How To Master + Publish an EP or Album using REAPER and DistroKid

[@TheREAPERBlog]

This video is sponsored by DistroKid. To get 7% off your first year’s membership, check out: distrokid.com/vip/reaperblog

[@jerrymiller9350]

We're new to the world of DAW. We now have Reaper. It's a huge learning curve for us. Thank you so much for making these videos.

[@davee7437]

The education you provide for free is astounding, thanks

[@AHmusic]

Thank you jon! this was super helpful. Needed a little refresher on things and this worked beautifully.

[@haroldpalmer3245]

Very helpful Jon, thanks.

[@anantwashere]

Thank you so much, Jon.

[@elifkasapbas5715]

Thanks a lot for the video. Ur channel is really helpful keep making videos plsss!!!!

[@MahmoudNader]

Thanks for the nice vid Do we have to render at 16 bit for streaming platforms?

[@dar7man]

Can I listen to your tunes somewhere?

[@jonathans8580]

Thanks for the upload

[@gokulv.k.2347]

Hai!!! Could you please do a video on "How Reaper work with multiple audio files each at Different samples rates"???

[@quantumcadillac4748]

this is really helpful. great video. thanks.

[@TheREAPERBlog]

Glad to hear it!

[@Charlie_Echo]

This was really interesting, thanks! Given you're the artist and have the original tracks, aren't you tempted to go back and change those things in the mix where you have more control, rather than here on the stereo tracks?

[@JeserNoob]

You gotta let go at some point y

[@monicadavis5454]

Thanks for this very helpful video! I do have a question, though... Ozone 10 has different versions. The Standard version (as opposed to the Advanced version) is only available as a module and not as a plugin. Does Ozone 10 have to be used as a plugin to master tracks in the way that you show in this video? The Advanced version of Ozone 10 is a bit expensive for me right now, and I am just trying to figure out if I can accomplish the same thing that you do using the Standard version of Ozone 10.

[@BrianBlickMusic]

Super helpful. Thanks.

[@critiquedard]

Hi, sir ! Question for you ! How did you do to make the "monitoring fx" in this kind of dock down on the left and in this dark theme ? To me it appears in white and even if i put it on a "dock", it doesn't looks like yours. Can you help me, please ? I love the appearance and really wish to know how. Thank you by advance.

[@baza210]

Thanks Jon, learned a lot and demystified the whole notion of mastering a bit for me. Your last track is possibly coming in at a lower LUFS because you cut the bass at the end, which contains a lot of energy. Is there a reason that you did EQ after volume/loudness?

[@lilhoss1]

yes, because certain types of EQ settings can set off a limiter. for instance, lets say you boost 80hz to give a song more "boom." that 80hz boost will potentially cause the limiter to squish at that freq. if you put in the EQ after the limiting, you don't have that issue...you just have to be careful that you don't clip at the output of the EQ.

[@DThompson55]

Brilliant - I noticed you did not include metadata? I'll assume you did it right and not worry about it.

[@TheREAPERBlog]

I don't remember if I skipped it on purpose or not. I'm still not sure if the metadata in the files is used after uploading to the distributor.

[@DThompson55]

@@TheREAPERBlog Cool. I'm mastering my first album this week. 12 songs. At least I knew where to go for information. You make it look easy.

[@BukanIbuMu]

Thanks for the video tutorial. Is there any reason on using limiter with compressor on ozone dynamics?

[@osiris-guitar]

Great tutorial. But I think my biggest takeaway was that you can just pull the top of the item to increase volume. So much time spent on opening dialogs... :-/. I should just learn my shortcuts...

[@JoseSuarezGuitar1]

Hello greetings thanks for your tutorials they are very helpful Could you help me to import and third-party actions in the list of actions since the export/import menu does not appear? Gracias

[@TheREAPERBlog]

Use the “keymap” button for custom actions or key assignments. Use “new action” for reascript (.eel or .lua) import.

[@whatareyouselling9811]

This has to be a stupid question but does tempo matter when mastering?

[@PlasticPack]

I have a question, is the track the saturating when the gain of the items was pushed up at the beginning? If not, why was it red? If yes, why is that ok?

[@digitalsketchguy7844]

Any cheaper alternatives to Izotope Ozone?

[@osiris-guitar]

What synth plugs are you using? Love the sound of these tunes!

[@TheREAPERBlog]

DS Thorn is on a couple of them and I don't remember what else. Maybe Hybrid 3, Analog Lab, Digital Synsations, or Analog Dreams.

[@dessiplaer]

How do you normalize to a set db value or LUSF value? I've seen in the Reaper action list that you can normalize to -23 LUFS, but I can't figure out how to do other values. Thanks for this video. it was very helpful.

[@MahmoudNader]

There is an SWS action that can normalize to Db , lufs , RMS

[@dendriloquist]

Hey Jon thanks for this video. I was wondering about one thing. when you start gainstaging those songs with the VU meter the channel meters start to go to red, does that not introduce clipping before going to the master track with your limiter. I don't hear any clipping when you doing this but I'm just wondering.

[@TheREAPERBlog]

reaper can't clip except at hardware output or when rendering. I'm rendering after the limiter on the master so that takes care of the overs.

[@larryleger1658]

What theme are you running in this video? I like the sights bro! Easy on my old eyes! lol

[@JohnBartmannMusic]

bump. how to get those dark dialogs?

[@TheREAPERBlog]

macOS with dark mode

[@larryleger1658]

@@TheREAPERBlog thanks. guess im f!@# then! lol

[@richieave55]

Quick question .. do you adjust the tempo of the project in any way?? or do you just leave the tempo alone??

[@TheREAPERBlog]

I don't think most mastering engineers touch tempo in the project. Set the ruler to Minutes:Seconds, turn grid lines off

[@richieave55]

@@TheREAPERBlog thanks man .. I appreciate the reply.. love the content.. keep it up! 👍🏾

[@RafaelSantos_]

A question about metadata: there is how to use a wildcard on the ISRC field?

[@TheREAPERBlog]

You would need to use markers or maybe one of the wildcards that increment numbers

[@RafaelSantos_]

@@TheREAPERBlog Thank you, it worked. Put a marker together with each region, the ISRC number as marker name for each and on the metadata $marker on ISRC field... But i'm having a probably unrelated problem, on this template i can't render as FLAC (no output, cannot create file, target drive path in use...), tried on the individual projects and flac render still working normally, except for this template, i'm not sure on how to solve this...

[@doctor567]

@5:48 How do you raise the volume of the item above 0db when you are mousing over it? Mine only goes to 0 and stops. I have to edit the item properties to go any higher than that.

[@TheREAPERBlog]

when using the line at top edge option (default), hold Shift key before dragging the line.

[@DownDeepFishing]

The vst's yer using to master with, do you have a web sight or discount code for these ?? i just spent 15 on the first one now looks like a need the t-rack limiter ? help????

[@TheREAPERBlog]

the t-racks limiter is just one of many options. Try reaper's ReaLimit

[@DownDeepFishing]

ok thanks@@TheREAPERBlog

[@andym443]

Some interesting techniques to learn from there, but I'd rather see you use the Reaper builtin plugins rather than 3rd party paid plugins. It's not really a Reaper tutorial.

[@TheREAPERBlog]

feel free to use any plugins you like. Why wouldn't you use the best available?

[@Cronosounds]

It's a great exercise to figure out how to use a stock plugin to do exactly what the paid plug in is doing. I did it recently with dynamic eq in reaper. Works exactly like paid plug-ins that do the same. You learn important skills at making decisions for yourself and become a bit more resourceful. Not to mention, save money.

[@andym443]

@@TheREAPERBlog that's fine, but watching your video becomes less of a tutorial and more a "watch me play with all the stuff I bought" video. A bit like watching someone play a game you don't own. And you use quite a few different plugins, so the chances of having a matching set on my own setup gets less and less.

[@TheREAPERBlog]

when Cockos has a master limiter I will make a new video on mastering with stock plugins. Shouldn't be a long wait.

[@jyrik6654]

Music for robots

[@BukanIbuMu]

Ok boomer