you get by simply turn it up. Any thoughts on this?
It strongly depends on how many samples are used to plot an FFT frame. It is always a trade-off between the frequencies shown and the amplitudes of the frequencies. On top of that our eyes are done above ~30Hz (30FPS) things get blurry, which we interpret as motion. In between 2 Frames of video, a lot of things can happen in the 10-16kHz Range in audio. Even if you run at 144Hz, you just see a more blurry mess xD The Energy contained in a signal is the integral of all frequencies and their amplitudes. Too much high-frequency energy fatigues our ears (they actually protect themselves), if you keep going it starts to hurt.
@@raphaelkuttruf Interesting. The difference in seeing and hearing high frequencies lies in the frame rate. Do you agree that compressed frequencies sound louder than they appear on the screen? Compared to the amplitude of uncompressed frequencies
@@NikolausBrocke Yes, if you compress to boost volume, it's louder than it appears on the FFT analysis. You can use a live oscilloscope to to see a continuous representation of the signal. There is a free plug in called "sm exoscope". Simply create a monitoring channel, cut everything below 3kHz and have a look at your HF content. :)
Isn't it better to double check with a second plugin? You seem always to use just one plugin (one analyzer, eq etc) for a specific purpose. Maybe you want a little boost on high end to add air, but Fabfilter might give a different result as for example maag eq and you can not compare by using just one plugin and you have a lot of hardware, too. Heavy metal you also make better loud haha Nice video, thanks
About -4 lufs, people like the squashed sound i guess that in the end will make your track seem louder while it isn't, you probably just compensated on bass/subbass volume
Or they could also just like the saturation/pumping sound that squashing your song into a limiter gives, saturation will also tend to feel like your track is louder cause all empty spaces on freq balance wil be filled up, making you lose transients though, but it will more feel like a soundwall hitting you this giving the feeling it's louder while it's stil -12 lufs cause of loudness normalisation done by streaming platforms
Hi! Thanks for the content and for changing the treatment of your voice, right now is a pleasure to listening to you, a little bit too much compressed, but just a little bit too much, which in the end is not a problem, but i would give some more personality over some place in the middle range to your voice so your great personality is not lost, the ones that are following you since 2018, we know you, but this voice doesn't let your personality arrive, but be carefull you fixed the ears hurting and changing that could be not very good. QUESTION: I have a question please: How can you record so low having a total of -48 in lets say high frequencies, at that level in each track on Ardour (the DAW i use) you can't see the wave almost, how do you do to record so low, am i understanding right that you are using -48dbs? Then how you arrive to the -16LUFS and -1dbtp for example? Sorry if i missunderstood. Thanks for your content!!!
I know little to nothing about mastering - with that said, when I use Ozone 9's Master Assistant along with Softube's Weiss Comp./Limiter I get good sounding mixes!
Ozone 9's Master Assistant is OK, but I find it boosts the top end ( over 6K ) and rolls the sub off a little too much for my tastes leaving you with a thin and over bright/slightly harsh sounding mix if you're not careful. I always have to pull the output back a little too for mastering to -11 LUFS. Also analysing different (equally loud) sections of the same track can give different results so there's a consistency issue with the software too.
you’re a cool guy who explains things well- wanting to learn to master with Apollo UA stuff, which i recorded it on / but i may email you and get some prices on getting you to mix and master (I contacted you a year ago but then Covid hit. I’ve got some questions- if u got such great vintage gear, why even bother w UA stuff - anyway. i got your email - i’ll be i touch- been wanting you involved in one of my songs for two years! sorry for delay/ delighted you’re still at it...
Most bands doesn't have the budget to pay extra for the mastering studio. So including a mastring service as mixing engineer is a must have today. You definitely have a Second pair of ears listening or 5-6 of them listening to the final mastered 2-track Stereo version of the mix as all members of the band will have opinions. In the end you are working for the artist or their record company and you will change the Mix/ Mastering to satisfy the man that hands over the money paying for your work hours. The World of Audio is very complicated as all Persons have different ears and their taste in the spectral balance of a mix are different. They are also listening in different rooms on HiFi system ear buds on their iPhone, Car Stereo etc. That's why a mixing/ Mastering engineer have a room that are acoustic treated With straight frequency response and 2 sets of special mixing monitors and also checks the mix on budget hifi-systems. So you can get a mix that sounds good everywhere.
I have a theory. The trend of over pumping the loudness of masters is part of what has lead to the rising trend of Saturation and distortion plugins. People have gotten used to hearing the tops cut off of their music, and now are being sold solutions to get "that sound" on each individual track in their project under the guise of "Adds Even Harmonics" or the more ham fisted "Analog Sound". Over saturated mixes and masters is a trend that will define the sound music in this era, much like the over use of Auto Tune was about 10 years ago. It sucks. Those of us that came up recording to 2" didn't like it because it added distortion. A properly calibrated machine delivers an extremely accurate playback if it is used properly, dynamics and harmonics intact and very honest. Damn, guess I needed to vent. Sorry.
No need to apologize. I started engineering in the ‘80’s, and I agree with you. I keep up with the times, but some of it is just laughable to me. I just keep making the best recordings and mixes I can for my clients. For decades I used outside mastering and I believe in it, but clients and budgets have changed. For what it’s worth, I’m hitting around -14 to - 12 LUFS. Part of that is genre based. I’ve never had a client doing hip hop or club music. That’s a whole other world.
![KAYTRANADA - Witchy (feat. Childish Gambino) [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/jGK3YVmGZ3Y/mqdefault.jpg)
A mix is never done, it’s surrendered
@Cole Lucca what
@Cole Lucca Whut ?!?! HAHAHAH !
doing a mix is like facing the devil in hell with no weapons and you have PTSD mix with insomnia hunger dehydrated and schizophrenia...... while blindfolded........with 150 pound body weight......
Thats the most true quote ive heard
Hahaha Wise words!
This may be your best and most important video yet! Solid advice. You listen, then listen again and just do the best you can at that time. I know that I could tinker on a mix literally forever, tweaking things a little here and a little there, but there comes a point when you lose your objectivity and start to overdo things. Learning when to 'stop' and let it go is important.
At some point ya gotta let it go, for the world to here.
This has to been said: from all the audio 'studio' content channels, I favour your channel the most.
You mention other people in your building... I’d like to hear more about the soundproofing that went into the studio design so they can’t hear you. Maybe when you do your speakers/acoustics/studio rebuild video.
When my mix studio was in a bedroom, when I wanted to take some distance from the production, I lay down on... the bed! I always heard stuff I didn't notice when in the sweet spot.
Quality is in the ear of the beholder as far as I can tell. Love your work.
The in-phase out-phase test is called a null test! It's an absolutely useful technique to see what a plugin is actually doing, besides checking differences between masters.
I also use the term null test. Good for checking what an artist changed in a revised mix.
I've already wrote that somewhere, in an other comment maybe about an other video from an other YT channel, but listenning you mix at physical distance, doors open, in an other room and doing something else is a great tool.
Realy.
It gives you either the physical distance, the mind distance and the "EQ/bandwidth distance". You hear the music thru "bad conditions" and if the music is good despite thes bad conditions, the music is good. And if there's an issue on a detail you hear it.
It's like hearing your favorite piece of music thru a crappy AM radio or when you're in the shower with the noise of the water on your head.
100%
Brian Eno back in the early 80s Oblique Strategy cards said the same thing as well as Honour your mistakes as hidden intentions :)
Your focus on quality is refreshing and inspiring! Thank you.
The phase inversion is used in visual effects as a check of the changes and is called "difference matting".
Overuse of compression in the "loudness wars" ruined the dynamic range of CDs. Good point about genres requiring different loudness levels. I try not to overcompress the mix just because I have room to make it louder.
For me, the CD remasters done by Barry Diament in the '80s still sound the best compared to subsequent remasters of the same albums he worked on.
So spot on, about separating yourself from the production. 🙌🏻 Fantastic content. New favorite channel.
Great breakdown and tips, my friend!
Great job! I really appreciate your candor and ability to explain complex and subjective technical subjects.
Difference / Delta - Thanks for another great video
-10 integrated LUFS is the happy medium I find. It’s close to cd loudness and streaming services will turn it down as needed and I find no degradation in the sonic spectrum when streaming. Just my opinion based on my experiences. You can drive yourself fucking bananas mastering multiple versions to match each format.
The reason why mastering exist is not to to have to produce multiple mixes in the fist place. That's literally what mastering engineers do, ensuring your final mix will sounds good on every platform. That's the definition of mastering, and the reason for it's existence since we had radios and vinyls, then clubs and CDs, then streaming services, so yeah ;)
@@jas_bataille I agree
So true about mastering studios, it got alot cheaper then they used to be so i noticed for myself that they also don't take it so serious anymore and get lazier and lazier on the job, resulting in better investing in learning how to master yourself instead
This is such a helpful video. Thank you 1000x.
Looking forward to you video on speakers, room and acoustics.
Very happy that I found your channel recently-- seems like you have some great content!
Thanks for this vid - I completely agree with the cafe comment where you then notice that the hi hat needs to be tweaked etc. I thought I was perhaps alone in this technique where I have a fair amount of paperwork that's associated with my audio business and will typically play a mix in the background while doing admin work. I'm always amazed on finding things to help improve the quality of the mix that as I'm "mixing", I'm overlooking. Although I do enjoy all of your tech vids / product reviews, this video for me was probably one of my favorites because you explain some of your process which is not something you can find in a classroom or text book.
A very important point you made. Quality vs taste.
you're like the Linus Tech Tips for music stuff ;)
... Second pair of ears, never heard any crazy sh.. Like that 😂👍 awesome. Love this guy
Super useful informations here! Thank you
This is gold!
I love your channel dude, I'm an 18 and I'm already going to finish my mixing engineer course. :) you motivate me a lot
00:41 Well, of course, we can't be satisfy with creativity. As they say, "art is never finish!" 😁
It just gets abandoned in public
@@theelephantofsurprise8564 😁👍
hey man i am a producer engineer and you are right on point with what your saying, def mentioned most of my golden rules!
So many good tips for mental and sonic fatigue, plus the technical tools that you use!! Thank you Great vid all around m8! As for the phase trick, I think it's called phase cancelling which btw the way you're using it seems really worth trying !!!
(ps.: please don't mind my comment but....
0:10 the correct is arose or rose.
6:13 caught instead of catched. :D)
That method for checking the distortion looks awesome, great tip! I would insert the same plugin on the duplicate-phase-inverted track to match the delay and just make sure all the parameters are set to zero, that should sort out the alignment issue for perfect 180° phase cancellation - and then dial in some distortion on one track..
Great Videos as Always!
Tight track - great vid.
I master all my music, it sucked for a long time but it’s definitely competitive these days.
damn doode you're a G
What do you feel help you out to get better
@Music, raw. mixing and mastering is always different from each song and genre
I really like your channel and your work, man. Congrats!
THANK YOU for saying what you did about speakers and acoustics. If it was all just EQ we'd just download the EQ curve for a Neuman U67 and apply it to an off brand sm58. You can't hear what you can't hear; you said it best. Thanks for your scientific approach to the techniques and your artistic approach to the music.
such practical advice! distancing… it is more difficult to do in music than in visual arts (i am a Designer). i can step away from my design ‘process’ easier than i can with sound. it travels INSIDE my skull, and in my skin!
called a Null Test for the phase inversion thing I think.
There is no inverting phase. Only polarity. If you don´t believe me, ask Mr. Spock!
Great review Wytse ! I am as enthusiastic as you about AO, had great results with my mixes using the Brit-series of Pre-amp, EQ and Compressor :-)
Ive always found he name of the game to be tonal balance. Which is usually better done in the mix. Then bring the track to level. Another way to know if your Master is good is if your Mix is good. Then you just dont have to fuck it up.
Thanks for the information!
Great demonstration Thank you !!
Thanks for sharing this!
When it sounds good, then it's good?! Lovely video Wytse!
just smash it against a brick wall at -.01 and you're done!
NOOOOO
Hey, sometimes that's all you can do. I find myself dealing with a lot of noisy laughter for live comedy and there's no amount of eq and compression that deals with the peaks of those claps🙄
LOL you can go way over -0.1 TP and not hear any ISPs at all and that is how many commercial tracks are released, choc full of ISPs some of them.
@@SohaillGandhi
What frequency are claps?
@@thedevilsadvocate5210 Depending on the room, whether it's treated against reflections or not, anywhere from 1k to 3k, and some spillover into 5k+
awesome video
amazing song
ah! good to hear that I am not the only one that is a bit lost when it comes to master level.
a lot of the tracks that I buy for dj'ing are on -10 LUFS. why!? when we finally seem to have a standard we mess it up again.
I would guess because of platforms like Soundcloud where there are no standards and everyone is competing for the most absurd loudness possible.
@@zetrel yep, so.. loudnesswar.... again🤦♂️
You have to be perfectionist to do that job!
I LOVE THIS GUY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Loud Heavy Metal masters do slap though. Great video though!
Thx for the tips man. Cheers
Great video! Very informative. Thank you :)
Great video. Thank you
Thank you Sir 👊🏾
14:40 the hisses you hear are most likely due to the oversampling enabled in the plugin.
Hey man, I had a very specific question. But idk if its nessecary to make a video on it, but I genuinely would like to have some tips from anyone possible. I have been producing since 1998 and I always had mental difficulties due Autism, ADHD and later on also an anxiety disorder. And lately I have quite some difficulties with producing due anxiety. Anxiety while producing is one of the most frequent moments when my anxiety pops up. I is not triggered by any concious thoughts, but I am pretty sure it is caused by a fear of failure. Even though I am just an hobbyist, and I mainly produce to have fun and to express. Does anyone have tips or tricks on this? maybe Mr whitey white? ^^ I am also from The Netherlands btw. :) I like your vids man! :D
Email me!
Your creations are not you. Sever the umbilical cord, and let them go. :)
@@CirclesandSounds Thanks mate! I'm gonna write that on my wall ;)
in hardstyle and hardcore we get sometimes -2DB LUFS mastering ^^
Looking forward to this :)
loudness depends on the energy of a track and how many elements are playing at once a pefect sidechained mix with energetic music like drum and bass can be around -4lufs... rock too but slow stuff and acustic stuff doesnt need that much energy so it doesnt need to be that loud... it depends on the track genre and vibe of each track... who cares if they lower my volume by 7db if i want that energy it will still be preceived loud enough and has a short dynamic range so its energetic.
but ive been commenting this stuff since month bru xD
Ok here we go.
Tom Lord-Alge taught me and my fellow students - "To be a successful mixer you need to learn to live and die by your decisions".
The concept of correcting things in the mix after the mastering has been done really is a worst case scenario, as well as a huge luxury which I'm not sure we should always have. The things you want correcting are likely to be small differences which may sound big to the artist, but are relatively inconsequential to the listener. That being said, a listener will care about a good master, subconsciously. A good external mastering engineer of course gives you the opportunity for it to really shine and translate across multiple systems.
As a mixer you are too close to the project. I've found that maybe after a month or two I can get that objectivity back to master my own record, but I'm still mastering in my room on the same system. I'll still miss stuff.
I've worked with Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound twice over the last 6 months and hands down it's been worth it every time. Yes there were things that were revealed that made me think I'd do things differently next time, but that's how you learn.
This quest for perfection is a bit of a lost cause. My coach says to me "It's the lowest standard because it doesn't exist".
On balance, for better or kind of for worse, get an outside mastering engineer to master your track. Commit to your decisions and accept what is. Doing your own quality control is a little oxymoronic. It'll hurt the band, the music and the mixer.
Finally, with respect to LUFS levels. I'm working with a big mixer at the moment who mixes are hitting like -9LUFS without any limiting. This -14LUFS nonsense is really damaging so I'm glad you've mentioned the -4LUFS thing. I don't think it's something clients should be asking for though, if the mix is too dynamic then getting it to -4LUFS will be a car crash.
One thigh that Ted Jensen said that really stuck with me is that he's really just trying to make the track the best it can be. His decisions are creative and not competitive (with regards to loudness).
Mastering costs are very reasonable these days and for my money it's an absolute no brainer.
You'd be surprised at how different some chart topping mixes sounded before mastering. Sometimes it's a good 20-30% better. To my ears, the difference between that song being a hit and not. So, essential. Basically.
Polarity switch would technically be the correct term. Phase is connected to the time domain. Though it's very common to use the term phase switch instead, which i also do most of the time.
Honesty is the best policy.
Maybe one of your best videos for me. How good is my mix/master in front my hearing perspective, focus and unfocusand metered. Nice inverted phase checking out method as well (complement of your previously video of harmonic distortion about the harmonics that this types of plugins add). Well, use your ears above all.
Best trick I was ever shown was to set your master mix to mono, and A/B compare it to stereo. All the conflicting sounds and frequencies will jump out. If it sounds good in mono, and better, or at least as good when I flip back to stereo, I know there is not much else to do other than keep spinning in circles, or going over board with additional changes. It's a very objective way to get to the point where you just render it out, and call it done. Then play it in the car, and on some shitty ear buds. If that still doesn't bring anything horrible to the surface, I'm usually done done.
Always enjoy your uploads. Listening outside your mixing room can give another perspective. But I wonder about acoustic coloration and reflections, even though I do the same thing! Pindrop listening is another useful habit and finally, having a reference track or some sort of eq matching plugin. The inescapable fact is that finalised tracks have to conform to the industry standard eq paramaters (keeping genre in mind!) and that is where pink noise is a valuable ref' plot. There are othets, but p/n is the default. Its what all successful masters are adhering to and why a great mixdown translates. Sadly, most prople are listening on tablets/notebooks/smartfones /mp3 players and earbuds. Mp3 gives a weird low end bump and you have to account for all these deficencies and variables! No wonder people have a nightmare self mastering! But if your mixdown is AOK, finalising shouldn't be such a headache. You can't polish a tutd!
I've heard it called a null test
try Reaper "Calculate loudness of selected tracks" , then you dont have to play the whole track to get the LUFS-I
In The Mix has an interesting piece of advice: Take your monitoring headphones off, crank them, and listen to your track play out loud from the headphones.
I find that if your mix/master is clean, your track should still sound recognisable and "balanced."
Mtt Lsa I’m not advocating for this but I can at least help explain it. It’d be similar to: Listening from another room. Or. Listening like it’s elevator music, off axis and further away. If it still sounds cohesive all while gain is being pushed, nothing distorting or piercing, then it might play nice on sub par devices. Most likely focused on midrange. Of course a phone might offer a similar thing. Who knows?
I read a quote somewhere once, and I seem to think it was attributed to Sting. However, I have not been able to find the quote again, so I’m going completely off of memory. Anyway, the quote goes, “You never really FINISH an album, you just give up.”
15:13 null test? :)
Phase inversion method aka Null Test.
I don't understand why clients want louder mix… If you want it louder just turn this big knob on your amp to the right!!
Louder = grabs the attention of the listener more. Louder tricks the ears into thinking it sounds better than the tracks that play before and after it. Louder mix = more competitive mix. This is why the loudness wars happened.
@@guitarsbunch347 Time to get a new amp.
Good tips. Kinda generalized but you hit on all the top hot buttons
Nice video, but with one detail you are very wrong: You simply can't hear the saturation of staturn 2 by playing a phase inverted dry track in parallel without EXACTLY compensating the PDC introduced by Saturn also on the dry track. Try two tracks, phase invert one, and delay the other by some samples: You will already hear a lot going thru, it will sound like some kind of highpass or lowpass filter actually. So without perfectly aligning to the PDC of your current Saturn settings (since it varies by quality setting), you can't judge about the saturation/distortion delta.
I use a pro mastering engineer.
It’s not that I can’t master, as I have the knowledge and skills; I have several pairs of good monitors, in a well-treated room which provides me with confidence.
It’s because the mastering engineer I use is someone who’s ears I trust, and rely on for objective critical analysis, (and he’s super picky) which for me, is necessary.
I tend to lose my honed aural perspective after I’ve finalized a mix; and I think it’s because of the time I’ve spent working on a project, where I’m there from the very start with tracking, overdubs, arrangement, editing, to the very end when I’m printing the final mix.
During that above process, I’m hearing hundreds of passes of the tracks and the songs, and after the mix is done, I find that I’ve reached a point where I’m too “saturated” with the music (and the overall sonics) to feel confident enough to master them (which we know is a lot more than just making a mix LOUD) with a level of quality that matches the mixes.
I’m very fortunate to have used one pro M.E. for nearly 30 years now, (who is not only highly knowledgeable and skilled, but who also has top level analog gear, an incredible room and monitoring).
It’s a professional relationship that has been cultivated over that time, where we have become very familiar with each other’s methods, styles, dynamics preferences, and in turn, each one’s expectations.
I’m speaking only for myself here; I would never suggest to anyone that they not do mastering themselves, because if what they are doing is working for them, that’s all that matters.
IMHO.
🙏
Leerzame video😎👍
A point to take note ! music will played back in many ways , mayb on vinyl or CD now they don't sound the same , good record deck with a £500 Cartridge will also sound better than a £20 Cartridge , then with spotify thats another thing all that compression same as radio . Then put the speakers into the mix or headphones , THEN at the end of this chain ADD EQ , how many people have never changed the Eq in there car A LOT of people , then look at who does . the whole mix will change many times on many systems and you can't mix for just one format. Do the best you can, make it as load as you can , If someone wants it to be mastered at a way they need it to be , send it to to mastered who knows what he is doing he or she has prob been doing this for 30 Years and knows what they're doing , its not a con they will be using gear that costs 300k .Or just use a izotope pre set if you dont know what your doing and have no gear.Play a song that sounds lie your tune your mixing see how they sound next to each other . Theres a reason your mix doesn't sound as good . Rome wasn't built in a day and no matter how much i think everyone should have a studio set up in there bedroom it don't mean every one should stop using pro studios .Yeah use reference music that's always a good way to put u off mastering it yourself lol
null testing, when you phase invert one signal to check the result? i think?
Hey, have you seen the new compressor from denise? It's called Dragon Fire and they call it a tonal compressor although to my "expert" ears it seems like just a multiband compressor with a fancy EQ-esc curve. right up the alley of this channel I would think :)
I would just call it an A/B comparison for phase, or a phase A/B comparison lol
There's probably a better term but that would be easily understood by most people.
Also that's a killer idea, never heard of or thought of it before but it's actually amazing I never knew you could single out the distortion like that, definitely gotta try it in the future
Or delta comparison maybe.
either a delta signal or a null test
Great tips dude, I'm just an enthusiastic on music stuff and productions, more on the live shows side, anyway one of my complains about music now in days is the mastering process add a lot of loudness who distroy good albums or good songs, like "Californication" by red hit chilli peppers is a great album but a pain listen on a decent audio equipment also the album "sonic highway" is another case but luckily they released the documental on tv, so the difference between cd released and tv stream is HUGE, the tv stream sounds more natural with great stage and deep field and in the other side the cd sounds so boring plain without live at all, because they Opted for the brick mode, anyway.....
so in my constantly music research (buying music on cd or digital media) I always check for the dinamic range, between -10DB And in the worse case -7db more than that is almost sure than going to sound really bad on my system
My 5 cents on this :D
The null check to hear the distortion requires correct PDC (plugin delay compensation) not all plugins support that...
Fix wrong PDC in Reaper by adding the plugin on both channels and turn the wet knob (top right corner) to 0%
Some good Mastering Limiters offer a delta preview. (You hear what the limiter removed)
When using FFT Analyzers, check the integration time if you are want to see the real peeks of your kick and base accurately.
That Flux Flux Analyzer is nice in color but not so accurate in meter levels. I prefer the stock reaper FFT Analyzer.
Spectral quality: Compare with clean unprocessed pink noise, Sharp highcut (with ReaFIR) between 16kHz and 18kHz before the final limiter, 300Hz and 3kHz are "in control"
Stereo Quality: Bass is Mono below 90..170Hz, Width and depth feels right
Level quality: LUFS Target, Dynamic Range, Side channel peaks 3-5dB lower than Mid channel, overall gain progression
Finally: If it sounds good, it is good
Did you really think I didn’t do delay compensation for the null test???
@@Whiteseastudio This comment was mostly for the community. I didn't mean to criticize you. :)
A psychological term for distancing could be "Disassociating", or to "Disassociate"
I think "dissociate" and "dissociating" is what you're looking for, which is a term in medicine or psychology. I only really know it because I've smoked salvia and salvia is a "dissociative."
@@urphakeandgey6308 LOL I guess I can't spell. You're right! Though, apparently Disassociate is a word. I should check my spelling next time..
Loudness has been driving me nuts too. I really don't think it's in the best interest of the song to boost the loudness to extremes (just for the sake of being super loud). Here's a quote from the loudness penalty website - "these numbers are not targets. Streaming services apply loudness normalization so we don’t have to. Use them to Preview your music and compare with suitable reference material. If the results sound good, you don’t need to take any action. However, you may decide you’d like to experiment with lower levels to see if you prefer a more dynamic sound. We do!"
Phase cancelling. UML Physics 2023. Love your work
I can really relate to this. Dont obsess to much on the sound. Give enough time for breaks. Warren Huart of produce like a pro discussed about this. 😎
My experience is that you can not allways "see" high frequencies. Even if you don't see a lot of highs (amplitude) in the frequency plot, a good mastered track can have a lot of them. The consequence: I turn up the highs (amplitude) in my mix visually to the same amount as in the compared mix and still have less highs when listening. Why? - Probably it's more about the energy not the amplitude alone. The energy you get by compression (less peaks) and the visible amplitudes you get by simply turn it up. Any thoughts on this?
It strongly depends on how many samples are used to plot an FFT frame.
It is always a trade-off between the frequencies shown and the amplitudes of the frequencies.
On top of that our eyes are done above ~30Hz (30FPS) things get blurry, which we interpret as motion.
In between 2 Frames of video, a lot of things can happen in the 10-16kHz Range in audio. Even if you run at 144Hz, you just see a more blurry mess xD
The Energy contained in a signal is the integral of all frequencies and their amplitudes.
Too much high-frequency energy fatigues our ears (they actually protect themselves), if you keep going it starts to hurt.
@@raphaelkuttruf
Interesting. The difference in seeing and hearing high frequencies lies in the frame rate. Do you agree that compressed frequencies sound louder than they appear on the screen? Compared to the amplitude of uncompressed frequencies
@@NikolausBrocke Yes, if you compress to boost volume, it's louder than it appears on the FFT analysis. You can use a live oscilloscope to to see a continuous representation of the signal. There is a free plug in called "sm exoscope". Simply create a monitoring channel, cut everything below 3kHz and have a look at your HF content. :)
Someone's been taking The Approach
Isn't it better to double check with a second plugin? You seem always to use just one plugin (one analyzer, eq etc) for a specific purpose. Maybe you want a little boost on high end to add air, but Fabfilter might give a different result as for example maag eq and you can not compare by using just one plugin and you have a lot of hardware, too. Heavy metal you also make better loud haha Nice video, thanks
Also you should note THAT specific analyzer is 2-300$ and you can get youlean LUFS meter for free online.. For anyone who needs to know.
-8 Lufs should be the absolute max it's pushed to imo. -4 is crazy, must have just been completely crushed
About -4 lufs, people like the squashed sound i guess that in the end will make your track seem louder while it isn't, you probably just compensated on bass/subbass volume
Or they could also just like the saturation/pumping sound that squashing your song into a limiter gives, saturation will also tend to feel like your track is louder cause all empty spaces on freq balance wil be filled up, making you lose transients though, but it will more feel like a soundwall hitting you this giving the feeling it's louder while it's stil -12 lufs cause of loudness normalisation done by streaming platforms
Hi! Thanks for the content and for changing the treatment of your voice, right now is a pleasure to listening to you, a little bit too much compressed, but just a little bit too much, which in the end is not a problem, but i would give some more personality over some place in the middle range to your voice so your great personality is not lost, the ones that are following you since 2018, we know you, but this voice doesn't let your personality arrive, but be carefull you fixed the ears hurting and changing that could be not very good.
QUESTION:
I have a question please: How can you record so low having a total of -48 in lets say high frequencies, at that level in each track on Ardour (the DAW i use) you can't see the wave almost, how do you do to record so low, am i understanding right that you are using -48dbs? Then how you arrive to the -16LUFS and -1dbtp for example?
Sorry if i missunderstood. Thanks for your content!!!
Your hair is fabulous; leave it alone : ) LOL.
I know little to nothing about mastering - with that said, when I use Ozone 9's Master Assistant along with Softube's Weiss Comp./Limiter I get good sounding mixes!
Ozone 9's Master Assistant is OK, but I find it boosts the top end ( over 6K ) and rolls the sub off a little too much for my tastes leaving you with a thin and over bright/slightly harsh sounding mix if you're not careful. I always have to pull the output back a little too for mastering to -11 LUFS.
Also analysing different (equally loud) sections of the same track can give different results so there's a consistency issue with the software too.
you’re a cool guy who explains things well-
wanting to learn to master with Apollo UA stuff, which i recorded it on / but i may email you and get some prices on getting you to mix and master (I contacted you a year ago but then Covid hit. I’ve got some questions- if u got such great vintage gear, why even bother w UA stuff - anyway. i got your email - i’ll be i touch- been wanting you involved in one of my songs for two years! sorry for delay/ delighted you’re still at it...
Most bands doesn't have the budget to pay extra for the mastering studio.
So including a mastring service as mixing engineer is a must have today. You definitely have a Second pair of ears listening or 5-6 of them listening to the final mastered 2-track Stereo version of the mix as all members of the band will have opinions. In the end you are working for the artist or their record company and you will change the Mix/ Mastering to satisfy the man that hands over the money paying for your work hours. The World of Audio is very complicated as all Persons have different ears and their taste in the spectral balance of a mix are different. They are also listening in different rooms on HiFi system ear buds on their iPhone, Car Stereo etc. That's why a mixing/ Mastering engineer have a room that are acoustic treated With straight frequency response and 2 sets of special mixing monitors and also checks the mix on budget hifi-systems. So you can get a mix that sounds good everywhere.
I have a theory. The trend of over pumping the loudness of masters is part of what has lead to the rising trend of Saturation and distortion plugins. People have gotten used to hearing the tops cut off of their music, and now are being sold solutions to get "that sound" on each individual track in their project under the guise of "Adds Even Harmonics" or the more ham fisted "Analog Sound". Over saturated mixes and masters is a trend that will define the sound music in this era, much like the over use of Auto Tune was about 10 years ago. It sucks. Those of us that came up recording to 2" didn't like it because it added distortion. A properly calibrated machine delivers an extremely accurate playback if it is used properly, dynamics and harmonics intact and very honest. Damn, guess I needed to vent. Sorry.
No need to apologize. I started engineering in the ‘80’s, and I agree with you. I keep up with the times, but some of it is just laughable to me. I just keep making the best recordings and mixes I can for my clients. For decades I used outside mastering and I believe in it, but clients and budgets have changed. For what it’s worth, I’m hitting around -14 to - 12 LUFS. Part of that is genre based. I’ve never had a client doing hip hop or club music. That’s a whole other world.
damn thank u so much