Hi, I’m a beginner with mastering. I don’t understand if I can use compressors or not in the mixing because you told to turn ‘em off before mastering. So, do I have to use compressors only in the mastering?
I recently recorded, sorta mixed, and mastered a three song ep all on my own for the first time recently. I gained a better understanding, I still feel like I have no idea what I'm doing, but I definitely improved and enhanced my recording further than I expected after watching your video.Thank you for sharing and being a super dude. Party on!
As an old hand from the analog years (40 of them) I love the way you explain stuff .. Really useful for a recent comer to the great opportunities of GarageBand... Many thanks.
I have to say that your presentation of 'how to master' is one of the clearest and concise I have encountered. The job of any educator is to make the student understand the subject and this is exactly what you are able to do. You, sir, are outstanding and have earned a subscriber.
I don't usually comment on videos to say they were helpful but this video is the most informative and useful video for mastering in Garageband that I have ever seen. Thank you.
you are a blessing man! theres a shortage of minimalist audio engineers. everyone thinks they need to drop 50 grand on equipment before they can get a good mix.
Lewin. I've been watching you for years. I just started a radio/podcast and you have been my professor. Thank you so much! This video helped more than you'll ever know.
Your the best! I really liked that you explained the basic of compression n limiters n showing me that mixing is jus clearing the beat n vocals why master hell you with leveling everything thanks man!!!
very nice and informative brudda. thanks. I recently acquired a Mac mini and GarageBand for the first time and I'm blown away at how advanced and user friendly it is. keep the vids coming please. Cheers!
GaragebandandBeyond question .. you said make sure there are no EQ's or compressors in the master track before you convert to mp3 to master. can i still use compression & limiters on the mix ? i think i used too much compression because my vocals came out very low compared to the instrumental
Awesome video! I was going to send the session to a friend who uses Logic, in order to get the output higher, and PUM! I found your channel and it worked, I only had to use the Compressor, and Multipressor only and it worked great! One song ready! 9 more to go! Thanks for sharing!
Holy crap this is the instruction I've been looking for for 5 years. Amazing video and education. I'm recording my 4th album and now I want to remix my entire catalog. Ugh.
chad ponie Chad, I’m so glad that you got something out of this video! There’s actually an updated version of it for 2018… I obviously need to make another one someday. But I would definitely recommend checking out the new one. If you go to the channel page and type in “GarageBand mastering 2018, you should find it.
Thanks Lewin. Just picked up on your channel a few months ago - great work. I've used a lot of your techniques already and this tutorial will help even more. Thanks again
Nah this was exactly what I needed cause I had a good mix but the level was low and I didn’t know y until I exported the mp3 file and did this step by step helped wayyyyy to much
Thank you! I'm making daily songs and now my own beats using only garage band. I haven't even thought about mastering. I'm really excited to see the results after some practice. Subscribed, liked, notifications on. Thanks again.
You helped improve 100%. Thank you so much for taking time to just tell simply a process for a master. Subbed, liked, watched again, and oh what the hell, again... awesome!
Thank you! I have listened to all of your mastering videos and taken it all on board. The only thing I didn't get was the "going into the red" on mastering. I always did that and it sounded great. Thanks for clearing this up!! PS I am old enough to remember tape which did NOT like going into the red :)
Maybe _because_ there's limits inherent with Garage Band (albeit GB10) that we _can_ master a pro mix. Just like the Auratones relationship to Abbey Road Hi-Fi speakers. Two extremes that make you use your "eyes and ears". Kudos on the tutorial.
Thanks again so much for these videos. I really like knowing how to do the export. That way I can do the track edits/mixing and then export. Then I can go back to that mix and experiment more. Then export that as export B. Then I can compare the results after mastering each versions.
A couple of notes about keeping levels out of the red. The OCD in me really freaked out when Apple removed the peak hold indicators of each track and the master volume indicator, compounded by the change to gradient color changes from yellow to red, rather than "hard" yellow and "hard" red. I needed to find a way to trust the meters, so I generated a solid tone in Audacity that peaked at 0db, brought that into GarageBand, set the track level to 0db, and observed the playback volume meters using both the track meter and a 3rd party VU meter on the effects chain. As I expected, GarageBand's track meters are off by about -1.4db, so when you see a track going into the red... it's not really clipping. The master volume indicator is off by even more - about -2.8db. (More on this in a second) To make the meters useful, I've taken to adding Gain set to -1.4db to the bottom of the effects chain for each track, and I can then adjust the volume up to the point that I see the first indication of red (or lower, of course, as required for the mix). Once you turn the Gain off (which, of course, you should since it's just there to make the meters read accurately), the track will go into the red, but if you export the track and look at it in any other audio application you'll see that it does not go beyond 0db. Okay, so why are the meters off? I think this is Apple condescending to what they believe to be the ignorance of home market. Managing gain can be really tricky, so by bringing the "into the red" threshold down for each track and the master volume it kind of tricks users into not pushing their mixes too hard - especially where you have lots of tracks playing simultaneously. Moreover... the master volume slider has absolutely no effect on export if auto normalize is turned off (unless set to negative infinity). But there is a kind of placebo effect of the meters on users when setting track volumes. So, if the meter is off by -2.8db, it makes users more sensitive to setting individual track volumes, which (unless auto normalize is off) is far more important to export. Ever notice the lack of precision in the master volume slider? You'd think that this would be fairly finely tuned as an essential input variable to exporting. But... no, it really jumps around. I'm pretty sure that with GB 10.x, Apple's emphasis shifted to exporting with auto normalize on, which - from Apple's perspective - solved the avalanche of user complaints with earlier releases that "my song isn't loud enough". As such, they also changed the behavior of the meters to psychologically train users to record at lower volumes. Anyhow, some thoughts!
Thank you very much Lewin. I learned a lot from these tutorials. Please do an acoustic guitar track EQing and mastering tutorial. I am having trouble getting my acoustic guitar tracks to sound natural and ambient. Great channel, great videos, thanks.
Anyone using Garageband can flip between stereo and mono easily. If you put the Gain plugin (found under utility) into the master track, and choose the "Convert to Mono" option, you now have a mono/stereo switch right there in the software.
Very helpful video Lewin! Hope I have got your name right! From what I have learnt is this: there should be no peaking in the mix, but peaking is allowed in the Master...am I right to understand it so? Also, when exporting the Master, do we put off the autonormalise feature? Regards, Dr. Somanna
In the previous mastering video you did from 2015, you used 2 compressors in the master channel one with platinum analog tape and the other was a default I believe. In this you used one compressor the platinum, which you said is optional. So im just curious which way is better to go and why you slimmed the master plugins down now compared to 2015? Is 1 compressor cleaner or easier to use than 2 or is it unnecessary to use 2 or is it just for getting a different sound? Sorry this is so long i'm just getting into mastering, both of your videos have been incredible, so thank you so much!
This has been a game-changer for me. Thank you for sharing this! One question though - why bother exporting the project and then re-importing the exported (uncompressed) file when you could just proceed to mastering right within the project file? It would be helpful to understand the reasons behind that choice instead of flippantly saying "just do this, trust me." There are a few of us out there that need to know the reasoning behind a method or choice. Thank you again for this super helpful information!
You should go to my channel page and just do a search for “mastering” I have made a bunch of videos and one explaining exactly what you are asking about. Visually inspecting the wave form can be very useful for many reasons. Especially if you are making a full album.
Hi Lewin, I am a big fan. Your tutorial have made a big different in my work. I have tried your suggested plugins. Being curious, why not I tried those present in the master track before I exported my song to a AIF file. I do see a different in the music wave. It is a bit fuller, compared to mastering it after exporting it. In your professional opinion, why should we do the mastering presets after exporting, not before?
This is all wonderful information about mastering in Garageband! Thank you, this is much needed! Also I'm just wondering, do you recommend exporting the mix out from GB and then mastering it? Or can you still have the mix with all of the tracks still present in the original project and then show the master track to master the whole original project without exporting the mix? I have been doing the second option for a while, and I am not sure if it's any different than exporting and then mastering.
Hey lewin thanks for all of the great videos! As far as mastering goes which plug in is essential for getting the volume up to professional level? My recordings always sound much more quiet than anything on itunes or CD. Any help would be appreciated, Thanks again for the videos!
Thank you. It's still a bit confusing but I have points to focus and work on. Question: So you were saying, at the beginning, that we have to export and import it back in before mastering?
I need step by step stuff like this THANKS SO MUCH - I do a lot of mic amps/cabs and I fight the distant sound of them when heavy distortion is there. I want to simply bring them from ok to killer without mashing the levels.. Any help? Part two - is I want to bring my final products volume up. I feel they sag. Suggestion in the combo of levels with master, EQ and track?
thanks for this amazing video, so helpful. when you export do you choose itunes highest quality (256 kBit/s) or do you choose uncompressed since the song is still going to be mastered with compression afterwards? thanks again!
What format do you recommend when you export out of here? Does it matter? I usually export in AAC...just checking - thanks for posting this - great job.
CHECK OUT THE UPDATED 2020 VERSION OF THIS VIDEO! ruclips.net/video/sYWxUw4RAlk/видео.html
Hi, I’m a beginner with mastering. I don’t understand if I can use compressors or not in the mixing because you told to turn ‘em off before mastering. So, do I have to use compressors only in the mastering?
I recently recorded, sorta mixed, and mastered a three song ep all on my own for the first time recently. I gained a better understanding, I still feel like I have no idea what I'm doing, but I definitely improved and enhanced my recording further than I expected after watching your video.Thank you for sharing and being a super dude. Party on!
As an old hand from the analog years (40 of them) I love the way you explain stuff .. Really useful for a recent comer to the great opportunities of GarageBand... Many thanks.
I'm a beginner to mastering, this has been incredibly helpful. Thanks so much for taking the time in making this.
I have to say that your presentation of 'how to master' is one of the clearest and concise I have encountered. The job of any educator is to make the student understand the subject and this is exactly what you are able to do. You, sir, are outstanding and have earned a subscriber.
I don't usually comment on videos to say they were helpful but this video is the most informative and useful video for mastering in Garageband that I have ever seen. Thank you.
Was just about to give up on a project and this saved me. Thank you!!
That is so awesome & thanks for letting me know! I'm really glad you enjoy the videos.
Where have you been all my life? These videos have just bought it all together for me. Thank you so much.
you are a blessing man!
theres a shortage of minimalist audio engineers.
everyone thinks they need to drop 50 grand on equipment before they can get a good mix.
Lewin. I've been watching you for years. I just started a radio/podcast and you have been my professor. Thank you so much! This video helped more than you'll ever know.
Your the best! I really liked that you explained the basic of compression n limiters n showing me that mixing is jus clearing the beat n vocals why master hell you with leveling everything thanks man!!!
This was a huge help. Thanks from Manchester UK. 👍🏻 My tracks are sounding a little more fuller thanks to your knowledge share. ✌🏼
very nice and informative brudda. thanks. I recently acquired a Mac mini and GarageBand for the first time and I'm blown away at how advanced and user friendly it is. keep the vids coming please. Cheers!
I have watched so many videos by you this week alone and i'm learning so much, my music is getting to the quality I want thanks to you
Anytime I look up anything GarageBand this guy pops up
Super useful pls keep it up
Thank you for your generosity, it's precious to be able to learn so much in such a short time, at home ! 👍😊
Thanks, the no eq and no compression before export makes total sense to me now. Back to the drawing board :)
The Advertiser Chris Graham did a great job mastering a tune for me. I highly recommend him!
i swear you're gonna be the reason i'm famous. back to square one wish me luck
+AntiMissileMissile remember me when you are! Good luck!
GaragebandandBeyond question .. you said make sure there are no EQ's or compressors in the master track before you convert to mp3 to master. can i still use compression & limiters on the mix ? i think i used too much compression because my vocals came out very low compared to the instrumental
Awesome video! I was going to send the session to a friend who uses Logic, in order to get the output higher, and PUM! I found your channel and it worked, I only had to use the Compressor, and Multipressor only and it worked great! One song ready! 9 more to go! Thanks for sharing!
Holy crap this is the instruction I've been looking for for 5 years. Amazing video and education. I'm recording my 4th album and now I want to remix my entire catalog. Ugh.
chad ponie Chad, I’m so glad that you got something out of this video! There’s actually an updated version of it for 2018… I obviously need to make another one someday. But I would definitely recommend checking out the new one. If you go to the channel page and type in “GarageBand mastering 2018, you should find it.
@@GaragebandandBeyond I definitely will! Just watched your drum instruction, mind blown. I had no idea thats how a drum track can be created.
Thanks Lewin. Just picked up on your channel a few months ago - great work. I've used a lot of your techniques already and this tutorial will help even more. Thanks again
I've been doing more DIY recording and producing for my own stuff and this video is so helpful!!
just used your preset to master and edm song i made, so much gain and clarity !!!!! thank you
I miss my TASCAM SX-1 but am digging garage band, and your presentations.
Nah this was exactly what I needed cause I had a good mix but the level was low and I didn’t know y until I exported the mp3 file and did this step by step helped wayyyyy to much
Thank you for all tutorials you published here, been really helpful for beginners like me.
Great job explaining the mastering process
Thanks! I use Garage band for all of my audio. Great tutorial!
Thank god garage band and LPX are the same cause this actually helped. some things i knew but others tips helped. Thanks!
Thank you! I'm making daily songs and now my own beats using only garage band. I haven't even thought about mastering. I'm really excited to see the results after some practice. Subscribed, liked, notifications on. Thanks again.
thank you so much... I am living the dream. Just recorded my first garageband song and I just did my first master
Great mastering intro! Gives your mixes a brilliant place to start from - which I found really useful. Thanks!
I keep watching your videos, and I'm learning! they're a great help thanks for taking the time and keep up the good work.
Appreciate the video mate. Have just finished mastering the new album, sounds pretty damn good, mastering has polished it nicely
Thank you
Dude! You just saved me like 50 bucks on my music! I can do it myself now!!! Yay! Thanks!
Now I can keep learning this stuff.
You helped improve 100%. Thank you so much for taking time to just tell simply a process for a master. Subbed, liked, watched again, and oh what the hell, again... awesome!
Thanks mate! really help me so much. I will look on another video that you made before
WOW!!!!!! I love what I heard, great mixing job. You actually got great broadcast quality from garageband with that plugin.Great job.
Thank you! I have listened to all of your mastering videos and taken it all on board. The only thing I didn't get was the "going into the red" on mastering. I always did that and it sounded great. Thanks for clearing this up!! PS I am old enough to remember tape which did NOT like going into the red :)
wow, this really helped me make my song sound SO MUCH better, thank you
Awesome Instructions, user-friendly
Thanks for the information. It is really easy to follow and very easy to apply to good effect.
Dude you just saved my life and money on mastering my album!!! Thank you so much!!!!
THANKS FOR MAKING THIS! FINALLY SOME ANSWERS TO MY QUESTIONS!
Maybe _because_ there's limits inherent with Garage Band (albeit GB10) that we _can_ master a pro mix. Just like the Auratones relationship to Abbey Road Hi-Fi speakers. Two extremes that make you use your "eyes and ears". Kudos on the tutorial.
Thanks again so much for these videos. I really like knowing how to do the export. That way I can do the track edits/mixing and then export. Then I can go back to that mix and experiment more. Then export that as export B. Then I can compare the results after mastering each versions.
love this!!! THANK YOU!!! I am getting to submit my tracks to a label and this is definitely helping me out...
A couple of notes about keeping levels out of the red. The OCD in me really freaked out when Apple removed the peak hold indicators of each track and the master volume indicator, compounded by the change to gradient color changes from yellow to red, rather than "hard" yellow and "hard" red. I needed to find a way to trust the meters, so I generated a solid tone in Audacity that peaked at 0db, brought that into GarageBand, set the track level to 0db, and observed the playback volume meters using both the track meter and a 3rd party VU meter on the effects chain. As I expected, GarageBand's track meters are off by about -1.4db, so when you see a track going into the red... it's not really clipping. The master volume indicator is off by even more - about -2.8db. (More on this in a second)
To make the meters useful, I've taken to adding Gain set to -1.4db to the bottom of the effects chain for each track, and I can then adjust the volume up to the point that I see the first indication of red (or lower, of course, as required for the mix). Once you turn the Gain off (which, of course, you should since it's just there to make the meters read accurately), the track will go into the red, but if you export the track and look at it in any other audio application you'll see that it does not go beyond 0db.
Okay, so why are the meters off? I think this is Apple condescending to what they believe to be the ignorance of home market. Managing gain can be really tricky, so by bringing the "into the red" threshold down for each track and the master volume it kind of tricks users into not pushing their mixes too hard - especially where you have lots of tracks playing simultaneously. Moreover... the master volume slider has absolutely no effect on export if auto normalize is turned off (unless set to negative infinity). But there is a kind of placebo effect of the meters on users when setting track volumes. So, if the meter is off by -2.8db, it makes users more sensitive to setting individual track volumes, which (unless auto normalize is off) is far more important to export. Ever notice the lack of precision in the master volume slider? You'd think that this would be fairly finely tuned as an essential input variable to exporting. But... no, it really jumps around. I'm pretty sure that with GB 10.x, Apple's emphasis shifted to exporting with auto normalize on, which - from Apple's perspective - solved the avalanche of user complaints with earlier releases that "my song isn't loud enough". As such, they also changed the behavior of the meters to psychologically train users to record at lower volumes.
Anyhow, some thoughts!
If you hold the scrubber on the track meter and drag it around youll notice it actually does have numbers beside it
Thank you very much Lewin. I learned a lot from these tutorials. Please do an acoustic guitar track EQing and mastering tutorial. I am having trouble getting my acoustic guitar tracks to sound natural and ambient. Great channel, great videos, thanks.
I second the acoustic guitar EQing video, please! Great video here, as always.
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. I am learning so much from your videos!
Sherry, you are very welcome! I am glad you like the channel!
Thanks, really useful video
Really helpful info, keep it coming thanks
Anyone using Garageband can flip between stereo and mono easily. If you put the Gain plugin (found under utility) into the master track, and choose the "Convert to Mono" option, you now have a mono/stereo switch right there in the software.
+Mika Olsson great point!! Thanks for the comment!!
i got my songs at least 3x louder thanks man!
I appreciate your videos so much. Thanks from Montréal
You are so welcome!! I am glad that you like the videos. Make sure and watch the BRAND new series on mixing and mastering!!
This was great. YOU are great. I'm gonna check out the updated one now. BTW, why export as AIFF. Not WAV? Thanks!
Thanks for this. I found it helpful and practical.
Very helpful video Lewin! Hope I have got your name right! From what I have learnt is this: there should be no peaking in the mix, but peaking is allowed in the Master...am I right to understand it so? Also, when exporting the Master, do we put off the autonormalise feature? Regards, Dr. Somanna
Excellent mate been watching few of your videos lately.
Wonderful tutorial.
Thank you!
This was a wonderful video! I learned a lot thank you very much.
In the previous mastering video you did from 2015, you used 2 compressors in the master channel one with platinum analog tape and the other was a default I believe. In this you used one compressor the platinum, which you said is optional. So im just curious which way is better to go and why you slimmed the master plugins down now compared to 2015? Is 1 compressor cleaner or easier to use than 2 or is it unnecessary to use 2 or is it just for getting a different sound?
Sorry this is so long i'm just getting into mastering, both of your videos have been incredible, so thank you so much!
THANKS fro explaining and showing things the way it suits and helps me :D
Incredibly helpful, thank you so much! Love your channel!
Learning tons from you Bro!. Subbed. Thanks for sharing this.
So glad you like the channel! Welcome to the world of GB&B!
Great discussion about mastering. Would love for you to step through mastering with the Slate plug-ins.
You Rock Lewin. Now if I could get you to respond about mixing and mastering a song of mine, the world would be right! :)
This has been a game-changer for me. Thank you for sharing this! One question though - why bother exporting the project and then re-importing the exported (uncompressed) file when you could just proceed to mastering right within the project file? It would be helpful to understand the reasons behind that choice instead of flippantly saying "just do this, trust me." There are a few of us out there that need to know the reasoning behind a method or choice.
Thank you again for this super helpful information!
You should go to my channel page and just do a search for “mastering” I have made a bunch of videos and one explaining exactly what you are asking about.
Visually inspecting the wave form can be very useful for many reasons. Especially if you are making a full album.
@@GaragebandandBeyond Will do - thank you again for the super helpful video!
i love you man, thanks so much
Fantastic!
Thank you! So very helpful!
You the man, mane!
VERY HELPFUL THANKS
THIS IS MY FAVOURITE VIDEO :)
Amazing!! Thanks a lot!!
Thank you for this! You are a hero!
GREAT CHANNEL & VIDEOS. THANK YOU FOR ALL THIS INFORMATION. LIKED and SUBSCRIBED.
Hi Lewin, I am a big fan. Your tutorial have made a big different in my work. I have tried your suggested plugins. Being curious, why not I tried those present in the master track before I exported my song to a AIF file. I do see a different in the music wave. It is a bit fuller, compared to mastering it after exporting it. In your professional opinion, why should we do the mastering presets after exporting, not before?
Thanks for the video... ✊🏾
Good video well presented. Good job. Thanks.
thanks for sharing so good
This is all wonderful information about mastering in Garageband! Thank you, this is much needed! Also I'm just wondering, do you recommend exporting the mix out from GB and then mastering it? Or can you still have the mix with all of the tracks still present in the original project and then show the master track to master the whole original project without exporting the mix? I have been doing the second option for a while, and I am not sure if it's any different than exporting and then mastering.
I recently made a video about that! Check the channel page, you'll find it.
Very helpful. Thank you!
Hey lewin thanks for all of the great videos! As far as mastering goes which plug in is essential for getting the volume up to professional level? My recordings always sound much more quiet than anything on itunes or CD. Any help would be appreciated, Thanks again for the videos!
Thank you so much man! That was really helpful!!!
That was such a help. Thanks
Awesome, thanks!!
Crystal
Thank you, this was very helpful!
Thanks for doing this
thank you, super helpful!
Nice video! When your done mastering each of these songs how to you export them? Because they are all just individual tracks in the file...
If you "solo" the individual track, it will be the only thing that get's exported.
Thank you. It's still a bit confusing but I have points to focus and work on.
Question: So you were saying, at the beginning, that we have to export and import it back in before mastering?
Thanks Lewin! I've been waiting for this update. You didn't show us the controls for the direction mixer. Maybe it's obvious when you get into to it.
very halpful, thanx a lot
When I view my plugins I have all of them except Multi processor. How do I add that in?
I need step by step stuff like this THANKS SO MUCH - I do a lot of mic amps/cabs and I fight the distant sound of them when heavy distortion is there. I want to simply bring them from ok to killer without mashing the levels.. Any help? Part two - is I want to bring my final products volume up. I feel they sag. Suggestion in the combo of levels with master, EQ and track?
thanks for this amazing video, so helpful. when you export do you choose itunes highest quality (256 kBit/s) or do you choose uncompressed since the song is still going to be mastered with compression afterwards? thanks again!
What format do you recommend when you export out of here? Does it matter? I usually export in AAC...just checking - thanks for posting this - great job.
This was amazing, very helpful, new sub here!
These are definitely real drums on this track, right?