Mastering Your Music (In 6 Simple Steps)

[@junipertapes]

Drew here! Thanks for watching, here are some time stamps. P.S. not every master needs ALL of these. Saturation and stereo expansion in particular won’t be needed for every track. 0:28 - Don’t master your own music (if you can avoid it) 0:47 - Step 1: Make sure the mix is completely done 2:56 - Step 2: Metering 4:27 - Step 3: EQ 6:32 - Step 4: Dynamics 10:17 - Step 5: Tone Shaping 13:15 - Step 6: Limiting 15:40 - Bonus Tip: MidSide Processing 16:54 - Bonus Tip: Stereo Expansion

[@FriendOfTheNight24]

For those interested the song is called Daffodils & Love by The Dreaded Laramie. And the song is rad.

[@NatanCaetano]

I love the song you used here! If anyone is curious for the final master, that's "Daffodils & Love", by The Dreaded Laramie.

[@IlBalivoDiUzhitz]

Thanks dude

[@markcole3600]

Was hoping to find a link to the finished product in the description - thanks for the assist!

[@x-dancehallworldentertainm8201]

You forgot the most important thing(Step: 1) Make sure the mix you are mastering has enough headroom.

[@AdelSweezy]

he talked about gain reduction i think that's it

[@alexgoroshko8]

Thanks for the great video! Enjoy your channel and your style of explaining things. Another little mastering tip that I am using (and heard from others) is to use linear eq on master, just to avoid any phasing issues. Probably it’s hard to tell the difference, but it could be sweet bonus for your final result)

[@SmileALittle]

There are literally no transients on that track at all. No dynamic range, think you need to go back my friend

[@joost3783]

DUDE exactly what I thought. I was laughing so hard when he said he needs 1-3 dB of compression with the IRON, and I was like -WHAT?!?! Horrible sounding mix & master no offense

[@austinz9310]

Across the whole video I really think you’re killing your transients with all these fast attack times. I think you’ll be a lot more successful in preserving transient impact with slower attack times. Especially with the limiter you will get a lot more mileage out of it with a really slow and attack and a much faster release time.

[@eddiecarrizales]

Definately

[@angurishudesu]

Yess

[@oinkooink]

Don't tell him what to do he's doing youtube.

[@AdelSweezy]

you forgot a clipper before a limiter

[@Songwritersbehindthecurtain]

For mastering engineer like Howie Weinberg he had to basically had to listen to the whole entire song 🎵 from 0:00 to 3:31 to see if there’s no pop or click or constantly with hissing noises or s sounds too.

[@redlightclinicdrummer]

Hey you guys, I remember in a video I watched by you recently the guy talked about how you can use mouth sounds as an audio engineer to determine where your sound sits in a mix. I believe he said something like you can use a BA sound to look for boxiness etc. Could you guys make a video on that and using it?

[@disobeats]

incase you've forgotten about this, I think the best thing is to just ur ears. there are websites that allow u to hear certain frequencies so u can get used to hearing them. and yes, different frequencies have "different sounds", like ah ba or sh

[@NewportScorpio]

Just had a few questions: The correlation made sense as you had explained what it did. But I was still. confused on what a "True Peak" and "Lufs" meter did. You mentioned that we should have em ready to use but I wasn't really sure for what purpose. And the limiter had be a bit confused too. I understand that it limits signal so that the signal can't get any higher than whatever threshold you set. But what happens to those sounds that do go higher? Do they get pushed down to the level identified by the threshold? Thanks for the vid

[@willievaughn6474]

Thank you, you're awesome

[@kasraf.n5757]

Yeah bro thanks

[@afaromusic]

DONT STOP POSTING VIDEOS

[@jellyfishgeorge]

Will it make a difference if mastering the track before bouncing compared to after bouncing?

[@Songwritersbehindthecurtain]

As shown on 2:05-2:06 that’s correct.

[@portuguesewithtirso3797]

Great video. Where can i find the song you used?

[@Chiefmonks]

You forgot the most important mastering ingredient: clipping. Its like limiting, but preserving the punchyness of the song. Use it before the limiter and make it do all the work (1-2db GR).

[@Pietreszcz]

Great tutorial, but my question is - what's the song's title?

[@FriendOfTheNight24]

2nd that

[@LesVegasMusic]

I have noticed some people put their mastering chain plugins on the audio channel itself and keep the master channel for just their metering and reference plugins. But in this video, you put all the plugins on the master channel itself. Do you know if this matters at all?

[@junipertapes]

Great question! If I were mastering multiple songs in a single session, (for example mastering an album or EP) I'd put most of the processing on the individual channels. Any processing on the master would need to be something I wanted on all of the tracks, probably for the sake of album cohesion. As for this demonstration, there's no particular reason I used the master channel as opposed to the individual channel. Aside from the reason above, I imagine some engineers prefer processing on individual channels for the sake of keeping things organized and tidy.

[@redoemusic]

Amazing tips mate✌😇

[@lucasturney4269]

Solid video overall, but I do have to say that I find it odd that you'd touch on dual Limiters as an option, but leave out that just as many people-arguably more-use a Clipper before their Limiter instead, especially in certain genres. Not a glaring oversight, but maybe something that should have been brought up. I could also argue that Stereo Expansion at the Mastering stage is almost always a poor idea, but that would be working at least partially under the assumption that everyone is receiving mixes that have been pushed out as they can/should be, so I'll just say that it was a wise choice putting the disclaimer in there about not pushing Stereo Expansion to hard. All in all though, solid video.

[@itwontstopprods]

Hm. 6 steps as an idea are not a bad start. Voiceover recording is not so great though, and i doubt you would want to use Logic's Channel eq for mastering, at least use the Linear Phase EQ. Also the release set to 0 on Logic Comp would probably introduce low-end problems. And at the end you say that for a punchier sound you're gonna use a faster attack on the limiter and for more transparency a slow release? Ehm, that sounds kind of the opposite of what's true.

[@cantrelband]

So awesome thanks for this 👏🏾

[@masteringcom]

No problem!

[@nichttuntun3364]

Hi. Good stuff explained well. Aren't you killing too much of the transients with short attack and longer release with Iron? While activating the TMT, it sounds more open at first but with a closer look, especially on the 2 bus or masterchannel it easily can pull your tightness off a bit. A mono maker up to 70-80hz might be a good idea, as well as a side chain to not trigger the compressor from the low end. You probably would be very happy trying out UNISUM, a real mastering compressor, sounding like legit hardware, makes the PA stuff look like very limited toys, considering their "mastering" abilities. 5-6 db gain reduction from one limiter is quite a lot. I didn't find one tool which is capable of leaving the stereo field and the low end in tact in a good way using such an amount of GR. Just some thoughts. Cheers

[@junipertapes]

I think you're right about that. Whoops! I haven't used UNISUM before, I'll have to check it out!

[@jorgepeterbarton]

The idea in limiting is to catch those transients in order to make it louder. A slower attack would let them through and not reduce the dynamic range, the peaks would be louder relative to the rest of the signal so it will be hard to make it loud. Mastering generally involves a crest factor reduction

[@sidalihamri8020]

Thank you ♥️

[@BillGraper]

The problem I'm having is I'd mastering my rock song, and I can't get the release to work. In the verses, I have sustained electric guitar chords. The compressor won't let go of the signal, because it doesn't go below the threshold. I couldn't wait to use my Softube Bus Processor for the first time, and now I can't get it to work properly on this particular song. I see yours is the same. It's not releasing. I don't like the thought of the compressor just clamping onto it indefinitely.

[@noubend8368]

Thank you, thank you...

[@EL-SHADDAIthecrownoflife]

Hi bro do you use any software

[@smgsmusic]

"They need to be fixed IN THE MIX", MICHAEL...

[@pomayak4034]

Thank you!!!

[@AliColak]

aside from the logic stock compressor (love it), what's a good compressor for the mastering chain that's affordable for mid side... unless there's a stock logic one that does the same

[@ollerusgaming605]

If you use the dual mono option instead of stereo when selecting the logic compressor you can change it from L/R to mid/side by hitting the cog button in the middle near the top.

[@geroiavin8199]

@@ollerusgaming605 thankyou thankyou thankyou..

[@mspark933]

www.pluginboutique.com/articles/1410

[@chrisjohanesen]

TDR kotelnikov is great

[@housemachine509]

Great info

[@newlightmedia858]

Hey who’s the artist/ group of this song and the title? I heard this song at a shop in Wisconsin and tried to find it since

[@seanlundy2837]

what is the song you're working on?

[@housemachine509]

What program did you use to show that analyzer effect?

[@oinkooink]

You have music going up to +14 on Fabfilter Pro L2? What scale is that??

[@AlvaroLugosi]

great video as always! anyways I'm searching for tips and tricks on how to enhance the dynamics in the mix. I've been searching through this channel but I can't find any. Thanks!

[@MuscleEire]

Saturation, less compression

[@junipertapes]

As Shane notes, saturation can be super helpful. Volume automation can also work wonders in creating greater dynamic range. Transient shapers can also be great. Increasing the attack on a transient shaper will accentuate the initial transients. Turning down the sustain will bring down the tail of a sound. Using one or both of these can help crank those dynamics as well. Just be careful not to over do it! As they say, "If everything's loud, nothing's loud."

[@ColorMuch7]

song lowkey sounds like as it was

[@AndrewWires]

How is lufs measured? Do you let the song play from start to finish and see the value displayed on your mastering plugin (average of the whole song) or is it measured on the loudest parts of it? And more importantly how do youtube and spotify measure it?

[@junipertapes]

Updated! Both can be useful, just depends on the level of detail you want. Spotify doesn't actually use LUFS (yet) but broadly speaking, they keep your song from going above -14 LUFS at any given moment. An integrate loudness meter will check the average for the entire song, while a short term loudness meter will usually show you an average of the last 3 seconds. A lot of LUFS meters have both functions. Ian Shepherd and Tom Frampton both recommend keeping an eye on the short term LUFS. Shepherd generally recommends staying above -9 LUFS, while Frampton usually aims to keep masters no louder than -8 LUFS. Frampton also suggests keeping your integrated LUFS above -16

[@zedore7841]

@@junipertapes I have a question: I see in most mastering tutorials, they have an LUFS of -7 or so at the end and don't even mention it. But I read that for about any streaming service and so the LUFS should be at -14, as you said. Why don't they keep an eye on that? Or isn't it that important after all?

[@junipertapes]

​@@zedore7841 Good question! It's common practice to master to somewhere between -10 and -6 LUFS. Streaming services will end up turning down the volume, but for now these higher levels are the industry standard. There's no specific number you should shoot for though. Each song has different needs, so some may sound better at -8 and some at -10. If you're worried about how streaming services will change your song, I recommend using loudnesspenalty.com to check it.

[@zedore7841]

@@junipertapes Okay thank you! But why isn't it the aim to get the volume as near as possible to the standard of the service you are uploading to?

[@jorgepeterbarton]

​@@zedore7841 the deal with that is that Spotify changes the volume for you, so what might you need to do? Tracks under -14 with be increased and some normalisation settings a limiter is added, which may change it depending where peak is. Its not changed if loud but the mastering engineer changes it. So if they made a compromise of the track only for loudness, rather than to make the tracksound better this will be pointless. Just use an amount of limiter that helps improve the sound, looking more at gain reduction than hitting a loudness target then.

[@alexandrua5596]

You need two Steps! A good mix and GW mixcentric! 👍

[@bangssinthabtch7324]

So should we put plugins on the stereo output or the track itself

[@junipertapes]

There's no particular reason I put them on the stereo output in this demonstration. In retrospect that probably wasn't helpful, as it's created some confusion In general, you're probably best off putting them on the track. Especially if you're mastering multiple songs in one project. In that case, any plugins you put on the master should only be there because you specifically want them to be on each track.

[@lupinoz]

Coornucoopia-aaah

[@IIIDOOBOOIII]

👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@mr.solodolo3000]

You didn’t even look at the LUFS when you set your limiter🤦🏻‍♂️

[@orionsdream]

Anyone aware of good metering AU3 for IOS?

[@directreck]

Please do not ignore the lookahead in the limiter ;)

[@adissabovic]

0:12 The "mathtering"? Check your de-esser, Drew. :)

[@junipertapes]

My voice is a de-esser's worst nightmare ':D Just ALL over the place with these "S's"

[@MrJackrockerman]

Why the music sounds like in the blanket?

[@BukanIbuMu]

Indie Pop has that sound.

[@DeeKeyLP]

Man, this track ain't ready for mastering, balance, eq, dynamics are not there. Are you trolling us.

[@mr.solodolo3000]

The lack of care and attention this dude spent on making this mastering process realistic is beyond me. This video over explains for anyone with experience and also underexplains for beginners, so it’s not very helpful for either. Why would you make a mastering tutorial that skips all of the actual process of mastering lol

[@TURBOvsGT]

Half video, Didn't even bother to show Final A-B before and after mastering , maybe he didn't know how to finish the master, what a waste of time

[@Astro-X-Ent]

First of all people, use a multi meter which has a goniometer, correlation meter and a lufs meter too all in one. Secondly I came here for mastering tips from what I thought was more advanced than myself. Maybe next time I guess

[@johnnybregar]

You should definitely make your own tutorial!

[@Astro-X-Ent]

@@johnnybregar thanks for the feedback, I guess I could. 💯

[@martywhite2988]

Me too. I thought he'd be skilled, but one of the first things he showed was some online clown he learned from. So I stayed for the clown show and got one that included logic plugins.

[@johnaudio2024]

More compression fast attack so you can kill what is left of any transient and dynamics 😢 what a joke!

[@prashuryagoswami6122]

That song vocals is out of tune

[@bukkaratsuppa6414]

Why do you talk about mastering with a voice that hurts my hearing with some upper-mid parasite frequencies?

[@daveycmusic5150]

Showing the “details” of mastering a song that is constant noise. Slammed wav. No dynamics, loud guitars, washed out drums and a weak vocal. Terrible song choice.

[@MercedesFerrerArtista]

First of all : I’d tell the singer to redo the vocals on the track and tune it !!! You cannot fix that on the master !!!

[@BukanIbuMu]

Indie Pop vocals are intentionally not good. You have to understand each genre.

[@Kwaniidahgamer]

to be honest this video was really no help i gain nothing from it

[@ChuckGlyder]

This video shows you nothing.