The best mastering chain for music production

[@OscarUnderdog]

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[@ginkgolanugo5451]

Big thanx for your work long time i se you all video .... And right Now i start my chanell with Ableton

[@Bthelick]

As a 15+ year professional, I find most people who are tempted by the 'dark art' of mastering, are really just delaying blame to a later process, because their track doesn't sound good at mix. That's all you need to know, it's a mix problem! I promise you there's literally no difference between a good mix at commercial level and a master. If the mix is good there is no need to master, fact. Many a great mastering engineer has said as much. I have released and engineered thousands of tracks and there are some out there with millions of views that are just mixes that got released, no master at all, and in many cases not even a limiter! The difference is in your ear training not the specific processes or gear/plugins.

[@emiel333]

I couldn’t agree more. To add something extra: if any song has excellent mixing, the mastering engineer doesn’t apply any extra processing, which is actually the best thing a producer can experience. It’s in fact a compliment for the mixing done by the producer. Thank you for writing your experience as a mastering engineer. ❤

[@darryldouglas6004]

Thank you for posting this! I’ve wondered what the point was since I’ve already spent hours mixing. Yes I’m inexperienced and slow. The only time I’ve “mastered” a project was when the guy wanted it on CD. This was the way to get all the songs together to burn the CD. I threw on a compressor and limiter because so many KZbin videos said I needed to. 😃

[@NaesLondon]

Grr

[@TheReal_E.IRIZARRY]

So I used to be so terrified of audio mastering. But now it's one of my favourite things to do besides creating the instrumental, laying down the vocal tracks, etc. I'm no longer terrified of it because of the SOTA (state of the art) hardware-sounding plugins we have which have just came out in the last 2-3 years alone!!!

[@nothority_artist]

Question: In that case you put a limiter on every single track in the mix ??? so each track is set to it's max and then bring each track down until you reach -6db one the master???

[@resonance8117]

That is crazy. I have been self taught for 10 years. I never really focused a lot on mastering. But I quickly found out the only way I could get a good mix with the right loudness was to put a limiter on the master.

[@johnghadimi]

Producing/Mixing into a limiter is the secret sauce. Totally on board with that. I also have a clipper (KClip) before the limiter, to catch the strays before it feeds into the limiter. Keeps things nice and tidy.

[@diegolowpass]

I'm feeling a little down today, so not only I thank you for your great advice but also for keeping me company 😊

[@OscarUnderdog]

☺️🙌

[@bAdorablePeach]

This pushed me, in the right direction, to remove my mastering chains and actually fix my mix. Spent 5 hours fixing things, but it was worth it. Thank you for the video!

[@ksl8r300]

You dancing in the background to your own song was the best part of this video lol Thanks for the vid

[@BaddBadger]

If only someone would have told me this back in the 90's i might be a lot further into this journey than i am now!

[@NDSOart]

This is great! I usually just have a glue compressor (sometimes), limiter, and EQ for monitoring on the master. Recently I have been wondering how to improve the master chain but keeping it simpler is probably best! Love your videos, they are a big part of what inspired me to work on my own music.

[@DaveGouda]

This is generally what I do as well, minus the glue compressor. But that's definitely a good idea. I've been using Ozone Elements lately because I like how it balances the final EQ. Not sure if it's actually a good idea for mastering though.

[@NDSOart]

@@DaveGouda Glue compressor on the master can be hit or miss and it changes a lot, Ill just often try adding it once everything else is done to see if it brings out some hidden textures. Ozone looks awesome though I do want to try it eventually

[@EuphoriaMusic1]

Always delivering good wealth of info. But oh boy these productions of you lately, OOOOOOOFF!

[@FreehhZe]

also the loop in the end is such a banger i love it

[@FunDaBounceDJ]

Thank you for speaking up on this. After more than a decade of mastering my own productions, it really does boil down to working as you described. The sooner this is understood, the better! Thanks again for your insights and great teachings, Oscar! God Bless!

[@eugenesansvie545]

man, you're just awesome. I don't like your music (just not my genre), but omg how much more logical my production has become since I watch your channel! Cheers mate!

[@Yasha-t1c]

This is the best explanation of a limiter, and beginner mastering concept, that I have ever heard! Great work. Short but very informative. Thank you!

[@valdeEDM]

This is very good and important video. I started producing tracks and even published few without learning even these basics :D I think you explained it very well, thank you for teaching us Oscar :) Few things I've started doing nowadays at the end of a project; 1. Check the mix in Mono to see how all elements are balanced. 2. Listen through multiple different set of speakers (TV, Phone, Speaker, Headphones etc.) to get better understanding of what elements may be off-balance. 3. Using a limiter to eat up the headroom like mentioned. What I'd like to see maybe future videos of would be understanding phasing issues, the importance of key / scales and some other more subtle ''professional tricks / unwritten rules'' that people like myself might overlook when getting into producing. Wish you all the best and looking forward to learn more from you guys =) - Valde

[@Mike_Sela]

brother ur channel is a really good one . amazing content and no BS - im producing for 15 years but there is always something new to learn :)

[@TheElliotEquation]

Soft lighting looks great in this video

[@kronweed]

I am on team NO LIMITER! You know you can't resist turning off LIMITER, turning on 4ms LOOK AHEAD, then clicking that sweet "SOFT CLIP" red square on the M-Class Maximizer! Great video btw :)

[@Riis__Music]

idk if it is just me or not but i took many many years to finally find what i been looking for this question has been killing me have ever found anything on this subject thank you so much

[@acd85sc]

As a beginner, this blew my mind. Can't wait to try it.

[@user-mb8rf7qk5q]

I’m at the beginning of this video and feel like finally someone is explaining this in a way I can understand.

[@manmachinemusic]

Simplicity at it's best! Simply fabulous Oscar. Thank you 🔊

[@ivanoleg054]

This is actually the most helpful video addressing mastering I‘ve seen so far.

[@b00ts4ndc4ts]

I have been mixing for years now and never used a limiter and its always turned out fine. I just use a timer so i never over cook what i have mixed. Yeah it's a chef's life for me.

[@cibodiitaliano]

Thanks for the tip - going to test this out tonight. Also, this sample track you made is a total vibe!

[@jamespingel8730]

For my master bus, I have 12DB of gain added. I keep all my faders down around half in my DAW template, some stuff like kicks and bass will probably get turned up, some stuff like hihats and chords will get turned down. When I inevitably go over zero, I can turn down that master gain. When its time to render a final mix I turn off that extra gain entirely, I usually have 6-10 db of headroom left, which is plenty. I also have an EQ that cuts out the lows and highs I can switch in to check a band-limited version of my mix at any time. No real processing beyond that as my specialty these days is mastering, I have a separate template for handling that whether it's my project or someone else's.

[@Struktur.d.M]

love your little dance sequences :D

[@bitbotrecords]

awesome thank you sir

[@pleggli]

volume buddy is a great and cheap max for live device that is awesome for previewing compressors, limiters and distortion, etc... effects by adding gain automatic compensation to any device in a effect chain since Live's own devices doesn't do that. It's not somehing to keep on the chain in the finished track because it can change the volume over time but it is still a great tool.

[@paultorbert6929]

NICE to see all the Hardware Synths in the background !!!!

[@micmacha]

Great advice. It's the classic question of whether what we _can_ do, we also _should_ do...

[@glen3351]

amazing tutorials from this man, helped me move from flstudio to ableton, so glad i made the switch, thankyou so much, xxx

[@amg4160]

this actuallymade my workflow 100x better. excellent vid. puts most of the focus on the mixdown

[@davidpurple3698]

Thanks - complete agree. And great track you're playing

[@buzzpsy]

Good advice bro, really enjoy your videos

[@noegomezartal]

dude I love you

[@justinsaunders1459]

One trick I learned is to put gentle limiting on each individual channel before it goes into the mastering chain. That way the master limiter doesn't have to do much work at all, and (to me) there's less distortion overall. Curious what others have tried.

[@adriano_sp]

try clippers instead, way better.

[@justinsaunders1459]

@@adriano_sp sure. Why are they better? What’s the trade off?

[@OscarUnderdog]

I agree with this - since I saw Conor Dalton doing it I feel it's legit to do it too :D

[@xgmode]

Limiters can potentially color the sound, it's not as transparent as a hard clipper. It's actually a technique you can look up (by Baphometrix): clip to zero production

[@sarkany888]

This technique is standard for achieving maximum loudness while maintaining clarity. Personally, I put -10 dB on all individual channels and put a +10 dB gain on the master channel's limiter in the mixdown phase. For mastering, however, I deactivate that +10, and put it later back with a clipper on the stemmed groups so each bus has a strong character in itself and not hurting the master limiter. I'm also seeing a trend that for emotional and atmospheric music some producers are going for -3 dB for the low end and let the soul of the mids fluctuate around 0-6-12 for dramatic dynamism and it seems very delicate compared to everything pushed to the maximum in your face.

[@GavinLyonsCreates]

Thanks again Oscar, I always enjoy watching your videos. I like this simple approach of just a limiter.

[@Drinkyoghurt]

It's good to know I was doing it "right" all along. I usually only put a limiter on my master bus, sometimes adding a glue compressor set to a very light compression. I knew that if it didn't sound right it probably had more to do with my mix.

[@AKAtAGG]

This is one of the best videos you've ever done. I am a semi-professional mastering engineer and someone following the tips from this video would immediately make my job 100% easier, every time. Amazing work as always.

[@magica2z]

All of your videos are great. Thank you master.

[@vivektyagi6848]

Many thanks it clears quiet simply what mastering is all about. A tutorial of mixing in conjunction will add to this already awesome tutorial.

[@FrequencyHorizon]

Dude that is such a sick loop you made! Great tips too.

[@vincentkloos63]

Super clear and interesting video as always Oscar !

[@xgmode]

I'd think add the limiter to the master after mostly done with mixing to check how it will probably sound compared to reference tracks, to get you in the same ballpark. But remove the limiter before sending your track to a mastering engineer to get the pro treatment.

[@seb-zero]

so following this teqhnique in the video, what is a reasonable RMS level to aim for just before you send off to mastering?

[@xgmode]

@@seb-zero After watching several videos on the topic if you send a 32bit audio file, the level doesn't matter. If needed the mastering engineer can turn the volume down, 32bit audio gives enormous headroom.

[@paran0ia7]

Great video, mastering really is something you should be thinking about from the moment you begin touching the track faders. It can be tempting to just get everything roughly arranged and mixed, then expect to fix everything "in post", as it were. But if you're mindful of the master output from the very beginning, songs will often kind of just master themselves over the course of production; freeing up more time at the end to drill down into the fun subtle detail work.

[@RTFXmusic]

😱your video title was my exact search request on the almighty google yesterday

[@Jolland11]

Just figure this out recently. Glad to see I'm in the right direction. Thanks Oscar, for all you do ✌

[@gigngamer]

very True, Add analyser plug ing too and Accoustic crrection plug in and NOTHING else, i've ruins so many mix doing so

[@MettaTrance]

Awesome video! Thank you

[@djsarumawashi]

GREAT!!! Thank you for Sharing. Greetings from CABO VERDE ISLANDS. CHEERS

[@raymondlesiak]

good advice Oscar. i have been using this method of late and it really helps to get your mix down correct so that you dont rely on a lot of xtra effects to get your track to sound decent

[@Frbrdt]

Oscar you're the best!

[@tejibel2800]

I'm working on a mixing effect rack. Didn't even include a limiter yet! Nice informative vid again Oscar!

[@888berg]

A lot of producers just start producing in Ableton without setting -6/-12 etc loudness on their tracks.... would love a video about best practise on this :) Amazing work - cheers :)

[@mangaas]

I haven't touched music production for 10 years now, an old hobby I picked up back in 2000, and never really new what I was doing. I didn't understand mixing and mastering, so all my amateurish stuff sounded even worse than it already was. I might just start working on something nice and clean, a small loop and go from there - keeping the mixing in mind from the beginning, just as you said, with just a limiter. It's great that random KZbin channels have all this content, I can actually learn now. Cheers!

[@spiritbipolar]

have fun!

[@bricelory9534]

That's a great idea to build up ears and instincts for mixing and mastering!

[@OscarUnderdog]

Love reading this. Yeah I got discouraged so often, knowing that my bad mixing skills were hurting my already poor productions :D I'd say one more thing: having bad monitoring systems will also undermine your selfconfidence a lot. Only since I have proper acoustic treatment on my walls do I feel like I can judge my audio with confidence. I look back at things I made just a year ago without the treatment and I cringe. It's wild. So just keep that in mind, in case you feel frustrated again!

[@BK-iw1zm]

Yes, definitely as Oscar said, get a good set of monitors, preferably the flatter response, the better. You don't want anything artificially coloring your sound.

[@hectorkaizenf.v.7224]

5:36 🤣🤣🤣 Man, I have the same behavior, I want to work in a feature and suddenly I am dancing

[@MichaelTNewell]

Great video. I feel like there's things here that reassure me that I'm on the right track with my own work. I do something very similar when I feel I'm approaching the end phase of a mix. I put a limiter on my master channel with a utility/gain just after. I set the limiter gain so that I get similar results to yours, then set the utility gain to reduce by the opposite amount. With these grouped I can switch them on and off at the same time to check for transparency (e.g., pumping, distortion, any weirdness in general). This tells me if I can push the limiter any harder.

[@timothyluppes2665]

I believe your quote is from Dan Warrol

[@dreamer-1973]

thanks for all the tutorials, i'm not taking this for granted and appreciate all the work you put into it. Merry Christmas and a happy healthy creative new year!

[@AlmostHuman_]

Always good to remember while Mixing as you go, that when you are going to get your master mix back, your lowest volume level tracks will be brought up in the mix. Sometimes a lot, and never the other way around :)

[@Bthelick]

I still maintain the best mastering chain is none

[@FreehhZe]

and another tutorial that massively helped me thanks a lot

[@declanfeenan]

This was so great! Thanks!

[@iandeegrees1509]

Nice expanation and very nice "WIP"-Loop 🙂

[@icncpt]

You do a great job! Thank you for you work and time you spent to educate us 🤝

[@shortcutDJ]

i feel like this video speaks at me directly,lol merci Oscar

[@MarMoro777]

amazing tutorial. Thank You !!

[@gooneybird808]

Dude fuck ya thank you for being transparent and to the god damn point!!! I just subscribed

[@paulonuneesx]

Great tips like always,thanks!

[@rickfrey]

Your Tips are very helpful, thank you, awesome channel! :D

[@alexandre_sangue]

thank you 🙏🏼 and whatta nice sound ❤️

[@JL_06]

Brilliant, Oscar

[@OdysseyWorks]

Great video! I would appreiate more videos on mastering a track :)

[@Bthelick]

You just got everything you need to know! "The best mixes don't need mastering" - Bob Katz. If the track is yours to mix then you don't need to know any more!

[@RBmusic2000]

Hi . Love your videos. Do you have anything on how to fix audio files not being allowed to be dragged and dropped into ableton. IM trying to put a reference track into my project but its stopped letting me do this. Do you know why?

[@twatmunro]

That's all I do. Ableton Limiter at the end of every chain.

[@Jadenh87]

Track sounds nice

[@theluckyproject8044]

Thanks, this is clutch info for the starving coffee-shop producer who can't hear what he's doing in his $40 Soundcore headphones

[@oscillatorstorm]

Awesome video!

[@MORRILL_MUSIC]

Genius explanation

[@lofi-dave]

Thank you so much! This helps a lot.. I was looking for this advice for a really long time and I have just used Ozone's Master Assistant "to find 0 dB".

[@alexblake5264]

is there a reason for turning the gain down on utility, then back up again on limiter? as opposed to just using the limiter

[@mmilerngruppe]

I think the best you can do is not to put anything on master while you do something with the track like arranging or peping your fx stuff, you get unpredictable results. Limiter works against you, you simply do not hear what you do. My workflow was to avoid a limiter in master track as long as I do something on the mix and on fx-channels. Only if I am at the moment that I am done with all the things, I put a limiter and squish the last drop out of my mix as the LAST step.

[@bci3937]

Should it be an True Peak Brickwall Limiter? Becasue some Limiter let Peaks through the Limit, a Brickwall will block ALL. So i would recommend not using any Limiter u can get.

[@OscarUnderdog]

I would say that the difference only becomes relevant when you're at a very advanced level, or when mastering is your job. For most beginners I would advise not to worry about these nuances during music production :)

[@bci3937]

@@OscarUnderdog i agree with whats in your mind to produce the thing as well as possible to need a brickwall...but for a save way...use a brickwall :D

[@jdikoder]

If all comercial tarcks look to be touching 0db, why most of the music I download is belo210db? Even platinum notes software converts tracks to sound below 12.5db... Still dont understand if it is convenient to produce music over -6db

[@billpayer3745]

Oscar, has no one mentioned your awesome groovin' dancin' easter egg in the background?

[@davidcarter3976]

The mastering chain is as follows Trent mollar, Ott and then Oscar from underdog!!

[@TheRafaBStudio]

Cheers !

[@RBmusic2000]

You have great content.

[@samisaac3908]

What is the normal setting for a limiter in DJing music?

[@rb1431]

while I get what you are saying, I still think you need a couple more plugins such as an EQ on the mastering level as well

[@lamarthe_headcrab7687]

Dude, besides amazing video , you got some crazy beautiful eye color... Some emerald green or some shit!

[@DJKibutz]

Thanks to your video, I just realized my mistake...

[@envik5474]

Yeah man really helpfull think u verry much

[@darryldouglas6004]

Thank you for this. I’ve been wondering why I’ve been told I have to re-tweak what I’ve already spent hours tweaking. 😃 I use Studio One which has an annoying habit of clipping even when using it’s own VSTs. My template has a limiter on the main bus because of this. Also I’m pretty sure I’ve wasted several hours putting an EQ compressor etc on a synth VST only to remove it all later because the sound is already good in those respects. 😆

[@Chris-qq7mt]

It would be interesting with a video on the topic of mastering bus but for live performances.

[@Bangers_mostly]

love you Oscar!

[@OscarUnderdog]

❤️❤️❤️

[@ilyasilyas8374]

Cool man 🌞

[@maximka420]

Hello Oscar, I produce in FL, have eq, maximus "clear rms" preset and a limiter on master channel, last three years almost. Would like to hear somethin about minimal techno

[@timcannady3213]

Thanks for this. So is there any reason to not start every new project with a limiter on the Master? In other words, can this just be added at the start, or instead, is it something to add after most of the project is complete? Thx!