This guy makes it look easy, but I can assure you this perfection took years to develop. Eric is one of the only Mastering Engineer I would consider if I had a serious audio project for mastering. Never get tired of watching this expert at work...
im not kidding when i say this is literally the best, most straight forward video ive ever seen on mastering . super appreciative of this, just wish there was more!!
Louder always sounds better...the ears can be tricked quite easily. He only improved it by a tiny bit and then effectively made it louder. The improvements would basically be adding air in a boost + EQing the sides of the mid/side to help the mono cut through and the slightest addition of analog saturation to warm the track musically and slightly act as glue(everything so done so slightly apart from the EQ and fair limiting). The mix was good from the start and recorded well. Those slight moves would never work on a crappy mix so again the ears can be tricked. Theres A vs B tests online that prove how trick-able we are as we say one sounds better when its the same mix at different levels.
+Johnny Partain Agreed 100%... 1 pass and it already sounds like a million bucks!!! Great song choice as well. Lots of dynamics and a great balance. All in all... Great vid - 9.5/10
Satisfying to watch a good mastering engineer who knows his set of chosen tools and by years of experience just knows which buttons he has to turn. Hopefully I'll get there one day
this might be the best explanation of a quick overview of what you're doing. I can follow along, learn what you did, and take a few things from it for myself. thank you!
Through my Dynaudio BM5As, your enhancements are anything but subtle. The track has more depth, clarity, air, and punch. Staging, which was initially nonexistent, becomes real. The stereo image also widens and wraps around the listener. You have pieced together one hell of a mastering chain. Your devices "play well" with each other, filling in where others leave off, and that Manley limiter is just magical. Outstanding work, sir.. outstanding work.
@Cristiansen Vendetta A fair warning though, it is difficult to get a mix to sound perfect in the Dynas. They are so damn accurate, even the smallest warts are noticable. Re-listen to mixes you have previously finished, you will find they were not as good as you thought. On the flip side though, if a mix sounds good in the Dynas, it will sound good everywhere and on everything. Cheers, and happy mixing / listening!
@Cristiansen Vendetta Yes. At Chuck Levins Pro Sound section, I was able to compare them to KRK V8, Yamaha HS8, Genelec 8010 and 8030, as well as others. While not as "sweet" sounding as the Genelec and not as bass heavy as the others, their accuracy left me in awe.
very nice job on the track. You opened up the track while giving it air/breath with a bit more punch and edge. You have great ears, beautiful setup and an awesome environment for mixing. My hat goes off to you.
Awesome video. What a nice way of communicating the mastering concept and process.. thanks! I went to check out your other videos because i thought I might have finally found *my* RU-vid mentor, but to my dismay, no other vids!? aw shucks.. Well ima subscribe anyways, and hope you add some down the road.. I loved your equipment and listening environment btw... PS: DIY equipment? really..? that's brilliant.. im going to look into that ..never crossed my mind that DIY was even possible for the h/w elements...
From the Engineering Mastering point of view it is possible to describe what you are doing ..... based in that recipe the outcome n the process is different for every song....
Wow that's a marvelous track! I would REALLY prefer it without any limiting though. That dynamic vibe which is suppressed with limiter, it's so-o-o tasty without it
a bit too hyped in the upper mids for my taste, but overall it is a real eye opener as to the power of these tools in the hands of a good listener. well done, sir!
Great video, did help me a lot! Would using this outboad gear result in ‘better’ sound than using in-box stuff. It really looks and sounds more straight forward than using in-box plug-ins. I usually end up using a lot plug-ins (kramer tape, different eq’s, Max bass, clipper, l3 limiter, etc.) but here it seems ‘lesss is more’ When u use exactly the right equipment.
Less is more, except when more is more. The beauty of it all, is you doing it in your own way, suiting your own taste. I use what I use because it suits my taste, by no means is it "better."
Hi Eric, hopefully you're still looking at these comments. As stated before, this is a really cool vid, and thanks for answering my earlier questions. Another interesting observation was that when you go to the 'loudness' stage, it was interesting to see that you increased the input of the Manley Backbone rather than the output. I thought that was interesting. Especially after you had already set your Massive Passive and more importantly, your compressor. It seems that increasing the input would drive into the compressor even more so it would change the dynamics of the audio that had already been set. I would have thought (and who am i??) that after setting my eq and comp, I would increase the output of the Manley Backbone to push the signal into the limiter to get the loudness. I thought that was interesting. Also, I assume the limiter is after the Backbone and before the AD. Just curious about your thought process and whether or not this is a common workflow, although I totally understand that every project is approached somewhat uniquely depending on its specific needs.
Hi Eric! Nice tutorial, thanks for sharing it! :) Can you please explain what that limiter's damp parameter does with the song? The kick became more punchier when you turned it up. Thank you :)
did you do a -5db shelf out of the mono signal ...... of out of the side.... why did the low end not go away ... or was it set to dynamic ....... or did the limiting bring back up the low end .... explain please .... finally what rms did you shoot for .....and finally finall ...low cut or low shelf ??? and why do people use linear phase eq which I have tried but it causes hugh pre ringing Lots of questions there but you look like you are willing to interact so
Hey. The low shelf is across the entire program, no M/S there. In some cases, not always, but sometimes when you do a low shelf cut up around or above 150-200, you keep the sense of deep bass, but reduce the boomy-ness or low end weight, but once again only sometimes. Often times thats where the life of the low end lives ...just depends. No particular RMS goals on my end, it's the taste and goals of the client that generally is what drives the loudness target, basically varies wildly project to project. And hi-cut or low shelf? You probably know thats like asking me if I should always add curry or salt to a soup, depends on what it needs, Low shelf is most certainly a more gentle and transparent choice, but sometimes the song benefits from a larger polarity shift like what you get from slapping on a high pass filter ...just depends. And linear phase eq? Allot of people get results they are happy with using linear phase eq's, not my cup of tea, so no opinion on that one, I don't use any.
Eric Broyhill Hey thanks for replying and well that's amazing sounding eq I'm still amazed you took out 5 db and the bass sounded more powefull I'm guessing the limiting brought back up the Lowe end... great stuff thanks
That part sounded weird to me too. I mean it sounded great but didn't expect to hear that based on what I saw in the video. It must be because the eq is dynamic. I suppose it created a separate band for the low end and there's more going on inside that Weiss than we see in the video. Just a simple eq cut wouldnt sound like that thats for sure.
Allot of people have been curious about this, so let me add to my previous comment. What I think you and others are also hearing is that eq is BEORE the compressor, so in a way, the overall volume is coming up as I'm cutting low end. The low end is generally what will be driving the compression, pulling the lo-end down, can, in many cases, have the effect of pulling the compression back if the eq is before the compressor.
Eric Broyhill that kind of make sense... I suppose you would get the same effect without eqing if you used a compressor with a sidechain high pass filter.... or..... a compressor with a side chain low shelf "which I don't think exists" ....
I've been advised by people smarter than myself that the least amount of jitter is using a good clock internally, so I haven't bothered trying them out. But if you try it, and your ears like it, I say fuck the jitter nerds and go for it!
Hi Rafa. You can't really fix, as much as just help make some sort of improvement by at least taking the time to check the mono, and push it in whatever direction you think it should go, every situation is unique. Eq would be the most common tool you would use, and digital eq's have some advantages over analog: some can be very precise, and can allow you to make subtle changes in a surgical way.
