Really good adaptation/implementation of the CTZ ideas! I like the way you temporarily over-clip on each of the busses to help identify which source tracks might need some manual adjustment. And the AB comparison at the end really tells a compelling story. Thank you for taking the time to make this. I'm one of your Patreon subscribers; I love the techniques you come up with!
I've seen alckemy recently adopt your clip to zero technique as well this is something I used to do all the time using logic's bitcrusher (which acts as a transparent clipper when no bitreduction is engaged) I didn't know this at the time, but after watching your series on this it validated for me what I was doing, and more importantly educated me about it so I can use the technique more effectively and intentionally, rather than just relying on intuition
Baphometrix’s CTZ series has been my musical highlight of 2021 and 2022, I’m so happy to see tutorial makers & influencers picking the method up. It deserves the attention. A neat trick I’ve been playing around with for buildups: rather than the common trick of reducing the master volume over the 4/8/16 bars before a drop, automate your vca instead to pull sound out of your clippers to reduce loudness while keeping even more transients. Then bring it back up ofc
Clipping is the secret to greatness. Seriously. It gives so much control. And the cool this is that if it’s used judiciously the music doesn’t loose its power. Quite the opposite in fact and the proof’s right here. Well done with the video, very well put together!✌🏻
imho, there is always a tradeoff. Lets look at clipping or Limiting as a Soundshaping tool- rather than achieving LUFS : I find th Limiting was of corse more fresh sounding than clipping. Clipping is known for Earfatique. A smal amount gos a long ay, and can nicely even out something that pokes out. Limiting can even out things too, much more Pumping, ich can be unpleasant.. A bit in a similar Way like Clipping your Ears get tired of Pumping, as they get tired of hard-pretty hard distortion. I personally would not use a clipper unless i want this type TRADEOFF that a clipper has.. This distorted BAss sounded kindof good, right? ther i found it shined, but the ProgressivePsy Drums of wich we seek that clear, big KICK, there i found clipping pretty unsuited. So, im a bit unshure if i would even touch a clipper in PSytrance. I am a great fan of PReamdistortion and would probably use Preamdisotrtion for working with our beloved Clear ProgressivePsy. Its a softer Form of Distortion.. One could use the same method just with a dozen Preamdistortion-emulations just like he did, and i think it would just be superior.. Dont forget my words about Earfatique.. Listen to clipping for an Hour and you will understand better if youre newbie.. It also sounds dark.. Alot happening with bouth methods.. IMHO IMHO. Peace
@@erewrw1906 it all depends on the context, what you want to achieve and how much experience one has of course. What I personally have found in my case is that playing with applying combinations of hard and soft clipping in stages across my session allows me to achieve more dynamic mixes, even when pushed for loudness. Bear in mind that achieving a loud mix is not my main goal. But if I can get some more loudness for free then why not. Hard clipping is helpful for when you want to transparently control the dynamics of a percussive element. Yes, if implemented right the process is transparent and in contrast to limiting, clipping allows you to retain the the full energy of the element as this transient energy is still there but basically smeared over time. Soft clipping works best on non percussive elements or where you want to get additional coloration. Ultimately harmonic distortion is produced by clipping. As stated, if implemented correctly it can be more transparent than limiting in certain cases. But that doesn’t mean I won’t use limiting on my mixes. Peace and peaches 🍑
@@imdeaf81 baphy talks about using a plugin to get the gain to peak at 0 dbfs and the use the clipper to clip some of the top out. Is this done to avoid the saturation that would be added to the track by using the clipper like normal?
@@cholkymilkmirage4984 I don't exactly now if I 100% understand the question... I will try to answer anyway. Clipping is just like limiting but without time constant I.E. the onset is instantaneous. Say both are hard knee by design. Whatever signal goes over the ceiling gets clipped, the signal below the ceiling stays intact. But, having the limiter its time constants the "shaving" of the signal above the ceiling hangs on a little longer thus effectively causing a change in the groove of the music. If the problem is exacerbated we might call it pumping. Depending on the limiter and its settings, the result might be desirable or not. Clipping doesn't change the groove of the music, it only gets rid of the stuff that exceeds the ceiling. The technique explained in the video works because: 1. You supposedly shave just the transients while leaving the RMS stuff untouched. When you do that with a clipper the result is transparent and you don't loose energy. By applying clipping in stages you are pushing less transient into the last clipper so it won't have to work as hard. 2. by pushing into the clipper it becomes more apparent if there's a build-up somewhere in the frequency spectrum of your mix because it'll be the first ting that starts distorting. By cleaning the "offensive" frequencies your mix becomes more "energy efficient" and as a consequence it's easier to achieve a higher loudness. Hope this helps :)
This was a super helpful tutorial. The only thing I wish I could have seen during the organization stage was a signal chart of your grouping method--not having heard what's on each of the tracks, and having similarly named groups and subgroups made it slightly hard to keep track of your workflow at first. A simple diagram showing the buss structure would help the viewer follow along much faster and keep the content more DAW-agnostic--I will never need to know how to set this up in Cubase.
"the best mixes don't need mastering " - Bob Katz. when I first read this 18 years ago my mind was blown. But since, I've released over 200 tracks with nothing on the master (except span to check my frequencies) 1 of which has 70 million streams, several others which are a few million. If you reference well enough and mix well enough to that reference you can just mix at mastering level and forgoe the whole mastering process.
@@ELLIOT8209 don't 'clip' anything in mix. clipping before the master just adds clipping that will inevitably get clipped double at the master. If your hi hats are peaking your mix at 0, then your mix has bigger problems than any mastering will handle. Thats the best bit about working this way, if you can hear the clipping at all , then just its pointing to problem areas in your mix.
@@OCNmeticadpa I let the master clip instead, but only transients that are too fast to hear as clipped anyway. Clipping lots of elements before the master just gives you a mess of unnecessarily pre clipped sounds that combine in a worse way than if you'd just let the audio driver do it, on a digital technical level under the hood it's not saving you any work, its shaving peaks of so a limiter doesn't react sure I get that principle, but its also just creating more avenues of non-musical harmonics that now combine in a worse way. in the same way that lots of compressed sounds when added together also sound worse than it you just let them fight with their natural peaks and valleys. (typically in my experience anyway) I say all this with the huge caveat that it is my long time way of working ,and I have a great monitoring set up that lets me hear the problems. so "your milage my vary" as they say. My basic principle is matching the sound source to the reference, no compression on non-acoustic elements so they have healthy transients, and then when combined at the same level as the master, if there is audible distortion I go back and fix elements that are overlapping and causing that . The first culprits are usually low frequencies obvs so sidechaining needs to be done well etc and just listen and look for and fix overcrowding problems in other areas until the track is sounding 'clean' (the level of appropriate distortion varies per track depending on artist brand, song message, and sub genre). And that's how the tracks go out, no need for even a limiter on the master if its already sounding done.
CTZ is the way to go for loud but yet dynamic sounding tracks! I'm following the series from Bapho since he first posted it. I guess I incorporated the same approach by not clipping at 0 but at -6 for the same reasons Dash mentioned ^^. But in principle I try to produce every track like this. Thanks to you both Dash and Bapho for sharing your knowledge with us! 🙂
Yeah, you could do it as "Clip to -6" by setting that threshold (and ceiling) value on every track and bus clipper. I think it's easier to shoot for 0 dBFS because it means you don't (usually) need to loudness-match your reference tracks, and because in all DAWs you have tons of headroom above 0 dBFS so nothing ever really truly "clips" and is lost, and by simply turning off a bus clipper and looking for red numbers on your track meter you can quickly tell how much is being clipped, and so on. But the method is easily adaptable to whatever gainstaging you prefer to work at.
@@Baphometrix would you not run out of headroom on your master though of all your tracks are clipped to 0, if they sum together surely it will be over clipping?
@@TonyCooMusic-m5c It might make more sense if you watch a few episodes from the "Mixing Loud with CTZ" series of mine. Think of it this way: you have a cascade of clippers/limiters all sitting at 0 dBFS all over your project. They're chomping peaks that try to go over 0 dBFS. On every track, every summing point. Lots of little paper cuts. Much better result than one big paper cut at the end.
Being forced many times to mix just with headphones on my laptop (without headphones amplifier), and having a really tight ear canal, I've always needed more pressure compared to the average, so I've naturally and casually developed a way of mixing, going even +3dbfs while mainly paying attention to control the low frequencies so it not distort even when the peaks hit around +3. Then I tame the spikes with 2 comp in series with different behavior on the master bus and then I put the clipper to make it a little bit louder (If needed). At this point you have a mix which sounds almost like mastered. If you need to send it to the master engineer just export it at -6db and it's done (likely the master engineer will need to do very little if you've carefully and tastefully mixed and "colored" to get the final sound the song should have).
I think I slightly preferred the traditional mix due to how kick seemed to "slap" and make the whole track "talk" with it and everything moving along. Those small falls of loudness from the kick were dynamic and punchy. That said, this could be achieved with CTZ and some extra glue compressor as well - and it's entirely subjective, matter of a personal preference. So great to know both strategies!
I thought the CTZ mix kept the hi-hats pinned nicely at the top of the mix and kept the energy going. Otherwise I mostly preferred the greater transient detail in the traditional mix. I think a hybrid approach is a worthwhile consideration--and maybe using multistage compression to control transients at each buss position instead of hard clipping could result in a more dynamic (and thereby less LUFFY) mix.
A cool tip: my default template has every channel feed into a "sub-master". Ever wanted an effect on EVERYTHING besides just a few exclusions? Just have those sounds be the only ones to bypass the sub-master. And, actually, i have 3. Want a filter sweep across everything but vocals? Have two independent sub-masters going directly to master, and you can link the sweep but give just the one on the drums extra resonance. Want a sound to make use of a sub-master but still want ir excluded from other stuff? Sub-master 2 leads into sub-master 1 leads into master, this sound bypasses sub-master 2. Can always add more sub-masters, very flexible and fluid routing as long as you start with 1 and everything routed to it, especially if you keep that one empty and route it to whichever on you want as the 1st sub-master in the chain, in case you change your mind. Thats why i think 3 is just right for a template.
The idea is to do it on every single instrument\sound. It is the digital equivalent of what used to be the 0VU to +3VU in analogue (RMS in digital domain = -18 to -15dBFS, FS stands for Full Scale meter), where the peaks and some agressive transients were clipped\saturated\compressored (distorted) in order to bring the Volume Unit (hence VU) of each signal\sound ecording up to the optimal maximum of signal-to-noise ratio. Of course today in digital domain using digital synths and pre-sampled sounds and instruments, the noise factor is inaudible (technically it is bellow -120dbFS, audible signal starts at about -90dBFS, more likely at -75 or -72dBFS). This also brings the signals to a more loud pre-mixing level, if it happens so that you have calibrated your monitors\headphones correctly and comfortably to you: meaning you should be feeling comfortable listening to a pink noise with RMS at about -21dbFS (yes, it is a bit annoying but so is the modern techno\metal, which is very close to a pink noise\square wave and saw waves). The term Clip to Zero refers to the main culprit for digital clipping: Peaks in transients of the waveforms. There is absolutely no problem for clipping them at -1dBFS, so that you can have 1dBFS for some mastering treatment (lets say binaural mix, which I do as a dedicated mix intended for listening on headphones ONLY!), because I use binaural impulse responses, but that is an advanced subject.
I suppose this was the video you referenced at Sungazer... This makes the mix so full... I know understand a lot more as to how to get a work in progress ready for a live performance 🙏 thank you Dash!
This is by all means pre-mastering and if done right like you did there, it yields very clean, but solid mixes. "Control" is the keyword here and having control over your mix makes the mastering process so much easier. With this method and few other tricks in the book, I manage to bring my final masters in the range of -7 to -6 dB RMS, which by all means is insane, especially in trance production, where there's a lot going on in the mix and you have to make the most out of each frequency space. That means I have enough dynamic range to dial back in (perhaps to a -8.5 dB RMS) and still sound solid. Great in-depth video, you got my sub.
been loving incorporating these techniques after the bountiful Baphometrix buffet we've been getting of expounded theory. It's been so refreshing to watch as they get released, and extra wonderful to see others like yourself applying it as well in other genres. Great work (as always) for bringing this knowledge over for the psy community
Not sure if it's been mentioned before but when clipping it introduces low frequencies so check with a frequency analyser to make sure you are not over doing it
Been using Baphy's CTZ method for a minute now, but working, like you, at -6. Good to keep things clean in the psy styles 🤘👽 for bass music it makes more sense to push it all the way to zero... nice vid!
Hi dash! Thanks for all your content, massive insights from all your videos 😁 would love to see a video on agneton style melodies. They sound beautiful but can't manage to figure out the sound design behind it 😬
Nice explanation of the method. I guess a mastering engineer would use a multiband compressor for that sort of thing but in this case you're doing their job in advance.
Thanks for showing this method. I really like it. I think I would try to tweak the kick a little bit more. I like it a little bit more in the traditional mix. In the CTZ mix it loses a bit of thump and "roundness" imho.
love seeing this permeate the YT verse. Bapho's series is great and Joey Sturgis implements a version of this in some ways with his busses on metal and rock mixes.
Mate this is such a good video! In the A/B process I could hear a difference, but couldn't really put my finger on what it was. Then you pointed out it was the limiter's gain reduction and it all made sense. I'm only left with one question: why is it called "clip to zero"?
Dash is showing a modified adaptation in this video. In my original approach, I recommend leaving all your clippers and limiters on every track/bus with their threshold/ceiling at 0 dBFS. And running your average RMS/LUFS up hot to the same level as the reference tracks you're working against. So for example, most electronic dance music falls out somewhere between -9 LUFS to -6 LUFS INTEGRATED when measured across the loudest sections of the song. This means RMS is hovering around -9 to -6, and peaks are hitting 0 dBFS (or just slightly under at -0.1 or -0.3 sample peak, depending on what was chosen as the ceiling value on the mastering limiter). When you work in that same small dynamic range right from the start of production, you gain a lot of benefits (which I describe in episode 2 of my series on the subject). Anyway, so in the original system, you're driving every track and bus very hot, and the clippers/limiters on each are quite literally "clipping to 0". Hence, the name of the method. 😉
This is just "mastering while you mix". Re: mitigating the unstable reaction of a mastering limiter being used on an entire mix, around 29 or so minutes in... if you don't want the limiter to react to the whole mix, you could trigger it with a sidechain. If you clip/limit each track or group along the way, you can gain more clarity but less "glue" between the groups. I pretty much only post synth jams, usually slammed in some way, so not the best example for clean trance😅. But I thought I would mention that stuff, so maybe people could see that it's not an either/or situation - You can do some gain reduction as you go along, and some at the end. You can use a hard clipper or a sof clipping limiter or a distortion pedal or? The main thing is, you get to decide which elements you want to remain rounded off a little (if any, apparently), and which you want to squarsh completely flat, and when in the process you want to do that, and with what. They got EQs that treat the transient and sustain of a note separately. It's like a backwards D-50 synth. What a world!
I stumbled upon your tutorials a couple of days ago and really found them helpful. I learned about CTZ a couple of months ago when I first watched a Baphometrix video and I was really glad you covered a topic like this. Thank you! ps a quick question. Is Higher Definition (2011) your album? I had found this album randomly on a site and listened the hell out of it back in the day. Can't find it anywhere now! I think it had a track called Beginning of the end which had a dubstep intro. It would be sick if you are actually that Glitch!
Actually started using Kclip and I prefered it up until recently where they broke the GUI on an update, so i've been using Crispy Clip by Yum Audio, but standard clip is fantastic if you want an oversampled clipper while the other options are better when not looking to oversample imho
Hey Dash, really clear explanation. Was unconciously looking for a step like this in the mixing process for a long time. Thank you! If you master your own songs, do you just reduce the gain at the end to achieve around -14 dB Lufs for spotify and such?
well, professional masteringengineers have a target-value, and if their target is -14, well then thaey try reducing dynamic to this point. however here you have a combination of clipping and limiting combined.. so you have to try out.. find a first sweetspot somewhere below -14 with clipping, then do the remainging reduction with limiting.. to hit 14.. also here , they dont just exactly hit the target numbers, no, they listen, and try find a sweetspot.. alwasy.. so they probably end up at - 13... cause it must sound right. (i recall they try to end up slightly above -14, so its not a singly cent of Decibell liser for the listener). But this technique is anyway for harder forms of compression, where the people dont regard the Streaming-luf targets, and just normally fight for the most possible DB , that can be won.. so this technique is for reaching like -6 DB or -8 or something.. So, you PROBABLY rather wouldnt use this hardcore-form of Dynamic-range-limiting, and just use the Limiter if you are after a Streaming-master.. (people still proceed the Loudness-battles, caus, i actually dont know wha, but they doo.. and im not dumb,) . And please keep comments peacefull everyone, im sick, worked my ass off for 6 years.
or you can use the information to build how you want your dynamics from the ground up. You can actually increase the dynamic range when used effectively.
@@DashGlitch clipping is by deffinition the exact opposite of increasing dynamics. It is adding distortion resulting in shaved off transients resulting in less dynamic range. By “clipping to Zero” as in 0= The digital ceiling, you aim at getting the average level near Zero which means as little dynamics as possible. This results in an perceived as “loud” sounding master which is the result of not having a big dynamic range. The ear perceives constant level as louder than a dynamically varying level. Hence the loudness wars started in the 1940’s and maybe even before that. There is no way to get something louder without reducing the dynamic range. But no need to believe me. Its all good 👍
I'm trying to use this method on some of my tracks, however, when used on FM Bell sounds, no matter where the hard clip, I get really nasty distortion. Are there some sounds that just can't be Clipped-to-Zero?
Hey, I'm totally new to this and saw the original videos are really long and I'm time-limited lately, so I skipped right to the A/B. I'll be honest, in this context the difference to me is very minimal to the point that I would not bother doing this if it is a longer or less intuitive process than my own. The CTZ is definitely a little louder, I can hear it especially in the bass, that's where it's the most noticeable. With that being said, I haven't watched the original videos, so for me the deciding factor is whether this method would eventually (after putting in the time to learn it) save me time and/or be more intuitive to me. Another important, though not deciding factor, is whether CTZ will work for different production styles. Be advised I am biased against mixing and mastering hypes as I'm of opinion that for most producers the time, attention and focus are best spent elsewhere. That's it from me. Cheers guys! Thanks for the A/B comparison, it is especially important.
Awesome Video, there's one thing I didn't get, maybe cause I'm not well informed about Metering: Around 21:00 , how did you get the information that main leads needed to be cut in the middle range? Thanks in advance
by increasing the gain before the clipper and increasing the LUFS, we are also pushing sounds much closer to the threshold, sounds that hit the threshold are likely to sound audibly clipped, and as you increase the gain you can hear some mid-range distortion start to appear in the leads channel (the mids are generally the issue here, because of fletcher munsons equal loudness contours - that states the louder we listen to something the louder the mid-range is, so when we boost it to the max we need to compensate for the lack of mids and thus often a boost in the mix) I hope that makes sense.
Har thats nice, as I was exactly looking this the last days on Baphys channel. I stick with Kazrog KClip, what are you r specific reasons to chose SRI? thanks and best regards
Good interface and plenty of control 😁 like I said in the video I don’t think the clipper you use is important, it’s the fundamental understanding which can be applied to many tools :)
@@DashGlitch OK cool, thx and yes as I can remember what you said, just was wondering Baphy explicltly recommended KLip usage (and NewFangled Saturator). OR have I just stick with my Ableton Live Clipper? Anyhow, I like the linking and softening feature of KClip most. SIR is aswell fantastic company as they seem to get the job done. Best Regards and Thanks
Tried to bring a psy project to 0 as Baphometrix shows, but I think that´s super hard for psy. I am getting constantly a bit above 0 in the master no matter what, I felt like you need some headroom bcs of all the elements that play in a psy track (?). Will try to reduce to -6 the anchor and see how it plays out.
@@Mixedbyjojo355 Well Im doing with CTZ pair in each channel then another clipper in the group (anchor, percs, synths, fx) then another clipper in premaster and even one on master at the beggining of chain (Ableton). Im using Gclip plugin, waiting for KClip3 to be on sale. Kinda stuck there.
@@DashGlitch oh nice man ... I actually have a lot on my Black friday list ... Let me see if I can fit it in ... I tried flatline I even tried putting the whole elevate plugin on channels ... To me soundwise I like Sir and Kazrog the most ... I'll definitely add Kaz to my list now
Lol, I just noticed that you are glitching your voice slightly. It's almost like you are using a de-esser to trigger the glitches in some weird way. It's barely noticeable but I can hear it...
@@DashGlitch No, it's this particular video as your live stream and other videos don't have the glitch... It's random, but with headphones you can barely hear the glitching all through out and specifically around 01:48 you can hear it. It would have been awesome if you had been secretly doing this on all your vids as it would be a great easter egg to match the name Dash Glitch...🤷♂
@@JoshuaHardee LOL! maybe it was something to do with CPU usage etc, coz I was killing the CPU in this video, unintentional I promise but good ears! thanks
buy the track from beatport for 1.40 dollar, get the bpm, key and scale from there, take it into your daw and map out the midi, use the scale and play around with the notes, you should be able to get that melody down fairly quick, with this method you can learn to make any kind of melody you hear instead of relying on tutorials
I might be wrong but I believe ceiling control the clip at the output stage? by default as I have it here, it still definitely clips the input, as you can see in the oscilloscope and in the waveform :)
Oversampling can be a little confusing. Think of it this way: you ARE doing a lot of clipping based on the input and the threshold. But the antialiasing filter then creates some NEW peaks on the output, after the first round of clipping. But there aren't as many of these, and they probably aren't as high as before. So it's still very "clipped" compared to before. Yes, in this video some of those leftover peaks from the oversampled StandardClip on each bus are indeed summing together and getting crushed again eventually by the mastering limiter at the very end. But that's okay. It's **still** spreading the workload out (many small clips is better than one big clip), and you're still getting a lot of the benefits.
This is cool but you have to be a decent engineer to make this work, because you need the ears to hear when you’re pushing it too hard. My big concern as a person who does mastering is that people who aren’t good at mixing want to make heavy tracks, and they see a video like this and then they go too far with it... then they hand me a mix where it’s been just blitzed. Sometimes this was a “direct to stereo from hardware” thing, because computers are bad. So no possibility to remix. The problem is, the mastering engineer has basically nothing they can do to save the track from sounding completely flat, lifeless yet overblown and annoying. I don’t think making a track other people want to turn off helps an artist. So anyone reading this comment, i’m not teling you not to use this method, i’m telling you to be careful, and maybe even back off .5 dB from where you think it sounds heaviest.
This is why I made one episode (ep. 11), which is called "How to keep your mastering engineer happy". I think you'd be happy with the advice I give there, as well as the technique I demonstrate there. TL;DR - with the CTZ method, you have full control over exactly how hard you're pushing the entire mix into the clipper cascade. So you could make a hot, loud self-master as an example, and then relax *everything* down out of the clippers with just one knob twist. And hand that more relaxed version (even with NO clipping at all, anywhere) off to an ME and let them work their magic. A big plus for the ME is that because the producer built their arrangement and mix to actually **work** in a very small dynamic range, your job is in many ways easier. I invite you to go over my channel and find that episode and check it out!
@@Baphometrix Cool i’m glad you covered that. Sounds solid, i’ll check out the series. I love all aspects of mixing and i’m old but i’m not a purist. 😉
@@DashGlitch true that tho! Actually, nearly all the dynamics and mastering tools with Plugin Alliance don't have any presets. Which forces one to either know how to do it. Or learn. which I'm doing. 😁
@@DashGlitch Logic's summing doesn't take high levels very well - I say that as someone with 25 years of professional experience across nearly all the DAWs - By all means try it for yourself and if you have multiple DAWs, try the same material in both
@@F9Audio "Logic's summing doesn't take high levels very well".... If the signal on every track and bus is clipped PRE-fader to 0 dBFS, is that a "high level" that somehow cannot be handled by Logic? Granted, the signal flow in every pre-fader channel might poke as much as 1-12 dB over 0 dBFS, but isn't Logic using 32-bit floating point math on every channel and bus, just like every other DAW out there? With 32-bit float, you have a massive +770 dB of headroom OVER 0 dBFS. I fail to understand how working at CTZ levels of gainstaging would cause any special issues in Logic. I'm not asserting that you're wrong... I don't have access to Logic (nor desire to try). Just saying that there's nothing specific about CTZ gainstaging that should adversely affect any DAW with 32-bit float signal processing.
Really good adaptation/implementation of the CTZ ideas! I like the way you temporarily over-clip on each of the busses to help identify which source tracks might need some manual adjustment. And the AB comparison at the end really tells a compelling story. Thank you for taking the time to make this. I'm one of your Patreon subscribers; I love the techniques you come up with!
...thank you Baph!!! You changed the game for me - u r a legend 😎🙏👍👍👍
baphometrix on dash glitch's page?! worlds coliding!
@@jahpocalypse Great minds think alike?
I've seen alckemy recently adopt your clip to zero technique as well
this is something I used to do all the time using logic's bitcrusher (which acts as a transparent clipper when no bitreduction is engaged)
I didn't know this at the time, but after watching your series on this it validated for me what I was doing, and more importantly educated me about it
so I can use the technique more effectively and intentionally, rather than just relying on intuition
I really enjoy you uploading new more in depth tutorials. Thank you!
Baphometrix’s CTZ series has been my musical highlight of 2021 and 2022, I’m so happy to see tutorial makers & influencers picking the method up. It deserves the attention.
A neat trick I’ve been playing around with for buildups: rather than the common trick of reducing the master volume over the 4/8/16 bars before a drop, automate your vca instead to pull sound out of your clippers to reduce loudness while keeping even more transients. Then bring it back up ofc
Clipping is the secret to greatness. Seriously. It gives so much control. And the cool this is that if it’s used judiciously the music doesn’t loose its power. Quite the opposite in fact and the proof’s right here.
Well done with the video, very well put together!✌🏻
imho, there is always a tradeoff.
Lets look at clipping or Limiting as a Soundshaping tool- rather than achieving LUFS :
I find th Limiting was of corse more fresh sounding than clipping. Clipping is known for Earfatique. A smal amount gos a long ay, and can nicely even out something that pokes out.
Limiting can even out things too, much more Pumping, ich can be unpleasant.. A bit in a similar Way like Clipping your Ears get tired of Pumping, as they get tired of hard-pretty hard distortion.
I personally would not use a clipper unless i want this type TRADEOFF that a clipper has.. This distorted BAss sounded kindof good, right? ther i found it shined, but the ProgressivePsy Drums of wich we seek that clear, big KICK, there i found clipping pretty unsuited.
So, im a bit unshure if i would even touch a clipper in PSytrance.
I am a great fan of PReamdistortion and would probably use Preamdisotrtion for working with our beloved Clear ProgressivePsy. Its a softer Form of Distortion..
One could use the same method just with a dozen Preamdistortion-emulations just like he did, and i think it would just be superior.. Dont forget my words about Earfatique.. Listen to clipping for an Hour and you will understand better if youre newbie.. It also sounds dark.. Alot happening with bouth methods.. IMHO IMHO. Peace
@@erewrw1906 it all depends on the context, what you want to achieve and how much experience one has of course.
What I personally have found in my case is that playing with applying combinations of hard and soft clipping in stages across my session allows me to achieve more dynamic mixes, even when pushed for loudness.
Bear in mind that achieving a loud mix is not my main goal. But if I can get some more loudness for free then why not.
Hard clipping is helpful for when you want to transparently control the dynamics of a percussive element. Yes, if implemented right the process is transparent and in contrast to limiting, clipping allows you to retain the the full energy of the element as this transient energy is still there but basically smeared over time.
Soft clipping works best on non percussive elements or where you want to get additional coloration.
Ultimately harmonic distortion is produced by clipping. As stated, if implemented correctly it can be more transparent than limiting in certain cases.
But that doesn’t mean I won’t use limiting on my mixes.
Peace and peaches 🍑
@@imdeaf81 baphy talks about using a plugin to get the gain to peak at 0 dbfs and the use the clipper to clip some of the top out. Is this done to avoid the saturation that would be added to the track by using the clipper like normal?
@@cholkymilkmirage4984 I don't exactly now if I 100% understand the question... I will try to answer anyway. Clipping is just like limiting but without time constant I.E. the onset is instantaneous. Say both are hard knee by design. Whatever signal goes over the ceiling gets clipped, the signal below the ceiling stays intact. But, having the limiter its time constants the "shaving" of the signal above the ceiling hangs on a little longer thus effectively causing a change in the groove of the music. If the problem is exacerbated we might call it pumping. Depending on the limiter and its settings, the result might be desirable or not.
Clipping doesn't change the groove of the music, it only gets rid of the stuff that exceeds the ceiling.
The technique explained in the video works because: 1. You supposedly shave just the transients while leaving the RMS stuff untouched. When you do that with a clipper the result is transparent and you don't loose energy. By applying clipping in stages you are pushing less transient into the last clipper so it won't have to work as hard.
2. by pushing into the clipper it becomes more apparent if there's a build-up somewhere in the frequency spectrum of your mix because it'll be the first ting that starts distorting. By cleaning the "offensive" frequencies your mix becomes more "energy efficient" and as a consequence it's easier to achieve a higher loudness.
Hope this helps :)
This was a super helpful tutorial. The only thing I wish I could have seen during the organization stage was a signal chart of your grouping method--not having heard what's on each of the tracks, and having similarly named groups and subgroups made it slightly hard to keep track of your workflow at first. A simple diagram showing the buss structure would help the viewer follow along much faster and keep the content more DAW-agnostic--I will never need to know how to set this up in Cubase.
Realizing that what I've been doing for last 2 years of mixing it's an actual technique.
Love ur content 💞
"the best mixes don't need mastering " - Bob Katz. when I first read this 18 years ago my mind was blown.
But since, I've released over 200 tracks with nothing on the master (except span to check my frequencies) 1 of which has 70 million streams, several others which are a few million. If you reference well enough and mix well enough to that reference you can just mix at mastering level and forgoe the whole mastering process.
Damn well done, yea that’s the main concept behind the video, to get a “master” in the mix
@@DashGlitch how do you also clip hi hats to zero?
@@ELLIOT8209 don't 'clip' anything in mix. clipping before the master just adds clipping that will inevitably get clipped double at the master. If your hi hats are peaking your mix at 0, then your mix has bigger problems than any mastering will handle. Thats the best bit about working this way, if you can hear the clipping at all , then just its pointing to problem areas in your mix.
@@Bthelickyou wouldn’t recommend the CTZ method then? Big fan of your videos.
@@OCNmeticadpa I let the master clip instead, but only transients that are too fast to hear as clipped anyway.
Clipping lots of elements before the master just gives you a mess of unnecessarily pre clipped sounds that combine in a worse way than if you'd just let the audio driver do it, on a digital technical level under the hood it's not saving you any work, its shaving peaks of so a limiter doesn't react sure I get that principle, but its also just creating more avenues of non-musical harmonics that now combine in a worse way. in the same way that lots of compressed sounds when added together also sound worse than it you just let them fight with their natural peaks and valleys. (typically in my experience anyway)
I say all this with the huge caveat that it is my long time way of working ,and I have a great monitoring set up that lets me hear the problems. so "your milage my vary" as they say.
My basic principle is matching the sound source to the reference, no compression on non-acoustic elements so they have healthy transients, and then when combined at the same level as the master, if there is audible distortion I go back and fix elements that are overlapping and causing that . The first culprits are usually low frequencies obvs so sidechaining needs to be done well etc and just listen and look for and fix overcrowding problems in other areas until the track is sounding 'clean' (the level of appropriate distortion varies per track depending on artist brand, song message, and sub genre). And that's how the tracks go out, no need for even a limiter on the master if its already sounding done.
CTZ is the way to go for loud but yet dynamic sounding tracks! I'm following the series from Bapho since he first posted it. I guess I incorporated the same approach by not clipping at 0 but at -6 for the same reasons Dash mentioned ^^. But in principle I try to produce every track like this. Thanks to you both Dash and Bapho for sharing your knowledge with us! 🙂
Yeah, you could do it as "Clip to -6" by setting that threshold (and ceiling) value on every track and bus clipper. I think it's easier to shoot for 0 dBFS because it means you don't (usually) need to loudness-match your reference tracks, and because in all DAWs you have tons of headroom above 0 dBFS so nothing ever really truly "clips" and is lost, and by simply turning off a bus clipper and looking for red numbers on your track meter you can quickly tell how much is being clipped, and so on. But the method is easily adaptable to whatever gainstaging you prefer to work at.
@@Baphometrix would you not run out of headroom on your master though of all your tracks are clipped to 0, if they sum together surely it will be over clipping?
@@TonyCooMusic-m5c It might make more sense if you watch a few episodes from the "Mixing Loud with CTZ" series of mine. Think of it this way: you have a cascade of clippers/limiters all sitting at 0 dBFS all over your project. They're chomping peaks that try to go over 0 dBFS. On every track, every summing point. Lots of little paper cuts. Much better result than one big paper cut at the end.
@@Baphometrix thanks for the explanation
Being forced many times to mix just with headphones on my laptop (without headphones amplifier), and having a really tight ear canal, I've always needed more pressure compared to the average, so I've naturally and casually developed a way of mixing, going even +3dbfs while mainly paying attention to control the low frequencies so it not distort even when the peaks hit around +3. Then I tame the spikes with 2 comp in series with different behavior on the master bus and then I put the clipper to make it a little bit louder (If needed). At this point you have a mix which sounds almost like mastered. If you need to send it to the master engineer just export it at -6db and it's done (likely the master engineer will need to do very little if you've carefully and tastefully mixed and "colored" to get the final sound the song should have).
I think I slightly preferred the traditional mix due to how kick seemed to "slap" and make the whole track "talk" with it and everything moving along. Those small falls of loudness from the kick were dynamic and punchy.
That said, this could be achieved with CTZ and some extra glue compressor as well - and it's entirely subjective, matter of a personal preference. So great to know both strategies!
I thought the CTZ mix kept the hi-hats pinned nicely at the top of the mix and kept the energy going. Otherwise I mostly preferred the greater transient detail in the traditional mix. I think a hybrid approach is a worthwhile consideration--and maybe using multistage compression to control transients at each buss position instead of hard clipping could result in a more dynamic (and thereby less LUFFY) mix.
Clip to zero is stupid. Flat out. Lol I prefer people use it though.
Baphy is a tutorial beast.very useful and thorough.
A cool tip: my default template has every channel feed into a "sub-master".
Ever wanted an effect on EVERYTHING besides just a few exclusions? Just have those sounds be the only ones to bypass the sub-master. And, actually, i have 3.
Want a filter sweep across everything but vocals? Have two independent sub-masters going directly to master, and you can link the sweep but give just the one on the drums extra resonance.
Want a sound to make use of a sub-master but still want ir excluded from other stuff? Sub-master 2 leads into sub-master 1 leads into master, this sound bypasses sub-master 2.
Can always add more sub-masters, very flexible and fluid routing as long as you start with 1 and everything routed to it, especially if you keep that one empty and route it to whichever on you want as the 1st sub-master in the chain, in case you change your mind. Thats why i think 3 is just right for a template.
The idea is to do it on every single instrument\sound. It is the digital equivalent of what used to be the 0VU to +3VU in analogue (RMS in digital domain = -18 to -15dBFS, FS stands for Full Scale meter), where the peaks and some agressive transients were clipped\saturated\compressored (distorted) in order to bring the Volume Unit (hence VU) of each signal\sound
ecording up to the optimal maximum of signal-to-noise ratio.
Of course today in digital domain using digital synths and pre-sampled sounds and instruments, the noise factor is inaudible (technically it is bellow -120dbFS, audible signal starts at about -90dBFS, more likely at -75 or -72dBFS).
This also brings the signals to a more loud pre-mixing level, if it happens so that you have calibrated your monitors\headphones correctly and comfortably to you: meaning you should be feeling comfortable listening to a pink noise with RMS at about -21dbFS (yes, it is a bit annoying but so is the modern techno\metal, which is very close to a pink noise\square wave and saw waves).
The term Clip to Zero refers to the main culprit for digital clipping: Peaks in transients of the waveforms.
There is absolutely no problem for clipping them at -1dBFS, so that you can have 1dBFS for some mastering treatment (lets say binaural mix, which I do as a dedicated mix intended for listening on headphones ONLY!), because I use binaural impulse responses, but that is an advanced subject.
I suppose this was the video you referenced at Sungazer... This makes the mix so full... I know understand a lot more as to how to get a work in progress ready for a live performance 🙏 thank you Dash!
This is by all means pre-mastering and if done right like you did there, it yields very clean, but solid mixes. "Control" is the keyword here and having control over your mix makes the mastering process so much easier. With this method and few other tricks in the book, I manage to bring my final masters in the range of -7 to -6 dB RMS, which by all means is insane, especially in trance production, where there's a lot going on in the mix and you have to make the most out of each frequency space. That means I have enough dynamic range to dial back in (perhaps to a -8.5 dB RMS) and still sound solid. Great in-depth video, you got my sub.
been loving incorporating these techniques after the bountiful Baphometrix buffet we've been getting of expounded theory. It's been so refreshing to watch as they get released, and extra wonderful to see others like yourself applying it as well in other genres. Great work (as always) for bringing this knowledge over for the psy community
CTZ has more louder and hot sauce in it
Good job brother
CTZ is the shit love it
Thanx Thanx Thanx
Dash you're awesome
Not sure if it's been mentioned before but when clipping it introduces low frequencies so check with a frequency analyser to make sure you are not over doing it
Really cool!
And nice sounding even when squashed by an elephant, I must say...
Been using Baphy's CTZ method for a minute now, but working, like you, at -6. Good to keep things clean in the psy styles 🤘👽
for bass music it makes more sense to push it all the way to zero...
nice vid!
Hi dash! Thanks for all your content, massive insights from all your videos 😁 would love to see a video on agneton style melodies. They sound beautiful but can't manage to figure out the sound design behind it 😬
Nice explanation of the method. I guess a mastering engineer would use a multiband compressor for that sort of thing but in this case you're doing their job in advance.
And without the change in frequency balance thus altering the material, or any phase issues introduced by the MB split :)
Your Track sounds really great. can't wait for the release
Thanks for showing this method. I really like it. I think I would try to tweak the kick a little bit more. I like it a little bit more in the traditional mix. In the CTZ mix it loses a bit of thump and "roundness" imho.
Fantastic Tutorial. Your track is awesome by the way
Standard Clip is Legit I use it in mastering 👍
love seeing this permeate the YT verse. Bapho's series is great and Joey Sturgis implements a version of this in some ways with his busses on metal and rock mixes.
what a great video!
really good one dash, thanks a lot
Amazing video thanks so much for sharing!
Nicely explained and thanks.
snappie....nice
Mate this is such a good video! In the A/B process I could hear a difference, but couldn't really put my finger on what it was. Then you pointed out it was the limiter's gain reduction and it all made sense.
I'm only left with one question: why is it called "clip to zero"?
Dash is showing a modified adaptation in this video. In my original approach, I recommend leaving all your clippers and limiters on every track/bus with their threshold/ceiling at 0 dBFS. And running your average RMS/LUFS up hot to the same level as the reference tracks you're working against. So for example, most electronic dance music falls out somewhere between -9 LUFS to -6 LUFS INTEGRATED when measured across the loudest sections of the song. This means RMS is hovering around -9 to -6, and peaks are hitting 0 dBFS (or just slightly under at -0.1 or -0.3 sample peak, depending on what was chosen as the ceiling value on the mastering limiter). When you work in that same small dynamic range right from the start of production, you gain a lot of benefits (which I describe in episode 2 of my series on the subject). Anyway, so in the original system, you're driving every track and bus very hot, and the clippers/limiters on each are quite literally "clipping to 0". Hence, the name of the method. 😉
@@Baphometrix Thanks so much for the elaborate answer! I will definitely check your video series out as well!
Does anyone have a logic starter template for the routing on this?
This is just "mastering while you mix". Re: mitigating the unstable reaction of a mastering limiter being used on an entire mix, around 29 or so minutes in... if you don't want the limiter to react to the whole mix, you could trigger it with a sidechain. If you clip/limit each track or group along the way, you can gain more clarity but less "glue" between the groups.
I pretty much only post synth jams, usually slammed in some way, so not the best example for clean trance😅. But I thought I would mention that stuff, so maybe people could see that it's not an either/or situation - You can do some gain reduction as you go along, and some at the end. You can use a hard clipper or a sof clipping limiter or a distortion pedal or?
The main thing is, you get to decide which elements you want to remain rounded off a little (if any, apparently), and which you want to squarsh completely flat, and when in the process you want to do that, and with what. They got EQs that treat the transient and sustain of a note separately. It's like a backwards D-50 synth. What a world!
I stumbled upon your tutorials a couple of days ago and really found them helpful. I learned about CTZ a couple of months ago when I first watched a Baphometrix video and I was really glad you covered a topic like this. Thank you!
ps a quick question. Is Higher Definition (2011) your album? I had found this album randomly on a site and listened the hell out of it back in the day. Can't find it anywhere now! I think it had a track called Beginning of the end which had a dubstep intro. It would be sick if you are actually that Glitch!
Yes that is me 😁🤙
@@DashGlitch Insane album! Thank you for sharing your knowledge!
do you prefer standard clip over the k clip he recommends?
Actually started using Kclip and I prefered it up until recently where they broke the GUI on an update, so i've been using Crispy Clip by Yum Audio, but standard clip is fantastic if you want an oversampled clipper while the other options are better when not looking to oversample imho
Hey Dash, really clear explanation. Was unconciously looking for a step like this in the mixing process for a long time. Thank you!
If you master your own songs, do you just reduce the gain at the end to achieve around -14 dB Lufs for spotify and such?
well, professional masteringengineers have a target-value, and if their target is -14, well then thaey try reducing dynamic to this point. however here you have a combination of clipping and limiting combined.. so you have to try out.. find a first sweetspot somewhere below -14 with clipping, then do the remainging reduction with limiting.. to hit 14.. also here , they dont just exactly hit the target numbers, no, they listen, and try find a sweetspot.. alwasy.. so they probably end up at - 13... cause it must sound right. (i recall they try to end up slightly above -14, so its not a singly cent of Decibell liser for the listener).
But this technique is anyway for harder forms of compression, where the people dont regard the Streaming-luf targets, and just normally fight for the most possible DB , that can be won.. so this technique is for reaching like -6 DB or -8 or something..
So, you PROBABLY rather wouldnt use this hardcore-form of Dynamic-range-limiting, and just use the Limiter if you are after a Streaming-master.. (people still proceed the Loudness-battles, caus, i actually dont know wha, but they doo.. and im not dumb,) . And please keep comments peacefull everyone, im sick, worked my ass off for 6 years.
Gold
Top Top video 🔥🔥👌🏾👌🏾
Noice :)
Question about the VCA channel. Which channels do you link to it? Assuming its all the individual tracks and not the (sub)groups?
Thanks for the video. Any reason why you aren't applying clipping to the individual channels?
Great track by the way.
Thanks for info! ) BTW Maybe anyone knows how to make Preclip VCA in Ableton?
use utility before the clipper
@@DashGlitch That`s the way! Thank you again! )
This technique can also be called „kill dynamics in their crib! Who needs them! „
or you can use the information to build how you want your dynamics from the ground up. You can actually increase the dynamic range when used effectively.
@@DashGlitch clipping is by deffinition the exact opposite of increasing dynamics. It is adding distortion resulting in shaved off transients resulting in less dynamic range. By “clipping to Zero” as in 0= The digital ceiling, you aim at getting the average level near Zero which means as little dynamics as possible. This results in an perceived as “loud” sounding master which is the result of not having a big dynamic range. The ear perceives constant level as louder than a dynamically varying level. Hence the loudness wars started in the 1940’s and maybe even before that. There is no way to get something louder without reducing the dynamic range. But no need to believe me. Its all good 👍
I'm trying to use this method on some of my tracks, however, when used on FM Bell sounds, no matter where the hard clip, I get really nasty distortion. Are there some sounds that just can't be Clipped-to-Zero?
FM sounds are usually heavy in the high-mids, perhaps try reducing that area with EQ or de-esser first
@@DashGlitch Ok will do, thanks
You don’t have to clip hard every element! And you have to listen in context not in solo! Clip it while you’re listening the rest of the mix!
@@Mixedbyjojo355 oh gotcha, thanks!
Hey, I'm totally new to this and saw the original videos are really long and I'm time-limited lately, so I skipped right to the A/B. I'll be honest, in this context the difference to me is very minimal to the point that I would not bother doing this if it is a longer or less intuitive process than my own.
The CTZ is definitely a little louder, I can hear it especially in the bass, that's where it's the most noticeable.
With that being said, I haven't watched the original videos, so for me the deciding factor is whether this method would eventually (after putting in the time to learn it) save me time and/or be more intuitive to me.
Another important, though not deciding factor, is whether CTZ will work for different production styles.
Be advised I am biased against mixing and mastering hypes as I'm of opinion that for most producers the time, attention and focus are best spent elsewhere.
That's it from me. Cheers guys! Thanks for the A/B comparison, it is especially important.
I think the advantage of hearing any issues by overclipping is also adventageous
Awesome Video, there's one thing I didn't get, maybe cause I'm not well informed about Metering: Around 21:00 , how did you get the information that main leads needed to be cut in the middle range? Thanks in advance
by increasing the gain before the clipper and increasing the LUFS, we are also pushing sounds much closer to the threshold, sounds that hit the threshold are likely to sound audibly clipped, and as you increase the gain you can hear some mid-range distortion start to appear in the leads channel (the mids are generally the issue here, because of fletcher munsons equal loudness contours - that states the louder we listen to something the louder the mid-range is, so when we boost it to the max we need to compensate for the lack of mids and thus often a boost in the mix) I hope that makes sense.
@@DashGlitch crystal celar! Huge Thanks ❤️
Har thats nice, as I was exactly looking this the last days on Baphys channel. I stick with Kazrog KClip, what are you r specific reasons to chose SRI? thanks and best regards
Good interface and plenty of control 😁 like I said in the video I don’t think the clipper you use is important, it’s the fundamental understanding which can be applied to many tools :)
@@DashGlitch OK cool, thx and yes as I can remember what you said, just was wondering Baphy explicltly recommended KLip usage (and NewFangled Saturator). OR have I just stick with my Ableton Live Clipper? Anyhow, I like the linking and softening feature of KClip most. SIR is aswell fantastic company as they seem to get the job done. Best Regards and Thanks
In which other DAW's can you do pre-clip vca? Fl studio not I guess.
There’s a blue cat plugin that you can use for this, baphometrix explained how to set it up, check out the playlist linked in the description
@@DashGlitch Thanks man!
Fl studio has maximus which has a clipper built in.
@@anthonycain1436 I know but no pre clip possibilities. You need the blue cat plugin to link multiple channels
This track is nuts! When will the new album be out for purchase ?
Dash, where did you buy that shirt from the thumbnail? are you selling these perhaps?
I bought it from a local vendor at a market, sorry man I don't sell them :)
For the part where you add a Pre Clipping channel where you change the input gain for each group, does anyone know how to do that in Ableton?
blue cats gain suite.!!! its free
What processing you have on the bass?
Nothing, raw out of Vital and perhaps some EQ
Tried to bring a psy project to 0 as Baphometrix shows, but I think that´s super hard for psy. I am getting constantly a bit above 0 in the master no matter what, I felt like you need some headroom bcs of all the elements that play in a psy track (?). Will try to reduce to -6 the anchor and see how it plays out.
You’re probably doing clipping cascade wrong! Nothing shoud exeed zero if any signal is controlled!
@@Mixedbyjojo355 Well Im doing with CTZ pair in each channel then another clipper in the group (anchor, percs, synths, fx) then another clipper in premaster and even one on master at the beggining of chain (Ableton). Im using Gclip plugin, waiting for KClip3 to be on sale. Kinda stuck there.
Can this work using camel phat as the clippers
clip to -6 or some such, i was thinking the same thing as i watching the original series...
am I the only one who watched the whole video only to find the A/B testing at the end pretty underwhelming? :O
I think I like Standard Clip more too
I've actually since changed over to Kazrog Kclip, I've had better results and I find the interface a bit more intuitive
@@DashGlitch oh nice man ... I actually have a lot on my Black friday list ... Let me see if I can fit it in ... I tried flatline I even tried putting the whole elevate plugin on channels ... To me soundwise I like Sir and Kazrog the most ... I'll definitely add Kaz to my list now
🤩🤩🤩🤩🖤🖤🖤
Lol, I just noticed that you are glitching your voice slightly. It's almost like you are using a de-esser to trigger the glitches in some weird way. It's barely noticeable but I can hear it...
No I think it might be on your end, buffering or something?
@@DashGlitch No, it's this particular video as your live stream and other videos don't have the glitch... It's random, but with headphones you can barely hear the glitching all through out and specifically around 01:48 you can hear it. It would have been awesome if you had been secretly doing this on all your vids as it would be a great easter egg to match the name Dash Glitch...🤷♂
@@JoshuaHardee LOL! maybe it was something to do with CPU usage etc, coz I was killing the CPU in this video, unintentional I promise but good ears! thanks
Bro can you make (astrix closed heaven lead melody ) toturial bro
buy the track from beatport for 1.40 dollar, get the bpm, key and scale from there, take it into your daw and map out the midi, use the scale and play around with the notes, you should be able to get that melody down fairly quick, with this method you can learn to make any kind of melody you hear instead of relying on tutorials
ok. This Video is up almost a year now. I would like to know if you keep that method. I wonder if this is just a hype or is this really a thing.
Yes I do, albeit using kClip now
@@DashGlitch are there any other things you changed? still keeping -6db? would love to see an updated video like: What i learned using CTZ.
nice click-bait :D let's see what you have here
btw, thank you for your content
Am I the only one noticing the ceiling isn't set in StandardClip? Wouldn't that mean things are still going over zero after oversampling
I might be wrong but I believe ceiling control the clip at the output stage? by default as I have it here, it still definitely clips the input, as you can see in the oscilloscope and in the waveform :)
Oversampling can be a little confusing. Think of it this way: you ARE doing a lot of clipping based on the input and the threshold. But the antialiasing filter then creates some NEW peaks on the output, after the first round of clipping. But there aren't as many of these, and they probably aren't as high as before. So it's still very "clipped" compared to before.
Yes, in this video some of those leftover peaks from the oversampled StandardClip on each bus are indeed summing together and getting crushed again eventually by the mastering limiter at the very end. But that's okay. It's **still** spreading the workload out (many small clips is better than one big clip), and you're still getting a lot of the benefits.
I actually picked that up after your video on oversampling and I’ve started putting it off by default, with even better results
Hey, if i pay you, can you give me courses ?
I do have a masterclass for sale, check the description for links to my store
@@DashGlitch Its soundbank, i'm asking for courses like teaching haha
@@Shota83120 I have a masterclass for sale there, and a Patreon "inner circle" for 1 on 1 feedback
This is cool but you have to be a decent engineer to make this work, because you need the ears to hear when you’re pushing it too hard. My big concern as a person who does mastering is that people who aren’t good at mixing want to make heavy tracks, and they see a video like this and then they go too far with it... then they hand me a mix where it’s been just blitzed. Sometimes this was a “direct to stereo from hardware” thing, because computers are bad. So no possibility to remix. The problem is, the mastering engineer has basically nothing they can do to save the track from sounding completely flat, lifeless yet overblown and annoying. I don’t think making a track other people want to turn off helps an artist. So anyone reading this comment, i’m not teling you not to use this method, i’m telling you to be careful, and maybe even back off .5 dB from where you think it sounds heaviest.
This is why I made one episode (ep. 11), which is called "How to keep your mastering engineer happy". I think you'd be happy with the advice I give there, as well as the technique I demonstrate there. TL;DR - with the CTZ method, you have full control over exactly how hard you're pushing the entire mix into the clipper cascade. So you could make a hot, loud self-master as an example, and then relax *everything* down out of the clippers with just one knob twist. And hand that more relaxed version (even with NO clipping at all, anywhere) off to an ME and let them work their magic. A big plus for the ME is that because the producer built their arrangement and mix to actually **work** in a very small dynamic range, your job is in many ways easier. I invite you to go over my channel and find that episode and check it out!
@@Baphometrix Cool i’m glad you covered that. Sounds solid, i’ll check out the series. I love all aspects of mixing and i’m old but i’m not a purist. 😉
The traditional version definitely sounds better to me.
I'm interested how so?
Both mixes sound good but the traditional version seems to me to "dance" a little better. It's mostly in the kick drum.
WE MASTER OUR OWN TRACKS BECAUSE... OZONE (and plugin alliance) 😂😃
That’s not mastering tho, that’s just finding a preset ;)
@@DashGlitch true that tho! Actually, nearly all the dynamics and mastering tools with Plugin Alliance don't have any presets. Which forces one to either know how to do it. Or learn. which I'm doing. 😁
You just can’t master on the same room you mixed the music! It’s like chasing your own tail, that because of room tone!
Please do no attempt CTZ in Logic Pro … you will not get the same results
Why not?
@@DashGlitch Logic's summing doesn't take high levels very well - I say that as someone with 25 years of professional experience across nearly all the DAWs - By all means try it for yourself and if you have multiple DAWs, try the same material in both
@@F9Audio So you're saying Logic has a non-linear transfer response?
@@F9Audio "Logic's summing doesn't take high levels very well".... If the signal on every track and bus is clipped PRE-fader to 0 dBFS, is that a "high level" that somehow cannot be handled by Logic? Granted, the signal flow in every pre-fader channel might poke as much as 1-12 dB over 0 dBFS, but isn't Logic using 32-bit floating point math on every channel and bus, just like every other DAW out there? With 32-bit float, you have a massive +770 dB of headroom OVER 0 dBFS. I fail to understand how working at CTZ levels of gainstaging would cause any special issues in Logic. I'm not asserting that you're wrong... I don't have access to Logic (nor desire to try). Just saying that there's nothing specific about CTZ gainstaging that should adversely affect any DAW with 32-bit float signal processing.
@@DashGlitch I'm saying that this technique simply doesn't work well in Logic - Try it