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Thank you very much Sage audio!!!! learnt a lot!!!! Love your guys content and it tends to be extremely useful!!!! Couldn't find this much of information even through a paid tutorial!!!! Thank you once again!!!
also if you're mastering for streaming you want your final limiter's ceiling to be at -1dbFS maximum. between -2db and -1db is the safe zone where no distortion will occur from the streaming coversion
Great video, extremely useful. If I have produced and mixed a song at 44.1kHz 16bit and need to deliver it to CD and streaming what exports should I do? I thought doing a lossless export at 44.1 kHz 16bit would be sufficient? Thanks for the superb content
This is pretty good still confused on how much limiting I should do and if loudness is in the mix not the master. Need to watch more videos. Also confused with stereo imaging in an eq thx
Solid as always. Thanks for being so generous with your knowledge. 🙏 What do you think about placing your saturation prior to subtractive EQ and compression? More of a "traditional" signal path to soak up some dynamics and bring in some colour which you can sculpt with EQ?
Thanks, much, and I understand and implement most of your steps. I'm confused, however, about parallel compression: some mastering compressors have a mix knob. If I set up a channel with the compressor and send that channel's output to the master, won't it be mixed in at the *beginning* of the master chain? That would *not* be the same as a compressor with a mix knob.
Hey Brian! In this one I used an aux send to set up the parallel compression - which is routed after the effects used (but can be made post fader, or have it's routing changed etc.). If you used a compressor with a mix or wet/dry then the parallel compression would occur wherever that compressor was inserted. With the set up in this video, via the aux send, the parallel compression will occur after all of the processing used in the track's chain - which would necessitate putting the limiter on the master output to avoid clipping. What you said is correct - if you duplicated the track to another channel and compressed it, then blended it back in, it wouldn't have the processing of the chain. Thanks for watching! SageAudio.com
Absolutely amazing video easily to understand. I have two questions so. How we can add clean (i mean high pitched and warmth and doesnt muddy) sound for side channels and how we can add harmonics for mid channel ?
If someone could help me that would be great! I see he has all the instruments on a single track and that is where he is putting all of the processing and effects, what would you master on if you have all the tracks individually? on a bus?
Hey Tracy! Thanks for watching. Use multiband compression when a specific frequency group needs to be compressed, but others don't. For example, if the mid range needs to be compressed, but the high and low ranges sound controlled, a multi-band compressor or dynamic equalizer can be used to control the mid-range while leaving the high and low ranges unaffected. Thanks! SageAudio.com
One question ..do you process the parallel compressed channel diferently or is it processed with the same limiter for example as a group....how would this work if it was a second copied channel instead of sent bus
For me, the best mastering process is done with mixing. Just add a bit of bus compression and a limiter on the master bus when you are happy with the mix
and how are u going to gain width of the track without crosstalk/mid side compression or eq/even stereo widening plugins... (stereo width is just one of the things u are able to do only at the master stage there are many more of it). If u re amateur thats ok just to add bus comp and limiter but in some advanced levels its not...
@@Kuracpalac1 you sure about that buddy? Ive been producing music for 11 years. You can do stereo widening in the mixing stage. All im saying is keep it simple. OF Course I also do a bit of stereo width on the master, just not too much cause itll be out of phase. If the mix sounds good, don’t destroy it with a billion plugins.
@@LukeIcardMusic of course you can edit panorama and do stereo width in mix, but you ll never be able to get as much stereo width without master... and stereo width was just one of the examples what u re not able to do in mix. I m producing for 17 years so yes i m pretty sure what i m talking my man ;)
@@LukeIcardMusic 11 years is not long for music production. You should consider having a more open mind to bouncing your file then working in a separate session with it. I promise you my friend you will hear things you never thought you would.
Great tutorial! When doing subtractive EQ on the mastering (e.g., highpass filter) do you tend to use linear phase EQ? I noticed in the video that it was set to Zero Latency. Also, would you recommend using a dedicated EQ plugin to mono audio below a certain frequency rather than using the Trim/gain plugin that comes with this feature in DAWs like Ableton? Thanks. (PS: Great tune. Who is it?)
Thanks for watching Sam! Linear phase is a good choice when you're cutting out lower frequencies. I haven't used that EQ but if it has a linear phase option I'd say it's fine to use! SageAudio.com
@@sageaudio What is the problem of EQ phase shifting in the lower range on summed (group or mix) busses where the same EQ plugin is being applied across multiple tracks (e.g., kick and bass)? Is it that multi-frequency phase-shifting artifacts affect the tone even on single instrument tracks.
If this is still unanswered for you: there's a great video on linear phase EQ and if it's a necessity on the FabFilter Channel for overall information on the topic, maybe it can answer one or two things regarding the topic.
Hello Sage Audio!. Do you have any thoughts on when it's good to set up Pro Q3 in Zero latency vs natural phase vs linear phase ?. Are any of them better to use when cutting certain frequencies ?. best / Mathias
What's the best export for video? I know that the sample rate, must be 48 khz, but what about the bit rate? Anyway, if it' s easy, tell me the best export for video...
It can work fine with the wet/dry or mix knob! I prefer using a send, but using it as an insert can be useful if you want it earlier in the signal flow. SageAudio.com
For step one, how much headroom do you like to give yourself before starting step two? In the video the mix is peaking around -11db is that a good place to start?
Hey JOVI! For this one I think we started with about 4dB of headroom - but how much you start with is up to you! I like having around 4dB but some start with a little more or a little less. So long as the signal isn't clipping in between your plugins/inserts you should be okay! SageAudio.com
yeah thanks for this. i just realized i shouldn't even need compression on my master. i've been trying to configure it for quite a while though my mixes are already so ultra fat.
question, why use a limited mix file which you turn down in the tutorial for mastering when that's literally the last thing you want as a mastering engineer. I understand you talked about it in the video but I'm wondering if this is your normal mastering process
Hey Woosil! Thanks for your comment/question. -1dBTP for a master isn't too extreme - if you intend to upload the master to an online streaming service, loudness normalization will handle some of these issues of having a quieter master. If you're mastering for CD, you won't need to use -1dBTP since there's no encoding to alter the amplitude of the master. SageAudio.com
You can still get good sounds with it! If it works for you and you know how to get a good sound from it then no reason to ditch it! But up to you of course - thanks for watching! SageAudio.com
Question that's been bothering me. Can I master my mix without saving it, I meant just master it on stereo out track?? Or should I export into wav and then master? Thanks
Hey buddy, i just started learning about this and it seems the common approach is to export your mix as a wav file and export that into a separate session for mastering, as it saves CPU on your computer. It also forces you to do one thing at a time; that is, mastering And you can master in the mixing session, without saving, but I personally think it's good practice to keep production, mixing and mastering separate.
@@nuvisionprinting I've a bit of acoustics but what I'm getting at is fatigue that happens because of prolong use of my entry level monitors and little build up cuz of very little acoustics on louder level.
@@lynncayenmusic well chances are most of the fatigue is coming having to compensate for some lack in the environment. Sort out the acoustics cause if they are lacking the best monitors aren't going to be any help. That's the main reason I haven't upgraded my jbl monitors to genelec. You can have the best speakers in the world, if the room is lacking then you will still have same issue.
I am struggling with mastering so much! I will master a track, export it and the audio file is still small and not full like yours is, its also quiet even on spotify verses other tracks. I need help!
