You forgot about the vintage EQs - they're the method I tend to use most. Also with free plugins, Softube's Saturation Knob is really nice, especially on bass (although you can't set the output gain so you can't gain-match it, which can be a bit annoying), as well as Klanghelm's IVGI.
To be honest, I like the overdrive the most! It is the perfect mix of clean and dirt. The Fat FX Soft Limiter is a bit too soft and the Soft Sat. is a bit too hard. Great video nonetheless!
w4t3rm4n it’s nice having different flavors. I like the soft limiter on instrument groups and buses because it’s more subtle. Thanks for checking out the video!
Thanks for the extremely helpful information. I now use the Phat FX plugin to an effective result (previously I wasn't able to get much of a result I liked).
@EchoSoundWorks would you mind doing a quick video on your Tutorial Vox chain and how/what you’re using to capture the internal audio from Logic Pro X for tutorials?
Logan Aaron it’s a part of almost every genre because it’s something something sound designers use all the time for creating samples. A lot of the best future bass drums are pretty soft clipped
I see your putting soft clipper on the software instrument tracks. Isn't the soft clipper in fl always on the master channel ? ( I'm on logic pro x and I use overdrive on my master and soft clipp that way ) CJ Beatz has a good tutorial on this. Edit : I'm also going to try that free one shouts on showing that one .
Rokz Beatz you can do both! Hip hop producers usually just have it on a master but it’s a little more common in the edm world to have it on some individual elements as well. Things like kick or snare and bass/808.
@@EchoSoundWorks Yeah that makes sense. The phat fx tip is really good. Shouts on the free plugin as well giving that a try later. Keep dropping these kind of tutorials 👍🏻
Depends on genre and how loud you want and if you''re just using soft clipping to add some loudness while you're producing. I like using the phat FX one on the master though
Jesse Urena hey! A lot of times I use this as a way to get something that isn’t hitting right after I’ve already set levels. Or I’ll mix into a softclipper on a drum group
One thing I dont understand is how to things get "punchier" when you are clipping away the transients or peaks? Dont they get "boomier" or flatter sounding since the initial hit is clipped... ??
It's a balancing act. Cut too much of a transient and you lose the punch of the initial attack. Cut too little and you're leaving lots of extremely short spikes that will affect the mastering stage negatively as the limiter has to work overtime. Humans are bad at hearing very quick spikes of sound, so you can get away with shaving off quite a bit before we perceive the sound to become dull and less punchy. Just don't overdo it. When people say "it makes it punchier", it's a half-truth because of how we perceive sound psycho-acoustically: There are limits to how much of a transient we can hear, so by shaving off anything we'd never know was there you can push the loudness more without seemingly flattening the sound, and this we call "punchy", even though punch is technically more of a dynamics-issue. This is partly why so many people like analog gear: The slight saturation at every stage slowly dulls spikes that you otherwise have to work out yourself if you're purely in the box. It's not a problem as we have loads of great plugins to do the job for us, but it adds a bit of extra work or care :) This is why digital producers are picky about saturation, clippers, distortion etc. But be very careful, clipping and limiting is always a compromise between loudness and added distortion. It's best left to mastering engineers or very skilled engineers, but if you carefully soft clip in several stages in your mix you will make mastering a lot easier and cleaner, without unwittingly adding lots of nasty distortion to your mix.
Brendan Phillips a soft clipper is like an instantaneous soft knee limiter. It’s more aggressive than a compressor and you don’t have an interplay with a threshold/attack/release
do I apply this during the mixing stage (when my track still has -12db headroom) or when I bounce the track and start the mastering stage? need this clarified.
Joseph White some do it either way. I like to have a soft clipper on my master while I start a track or beat because it will stop clipping and I don’t have to worry about that while I’m writing and arranging. If I end up doing a proper master I might take the soft clipper off and then use ozone, shadow hills, uad plugins etc. But while you are mixing, try using the soft clipper lightly here and there on certain tracks, helps make the mix punchy
