damnnnnnn thank you for the video you killed it! i didn’t know about the oversampling stuff in standardclip, what the impact & clarity modules do in ozone and limiter lookahead affecting the low end. very cool, subbed!
Thank you so much for this! One question, you have to add these plugins in the same mixer? For example, first the clipper, then the Ozone plugins, all in the same track mixer. Or you add the clipper, render the track, and then use the Ozone plugins and so on?
You’re welcome! The plugins in this context are meant to go on your master channel: Clipper, Ozone modules, then the second Clipper, followed by the Limiter. Of course, feel free to experiment and see what works best for you!
The information in this video is very detailed, explained well (although it’s pretty high threshold for newbies), but it might’ve really helped if you gave a demo of the effect of every signal processing step in the way. Now it’s purely theoretical.
Thank you for the kind words! Yeah, that’s understandable. I was hoping others would try the technique out and judge for themselves, since heavy clipping is so genre-specific. I do test everything before putting together these videos to make sure the theory holds up in practice, but I can understand the need for examples.
hey, cool video thanks for that. i'm asking myself if there are some cheaper or free alternatives for remodeling the transients. like for impact / clarity module. i onyl own ozone 9 elements
You’re welcome! There is a way to rebuild the transients, but it’s more time-intensive. Here’s what I shared in another comment on this question: You’d need to use a combination of clipping, transient shaping, parallel compression, and saturation to bring back the transients. It might be easier to clip at the bus level rather than on the master, as this gives you more control. For example, you could clip your bass and kick drum on a single bus, which helps manage the lows more effectively. Parallel compression can help beef up percussion after it’s been clipped to tame the spikes. Similarly, multi-band saturation can be used like the Clarity module to add harmonics to the upper end of the frequency spectrum. You’ve basically got to stack these techniques like a deck of cards. Whether it’s worth the investment though, depends entirely on your workflow and goals
Luca has done ton of masters before Ozone got those new features. Did he try to re-introduce transients before starting to use Ozone? What did he use then?
That’s a fantastic question-one I can’t answer, though! From watching tons of his content, I know Luca’s workflows tend to evolve as new plugins come out. I’d guess he might’ve used something similar, perhaps involving transient shapers, parallel compression, harmonic exciters, and/or saturation.
I didn‘t quite get the Ozone Transients part. So you limit Everything before using Ozone and Ozone then brings back „important“ transients that sound loud, without bringing back high peaks that ruin the sound?
So you start by clipping everything with a Clipper, then use the Ozone modules to bring back some transients in key frequency areas. After that, you clip again with a second Clipper, and finally, you limit and level with the final Limiter.
'The Barber’ 😂 - great name. Yeah, this is all master bus processing! But doing it at the bus level makes sense too, especially for kick/bass processing.
@BeatsbyVanity thanks for clarifying, I particularly love the idea of adding transients back with ozone it's something I've never tried before. Great channel btw I'm currently binge watching 😁
Same here-I hadn’t played with those modules before researching this video. I was surprised at how well they performed, though; iZotope is known for their quality. Thank you as well! I hope you enjoy the content 😊
Arent the loudest elements of a track the kick/snare/Sub bass? Couldn't you just route them to a separate bus, soft clip them, and send your leads straight to the master channel glue everything and clip to 0db? (For Electronic music)
You’re spot on, Tony! In fact, my previous video (th-cam.com/video/jsfYkWq_IjU/w-d-xo.html) covered exactly that. One thing I love about production is that there are countless ways to do everything, each with its own set of pros and cons. This method focuses more on master bus processing, whereas your idea-and my last video-center on mixing processing. As producers, we tend to blur these together, but keeping them distinct works well in the context of TH-cam, I think. Doing this within the mix provides more control, so I’d always recommend starting there. Clipping the kick and bass/sub is essential in EDM, but when everything is summed on the master, you may still need to push the limiter too far to achieve the desired loudness level. This video will help if that's the case.
@BeatsbyVanity Awesome I'm on the right track then. I've been producing for a little while but I'm always watching videos on TH-cam and brushing up on anything and everything I can. I appreciate your response and I'll definitely be subscribing to your channel, this video helps me Alot. 😎🤙🏽
Thank you, happy to have you aboard! It can feel like a minefield with all the advice online, so I encourage you to experiment and see what fits your workflow. If you have any questions, feel free to drop them in the comments 😁
I'll use StandardClip on busses and individual tracks. I have Pro-L on master and everytime it ducks heavily i'll check what peaks it and usually it takes one StandardClip and it's gone. Sound is still the same but limiter is not ducking anymore. In modern music you can clip almost everything!
I wish every single channel do the same as you do, you’re straight to the topic! Amazing bro, keep up. But I hope you can do a series for a project with examples. Thanks ❤
Thank you, Omar! 😄 Absolutely, I will. I’m planning to keep this series going while starting another alongside it, focusing on production techniques (like the ITSO series).
@ yeah the issue im facing is getting my low end to not hit the hell out of the limiter while still being impactful, and get a loud song. Most of the time I’m mastering from a 2track instrumental, and I get kind of lost on where a good level to get to is, I’m usually going for -9dbFs on my MasterPlan end of my chain I’ve been trying the gain stage thing where after every plugin, I use their output knob to set it back to how it was hitting without plugins until I get to my limiter. Still all new to me, trying to look for someone who can teach more about it so thanks for your information
This low-end issue is a common problem. One method to control it is by sending both the kick and bass to a bus and clipping them together. I actually made a video on this (th-cam.com/video/jsfYkWq_IjU/w-d-xo.html). Using a combination of busing, clipping, and saturation, you can meld the two instruments together while ensuring they don’t overload the limiter. If you’re mastering from a 2-track file, though, that makes things harder. Are the two tracks vocals and instrumental? It’s tricky to work any magic in that case unless the instrumental has been mixed well. Also, is that -9 an LUFS measurement? If so, that’s pretty loud-what genre are you mastering? I’d caution against chasing a fixed number and instead focus on finding the right loudness level for the track.
@ I’m usually recording on beats I get from producers then get the wav 2 track from them, they usually charge more for stems so I deal with what I’ve got And that’s true, do you think the standard clip method at the beginning would help w that, mostly underground hiphop/hyperpop type records (like ericdoa) where some clients want a super loud and dynamic mix like edm.
Thank you for clarifying! In this case, clipping the instrumental you’re receiving will help shave off the peaks and prevent overloading the final mastering limiter. Follow the steps in this video, as the Ozone modules will be indispensable when working with an instrumental. You might also want to look into multi-band saturation, as it will give you more control over the balance of the track. Just to be clear though, this should all be applied to the instrumental, not your vocal.
I *love* Luca’s videos, but he’s definitely not succinct in his explanations like this video is. Great job!! Question: was Luca running this workflow on the drum buss or on the master? I guess one COULD run it on both if they wanted to. 😅
It’s all Luca’s wisdom-I’m just repackaging it into these videos, but thank you for the kind words! 🙏 Yes, you absolutely could run it on both. However, this video is intended for master bus processing. My last video (th-cam.com/video/jsfYkWq_IjU/w-d-xo.html) covered processing for a kick and bass bus, which might interest you.
I don't have any of the fabfilter modules nor do I have $900 to drop on the bundle I would need to achieve the things shown in these videos, and I only have Ozone Standard, which doesn't have Impact or Clarity. So what can I do without dropping a couple MORE bands on plugins?
You’d need to use a combination of clipping, transient shaping, parallel compression, and saturation to bring back the transients. It might be easier to clip at the bus level rather than on the master, as this gives you more control. For example, you could clip your bass and kick drum on a single bus, which helps manage the lows more effectively. Parallel compression can help beef up percussion after it’s been clipped to tame the spikes. Similarly, multi-band saturation can be used like the Clarity module to add harmonics to the upper end of the frequency spectrum. You’ve basically got to stack these techniques like a deck of cards. Whether it’s worth the investment though, depends entirely on your workflow and goals.
@@BeatsbyVanity Thank you for the replies on both comments lol you're videos are fantastic and dense with information and I was being a bit cheeky with this comment I know I have more than adaquate tools to get the job done at least as well as my peers. So looks like I can do multi-band saturation with the exciter or I could just set multiple saturators to focus on specific frequencies. I'm using Maximizer to a clipper and going directly into the Ozone dynamics which as the limiter I might experiment with the vintage limiter. I'm using Ahee's hybrid bus method that he developed after skrillex showed his Mumbai Power session and that immediately made my mix easer to manage as I produce the track I'm just trying to figure out: A: what chains to put on which busses, as per your suggestion I am doing clipping into limiting on my Kick/Snare bus and on my top drums bus, B: Gain staging from the tracks, to the buses to the master and I'll check out your other reply for information on that. Parallel compression is the next concept I am going to tackle after I get a more firm grasp on gain staging if you have any video suggestions it would be much appreciated.
You’re welcome, and no worries! Thank you for the kind words too! It’s a fair point-many people don’t have Ozone, so it got me thinking about how the same idea could be adapted using more ‘standard’ plugins. As for your questions: I’d actually recommend clipping your kick and bass together. Clipping the kick and snare is common practice, but it’s not always necessary since those two elements rarely clash. I used to clip them together, but my low end improved dramatically once I started treating all the low-end elements as a single unit. You can clip your entire drum bus (kick, snare, percussion) too, but that’s often just to shave off the final peaks before sending it to the master. Regarding “what chains to put on which buses,” it’s largely subjective and depends on your material. That said, you’ll generally want some form of frequency-based and dynamic control, as well as saturation to add harmonics. Multi-band saturation is an underrated tool for thickening up a mix and adding excitement. If you’re making EDM, having a final Clipper on each bus is crucial for achieving loudness as well. I’m a reader first, so I’d recommend this article (it’s two pages): www.soundonsound.com/techniques/parallel-compression. But there’s a plethora of videos on here covering parallel compression as well!
I think ozone could handle the entire process, if you put the slider on the maximiser to the left it changes from limiting to clipping. Im not sure how it'll sound but in theory it could handle it all
Yeah, I thought about that while replying, but I’m unsure about the quality of Ozone’s clipper. It does oversample at 4x, but Standard Clip goes up to 256x. On the master, though, you really want to be using the highest-quality plugins possible, with linear phase and oversampling fully dialed in.
@BeatsbyVanity that's a great point! And if im honest when im using ozone I always turn the maximiser off and do some clipping with kclip and then some limiting. I didnt know standard clip went up to 256 though, one of my mates was telling me I should get it but I was so happy with kclip I never bothered but now ill look into it, cheers
That’s probably the best approach. KClip is a solid clipper, especially with its multi-band functionality. KClip, Standard and Gold Clip seem to be the most popular clippers, but Standard Clip edges it for me.
That’s kind of the essence of music production-and most creative pursuits, right? Artists create art for themselves; they focus on getting the details right to satisfy their own vision, not necessarily to impress others.
I respond to every comment, so if anything wasn’t clear and you’d like clarification, or if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to drop them below!
Bro, you're doing GOD's work!!!
Thank you! 🙏
The Ozone Clarity and Impact idea greatly changed my mixes! Thanks
You’re welcome! I hadn’t thought of using them this way until I saw Luca doing it, but I was surprised at how effective they were.
damnnnnnn thank you for the video you killed it!
i didn’t know about the oversampling stuff in standardclip, what the impact & clarity modules do in ozone and limiter lookahead affecting the low end.
very cool, subbed!
Thank you! I'm glad you found it helpful! 😄
This video has so many little gems, thank you!
this video gave me so much valuable info I really appreciate it! thank you!
You're welcome, I'm glad it was helpful! 😁
Very very useful, thanks!
You’re welcome! Glad it helped! 😄
Thank you so much for this! One question, you have to add these plugins in the same mixer? For example, first the clipper, then the Ozone plugins, all in the same track mixer. Or you add the clipper, render the track, and then use the Ozone plugins and so on?
You’re welcome! The plugins in this context are meant to go on your master channel: Clipper, Ozone modules, then the second Clipper, followed by the Limiter. Of course, feel free to experiment and see what works best for you!
@@BeatsbyVanity Thanks for the explanation!! +1 sub
Thank you! Happy to have you on board! 😄
The information in this video is very detailed, explained well (although it’s pretty high threshold for newbies), but it might’ve really helped if you gave a demo of the effect of every signal processing step in the way. Now it’s purely theoretical.
Thank you for the kind words! Yeah, that’s understandable. I was hoping others would try the technique out and judge for themselves, since heavy clipping is so genre-specific. I do test everything before putting together these videos to make sure the theory holds up in practice, but I can understand the need for examples.
hey, cool video thanks for that. i'm asking myself if there are some cheaper or free alternatives for remodeling the transients. like for impact / clarity module. i onyl own ozone 9 elements
You’re welcome! There is a way to rebuild the transients, but it’s more time-intensive.
Here’s what I shared in another comment on this question:
You’d need to use a combination of clipping, transient shaping, parallel compression, and saturation to bring back the transients. It might be easier to clip at the bus level rather than on the master, as this gives you more control. For example, you could clip your bass and kick drum on a single bus, which helps manage the lows more effectively.
Parallel compression can help beef up percussion after it’s been clipped to tame the spikes.
Similarly, multi-band saturation can be used like the Clarity module to add harmonics to the upper end of the frequency spectrum.
You’ve basically got to stack these techniques like a deck of cards. Whether it’s worth the investment though, depends entirely on your workflow and goals
no audio example?
Luca has done ton of masters before Ozone got those new features. Did he try to re-introduce transients before starting to use Ozone? What did he use then?
That’s a fantastic question-one I can’t answer, though! From watching tons of his content, I know Luca’s workflows tend to evolve as new plugins come out. I’d guess he might’ve used something similar, perhaps involving transient shapers, parallel compression, harmonic exciters, and/or saturation.
I didn‘t quite get the Ozone Transients part. So you limit Everything before using Ozone and Ozone then brings back „important“ transients that sound loud, without bringing back high peaks that ruin the sound?
So you start by clipping everything with a Clipper, then use the Ozone modules to bring back some transients in key frequency areas. After that, you clip again with a second Clipper, and finally, you limit and level with the final Limiter.
love to see people using clippers, my mate calls me the barber because i clip everythinf 😄 hqs this been done on the master channel?
'The Barber’ 😂 - great name. Yeah, this is all master bus processing! But doing it at the bus level makes sense too, especially for kick/bass processing.
@BeatsbyVanity thanks for clarifying, I particularly love the idea of adding transients back with ozone it's something I've never tried before. Great channel btw I'm currently binge watching 😁
Same here-I hadn’t played with those modules before researching this video. I was surprised at how well they performed, though; iZotope is known for their quality.
Thank you as well! I hope you enjoy the content 😊
@@BeatsbyVanity bro that technique with the impact module is wild, thank you man
You’re welcome! I hope it proves valuable in your music! 🙏
Arent the loudest elements of a track the kick/snare/Sub bass? Couldn't you just route them to a separate bus, soft clip them, and send your leads straight to the master channel glue everything and clip to 0db? (For Electronic music)
You’re spot on, Tony! In fact, my previous video (th-cam.com/video/jsfYkWq_IjU/w-d-xo.html) covered exactly that. One thing I love about production is that there are countless ways to do everything, each with its own set of pros and cons. This method focuses more on master bus processing, whereas your idea-and my last video-center on mixing processing. As producers, we tend to blur these together, but keeping them distinct works well in the context of TH-cam, I think.
Doing this within the mix provides more control, so I’d always recommend starting there. Clipping the kick and bass/sub is essential in EDM, but when everything is summed on the master, you may still need to push the limiter too far to achieve the desired loudness level. This video will help if that's the case.
@BeatsbyVanity Awesome I'm on the right track then. I've been producing for a little while but I'm always watching videos on TH-cam and brushing up on anything and everything I can. I appreciate your response and I'll definitely be subscribing to your channel, this video helps me Alot. 😎🤙🏽
Thank you, happy to have you aboard! It can feel like a minefield with all the advice online, so I encourage you to experiment and see what fits your workflow.
If you have any questions, feel free to drop them in the comments 😁
I'll use StandardClip on busses and individual tracks. I have Pro-L on master and everytime it ducks heavily i'll check what peaks it and usually it takes one StandardClip and it's gone. Sound is still the same but limiter is not ducking anymore. In modern music you can clip almost everything!
interesting concept of master channel signal processing
Thank you! 🙏
I wish every single channel do the same as you do, you’re straight to the topic! Amazing bro, keep up. But I hope you can do a series for a project with examples. Thanks ❤
Thank you, Omar! 😄
Absolutely, I will. I’m planning to keep this series going while starting another alongside it, focusing on production techniques (like the ITSO series).
@ AMAZING MAN 🔥🔥🔥🔥, all the best and great luck!
Thank you! 🙏
I’m gonna try the ozone modules out, thx
Hope you find them useful! 🙏
@ yeah the issue im facing is getting my low end to not hit the hell out of the limiter while still being impactful, and get a loud song. Most of the time I’m mastering from a 2track instrumental, and I get kind of lost on where a good level to get to is, I’m usually going for -9dbFs on my MasterPlan end of my chain
I’ve been trying the gain stage thing where after every plugin, I use their output knob to set it back to how it was hitting without plugins until I get to my limiter. Still all new to me, trying to look for someone who can teach more about it so thanks for your information
This low-end issue is a common problem. One method to control it is by sending both the kick and bass to a bus and clipping them together. I actually made a video on this (th-cam.com/video/jsfYkWq_IjU/w-d-xo.html). Using a combination of busing, clipping, and saturation, you can meld the two instruments together while ensuring they don’t overload the limiter.
If you’re mastering from a 2-track file, though, that makes things harder. Are the two tracks vocals and instrumental? It’s tricky to work any magic in that case unless the instrumental has been mixed well.
Also, is that -9 an LUFS measurement? If so, that’s pretty loud-what genre are you mastering? I’d caution against chasing a fixed number and instead focus on finding the right loudness level for the track.
@ I’m usually recording on beats I get from producers then get the wav 2 track from them, they usually charge more for stems so I deal with what I’ve got
And that’s true, do you think the standard clip method at the beginning would help w that, mostly underground hiphop/hyperpop type records (like ericdoa) where some clients want a super loud and dynamic mix like edm.
Thank you for clarifying! In this case, clipping the instrumental you’re receiving will help shave off the peaks and prevent overloading the final mastering limiter. Follow the steps in this video, as the Ozone modules will be indispensable when working with an instrumental.
You might also want to look into multi-band saturation, as it will give you more control over the balance of the track. Just to be clear though, this should all be applied to the instrumental, not your vocal.
what do you think using MASTER PLAN and not PRO L2 ¡
I can’t say for sure since I’ve never used Master Plan, but if it’s a modern limiter, it should function similarly.
I *love* Luca’s videos, but he’s definitely not succinct in his explanations like this video is. Great job!!
Question: was Luca running this workflow on the drum buss or on the master? I guess one COULD run it on both if they wanted to. 😅
It’s all Luca’s wisdom-I’m just repackaging it into these videos, but thank you for the kind words! 🙏
Yes, you absolutely could run it on both. However, this video is intended for master bus processing. My last video (th-cam.com/video/jsfYkWq_IjU/w-d-xo.html) covered processing for a kick and bass bus, which might interest you.
Where did you see Luca using Impact and Clarity in Ozone? I can't find any interview where he uses it let alone shows you the settings.
It’s from one of his My Mix Lab tutorials titled 'How to Improve Dynamics and Clarity on Your Master'. I’m sure there are clips of it on TH-cam too!
Great vid
Thank you! 😁
I don't have any of the fabfilter modules nor do I have $900 to drop on the bundle I would need to achieve the things shown in these videos, and I only have Ozone Standard, which doesn't have Impact or Clarity. So what can I do without dropping a couple MORE bands on plugins?
You’d need to use a combination of clipping, transient shaping, parallel compression, and saturation to bring back the transients. It might be easier to clip at the bus level rather than on the master, as this gives you more control. For example, you could clip your bass and kick drum on a single bus, which helps manage the lows more effectively.
Parallel compression can help beef up percussion after it’s been clipped to tame the spikes.
Similarly, multi-band saturation can be used like the Clarity module to add harmonics to the upper end of the frequency spectrum.
You’ve basically got to stack these techniques like a deck of cards. Whether it’s worth the investment though, depends entirely on your workflow and goals.
@@BeatsbyVanity Thank you for the replies on both comments lol you're videos are fantastic and dense with information and I was being a bit cheeky with this comment I know I have more than adaquate tools to get the job done at least as well as my peers.
So looks like I can do multi-band saturation with the exciter or I could just set multiple saturators to focus on specific frequencies. I'm using Maximizer to a clipper and going directly into the Ozone dynamics which as the limiter I might experiment with the vintage limiter.
I'm using Ahee's hybrid bus method that he developed after skrillex showed his Mumbai Power session and that immediately made my mix easer to manage as I produce the track I'm just trying to figure out:
A: what chains to put on which busses, as per your suggestion I am doing clipping into limiting on my Kick/Snare bus and on my top drums bus,
B: Gain staging from the tracks, to the buses to the master
and I'll check out your other reply for information on that.
Parallel compression is the next concept I am going to tackle after I get a more firm grasp on gain staging if you have any video suggestions it would be much appreciated.
You’re welcome, and no worries! Thank you for the kind words too! It’s a fair point-many people don’t have Ozone, so it got me thinking about how the same idea could be adapted using more ‘standard’ plugins.
As for your questions:
I’d actually recommend clipping your kick and bass together. Clipping the kick and snare is common practice, but it’s not always necessary since those two elements rarely clash. I used to clip them together, but my low end improved dramatically once I started treating all the low-end elements as a single unit. You can clip your entire drum bus (kick, snare, percussion) too, but that’s often just to shave off the final peaks before sending it to the master.
Regarding “what chains to put on which buses,” it’s largely subjective and depends on your material. That said, you’ll generally want some form of frequency-based and dynamic control, as well as saturation to add harmonics. Multi-band saturation is an underrated tool for thickening up a mix and adding excitement. If you’re making EDM, having a final Clipper on each bus is crucial for achieving loudness as well.
I’m a reader first, so I’d recommend this article (it’s two pages): www.soundonsound.com/techniques/parallel-compression. But there’s a plethora of videos on here covering parallel compression as well!
i love your accent lol, btw super interesting video bro !
why not use an example? hm
Super Video. Maybe we need some video cases to show this technique on master or drum, or kick&bass. But Explanation is excelent
Thank you! Funnily enough, my previous video (th-cam.com/video/jsfYkWq_IjU/w-d-xo.html) covered processing for a kick and bass bus 😄
i love this but it seems like there should just be one application that can chain these steps together
How do you mean? Like one plugin that could handle this entire process?
I think ozone could handle the entire process, if you put the slider on the maximiser to the left it changes from limiting to clipping. Im not sure how it'll sound but in theory it could handle it all
Yeah, I thought about that while replying, but I’m unsure about the quality of Ozone’s clipper. It does oversample at 4x, but Standard Clip goes up to 256x. On the master, though, you really want to be using the highest-quality plugins possible, with linear phase and oversampling fully dialed in.
@BeatsbyVanity that's a great point! And if im honest when im using ozone I always turn the maximiser off and do some clipping with kclip and then some limiting. I didnt know standard clip went up to 256 though, one of my mates was telling me I should get it but I was so happy with kclip I never bothered but now ill look into it, cheers
That’s probably the best approach. KClip is a solid clipper, especially with its multi-band functionality.
KClip, Standard and Gold Clip seem to be the most popular clippers, but Standard Clip edges it for me.
well produced and interesting video, but for me it's not worth much if there's no audio example.
Thank you! That’s fair. I guess my thinking was that others might be inclined to try the technique and judge for themselves.
It's always funny to me, how all these grammy audio engineers have tons of analog equipment in their studios, yet they use ozone and L2 to to the job.
Waaaay too much obsession with too much focus on ocd detail, when at the end, the average listener wouldnt notice the difference while high on life.
That’s kind of the essence of music production-and most creative pursuits, right? Artists create art for themselves; they focus on getting the details right to satisfy their own vision, not necessarily to impress others.