Just waiting till you finally get your brass colored yellow, then I'll truly feel at home (all others are same as my color set - but WW is blue) lol. Great content mate, awesome resource not only for beginners!
Haha, I mentioned this because when you listen to the track in the very beginning the level may be still but after listening to the unmastered file for a longer time it becomes a bit disturbing. This also happens by listening to too much bright or dull tracks and then the opposite.
Absolutelly great, someone who mixes and masters while composing. Thanks God I'm not the only one. It's possible! Great video, very very informative. Love the pieces.
Just wanted to say thank you for all the hard work you've put in all the videos!! Truly one of the most helpful and informative channels on RU-vid. Thank you so much!!
You know what's funny, I always relate music to cooking too XD. I always watch Christian Henson's videos and watching him make a track and combine all the orchestras together and explain what he did and why reminds me of something like a cooking reality show where the contestants explain everything they did to the judges.
Alex, can't wait to get in to this one. And here I was thinking it was going to be a boring day. Thank you so much for what you are doing for the community. You're good people!
Again awesome work, Alex! Your analogy with cooking is really neat. 😁😂 Makes perfect sense to me, there's no "one fits all" preset or tweak, so I totally agree. Thank you so much! 👍
Great video Alex! I think what you said about the arrangement being connected with the mix is crucial! Having a vision with how everything will fall together always informs what plugins you use and all the details! And as you said just not doing things by default! Fantastic track too!!! Cheers!
Great to hear you kind of jump around from mixing to some mastering back and forth. I sometimes start messing a little with the master bus as I’m mixing and even writing and I hear a lot of people saying they don’t mess at all with the master bus or even the mixing and just take their writing/mixing/mastering approach step by step in a chronological order. Personally jumping back and forth works for me and you saying you do the same gave me some reassurance haha Great video as usual Alex!
@@AlexPfeffer If you always use headphones your track may get a little bit to "light" because in the headphones the bass frequencies are displayed on a louder level, therefor you sometimes end up adding not enough bass frequencies, thats my expierience at least.
dang that sounded amazing... first thing I envisioned was Skyrim or Dragon Age type feel when listening to the arrangement. I know I have a long way to go in regards to getting on that level of music production/composing. I'm a novice (IMO) when it comes to my knowledge with music theory but while I came into music starting out rapping/singing then producing for local artist within the RnB and Rap/Hiphop genres as well as Lofi, I've always had my sights on getting more so into sync licensing other than traditional industry production.( working with artist would become a side job) I'm glad I found this channel because maybe I could learn a lot more about the essence of creating theme music for games/movies and it will help me in the long run as I continue this journey through music production.
A great insight! Thank you so much for providing this. I wonder, would you ever consider releasing the project file for us to really dig into and reverse learn? Great track 👍
Amazing content! Thank you! Can I ask how did you achieve to get that clean-sounding synths? I own many of Audio Imperia's & 8Dio's products & Serum, but I didn't achieve that kind of sound.
@@AlexPfeffer Okay, thanks. I think I try to create this kind of synth arpeggio sound. Synth sounds very dry to me, if I compare for example the spiccato strings which you put "back/rear" in the dimensional/depth view with reverb & EQ. These synths create very futuristic and cool atmosphere.
Im Endffekt ist dein Mix eine Art von Top Down Mixing Methode...ich mache das auch schon ewig so. Ich denke für TV und Trailer Musik ist das mit Abstand die effizienteste Methode
I thought I was the only one who sometimes mixes up mixing, mastering and Arrangements and changes things on the arrangements even after the mastering xD
You're not alone, Fabian. We are artists, if we can have more control of what's coming out of our brain it's positiv and personnaly I also come back & forth sometimes from "my almost final bounce" to the mix and even to the midi tracks, changing one note length, a few bits of dynamic or even replay some notes or change an instrument. Even if we use engineers recipes & methods, these are valuable tools, in art the ONLY important thing is the final result. If a mistake sounds good it's no more a mistake. Is it good, is it pleasing, are we proud of it? That the only questions. Period.
A wonderful and generous video, thanks! I wonder, how do you deal with stems with so much mastering processing? I've been trying to minimise my mastering so the stems work without mastering, but I'm not enjoying it..
Hey, the only reason send/returns would make sense to me if I would like to have ONE instance of reverb applied to many instruments with different dry/wet ratios. Otherwise to me send/returns is an old concept that derived from using analog gear. I see no point in using it because I want to have unique reverb settings for each instrument or at least an entire group (e.g. strings)
He has less control this way, not more. But he doesn’t need the extra control with the way he wants to use the reverb so there is no point in setting up the send/return channels
Hey Alex ! Thanks for sharing this. Usually in electronic music, we tend to cut all the low end to make space for the sub. Would you mind explaining why we don't do that in an orchestral piece ?For example, cut all the low ends except for the Tuba Or Double bass. I don't understand why it doesn't cause any phase problems. Thank you
Why should something that exists for hundreds of years create phase problems? ... and yers, of course you can cut all lows from an orchestra and replace it with a sub or synth. I know people who do that. This is their way of doing it, yes I tried to do it too, but to me it depends on the track itself.
Hi Alex, how do you deal with common frequency build-ups usually caused by layering large amount of orchestral samples? I mean frequency stacking causing a mud in a mix.
Awesome insights and great video! I noticed you don't do any panning. Is this because the libraries you use are recording in situ? I know some composers who still pan their strings even in situ. Some even use Waves S1 Stereo Imager to do their panning. Any thoughts on this?
Yep, most libs I used are recorded in situ already and it is just something we were taught to do because it derived from traditional orchestral seating. There are so many who overdub their sections to the full spectrum as Desplat did with the strings in Godzilla.
Super video Alex!!! Is there a reason you aren't needing to use sidechain compression to fit your impacts and hits in? I'm just wondering how you manage to avoid mud without doing that...
Hey, I usually have my hits on a different stem than the percussions so it functions a bit like side chaining but only for the percussions. I always felt that is enough 😅
Thanks so much, Alex, for sharing your time and deep knowlege! One thing I wonder: With all the goodness on your mastering, do you find the latencies add up to the point it gets challenging to write new parts, or do you move all stuff on the master buss while writing/rewriting (as I do), and move it all back?
Hey, not really a problem because mostly I don't use plugins that introduce lots of latency. Of course I would only add these closer towards the end of the writing process.
@@AlexPfeffer Understand both the low latency, and toward the end. :) Some of my plugs are indeed massive latency-inserters, and I probably should look for alternatives. Thanks again, Alex!
Hi Alex, the mastering of this is fantastic for loudness but still punchy in the low end. Is there a certain RMS or LUFS you're aiming for at the end with the inflator? Thanks!
@@AlexPfeffer I apologize for incorrect terms. The "8th note" strings eraly in the video - where the notes are repeated? Hard to create that in many string libraries. Is that Nucleus? OMG incredible music. Thank-you for your videos!
Yes, once in a while I like to automate a synth or cut down the signal at the end of the track when I don't want to render the instrument yet but need to get of a longer delay that overlaps with the ending or a gap.
You are putting a lot of stuff on your mastering bus. I usually have 2 Pro-Ls and one Pro-MB. Most of the magic needs to happen before the master bus for me.
@@AlexPfeffer I would definitely hear it in my own stuff. But no one other peoples tracks. Or at least I couldn't tell why exactly I prefer a certain sound.
@@NicoMaximilianComposer See, so the question now is: Who cares if it works? :) I am saying this because people simply follow something that they heard and learned from someone. Of course, you are right that the magic should happen before the mastering process ... but that doesn't mean that a lot of magic still can happen at the mastering stage. For example, you are only using a limiter and a compressor. My question would be why? :) Why not Inflator, why no correction EQ because no matter how much you EQ in your tracks, certain frequencies can still add up. There is not only one way :)
@@AlexPfeffer It's just a different Philosophy. For me I don't need anything on the Master Bus, everything I could add would make the track worse. (I tried it) I'm not criticizing, just want to share a different approach. :)
I understand both philosophies and I'm really enjoying getting it right at the source and the mix right now. I am guilty of trying to fix my mix in mastering and overcooking my track. Now I just overcook my subgroups. 😆
@@Skrscores with respect, there is NO best synth. Repro-1 is great, so is Nexus, Diva, Hive and Zebra. There are also tons of others and also soundpacks by The Unfinished who creates soundpresets for all kinds of synth. Another one to mention which has probably the biggest library of sounds would be Omnisphere.
Not really. I subconsciously take care of it while working that nothing is too loud and gets in the busses too hot but there is no stage where I actively start doing this.
