A SUPER NICE MASTERING TRICK!

[@iainmackenzieUK]

new tricks or not... the value of shared passion never fades. Thanks as always

[@XOBADNEWS]

As a young producer I am loving your content and learn new perspectives on how others are doing their craft. Thank you for your contributions.

[@5adb0i]

Funny story: When I first started in music tech college, I couldn't compress to save my life. My professor pulled me aside and made me read an article by a famous mixing engineer (sorry, can't remember the article atm). And after a few more lessons on compression, I adopted my new philosophy: use slow attack and fast release as much as possible for compression, use fast attack and release for your final limiter. It allows the transients to come through more. My mixes instantly got better. I also learned to use compression in serial for larger amounts of gain reduction.

[@ProDoucher]

5adb0i Music potentially it could be Michael Stavrou’s cracking compressor article. It’s great because it tells you how to listen to compressors, not just use them

[@5adb0i]

@@ProDoucher It was Roger Nichols on Sound on Sound, just found it! www.soundonsound.com/people/mixing-advice-roger-nichols

[@Zoloxer]

As someone who’s still working on his mixing skills, I applaud you 👏🏼 and also thank you bc I’m gonna think about that every time I mix now

[@nikku1166]

fast attack & release for the final limiter? is this for EDM\Dance music as well? I make DnB 175bpm style music and have seen masterclasses and videos of producers with tons of good releases use a super slow attack time on the final limiter... like the attack on the Pro-L all the way to the right, which I think is something massive like 10 seconds; and the release set to zero milliseconds. I'm still struggling with exactly how my last limiter should be set up (and even how many if any bus limiters or compressors before that). What is the point of having the final limiters attack time set to the maximum slowness it will go as opposed to the way you mentioned having it set to a fast attack time? I'm just trying to understand the varying methods and mindset as to why the choice was made for such a slow attack time.

[@estartica6352]

@@nikku1166 Limiters don't have attack times. It's always 0. Because of this, the attack time on Fabfilter pro-L isn't what you're thinking. It's the attack of the release (if that makes sense) so having a slow attack on the pro-L actually means that it'll stay limiting for longer even after it doesn't need to limit the sound anymore

[@JoshuaStormmusic]

"IT SHOUNDS WAY MORE SHNAPY"

[@ScotBontrager]

Never apologize for sharing new (to you) findings. I learned from it.

[@exshenanigan2333]

4:40 i've been telling this to all my engineer friends for at least a solid 10 years. some just ignore some accuse me of being lazy some try and like it. a good limiter sounds really good. i do not mix for a lot of mastering processing. i mix for the limiter and almost use no compression on the master but mostly limiting. logical thinking cost me years to figure this out and i smile whenever i come across another engineer figuring the same thing out.

[@RaddDronzy]

Try crossover/multiband mastering using PFL sends to three buses. First bus will be in mono and it will have only the bass, second bus will be stereo and it will have the mids and the last bus will also be in stereo and it will have only the highs. In this way your buses becomes the crossover and in turn your crossover have inserts and you can process each crossover buses in a different way.

[@peterbrandt7911]

Hi, nope didn't know it, will try it. Thanks mate

[@terrykeefe8386]

Big fan of this site and finally got around to commenting. As an old time engineer and now home recordist, I've tried most of the plugins on the market from Slate to UAD. I find that most are just a "cool" GUI over a basic digital process and rarely sound like the analog gear they mimic. There are a few exceptions like Soothe, that are innovative and do something new and helpful or Fabfilter that takes standard digital processes and makes life easier. All my "gear mimic" plugins are basically the same, some a little faster, saturate a bit more but border on "snake oil". Keep up the great work!

[@zyrk7627]

Similar to a fun little trick that I learned from a buddy of mine which helps elements to take priority in the mix! Basically, you make a very short duplicate of your kick and you only take the transients, stacking it so to say; you then continue to actually let it purposely hit the limiter louder than it should; This not only makes stuff sound snappy and 'up-in-your-face' but also gives priority to the kick to make it stand out for only a brief moment and giving the effect of a '2nd side-chain layer'; That is, if you put the release of your limiter to the fastest settings; You can apply this on anything! I would highly suggest experimenting with this because it's a really fun technique to play around with!

[@mohalbittar]

That's a bad-ass sounding master. Amazing.

[@jacobcervantes2552]

Yes, this technique is common in rap/hip hop. Usually those tracks are smashed by the limiter to get the kick and 808 to bang. Awesome video! :)

[@nichttuntun3364]

Interesting. Nice tune also.

[@ganderson87]

"how the musicians played... how the drummer played...." Savage burn haha!

[@Stacity]

Yes I liked it . I love the jazz music you mastered too.

[@adamswierczynski]

I often use a good limiter on individual drums in a kit to push some of them to the front. It helped me get to get a deep boomy kick to punch through a really thick bassline.

[@matto9488]

Yup....fast attack will kill the snap and life of a mix. Leave the slower attack times on the MB and follow it with the alpha master (elysia) using only the soft clip functions....this will keep the life and snap while responsibly adding a little volume without smashing it before limiting.

[@4dmind]

Hilariously, I learned the same lesson, but in reverse - the trick of using a multiband to sculpt out all highest transients, thus allowing the limiter to work very little. Now, from this video I realize that the technique is to know which end of the spectrum a song needs, and how to find the sweet spot. Great videos - I love the way you think and the detail.

[@JimijaymesProductions]

The way I kind of see it is high end transients (higher frequencies) limiters deal quite okay though maybe add a bit of distortion but you don't lose that punch, bass heavy material is different however so if you have super heavy low transients you may need to clamp quickly on those so that the limiter isn't doing severe full band limiting every time there is a kick for example (in EDM), multiband and spectrum limiters deal with this better but are far from transparent. Definately in this case the second master with the slower MB attack times sounds significantly better to may ears really 3d and open sounding.

[@unfa00]

My goodness, this track is so funky! I need *more* !

[@volpe_sol]

@0:30 Making the world a better...sounding place.

[@leonardosojli9623]

I'll try it out. It makes sense. Thanks bro 🙏

[@akhilchandrashekar1725]

Thank you guys this video

[@ericyip7973]

I think the hitting the limiter creates a release or a tail for each transience, so the tail is louder, and more present. And the music sounds better.

[@andyf6484]

going from limiters like waves L2 to something like ProL or recent versions of Ozone is what really turned me on to this years back. The release algorithms on modern limiters are just insane. I like i'm getting away with murder sometimes.

[@lattetown]

That's a great tip! Actually two tips, to blend a parallel tape delay track as another layer, and then letting the limiter handle smoothing out the transients.

[@Wourghk]

Already knew it, but good to know it's not just a noob trick. The settings on the limiter have a lot to do with the punchy feeling. I like to have a clipper or multiband distortion in there to kill spikes (that are just pure noise anyway) and it helps make the limiter sound more consistent. Wild fluctuations of 2dB - 5dB of reduction on the master limiter rarely sounds nice to me.

[@Whiteseastudio]

Well, the lookahead is pretty high, and the lower the lookahead, normally, the higher the punchy feeling

[@yeet_za]

This video just started playing after another one of your videos and it reminded me of using KClip3 all the time trying to deal with transients to get more loudness. AAAAND THEN I DISCOVERED CTZ.

[@AlexCouch]

Thanks!

[@creativeheadroom]

Oddly enough the slow comp w/ harder limiting method is exactly what I do because of the electronic music I've worked on, hahaha! :P I've mastered a whole bunch of breakcore/jungle/hardcore and even some speedcore tracks over the years. Mainly the breakcore/jungle stuff has roots in samples taken from old vinyl records. Many of these songs aren't super loud and the transients in all the crazy percussion are super important. When I work on these tracks I try to combine an old school approach with some modern elements to create a 'best of both worlds' situation. A slow compressor can be nice to create some movement and reinforce the low frequencies. The transients will still peak through and hit the limiter harder. This harder clipping can add some nice crunch similar to the grit added by an 1176/1178 style compressor. Nice video, please keep sharing these things with us :D

[@electrifried]

I could have sworn this was live Darude recording of a new track! :) Thanks for the tip!!

[@TheOne_Tube]

Thats exactly what lots of EDM producers do with their KICKBass Bus. Mix it some db louder than the rest and then the limiter is doing the rest of the job.

[@magoostus]

mixing the tape in parallel is genius. I actually think using worse tape might actually make it better. do ya have a 3-head cassette deck? :P . Also what I do Is I reverse the whole track before applying the final limiter. usually preserves more transient snap this way

[@kyraethel9809]

MUSIC IS LOVE FOREVER... Me encanta!

[@cortical1]

Thanks! I did not know this. Will experiment with it. Keep pushing and bye bye!

[@fcmband]

Didnt know that. Thanks alot

[@tru7hhimself]

this confirms my own experiments. using the limiter to do the limiting sounds better and clearer than trying to use to compressor to catch the peaks beforehand.

[@sionnachs_workshop]

Yeah I started doing this a while back, makes a big difference. Now I think of the attack and release as tone knobs also! push up your knee settings also while pulling back on the ratio big time also has an effect. I've been using ratio settings of 1.15/1.2/1.3 etc etc with 36-48 on the knee settings on the low end, mids you can reduce knee and increase ratio, and less again up top

[@mrfleamino9350]

Thank you

[@3issalsalibi]

After adding the tape in parallel the snare become phasy - it change timbre - pay attention what you share 🙏🏽 😊

[@jorgecds]

Does it really sound bad though?

[@DCBMusic]

That augmented run @ 3:21 tho.. :o

[@TheGurner1]

Great! The new master sounds '3D' ! I didn't know this exactly, but I've seen Dave Pensado put an L1 before an L2 to hit it harder - I follow the Swedien approach of really trying to keep the transients as much as possible, so I'm not compressing fast anyway ;-)

[@ronaldk86]

Yeah man! I do the forbidden bad thing of mixing with a mastering chain (or just a limiter) on my master bus, as having the ability of previewing how much the limiter would be working can help me select the right amount of compression in my groups. Also have always been a big fan of sloooow attack times on my kicks, so the transient punches through. Only use fast times when the kick is very sharp or boomy, and I want to control it.

[@rpokora]

I use soft clipping or wave shapers and ajust pre and post levels to not hear the difference but cut that sharp peaks of transient right before my mastering limiter. It's also helpful on a group of transient intensive tracks like drums or percussion or even on rapping vocals. Just make sure you don't hear any distortion with your ears

[@MonkeyBars1]

Reaper v6 theme looking slick af here nice work correction "I was used to *doing that "

[@paullordy4064]

Yeah...plz share some more ideas on software mastering. It's a good content.

[@patrickcarter1820]

I believe I remember Dave Pensado talking about this subject. He says the limiter is good at maintaining transparent transients in this way because it does not effect the envelope of the transient.

[@DalleyMusic]

Try running 2 limiters in serial with each other on the mix bus. Each one can have a different purpose and the results can be very good.

[@Dakzz]

bedankt voor de trick

[@CHEFZOOT]

Neat trick, will be trying this out!

[@MegaHajvan]

Try using a few limiters, one maximizer for volume, and two limiters in serial to tame the peak levels and enjoy in the glue.

[@jasperbhogal4953]

you make great videos

[@markbortnovsky9134]

What a coincidence, I myself, discovered this trick about 1/2 year ago as well!

[@heavymetalmixer91]

I guess this is why RMS compressors are popular in mastering, they compressy everything but the transients.

[@AceDeclan]

heavymetalmixer not really

I would say that's mainly because your drums were loud and the transients were huge to begin with, so this is sort of acting like more drum compression, making things sound bigger.

[@TheGARCK]

Just an idea: try limiting a bit harder before the compressor, then limit more subtly after as well to see how it compares. I use the FF L2 a lot more on individual instruments and groups in stages these days as I find it builds a much more controllable mix, without killing the transients.

[@urigeheadmot1196]

Gareth K Music obviously

[@kenny6105]

Urigehead Mot its not “obviously “ when there are a bunch of different way to do these things that are “correct”, all yielding different results

[@Rompler_Rocco]

Very nice! Beats my technique of overloading everything into a mono dictation recorder @ 1/2 speed on a ferric microcassette w/ sticky shed 🤔

[@kontemplatemusic2189]

In the first master that you play second left hand is much more prominent. Low end is punchy yet fuller. I preferred it over the other. Its distorted to an extent.

[@cupcakearmy]

This is super good advise! More of this kind of videos 💌

[@tusharjamwal]

What I learned: If you don't want compressed transients, don't use a compress them. Follow up question: what about using a clipper instead? Is a limiter basically a clipper with a fixed ceiling?

[@noreaction1]

I do this for acoustic guitar strumming

[@planagencia4828]

YOU ARE GREAT BRO i APPRETIATE A LOT YOUR WORK

[@RogerioValgode]

This is a cool thing! I sometimes try to cut the "very hi peaks" of the the hard transients sounds with some clipper tool (bitcrusher from Logic Pro X or Classic Clipper from IK Multimedia works fine for me), and doing that you don't lose that "snapy feel". Then, I can go harder on the compressor and limiter to push those room sounds.

[@florabee9283]

That was an excellent demonstration! I just these last few days have been working on the same thing- threshold low and compress and attack quick, or let the Limit have it? The Tokyo Dawn Labs Molot GE was the plug I was using on the snare and another on the drum bus, that plugin has just enough control for me now, the limiter has nice saturation, and the overall interface is easy to comprehend at a glance.

[@MarnixMohrmannPiano]

This actually gives a bit more playing room on the MB, I know I am going to need this at least once in the future. Cool tip!

[@MarkBennett007]

Good presentatation

[@jamiegustkey2573]

Your original mastering sounds more natural, organic, all while applying the compression and limiting... The transients ARE there but it just seems clearer... More enjoyable to listen to, as if that's the way it was meant to be heard. The one they went with, definitely to my ears, sounds processed, controlled kind of... no character, but just what would maybe be considered the 'standard' treatment that every song receives... Maybe for the purpose of it just being easier. As a listener, I would prefer to hear that track in the way you did it the first time. That's just my Canadian nickel... 👍🏻

[@uselessson142]

The final master sounds more dynamic to my ears, wich i think fits better with the song

[@JazzMac36251]

Yeah, I can hear the bass on the first master. It seems buried to the point of being an issue on the second. Although, there is an interesting thing happening with the transients on the second one, for sure.

[@newguy6935]

Three things: Though I'd have to be setting in front of your speakers... 1. Great song and great observation. 2. Almost immediately, I wondered if the bass line would trip up a needle if the song was pressed to a vinyl record. 3. The Roades piano sounded just a little thin on the high notes.

[@davidpringuer]

Rhodes

[@raybeeger1529]

My limiter (L2) is always running between -3 and -4dB. So you mentioned the LUFS following the customers request. The relationship between attack and release is forming the way the transients come through. That is common on every compressor, i guess. A longer release for your song project was the right decision imo. Learning to hear compression is the way to handle that. Some days before I've seen a video from KUSH. And there is a good explanation therefore.

[@newma568]

I recently learned that letting my kick drum hit the limiter makes it sound better but I didn't like the fact that it was clipping the wave form much harder than I expected. Maybe I'll try it again with this technique in mind.

[@lukehumphrey1801]

Shhuper shhnappy shuperb shhhounds!!!!

[@christopherventer6391]

Kind of reminds me of how the dynamics part of the RND Master Buss Processor works. It has a not super fast VCA compressor that feeds into a nice limiter to catch the transients.

[@TheJehuva]

Both masters sound great but I like your original better :)

[@CreateArtRecords]

Cool. I do the same on my "Monitoring/Live-Console" with a Bus. So i can push (keep pushing) the Channels needs to. The Playback still clean..

[@thesebarehandsmusic]

Helpful! Interesting!

[@djtefoux-official]

Thx for the tip 🙌🙌🙌

[@raphaelkuttruf]

My Kick Transient (the click) on EDM Tracks usually slams ~3dB into the limiter. I don't compress, I saturate, eq, clip and limit xD

[@DonBernhard]

I notice your Pro-L 2 is set to "Modern." I wonder, did you try different "Style" settings? Different algorithms will surely influence transients and transparency.

[@oldskoolfunkandsoul1]

this is a great lesson in clean recording :)

[@jackduxbury1632]

The track is dope!! Thanks for the vid mate X

[@cutoff_DNB]

soft clip > limiter for loudness

[@erestube]

Thanks for the tip! Hey, have you ever given an explanation of your studio logo?

[@AlbertSirup]

I guess it depends on how nice the clipping sounds on the limiter? there are some more "technical" limiters I wouldn't push but some have a nice distortion which is actually pleasing. I'm not great at mastering but I usually use several different limiters (trying not to push any individual one too hard), some of which are for "taming" transients (especially at the very end of my chain) while others are more about tone.

[@CraigHinrichs]

This was super interesting. Thanks!

[@doctorscoot]

great trick might try it! also was confused for a minute thought you were saying 'trenchants' not 'transients' lol

[@vesalaasanen2158]

I actually gave up default "multibanding" few years ago. I used to slap a multiband in every mastering session by default but nowadays I use it just to level subs or de-ess. But more than 50% of my masters don't have a multiband at all. I find that if you don't tame the transients too much you can actually get louder sounding tracks in streaming services. Try it sometimes. Just use it as an error correction tool rather than a general compression tool.

[@deadislander]

SHHHHNAPPY 👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼

[@aw93927]

Uhhh... yeah I’ve been hitting my limiter hard and using slow (25ms or slower) attack since I started mixing. Transients always slappin

[@liveanddirect100]

Great Info! Really like your channel. And how you share your own findings:))

[@l3uckaffe]

Tank you for the tape in parallel trick, didn't thought about it before. Will try it on Telefunken M21. Question: Why would you use your Sony tape machine on a master? I would expect the Tape too big and for that not really making it nice and deep tape compressed. Nice and Deep I mean really the result of a tape machine: glueing and making the bass fat. I tried to achieve this on the A80 for a Master but the result was bad. I explained it to me by the size of the tape. The Studer gets 2" of course and the M21 gets 1/4".

[@deadviny]

More gain, more better

[@jrtaylor2601]

Have you tried Limitless from DMGAudio? If not, you simply must, probably more than any other software. It is built around this principle of treating dynamics and transients accordingly. While it would make an entertaining “Snake Oil” video, I think you would find even more enjoyment after reading the manual. Of course for me Dave Gamble’s manuals are practically pleasure reading (in nerdy educational way).

[@1loveMusic2003]

Great tip. Goes against what you always hear but treat each song as a different entity right?

[@matthewdeward1984]

I have experienced this depending on what plugg in in I am Using too Brick wall it or limiting it. It works well for me with New Fangled Saturator, and the Bus thats an ssl clone on Ableton, it has a very unique limiting/cliping curve, almost adds harmonic Distortion. I had kind of experimented with pushing my tracks for a while just to see how high lufs i could get before it wasnt usable. softubes Tape emulation I believe is an emu of yours. Looks identicle. Im sure yours sounds nice and crunchier though.

[@TeddyLeppard]

So you’re adding saturation/warmth by routing to a tape machine.

[@BenedictRoffMarsh]

Darude are sounding pretty darned good today. And yes I already knew that. But I am older than you and was trained in the late 80s on tape when EDM and all that came with it was non-existent. I often check my masters with slower Attack times and even without Compression (which pretty well always in the SSL style Master Bus Comp in Reason). Commonly the longer (10 or 30 ms) times sound nicer, more musical. The faster times might be tighter but they sound flat & squished. A decibel or so in the "tube" limiter is far nicer.

[@chrstphbch]

Sometimes I don’t even use the limiter, I just pull up the gain and let it clip up to a dB or so. If the Transient that clips is short enough you won’t hear it and you don’t get the unappealing sound that most limiters introduce even if they’re hardly doing anything.

[@24k-n6x]

if you transfer to tape and then back to the digital world, how do you compensate for the wow and flutter of the tape but mostly the time issues, meaning that the tape audio might be 0.00001 % longer or shorter? Isnt it best to record on the sync head to tape and at the same time record back to the DAW from the repro head? then adjust in the DAW for sample acurate sync?

[@janmagdevski4973]

For that small amount of GR (1 to 1.5db on peaks), and that quiet/dynamic track (-15 to -13 LUFS) you'd maybe have even punchier results with an oversampled quality clipper like Kazrog Kclip for example.

[@evodem]

6:34 Rap God Mode On