10 Biggest Mastering Mistakes

[@yurikalashnikov2460]

I spent $249 on this dual action retrol signal bigtamaster and you can bet your buttocks that I’m going to put it on every master that I do in my bathroom studio.

[@brokerabbit94]

You can tell when someone is passioned and really care about his art.thank you for this video

[@GothicCoalition]

Duuuuuuuuuude, my biggest problem was always being like "YES!! WIDER SOUNDS BETTER!!" Then after a while I downloaded all my favorite Rap songs, threw them into my DAW and analyzed the width... to find out they're ALL basically Mono. Made me rethink fkn EVERYTHING

[@sub-jec-tiv]

Yeah if you’re not making ambient, soundtrack or psychedelic music there’s really not much reason to do a bunch of widening. Especially punchy styles like rap, rock, house/techno. Even if you’re making ambient music, it’s still important to use that stuff sparingly. Personally i only usually use it on reverb returns for pad sounds. And even that, pretty subtle.

[@diegooliveirabenjamin]

What I love about David’s videos is that even though I consider myself a pro, there’s always something to learn, to expand upon. Great! Thanks buddy!

[@HRPL-ej9zo]

What is there to consider? Either it is your profession or not. Everyone can learn new things.

[@mixbustv]

🙌

[@diegooliveirabenjamin]

@@HRPL-ej9zo when you make records for 20 years, there’s not much left to see, it’s all I mean.

[@diegooliveirabenjamin]

@thisguy5611 yes I do, for 20 years now. Just wanted to phrase it in a way it wouldn’t sound so arrogant.

[@TeeheeTennessy]

​@thisguy5611I identify as pregnant. Bite me

[@Frankie_G_]

Looking healthy homie, and thanks for your wisdom as always.

[@blood_n_jazz4477]

I'm making sure to avoid all these mistakes. For any struggling amateurs, I'd like to share some tips that stopped me from giving up completely. A form of parallel. Duplicate your kick, snare and bass tracks. (Easier than dealing with send track latency) Reduce the gain by 3-6 db on original tracks. Solo duplicates, then gently eq, saturate, clip kicks and compress. Gain them all the way down, unsolo, then slowly bring up until you hear things fill out properly. This allows more gain in mix and limiter before peaks hit ceiling and pump/distort. Bonus add transient shaper to original kick/snare to make it cut through. I struggled to hit -12 lufs before, now getting clean -9 to -8 lufs integrated consistently on bassy chillhop. Dave covered saturation and peak reduction years ago, it works. Doubt pros resort to this, but for a lost amateur it worked, hope this helps someone.

[@samuelng6441]

You don't need to parallel everything, and most often than not, simple beats complex unnecessary processes to do the same thing that could be achieved with simple, straightforward workflow

[@JorjhanKastro]

Great video! So sad that now days, people think that Mastering is just a default chain of plugins provided by some random youtuber that quotes.."This is what the pros do"

[@AVDRE]

Agreed

[@happyshadow]

It's what the majority of KZbin content consumers want to eat up though

[@brucewayne251]

Not to mention the online mastering services, which pretty much do the same thing.

[@aquiestawally2131]

Some youtuber sayd: the good part about that content is that people's mastering will sound like sh*t and we will keep our jobs

[@kylebostick2601]

@@aquiestawally2131I thought this thought just the other day 😅

[@SM-wl2sc]

I like the loudness war

[@OdoSendaidokai]

I really like the way you looking at topics and explaining from different perspectives to make clear where the focus really is. Thank you so much! 🌻

[@mixbustv]

🙌

[@NRVE8]

Are those lights behind you syncing to your voice??

[@indyawichofficial1346]

Those are some simple gems of (superimportant) wisdom in well pronnounced and defined fashion thrown into a proper context. Always appreciated !

[@mixbustv]

Thank you!

[@l3talchile]

Thanks for sharing your knowledge Bro, i always fight with the saturation, know i have the key 💪🏽😁🌎👑🏆, regards from Chile 🇨🇱

[@TheGaryHughes]

Good timing. I might have been in the middle of making some of these mistakes...

[@sesaeo-the-games-we-play]

Awesome video as always, thanks!

[@T-BOUNCING]

MIX BUS TV ❤

[@EnginHIZARCI]

You’re always explaining it very clearly. I’m glad you’re exist. 😁 Thank you. 🤘

[@mixbustv]

🙌🙌

[@emiel333]

Bedankt

[@emiel333]

Buy yourself a coffee (or a beer), David.

[@mixbustv]

Thank you for the support Emiel!!

[@emiel333]

@@mixbustv No problem, David 😉

[@preezypree7465]

I know I'm not suppose to master myself but I don't have the budget right now to send the mix off, I'm so glad you dropped this because I really only have one chance using analog access's mastering chain. thanks for tips David

[@Maulleygxxx]

As always, thanks for the video. I’ve learned so much from you over the past 3-4 years, that I paused the video and tried to list the 10 that I thought you’re going to speak about. I got 6 out of 10. 3-4 years ago, I would’ve gotten 0 out of 10. Thank you for all you do 🙏🏾

[@monkmusic5994]

Great great advice. I am going to master all my songs soon. Will not forget you David!

[@joezazasin7]

'Too much Limiting 💥😅 ..yup. Awesome vid 🤘

[@emiel333]

Sometimes I use subtle compression to widen a mix. Great 👍 video, David!

[@Vickorftron-]

Thanks for sharing all your knowledge man. It's really helpful for me, as a rookie who's trying to make my final mix better.

[@Gilwtt]

Hi & Thanks David... this vid is a golden mine ;-) the better you did (for me) ;-)

[@mistermusicenterprise3148]

That was a goooooood teaching. On point, like always. Bellas song is fire!!

[@osirusmusic]

Great video! What's your take on high passing and low passing in your master? I've heard people say you should high pass around 20Hz and low pass around 19Khz to remove unwanted energy and give more headroom for more processing.

[@mixbustv]

You SHOULDN'T, unless it's needed

[@Mike-vr7mb]

I love the look of the video bro! Nice spaceship! 🚀

[@MadkeimMusic]

I think I have made every single mistake mentionned :p Thank you for this David, very good video!

[@l-ayex4552]

Hi ! Can you make a video "how to reduce the energy on the side channel" thanks keep up the good work !

[@Madkay]

Yin-yang idea, add mid a bit, take off from side

[@TheNexusComplex]

All excellent points David. Platinum level information and perspectives that overlap into the mixing stage as well (even tracking to some extent). I agree with every single thing you said...particulaly the various ways the human ear/brain perceives music (i.e. sound).

[@mixbustv]

🙌

[@Lolwutdesu9000]

Thank you for raising point #4. Too many amateur home studio producers started dishing out all this advice about having to align your mixes frequency spectrum to some preset analyser curve and it's just cringe to see that shit being spread over the internet. I can imagine that, as a guideline, sure, that's what we want (hence we have plugins like Izotope Tonal Balance Control), but these guys probably heard such things and assumed it to be a set golden rule or some crap like that.

[@samuelng6441]

Curve only helps when you're intentionally referencing a particular mix, and not done towards a generic or lack of agenda for the mix

[@noahortega9908]

On one of your Short videos, you mentioned processing and compressing effects. I understand the EQ portion of effect sends but I've never seen anyone compress them. I'd like to see how that topic is tackled.

[@mixbustv]

I have several videos on it. But you're gonna have to dig into the mixing ones because I don't remember the titles

[@CHANCEKNOT]

Is it better to sacrifice -6 lufs For to be -7 Lufs But much better quality and clean master/mixing? Ps. following you for over a year and you have changed and still are, my whole perspective and skills! Lots of myths breaker 🤙🏼

[@mixbustv]

Well if the difference is gonna be "much better" then probably yes. But the difference shouldn't be THAT much between the two unless the mix is not that great and you're already pushing by going to -7

[@amanoprods]

Amazing video david, thanks a lot! You gave me some points to think about

[@jimdukeproject]

I’m still learning balance, but I know those “mastering plugins” right up front makes it brighter. Too bright in many cases. I find them useless.

[@andresalvador1494]

Thank you David!! "Ear tugging" necessary

[@Walid.OnTheTrack6725]

That's why I mix into my limiter, cause I wanna manipulate stuff with the end result in front of me, and that way I can't skip the hard work of getting everything perfect without any other plugin rather than some licking compression, lite Eq and getting the loudness right with 0 distortion 0 squashing. But everything else should be done affecting individual elements and stems

[@roman_volkov23]

Very good video as always, thx to u David :)

[@substance90]

Quick question about Mistake #3 - do you level match based on RMS, True Peak oder LUFs? Sometimes especially with saturation and clipping you end up with a much louder sounding sound which is the same TP. 🤔

[@mixbustv]

Matching nominal level is pretty useless, for the reason you just mentioned

[@FreeGuitarSound]

Best channels and videos!!. thank you very much🔥🔥

[@sergiocamacho8806]

I use 10 Soundgoodizers and it works 😎

[@NoQualmsTheArtist]

You need to follow that with 10 OTT's, now you're cooking! 😂

[@adriano_sp]

great video! regarding error #10, in your opinion, what are good examples of EQs, Compressors and Limiters that are transparent for mastering?

[@mixbustv]

Plug-ins, Weiss, both eq and compressor; Unisum for sure. Acustica don't remember which one (tiger has everything so); Kirshkoff EQ. Smart Limit is the most transparent yet not the loudest. There's more but I can't think of anything else I'd need for transparent. Hardware SPL PQ, maselec both eq and comp,, Alpha compressor, crane song Titans.

[@brucewayne251]

Not only widening, but also psychoacoustics

[@1loveMusic2003]

Good one!

[@aipsong]

Excellent!!!Thanks!!

[@trashunicorn2308]

Awesome video!

[@turtlefeet7722]

What do you think about Izotope 11 that does 1 mio things on the master track. I think it gives a good starting point but mostly it sounded worse than the mix itself.

[@mixbustv]

Ozone has amazing processors inside it, but they are useless if you don't know what you're doing

[@alessandrosummer]

14:13 are you talking for example reducing the subs on the sides? Anyway I agree with all your points (especially on the too much limiting one, man does it sound horrible!) I would have made one more point that you just touched briefly: trying to make a sh1t mix sound good in mastering. Mastering in not the place to fix mixing, as well as mixing is not the place to fix production. Mastering (and mixing) engineers are not Albus Dumbledore 😂

[@musicman8942]

This comment isn't specific to this video but has anyone noticed that KZbin videos seem to be louder than they were a couple of months ago? Most of the time I listen/watch videos in my studio so I know the sound and levels. NOt changed anything but lately I've had to lower the levels on the videos using the YT volume control. Like with this one - instead of having the control all the way full I had to drop it to less than half to keep sane.

[@mixbustv]

Nothing changed other than this one doesn't have music. Probably YT turn the ones with music down

[@musicman8942]

That could be. Maybe they changed their algorhythm @@mixbustv

[@gulagwarlord]

I think one of the reasons the widening is abused so badly is not only the availability of the tools but also the fact that so many mix on headphones these days. The wideners sound deceptively good on headphones because of the way the channels are isolated, one per each ear. On monitors/speakers, wideners don't create as powerful/convincing of a stereo illusion, if that makes sense. Conversely, mono-ish sounds have a lot more dimension when using monitors or even monitor simulation software like VSX. With speakers, I feel that it's more obvious that a convincing illusion of space seems to be more concerned with clever panning of "mostly" mono-compatible sounds rather than widening.

[@mixbustv]

Yep

[@KreativeDevices]

🔥

[@contraspower6302]

🔥🔥🔥🔥🙏

[@TheReal_E.IRIZARRY]

Who has made the biggest mastering mistake on a plugin here? Who can top this one of mine? Try slapping Ozone Dynamics on the Master Bus in the postmixdown/postproduction stage and turn the HF band all the way up 28dBs and then try a DAW stock deesser to tame the transients down LoL

[@alessandrosummer]

Mastering should not be about making huge moves: obviously 28 dBs of top end is a mistake and it'd be even in mixing

[@TheReal_E.IRIZARRY]

@@alessandrosummer Correct. I thought sheen was better when I was mixing ITB digitally. Now that plugins have gotten better in the JUCE Framework SDKs, HYPER Technology, etc. - I have retrained my ears to "think" analogue in the box/digital.

[@nutsosix7930]

i have stems i ruined.

[@hatefulconduct]

Idk I enjoyed the grit on Californication and Vapor Trails. It fit the post-H clarity for RHCP and the beating Neil took in his personal life for Vapor Trails. So overdoing the loudness thing imo has its place but should probably never be done by someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing.