Mixing LOUD: -3 LUFS - A Total Breakdown of the Gain Staging - Inspired by Skrillex's "Mumbai Power"

[@au5music]

Excellent tutorial, fascinating

[@caskei7881]

If Au5 approved, it means it really works!! LOL

[@MafiaPyro]

Au5 lol my dude

[@BigJerr]

thanks man

[@sixsense6161]

The real question is do you do any of this on your productions?

[@BigJerr]

@@sixsense6161 good question I did for a while and as I get better at mixing I realize I need less and less maybe ill do an updated video on how I mix loud now

[@papito2lindo]

And I was here struggling just to hit a clean -12 lol

[@BigJerr]

youll get it !

[@SoundPeaks]

that's because you want to achieve this with a compressor, but what you need is a waveshaper. So you will instantly get there.

[@chris8651]

@@SoundPeaks waveshapers rule!

[@urigeheadmot1196]

lol how bad

[@ArtemProductRendering]

@@SoundPeaks what do you mean by waveshaper?

[@ethanrogers8426]

Here is my flow. Make multiple busses - drum buss, bass buss, sub buss, synth buss, foley fx buss, risers/downers buss. Soft clip each buss to get the most perceived sound from the buss without destroying the sound/timbre. Route each buss to a pre master buss, add saturation and again soft clip to catch any crazy peaks. Route the pre master to your master buss then process - I use 2 buss channel saturation > 2 buss compressor > soft clipper > ott > ozone 8 (eq > exciter > imager > mutlband compr > post eq > limiter to - 4dBs ceiling. Then to the Fab pro L2 with +4 gain. I control my LUFS by the input into ozone which is between -3dB and -4dB. I get crazy loud clean mixes.

[@ethanrogers8426]

Great video as well btw! Subbed

[@Daacostaa]

This 🔥🔥🔥

[@emmanumusic]

Hey man I want you to know how much I'm grateful for this video. You made an incredible job and it's very well explained. I feel like this is the last piece of puzzle I needed in order to take my music production skills to the next level. The result I got is just phenomenal. I've been producing for 13 years on and off. I thought my music was really good but now it sounds so freakin great and loud! It's day and night. Thank you so much for your work. My biggest dream so far is to make music with Sonny and I truly believe it will happen one day because I'm obsessed to succeed. I will remember you for sure.

[@rgarzari]

That flow chart you used to break down the chains was awesome!!

[@BigJerr]

so dope my dude glad you dig it

[@rolandgreco5850]

Most helpful video on the topic since Skrillex dropped those tracks. Awesome work

[@zetamale]

This is super interesting. I've always wondered how Skrillex, knife party etc get that next level loudness and this seems to unravel some of that mystery. Muchos Gracias!

[@AMaj7ing]

I ve been looking for this for years , all i found is some dude brought up tons of analog comp and randomly tweaking it. THANK YOU SO MUCH MAN

[@nikku1166]

Cool video. Interesting he had Camel Phat on his master. This was an old trick back in the day when most software limiters weren't very transparent. Now obviously CamelPhat isn't known as a Limiter, but a multi-effect plug-in (mostly used for saturation, coloring, filtering, compression, etc.). But what people started noticing with it is it had an amazing built in limiter that was fairly transparent and sounded great. People would place it on buses and masters with everything turned off except the "master" section with the "mix" set to %100, and then dial in the volume. Mainly using it just keeps anything from going above "zero"... it gives it a hard-line ceiling that nothing will go over. This helps out the main Limiter (Ozone or Pro-L) a lot because they don't like a clipping signal entering them, so your guaranteed to have a proper but loud gain staged volume coming out of CamelPhat entering your main limiter so it doesn't have to work as hard..... I prob explain that horribly, lol. But I bet he's just using it to keep any wild peaks under control. Many people would drop it on the master this way when they first started out a project as well (like the only thing on the master to start, even if they weren't going to keep it there later) to keep anything from clipping go going above zero while working on a tune. There's actually an old video floating around of the DnB producer Audio (he's a straight Don in the Jungle\DnB game) doing just this exact thing in a tutorial track breakdown.

[@BigJerr]

any limiter will don on the master (except ablutions lol) and mixing into that limiter is the key to loudness

[@nikku1166]

BigJerr Definitely. I love mixing into limiters, especially on drum channels. I think the key to the whole “loudness war fun” is pushing things in stages (as your video explains). Small amounts of compression and limiting in stages reduces the workload final limiter has to perform, thus allowing you to push it farther and it to react better. At least that’s what I’ve been noticing in my bedroom superstar studio late nights. And yeah, Ableton‘s limiter does suck. I was almost certain they would update that in version 10. It’s not completely useless, but on a master channel it sure as hell is. Lol

[@varlok8113]

Bro that was perfectly put, not horribly explained. It's one of those little but important details of getting the most out of your audio.

[@okidot]

@@BigJerr Really misleading info! You preface the whole video by saying not to mix like this, but you are showing people how to do it anyways. Loudness war is not over if people want to mix to LUFS -3. Pulling air through my teeth watching first few mins... tragic

[@BigJerr]

@@okidot im sorry this bothers you so much - lol

[@table9music]

This was super helpful. I've seen the Skrillex walkthrough from different producers but this was by far the best. Thanks bro for laying it all out and explaining the routing so clearly! Subscribed!

[@BigJerr]

thanks alot - I was thinking about doing a full course on this topic actually

[@joel6361]

Thank you so much dude! There arent many videos explaining dubstep loudness that way, literally changed my life.

[@BigJerr]

amazing

[@HowardCharlesUK]

I've seen the thumbnail for this video popping up on my recommendations for a while. I'm glad that today I've finally watched it, cause this is a great breakdown!

[@dulmin_]

I hate anybody who leaves this channel unsubscribed, after listening to all these useful information !! 😍👍👍

[@US3Rofficial]

you did this totally correct. well done man

[@BigJerr]

well thanks

[@yo_killian]

this is genuinely genius i wonder if he came up with this.

[@majkistyle]

Get some more subs for this man! You put so much work into these videos.

[@jfb_surfing]

Wow! Thx for explaining that process!

[@BigJerr]

you got it dude

[@DJYukie]

Wow super informative. Thanks a lot as usual! Have questions about you q3 and l2 so for sure excited about your vids on those!

[@BigJerr]

cool what are you question specificly so i can see if i can work them into the lesson

[@DJYukie]

BigJerr BigJerr thanks for asking! Personally In this case the bus processing. Im curious what you are listening for when deciding your limiting type and the other parameters like attacks and the channel link in the l2. Also I just started trying to use the mode with the headphone. (Think its audition) and im just not getting what I should be looking for in that. Anyway thats just so stuff in my head but any vid here I learn something i had no idea about so thats appreciate big time!

[@BigJerr]

@@DJYukie all good questions! the EQ video will likely be first and ill touch those questions there - as for the limiter - go back and listen to what I said in the "things to watch out for when mixing loud" section at the end of the video - limiting will add a sorta "pressure" to you sounds/Buses - its one of those things your going to have to learn to both hear and feel and ultimately CONTROL !

[@DJYukie]

BigJerr ahh ok I gotcha. Ill do exactly that and train my ears better! Btw your Wish Wish Remix killed at a festival I did over the weekend!! 🙌🏻🙌🏻

[@BigJerr]

@@DJYukie I love that did you get any video ?

[@xerixm5314]

I produce metal and i often mix into a clipper (like standard clip/jst clip/inflator etc..) and then once the mix is fone i would crank up that clipper and add more saturation/limiter etc... i can never get the loudness of -3LUFS like they do in EDM. Appreciate the tutorial & flowchart breakdown this was like a PhD research 😂. I might try it in my next few songs. Sidechaining is also another great technique worth mentioning. That pumping effect i often hear with skrillex tracks for thay split second whrn nothing is playing during the attack of the kick or snare 🤘

[@chillinyoutube2245]

Very cool Thanks for the teaching. It will teach me to make tracks even louder than I could -5.5-5.9 short and long -6.1 LUFS is my maximum I think this will give an even greater impetus

[@schawink]

Such a well structured tutorial. I definitely learned something from this style of tutorial. Thanks so much!

[@wsy142]

Interesting ways that Skrillex does it, I also with experimentation just cut the lows on everything during a drop and have a limiter/clipper on them to drive some overall volume but not higher peak volume, and I attempt to create my kick and bass around their phase, and making sure when they sum no waveforms start spiking out of nowhere, keep in mind I produce a bit of house and Trance, then more compression at the end and through the limiter with not many peaks, which let me master a recent song of mine up to -4.0 LUFS integrated if I was really pushing it with slight distortion, but backed off to around -4.4 LUFS for additional cleanliness, which is a plus! Crazy how I've learned similar techniques to Skrillex all on my own!

[@RajBeats]

Great tutorial, thank you

[@ProjectHMF]

Fun fact: Ive been doing this exact bus routings for like a year withouth seeing this video or any other info on mixing besides one Barely Alive one

[@zackyzackyzacky1]

What people are misunderstanding about Skrillex's loudness is that he was hitting a maximum of -3.6 Lufs in that particular point of the mastering chain, he had an instance of iZotope Ozone 5 after iZotope Insight, so his actual amount of LUFS may have been different.

[@davincisound739]

I would never mix this loud but this video was dope, great tutorial!

[@BigJerr]

just an option my dude def mix however you'd like - its your art after all!

[@davincisound739]

BigJerr 💯💯

[@gabo182b]

Amazing video man ! a lot of tips and tricks to try out.

[@BigJerr]

amazing - tell me how it works out for ya !

[@jrapp654]

This was super helpful! Still hope to see a video on how you use the limiter!

[@emilyarmstrong6462]

This was so helpful! I'd love to see what settings your limiters are at for this

[@andyanderson9870]

I have been mixing for 10 years and I have never heard the word luf. I am giving up. This whole industry is secrets

[@nickashley3785]

So sick dude!!

[@Fritztafer]

THANK YOU FOR THIS BREAKDOWN! Exactly what I was looking for

[@sokoleski]

exxelent and clear presentation , many thanks for this

[@BigJerr]

thanks

[@fkaecrase]

this project is a boom! and i learn much stuffs THANKS BRO!

[@BigJerr]

of course glad you liked it

[@DiegoCapoccitti]

Very interesting! Thank you for sharing!

[@BigJerr]

you got it

[@palmigretar5240]

that's an easy sub! Looking forward to check out some more of your content! Thanks for the insight :D

[@BigJerr]

your the man

[@hannahbackward]

Oh man! I was searching around for how to use reference tracks, if you should try to get your mixes as loud as mastered reference, how loud your sub-frequency should be, the difference between Span and Metric A/B and then I stumble across your channel and this video and wondering what the hell I got myself into. Fascinating stuff, btw! I'm gonna rewatch this and check out some of your other tutorials. The good news is I use Ableton.

[@lonlonidiot4994]

My FL studio Template's about to go next level. Thank you for this❤

[@Matt-mn1nn]

Great vid man thanks so much

[@namenamename290]

SUCH a beautiful tutorial, I soaked in as much as I could, and even took notes ! :) Thank you so much for the information, BigJerr, I haven’t been this excited to learn music production in years ❤️

[@namenamename290]

Dope shirt btw !

[@YeudaBenAtar]

Great tutorial!

[@estebanlicea8909]

Your beat and those lazers are FIIIREEEEE, I need em!!!!!!!

[@fakeluv.4943]

SO WELL EXPLAINED!!!!

[@plxp]

Structured asf! This tuto is gold As a dnb producer, it helped me a lot to reach a loud level on my tunes Thanks mate! I knew it was all about chains and different kind of comp but I didn’t know how to use it I was jus cutting peaks with clippers and squashing my transients but it was sounding a bit agressive due to the fact everything was going in a master bus ! So, thank u very much 🤝

[@TripTropMusic]

Sick! Gonna try this out

[@BigJerr]

so cool please do tell me how it works out !

[@SlayALLDay1979]

TRIP TROP Hah

[@mranderson3217]

super dope!! thanks for sharing

[@BigJerr]

you got it buddy !

[@rux_ton]

Im intrigued by this-- definitely gonna experiment to see how this can affect my overall sound. Also props on the zelda shit, and from what i can see, really dope tattoos man. You got a new sub tonight:)

[@BigJerr]

thanks much - I actually think im going to be doing a short course on mixing loud soon

[@rux_ton]

@@BigJerr No problem! im definitely keen to hear it! *no pun intended*

[@markivan5324]

Although this a neat video, Just remember guys making music is not a competition. expressing your vibe should be your goal,. if you need to raise some gain for well mixed and mastered track thats okay. -8 is way loud enough for final productions to work well in a mixing environment, Louder does not mean better.

[@adamsunderland0823]

It's easy when it's just drums, one lead sound and some vocal chops. Nothing ever overlapping.

[@kringspier123]

This is great ! Thanks

[@BigJerr]

of course

[@dimitrispalantzas5281]

Great video! I wonder what will spotify do to a -3 lufs master? Will it be turned down by 11?

[@there_vision]

This is game changing stuff right here!

[@manofgoat]

THANK YOU SO MUCH THIS VIDEO IS AMAZING I NEEDED THIS

[@BigJerr]

you got it !

[@briancase6180]

I think you summarized Skrillex's tactics very well. I've experimented before seeing this with simple tracks (not so many individual sounds/channels), and it definitely works very well. I think there's more than one way to do this, but this is the general idea. And I think the way to explain it is this: you need a good crest factor at every stage of your mix. If you have a great overall crest factor at the end, your track has the potential to be very, very loud (if you want that). Another thing is that getting to -3 is appropriate maybe for some pop and some EDM, but not for everything!

[@djcj]

Really cool video! Any reason why Pro Q 3 is set to Linear Phase - Medium?

[@loganhollywood8963]

The way you explaining 👓🕶🥽

[@fortknightpredilluvian2008]

Nice video! Instant sub

[@BigJerr]

glad you liked it

[@denverlightinganddjservice9101]

Thank you for this video!

[@MrCreezy7]

Would love to see more of this!!!

[@WaltThizzney415]

I have a former icon student who mixes all my projects and is mentoring me rn!

[@WebangDubstep]

Nice work!!!

[@BigJerr]

thanks !

[@WebangDubstep]

Most def man always great tutorials!

[@anhumblemessengerofthelawo3858]

How supreme. You the man. Sub'd.

[@maxfens]

does it work for hiphop?

[@badnrad]

My mom was mixing -3 lufs in the 80's and that's what got her blacklisted in the industry

[@TomBudin]

Got to -5.2 yesterday, not BEHD

[@djhansiofficial]

How do you setup Audio From & Audio To on the chains A B and C? thanks for the video

[@nenjidesu]

The trick is to lower the bass frequencies

[@nosleepclub8823]

really cool, thank you! and what do you do with the pre-master chain?

[@taiji8517]

subscribed! this was so informative :)

[@GingerDrums]

awesome vid. You can also substitute clippers for limiters in many cases it sounds even cleaner !

[@NIcknELijah]

Thank you for changing my life forever.

[@ryde2012]

Fantastic will try this 🔥

[@danceb4nine]

I know some dubstep artists hit -2 to 0 I’ve only seen it a couple of times but it’s possible. The most I’ve every gotten and my mix was still clean was -4

[@thetoast677]

this is dope

[@BigJerr]

thanks man

[@arm4nmusic923]

Thanks a lot man

[@georgewirkus]

awesome video

[@BigJerr]

thanks

[@Thyronix]

Dude you blew my fucking mind. Thank you for this amazingly helpful video!!

[@LuMozMusic]

Very cool ,thanks.

[@Scansiswave]

Thanks!!!

[@jesseoneil5471]

Very helpful, thank you.

[@BigJerr]

of course

[@RUANCHENGWU]

what‘s in your pre master

[@mattsotoofficial8224]

Youre very help with this tutorial, Thank you so much i appreciate it. Question, where do you learn it??

[@umaranwar8507]

Amazing tutorial

[@shishiworld]

thank you for this!!

[@eskei83]

nice video 👍 really on point… so with „extremly clean“ you mean „don’t distort the sound“, I guess?! thanks 🙏🏼

[@BigJerr]

that and - more over - EQ is king - get rid of all unwanted freq - like harshness- or muddy - or anything that sucks in your signal - basically the rule is - THE CLEANER YOUR SOUND IS THE LOUDER YOU CAN MAKE IT :)

[@eskei83]

BigJerr thank you

[@BigJerr]

@@eskei83 of course

[@Vidorraofficial]

Thank you

[@AaronTrimbleMusic]

Love that shirt 🔥

[@yaboysambeats]

can't find camelphat :/ great tutorial though!

[@zackyzackyzacky1]

People after watching this video are probably searching the internet far and wide for the legendary Camelphat.

[@BigJerr]

its not that "needed"- though- it IS a great tool to have and you CAN find it - however if you have a newer OS like "Big Sur" it wont work (the GUI is blank) if you have high Sierra or earlier then your good ! - not sure about pc (personally I have been on High Sierra for ever and dont plan to change it lol )

[@zackyzackyzacky1]

@@BigJerr I have it working on Catalina, the GUI doesn’t work; however, Ableton shows the automatable parameters on the plugin and you are able to adjust those. I have it on Windows 10 too and it works with no issues.

[@BigJerr]

@@zackyzackyzacky1 thats very true - pro tip:)

[@sapry618]

Gotta find a way to do this in Logic😳

[@harikrishnan4411]

great

[@milosmaric4790]

Thanks a lot on these tips bro!!!! Of course, we are all interested in learning how to get sound enough loud but don't lose the quality of it..If you can make some short videos about it, that would be grate!!!

[@Bloquednb]

thumbs up and a new sub nice video dude

[@BigJerr]

thanks so much !

[@reiherreracl3459]

thank youuuuu!!!

[@BigJerr]

yoor welcome

[@ShobhitChauhan07]

HELP! Routed up like up this & pulled up a soft synth only to find latency on every midi action. The midi meter on Ableton doesn't show any latency but the sound gets generated from the plugin after a second or so. Can anyone help?

[@BigJerr]

maybe because you have true peak on your limiters turned on ?

[@johnfire2330]

THANKS!!

[@intheblink]

Hey man, really nice video. I like your style and the pace a lot. One recommendation: there seems to be a lot of mouth noise getting through. You might find something like iZotope RX’s mouth declicker could knock that out for you. Great work!

[@BigJerr]

OMG I get it there have been several comments and since then I MAKE SURE not to have any mouth sounds(it was just a late night and I forgot) - please lets all move past this minor detail lol

[@intheblink]

BigJerr ah, sorry, didn’t see the others. Might just be more pronounced on mobile. Anyway, keep up the great work!

[@kylechumchal]

My man pulled out the spider man font! FR though super insightful video 🙏

[@BigJerr]

Imaginary World that’s def not the spider man font

[@R3GALMUSIK]

Awesome video. Is there any need for a clipper on the pre master?

[@antnycruzr]

This is SO loud. Super helpful though.