Audio Mastering 101: A Beginners Guide to Modern Music Mastering

1. Introduction: Have you heard about mastering but are unsure what it is? Have you always heard of Martians be in some kind of darker or voodoo magic note any boys slept for you or have you tried master and a final results inconsistent and your songs sound of flats and compressed. And lastly, do you want to use Mastering to create a fantastic sounding song? Mastering was certainly something that was shrouded in mystery when I first started to learn about it. So in this class, are we demystify mastering by teaching you my masculine fundamentals. So if you want to learn more about the fundamentals of modern mastering, then this is the course for you. My name is Darin Smith, but please call me smudge, and I'm a professional mastering engineer and educator based in the UK. And in this class I'll be teaching you some of the core techniques and principles that are used as a professional mastering engineer. In this class, you'll learn what mastering is. The common terms associated with modern mastering. The fundamentals of loudness normalization, and how streaming platforms will process your songs. Limiting and how to use the limiter in a mastering context, equalization and accounts which he balanced in your song. Compression. Do you need to use a compressor and how to use one to get the best results for exporting and fall conversion and what files you need to really show some. Following the class, you will learn the core understanding and mastering that will help you create a release ready songs. Somebody in the course, you will be able to demonstrate an understanding of what masteries and explain the core terminology. Apply your knowledge of how streaming platforms altered the volume of your songs. And use this knowledge to get the most impactful results. Effectively using limiter to get the optimal balance between loudness and dynamic range. Get the most from an equalizer by using broad EQ moves at definitions your songs understand the role of compression in mastering and use compressor to add balance and cohesion to your songs and export your release really songs to the world. I hope you enjoyed this class and I can't wait to hear your results in the project gallery. 2. Class Project: This class, I've created a class projects in which I'd like you to master a song. This can be one of your own songs or another, so we have permission to use. But if you don't have some available, do not panic. There are plenty of songs available via the Cambridge music techno technology, your website. This website has tons of songs available to practice on. I don't really need to do is find something that has an unmasked have mics. Download the file, and then you can use this song as the song for your class project. Once you've found a song of them like you to master the song using the skills learned in this class. But don't forget to give you your own personality. Mastering is very much a creative process and I want you to use the tips and techniques I want to show you in this class as a guideline. Give it your own personality and put your own stamp on it. But most of all, trust your ears. Once you have mastered the summer, we did not use submit two files, one being the master version and the other being the premaster. Before any processing, you can use the project gallery section of this class to upload your songs. And I'd like you to submit something, maybe St. like a Google Drive or Dropbox link or something similar. Alternatively, you can use a file sharing system of your choice. We transpose generally a good option here as you can transfer files up to 2 gb in size for free as part of their free pricing plan, I would not recommend using YouTube and YouTube links because the YouTube processing will affect the overall quality and the sound of your sung. Along with the fall links, it will be great if could write a brief description in the project gallery section on how you approach to mastering. Give me an idea of your intent. When you first listen to the track. What were your initial impressions? What did you feel needed working on? What did you want to enhance from the song? Was this something you didn't like the sound of? And what did you do to get to the end result? This will then allow me to not only compare their master against the original, but it will also give you an idea of the sound you are aiming for. This will then allow me to give you a more meaningful feedback, which will help you along your mastering journey. But don't forget to have fun. Mastering is very much a creative and artistic process. So enjoy yourself. Have fun. Trust your ears, and I can't wait to listen to the results inside of the project gallery section. 3. What do I need for this class?: Cost of the point of entry for modern music production is coming down with time. So it's never been easier or more cost-effective to create music. But there are some pieces of equipment that become quite technical. So I've broken this down into a few simple steps to get the best from this class, there are a few items that you will need. You will need a computer, Mac or PC, desktop or laptop or rule find. Some software will have minimum system requirements or recommendations are certain software to run smoothly. So make sure you check that the technical specifications of the computer you use will run a digital audio workstation. Most modern computers will be absolutely fine. You will need a digital audio workstation or DAW software to master your song. This software will act as the main application and editor to master your song. This class is DAW agnostic, so you don't need a certain DAW to follow this class. Use one that works for inspires you to create great music. Most DAWs across platforms. So what will we both Mac or PC, but there are a few exceptions. If you are new to the world of DAWs, then I would recommend trying out caucus Reaper as there is a fully functional 60 day evaluation period. So you will get full access for 60 days free of charge. But I'll be using studio one for this class. It is my DAW of choice, but you don't have to use Studio one to follow this class. In addition to the DAW, you will need for plugins, a limiter, compressor equalizer, and they level meter. These plugins will generally be included as part of your DAW. So make sure your DAW includes these four Plugins. These are all included in cocoa Reaper. If your DAW doesn't have these plugins, then there are plenty of third-party options available. I would also suggest that you check that your level meter is capable of reading L UFS measures, which may appear as an EBUS R1 28 modal preset. If not, I would recommend downloading either the DP meter five plugin by TB pro audio or the Eulerian loudest meets a plug-in, both of which are free. As the main sound hub for your setup, you will need an audio interface. To explain the role of an audio interface is a rather complex topic that could be a class in its own rights. However, in simple terms, we need an audio interface to playback sound at a higher quality and to connect our monitoring devices. The interface will allow you to connect headphones and studio monitors and convert the all day from digital to analog so you can hear your song from your computer. It is not recommended connect headphones directly took computer headphone jack, as this will not be a sufficient quality to reproduce an accurate representation of your song. Lastly, you will need either headphones or studio monitor speakers to listen to a song. This is once again, another vast topic that has many factors does discuss which are quite frankly beyond the scope of this class. In an ideal world, we would all have dedicated studio spaces with lots of bespoke acoustic treatments, create an optimal listening environment. But we don't live in an ideal world. So unless you have a dedicated listening spice, it is acoustically treated. I would recommend using a set of headphones for this class. Headphones come in all shapes and sizes which have their own challenges sold. Simply recommend using assessor studio headphones, which are over ER, and preferably open backed for a more optimal listening experience. But the most important thing here is do not let equipment gets in the way. There are numerous examples of fantastic Santos songs being created with less than optimal equipment. So don't be deterred if you don't have the latest and greatest gear. 4. What is Mastering?: Well, first lesson, let's briefly discuss what is mastering in modern music production, we can generally broke down the song creation process into definable actions. Typically these actions are as follows. Songwriting, where we write the sum that we wanted to create, recording and production, where we record the song at the necessary instrumentation to create the body of the song. Mixing and editing all of the tracks into a balanced version of the song. Mastering where we add the final polish and get the tracks ready for release. And then finally, distribution where we release your music to the world. Mastering is a very important part of the chain can be broken down into four main key actions. Quality control, where we listen for pops and clicks, clipping, distortion, and any other issues. Objective Listening. Well, we ensure the font of Sam matches the artist's intent. Creative enhancement where we enhanced the song bulk, creating a polished final version, and informal presentation where we increase the overall loudness of the tracks when appropriate level for our chosen medium. At phase to ensure a smooth transition between songs. Add metadata information for credit and royalty purposes if required, and create the necessary files for release. Mastering is often considered an add-on to the mixing process, but it actually has some unique differences that sets it apart from the mixing process. First and foremost, we are generally working with a single stereo fall relevant an individual instrument tracks. So we're looking at the formal presentation of the song in its entirety over individual elements. Mastering is also more broadly focused on the frequency spectrum as a whole rather than individual instrumentation. So we generally tend to think more on broad frequency ranges over individual frequencies in Master. And we also look at how the songs would translate to your audience. Given that your audience may listen to songs on a multitude of devices, we need to ensure as part of the mastering process that the song translates to as many devices as possible. And lastly, we also need to ensure that we keep an objective mindset to make sure that the foreign or sound meets the artist's intent. These are all components are what are referred to as the mastery mindset and a key separating yourself from the mix and creating a final polished released ready song. So to recap, mastering is an important part of the music production process, where we focused on four main key areas, which are quality control of the overall song, Objective Listening to achieve the artist's intent, creative enhancement to create a polished release ready song, and formal presentation including loudness, fades metadata, and creates an audio files. In our next class, I'll be showing you the common terms associated with mod mastering to help you understand the terminology you will come across when mastering your song. 5. Common Mastering Terms: Before we get into the body of the class, and I want to share with you some of the common terms associated with mastering. This will really help you understand some of the key terms that you will come across when mastering your song. I will be referring to these terms throughout the class. Some of you may be aware of, but some of them are more associated with mastering over mixing or recording. The key terms associated with modern mastering, our peak level. True peak level, digital ceiling, digital clipping, headroom, dynamic range, and L UFS loudness units relative to full-scale. Peak level is a measure that indicates the instantaneous level of an audio signal. Peak level fluctuates based on the loudness of the song, but also measures the loudest peak or loudest part of the song. Peak level is measured in decibels, or more accurately, decibels full scale or dBFS. True peak level is similar to peak level, but it's a far more accurate measure. Why is this? A peak level meter in a DAW actually measures the digital re-creation of sound. So we record sound into the DAW and the analog to digital converters inside of our interfaces will digitally recreate a sound file. But to hear the sound file from the DAW, our interfaces then need to convert that digital signal back into an analog signal so we can hear it via headphones or studio monitors. During the reconstruction from digital to analog, there may be a variation in the level between the digital and analog read creation. And therefore the true peak level measures the analog re-creation and is the more accurate measure once the signal has been converted back to analog, because that is what we hear. Peak is also measured in decibels. The digital ceiling is the maximum peak level allowable before distortion occurs. The digital ceiling can simply be referred to in most cases as zero dBFS. Digital clipping in simple terms, is an unwanted sound distortion that occurs where the peak level tries to pass above the digital ceiling. This is an undesirable sound and something we need to avoid. Headroom is the measure of difference between the peak level at the loudest part of the song and the digital ceiling. So e.g. if I allow this peak is at minus five dBFS. And the digital scene and these zero dBFS, then we will have five dBs worth of headroom. Dynamic range is a rather technical term to express and can be many things to many people as there is no real direct meaning of dynamic range. Dynamic range for sun can be the difference between the loudest and quietest peaks of a song. For some, it can be the difference between allowed us an average measure. But without getting into the technical aspects, generally, the dynamic range is a term used to describe variations between the quieter and allowed a part of a song. A more compressed sound will have a lower dynamic range than a less compressed sound. It'll be more dynamic. For ease of reference, I'll refer to dynamic ranges or loudness range as this is what he's catching on the DAP meter five plugging that I'll be using in this class. Loudness units relative to full-scale, or EFS, is a relatively modern concept and is used to measure perceived loudness. Perceived loudness is actually quite important. And in simple terms, more accurately represents how we listen as humans and how we perceive sound. So it factors in the human perception. Efs or love's, are measured typically in three different ways. Short-term our UFS, which measures the most recent 3 s or sound to represent a more averaged, less events dependent loudness. Momentary L. Ufs measures the most recent 400 milliseconds of sound to measure the instantaneous loudness. And integrated LFS measures the perceived loudness from start to finish and is used to measure the perceived loudness of the whole song. And now let's recap on these common mastering terms. Peak level, true peak level. Digital ceiling, digital clipping, headroom, dynamic range, an L UFS, loudness units relative to full-scale. And breve is a lot of information to take in here, but don't worry, I'll be referring to the terms as we go through the class. You'll get to see how these terms are applied in practice. But don't forget, you can always come back to this class as a refresher. And the more predominant terms that I'll be using as part of this class are true peak level and loudness units relative to full-scale on the integrated measure. Integrated loves, which is gonna be of great importance when it comes to our next class on loudness normalization. 6. Loudness Normalization - The Basics: More than morphine. And with the introduction of new technologies, by far the most popular medium for listening to music in the modern day is virus streaming platform. Think Spotify or Apple Music, tidal and the like. Now one of the biggest challenges for the streaming platforms when you consider they have millions of songs on their platform, is that they need to ensure that all of the songs are being played back at a consistent volume, which in turn creates a greater listening experience for the audience. So how did they do this? They apply loudness normalization to all songs on their platforms with the aim of creating a consistent volume for all of the songs being listened to. To give this some contexts you might have heard of the phrase loudness wars. Simply put the loudness wars relate to a time when people wanted to make music as loud as it could be. As humans, we perceive louder to be better. So there was competition to make songs are louder than the competitors. The view was that if we make our songs louder than the audience would think it was better. This was especially the case in the broadcast industry. We've radio stations and even TV adverts using the loudness as a tool to compete against each other stations and brands. However, the broadcast industry soon took control of the situation. There were two important pieces of legislation introduced. International Telecommunication Union, ITU, or B, S 17, 70, and the European Broadcasting Union, EBU, R1, 28. There are others, but these are the main legislations for the United States and Europe and a generally adopted worldwide. These legislations created a framework to ensure that all broadcast media playback audio at a regulated and consistent level. But as you may know, this applies to broadcast media. Only a doesn't actually apply to streaming platforms. In fact, as of 2023, there is no regulation that applies to our loudness normalization for streaming platforms. Streaming platforms do however, take on some of the principles of these legislations. But as it's not regulated, there are still some inconsistencies that amongst the individual streaming platforms and how they apply normalization. So what principals did they adopt? Here we need to refer to our measurement scale, which is loudness units relative to full-scale. Specifically the integrated measurements. Streaming platforms use the UFS integrated measure to calculate the perceived loudness of the songs on their platforms. And the loudness normalize the songs to a consistent level. In addition, they also apply a true peak level recommendation with the aim to ensure that no digital clipping occurs during the uploading and encoding processes. So what hasn't been adopted? We'll put simply, there is no consistent loves integrated or true people measure that has been adopted by the streaming platforms. Let's look at this in practice. Here we have the website loudness penalty.com, which is a great tool to find out the impacts of loudness normalization for the main streaming platforms. Loudness normalization will be used to either turn the volume of your sunk down or maybe even up to create the consistent volume the audience is looking for. We can use this website to analyze a song and it will tell us the impacts of the loudness normalization for the main platforms. Just a side note here, the name loudness pregnancy is a little misleading as it suggests that mastering too loud will compromise or penalize the song. This isn't actually the intention is it merely suggests that we could create more dynamics by mastering not so loud while being less heavy handed with a limiter. More on this to follow in the limiting class. Here, I've uploaded the song that I've recently MasterCard where all the angels by that sfumato effect to have colonial album to use their songs for this class. I mastered a song that measured -12.6 L UFS integrated as a perceived loudness measure. From looking at the results, YouTube, Spotify, Tidal, and Amazon will turn this song down by 1.4 dB in their standard mode and normalized to approximately -14 l UFS integrated. Apple, we'll turn a song down by -3.4 D Bs and normalized to approximately -16. Lof has integrated and diesel will turn the song down by -2.4 dB normalized to approximately -15 or UFS integrated. You can see how confusing this can be. There are also further irregularities around the true peak level recommendations for each platform. They all also offer different loudness normalization modes, and variance is dependent on the preference of the listener. One of the most common myths surrounding mastering is there is a target loudness for streaming platforms with the figure often been quoted as -14 l UFS integrated. As you can see, there is no such thing as a target as there is no regulated level of normalization for all of the streaming platforms. This is a very dense and technical subjects, but the main key takeaways here are streaming platforms. We use loudness normalization to ensure there is consistent listening experience for the audience. Loudness normalization will even be used to turn up or turn down potentially your song. Loudness normalization is based upon perceived loudness. So laughs integrated is used as the measurements measure. But they will also take into consideration the true peak level of the song file to minimize any chances of digital clip in either the upload stage or the encoding process when it comes to uploading the files to the streaming platforms. Once again, there's a lot to take in here, but I will be showing you some practical examples when we get to the limiting class, we can start to see these knowledge actually be put to practice. But for now, let's get onto the next class, which is all about setting up on mastering session. 7. How To Setup a Mastering Session: For our first practical class, I'm going to show you how to prepare a song for mastering. Set yourself up for a successful mastering session. The summer I'll be using for these classes is the song Born to be free by tomato effect, who have kindly given me permission to use his song for these classes. This was something that I mastered and is available on all major streaming platforms. If you'd like to listen to the former master version. One of the first things to discuss is the importance of having a dedicated mastering session to master your song. I'm often asked, is it okay to mastering the mix session? I always recommend having a dedicated mastering session to master a song as it's important to get into mastering mindset over mixing mindset. If you try mastering the mix session, you will always be tempted to focus on individuals, so elements rather than the song as a whole. And in mastering, we're very much looking at the overall presentation of the song over individual elements. We also need to consider here and not everyone has a powerful computer. And if you have a dense mix with a lot of tracks and plugins, and adding more plug-ins on top can create additional stress onto your computer. Potentially creating a bottleneck. Once we have a blank session and we need to make sure that the DAW session matches the song fall in relation to sample rates and bit depth. I'm not gonna go too deep into sample rate and bit depth for these are in-depth topics beyond the scope of a mastering one-on-one class. But if you want to further your knowledge in relation to sample rates, then I would recommend you research the topic of Nyquist theorem, which goes into detail regarding sample rates. But you would need to find out the sample rate and bit depth details of your song Foil and set the DAW sessions so it matches. In studio one, I can change the sample rate and bit depth via the sun tab and by choosing songs setup. But this process will be different depending on which DAW you are using. Once a DAW session has the correct sample rate and bit depth, we can go ahead and import our file. This process will differ based on the DAW you are using. But generally the fall input options are in the fall tab of most DAWs. But the song tab in Studio One. For our last session change, we need to ensure we make the audio interface buffer size as high as it can be. The buffer size is controlled by our interface software driver. For Mastering, we need a hypothesis into add less stress to our computers. The interface buffer is generally set quite low when it comes to recording. As a high buffer size can introduce latency. Latency is a challenge for recording as it's a delay between the signal going into the recording source, a microphone, and in the signal coming back. Freudian suffice for playback purposes. In mastering is we're not recording. We can set the buffer as high as possible to reduce strain and our computer. Finally, we can add our plugins into the session ahead of any process and we will do for ease of reference, I would recommend adding the plugins directly to the track which contains a song fall. In many DAWs, we can place plugins either directly on the song Foil, onto the track which contains a song fall, or a master channel which controls the final outputs to your headphones or speakers. For simplicity, I would recommend adding the plugins to the track which contains a song fall, as demonstrated here in this class. The order in which we add our plugins is important as this creates our mastering chain. And each plugin will alter the song going through the chain. Therefore, recommend the compressor being added first, followed by the equalizer limiter. And then I'll loudness or level meter. The important thing here is that the limit is added after our compressor. An equalizer. As a limiter needs to be last in line control a formal output from any processing. Our loudness meet some needs to be after our limiter, so it reads the phone or loudness. I've also included a spectrum meter for demonstration purposes, but this is not essential. So to recap, in order to set up a mastering session, we need to create a blank mastering session in our DAW. Change the sample rate and bit depth to match the song we're working on. Import the file to our session, change our interface buffer setting, and add the plugins. We will be using it onto the track which contains the song file. For our next class, we will take a look at the quality control site and mastering. 8. Quallity Control: In this class I'll be walking you through the quality control aspects and mastering, but also measure the song loudness before Master processing will make notes of what we feel needs enhancing or control. And also look at the concept of headroom and how this will affect any mastering decisions we make. To do this, I'm going to play the song through from start to finish. During the play through, we'll be looking out for the following. Are there any audible clicks and pops? These generally come from an overload of the computer system during the recording stage. But it might also be click and pop sounds captured by the vocals through mouse sounds. We need to pay attention to this too. Is it too much siblings from the vocal, which are those harsh S sounds that are voiced Mike's. Does the song have any digital clipping or order any signs of clipping or unwanted distortion will not only be looking at allowing this means is to read the maximum throughput level. But listening for any distorted or heart sounds, does the mix sound natural order, any sounds that really stand out that do not fit with the song. This will then allow us to make a more informed decision as to whether there may be any recommendations to take another look at the mix. In addition to the quality control, which I'll also be taking some notes to answer the following questions. Are there any sounds that jump out whilst listening to the song? If so, do they sound natural? And can you hear all of the instrumentation? So think about all of the individual parts of the song. Think of the drum kit, the bass, guitar, guitars, vocals, etcetera, etcetera. Does the song sam balanced and the frequency range? So think about the sound. Is it too much base frequency contents? Do the base frequencies complement the rest of the trunk? And then asked the same questions for the mid-frequencies and the high frequencies. Do they all complement each other, or is there an imbalance? And lastly, does the overall sound match the artist's intent? If you are the artist and engineer, is this the sound you were aiming for when you wrote the song or does something they working on? These are all questions you can answer to help elevate your song using the master and mindsets. But this is also a great point to mention that if you are taking part in the class projects and your mastering your own song, then it'd be great if you could write a note detail in the following information. When you first listen to the track, what were your initial impressions? What did you feel needy working on? What did you want to enhance when the song? Was this something you didn't like? The sound of. This is all information that you can note at this particular stage of the mastering process. So without further ado, let's check lists the song. I'll open the loudest makes us. So we can see this in action. Berlin forever up the slide and the size. So that's the ocean. Again. Flaming. Be good with the work of our lives. But the stairs fly like to be. No. So from a quality control aspect, the song sounded great. There were no orderable clicks and pops and there was no clipping or distortion. You might have heard a slight click, which I will show to you. Now. This clip was caused by a screen capture software whilst recording this class and doesn't feature in the song. So we're all good from a quality control aspects. In regards to my mastery notes, there were a few observations. I thought no mixed sounded great, but I felt it could do. Listen more overall energy. The base content sounds nice and defining saga hear the bass, guitar and kick drum, but it didn't feel alone. Mid-frequencies sounded quite muffled and muddy. I noticed something in the song that made me feel like there may be a distortion. But upon closer listening, I notice there as percussive elements in the background and Nasir distortion caught my ear. I also feel the overall frequency balanced sounded good, but we could maybe look at bringing out the mid-frequencies and listen more and maybe give the song some high-frequency sparkle to make the vocal stand out. But what do you think? This is where mastering can become creative and there are no right or wrong answers. Just creative decisions based on what we're hearing. But always remember to take into account the artist's intents and be objective in your decision-making. These are the type of considerations that will help you bring your song to life. So be sure to practice. This is part of mastering and really focus on building your listening skills. Before we move on to discuss headroom, I do want to share with you a top tip for building your listening skills. If you feel you can hear that something doesn't sound quite right, but can't place where in the frequency range it is. There is a free plugin and a technique that can really help build your listening skills. This plugin is called the TD ANOVA by a company called Tokyo dome labs. This plugin is a type of plug-in called a dynamic EQ. We won't be using this plugin in the class. But the great thing about this plugin is that you have the ability to solo different frequency bands. This is great as you can use the bands to move to different parts of the frequency range and solo just those frequencies. So you can learn which instruments take up certain parts of the frequency range. Here's a brief example, right? This technique can also be generally used with another type of plug-in called a multiband compressor. As long as it has a band solo function, you don't need to change any settings except for changing the frequencies you'd like to hear. Now we move on to headroom, which is something that is quite important when it comes to mastering. As mentioned in the common terms class headroom is a difference in volume between the digital ceiling, in this case, zero dBFS and the highest peak level. We also discussed that the true root level is more accurate than the peak level. If we take a look, all loudness made so we can see that this song has a true peak level of -4.4 dBFS, which means that our head room is 4.4 dB. There was a common myth with mastering the easterlies 60 be worth a heroin before your master processing. The minus six dB figure comes from a time before digital audio workstations, when certain capture devices would distort before the digital ceiling. Therefore, it was always safe to leave extra headroom to minimize the risk of this distortion. Now moving on to modern day old yo with DAWs, there is no real need to leave lots of headroom because we can non-destructively adjust the level of the song to a level that we choose, as long as the mix is not digitally clipping. If the song has at least no 0.1 dB of headroom, we can adjust the volume before Master processing. If we now go back to our song with 4.4 dB, where for headroom, this can also create a few challenges from mastering process. Namely that it could cause a limiter additional processing stress, which may run the risk of over compressional distortion. Discuss this more in our next class and limiting. But a good rule of thumb is to allow two dB of headroom going into our master processing. This means that we need to increase the gain of our song by approximately 2.4 dB. Or we can achieve this by increasing the gain and the song or annual again, plugin In studio one, this is achieved manually by dragging the song follow-up to the required amounts. Alternatively, most DAWs heard gain plug-in that can achieve the same result. This plug-in needs to be placed at the very top of our mastering chain. The reason why I would recommend two dBs wherever headroom is due to the streaming platform loudness normalization, which in most cases requires a true peak level of no more than minus one dB, which we will consider when using a limiter. The additional dB of headroom as a safety measure do to the variance between the peak level increasing the DAW and the true peak level in our meter. Remember, the manual gain increase of the song in your DAW will be measured in peak level and not true peak. It's important to get the settings right before we start limiting, which is the class coming next. So to summarize, we need to listen to the song all the way through, highlights and fix any potential clips, pops, distortion or crackles. Make our mastering notes who we are clear about what we need to do, and set the headroom to minus two dB ahead of our master processing. Now let's talk about limiting. 9. Limiting 101: For this class, I'll be showing you how to use the limiter to achieve a good balance between loudness and dynamics. But you might be thinking smudge. If the limiter is the last plugin in the processing chain, then why are we starting with the limiter? One of the biggest challenges flows new to master, and he's trying to achieve a sound that has a competitive loudness, but without the songs semi flats, or lacking in energy. From my experience as an educator and from speaking to many novices, I've noticed that many who start with compression and equalization and get a good tonal balance. But in loser dynamic energy, once they start limiting, generally I find this is due to two main issues. They are transferring for loudness level, it doesn't fit the song and are therefore limiting too much. Or they are applying too much compression from the Mastering compressor before it hits the limiter. By using a limiter is the first process. Getting the overall loudness increased to a competitive level greatly reduces the chances of over limiting or over compressing beforehand. The main reason why limiter is sometimes a challenge to use is as it is in essence a compressor, but a very aggressive compressor. The role of the compressor is to smooth out a dynamic audio signal by reducing the level of the alleles peaks whilst increasing the level of the qualities peaks, thus achieving a more balanced and even sound. A regular compressor has many settings with one in particular being a ratio setting. The ratio of the compressor is used to determine how much audio is outputs in relation to how much is inputs. So e.g. a. Compressor with a ratio setting of two-to-one would mean that for every two db a signal input into the compressor, only one dB a signal will be output. For a four to one ratio for the Bs of input would mean one dB of output and so on. A limiter however, is compressor that in general terms has an infinite ratio. Hence why you may see them being referred to as a brick wall limiter, as they are designed to heavily limit the signal going out to minimize the chances of digital clipping at the distal ceiling. But in addition to the role of providing a safety buffer as it is a compressor, it will also raise the level of the quieter pigs and thus make the overall volume louder. But we need to be cautious as it will also decrease the dynamic range. As we've all things in master and limiting his game of balancing compromise between achieving loudness whilst maintaining adequate dynamic range. But let's take a look at a limiter on. Go over to core functionality before I then show you a simple but effective way to use an amateur for your mastering. Limiters vary slightly in their functionality, but generally there are a few core components. I'm using the stock limits here inside a studio one and from left to right we have a gain control, a ceiling parameter, a fresh hold control. And finally we have the attack and release settings. The most common parameters found on limiter or a gain control and a ceiling control. The gain control allows you to increase the volume going into limiter. So the more you increase the gain, the louder the sound will be. The ceiling. On the other hand, access to barrier with the aim of preventing digital clipping. This means we can set the ceiling to our desired level and we can then use to gain control to increase the volume until the signal hits the ceiling. Once the signal hits the ceiling, the signal will then start to limit and compress the peaks. The more you push the gain into the ceiling, the more compression you get. Push it too far and you will overcome press and start to distort the sound. Next up we have the threshold control, which is something that is not found in all limiters, but it's common in many compressor style plug-ins. The threshold acts very similar to the ceiling, and it sets the threshold where you want the compressor are limited to start compressing. So where we have the ceiling, that is the last line of defense, the threshold can be used to set the starting point for where you want the compression to begin. So e.g. let's say we have a son with five dBs, whether headroom and we use the limiters gain control two at five dB is worth. Again, we can use the ceilings flexes the last line of defense. And if we take the use case of streaming loudness normalization, where we want to ensure that the true peak level doesn't go above minus one dB true peak. We can set the ceiling to minus one db set of signal hard limits at minus one dB. But the threshold can be used to lower the decimal starting point. So let's say we want the compression to kick in at minus two dB and still use the same as the last line of defense. Then we can set a threshold to minus two dB. Signal starts being compressed at monitoring DB. And a ceiling can then control any further signal that the compression threshold doesn't capture. Lowest of all, we have the controls for a second release, and these systems control the speed at which the compressor reacts and releases. An example to show how attack and release works is that our finger of the hand, where my hand is fully open, it's not reacting a tool as the threshold assuming there has not been reached by the audio peaks. But when the audio peaks reached a threshold or Caelian, the attack sets the speed at which my hand closes, and then the release sets the speed at which it reopens. So we can set different combinations of close and open space to suit your particular needs and get different compression results. We've all that said, I want to show you a simple way to use a limit set to get the most impactful results without compromising dynamics. To do this, we're going to focus on the gain and ceiling parameters and will completely ignore the threshold by setting this to zero. Why are we doing this? By using the threshold to reduce the starting point for compression. Where instantly compromise and dynamics before we hit the ceiling. And we've all limiter have an infinite ratio. This is a heavy-handed approach and will not yield the results we are after without fine attention to detail. Once we'll set our limit is gaining ceiling. If we do need additional compression, we can then use our compressor, which we'll discuss further in our next class. Let's start with a ceiling. A good starting point is the ceiling to minus one db. This minus one dB figure falls in line with many streaming platforms who require a true peak level of no higher than minus one dB. Once we start to add the gain and it hits the Assuming, we've mainly to adjust the ceilings to ensure that we maintain the minus one level as some signal will still be able to parse about the coelom. Once we have the saving in place, let's play this song and adjust the gain until we get the desired results. So what are the desired results? You may be thinking, there are two things I'm looking for. In particular, I want to increase the loudness to a level that sounds good before it starts to over limit, breakup or distort. Now once we show the last level reaches at least -14 UFS integrated. As always be going and adding around for the baby worth of gain is insufficient to reach at least -14 LU fs risk the song sang it too quiet on the streaming platforms. About pushing the gain to nine dB makes the sound. The store coupons more years is around 46 DVDs worth again increase. You might have noticed more intentional use of the words, at least when it comes to dimensional -14. Yeah, UFS. As we discussed in the loudness normalization class, there is no target L UFS figure that is consistent across all the platforms. Hence, y -14 l UFS integrates, it is not considered the targets. In fact, the reality is we don't even need to worry about the UFS level as long as it is at least -14 ADFS integrated as it's the streaming platforms at normalized a sound. We don't have to. All we need to do is focus on getting the software loudness level That sounds good and not overly compressed or distorted. I always recommend achievement at least -14 LU FS Integrated because the streaming platforms concern the songs down, but not always turn them up. They do this by simple attenuation process by reducing the peak level to achieve a consistent L UFS level across the songs that you are listening to. So in our example using the loudest penalty website, we could see how much they would turn the song down by. But they can't always turn the song up. The streaming platforms, as we've already discussed, need a true peak level of at least minus one dB to ensure that there's no clipping during the upload and encoding process. So if our master a song to a level that is quieter than -14 earlier fs -16, our UFS. But if I maintain the true peak level at minus one dB, then it will not be able to turn the song up without clipping. So they won't turn to some app at all. And there's songs sound quiet, and others on their platforms. There are so many variables at play here, we just need to focus on achieving the level that sounds good and let the string of platforms handle the normalization process. Every song is different, so practice within limits again, as seen in the settings to achieve a loudness That sounds good to you. But make sure that you achieve a level of at least -14 or UFS integrated and you maintain the minus one dB true peak level. Lastly, if you have the option to adjust the attack and release settings, here is when you can start to experiment with the limiting sound. The attack and release needs to be considered in conjunction with one another as to why they react together will give you different sounds. A fast attack and slow release may even out the sound that can create a pumpkin cell as shown here. This pumpkin is more of a sustained sound as the pump. It occurs once the pigs are released. So that Pixar attacks than sustained and then releasing it. But a false attack of phosphorylase will Craig less pumping but more gain reduction assurance here. But with a slow attack and slow release, you may also get a pumpkin sound, but it's less sustained than with a faster time. To take a listen here. Loss of all, with a fast attack, a slow release, you might achieve less pumping, football game reduction, Limits of clamps down on the pigs quickly. These are very much variables to play with, so you can experiment with your sound. But this song or sound of a medium attack, so the peaks are not clamped down so quickly coupled with a quick release. So the limiting isn't sustained. This keeps a more natural sound to my ears. So let's briefly recap on his class on limiting. I limiter is a compressor with an unlimited ratio. Limiter is used to smooth out the dynamics of a song and also raise the overall loudness was also acting as a safety barrier to prevent clipping. A limiter will have a gain and a ceding control that are used together to increase the loudness. The ceiling is set to a level that maintains the true peak measure at minus one dB. The gain increases the loudness by pushing the level into the ceiling. We want to achieve a loudness or at least -14 l UFS integrated without the song sounding over compressed or distorted and let the streaming platforms normalized a song. We can use the attack and release settings to change the style or sound of the limiting based on the Sun we're mastering. For our next lesson, we'll take a look at a compressor and answer the question. Do we need to use a compressor where mastering? 10. Compression - Do I need a Compressor?: Next class we'll be looking at the role of a compressor in a mastering context and answering the question, do I need a compressor for mastering? And the answer is, maybe. As we discussed in our last class, the limiter is also a compressor with an unlimited ratio. So we have already applied some dynamics processing. But the way the limits of works is very aggressive and is more focused on the control of peaks and loudness. Whereas a typical compressor allows a much more subtle level of compression that can help to sculpture overall sound. I compressor will have very much the same look and feel and typically some of the same controls, the limiter, but most importantly, will have far greater control of the ratio. And it's the subtlety of the ratio that will give us much more control of the sound. So going back to our question, do I need a compressor for mastering? If you are happy with the dynamics of the sum of the limiting field as good overall balance in energy than the answer may be, no. But if I go back to my mastering notes, I want to add some more energy to the song and compression can be a great tool for adenine energy. Before we dive into the compressor, you will note that it's the first plugin in the mastering chain. The compressor is interchangeable with equalizer. So you could have the equalizer before the compressor. But generally, I like to control the dynamics before equalizing, but feel free to experiment as your TA will give you slightly different results. But they must both be before the limiter in the chain. Here, either stop compressing the studio one that has a somewhat typical layout for a compressor. Typically a compressor will have controls for the following threshold ratio, attack, release and makeup gain. We've already discussed what the threshold ratio attack and release system is doing the limiting class. So I won't go through these and deep detail, but I do want to mention the makeup gain with a limiter. We were very much focused on loudness and balancing dynamics by pushing gain into the ceiling. This would give us a louder song whilst limiting the peaks. But it's typical compressor always works in reverse in that it can make the song sound quieter. If we go back to our discussion on ratio, whereby it controls the output level based on how much we input. A ratio that is hard and one-to-one will always output less than what's being newly inputs. We use the limiters gain control to counteract and again, reduction the limits are made, which made our song sound louder. But if compressor will make the song sound quieter, the makeup control is used to make up gain or volume that we lose fruit compression. You will also notice that the makeup gain is a secondary control and the threshold is a more permanent control. As we have no ceiling. With a limiter, we didn't use the threshold that we will do so with the compressor. The controls will be focusing on here are the threshold ratio, attack, release, makeup gain. The threshold acts as the starting point where we want the compression to begin. The ratio determines how much level is output compared to how much is it inputs. The attack controls how quickly the compressor reacts. And a release determines when the compression releases with the makeup gain, adding any loss volume. Let's start with a ratio. In a mastering contexts, we don't typically use a very high ratio as aggressive compression in conjunction with limiting can make your songs sound flat. A good rule of thumb is to set the ratio somewhere between 1.5 to one to two to one. So the compression is a subtle balancing of dynamics. Once the ratio is set within needs to bring down the threshold to set the starting point for the compression to begin. So let's do this now. But this song, I like your ratio of 1.6 to one with a threshold of around monocytes in dB. And this is where you can experiment. The more you bring down the threshold, the more compression you will get. And the higher the ratio you use, the more compression you get. So it's poured about achieving balance between the threshold and the ratio to get the result you like the sound of the most. Remember the wrong no rules here. So listening to the results of the compression is key. I typically aim to achieve no more than two dBs and gain reduction in the mastering context, as we want, subtle results, by adding a little compression really brings up the base frequencies to add energy to the song. But a compressor will act differently in effect, different songs in different ways. So remember to listen carefully, refer back to your notes to make sure you are getting the desired results. Once we have set our threshold ratio sessions, the attacker really settings can be adjusted to taste. The results are much more subtle here. I typically prefer a slower attack and a quicker release with my mastering compression. But this will vary per song. Needs to experiments and listen to how the compression affects the overall frequency balanced. Lastly, we need to make up the volume that we have lost by using the makeup gain control as a rule of thumb, which used the gain reduction meter to indicate how much volume has been reduced by compression and then increase the makeup gain by a similar amount. But I always recommend using the arrays as the guide and use the plugin bypass function to sense check the results as we want to ensure there is a consistent volume before and after compression. As any volume changes may impact the level going into the limiter. For Lesson recap, we learned that a compressor controls dynamic range, but he's not as aggressive as a limiter. A compressor gives us a ratio control to control the output compared to the inputs. A compressor will reduce volumes. So we use a makeup gain control to balance any volume lost. In a mastering context, we typically use a ratio of 1.5 to one to two to one. Wants the ratio is sets, the threshold is reduced to set the compression starting points. The more you reduce the threshold and increase the ratio, the more gain reduction you will get. Attack and release sessions are used to taste to alter the sound of the compression. And finally, we use the makeup going to balance the volume. For our next lesson, we'll look at the creative uses of Equalization when mastering our song. 11. Equalization Enhancement: Now we've taken a look at equalization and how we can use broad stroke EQ moves to elevate our song. But before we get into the EQ, let's just take a moment to remind ourselves of our mastering notes. Afford to mix any great, but I feel it could do a little more overall energy. We covered how we could add more energy in our last class and compression. The base content sounded nice and defined. So I can hear the bass guitar on kick drum well, but I did feel the low, mid-frequencies sending quite muffled and muddy. I also feel the overall frequency is good. We can maybe look at bringing out the mid-frequencies a little more and maybe give this song some high-frequency sparkle to make the vocal standout. So given my notes, these will be my focus EQ areas. Here I have the stock EQ plug-in inside the studio one, and we can use this plug-in so either enhance or take away something from a specific frequencies section. An EQ is typically sets out with specific movable EQ points in different areas of the frequency range, with some points having different uses than others due to changeable EQ shapes. There are three queue shapes that are more common in the EQ, which of the following, a cut or pass filter specifically to remove low-end rumble or excessive high in information. A shelf. This has less steep curve than a cut or pass filter, but can add or remove unwanted low or high in frequency contents. And then a bell curve, which is most commonly associated with low, mid to high frequencies. And it's a more focused shape. In addition to the different EQ curve shapes generally, we can also adjust the width of the curve via the Q control and then use the Gain Control to have a boost or attenuate that specific frequency. Now that we know a little more about an EQ, how do you use one of the mastering context as we compression when mastery and we're not generally looking for big bold changes, but subtle enhancements elevate the mix and not replace it. As a result, you will rarely see mastering engineers either canceled booster frequency range by more than three dB, often less than one dB, just to lift certain areas. It is also common practice to focus on broad stroke moves with a wide Q setting somewhere between nought point 5.2. So any EQ move mode will capture a larger EQ section and create a more natural enhancement over any surgical change. So let's take a listen. When it comes to any mastering processing, I would not recommend doing anything just for the sake of doing so. As each song, as we've already discussed, will have different needs. But one thing I do check on every song is whether there is excessive needed low-end. We're talking very low down the frequency range here at around 20 to 30 hz, all without a low shelf with around one dB of gain reduction in play, the song fruit and bypass every few seconds. While I'm listening for here he is by using the low shelf, I'm like cleaning up the song. There's a song sam, more clean or clear, or do those frequencies add something to the song? If the song sounds better with those frequencies, didn't leave them in. If not, we use a low shelf to remove some of that unwanted low-end. Next I want to focus on those low mid frequencies that sound little muddy or muffled. This is usually due to a crossover in the frequencies from the bass guitar and electric guitars in this particular genre. But also vocal and drunk frequencies are present. So it can quickly build up in the low mid area and give them up with a low mid-frequency Q-point, or search for a frequency 200-5350 hz, where the song sounds most muffled. And I'll start to remove some of the frequencies. In this example, I've found that removing just underwear dB with a wide nought 0.87 Q sets in at 272 hz did the trick. Now once the mid-frequencies, and we do need to be a little bit careful when boosting around the 2 khz range. Has this area tends to be sensitive to arias. After some searching between 1 khz, 3 khz. Often that one dB boost that around 1.4 khz, elevated complete range without sounding harsh and gave the trap more body and balance. Just the dB boost with a Q system of one will suffice. And lastly, with the high frequencies, I didn't want to make the song too bright, but just add a little too high in there for high-frequency boost or recommend a shelf curve. And once again, a subtle increase of around one dB lifted the high-end nicely. The frequency, I said it was around 9 khz, which captured the top of the vocals and the symbols without creates an imbalance with the rest of the instrumentation. Let's now take a before and after listen with the EQ bypassed and then engaged. The key to using the acute for mastery is to make subtle moves with a wide Q setting to add social enhancements, to lift specific areas. Think very much in broad terms, cross the whole frequency range. Does the song sam balance or is there something missing? And then try and identify where that missing something is, and then either enhance or takeaway to achieve the desired results. This is where ear training and listening to lots of music from your favorite artists can come in very handy. Listened to lots of music, get an idea of how your favorite songs sound. And I'm referenced them against your master. What sounds different? And in think, Can I create an EQ move to either add or take away from the song to get closer to my reference. Don't get bogged down into individual instruments and trying to equalize specifically and think more broad with your EQ moves. So let's recap on REQ lesson. Always have a clear plan from your mastery notes and what you want to achieve with an EQ. Use either a shelf cut or pass filter, specifically with a low-end, high-end. Use bell curves for the low, mid to high mid-frequencies. Always thinking enhancement over change by trying to keep an EQ moved to less than three dB. Focus on why queue settings generally from nought 0.5 to to achieve broad stroke changes. Remember to buy a partial or EQ plugin frequently to see if your EQ moves have achieved the desired results. And use your favorite songs or references to compare your mask to and build your listening skills to help achieve your EQ balance. That's all for our EQ lesson. So let's now take a look at the final export or rendering before you release your traps of the world. 12. Final Export and Rendering: For her part to class, I will go through the final stages of the mastering process in order to prepare our song for release to the world. But before we do so let's take one final listen to songs. We can do it before and after check on our mastering processing. I'll also do a comparison with and without the limiter. I tell you. As you can see, we've just free plugins and simple processing. We can create a great sound in master track that's ready to release to the world. For a final check, I would recommend playing the song through from start to finish to get an accurate reading of the integrated loves measure. As you can see, I've mastered this version of the track to -12.8 l UFS integrated. But for when our additional process in the true peak max level is increased ever so slightly. So I can now go back to limiter and tweak the ceiling setting to adjust the true peak measure to minus one db. Once we're happy with the overall master, we can go ahead and trim the track and add any unnecessary fights. For this song, there is quite a bit of spice that begin and end of the track. So let's trim those now. Hello, It's the response here. And since checkers, I'll go by listening. Next up, we need to see the song needs a fade in and out to make the transition between songs seamless, the artist is already added a photo at the end that I make, so I'm happy with that. But let's take a listen to beginning. The beginning. That actually sounds good to me as an intentional font before the guitars kick in, if you did want to add phase to your master, most DAWs have arrows in the top corners that attracts where you can drag will fades as demonstrated now. Lastly, before we export and render the fall, it's sometimes good practice to loop the entire song and use the loop range for exporting. In studio one, I can drag the blue loop bar at the top of the timeline from the start to finish, and enabled loop mode in the transport panel. But this will vary by DAW. We now have our Master's song that's been trimmed and loops and ready to export. So let's now go to our export settings. In Studio One is I'm using the song page for this master or I can go to the song tab and export mixdown selection. But most DAWs will have an export or render setting in the File tab. Once you're in the export settings, we can change the final track name and choose where to save the export your file as well as choose default top that we want the final Master to be. If releasing your song via streaming platform, you want to make sure that you choose a lossless format of the highest quality. In pretty much all cases, this will be a WAV file. Please do not choose MP3 as an MP3 file is a lossy codec that will degrade the quality of the song. Most, if not all, digital distributors will only accept wildflowers anyway. So use the wife fall option as your preferred file type. You may also notice that we have the option to change the bit depth and sample rate of the final Master. If you're releasing your songs onto the streaming platforms via digital distributor, is important to check the four requirements they may have. Most will now accept files with a Bit Depth of 24 bits. And as the song Fall is a 24-bit file, we need to make sure that the final export matches the song fall at 24 bits. And I would recommend keeping the sample rate the same too. If your digital distribution requires a file with a big debt for 16 bits, then we will need to ensure that the final export goes for a div, a process if the song false started at 24 bits. Diverse in simple terms, is the intentional application of low-level noise that is introduced to remove quantisation distortion that occurs when reducing an audio files bit depth in studio one different is applied automatically by default. But if your DAW has a tip box asking whether you want to apply deliver, then you will need to make sure this box is ticked before you export your song. Once you are happy, you can then export your song and you now have a finished and polished mastered song. 13. Conclusion and Closing: Well folks, that as I say, is a Rab. You've come to the end. Well done for following this class, for It's been an absolute pleasure putting this class together. And I hope you're able to use these techniques to make great sound in masters. And thank you for sharing your time with me and watching my audio mastering one-on-one class. It really does mean a lot to me and I hope you found this class beneficial. Mastering can be a very typical discipline, but by following some simple techniques can be such a powerful tool to really edit lysosome. We cover lots of ground in this class. We've covered the theory side from loudness normalization. So the common terms we've even looked at how we can introduce a simple milestones setup. This easy to do and it's repeatable to really set yourself up for success. And then we've looked at limiting EQ compression and how we can use those tools to really elevate yourself. So next level, one thing above all else don't want you to take away from this class. And that is this simple message. Keep things simple. Trustor is be creative. Have fun making great music. You can follow this class with your own class projects by uploading your mastered song to the project gallery. Be sure to include links for the master version and the premaster, along with brief note on how you master this song. Then listen to your master song and provide you with feedback to help you along your mastering journey. Lastly, if you enjoyed the class, please don't forget to leave the class review. I might show you follow my Skillshare profile as I've lots lined up in the future. Thank you once again, following this class, much loss for me.