Step-by-step Guide to Mastering Pop Music | Are You Listening? Season 6, Ep 5

Learn how to master a pop song from start to finish in this step-by-step mastering guide. In the fifth episode of Season 6, professional mastering engineer and Berklee professor Jonathan Wyner teaches you how to master a pop song with iZotope Ozone, covering key aspects of pop music like level and low end before diving deeper into limiting, automation, dynamics processing, and stereo imaging. By the end of this video, you’ll be able to confidently master a song with a commercial pop sound.
Watch all seasons of ‘Are You Listening?’: www.izotope.com/en/lp/are-you...
Get 50% off mastering tools used in ‘Are You Listening?:’ www.izotope.com/en/shop/deals...
Learn more about mastering with free tutorials: www.izotope.com/en/learn.html...
Learn more about Jonathan Wyner: www.izotope.com/en/learn/jona...
The song being mastered in this video is "Give it Time" by Braden the Young: www.marmosetmusic.com/browse/...
Chapters
00:00 - Intro
00:29 - Mastering in genres
01:33 - Prepare your track for mastering
04:04 - Listen to your track
06:54 - Validate your decisions with visualizer
13:11 - Using the Master Assistant
17:30 - Start by adjusting for tone
23:26 - Setting the limiter
26:33 - Automation for emotional impact
30:01 - Dynamics processing in mastering
35:53 - Excitation in mastering
37:48 - Stereo imaging in mastering
38:27 - Final thoughts
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#iZotope #AreYouListening #Mastering

[@jayburd1875]

"Tickle the threshold with that long release time... " this is a life lesson.

[@statespace]

Excellent idea to put on a limiter first and find out the problematic areas before any processing. Wow! Thank you for that guys

[@skymakai]

I love this series and really appreciate having Johnathan provide so much wisdom. I'd really like more 'electronic', 'dance' and 'bass music' examples. Maybe it's just me and that these genres are 'less difficult' to master, but it's the genre I'm most involved with.

[@olkid5076]

Same!

[@kelvinfunkner]

really really awesome peek behind "the curtain" and I especially loved the thought processes behind the moves....having it "talked out" along the way in order to see the "why's" behind the changes was what made all the difference!

[@Reixmusic]

What a Masterclass!!! Thanks izotope!!🔥🙌🏻

[@baselinesweb]

I like the insight you give about the tool design. For instance, it was great to get the knowledge that the tube setting on the limiter has a long release time of 2 seconds. Well done!

[@AutPen38]

Another masterclass from Jonathan. Superb stuff.

[@joshuawallwork6678]

This guy's even cooler than I thought! He listens to Stromae!!

[@hape.]

Great and insightful content! Thanks Izotope and Jonathan!

[@mrfrankdamsax]

Great series! Very informative. Thank you

[@waldemarvogel7657]

Great video. Thanks. Nice to see a professional engineer explaining the software.

[@Soundguydan]

Great stuff. Thanks!

[@kovoliver]

This video was very useful, thank you!

[@Barncore]

Wow this was great. Super useful. Thanks

[@monkmusic5994]

Best and most informative/detailed mastering clip ever seen. Thank you.

[@iZotopeOfficial]

Appreciate it 🙏

[@ddutchofficial]

Very good video. Thanks

[@angusbabb4913]

brilliant ! ..i learnt so much , thank you!😀

[@dextercon]

thanks you izotope ❤

[@iZotopeOfficial]

Are there any tips for mastering a genre like pop that we might be missing? Let us know in the comments!

[@rogercabo5545]

Hi Mr Wyner, how do you get high frequencies above 13kHz up to 17kHz under control? Nearly everyone above 60 or much sooner loose it's ability to hear above 12kHz.. Did you have hints or tricks how to get the top end under control?

[@QueMusiQ]

I want that song! So dope!

[@rickbiessman6084]

5:58 Gotta give this video a like purely for the fade out already. Thanks a million times for that

[@VonnieVonVonX2]

Thank You ✔️

[@jamespingel8730]

It was really cool to see how you'd tackle a mix like this. As I was watching along I was thinking to myself "I wouldn't want a static EQ on that hihat because then the verses are going to be missing top end, so I would've reached for a dynamic EQ there", and then you go and automate the whole EQ out instead. It was a much more dramatic move than I usually make, but insightful. If it's not too much trouble I'd love to see more like this.

[@iZotopeOfficial]

Interesting to hear about your go-to method. More is coming for sure. Thanks for the feedback!

[@itwontstopprods]

I use Partition too as a reference for how ridiculously heavy (sub) bass can be in a track! "Down to 30 hz or even all the way down to DC, in the center of the earth" 🤣🤣

[@pawel9450]

Great Video

[@pawel9450]

but please keep before/after listening- parts a little longer ;)

[@seldom23]

Jonathan your are wonderful instructor! If I may make a small suggestion - relative loudness between narrated instruction and musical examples - I find I'm riding the volume as it goes back and forth (in this video and others in the series), bringing the volume up a bit for the music treatment (particularly for low end examples), and then quickly have to dial back when we return to narration - typically say +/- 3 bars on a macbook volume slider (yes, I'm listening on can :) Best regards

[@etcot8220]

I agree that low end bass is bit too wonky, glad you had the same observation roughly. Interesting video for sure, great content in other words, many 👍 thx for the upload

[@lameraviglia]

great video as usual. i wonder, how do you adjust volume when you´re working with headphones? (since you can´t measure it like you would do with speakers)

[@KingGrio]

It's hilarious. At 7 mins or so he basically explains in very polite and professional terms that modern pop music is basically bass drones and sub-kick impulses with clicky robotic sampler style high hat hits, and a vocal. It's really devolved into the most minimal components. He also points out these high hats annoy the hell out of everyone hearing this come out of small speakers, or worse yet: crappy earbuds while riding the public transports. Verse is basically a telephone effect as the gimmick to contrast this chorus section, because honestly what else can you do that has less things happening than the chorus. I'm not even sure you can still talk about arrangement under these circumstances. And then he goes on to explain how he is going to master that. He must be the most professional guy I've ever seen, for being able to express in such terms and while keeping a straight face that this is a cool tune that is interesting to master. Don't get me wrong, I think Jonathan Wyner is great. But modern pop music ? I can't believe I was complaining about it in the 90s, it's become so much worse.

[@lashtal]

lol, love what you said.

[@user-se8gp7cr2x]

So do you have one instance of Ozone for each part of the song? One for the chorus, one for the verse... Thank you!

[@bradleypower4803]

Can someone explain why you would bring down the threshold instead of just increasing the input to the plugin itself? Thanks!

[@GloveBunniesVideos]

I always wondered if it would make mastering easier to give the engineer stereo stems (drums, bass, vocals, synths, etc.) instead of just a stereo track, but that would most likely make the mastering process much, much harder. Great video!

[@TokyoSpeirs]

That's called Stem mastering, a common practice!

[@GloveBunniesVideos]

@@TokyoSpeirs Thanks!

[@FusedMusic]

Great stuff, but I'd appreciate more an 'electropop' 'synthpop' example. So many tutorials lean into that base heavy hip/hop area, but a more pure electro 'pop' area would be really appreciated.

[@iZotopeOfficial]

Many thanks for sharing your feedback 🙏

[@janarefin4744]

after setting the limiter does he mix into it the time after that?

[@dgunzbeatz]

My question is for the high end why not use iZotope transient processor to bring bring down the hi hat that disturbs the mix to avoid tampering the clarity of the Voclas

[@horriblemind]

Is that MOTU Track 16 on the desk?

[@danemusic5242]

after finding out my ozone 8 vst wasnt compatible with my os update I thought wow that really sucks i bearly bought it 3 years ago for what i thought was a high price for a vst, after a to b without ozone i really feel stupid for using ozone on so many tracks all i needed to do was balance faders and i had much more dynamics and less saturation oh well somtimes i have to learn the hard way .

[@Ein-Stuck]

Will Audio Lens ever work with Tonal Balance Control 2? It would be a nice..

[@iZotopeOfficial]

The target curves created by Audiolens are not officially compatible with Tonal Balance Control unfortunately, but many thanks for the feedback!

[@rogercabo5545]

Hi Mr Wyner, how do you get high frequencies above 13kHz up to 17kHz under control? Everyone above 60 loose it's ability to hear above 12kHz.. Did you have hints or tricks how to get the top end under control?

[@AutPen38]

As a guy in his fifties with diminished high-frequency perception, I rely on the visual feedback from Tonal Balance Control and spectrograms in EQ plugins. I mix top end with my eyes, not ears!

[@vitaliano1978]

what headphones exactly are these guys ?

[@Faithaven]

So want to see you master a rock mix

[@iZotopeOfficial]

👀

[@stephenmcnamara9928]

Excellent video, as always Jonathan. Quick question -- is there a way to make the default "Learn Threshold" in the Maximizer to be something other than -11.0 LUFS?

[@iZotopeOfficial]

Hey! For any questions about Ozone, feel free to get in touch with our product support team directly here: bit.ly/izo_prod

[@itwontstopprods]

Yes, just click and drag up/down on that value

[@stephenmcnamara9928]

@@itwontstopprods I realize that -- I meant setting a default of, e.g., -14LUFS when the mastering chain is prepared.

[@itwontstopprods]

@@stephenmcnamara9928 oh sorry - then just adjust and save it as your default for the limiter?

[@stephenmcnamara9928]

@@itwontstopprods No apologies necessary, and I'm not sure how one sets -14.0 LUFS in the Maximizer limiter as a default. I thought I checked the settings for this and didn't find it but maybe I missed it. If a default of -14 LUFS can be set, that would very helpful because when I run the Master Assistant with the -11 LUFS default, it's higher than I'd like it to be to start. Thanks for the help.

[@united100]

which Audeze headphones are you using?

[@guillaumetiger-isothesis5791]

Looks like the LCD-MX4

[@thesoulbelow7324]

I just wanna know where he gets hot amazing cat tshirts🙀

[@Enice43]

What headphones are you using for this

[@ramonaguayo7281]

I found i another comment saying LCD MX 4, but from what I could find online it looks closer to LCD-X by Audeze

[@docteurgreene]

Unfortunately KZbin's compression killed me. I used a good headphone to watch this video but I almost hear no differences between the "before and after" comparisons :( Is it possible for a next video to go deeper in how to select the crossover points for multiband comp or exciter? I still don't understand this part very well....

[@davidasher22]

There’s a feature on all the multiband processors that selects the best crossover points for you. But from what I have come to understand, to do this manually you should be trying to find where the energy distribution changes significantly. I usually start with something similar to how Tonal Balance divides the frequency spectrum. And then related to how the program material sounds while being effected by the processor I’ll change it accordingly by ear.

[@itwontstopprods]

Agree, a lot of the differences are very, very subtle even on great headphones and video playback on 4K

[@atta1798]

Ok what is enough headroom and how do you know it is an artifact?

[@stallmak8]

Enough headroom can typically be around -4 db. which is the variable between the highest peaks and the digital ceiling which is 0 db. Artifacts are sounds that are not natively part of the music. Unlike harmonic distortion, artifacts are usually subtle noises that are off key in the mix, artifacts are mostly created by a lack of processing power, or a sampling rate that is too low.

[@jordanmiles106]

Where do I get this shirt

[@Bxndoben]

Couldn’t help but notice that all the frequencies you attenuated when adjusting the tone were out of key notes, considering the songs key is A♭ Minor . NOTED

[@waliddeui6725]

5:56 Be my father

[@brexistentialism7628]

Here is a great guy who is great at using great software to validate what he's hearing 😬 He's not really demonstrating a mastering approach.

[@IWOKEAGIANT]

Love these videos! Usually the music is great, but this song is SO boring and uninspiring I can't stand it 😅

[@schulze007ify]

Keep it simple and forwards and cut all the crap