My mastering chain

[@TonyThomas10000]

Love that "Your Gear Here?" rack blank...with salt, pepper, vinegar, and snake oil knobs! Hilarious!

[@flipnap2112]

I met a guy in Burbank who was a mastering engineer. its insane just how deep into his equipment he was. like, when I hear something that needs attention, I go to turn a knob.. if I cant get it, I try another knob. if he cant get it after the first try he goes in with a soldering iron. they are propeller heads, I swear.

[@Brutuscomedy]

I have been messing around with one song for far too long and I think I finally got the best results. I did as much by minimizing my chain. I exported the digital file with no processing on the two bus; recorded onto tape with a Telefunken M15; and then relied on the AD converter to reign in any peaks with clipping (but basically just hit 0 on the hardware). Finally, I turned the track down 1 dB in Reaper and didn't even mess around with any digital limiters. It sounds great and I am comparing it not only to an original digital "master" but one for which I paid that also involved bouncing to tape. Sometimes we don't even need external EQ and compression, that is, beyond what a tape machine imparts if used. It basically comes down to, in this approach, finding the sweet spot when hitting the tape and making sure your digital mix is well balanced in the first place. Given what Mix:analog now makes available, I can no longer stay "in the box." Nor do I feel like I have to pay hundreds upon hundreds to any mastering engineer to finish off my tracks. It's a great era to make music. :)

[@mechinamundi8988]

thanks , i had the privilege way back of mastering with John Dent , Island Records , sadly he passed away but his self made LOUD mastering studio continues

[@5adb0i]

I'm so excited for the update video! There's been a lot of progress on the automated front, and I would love to see a comparison of a cheap master (1-3 hours of work MAX) with a pro Mastering Engineer. Can't wait to see who it is. If it's Bob Katz I'll shit myself

[@riyazsonday7025]

Omg that Gainlab audio dictator even through youtube is so good

[@NeilMacLeodMusic]

You’re my favourite KZbinr!

[@BlackenedNL]

Wytse still love all your vids after all these years! Still learn a lot

[@djorig]

I appreciate you taking through your chain. Fab Filter plugins are a must for me. I use Pro-Q3 and Pro-L2. But I haven’t checked out the Pro-MB. I tend to not use Multiband Compression. But, I think I’ll jump into it.

[@DigiMixAudio]

Awesome Wytse, you've got it under control!

[@LaurenPassarelli]

Looove! Amazing gear & desk arrangement. Super cool.

[@stiptreezy8481]

This was extremely insightful, thank you for always coming with quality content! If I am remembering correctly you were the first audio engineering related channel I ever subbed. 🤘

[@MrAchris10]

Great job at explaining your setup. It certainly gave me some ideas to how I will approach my mastering sessions.

[@theDelinquenC]

The movment that varimu compressor gave to the track was phenomenal!

[@hermangording3200]

Im excited for the project management video!

[@DirtyDeli]

I don't know anything about mastering but this was fascinating to watch. I'll try to apply your digital chain techniques next time. Thanks!

[@sparkplugrecs.official]

13:00 pretty drastic low cut you don’t shelve or do more subtle cuts than that for avoiding any phase/issues..

[@nectariosm]

@12:45 erm...that's some phase distortion. Big impact on the mix from that choice of high pass filter. Interesting..

[@aether3395]

I also learn to do this in school, it's absolutely needed for mastering on vinyl

[@austinsummersofficial631]

We've got the m15 tape machine in perfect condition at mix:analog if you ever want to use it again 😊😊

[@lassorb4752]

Faith in humanity restored 🙏🏼🤪

[@JohnWuMastermind]

U the Don .. Love your sound

[@olibarahosasa1137]

I bought the Creme. Amazing. Saves settings per song. Whaaaattt

[@RonnieVaiArovo]

Your new Lewit mic makes my ears very wet. Thank you sir.

[@PharaohLawLess1]

I've been waiting for you to make a video on your process

[@beatprocess]

Wow, i just got into Analog gear and love it. the sound is different. i have a Ashly PQX 572 and a Behringer T1952. unique pieces.

[@mwintersteinsmith]

Awesome video Wytse. Really enjoyed this one 😎👍

[@soundslikeRW]

Kinda late but I'd be very interested to see how you'd like using the RND Portico II as it has a side field editor. Thanks for showing us this stuff!

[@stacybigfoot4801]

Yo Dawg. I got a compressor for the compressor you put before those other 2 compressors so you can compress it like super good nicely.

[@narendrasyahputra9069]

realy you dont use a clipper befor final limiting ???

[@saricubra2867]

Do you have any piece of analog equipment that uses vacumm tubes or it's all transistor based? I mean, the harmonic distortion that vacunm tubes can produce would be amazing combined with your tape machine. At least on digital, i combine both forms of distortion.

[@akagerhard]

Hey Wytse, I am wondering: How many compressors are you actually using on one mastering-session (on average)? Because here you showed: Dictator as a first compressor, then the Crème or the SSL and sometimes the alpha, but always the MB as a last compressor. So if I counted right that would be 2-3 compressors plus a multiband - which seems like a lot to me. But I'm not a mastering engineer. Thanks for the insight!

[@Whiteseastudio]

It’s 2, maximum 3… I basically always use the multiband and 1 of the analog ones, with an extra one depending on the source material

[@TeddyLeppard]

I think you can have compressors all throughout your chain and not worry about it. It's all about shaping the sound and that happens wherever it's needed.

[@akagerhard]

@@Whiteseastudio ahh, okay, that makes a lot more sense to me! If I master my own stuff, I usually use MB and sometimes a regular comp in addition too. Any reason other than workflow why you have the compressor first and the multiband last? Thanks for your answer, it's appreciated!

[@MonkeyBars1]

Thanks Wytse! English: "How it looks" OR "What it looks like" NEVER "How it looks like"

[@lassorb4752]

You heard it here first 🤟🏼😋

[@1eighty7]

you are brilliant, thanks for sharing your knowledge with the world.

[@mankepoot9440]

@ 3:15 you say "tight" just like Goldmember, the Dutch baddie from the Austin Powers movies.

[@reekoblakk]

Chain has a misplaced word in the description… thought I would say something to help out since I love this channel

[@subliminal4338]

Very nice video ! Thank you for these precious Knowledge :) Could you share a vocal mixing chain ? :)

[@rossnwilliams]

Thanks for this exposition. I sometimes use Saturn 2 "Magic Mastering" preset on my masters, but I put it near the start of the chain. I'd be interested to know exactly why you put Saturn near the end. I'm unsure about where to put saturation in the chain.

[@akzelander]

Same. Saturating is the first thing I‘m doing. Would be interesting to know why it’s on the end.

[@iamnotmad2649]

1:03 speaks into a mic that looks like a cyborg youre so funny xd SNAKEOIL?!

[@beeldbakker]

Hi, I really ask me the question: why do a analoge tape generation through a 24 track machine and not a decent 2 track? I have to admit that I'm a full digital guy, but 2 track 38cms seems to me a better solution.

[@UTOBY]

Hey Whitsy, I realy love you old and new content! A while ago I was wondering if you have ever used or would use a beat synced Oscilloscope (Signalizer for instance has a nice beat mode, or psyscope) to check visually what your mastering chain is doing to the transients and therfore the waveform of the track? During producing my tracks, I really like to check compression, saturation and transient shaping visually as well with my ears. A little bit like one would check spectrum and stereo field. Then again, keep up your good work and your inspiring personality. All the best!

[@ZiwaHD]

for that parallel tape situation you should consider TK Audio blender parallel insert matrix

[@kingdan6776]

Thanks White Sea

[@peterheinen6110]

Thanks so much. I work completely in the box, and do mixing predominantly on good studio headphones. I know i can't properly master in my home studio because of acoustics and monitor speakers limitations. I am experimenting with plugins that address this issue, but it's hard to tackle the problem. Maybe an idea for white sea studio?

[@sch9884]

Hey, got the same problem here. Could you tell me the names of the plugins ?

[@peterheinen6110]

@@sch9884 nx by Waves, Fiedler audio stage by plugin alliance and (my favorite) Panagement by Auburn

[@kiaeshghi6999]

@@peterheinen6110 have you tried SoundID Reference by Sonarworks?

[@evoltap]

I can’t imagine EVER doing parallel work with tape vs a digital file, unless there was smpte communication between the two. Even the slightest variation from the tape (which they all have) would be phase issues, and why risk having that be potentially undetected?

[@123ATank]

I also like to use long attack times but I also use quick release times. Is that a sort of way to do upwards compression?

[@russell_szabados]

I was always under the impression that upwards compression was similar to downwards expansion which is (i think) defined by the threshold more than the attack & release settings. Hopefully someone else can answer this question we both have.

[@tylerdengler6960]

Simple answer: not quite. Both downward and upward compression do the same thing (reduce the dynamic range), but in different ways. Downward compression is reducing the signal that goes above a set threshold and upward compression is boosting the signal below a set threshold without affecting any of the signal (peaks) that goes above the threshold. If the attack time is reducing peaks or anything above your threshold, then it’s downward compression.

[@tylerdengler6960]

@@russell_szabados you’re spot on! Compression is the opposite of expansion. Compression = Downward expansion. And as I said in my previous comment, downward and upward compression achieve the same goal, the only difference is how the signal is affected whether it’s above or below a certain threshold.

[@russell_szabados]

@@tylerdengler6960 thank you for clarifying that. When you use expansion, do you just use a gate or do you have a dedicated expander like the ones offered by :FLUX:? I’m just curious if you think there’s any difference or improvement. The few times I’ve needed to use expansion, I used FabFilter Pro-G or the Sonnox Dynamics plugin, which has a separate expander section.

[@YungstarProd]

Ahh. Super interesting. Thank you for the insight!

[@francescomilloni]

Great vid! No clipping stage? That’s unusual….

[@asidtone6465]

Never heard of the song playing, however now I know her entire hook lmao

[@jakevoutilainen3455]

It looks like there`s Dynacord Echocord Super S65 sitting next to the wall. It´s one of the best things Germany has ever produced.

[@beatprocess]

have you tried plugin alliance Lisa?

[@TheFriedIndustry]

Nice MX master mouse! I use the grey version it's fantastic for productivity and casual gaming.

[@caderik1386]

Wow this is amazing - one thing I wish you can bring later - is at which point do you bring reference tracks and how do you use them during your mastering process?

[@stevesrecordingtips7247]

I love this stuff. Now to make it work on my little system as best I can, lol!

[@bennthirteen3701]

please do a review on Hornet Multicomp, such a small company with great prices and effective plugins, I think it would be nice, they also have a tape plugin etc.

[@renaudperret29]

Why not use an MS encode/decode plugin (or analog box for that matter) to use your hardware in the same way you use the alpha compressor ?

[@KristofferLislegaard]

Are you editing in Davinci Resolve? The dropout in the beginning av this video sounds like the thing that happens when you render videoes in Resolve with audio plugins that needs latency compensation. To fix this when you render choose custom, go to file and choose 100 as your render speed instead of maximum. If this is not your problem don't worry about this comment :)

[@Whiteseastudio]

Could be the problem 🤔

[@KristofferLislegaard]

@@Whiteseastudio try rendring at 100 in stead of max and see if it fixed it 🙂

[@guidopellegrino6029]

Good morning , question ? How much $ is it for a song . I am shopping around for album 8 songs . It’s rock pop thank you

[@Zagoorland]

Are u gonna make Klark Teknik kt-2a review??

[@chillwalker]

Dude..I wanna focus on these sophisticated, Award winning lyrics... ;-)

[@RocknRollAddict666]

i saw on the crème that it has an auto release function. do you find that useable, and do you know how auto release works? i've always wondered.

[@joeyf808]

Seems Like the Digital side is really doing the heavy lifting.

[@charliestubbs6151]

as is almost always true. the "100 percent analog mastering" deal is mostly a gimmick

[@RaleighTHEVAMP]

u mentioned taking pics for recalls… might wanna checkout ‘session recall’ app. It’s been a life saver for me *has digital representations of a bunch analog hardware + u can add photos & notes

[@HRPL-ej9zo]

Is it just me or does the hihat on that demo have a nasty highfreq resonans somewhere?

[@_maizon]

wow, it shocked me that you work in reaper, I have been working in reaper for years and I have never found a producer in youtube that use it

[@MaximusAdonicus]

Well, the youtube sensation Glenn from Spectre Studios uses it too! He's been using it for years too and I think he has influenced many others to use it too in the metal community.

[@FarSideBlues]

I love reaper, It works, It doesnt crash, It does what you need without bullshit that not needed, It loads all my pluggins. IT WORKS.

[@prodby430]

Nice song, what’s the name of it or which artist is this ?

[@josial2883]

Thanks for sharing! Very informative

[@thegroove2000]

The victator looks nice.

[@AnthonyRochester]

Didn't you already do a video comparing a mastering engineer with the online mastering services?

[@jimjones1505]

What is the switch bay for the pink noise?

[@arklomusic2881]

Wow I'm 1st to view and comment haha!! Very interesting to see how you use your equipment it's very minimal it seems like. I aswell mix and master but absolutely still sometimes send it off simply cause I made the song so I'm like fatigued by listening to it over and over 😫

[@Frank290578]

Mooie beat man heb jij dat gemaakt? Die kick drum vind ik top. Ik maak trouwens ook muziek. Ik heb zelf een soundtracs jade console.

[@ProducerRyan]

so cool! Thanks for sharing!

[@KozmykJ]

Smart:Limit didn't get to stay then ?

[@maartenbosmans9585]

You have 24 channels of tape distortion available. Couldn't that be used to replace the saturn with an analog multiband saturation/distortion? Would be a cool experiment and video.

[@mthomas1091]

I like that idea 👍

[@BukanIbuMu]

That is a good experiment for hobbyist. But for a pro like him it's not practical because he has to deal with a client all the time.

[@saricubra2867]

Would be 24 channels for exactly the same tape, meanwhile Saturn has more options available, or other timbres in general for those digital emulations.

[@austincriddle]

What is the name of this artist/song?

[@Mongoosh]

Nice super setup

[@flozzy1988]

Great point of view :)

[@richertz]

Love watching your channel. Useful insite into plugins. The Lewitt mic though is an overpriced mic in my view. Get a Neumann U87 or save a load and look at alternatives the U87 sounds so much better. Seen a lot of companies give the KZbinrs freebies recently and it is not fair on the newbies out there. Many batter alternatives - look out for some good sub £1000 mics.

[@elliotsimon9918]

I use a warm audio u87 and it’s just wonderful. Did not pay a fortune for it either. You are right on the money.

[@Projacked1]

'Things have chain-ged....'

[@troeteimarsch]

Please review Kirchhoff-EQ :) pretty please with sugar on top :* luv u

[@troeteimarsch]

especially the mixed phase mode and how 127 bit pürocessing sounds in the high end - it's just so freaking much better than pro-q 3

[@jimjones1505]

Hey bro, I got an old Mac Pro ,, cheese greater,, os 10.6.8, lol,,the only reason I still use it in my mastering is because I have 500 plugins.. they all work great but , I think new plug ins sound better… you’re thought s?

[@russell_szabados]

@Jim Jones if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. My cheese grater is still in heavy use, as a matter of fact I just doubled its RAM and put two new NVMe SSDs in it. I use it for orchestral sessions and a newer iMac for mixing & mastering. And last year my dad passed and I inherited his 2009 iMac - I put Snow Leopard (10.6.8) back on it and use it just for older plugins. As long as plugins have over sampling, it’s all just numbers, they’re all good.

[@djGreenALERT]

Thank you for uploading this. A really good insight into how the pros master. One question I have, just how close is Software compared to hardware these days? Is the gap any closer?

[@StanleyKubick1]

90% of any audience can't tell the difference

[@FullMetalCyborg]

Discord Channel?

[@makr638]

Just follow the signal path folks

[@TheJoecoool]

cut 4k on your mic 😣

[@thegroove2000]

I think that the outboard gear finishes it off, giving that pro sound that cannot be achieved just in the box. Is that correct?.

[@raitatai]

Hey! Nice video 👍 I see you’re using a Stream Deck. Are you using Soundflow? If you don’t know it, check it out 👍

[@endosick3998]

snake in the mierder in the oil ?

[@chillwalker]

Did you ever read my Ideas?

[@Nobody-hc2bo]

16:27 “Way more” x 5 😂

[@gurumajuindonesia]

finally ... i am ready to sell my legs and liver to buy those analog stuffs! just kidding, thank you for the insight Wytse!

[@StephanBouwman]

I will never get why EDM producers want heavier limiting and mastering - cause let's face it - if you play a smushed down track at a festival it's gonna sound shit and much less impactful on a big soundsystem! Dynamics are so important!

[@matdan2]

Well, a more dynamic track can still sound much quieter especially on a loud system. There can be all sorts of high peaks throughout the track that don’t translate into a more “dynamic” sounding mix.

[@toefes]

You should reach out to Pieter Kloos (the void studios, Eindhoven), he’s a superb and knowledgeable mastering engineer. 😁

[@toefes]

Maybe it’s cool to do videos about studio tours in the Netherlands like Andrew Masters is doing in the US

[@woodworker-wm2sm]

AD/DA?

[@conflictortiz8906]

Name of the song

[@austincriddle]

For real, that song is dope

[@tomjulian7226]

it’s very tight….like a tiger

[@tommyface5756]

NICE SONG

[@danbo-x3d]

How much for a one song master? And how I can contact you?

[@Whiteseastudio]

Best is to book via whiteseastudio.com/mastering

[@carlosalfaro1777]

Thank you !

[@JayTheLane]

Oily chain.

[@thagoatee]

YOUR GEAR HERE ? LOL VERY CLEVER