60 TIPS TO HELP YOU GET BETTER SOUNDING MIXES © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 1 of 66 CONTENTS Introduction 4 Polarity vs Phase Explained 5 Small Home Studio Ideal Monitoring Volume 6 Soft Clippers & Hard Clippers Explained 7 Super-Efficient Progress Tip 8 Mixing For Small Speakers 9 Start Your Mix in Mono 10 How to Get Intimate Ambience in Vocals 11 Skills Audio Engineers Students Need 12 Volume Vs Gain: Loudness Explained 13 How To EQ Vocals 14 3 Ways To Ensure Your Mix Sounds Great 15 Learn From The Pros #1 16 Top 3 Techniques For Mixing Background Vocals 17 What To Listen For When Using Reference Tracks 18 Top 3 Pitch Correction Tools & When To Use Them 19 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Mixing Samples 20 Here’s Why Your Mix Sounds Bad in The Car 21 4 Ways To Achieve a Professional Mix Using Panning 22 How To Create a Great Sounding Track Using EQs 23 Learn From The Pros #2 24 How To Choose The Right Microphone For Your Voice 25 Why True Peak Matters 26 The Right Way To Side Chain Audio Signals 27 4 Ways To Make Vocals Clear and Professional 28 How To Master to an Exact True Peak 29 How To Make Your Beats Loud Without Distortion 30 3 Ways to Make Your Kicks and Snares Cut Through The Mix31 Bohemian Rhapsody Structure 32 Mixing Foo Fighters Guitars 33 Compressor Explained: Soft and Hard Knee 34 Learn From The Pros #3 35 How To De-es Vocals Properly 36 Frequency Spectrum Division 37 © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 2 of 66 What is 32 Bit Floating 38 Add Tremolo Before Your Reverb For a Unique Space 39 Automate 40 Top-end Balance 41 Open Back Headphones vs Closed Back Headphones 42 How To Set The Perfect Vocal Level in Your Mix 43 Build Your Mix in Mono For a Solid Foundation 44 Stem or Stereo Mastering? 45 Layer Your Synths to Sound More Unique, Not More ‘Full’. 46 Start With the Important Things 47 Try Adding a Dynamic EQ Before Your Reverb to Smooth Out the Sounds 48 Bass Space With Levels 49 What ‘Attack’ Means in a Compressor 50 What ‘Release’ Means in a Compressor 51 What ‘Knee’ Means in an Expander 52 3 Ways To Fix Your Muddy Mix 53 Mastering For Apple Music 54 Use Stereo Width to Reduce Masking 55 Dealing With Rejection 56 Which Compressor Gives A Great Final Glue to Your Mix? 57 What Does the Threshold on an Expander do? 58 What is the Difference Between: FIR and IIR Filters 59 Why Level Matching is so Important 60 The Importance of Creating a Well Balanced Mix 61 What is the difference between: FIR and IIR Filters⠀ 61 What is Harmonic Distortion? 62 How To Set The Perfect Monitoring Levels For Your Home Studio What is Sample Rate? 64 What is Loudness Range? 65 © Mastering The Mix 2019 63 Page 3 of 66 Introduction Hello! Thank you for downloading this eBook! I hope you get inspired with some fresh new ideas to inject into your music productions. Mastering The Mix’s single driving goal is to help music producers get better sounding mixes. We do this primarily through free education. We’ve been posting content on our social media channels daily for over a year now and we intend to keep the posts coming. If you want to join the 188,000+ producers that are getting these tips, you can follow us here: https://www.instagram.com/masteringthemix Some of the posts involve our plugins, which also come with educational guides. You can download the free trials here. Enjoy, and get your music sounding better than ever! Tom Frampton Director Mastering The Mix © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 4 of 66 Polarity Vs Phase Explained 'Changing The Phase' and ‘Reversing The Polarity are terms that are commonly confused by beginners and pros alike. They do not describe the same process. The polarity is the signal’s position above or below the median line. Flipping the polarity inverts the positive readings to negative and vice versa. Phase is related to the delay or change in time of an audio signal. The phase of a signal, relative to the starting point, is expressed in degrees. A 90° phase shift, is a quarter of a wavelength. It follows that a 180° phase shift is a half-wavelength and a 360° phase shift is a full wavelength. How is this is applicable in music production? If you were recording a bass guitar DI AND a bass amp, the DI signal would hit the DAW quicker because the amp takes longer to recreate the input signal. This can cause the time alignment of audio to be out of phase In a separate circumstance, if the DI signal was duplicated and one of the signals had its polarity reversed, the two signals will cancel each other out and you would hear no sound. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 5 of 66 Small Home Studio Ideal Monitoring Volume 'We hear frequencies differently at various volume levels. We hear less bass when it's quieter, and more bass when it's louder. Keep that in mind when mixing and mastering. 85dB SPL is a common suggestion for monitoring level, but this is for larger spaces. Most home studios are smaller than 142 cubic meters, so 73-76dB SPL C is a more appropriate target (reference pink noise @ -20dB) © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 6 of 66 Soft Clippers & Hard Clippers Explained There are several types of clipping plugins available, many with similar controls and others with additional features. However, there are two distinct styles of clipping: soft clipping and hard clipping. These two styles are used to describe how aggressive the waveform peaks are being clipped and the amount of distortion that occurs. Soft clipping is less aggressive in that it reduces the peaks gradually rather than cutting them off by gently transitioning between the unclipped section of the waveform and the clipped section. Soft clipping begins to reduce the peaks before the threshold level and then progressively increases its effect as the input level increases so that the threshold is never exceeded. Soft clipping is less harsh than hard clipping and is known for adding warmer harmonic distortion. It also provides a smoother, more “musical” sounding distortion that retains more punch. Hard clipping introduces a more aggressive distortion effect. It functions like a limiter by chopping off the peaks at a set threshold rather than smoothly reducing them. Excessive use of hard clipping creates a harsh distortion that is often unpleasant when pushed to greater amounts. Hard clipping also provides the highest apparent loudness. However, the heavy distortion is known to reduce low bass frequencies and punch. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 7 of 66 Super-Efficient Progress Tip Coming back to a session with fresh ears? Want to make fast progress? (You should!)⠀ That first listen when you sit back in your chair is golden, treat it with respect. Listen to your whole track from start to finish (no pausing) jotting down notes as you go.⠀ You'll get a fresh perspective as well as digesting the track as a whole. Any problems will stick out (note them down).⠀ You'll now have a to-do list that will iron out the majority of the main issues in your production. This process is so much faster and more effective and musical than sitting down, listening to the chorus, pausing, going to the verse etc.⠀ Try repeating that process until your track is done!⠀ © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 8 of 66 Mixing for Small Speakers Pro Tip: If you choose to use the EQ technique, save the eq setting as a preset so you can work quicker in future. To take this technique further, sum your mix bus to mono. This will simulate the experience of listening on an iPhone or in a grocery store. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 9 of 66 Start Your Mix in Mono Even if you just try this technique once as an exercise, it’s worth doing. It might change the way you approach mixing. Whatever your workflow entails, having a grasp of phase issues and how to deal with them gives you a lot more control over the mixing process. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 10 of 66 How To Get Intimate Ambience in Vocals A plugin like Abbey Road Chambers offers lots of small spaces. You can use H-Delay or any other delay plugin to set up a slap delay to create a subtle atmospheric feel on your vocal tracks. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 11 of 66 Skills Audio Engineers Students Need Take Notes! As an assistant, the lead engineer is going to depend on you to take notes of settings and organization of the session. Most things have full recall now, but there are still some parts of a session that may not (like patch bays, and vintage gear) so you should be the one to take detailed notes of where things are so that you can easily recreate the session when the need arrives. Gain staging is a skill you need, especially when digital clipping is so unattractive to the ear. Knowing how to feed your pre-amps and your recording mechanisms with sufficient signal ratio is something you want to be sure to understand, but in most recordings, these days signal ratios are sufficient enough where you don't have to constantly worry about recording "hot". Working with analog outboard gear (where noise is often added in today's recording) is where this skill comes in handy most. Assistants and interns are usually the first people in the room for a session so you want to always remember how to set up a session, how to get signal from your mics to your board/DAW, and how to make sure all of your equipment is patched into your session engineer’s specifications. In turn, you also want to know how to break down a session by yourself, roll cables, put up the mics correctly, and turn down your monitors before you turn off your amps so you don’t blowout all or a portion of your monitors. There will always be problems, so a way to be a big part of a session is to be logical and efficient while troubleshooting. Knowing how to trace your signal, and find where the problems are occurring is an often-overlooked skill, but a vital one. If you aren’t getting signal from the guitar cab in the overdub booth you need to know how to trace your signal flow and determine if the patching is wrong, if the cables are shorted or if you are bringing in the right channels e.t.c. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 12 of 66 Volume Vs Gain: Loudness Explained The loudness of an instrument AFTER processing doesn’t change the tone of the sound. But BEFORE processing, it definitely will. This is the concept around distortion. For instance, to distort a guitar sound, all you have to do is overload the guitar amp with gain because the speakers can't process the guitar cleanly. causing distortion. This same technique also applies to your mixes. If the gain of your sounds are too hot, it will start to distort within your plugins when you begin mixing. This is you should never underestimate gain staging. It is a very important factor to consider if you want great mixes! © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 13 of 66 How to EQ Vocals If you want the vocals to sound warmer, cut the highs rather than boosting the lows. You should always cut to make something sound better, and boost to make something sound different.Then boost later to give your vocal a slightly different character if you want. It’s always good practice to apply your cuts before compression and your boosts after. Most voices are centered between 120-250Hz. This means that, in most cases, everything below 50Hz is rumble and noise. Cut it off if you don't have an extremely low voice. A wide, gentle boost between 2-6kHz can improve clarity. If your vocal recording sounds muffled or a bit too warm, try applying a wide boost of 2-3dB between 2kHz and 6kHz. Remember to boost after compression. On the flip side, if the vocals sound harsh, try reducing these frequencies. Most instruments are centered around 250-350Hz, If there are vocal tracks in the mix, it would cause buildup in these frequencies.Try a cut of 3-5dB around 300Hz. But be careful, this will only work on vocals that already sound full. If the vocal sounds thin, cutting around 300Hz will only make it sound worse! If you have a muddy mix but the vocals can’t afford to lose anything around 300Hz, cut the other instruments around this frequency instead. Learn more about mixing vocals here: https://www.masteringthemix.com/blogs/learn/mixingvocals © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 14 of 66 3 Ways to Ensure Your Mix Sounds Great 1. The main problem is in the room itself. Treating a room is not extremely expensive. Simply placing effective sound absorption at key reflection points will make a significant difference in the accuracy of your monitoring. 2. In addition to your primary monitors, get a set of reference speakers. This could really be anything — big speakers that bring out the lows, small speakers that emphasize midrange, or even headphones. The idea here is to have a secondary listening system that changes your perspective. 3. Listening to records you like the balance of and taking note of what’s emphasised and what’s deficient should clue you in on your own system. Switching between how your mixes sound on your system versus how they sound over at a friend’s system and in the car can also be illuminating. Being consciously aware of how your system is skewing the sound will help you adjust accordingly. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 15 of 66 Learn From the Pros #1 "A big mistake new audio engineers make is thinking this job is easy. Just because you look at tutorials and tips online doesn't mean you are a professional. It's like playing Call of Duty and assuming you have all it takes to go to war. You have to practice! Dedicate your time and effort into mastering your craft". - Wavy Wayne © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 16 of 66 Top 3 Techniques for Mixing Background Vocals 1. When a vocal track is intended to be a layer of the lead vocal track (like a double or simple parallel harmony), the layered effect is more easily achieved without stereo separation. Try limiting the bandwidth of the background vocal track(s) with high-pass filtering, or limiting the articulation dynamics of the background vocal track(s) with de-essing (even if there aren't too sibilant) 2. The goal with this type of background vocal technique is to create a stereo instrument that is clearly distinguished from the centered lead vocal content. Try a static 80-110ms slap-back delay panned left to provide symmetry for the right-panned background vocal elements. Be sure to vary the delay time for the complementary right-panned delay by at least 10%. 3. The objective is to get a group of individual audio tracks to behave as a single instrument. Group processing is a simple and effective way to achieve this. For Instance, A stereo-linked compressor across a background vocal subgroup will help create both dynamic and tonal homogeny within the group. Processing the constituent tracks individually can’t provide the same effect. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 17 of 66 What To Listen for When Using Reference Tracks For a deep understanding of how to use reference tracks check this out: https:// www.masteringthemix.com/products/reference © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 18 of 66 Top 3 Pitch Correction Tools & When To Use Them 1. Antares Autotune: If you know how to identify pitch and scale, you can make autotune work for you when mixing. Set the retune speed to the fastest possible value, and set the tracking to “choosy” and you’ve instantly got a recognizable, “hyper tuned” effect. 2. Celemony Melodyne: Melodyne is a magical piece of software. Use it to correct the pitch of a vocal performance without making it sound like it has been tuned. You can do some creative things with Melodyne, but it works best for subtle massaging of vocal performances. 3. Soundtoys Little AlterBoy: Use Little AlterBoy for hard-tuning effects, and take advantage of the formant, drive and different modes to achieve different flavors, depending on what the vocal needs. It is one of the most fun, creative and versatile plugins for mixing and tuning vocals. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 19 of 66 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Mixing Samples A common mistake with using pre-processed samples is choosing one with reverb and delay. In some cases, it’s possible to reduce the delay and reverb effect by using a noise gate of your choice, but it’s difficult to completely remove this type of processing from a sample. Just avoid it © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 20 of 66 Here’s Why Your Mix Sounds Bad in the Car Your mix won't translate until you’re familiar with your room, your room is treated, and you know your monitors well. Do NOT attempt to purchase expensive monitors before putting up any treatment in your studio. Room treatment is ALWAYS more important than expensive monitors. If you aren’t hearing your expensive speakers properly, there is no point in having them. Read more here: https://www.masteringthemix.com/blogs/learn/why-does-my-mix-sound-liketrash-in-my-car © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 21 of 66 4 Ways To Achieve a Professional Mix Using Panning The center of your stereo image needs to be your core. The best way to give your mix a solid core is to keep lower frequency sounds in the center. That means kicks, basses and anything else below the 120hz range. Automated panning will let certain sounds move across the stereo spectrum through out your track. This is great for music layering and getting sound with more movement because the implied space that panning automation creates highlights all the width you’ve created in your mix. Hard panning is a good place to start when you want a wide mix. Try some hard-pans to give your mix instant space and room to breathe. But once you understand where everything is sitting, you can experiment with the other space. Check your pans on headphones. Monitors will give you an idea of how your pans are sitting. But any sound in an open room will leak into both ears. Get a sense of where each part is and try to see your mix as an entire sonic image. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 22 of 66 How To Create a Great Sounding Track Using EQs Instruments that have a higher fundamental, will also contain information in the lower frequencies as well. The lower frequencies that these sounds contain may be muddying up your lows. Performing a simple high pass will give your bass sounds more room to punch. Instead of performing specific cuts or boosts, use the high and low pass filters will remove unneeded frequencies on a broader scale. When you want to find problems that exist within a track in your mix, EQ sweeps is the solution. When you are applying this technique, Make sure you stay focused on the problem you’re trying to cut. Boosting the gain in any area will make parts sound less than ideal. Don’t cut everything that sounds bad automatically. Stick to pinpointing one specific fix at a time. Keep your bandwidth narrow for cuts. Remember that a cut is removing information from your audio, so the wider your bandwidth (Q), the more character you’re removing from a sound. Only cut what you need to. As a rule of thumb try to keep your cuts no more drastic than 3dB. Anything more can be a little heavy-handed. But, as always, there are no real 'rules' and it’s always the taster’s choice. Try wide bandwidths for boosts. Boosting with a narrow bandwidth can make frequencies stick out like a sore thumb in the mix. A wider bandwidth (Q) helps to make your boosts a bit more natural to the ear. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 23 of 66 Learn From the Pros #2 “As an audio engineer, always remember that the artist’s vision is the first priority. Don’t let your ego get you to the point where you don’t want your name on a track because it wasn’t mixed the way you wanted.” - Lu Diaz © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 24 of 66 How To Choose the Right Microphone for Your Voice Matching a microphone to your voice is a great place to start. Your microphone choice affects the way your voice sounds. They add color to their input signals. Find the right mic that fits and complements your voice. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 25 of 66 Why True Peak Matters The true peak reading shows the peak of an audio’s waveform as it will be heard through speakers. When monitoring the peak of audio, most people use the output meter in their digital audio workstation (DAW). In most DAWs, this is a ‘sample peak programme meter’ and only shows you the maximum sample peak value. However, when any digital audio file is played through analog speakers, a conversion takes place that often increases the peak. During this digital to analog conversion, the stepped digital audio samples are rounded off to give us a natural listening experience. Consumer speakers as found in laptops and cheap earbuds can’t handle peaks close to 0dB well and the conversion causes clipping. This can give the audio a distorted sound. The best practice to avoid this is to master music to a maximum peak of -1dBTP. This gives plenty of room for conversions that happen before the music reaches its audience. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 26 of 66 The Right Way To Side Chain Audio Signals If you are tweaking the ADSR knobs and you cannot hear a significant difference, check to see that you have turned down the threshold. Listen to how the sidechain reduction would affect the bounce of the song. Remember, less is more! When turning up the threshold knob, let the applied effect be subtle enough for it to make a difference. Too much dynamics would destroy the stability of the mix © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 27 of 66 4 Ways to Make Vocals Clear and Professional 1. For a modern sound, the dynamics of vocals need to be consistent. Every word and syllable should be at roughly the same level (allowing for human expression). Use automation to manually level out the vocal before compression. 2. Your lead vocals need to be upfront and in-your-face. Applying reverb to the vocal can push the vocal further back in the mix. Instead, use a stereo slapback delay to create a space around the vocal and add some stereo width. Use low feedback (0-10%) and slightly different times on the left and right sides. Delay times between 50-200ms work great. 3. Sometimes EQ alone isn’t enough to enhance the top-end. By applying light saturation, you can create new harmonics and add more excitement. 4. If you’re recording in a room that’s less than ideal, room resonances can quickly build up. Find these resonances using the boost-and-sweep technique and then remove them with a narrow cut. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 28 of 66 How to Master to an Exact True Peak There is a relationship between LU (loudness units) and dB (decibels) that gives an easy formula to help you hit your target levels with precision. To put it simply, 1 LU = 1 dB. So if your master has a reading of -12.3 LUFS int (integrated), and your target is -14 LUFS int, then you would need to reduce the gain of the master by the difference, so 1.7dB (-12.3 + -1.7 = -14). I would recommend reducing a plugin on your master chain that increases gain by this amount (1.7 in this case), such as the gain on your limiter. If your master was too quiet with a reading of -20.1 LUFS int, you would need to increase the gain by 6.1dB to hit -14LUFS int. Note: The LUFS:dB relationship becomes less consistent as the loudness increases. A 1dB gain increase of a track measuring -7 LUFS int might give you an increase of around 0.5 LUFS Int. At this loudness, the limiter reacts less transparently to the audio. It’s not always necessary to hit your targets with this kind of precision, but knowing the formula gives you a greater mastery over your music and may help you be more efficient in the studio. Learn more: https://www.masteringthemix.com/blogs/learn/how-to-master-music-to-get-anexact-true-peak-and-lufs-reading © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 29 of 66 How To Make Your Beats Loud Without Distortion If the beats you upload online are not as loud as your competition, gain staging might be your problem. You make beats louder by keeping the levels well balanced and moderate when you mix. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 30 of 66 3 Ways To Make Your Kicks and Snares Cut Through the Mix In a lot of the songs produced by the pros that you hear, the drums just cut through the mix. This is because they use Transient Shaping & Sidechaining to make sounds compliment each other. It is an art, and like all art, there are a few things you need to understand if you want to apply this technique in your project. If you choose to use compressors for sidechaining, turn the threshold down. This is extreme but important. Next, figure out how much attack and release you need first, then readjust the threshold to taste. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 31 of 66 Bohemian Rhapsody Structure The instrumentation remains consistent with Queens classic line up, Freddie Mercury singing and playing piano, Brian May on guitar and backing vocals, John Deacon on Bass, and Roger Taylor on drums and backing vocals. While the guitar has over-dubs and doubled parts to give the song a thicker sound, it’s the rich vocal harmonies that provide the sense of an epic and grand arrangement. ⠀ Below we can see where the different instruments enter the mix to create different sonic textures for each passage. Notice the sparse instrumentation of the intro and outro and the dense arrangement during the guitar solo and rock section.⠀ ⠀ Creating a single cohesive piece of music out of dramatically different melodies and tempos points to influences from the symphonies of Beethoven and the operas of Mozart. Mercury said in an interview in 1985, "It was basically three songs that I wanted to put out and I just put the three together.” ⠀ The transitions are masterful and seamless, keeping the flow of the music through intelligent use of dynamic performance. For example, the ballad builds it’s intensity as it gets closer to the guitar solo. The guitar solo stops abruptly to introduce the opera which is in keeping with the dynamic changes of that section. The opera becomes denser as it approaches the rock section, and the tom fill helps connect the two. The rock section gradually winds down as it transitions into the peaceful and sparse outro. Making the transitions flow musically from one section to another helps the sequence and continuity of the song. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 32 of 66 Mixing Foo Fighters Guitars 1. The first stage in getting the guitars to work is to make sure the guitars have slightly different tones. Dave Grohl’s guitar tone is slightly more distorted and has a touch more weight in the low-end in comparisons with Chris Shiflett’s. ⠀ 2. Mixer Rich Costey also applied a different EQ to each guitar to help improve the separation. ⠀ 3. Costey automated gain boosts to the channels when there were melodies that needed to be featured.⠀ 4. He panned the rhythm guitars hard left and right and the melodic guitars slightly inside them.⠀ Costey used two Urei 1176 compressors on Grohl’s guitar channels, to pump the sound up and give them a more aggressive vibe while barely compressing. He used the Gates Sta-Level compressor on the clean guitar during the intro, with quite a lot of compression and a very slow recovery, plus a 33609 with a very short recovery time on Chris' rhythm guitars. ⠀ He EQed the octave guitars in the final chorus with an API 550a in addition to his console EQ to help them cut through the plethora of other guitar channels already in the mix at that point. Costey tends not to compress distorted guitars very much as he feels it can make the tone of a record overcooked, though he’s ready to break his own rules when if the song calls for it.⠀ © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 33 of 66 Compressor Explained: Soft and Hard Knee In normal or hard knee compression when the signal reaches the threshold the unit immediately begins to compress at whatever ratio is set. In some situations, the compression becomes very easy to hear (which is often not desirable) as the signal amplitude moves above and below the threshold. This is usually made worse when using high compression ratios. The solution is to have the compressor gradually enter into compression at a lower ratio before the signal reaching the threshold. The ratio is gradually ramped up as the signal gets louder until, at some point beyond the threshold, the full compression ratio is reached. This slower onset often makes the compression much more difficult to detect. The process is called “soft knee” because of how the compression ratio looks when plotted on a graph. In normal compression, the knee (which is the point where compression begins) is an abrupt angle (how steep depends on the ratio) whereas in the soft knee it is more of a curve. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 34 of 66 Learn From the Pros #3 “About 80% of my time mixing, I listen with one Auratone speaker, so yes, in mono! Dre always told me that if I could get something to sound amazing on crappy speakers, it’ll sound brilliant on normal speakers. So I try to get a great mix on the Auratone, and then I’ll go to the NS10s” - MixedByAli © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 35 of 66 How to De-Es Vocals Properly The detector is where you choose the frequency that triggers the de-esser to engage, while the suppressor determines which frequency is being ducked. As a general rule of thumb, setting the detector and suppressor to the same frequency is fine. You want to find the frequency that makes sibilance the most noticeable and set your detector and suppressor there. The monitor allows you to solo the frequencies you’re attenuating. In Logic, you can solo the detector, suppressor, or sensitivity. Strength is where you decide how much you want to attenuate the sibilants. As you listen to your looped section, gradually increase the strength. At some point, the sibilants will be too suppressed and the vocalist will start to sound like they have a lisp. Once you’ve found that spot, you’ll want to decrease the strength a little bit © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 36 of 66 Frequency Spectrum Division The reason this image is important for producers has more to do with balance than frequency. Having a professional mix begins with great sound selection. If your sounds have more highend and are lacking low end, that track would sound dull and uninviting to the ear. If you have sounds with too much low-end, the mix would sound muddy. No mid-range sounds? The mix starts to feel empty and lifeless. Master the art of balance, and your music will sound professional. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 37 of 66 What Is 32 Bit Floating Most experienced engineers don’t need to worry about headroom as they probably already know how to make sure levels are never clipping when they aren‘t supposed to be. It is best to work in 32-bit floating all the way through until mastering to avoid any unnecessary conversion artifacts. Once the project is mastered, you can have the mastering engineer convert your audio file to whatever sample and bitrate you need. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 38 of 66 Add Tremolo Before Your Reverb for a Unique Space Experiment with modulation and panning plugins before and after your reverbs to create super-unique spaces.polarity reversed, the two signals will cancel each other out and you would hear no sound. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 39 of 66 Automate A mixing console, whether it’s an analog desk or a window inside your DAW, is your instrument. Riding or automating the faders is where your creativity shines through as an engineer. This is the human element that gives an otherwise electronic process an organic infusion of personal touch. It also plays a functional role in highlighting channels that might otherwise get lost in the mix. If there’s a guitar lick or tom fill that should shine through at a certain point to add value to the song, then the faders should increase during those moments. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 40 of 66 Top-End Balance Understanding whether you need to compress, expand, increase, or decrease your top-end is crucial to avoid a harsh or dull mix. Listen to the high-frequencies of your music and determine if they have the following characteristics (you can use a level matched reference track to help you tune your ears to what the right sound should be). DULL / HARSH / LIFELESS / TOO PUNCHY The above characteristics all have negative effects on your sound and require changes. Below are the solutions to the issues. Issue= DULL | Solution=BOOST Issue= HARSH | Solution=CUT Issue= LIFELESS | Solution=EXPAND Issue= TOO PUNCHY | Solution=COMPRESS © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 41 of 66 Open Back Headphones Vs Closed Back Headphones Whats the difference between 'Open Back' and 'Closed Back' Headphones? Open back headphones allow air to pass through their ear cups to the speaker element. This means that pressure can’t build up and affect your sound, and there aren’t little echoes inside your headphones. What are closed back headphones? Closed back headphones are headphones that are completely sealed around the back, only allowing sound out where it can reach your ear. This means that while your music may not be as natural-sounding as it would on an open backed set of headphones, closed back headphones will block out a lot more outside noise. I use closed back headphones for recording, and open back headphones for mixing and mastering. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 42 of 66 How To Set the Perfect Vocal Level in Your Mix 1. Fire Up REFERENCE followed by LEVELS on your Master Channel. (Free Trial available from the link in our bio). 2. Hit 'Mono' in LEVELS, then use REFERENCE to jump between your track and a reference track using the level match feature for a fair comparison. 3. Adjust your vocal to match the loudness of how the vocal sounds in the reference track. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 43 of 66 Build Your Mix in Mono for a Solid Foundation Building your mix in Mono forces you to carve out proper space for each element in the mix. When everything is in mono the congestion and masking is more obvious, helping you deal with it more effectively. ⠀ Once your mix is working in mono, THEN start panning and widening the mix. ⠀ This workflow will result in great sounding mix with each channel having incredible clarity and space in the mix.⠀ © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 44 of 66 Stem or Stereo Mastering? Do you prefer to stem master, or stereo master?⠀ There are two types of widely accepted mastering practices. The first is stereo mastering. This is where the audio engineer enhances and prepares just one single audio file for commercial release. The second is stem mastering. Stem mastering gives the audio engineer a greater amount of control over the master as the sounds are separated into groups of similar sounds. This allows the engineer to make discreet changes to individual sounds within the mix as well as applying the standard processing of stereo mastering. The goal of both are to get the music sounding as high quality as possible. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 45 of 66 Layer Your Synths to Sound More Unique, Not More ‘Full’. Don't layer only to bulk out the sound. Layering is about creating a unique sound that captured the listeners attention.⠀ Try layering 3 or more sounds to make one chord with the idea of making it sound 'unique' rather than 'huge'.⠀ © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 46 of 66 Start With the Important Things A track needs to start with foundational elements. If making a dance track, it’s unwise to spend time thinking about the mixdown before a foundational groove is laid down. Likewise, if a melodic track is being made, focusing on sound design and complex production tasks is nothing more than a form of procrastination.⠀ It's not that you MUST focus on composition and ignore sound design while doing it. Or that you MUST do all your mixing after composition, sound design and production choices. It's about knowing that great foundations lead to a better final result with less trouble along the way.⠀ Also consider that jumping between creative tasks and logical tasks means that our brain is continually having to stop, switch and regain momentum, only to have to suddenly reconfigure and restart the process again. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 47 of 66 Try Adding a Dynamic EQ Before Your Reverb to Smooth out the Sounds A harsh channel can lead to a harsh sounding EQ. Controlling the over-powering frequencies before the audio hits the reverb can dramatically change the tone and feel of your whole mix. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 48 of 66 Bass Space With Levels BASS SPACE identifies if any channels within your mix are outputting unwanted low frequencies. ⠀ For your kick and bass elements to sound powerful and clear, they need as much space as possible. To use BASS SPACE first mute your kick and bass elements within your DAW. The frequency bars in the central display area will give you a reading at 40Hz, 80Hz 120Hz and 160Hz. They will jump into the upper red half of the circle if there is too much low-end energy. If this is the case you need to identify which channels are outputting the excess low frequencies. Mute the individual channels one at a time until the bars drop into the green to find the culprit and then use a high pass filter to clean up this excess low-end rumble to maximise the clarity and power of your track. Be careful to not remove the material you actually want to hear in your mix.⠀ © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 49 of 66 What ‘Attack’ Means in a Compressor Attack is the amount of time it takes the compressor to react to the incoming signal. If the attack is immediate or super fast, the compressor will catch the transients of your audio material. This can be really useful for when the transients sound a bit sharp. You can use a compressor to make the transient feel a bit blunter, and therefore a bit thicker. If you want to add some leveling to your audio but you want to leave the sharpness of the transients intact, go for a slower attack time. Learn more here: https://www.masteringthemix.com/blogs/learn/how-to-use-compressorswhen-mixing-music © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 50 of 66 What ‘Release’ Means in a Compressor Release is the amount of time it takes for the compressor to return to a non-compressing state. A fast release will mean the compressor will stop compressing quickly after the audio is no longer over the threshold. A slow release will mean it takes longer for the compressor to stop working once the audio is no longer surpassing the threshold. I like to set the release to work rhythmically with the audio that’s being fed into the compressor. For example, If I’m compressing a kick, I will set the release to just long enough that the compressor returns to a neutral state before the audio re-triggers the compressor again. For a more obvious and pumping sound, you might choose to go for a longer release. Learn more here: https://www.masteringthemix.com/blogs/learn/how-to-use-compressorswhen-mixing-music © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 51 of 66 What ‘Knee’ Means in an Expander What is the knee on an expander and how does it affect your audio? A soft knee means the expansion will be applied gradually as the signal approaches the threshold. Hard knee means the expansion will be applied quickly as soon as the audio surpasses the threshold. It's not binary and you can drift between a hard and soft knee to get the expansion reacting differently to your threshold. Focussing on getting a musical sounding knee is a small step you can take to getting your mixes and masters sounding more professional. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 52 of 66 3 Ways to Fix Your Muddy Mix Having too much mono energy will overload the compressors/limiters, especially if a lot of those sounds are stereo and don't necessarily need to be right in the center. When you are blending the bass and kick, be sure to use a narrow Q to cut frequencies. Experiment by side-chaining your reverbs to the kick so the kick can punch through. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 53 of 66 Mastering for Apple Music Apple transcodes the lossless file given to them to AAC (advanced audio codec) at 256kbps. During this transcoding process, the peak of the audio will almost always increase. If you’ve mastered to 0dB using the peak programme meter found on the master channel in your DAW, then your music will be digitally distorting when it’s streamed by Apple Music. You need to leave around -1dBTP (decibels True Peak) of headroom to anticipate this transcoding process. This SUPER SIMPLE step will mean that your music isn’t distorting when it’s reaching listeners. Check out the 15 day free trial of our plugin LEVELS which has a highly accurate true peak meter… 16x oversampling for you nerds. Hit the ‘MFiT [Mastered For iTunes] preset and check your last master to see if it had this issue. Lear more here: https://www.masteringthemix.com/blogs/learn/producing-music-for-applemusic © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 54 of 66 Use Stereo Width To Reduce Masking Masking is when one sound in your mix conflicts with another in a way that impairs it's clarity. This can be constructive or destructive. When it negatively affects your mix you might want to make dynamic, frequency or stereo positioning changes to improve the clarity of the conflicting channels. One effective way to reduce the conflict is to adjust the stereo width of the channels so they aren't occupying the same stereo position. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 55 of 66 Dealing With Rejection Even platinum selling artists receive rejection. There are countless stories of how artists faced a long struggle to get to where they are. Their grit and determination were fundamental for their success.⠀ Rejection, false promises and disappointment are all part of the journey. To overcome adversity we must learn from our failures and try again with an improved perspective.⠀ The greatest songwriters may have one hit for every one hundred songs they write. Don't be disheartened if your writing standard fluctuates. Listen objectively to your music and be brutally honest with yourself. Is this track an excellent display of my musical talents? Could this open new doors for me? Would the songwriting and production impress my favourite artists? If the answer to any of those questions is no, then get back to the drawing board and work hard on whatever you need to improve.⠀ © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 56 of 66 Which Compressor Gives a Great Final Glue to Your Mix? The G series Bus Compressor is an audio production legend…. It is the secret behind countless classic recordings. It is a simple unit with a simple purpose; it makes complete mixes sound bigger, with more power, punch and drive. It brings cohesion and strength to your mix without compromising clarity. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 57 of 66 What Does the Threshold on an Expander Do? Ratio sets the rate of gain increase. The higher the ratio the more extreme the upward expansion. When the ratio is 1:𝑥 for every 1dB of signal over the threshold, the expander will increase the signal by 𝑥dB. So when the ration is 1:2, and the signal is 1dB over the threshold, the expander will increase this to 2dB. So 2dB over the threshold becomes 4dB, 3dB becomes 6dB etc. To give you a ballpark idea, 1:1 is no expansion, 1:2 is light expansion, 1:3 is moderate, 1:4 will be substantial. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 58 of 66 What Is the Difference Between: FIR and IIR Filters Digital filters are limited in that they can only operate on the current sample, past samples or past output samples and then just add multiples of these samples together as a new output sample.⠀ If we just add current and past samples then this is known as a finite impulse response or FIR filter.⠀ If we use the output samples, that is the output of the filter is fed back into the input, then we call these infinite impulse response filters or IIR filters. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 59 of 66 Why Level Matching Is So Important The human ear is easily fooled into believing that louder songs have a fuller low-end and more clarity in the high frequencies. You can try this for yourself; listen to the same song at different volumes and you’ll get the feeling that the bass and clarity is improved with an increase in volume. This is just an effect and the true tonal balance is unchanged by volume adjustments. When working with audio, this is an incredibly important factor to consider. If you have a reference track that has a super-loud integrated loudness measurement of -6 LUFS, and you compare it to your unmastered mix measuring -20 LUFS, it would be a totally unfair comparison. The loud reference would sound amazing and your mix would sound a bit pathetic. With our plugin REFERENCE you can immediately level match all the audio files in your project so your comparisons are fair and objective. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 60 of 66 The Importance of Creating a Well Balanced Mix One of the most challenging aspects of music production is mixing a track to sound well balanced across the frequency spectrum. Having your high-frequencies too loud in the mix will make your track sound harsh. Too much energy in the mid and low-frequencies will make your track sound muddy. Having too little energy in these frequency ranges is equally as problematic. What Is the Difference Between: FIR and IIR Filters⠀ Digital filters are limited in tha Learn more: https://reverb.com/uk/news/how-to-bring-tonal-balance-to-your-mixes © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 61 of 66 What Is Harmonic Distortion? The harmonic content of a signal is what gives a sound it’s timbre. This is what makes strings sound different from a flute. Harmonic distortion adds new harmonics that are musically related to the input signal. This introduction of new harmonics changes the character and timbre of the sound, often resulting in a richer and more charismatic tone. To illustrate this, see how our harmonic distortion plugin IGNITE (A module in our plugin ANIMATE) introduces upper harmonics to a simple sine wave. IGNITE introduces odd-order harmonics which are known for enhancing the grit, and adding a rough edge to audio. This can be compared to the sound of analog tape saturation, which more often than not introduces odd-order harmonics giving the sound added depth and richness. Listeners are drawn to these complex and interesting timbres as opposed to simple and basic sounds. It adds excitement and clarity to audio giving them more sonic information to digest. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 62 of 66 How To Set the Perfect Monitoring Levels for Your Home Studio 1. You first need to decide what digital level you want to mix to. If You’re mastering audio for streaming platforms you might calibrate to around -14LUFS. If you’re making club music you might choose a figure closer to -9LUFS. 2. Now you’ll need a pink noise file for the calibration. The pink noise file should match the level you chose in step 1. The pink noise produces an equal amount of noise across the frequency spectrum. If you have an untreated room, you can restrict the pink noise to 500Hz-2kHz to minimize low-frequency standing waves or reflections. Open up a test oscillator in your DAW and select the pink noise setting. You can use LEVELS to adjust the pink noise to the ideal LUFS value of your future music projects. 3. An SPL meter is now needed to measure the acoustic sound-pressure level produced by your monitors. You’ll need an SPL meter with a C-weighted filter option, which is flatter than the A-weighted response which is commonly used for general measurements. The SPL meter will also need a ‘slow’ or ‘averaging’ mode. Some phone apps can also be surprisingly accurate. 4. Now you need to work out at what volume you want to listen to your audio in your studio. Most home studios are smaller than 142 cubic meters, so 73-76dB SPL C is a more appropriate target. 5. Now we bring everything together, play the pink noise file and adjust the monitors to match the ideal reference level for your studio. Let’s say you wanted to master audio to -14 LUFS and you had a small home studio between 42 and 142 m³. You would want the -14 LUFS pink noise file to sit at around 76dB SPL (C). © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 63 of 66 What Is Sample Rate? The sample rate, in a nutshell, is the number of samples per second in a piece of audio. It is measured in Hertz (Hz) or Kilohertz (kHz). Bit depth, in a nutshell, relates to the dynamic range in audio. In slightly more detail, the bit depth is the number of ‘bits’ of information in every single sample. The more bits, the more dynamic range. A CD will host 16 bit audio. Whereas iTunes and DVD audio supports up to 24 bits which can accommodate a larger dynamic range. Learn more: https://www.masteringthemix.com/blogs/learn/113159685-sample-rates-and-bitdepth-in-a-nutshell © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 64 of 66 What Is Loudness Range? Loudness Range [Measured in LU (loudness Units)] will tell you the statistical measure of loudness variation of your entire track. This long-term reading will give you an idea of the difference in volume between the verse, chorus and other sections of your track. As a general rule, I would recommend aiming for a Loudness Range above 5 LU if you wanted to create a track with tension, release and an epic chorus that explodes out of the verse. But this suggestion can be taken with a pinch of salt! If you’re aiming to create a track with a consistent energy throughout then, of course, you would end up with a lower loudness range. Loudness Range isn’t like true peaks where most people can agree that clipping doesn’t sound good. Loudness range is subjective and totally depends on the material you’re working on. Understanding what loudness range means can help you achieve your musical goals. For example, if you felt your chorus didn’t give the track enough of a lift, and your loudness range was a low reading, that might encourage you to add some automation to create a more dramatic dynamic difference. On the other hand, if you were looking to create a track with a relentless drive, or any other constant vibe, but your loudness range was over 5 LU, you might have missed the mark. You can use our plugin LEVELS to monitor your loudness range in real time in your DAW. © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 65 of 66 THANK YOU! For more tips like this you can: • Subscribe to our mailing list: https://mailchi.mp/masteringthemix/plugins • Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/masteringthemix • Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/masteringthemixlondon/ • Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClVFqkLN0jzTeiux7rXojA © Mastering The Mix 2019 Page 66 of 66