How to Master A Song (Start to Finish) - Complete Guide to Mastering

This is a tutorial on how to master your song from start to finish. Mastering can be an intimidating topic, and it often gets confused with mixing. In this video I explain what mastering is and how you can master your own music step by step. These methods can be applied to Pro Tools, Ableton, Logic Pro, FL Studio, Reason, Cubase, Studio One, and any other DAW or audio editing software.
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► Website: www.mixwithjerry.com
► Instagram: / mixwithjerry
0:00 Intro
0:24 What is Mastering?
1:38 Listening to the song
2:37 Headroom
3:14 Tonal EQ
8:24 Dynamic EQ
16:55 Adding Analog Character With an Exciter
18:44 Limiter for Loudness
22:33 Dithering
24:05 LUFS Metering for Loudness
26:00 Sample Rate
26:40 Exporting & Final Thoughts
27:06 Outro
#mastering #audio

[@ncamisomathonsi8884]

I believe much in your videos I don't have much money to pay for college fees, but I hope this one is the plug🔌

[@RobRuffMusic]

Out of all the videos out there on mixing I've found that Mixing with this Jerry dude to be the BEST explained. He explains everything in layman terms and makes it EXTREMELY easy to understand. All the other guys out there in these types of videos want to sound super smart by using all engineering terms, but when your starting out you have no idea what any of it means. So Well done Jerry. Thank you very much for posting these videos. HUGE help.

[@richardspasoff379]

Thank you, Jerry for your help. Sometimes engineering takes a lot of practice. I’ve been doing this for over 40 years. Haven’t mastered until the last two years on reaper. Now I have studio one and wave. That work pretty well. As long as I’m doing the right thing.

[@charlottajohansson]

Thanks a lot for your videos they really help a lot! I like that they're straight to the point and the tips you provide very easy to implement

[@themusicaspect]

Jerry: you are about as efficient a teacher as one could be, given the broad nature of your topic here. No wonder the comments people leave are glowing! Keep up the excellent work; you are so helpful to so many people, and your song examples with which you work are superior. God bless.

[@hagenweidmannnormalaccount4664]

Thank you so much for this! I have never quite understood mastering that well and this just helped immensely! I have just followed this step by step with a track of mine and I have always struggled with getting the loudness right and this worked like a bomb for me! Super excited to release this!

[@brunodang4470]

You just blessed me today Mr Jerry, thanks a million for this toturial. For this is what I've been searching for a long time ago.

[@polasbeatz]

We missed you, bro. Thanks for these videos. Keep uploading these essential tutorials. You are amazing.

[@mixwithjerry]

Thanks man.. means a lot! Took a little time off but I’m coming back strong 💪🏼

[@peteaguirre2013]

Awesome video def helped me get an idea of mastering. I applied these steps to my mix and it sounds great. would love to learn more

[@Geetouch]

Thanks for this! This is the best vid on mastering I have ever seen. I followed your advice (with some slight alterations) and I have the best master I have ever done for myself. Turn ya dark art into something learnable!

[@mixwithjerry]

Let’s go!! Glad I could help 🔥

[@nastika888]

good step by step ! thanks !

[@darrylfunkyz.fields8118]

Thx man! Love that track your working with!

[@johnjunior5420]

bro u explain very accurate ... big up for that

[@lddmakinhitz4306]

Thank you Jerry! 🙏🏾

[@WALTERTISCO]

Thank you for this video jerry❤

[@dudukossi]

Didn’t watched the full video yet but I know it’s gonna be on point as always. And comes at the right time coz I’m struggling with mastering. Sometimes loud as I want it and sometimes not😢. Thank u Jerry 😁

[@quoami1]

🙌you are a legend!

[@mixwithjerry]

Thank you!!

[@odiesbeatz5468]

Thanks 🙏🙏

[@Yogeshbairaagi]

thanks sir keep it up

[@sirwanmusic]

Subscribed ❤

[@QUBEATZ]

Nice video. Usually I use the Ozone Master Assistant and make some minor changes to the suggestions.

[@mixwithjerry]

Thanks for the feedback. I use master assistant as well.. usually it gives me some weird EQ suggestions that I have to remove. I do like how it identifies bad frequencies with the Dynamic EQ and also sets the multiband compressor to control the low end.

[@CIRCUITRYCREW]

yo jerry a template would be awesome bro nice work

[@sterlingpowell9207]

Hey man, another dope and very helpful video. It’s always helps when I see that you guys use the same plugins that I have. I do have a few questions for you. Do you also master with outboard gear? When mastering itb do you ever use multiple limiters? You actually prefer Waves aphex over Izotope’s exciter? (just curious).

[@mixwithjerry]

I’m all in the box right now. I’d like to get some outboard mixing and mastering gear in the future though. I’ve never used 2 limiters before but I usually do use a clipper on my drum bus so that when everything gets to the limiter it won’t have to work so hard. I definitely use the Ozone Exciter, but to cut down on time I decided to go with the simpler option for tutorial purposes. EQ, Dynamic EQ, Exciter, and Maximizer are the main modules I would typically use. Sometimes the Dynamics multiband compressor also if something is sticking out too much.

[@sterlingpowell9207]

Cool man! Thanks a bunch bro

[@NextBiT13]

thanx sir i m india punjab

[@Vishottazent]

Hey shot outs to this engineer he Repping My Home Land the U.S Virgin Islands ST.Thomas ST.Croix St.John.. Big up

[@skhumbuzotembe6203]

Link to that saturation plugin please

[@tylergameplayroom]

fireworks, how to remove noise from plugins that are assembled during the mixing process.. during mastering, Ozone makes them much louder =(

[@kapilsharma033]

I just subscribe

[@marcijustbeats35]

Hi great video, what can I do if I do not have enough headroom? Can I just turn everything down a few DB and then start mastering? Greetings

[@mixwithjerry]

Yeah however much you need 💪🏼

[@marcijustbeats35]

@@mixwithjerry Thanks for your answer! Is it possibly also possible in the stereo out simply turn down the DB regulator something?

[@Ridhawi1]

No compression ?

[@MgxVevo]

Can anyone suggest me, what should I purchase a heavy 32gb Ram intel i9 12th gen windows pc/laptop or MacBook pro M1 pro 32gb Ram laptop for my heavy music production and mixing mastering projects ? Please help me 🙏🏽

[@mixwithjerry]

Really can’t go wrong with either.. you’ll probably pay a bit more for the MacBook, just for the Apple name.

[@1KriticalShoota]

How can I make my master lil louder without using the limiter ? 🙏🏾

[@mixwithjerry]

Loudness comes in the mix. Saturation will really help with that. It adds harmonics for loudness, but also brings down the peaks at the same time. That’s a must for kick and snare. Try to control your peaks in your mix so that the final limiter doesn’t have to deal with a whole lot of spikes in audio. That’s what causes bad distortion artifacts. Sidechaining the kick and bass/808 will also save 2db of headroom if done correctly. I’ve been putting a limiter on the vocal to tame any wild peaks before the compressor. Limiters are pretty inaudible if used lightly, but they give your mix more headroom. Also parallel compress the vocals. It will give them weight so that they feel loud, but don’t raise the peak level. Those are some of the main things I’d suggest.

[@dudukossi]

Hello Jerry, I’m back again. I followed all ur steps and had a -10 Long term LUFS but still my track doesn’t sound loud. Any help? Thanks 🙏🏾

[@mixwithjerry]

What are you comparing your song to in terms of loudness? Like it isn’t as loud as songs on Spotify or songs that you have saved on your comp?

[@dudukossi]

@@mixwithjerry yes, not loud as tracks saved on my computer.

[@mixwithjerry]

@@dudukossi I’m curious how loud those other other tracks are in terms of LUFS.. if they are around -8 LUFS then you can try to push your limiter a little harder or use a soft clipper before the limiter. But a lot of the streaming sites like Spotify and Apple Music will turn everything down to around -14 LUFS anyway. I usually aim for -10 LUFS and when I play my songs back on Spotify they are just as loud as top industry songs

[@dudukossi]

@@mixwithjerry Alright Jerry, will try to compare them with tracks on Spotify. Most of these songs are around -5 -4 LUFS

[@mixwithjerry]

@@dudukossi yeah -4 LUFS.. that’s pretty loud lol.. not sure in todays world of streaming it needs to be that loud. But utilizing EQ and soft clipping during the mixing stage will definitely help you gain more headroom so that you can make your master louder at the end

[@vladpetrovsky8674]

from the very first seconds you can hear home mixing and such home mastering (((Do I need to show this???

[@mixwithjerry]

Yes Vlad, please show us because your channel has 0 videos.

[@TzoHill]

Noticed you didn't use compression or Mid Side EQ?

[@mixwithjerry]

Didn’t need to on this mix

[@noelzbeatz6114]

I noticed every channel in the mixer was put in mono,can you please shed some light

[@mixwithjerry]

Just the kick snares and bass because I wanted them centered. Everything else is in stereo.

[@noelzbeatz6114]

@@mixwithjerry Alright thank you so much.Keep up the good work your videos are amazing💯

[@Nick-mt2yu]

How do you get it even louder? you said leave a comment

[@mixwithjerry]

Saturation/Distortion, Clipping, parallel compression

[@baggpagg2014]

Bro is telling me to boost frequencies that i cant hear ;-;

[@jshstuff]

bro why is your whole mixer monoed?? wyd

[@mixwithjerry]

The whole mixer isn’t in mono. Only the drums like the kick, 808, and snare are. If I were to scroll right or expand the mixer you’d see more mixer tracks other than just the drums that are in purple.

[@BurningBushPedagogy]

Bro you dont even play the music first then apply the EQ you just say add eq boost at 2k but that is not how, you could play the song and give it what it actually needs, sorry I tune out.

[@SomberSuicide]

was hoping this would be a good channel, sadly, no, bad information, like 90% of engineers on youtube.

[@mixwithjerry]

What information was bad?

[@vthestoner]

???

[@lochishaunkalu7007]

@@mixwithjerry Don't listen to him man. I deeply appreciate you taking out time to share these tutorials. They are very easy to understand and are highly valuable. My mixes are way better because of you. Most people on KZbin rush through their videos and teach at a professional standard but you make it clear as day. God bless you