This video is in no way saying that you don’t need a real mastering engineer. Just discussing some pros and cons, and if you would like to master your own stuff how I think you should go about it. Hope this helped someone!
Man, people keep asking for that video, and I really want to make it. The problem is how to achieve those results is such a long series of tiny things that are somewhat intangible, hard to put into words. As soon as I can figure out how to make that video well, it’s going to happen
It helped me. I'm a teenager and I write and record my own music, and although I'm not currently trying to publish and sell my music, I'd like to have it sound good on anything. I've looked but couldn't find any good guides until now. Thank you Colt!
This definitely did, man. I've been mastering my own stuff for the past 3 or 4 years and honestly didn't even know you weren't supposed to do it yourself. I've just done so much by myself lol. But I love your vids, man! I'm a senior at MTSU and I've loved hearing from someone who is actively in the industry in Nashville. Thank you so much for the content!
@@ColtCapperrune You could just mix and master a completely fresh project (preferably hip hop/rap) in a single video. That way you can easily explain your thought process.
I told myself over 20 years ago that I could mix and master my music alone. Today I'm glad for that decision, because I trust my ears and so do people who I've worked with. Your ears are the last line of defense. I've heard that stuff in forums for years - you can't mix and master, but I didn't like hearing that ;)
People pay high $$ to TRY and learn what you are so humbly and transparently sharing in these videos! Thank you from the bottom of this workin’ mans heart!
Love the explanation of mastering as color grading. Just got into videography/photography so I can see the relation especially when you mentioned brightness. Would love to see a walk through of your mastering techniques. Thank you!
Thats my downfall lol atleast when working on my records. I record a verse then start mixing/try to do a rough "master" right from the gate then the ear fatigue comes then I just get sick of the song then I don't finish lol. I gotta stop rushing and trust the process in the end.
@@officialWWM not sure what u mean by finished standard. I usually produce a record, get motivated/creative then get in the zone and record a hook and verse. When I have a rough of what the song could be I jump ahead and start mastering to make sure I can get the right levels/loudness then I overdo it and get sick of it/unmotivated lol. Terrible way to do it but its what happens when you do literally everything urself. Its like a gift and a curse. Years ago I used to make the beat then write the full song and record everything at once. I need to start with that process again 😭
gus dee I do everything myself too. I start with drums, then do a guide vocal, usually with acoustic guitar or piano, then start building the track from there, adding bass, electric guitars any keyboard parts etc. then I delete the guide vocals and sing it properly and do backing vocals etc. The key to actually finishing the song is finish writing the lyrics before you record anything. If you don't, you're going to end up with a lot of half done songs! I usually get a rough mix as I work but I'd never begin mastering until the final mix is done. Here is the latest song I finished ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-JsihSszXrwI.html
dude, you should have WAAAAYYYY more subscribers....!!!! 9( and you will....) love your channel..!! you really know your stuff and your communication style is so emphatic and sincere... we appreciate all the time, effort and care you put into your videos.
Thank you for this perspective. Only the other day a very successful music friend told me that I shouldn't master my own stuff. I don't really have a choice, partly due to lack of income, but also because I would want to use very specific people that I don't necessarily have access to. I actually enjoy mastering and I have had very good reactions to my last self-mastered album. By "good" I mean people don't mention the mix or the mastering, they talk about the emotional reaction they are having to the music, that way I know that whatever I did on a technical level didn't get in the way of the music. Thanks, you've given me the confidence to stick to my guns on this one.
Yo that is so true .... I’ve haven’t been making my own music for 2 months because I took that time off to just listen to the radio and studio how mixing/mastering top billboard songs sound in cars/stores/parties etc...... & I’ve been trying to mock the best way I can & I must I I’ve gotten pretty far 🙌🏿
You hit on something i do all the time, take a break from the song. I dont engineer for money so i have all the time i need. Every time i come back i hear different things. Nice of you to articulate the need to look at a mix from afar to master. I do it subconsciously so its good to understand what i do, lol. I dont chase loudness. All i want is a nicely balanced sound that's sweet to my ears. To me, my workflow dictates that mastering is all part of the mixing process. I compartmentalize the processes, micro management and macro management I call it. If i cant get the sound i want in a master, its because something in the mix isnt working. I have heard lots of songs from my " peers" and i am shocked at the issues i hear, mostly basic stuff that isnt fixed from the start. The other thing i do is constantly watch videos on what the top guys do and then try for myself. Learn by doing and listening. To me its like I am a mechanic. . I know i need different tools to change a tyre compared to changing a timing belt. New cars new tools. At the end of the day, I am still a mechanic. When I first started, i couldnt understand why you would send a mix to a mastering engineer. Enthusiasm of a novice, i agree. But as I get better and i understand the subtleties, I think it was the right call for me. I just didnt have the skill set to pull it off. Attaining that skill set takes a lot of hrs of effort. I guess i now call myself the head mechanic, hahahaha Mastering software leaves me cold. Yes i have tried but it just doesnt sound musical to my ears. The beauty of this job is that no one way is the perfect way that you have to follow religiously.
A couple of things you point out here in your video - One is repetition and that you have recorded, mixed/mastered thousands of tracks, thats why your stuff rocks .. You've paid your dues man, done the hard work and it shows. Another thing you mention is your ear maturing to that point where you can master with pro results. I don't think there is any substitute for persistence and plain old hard work,.. and I believe you are one hard working son of a gun :-) Keep up the good work thanks for sharing!
The one thing I will say is sometimes having the time to work pretty much unlimited hours on your own mix beats out top notch engineers that just rush through your song. Also you can just keep your self in an endless cycle and never get anything done though lol
Appreciate the insights colt, a more in depth mastering vid series would be rather wonderful :) I like the dual comparison technique, that's great advice. It's becoming more possible to DIY now with less dependency on outboard gear and everything moving in box, for those on more of a budget too , but a second pair of professionally tuned ears and having it run through gear/plugins you don't have couldn't hurt so if you can do both then why not :) what are your thoughts on ozone 9 advanced for mastering?
I use Ozone's Mastering application and then send it out for final mastering. This is after about 30 mixes and 5-6 mastering sessions (with fixes after each). I'm fairly new to this, though.
Hey! So the best thing I can offer is to join my Patreon. I do really in depth stuff over there! You can find the link in the description of most videos, or by just searching “Colt Capperrune Patreon”. Hope to see you over there!
@@ColtCapperrune Awesome man checking it out. Looks like we have some mutual friends in here in Nashville! Heard one of Garrett Biggs songs in a tutorial haha.
Just found your channel. You're good. Well spoken and get to the point. not too much fluff, but just enuf. Let's hear the goods on the arrangement topic
You explained it quite well! I look at it like this: someone can mix in a mastering grade control room, but you can't master (properly) in a tracking or mixing grade control room. It all depends on the room and gear. It would be nice to have the real estate with multiple control rooms, but at home & not a commercial space hahaha wishful thinking, right?
I've been doing it since 2014 now, I only heard this in class an here . Perhaps less people come to a local home studio who do it themself now a days. it's hard to even talk in depth with just any musician about production.
I mix while I master because the tape plugin I add on, pultec, bus compressor etc. Make a pretty drastic difference on the tone and compression of things. Just my way of doing it
"be nice" is the #1 tip for aspiring artists, production professionals, and humans in general. Imagine where the loudness war would be if collectively we were a nicer world. Fearlessly pursue self determination and goals but FFS, be nice!! #subscribed ✌️🎶🎶♥️
Your videos are great man! Keep it up. Could you do a video giving some insight on how you clean up space and place different instruments within your mix? I run into too much mud and sometimes dry sounding mixes. Thanks!!
Hey colt, I think it’s great that you are getting the results you want. Personally I’ll stick with my mastering guy. By the time I’m done mixing a project my critical listening skills are shot and there rarely is time to take a break from it. But like I said, if you can make it work then more power to ya.
Great video! Would love a video on how arrangements influences the loudness of master. I assume you’re taking in terms of headroom but I’d love to hear your thoughts on this specifically to anyone recording themselves to then have their music mixed and mastered by others.
Cole, your videos are helping me a ton. What camera do you use to film your videos? And I see you use the SM7B. Do you track the audio and video separately and then sync them in a software or do you main line your SM7B right into your camera? I know some cameras have this option, some have excellent mics already built in, etc. Perhaps a new youtube video idea? Thanks for this content man.
Great info. My 2 cents: You can master with the slate vsx headphone system. I would have never said use headphones before I bought this system - but it works. Also a great mastering compressor/limiter/de esser is the weiss ds1mk3 it's absolutely fantastic. There's plenty of good eq's to use, the fabfilter is a great choice. Personally I use some pulltec clones and infinity eq. Regardless of what gear you use it all comes down to experience and your ears and everything Colt said is absolutely true. HIs plugin recommendations are great and will work just fine, I just figured I'd throw out the Weiss one's that I recently purchased and was blown away with.... Also I still use a mastering engineer probably about half the time.
Great approach to it. The fresh ears I think is key . I just got up and running with my Apollo and Luna and made the switch to a Mac . The only thing left is my room . What I need is guidance with the room treatment. Is there any guide lines for room treatment . As far as where to locate each panel or is it any flat hard surface ? I'm an experienced carpenter so I can bang out those panels I saw make in the video with the metal studs and Owens Corning acoustic batts in my sleep . I just don't know where I'm putting them . Is there such a thing as too dead a room? By the way dude, your videos are the most professional crisp ass looking when it comes to RU-vid videos.. Sweetwater may have you beat but we know how deep those pockets are. I wouldn't be surprised If they had Spielberg filming they're RU-vid Videos. ✌
Thanks for the insight and sharing your experience! The more you master your music after mixing yourself, have you noticed your mixing change much? Maybe another video about this? Of course we want the mix to be as great and polished as possible so have you noticed if there's less to do in the mastering process the more you've been doing this? Thanks mate!
Have you checked out IK Master Match? It's a plugin that does just what you described where it applies the spectral and loudness difference of up to three reference masters to your own master. It does a really good job. It's used as the last plugin in your mastering chain to make up that final little bit of difference to your target reference master
Hey Colt, please revisit the GBV vocal video you did, about a week ago. There was a another of behind the scenes magic that got glossed over. Most of it im sure is soo boring, but thats the point. Showing how much ot little effort it takes to get a good/great sounding vocal.
Great info yet again good brother! Thank you! Are you going to be doing another user submission mix review video soon? I'm releasing my this weekend and would love to submit a track. Cheers!
Gullfoss -> Slate FG-X works for me. Wait a week after final mix. A pro ME will do a better job most of the time but most self produced artists don't have the budget for it.
I often have to master my own work due to time constraints and other factors too boring to discuss. Funny enough, the tracks that I write for my own enjoyment with no hopes for commercial success are usually sent out to a mastering engineer. This should be the other way around, but for some reason it is not. When mastering my own material intended for commerce, I don't have time to mix then take a day or 2 off before mastering. It's usually done at the same time in the same Cubase session. I compose, produce, mix and then add mastering plugins 80 percent of the way through the process. The publishers I deal with always want to hear a broadcast ready product. Once, I tried giving them an unmastered mix and it was rejected immediately saying the track is not powerful and too subdued. Then I put mastering on and resubmitted as a v2 and it was accepted. Everything Colt mentioned from treated rooms, comparing to modern popular tracks, trying to take time in between the mixing and mastering process is all excellent advice. We live in an age where it's not uncommon for the composer, musician, producer, programmer, mix and mastering engineer to be the same person. Also love that he trained himself by comparing his masters to other mastering engineer's work. This is an excellent way to learn! I really enjoy these videos and seeing how other professionals go about mastering and mixing. Thank you.
There is NOTHING louder than Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. The tracks “Get Ready for Love” and “Nature Boy” are the loudest
Mastering is my weakest part as an engineer. I'm confident in production/mixing, but that's it. Been recently outsourcing mastering and it's much better!
Oh and a questions.... if you master your own mixes, how many times you go back and forth between mix and master ? Because unfortunately I have to do it many times.
get a new best budget monitors link in the description. The Adam Audio T7Vs knock out all compretition in that category. Also an Apollo twin isnt really "budget". For that id say an ID14 would be the more appropriate choice no? Great video tho!
I’ve got a question... a while ago I was talking with a mastering engineer and he told me to throw some mastering plugins on the master bus in my mix while I’m still mixing and then take the plugins off and do a real master. Is this a good practice?
Sometimes I will put a limit or at the end of my mix bus and crank it up so I can get an idea of what a master is going to do, but I never mix with it engaged. Only just a check once in a while or near the end of a mix. Hope that helps!
Would you recommend fabric walls for a smaller home studio? My room is not as big as yours. Have their been downsides to the fabric wall? Is it expensive?
Dat heb ik nu ook last van dat klopt maar ik heb geen geld te voor om het te kunnen betalen op dit moment Ik moet schuimpanelen nog hebben en die zijn best wel prijzig
Hi Colt. Thanks this is really good. I'm only learning but would it be fair to say that the record level when laying down tracks, in the beginning, should be around minus ten or 8? but no higher as it will clip. I've noticed that when the level is at minus 16 then the recording loses punch and a big drop in volume. It's just that you were saying that if the master is loud then one of the factors is in the record level and the mix before it goes to master. Thanks
