My Master Bus Chain For LOUD & Punchy Mixes
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 ต.ค. 2024
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You don't achieve louder mixes by slapping some magical limiter plugin on your master buss and slamming your entire mix through it...
At least, not if you want your mix to actually sound good. 😂
What many people don't realize is that so much of a professional mix's perceived loudness comes from teeny tiny moves that add up on your master buss.
Not from mastering.
In other words, HOW you mix and the way that you handle the processing on your master bus can produce a final mix that's super loud..even before the mastering process.
In this tutorial, I share my technique for producing louder mixes using my simple go-to maser bus chain.
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Bobby I am so glad you made this video. I use a very similar master bus chain. I use a limiter at the end to just barely register peak reduction despite having heard from many sources that you shouldn't use a limiter before sending your mix off for mastering. I've learned a ton from you man, keep it coming!
Mastering engineer “awesome mix!” Slaps a limiter on “that’s $120 please”
Lol. Pretty much now a days.
Looking forward to more content! Any more mix critiques on the way? I've found that kind of content to be super helpful
Interesting approach! So you apply compression, saturation, EQ and limiting before rendering out your mixes? I'm curious about your mastering approach now. Would be cool to see that in action too!😃
Great to see a video after a bit. Looking forward to the studio build videos. Thanks!
Amen to the closing statement! And a great video, as always
OMG, you are the best available mix engineer. I hope some day I can be as good as you buddy.
Glad to see you back Bobby, I'm gonna try this next song i mix
great tips as always, very similar chain to what I use, looking forward to seeing the new studio and I see the beard is coming along nicely
8:49 The ''it was tinyyyy'' had me cracked 😜😜.Nice one
Heck yea always a good day when Bobby put out a new video thanks
Kick ass tips and video as usual Bobby!
Great video! What's your opinion on using dynamic EQ for the master bus?
Great video! Gonna give this a try on my next mix.
Great video; dope shirt!
A mastering video next please!
My master is a shadow hills compression very little iron setting. And a waves BB tubes with a touch of saturation. Then maybe depending on track a touch of amek 250 eq little moves. That's it.
Can we see how you would go about setting up a similar mastering chain in reaper with stock plugins? Huge fan of what you’re doing, bro! Thanks for all the informative videos. You’re the best at what you do!
Yes you can! By going into reaper, and using your stock plugins in the same way he uses his because everything is interchangeable.... Cmon brother hes giving you the answer if you cant figure it out here ill help you... Go to the search bar and search "how to use" and type in what ever plugin you dont understand ! Such as, a saturator, or a compressor, or a... Uh oh... EQ!.... You realize thats all he ever uses? Why dont you know your basic tools brother? Go study
Hey bobby, im not sure if anyone else has already asked, but is there a reason the order of the plug ins are different than your other older mix buss video? Is there signifigance to this order in reference to than other?
Hey Bobby, helpful vid. I was wondering at what level would you be happy with for volume on the master bus? I like to use a level meter on k14 to watch my over all volume but am unsure what a good level would be to send to a master. Love the channel cheers!
As long as I'm not clipping, I don't worry about it and rarely pay attention to numbers.
For clarity Bobby, what about LUF levels for various streaming platforms? Or is that left for the mastering stage? I ask because I can get pretty loud mixes without clipping these days so I do pay attention to it :)
@timryan193 did you not just read his comment? He doesn't look at numbers, what sounds good sounds good, no one cares about how loud your songs are, they care that it sounds good. Bobby Makes good sounding music. You pay attention to it? Hm... I wonder why? Where did you read about that from ? Sources ? Why do tou think that way ? You definitely heard about lufs on another youtube video as most producers arent even reading lufs they read rms... Go mix a track and practice bud
@timryan193 without being as much of a dick, my point being, loudness doesnt make a song better. If your song was good it wouldnt matter if it was -16 LUFs or -6 LUFs. What actually matters is that you have a solid song, with good parts, good takes and recordings, and a great mix thats it. If your song isnt great or enjoyable, who cares how loud you crank it
Tape saturator that you using is clipping the shit out of signal. I see on the meter how it works and was shoked. It literally better that clipper
Does the order of the chain matter? Like what if you did saturation , eq , comp , Multiband comp , limiter?
For the dynamics based plugins it will. If you're using a hard clipper it trims transients. If you put that before you compressor then it won't have that transient information to react to - either to enhance or control. Good rule of thumb for dynamics order would be compressor -> saturator (soft clipper) -> clipper (hard clipper) -> limited. Not hard and fast and there can be reasons to do it in another order. For EQ and the like, just think about how that EQ would impact the dynamics processing and decide if that is what you want or not. Generally if you are going to tame a buildup with EQ then it can make sense to do that precompression to make the compress work less hard. But it can sound good the other way, too. At the end of the day think it through but ultimately rely on your ears and referencing to check it.
great video, just a quick question or more like help:
i kinda struggle with hearing compression like i can spot the dynamic changes and the sound character which a compressor is adding but unable to hear compression, like while mixing what i do is straight up dial down my compressor or the mix of the compressor when i think this is the right amount, like when i hear done its good now then i dail it down cz that for some reason that isn't too much surprisingly but i still can't spot the difference, any suggestions will help, also right now I'm kinda striking this problem with achieving Majority of compression through a saturated or a multiband saturator just to be sure that I'm not over compressing something till it sounds too muffled or something
SSL Buss Compressor > EQ > Double Tap > Waves Linear Phase MB > Gullfoss > Flatline 2 > Oxford Inflator > FF Pro L2. Depending on mix, average around -6 LUFS.
I didn’t quite understand if you leave the limiter in your chain or do you remove it before sending to the mastering phase?
Bobby masters his own work, and would take the L1 off if doing the mastering in a separate session. EDIT: that is, if I've understood correctly!
@@Aleksisguitar You're spot on, Aleksis!
@@FrightboxRecordingduude, can't wait to see your studio once finished! Also seeing a fresh Frightbox TH-cam video really made my day. Good things are worth the wait!
Hey, Bobby. Do you mix into this master bus setup or you put it later on?
I mix through the buss compressor from early on and slowly add everything else towards the last 20% of the mixing process.
Hello brother, can you please guide on how much should be the average final output db level of the mix before exporting for the mastering stage, Thanks..
He has already answered this in multiple videos. It doesnt matter as long as it isnt clipping, this means, turn up your song as much as you want, as long as you dont hear anything distorting or as long as your total volume isnt passing 0db on your master level, then... Thats it!. Compare to like 5 of your favorite mixed song volumes and youll see something peculiar,.. THERE IS NO SET DB :) pick one and go with it, if your song sounds bad after you turned it up, and its not a "too loud too quiet" issue.... its not the master my friend, its that you have a shitty song.
@@SinfulSoulBand Ok Thanks
Not related but what's the song?
it's like.. you don't even read the description.
@@Sliver90Yeah, it's right there at the bottom... my bad
Just curious. I noticed that the makeup gain on the SSL bus compressor was set around +6dB. But when bypassed there wasn’t a noticeable change in volume
Is there a reason for this?
the threshold was decreased and the release was set to auto.
not much compression as the ration was set to 2:1.
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Can you recommend a stock or alternative to the p2p possibly have to go with a saturator and a separate clipper
I am not aware of a stock plugin that does what it does but if you’re tight and looking for a good alternative, I wont hesitate to recommend Klanghelm’ IVGI saturator. Its free and its sounds good.
@@edwardkenemorales it's not that I'm tight. It's just he said that was an old plugin. Is it still available? So that saturator is from klangheim (however you spell it) right? And any soft or hard clipper will do?
I think its still in active development its already in v2 last time I checked. Yes Klanghelm. IVGI is free but it has a big brother that is more powerfult. Also an “old” plugin given how fast plugins are released today. Saturators also clips signal to some extent but is more flexible in terms of harmonics because some saturators give you the ability to balance odd and even harmonics but clippers predominantly results odd harmonics.
Not sure the daw you use, but If its of any help, i just use the stock saturator in FL studio instead. I use fruity waveshaper, max out the distortion then use maybe 2-3% on the inserts effect knob. It adds a little bit of harmonics and because its saturation it smooths transients and brings out character. Ive been using this technique in leu of what he does with PSP for about a year now, and it has been working great. All DAWs should come with some kind of distortion/saturation, even audacity does. Just max it out and turn the effect down till you barely notice it.
What is your target LUFS-I ?
I don't pay attention to LUFS.
@@FrightboxRecording any loudness target or reference?
@@ScalerWave I go by perceived loudness. I have a few references that I refer to while I wrap up the mix/master. Sometimes even other mixes I've done for other bands.
What's left for the mastering process to do? It seems like you've pretty much finished mastering. 🤔
yeah no more more -3 to -6db headroom hahaha
Just limiting and sometimes subtle harmonic excitement.
@@FrightboxRecording Thanks for the reply, I just wondered what else would need doing as you'd already compressed, limited, saturated and EQed. I thought perhaps mid/side EQ as that seemed to be the only thing missing.
Just picking your brains, not "picking". 🙂👍
@@Dave-Rough-Diamond-Dunn I never use mid/side EQ. If you get the mix right, you won't need fancy trickery in the end.
@@FrightboxRecording I didn't realise it was seen as trickery, I just noticed that some of the presets in the Ozone EQ use it when I was seeing which suited a mix best when exporting. Some do, some don't, but I didn't hear much difference between the ones that do and the ones that don't. To be honest, I don't think I really need EQ on the master bus much at all .
I got the email that says you're in but never got another email with the course. Checked my spam, my promotion even the trash. Nada
When use saturator on mix bus my mix sound too harsh 😢
The secret is to use it very subtly...like to the point where it's almost doing nothing. It's how it all adds up that matters.
Now do this with only reaper plugins 😂
He actually does have a video I think where he shows a full song produced in reaper with only stock plugins.
Enjoy! :th-cam.com/video/dv9dnoOb088/w-d-xo.htmlsi=z893Z4k4C9UrS_vZ
@@FrightboxRecording snap been 3 years since i saw that video 🤘🔥🔥
Loud and without dynamics - a very sad goal
I do this for a living and people want "loud" mixes and masters. If I were to stop producing competitive mixes for my niche, I would no longer be able to do this for a living. I primarily listen to vinyl and beautifully dynamic records that were recorded pre-1980, but that wouldn't work for the bands that I produce.
Unfortunately, that's how it works in the real world.
I use a reaper mastering fx chain I got from a TH-camr named @resington. It hasn't done me wrong yet.
what happened to the -3db to -6db headroom in your master mix bus before mastering?
I take the limiter off before using my mastering limiter. The rest of the chain remains on and usually hangs out around -18dB.