How Skrillex Achieves Loudness & Dynamics with Clippers & Limiters

[@BeatsbyVanity]

I respond to every comment, so if anything wasn’t clear and you’d like clarification, or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to drop them below!

[@modallias]

Very very useful, thanks!

[@BeatsbyVanity]

You’re welcome! Glad it helped! 😄

[@omarmhamdallah]

I wish every single channel do the same as you do, you’re straight to the topic! Amazing bro, keep up. But I hope you can do a series for a project with examples. Thanks ❤

[@BeatsbyVanity]

Thank you, Omar! 😄 Absolutely, I will. I’m planning to keep this series going while starting another alongside it, focusing on production techniques (like the ITSO series).

[@omarmhamdallah]

@ AMAZING MAN 🔥🔥🔥🔥, all the best and great luck!

[@BeatsbyVanity]

Thank you! 🙏

[@arsansa999]

damnnnnnn thank you for the video you killed it! i didn’t know about the oversampling stuff in standardclip, what the impact & clarity modules do in ozone and limiter lookahead affecting the low end. very cool, subbed!

[@BeatsbyVanity]

Thank you! I'm glad you found it helpful! 😄

[@OperculumAudio]

The Ozone Clarity and Impact idea greatly changed my mixes! Thanks

[@BeatsbyVanity]

You’re welcome! I hadn’t thought of using them this way until I saw Luca doing it, but I was surprised at how effective they were.

[@digidope]

Luca has done ton of masters before Ozone got those new features. Did he try to re-introduce transients before starting to use Ozone? What did he use then?

[@BeatsbyVanity]

That’s a fantastic question-one I can’t answer, though! From watching tons of his content, I know Luca’s workflows tend to evolve as new plugins come out. I’d guess he might’ve used something similar, perhaps involving transient shapers, parallel compression, harmonic exciters, and/or saturation.

[@moce727]

this video gave me so much valuable info I really appreciate it! thank you!

[@Ruktiet]

The information in this video is very detailed, explained well (although it’s pretty high threshold for newbies), but it might’ve really helped if you gave a demo of the effect of every signal processing step in the way. Now it’s purely theoretical.

[@BeatsbyVanity]

Thank you for the kind words! Yeah, that’s understandable. I was hoping others would try the technique out and judge for themselves, since heavy clipping is so genre-specific. I do test everything before putting together these videos to make sure the theory holds up in practice, but I can understand the need for examples.

[@RckDtar]

no audio example?

[@user-nr5xp6yd8z]

Thank you so much for this! One question, you have to add these plugins in the same mixer? For example, first the clipper, then the Ozone plugins, all in the same track mixer. Or you add the clipper, render the track, and then use the Ozone plugins and so on?

[@BeatsbyVanity]

You’re welcome! The plugins in this context are meant to go on your master channel: Clipper, Ozone modules, then the second Clipper, followed by the Limiter. Of course, feel free to experiment and see what works best for you!

[@user-nr5xp6yd8z]

@@BeatsbyVanity Thanks for the explanation!! +1 sub

[@BeatsbyVanity]

Thank you! Happy to have you on board! 😄

[@saibercut8543]

interesting concept of master channel signal processing

[@BeatsbyVanity]

Thank you! 🙏

[@jameswhitaker4357]

I’m gonna try the ozone modules out, thx

[@azyymusic]

Great vid

[@BeatsbyVanity]

Thank you! 😁

[@tonyrey6495]

Arent the loudest elements of a track the kick/snare/Sub bass? Couldn't you just route them to a separate bus, soft clip them, and send your leads straight to the master channel glue everything and clip to 0db? (For Electronic music)

[@BeatsbyVanity]

You’re spot on, Tony! In fact, my previous video (kzbin.info/www/bejne/oKTJip6NpsR8oLc) covered exactly that. One thing I love about production is that there are countless ways to do everything, each with its own set of pros and cons. This method focuses more on master bus processing, whereas your idea-and my last video-center on mixing processing. As producers, we tend to blur these together, but keeping them distinct works well in the context of KZbin, I think. Doing this within the mix provides more control, so I’d always recommend starting there. Clipping the kick and bass/sub is essential in EDM, but when everything is summed on the master, you may still need to push the limiter too far to achieve the desired loudness level. This video will help if that's the case.

[@tonyrey6495]

@BeatsbyVanity Awesome I'm on the right track then. I've been producing for a little while but I'm always watching videos on KZbin and brushing up on anything and everything I can. I appreciate your response and I'll definitely be subscribing to your channel, this video helps me Alot. 😎🤙🏽

[@BeatsbyVanity]

Thank you, happy to have you aboard! It can feel like a minefield with all the advice online, so I encourage you to experiment and see what fits your workflow. If you have any questions, feel free to drop them in the comments 😁

[@digidope]

I'll use StandardClip on busses and individual tracks. I have Pro-L on master and everytime it ducks heavily i'll check what peaks it and usually it takes one StandardClip and it's gone. Sound is still the same but limiter is not ducking anymore. In modern music you can clip almost everything!

[@xrabbz2010]

love to see people using clippers, my mate calls me the barber because i clip everythinf 😄 hqs this been done on the master channel?

[@BeatsbyVanity]

'The Barber’ 😂 - great name. Yeah, this is all master bus processing! But doing it at the bus level makes sense too, especially for kick/bass processing.

[@xrabbz2010]

@BeatsbyVanity thanks for clarifying, I particularly love the idea of adding transients back with ozone it's something I've never tried before. Great channel btw I'm currently binge watching 😁

[@BeatsbyVanity]

Same here-I hadn’t played with those modules before researching this video. I was surprised at how well they performed, though; iZotope is known for their quality. Thank you as well! I hope you enjoy the content 😊

[@xrabbz2010]

@@BeatsbyVanity bro that technique with the impact module is wild, thank you man

[@BeatsbyVanity]

You’re welcome! I hope it proves valuable in your music! 🙏

[@123string4]

Where did you see Luca using Impact and Clarity in Ozone? I can't find any interview where he uses it let alone shows you the settings.

[@BeatsbyVanity]

It’s from one of his My Mix Lab tutorials titled 'How to Improve Dynamics and Clarity on Your Master'. I’m sure there are clips of it on KZbin too!

[@arellano4337]

I didn‘t quite get the Ozone Transients part. So you limit Everything before using Ozone and Ozone then brings back „important“ transients that sound loud, without bringing back high peaks that ruin the sound?

[@hey_maurice]

I *love* Luca’s videos, but he’s definitely not succinct in his explanations like this video is. Great job!! Question: was Luca running this workflow on the drum buss or on the master? I guess one COULD run it on both if they wanted to. 😅

[@BeatsbyVanity]

It’s all Luca’s wisdom-I’m just repackaging it into these videos, but thank you for the kind words! 🙏 Yes, you absolutely could run it on both. However, this video is intended for master bus processing. My last video (kzbin.info/www/bejne/oKTJip6NpsR8oLc) covered processing for a kick and bass bus, which might interest you.

[@elg4528]

what do you think using MASTER PLAN and not PRO L2 ¡

[@АндрейВ-ъ8ж]

Super Video. Maybe we need some video cases to show this technique on master or drum, or kick&bass. But Explanation is excelent

[@BeatsbyVanity]

Thank you! Funnily enough, my previous video (kzbin.info/www/bejne/oKTJip6NpsR8oLc) covered processing for a kick and bass bus 😄

[@thiloswift8035]

why not use an example? hm

[@sodathief]

i love this but it seems like there should just be one application that can chain these steps together

[@BeatsbyVanity]

How do you mean? Like one plugin that could handle this entire process?

[@xrabbz2010]

I think ozone could handle the entire process, if you put the slider on the maximiser to the left it changes from limiting to clipping. Im not sure how it'll sound but in theory it could handle it all

[@BeatsbyVanity]

Yeah, I thought about that while replying, but I’m unsure about the quality of Ozone’s clipper. It does oversample at 4x, but Standard Clip goes up to 256x. On the master, though, you really want to be using the highest-quality plugins possible, with linear phase and oversampling fully dialed in.

[@xrabbz2010]

@BeatsbyVanity that's a great point! And if im honest when im using ozone I always turn the maximiser off and do some clipping with kclip and then some limiting. I didnt know standard clip went up to 256 though, one of my mates was telling me I should get it but I was so happy with kclip I never bothered but now ill look into it, cheers

[@BeatsbyVanity]

That’s probably the best approach. KClip is a solid clipper, especially with its multi-band functionality. KClip, Standard and Gold Clip seem to be the most popular clippers, but Standard Clip edges it for me.

[@Durkhead]

Compressor, clipper then limiter

[@minotrax8492]

well produced and interesting video, but for me it's not worth much if there's no audio example.

[@BeatsbyVanity]

Thank you! That’s fair. I guess my thinking was that others might be inclined to try the technique and judge for themselves.

[@Nova-TechnoLAB]

Waaaay too much obsession with too much focus on ocd detail, when at the end, the average listener wouldnt notice the difference while high on life.

[@BeatsbyVanity]

That’s kind of the essence of music production-and most creative pursuits, right? Artists create art for themselves; they focus on getting the details right to satisfy their own vision, not necessarily to impress others.