I was paying landr to master my tracks but after watching your vids I just mastered my first one on my own and it came out amazing. I'm def subscribing...Appreciate you vids bro. Loyal sub right here from this moment on.
This helped me so much. My beats sound 10x better. Nothing to loud. Nothing to quiet. No distorting. Just a clean and clear mix all the way through. Thank you for taking out the time to help🙏
Sean, I'm a musician first engineer 2nd and your videos have helped me improve my sound and understand the science behind mastering. Thanks a ton! Keep it up!
You don't know how much inappreciate your tutorials.. You explain everything we need to know and also you sound and look very confident in your seshes. Good shit mane keep at it
Thanks for this Sean. Started producing 3 months ago and this has saved me time and I’ve literally followed your method step by step and it works. Thanks once more man. I really appreciate it
thanks man, used this for my hiphop beat and honestly the most blessed piece now. first beat i made and now sounds 10x better because of this, appreciate it dude!
I may have deleted the comment you replied to, but thank you so much for replying to my comment on your 7yo video. I had the concern about getting the limiter gain to boost my rms dbs. Of course you were right and my plugin chain was out of order. Fortunately, someone on reddit helped me with that too. This mastering technique of yours is truly amazing. Mastering was the one element that I haven't been able to wrap my head around for 15 years, no joke, but this video and your explanations made so much sense and helped so much. Once I got my plugins properly ordered, I finally have a track that sounds good and loud after all these years. Thanks again, you're a legend.
Im learning so much and loving your channel. Many thanks for posting this stuff for free. So many mix/master engineers are reluctant to share tips and understandably so - it's their living. I just hope the channel generates you an increased amount of paid work!
I didn't think this work work out well, but it did - well done. I was especially surprised at how transparent the limiter sounded with quite a bit of gain reduction
bro your the best audio engineer ..nice how you explain ...got you i was having problems with my master but now thanks to you i know more about it take care broky
What do you think about the Slate fgX for mastering? And also do you leave about -6db headroom for mastering? And does that mean -6 on all tracks or -6 on peak levels on the volume output? Thanks
I own and like the FGX. It has a unique character - not as transparent as say the Ozone Maximizer, but still good. -6 is referring to the peak output level. Depending on the situation (especially if you're sending to another engineer for mastering) you want to have at least 3-4dB of headroom.
What’s up Sean. I got a bunch of questions from this vid if you have a min to go through them. I’ll separate them to keep it neat 1)why use a limiter? Why not just raise all the track volumes together? 2)do you always set the ceiling on the gain plugin at 0.1? If so why? 3)can you get away with just using rms and not use lufs just for simplicity sake? It would be one less thing to worry about. If so, did you say it’s just good practice to keep it at -8 for the whole track? 4)is this video applicable to any genre for the most part? How may it differ? 5)what is mandatory in the mastering process? I know everything is highly subjective with music but what would you say is objective? I assume one thing would be that the music needs to be at a certain dB to compete. I assume theres some other things as well. Could you break it down? Hope you can answer these when you’re free. No rush. Whatever you have time for is appreciated.
Sean, I completely understand how to master now and what RMS we should be aiming for etc. I'm just a bit confused with what we try to aim for in the mixing stage. Throughout all your videos you push the mix all the way to 0db so where does the headroom come from? Thanks mate, loving these videos! G
When I tried to use the limiter my RMS wouldn't change no matter how much I raised the DB level. The track got louder and would start distorting but my meter was no help at all. Can you help me with this Sean ?
Dope tutorial I subbed, but was wondering if its better to master the vocals and beat together rather than export them together as a full song then master them, like you did in the tutorial?
hey man love the info on this video so far i’ll definitely sit down with it better soon! do you have a video on how you got to this point? (noob here) like before bouncing my track, whereabouts should my db be at? and what format would be best? thank you
I have quite a few mixing videos on the channel that cover this - essentially, you want at least 6dB of headroom prior to mastering and the best format is the highest sample rate / bit rate that preserves the original quality of your recording. I typically use 44K / 48K 24 bit depending on the files I receive.
Hey Sean, I'm mobile a lot so I end up starting and working on alot of mixes away from a studio with monitors. Do you have suggestions for decent headphones for mixing? I think I remember you mentioning this before but I just don't remember what video it was in. Thanks as always for another great video with good information.
Hey, Sean! :D Great tutorial, going to check out the template! Just wondering, do we have to master on the .wav file or could we do all of this on the master output? Thanks!
hey De' you could master on the stereo output but it does take more CPU if you already have a lot going in your mixing session. Otherwise, it's personal preference :)
should I add an adaptive limiter on my rap vocal track or should I just have it on my stereo out track? I compressed my vocals using the logic stock platinum digital compressor plug in and adjusted it to where it sounds very crisp but I want it a bit more punchy . Should I turn up my make up gain on the compressor or the output gain on the bottom right corner of the compressor? Or am I better off just adding some gain on the adaptive limiter? Please help, you're videos have gotten me so far!
I would try a combination of reducing the amount of attenuation on the compressor and then add an adaptive limiter as the last plugin on the chain. If you're looking for "punchy" then you don't want to over-compress your vocal and you can get a touch of extra volume with the limiter.
Hi! Ur videos are amazin man, thank u for sharin ur knowledge. Please tell me, should I use multi band compressor on my masters on instrumentals ? Salute :)
no problem :) multi band compression is great for that last bit of "glue" on the master. That said, I would be careful to use it very lightly so you don't destroy the transients and dynamics for the beat.
I appreciate you so much bro. huge help. any videos on beat mixing/mastering with stock plugins? the production side of this would be greatly appreciated
Yo Sean, I noticed that the initial mix was hitting the stereo about 1 to 2 DB before clipping- isn’t that not enough headroom? Shouldn’t mixes be preferably around -6DB for mastering?
it depends on who is mastering it and how much headroom you want to provide. I am usually mixing and mastering the sessions, achieving most of my loudness in the mix, so I don't need as much headroom to work with. If you're sending it off, and you feel comfortable with the engineer you're working with, you should give them a bit more space :)
Great video, I do have one question though. Before i begin mastering I should always bounce the entire project into one region and then just master on a bus track? Would I not get the same effect if I mastered on the original project master bus without bouncing all regions into one?
much appreciated bro I'm new and pretty much on a budget when it comes to making music and this video is going to be of great help. Do u have a video on mixing, same type of music but with stock plugins?
QUESTION: When i turn up the gain on the adaptive limiter, nothing changes on the level meter even though I can hear it get louder. What am i doing wrong?
Does the amount of headroom you have matter that much? I always have around 3-6 db of space but your track seems to be like 1.3. I use the multiband compressor and adaptive limiter to get up to -.1 or -.2, is that damaging my sound?
I don't like to rely on the master too much for loudness because of the way it affects the dynamics of the mix. I'm usually only pulling the threshold down a couple db at most.
If we weren't using stock plugins. What would you have used for the stereo spread and multi band compression? I'm having a hard time getting this particular mix to RMS - 5 without getting some glitches
