AMAZING Mastering Headroom Technique You Need To Know About!

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Hello, I'm Nicholas Di Lorenzo, Studio Owner, Mixing and Mastering engineer at Panorama Studios.
I'm an Italian-Australian born and raised in Melbourne. I've been a creative professional for 10 years managing some pretty awesome projects for artists, labels and producers all around the globe.
What motivates and drives me?
My family,
Good food,
Great coffee.
You can find me on many platforms:
Instagram: / panorama_mastering
Facebook: / panoramamastering
Twitter: / panoramamasters
Kit: kit.co/Panorama_Mastering

[@Rolanoid]

Memories of me in Soundforge 20+ years ago before I had a decent limiter. Didn't realise I was actually onto something back then.

[@sampleheed]

Me too and I still use it but in a different way using Sound Forge to auto detect and show me the maximum peak value in a file, then use graphic fade with a custom curve to drop the level of the peak by a tiny amount this can be done very quickly over mutable peaks in a short time using keyboard short-cuts you can also create a batch script to speed up and automate the process

[@davidrope81]

I did something like that using Cakewalk - Soundforge - Cool Edit, simply ignoring what mastering was. Reduced by 3db the parts near the limit and then gave gain to all the wav file. When I clearly understood what a compressor/limiter did I thought that I was crazy, but in reality this is the best way to gain stage.

[@Herfinnur]

I've been doing this since 1999, or whenever it was Cool Edit Pro came out. It's my favorite part of mixing. Edit: Yup, 1999

[@panorama_mastering]

Oh man; I had to google Cool Edit Pro! WOW! What a throwback! (Before my time)

[@justin.johnson]

Same here bro. More like 97.

[@Shred_Rocket]

For those of us (who are not necessarily mastering engineers) that cannot afford RX, Wavosaur can do the same thing for a lot cheaper, however, the additional ability to adjust the peaks exclusive to each channel may not be currently available.

[@panorama_mastering]

Nice! Thanks for sharing this with us!

[@ajlsoundwave]

Great video showing the differences / sounds / visuals. Kudos!

[@giovannicordova1834]

Wow. If RX would implement an option to select all the peaks within a certain dB range at once and clip-gain them within a specific dB range it would be a huge time saver. I've tried to play with the "Loudness Control" mode but that seems to be a limiter.

[@panorama_mastering]

I KNOW! Because I'd be happy for this to be a process which could offline render;

[@darknightfawkes1028]

I’m sure someone clever enough could create a tool to do so, possibly someone who knows how to program and code

[@panorama_mastering]

@@darknightfawkes1028 hmmm you giving me an idea ;)

[@tylerbarr5733]

This is a great idea I second that

[@happyshadow]

@@panorama_masteringdon't forget about this idea!!!

[@branislavgagic9212]

Epic advice, I've never heard anybody else mention this! Thanks very much!

[@panorama_mastering]

No problem! Check out Bob Katz mastering audio book, he touches on it in there.

[@jorgedejesustejedavaldez5283]

This technique is really interesting but is soooo time consuming for me, its like office job. But the results are petty wild. The editor one sounds bigger more upfront in many ways.

[@panorama_mastering]

Nahh; only 10-15 minutes of work; MAX!

[@RP-vq4wd]

Amazing tip! Thank you, dear colleague!

[@panorama_mastering]

You're so welcome!

[@levi2186]

Found your Chanel from the god particle video! Nice to see a knowledgeable Aussie audio engineer on KZbin!

[@panorama_mastering]

Welcome aboard! and thanks for watching!

[@jaymusik1235]

Priceless

[@panorama_mastering]

Thanks mate!

[@easyvelvet77]

Funny, this video might have slip through to me when it went out! When all i hear about since a year or two is clipping, soft, hard, standard clip, on each track or master bus... Do you still use and recommend this technique, or did you just move on to "standard clip" soft clip pro? Or do you really still use both according to the source material?

[@damonomusic]

here from TikTok! this is a phenomenal vid!! Thanks for sharing ✌️

[@panorama_mastering]

Welcome!! Thanks for coming!

[@RedSpark_]

Not gonna lie, during the explanation I was really doubting how much of a difference it would make but yikes, that isn't subtle at all. easy 2/2 in the blind tests. Fantastic video mate, thanks for sharing

[@panorama_mastering]

My pleasure!

[@alegalata]

Thank you for doing this with my song 🤩🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@panorama_mastering]

My pleasure! Great records as always!!!

[@chrisknight3734]

This is a solid technique for a genre like classical where the dynamics are almost completely reserved, or archival recordings which aren't fit for modern mastering

[@jiteshmahato3421]

awesome ☺️🤝, have a question, is rx 10 standard just fine or need that advanced version for better

[@saardean4481]

Nice. Reminds me of trying to save overdriven audio clips in Audacity many years back. One tool i sometimes like for things like this is Drum Leveler by sound radix. While i love your method and it might be less destructive than the mentioned plugin i went for convenience over the years. It can do some pretty transparent (imho) ultrafast leveling without doing it in an "adding much compressor character" kind of way. So i will set it to bring back the "stray peaks" for 1-2 or 3 db and it works like a charm

[@panorama_mastering]

Nice ! :) I love having the autonomy over each and every peak for 10 minutes of work it's worth it; especially when my clients pay me in excess of 100 an hour; no detail gets overlooked!

[@saardean4481]

@@panorama_mastering not arguing on that. I am just curious how the two methods would compare. I can imagine that the leveler has more chances to introduce distortion if pushed but if you only want to catch a few peaks by 1-2 db i love how it works. But i have not the nerve to do a comparisson at present. Too much family stuff , little time right now. Hmmm i am thinking. What you are doing is practically manual corrective “gainriding” in a way. Drum leveler is supposed to be a very fast leveler first and a compressor after. At least in my understanding so it would be a nice test imo

[@Rohme.33]

Mad scientist!

[@chadhowat3392]

Really cool technique! Is there any reason I (as a mixer) would need to implement this somehow or should I let mastering do this? I print mixes without my limiter kicking in for mastering.

[@panorama_mastering]

Thanks man; this is predominantly a QC(Quality control step) I take; I don't think it'd be necessary for any mixer to do this; as every mastering engineer will have their own way of managing this; for mixers; just focus on making something which sounds great; ;)

[@speckles9251]

Cool. 20 years ago I used to prepare my masters in an Audio editor (Samplitude on a Pentium III ... you're allowed to chuckle) and then give it to the Neumann cutter. Made for some slamming vinyls (+6 and more). I always thought that I was committing some sort of an audio-crime (apart from the results) ... and now you're letting us know that Bob Katz and folks at NAMM are celebrating this! I'd appreciate if you could explain the math of those crest factors, in particular in relation to the L/R balance. Perhaps the gained awareness would then limit my audio-crimes.

[@mixedbysuede]

Is this technique apart of your everyday workflow or do you only do this when you need more headroom?

[@who_is_dis]

This is actually gold. I'm definitely doing this after the summing emulations / prior to any other master processing. Is it just me or is RX a bit clunky to navigate / use?

[@panorama_mastering]

It's good to use once you get the hang of it; it's got 1 million features, especially on the way it plots information; so the learning curve to be fluent with it is pretty high; even for myself after all this time I can forget where I am in it;

[@JRand927]

Can you do this in Pro Tools if you split the track into mono apply the fixes and then make it a stereo track again?

[@tylerbarr5733]

@panorama_mastering Hope you’re doing well, I love your channel it’s honestly helped me so much, I have a couple questions Is this something you would personally apply to all your tracks before you master or is it just dependent from track to track if it contains those rouge ISPs? I’m assuming you pick either manually editing those ISPs, compression, distortion, and / or clipping dependent on the audio content or a combination of all of the above?

[@panorama_mastering]

Thanks man! Happy to answer; Currently it's more-so dependant on a track-to-track basis!

[@marceloribeirosimoes8959]

You can see every single sample in Audacity free program, too... Cool video, man! Thank you.

[@RenePatrique]

Mighty CoolEdit could show adjustable single samples as well when zoomed into a waveform - that was like 25 years ago. - Still a nice feature!

[@yocanon3818]

I feel I am missing something. Are you lowering only intersample peaks? Or all peaks that go above the dB you want to obtain the crest factor you want?

[@panorama_mastering]

Both; intersample and all other peaks which go over the dB for the crest factor I want; (Within reason of course)

[@this_is_jmdub]

I love to watch people nerd out

[@shivbhalla]

Tbh the clipper sounded the best

[@mikedavidson4203]

Once I’ve determined the new true peak value you’re aiming for, I’m finding it faster to normalize the select samples to that value, as opposed to using the gain function, which requires math for each instance. Curious if you think there’d be any real difference in the end result if I’m otherwise following the process you’re outlining here.

[@panorama_mastering]

Sounds smart! I don't think there'd be any real difference it's practically the same process.

[@jozefkovac5507]

next episode manual wavefolding :O.. .

[@freewheelinghorn]

I admit the editor was pretty transparent, but am I the only one who preferred the feel of the compression in this example? At least as an isolated process, that is. Also, if you're going to be going through your analog chain, then many of those fast transient peaks will likely get soaked up by the hardware, right? (depending how you gainstage) which means the use of this technique would come down to the relationships of those high and average dynamics and exactly how you want them each to hit your hardware. Like maybe for a specific result, you want your transients to hit the hardware harder than the rest of the mix - or maybe you don't, maybe you want to get more saturation on the sustained tones, and by reducing your peaks you can achieve a more even saturation (or any other dynamic process) across the elements in the mix. I guess my point is you wouldn't always want to do this, it would depend what your goal is and how it's helping you get there.

[@panorama_mastering]

It's a great way to edit single isntances; BUT BIG BUT; watch my true peak limiting video; there's a little easter egg in there; which I'm going to use alongside this technique and clipping to point out some flaws with this technique and improve on it... has to do with the theory of what I'm manipulating in application;

[@lusid_music_uk]

Interesting but I think I’ll just stick with trimming the peaks with a clipper. “Ain’t nobody got time for dat”. Especially for -3LUFS Bass music. And isn’t it basically just doing the same thing? If Sample > X then Sample = X You mention you’re doing it more transparently but at the end of the day you’re still changing the shape of the wave and thus introducing new harmonics that weren’t present beforehand (for split second). Maybe just less predictably than a clipper ceiling at X and so it’s less noticeable maybe. But still. Seems like a lot more effort for basically the same result. Suppose it depends on how loud you want it. Personally I’ll be manually editing 999999 peaks 😂

[@panorama_mastering]

Spot on; I do both; depending on the nature of the material; If it's every single snare hit; I'm using a clipper (Most of the time); If it's single off-shoots here and there; I'm using manual editing;

[@woopeedyscoop1858]

limiter does same job automatically. or clipper. why would i waste my time?

[@panorama_mastering]

Hey Woopedy; check out my video on true peak limiting; since I published this video theres a few corrections I need to make to this technique; as the displacement of sinc values or PCM encoded data isn't just affecting that instance/sample point in time; there's some flaws to this technique which I'm going to clarify in a future video!

[@RP-vq4wd]

In psychedelic trance the crest factor of the biggest producers is 4-6 dB imagine that :) Its achieved through all sorts of processing that you had mentioned already. Using a clipper below zero dbfs on the short transients of a kickdrum or any other inaudible peak is the best and the most satisfying in my experience. Limiters and compressors are so overrated when it comes to loudness. On the other hand overdrive, distortion , tape saturation is depreciated.

[@panorama_mastering]

Bang on; it's always a sum of the parts; not just any one process!

[@MrCool144]

If anything clippers are overrated compared to sample selection and phase correction. Even eq gets overlooked as a correction tool. Most people use it creatively but lack the skills to eq for loudness. Which is really where most loudness comes from. You can’t polish a turd sample.

[@meedz]

this changed my life fr - now to get to a level where the price of RX becomes worth it 🤣

[@panorama_mastering]

Most RX versions I end up keeping for 2-3 updates before I reupdate; it's expensive upfront but the tech is worth it in the long run;

[@murraywebster1228]

@@panorama_masteringI disagree about upgrade costs, it’s very often 50% of the introductory price for a new version, I think iZotope know people basically no choice, so much for „loyalty“ prices…

[@TheHutchMusic]

Life's too short for this hocus pocus. This quest for perfection drives me crazy. Surely there's an AI tool coming to do this in seconds.

[@NoQualmsTheArtist]

Preferred the clipping in each of the blind tests. But I do prefer a punchier sound 🤔

[@panorama_mastering]

That's the purpose of the blinds; objectivity!

[@DaveChips]

+1 😅 I have more clippers, limiters and saturators then compressors 😬

[@xaosm_os]

damn bro.... talk about excitement.

[@panorama_mastering]

yeapppp

[@Gearstudio18]

Just put a Shwabe Gold Clipper on it, it has zero attack zero release!

[@entity9588]

Im so confused about how you identify intersample peaks and how do you know when there are no more?

[@panorama_mastering]

There will ALWAYS be intersample peaks; that's not an issue; it's more-so the intersample peaks that represent the LOUDEST peaks in a waveform which I'm hunting for; The wave-form information on audio editor allows you to click on the marker icon near the highest true-peak value and it will drop a marker on the current highest peak value of the wave form for you to assess;

[@entity9588]

​@@panorama_mastering So you would cycle through all the peaks and adjust the samples when the blue line in between samples curves above the samples? Did you check them all when you stopped at 7:36 or did you just stop to carry on with the video.

[@panorama_mastering]

@@entity9588 I checked all the ones above -10.5dBFS any of the subsequent ones I wasn't too concerned with as I had already bought 1.5dB of headroom adequately;

[@entity9588]

@@panorama_mastering Thanks man, sorry I'm slow af haha.

[@DanDanNoodls]

Can you do this in RX Elements?

[@panorama_mastering]

Yes you can!

[@DanDanNoodls]

@@panorama_mastering Awesome! Thank you!

[@MCForty]

I used to do this in Adobe Audition 20 years ago.

[@panorama_mastering]

Awesome! Sometimes the simplest techniques are the best and hold the test of time!

[@MCForty]

@@panorama_mastering. Absolutely! This is why I really like your channel, like me, you get nerdy with seeking the best possible outcome for a mix or master. A technique like this is tedious and time consuming, and even though it probably won't be audible to the general listener, we know that mathematically and scientifically it makes a difference. Keep up the good work!

[@panorama_mastering]

Thank you!

[@glennskinner9564]

When you say Izotope audio editor do you mean RX?

[@panorama_mastering]

Nope; audio-editor is a standalone application that's a part of the RX bundle

[@sebastopolband]

This is some Level 19 Witchcraft

[@panorama_mastering]

Thanks bud!

[@AndyParka]

I feel like youtube's compression, or my budget studio monitors are affecting the way that I can't hear a difference haha. Hand's up! 🤷‍♂🤷‍♂

[@murraywebster1228]

Would be great if RX had an automatic peak reduction mode….

[@ProfOfficial]

I don't know exactly why but your videos feel similar to Jonas Aden's. It's really nice cause he's on another one of his hiatuses :(

[@panorama_mastering]

Thanks for watching mate! Just checked out Jonas Aden's his video's a great that's a huge compliment! I hope he gets back into it; because his stuff is incredible!

[@ProfOfficial]

@@panorama_mastering

[@paradisemeco7121]

Someone should do an intelligent plugin to do the editing automatically, no?

[@shivbhalla]

Why hasn’t an ai algorithm been trained to perform this task yet?

[@panorama_mastering]

Future research; throws this technique out into the trash; (More video's to come ;)

[@audiomorphing423]

blablabla

[@giulioboobzilla]

I haven’t heard any differences but sum volume. Hm 🤔

[@ilyeshmusic]

It's kind of sad actually...loudness war is not over...it became even more disgusting...

[@panorama_mastering]

Maybe

[@RockstarRecStudio]

Best way to butcher your audio 🤦

[@panorama_mastering]

How-so?

[@jouvemartin1637]

Interesting but complicated in a real life scenario without overcharge you’re clients

[@panorama_mastering]

No need to overcharge; it's 10-15 minutes of work upfront; and simple QC which is part of the role of a mastering engineer; so no need to charge more to do the job you're meant to do :P

[@jouvemartin1637]

@@panorama_mastering 30 points to adjust manually seems like a lot to me ! Maybe one future update will include a new algorithm to automate this process :)

[@Speorgmusic]

Completely unnecessary editing. Baaahh!

[@13thJ]

The information in the videos are good but every time I watch one he’s telling me I’ve got a buy some new piece of software and that’s getting old

[@panorama_mastering]

Thanks man; appreciate it; I really don't mean to throw lots of new tools into the bucket; I'll keep this in mind for future videos;

[@13thJ]

@@panorama_mastering I like the information you put out and I didn’t mean to make it sound harsh… I have the staple tools(pro-fab-isotope etc) It just seems like you have a good understanding and there’s lots of people out there pushing new plug-ins. There’s always a new plug-in that’s going to help because it’s technology and we improve. I just think that your head works pretty good and you have a pretty good understanding so you can really help people to learn how to use the tools they already have Jmo

[@panorama_mastering]

I respect the opinion; and feedback has been onboarded; I'll try to not only reflect my practices like I have in these videos but think outside the box as to how people can adopt/interpret these with general tools already available/freely available;

[@13thJ]

@@panorama_mastering that would be next level