2 common volume-balancing mistakes and how to fix them 

Oscar's video courses ► courses.underdog.brussels 🖤🖤🖤 Underdog Discord channel ► discord.gg/z5N9CTA 👾👾👾 Face the Sun ► soundcloud.com/face-the-sun-be 🍎🍎🍎 Patreon ► www.patreon.com/underdogmusicschool 🌱🌱🌱

I put a 300 Hz low cut and 3 kHz high cut on my monitor buss for my initial faders-only mix. Then I bypass the EQ and it's immediately obvious which parts have problems with their highs and/or lows.

The tip about cutting out the low end might be what I need. I’ll have to try it soon but you explained the way my mixes sound so perfectly.

Your head rolling part at the end of the video... it hypnotised meee. It put me in a trance O_o Thank you.

This workflow video is something I wish I could find more often on RU-vid. It's nice to see every step of the way, mistakes, tips and most content creators don't really show this intimate side of producing. Amazing teaching skills as always Oscar, please more of these!

Double thumbs up on this style of video. I really gain the most just watching someones workflow style and what they're trying to achieve during it. Thanks for the time!

"Seduced by the subs." Every video come with a new line :) Keep it up !!!

Another great video, tons of useful information. Keep up the great work. Thanks for making all of these, it's much appreciated.

Brilliant video as always

Great vid. Good vybes on the way you present this!

Thanks for your time and your teachings.

Your timing is unbelievable!!!

I'm learning, thank you! Dankjewel!

Super-helpful, thank you!

Solid, smart methods, well explained and presented. Thanks so much! 💜

Awesome stuff as usual

Recently dicovered you, and loving your insight, the way it just comes out! Loving your digital persona. Keep it going and thanks!!

best mixing tutorial ever !!! finally my sound is healed

Always a pleasure watching these tutorials :) thank you Oscar! You do great work

High quality content. Nuff said.

Using the EQ to cut the lows and focus on the mids- killer tip. Thanks.

That breakdown at 3:25 is great. I could vibe on that alone for a while.

thanks a lot!!! so nice reverb

Cheers my man,really appreciate your tutorials.it's helping me regain my true passion for my tunage again.anyway cheers

Thanks mate. This will help alot

yes! as always , the right teaching exactly when im passing through this mess in my tracks . you dont have idea how much you inspired and improved my works.... like antoine i was a completly beginner . and nooooow.... im a completly beginner , but a little less messy xD ♥

Great tips & ticks

Best trick I learned so far is using pink noise. Just put a pink noise with a -6db volume on your master channel, turn down the master volume to -12 so your ears won't hurt. Then turn down the volume of all tracks and solo them in while turning the volume up until you can hear the element at roughly the same volume as the noise. Do that with every element. When you're ready you can turn off the pink noise and you're left with a mostly perfect balance. You can just fine tune from there. Helps you to get your mix louder without clipping.

You got a new subscriber from me with this video. Good stuff.

That sticks thanks!

Thank you very much 😝

Thank you for this. Love all your videos and music. Is this like gain staging

BRAVO!

Great video Oscar

Awesome tutorial, Oscar! You taught us this really well in class but it's still super helpful to revisit this subject. I hope all is well brotha!

Thank you

I liked the ending lol!

Absolutely love this channel, I only found it a few weeks ago and I'm so happy that I did - this will sound like a fake comment because it's so positive but I'm a pro producer just starting out going it full time and I've spent many years watching pretty much all of the best Ableton focused youtube tutorial channels and I didn't think I'd missed one, especially not the one that has quickly become my favourite. The technical detail is brilliant, the tutors knowledge is perfect and he has an excellent calm and precise way of delivering all of the key information we need in the most effective way that I have ever seen from a tutorial video. One major thing is that alot of other tutorial channels I notice eventually after watching through most of the content available that the tutors quickly start repeating info and repeating phrases and teachings from lesson to lesson like they are trying to re-package and re-upload the same lessons again and again but just in a sllightly udpated way but with this channel I have seen no sign of that yet and i've binged watched a huge portion of their videos in a short space of time. Alot of the videos I would watch a few times if I want to take in all the details and the tutors vibe is super chilled and calm so he doens't get annoying at all when watching on repeat a few times whereas most other channels the hosts are over excited using that trademark yuotube pretend happy vibe in every video which is painful to watch, this guy keeps it real and I appreciate that. I hope I haven't rambelled on too much I just wanted to express my thanks to the channels content creators more than anything as this channel has been a real breath of fresh air and I look forward to wacthing these videos! Superb work! Thank you!

Great video as usual.Yep, there is a saying “ magic is in the midrange”. that’s one of the reasons why ns10s are used to mix.BUT, imo still need an accurate monitoring system to judge the low end or rely heavily on analyzers if monitoring system is not ideal. TIP: Mix in mono, it will make setting levels way easier.I also track in mono while doing sound selection, this way I’ll know straight way if I’ll have phase issues with the sound I’m adding or if it will sound good or not, with what I already have.

great work - i appreciate you and your content, but i just have a comment on terminology :) "level" is the professional english term used in audio just for future reference

I first watched this on laptop speakers and when you cut out everything but the lows at 8:06 I could hear NONE of it. Literally zero. Kinda making your point there :D

I love the light in your studio, illuminates the perfect bald head :D

Wow, I’ve never thought about putting a lowcut to focus on the mids and highs. Simple but could see how useful that could be. Thank you! 🤘🏻

Bounce. Bounce. Bounce. My fave tip ever.

What works best for me: I put a VU plugin set at -14 on each track before any plugin, and adjust each gain (audio loop, or virtual instrument volume) so that there’s no clipping. Then you can do the mix with the volume faders as usual, and add your favorite plugins. You’ll have a clean mix without unwanted weird distortion, and your faders won’t be too much low or high.

Thank you for this channel Oscar. Yvour explanations are very clear and helpfull. What is the best practice to bring up an element? I was taught to use the gain control? But what is the use of the volume control then ? Thanks again. All the best Olivier

Can’t agree with this, Most important is that u have a nice head room around -6db as Mastering Engineer’s will ask and it’s healthy for & workable everyone. Doesn’t work to do this touching the limiter and then take all down, unfortunately the balance will change. So make sure all SUM is around -6db, and u could use limiter technique with an analyzer hitting -7rms (u can compare with the best tracks on the market) and refine your MIX. Then u just need to take the limiter off if need to send to mastering or so. Hope my method and I’m on big labels, could help. Whenever u want I’m open to share my methods with u. Thanks always for content!

I dont know if I'd want to spend too long mixing with the whole track hipassed. Our perception is pretty contextual and removing everything under 200hz would end up tricking you into thinking your track sounds way too bright and you risk making some decisions that make no sense once you've removed the hi pass.

You know you’ve grown as a producer when you start picking holes in Oscars workflow ❤

No way I used the same reference track as well haha just saw that :P

Hey Oscar, are you going to release the Track that you have shown in this video? Sounds Lovely :)

Nice episode again. For A/B I use ADPTR Metric A/B and am very happy with it (NO, I do not get payed to post this). Question: how much headroom do you give per channel befor Mastering? Some say -6 Db. What do you think?

Hi Oscar, thank you for another great video. I do have a question however, or stated otherwise, I’m a little confused. As I want to release music to streaming platforms, it is advised to master a track to -14LUFS. Which currently is what I do. But it means that the limiter, amount of headroom, … are way lower than what you specify. Or … do you master to -0.3db, and then you just lower the overall volume?

hello ik ben op zoek naar combo effect door hele nummer gebruiken ken you maken video bout that

One additional method you can use for volume balancing: output your sound through mono instead of stereo. If something is far too loud or soft, this will immediately highlight the problem. With mono isolation your stereo width is gone and your perception of the sound changes instantly. Also, if you have a car with a half decent stereo system in it, you can really understand how muddy your mix can be, since cars are basically giant bass traps.

cool

Lots of great advice here! Kudos for not relying on visual feedback and using your ears. Pro tip; don’t use papyrus. 🤮

So there are no rules for example kick -10, Bass -12, Drums -14 Lead -16DB?

what was the song you used for reference? I'm looking for it for weeks, heard it once in the club and forgot to shazam :(

'''home-mastering and gently touching limiter ca -12dB fsd?:)

I use the pinknoise technique... then I hear the original track and do the necessary amendments...

Are you using only native plugins for the sake of this video and people watching? Only because using the Ableton limiter is very risky imo.

Every mix is different - taste in music decides your balance - also the producer will have the final say. plus the genre, So i don't see the point of this video - taking away these frequency in another track won't be the same. you will do more damage then good. If u want your balance to be good - train your ears - it gets better over time. trust me after 32 years in this game. Sorry to be negative. for your low end - i nice trick is to find the root note -then cut the frequency below the lowest note - then it will be round , in key. and it will dip the low stuff that is not needed in key. also a linear EQ setting might also be good tool for cutting as it keeps the phase in tact. This method will serve u well. No matter if u make techno or whatever. there are no rules for this - so use your ears !

Subscribed. I only ask that you never use the Papyrus font again. Thanks.

Im going to watch this channel as a background while doing my dayjob

My subs seduce me all the time!!! I. CANT. HELP. IT!!! 😱 😭😱😭 *faints*

There is some pretty stereotupical mastering mistakes in this video: Mixing into a limiter unless for a very specific sound isn't a wise production method. Ableton and many other DAWs these days are all 32bit so you can easily export an over 0dB signal and not have any clipping. Often it is better to master separetly. Same thing applies on channels and most plugins but it still good practice to leave some headroom. Despite what many believe compressing a mix will not give it more feel on a dance floor and large playback system. As someone who used to setup Alpha Dynacord Systems, Cut countless dub plates, and released a bunch of techno well working with other Pros I have learned from experience. Yes even streaming does not require loud mixes and actually prefers the masters in at -1dB. Louders RMS masters just get turned down by the streaming algorithm anyways. Why does the Basic Channel, Deep Chord, Early Detroit, 80s music often sound better and have more feeling? Large part is less compression ;-)

If you master for Spotify it has to be -12 LUFS. If you do like this they will punish you by lowering the volume of the entire track.

Walk me through, I'm ready, Oscar

Very interested to know if you've ever used the Clip To Zero production strategy, it's been championed by Baphometrix and also described by Underbelly/You Suck At Producing. I've found great success getting a lot of loudness using that strategy, which essentially eliminates the headroom of every part of the track before it hits the limiter.

So, has YOᑌTᑌᗷE de-monetized you in the end? I hop no, you deserve it!