Deep Dive in Mixing & Mastering

1. Introduction: Hi, my name is Roto Tejani. I'm a singer, songwriter, studio engineer, and music producer based in Leto. In this course today, we'll be breaking down all aspects of mixing and mastering for music producers. By the end of this course, you'll have a firm understanding of the concepts behind mixing and mastering and how to apply the various tools and techniques to be able to mix and master your own musical compositions and productions. 2. Mix & Master Like A Pro or Outsoure ?: Uh, okay, so now let's talk a bit about mixing and mastering on your own versus hiring a mix engineer or a mastering engineer externally to do the mixing and mastering for you. There are certain considerations to take. I guess the first one would be budgetary, um, I think budget and time, the mix engineer or a mastering engineer, their turnaround time for a mix might be a day or two days, three at the max with certain numbers of revisions allowed, where if you're doing it yourself and you've got the time, you can spend a week. You can spend two weeks mixing and mastering your product. So doing it yourself is a great way to learn, especially if the stakes are not too high. Like, it isn't a huge commercial release. Maybe you're just doing a song and you might or might not put it out there to see what the feedback might be. By all means, in those circumstances, I'd recommend doing it yourself because it gives you practice in being able to do it well. And, you know, the more the only way to get better with mixing and mastering is just repetition, repetition, repetition. So it's a good idea if you've got the time, the interest, and the willingness to kind of sit down and really push it. I would say it makes sense to do it on your own. If however, it's a serious I don't want to say serious, a more high budget release, where, you know, much more money is going to be spent on the promotion and whatever of the product. Um, and it's going to be much more visible. I would say that and if budget allows, that would be the time to use a mixing engineer and a mastering engineer, because, uh there are certain they will have access to better equipment that you don't have. So that would be an important thing to, I think, look at. Also, their turnaround time will be much quicker. Within a week, your things will be done and you will know that they will hit the professional standards that are required. So I would say, if budget allows, and it is the stakes are higher in your release. That's when I would go for an external mixing and mastering engineer. Also, at least I found also in my case, if you've been involved in the song from its inception in terms of the writing and the recording and everything else, sometimes it helps to get a fresh pair of ears to come in and do the mixing and the mastering, because they're coming to it totally fresh, while you have maybe heard something over and over and over again for a much longer period of time. So I think we can broadly say, when the stakes are high and the release is going to be heard by many people, that is when you should go for an external mixing and mastering engineer. When you're trying to learn your craft and you're doing many, many, many songs, I think, and you may or may not release them. I think that's when you can go the route of mixing and mastering on your own. I will say, maybe just to sum up something I found quite funny that I heard today, um while it's good to be precise and really be clear in terms of your mixing and your mastering to do the best job that you can and all of that. There was a quote I heard from someone today saying, you know, while you're on your 15th revision of your mix, because you want to change a particular level or EQ, remember that there's a teenager somewhere who probably created a song on his phone that is releasing it that's going viral on TikTok and everywhere else and their career is moving while you're still revising your mix. So don't go too deep down the rabbit hole of trying to get your thing to sound exactly somehow. As long as the feeling and the emotion is still conveyed in the music, people should still be resonating with what you're doing. 3. Freelance Mixing & Mastering Worflow: Okay, let me just give a few tips on, let's say you're trying to get into the mixing and mastering for other people side of things. Some tips I would have in terms of working with other clients. The number one, I would say, is communicate very extensively with the client so that you get a really clear idea of what kind of mix sound they're looking for. One of the things that mixing and mastering engineers, especially starting out, we can tend to do is we have an idea from a technical point of view, how things should be. The drum should be within this frequency range, this should be here, this should be how it mixes together, et cetera, which doesn't align with the view of the client. And so you end up just giving them your version of their vision rather than understanding their vision and taking it to the next level. So if you do that too much, your client list will dwindle and you'll find people won't be coming. So that's, I would say 0.1. 0.2 is to avoid being too technical with clients. They just want it to sound right. So if they say, you know, Hey, the drum sound too boomy, tone them down. Your answer shouldn't be, Okay, but from what frequency range do you think that I should be adjusting? They just want it to sound good. And they may not you may have to read in between the lines and be a bit of a detective to understand exactly what it is they're trying to go for. So really extensive communication is key, and just keep in mind, it's their vision, their project. You're there to just assist them in getting their project and vision from point A to point B. So those I think would be the most important areas I would give advice in. 4. Loudness Expained: LUFS, RMS & Peak Levels: Okay, so now we're going to talk about loudness and mastering in a little bit more detail and kind of the means we use to measure that loudness, LUFS, RMS, and peak levels. So let's start with peak levels. Peak levels is basically the I would say the master fader in your DA. Remember, I said zero is kind of the loudest it can possibly be anything above zero, even if it's 0.8 or one, there's distortion and your master is clipping. So the peak level measures just the highest decibel level, the DB level at any particular point in time. So when you're listening to a song, it will have dynamics in terms of the song. It'll have, like, a loud part of the song. I will have a soft part. So the peak level measures just the particular level of the audio signal at any particular second in time. So we do use it, but it isn't the most ideal in terms of measuring the loudness because there are certain frequencies that the ear the song can B loud, hitting right at zero DBS, but it doesn't sound as loud as other songs that are below that zero, but perceived the listeners perceiving them to be louder. So there are other methods which we use to kind of measure that that are a little bit more precise. The second form of measuring is the RMS, which is the root mean square level. Now, this one doesn't just measure the decibel level at a particular point in time. It measures over let's say, a particular point, a particular period of time. But though it's not long, it could be maybe over a few seconds or over several second period, measuring that overall level. So it kind of I guess we could think of it kind of as it averages the different levels over a particular period. And so it gives you a more accurate reading of the overall level of the song. While that one also is it's more exact and more precise than the peak level indicator. It doesn't take into account different frequencies which the human ear perceives as louder than others. And so it doesn't take into account those frequencies whatsoever. It just, again, measures the decibel level over a particular average period. So it does give a better picture. But not the real full full picture. The real full picture, which is kind of the audio standard that mastering engineers use, and you therefore will have to use in your songs when you master your songs is the Loudness Units full scale meter. Can I stop there? Can I start this LUFS one? Okay. So the most accurate form of the measurement that we use for loudness is LUFS, which is the loudness units full scale measurement. Now, this is similar to RMS except the period of time, the average length of time is longer that it is measuring it kind of takes an average of a particular, audio level over even a longer period of time than RMS. And the other good thing about it is that it takes into account the frequencies of the ear and how human ears perceive certain frequencies to be louder than others. And so weights are given to certain frequencies. Maybe, let's say, I'm just making an example that the higher frequencies are perceived as louder. There'll be a weighting given to that which the LUFS meters in measurement, takes into account. So those frequencies, it's a much more accurate reading of how the human ear perceives loudness, rather than just a digital reading that it is at so and so decibels per, you know, whatever. So it is the standard that is used in mastering in terms of how you measure your loudness. And a lot of the streaming platforms nowadays have their own specific specifications, like, for example, Spotify is a I think -14 LUFS. And so that's like an average. There's a momentary reading of it, and there's an average reading of it for your whole song. So Spotify wants its music to be delivered at -14 for broadcast, things like movies and music played on TV, they will normally want it at -23 LUFS. So those are kind of set stock standards which are used for the differing platforms and depending on where it is that your audio is going to be played at. So it is essential that you have a tool in your limiter that enables you to read LUFS reading so you can make sure that your song falls within the range required for wherever it is you're releasing it. So that's a very key point. Your music could be actually rejected if the LUFS measurement is not where it needs to be. 5. Essential Mixing Tools & Mastering Tools: Okay, when talking about the differences between mixing tools and mastering tools, as I said, the mastering tools focus on the overall final mix and adjusting the overall sound of the final mix, where the mixing tools focus on the individual elements to make up the final mix. So common mastering tools, essential mastering tools are the limiter which primarily works on the loudness of the overall final mix. You're trying to get it as loud as possible without getting it to distort. Then there also IQ that is used on the master channel. The aim being but it's much more subtle, much more general IQs that focus perhaps on reducing the overall, let's say the song is a little dull and we want to add a little bit of airiness or brightness to it with an EQ on the overall song, or it's too base heavy and it sounds muffled and we want to just remove some of that bass. So EQ, general IQ measures can be taken on the mastering front. So it's mainly limiters, as I say, EQ and then very subtle compression. Compression on a mastering side of things tends to pull things together and make it seem more a lot of mastering engineers will say glue, because the the subtle compression will kind of pull the levels of things much closer to each other so that the song sounds much more cohesive and not like a bunch of individual different instruments put together. So those are the kind of key elements of mastering that one uses. Broadly, they fall into those categories, limiting or EQ or compression, or, you know, even multi band compression when it comes to master where you may be a particular frequency region, you want to only add subtle compression to that particular region. Maybe what you feel comes into the song here and there and it is lacking and you want to just boost it up a bit. So those are really the tools that one uses for mastering and they differ slightly from those that we use in mixing. 6. Mastering Your Music: Prepare Music for Streaming & Distribution: Okay, now let's talk about mastering. We've been talking up till now about mixing. As I said earlier, mastering is that final process once a song is mixed to deal with levels and overall tono character of the final song. And it's the last step before now the song is ready. For commercial release. So the main goals that we are trying to achieve in mastering is number one loudness, number two, consistency, and number three, to be able to translate well in many different forms. So let's start with the loudness. On the radio, let's say, just as an example, whatever songs are being played, there's kind of a broadcast standard that the songs have to be at a certain level. That's why you'll notice mainly on the radio station, if you're playing and it's just playing music or Spotify or something like that, the levels of volume per song will not be varying wildly. Won't have to keep adjusting the volume in your radio or wherever you're playing. Everything will sound quite consistent. That's because of mastering. There are certain standards, technical standards, mastering standards that those kinds of broadcast mediums insist on and that your songs have to be within that range. So loudness is your song needs to be as loud as possible. Without distorting and making the various individual elements not sound cohesive or yeah, distorting, being harsh, or the audio quality degrading. So mastering, there are a number of tools that we use to achieve that kind of loudness, which we'll talk about a bit later. Consistency, let's say it's an EP or an album and there are five or seven songs, there should be kind of a uniformity between those songs. Song one should not vary too much from song seven. You shouldn't have to keep adjusting the volume level tremendously between songs. So there are a lot of mastering tools to the mastering engineer will try and make sure that each song, moving from one to the other has a basic overall tone and sound which is consistent moving from song to song. And then finally, to be able to translate well into different mediums, meaning, once the song is mastered, it should the elements should sound the same, whether it's in a nightclub that the song is being played or in a car radio system or on a phone, just on a phone speaker or a small Bluetooth speaker, it needs to translate well from very big systems to very small systems. So while you will be mixing and all of that and hopefully using studio monitors that are designed to be as flat as possible, the reality is that you're making the music for where all different types of sound systems will be used. So the mastering engineer will be working to make sure that wherever you play the song, it sounds uniform. And so that's the other very key aspect of mastering that we need to achieve. 7. Panning & Stereo Imaging: Okay, so now we can talk some about panning and stereo imaging, which is very important. By default, when everything maybe is in Mono and you have 30 tracks or 30 instruments, all of them would be playing kind of right in the center of the stereo field. And remember, the stereo field is kind of from extreme left to extreme right. So the song would sound very narrow and would not be spaced out or sound full. So panning is something very important to use. Panning is basically where in the stereo field you place a particular instrument. So some tips in panning, the kick drum, the snare drum, the bass, generally, those as well as lead vocals. To the panning is right in the center. And then the other instruments kind of you fill in around that. So for example, a keyboard, let's say, you would put maybe halfway between the extreme left and the center. A guitar could be halfway from the middle to the right extreme side. So you then fill in and give each individual instrument its own place within that stereo image as long just making sure that the vocals, the lead vocal, the kick drum, the snare drum, and, yeah, kick, snare, bass, and lead vocal right down the center. And then things like high hats slightly off center, and other percussion instruments slightly off, maybe keyboard, a bit further, pads and strings also a bit further. So that helps you the more you give each individual instrument its own place within the stereo image. They become more audible and the whole song, the details of the song come out much better. So yeah, that's the main thinking behind it. Other people choose to look at panning, like if you're looking at a band on stage, like maybe the lead singer will be right in front of you. The guitarist might be to the left, the pianist may be on the right. And so you just kind of fill in all the instruments across the stereo image. Now stereo width and widening. There's some plug ins such as waves S one, Imager. That's a common one. That widens the stereo image, to give the listener a perceived sense of greater width. If you've got many, many instruments that can help give space to each one so that they don't sound too close together. So panning and stereo imaging really work to give that sense of stereo image to your tracks. 8. Basics of : Graphical Equalization: Okay, so now let's talk about EQ and the different types of EQs that one can use and kind of look at it in action on a track. This is a song of mine that is not mixed. So I've taken the acoustic guitar in it to be able to demonstrate. So the first EQ I want to talk about is the graphic equalizer. Let me give an example, the API 560. Right. So this one here is an example of a graphic equalizer. Its characteristics are that it's got specific set bands that you can adjust. This is a ten band equalizer. If you have, like, a Hi Fi system and a lot of the older Hi Fi systems, there used to be this kind of an equalizer that you could adjust. But you can adjust specific frequencies that are named here 31, 63, like this, all the way up to 16 K. So I've applied it. I've put it on this acoustic guitar. Right. So what we would do here is, you can either boost certain frequencies by let's say moving this up or remove certain frequencies or cut them by moving down. And that's, I guess, a general principle for all equalizers. So in this one, let's say this is the original sound, and let's say we want it to be a bit less muddy and maybe more clear. So let's say we reduce uh the frequency at 1:25. And then maybe we want some more clarity. So we increase, let's say, the bands from 4k8k and 16 K. Right. So let's do This is before This is after. So we've adjusted the sound. We've cut some frequencies at 1:25, and we've boosted at four K and eight K and 16 K. Now, the main characteristics of the graphic equalizer is that the let's say you're boosting a frequency, the slope of that increase is is constant. You can't adjust how wide or broad the boosting is or the cutting or how surgical it is. So I would say that's the drawback of the graphic equalizer. So this is graphic equalizer. 9. Parametric Equalization: Okay, so this is the second example that I'm going to show you. This is a parametric EQ. It's I would say the most widely used and the most popular in terms of EQs being used in recording and mixing. Is characteristics are primarily that you can first of all, let me play so you see. That's the same guitar sound. So this is it shows a graphical it shows a graphical representation of the EQ of the instrument that you've applied it to. And then you can as different from the graphic equalizer, you can kind of you're not limited to specific frequencies. For example, let's say, here, I've put a or there or there or, you know, wherever. So different parametric Qs differ in terms of the type of the number of points you can put. But as you see, you're not really limited to having them in any one particular place. So using the same guitar as our example, first of all, you can also manipulate the types of curves. Let's just for this example, use the bell curve. You can boost the signal. You can cut the signal, and then this cue setting determines how surgical it can be. So You can actually you can actually be very specific about a particular frequency. Let's say that you don't particularly like you see here, the frequency 167, whatever. If you don't like something right at that point, the graphic equalizer, it was, you know, 125 is what we adjusted. Here we can now we can be more broad or we can be much more surgical. So Let's say we want to cut here. You can adjust the width, or you can even adjust the type of curve. Let's say it's a low cut filter. You want to cut all the frequencies below a certain point. So you could, you know, kind of do that and make it much more so everything before a particular point is cut now before this 244. So using a similar thing to the other example, let's say we wanted to cut frequencies there, and then this is called a shelf. Let's say we want to now increase to get some clarity. Right. So before After. So people like parametric EQs because you can be much more specific about a particular cut. Let me just remove some of these here. You can be much more surgical about boosting at a particular point when you want to cut a particular thing out of, you know, frequency. So like this, you've cut primarily a very surgical cut at a particular frequency point. Or you've cut, if you've done this. You've boosted if you've done this. Boosting. And then the broadness of the curve will also affect the sound. So it allows you to be much more flexible in your cutting. So that's a parametric EQ. 10. Dynamic Equalizaion: Okay, so now we're going to talk about dynamic EQ, which differs from parametric and graphic in that you can set it. It allows you to be much more precise because you can set it to only kick in at a certain frequency by a certain amount depending on the way that you set it. So an example of a dynamic E Q is this one that I've put here, which is a F six dynamic EQ from waves. So here are the bands, which you can kind of move around. And each band, there are these controls that you can set for any particular band. So let's say it's this one here at the 125 mark. There's the frequency. The Q, meaning the size of the slope. Let's say you raise it, you can be precise or just like with parametric EQ. The gain is, you know, how much you boost the frequency or cut the frequency. But now you can also deal with dynamics here, such as the threshold. Threshold is kind of you can set at what point you want the EQ to kick in. So I'm using it. That same guitar example that we had. The threshold will control when it reaches a particular threshold. Or let's say value. Let's say this one, we've put 38.6, it is only at that point when the EQ will kick in. So for example, its uses would be, let's say, on a vocal, where generally you've set the EQ well for that vocal. But there are parts of it perhaps where the vocalist is maybe he's moving back and forth and he's stepping closer to the mic. Just the mic I'm using, maybe he steps closer like this. He moves further away. That will affect the EQ, that will affect the tone of the voice. So a dynamic EQ will allow you to say, okay, when the vocalist moves closer at a particular point, that's when the EQ should kick in in a particular way. In addition to maybe how you've set the voices otherwise. So it's a very useful tool in particular uses. But I would say, overall, the parametric Q is the most common. And again, the key things to understand from EQs in general is the boosting or cutting of the signal. The value is how narrow like this, how narrow to be surgical in a particular range to cut or boost or how broad your curve is, and this will determine the tone of the sound you're looking to manipulate. With EQ, we're really looking at the tone of the input signal that you're mixing. So yes, these are some examples of EQs and the types that are used and the most common. 11. Mastring Compression: Okay, we're going to now start talking about compression, which is generally used to control dynamics in a recording. So it's very important in mixing. It's one of the fundamental things that we use to control the dynamics. So overall, compression is basically it makes the quiet sounds louder and it makes or makes the louder song sounds quieter to make a more balanced performance or mix. So a good example of that would be, let's say, a in a drum pattern, let's say, a snare drum, live drum is playing. The drummer is playing a he's not hitting the drum at the same velocity. So some hits of the drum will be louder, some would be more quiet. So a compressor applied to that snare drum would even out the snare drum so that it would be more the velocity hits would be more similar. It would, you know, the quiet maybe make the quieter snare drum sounds a bit louder or bring down some of the louder snare drum sounds that he hit louder so that it sounds more balanced. So that's overall, another example would be in terms of a vocal performance. Maybe the singer sings quietly and loudly. The compressor would perhaps you'd apply a compressor onto the vocals to pull down the louder singing to make it more balanced with the softer singing. So in general, that's a compressor, and there's some key I would say concepts to understand in terms of compression. So I thought it would be easier if we kind of look at it in practice. So this is the same audio the mix session of a song of mine that's unmixed that we used in the EQ example. And on the lead voice, if you can see, just looking at the wave pattern of that lead voice, there are a lot of kind of high high where I sang louder and where I sang softer. So right. I've applied a compressor. Here is the compressor that I used, FabFilter, and I like this one because it's graphical in nature, so it's easier to see what's going on with it. So the first concept I want to talk about with regards to compression, is the threshold. Now, the threshold, basically, the threshold is the level, it sets the volume where the compressor is going to kick in and begin to compress. So in this example here, this is the threshold, this line here. Now, that threshold is set to at present, -18 DB. So that would be the threshold that is set. Now, um anything louder than this threshold the compressor will work and pull the sound down. So anything above this threshold, the compressor will begin to start kicking in. Anything below this threshold, the compressor will not start operating. So in general with vocals, you would look to adjust the target to kind of target the loudest parts of the voice so that it pulls it down. So let's use this as an example. Let me play the vocal. Everybody has a dream. So there's the threshold. Don't let it hi. These are the peaks. No matter what keep alive. And don't let. So the compressor is showing you the level of the vocal and when it goes up here. And then here where you see it kind of moving about is where the compressor is kicking in. Everybody has a dream inside. Don't let it ha ha. Up here. No matter what keep that dream alive. So that is where the compressor is coming in, and you see the graph thing there, it's showing it's pulling it down. And the steepness of that curve of pulling down is showing you how quickly it's working. So in general, um, it's gonna pull down. When it pulls down the signal, it's pulling it down by a certain number of decibels. So here we are. Everybody has a dream inside. Don't let it hide. No matter what. Here it's showing us stream live. The amount by which it's pulling down the audio above the threshold level. So that is the threshold in a nutshell. The next concept that we should learn about is the ratio here. The threshold is here. This is the ratio. Now, the ratio is, it determines the compressor, how much the compressor reduces the volume above the threshold. So basically, okay, it's a ratio. You see here the ratio is four to one. That means a ratio of four to one means that for every four DB above the threshold, the compressor only one DB will pass through above this threshold. So in this example, you see the threshold is, let's make it an even number 22. So the threshold is here. Now, the ratio means that for every four dB, and this is here is the threshold. So if this is -22, we're looking at roughly -18 somewhere there for every amount of four dB above this threshold. It pulls it down. Only one DB of sound. It goes up by four, but the compressor is going to pull down the audio to allow only one DB to pass through pass above this threshold. So a higher ratio will this is more easy to see a higher ratio. Let's say now this is nine to one. Meaning, for every let's say nine DBs that is above the threshold, only one Debe will be allowed through. So playing the same vocal, everybody has a dream inside. Don't let it hip. You see how it's pulling it down. No matter what keep that dream alive. At a higher level now. Don't let it die. Everybody. Everybo. 12. Parallel Compression: Okay, so I just want to talk about briefly the concept of parallel compression. Parallel compression is a technique that is used in mixing, where you blend a heavily compressed version by heavily compressed, we mean as an example, let me just give an example of a heavily compressed. Everybody has a dream inside don't let it hive. This is a heavily compressed signal. No matter what keep touching. I'm adding gain. And don't let it die. You see up here? Everybody. The compressor is working quite hard. Mm. Whoa. Let's increase the ratio. No matter what. Keep that dream. So you see the compressor don't lay. We see that the compressor is working quite hard really pulling down the signal. So it's a heavily compressed signal. Maybe a fast attack time and a fast release time to clamp down on things. Everybody has a dream. This is the Inside. Don't let it hide. No matter what I just wanted to give you an example of heavily compressed versus not compressed. This is not compressed. Everybody has a dream. Inside. Don't let it hide. And now this is heavily compressed. But Everybody has a dream inside. Don't let it hide. So it's heavily squeezed and heavily compressed. So parallel compression creates you would create a duplicate of an audio track or route using sends route to signal to an auxiliary channel in your D and then you apply heavy compression on that channel. Aggressive settings like the ones I just showed you here. And then, uh you would blend the two signals, your natural, complete natural signal with no compression, and the heavily compressed one. And then you would mix adjust the levels to taste. The heavily compressed version adds kind of density and body and sustain to the voice while the original has much more clarity and keeps some of the natural dynamics. So you would then fine tune the balance between the two to achieve a unique sound. So it's commonly used when you want to get a full bodied sound on a vocal or where you want punchiness in some of your tracks. Let's say drums to make the drum track sound punchier and more cohesive while retaining the kind of hit of the initial hits. So that's in general, the technique of parallel compression. Again, you duplicate the sound and then apply heavy compression to one version and no compression on the other, and then you mix uh, the heavily compressed sound with the uncompressed sound to taste to get kind of a unique sound where you've got that full body of the compression, but also you haven't you still have the dynamics and natural feel of the original, and then you mix between the two signals to be able to get your own unique sound. So that's the concept of parallel compression. 13. Mixing With Reverb & Delay : Space, Depth & Dimension: Uh, okay. So now let's talk about another key element, reverb and delay or two key elements, reverb and delay, but they generally work in the area of adding depth and space to your mixes to sound more realistic. I'm going to use the same example, the same song. When you sing in a studio, you it's normally an audio the audio in that room is very controlled. You know, let's say, acoustic panels and things in there. So your voice sounds very dry and direct, and that doesn't sound realistic. So things like reverb and delay can help in terms of the spatially so that your let's say it's a voca. It places your vocal in a particular space, be it a hall or a room and allows you to kind of create depth or even groove with delay. So let's just use an example to be able to illustrate it. Let's go to the voice. No one said it would be easy. And no success is ever guaranteed. Inside, it's all about believing. That's the biggest strength 11 he. Okay, so that voice is completely dry sang in the studio with acoustic paneling and things in the room. So now, reverb, I've added reverb and other effects on an auxiliary track, and then I send the signal. This is my main lead voice signal. I send the signal from the lead into the auxiliary reverb channel, which is this one. So I've put this reverb on it. On the auxiliary channel, it's called reverb Hall. I've actually made a second reverb channel. I'm sorry, a second auxiliary track and added a second reverb, this verb suite classics plug in from Slate. So now, we've heard the dry version. So let's hear now when we've added a reverb. We're sending our main lead voice through the reverb channel. No one said it would be easy. And no successes ever guaranteed. Inside, it's all about believing. That's the biggest strength 11. Okay, so you see immediately it adds that element of space that you're kind of singing somewhere in a room or in a hall. I was soloing it there, so you hear it much more intensely than you would when all the instruments are playing, just so you could get a good sense of with reverb and without reverb. But let's try. This is now the dry signal being played No one said it would be easy. And no success is ever guaranteed Inside, it's all about believing. That's the biggest to ever. Now, that is completely dry with nothing. So now let's, let's add that reverb. No one said it would be easy. And no successes ever guaranteed Inside, it's all about believing. That's the biggest to ever. Right, so immediately, you can tell adding that reverb, even though it sounds much stronger alone. But when you add it, it kind of places the lead voice better into the song. It doesn't feel it feels more natural. It feels like it sits better in with all the instruments. And overall, you can tell that there's an improvement that's been made to the vocal. So I even added a second reverb, which is this one that I'm talking about the verb suite classics to now send it through two reverbs, using the first one kind of just to help with the placement, and then maybe the second to have kind of a reverb effect. So let's just hear how it sounds. No one said it would be easy. No one said it would be easy. And no successes ever guaranteed Inside, it's all about believing. That's the biggest to ever check it again. No one said it would be easy. And no successes ever guaranteed. Inside, it's all about belief. That's the biggest never. Right, so that has kind of made a good effect in terms of feeling placing the vocal in a space. So that's kind of how you do that and depth. So it seems a it seems wider and it seems more placed into the space from a three D point of view. So delay also can do the same thing. It can help rhythmically, and it also helps kind of placing things, placing your signal in the space. So I used this one here, H delay, and then I applied a high pass and low pass filter. Let's just hear how that sounds on its own with the voice. Let's see there. No one said it would be easy. And no success is ever guaranteed. Again, that's completely dry. And so now we've added a delay. No one said it would be easy. Well, we should have added a delay, but right. No one said it would be easy. Easy. And no successes ever guaranteed. Inside, it's all about believing. That's the biggest strength to ever need Okay, so you hear there when the delay is added, let's listen one more time. No one said it would be easy. And no success is ever guaranteed. Inside, it's all about believing. That's the biggest strength 11 He. Right. So in fact, with this one, I've actually synced the delay. That delay is the tale and when the signal goes through it, it adds that element of delay. Timing wise, I put it to a quarter note with that same BPM of the song. So that's something also that gives the voice kind of depth. So let's hear now with the music. No one said it would be easy. And no successes ever guaranteed Inside, it's all about believing. Hear that. I turn this up just to kind of exaggerate the effect. No one said it would be easy. And no successes ever guaranteed. Inside, it's all about believing. Right. So now if we were to add the reverb that we've already done and the delay, first again, let's hear on its own, the voice. No one said it would be easy. And no success is ever guaranteed. Inside, it's all about believing. That's the biggest strength you'll ever need No one said it would be easy. And no successes ever guaranteed. Inside, it's all about believing. That's the biggest strength you'll ever need No one said it would be easy. And no successes ever guaranteed. Right. And just to remind you, this was dry. No one said it would be easy. And no successes ever guaranteed. So you can hear it sounds quite shallow. Let's now play with everything. No one said it would be easy. And no successes ever guaranteed Inside, it's all about believing. That's the biggest thing to ever hear so it makes a big difference in giving the vocal a sense of space, a sense of width, and a sense of being bigger. Even if you don't hear let's say the delay as heavily as possible. Delay can also be used with things like rhythm and other aspects, just to kind of play with the rhythm of something. Because you're able, let's say, here, to change the timing of that delay. So it becomes almost another creative instrument that one can use. So I think this is a good basic explanation of reverb and delay and how it can be effective. Things like keyboards or pads, you might use a bigger delay to make it sound wider. You can even use stereo wideners to make the sound much bigger if you want to make a sound, you know, like you're in a stadium or something like that, and you want the effects to kind of reflect that. So that's how one effectively uses your reverb and delay. You don't want to overdo it though, because overdoing it makes your mix sound muddy and muffled and sounds mixing into each other. So you want to be very careful about how you use it. Spatial effects, we can do a quick example of a spatial on a let me say, let me look for a pad because that's something we can okay, hear. This is your pad? And let's say you want to add reverb. So I've added reverb to that pad just to increase to improve the depth of it. That's with nothing. So now let's say we were to add on this same pad, a stereo widener. Let's say this imager here. To make it sound bigger, this would be a spatial effect. This focuses the sound more towards the center. And that's with so this is kind of wide. That's closing it further. So if you want to you can use a spatial effect like this to widen it, I'll just use a preset here, three D width. Easy. Sorry. Adding the reverb as well. So you've made it sound much wider. Let's just remove them so you hear the difference. So basically, that's using a spatial effect such as the widener to widen the sound field so that your mix sounds bigger. I'm sorry, the instrument that you're applying it to. Sounds bigger. 14. Creative Automation Techniques for Reverb & Delay Effects: Okay. We're going to now look at automation, being able to automate your reverb or your delay in order to make some kind of dynamic effect within the song. Perhaps you want your singing and you want to emphasize a particular line with additional reverb or you want to do something that uh at a particular point, you want a particular setting to change in your reverb or your delay. You can use that also to create emphasis. So I'm just giving an example of it here. I've already loaded up the imager, which I was telling you, remember, deals with width on a pad. Now, let's say the pad you want to sort of become wider and become more narrow as the song is moving or something along those lines. We can do that this way. How you enable automation in your plug ins will depend on the D that you're using. So just refer to the instructions of that. So here with ProTools, this width button is what I'm going to be automating. And so let's do that now. No one said it would be easy. And Sorry, let me do this 'cause it automates everything. No one said it would be easy. And no success is ever guaranteed Inside, it's all about believing. That's the biggest strength to ever D let your life with sadness. Because you never took your chance in now. Okay, so I did really extreme moves there just to demonstrate, but, uh, in essence, well, let's play and you'll see. No one said it would be easy. And no successes ever guaranteed Inside, it's all about believing. That's the biggest strength to ever Del your f with sadness. 'Cause you never took your chance and now it Right. So that was just an example of automation. It's just a basic explanation of what it is and how it's used in mixing and mastering. 15. Profesional Workflow Mastering: Okay, we're going to look now at, um, mastering workflow, in terms of setting up a mastering chain and how you would do that and what you would do. So, right, let's get into it. This is a song, a hip hop song by an artist named Nazi, signed to Firebrand Entertainment. Um, Oh, let's get this money. So, for all intensive purposes, we're looking at a mixed song. And everything we're gonna do is set up a mastering chain on the Master Bus, which is here. Okay, let's this money. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, let's get this money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Right. So that's the kind of mixed but not mastered version. So on the master bus, we start with a virtual tape machine, which kind of simulates running the digital master that we have through an analog tape machine. So that's what we started with. Okay Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Without? Okay, let's go and get this money. With. Okay, let's go and get this money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get in money. Get in h. Then we've got an SSL compressor. So we're now actually using compression on the master channel for the whole song for gentle compression. Uh Now, this simulates a solid state logic mixing board. So we're putting this on the Master bus. We're using a plug preset called Mastering. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Then we're adding air, a bit of air for clarity to enhance using fresh air. So our idea here is to enhance clarity. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Without Okay, let's go on, get this money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. With? Okay, let's go on, get this money this money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get in money. Get in ony. Let's get in ony. Okay, now, for just to kind of show the example, though I don't think I would use it myself. On a song like this, that's kind of hip hop based. Stereo widening. Um, we could use The S one imager. And maybe use a slight widening. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Okay, let's go and get this money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. This money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get in money. Get in money. That's probably as far as I would want to go. Um, but, yeah. So again, we start with the tape machine. Virtual tape machine. We then went to compressor, a bus compressor for gentle compression on the Master song to kind of glue things together so that, you know, pull down the highest slightly, you know, pull up the lows to kind of make it sound a bit more glued together. Fresh air to enhance clarity and the imager to enhance the stereo width a bit. And then finally, the FGX plug in. Yeah. Okay. Because from a loudness perspective, um, let's see everything up to this point. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. If we look at the Master Bus, we're hitting it around minus ten. And we want, according to the rules of Mastering for loudness, we want it to be right up to as close to zero as possible without clipping and to apply a limiter to try and give the perceived loudness of the fs meter, which is here to kind of get it to a level of maybe around -11 or -12, we want it to sound as loud as possible without distorting. So Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. This money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get in money. Get in on. Okay, I wouldn't normally raise the gain so much, but this is just to kind of provide an example. This is the left's measurement we're trying to use. And I'd say, if we're streaming, we'd be looking at maybe a target of -14. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Okay, let's go and get this money. Yeah. Okay, let's go. This this before? Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. This money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get in money. Get in money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. So you can hear the level is much, much higher now and sounds much, much louder. So it would be much more competitive with other things on the radio at this kind of level. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Okay, let's go and get this money. And remember, Lufs versus RMS, we were able with this plug in to switch between the two. Let's say we're now at RMS. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Okay, let's go and get this money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this. The amount is -0.7, so it's right up to where we're trying to get. And again, Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Yeah. Okay, let's go and get this money. Okay, let's go and get this money. Okay, let's go and get this money. So if one had a mastering chain, this is the mastering chain, meaning all of the inserts that are put on the master channel. So a lot of times when you master, okay, this is mixed on the very same session, but many times you might receive or you might have an audiople that's already mixed, and then you just want to put it into the session. Where you have your mastering chain already set up in order to save time. And then you would kind of put the track in, run it through this master channel, and then go here at the end and adjust the gain accordingly until you see the integrated left measurement to be at the level you're looking for it to be. So this is the kind of process of setting up the mastering chain, sing well, saturation here through using the tape machine, using compression on the master bus, using fresh air to enhance the clarity. Using the S one stereo imager very, very slightly, just to widen the song a bit. And then finally, a limiter, which is what this plug in ultimately is. It's a limiter that you're hard compressing or I mean, limiting, sorry, to get an LUFS measurement that is close to where you're looking for. So then one could save this chain in this session and then when you want to master a song that's mixed but not mastered, you would import it into the session and then adjust the limiting accordingly until you get the f's measurement that you're looking for. So this is a basic example of setting up a mastering chain. 16. Vocal Mixing: Tuning, Compressions, Equaizations & Creative Effects : Uh, okay, so let's get into, I guess, an example of vocal mixing. Um, I'm going to start with processing the lead vocal and then kind of explain what I'm doing as I'm doing it. The lead vocal is here. It's the same. A dream that you've been keeping. Deep inside the belly of your soul. Right. I'm going to start with because the vocal is a bit pitchy. I'm going to start with meta tune from slate. Um, this particular one, I'm just looking to kind of tighten the pitch a bit. So I said it just for C major. You've got a dream that you've been keeping. Deep inside the belly of your soul. But you ignore it 'cause you're thinking you're not good enough to reach your final goal. Okay, so it's just a quick one. And then immediately, I start here with an EQ, uh high pass filter. So everything below this range below here where we are, it's going to be removed. So we want to remove kind of rumble and, the lower frequencies in the vocal tend not to they make it sound muddy. So you've got a dream that you've been key. See here, that's what it does. Deep inside the belly of your soul. Yeah, let's say about here. But you ignore it 'cause you're thinking. That's a good start. So then we want to add another EQ that I'll put a fab filter. So I'm going to add that Hang on one moment. We're going to add the Metatune mono instead of the metatune stereo again, C major. You've got a dream that you've been keeping. I haven't done much to itty of your soul. Then again, we add the EQ to roll off the low frequencies. You've got a dream that you've been keeping. Right. So now we can I'm sorry, I think I clicked the wrong one. Right. So I'm looking for Fab filter. So I'm going to put this on to enable VST three plugins. Fab filter quarter. Right. You've got a dream that again, this is a parallel compressor that we talked about earlier. You've got a dream that you've been keeping. So what I'm going to do first is kind of sweep for the kind of general area of vocals that I would like to I'd like to remove whatever kind of boxiness might be in it or low end rumbo. You've got keep. So sweeping like this? I'm looking at This kind of range. You're not good in it. Doesn't really do much. Oh. So people Maze. You don't consider that just babe. So I'm gonna pull that down that you've been keeping deep inside the belly of your Right. You're not good enough to reach your final. And then I've subtracted. I've pulled down. So you've got a dream. Free frequencies are being pulled down now. You've got a dream that you've been keeping. It's a little change, but it helps with every little change adds up to a big change. So, we've done that. You've got a dream that you've been keeping. Deep inside the belly of your soul. Let me just close those for nothing. To ignore it 'cause you're thinking. Right. So now we're going to add a compressor, which we talked about. I'm going to add the same fab filter compressor. So The fab filter, the C two compressor. You've got a dream that you've been keeping. So looking for the threshold. You've got a dream that you've been keeping deep inside the belly of your soul. But you ignore it 'cause you're thinking. I think a ratio of four to one is still fine. Uh, speeding up the release a bit. The attack is also okay. You've got a dream that you've been keeping deep inside the belly of your soul. But you ignore it 'cause you're thinking. So I'm now looking at the how much how many DBs the compressor is pulling down the vocal. I'm trying to look for around roughly 55 dB. You've got a dream that you've been keeping. Deep inside the belly of your soul. But you ignore it 'cause you're thinking you're not good enough to reach your final goal. Okay. People tell you that you're crazy. Just be supiuitonH a star. You don't consider that just maybe. The one to make it happens who you are. Everybody has a dream. Don't let it hide. Keep the dream alive. Don't let it die. Keep it alive. Al No one said it would be easy. Okay, I'm going up on the threshold because I'm trying to I don't want to overcompress it. You've got a dream that you've been keeping. Deep inside the belly of your soul. I just wanted to come in at specific points because the vocal is very dynamically. They're very high points and very quiet points. You've got a dream that you've been keeping. Deep inside the belly of your soul. Thinking. You're your final goal. People tell you that you're crazy. Just be stupuitonH a star. You don't consider that maybe. The one to make it happens who you are Everybody has a dream. Okay, I think that's okay. So I'm trying to just kind of do light compression. Now, since it has pulled the signal back around about, let's say, maximum four DBs, I'm going to make up that by increasing the gain, meaning raising the volume, the level of the overall compressed voice to make up for the amount of volume that has come down. So let's put it kind of somewhere there at four. Your final goal. People tell you that you're crazy. Just be stupiuitinH star. You don't consider that just maybe. The one to make it happens who you are Everybody has a dream. Okay, I think that's okay. So now that we've done that, uh, I like to now go with giving it a bit more air. So we're gonna use a plug in from slate called fresh air, actually. So there now it just gives it a bit of a brightness. Your And Sheen your final goal. People tell you that you're crazy. Just be stupiditon on a star. You don't consider that maybe. The one to make it happens who you are. Everybody has a dream Mm don't get it hide. Keep that dream alive. Don't let it die. Keep it alive live. All. Right. So that's definitely added some brightness, but that brings in sibilance a little bit. Sibilans is those kind of Ss that if they're too high and you bring them out too much, your voco becomes too sharp. So we deal with that by using DSing. So I'm going to use a basic DSR just so you can see Here we go. DSR. So the goal here is to just kind of take down those the sharpness of the Ss a bit. Your final goal. People tell you that you're crazy. So that blue line, we're gonna pull down this threshold just to a certain point towards the top. Your final goal. People tell you that you're crazy. Just be stupiuitonH a dar that just maybe. The one to make it happens who you are Your final goal. People tell you that you're crazy. This red here is where it's coming in and touching on the Ss a little bit. Your final goal. People tell you that you're crazy. Just be stupiditonH a star. You don't consider that maybe. The one to make it happens who you are. You want to get it just at the beginning because too much of it in it sounds off. Your final goal. Thus as an example. People tell you that you're crazy? Yeah, see so. Just be stupiuitHs star. You don't consider that just maybe. Then it happens who you are. Everybody has a dream. Mm don't get it hide. Keep that dream alive. Don't let it die. Keep it alive. Okay, so just as an example, we've now processed that lead. No, you know, into compression and other things, but we'll go there just now. Um, Your final goal. This is the original signal. People tell you that you're crazy. Just be stupiduiton on a star. And then the processed signal. Your final goal. People tell you that you're crazy. Just be stupidisHs d. You don't consider that made it. The one to make it you everybody. Right. So your final goal? I'm okay with that final goal. So we had already set up kind of reverb and delay. So let's Your final goal. People tell you that you're crazy. That's two reverbs. Your final goal. People tell you that you're. Just be stupidiiH a star. You don't consider that, baby. The one to make it happen to you are. Your final goal. People tell you that you're crazy. Just being stupiuiton on a star. You don't consider that, baby. The one to make it happen to you Everybody Everybody has a dream. Okay, that's now with delay and everything. Your final goal. People tell you that you're crazy. Just being stupid tuition on a star. You don't consider that just baby. Don't want to make it happen to you body. Everybody has a dream. Don't make it hide. Okay, so that's an example of lead vocal processing. 17. Vocals Processing ; Leading & Backing Layering, Clarity, Compressions & Reverbs & Pannnig: Okay, so now let's take a look at processing the background vocals. Uh, here we go. So everybody Just taking a listen.ide No Okay. So, um, I think we'll start. Sorry, just bringing this down a bit. Everybody. Okay, let's solo now. All of them. Everybody has a dream. You keeping your heart inside. No matter what anyone may tell you Lou Lou. Okay, we're now using a technique called panning on the backing voices. Let's start with the lowest voices. In fact, no, let's start with the high one. Everybody has a dream. Now, this panning panning is at the center there is kind of the center field. The stereo field is left to right. So from hard right off of hard right is around 90. So I'm panning the voices to kind of give them to give the backing voices like a spread. So I've done four takes of that high voice, and I've panned two very far left and two very far right. So kind of 90 on the left side, two of them, 90 80 and then 90 80. 100, as I say, is full. So 90 is kind of just off, 80, just off all the way to zero, and then minus all the way down to -100 on the other side. So I've panned two hard left and hard, right? Everybody has a dream. You keeping your heart inside. So you hear already, it kind of, uh, just so you would tell the difference if I put them all at zero, which is kind of the default setting. Um, this is what they would sound like. Everybody has a dream. You keeping your heart inside. So you see panning them right and left kind of spreads them out and makes them feel a lot wider because you want them to kind of be around the lead voice supporting it. So let me just put it back the way it was. So I've now gone and panned slightly less each of the lower voices. This one is 70 60 on the left and 70 60 on the right. Everybody has a dream. You're keeping your heart inside. No matter what? Now, all of this is to give a, to give each voice its own place in the stereo spectrum. So the voice below that, which would be the tenor, I've panned even less, 50 40 on the right, 50 40 on the left. Everybody has a dream. You're keeping your heart inside. No matter what anyone may tell you. And then the lowest voice even less 30 20 left, 30 20 right. Everybody has a dream. You keeping your heart inside. No matter what anyone may tell you. Right. So now we're gonna route all of these voices into kind of a backing vocal bus. Like that. And then let's call could call that. I've created this channel just now BV Bus. Everybody. You keep your heart inside. Now we can kind of process all of them at one time. So the first thing I'd want to do is, in terms of EQing, the Fab filter, EQ, quarter. Here it is. Everybody has a dream. You're keeping your heart inside. So what I want to do is apply this kind of a filter here, maybe even make it a bit more steep. We're trying to roll off as many frequencies to give it a different Everybody has a dream. You're keeping your heart inside. And then maybe the same on the other end. No matter what anyone may tell you. Everybody has a dream. Keeping your heart inside. No matter what anyone may tell you Everybody has a dream. You're keeping your heart inside. So I've rolled off everything below 200 Hertz. Everything here I've cut. And then on the other side, that's a bit much, but Everybody has a dream. You're keeping your heart inside. Right. Just so that it has a different tonal quality than the lead voice. And then let's see. Everybody You. No matter what everyone major. Everybody has your heart and sig No may. So now let's add we've got those reverbs there. No matter what Now, I like using on the backing voices. A plugin called Maserati group that you apply to an overall group. And you see the BGV that's backing vocals. It's got a knob here for sensitivity when you turn it up and the plug in starts working on it on whatever signal you're putting in, the light turns green here, and then you can adjust. I also I start normally with something like a preset BGV lift up. Everybody has a dream keeping your heart inside. No matter what anyone they tell you. Already, you're adding compression there. Lo Lo Right. So everybody has a dream. Keeping your heart inside. Just so it doesn't sound too my ful, I'm gonna move this a little bit. Everybody has a dream. You're keeping your heart inside. No matter what anyone they tell you. Okay, I think that's right, just for this example. Everybody has a team. You're keeping your heart inside. And just No matter what anyone may tell you. Then the last thing I'll do is just to widen them a little bit, add the S one imager on it. Oh, I'm sorry, the wrong one there. The S one imager. There we go. A dream. Keeping your heart inside. No matter what Aon may tell you. So I'm trying to widen them so that they leave room for the lead voice. Everybody has a dream. The dream your heard inside. Don't let it hide. No matter what Aon may tell you. Keep that dream alive. Don't let it die. Keep it alive. All Okay, so that's kind of a quick rough and ready guide example of vocal processing for the lead and backing voices. Um, presence is more you would add touch more compression if you wanted them to be out front and center. But I think where we are now, is it a good place if we were really mixing. Everybody. Everybody has a dream you we in side. Don't get it hide. So there, that's a good example, I think of vocal processing of the lead in the backing vocals, using some of the tools we were talking about compression, reverb for space and depth EQ to remove unwanted frequencies or boost certain frequencies. That fresh air plug in was kind of boosting the frequencies on the higher end to give the vocals a bit of air. So that's 18. Efficient Bouncing Exporting & Consolidating Your Mix: Okay, we were at the point when ProTools crashed about talking about bouncing our mastered song. You know, it's not exact, but this level that we're always looking at is around -15 point or going down to -14 point. So it's in the ballpark. So it was just to give an example. So we're ready to bounce the song. We've highlighted it there. I bounce. We'll call it we were calling it IM mastered. Saving it to the desktop. Let's do 24441, and we're going to do offline in the interests of time. But if you were bouncing this for a proper thing, you'd do it in real time. And an MP three, as well at the same time. And there we are. We're bouncing our mastered version. And then I'll just play a touch of the unmastered and then a touch of the mastered so you can get the mixed, not mastered, and mixed and mastered so you can hear the difference. It's moving quickly, so we're almost done. So basically, this has been to show how hip hop in your mixing and your mastering, you would make different decisions and focus on different areas. Hip hop, again, you'd focus on the low end, the hits, the kick, the snare, the high hat, and then the voice filling in here and there. And I would say this one is much more the the we've used a lot of effects on the lead and the backing voices to kind of give them center stage, and the instrumentation really is an accompaniment to the wonderful vocal performance. Right, so we've bounced. We're closing our Daw, and there it is the IM unmastered and the IM mastered. So the unmastered I am not go I still there, love be. Don't you forget. Don't you be still there, love be. Right. And then now the mustard? I am gone So immediately you hear the level. Ah. Fun I go. I am you follow the day. She knows the way. Don't you skin. Don't you we Ste Don't you don't be so this. So it's loud as loud as it can be, but it's not distorting. So, you know, you'll hear that really the decisions that you make regarding the low end and the high end and the stereo width, which would be much wider in this kind of a song compared to the hip hop song. So that's kind of an overall introduction as to the different mixing and mastering approaches you would take when faced with songs of different genres. 19. Mixing and mastering Example: So now we're moving on to a mixing example and then a mastering example of a different genre. I would call it maybe pop slash Acoustic. It's a gospel song called I Am by a Leto, amazing artist called Alejandra. Alejandra, and she is a wonderful vocalist and songwriter. So just talking about different mix approaches, this kind of approach, because the song is more acoustic and vocal driven and not so much beat driven, the focus was much more on the voices, like the lead voice, the backing voices, the guitars, and that's kind of what we what I worked on more than kind of the heavy beat, but let me just play it so you can get an example. This is mixed, not mastered. I am not gone I am not hiding. I see you cry. Don't think I never ca I am your god. I am your father there to watch over you. I am your God. I am your father reach out for you. I my present I my 20. Hip Hop Mastering : Beat Based Techniques: So moving on to the mastering of this hip hop genre, I used FGX too. So the main thing that we're trying to be sure about is the Lufs level, as we talked about the integrated. If this is going to like Spotify, places like that, we want it to be around -14. We want the peak to be kind of minus minus, let's say -0.75 or 0.8. And then the mastering was aimed at a punchy master. By punchy, meaning kind of the beats hit the little bit harder. That's the approach you would take for something like hip hop. This is compression ratio of one, attack and release of five. So sort of a gentle compression to glue things together and then increasing the gain. So let's hear. He had a love in my Herc peep. I never felt with the late pre third. I opus and slide to Cen craving life for the water program. That's without mastering. He had a love in my Herc deep but never felt with the Late pre third. I opus and slide to C. So with. So immediately, you can tell the level. Now, let's play the bits. He had a love and my Herc peep. I never felt with the late pre third. I opus in slide to Cen craving life for the water program for all of the highs and some of the low. Humidity closes and trying to be chosen as the floor, my enemies clothes. I give them a dose of pop smoke. I'm helping them cope. They need me. I know. They living that petty little life. Need them a ****** their hat. They're making them wear like the gumming they want me to lose my Lord ain't making no sense on do a til the sway dab in there got email aka the Give me a little **** that I do so you boy. What love in my heart, you beep never felt for the last they preach third I've been open and sleeping craving for the water for all of their his some love in my heart you deep. I never felt for the f pre third I've been open since I've been craving for the water br for all of the highs, some of the lows keeping humility closed and see it would flow, my enemies clothes. I give them a dose smoke, I'm helping them code. They need me a nod. Okay, so we would be aiming for that -14 level for the different platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, et cetera, gentle compression. But again, the main focus of hip hop, you want to beat, the kick, the drum, the groove, and then clear vocals, especially in the rap. But that's the kind of approach one takes when mixing and mastering hip hop, which differs, I'll show kind of a pop example next just so one can see the difference. 21. Applied Mixing & Mastering : Hip Hop: Okay. So now let's talk about some practical real world examples of mixing and mastering. I've got here a song because there are different approaches and emphasis areas depending on the genre of the song that you'd be mixing or mastering. So this one is a straight hip hop song from an artist here in Listo called Pi. PII GH called Sibata. So with a song like this, which is kind of hip hop based, you're mainly when you're mixing and you're mastering, focusing on the low end primarily. You're focusing on wanting the bass and the kick, you know, and the drums to really hit hard because that's ultimately what, hip hop really is all about. I just want to play. This is just about mixed already, but I just wanted you to hear the emphasis in the mixing on what we were trying to get out. Okay, so I don't make sense with people here. This is just mixed. I've not added mastering. H ya. Hi, you do ya. Hi, do crazy. I talk to myself. You ain't the same. You ain't the same. I was burn from the fibbed love in my heart Cube but never felt for the las they pre third I opus inside could see like for the water appropriate for all of the highs, some of the low, keeping humility closed and trying to be chose. Leave them flow my enemy's clothes. I give them a dose of the smoke I'm code. They need me a no. They're living that petty little life need them a ****** their head. They're making them wail at the gym. They want me to lose. Okay, so the main thing if you listen is the bass and the kick drum. It's kind of bottom heavy. That's really what the artist wanted. While the voices are important, the main thing is the groove. But, you know, the principles were really just the same. Let's say the lead voice, removing the low frequencies of the lead voice so it doesn't sound mighty. A compressor. Okay, no. In fact, this was an EQ. This area here was where there were some rumbly frequencies that we removed by EQ. Then the compressor. In fact, let me play it. Don't make sense here. Crazy I talk to myself. You ain't the same. You ain't the same. I was born for of love and my HecuPp. I never feel. Yes, this is a bit too much in terms of It's crazy I talked to myself. Wint s you ain't the blame. I was burnfront the Fabo PH of love in my HecuPp. I never felt for the f they prethird Aber Opus inside I can see been craving life for the water broken for all of their eyes. So the It's crazy I talked to myself. Wint s you ain't the blame. I was burnfront the fab Bella love and Peep, never felt with the late pre third, Albert Opus inside C been craving life for the water broker for. It's crazy I talking to myself. Want San, you ain't the blame. I was burned front of the fab k of love in my heart c peep. I never felt for the late pre third, Albert Opus Isc been craving life for the water broker for all of their high. So the compression would be good round about that point. And then It's crazy talking to myself. Want San, you ain't the blame. I was born front of the fab pH of love in my heart peep. I never felt for the the pre third. Albert Opus inside C been craving life for the water broker for all of their highs some of the low so I'm just fixing the compression here. It's crazy I talking to myself. Ain't the same you ain't the blame. I was burned front the fiber Bee of love in my hercu weep. I never felt with the the bre third. I've been opus inside seeping craving for the water appropriate for all of the highs and some of the lows, keeping humility closed and trying to be chosen. I leave the floor My enemy's clothes. I give them a dose of pop and smoke, I'm helping them cope. They need me. I know. They're living that petty little life just It's crazy I talking to myself. We ain't the same you ain't the blame. I was burn front the fibbed love in my hercuep but never felt with the the Breath open inside could see them craving life for the water broker for all of their highs, some of the low keeping humility closed and trying to be season floor my enemies clothes. I give them a dose of the poten smoke. I'm helping them cope. They need me. I know. Petty little life smoke. Like for the water for all of their highs, some of the low, keeping humility close. Like for the water for all of the highs, some of the low keeping humility close and trying to be los leave the floor my enemy's close. I give them a dose of the pot smoke. I'm helping them coat. They need me, I know. They're living that petty little life, just need them a ****** their head. I'm making them we like the jump. They want me to lose. Lord. Ain't making no sense. MG This is the chorus. But anyway, yes, uh, but terms of the voices, it's really the rolling off of the frequencies, the cutting out of using EQ in the way that we talked about, the compressor trying to get about I think in this song, it was -3.5 to four of compression. And then making up that compression by increasing the gain here. Then we added fresh air for the clarity that we were speaking about and a DSR for the sibilance frequencies of the Ss. Now, again, the voices are important, but the main thing, the lead voice is important. And the groove is important more than anything else. And then reverb. We added two reverbs there and then delay, and then the That's how we handled the backing voices. We rolled off there and there.G with the cube. And then we used an imager just to kind of widen them to keep to make room for the lead voice. So that's really an example of this here. Now, let's check the mastering. First of all, the final mix in terms of the level is let me just I love and my hc. I never feel for the ode pre third Ilbert opus inside to see you see there around ten. Around minus ten. So, we then increased love and my hk. It's a bit more than minus ten. Late pre third Abu opus inside you've been craving, like for the water broker for all of the highs and some of the lows keeping humility closed and trying to be chosy. It would. Okay. So now the mastering, moving on to the mastering, actually 22. Applied Automation of Creative Effects & Volume: Okay, so we're now going to talk about some kind of advanced, not really advanced, but just little things you can do. I did refer to some of them in some of the earlier videos, but, you know, just little tricks to kind of liven up your mix and make it more dynamic. The first thing I want to talk about is automation. Automation basically refers to when we did talk about it earlier when it came to effects, but when you are able to adjust certain parameters like let's say volume or panning in the course of a song in order to do something dynamically to your mix. So I'm going to give you an example of automation and volume on the track that I was using of mine that's not really mixed, but this should give a good example here. We're using these are the background vocals of the song. Let me just play them as is. Just being stupid wishing on a star. You don't consider that just mabe. Don't want to make it happen to you. Everybody. Everybody has a dream. You heard inside. Don't let it hide, no matter what anyone may tell you. Keep that dream alive. Don't let it die. Keep it alive Al. Hey No. Okay, so let's say you wanted to kind of emphasize the backing voices at the beginning, and then towards the end, they don't really need it, but let's just say you wanted to do that and you wanted to increase the level of the backing voices. You wanted them to become a bit louder at one point and then become softer at another. That's really what automation is. So in ProTools, this is the overall bus of the backing vocals. There are several ways of doing it. I think I'll, uh let me try with this putting in points. So let's say, these are the backing voices of the chorus. Let's say you want to raise them. So we put in a point there. Maybe we put a point there because we want to raise this part, but then we want to kind of lower it there. So, okay, we would you see you're kind of raising it at that point. Hang on. Let's say we wanted to increase it like that. Then after that, we want to make it lower here. Then after that, we get back to whatever the level. This is very, very rough and ready, but you're plotting the increase in volume. So let me just play it so you can hear the idea. De that you're crazy. Just being stupid within on a star. You don't consider that just made. The one to make it happen to you are Everybody has body has a dream. Keeping your heart inside. Don't get it high. No matter what anyone may tell you I dream lie. It does. Keep it alive Al no one said it. Okay, so, yeah, that's an example of automation. We raise the volume up at a certain point. Let me just you can just delete that that way. But they also have another function in ProTools that is a pencil function. So if you could even draw in kind of what you're looking to do. So let's say it was like that. You don't consider I just made it. Don't want to make it happen to you. Everybody has has to keep your heart inside. Don't it hi. No matter what any tell you mean alive. Don't let it di. Keep it alive Ali No one's in. Okay, so that's really an example of automation in terms of volume. There are other parameters that can be automated. So you see how basically with volume, you could turn, you know, automate every channel, every track that you have in your mix, in your DA. Able to turn up or down at different points through automation. So you can kind of keep the dynamics of a song evolving through applying automation to various parameters here and there as the mix is moving as the song is progressing. So that was an example of volume automation. There are many other different parameters that you can that you can automate. There's mute where you can kind of at a particular point. Maybe you want some voices to be quiet and then come back in, using the example of, well, let me let me Honesty You don't consider that just made. The one to make it happen to you ever Buddy, hey, everybody has a dream you B inside. Don't let it hide, no matter what anyone may tell you. Keep the dream alive. Don't let it die. I'm actually, I'm just noticing teaching you talking about panning automation of panning. So let me just kind of finish that example. Panning can be automated. You see there's pan left there. You see there's also pan right. So, uh gave it that. I kind of was penning. Let's say, if we did something like on penning left. In fact, let me use the points thing. Right. This is panning left. Do you see the value there? That is the panning value. So, let's say we did something like that. You don't cons I just made it. The want to make it happen to you. Everybody. Everybody has a dream. You wars. Don't let it hide, no matter what anyone may tell you. Keep the dream alive. Don't let it die. Keep it alive Alive. So I don't know if you it's a bit subtle, but the voice is moved to the right in the stereo spectrum. Initially, when it's up here, it's kind of centered. And then the more you move it this way, down, the more it's moving towards the right. And then once we get kind of down here, this is kind of all the way to the right, and that is all the way to the left. So you can kind of Move things around and play with them. Let's say, we did this, and we want to go left, right, down left again, and up. Oh. People tell you that you're crazy? Just maybe just moving this up. This is very, very messy, but, uh, Right. Just to get an example of how it's moving. Wow. Everybody everybody has a dream in your ward inside. We see that's to the right all the way. Put it hide, no matter what anyone may tell you. Keep that dream alive. Cs back up. Don't let it di. Keep it alive. All right, so that's automation of panning. So you can use that, let's say, your lead voice, maybe one verse or during the chorus, you want it to move from left to right, or you want an effect of a guitar or something that's playing to move from left to right. You're able to apply it to something like that, to give movement to your mix. Effects, we did talk about earlier, but, you know, one can do that with effects. In one of the earlier videos, in fact, I think it was what was it that we were doing the effects on? But I don't remember just off the top of my head, but there was an effect parameter that we were adjusting as the song was going. So you could apply something like a chorus effect. And then increase the level of that chorus effect when it got to a certain point in order to achieve some sort of creative function. I don't know. Let me let me see if I. Just being stupid uitiHesta Maybe I can say. Show you quickly. S. Just being stupiuitonH at. Okay, let's say this was the lead voice and we wanted to apply, I don't know. A, let's say, a chorus effect that we wanted m. Let's say we Let's enable automation there, I think. Rate spread. I'm just adding different things that we can maybe add. Okay, so when we could do something like that, let's say, On the voi on the Easy. Just be stupidit and on ay. You don't consider that just me. The one to make it happens who you are. Okay. So he's in me stupiditon on a stop. You don't think so that just me? The one make happens to you. Now, obviously, that's a very, you see where it says there when I remove it, it contains automation data. Removing it will delete this automation. So that was just an example that one could so something like a reverb or any kind of effect, you can apply automation to it on a specific point or in a specific range to adjust the level of that effect or that modulation. So things like chorus, flanger, and those things that we talked about earlier, or even reverb or any of the other even compression, one can automate that compression to come in at different points. So that really, in essence, is the use of automation in mixing to achieve creative results. So the reason for doing that is we want to create more dynamic and evolving mixes where some of the tools we use to mix come in and out to give the song a sense of like the listener is going on a journey. Maybe the reverb is very little. But when it gets to the chorus, there's a very big effect on the voice or on the backing voices to make it seem very, very big and epic. And then it gets stripped back down after the chorus to maybe less effects that one is trying to kind of have a crescendo and then back down to normal and then another crescendo so you use these techniques to kind of create dynamic movement in your mixes and for them to kind of evolve and take the listener on a journey where they feel like you're telling a story. So, but again, automation, the one piece of advice I would give with it is to be sparing with it and just use it in bits and pieces. In general, the mixing principle of making many, many, many small changes add up to big changes is better than making huge changes, sweeping wide changes at the beginning. So in a nutshell, that's automation. 23. Mastering Techniques: Multiband Compressions: So now we're going to talk about some mastering techniques one can use. This one I'm going to show you. Again, it's just showing you what it does. Then with repetition and practice, putting it on your tracks, you'll see that it's not going to be very difficult to master them. This what we're doing now is called multiband compression. Uh, now, it's on the master channel of a song once it's mixed, and you're mastering. And so it's good in that you're able to process and compress, lightly or heavily, different bands. This is what this is the waves multi maximizer. So these are the bands here. This band across the frequency spectrum here, two, three, four all the way through there. So you are able to process each individual band. You can even move, moving adjusts the thresholds of the different bands there. So again, I'm going to make very extreme moves just so we can hear what's happening. This would be useful if our mix, maybe we find a little too muddy or we want to add we want to process a specific frequency spectrum in it and compress there more than maybe the snare drum comes out too loud, and we want to identify the frequency spectrum where the snare drum is and kind of pull that down a bit. We're able to do that with this kind of plug in. Hi My I I am tired. I see you cry. I see cry. Don't think I God. I am your father to watch for you. I will be there for you. I am your guy Okay. In the example this extreme example, as I said, I really pulled down so the compressior is really coming into play and pulling down and taming the frequencies in the low end. And then I increased more towards the higher parts of the spectrum of the EQ frequency spectrum to sort of so it makes it sound much more bright, which a little it's harsh, but just so you can hear the difference, this is before. My Steal be. Don't you forget. Don't you feed? Still there. And then after Steal be you forget. Dog you bee. We can hear it's quite extreme. But this is really designed so you can be much more surgical about instead of compressing the overall song in the same way to kind of glue it together, maybe you want to kind of glue together more the kick the drums and the bass. And so maybe you apply it more there and then make up the gain reduction there such that the bass and the drum sound more solid. Or you find it's a little too bright and you want to tame things a bit, you're able to focus on specific areas rather than compress the entire song with the same rate and the same attack in the same release. Again, with this, you're able to change the attack and the release of the various frequencies. So that is why it's used a lot. So one can really because sometimes in mastering, one is fixing, although we don't wish to do that, fixing problems maybe that were done in the mixing phase. So that is why something like a multiband compressor can really be helpful. But 24. Mastering Using a reference track: Okay, so now we're going to talk about mastering using a reference track. And the simplest way to kind of show you which normally, what that means basically is a song that you like that has been mixed and mastered well. You bring it into the Dow or into the plug in you're using, and then try and master to match that song. So for this example, I decided using the same song that we've been using I decided to take a song from Hills. In fact, let me bring it into the dog so we can play it easier. And then, see, so let me import Right. So the song is what a beautiful hang on, let me just let's just get it in and then right. So the song is What a beautiful name by Hill Song Worship. So let me just solo it for a bit. So the game Wow good post. Basically, I thought that the song the Alejandra song is similar in vibe to it. So let's didn't want to heaven with her. Jesus He was great Christa. What a wonderful name. What wonderful J J moving a bi into the song. Right. So, um, we can hear. It's a mastered song, though it was a live recording. So now, Alejandra. Still there. Still. B. Don't you scare. Don't you be. So here is ozone ten. I've put it in. So now, if we want to this is the function, this is the assistant, so it's actually a bit of AI that's used. There you see it says waiting for audio. A still there. Still B. Don't you Don't you be dispas So it's actually the assistant has kind of done a bass tone and mastering match for Alejandra. So now, if we were to go to, I've already put this song in already. So I've put the wave in. It's comparing it. And then now it's approximating it. I still there. Steal B. Don't you forget. Don't you be dismayed. I'll still there. Still bee. Don't you forget. Don't you feed. I still there. Stay on a bee. No. To be. Today, today today. This is Today today. That's now with ozone completely bypassed. So, as you can see, I kind kind of approximates. I'm still there. Still Hey. Don't you scare to be sap. I'll still there Steal Don't you forget. Don't you beat steal this. Now, it isn't a perfect match, but at least it gets it in the ballpark. Then one could then go here and then adjust you know, the equalizer. I think it the low end could come up a bit. Um Oh, steal it. Steal it. And then the imager, it kind of focused on the higher frequencies here to raise them as it's approximating the reference track. And then the maximizer you see there, the learn threshold. LUF lfs and the threshold here and the ceiling. So it's a beginning point to really get it in the ballpark. And you can even if you don't use the reference, it's got different genres of music here. You can. Let's say you wanted to say pop. So it. Country. I still there. Steal LB. Don't you care. So the other cool thing you can do then when you go back here. I still there. Steal. We can add this reference even if we weren't doing the assistant. So it's now loaded it. So we could go to say this part of the song. I've solded. Right. And then I'm still there. Steal me. Don't you care. Don't you be a snake. Don't you and Dodger feeders are still there. So you can use a reference track, especially with a mastering program like ozone. And with AI getting increasingly better and better, the AI functions in the mastering are very, very good. You can you know, this is ozone ten, but even in the later versions, you can import an audio track of a song that you think is perfectly mastered and perfectly mixed. And then, once you're done with your mixing, just put it on the master channel and tell ozone to match it as closely as possible to that, and it will definitely it will do that. And it will get very close, where then I'm not saying use it just as is, but then you can go back and, you know, manipulate the EQ or the imager, or whatever else you're doing to kind of approximate what it is that you're looking to do. So really, I would recommend ozone ten as a good starting point. It's got a lot of presets for mastering that are already very close to what you would want to be looking for that you would just need to manipulate some of the controls to get a more refined sound closer to what you're looking for. But it's a very, very good start. And again, with the AI tools that are out there, and you can really choose be specific about the reference tracks you're trying to choose and really put together a really good master. H. 25. Applied Procesing: Finalizing, Exporting, Streaming & Distribution: Now we're at the point of being ready. We've now mixed, we've mastered, and we're going to talk a bit about exporting and finalizing your tracks now once you're finished the mixing and mastering, what that process kind of looks like. So I have a track here from an artist a well known artist in this region here in Listo where I am. His name is Juvi. His full name is Juvii Le Pin par. But people call him Juvi, and this is a duet he did with a lady named Mepleo Siema. So the song, he mixed it, and then he sent it to me to master. So I'm just gonna play a bit of it. This is the original. Tati. My lady. I really want to make you my may, my swee, my baby. But go to push day. Boys are booking L little baby. Thea message. So just one quick thing to look at the unmastered version. You see how he left headroom cha cha. The master channel, the level is roundabout. The loudest is about minus seven DB. So now with the mastering, I added a virtual tape machine for added warmth. I added an overall compressor on the master bus, and SSL compressor to kind of glue things together. He didn't like the high end. He thought it was a little too bright. So I added an EQ as well on the master channel to remove high frequencies. Very, very high frequency, so it doesn't sound too harsh. And then a mastering plugin called F GX two from slate. So on the warm preset, which will then adjust. With all that in a Hi, Dad. My lady. I really want to make it my may, my sweet, my baby. La push days a booking day Le Unmaster. Dana Masa coposaaKsan my Masa Okay, so, number one, we talked about ufs before. For streaming platforms like Spotify and the like, it needs to be roundabout -14. So a agai daddy. My lady. I really want to make it my may, my sweet, my baby. I got to push taps a ppi Zibi little baby. Das, go postachsan Right. So, the level in terms of loudness is about where it needs to be for streaming platforms. So, once I put in the plug in, to Hi, dad My lady. I really want to make you my baby, my sweet my baby. I adjusted the gain to turn it up a bit till about that 4.5 mark. So okay, now let's take that we're done. We're happy with the mastered song. What has to happen now is it needs to be exported. Now, we are now exporting the stereo mix of the song. Exporting it just means writing the format that it's going to be in. So, uh I'm not doing things like putting in a fade at this point, but normally, that's what one would look to do. In fact, maybe let's just do that quickly. It's about 4:10. So let's say around 4 minutes, the song starts fading. So in Pro Tools, I kind of on the master channel, create a fade. Okay. So I pointed I marked that round about the 127 mark, the song is finished, and it starts at bar one. So we're now exporting from bar one to bar 127. What we're doing now is exporting the stereo mix. So, um, now let's talk a bit about the settings here. When you export for streaming platforms, your bit depth, which is here, you will want it to be a minimum of 24 and the sample rate around about 44.1 at the lowest setting, it could even be 48, you know, depending on the streaming platform, but these are kind of the levels ideally you would want to have. This is for streaming, streaming platforms and digital any other digital media. If you're looking at something like physical media like a CD, your bit depth needs to be 16. And this is for Pro Tools, but any DA Logic Audio, FL Studio, Ableton, all of them, there is as you're exporting or bouncing a mix, they call it bouncing. There will be a parameter where you can change the bit depth, where you can change the sample rate. So this is just for Pro Tools, but for whatever Dar you're using, you'll be able to do that. So, right, we let's say this was for a streaming platform, and we've put it to 24 and 44.1. With Pro Tools, you can also add an MP three. Let me just show there. The bit rate, ideally for an MP three for listening is 320, if you see there kilobits, yeah. So, um, I will for ease of reference, let me say the location is the desktop for now, but you'll be able to bounce it anywhere you want. I'm putting offline bounce, which just for time's sake, but normally you would, if you can, bounce in real time. That enables you to hear any sort of clipping or any problem with the audio file. So that's it. And the format itself a wave file. So that's it. We would put bounce. Okay, and it's bouncing. So it's now routing through this Master channel with all of these plugins that I've put to master. So when it's done, we'll just check it, and then, you know, that's the stereo mix, which would be the mastered file that you're delivering. Almost there. Almost. Okay, good. So let's go. I bounced it to the desktop. So here it is. It bounced in an MP three listening version and this wave copy. So let's just play that I a book L. Checking. Right. I was just checking that it fades properly. Again, this is an offline bounce, but normally you would aim to do it online or real time, if you're then going to be submitting to digital platforms. The MP three as well. So that's the process of exporting stereo mix. Now, there is what is called stems, which one can also export, which mastering engineers, do use. So with stems, let's take let's imagine here, this song was mixed. So, let's say, it had ten tracks, and there were vocals, beat, bass and instruments. Exporting stems just means you would be exporting the individual instruments with the effects like your vocals, maybe lead vocal is one stem, which is by stem, I mean a stereople. And then backing voices mixed. You would solo that and export just those voices, drums. You would solo the drums and export those drums. So you would have maybe drums, bass, keyboards, strings, lead voices, backing voices, maybe about six to seven different stereo tracks that you export. And then those would be called stems. And the reason they're exported like that is to be able to remix the music down the line, maybe the vocal stereople of lead vocal and backing vocals is exported, and then they're sent to another person to redo another beat and another melody entirely. You'll see with songs that are released, many times they're remixes and things like that that have those that process of remixing starts from exporting stereo stems. So that is the other delivery it's either waves, like a full stereo mix or stems. Or many times both that you would export to send to a client. So that's really it, really. In terms of if this were for a physical CD or something, the process would be the exact same way except the bit depth, you would change there to 16 bit. The sample rate there, you'd leave at 44.1 and then bounce again. And that would be for a CD kind of mix. And in your mastering, the mastering level that we're looking at the fs level is roughly about -14 for streaming platforms. So with this, then, metadata is also there, which you can metadata really is things like the artist name, the title of the song, the year and the genre that you kind of include in the file. Like, let's say in an MP three that you're sending someone, it has all of that information embedded, as well as the album artwork embedded onto the file when somebody clicks on it. So that's metadata, which is also something that many times, especially when you're sending to streaming platforms and the like, you embed. There are other software packages that one can use to do that in terms of embedding your metadata into the track. It's easy enough if you type on YouTube or anything, embed MP three file or embed WayFle. I will give you there are a couple of free software things out there that you can use. Example, I think VLC works to do that for if I'm not mistaken, for wave files, even for video files. So you can embed your data where you have your name, the song title, et cetera, in the file. So that in a nutshell is the overall overview of exporting and finalizing your tracks once you've mixed and mastered them. 26. Class Project: Your class project, I'd like you to take everything you've learned, all the concepts you've learned in this course, and apply them to mix and master your own musical composition or production, record it in your own Da of choice, and then send it over to me for me to be able to give you feedback.