How To Fix A Muddy Mix Fast With Spectral Ducking

[@precisionsoundworksstudio]

So many channels try to do new plug-in demos, but they don’t really know what they are doing; they just click around and noodle. No you, though. This was a very impressive impressive tutorial. Instant new Subby.

[@warpacademy]

Thanks for that. I very carefully select and research the plugins I represent, and they have to pass a rigorous test in my own workflow. Only after reading the manual, thoroughly understanding all the features, talking with the developers, and battle-testing them in my real mixes & masters do I make a video on the tools I use. Glad it shows. Thanks for subbing to the channel! Stay in touch.

[@richardcooke7275]

Now this is how you do a tutorial! In fact it is an excellent tutorial on how to do a tutorial and gave me a clear overview of what I needed to know about Fuser and it’s valuable functions. Subscribed.

[@warpacademy]

Sweet! Glad you liked it. Thanks for subscribing!

[@sarahtonin4649]

I do this all the time, usually ducking some upper mids in guitars or keys using Waves F6 active EQ sidechained to the vocal. I just never called it "spectral ducking" before. 🤓

[@warpacademy]

Right on. Glad you're using the technique. Spectral really just means dynamically frequency specific. Lots of ways of doing that, such as dynamic EQ with a sidechain input. Thanks for watching and commenting!

[@EdThorne]

This is a fantastic walk through of a revolutionary plugin! Thank you. At 17:50, did you find the length of the sample caused problems getting the quick release time you wanted?

[@warpacademy]

Thanks for the comment. Yes, exactly. I found the sidechain signal kick drum was quite long and was triggering ducking for too long in FUSER. So it benefitted from a shortened sample but with the same frequency spectrum to allow shorter ducking with a quicker release.

[@loubot3332]

I'm not sure a out revolutionary ;) it's basically track spacer with phase control

[@warpacademy]

The phase alignment control is BOSS. I would buy the plugin just for the phase alignment. Also, while Track Spacer is cool and I do use it still, you can't set nodes to mid or side. Only the whole plugin. So FUSER definitely offers some new ground here.

[@murraywebster1228]

Not so revolutionary Ed, haven’t you got your hands on Sonible‘s Smart Comp & EQ yet? Now they kinda started the revolution with such surgical tools, check out they’re plugin history, they’ve been making EQ‘s that split signals many ways to EQ the different properties, like transient and sustain for many years now……

[@murraywebster1228]

Phase match is a great tool, especially for layering, IZotope has just added this App too

[@MatthewSantosOfficial]

Thanks for the breakdown, this was super helpful!

[@warpacademy]

Glad it was helpful! Excellent music and channel BTW. Congratulations on the Grammy nominations.

[@MatthewSantosOfficial]

Thank you bro!@@warpacademy

[@warpacademy]

Keep it up!

[@machinemademan]

from the initial description of the track i wasnt expecting so much funk. what a unique idea for using ai in a song. nice video edits. seeing masking in the sides is neat! this seems more surgical and tweakable than soothe which is what ive been grabbing lately for sidechaining things when kickstart doesnt sound right(hardly ever i love kickstart) or im using something else as a trigger that isnt the kick. but its so cpu heavy. this looks way better thank both of those. actually seeing the collisions youre ducking out is amazing! seems like a lot less work than grouping sonible stuff and sounds better out of the box

[@warpacademy]

Right on. Glad you enjoyed the song, the video edits, and the plugin. All the best with your music!

[@mcdove]

I learned to do this with the Fabfilter ProQ3 as a eQ matching technique then adjust the Cue & Dymanics. The same process just manual.

[@warpacademy]

Yeah they’re similar techniques with some nuances that are different. The spectral attenuation is different than a dynamic EQ node that pulls down an entire bell region. Also Pro-Q3 has no attack and release and no level match. No ability to phase align. But yes, before this I was using Pro-Q3 and getting good results. This happens to be way faster which I like.

[@mcdove]

@@warpacademy there is a way to do it by clicking outside of the volume button marked Auto then adjusting the sidechain and attenuation... you can get more into fine tuning by selecting individual points and adjusting.... I'm going to look more into the tool you're using to see if it's worth buying.

[@warpacademy]

Thanks for the reply. That function in Pro-Q3 where you deactivate Auto mode and see the slider is only for the threshold of the dynamic EQ gain reduction. It's not an attack or release control and it doesn't make Pro-Q3 spectral. Spectral ducking and dynamic EQ with a sidechain input are still different. For example, if you set a node up in FUSER, but there is no frequency masking happening in that range, then FUSER will do nothing. However if you do the same thing with Pro-Q3 it will duck the full range of the node, triggered by the broadband sidechain signal. This is very different behaviour.

[@US3Rofficial]

Question - with your approach with side-chaining inside Fuser - is that not the same thing as sidechaining within Soothe?

[@warpacademy]

Similar, yes. I think there's a different approach between the two. FUSER allows you to be quite targeted with the nodes.

[@gravity00x]

Super cool topic, plugin and video! Thank you! I have to say, you have become very good at this over the years. I've been following you for so long now, I think ever since you started making Massive Dubstep Bass tutorials! Been a long way and it shows!

[@warpacademy]

Wow, thanks! I appreciate you following my videos for so long. And I'm glad I've been getting noticeably better over the years. Cheers!

[@murraywebster1228]

I use Sonible Smart Compressor and EQ4 for all my „spectral“ issues, bit more complicated and a longer learning curve but the flexibility, accuracy and transparency that you get is unsurpassed by anything else I’ve tried, just the basic startling of over over 2000 bands being analysed 44,1000 times a second lets you know how surgical it can be, but having a mix option to wideband gives a more traditional level based ducking or anything inbetween

[@warpacademy]

Hey hey. Yes that’s a great setup to use as well! I have those plugins and use them a lot. I did, however, find a bug with Smart:comp where it will glitch the release envelope and make it super jerky and abrupt if there is silence in the side chain input. To my knowledge this is not yet fixed and as a result I stopped using it for ducking until it’s addressed. This was with OSX in Ableton Live. Not sure if it happens in other DAWS.

[@murraywebster1228]

I use Cubase Pro in Windows and I’ve had no problems at all

[@warpacademy]

Good to hear.

[@PilzE.]

Beautifully explained, Sir. Thank you very much for sharing the knowledge.

[@warpacademy]

My pleasure! Happy music making!

[@mandytjart]

Babe!!!! The back (& front) of the studio looks so sick, all lit up like that on video! I’m so stoked for you. ❤

[@warpacademy]

So nice to be working in the new room. Thanks!

[@bestdisco1979]

Is there any difference between fuser. Smooth 2 and Gullfoss ?

[@warpacademy]

Hey hey. Thanks for the comment. Yeah for sure. There are big differences even though they all are trying to do the same thing. FUSER I think has the most surgical control. Especially with the mid side. Gulfoss is more of a black box that does it automatically but with less manual control. So you can’t really customize it as much IMO. Soothe im less familiar with as I don’t own it. Hope that helps!

[@dougr5187]

Really good video tutorial (and excellent plugin by MasteringtheMix). However, purely with the phase matching section of the layered kick in this video around 14:20, tbh it doesn't sound anywhere near as good as the phase rotation section that just came before it in your video. I suspect that this is due to the artifacts that the MasteringtheMix developer himself described on the relevant GearSpace thread today about the phase matching function currently. As such, I would heavily advise using the phase rotation function (which sounds great) instead of the phase matching function at the moment,and particularly with low frequency layered sounds such as your kick which sounded weird as a result of your 'B' choice. Very helpful tutorial overall. Cheers

[@warpacademy]

Thanks for the comment and info. I've always gone with the Phase Rotation version of the processing as well. I would say both make an improvement, but I also prefer the Phase Rotation method. Cheers!

[@djrandalldean]

Many thanks! I've been way underutlizing this one .

[@warpacademy]

Glad I could help!

[@johnmills8200]

How would this work in Luna ?

[@warpacademy]

All you need to do this is a VST host that can run FUSER and then you need to know how to route something into its audio sidechain input. If you’re not sure how to do that, reach out to support for Luna.

[@BrainDeadTX]

Good plugin, great video!

[@warpacademy]

Glad you like it!

[@pbenson56fran]

Would there ever be a conflict with vocals against other instruments? Thank you. Maybe, you answer this but I missed this. So, if you feel I should listen again I will do so.

[@warpacademy]

Hey Paula. Yes for sure. It’s most common for the vocals to conflict with piano, synths, horns and other midrange.

[@pbenson56fran]

@@warpacademy Oh, thank you very much.

[@warpacademy]

You're welcome Paula.

[@dominikperkovic3058]

Hey there, lovely video, love the studio as well 😍... Are those verum 1's on the table, if they are, could you do the review and how they conpare to audeze line up, im really torn between audeze lcd x, mm500 and verum 1's, also how would you eq them to be more neutral for mixing and mastering purposes ?

[@warpacademy]

They are indeed Verum 1s. They certainly sound much better than their price point. The bass extension is the best I’ve heard in a planar mag so far. Build quality is much less solid than Audeze but they’re in very different price points. Sound is pretty impressive. Some people have had quality issues with channel imbalance. Mine seem fine.

[@dominikperkovic3058]

@@warpacademyhey there, thanks for the answer ! I am really thinking of buying them, I also work on bass heavy music mostly and I would love something that I can trust when it comes to mixing and mastering, do you think they are good enough for that role when it comes to purely sound, also why is that you use them instead of audeze's or some other higher end headphones ? Because of that bass extension or ??? Thanks again :)

[@warpacademy]

They’re definitely adequate for mixing and mastering. Perhaps with some EQ. You can contact them for parametric EQ settings.

[@guymorrison4800]

I’m forever trying to resolve masking with multiple synths so this looks good. Might have to use AI grey matter to get a handle on this plugin. Mastering the Mix’s Animate plugin is worthy of mention - I reintroduced it to some pieces the other day and got the general sound set sorted - there’s alot better than the supplied mastering presets if you fiddle round.

[@warpacademy]

Yeah big and wide synths with lots of unison can often be the sources of significant masking.

[@tekis0]

THANK-YOU. This is a much better tutorial than Matering the Mix's!

[@warpacademy]

Glad it was helpful!

[@PaulRamos-Entrepreneur]

That song has sticky stuff to it love it! awesome - is there a link?

[@warpacademy]

Thanks! It's not out yet. But coming up for release soon.

[@camstanley]

How do you find this compared to Trackspacer?

[@warpacademy]

Trackspacer was my go to for this a long time ago. They were one of the first (may the actual first?) to offer spectral ducking. It's still a very good plugin. To compare and contrast, here's what FUSER does that Trackspacer doesn't: -Allows more surgical precision with multiple bell nodes vs. just HP / LP bandpassing filters for the spectral ducking region. -FUSER has the automatic resolve conflicts feature. Trackspacer must be configured manually. -FUSER allows each node to be mid side, or a combination in between. Trackspacer is all mid OR all side, and that's it. -FUSER has the phase rotation feature, which is very nice and extremely useful. -FUSER has FIR filters and Trackspacer is only IIR zero latency (I believe). -FUSER has Level Match.

[@artuvwar]

Excellent....definitely found value in this tutorial

[@warpacademy]

Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching.

[@hettovennik2887]

Great walkthrough!

[@warpacademy]

Thanks!

[@Essential-Electronic-Music]

Melda MSpectralDynamics does more or less the same thing I guess, but without EQ nodes... somebody comment it? Why wouldn't spectral ducking be applied to whole range, wherever the mudiness came from? Also Sonible Smart:EQ3 comes into my mind. So I wouldn't really say Fuser is the first plugin doing this thing, or am I missing something, it all seems quite similar to me...

[@warpacademy]

Hey there. I haven't yet used MSpectralDynamics so I can't comment on that. But Sonible Smart:Comp2 does full range spectral ducking that can be bandpassed with HP and LP filters. One key feature is the ability to do mid-side processing. Smart:Comp2 does, as does TrackSpacer. But their implementations are different. They have no automatic "Resolve Conflicts" function. It's a manual setup.

[@trancodingertranscodinger387]

Great Video!

[@warpacademy]

Thanks for the visit

[@Henrychamber-r8w]

Can anyone recommend a plugin like this that is a bit faster?, I find kick and bass it creates a considerable delay on the release as it only goes to 25ms instead of 0. Thanks

[@warpacademy]

Hey Henry. That’s odd. A 25 ms release is actually very fast and I’ve never noticed a delay with the plugin. I expect something else is amiss in your session. Latency? Perhaps the length of your kick ducking the bass? For more surgical sidechain enveloping I use Devious Machines Duck. It’s amazing.

[@Henrychamber-r8w]

@warpacademy duck looks perfect actually and it has crossover for basic dynamic shaping which I love! Nice one. I think I could maybe use both, as I love the phase section on fuser. But yeah, definitely a pumping effect which I don't get with duck, or Soothe2 or trackspacer

[@warpacademy]

Just don't use the multi-band feature of Duck. It's not linear phase and will smear phase with the minimum phase crossovers.

[@L0CK3EDIN]

do you think this works better than soothe 2

[@warpacademy]

They're different. This is more surgical and controllable. I think both are useful in your toolbox.

[@tekis0]

Great track and concept with the "AI voices," lyrics and live instruments!

[@warpacademy]

Glad you enjoyed that. Cheers!

[@pbenson56fran]

I will save this. I learned a lot today. Wow,!!!!! Thank you

[@warpacademy]

Glad it was helpful!

[@drongomala]

Excellent presentation and breakdown - thanks!

[@warpacademy]

Cheers!

[@ItsWesSmithYo]

Just in time….while my MacBook acting a fool today 🖤😎🍭😜 solid walkthrough 🙌🙌🙌

[@warpacademy]

Glad you enjoyed it. Cheers!

[@philippgrunert8776]

This exactly what I am using soothe for. It was a game changer for me. Having M/S functionality though... Wooohoo

[@warpacademy]

Soothe is great too. M/S is definitely a big plus. Thanks for the visit!

[@Tom-tv4ok]

What AI website did they use? great use of the vocals

[@warpacademy]

They turned out pretty good hey? Convincing. They used a combination of tools, some of which are proprietary. That's Evo Heyning's department. I wasn't involved in the voice and lyric generative processes.

[@swanjaymusic]

Wow thank you great lesson......

[@warpacademy]

Glad you liked it!

[@trevorreaveley3388]

Great video, but the one thing missing was a before and after example at the end.

[@warpacademy]

Thanks for the suggestion.

[@Rectangulaire]

What about Neutron 5?

[@warpacademy]

Yep! Works great for this too!

[@marksinger5954]

Nicely presented but honestly, I was very disappointed at the lack direct A/B comparison. That said, it was a good how to so thank you.

[@warpacademy]

It has A/B now. Check it out on the MTM site.

[@hertzouttahell]

i read alot that fuser crashed cubase 12 pro. ill have to wait until its comfirmed to be stable with it.

[@warpacademy]

You could always try the fully functional demo and see how stable it is before committing to buy it. Cheers!

[@modernmabuse]

Awesome tutorial 💫💫💫💫💫

[@warpacademy]

Glad you liked it.

[@greim3516]

Magnificent

[@warpacademy]

Cheers!

[@cryptout]

Nice headphones, I also own a pair of those. Great for audio work.

[@warpacademy]

Right on. Yeah just got them. Really light and the bass extension is crazy.

[@ethanhenleymusic6341]

what are they?@@warpacademy

[@PaulRamos-Entrepreneur]

I think I tried these at NAMM this year but forgot the brand could you advise@@warpacademy

[@ZOgrameMusic]

@@warpacademy what are these?

[@warpacademy]

They're Verum 1s. The same company is about to launch a crowd funding campaign to make the Verum 2s as well.

[@krisissupercool1]

MixGPT will be doin homework and mixing for us in the future, there won't be anything left for us humans to "fat thumb" anymore! lmao i've never heard that expression before, but A.I. is already taking over.

[@warpacademy]

I agree that many things done by humans will be able to be done by AI soon. It will be very interesting to see how things unfold.

[@krisissupercool1]

@@warpacademy it's going to be very interesting lol. Are you hopeful it will turn out as more of a positive thing for humanity?

[@warpacademy]

I would think we're all hopeful about that. But yes.

[@ProAudioIQ]

👏👏👏

[@warpacademy]

Thanks for checking out the channel.

[@mrflynn01]

1st 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@warpacademy]

Boom!

[@serrtucheserrtuche]

like reso kinda

[@warpacademy]

Yep. Similar look to the plugin. Kinda similar-ish approach with the "resolve conflicts" feature. But where RESO is about high Q dynamic attenuation, FUSER is all about masking. 2 different mix issues, unrelated.

[@milkyway10097]

this plugin is a monster preying CPU

[@warpacademy]

Really? I haven't noticed that on my end. I'll have a closer look.

[@milkyway10097]

Yup. when i use trackspacer, it goes up by 1-2% and this goes up by 6 or 7% (my cpu is 5900x)@@warpacademy

[@warpacademy]

I chatted about this with them. I believe they’ve patched that now.

[@oh515]

You are talking over everything so it is impossible to hear anything of what is happening.

[@warpacademy]

Noted. I was experimenting with a new style of shooting. I usually stop the music, talk, then restart transport. I think it can sound a lot more seamless with the music playing constantly, but I'll need to adapt my style to allow more time to hear the changes. Thanks for your feedback. I'll keep that in mind for future videos.

[@oh515]

@@warpacademy If it was meant as a walkthrough only I do understand. But for me it would be more interesting to hear what it does.

[@warpacademy]

For sure. I'll keep that in mind. Cheers.

[@Nerthexx]

That's not what masking is.

[@warpacademy]

Masking is when one sound interferes with the perception of another sound in the same frequency range or adjacent frequency ranges. Plain and simple. This is spectral masking. See below. blogs.qsc.com/live-sound/auditory-masking-and-its-effect-on-our-perception-of-sound/ "Auditory masking occurs when the perception of one sound is affected and compromised by the presence of another sound. Auditory masking in the frequency domain is known as simultaneous masking, frequency masking or spectral masking. Auditory masking in the time domain is called temporal or non-simultaneous masking. For this discussion, we will focus on simultaneous masking which occurs when a signal, the sound we want to hear, is compromised by a masking sound that is present at the same time."

[@mikelo303]

This is not spectral ducking as far as I know. This plugin is not spectral.

[@Essential-Electronic-Music]

Spectal means it attenuates the signal across many many bands, right? Why do you think this is not the case here?

[@warpacademy]

It is spectral. Spectral just means that the plugin reads the incoming sidechain EQ spectrum and applies subtractive spectral dynamic attenuation. This is certainly the case with FUSER, but the spectral effect is restricted to the area covered by the inserted nodes.

[@warpacademy]

Exactly.

[@mintyswirljoy]

Ugh! Stop talking at some point to audition the audio. It's like showing the brush and not the painting. Kinda annoying, even with a good tutorial!!

[@Essential-Electronic-Music]

I think we had fair chance to hear the difference...

[@raverone909]

Ugh! Stop being lazy and get a trial for free and try it on your own material. It's like yelling at the TV when the remote is in your hand. Kinda annoying, even with a good mixing engineer such as yourself!!

[@warpacademy]

Glad to hear that. I was experimenting with a new style of shooting, while letting the music run constantly. Perhaps I could tweak the shooting style and let the music run for longer without voiceover. It's important to hear the changes, but I was trying to strike a balance. Cheers.