I swear reducing the 250 hz range with master eq is the easiest/best mastering tip I've heard. Such a small addition makes a HUUUUUUUGE difference. You don't even hear the muddyness but as soon as you reduce it you hear how muddy it was before.
Bruh if you didn't hear the muddyness before then maybe the muddyness you hear when bypassing the 250hz cut is because your ears have adjusted 😂don't be cutting shit because some dude on RU-vid said you must lmao
@@tanishkshrivastava6822 It's quite common practice, actually -- especially doing MS eq on the master to get rid of some mud. Making narrow cuts and/or using a dynamic eq can work wonders. I often automate a linear phase eq on the master. There's no rules. If it sounds good, it sounds good.
I like to just slap stuff into some kinda framework based on a genre, but the fundamentals are the same. Hi’s wide. Lows mono. Reverb ads depth. Sub 30-100 (sometimes 140 for phone speakers.) side chain this so it doesn’t clash with the bass drum....Otherwise the low end will be a homogenous static mess with no movement and a ton of rumbly bois. Fundamental 140-3 or 500 ish. This is useful with biiig chords. It helps you avoid the (idk what tf chord that is) moment if you have too many voices/ layers on something. In rock this is sometimes just the basses job. Other times they go for the wall of sound vibe and that’s ok. But normally works with power chords or 2 note chords so keep all that in mind. A super saw stack will usually gain around 80 siiiick points with a soft clipped fundamental layer on top and it might just remind the people in the pit to drink some water cuz that shit will be rooooling harder than they are. Mids and hi’s can somewhat clash due to stereo separation variability and the extra wiggle room that provides. However, this can cause phase discrepancies in mono. Just make sure to cut out the mud and any harsh frequencies. Also, do not over do stuff. Remember, that a song needs movement. You will use a side chain from the kick for like most things, but the rhythm should still be obvious without it. (In terms of the mud thing: Usually like 200-400 in mid instruments and like 3.4-4khz in hi instruments like noise and hats and stuff....as for the sub....please, just mono it and low pass it. Do not mess the sub up. You can saturate it sllliiightly if you want it to pop on phone speakers....But just do not mess it up.) Vocals. (2 stage compression.) first stage cuts out overly dynamic peaks. Second stage is gentle with attack turned clockwise and release turned counter clockwise. mix according to song. May need saturation. May not be saturation. Use ear. Go for confidence and mud free. I still suck at this, but I’ve watched like 40+ hours of content on it so like, I have some theory. Just, not enough application yet, so take what I said here with a grain of salt. (Not too much salt cuz the performance is super important and it’s hard to sing dehydrated.) also, pitch correction. Drums. Side chain hats, cymbals and noise to the kick. The kick should be fairly brief. The kick is a kick. The bass is a bass. Don’t make the kick a bass. It gets weird. Use good samples. Kick and snare should be the loudest thing in the mix. In rock, it sometimes helps to glue the whole set together with compression, but uses sparingly. This only works sometimes. But when it does, it’s super cool. Hard clipping is cool. Don’t over do it. Loudness is not the determining factor of a good song. Dynamics are also not the determining factor of a good song. Please don’t blow my headphones up for the sake of an energetic drop after a super quiet intro. Lastly, less is more...but only if you know what more is. You also can’t magically stop overthinking stuff without learning theory. If you don’t know what you are doing, you wiiilll over complicate shit. That’s ok. Learn. But don’t waste like 10 years doing it like me. Trial and error is fun. But you can bypass a whole ass year of doing it in like 30 mins with a RU-vid video on the subject. So if you value time and efficiency, put ur pride aside and assume that even if you could figure it out in a day, with technology, you can figure it out during your morning dump and use it for an entire extra day. Why did I post this? Cuz I hate preaching technical knowledge in comment sections so by doing this, I’ll remember that time I decided to ramble in a comment section and all the stuff I needed to remember will just come back to me. Have a good one bois and gerlz. Ez.
Thanks for whom ever that was that liked my comment because my statement is true, @Zenwork helps a lot and I can use it towards the music I make on my iPad Pro with Auria Pro and other DAW’s
I've been studying artists lately by really listening to their EQ & compression. Skrillex, Deadmau5 & Galantis are in my top 3 for clean, tight and precise. P.s. I LOVE your song!
Tracks with best mixes (according to my knowledge) Hardstyle - phuture noise : circles and squares Melodic dubstep - Hans Zimmer time Ben Walter remix Dubstep - virtual riot x panda eyes x barely alive : Tri force (Dodge and fuski remix) Trap - eptic : power
With dubstep and melodic dubstep pretty much any Virtual Riot song within the past few years except for the VIP EPs with Barely Alive are really well mixed. However imo one of the top artists ever in terms of mixing is Mr Bill. Check out his recent EP he made with kLL Smith title "kLL Bill"
Songs with tight mixes and great low end: Rome in Silver - "Fool." _Insane_ low end, punch, space, width and clarity. Fat Nick - "Georgous Gorillaz." Not a perfect mix -- but it has some of the hardest 808's I've ever heard. Astrix - "Deep Jungle Walk." This song has so much space and dimension that it sounds like you're listening to the damn thing in surround sound.
absolute legend, been having a problem with this recently and ive found it hard to understand or vibe with other tutorials but you always seem to nail it
Thanks so much dude. I think a good example of a tight mix on a house track would be SQWAD - Like That... also, making a video on leveling especially mixing in your claps with your kicks and stuff would be awesome
Anyone wanting examples of the closest thing to perfect mixdowns/masters, check out SPACE LACES. Not only are his mixes impossibly clean, but they're also LOUD - which I've found is a hard combination to execute - especially for heavier tracks like his. Dude's also leagues ahead in terms of creativity, originality, and sound design in general. He's got a significant fanbase, but he's still one of the most underrated producers out there. Cheers!
Yeah, his mixes are dope. I'd argue his masters are bordering on TOO loud though. (And yes, that's a thing... even in electronic music. 🤣) "Get Stupid" is a sick song. I love TroyBoi's mixes too. His songs always have insane low end, width, loudness and clarity.
@@Skrenja I can respect that! I'd argue it depends on where you're listening though. The louder the better when it comes to live shows and when a track is mixed and mastered as nice as Spogs are, it can be as if someone just squeezed extra volume out of a sound system that you thought couldn't get louder without any distortion. That's one of the reasons why these record labels sign these kinds of people and why "loudness wars" exist in the first place. And hell yeah - TroyBoi is an awesome artist! He's definitely no stranger to a clean-ass mix... Loudest song I've heard in recent memory (still baffled as to how there's not more distortion) is Oddprophet's track FLEX. Worth listening if you haven't heard it already. But my God is that shit loud. Seriously nutty compression.
Zen! This was a great tutorial. Always blowin minds 🤯. Just got back from Dirtybird Campout and all I want to do now is master the tightness of my tracks. It felt like most Dirtybird songs were bangers because their kick and sub was hitting just right. Your song had the same frequencies. I really appreciate your insight my ninja. Thanks again 🦑😻
Always cool videos. I'm coming back to your stream this Thursday! Lol it's been a little over a year since you destroyed me haha hoping to get a play. And hopefully I got better.
Does anyone else feel like in almost every single example here, his example of what not to do sounded better than his example of what to do? The lowend sides sounded great, that ssl compressor was really smeary, that cardboardy kick didn't sound good but the clicky kicks did sound good. I'm really confused by what he's trying to accomplish here.
Hi man! I really dig your channel. I checked Evo sounds but I noticed you only have serum presets. Since I currently do not own serum, it's a bummer. Could you also do massive presets?
Kick one I am learning about this week, especially listening to other tracks kicks compared to mine; been shaping it in kick2 to sound more like theirs and it has made a huge difference. The right kick for the side chain track is also important
Zen Thanks!! Awesome teacher !!! Can you make a video on reverb how many reverbs you ise. What you send to a reverb ,? to which revern? and the decay times and how you much you blend. The parameter that you use. Like how many plates do you use how many reverbs do you use. and delays as well you use. But showing the reverbs decay times ?
All songs by Doorn Records are a good example of a tight mix, I just can't seem to get that, hope this helps me, after listening to this I feel like their engineer uses a low attack, Doorn lovers, am I right maybe? EDIT: omg the detune center thing is already a huge tip lmao
