2 common volume-balancing mistakes and how to fix them

How do you know if the instruments in your music have the right volume relative to each other? Here's a simple workflow and two big pitfalls that you should avoid!
My Foundations of Electronic Music course: courses.underdog.brussels/cou...
My Industrial Techno follow-along course: courses.underdog.brussels/cou...
My music project soundclouds:
Face the Sun: / face-the-sun-be
Torc: / torcaudio
Contents:
0:00 The basic of volume management
4:08 Challenge one: losing perspective
6:46 Challenge two: low frequency energy
9:15 Follow Face the Sun on Soundcloud

[@OscarUnderdog]

Oscar's video courses ► courses.underdog.brussels 🖤🖤🖤 Underdog Discord channel ► discord.gg/z5N9CTA 👾👾👾 Face the Sun ► soundcloud.com/face-the-sun-be 🍎🍎🍎 Patreon ► www.patreon.com/underdogmusicschool 🌱🌱🌱

[@unclemick-synths]

I put a 300 Hz low cut and 3 kHz high cut on my monitor buss for my initial faders-only mix. Then I bypass the EQ and it's immediately obvious which parts have problems with their highs and/or lows.

[@davidjames149]

love that

[@unclemick-synths]

@@Positive_Tea I find it helps identify bass sounds that are too bassy and sounds that are too bright (often vocals recorded with large diaphragm condenser mics).

[@unclemick-synths]

@@chilldaysurbannights4240 most plugins have a bypass button which means they stop processing the signal and just pass it through unchanged.

[@digitalcomplexity]

@@chilldaysurbannights4240 "Bypass" means in very simple terms turning off the FX / plug-in letting the signal "Pass Through" without it being on or "Bypass"

[@ryanoboyle1772]

Commenting to remember

[@extendedblundering]

Double thumbs up on this style of video. I really gain the most just watching someones workflow style and what they're trying to achieve during it. Thanks for the time!

[@thebeetbandit1732]

This workflow video is something I wish I could find more often on KZbin. It's nice to see every step of the way, mistakes, tips and most content creators don't really show this intimate side of producing. Amazing teaching skills as always Oscar, please more of these!

[@Artes.Antorcha]

yes! as always , the right teaching exactly when im passing through this mess in my tracks . you dont have idea how much you inspired and improved my works.... like antoine i was a completly beginner . and nooooow.... im a completly beginner , but a little less messy xD ♥

[@DeeNimmin]

That breakdown at 3:25 is great. I could vibe on that alone for a while.

[@ryanperrault8174]

Another great video, tons of useful information. Keep up the great work. Thanks for making all of these, it's much appreciated.

[@kobusvanstaden3388]

Thanks for your time and your teachings.

[@michaels2572]

The tip about cutting out the low end might be what I need. I’ll have to try it soon but you explained the way my mixes sound so perfectly.

[@Slurkz]

Solid, smart methods, well explained and presented. Thanks so much! 💜

[@KnotLõ-ADSR]

Your timing is unbelievable!!!

[@burn_after_reading]

Great vid. Good vybes on the way you present this!

[@twintarotcl]

Recently dicovered you, and loving your insight, the way it just comes out! Loving your digital persona. Keep it going and thanks!!

[@ZinglZanglBoB]

Always a pleasure watching these tutorials :) thank you Oscar! You do great work

[@Evaso_CC]

Brilliant video as always

[@peterelfman]

Super-helpful, thank you!

[@kyleplatz3751]

Using the EQ to cut the lows and focus on the mids- killer tip. Thanks.

[@BlakeRubelle]

Your head rolling part at the end of the video... it hypnotised meee. It put me in a trance O_o Thank you.

[@LammensB]

Great tips & ticks

[@Piano_Albert]

I'm learning, thank you! Dankjewel!

[@gm-heaven]

"Seduced by the subs." Every video come with a new line :) Keep it up !!!

[@deepshite8229]

Awesome stuff as usual

[@MrLetthemknow123]

best mixing tutorial ever !!! finally my sound is healed

[@mylesmontclair]

Awesome tutorial, Oscar! You taught us this really well in class but it's still super helpful to revisit this subject. I hope all is well brotha!

[@OscarUnderdog]

Yessss! Hope you’re well too!!

[@tonescapes9673]

Cheers my man,really appreciate your tutorials.it's helping me regain my true passion for my tunage again.anyway cheers

[@Raazzzz27]

thanks a lot!!! so nice reverb

[@Sammy-B]

High quality content. Nuff said.

[@PingusWorls]

Thanks mate. This will help alot

[@PatrickObiang]

BRAVO!

[@SH_Hof]

Best trick I learned so far is using pink noise. Just put a pink noise with a -6db volume on your master channel, turn down the master volume to -12 so your ears won't hurt. Then turn down the volume of all tracks and solo them in while turning the volume up until you can hear the element at roughly the same volume as the noise. Do that with every element. When you're ready you can turn off the pink noise and you're left with a mostly perfect balance. You can just fine tune from there. Helps you to get your mix louder without clipping.

[@SH_Hof]

No element should stand out more than the other against the pink noise btw.

[@RobertDorschel]

You got a new subscriber from me with this video. Good stuff.

[@mattthekat1435]

That sticks thanks!

[@maxk4277]

Thank you very much 😝

[@neilarmstrong1883]

Great video Oscar

[@Bittamin]

I liked the ending lol!

[@JayThomasofficial]

Thank you for this. Love all your videos and music. Is this like gain staging

[@AirArtStudiosOfficial]

Thank you

[@aritomiblog]

What works best for me: I put a VU plugin set at -14 on each track before any plugin, and adjust each gain (audio loop, or virtual instrument volume) so that there’s no clipping. Then you can do the mix with the volume faders as usual, and add your favorite plugins. You’ll have a clean mix without unwanted weird distortion, and your faders won’t be too much low or high.

[@ZinglZanglBoB]

so you`re measuring lufs instead of db? I allways start with -12db, bc that`s what the most plugins sweet spot is. - for example: A lot of you know the Decapitator of Soundtoys. If you`re below -12db, it just adds loudness to the signal until it reaches -12db, then it finally adds distortion. This is not the way all plugins work, but a lot do. I like it more having always the same results with using exactly the same settings in one plugin, instead of finding out when the plugin rly is working or just adding gain to my sound. But this way of using lufs instead of db is interesting. Did you took this sweet spot thing in consideration?

[@onemanvoin]

I love the light in your studio, illuminates the perfect bald head :D

[@AKAtAGG]

Bounce. Bounce. Bounce. My fave tip ever.

[@DubFreakuencies]

Great video as usual.Yep, there is a saying “ magic is in the midrange”. that’s one of the reasons why ns10s are used to mix.BUT, imo still need an accurate monitoring system to judge the low end or rely heavily on analyzers if monitoring system is not ideal. TIP: Mix in mono, it will make setting levels way easier.I also track in mono while doing sound selection, this way I’ll know straight way if I’ll have phase issues with the sound I’m adding or if it will sound good or not, with what I already have.

[@minordott]

Can’t agree with this, Most important is that u have a nice head room around -6db as Mastering Engineer’s will ask and it’s healthy for & workable everyone. Doesn’t work to do this touching the limiter and then take all down, unfortunately the balance will change. So make sure all SUM is around -6db, and u could use limiter technique with an analyzer hitting -7rms (u can compare with the best tracks on the market) and refine your MIX. Then u just need to take the limiter off if need to send to mastering or so. Hope my method and I’m on big labels, could help. Whenever u want I’m open to share my methods with u. Thanks always for content!

[@OscarUnderdog]

Ah thanks for this! Yeah you’re right if you’re going to have it externally mastered this workflow makes a lot of sense. I tend to selfmaster or at least mix into a limiter and then remove the limiter when sending it to the master engineer (with headroom).

[@Artikque]

Wow, I’ve never thought about putting a lowcut to focus on the mids and highs. Simple but could see how useful that could be. Thank you! 🤘🏻

[@zackharrison6127]

great work - i appreciate you and your content, but i just have a comment on terminology :) "level" is the professional english term used in audio just for future reference

[@kookiespace]

I first watched this on laptop speakers and when you cut out everything but the lows at 8:06 I could hear NONE of it. Literally zero. Kinda making your point there :D

[@quiddam]

I dont know if I'd want to spend too long mixing with the whole track hipassed. Our perception is pretty contextual and removing everything under 200hz would end up tricking you into thinking your track sounds way too bright and you risk making some decisions that make no sense once you've removed the hi pass.

[@sch4st4r]

Thank you for this channel Oscar. Yvour explanations are very clear and helpfull. What is the best practice to bring up an element? I was taught to use the gain control? But what is the use of the volume control then ? Thanks again. All the best Olivier

[@OscarUnderdog]

They should be exactly the same honestly :) so whatever is most frictionless for your workflow!

[@jeremyfox7599]

Absolutely love this channel, I only found it a few weeks ago and I'm so happy that I did - this will sound like a fake comment because it's so positive but I'm a pro producer just starting out going it full time and I've spent many years watching pretty much all of the best Ableton focused youtube tutorial channels and I didn't think I'd missed one, especially not the one that has quickly become my favourite. The technical detail is brilliant, the tutors knowledge is perfect and he has an excellent calm and precise way of delivering all of the key information we need in the most effective way that I have ever seen from a tutorial video. One major thing is that alot of other tutorial channels I notice eventually after watching through most of the content available that the tutors quickly start repeating info and repeating phrases and teachings from lesson to lesson like they are trying to re-package and re-upload the same lessons again and again but just in a sllightly udpated way but with this channel I have seen no sign of that yet and i've binged watched a huge portion of their videos in a short space of time. Alot of the videos I would watch a few times if I want to take in all the details and the tutors vibe is super chilled and calm so he doens't get annoying at all when watching on repeat a few times whereas most other channels the hosts are over excited using that trademark yuotube pretend happy vibe in every video which is painful to watch, this guy keeps it real and I appreciate that. I hope I haven't rambelled on too much I just wanted to express my thanks to the channels content creators more than anything as this channel has been a real breath of fresh air and I look forward to wacthing these videos! Superb work! Thank you!

[@OscarUnderdog]

Woooo this comment is lovely ❤️🙌 thank you!!!

[@Kalamith]

Hi Jeremy, would you share your favourite music production channels? Specially those that are more focused on Ableton and techno/electronic. Thanks.

[@thepdc3372]

You know you’ve grown as a producer when you start picking holes in Oscars workflow ❤

[@OscarUnderdog]

do share what you're noticing - I'm trying to grow myself as well 😌

[@loontil]

boasty but not that enlightening

[@Stormbringer81]

One additional method you can use for volume balancing: output your sound through mono instead of stereo. If something is far too loud or soft, this will immediately highlight the problem. With mono isolation your stereo width is gone and your perception of the sound changes instantly. Also, if you have a car with a half decent stereo system in it, you can really understand how muddy your mix can be, since cars are basically giant bass traps.

[@Bittamin]

Yes they are, and it always makes me want to turn down my bass, so then I do that and then I can’t hear the bass at all. Why do I suck such ass?

[@Stormbringer81]

@@Bittamin Thinking in terms of volume is wrong. It's about finding the right cut-off point. Use a low-cut filter on your bass and find the appropriate cut off point. It depends what kind of music you're making. For me personally, with my genre, I find cutting off everything below 65hz is ideal. It's going to depend on your genre, where the cutoff point is.

[@Bittamin]

@@Stormbringer81 I wanted to make like garage house/classic house music. Or even tech house ish. If you check my channel I have a track called upD5o I would love feedback on, not expecting it but would really appreciate trying to understand if it sounds right to other people or if I missed the mark on my mix

[@Stormbringer81]

@@Bittamin Sounds pretty good to me man. That's a pretty good track I think. Main critique is your sample of "upd5o" is missing something. Might need a bit more chorus enhancement. Maybe some echo or delay at certain times can enhance it. Varying the effects from time to time adds a bit of variance to that vocal hook. And perhaps some stereo widening or panning or auto panning could be cool. A little down on volume. That's my only critique.

[@Bittamin]

@@Stormbringer81 thank you dude that really helps me on progressing!! Appreciate you

[@PieterLaroy]

Hi Oscar, thank you for another great video. I do have a question however, or stated otherwise, I’m a little confused. As I want to release music to streaming platforms, it is advised to master a track to -14LUFS. Which currently is what I do. But it means that the limiter, amount of headroom, … are way lower than what you specify. Or … do you master to -0.3db, and then you just lower the overall volume?

[@sethohman2]

I recommend that you mix and master the song too low and then just bring up the volume afterwards. My teacher in school told me that it’s always easier to bring the volume up than down :)

[@Karabast]

bring up the LUFS until you like how it sounds and dont pay any attention to streaming platform recommendations

[@epicterry6706]

noo leave it normal, spotify automatically lowers it.

[@paullinka4886]

Hey Oscar, are you going to release the Track that you have shown in this video? Sounds Lovely :)

[@lxndrbe]

Nice episode again. For A/B I use ADPTR Metric A/B and am very happy with it (NO, I do not get payed to post this). Question: how much headroom do you give per channel befor Mastering? Some say -6 Db. What do you think?

[@jasoncruizer]

-20db, then make up all the gain running through loads of hardware, gradually bringing in 3db per unit you pass through.

[@buzzandjim4265]

cool

[@conduit-seoir]

No way I used the same reference track as well haha just saw that :P

[@vidoemakenoke2424]

hello ik ben op zoek naar combo effect door hele nummer gebruiken ken you maken video bout that

[@tresporros]

'''home-mastering and gently touching limiter ca -12dB fsd?:)

[@OscarUnderdog]

Hahahahaha maybe I shouldn't really have chosen the word "mastering", this is not intended as a mastering tutorial by a LONG shot 😂 but I think you know what I meant...

[@entropie]

Lots of great advice here! Kudos for not relying on visual feedback and using your ears. Pro tip; don’t use papyrus. 🤮

[@jaaacccc]

what was the song you used for reference? I'm looking for it for weeks, heard it once in the club and forgot to shazam :(

[@chuuska1972]

I use the pinknoise technique... then I hear the original track and do the necessary amendments...

[@Yan-pz1tl]

So there are no rules for example kick -10, Bass -12, Drums -14 Lead -16DB?

[@urbanloops]

Are you using only native plugins for the sake of this video and people watching? Only because using the Ableton limiter is very risky imo.

[@TonyByte]

Subscribed. I only ask that you never use the Papyrus font again. Thanks.

[@OscarUnderdog]

😂 glad to see connoisseurs in the crowd

[@JF_Auran_Music_OFC]

[@lennydee4359]

Every mix is different - taste in music decides your balance - also the producer will have the final say. plus the genre, So i don't see the point of this video - taking away these frequency in another track won't be the same. you will do more damage then good. If u want your balance to be good - train your ears - it gets better over time. trust me after 32 years in this game. Sorry to be negative. for your low end - i nice trick is to find the root note -then cut the frequency below the lowest note - then it will be round , in key. and it will dip the low stuff that is not needed in key. also a linear EQ setting might also be good tool for cutting as it keeps the phase in tact. This method will serve u well. No matter if u make techno or whatever. there are no rules for this - so use your ears !

[@pressure609]

My subs seduce me all the time!!! I. CANT. HELP. IT!!! 😱 😭😱😭 *faints*

[@auroranamex5886]

Im going to watch this channel as a background while doing my dayjob

[@OscarUnderdog]

I used to do the same, so it all makes sense 😂

[@shamuscoghlan4559]

There is some pretty stereotupical mastering mistakes in this video: Mixing into a limiter unless for a very specific sound isn't a wise production method. Ableton and many other DAWs these days are all 32bit so you can easily export an over 0dB signal and not have any clipping. Often it is better to master separetly. Same thing applies on channels and most plugins but it still good practice to leave some headroom. Despite what many believe compressing a mix will not give it more feel on a dance floor and large playback system. As someone who used to setup Alpha Dynacord Systems, Cut countless dub plates, and released a bunch of techno well working with other Pros I have learned from experience. Yes even streaming does not require loud mixes and actually prefers the masters in at -1dB. Louders RMS masters just get turned down by the streaming algorithm anyways. Why does the Basic Channel, Deep Chord, Early Detroit, 80s music often sound better and have more feeling? Large part is less compression ;-)

[@melange78]

If you master for Spotify it has to be -12 LUFS. If you do like this they will punish you by lowering the volume of the entire track.

[@TheRyno1st]

Just because you’re track is gets lowered on Spotify doesn’t mean you’re being punished, too quite and you may get some distortion but then lowering the volume doesn’t effect this. With dance music it’s important to consider mastering for when your track will be played in a club or on big speakers as well, in a lot of cases more important. I typically push to around -8 Lufs for DnB

[@melange78]

@@TheRyno1st Spotify have an explicit loudness policy in order to combat the loudness wars. You should master for Spotify at -12 LUFS, not -8 LUFS. If you want a lower LUFS for the dance floor you should have a separate master for the dancefloor.

[@INVISIBLEpussy]

Walk me through, I'm ready, Oscar

[@varim64]

Very interested to know if you've ever used the Clip To Zero production strategy, it's been championed by Baphometrix and also described by Underbelly/You Suck At Producing. I've found great success getting a lot of loudness using that strategy, which essentially eliminates the headroom of every part of the track before it hits the limiter.

[@OscarUnderdog]

I dont use that system literally but its concepts are still useful i think, as you want to manage the dynamics of all elements plus the overall dynamics at the master stage, and get loud. But i dont need my stuff to be that optimised for loudness I think, so i use my judgement…

[@AllmedialabNl]

Basically what it's doing is it limits all individual tracks so that not all limiting ends up at the master and the master only gets moderate limiting resulting in a better sound and a louder end result. There is a lot of logic behind it an it is also called Mastering in the Mix, because you can hear in the Mix how the master is going to sound.

[@poykehmusic]

So, has YOᑌTᑌᗷE de-monetized you in the end? I hop no, you deserve it!