HOW TO MASTER LOUD - INSTANTLY Get FAT, Clean + In Your Face Results
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- čas přidán 19. 06. 2024
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In this video I talk about one of the biggest mixing mistakes that people make that prevents them from getting clean, high-quality, loud masters. See a comparison of 1 song mixed 2 very different ways, and discover how loud each version can be made during mastering.
If you think that some type of magic mastering chain or limiter secret is going to make your song sound good and be loud, think again. Don’t fall into this trap that keeps so many people from getting great sounding masters.
★ SKIP TO SOMETHIN’ ★
0:00 Intro
1:06 Bad Artifacts from Too Much Limiting
2:22 Comparing 2 Different Mixes of the Same Song
4:50 Analysis of the 2 Mixes - What’s Different?
6:14 Comparison of Masters of the 2 Mixes
11:00 The Big Mixing Mistake
12:55 What Techniques Did I Use?
14:36 Outro
★ STAY IN TOUCH ★
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#musicproduction #mastering #audiomixing
![Eminem - Houdini [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/22tVWwmTie8/mqdefault.jpg)
I’ve been using this technique for a while now but never understood why hard clipping sounded better. Now I do, thanks again for sharing your knowledge ❤
Right on. Glad you're getting good results with clipping. Cheers!
Excellent discussion. I've grown to embrace clipping as a way to control my dynamics more than heavy limiting. I think it sounds better while maintaining loudness.
Well said! I agree completely. I think limiters have their place, but in terms of controlling peak level all throughout a mix, they're not the best tool for the job. In general, most limiters are too CPU heavy with the big brains on them. Lightweight track clippers are excellent for this. And then clipping can be a great effect to keep punch and loudness, like you said. Cheers.
Gosh, 10 minutes “everyone make mistake, my mix is good……” to 3 second shaving peaks with hard clipping advice …. commercial for advice. Glad to see YT advanced form content like this for the most part.
Thanks
Dude... you are so clear and well spoken. Perfect tempo ...and the examples and prepp work is just stellar, i learn so much. Cant thank you enuff. 💚 Please keep em coming. YOU are really lifting my mixing game ‼
I appreciate that! Thanks for visiting the channel. Stay in touch and all the best with your mixes.
I love this! Very nicely explained and executed, mate. Bless!
Thank you kindly!
Love the effort put into your voice in intro. can hear huge difference to how your voice sound when you share ableton screen part.
Also love that your examples are DnB songs because Im currently doing this type of DnB tracks a lot and it helps me somewhat better.
I appreciate that!
Excellent stuff mate, very grateful man!
Thanks!
Thank you for making these types of informative tutorials :)
Happy to. This stuff is right at my nerd level and I love making it. Thanks for watching.
Thanks for all of these Mastering Workshops 🍻🔊
Glad you like them! Cheers!
thank you for these tutorials, very interesting info
Glad you like them!
And a man like Vespers. I REMEMBER THE DAY I FOUND YOU ON THE OLD WILD WEST CZcams, AND YOU CHANGED MY WORLD THAN. The capitals were intended, because I felt like I was drowning in bad misappropriated information until your brilliant videos were made known to me. Never had anyone talked about templates, top down mixing etc., at least not in an electronic music context, and although I no longer use Ableton and have switched to Studio One, I STILL follow your advice because it always works when you apply it correctly and with receipts. now I know their were others before you, but no one has left me more informed and not only feeling able to do the work and complete the task, but getting tangible results and walking away with signed music. The only comparison I could make to your breadth of knowledge and ability to discourse it in a meaningful and memorable way would be Dan Worrall , or Streaky's CZcams channels. Thank you so much for offering your insights in such a digestible way. Takes a lot of time to do these videos with such high quality and for you to offer them outside of your academy is admirable and pretty selfless, more humans would do better to be a bit alike you sir. Cheers and God Bless!
Thanks very much for taking the time to reflect back how my work has impacted you over the years. It’s quite a huge compliment to be mentioned alongside Dan Worral and Streaky, both people I respect greatly.
I appreciate the kind words and for your support over the years following the channel. Cheers and all the best with your music!
@@warpacademy
It always an extremely favorable occurrence on yt to see a genuine, heartfelt reply from a creator to a commenter.
Peace bro
Definitely NOT too much mate, its such a nice, smooth intriguing tune. Really grabs the ears
Glad you enjoy it too!
A ton of information, many thanks
Glad it was helpful!
Great video, each time you sum signals you get new peaks, If I want to mix loud I use a lot of busses and at each summing stage I use a clipper eventually to get rid of those peaks before hitting my masterbus compressor.
The clip to zero technique is really interesting if you want to mix loud as f*
Absolutely. You’re right that new peaks are created at each summing point. It’s a best practice for sure to use submixes / busses and process at that level as well. I’ll have a video on that soon.
In terms of CTZ, it has some great insights about workflow and clippers. Good stuff.
Studio is looking sweet Drew, and great content as usual. Shoutout from Holland. Cheers, Durk
Durk! Man, long time no see. So nice to hear from you. Would love to catch up man. Sending ya lots of hi fives from Canada.
@@warpacademy I’ll shoot you an email to set up a call to catch up, been too long indeed!
Let's do that! I'd love to connect and talk. @kooistradurk
Great video zooming in on the samples. Brought some understanding. Do you have any videos on Normalization and when to use and not use?
Thanks for the comment. I'm glad you enjoyed this one. Regarding normalization, I actually just published a video where I discuss that in my mastering prep process: czcams.com/video/xzujAhDVg6w/video.html
Very good! 👍
Thanks for the visit
Fabulous content
Cheers mate. Thanks for being a subscriber!
studio looking crazy
Cheers! Such a wonderful room to work in.
Awesome 👍
Thank you! Cheers!
nice video bruh
Thanks. Best/Mathias
You're most welcome. Thanks for watching and being a subscriber.
I limit before the processing chain to shave off such peaks, and then a cascade of limiters/clippers at the end of the chain - instead trying to remix the whole thing lol
Sounds like you've been watching some Baphometrix ;)
more awesome stuff
Cheers! Thanks for watching.
Great video , you helped me alot
Glad to hear that! Wishing you all the best with your music.
How do i find those peaks in the mixing phase? You mean to use clipper on sounds that’s really peaky?
Yes exactly. I use track clippers to transparently hard clip many individual sounds in my mix, and then I also typically clip or limit my sub-mixes before going to the 2 bus.
@@warpacademy by “sub mixes” you mean you limit the low end? And you just hard clip any sounds with spikey transient? Like hats,snare,kick ..? Or other sound to
Oh, by sub-mixes I mean busses. I use a detailed set of busses in my mixing, such as Hi End Percussion, Low End Percussion. Kicks, Snares, All Drums, Midrange Synths, Bass, Sub, FX, Vocals, Ducking, All Returns.
They give me many layers of control, with clipping another aspects of mixing.
Do you have any videos on properly reading spectral plugins?
I don't have a video on how to properly read them, but what I do is compare the spectrum of reference tracks to my mix using this technique: czcams.com/video/wSizHvzC4Yg/video.html
That man vespers is a legend
Cheers mate.
Just trying to confirm something... In the 'What techniques did I use?" segment, you mention that performing gain operations on micro transients is not recommended on an entire master, do it in the mix. However in one of your recent videos, (Before mastering, I do this) you mention doing this prior to mastering via Izotope RX. Could you perhaps elaborate on this? Does it depend on how heavy handed / how long the duration of the change is? Love the videos, great content! Thank you!
Thanks for watching and commenting! Yes I realize that’s a bit confusing so let me clarify. The big mistake with many people is leaving all the peaks totally unattended through mixing and ramming them all into a limiter during mastering. That makes for a garbage master usually with distortion and artifacts.
What I do is clip and handle transients all through the mix, on individual sounds and busses. Then I use RX to shape the mix manually (like you saw in my “Before Mastering I Do This” video). Each summing point creates micro-transients. This way I can handle them with zero distortion and artifacts.
Then I run the mastering chain on the cleaned up RX pre-master.
Now, there are many scenarios where I’m not the mixer. I’m only mastering. Like in that recent video. So there was no clipping used in the mix and all the micro- transients were in the stereo mix export. In that case I use RX more heavily to clean them up so my mastering chain doesn’t freak out and work too hard.
As you saw in my most recent mastering video “How to Master a Song Start to Finish”, I was only just tickling the master limiter a couple dB due to the fact that RX had done a bunch of the work using manual gain.
Hope that helps understand the process a bit more. Cheers!
@@warpacademy It does! Appreciate the response, thank you!
Right on. Cheers!
I have a maybe stupid question: Wouldn't it work on the whole Mix if you had a very fast Limiter (or some offline process), that could just look for these mini peaks and turn them down?
All questions are welcome. What you’re describing is a clipper. A very fast processor that turns down samples. A clipper is a form of limiter with zero attack and release time and a brick wall.
But it generates distortion. So do limiters but limiters use a big brain to try and avoid that. At the expense of making transients sound dull sometimes.
I use both! Know the tools and where and when to use them.
yes it would work. when you are mastering your audio file clip away 2-4db after that push the limiter as hard as it allows you to.
if you focus on quality - what is strongly recommended for the future - then one of the most important tasks is to end this mindless loudness war. to take part of the loudness-war, you are reducing your target group more and more and more every year.
but in the meantime, it can be observed with many colleagues that they themselves are making their hearing worse and worse by getting used to the inferior quality that this produces. so, this is the importend task. the creator has to make better decisions before the target group can do.
Thanks for sharing your perspectives. Interestingly, the 2024 Grammy for Best Electronic / Dance Recording was given to Skrillex for the song Rumble, which was mastered by multi-Grammy nominated and winning engineer Luca Pretolesi to a little hotter than -6 LUFS in the drops. So the industry has made it pretty clear that (clean, well-engineered) loudness and quality can co-exist, at least up to a point. The key is to engineer the music in such a way that you don't get garbage loudness.
Sweet video. So would you put the clipper on and then bounce that so you can see the new waveform?
Glad you enjoyed the video. Actually, I prep the mix first in iZotope RX Audio Editor and I handle all the highest peaks manually using gain rendering. I have a video coming up about that mastering prep process very soon. Stay tuned.
Once that's done, I set Gold Clip first in chain usually to handle a few dB of clipping on the remaining peaks (which are much more even now after the iZotope RX manual limiting process).
Hope that makes sense. Cheers!
@@warpacademy when you say mix in RX, so it’s a bounced out file? I didn’t think RX could do multitrack?
@@warpacademy oh you mean you export stems and open each stem in RX individually?
Hey Paul. I export the entire mix, and then process that in RX doing the peak level manual gain / manual limiting. So it's a single stereo file.
For handling micro-peaks on individual tracks and busses in the mix, I use clipping.
Also, once the entire mix is processed in RX, I import it into the DAW for the mastering session, where I clip it again with Gold Clip (first in chain) if I'm mastering really loud, like in this case. Cheers!
@@warpacademy thanks so much I’m going to try it out
After seeing this video I'm feeling pretty good with my skills since I have no problem reaching -7 or -6 LUFS without distortion. I've heard recent releases like the latest Rolling Stones album, or Olivia Rodrigo, which goes as high as -5 LUFS. Now there's a challenge!.
Congrats on clean engineering. Don’t push it unless there’s a really good reason. I did this because that’s where drum and bass songs are mastered to on every major label. -5 is loud AF for sure.
@@warpacademy well the -5 standard for dnb was years ago, we are closer now to -1.5 lol
@@TheAcreDnB maybe some songs? I analyze drum & bass all the time and I'm seeing -4 to -5 LUFS integrated in the drops. Are you talking about short term or momentary perhaps? RMS?
Link to some songs if you want. I'd be curious to hear them.
@@warpacademy yeah sorry, momentary, not long term, i forgot to mention
audio - marauder for example, or the clamps - conviction, these two mfs are hitting -1.6 momentary easily :D
@@warpacademy czcams.com/video/ytfMfhsZJ3g/video.html
this onefor example
-5 LUFS in mainstream pop is not at all common any more. I'd say we're in the -8 LUFS range now (maybe -7 short term).
I agree with pop - it's closer to -8. That's why I said there's a range and it applies to pop, hip hop, and electronic music. In dub step and drum & bass, it's common to see -4 to -6. In hip hop and pop it's less loud, but still very loud. -8 is typical.
I analyzed over 100 drum & bass references of modern releases, and the average level in drops is -4 to -5 LUFS. Seeing as this song is a drum & bass tune, I used that loudness range for the master.
@@warpacademyindeed dnb is still around -4 to -5 LUFs and some crazy mofos from the Netherlands ;) managed to go even beyond that with a clean mix… but Noisia are just different
pls do one on how to achieve a relatively clean -2 or even -1 plssss
You're talking about how to get a relatively clean -2 to -1 LUFS master? If so, I'll have to weigh in with some tough love here and say that's absolute insanity. First of all, there's no need for that, even in the loudest genres played in DJ sets. Second, you'd be making so many compromises that you'd be completely destroying the art and music in the name of loudness. It is conceivable to get quite a clean sounding -5 to -6 using some really tight engineering tricks, but much beyond that and there's only one main way of pushing louder, and that's to sacrifice bass. I've never heard a -4 LUFS or beyond track from anyone that I actually thought was done well and didn't sound like a distorted mess. That said, I'm always willing to be wrong. If there's one out there, send it.
@@warpacademy like i mentioned in my other comment, i forgot to mention that i was talking about momentary lufs (around -1 or 2), which is still can be achieved without sounding crappy, and it is quite annoying that despite you are right in "making so many compromises that you'd be completely destroying the art and music in the name of loudness", the track which is not this "loud" will still be considered as quiet and "not enough energy in it" by labels all the time and in the end of the day, if you compare your stuff to the reference tracks, and EVERY one of them is waaay louder (lufs-wise), its not gonna work, thats an issue sadly
@@warpacademy hitting -2 is yeah, too much, but we can shove up the clean and dynamic tracks in our asses sadly, bc this is not the standard
If you’re seeing tracks like this I’d like to check them out. Please send links.
I’ve personally never seen dnb songs in this range. And I’ve also never heard anything north of -5 LUFS that didn’t sound like a dumpster fire of hot garbage.
Prove me wrong though. I’ll listen to songs if you link me to them. Cheers!
Nice, a bit of DnB, my fave! 😍
Cheers! I love the tune. It was produced by DUSKO (Sam Winter & Daniel Cowart) and was made 100% with samples and Serum presets from our Darkside Funk soundbank at Warp Academy.
@@warpacademy Cool, sounds dope!
Thanks, I'll pass that on.
This could fit into CZcams shorts :)
Sure thing. Here's the 1 minute version: czcams.com/users/shortsPDeESCqv-K4?feature=share
Can we all just appreciate how beautiful that studio is and how much it needs a couch?
It sure does need a couch. Coming soon!
you talk like the playing speed is at x1.25 but i like it
Ha! Lots to get through. And I’m usually quite caffeinated.
always put a clipper at the end of drum buss
Drums are definitely the most common source of short easily clipped transients. Although, I have recently been putting my clipper at the beginning of the drum bus not the end. It makes sense because then you reduce the spurious peaks into other level sensitive effects like saturators and compressors. Although clipping last can work well too.
@@warpacademy perhaps at the beginning and also at the end? I will try this in a session that im currently working on. I use SIR Audio Standard Clip, do you always hard clip or do you ever soft clip? Is there any benefit to using one rather than another or is it purely a style/taste type thing?
Hey hey. I think once you've removed the micro-transients with a hard clipper, you may find that adding a second hard clipper at the end of the chain is a bit much and may start to dig in too much and dull the transient.
The way I do this is I clip most individual sounds (not all) as transparently as possible, then those sounds get routed up into a sub-mix. I clip at the beginning of the sub-mix where sounds sum together. That is a key place where more micro-transients happen.
Then I clip again at the master. If you need more clippers than that, you're probably going too hard and getting carried away. It's just not necessary.
And yes I do soft clip for sure. It's typical for me, after the initial hard clipping stage, to add a saturator OR soft-clipper (not both) - depending on the sound. If it's a sub-mix, I usually go with saturation because I use the Black Box Analog Design HG-2M2 which allows me to work in mid-side mode. Clippers don't work like that usually. If you overuse soft-clipping or stereo saturation on a bus or master, then you can add too much saturation to the side signal, and cause the mix to lose depth and sound too closed in.
I like soft clipping more on individual sounds where I want to add harmonics. Perhaps some sub-mixes, but I usually find myself wanting more control and I enjoy working in MS so I can saturate the mid separately from the side.
Cheers!
Who wants " in your face" result. I like depth in mixes. Dynamic range. A difference between drums, bass, guitars and the leadsinger up front in the mix✌️
To each their own. It’s a stylistic and genre specific sound. Which I expect doesn’t apply to what you’re into. Seems like you’re talking about band stuff? I’m not. Also depth and a loud in your face sound can exist at the same time. Depth staging can be done well in a loud mix but a lot of loud mixes and masters can sound closed in, you’re right. Especially if they’re using saturation the wrong way.
Difference between instruments in a mix =\= overall dynamics
Thanks for chiming in on this @kooistradurk
…and than put your Cowboyboots on and squaredance around your bed…
I’m -1
Still clean 😌
I suppose it depends on what you mean by clean. I find music in that loudness range, even if it's not distorted, to be fatiguing to listen to, overcompressed sounding, and lacking in punch. But that's me. Everyone has their preferences. If you think it sounds good that loud, go for it. It's your art at the end of the day.
@@warpacademy ❤️❤️ of course brother.. don’t get me wrong.. I didn’t say I’m better than you…
Oh, I didn't perceive it like that. I was just saying that the louder you go the more contained the song will feel, and the less distance there will be between quiet and loud elements. And how much of that one likes is a matter of personal preference. I noticed you're into the Grammy-winning Skrillex song Rumble from his Quest for Fire album. That song, to me, threads the needle and is the perfect contemporary example of mixing cleanly and loudly. Luca Pretolesi, who mixed and mastered it, is a genius and one of my inspirations.
-6LUFs sounds horrible on more acoustic material . Your songs are mostly sampled instruments , so -6 probably sounds fine because you know deeply what needs to be done, as the top professional you are .
Thanks for the comment! Yes this lends itself more to the music in my domain like electronic and hip hop or pop. All the best and happy music making!
The background music until 2:09 is sort of distracting.... also your voice sounds somewhat "fake". (Just something for you to check) 🙂
I like music in my intros so it’s not just all talking head. But maybe some songs are more distracting than others. Thanks for letting me know.
The voice is heavily processed for sure.
One loses musical dynamics with this.
That's a very subjective thing. The amount of dynamics that sound good to one person is different to another. And it's also very different from genre to genre. In drum & bass, this song is actually quite a bit less compressed than many of the references. And if you want a good example of where people's tastes are at for bass music, then look at the 2024 Grammy winner for Best Dance / Electronic Recording - given to Skrillex, Fred Again..., and Flowdan for the song Rumble. This is at -6 LUFS in the drops, or a bit louder even.
Dude ...
@Warp_Academy Wow bruv!!! this is THE missing piece of the puzzle for helping me get loud AND clean masters... Thank you so much!!! Now can you DELETE THIS VIDEO plz? Before everyone else finds out...
Thanks for the kind words Adam. And yes this is one of the BIG issues to understand when mixing and mastering music for clean loudness. It’s one of the most significant things that holds people back when they don’t understand it or violate this rule.
Stay in touch and all the best with your music!
@@warpacademy Thank you for the reply I really appreciate it!! I've recently subscribed to your channel and I'm working through the videos so I'm sure you'll hear from me again soon!!
Thanks for subscribing.
Excuse us, we don’t have 700000000.- to spend on plugins
Pretty much all of these techniques can be done using freeware. Dont fuss over exactly which plugins I use and instead focus on the techniques. I could achieve very similar results just using some basic freeware.
i do about -4 lufs and for the very Heavy stuff i do about -2 lufs well i make very Heavy bass music tbh no cap
I can kinda imagine that ultra distorted (on purpose) kind of almost experimental noise style.
@@Ace_of_DiscaL yup your right 👍
Drum and Bass is not a good material to reference real loudness mastering. More complex styles, with several instruments, several tonal and frequencies balance can make a big difference and a real challenge to get -5 dB LUFS in final mastering. Thanks.
This is an excellent reference as the song I’m mastering is in that genre. You want references to be as close to your original as possible.
How loud you end up getting to in your master is complex and has so much to do with production techniques and the mix in addition to genre.
Nonsense. you can master as loud as you like... 😂
But itunes and apple make it quiter with their loudness algorithms.
I made a video exactly for this type of comment: Loudness Trumps EVERYTHING!
czcams.com/video/UHxKQ3iIPyA/video.html
Some people mistakenly believe that once the DSPs came along that the entire world started revolving around -14 LUSFS. Myself and many other engineers have spoken extensively about why that is not the case.
Stay tuned on this channel for 2 upcoming interviews with well recognized engineers where we discuss this further.