I love that feeling when I see a new video from this channel and I know it's going to a be a high quality video with legitimate tips from professionals and not just random tutorial videos. Thanks for bringing in great people to share their knowledge.
Thanks very much Klubz Productions! That's very kind of you! I definitely want people who work on music every day so we can ALL learn from them! Have a marvellous time recording and mixing, many thanks Warren
@@Producelikeapro I just sent this video to my partner on a record. Preparing our once rehearsal studio, now recording basement home sound factory. Just wanted to take the time and tell you congratulations on this video and all the hard work and obvious dedication to music we both share . Sincerely, J.
I really like this guy! Now, I know there are only so many hours in the day and Mr. Sokol is probably a very busy man, but something like a "Mastering Basics" video with him using one of your mixes (or maybe even a mix from a PLAP academy member!) would be amazing.
I cannot begin to express how I love the in-depth explanations about the inner workings of the gear here. Unlike most videos where people claim "this is magic," here we have a guy who went down the technical rabbit hole and listens and therefore can put words on what the tools allow you to do. I love that. In a world full of snake oil salesmen it's good to have facts. Not alternative facts (that would simply mean lies), but actual facts. Thanks, Warren and Warren!
Hi noisesoundtonevibe, I agree! He was able to really break things down for me to understand as well! I love learning! Have a marvellous time recording and mixing, many thanks Warren
Hi Friends, I hope you're doing marvellously well and had a great start into the new week! Being able to master your own songs has become a crucial skill to mixing engineers, producers and home studio recordists: Often, budgets don’t allow to hire an external Mastering engineer anymore. So in order for our music to compete with songs on the radio, Spotify or I-Tunes, we have to learn how to master music ourselves. Today, we are blessed to sit down with the insanely talented Warren Sokol from United Mastering: In this video, Warren breaks down his complete mastering chain and explains his favorite tools - digital as well as analogue. All the way from Acoustic Room Treatment and picking the right Speakers, to Signal Flow, Converters, Clocks, EQs, Harmonic enhancers, Compressors, Limiters and Dithering. Warren goes into great detail on each of his processors, explains their unique characteristics and how you can use them to achieve full and punchy masters. You’ll also learn how to prepare your mixes for mastering and Warren points out common mixing mistakes to avoid in order to achieve a great master. I hope you enjoy this interview and it helps you to craft big, radio-ready masters! Have a marvellous time recording and mixing, many thanks Warren
@Jason Simmons if the instrument you are mixing, doesn't need much bass, like guitar and vocals, it works very well. It keeps the mix from getting too much unwanted lower frequencies built up, making the mix muddy. I hope this helps, 3 years after you asked.
The only 30+ minute instructional video I've watched in its entirety 2018. Dunno if that's a testament to this video or a jab at YT these days. Probably both...
Hi Joshua, I hear you! When I was looking at doing my Mastering Video I realised that there were 20 minute videos just on just one of the 5 ideas. So in this series I wanted to make sure I gave a lot of information to people! I've been running an Academy now for a year and a half and I get the same questions and issues to deal with from all of us, so I have a pretty good idea of what to pinpoint in a discussion! Thanks for your great comment! I really appreciate it!
I really did enjoy Sokol's approach to listening to music...trying to hear the sounds between the tracks. I could tell Warren (Huart) really valued what Sokol had to say - he was unusually quiet! Sokol really does have a lot of great tips.
I wouldn't often listen to a full 45 minutes of an interview but this was super interesting all the way through. Especially the parts where Warren (S) is talking about what he's thinking about at various stages of the master or when using pieces of gear. Invaluable! Thanks again Warren (H)!
Thanks for that great video. Something make me confuse about Manley massive passive... I don't own the real hardware but I'm using the UAD plugin. And what he told about this EQ is far away from what I hear... and after a few analyses with Room Eq Wizard, the plugin is not reacting as what it's said in the video.... I'm not telling he's wrong, i'm not telling the plugin is not emulated the right way, I'm just telling that I didn't understand "single band with 4 controls" for me it's really a 4 bands EQ... Any precisions re welcome?
That was incredibly informative. It really helped me to understand the compressor/limiter difference and also gave me more grounding in eq from a mastering perspective. I was definitely overdoing it before now! Thanks to you both!
Sooo... Warren has finally found a way to duplicate himself. Ugh, this is too much! Too much I tell you! Just when I thought I was getting grips with what Warren #1 is usually talking about, Warren Squared comes out of nowhere and completely shatters my dreams of ever knowing anything about mastering. Damn it Warren #1. I. Cannot. Take. It. Someone. Please. Send. Help. Now!
HAHAHA!!!! Great comment Antidot70!!! Is is a strange thing to be in the same room with another Warren, so confusing!! I guess guys named "John" are used to it??
It is something I believe everyone of the digital/analog monitor controllers on the market could use!! Although the 16bit format is really disappearing quickly, so I don't know how relevant it will be in even another year. I would really like to see a bit rate & sample rate indicator on these types of monitor controllers! Since they will usually accept any bit rate & any sample rate & then upsample to 192K (or above), which is a 32bit process in most modern DAC's. So it would be really great to have a simple LCD, or even indicator lights to show the actual bit rate & sample rate feeding into the monitor condroller/DAC! anyway....too much to much info...? ;^) Cheers! WS
discovering and watching this video is like walking through a door in a polluted traffic tunnel and coming out into a fresh, clean alpine forest. Thanks Warrens.
Really interesting! I tend to use my own methods of mastering to make sure I produce a sound different than all the others (because being like the others there's nothing special in the end hahaha).... I do not like when some mastering engineers say "if HAS to be done this way or that way"... or say "Your way of doing it is wrong"... the goal is that it SOUNDS good and that the artist be happy in the end, whatever method is used.... see my channel if you want to see my style... but I really love that video here that you present.... because the way you show up your work does not look like "hey, it's THE way of doing it" but rather "here is one of the numerous ways to do it and this is my way" which is awesome so I have a lot of respect for you and for this video. Loving to learn that way! I definitely subscribed and will try to learn as much as a can from these previous advice that your provide here on your channel!! Best Regards my friend! -- From your new friend François in Montreal, Canada! 🙏👍👏👏👏😁👋
Hi Sylvester, thanks for watching!! I would be happy to do a demo for you & discuss our rates! If you'd like to send me an email at: warren@unitedmastering.com I will fill you in on the details! Cheers! WS
A great 45 minutes. Makes me confident that my mixes being sent to be mastered are going to be relatively easy to master because I did things good upfront in the final mix down. Great great explanation of the gear!
This is one of the most informative videos I have watched on your channel. I am now wanting to know more about how my gear actually works(technically) in comparison to each other. Thanks.
Hi Warren Huart, I watch all your video's. this one makes me feel so humble and my god how little I know. I really liked Warren Sokal and what he had to say. Like you he's forgotten more than I'll ever learn. Please keep them coming . Thanks Dave.
Very good presentation; and I especially like the comments from Sokol about getting into the spaces between the performers and bringing the overall loudness up without causing harm to the mix. Very helpful in offering an understanding of how the mastering is approached. Thank you for this interview!
interesting, I use multiband all the time ! I find that it's often the most transparent way to fix problems, or for example, evening bass notes. I also find it to be the most transparent way to make kick and bass work together (multiband sidechain). it's more transparent than normal sidechain compression and makes great room for the kick low end. Multiband sidechain is the future ! :D
Thanks a ton No Filler Words Productions!! I too don't understand how people spend all their money & time recording & mixing music that is supposed to be close to their heart & want others to love it....but then use a totally randomized robot algorithm to put the final polish on their "art" to save a couple bucks?!?!?!? The fact that one of the popular ones has to give you up to 4 alternate versions to choose from...because the process is so randomized you have to pick the one that works best (...or sucks least?) should tell you how inaccurate & inartistic it is!! Then there is the fact you can only do singles this way!! Because of the randomization of "online mastering algorithms", they are unable to artistically arrange, level, do fade-ins/outs, spaces, or crossfades to a group of songs to make an album that FEELS right, regardless of it being technically correct, or not! Granted...I'm a little biased!! But I like human music!! ;^)
From PASSEQ manual: There is basically only one type of filter used in the PASSEQ: The bell-filter or peak-filter. But since the center frequency of the peak-filter, concerning the HF and LF bands, is only marginally within the perceptible hearing range, these filters auditorily and visually rather correspond to shelf-filters. 😉
I'm impressed with his ability and confidence to explain what and how the gear works in different scenarios. I'm not a techie and he gave even me a kind of understanding of how to use this gear. If ever I needed a mastering engineer he would be one of my first consideration.
Is it spam to just say this was amazing and that Warren Sokol was great in this interview? Thanks for taking the time to make and post this! I got a lot out of it even though I have to work with digital tools - still lots of good info.
Is it me or is there an ever so slight slapback delay in the room. Is it a function of the room or something else? Maybe the two lapel mics being slightly behind each other? Either way, I am really enjoying everything you put on this channel! Thanks!
Some of what Warren was sharing was over my head to be honest, but it was good to hear some one articulately talk about mastering from years of experience. If you get another chance Warren, I guess I'd like to see a bit more of his decision making process at the console where we could hear what he is doing. The gear review was great, but I found myself wanting to hear him use the gear and explain his decision making process. Thanks as always for the great job!
Yet another brilliant video. It's nice to watch two top end engineers have a discussion where so much can be learnt. Is there a budget stereo compressor for mastering, say £300 to £500, or is that an oxymoron?
Thanks Klubz Productions and Warren! My question is what do you gain from taking a recording from 44.1 to 48 to 96 or higher. The data is already missing in the original recording so in theory you really are not getting the data back.
To start he may be adding harmonic content or air bands which are over 20KHz that would need sampling rate over 44.1Khz to get recorded. Also some plugins do benefit from higher sample rates which could sound better.
yes, definitely super interestring, thx for the good work. just only too bad not following with the camera, what Mr. Sokol explains about (gesture wise on) the hardware !
Re. "don't use high pass filtering, if the mixer is referring to the Mixbus TV video, the guy instructs you not use multiple high pass filters on the same instrument. Just use one at the end of your fx chain. Layering hpfs on top of each other will cause phase problems, but you still need one on your drum bus, bass bus, guitar bus, etc to clean them up.
Hi Adam, definitely have to use EQ and High Passing properly! Important to listen and not to look! Have a marvellous time recording and mixing, many thanks Warren
hi, thanks for the video,here i´m trying to learn part of the lesson :-) Triode harmonic add detail to the bass, and pentode add detail to the mids or works great on the mids, i have a question about this, is it the same that if we call it third harmonic and second harmonic, triode and pentode respectively?
I got to the end! I really learned a lot- and it was really interesting listening to how the HEDD works and adds the harmonics in an additive fashion instead of affecting the entire signal. It's a piece of gear that has aged very well. Warren 2 knows his stuff for sure!
Thanks Amoth!! I am a big fan of the HEDD!! Excellent converters & the harmonic emulation has yet to be beat in my opinion! Does so much so subtly & simply!! Love it! Did you know that you can have the DAC upgraded to Cranesongs new "Quantum DAC" that's in the new Avocet's & the Solaris? The DAC in the Avocet is by far one of the best I've ever heard!! I am waiting to do the upgrade on my HEDD until he is done designing the Quantum ADC though, so I can have them both upgraded at the same time. The current HEDD DAC beat out pretty much every other one we tested, so it certainly has held up!! Cheers!
Haha. So how do you know when your mix is done?? When all the red lights are on! LoL. ----- Really interesting about the converters. Didn't really know they had a sound.
Thanks for watching!! There are both extreme & subtle differences in all converters, although the truth is that these days every pro audio ADC & DAC on the market uses one of 2 available ADC/DAC chips & the differences in sound really come from the design of the analog stages that each manufacture chooses. The other thing that really effects the sound of converters is the circuit board layout & specifically where the power supply is placed in reference to the actual ADC/DAC chip! The magnetic fields from the power supply can greatly effect the amount of distortion & the accuracy of the conversion process! We tested pretty much every converter on the market before choosing the Cranesong HEDD for ADC & DAC & a Forssell DAC as well! They are both very transparent & accurate, but the Forssell seems to do something that provides a bit of spaciousness & depth...in a very subtle way that can enhance certain mixes in a way that sounds like it was made that way to begin with. With the levels we are pushed to achieve these days, mastering eng's are always looking for a way to naturally maintain the separation of sounds in a mix, while the process of enhancing loudness tends to break that down! The first option I check for each song I master is which DAC provides the most pleasing signal into the analog chain. Then after processing, I'll double check it to make sure I made the correct decision after the rest of the processing was applied. Depending on the quality of the mix, the DAC used can make a ton of difference! Cheers! WS
I also went to The Recording Workshop in Chilicothe!! for me circa 1987 :D Great to see a fellow grad doing so well! Really cool video and gear. Great information! Thanks for posting this!
Thanks have just finished a Degree in Sound Engineering and Music Production at Point Blank University in London - it’s amazing that I thought I was getting closer to understanding EQ, Compression and Limiting - this wowed me the depth !!
It's really interesting that he uses SADiE for mastering, I've heard it's fantastic for mastering. Warren, I'd love to see some type of instructional mastering video where either you or one of the pros you regularly talk to goes step by step, start to finish, in mastering a song. Loved this video, I've never seen someone use two different convertors before, really cool stuff. Super helpful.
Thanks for watching Joseph!! I've used SADiE for over 15 years now & in my opinion it is one of the best sounding DAW's out there (yes there are differences in the sound of different DAW audio engines!!) & the editing options...to me...are the fastest & easiest to learn to use in depth!! Plus the new WAV-Mastering options make life easier for me because I can use one EDL to make all of the different master formats at any bit rate & sample rate I need! They are also some of the nicest people in the pro audio gear business!! Their customer service is the best I've received from any gear manufactures to date & has been since I bought my 1st (used) SADiE Classic System over 15 years ago!! I really can't say enough good things about Prism/SADiE!! (sorry, dont mean to sound like a salesman!) Cheers! WS
Hi Warren, thanks a truck-load for the great content and keeping in touch with your audience. In this video you mention not compressing too much on the 2-bus when mixing. I'm working on my bands project at the moment. My 2bus generally consists of; density mkIII on the lowest ratio/fastest release with less than 2db reduction, a tape emu at +2db peak, and a limiter with less than 3db gain reduction(which I wouldn't print in the copy for mastering). I'm trying not to "over-vibe" my tracks and I don't want to blast my listening devices to hear my mixes. Does this sound like good practice to you?
Hi Adam, Unfortunately, that's nearly impossible to say without hearing the mix. My best advice would be to not have any one static setting & use the bypasses to check & see if what its doing is actually helping! To do this, you'll have to do it at matched levels, because I'm sure that is making things louder. So you'll have to turn down the output of the final limiter to match the level of mix before going through any of it. That way you hear the processing & not just the loudness increase. If it's better good! You may want to do this on each individual plugin in the chain as well, to make sure what it's doing by itself is truly beneficial! Also, anything on the 2-bus being used just to make the overall mix louder probably doesn't really need to be there!! Cheers!
Thanks a heap Warren. I will try some more ab comparisons. I would certainly not be leaving my loudness limiter in the final mix for mastering, I just use it to make sure I can hear the mix when I'm checking outside the studio.
Not the first video I've seen with Mr. Sokol, such a knowledgeable and interesting guy - and as always, more great content from PLAP. My question is, is all that hardware proportionally better than software equivalents in relation to the (gargantuan) cost verses the end result? Don't the various modules shown in this video just follow a set of rules that could be emulated on Plugins in a DAW? Thanks again Warren (and Warren!)
Hi Ben, thanks for the kind words!! To answer your question, I feel there are definitely benefits in using high quality analog gear that can't yet be achieved in the digital domain. Mainly using gain staging to build up a sound in a way that can't be emulated digitally...yet. Analog compression also still feels more natural & pleasing to my ears. Having said that, there are a ton of great sounding plugins that are making the need for analog gear less & less all the time. Myself & many other mastering eng's use plugins everyday & in a lot of cases they can be better than the analog equivalent. My job is to make my clients music sound as good as it can & I am lucky enough to get to use the best gear available to do that, so I do! But i definitely do not look down on anyone for using the best gear available to them to get the best results, regardless of what it actually is. Because in the end, it is really the song that matters!! I cant think of one single incident were someone said, "this song would be a hit, if they had only used analog EQ on it".
Again as one of the few beginners that watch your videos ( I can tell by the comments most of your viewers are professionals as well ) I love that fact that , you go into great details and I can still follow along . Your channel is truly great . So glad RU-vid algorithm suggested it .
I sometimes wonder why bother with dither if you have two different systems to master (source to master)... He could playback at 24/96 and record at 16/44.1, then dithering and sample rate convertion wouldn't be a problem at all
Hi Diego, Dirhering is always the very last thing you would want to do & it is needed, because most modern DAWs have math that works at 32bit or longer wordlengths, so whenever a fade, or plugin is running, the internal mayh is running at 32bit regardless if the bit rate if the audio recorded. So using the analog chain to recapture he signal at 16bit doesnt really make sense, because A) your not using the full dynamic range of the converter & B) once the processed track is captured into the DAW, it still has to be edited & sometimes additional plugin may he running on the export & you would then be accumulating dither noise, rather than just using it to modulate the bottom bit when moving to a lower bitrate. So the only time to ever use a 16bit dither, is just before you export a 16bit master! Depending on the situation, you can sometimes avoid sample rate conversion by capturing the master at a different sample rate after an analog stage. If i receive mixes for an album that are at multiple sample rates, i will playback the mixes at their native rate on the source DAW & then capture them all at he same sample rate in the madter DAW to avoid SRC on the mixes!! Thanks for watching!! WS
So much useful, well delivered information passes through Produce Like A Pro it is shocking and very comforting at the same time. I am sure that I am not the only one that loves all that you do! Thank you Warren an thank you PLAP team!!!!
@Warren so cool, lol as a mastering engineer how many clients do you serve a week or month to make a decent income for a mastering engineer? I know that can be a wide open Question when you throw in factors such as types of songs, rates, problem child mixes, theatre of audio and more, but if I were to relay a workload of projects, for quota sakes what would you be estimating for the work load of projects? I have a good friend who is relatively just exclusive to mastering. He is amature of course with no schooling, I just find myself in a mentoring position with trying to bring some reality to the table with some ball park numbers. Thanks, hope to hear back with insight and feedback. Have a great day WARREN'$.
Hi Troy, If can vary a lot month to month, especially when you are just getting started!! You are on track that you really need a constant steady flow of projects, of all different genres all the time. to keep it afloat!
Mr. Sokol, it is engineers such as yourself that inspire me, in all my years of study, i have never encountered someone who could so eloquently explain the complexities of mixing. Mr. Huart, i must thank you for sharing this experience with the public. I wish the both of you continued success.
With regards to mastering, how is it that you manipulate different parts of the song without effecting other parts in a negative way? I heard him say that he was recording into his main master platform I believe at some point.. is he recording different changes in the master and then putting it together? Or is it more of an automation thing? I've just wondered about this before and I've always understood mastering from my experience to be streamlined across 1 track..but I don't know!
Hi Alloy, thanks for watching!! What I mean by my "main mastering system is that I have two computers with mastering software on them. First there is a Mac running Wavelab that is my Playback, or "source" system. It plays back the mixes & sometimes I do some noise reduction, or certain EQ, or editing fixes there before it hits the chain of processing gear. The other is a PC running SADiE that is my Capture, or "master" system, where the mastered songs are recorded after passing through the processing gear. I consider this my "main" system because it is where I do all the final editing, assembly, ISRC & UPC coding, noise reduction & all other aspects of a mastering session, as well as cutting & verifying all of the final master formats. That's all I meant by my "main mastering system". Just the computer I sue to do 95% of the work To answer your other question is a bit more difficult because it truly depends on the individual mix & how it was created. The easy answer is that you can't really manipulate the different individual parts of a fully mixed song without somehow effecting everything. But there are a number of ways you can apply processing to only certain areas, like EQ, M/S EQ, multi-band compression, M/S multi-band compression, spectral editing, etc. To be honest though, most times it's more about effecting the overall sound of a mix when mastering & when doing that on a good mix, subtle EQ changes to the mid, or sides can make a big difference in how a vocal sits or feels within a full mix! Generally, if you're trying to effect any one single element like you would while mixing, you are always on a balance between fixing the problem & creating another one. Which usually is better fixed by going back to the mix & doing it correctly.
Dude, you don't look old enough to have done what you've done over the period that you've done it. When you mentioned coming from working on tape I'm like WHAT!!? My sons look older than you😂
There is a difference between 0 dBu and 0 dBFS that is important to mention because a lot of people don't understand it and just say dB, and might get misunderstood. dB is an alogrithmic unit that has to be related to an outgoing point, like SPL means that 0 dB equals 20 microPascal (the lowest we can hear). dBFS means Full Scale and 0 dB in that case is the highest you can get with a digital signal. When you said "we professionals don't talk like that", I thought that this is a bit wrong because mostly professionals who understand that important difference will insist to be accurate. Otherwise, great video! I like watching your videos and feeling marvelously well while doing it :)
Hi Jonathan, thanks for clarifying the difference! Glad you enjoyed the video! I can't speak for everyone only the people I know, like the mastering engineers and producers etc we interview. Have a marvellous time recording and mixing, many thanks Warren
Man this is one of the best Mastering videos I have seen on youtube. I have other favorites but this 1 is definitely topnotch. So much useful and detail info I already watched it 4 times. Good job man and thanks!!!!
Hi Estevao Rui, I certainly agree with that!! However, there is a fairly new & rarely talked about mastering technique used for gaining loudness that is basically just clipping the AD converter by sometimes up to 1dB or more! The engineers that do this claim that a small amount of clipping on a high quality ADC has less negative artifacts than what you would get achieving the same loudness increase with a peak limiter! Because of the way a limiter will use attack/release times & multi-stage release algorithms, etc... that will all have an effect on the dynamic movement & the overall sound of the music being limited. In essence, re-writing the waveform that will come out of the limiter based on the calculations it does. Which cant help but alter the way things sounded before the process. Where clipping the ADC literally just shaves off the extremely short peaks at the very top of the dynamics, which requires no time constants, no additional gain stages, no processing algorithms, or any additional processing at all. So the original sound is left virtually untouched, except for the peaks being clipped off & any distortions that may add. The rub is that it really requires the use of the absolute best, modern AD converters (pronounced "expensive"!) & you can only get away with so much before it turns to straight distortion. Also required is a highly accurate listening system that's capable of playing back enough of the micro-details within the sound to let you hear when slight clipping of the highest peaks turns to constant distortion. My real issue with using ADC clipping for loudness is that the negative artifacts from doing this tend to be exaggerated when listened to the final master through a shitty speaker system/ear buds/or any other cheap consumer level playback system, which all use very poorly designed DAC's to reassemble all the data 1's & 0's back into a soundwave & tend to add distortion to begin with! Thanks for watching!! WS
oh man! I'm proud to be replied for you both legends for me. Mr. Sokol I really didn't know there was a technique of cliping digitaly the levels becouse it's not comun down here in Brazil. Yes I agree in everything you said and really understand the part of ''poorly designed DAC's... tend to add distortion to begin with!''. And I add that producers should start mixing without the buss compressor and add it carfully only after mixing it all
I like the Videoquality! Very Nice! My frontview Camera sucks :-( i need advise pleeease... Your Video and shared information is like allway TOP TX! Are those Modules Quantum acoustics?
Yeah clipping is a real pain and it sometimes in my demos here and there it happends lightly and I hear it first after hours of work. He describes it very well! How do I record under 0 like - 5 or -8 ? Isnt there than no sound under zero. You two describe it very good but how do I do that? My workflow after recording is : 1.Eq - 2.Compressor - 3.Limiter - 4. Reverb and other effects. Thank you for the answer Warren. - Dante
It's question with thanks in advance? Or thanks phrased in quite uncommon way? I'm plainly curious. Also there is button "edit"(3 dots on right side to comment)
Hi Dante! that is an easy one! When you are tracking, sent the preamp/input level so that the loudest parts only hit around -3dBFS to -6dBFS on the peak meters! (if it isn't loud enough, turn up your speakers!!) "Digital Zero" is where the red lights go off at the top of the meter & if thats happening, then the peaks of your soundwaves are being clipped off & can never be replaced! In general if you record & mix on the quieter side, it tends to make it easier to get a loud master that still has great detail, dynamics & life!!
Warren Sokol Thank you a lot! I will use this knowlege on my next producing session for sure! Much love to you! I feel your passion for music so much and its nice to meet you! I will make sure to check your multimedia! I as well will share this video and retweet it on my Twitter! Your welcome! Music is hope so you are hope as well making/mastering music. My best wishes to you and again thank you for the answer! - Dante PS: You are for sure welcome to listen to my music here on RU-vid for free.
Really great watch! And shinola was a brown shoe shine, hence the phrase, "ahh you dont know shit from shinola" hahahahahha! Thanks for all the great info guys!
Great video. Always love Warren S. I have a few questions if you have a chance: in a previous video when you were at Universal you were using a Dangerous transfer console. How does that compare sound- and featurewise to your Manley one? I know it's a huge topic but are you particular about the cabling and electricity (as in AC to your room) and how important are these factors to your ears? Do you buy into these "esoteric" audio and electrical cables that in some cases cost a ton of money? Thanks and all the best!
Hi Stefan! We did have the Dangerous consoles at UMS & I actually prefer the Manley over them. More functionality & I feel like the build quality & sound is a bit more stable. Neither really have a sound of their own, but I guess I feel like the Manley has less of an effect on the output when just passing through the console. ...I assume there are people that disagree with that though. As far as the cabling question, I sit somewhere in the middle on that. I agree that a lot of the esoteric cabling out there is just a lot of $$ for a filter of some kind, in the form of a cable. However, I have also found that there are some out there that really do make a positive difference (usually NOT the most expensive ones BTW)! For example, all of our ang, dig & work clock cables at United Mastering are made by Audioquest. They are solid-core copper, with a silver coating & truly seem to allow more of the depth & dynamics within a recording to make it to the other side of the processing chain without being destroyed!! Since installing them here, I've been getting consistently louder masters, without the dynamics having to be crushed to make it loud & my clients noticed it right away..which is all that I am concerned with!!! If they are happy, then it must be correct!
Thanks for your reply! Your cabling must rival the cost of your equipment but I guess in mastering you're dealing in milimeters while "normal" people are dealing in feet and miles! You mentioned that you were a teacher once and that really comes through in the way you explain audio concepts in a really understandable and approachable way. Hope you do some kind of tutorial series in the future. All the best!
Yes, our cable runs are all very short! Although in mastering you are effectively making a long daisy-chain of gear & cables to build a sound, so it adds up! We were able to get Audioquest to custom make all of our cables so they are all only as long as they need to be! Most are only 3'-5' long or shorter, except the runs going to the speakers which I believe are around 9'-12' long. So although these cables were not cheap, the total length of all of them is probably equal to 2 or 3 single cables needed to go from the studio to the control room in most recording situations! ;^) I've heard a lot of "audiophile" cables that effect the sound in one way or another, good & bad! We went with the Audioquest "Mackenzie" (analog) & "Coffee" (digital) cables because they didn't change the signal coming down the line, but allowed it to get to the other end unchanged! I noticed it the most in the depth & dynamics that my masters now have compared to the previous system I worked on, which used almost identical gear, but was built over many years so the cables were all different & random quality & lengths. These details really do make a difference when the essence of your job is to maintain and/or enhance the inner details & dynamics of a recording! Cheers! WS
Only really put this on as background but got immediately hooked and stayed til the end. The part where Warren H says "is that an antelope I see?" I was expecting a wild animal to have wandered in to the room
It might be a bit older but great video nonetheless, thanks! Warren, you've been to so many studios, why is it that some mastering engineers use high end HIFI speakers rather than high end studio monitors?
Warren....would you consider doing a video on 32 bit export for mastering?? I've read/heard this is a good thing....to export your mix at 32 bit since most DAWs do their internal processing/rendering at 32 bit.....so export to that....then master.... What do you say? God Bless!!!....adam
Seems to be a guy with substance. Sending rendered mixes that clips seems awkward. Ask them over the phone, is it clipping? Turn down the overall volume before you give it to me. I was thinking when he talked about finding and boosting the vocals frequencies, he might be able to do that but an issue that destroys recordings is when there aren't any high frequencies on the mic channel-strip that enhances the singers overtones which characterises a good singing voice. Without overtones and only fundamentals (like pillowtalk) one can hear that someone is singing but can't tell for sure who or come to the conclusion that it's a beautiful voice or an anonymous and colourless singer.
Warren, hello, Just in case, did your namesake tell you why is not using the Pendulum Audio PL-2? ¿Or if any time tried it? I understand what he stated, but I'm honestly a bit surprised that he only uses: Ozone, TC Electronic and the PSP. On the other hand, if you have any input you could share about the Pendulum Audio PL-2, that would be great. I read in some place that they are kind-of out of the bussines... Hope that would not a fact. Thank you. Best!
