How To MASTER Metal Songs Like A Pro

[@KeyanHoushmandLive]

Are you guys mastering your own metal tracks? Let me know! Check out Flatline 2 here: bit.ly/3mdH3xN

[@adamsunderland0823]

The A B comparison was pretty funny. They both sound good. It's really all in the mix and performance.

[@dtrmnts]

Yea the hundreds poured into mastering plugins really isn't worth the small change

[@ayeapprove]

My free chain that works for me: TDR Nova, gbSoundlab Tape Bus, Blue Lab Audio StereoWidth (bass focus knob is your friend), OTT Xfer with 50% Mix as a Mastering EQ/Downward compression tool, Loudmax and Youlean Loudness Meter.

[@dinosaric4862]

It's all free? Thanks, might use it

[@ayeapprove]

@@dinosaric4862 yes and it's very easy to use all of them. OTT is freaking powerful

[@camdenwyeth316]

50% OTT? What?

[@ayeapprove]

@@camdenwyeth316 50% mix

[@Hikaeme-od3zq]

​@camdenwyeth316 Hey man, yeah you can actually do it, just deal the downward compression knob accordingly to the mix level.

[@ofthefallen8012]

“You’d don’t need much at all” *first thing on the list is $140* 😢😢

[@vocaldeviation]

Unfortunately there are some pretty essential VSTs required to get your mixes rolling.

[@Durkhead]

​@@vocaldeviationi dont think so, pretty much everything you need is stock in reaper and if its not look in the reaper forum and someone has made it. Most of these plugins are just combinations of different effects put together with a visual

[@brandonwright1377]

Comparatively to actually equipment mixing stations mics and other stuff that literally is not much.

[@GuitarAnime]

you can buy all of these plugins for the price of one medium to high end guitar.

[@illuminatishere7766]

Just pirate it that's easy

[@MahmoudNader]

Let's be real ... The mix sounds killer even before mastering and that's the point

[@vitzzhimo6950]

This was so good. Now a "How To MIX Metal Songs Like A Pro" video lol

[@altiusmusic]

Wow , this helped me so much! Thank you!!😍

[@KeyanHoushmandLive]

Thanks for watching!

[@metaltrackmind6851]

Thank you man. The part about the -1db on limiter ceiling is about the best advice I needed right now, also great info

[@yeserguitar]

Definitely a good breakdown here. I want Gulfoss so bad :D Saturn move and features of Flatline 2 my favs in the vid. I better check your reference videos as well to get the ideas in detail. Thank Keyan!

[@thebenwmusic]

hello ali

[@yeserguitar]

@@thebenwmusic heyy ben, you caught me

[@rickneibauer1]

That Slate Tape machine is magic/pro sound/3D amaze balls. Went from the 2nd to the 3rd dimension.

[@cameronneal4]

Yoooooo I've been awaiting the arrival of this video for years

[@KS-zj9ou]

I am mixing and mastering our death metal & grindcore songs. I use Studio one, stock plug-ins and EZ-Mix 2 with various addons of it. I usually add pre-fixed set-ups and tweak them based on my liking. EQ, Compressor, Saturation, Binaural Pan, Reverb & Delay, Limiter are my main tools.

[@Ermz]

OMG you have to teach me your ways bro ❤

[@KeyanHoushmandLive]

Do I know you? 😉

[@Ermz]

@@KeyanHoushmandLive no. I don't associate with non-checkmarked plebs 🤓

[@buyingdrop0127]

Awesome needed this. Helps a lot.

[@mileshurst9823]

why is the limiter in a totally different channel and not just in the lowest spot? love your stuff!

[@alanbrucke]

Ermin is also one of my main mastering heroes, and I totally stole his chain from the Northlane video for a while. I've since replaced several things with better alternatives I've found. The main thing is that I've replaced Flatline 2 with the Newfangled Audio Elevate. Try Elevate people! It lends a depth and a sensation of movement to your music. Don't get me wrong I LOVE Flatline 2. But Elevate is what is up.

[@vladyslavzaihcyk5812]

You are a legend! Thank you for sharing such info for free

[@NickRandall_Music]

Cool, I may have to try this mastering chain. Uses less plugins than my current setup

[@MatteoKysely]

Jesus how many plugins are you using? xd

[@NickRandall_Music]

@@MatteoKysely can’t remember, but it’s from a tutorial Ermin did ages ago

[@mileshurst9823]

top down is the best.

[@VMODofficial]

Hey Keyan! Your link to Flatline 2 isn't applying any introductory price discounts, or I'm just confused. Is it because SubMission Audio are running a sale of their own at the same time right now?

[@aangovan]

wow wow really good real explanation thanks, man!

[@sergeiprimal]

Can you do a tutorial for mastering your drums? Good to hear what you will do with them.

[@shaunreiner7671]

Wow, appreciate this video… i’m absolutely clueless when it comes to mastering tracks. This hurts a lot! Thanks!

[@dfgvjnkjdsnbkjsbdvjkhdsb]

ozone 11 better than flatline?

[@abethebaebest2950]

Awesome video!

[@MOMetalProductions]

Really good and clear video man! Did you also try automating the saturation in the Saturn up for super filthy breakdown sections? Ive tried that recently and really makes those sections stand out amazingly. Keep up the great work! 🔥

[@mileshurst9823]

interesting. Do you use saturn on vocals

[@MOMetalProductions]

@mileshurst9823 yes, for sure. But also on the instrumental bus. There I can automate the drive up to make it more crunchy and distorted sounding for filthy sections

[@boristubeti6776]

How did you record the screen along with the audio with all that processing? OBS/Streamlabs or some external recorder? Thank you for sharing all of this gold with us❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

[@KeyanHoushmandLive]

Try using ReaStream with VB-Virtual cable is the output in OBS

[@boristubeti6776]

Mixing basics🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@ThatBeTheQuestion]

Maybe I'm dumb, but I can't hear almost any difference for any of these plugins. If any difference at all.

[@slowster2945]

What kind of LUFS range do you shoot for?

[@isaacmckenzie7184]

Awesome video! How you going using FL studio for recording instrumentals? I started on FL and just used it to record my first EP and it really struggled handling all the audio on my admittedly fast PC. Also caught you opening for Plini in Melb a couple of months ago, enjoying the content!

[@FrankTheSmithTV]

Those Ozone Imager negative settings are doing the opposite of widening

[@abunai.j]

Very cool video. It looks like you're mastering in your original session with all the tracks. I've seen some folks render out the mixed track and use a fresh template to master as well, and I've messed around with both, but I'm curious - thoughts? Comment section as well - question for anyone who's mixing/mastering in their own home studio as well as Keyan.

[@alanbrucke]

I prefer mastering in a separate session, especially when I'm mastering more than one song. Not being able to tweak the mix sessions any further puts me in the right mindset.

[@dannyriffs]

Limiter at -1 for YT and socials was interesting to hear, I’ve always set it to -0.1 do you raise it when you’re mastering for Spotify? And do you do separate exports at -1 for your music videos vs the Spotify master?

[@KeyanHoushmandLive]

Anything that goes to any streaming platform, I do -1 on the limiter!

[@AlucardXIX]

This is especially important on mobile based social media like instagram and tiktok. They have pretty extreme normalization that will destroy your audio quality. With Spotify they do recommend -1, but there's tons and tons of engineers that still do -0.1 and such.

[@norbzys430]

R u using any buss compression on ur instrument buss before mastering?

[@josuastangl7140]

8:53 as you make instrumental music, what do you not send through the instrument bus?

[@KeyanHoushmandLive]

Things like sound effects, post production, sub drops etc don’t go into my Instrument bus

[@josuastangl7140]

@@KeyanHoushmandLive makes sense

[@xtrafe5953]

@KeyanHoushmandLive Are you joining Jared Dines' shred collab contest?

[@brantbedore1399]

Any clarity on how to set the threshold to mix into? I am trying to set up my mix and it seems like if I set the ceiling at -1 and keep a similar attack and release that the limiter grabs more than just the transients and my master bus in the DAW is clipping pretty hard. Awesome video as always!

[@KeyanHoushmandLive]

Hey dude! It really just depends on the gainstaging of your mix and how loud you are mixing. If you’re clipping heavily, there is no harm in turning the threshold on flatline down. Watching the loudness meter as well as how much your transients are clipping is key

[@brantbedore1399]

@@KeyanHoushmandLive thanks man! Toying around with the gain staging definitely helped a little bit for sure. I'm trying to build a test mix to have a decent template to write on but it's been hard to get certain things like limiters and levels just right. I would be interested to see a video on what you load up into your DAW before you start to record anything in the future. I appreciate the reply, you're doing God's work out here helping us learn how to improve our recordings 🙏

[@dbwastooshort]

ITS TIMEEE TO MASTERRRR MUSIIIICCC

[@YeahButStilll]

Anyone know if Flatline 2 hybrid mode is somehow different than putting a clipper in front of a limiter (or vice versa)? Or is it just a convenience thing?

[@siim1129]

I barely can hear any diffrence between A B tests. and sometime before plugin sounds better to me... I am afraid that my mixing endevours are going to be disasterous.

[@josephharvey1762]

Huh, is there a way to do this without tons of expensive plugins?

[@mileshurst9823]

theres free versions of all plugins. i found good lists on google for free stuff

[@bolillo5013]

It’s a lot easier with nice plugins but is absolutely doable with stock and less expensive plugins as well.

[@Ermz]

The plugins are what allow you to do it without $100k of audio hardware.

[@КиранДонлон]

Prophessinal

[@DRJTUBECHANNEL]

Do you really need flatline if you already have ozone? What’s the difference?

[@KeyanHoushmandLive]

Flatline is a clipper, limiter, and a hybrid of the two all in one. Ozone just has a limiter.

[@joex-mn4we]

Bro, what song is that?

[@KeyanHoushmandLive]

0:26

[@joex-mn4we]

@@KeyanHoushmandLive drop it

[@AlexSaheli]

Gullfoss does the same thing as Soothe2?

[@KeyanHoushmandLive]

It looks the same but Soothe is mainly just a resonance control, Gulfoss reacts a little differently and sounds different as well

[@AlexSaheli]

@@KeyanHoushmandLive got it, thank you

[@lryuen_2261]

54 seconds ago LETSSSSS GOOOOOO

[@clocks8137]

u have an eq followed by an eq to undo what you did in the previous eq followed by an eq to undo the undo followed by an eq to undo the undo of the undo. ok lol

[@DRJTUBECHANNEL]

Heard no difference listening through my laptop speakers lol

[@joes.3083]

put some headphones on lol

[@DRJTUBECHANNEL]

@@joes.3083 lol it amazes me what a scam a lot of the plugin industry is. How can these subtle differences not be replicated with tiny bit of eq?

[@JasonManik]

Cmon bro, At least try to be honest You first plugin is $140 Like Cmon

[@guilhermelanfredi]

Dude, you speak too fast 😅 For us non-native english speakers, it gets tricky to watch and at the same time process what you're saying. Not a big deal after watching it twice or more.. 😂 Anyways, thanks a lot for sharing your knowledge over such a complex subject to all of us newbies trying to get better mixes. Keep it up.

[@adolfpickler4295]

Just slow down the video a bit

[@tusabitz477]

Shave your beard. You are cute without it

[@Reaper_681]

I edge to his beard