This is Killing Your Master Bus

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[@aleksamrkela831]

That thumbnail of the CLA reaper is priceless! 😂 And I totally agree; there's no way around processing individual tracks or busses when it comes to achieving separation and clarity. Mixbus EQ is like a small sprinkle of powdered sugar at the end of mixing.

[@BobbyHuff]

Thanks Aleksa!

[@thegroove2000]

Got it, it’s that simple.

[@DanCummins]

Definitely been there, done that, made the mistakes and messed up a few masters back in the day. I've learned these days i'm also a HUGE fan of parallel compression on a mix bus. Taking the whole mix and slamming it into a compressor (fast attack fast release), eqing it separately, and mixing it back in can really bring a cool energy and fullness without having to squash the peaks on the main mix. I've done on my last few mixes and it's my favorite thing.

[@BobbyHuff]

Thanks Dan!

[@snubdawg1386]

don't you get phase issues if you parallel eq the whole mix?

[@Matheus-ly6eu]

​@@snubdawg1386 Dan Worrall just made a video on 'Parallel Filters', check it out!

[@AlexNiedt]

I encounter so many people who default to lots of master buss processing, and they always look at me crazy when I make the point of not inherently needing to add high end or low end to every single track. Great video!

[@BobbyHuff]

Thanks Alex!

[@mrbungle3310]

Discovering your channel was the best thing to happen to me this year

[@BobbyHuff]

Wow thanks Bungle!!

[@Jolly-Green-Steve]

Your snare and cymbal advice was the last little bit I needed to make my mixes really shine. Great advice man. I had reverb on my vocal bus and rhythm guitar bus already but never thought to run it on a snare bus. It really makes the mix sound way more polished now especially in headphones. Also with boosting the treble on the EQ on the cymbals bus it allows you to pull the cymbals back by 2-3 dbs or so in most mixes to allow more headroom while gain staging. Added bonus. Had done this already on my lead guitar bus but never thought to do it with a cymbals bus.

[@BobbyHuff]

Thanks Tanya!

[@thaddeusodonnell3986]

My first thought for more high end would for sure be the synth..I usually avoid boosting eq, especially at that range, on my cymbal tracks. If i couldnt fill out a missing frequency in the overall mix..I would probably add something else if I couldn't get it, just not create any unneeded freq boosts in the drum bus and maintain each tracks clarity. Totally agree with the sentiment.. also realize you basically had this setup to make example moves to show how to find what you need to improve your mix, that is so important to continuously remove yourself from a mix and remain objective while your also creating something.. not always easy.

[@extendedblundering]

very precise thanks doc!

[@billyhughes9776]

In general I rarely EQ at the master bus (sometimes a Pultec EQ plug) -- that's saved for when I or someone else (preferably) does the mastering. Good stuff Bobby -- thanks!

[@BobbyHuff]

Thanks Billy

[@HenryMittnacht]

Weeeeehooooo finally you reached 30.000 subscribers! Well deserved! Congrats 🎊🎉👍

[@BobbyHuff]

Thanks so much Henry!

[@eddiecrews5128]

That’s great stuff, Dr. Bob. a real eye, i mean ear-opener. thank you!

[@BobbyHuff]

Thanks Eddie!

[@JaviBello]

Nice! I wish had this video 10 years ago hahaha Thanks as always Bob!!

[@BobbyHuff]

Hahahaha!! Me to Jav.

[@recordman555]

You're the best, Bobby!

[@BobbyHuff]

Thanks Jon!

[@davebops2478]

Great video Doc, really good examples! I've (almost) cured myself of doing bad things on the master bus...😁I think everyone does the "too much eq on the master bus" thing until they learn to do what you showed in the video, the same as using too much compression on the master bus - it takes time and experience to understand the impact, and as you say less is definitely more! BTW your mix sounds great...

[@BobbyHuff]

Thanks man! I have gone through many frustrating years of too much of too much! Ha. Hopefully these videos will save people the time and frustration I spent going the WRONG way! Ha

[@sinnersrisemusic]

This is a really good video, man. I heard something once, and I'm paraphrasing: the more transparent you keep your mix/master bus, the less you'll rely on it and the better you'll become at actually mixing your tracks. That stuck with me. Little bit of tape emulation, little tiny eq moves, things for some color, but the master bus is not for mixing!

[@BobbyHuff]

Yes Sinner I agree!!

[@russisaac813]

Great info again.

[@BobbyHuff]

Thanks Russ!

[@rickblackers88]

Well done,thanx

[@BobbyHuff]

Thanks Rick!

[@SCgroove]

Really cool tip. Appreciate it.

[@BobbyHuff]

Thanks man!

[@jessejafrnd]

That's why I've been mixing for a year and haven't really used an EQ on my master bus, nearly at all. Once I learn why I need it I might but honestly haven't seen the need.

[@BobbyHuff]

That’s great. You are obviously taking lots of care on your individual and group channels!

[@ulfsvensson9710]

Exelent lesson!

[@BobbyHuff]

Thanks Ulf!

[@BustaMovePurkinz]

It’s the SIMPLEST things like this that we don’t think about when eq’ing. 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽

[@BobbyHuff]

Thanks Busta!

[@BustaMovePurkinz]

@@BobbyHuff Anytime Sir. Teamwork makes the dream work and that little TidBit jus helped me get closer to my Goals. Thank you for all that u do… 🍻

[@mattwallis1893]

Excellent advice as always. The song reminds me of Dream Police by Cheap Trick.

[@BobbyHuff]

Thanks Matt! Love Cheap Trick!

[@craignobles8285]

Could you do one on why, when, and how to eq the master bus?

[@TheCultofshiva]

I see a lot of EDM and Trance guys video tutorials that take of a bit of of the low end in the 30 dB range, to prevent the bass distorting or get muddy on a club system at high volumes. My left ear is damaged from ear infections when I was a kid and I lost the low frequencies. I found out when I had to test for the military and was turned down because of it. So I rely on reading up on mixing techniques in audio engineering books, artists who share their techniques in magazines and now there's a lot of tutorials on KZbin like this one. I do the EQ on the Master like you did, the other groups should be already EQ'ed and the Master EQ is just finishing touches. If I create something with a prominent Bass/Kick drive I also cut the low, just a little curve cutting a few dB. Because I know I hear less bass I always worry I use to much bass. Do you or anyone else reading this have some good mixing and EQ/compression tips for a fat sounding bass ? I like prominent bassline synths and nice rounded kicks that are used in progressive Psytrance but instead of 4 to the floor beats I try to combine the bassline with triphop/hiphop beats and create that nice drive. Here some examples of music I made: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gYDGhq13jslpgNU kzbin.info/www/bejne/gpjMk3mqptCFmZo kzbin.info/www/bejne/hajTZaB_qbB9gas More knowledge and some feedback is always welcome. This video was very helpful too.

[@SaturnVoyager11]

Do that few narrow eq movements on ProQ3 at your master bus are to correct your listening?. The Q you are using on it looks more like a corrective monitoring stuff than a gentle, mellow and musically eq movements (the usual appropriate thing for a master bus)

[@madmuso5]

CLA will come to your house dressed like that if you put verb on the snare spot mic.

[@BobbyHuff]

Hahahahaha

[@-BigTMoney-]

One of the things I like to do is make Bus families, say I have 3 guitars in a mix, each would have it's own bus but I would sent those 3 Buses over to a Guitar master buss and only send the Guitar master over the the song's master bus. this allows me to balance the guitars with each other and then the whole guitar group in the mix

[@BobbyHuff]

Cool!

[@tungtobak]

I don't even put an EQ on the master. Just a neutral sounding limiter, nothing else. EQing the master bus seems to me like a mistake had been made earlier in the signal chain, so I rather fix it at the source.

[@edwardkenemorales]

Whenever I see CLA, I click! Thanks for the vid doc!

[@BobbyHuff]

Haha! Thanks Ed

[@callbackdons]

Wow you just posted this vid. Any chance you can do a future video discussing side-chaining the kick and bass? (Or maybe you already have one?) I'll definitely be looking that up right after this, but in this video, when adjusting the kick, you said "we're of course, side-chaining with the bass.." I was like "whoa hold up, *obviously*? Let's dive into that!" Curious to know more.

[@BobbyHuff]

Hey Elijah. I’ll put that on the list!

[@cbrooks0905]

I notice all of your mixes have really nice separation, clarity and tonal density, all without anything being harsh. Do you have any videos on your techniques for achieving that? I know one way to create some density is to boost into compression, but for me it’s still not enough. I guess I could do some stuff in parallel too. Anyway, it would be cool to hear what you do to achieve the amazing definition you achieve.

[@BobbyHuff]

Hey. Thanks for the kind compliment. I would say that the secret to separation and clean mixes is a culmination of all the videos I put out. Each technique is unique unto itself but fits in the bigger picture of all this stuff adding up to something bigger than each part. Does that make sense??

[@chris_share]

@@BobbyHuff Great advice! We need you to do a "Start-To-Finish" mix demo (please!).

[@thegroove2000]

Parallel is the way for me and saturation. Side chaining as well works a treat for separation and clarity with of course subtractive EQ. And more important to listen and use reference tracks to see the energy using say izotope tonal balance 2 in order to where I need to aim for.

[@cholkymilkmirage4984]

practice

[@-BigTMoney-]

Check out Dan Worrall and fabfilter he is crazy good too

[@gulagwarlord]

To play devil's advocate, if there's more extreme processing on the master bus, and you mix into it from the start... your eq decisions on a channel level will be different to compensate and you might just find yourself doing more cutting on some of those individual tracks that you don't want to exaggerate with master eq boosts. Take a look at that new God Particle plugin by Jaycen Joshua for instance... it changes the signal quite drastically but in a pleasant way but you have to start the whole project mixing into it to get the most out of it. In the end, you just need to know what you want your mix to sound like and that takes practice to arrive at that sound you have in your head. Cheers.

[@BobbyHuff]

I top down mix every mix and make all my eq and compression choices on individual channels and busses with all my master bus plugins on from the start.

[@stevem-h3562]

I try not to eq the master buss at all if I can help it. I try and get it done in the tracks themselves or group tracks before the master buss. Granted, you're always going to need to do some tweaking, but it should be minor by the time you get to the master buss, shurely?

[@BobbyHuff]

Agreed!!!

[@chris_share]

Hi Doc! I get what you're saying about not doing extreme EQ moves on the Master Bus. But Doesn't CLA himself mix into a Pultec with a "smiley face" curve?

[@BobbyHuff]

He certainly used to for sure but very small amounts. Not sure about the smile curve…maybe a small bump on top and bottom but his mixes have tons of midrange.

[@BrofUJu]

You can boost the hell out of the really highs. I actually mix into a big boost in the high end. Nolly will mix into like 5db of 10k boost and a couple db around 5k

[@FlightDeckStudios]

Whats up man!? do you have any insight on how Mutt Lang got those clean guitar tones on DL's song Hysteria? they are electric but you can also hear the clarity of the pick attacking the strings; maybe he mic'd the acoustics of the electric guitars and mixed those in. Any ideas?

[@gsharman1989]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/qmGQoYCuaJ6HeJo :)

[@BobbyHuff]

Yes. Try a using a Rockman by Tom Sholz. Amplitube also makes a plugin of it that is very good. I believe it’s in the Joe Satriani add on pack.

[@paulgreblick]

This is a great song. Is the track available?

[@BobbyHuff]

It will be soon. Check out the band Just 4 Tonight. They have 3 songs out so far that we’ve done and this one will be released as well. It’s called “Next Ex Lover.”

[@monkmusic5994]

Thanks, it has just happened to my master with smart eqs, compressor and limiter on. Sounds squashed. AI should not be trusted too much.

[@BobbyHuff]

I never use AI…

[@TheChrispablo]

mane is this win 7 ?

[@BobbyHuff]

Yes! Rock solid. More than my Windows 10 machines.

[@bevo65]

Comments taste a bit spammy today. Did I miss an inside joke? 😆

[@FallenStarFeatures]

"EQ on your master bus is certainly normal" - No it's not! That's what a mastering engineer does.

[@BobbyHuff]

Most mixers have some eq on their master.

[@wolfgangdevries127]

Wait a minute.. isn't the master bus for.. mastering?

[@zbyszekolko3998]

@@BobbyHuff That is great idea. They can sell their favorite presets. ;)