I did both the mixing and mastering (the light mastering version) courses and can say that the mastering course was pure gold. At first I thought "was this all?", then the penny dropped and now I wouldn't do it any other way than the way Streaky showed us. It is not about plugins (well the Metric A/B is essential), it is about the method and your ears.
Been using logic since 2004. Am on logic X now. Unless apple just released a load of new tools, last I checked, logic pro LACKS a multi-band limiter, a multi-band saturator, an ACTIVE EQ, an advanced auto-tune, a multi-band noise compressor/gate, a low end phase protector, a low artifact pitch shifter, as well as other highly useful tools that give better sound and faster project turnover times. Logic has most of the basic tools and they work fine for well behaved predictable music. Real life often demands much more though. Viewers should just understand the context of the statement provided in this video. For average to easy projects, logic can be adequate. For everything else, you will most likely want 3rd party plugins or outboard gear to supplement logic's tool box. The statement that "extra plugins and outboard do help, they are nice" in and of it's self shows logic's limitations. Just a side note, if most producers never needed more than logic's stock plugins, there wouldn't be such a huge market for 3rd party logic compatible plugins.
Hey Streaky, this is a mad tutorial. I just picked up more in the 15 mins from watching you than I have in the three years I have been trying to master within Logic! I subscribe to all your content and this one is one of my tops! So clearly described, great explanations and a real joy to watch. I can’t thank you enough and feel almost confident in mastering now, could I do a mastering template? And please, more content like this.
if anyone uses Ableton, the eq8, comp and glue comp are very good. The limiter however can't be pushed very hard and is the first thing I recommend upgrading
If you’re unable to get a third-party “pro” level limiter, you can get by with running multiple Ableton limiters in series, and just pushing each individual instance of Ableton Limiter slightly. The limiting compounds and you can get a half decent results until you settle on a VST or hardware limiter
Also worth noting that Ableton’s Multiband Dynamics plugin is not transparent. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing but if you’re looking for a multiband compressor that won’t impart its own color to your project, it’s best to look elsewhere.
@@RileyGein You're totally right! If anyone can't invest in a better limiter, stacking limiters, and glue comp with the clipper activated before the limiters will get the job done up as far as a hobby one dosent want to invest in goes! The multiband on top not being transparent has a terrible Ui, Ableton should forsure update it
Thanks Streaky - very informative and the 'After' track (only through my ancient laptop speakers here) was in my subjective view much clearer, better balanced and more exciting to listen to as a result of the EQ and compression/limiter changes. Cheers.
I can't wait to watch you videos from a month or two. I'm quite busy for some times, your content is always amazing! Thanks for sharing your experience!
Hi Streaky. I always appreciate your clear explanations and the overall content of your channel. But frankly, I would appreciate your videos even more without the looped music playing in the background. I find it quite distracting. 🥴 Keep on the great work!
@@bubz75 it s not BG Music - what u hear it s what he does as a educated mastering engineer, if u wouldn t hear anything how could you trust what he s teaching… that was a cucumbercomment IMHO
Impressive walkthrough, Streaky! I took some handwritten notes during the video so now I’m gonna head back to the studio and dive into my DAW! Thank you 🙏 very much. You are a wonderful person.
Great coverage of how to apply the tools in context. The end result is a well balanced mix through a limiter, rather than an optimised master, but that wasn’t the point of the exercise. I think Streaky’s mastering customer base is secure.
Hey Streaky, Hope You’re Doing Awesome 😇, I’ve always been a regular viewer from like past 2 months & I really really! wanted to thank you on behalf of every person & aspiring musician who just can’t get over that phase where things do sound good but still not industry standard to actually sounding industry standard & Teaching them stuff which most people don’t tell anyone cuz they believe that it’s their secret sauce. You are an amazing person & i really wish you lots of happiness, prosperity & good health 🤍 The world really needs more people like you who understand that knowledge is meant to be shared & it’s always the person behind the tools & tricks who can decide when to use something to enhance the art. Thank you again for helping me & lakhs of other people for enhancing their creative sides Sir! Keep blessing our feed with the your precious knowledge & perspectives ✨
It's always so instructive to see experts using stock plugins. I think one of the most important factors is your listening environment which will enable you to make good constructive decisions. Thanks again Streaky!
Another tip: level match (and EQ) by ear, not by numbers. A calibrated, repeatable, monitor level is also everything. (and most projects don't require high pass filtering, believe it or not).
Well done!!!! I am honored to have received these teachings from a true professional of the trade. I look forward to other interesting tutorials on using LOGIC PRO X and all its PLUG INs without the need for other EXTERNAL PLUGS. It's true! I agree with what you said: It is better to learn the basics of REGISTRATION with LOGIC PLUGINS rather than wasting time and money to learn with other third party PLUG IN. Thanks
I have to say, I'm really loving your content mate. Whilst I'm not a Logic user, I still gain great value out of this video as you walk through your process in a logical and articulate manner. Thanks for sharing this, cheers.
Great vid. Thanks Streaky. One thing I learned from using stock plugins is which 3rd party ones I actually NEED. So I don't end up with a crap-load of plugins I don't use.
I like that the mastered version has some extra clarity and air. It also seems to wander less dynamically. But there's something missing in the third and fourth octave that takes away this really pleasing growl from the bass. At the same time some of the pick attack is missing too. It might just be that the master track is a half a DB or so lower in level. Either way excellent demo.
Great video, making a great point. The only caveat I can think of is you obviously started out with a track that is both extremely well performed and extremely well recorded and mixed. Most beginners/hobbyists would not have the luxury of either. On the other hand, you’ve got to start somewhere, right?
Why the music loop in the background? It's distracting and fatiguing while trying to listen to what you're saying. Otherwise, I like your videos. Cheers
You need to start using songs that have vocals. Imagine a very base heavy vocal, recorded in a hotel room makeshift vocal booth like most are nowadays, and what that would do to a vocal being lifted at 240hz like that. Also, the raising of harsh vocal frequency ranges where you wanted the guitar to come out. You really should explain that these changes could do serious harm to bedroom/makeshift studio vocals like 90% of music that's recorded nowadays.
Few days late to this because I've been mastering an EP for a local band. How I wish I'd seen this 4 days ago! Just goes to show it's not the tools, it's the person using them that actually matters. My favourite advice is 'listen, don't look'. Ignore what the visuals are telling you and actually HEAR what's happening. I think that was you who made that distinction a long time ago and I never forgot. EDIT: Another bit of advice I would use is - never send the entire finished track until you've been paid. send a clip. I been burned way too many times on that.
The only thing I might add to this is that I would turn the distortion knob to clip mode in the compressor so that the limiter doesn't have to work as hard.
great video ! sure, a new plugin is always sexy but what's really sexy is a great sounding track and what gets you there are the methods, not the plugins.
Great vid but I couldn't actually hear the changes during the process even though switching on and off, tell me Streaky how do we learn how to really listen and decide what is right and what is wrong? if that makes sense ....
You maybe don't need expensive outboard gear or premium plugins BUT you do need top shelf speakers to hear what the processors or plugins do. You can master or mix with stock plugins - even 20 year old plugins but you can't do much without good speakers. Streaky maybe has $50K worth of speakers in his well treated room. Thats whats needed first and foremost.
A solid monitoring setup is definitely important but the treated room is more important, imo. Unless you’ve been in an untreated monitoring room for long enough to learn the nuances of how audio from your monitors is being mangled by the untreated room, the best monitors in the world won’t save you.
I will try the EQ tricks. Especially the low end bump and I noticed that top songs like from Lil Nas X and Dua Lipa often have a huge low end, actually a bit too much for my headphones so that it starts to sound muddy.
Multi-million selling pop songs are mixed and mastered better than whatever else you're listening to. The top engineers get paid big bucks for making the records that actually sell, obviously. If they were mixed and mastered badly, no one would listen to them.
@@AutPen38 idk about that - they can be top selling, doesn't mean it's good..it sells "despite" being non good... Even so, their talent is the size of their ears, and mix decisions, they could do it on a laptop I am sure. And probably did, during the 2 year pandemic, they just don't tell it to people... Like Elon Musk probably came up with the TEsla idea on the poopster, on a toilet paper roll,,,but tells people he designed it in his luxury office.....I totally made that up, but it's possible. I think the Engineer grand talking, is just to scare off the group ofpeople entering the market... Pro Tools, Pefect Room, Perfect Speakers, Analog Gear, is a wall to protect them - so they mention it a lot. In the meantime, some kid with Apple iPhones beat them already.
compression is key, with all respect, that tiny needle dance didn t do more than guiding ppl not to squeeze the lemons 🍋 expander, compressors compander, VCA, OPT, Transistors, Tubes (670), and all the the diffrent types of ⚙️, it s all relevant… Serve it as you may - no sugar - no sweetness
A really nice video, I'd say all the good things that can be said and I did click the thumb up. But I have one little request: turn off the f****** "elevator" music while you speak! It's distracting, it makes more difficult to remember what where playing a few seconds before and compare it, when needed. Also, being an old chap, my temper is getting worse every day, so I lose patience for any nonsense. Therefore forgive me for my comment. But turn off the damn "elevator" music! 😀 👋
quick question, when having a two track beat thats already mastered you put it in the sesh record and mix vocals to it how should the mastering process be ? knowing the beat is already finished but the vocals are just mixed
I’m not a professional engineer and don’t work with music where I get a mastered beat and need to fit a vocal topline, so anyone that does work in this space please feel free to correct any of my thoughts and assumptions which are wrong. If I had to mix and master a track of two composite parts like this, I’d route the mastered beat to one bus (the “beat master” bus), and keep the vocal recording and processing chain on its own bus. After tracking, processing, and mixing the vocals to fit with the beat, I’d route the vocal bus to a “vocal master” bus and give it a gentle mastering to match the beat’s overall loudness and dynamic range. This is mostly a case of “use your ears” but spectrum analyzers and such would be useful to ensure the vocals and beat aren’t clashing in a way you aren’t able to hear. No need for a perfect recreation of every aspect of mastering done to the beat, but enough effort spent on making the vocals and beat sound as if they were recorded as part of the same project. Last step for me would be to route the “vocal master” l and “beat master” busses to the master bus and focus on gluing the track together with compression, saturation, dynamics, etc. and loudness -depending on the loudness you’re going for. Just the $0.02 of someone who admittedly has limited experience with this topic. Here’s hoping someone more knowledgeable comments and teaches us both something :)
OMG the background music is ridiculous!!! Great video otherwise but when trying to really listen to the sonic qualities of the track you are mastering here it's jarring to have the ear immediatley cut to the obnoxious background music and makes it hard for the brain to retain what it actually heard a second before. I would suggest leaving some room between playing the various takes so the listener can process what they're supposed to be listening for. Thanks again for sharing all this knowledge with us.
'Can sound great.' yeah, we knew that. I don't think you use stock plugins for mastering. second, your master track sounded very processed already. Probably not with stock plugins. So where is the proof?
I think, aside from Mastering Engineers having experienced and trained ears, they have a monitoring set up that makes it much easier to hear those subtle changes.
If you don't hear any difference, apart from volume, then it is a good mastering. Mastering is not to make a mix sound better. If the mix is bad, there's no magic for it. Mastering is just to make it sound more clear, and more punchy, also to make the tracks more suitable for many environments, speakers, platforms, etc.
I also think that Lionel Messi, Ronaldo and Steph Curry could play well with a beginner Ball that isn't made by Adidas, Nike or Wilson.... I have no idea where this started that being a musician or producer is about equipment, rather than ears! I mean no other discipline is like that. Do painters constantly talk about which brush brand they use? Just elite talk, to keep competition out. Scare them with "look what I collected, own, have" - you cannot have. toxic mentality, perhaps masculinity from a bygone era!!!
I've got some sympathy with the underlying idea (gear itself won't turn an unskilled person into a pro), but the top sportspeople (and artists) do indeed use the best equipment. Messi has the latest footwear and football, trains in a state of the art gym, and plays on a pristine pitch. He wouldn't be able to dribble so easily or score such beautiful goals if he had to wear a pair of old shoes and a misshapen tracksuit on a muddy waterlogged pitch down the local park.
@@AutPen38 true, but they never talk about it - it' snot the focus of their day-to-day... I feel certain producers, instead of talking about music, all tal;k about is what they bought.... If a millionaire superstar doesn't do it ...I'd think we shouldn't either. Also, anybody can afford Messi's shoes.... Instead of paying 100, you'd pay 180, big deal...