I swear I'm listening closely to you throughout, Jonathan. But yeah, I gotta know about this cat t-shirt; it's not the first time we've seen it, and it's epic.
I just wanted to say thank you for doing both of these series. These have been the most instructive and well put together lessons that I have been able to find. You provided me the content to put my mixing and mastering together. CAN’T THANK YOU ENOUGH.
I thought this might be a slightly irrelevant video designed to create an illusion that "We are listening to our customers", but it was actually so much better than that. By carefully selecting the best questions, and giving good answers, this video was just as useful - if not more useful - than the 'lectures' that form the basis of this series. Superb stuff!
Hey Chris Goodhall, I have been in your situation several times. In today's time, the rules of composing, mixing, and mastering has been broken to a degree. With that being said, some songs that break the common rules end up being smash hits. A lot of today's music would have been thrown in the trash years ago. Just give the clients what they want, then everyone will be happy at the end of the day. But remember to save a version of the project that you feel is correct, in case they decide to change their mind later on down the road.😆 🎼🎧🎤. Nice work to the whole iZotope Team
my god, this is such a quality content, i got here thanks to youtube recommendations and i think i'm gonna watch all the videos on this channel, it's so great
This Q+A format is superb and really efficient. As good as the "Are You Listening" videos are, and they are excellent, these real world inquiries are so helpful. An on-going series (once or twice a month) would be of great benefit to the community.
In regards to ceiling level when mastering: I use -0.8dB as my ceiling limit (that has been my digital mastering standard for over 20 years). It is good to see you include this information here. I see that you use -0.7dB. You have great advice. Keep up the great work.
Man, I have had Izotope PlugIns for a long time. This week I have been watching these videos, and I have to say I feel like I have all new plugins! I have not been using all of the functions that Izotope includes. Great works!
@13:55 Or you can use Youlean loudness meter which allows you to drag and drop an entire song and get the entire analysis is just a few seconds for any song. It's cheap and works great. They have a free version too.
First and all: thank you so much, Jonathan and team for this very valuable and insightful series! What I still wonder about, is: Bit Depth. If you import a track into your DAW, where you will be mastering it with (for ex) the Ozone Suite, do you set the project to 32 Bit and do you convert the wav file to the same 32 bit on import? Or do you stick to whatever the original bit depth or the mixed track was? Big thanks in advance if you can give some insight on this!
@Jonathan Wyner Dear Jonathan, thank you so much for the clear reply, much appreciated! And please do keep up the great work with these videos. In fact, your teachings offered me an insight into (and appreciation of) Mastering that I never had before, prompting me to get Ozone and remaster my older works to get the hang of it... Yes, that's on you man:-) If you'd allow me one more question please: where would be the best place to send feedback/suggestions and more detailed questions related to mastering, mixing and of course iZotope software?
Along with Leonard Bernstein's Omnibus series, this is my favorite series on music. It's really a tribute to contemporary musicians and sound engineers and how we get the sound in our heads to cross over to the listener. This level of love and respect for music, for art, and for human achievement in general is really hard to come by. I would be curious to learn more about the history of mixing and mastering in a future season, something like an overview of the paradigm shifts and technological developments that led us to where we are now.
I love this series and have gotten so much out of it. The one thing I really enjoy are Jonathan's cat t-shirts!! I need some of these in my life... 👍😁👍 #justsayin
Mix in stereo. Mono is used to check phase imbalance, and can also be used to check instrumental balance for listeners who use only one speaker, such as a cell phone, or other mono-fed speaker systems.
Nice to see and thanks for having a forum for this. Is there anyone else than me that does't think Billies songs sounds as good or interesting as some say? It sounds ok but frankly not especially good or interesting. The songs are interesting from a composition point of view, but the sound and mixing is actually a bit bland in most cases. Or is it that I just miss exactly that being the point? Successful but with not more than average sound and mixing? : )
When uploading to an aggregator (CD Baby, Tunecore, etc) who distributes for both streaming and download sales, should two separate masters be provided as the loudness characteristics are different between the two?
how often should i check a mix/master at lower volumes? and what are good volumes to listen at for mixing and mastering/ how long can i listen at those volumes without fatiguing? thank you
Fatiguing usually happens sooner at higher volumes. Mixing/mastering at lower volumes is recommended to allow the subtleties of the track to be apparent. I mix at low volume as a rule, and only "check" at louder volumes momentarily. As for the second part of your question, there are no rules for a comfortable volume at which you should mix/master. Your ears should be your guide, and remember, you are listening as if you are listening through the ears of the consumer, so make sure you're being objective about the balance of your track, and shy away from just emphasizing your instrument. Hope that helps.
My question is sometimes when I mastering a track the LUFS level will average around -8 or -9 when my dbFS level is around -1 to -0.1 (I’ve experimented with different ceilings). Other times I reach the same dBFS range and can barely get -14 LUFS. What could be the reasons for the difference in LUFS when I am getting around the same dBFS level?
I am a huge fan of Fleet Foxes. I use some of their songs as references and I've noticed that when I load in the flac file, it peaks at -0.1 and the meter doesn't spike much. RMS is around -8. It doesn't sound squashed. Is there something I'm missing? Is it a styllistic choice or a misconception?
Using an old pc like ( i3 2nd gen, 4gb ram....etc) and using a modern powerful pc ( with a powerful setup) how much that could affect while mixing or mastering ? i mean, how much necessary is the setup that i use ?
Ahwan Mishra im no expert but ive found bass guitar is my most used area for a multiband to make the bass sound more solid throughout the song. Also probably a dynamic vocal if its not broken into separate tracks could benefit from it too but i like to separate whispers and screaming into their own tracks if possible.
@@LoveItDirtyOffroad yes I use Multiband compressors in drumbus and bass sometimes.... But as per one tutorial by Izotope channel, they used a Multiband compressor to glue the mix.. I just want a comparative discussion regarding making a glue with Multiband vs single band compressor.
I have some very old cassettes of music I am cleaning up, I already have tools that do a good job of cleaning up the hiss. Is there any IZOTOPE tools that might brighten up the sound a bit, as they sound clean now but not very lifelike. Aside from some EQ adjusting what approach could be taken
You can try using the spectral de-noise module or deconstruct module in RX. You can even try applying the processing to only the frequencies with the hiss when using the spectral selection tools in the RX app.
@@iZotopeOfficial thank for the response, i'm hardly an expert in this so mabye I don't understand: my problem isn't "hiss" which I have cleaned out fairly well with the tools I already own. My problem is that the sound is very low fidelity, sounding like it was recorded on an old tape recorder, cause it was, but little hiss any more. Is there any tools or approach that could help bring it more towards FM radio sound and not AM Radio sound. I know it's not going to make it sound great but how can i approach improving the sound.
@@happyron I would say if you're looking to breathe life into old recordings after removing noise from them, perhaps a combination of Neutron and Ozone can help you sort of remaster the imported file. If something sounds low-fidelity, it's most likely it was recorded as low fidelity and we don't have a way currently to add new information that simply wasn't there in the first place. So if your audio is low quality, you can only do so much to make it sound better.
Hello Jonathan! I just made a test using a LFUS loudness meter of 2 songs from Spotify, one of them a song I just mastered and the other was "American Idiot" from Green day, both song were on - 14LFUS but American Idiot sounds much more louder than mine even being at the same LFUS... how do I can get more loudness from my -14 LUFS masters??? help please! Thanks!!!
There are so many things you have to take into consideration with this question, the most important being, at what levels are the mix tracks set? Green Day undoubtedly are coming in with hot tracks at the mix level; they also have a ton of midrange in their balance strictly because of the guitar tracks, so inherently, they're going to sound "hotter" than a track with less mid information. So, in essence, you can boost your mix tracks to be as loud as they can without slamming your individual compressors or limiters. If after that, your mix is still low compared to the reference track, check the input on your master buss going into your compressor(s)/limiter(s). If the entire stereo mix is hitting the comp/limiter weak, then you can increase the input level to that gear, but be sure to recheck your ratios, attacks, and thresholds to either avoid or control clipping. Hope that helps.
A mastering engineer can mix any genre. If they're not familiar with a specific genre, they can use reference tracks from that genre to achieve the goals set forth by the reference track. Hope that helps.
I recently downloaded Sultans of Swing from Spotify to check out their LUFs in Insight. It looks like they were at -11 to -12. I thought Spotify cranked everything down to -14. How come this is higher? baselines.com/?p=5510 - Thank you for another great video - you guys rock. When is Ozone 10 planned?
hello Jonathan i just wanted to ask if you could recommend a site/service i can join to get mixes as im a mixing engineer and i have noticed that some services only offer masters
Use a spectrum analyzer to help identify from where the "harshness" is coming. A dynamic EQ like the F6 from Waves could help you in taming those harsh frequencies. Secondly, go back to the mix to fix harsh tracks before you master. Taming extreme frequency imbalances at the mastering stage is going to change the entire tonal balance, and is usually NOT recommended. Mastering adjustments should be subtle, and should not be expected to exact major changes in the tone of the overall track. Hope that helps.
Try using "vintage" tube EQ plugins. They can add really nice warmth without being apparent. You can also revisit your mix to tame higher or midrange frequencies to reduce harshness. Hope that helps.
Greatly informative as always! Btw, that cat on his t-shirt is a Turkish cat, who was a symbol in Istanbul. You may find it really fascinating: www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/tombili-istanbul-cat-and-worldwide-meme-honoured-with-statue-a7344671.html
Completely off the subject! Sorry, is anyone else getting sick and tired of theses idiotic camera angle changes in a lot of the tutorials? Izotope, Sonic Scoop, Sweetwater etc. I was always taught to look at someone face to face when addressing them, not talk to them while looking elsewhere, it really does get annoying and I end up moving to a different video, I won't watch any Sonic Scoop vids, they are so bad, ok! my rant for tonight.
Can we please have a monthly show about Mastering with Jonathan Wyner and Ian Shepherd?
My biggest question is where does Jonathan get his t-shirts?
I swear I'm listening closely to you throughout, Jonathan. But yeah, I gotta know about this cat t-shirt; it's not the first time we've seen it, and it's epic.
Search "cats on synthesizers in space".. Your welcome :)
Aditya Maanas hahaha! Such a good question
Kynect2Hymn mmm
I think you can order that t-shirt from a catalogue.
I just wanted to say thank you for doing both of these series. These have been the most instructive and well put together lessons that I have been able to find. You provided me the content to put my mixing and mastering together. CAN’T THANK YOU ENOUGH.
I thought this might be a slightly irrelevant video designed to create an illusion that "We are listening to our customers", but it was actually so much better than that. By carefully selecting the best questions, and giving good answers, this video was just as useful - if not more useful - than the 'lectures' that form the basis of this series. Superb stuff!
Hey Chris Goodhall, I have been in your situation several times. In today's time, the rules of composing, mixing, and mastering has been broken to a degree. With that being said, some songs that break the common rules end up being smash hits. A lot of today's music would have been thrown in the trash years ago. Just give the clients what they want, then everyone will be happy at the end of the day. But remember to save a version of the project that you feel is correct, in case they decide to change their mind later on down the road.😆 🎼🎧🎤. Nice work to the whole iZotope Team
One of the best Mastering Advices I heard for so long
my god, this is such a quality content, i got here thanks to youtube recommendations and i think i'm gonna watch all the videos on this channel, it's so great
This Q+A format is superb and really efficient. As good as the "Are You Listening" videos are, and they are excellent, these real world inquiries are so helpful. An on-going series (once or twice a month) would be of great benefit to the community.
THANK YOU for explaining what those crest factor icons are!!
In regards to ceiling level when mastering: I use -0.8dB as my ceiling limit (that has been my digital mastering standard for over 20 years). It is good to see you include this information here. I see that you use -0.7dB. You have great advice. Keep up the great work.
Tin Man and you hit the button “true peak” ?
Man, I have had Izotope PlugIns for a long time. This week I have been watching these videos, and I have to say I feel like I have all new plugins! I have not been using all of the functions that Izotope includes. Great works!
Thanks for all the episodes of both seasons. I learned very much by watching these! Playing around with ozone was really fun!
As soon as i see Jonathan i hit like button. This guy is an excellent engineer and educator !
Crest factor explanation was excellent. Kick drum more left. bass sustain more right. Got-cha!
In case you are wondering what Jonathan is reading, it appears to be Handbook for Sound Engineers by Glenn Ballou. Quite the tome.
I am scrolling through the comments just to look for a good samaritans comments :)
The music production suite has sharpened my skills quite a bit 🤘
Izotope is my favourite audio company. So much care and so much free advice
Thanks for the many many tips! Have Ozone, will study.
Quality video, quality plugins, thanks iZotope.
Awesome, Are you listening!.😊 i love your attitude for teaching, you are a Humble and wise man. Great job with the answers.👍
@13:55 Or you can use Youlean loudness meter which allows you to drag and drop an entire song and get the entire analysis is just a few seconds for any song. It's cheap and works great. They have a free version too.
Finished the series. Thanks for everything
I really appreciate your lectures. Thanks!
Great one, thank you Jonathan... waiting for the next one.
lmao that intro...
Thank you so much: always helpful!
Very good teaching skills. This series is awesome.
Thanks Jonathan! Very educational narration!
Thanks! Great Content and cool Mindset...
A Question: how and when so you use two compressors in mastering?
Thanks Jonathan Excellence as usual
Very helpful as always. Thanks!
First and all: thank you so much, Jonathan and team for this very valuable and insightful
series! What I still wonder about, is: Bit Depth. If you import a track into your DAW,
where you will be mastering it with (for ex) the Ozone Suite, do you set the project
to 32 Bit and do you convert the wav file to the same 32 bit on import?
Or do you stick to whatever the original bit depth or the mixed track was?
Big thanks in advance if you can give some insight on this!
@Jonathan Wyner Dear Jonathan, thank you so much for the clear reply, much appreciated!
And please do keep up the great work with these videos.
In fact, your teachings offered me an insight into (and appreciation of) Mastering
that I never had before, prompting me to get Ozone and remaster
my older works to get the hang of it... Yes, that's on you man:-)
If you'd allow me one more question please: where would be the best place
to send feedback/suggestions and more detailed questions related to mastering,
mixing and of course iZotope software?
cool episode as usual ( thank u, thank u thank u for getting rid if the lamp in the background 👍👍👍)
Thanks!
Thank you, Mr. Jonathan, this is really helpful!
27:53 "the next 'thing' ..."😮
Thanks for sharing your knowledge Jonathan. Do you offer mixing critiques? Sending Peace, Love + Positive Vibes to ALL! =)
Jonathan, that was a fake breaking of glass, based on the reverb. How'd I do?
Along with Leonard Bernstein's Omnibus series, this is my favorite series on music. It's really a tribute to contemporary musicians and sound engineers and how we get the sound in our heads to cross over to the listener. This level of love and respect for music, for art, and for human achievement in general is really hard to come by. I would be curious to learn more about the history of mixing and mastering in a future season, something like an overview of the paradigm shifts and technological developments that led us to where we are now.
Thank you Jonathan
Could you explain phase, phasing and some of the times in which you need to think about phase?
Thanks much appreciated for these videos I learned alot
I love this series and have gotten so much out of it. The one thing I really enjoy are Jonathan's cat t-shirts!! I need some of these in my life... 👍😁👍 #justsayin
Awesome video, a beginner question, should we mix on stereo or mono?
Mix in stereo. Mono is used to check phase imbalance, and can also be used to check instrumental balance for listeners who use only one speaker, such as a cell phone, or other mono-fed speaker systems.
Nice to see and thanks for having a forum for this.
Is there anyone else than me that does't think Billies songs sounds as good or interesting as some say? It sounds ok but frankly not especially good or interesting.
The songs are interesting from a composition point of view, but the sound and mixing is actually a bit bland in most cases. Or is it that I just miss exactly that being the point? Successful but with not more than average sound and mixing? : )
How much decibel should my premaster need ?
How about monoing the bass with the izotope eq? Is it something that we should avoid and do in the mixing stage instead?
When uploading to an aggregator (CD Baby, Tunecore, etc) who distributes for both streaming and download sales, should two separate masters be provided as the loudness characteristics are different between the two?
Thank you, ;-)
Will you be open to more questions? Where can we ask them? Thanks!
I neeeed this T Shirt!
can we export our final mix with a limiter on it ?? or its only on the mastering chain
how often should i check a mix/master at lower volumes? and what are good volumes to listen at for mixing and mastering/ how long can i listen at those volumes without fatiguing?
thank you
Fatiguing usually happens sooner at higher volumes. Mixing/mastering at lower volumes is recommended to allow the subtleties of the track to be apparent. I mix at low volume as a rule, and only "check" at louder volumes momentarily. As for the second part of your question, there are no rules for a comfortable volume at which you should mix/master. Your ears should be your guide, and remember, you are listening as if you are listening through the ears of the consumer, so make sure you're being objective about the balance of your track, and shy away from just emphasizing your instrument. Hope that helps.
very informative video ♥️
Great stuff!
My question is sometimes when I mastering a track the LUFS level will average around -8 or -9 when my dbFS level is around -1 to -0.1 (I’ve experimented with different ceilings). Other times I reach the same dBFS range and can barely get -14 LUFS. What could be the reasons for the difference in LUFS when I am getting around the same dBFS level?
thank you sir.
Hi sir johnthan where i can get ur mastered songs.
I am a huge fan of Fleet Foxes. I use some of their songs as references and I've noticed that when I load in the flac file, it peaks at -0.1 and the meter doesn't spike much. RMS is around -8. It doesn't sound squashed. Is there something I'm missing? Is it a styllistic choice or a misconception?
Using an old pc like ( i3 2nd gen, 4gb ram....etc)
and using a modern powerful pc ( with a powerful setup)
how much that could affect while mixing or mastering ?
i mean, how much necessary is the setup that i use ?
Question: For the mixbus processing, to glue the mix together, Is it a good idea to use multiband compressor or a compressor?
Ahwan Mishra im no expert but ive found bass guitar is my most used area for a multiband to make the bass sound more solid throughout the song. Also probably a dynamic vocal if its not broken into separate tracks could benefit from it too but i like to separate whispers and screaming into their own tracks if possible.
@@LoveItDirtyOffroad yes I use Multiband compressors in drumbus and bass sometimes.... But as per one tutorial by Izotope channel, they used a Multiband compressor to glue the mix.. I just want a comparative discussion regarding making a glue with Multiband vs single band compressor.
Best to have two versions to give to the ME...once without the Mix busnad one with the artistic side you want to follow and take it from there.
I need his t-shirt
ME TOO!
www.etsy.com/listing/232465672/cats-on-synthesizers-in-space-modular
@@rossco78 thanks
☺️
I have some very old cassettes of music I am cleaning up, I already have tools that do a good job of cleaning up the hiss. Is there any IZOTOPE tools that might brighten up the sound a bit, as they sound clean now but not very lifelike. Aside from some EQ adjusting what approach could be taken
You can try using the spectral de-noise module or deconstruct module in RX. You can even try applying the processing to only the frequencies with the hiss when using the spectral selection tools in the RX app.
@@iZotopeOfficial thank for the response, i'm hardly an expert in this so mabye I don't understand: my problem isn't "hiss" which I have cleaned out fairly well with the tools I already own. My problem is that the sound is very low fidelity, sounding like it was recorded on an old tape recorder, cause it was, but little hiss any more. Is there any tools or approach that could help bring it more towards FM radio sound and not AM Radio sound. I know it's not going to make it sound great but how can i approach improving the sound.
@@happyron I would say if you're looking to breathe life into old recordings after removing noise from them, perhaps a combination of Neutron and Ozone can help you sort of remaster the imported file. If something sounds low-fidelity, it's most likely it was recorded as low fidelity and we don't have a way currently to add new information that simply wasn't there in the first place. So if your audio is low quality, you can only do so much to make it sound better.
Hello Jonathan! I just made a test using a LFUS loudness meter of 2 songs from Spotify, one of them a song I just mastered and the other was "American Idiot" from Green day, both song were on - 14LFUS but American Idiot sounds much more louder than mine even being at the same LFUS... how do I can get more loudness from my -14 LUFS masters??? help please! Thanks!!!
There are so many things you have to take into consideration with this question, the most important being, at what levels are the mix tracks set? Green Day undoubtedly are coming in with hot tracks at the mix level; they also have a ton of midrange in their balance strictly because of the guitar tracks, so inherently, they're going to sound "hotter" than a track with less mid information. So, in essence, you can boost your mix tracks to be as loud as they can without slamming your individual compressors or limiters. If after that, your mix is still low compared to the reference track, check the input on your master buss going into your compressor(s)/limiter(s). If the entire stereo mix is hitting the comp/limiter weak, then you can increase the input level to that gear, but be sure to recheck your ratios, attacks, and thresholds to either avoid or control clipping. Hope that helps.
Was that intro a shoutout to Emma Watson?? It's her birthday today
Hello my question is can Mastering engineer can master music that don't know like Arabic music ?
A mastering engineer can mix any genre. If they're not familiar with a specific genre, they can use reference tracks from that genre to achieve the goals set forth by the reference track. Hope that helps.
I recently downloaded Sultans of Swing from Spotify to check out their LUFs in Insight. It looks like they were at -11 to -12. I thought Spotify cranked everything down to -14. How come this is higher? baselines.com/?p=5510 - Thank you for another great video - you guys rock. When is Ozone 10 planned?
not sure but it appears the it is -14 but and louder.....different subscriptions
What about the 20hz and below cut approach (meaning high pass filter). Is that something you would recommend...?
hello Jonathan i just wanted to ask if you could recommend a site/service i can join to get mixes as im a mixing engineer and i have noticed that some services only offer masters
SoundBetter.com. You can register as an engineer.
That Book ;)
The only question we want to know is here buy this cat synthd t-shirts ???
the shirt changed jussayin lol
my masters sounds very harsh where do I go wrong when mastering?
Use a spectrum analyzer to help identify from where the "harshness" is coming. A dynamic EQ like the F6 from Waves could help you in taming those harsh frequencies. Secondly, go back to the mix to fix harsh tracks before you master. Taming extreme frequency imbalances at the mastering stage is going to change the entire tonal balance, and is usually NOT recommended. Mastering adjustments should be subtle, and should not be expected to exact major changes in the tone of the overall track. Hope that helps.
I still can't archive warmth from my mastering
Try using "vintage" tube EQ plugins. They can add really nice warmth without being apparent. You can also revisit your mix to tame higher or midrange frequencies to reduce harshness. Hope that helps.
Greatly informative as always!
Btw, that cat on his t-shirt is a Turkish cat, who was a symbol in Istanbul. You may find it really fascinating:
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/tombili-istanbul-cat-and-worldwide-meme-honoured-with-statue-a7344671.html
He might have a Turkish background ... or he just likes it
He broke the book,,🤧😂
Only one. Why the loudness war? Still think some cds are still mastered too high. Makes no sense.
When turned down they still have that highly compressed sound some people like
Completely off the subject! Sorry, is anyone else getting sick and tired of theses idiotic camera angle changes in a lot of the tutorials? Izotope, Sonic Scoop, Sweetwater etc. I was always taught to look at someone face to face when addressing them, not talk to them while looking elsewhere, it really does get annoying and I end up moving to a different video, I won't watch any Sonic Scoop vids, they are so bad, ok! my rant for tonight.