4 Advanced Mastering Techniques to Try in 2021

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[@dulmin_]

Automating saturation at chorus is a GOLDEN idea I never figured out before!! And the third fact (emphasis/de-emphasis) helps yield more from favorite wideband saturators. The rest of the two facts are also useful. As Always, THANK YOU !....

[@sageaudio]

Thanks for watching! Try it out! Hopefully it makes your choruses have more impact! SageAudio.com

[@connollytunes]

The emphasis/de-emphasis thing was brilliant! A clear difference and so good! I think that's close to what I've been after. Thank you!

[@kennygatesmusic1738]

Excellent video, a lot of helpful info. As someone is trying to step up their mastering to be top of the line, this helps!

[@alexhormann8931]

When you push a band in proQ to lower it later in another instance, don't use zero latency mode. If you wanna end up with the exact same phase, use natural phase mode instead.

[@sageaudio]

Hey Alex! Great point! Thanks for watching SageAudio.com

[@dulmin_]

Thanks for revealing that point :)

[@insertanynameyouwant5311]

isn`t natural even worse? i thought we should use linear in this case

[@alexhormann8931]

@@insertanynameyouwant5311 It is true, natural has its phase shift but it shifts it back again in the second instance. Zero doesn't take that into account, its phase behavior has zero priority. Linear mode does everything to keep the phase but that comes at a price. In our application there's no use for double pre-ringing, computing effort and astronomical latency. :)

[@insertanynameyouwant5311]

@@alexhormann8931 I think I understand, thanks!

[@saitkoraymusic]

Cool tips & real tips. I do thak you because you value peoples time. Your videos focused on target and you don't waste our time. I DO THANK YOU FOR YOUR KINDNESS...

[@abelobiriayettey5985]

I'm blown away... Sage Audio is the best... I love you buddy... Great content that brings value

[@sageaudio]

Thanks Abel! Great to hear you're enjoying the videos! SageAudio.com

[@mbot48]

This is awesome, easily the best channel on youtube for mastering tutorials.

[@sageaudio]

That's awesome, thanks for watching! SageAudio.com

[@jmula1963]

sage > streaky

[@Tiebuaudio]

Wow I feel like I found gold when I found this channel... Thank you for the great information

[@sageaudio]

That's great! Thanks for watching and leaving a comment! SageAudio.com

[@mauricejones9834]

Wow, just amazing techniques I wouldn’t have ever tried! Thank you!!

[@sageaudio]

Awesome! Thanks for watching Maurice! SageAudio.com

[@compoundaudio]

Always an eye-opener watching your channel :)

[@sageaudio]

That's awesome! Glad you found this one insightful! SageAudio.com

[@GenilsonOficial]

This is without a doubt the best mastering channel on KZbin! In the crossover example, could I create auxiliary channels using plugins like LINDEL 354E by soloing the frequency bands to make the separation and use a limiter on the master?

[@marceloribeirosimoes8959]

I deeply suggest you build a playlist with all these songs used on your videos - they should be out there for us...

[@chike1866]

Thank you for these valuable tips. 👌 And I love the music too.

[@sageaudio]

Thanks for watching! Great to hear that you're finding the videos helpful! SageAudio.com

[@TerrenceCallahan]

First. Just had to do it this time Loving the multiple vids a week, tons of new and great ideas!

[@sageaudio]

Haha nice! Glad you're liking the new videos/the new ideas we're showing! SageAudio.com

[@riktascale4]

Great stuff!

[@sageaudio]

Awesome! Thanks for watching and leaving a comment! SageAudio.com

[@GaryCunninghamyouareenough]

Always so helpful - thanks, guys.

[@sageaudio]

Thanks Gary! Glad you liked the video! SageAudio.com

[@DebF124]

If they made phase correction for the frequency split plugin that would opposite or combine it with a plugin like pi that will do it for you.

[@marcellinoibrahim5911]

this is pure gold information

[@sageaudio]

Awesome! Glad you like the video. SageAudio.com

[@luxuriousfir]

My muscle memory is to like these videos before I even proceed to watch them.

[@sageaudio]

Thanks for watching and liking the video Paul! Glad you like them haha! SageAudio.com

[@luxuriousfir]

@@sageaudio thank you for putting out concise, informative content:]

[@GloveBunniesVideos]

Brilliant solutions. Thanks!

[@sageaudio]

Thanks for watching Matt! SageAudio.com

[@emojidevotions595]

The last one is the best

[@deaftra]

quality stuff here, thank you !!

[@sageaudio]

Thanks for watching! SageAudio.com

[@remichoro2776]

sage audio love you!!!!

[@sageaudio]

Thanks for watching this one Remi! Glad you liked this one too! SageAudio.com

[@BillGraper]

Another great video, and I must mention they are even more enjoyable when the song is great. Her voice is amazing, and the song is top notch. None of today's horrible rap sound. 🙂

[@rafalvarezsevilla]

to not worry about true peaks you could also just lower the output of your final limiter, i always render my masters to -1dB FS, leaving 1dB of headroom for intersample peaks and peaks that occur when converting masters to different codecs

[@sageaudio]

Very true! Thanks for watching! SageAudio.com

[@deadlockmusic9200]

this channell is blesssing

[@sageaudio]

Thank you so much for watching! SageAudio.com

[@papito2lindo]

More Gems 💎 🙌

[@sageaudio]

Thanks for watching Papito! SageAudio.com

[@Professoar]

Would use of Linear Phase plugins/modes in crossover processing help at all? Or not really? I know it can have some unwanted effects at the beginning or before the signal. But couldn't we just mute that out?

[@cottoo1]

Cool tips, I will stick to the true peak option though

[@sageaudio]

Sounds good - thanks for watching! SageAudio.com

[@wagnergarcia2011]

The audio channel!

[@sageaudio]

Thanks Wagner! SageAudio.com

[@gliterott]

Loved the automation tip

[@sageaudio]

Awesome! Hope it works out well for your mixes/masters. SageAudio.com

[@dulmin_]

Same here! That tip is awesome

[@carlosmartinez324]

Excellent video! You don't use linear phase in the fabfilter EQs in the 4th example? Thanks a lot!!!

[@sageaudio]

Hey Carlos! Good eye! It's probably best to use Linear phase when mastering, but sometimes the phase changes cause by a zero latency or natural phase can sound good depending on the source material. SageAudio.com

[@carlosmartinez324]

@@sageaudio Thank you very much for taking the time to respond and for the tip! I have one more question for you. Does it make sense to use some monomaker type plugin to turn the bass frequencies to mono, when you can use an Eq in M / S to filter the bass frequencies from the sides? I saw that many use both. What do you think about it? From already thank you very much. I really appreciate your work and your desire to teach.

[@rionvalet]

Nice song!

[@sageaudio]

Thanks for watching this one Rion! SageAudio.com

[@shawnsteven1869]

Gems! a question about band splitting, using the splitter in pro tools is it causing phase?

[@shawnsteven1869]

Okay I read up on it, it’s non transparent minimum phase lol might hear it on my kick but if I use a linear phase m/s before the limter shall have to try it out!

[@obeycelestia]

Do the multiband phasing issues change if the EQ you are using to split the frequencies was linear phase or FIR?

[@sageaudio]

Hey Dennis! Good question! Linear phase processing should reduce the amount of phase cancellation. Thanks for watching! SageAudio.com

[@mattoverman8251]

Can you do a video on what the differences are between Metaplugin and the Fabfilter Saturn/ProMB band splits/crossovers?

[@sageaudio]

Thanks for watching Matt! I can try to cover that some how in an upcoming video if the topic works with it! SageAudio.com

[@gumminenivijaybabu7576]

Superb techniques sir What is the song name Wanted to listen the full song

[@sageaudio]

Thanks for watching! Water by Emorie! Sageaudio.com

[@chike1866]

What is the relationship between 32bit floating point, inter sample clipping and normalisation? I understand that it's ok for audio to clipp in plugins and inserts as long as it's not clipping in the masterbus, it can always be normalised. Is that correct?

[@sageaudio]

Hey Brian! To my understanding internal processing (be it 32 or 64 bit) allows for signals to extend beyond 0dBFS without permanent clipping, as they can be decreased later on. However, it's important to know that the conversion will always be converted back to a lower bit-depth when sent through your interface. That said, if you don't see clipping on your channel faders, and your track is internally processed at 32 float, then odds are that clipping isn't occurring, unless it has been converted back to 24-bit or 16-bit at some point along the way. As for normalization, I'm not exactly sure how this ties in, but if you're talking about pulling the audio down to avoid clipping then you're right in that this will avoid clipping distortion. SageAudio.com

[@C_U_R_I_E_L]

Yeah but its not lossless. The more you process the audio, the quality suffers. Its better to compress the audio before it gets to the point of clipping, knowing how to set your gains corresponding with compression is the key. A limiter is just a type of compression.

[@pineoandloeb]

What was the song in tip #1? Thanks for this!

[@sageaudio]

Thanks for watching! It's called 'The Water' by Emorie SageAudio.com

[@shifatmasud]

Does that mean it is bad if I use multiband compressor? I am actually a noob producer.

[@sageaudio]

Hey Shifat! No you can use one! Typically if the processing is all happening inside one plugin, compensation and other techniques are used by the plugin to reduce the effect of phase cancellation. Thanks for watching! SageAudio.com

[@AlessandroRorato]

In the fourth technique You should switch ProQ in linear phase mode...

[@sageaudio]

Very true, thanks for watching! SageAudio.com

[@RodneyD]

Do you guys allow Clients in the mastering session??

[@sageaudio]

Hey Rodney! I'd recommend reaching out to Steve to see if that could be arranged! Here's a link to contact him: www.sageaudio.com/contact.php

[@dalimsameer8032]

Mind blowing tips ! Name of the song plz

[@sageaudio]

Thanks for watching! It's called 'The Water' by Emorie SageAudio.com

[@dalimsameer8032]

@@sageaudio thnks 😘

[@chike1866]

I want to believe that DrMS plugin uses cross over processing. If so then it's risky to use for mastering, since it also affects the stereo image.

[@sageaudio]

Hey Brian! If it's splitting the signal and you're applying different processing to each band, then it can cause phase issues like the ones we showed here. Thanks for watching! SageAudio.com

[@yiqwaba3833]

On the last demonstration just turn it dry to 1% you may like it.

[@sageaudio]

Awesome! Thanks for watching Yacoba! SageAudio.com

[@ryner5171]

can i snd a cover song ??.oa should b an original music .

[@sageaudio]

Hey Renner! You can send a cover and we'll master it, however, you'll need to get the mechanical license for the cover before you release it. These types of licenses start at around $20 so it's not too hard to get. Thanks for watching! SageAudio.com

[@mlungisindaba2092]

Name of the song and artist please

[@sageaudio]

It's called 'The Water' by Emorie. Thanks for watching! SageAudio.com

[@gumminenivijaybabu7576]

I like this song Name of the song and artist

[@tacticalribeye9583]

Hey, noob here, not sure how you're able to have crystal clear and transparent changes to your audio during the video when every dang time I master in my daw, I export and it sounds terrible. Yes, I have gone over bit depth, sample rate, dithering etc... but every time it sounds great in my daw, settings appear to be on point, I export and it loses its body, energy, and highs become harsh. It essentially goes from sounding full, energetic, and silky in my daw, to thin and amateur sounding. 100% sure I'm doing something wrong...

[@memeswillneverdie]

the thing about true peak is just wrong, all true peak limiting is, is more accurate, it's quite literally just oversampling to reduce under reads and provide a more accurate gain reduction, back off your limiter a couple db and there is no difference between a limiter oversampled by 8x and a true peak limiter, look at ITU R bs.1770-4 as it details considerations for true peak metering, in that it shows that no oversampling can cause under reads of up to 3db and oversampling of 8x can reduce under reads to 0.6db, there is no change in ballistics when enabling true peak, just back the limiter off slightly. there are some artifacts caused when oversampling the main signal, primariliy pass band and stop band ripple caused by the anti aliasing filter, alot of true peak limiters combat this by oversampling the sidechain rather than the main signal, thus providing accurate gain reduction without artifacts.

[@sageaudio]

Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts - from what I've observed, there seems to be a difference between true-peak and 8x oversampling. Granted, this was using the Pro L2 and performing a null test, but maybe the results would be different if I used a different limiter. Multiple null tests I've done show differences between both TP limiting and 8x oversampling, as well as TP limiting and a limiter without TP or oversampling. In both cases the differences were significant.

[@martinskoog1777]

im stricly against music theory, compression and mastering.

[@koycdjartage2571]

True peak ruined the snare

[@sageaudio]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts! SageAudio.com

[@john_atco]

I would not be happy with any of the examples. The low and lower mid-levels are way too high. They should have been sorted at the mixing stage.

[@sageaudio]

Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts John! SageAudio.com

[@francismcfadden3305]

I very much disagree with the crossover part of this video... You're just doing it wrong. You even have zero lantency on pro q as opposed to linear phase. Multiband compressors and others use crossover within the plugin themselves and they're used all the time to master things. If it sounds weird you mucked it up. It's not the technique's fault. It's not a technique I really use often but when you setup crossovers you wanna make sure you null test it with the original. If it doesn't null you did it wrong. It's ironic that you titled this "advanced mastering" considering you don't even understand this. In fact there wasn't a single thing in this that I'd consider advanced. This was all pretty much 101.