Mastering in Logic Pro X (using Logic plugins)

1. Welcome to this Class: Hi there. It's Thomas George, and welcome to this class. All about mastering and logic. Protect. So in this class, I'm going to show you how to master a track using logic Pro Stock plug ins. So this is really a big in this classroom going to give you a quick overview off, mastering music in logic, protect. So join me in this class and let's learn the bat mastering Hughes and Logic Pro Stock plug ins. 2. Mastering: Hi. This lecture is all about mastering. So what mastering is it's really the final touches for our mix. So, first of all, I'd like to say, if you're mix isn't really that goods, go back and improve your mix rather than trying to master. Mastering, really is just icing on the cake is just the finishing touches. So just remember that, first of all, when you are mixing and mastering your music to remember to listen to our multiple platforms, so not just your studio monitors on headphones. Hi fi speakers earbuds, your phone, the laptop speakers because your audience and the people listen to your music. Why exactly have the same set up as you that might not have the same studio monitors in the same room or being a studio or soundproof room. So the best thing to try and do is to try and get good balance on all these different headphones and speakers. Okay, so in this video, I'm going to show you how to eat cube multi band compress, enhance a stereo image and also limits the track. So the track I'm going to master is by a guy called four Fox and the track is called Rhino . Okay, so first of all, the thing we need to do is check the direct current or DC, So if you have any errors or problems with any wiring or hardware, this can really show up in your track, and it can limit your headspace. But if it's mainly Elektronik and MIDI, generally, you won't really have any D. C. But let's just check this track. So let's double click on the track and then go on file and then go on. Functions on removed. DC offset. Okay, great. There's no DC offset found. It's just to check. If your song is just MIDI or software instruments, you should be fine. But if you're working with a lot of external gear, a lot of audio tracks, I definitely would advice checking the D. C. Current. Another thing is, if you're mastering the whole album rather than a single, you should master all the tracks together. This way you'll get a more consistent sound. Obviously, the tracks are going to be a lot different. Might have different instrumentalists or different fields or vibes, but if you've got one track that's too loud or too quiet or too brights, it will sound a little bit peculiar. Okay, now let's trim our track. So at the start, I do want the track to come in straight away and have a slight automation volume. So it gradually comes in and at the end, I normally wait about two or three seconds, and then I cut the song. So first of all, let's go are now Master output here, Right Like this, I'm going create track. And now we can actually automate this stereo outs. Let's go on automation and change this the volume. Okay, we can kind of tell by our waves where the sun comes in. I know this song. It has kind of a high pass section here. Then the song really comes in about here. So this is more the high pass intro. But let's just have a look. So, looking at the ways we can kind of tell it comes in about here. But let's just have a listen. So it really comes in about here, says the Okay, assuming a bit more, you can also change the automation type to a curve. Let's just hear this. I'd start the track about here. Bucks lightly. Okay, and that's just trim the ending about there. That's just Suman about here. Okay, there's silence there, so we don't really need the automation curve tall. Okay, great. So that's trimming the track because it will be a bit embarrassing if you put your song online and there is a few seconds at the start of complete silence. A lot of people will also switch off physically. Switch to track off if it is just silent for a few seconds as well, because the first few seconds do really counts. A lot of people also listen to music on their phone as well, which is a mono. So we need to just check the mono capabilities of our track. So let's just But some plug ins on, Let's put them all on a stereo out. Okay, let's go to imaging and then directional meter on all the way out like this is stereo. And the more you bring in, the more mono it gets. So all the way like this is completely mono. Let's just get a loop going about here. I think so. That's mono. Let's make it stereo. Well, let's make the spread a lot wider. We just need to check that there's no real face problems in mono, but this sounds fine so far. Let's just get rid of this. That was just check. Okay, let's now put on multi meter. It's under metering. Let's just play our track through this. The yellow is the peak levels, which is the highest point at that time. On the blue is R and S, which is the overall loudness off the track at that point in time. Also, we need to make sure that the track isn't peaking. So we don't want anything in the red also looking at this track. Weaken tell there's a lot of head space, which means we can really push the volume up later on when we're limiting. Okay, let's drag this plugging down. That's not put on a phase e que. Basically, we want to roll off anything that is below about 25 Hertz because the ear went audibly here . This and sound systems weren't really play it, and it just muddies up the track. Really? So we just get rid of this and just roll off below 25. That's fine on here. We can see the number so 25 make it tight. Uh oh, let's say Okay, now we're going to add an exciter. This basically boost the harmonies. We could make the song sand a lot brighter and have a lot more presence. So it's under specialized and then exciter. So color one is a lot brighter than color, too. You can also choose the frequencies here. The best thing to do, though, is to just do it by ear. But remember, we don't want the track to change too much. We just want to make it brighter and have more presence and increase the volume. So try not to change the song too much. I think so. This is with this is that it's just a slight difference, but it does make song a little bit brighter. Okay, next, we're going to add a multi band compressor logic. It's called a multi presser. Basically, it gives us four different frequency ranges on. You can compress each rain separately. Let's just open up its under dynamics on their multi presser. Okay, so here is more of sub range. And here is the of the low med on the high, the high mids on the high. You can change the gain of the volume here similar to Ikea. We can also change the compression by moving the arrows down here. I just need to make sure it doesn't go into the red. And also we don't want to compress too much. We might get rid of a lot of the dynamics of the track. We can also so low eat section by clicking. So though here So the best thing to do is to solo eat, section and then hear it in the overall mix and try and get a nice balance. Remember, do not compress too much or you will lose a bit the dynamic range in the song. That's just have a play for this. We can also increase the makeup gain by putting it loud up here. - So this is with the multi presser. I think this is without without the difference is very gradual. But in mastering is all about the little gradual parts because we don't really want to change the song too much. We just want improve it slightly and just boost the presence and boost the harmonies on boost the loudness of the song. Really? Okay, Next is the stereo spreader and that's in imaging. So this splits up the frequency range and you can hear them in your left and right speakers . But generally I'd say you want to pan Mawr that for the higher frequencies and panel s for the lower frequencies. So let's just choose higher frequencies. I'm bringing this down because you don't really want the base panned out too far. As a general rule, you have the kind of lower frequencies panned in the middle. And then you spread out as you get higher. So I generally have it about here. So this is this is a very gradual change as well. Okay, next is the adoptive limiter. This is the mastering limiter in logic Pro 10. And it's under dynamics, adaptive limiter. So here we can see the input reduction on the output. So the emperor is before it goes into this limiter. Reduction is how much is being limited on the output is now what the signal is like. It's gone through this limiter. The gain will increase the volume on the outselling I always have on negative 0.1 just so it won't pick just in case we don't want to push the game too much because if we do limit this too much, it will really lose a lot of the dynamics of the track. So just be careful of that. Of course we want to make the track louder, but yeah, don't limit too much. This track has got quite a lot of head space. Those so we can push the volume quite a bit louder. There, we can see the out ceiling. It's up here, which is great on the inputs. Here in the reduction is 4.8. Maybe a little bit less about here. Okay, so let's just try with and without with why do you think we can boost a tiny bit of the base on this eq you as well, but only a tiny bit. I just have to be careful as well. Just hear this back. - Okay ? Let's just hear this track without the plug ins on with the plug ins way. So yeah, the main difference. Chicken here is added a lot of presence, and it's also made the truck a lot louder. Okay, let's now just bounce this track. So we need to find trims here and move the cycle range to our trims. And now let's bounce this shocker command be when we bounce. Let's leave this as a PCM, as this will be non compressed. We can choose the file format as Eva A. I S f or away. If let's choose a wave for the resolution, let's leave it on 16 bit because iTunes and CD it's 16 bit and some parade Let's leave on 44.1 occurs on CD and iTunes and of upload insights. It compresses a sample rate to 441 anyway, so let's leave it on that. Let's leave the mode on offline and let's not normalize it because we've got a limiter run . Let's leave the file type as into leaved because we don't want this track split into two different tracks. We just want one track and differing. Differing is when we convert the track from a 24 or 32 bit down to a 16 bits. Well, just make the process a bit smoother. So let's just choose power. One differing and they re let's Francis school that rhino. So this is mastering and logic pro. 10. Remember, you're not completely changing the track. You just polishing the track up, so it's about adding harmonics and presence and color to the track, making get a bit brighter and also a bit louder.