TOP TIPS For Preparing Your MIXES For MASTERING!

[@tomdenney9963]

Just wanna say, I really enjoy the fact that you guys cover subjects most people don't. It really makes your channel stand out.

[@PresentDayProduction]

Cheers Tom!

[@doctorscoot]

I will plus one on this. Other audio engineering channels will go straight to "5 tips for killer drums", "how Elton John's producer got that string sound on goodbye yellow brick road" or otherwise discuss recording and mixing as if the end result for me is that I can confidently walk into Abbey Road or Capitol Records' studio one and record the next beautiful sounding big-budget record with the world's greatest session musicians. Great if that's your goal (i.e. to become a professional-level recording engineer with professional-level pricing), and a good piece of learning information for the curious. But the stuff here is aimed at a much more practical level for the realistic home studio recording artist. I have zero ambition to do anything other than record the music that I like writing and making as best I can with the best tools I already have or can afford. I watched this and I already do most of the things that Mark talks about (my master came back excellent thanks Mark), but its still useful just to hear what he sees as problems.

[@martincaz7772]

Yeah, was thinking that, weird other production channels don't address these things so much.

[@citizenworld8094]

I always feel that this guy made great sacrifices in life to do what he loved doing. But I'm glad he did coz we get the benefit of it.

[@PresentDayProduction]

I wouldn’t say I really sacrificed anything, it’s just that making music was always the most important thing. And f£&@ everything else 🤣

[@kruppelfield]

I sometimes use phase to my advantage, like having 3 tracks of 1 instrument and they're panned LCR , i specifically target the left and right channels to be quieter in mono so that the center track is more present

[@grahamtaylor6883]

Excellent advice. One thing to mention about your last point (in Logic anyway). If your master bus is clipping with no plugins on the output, you can add a gain plugin as the first plugin on the output and turn it down. I've seen people doing this and didn't think it would work, but I've tested it to +15db. I've overloaded the output by 15db, added a gain plugin and pulled the gain back by 20db (so -5db output) and bounced it. Then I've taken the gain plugin off, lowered all the faders to give me -5db and bounced it. Then I've null tested them and they cancel.

[@thomasdelfs]

Great tip, thank you.

[@kyrregjerstad]

Came here to say this!

[@davelassell]

This stuff is pure gold for those of us who are at the early stages of learning the mix/master process. Everybody is different, but you guys make such great content for all of us. And no ego! So nice.

[@daveturner2484]

As a mastering bod myself...this video is approved.

[@Richard_P_James]

Another very important issue: don't fade the ending of your mix! Give the mastering engineer the full unfaded track with instructions where you want the fade to start/stop. And a tasteful manual fadeout is often much better than a linear DAW curve.

[@originalvonster]

0:25 first transient missing or reverb tail cut short 1:00 gap at beginning of project (one second or so) 1:25 leave in mic noise to build a noise profile in RX but tell the mastering engineer 1:35 wait for reverb and delay tails to finish and add a couple of seconds on 1:45 chop out any unintended noises like dropping of drumsticks 2:13 don't have the vocal too quiet in the mix better to be loud and proud can send as two separate stems 3:10 Phase issues overuse of stereo width enhancement and fake doubles 4:19 don't send an mp3 and don't upsample 4:40 don't send files way too loud and overcompressed 5:05 3dB of headroom, preferably 6-9dB 5:30 if you are clipping after taking off mix bus processing select all your channels and turn them down

[@sonicart1808]

The best audio channel on KZbin.... thank you guys!

[@BenC95]

Great depth and knowledge as usual! Look forward to the phase video

[@StefUllrichMusic]

'Don't cut off audio' is the engineer's equivalent to 'don't eat Tide Pods'.

[@martin_janssen]

I couldn't help hearing 'phase issues' as 'face issues' and now I feel sad, haha! Anyway, great video and I am looking forward to the one about phase!

[@-FukYoo-]

Another great video! How come you guys aren't huge? Also, it's fun to see your spirit guide getting some love; it's good to be nice to kitties!

[@PresentDayProduction]

One is enough to look after!

[@dreammix9430]

Hey guys adding on to what Tom said in his post, I also want to thank you guys for the wonderful work that you do you I've learned so much from watching your channel even though I was a recording engineer and live sound mixer for many years and worked with some of the best engineers in Los Angeles I still learn gobs of stuff by watching your channel. Thanks again! Much love from Hollywood California

[@PresentDayProduction]

Thanks so much! Glad to help :)

[@johnnyvegas2015]

As always really enjoyable to watch your videos…very informative, right to the point, and funny too….cheers

[@JasonBaretto]

The benefit of having multiple KZbin accounts means that. I'm subscribed to your channel on all 3 of them to constantly stay updated with your amazing content. 🥳 And I love that the comments section is always civilized with friendly info being shared. 🥰

[@PresentDayProduction]

Awwww thanks Jason! Do you watch each video three times, one on each account though? The ALGORITHM SAYS YOU MUST!!

[@TimOost]

Great video! I have just recently sent in a mix for mastering through your website and I was just blown away with the difference that it made to the song I thought I was already fairly happy with. It brought a wide smile to my face hearing finally how I wanted it to sound but couldn't quite get there myself. It's like polish on a car, really. Also the feedback provided will help me a lot next time around. So thanks! Highly recommend trying Mark's mastering service.

[@peterbrandt7911]

Another bucket full of excellent advices. The Cubase export works pretty much the same. If you use the export audio mixdown function, everything between your main locators, the cycle points, will be exported, you do not even have to turn on cycle. And thank you, very much indeed :)

[@jimmcghee8196]

If you only knew how much this is the true back bone of youtube

[@axilleas]

Great advice even for people who master their own stuff! Thanks!!!

[@ProgressiveSoundAudio]

Great advice folks 👍

[@alrecks619]

since topdown mixing (oftentimes confused with mastering) is the norm, i guess remembering what needs to be turned off (especially final limiter) is a necessity. If you don't wanna turn off bus compressor, eq, and maybe a bit stereo width. I think the best way to go about it is just to turn it off and tell the mastering engineer how much you did it and what settings do you use. Especially if you are mixing your own project at home and/or maybe that you aren't confident enough with the results. and yeah, always leave headroom so the mastering engineer doesn't have to mess around with gain structure especially if they work with analog gears (sometimes even -12dB is still too much (or too little, idk what's correct), perhaps).

[@secretelitemusic]

I like to get everything approximately right in the mix, then bounce down as many times and as many cups of tea as it takes to finesse the minor details that annoy me. That may involve tweaking the arrangement so it flows better, or the eq on a given track which is breaking the spell. When it's sounding fine and dandy, I'll throw a master reverb on it at about 10%, so it's more felt than heard, bounce it, and apply either Smart Limit or Brickwall HD in Sound Forge to finalise the output level. (Yes, I ended up buying Smart Limit. And yes, it's more effective than Brickwall HD on DnB.) I don't mind adding a soupcon of transient zing pre the master limiter, but it usually sounds better if I apply it on a per channel basis in the mix, where I can target the dynamic oomph more precisely. To my cloth ears, loading up the master bus with processors is a bit indiscriminate in terms of targeting, and the collateral damage isn't worth it. Putting a chorus or delay across a master bus sounds great for about two bars. The same principle holds true for compressors, enhancers, wideners, magic lamps, and wiffle dust vsts. It's just less obvious. On the subject of crushing dynamics to play psychoacoustic games with the eq and headroom, there's a time and place for that, and it's usually in a club around 3am with an expensive industrial PA. It's nowhere near as effective on Spotify through earbuds.

[@thomasdelfs]

Great advice as usual Mark, thank you.

[@thegigisup_studio]

Awesome video as usual, all great tips! Since it was mentioned, I'd love to hear your take on "impostor syndrome" (and ways to cope with it) as I feel is something very common in every part of music-making (from guitarist to mixing engineer), and something I struggle with HARD sometimes. Keep it up! ❤

[@MixedByDotRob]

I'd add "Send the right files" to the list ;-)

[@LondonSteveLee]

Great vid. Made nearly all those mistakes in the past! Not for a while touch wood (ooh er Matron.)

[@edsterling5258]

So we should send an MP3, with tails chopped, vocals down, and sides totally out of phase, with a mixbus L2 set to crew-cut? Haha, obviously I'm kidding; great advice here, and it's clear that you HAVE received a few like I described! Cheers, - Ed

[@DavidOBrienComposer]

Just to add to your excellent advice about pulling down all the faders to avoid clipping the master bus plugins - if you've used any volume automation then that will either need to be lowered by the same amount as the faders, or a gain plugin inserted at the end of the channel strip. Maybe also worth noting that if any of your channels are routed through busses with plugins, lowering the volume on these may impact the effect of those plugins - eg compressors. In that case you could exclude any channels which are routed to busses and lower the bus level instead. Hope that makes sense!

[@prodbydramatic]

thank you I will keep it in mind and go try it out now

[@benno1202]

Thank you!! These mixing tips are really helpful!

[@CheapoCardCompany]

Yes indeed... trunk-ated music can be a bit of an elephant in the room (reverb). Ironically, perhaps... if Flopcat hates a mix, is that regarded as purr-feck-shun..?!

[@allen394]

Words of wisdom!

[@lebcaleb8692]

Great as usual!! Keep pushing!!!

[@chickenlickin3820]

pur... purrrr.... meow mix time!

[@BenC95]

A big ask and I know you've done the Kali Audio LP-8 review, have you thought of doing the IN-8 review with it being a super affordable 3-way? would love to hear your thoughts.

[@mannymakesmusic891]

Waiting for the flopcat purr dubstep remix

[@PresentDayProduction]

Yes!!!

[@marcelpetric7350]

Mark, will you be my uncle? I love this channel so much! ❤

[@PresentDayProduction]

Yep, welcome home nephew!

[@marcelpetric7350]

@@PresentDayProduction awww, shucks 😍

[@wertj3977]

Wow.

[@Mkelleni]

What about the "Include Audio Tail" at the Bounce prompt in Logic Pro? It should solve the problem with the cut reverb, shouldn't it?

[@tob2089]

2:08 how did you capture what i hear in my head when pdp uploads a new video??

[@emiel333]

ALWAYS CHECK MOLLOW COMPATIBILITY! Haha 😂

[@Wergiftfresch]

BTW: When you say "watch the video coming up on your screen now" I expect a card to pop up and not only an end-screen link.

[@emiel333]

That’s what I thought too.

[@PresentDayProduction]

Shouldn’t have said “now” in the recording, it was meant to be at the end - we never put cards mid-video!

[@Wergiftfresch]

@@PresentDayProduction Good to know. You did this on a previous video as well, so this time I thought I'd say something.

[@PresentDayProduction]

James here (usually the one replying to comments), it’s because KZbin only allows end cards up to a certain period of time from the true end of the video, and if we put the title cards at the top then people click away from the video before it’s ended, which hurts the channel’s performance in being recommended to other viewers - that’s why we don’t use them

[@Wergiftfresch]

@@PresentDayProduction I understand. Not going to argue with that. Still wanted to point out the following three things in reply: 1) youtube seems to measure and value card-based promotion. So cross-promoting your own content doesn't need to hurt you; 2) nobody but google can for sure discern how "the algorithm" values stuff, and that seems to be changing often enough so you'll never know for sure; 3) People might be clicking away or opening the vid in a new tab or, which is also helpful, use the (i) icon at the end of the video to get back at a curated list of "related videos to check out" as presented by you for that particular video, a feature I particularly find useful. That being said: you do you, obviously, and you are sufficiently successful in doing what you do, so it seems you are (more) correct (than I am, lol); just pointing these out from the mind of a youtube user.

[@cornerliston]

Isn't “don't turn the master fader down!" obsolete in a DAW? Coming from the analogue era where it actually did matter…? Better having a healthy signal going to the master for sure, but if you do have the bad habit of feeding the master too hot and you turn down the master fader, then…you just get more headroom again, right? (Without any plugins active shouldn't be necessary to point out.) Obviously I never have the issue myself since I'm so damn good at leaving plenty of headroom : )

[@PresentDayProduction]

Without any plugins active, yes, but soooo many people have soooo many analogue modelling plugins on their mix bus and don’t pay attention to gain staging beforehand. Because they never experienced the analogue era most likely, but there’s also a lot of “oh it’s clipping, I’ll stick a compressor/limiter on it” mentality

[@cornerliston]

@@PresentDayProduction Indeed so and I agree. Although, the example you did in the video illustrated when plugins were deactivated on the master : )

[@philipgbgsweden]

Why not using the master fader to avoid clipping? Nothing will clip in the daw, it uses 32 or 64 bit internal resolution. Using the individual faders to turn the mix volume seems like a bad idea, at lest if you are using FX-send after fade and/or inserts after fade.

[@PresentDayProduction]

Plugins, particularly analogue modelling plugins as typically used on a mix bus, will clip. And sound awful when they do. If you’re only using ‘digital’ plugins that make use of the 32 or 64 bit architecture then you can just turn the master fader down, but most people aren’t. So the best approach is to gain stage as you mix and ensure you’re not going into the red in the first place

[@philipgbgsweden]

@@PresentDayProduction But the plugins are turned off. What plugins are you referring to?

[@mSarimaa]

@@PresentDayProduction or the first plugin could have an input gain control to gainstage it and the following plugs correctly. I use a ”pre-fader” that feeds my master buss for gainstaging it.

[@danielkang7789]

not for mastering but I wanted to ask someone bout this for a long time. what should you do when your bass is sidechanged to your kick or others before sending stems to mixing engineer? thanks !

[@PresentDayProduction]

If that’s the sound you want then I’d leave it on. It’s always best to get your ‘rough mix’ as good as you can get it before sending it off.

[@danielkang7789]

@@PresentDayProduction thanks. But my question was more of how I would send the stems if i have side chained the bass to a kick either as it is(side chained print) or do I turn off the sidechain and print stems and then actually have my engineer to side chain in his project? Im just worried that ur engineer cant actually do anything about it once it’s printed(side chained) when it’s side chained too dramatically in their view. Thanks !!

[@studiodespenates]

How many years of singing lessons did you take to master the end "FFFffff" so well?

[@PresentDayProduction]

49

[@1337murk]

Top tip for preparing your mixes for mastering: Send your hip hop to me to be mixed. Thank for you attending my ted talks

[@PresentDayProduction]

Then to us for mastering, or FlopCat will come and irreversibly clip all your recordings

[@1337murk]

@@PresentDayProduction 100% THIS. In my contractual agreement for mixing, it is stated that my mixes then have to go to PDP for mastering, otherwise Manny will burn their house down

[@NgaTaeOfficial]

“Mollo” Why, the costume designer of Star Wars - duh!🤷‍♂️

[@fjfrancois]

3:55 😖🐈👎 man that cat is annoying, BTW awesome video dudes, it really help a lot.

[@PresentDayProduction]

😻

[@fjfrancois]

@@PresentDayProduction Lol

[@piterb.5444]

Then you got "Phace Issues" Hahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!! Awesome!

[@Rhythmattica]

I just saw your announcement of being Waves Ambassadors. I sure hope it doesn't lock you in to not being able to do content with other Companies Plugins. Does it?

[@PresentDayProduction]

We’re actually ambassadors for a lot of companies, so no, no tie-ins! But as you may have noticed, we don’t actually advertise any of them. We aren’t trying to sell our audience stuff

[@Rhythmattica]

@@PresentDayProduction No prob.. I know that you guys have good principles, and I hope you are not offended by me asking. I somewhat knew your answer, But I had to ask... I do really enjoy your content.. As an Ozzy, growing up with US and UK shows in the 70's, I always preferred the English humour, and you guys def bring it. Keep on Keeping on. Beers and Cheers from "Straya

[@JoelWard1]

First lol I'm so lame...

[@1337murk]

Shhh,, you're the champion! Championship belt is in the post

[@1337murk]

Whoops, you weren't actually first. Wayndows will be arriving at yours to fight you and take his belt back

[@JoelWard1]

@@1337murk Rip I'm done for thanks for all the good times fellas