How I know that my MASTERING is GOOD?

[@mikesmith1290]

A mix is never done, it’s surrendered

[@Kepa_pl_music]

@Cole Lucca what

[@AI1983-r1k]

@Cole Lucca Whut ?!?! HAHAHAH !

[@jasonchu4400]

doing a mix is like facing the devil in hell with no weapons and you have PTSD mix with insomnia hunger dehydrated and schizophrenia...... while blindfolded........with 150 pound body weight......

[@kewdo2040]

Thats the most true quote ive heard

[@anitav3316]

Hahaha Wise words!

[@blackcatcentralmusic]

Overuse of compression in the "loudness wars" ruined the dynamic range of CDs. Good point about genres requiring different loudness levels. I try not to overcompress the mix just because I have room to make it louder. For me, the CD remasters done by Barry Diament in the '80s still sound the best compared to subsequent remasters of the same albums he worked on.

[@stevenorr54]

Your focus on quality is refreshing and inspiring! Thank you.

[@ES60Hz]

Difference / Delta - Thanks for another great video

[@michaelg6688]

That method for checking the distortion looks awesome, great tip! I would insert the same plugin on the duplicate-phase-inverted track to match the delay and just make sure all the parameters are set to zero, that should sort out the alignment issue for perfect 180° phase cancellation - and then dial in some distortion on one track..

[@samchoate1719]

THANK YOU for saying what you did about speakers and acoustics. If it was all just EQ we'd just download the EQ curve for a Neuman U67 and apply it to an off brand sm58. You can't hear what you can't hear; you said it best. Thanks for your scientific approach to the techniques and your artistic approach to the music.

[@codycreepcore]

called a Null Test for the phase inversion thing I think.

[@meomarte]

There is no inverting phase. Only polarity. If you don´t believe me, ask Mr. Spock!

[@DarioToledo]

14:40 the hisses you hear are most likely due to the oversampling enabled in the plugin.

[@jspacone]

I read a quote somewhere once, and I seem to think it was attributed to Sting. However, I have not been able to find the quote again, so I’m going completely off of memory. Anyway, the quote goes, “You never really FINISH an album, you just give up.”

[@jaydekaytv]

Tight track - great vid.

[@ZwamTekMusic]

Hey man, I had a very specific question. But idk if its nessecary to make a video on it, but I genuinely would like to have some tips from anyone possible. I have been producing since 1998 and I always had mental difficulties due Autism, ADHD and later on also an anxiety disorder. And lately I have quite some difficulties with producing due anxiety. Anxiety while producing is one of the most frequent moments when my anxiety pops up. I is not triggered by any concious thoughts, but I am pretty sure it is caused by a fear of failure. Even though I am just an hobbyist, and I mainly produce to have fun and to express. Does anyone have tips or tricks on this? maybe Mr whitey white? ^^ I am also from The Netherlands btw. :) I like your vids man! :D

[@Whiteseastudio]

Email me!

[@CirclesandSounds]

Your creations are not you. Sever the umbilical cord, and let them go. :)

[@WolfGoneMad]

@@CirclesandSounds Thanks mate! I'm gonna write that on my wall ;)

[@DCBMusic]

Loud Heavy Metal masters do slap though. Great video though!

[@hanisiblini]

Great demonstration Thank you !!

[@neonrage93]

null testing, when you phase invert one signal to check the result? i think?

[@piotrpuf2747]

amazing song

[@Oblium]

15:13 null test? :)

[@SouthYarraMan]

Always enjoy your uploads. Listening outside your mixing room can give another perspective. But I wonder about acoustic coloration and reflections, even though I do the same thing! Pindrop listening is another useful habit and finally, having a reference track or some sort of eq matching plugin. The inescapable fact is that finalised tracks have to conform to the industry standard eq paramaters (keeping genre in mind!) and that is where pink noise is a valuable ref' plot. There are othets, but p/n is the default. Its what all successful masters are adhering to and why a great mixdown translates. Sadly, most prople are listening on tablets/notebooks/smartfones /mp3 players and earbuds. Mp3 gives a weird low end bump and you have to account for all these deficencies and variables! No wonder people have a nightmare self mastering! But if your mixdown is AOK, finalising shouldn't be such a headache. You can't polish a tutd!

[@tonezou3918]

Sorry for the stupid question, but what really is the difference between Flux's standalone Pure Analyzer Essential and the subscription version Pure Analyzer System? Would I even need to upgrade to the subscription?

[@kid_rajah]

Mastering is difficult because there is no wrong way to get there. Your equipment can only help but so much. It's like comparing Bose, Sony, and Sonos in a makeshift theater room, your ears are that unique.

[@HzofArt]

Thank you Sir 👊🏾

[@jacksolarmusicmastering]

About -4 lufs, people like the squashed sound i guess that in the end will make your track seem louder while it isn't, you probably just compensated on bass/subbass volume

[@jacksolarmusicmastering]

Or they could also just like the saturation/pumping sound that squashing your song into a limiter gives, saturation will also tend to feel like your track is louder cause all empty spaces on freq balance wil be filled up, making you lose transients though, but it will more feel like a soundwall hitting you this giving the feeling it's louder while it's stil -12 lufs cause of loudness normalisation done by streaming platforms

[@GTSongwriter]

I've been shooting for -11 LUFS.

[@thepotto8175]

Phase cancelling. UML Physics 2023. Love your work

[@pedrodyck95]

I master all my songs between 6 and 9LUFs, and I look in KZbin in the information of the song and sometimes they haven't even lower the volume, so don't master it at 14LUFs, NEVER. Know to master because mastering at 9LUFs is very easy.

[@ryanreach3710]

Facts! I check a lot of commercial records and that's what I see too nowadays

[@kriskropd]

You can right click on any video to see the "stats for nerds" and it tells you how much the audio was decreased during youtube's normalization. From what I've experienced, youtube has been going hard with that over the last year or so and it's particularly painful on general content videos that aren't normalized before being uploaded. I think it's been less a problem for music, specifically, on youtube because usually a lot more care and attention goes in to the level balance as the music get's mixed, even if they aren't being mixed for 14LUFs.

[@CirclesandSounds]

What song and artist is that in the video please?

[@mrmorpheus9707]

Whats the name of that analyzer

[@matthewoutlaw3191]

Man, if you're searching a speaker really linear in phase and impulse response check out the meyer amie

[@MZ-tm1tw]

Before you buy new active dsp monitors with built in room compensation like Genelec or Neumann.Try mixing with Sennheiser HD-590 and Focusrite VRM Box. For me it worked very good but it takes a while to get used to the virtual mixing room. Also the headphone amplifier on VRM is weak so you need headphones like HD-590 that are easily driven by the headphone amplifier. In the VRM Box you have different rooms and studio monitors and HiFi speakers so it,s perfect for fast checking how a mix translates on different systems and rooms. Also try calibrating your Monitors with Sonarworks reference 4. Plug in.

[@tommycobain37]

That shit is absolute snake oil and trash, wytse made a video on that calling it absolute bullshit byw

[@AgapeSignal]

i took a few of this guys advices.. and all of them were bad..so there you go.. lol

[@PeterPan-lu7cw]

* null test

[@talgy2671]

Yooo!!! Hair routine would be appreciated!!!

[@Gongtopia]

This may be your best and most important video yet! Solid advice. You listen, then listen again and just do the best you can at that time. I know that I could tinker on a mix literally forever, tweaking things a little here and a little there, but there comes a point when you lose your objectivity and start to overdo things. Learning when to 'stop' and let it go is important.

[@wheelr69]

At some point ya gotta let it go, for the world to here.

[@speedskis777]

You mention other people in your building... I’d like to hear more about the soundproofing that went into the studio design so they can’t hear you. Maybe when you do your speakers/acoustics/studio rebuild video.

[@sirdaveandre]

This has to been said: from all the audio 'studio' content channels, I favour your channel the most.

[@citytonightproductions]

-10 integrated LUFS is the happy medium I find. It’s close to cd loudness and streaming services will turn it down as needed and I find no degradation in the sonic spectrum when streaming. Just my opinion based on my experiences. You can drive yourself fucking bananas mastering multiple versions to match each format.

[@jas_bataille]

The reason why mastering exist is not to to have to produce multiple mixes in the fist place. That's literally what mastering engineers do, ensuring your final mix will sounds good on every platform. That's the definition of mastering, and the reason for it's existence since we had radios and vinyls, then clubs and CDs, then streaming services, so yeah ;)

[@citytonightproductions]

@@jas_bataille I agree

[@risingtide_official]

just smash it against a brick wall at -.01 and you're done!

[@jas_bataille]

NOOOOO

[@SohaillGandhi]

Hey, sometimes that's all you can do. I find myself dealing with a lot of noisy laughter for live comedy and there's no amount of eq and compression that deals with the peaks of those claps🙄

[@CHROMATICFILMS]

LOL you can go way over -0.1 TP and not hear any ISPs at all and that is how many commercial tracks are released, choc full of ISPs some of them.

[@thedevilsadvocate5210]

@@SohaillGandhi What frequency are claps?

[@SohaillGandhi]

@@thedevilsadvocate5210 Depending on the room, whether it's treated against reflections or not, anywhere from 1k to 3k, and some spillover into 5k+

[@MartinFellerMusic]

you're like the Linus Tech Tips for music stuff ;)

[@paszTube]

When my mix studio was in a bedroom, when I wanted to take some distance from the production, I lay down on... the bed! I always heard stuff I didn't notice when in the sweet spot.

[@Djremysounds]

I master all my music, it sucked for a long time but it’s definitely competitive these days.

[@jasonchu4400]

damn doode you're a G

[@MrPHDOT]

What do you feel help you out to get better

[@MrPHDOT]

@Music, raw. mixing and mastering is always different from each song and genre

[@gusdee4844]

-4 LUFS?!? Honestly ridiculous at this point lol 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

[@VintiqueSound]

ouch, even -6 can be too much

[@gusdee4844]

@@VintiqueSound is too much! Lol. Most commercial records I reference LUFS wise are like -9, -8 most

[@saricubra2867]

-14 LUFS is my limit and already is kinda loud for me. I enjoy anything from -15 LUFS and below that.

[@saricubra2867]

@@gusdee4844 And that already sounds like distortion.

[@saricubra2867]

@Marek Bert Fuchs And i don't use a limiter so much since the fletcher munson curve exists

[@LabofmusicRecords]

It's very simple: Mixdown: 95% Mastering: 5% Maybe 99% to 1% If the mix sounds like shit, the master will never correct it, never.

[@EckertAndras]

A track can have several master versions. The success of the track does not depend on this. In today's world, even the worst audio track can be a global hit if people love it for some reason.

[@karayuschij]

I don't understand why clients want louder mix… If you want it louder just turn this big knob on your amp to the right!!

[@ibrahim47x]

Louder = grabs the attention of the listener more. Louder tricks the ears into thinking it sounds better than the tracks that play before and after it. Louder mix = more competitive mix. This is why the loudness wars happened.

[@smokinmoose2]

@@guitarsbunch347 Time to get a new amp.

[@jacksolarmusicmastering]

So true about mastering studios, it got alot cheaper then they used to be so i noticed for myself that they also don't take it so serious anymore and get lazier and lazier on the job, resulting in better investing in learning how to master yourself instead

[@WhyteLis21]

00:41 Well, of course, we can't be satisfy with creativity. As they say, "art is never finish!" 😁

[@theelephantofsurprise8564]

It just gets abandoned in public

[@WhyteLis21]

@@theelephantofsurprise8564 😁👍

[@DeathBeach]

Ive always found he name of the game to be tonal balance. Which is usually better done in the mix. Then bring the track to level. Another way to know if your Master is good is if your Mix is good. Then you just dont have to fuck it up.

[@Wheel333]

The phase inversion is used in visual effects as a check of the changes and is called "difference matting".

[@samchoate1719]

Btw, low frequencies touching -24 what? RMS? dBu? LUFs? I get confused because people will say these numbers but I thought they would be arbitrary without saying what scale is being used.. help would be appreciated.

[@kniferideaudio]

I have a theory. The trend of over pumping the loudness of masters is part of what has lead to the rising trend of Saturation and distortion plugins. People have gotten used to hearing the tops cut off of their music, and now are being sold solutions to get "that sound" on each individual track in their project under the guise of "Adds Even Harmonics" or the more ham fisted "Analog Sound". Over saturated mixes and masters is a trend that will define the sound music in this era, much like the over use of Auto Tune was about 10 years ago. It sucks. Those of us that came up recording to 2" didn't like it because it added distortion. A properly calibrated machine delivers an extremely accurate playback if it is used properly, dynamics and harmonics intact and very honest. Damn, guess I needed to vent. Sorry.

[@cary3428]

No need to apologize. I started engineering in the ‘80’s, and I agree with you. I keep up with the times, but some of it is just laughable to me. I just keep making the best recordings and mixes I can for my clients. For decades I used outside mastering and I believe in it, but clients and budgets have changed. For what it’s worth, I’m hitting around -14 to - 12 LUFS. Part of that is genre based. I’ve never had a client doing hip hop or club music. That’s a whole other world.

[@nicoletheunissen7077]

Change your ways,to one,turn from lust right now💯⚠️ for What is the deal if you gain the whole world but stil lose your own soul 💤wake up all😴..REPENT❗🩸👎.

[@joelonsdale]

I disagree that the speakers and acoustics are the most important element. The most important things are your ears, your experience and your ability. Having incredible speakers will not help the inexperienced ear one little bit.

[@Hypagen]

Your ears are important and you should look after them but if you don't have high quality full range speakers in a tuned and treated room you are making mixing harder for yourself and pro mastering shouldn't even be considered. Having incredible speakers in an incredible room would give the inexperienced ear an extremely good starting point to learn how to listen.

[@MeltdownDJ]

in hardstyle and hardcore we get sometimes -2DB LUFS mastering ^^

[@BurningBushPedagogy]

This is your worst video bro. The quality of music is the loudness of each frequency? no; or is it meeeting that standard that streaming services wants? no, their are songs way louder and are fantastic quality dont want to name a few songs for you, you also know. Just tired of this video. Nice titlte but made everything dependent on some fanct analyser, or sight and numbers. Did even give example of when a song is too bright; or too bass heavy in bad way versus a bass heavy song but perfect, vocas that are perfect and why, etc. this is lame video but a so called pro. wow bro what are you doing?

[@GizGiZOo]

... Second pair of ears, never heard any crazy sh.. Like that 😂👍 awesome. Love this guy

[@mickey_sound]

What are these plugins, spectrum and LUFS?

[@andrigunawan5691]

Flux Pure Analyzer, the spectrum part is a smoothed FFT not a constant-Q transform

[@Minimellow]

The in-phase out-phase test is called a null test! It's an absolutely useful technique to see what a plugin is actually doing, besides checking differences between masters.

[@Hypagen]

I also use the term null test. Good for checking what an artist changed in a revised mix.

[@CLaw-tb5gg]

I really wish electronic producers wouldn't completely smash all their mixes so hard, tbh.. I know it's just taste, but it makes them sound dreadful to my ears. Even if it is some genre thing, that doesn't stop it sounding horrible.

[@FLH3official]

I've already wrote that somewhere, in an other comment maybe about an other video from an other YT channel, but listenning you mix at physical distance, doors open, in an other room and doing something else is a great tool. Realy. It gives you either the physical distance, the mind distance and the "EQ/bandwidth distance". You hear the music thru "bad conditions" and if the music is good despite thes bad conditions, the music is good. And if there's an issue on a detail you hear it. It's like hearing your favorite piece of music thru a crappy AM radio or when you're in the shower with the noise of the water on your head.

[@cary3428]

100%

[@robdoran1156]

Brian Eno back in the early 80s Oblique Strategy cards said the same thing as well as Honour your mistakes as hidden intentions :)

[@stevenewtube]

Quality is in the ear of the beholder as far as I can tell. Love your work.

[@MrDobleagent]

Is not so clear to me what's the purpose of sweep phase and use Saturn in one of the channels... ¿can somebody explain me what im missing? I don't understand the point or the called tip of this... in which sense you can check quality doing this method?

[@mmenjic]

Did you intentionally and why made your voice way lower volume compared to other popular yt channels and also compared to your intro sound ? If you and you do listen to others and observe your video set your volume on amplifier or speakers to comfortable and then don't touch anything just play some commercial tracks and some other yt channels for example some of >2M or more subscribers often you can see your volume is pretty low.

[@byoken]

Never mind taste and quality. Can your mastering compete with what's out there? That's how you should be able to know if your mastering is good.

[@jefferypig9633]

I couldn’t master my track to -4, it sounds like crap already at -6,-7. How do I fix that?

[@veholdings]

try Reaper "Calculate loudness of selected tracks" , then you dont have to play the whole track to get the LUFS-I

[@Brutuscomedy]

If one can't trust his own hears and emotional response, I don't know what to say. Anything visual isn't necessary.

[@user-ob9zo9cr4c]

it's not even about good, it's more like where is LIMIT..

[@OscarUnderdog]

This is such a helpful video. Thank you 1000x.

[@donnythompson408]

I use a pro mastering engineer. It’s not that I can’t master, as I have the knowledge and skills; I have several pairs of good monitors, in a well-treated room which provides me with confidence. It’s because the mastering engineer I use is someone who’s ears I trust, and rely on for objective critical analysis, (and he’s super picky) which for me, is necessary. I tend to lose my honed aural perspective after I’ve finalized a mix; and I think it’s because of the time I’ve spent working on a project, where I’m there from the very start with tracking, overdubs, arrangement, editing, to the very end when I’m printing the final mix. During that above process, I’m hearing hundreds of passes of the tracks and the songs, and after the mix is done, I find that I’ve reached a point where I’m too “saturated” with the music (and the overall sonics) to feel confident enough to master them (which we know is a lot more than just making a mix LOUD) with a level of quality that matches the mixes. I’m very fortunate to have used one pro M.E. for nearly 30 years now, (who is not only highly knowledgeable and skilled, but who also has top level analog gear, an incredible room and monitoring). It’s a professional relationship that has been cultivated over that time, where we have become very familiar with each other’s methods, styles, dynamics preferences, and in turn, each one’s expectations. I’m speaking only for myself here; I would never suggest to anyone that they not do mastering themselves, because if what they are doing is working for them, that’s all that matters. IMHO. 🙏

[@btjking7]

-8 Lufs should be the absolute max it's pushed to imo. -4 is crazy, must have just been completely crushed

[@paaao]

Best trick I was ever shown was to set your master mix to mono, and A/B compare it to stereo. All the conflicting sounds and frequencies will jump out. If it sounds good in mono, and better, or at least as good when I flip back to stereo, I know there is not much else to do other than keep spinning in circles, or going over board with additional changes. It's a very objective way to get to the point where you just render it out, and call it done. Then play it in the car, and on some shitty ear buds. If that still doesn't bring anything horrible to the surface, I'm usually done done.

[@slowhaunt]

WOW. -4 LUFS integrated or short term? That is INSANE. Haha

[@GrumpyGr3g]

Pretty common in electronic music. Hardcore techno, drum n bass, dubstep. Most of all masters are this way. Everyone claims this sounds awesome, but once level matched with a softer master, then the -4LUFS sounds like totally flat and lifeless. But clients wants to impress customers with a super loud crappy sound and some people enjoy this… On a smartphone yes that is impressive, on good headphone or speakers… well… That is an other story.

[@slowhaunt]

@@GrumpyGr3g yeah I know once they are level matched those -4’s sound horrible. I wish everyone would just get the hell over it. Lol lately I’ve been trying to stick to around -11 short term at the loudest sections of my songs. -10 max and it seems to be working out just fine. To me it’s the sweet spot for the stuff I’m producing

[@Whiteseastudio]

Short term on the drop

[@GrumpyGr3g]

​@@slowhaunt If that fits your tastes and as long as you are happy with what sounds best for you, it's all good :) If people enjoy super loud/overcompressed things, well it's all on them ^^ I'm mixing and mastering hardcore techno, proudly fighting against all those over high volumes, some people like my approach while some other just don't respect me cause I'm not following the industry and clearly shit on my work. True that - 8LUFS is not enough compared to the majority of tracks on the market, but that sounds really hard when played at high volume. Punchy, clarity and guess what ? We also can get some nasty distorsion and still sounds awesome ! But yeah, more than 80% of sound engineers nowadays says this is absurd to do so for technical issues, but producers don't give a f about that. Well if they're happy with, let give them brick tunes !

[@ashtaylor5236]

No it's not.

[@NikolausBrocke]

My experience is that you can not allways "see" high frequencies. Even if you don't see a lot of highs (amplitude) in the frequency plot, a good mastered track can have a lot of them. The consequence: I turn up the highs (amplitude) in my mix visually to the same amount as in the compared mix and still have less highs when listening. Why? - Probably it's more about the energy not the amplitude alone. The energy you get by compression (less peaks) and the visible amplitudes you get by simply turn it up. Any thoughts on this?

[@raphaelkuttruf]

It strongly depends on how many samples are used to plot an FFT frame. It is always a trade-off between the frequencies shown and the amplitudes of the frequencies. On top of that our eyes are done above ~30Hz (30FPS) things get blurry, which we interpret as motion. In between 2 Frames of video, a lot of things can happen in the 10-16kHz Range in audio. Even if you run at 144Hz, you just see a more blurry mess xD The Energy contained in a signal is the integral of all frequencies and their amplitudes. Too much high-frequency energy fatigues our ears (they actually protect themselves), if you keep going it starts to hurt.

[@NikolausBrocke]

@@raphaelkuttruf Interesting. The difference in seeing and hearing high frequencies lies in the frame rate. Do you agree that compressed frequencies sound louder than they appear on the screen? Compared to the amplitude of uncompressed frequencies

[@raphaelkuttruf]

@@NikolausBrocke Yes, if you compress to boost volume, it's louder than it appears on the FFT analysis. You can use a live oscilloscope to to see a continuous representation of the signal. There is a free plug in called "sm exoscope". Simply create a monitoring channel, cut everything below 3kHz and have a look at your HF content. :)

[@flwhitehorn]

-4 LUFS... Because rhythmic noise is a thing.

[@dandearman2871]

Looking forward to you video on speakers, room and acoustics.

[@precursor4263]

What kind of (EQ) levels do you usually try to hit for techno or house music?

[@dodgingrain3695]

If your mastering your own stuff why is it even a separate step at all vs just a chain on the 2 bus you are mixing into?

[@Yoshimitros]

So many good tips for mental and sonic fatigue, plus the technical tools that you use!! Thank you Great vid all around m8! As for the phase trick, I think it's called phase cancelling which btw the way you're using it seems really worth trying !!! (ps.: please don't mind my comment but.... 0:10 the correct is arose or rose. 6:13 caught instead of catched. :D)

[@Bthelick]

It's never done, or perfect its just released to a deadline hopefully. And after that you'll still never no because there are millions of perfectly well mastered songs out there that have no audience for all kinds of other reasons, like the song probably sucks. In other words you've asked the wrong question, start thinking holistically.

[@nvp-music]

ah! good to hear that I am not the only one that is a bit lost when it comes to master level. a lot of the tracks that I buy for dj'ing are on -10 LUFS. why!? when we finally seem to have a standard we mess it up again.

[@zetrel]

I would guess because of platforms like Soundcloud where there are no standards and everyone is competing for the most absurd loudness possible.

[@nvp-music]

@@zetrel yep, so.. loudnesswar.... again🤦‍♂️

[@michellew.3691]

For a good master u have to ☑️ Check ☑️ Check ☑️ Check ☑️ Check again ....

[@louisrmusic]

Short : If it sounds good, it is good. Look no further.

[@BLOODLVL]

That's interesting regarding FLUX and -24 sub, do these values work with SPAN? I heard not to exceed -30 in SPAN too aggressively. So it should be -24 if I'm doing pure sub without kick?

[@kevinellis4729]

"And for you guys, maybe improving the quality." Geeze. How do you really feel about us? ;)

[@user-ob9zo9cr4c]

there is always option after years like ''remastering'' haha

[@MotoxPurple]

I think you said Rule of "Thump" instead of Thumb lol

[@ashtaylor5236]

Ok here we go. Tom Lord-Alge taught me and my fellow students - "To be a successful mixer you need to learn to live and die by your decisions". The concept of correcting things in the mix after the mastering has been done really is a worst case scenario, as well as a huge luxury which I'm not sure we should always have. The things you want correcting are likely to be small differences which may sound big to the artist, but are relatively inconsequential to the listener. That being said, a listener will care about a good master, subconsciously. A good external mastering engineer of course gives you the opportunity for it to really shine and translate across multiple systems. As a mixer you are too close to the project. I've found that maybe after a month or two I can get that objectivity back to master my own record, but I'm still mastering in my room on the same system. I'll still miss stuff. I've worked with Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound twice over the last 6 months and hands down it's been worth it every time. Yes there were things that were revealed that made me think I'd do things differently next time, but that's how you learn. This quest for perfection is a bit of a lost cause. My coach says to me "It's the lowest standard because it doesn't exist". On balance, for better or kind of for worse, get an outside mastering engineer to master your track. Commit to your decisions and accept what is. Doing your own quality control is a little oxymoronic. It'll hurt the band, the music and the mixer. Finally, with respect to LUFS levels. I'm working with a big mixer at the moment who mixes are hitting like -9LUFS without any limiting. This -14LUFS nonsense is really damaging so I'm glad you've mentioned the -4LUFS thing. I don't think it's something clients should be asking for though, if the mix is too dynamic then getting it to -4LUFS will be a car crash. One thigh that Ted Jensen said that really stuck with me is that he's really just trying to make the track the best it can be. His decisions are creative and not competitive (with regards to loudness). Mastering costs are very reasonable these days and for my money it's an absolute no brainer. You'd be surprised at how different some chart topping mixes sounded before mastering. Sometimes it's a good 20-30% better. To my ears, the difference between that song being a hit and not. So, essential. Basically.

[@rossgraves4030]

So spot on, about separating yourself from the production. 🙌🏻 Fantastic content. New favorite channel.

[@purppwrld4950]

What plugins / software is he using on the technical analysis part?

[@valerie98]

Theoretically, it is possible to grow a new ear.

[@Whiteseastudio]

HOW?

[@orbitfold]

@@Whiteseastudio they grew one on a mouse didn't they?

[@Whiteseastudio]

Did they? 😱

[@orbitfold]

@@Whiteseastudio only kinda en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacanti_mouse

[@zybe4541]

@@orbitfold mixing engeenier mouse!!!!

[@cutoff_DNB]

loudness depends on the energy of a track and how many elements are playing at once a pefect sidechained mix with energetic music like drum and bass can be around -4lufs... rock too but slow stuff and acustic stuff doesnt need that much energy so it doesnt need to be that loud... it depends on the track genre and vibe of each track... who cares if they lower my volume by 7db if i want that energy it will still be preceived loud enough and has a short dynamic range so its energetic.

[@cutoff_DNB]

but ive been commenting this stuff since month bru xD

[@stevenorr54]

Your hair is fabulous; leave it alone : ) LOL.

[@JohnDLewis]

What is the metering plug-in you are using in the video?

[@nantschev]

Super useful informations here! Thank you

[@MrAchris10]

Great job! I really appreciate your candor and ability to explain complex and subjective technical subjects.

[@GlennMariano]

Phase inversion method aka Null Test.

[@TheRealNewBlackMusic]

The whole concept of mastering has been over intellectualized and has basically become a bunch of nonesense digital audio gobbledygoop. 🤣

[@SectorSevenSlumz]

i kinda agree. So people can keep their rare jobs. Which is fair enough. If your mixdown is good, the mastering really doesnt matter a huge amount. There's SO much info now to do the same thing. And we're talking maybe a 0.5dB cut at 1khz... a slight stereo enhancement above 10khz. Narrowing below 100hz (which probs should have been done anyway) So much bullshit around!

[@SectorSevenSlumz]

That's not to say mastering engineers arent BETTER at us doing it though, with better ears, better speakers, better rooms, make them better bale to make better judgements to the music they're listening to. Whilst we might know what we think we should do based of of books and videos, nothing beats experience and a good room!

[@ashtaylor5236]

Incorrect, which it was true though!

[@StudioLams]

Wait. What track was that and whom was it by? I must know!

[@DamnHeadHumpers]

A psychological term for distancing could be "Disassociating", or to "Disassociate"

[@urphakeandgey6308]

I think "dissociate" and "dissociating" is what you're looking for, which is a term in medicine or psychology. I only really know it because I've smoked salvia and salvia is a "dissociative."

[@DamnHeadHumpers]

@@urphakeandgey6308 LOL I guess I can't spell. You're right! Though, apparently Disassociate is a word. I should check my spelling next time..

[@ericjtomsky]

Very happy that I found your channel recently-- seems like you have some great content!

[@cjcurcio]

Great breakdown and tips, my friend!