Love the videos with not too much editing. That's shows exactly the ways things naturaly happens. Sometimes is just look at the screen and think for another tool, sometimes you get it quickly. Love it man !
This is brilliant. Its fantastic to show because I feel the better you get at mixing/mastering the less you rely on brightness. There is something very impressive about a darker but clear master - feels like a skill to keep it "warmer" sounding and yet clear. You hear it in many top tracks released. You can turn them up loud and enjoy, even though they are mastered loud as well, that is where the pro balance I feel sits. Loud master, but also not painful. Next time, film the spider I wanna see!
I do this with Adaptr AB. It does a bit more than most comparison plugins so you can really dig into it. Iirc you have plugin alliance mega so you should already have it.
Especially the fact in metric you can isolate low, mid, and high. You can even choose which frequency range you want to A/B. Really let's you keep with the moto of do no harm.
Press the synch button in the plugin if you want a smoother transition between pre and post:) also, you don’t have to swap click between pre/post :) u can hold your mouse on either and it will flip 🎉❤
Awesome video as always thanks!! Do you think you could share again which video you updated the calculation for attack release of compressor based on fondamental frequency please? Thanks again 😊
With regards to the issue you were having with the ketelnikov you should try pro c-2, I find that getting the exact feel you want from compression in the low end often involves having to be quite specific with the steepness and frequency of the low cut on the side chain signal which pro-c gives you a lot of control over
In the Kotelnikov section, you have a variety of presets for different fundamental values. Do you have any videos that cover those settings, or if not, could you explain how to adjust those settings accordingly?
I have a briliat setup in Reaper for level matching everything. I have 4 costum buttons Master, mix, pre mix , and reference. All these buttons have corresponding tracks on my template. When I click master, I'm hearing the mix or master I'm working on. When I click mix, I hear my mix with just balancing levels panning. When I click pre mix, I hear the original stams artist sent without any adjustment or plugins . The reference track is just for reference, and I can even route Spotify or tidal directly to it. And this all are level matched automatically. This approach helped me very much, but it makes mixing not as fun, so I use it rarely.
Wavelab 12 has this feature built in for the reference track that matches the reference with the material, it also allows you to visually analyse the loudness, rms and true peak of the before and after processing as well as seeing the difference between the two
@@jrhager84yes, and none of them are compatible with modern controller surfaces...means u gotta sit there with a mouse like it's 2008. I prefer a big jog wheels, plugin faders, and knobs, and Wavelab coders are missng the same support they have for Cubase - which shows me they are not in tune with 2024 reality. Always a concern.
It’s great that they’ve added this functionality in WL12, I haven’t updated yet. People might still find Perception AB useful because it can be placed at any point in the signal chain (eg. bracketing a single plugin) and also it supports much more flexible configurations for use when mixing (on multiple channels or groups within the mix) or when working with stems.
@@ProductionAdvice of course perception AB is still useful (same with the dynometer which is fantastic) but for the use case that Nicholas is using it for you can achieve the same thing through wavelab with one click (provided you copy over the track to a reference track) the visual analysis also makes it really really useful for seeing how your effecting the micro dynamics of the signal
@@massivebeatzz I mean I see your point but it is an audio editor and mastering software, I think it would be a really neat feature but I think it’s fairly low down in terms of priority.
Been using perception since it came out and honestly can't image not using it as part of my workflow, glad you got to show it off to others! I a sure you found this out already but using the sync button removes the latency the plugins add so you get a even more perfect A/B when going from pre to post. EDIT: I saw your new video and of course you know about sync
I don't know why it took me so long to start using LUFS to A/B instead of using the peaks... but anyway my moves became super small compared to what I was previously doing, and looks like I was getting similar results to what you have here. Much cleaner and super retained dynamics! I will say check out Fircomp2 for what you were looking for in the movement (VCA mode ON, Lookahead ON, Ratio 1.5, att 30ms, rel 5ms, env shape 0%, feedback 0%, and do about 0.1dB of compression) It adds extremely clean compression/movement! Also definitely check basslane with headphones, I tried many times to do that trick and even with the smallest amount I never really got into it, I think it eats up too much space. I'm using a L+R split parallel DBX160 + Pultec chain to add beef and variations in the L+R low end (doing about 20dB GR with Ratio at 8) Also! If you select "EXT" on the God Particle, it will bypass the multiband compression and you can use it more as a tone box. I'm usually adding between 30%/70%/100% depending on the material Great vid as always!
Love these fly on the wall style videos. Always something to learn, or validate my own process. Is Perception A/B just matching the LUFS? Or is there something else going on? I use Metric A/B by ADPTR to A/B the before & after and it's awesome. It takes into account PDC so it doesn't jolt when you A/B, it's smooth. Also you can add reference songs to the pile and flick between those too level matched. You tried that one out?
My heartbeats are moving with that low-end move with that being said, should we leave the sides alone without that high pass or, should we high pass the sides and then add that bassline move, thank you.
this is usually what happend when limiter is added as last , it will alter sound drasticly so you need to redo almost everything , so better is to setup limiter first so you do not need to master twice ;)
Why would you clip first if you’re likely going to end up changing the phase with eq or crossover filters? Basically my philosophy has been 1st: Phase altering processes 2nd: clipping (peak control) 3rd: full band compression/limiting/saturation
@@AlexLapugean Depends. Minimum phase/zero latency filters do. Most plugins use zero latency crossovers. So unless you’re using linear phase or minimum phase at 6db or less per octave. They do. I believe that’s all correct. At least 6db per octave crossovers had such a small change I couldn’t see it when I tested this. Might be wrong on that.
@@lusid_music_uk "Most plugins use zero latency crossovers"? Source needed ... can you think of examples of any decent plugin? Good plugins definatelly do not. Look for anything from fabfilter, izotope, they introduce 0 phase shift via crossover filters.
It’s loud but I notice something that happened to me sometimes as well, that there’s no punch any more. The whole punch is soaked into loudness. The kick sounds like a towel. Very low crest factor. Ver low dynamic range. It’s really something everyone needs to address and check especially on cell phones!
Nope. I have had a few people hitting me up to use something like this instead pf manually doing it in my vids. And this really has just been a game changer in terms of focusing on workflow
New master sounds much cleaner and more pleasant to listen to however the synth in the background has too much 400-700Hz tone (some resonance I guess) which is covering vocal a bit. But big thumbs up for the new approach!
Hi Nick, just wondering how you go working on extremely loud and aggressive genres and if you have any tips to make working on them easier? Stuff like this for example where it's -3 LUFS and ridiculous but it still has just enough punch to not seem like a flat wall of noise th-cam.com/video/V4GKqSmDgGE/w-d-xo.htmlsi=NjDbEa6iXRYIDqNu
It can be placed anywhere - for mastering I usually have one Pre instance at the beginning of the FX chain for every song and a Post Master instance on the master fader 👍
why not using a Multiband comp to control the clap? it smash any procesing and still over the vocal too much to me... great plugins used but i think u can try different approach. The final result is not far away from the orginal one, to be honest. Just my opinion. Thanks anyway for the video :)
How come you missed this mixing mastering stage when you really go way technical on other things?? Btw I’ve been mastering on TC Finalizer which forces me to use less tools and has a fantastic fast ab comparison and the most transparent set of tools ive heard till now when it comes to digital!
I always a/b but I level matched manually in the past. This just changed things workflow wise, which has been great because my focused efforts have been on the creative
Thx for this one! Looks nice, but 150$ for this one? Seriously?! woowww... They could have at least manage the kind of jump in the sound when passing from pre to post or post to pre. That's the kind of things that would freak me out pretty fast. I'll wait for the proper update or the one company that will manage that properly!
If you mean looping complete sections, lots of mastering engineers and producers avoid that much of the time by intentionally setting an odd (and short) loop brace. Can't speak for Nicholas but for me and most people I talk to, in either mixing or mastering, it's about getting things done in a fast and focused way. You can save lots of seconds that add up into vital minutes (or even hours in a big session) by ignoring bar lengths. If the task in the given moment is "Establish the dynamics according to the loudest elements and judge how these processes are affecting tone," it doesn't make sense for anything else to be allowed into my head. I want to get something pinned quickly because taking too long about anything tends to lead to worse decisions, so I only want an amount of time that works for that. I don't need to know how the decisions I'm making in that moment relate to the resolution of a chorus or any subtleties in a verse; that's for later, when I'm onto _that_ task. This approach might seem jarring and unnatural if you don't like hearing fragments of music, but if you accept it then it keeps you energised and feeling that tick of regular, affirmative progress. Aside from lost time, looping complete 2-bar/4-bar/8-bar looping sections gets you into that sticky hypnosis from the song itself, and it can even make the session feel tiring. The song might be really good but it's designed to be listened to for 3-5 mins or so, and it risks becoming fatiguing if you're locked in for many multiple of that time. And almost always, the big steps you take early on dealing with the most urgent parts of the structure tend to just work for everything else anyway. You might tweak things here and there to settle little issues but the "big brush" work is the majority of the job.
@@panorama_mastering I understand this, but irregular looping removes musicality, I would make other decisions. even it would be a one-bar loop would make a difference.
@@joechapman8208 Thanks for such an extensive answer, I hear you! But short sections could also be a one or 2 bar loop. But to each its own I guess :-) For larger sections, I don't do it. but small sections make me cray if it is out of rhythm
Dude, the extreme profanity is the height of unprofessionalism. If you can’t teach without resorting to the barrage of obscenities, then you don’t have much to offer. There are a ton of professionals online who have figured that out. You might take a page out of their book. Until then, unsubscribed.
Perception is a good tool, but I prefer LETIMIX GainMatch which allows you to do the comparison without jumps and also allows you to listen in Delta mode.
Love the videos with not too much editing. That's shows exactly the ways things naturaly happens. Sometimes is just look at the screen and think for another tool, sometimes you get it quickly. Love it man !
Glad you enjoyed it!
5:33 classic australia moment
skipped to spider hoping it was a new tip or plugin ahahaa
The moment i read "australia moment" i knew he was going to call something a fvcking cvnt lmao
exactly my reaction when i'm listening to skrillex and decide to check the lufs
Helpful authentic and hilarious. Always a pleasure to see a video of yours pop in! You upped the standards i have for music mentors ✌🏾
I appreciate that! Always a pleasure on my end creating these
So no remasters...got it!
This is brilliant. Its fantastic to show because I feel the better you get at mixing/mastering the less you rely on brightness. There is something very impressive about a darker but clear master - feels like a skill to keep it "warmer" sounding and yet clear. You hear it in many top tracks released. You can turn them up loud and enjoy, even though they are mastered loud as well, that is where the pro balance I feel sits. Loud master, but also not painful. Next time, film the spider I wanna see!
Totally agree!
I do this with Adaptr AB. It does a bit more than most comparison plugins so you can really dig into it. Iirc you have plugin alliance mega so you should already have it.
Nice! Thanks for sharing
Especially the fact in metric you can isolate low, mid, and high. You can even choose which frequency range you want to A/B. Really let's you keep with the moto of do no harm.
I'm in the same boat. Adaptr AB has been a staple for years now :D
I only recently started using it after using streamliner to essentially do a worse version of what I do in AB
Perception A/B is great. Been using it for a few years now and its critical to my mastering workflow.
Hey mate, how did you calculate the 10% saturation for the soft clip pro at 2:15"? Will appreciate your response. Cheers
For some reason, the Basslane Pro move at 17:00 sounded great on speakers, and rubishly weird on headphones. Did you check that on your MM-500 ?
It sounded weird on my mono single air pod
i second this
Same here with beyers 770
Press the synch button in the plugin if you want a smoother transition between pre and post:) also, you don’t have to swap click between pre/post :) u can hold your mouse on either and it will flip 🎉❤
Thanks for the tip!
Awesome video as always thanks!! Do you think you could share again which video you updated the calculation for attack release of compressor based on fondamental frequency please? Thanks again 😊
I'm interested too.
With regards to the issue you were having with the ketelnikov you should try pro c-2, I find that getting the exact feel you want from compression in the low end often involves having to be quite specific with the steepness and frequency of the low cut on the side chain signal which pro-c gives you a lot of control over
Good suggestion!
I use MTM Refernce to do the same thing - load the pre-master into Reference and set it to mirror time-wise
In the Kotelnikov section, you have a variety of presets for different fundamental values. Do you have any videos that cover those settings, or if not, could you explain how to adjust those settings accordingly?
I have a briliat setup in Reaper for level matching everything. I have 4 costum buttons Master, mix, pre mix , and reference. All these buttons have corresponding tracks on my template. When I click master, I'm hearing the mix or master I'm working on. When I click mix, I hear my mix with just balancing levels panning. When I click pre mix, I hear the original stams artist sent without any adjustment or plugins . The reference track is just for reference, and I can even route Spotify or tidal directly to it. And this all are level matched automatically. This approach helped me very much, but it makes mixing not as fun, so I use it rarely.
This is genius, I might start doing this as well!
Sweet!
Wavelab 12 has this feature built in for the reference track that matches the reference with the material, it also allows you to visually analyse the loudness, rms and true peak of the before and after processing as well as seeing the difference between the two
Man - I almost forgot about Sequoia, Pyramix, and Wavelab. Still as expensive as I remember?
@@jrhager84yes, and none of them are compatible with modern controller surfaces...means u gotta sit there with a mouse like it's 2008. I prefer a big jog wheels, plugin faders, and knobs, and Wavelab coders are missng the same support they have for Cubase - which shows me they are not in tune with 2024 reality. Always a concern.
It’s great that they’ve added this functionality in WL12, I haven’t updated yet. People might still find Perception AB useful because it can be placed at any point in the signal chain (eg. bracketing a single plugin) and also it supports much more flexible configurations for use when mixing (on multiple channels or groups within the mix) or when working with stems.
@@ProductionAdvice of course perception AB is still useful (same with the dynometer which is fantastic) but for the use case that Nicholas is using it for you can achieve the same thing through wavelab with one click (provided you copy over the track to a reference track) the visual analysis also makes it really really useful for seeing how your effecting the micro dynamics of the signal
@@massivebeatzz I mean I see your point but it is an audio editor and mastering software, I think it would be a really neat feature but I think it’s fairly low down in terms of priority.
Been using perception since it came out and honestly can't image not using it as part of my workflow, glad you got to show it off to others! I a sure you found this out already but using the sync button removes the latency the plugins add so you get a even more perfect A/B when going from pre to post.
EDIT: I saw your new video and of course you know about sync
I don't know why it took me so long to start using LUFS to A/B instead of using the peaks... but anyway my moves became super small compared to what I was previously doing, and looks like I was getting similar results to what you have here. Much cleaner and super retained dynamics!
I will say check out Fircomp2 for what you were looking for in the movement (VCA mode ON, Lookahead ON, Ratio 1.5, att 30ms, rel 5ms, env shape 0%, feedback 0%, and do about 0.1dB of compression) It adds extremely clean compression/movement!
Also definitely check basslane with headphones, I tried many times to do that trick and even with the smallest amount I never really got into it, I think it eats up too much space. I'm using a L+R split parallel DBX160 + Pultec chain to add beef and variations in the L+R low end (doing about 20dB GR with Ratio at 8)
Also! If you select "EXT" on the God Particle, it will bypass the multiband compression and you can use it more as a tone box. I'm usually adding between 30%/70%/100% depending on the material
Great vid as always!
Thanks mate! Appreciate the shar
Love these fly on the wall style videos. Always something to learn, or validate my own process.
Is Perception A/B just matching the LUFS? Or is there something else going on? I use Metric A/B by ADPTR to A/B the before & after and it's awesome. It takes into account PDC so it doesn't jolt when you A/B, it's smooth. Also you can add reference songs to the pile and flick between those too level matched. You tried that one out?
Sounds like the best thing for mastering this track is to tell the mixing engineer to stop decimating the dynamics with all that limiting.
Metric ab works the same right ?
You can compare before and after processing ?
Cheers
Yeap
My heartbeats are moving with that low-end move with that being said, should we leave the sides alone without that high pass or, should we high pass the sides and then add that bassline move, thank you.
No hpf for the sides period
You could have just adjusted the low frequency relax parameter on the kotelnikov
this is usually what happend when limiter is added as last , it will alter sound drasticly so you need to redo almost everything , so better is to setup limiter first so you do not need to master twice ;)
Sometimes! But the tone of limiter getting hit can shift in the opposite direction too
I always struggle with getting my sub/kick to sit right contextually.
Even with side chain and a nice distortion it just doesn't mesh
6:07 Still talking about the spider? 😂
Yeap
Why would you clip first if you’re likely going to end up changing the phase with eq or crossover filters?
Basically my philosophy has been
1st: Phase altering processes
2nd: clipping (peak control)
3rd: full band compression/limiting/saturation
He's done a video about exactly this a few months ago. Scoll back in the vid history and you should see it.
Crossover filters do not change phase...
@@AlexLapugean
Depends.
Minimum phase/zero latency filters do.
Most plugins use zero latency crossovers.
So unless you’re using linear phase or minimum phase at 6db or less per octave. They do. I believe that’s all correct.
At least 6db per octave crossovers had such a small change I couldn’t see it when I tested this. Might be wrong on that.
@@DaftyBoi412 I saw that but I think clipping first contradicts his findings does it not?
@@lusid_music_uk "Most plugins use zero latency crossovers"? Source needed ... can you think of examples of any decent plugin? Good plugins definatelly do not. Look for anything from fabfilter, izotope, they introduce 0 phase shift via crossover filters.
It’s loud but I notice something that happened to me sometimes as well, that there’s no punch any more. The whole punch is soaked into loudness. The kick sounds like a towel. Very low crest factor. Ver low dynamic range. It’s really something everyone needs to address and check especially on cell phones!
Is there any real reason to use that particular plugin over Melda MCompare which is seems to do the same thing for half the price?
Nope. I have had a few people hitting me up to use something like this instead pf manually doing it in my vids. And this really has just been a game changer in terms of focusing on workflow
ABLM2- TBProAudio match the loudness. Best !
New master sounds much cleaner and more pleasant to listen to however the synth in the background has too much 400-700Hz tone (some resonance I guess) which is covering vocal a bit. But big thumbs up for the new approach!
Thanks m808
That song went straight into my Tidal playlist!
Banging!
Hi Nick, just wondering how you go working on extremely loud and aggressive genres and if you have any tips to make working on them easier? Stuff like this for example where it's -3 LUFS and ridiculous but it still has just enough punch to not seem like a flat wall of noise th-cam.com/video/V4GKqSmDgGE/w-d-xo.htmlsi=NjDbEa6iXRYIDqNu
Waiting in clearance for a project I just did :) (-2.9 at loudest short term and -4.9 overall)
How do you use that perception thing? First on the Insert or...
It can be placed anywhere - for mastering I usually have one Pre instance at the beginning of the FX chain for every song and a Post Master instance on the master fader 👍
Bang on, Ian has a video start to end on this!
why not using a Multiband comp to control the clap? it smash any procesing and still over the vocal too much to me... great plugins used but i think u can try different approach. The final result is not far away from the orginal one, to be honest. Just my opinion. Thanks anyway for the video :)
My pleasure!
Ian Shepherd brought me here. Condolences on the spider intrusion. 😬 🤙🏼
Ha..when i told you to use some tool for loudnes compensation..no non i am old school :)
I can be a stubborn bastard some times
why is the God Particle always on 108%?
Great video mate 👍
Thanks m808
How come you missed this mixing mastering stage when you really go way technical on other things?? Btw I’ve been mastering on TC Finalizer which forces me to use less tools and has a fantastic fast ab comparison and the most transparent set of tools ive heard till now when it comes to digital!
I always a/b but I level matched manually in the past.
This just changed things workflow wise, which has been great because my focused efforts have been on the creative
I love how you edited the video but still left the spider first impression 😂
Mmmm freaked me out
Oh no a spider 😮😂
Idk he's Australian I believe it was that bad 😅
Thx for this one! Looks nice, but 150$ for this one? Seriously?! woowww...
They could have at least manage the kind of jump in the sound when passing from pre to post or post to pre.
That's the kind of things that would freak me out pretty fast. I'll wait for the proper update or the one company that will manage that properly!
Glad you liked it - it already has latency compensation just as you’re asking for, Nic just needed to click the “Sync” button 👍
@@ProductionAdviceyou have a good podcast
@@ProductionAdvice alllllllright! So "Mr Panorama" just forgot this detail? 😳 All good!
I guess so - I’m like you and find the “blip” really distracting, but it doesn’t bother everyone in the same way 👍
Yeap! Missed the sync button, my bad!
Was it a huntsman Nick? 😂
A nasty black looking one!
The mathematics at the beginning though 😢😅
Have you ever thought about making a loop more musical so that your decisions will be more musical ?
If you mean looping complete sections, lots of mastering engineers and producers avoid that much of the time by intentionally setting an odd (and short) loop brace. Can't speak for Nicholas but for me and most people I talk to, in either mixing or mastering, it's about getting things done in a fast and focused way. You can save lots of seconds that add up into vital minutes (or even hours in a big session) by ignoring bar lengths.
If the task in the given moment is "Establish the dynamics according to the loudest elements and judge how these processes are affecting tone," it doesn't make sense for anything else to be allowed into my head. I want to get something pinned quickly because taking too long about anything tends to lead to worse decisions, so I only want an amount of time that works for that. I don't need to know how the decisions I'm making in that moment relate to the resolution of a chorus or any subtleties in a verse; that's for later, when I'm onto _that_ task. This approach might seem jarring and unnatural if you don't like hearing fragments of music, but if you accept it then it keeps you energised and feeling that tick of regular, affirmative progress.
Aside from lost time, looping complete 2-bar/4-bar/8-bar looping sections gets you into that sticky hypnosis from the song itself, and it can even make the session feel tiring. The song might be really good but it's designed to be listened to for 3-5 mins or so, and it risks becoming fatiguing if you're locked in for many multiple of that time. And almost always, the big steps you take early on dealing with the most urgent parts of the structure tend to just work for everything else anyway. You might tweak things here and there to settle little issues but the "big brush" work is the majority of the job.
That 3-seconds is the loudest max short term loudness of the mix.
@@panorama_mastering I understand this, but irregular looping removes musicality, I would make other decisions. even it would be a one-bar loop would make a difference.
@@joechapman8208 Thanks for such an extensive answer, I hear you! But short sections could also be a one or 2 bar loop.
But to each its own I guess :-) For larger sections, I don't do it. but small sections make me cray if it is out of rhythm
oow my god i'm sick of that track haha. You didn't show us how you find those attack and release numbers based on the low fundamental
he showed that in another video he made about the kotelnikov comp i think
Don’t worry new bops to come. The tracks I show on here are from clients I am close with and can ask the favour of using.
21:34 right in the fucking chest
Banging it!
🕷
My wife told me to go on headphones ...
"¬D
Sorry m808
spidee
TGP doesn't work well with house. The moment he put in on there the TGP release slows the groove and takes the punch away.
I feel you
squash spiders, not transients.
Clip em
Dude, the extreme profanity is the height of unprofessionalism. If you can’t teach without resorting to the barrage of obscenities, then you don’t have much to offer. There are a ton of professionals online who have figured that out. You might take a page out of their book. Until then, unsubscribed.
Welcome to Australia cunt! 😂
hahah shut up nerd
Dude, there was a spider
Knowledge and experience make a professional, not your moral and ethical principles. Besides it's a free video on TH-cam lol stfu nobody cares
Grow up.
Perception is a good tool, but I prefer LETIMIX GainMatch which allows you to do the comparison without jumps and also allows you to listen in Delta mode.
Nice! Delta!