Agreed, although I'm possibly the odd-man-out in that my primary monitoring level is "very, very quiet." Like ~50dB, quiet enough that if someone talks in a normal speaking voice, you can't follow the music. I jump to 80dB fairly often, but only for a few minutes, generally just to see how things are hitting my body, or to help dial in things like sharpness vs. softness. But man, I LOVE dialing compression, distortions etc. at whisper volumes. You need a really, really tight room to hear transients and 50Hz at 50dB, but it's just so easy to hear what's actually cutting thru and what's playing background when the whole mix is barely reaching to begin with 🙂
Absolute gold mine of a video, i am one year into music production and didn't know any of this. I am so happy to have learnt this now rather than later.
Definitely valuable information and discussion. Also something to go over down the road and revisit as a reminder when utilizing any kind of mixing skills.
Likewise, Mir. Once I learned the importance of 1) maintaining gain structure along a channel’s signal chain and across a mix and 2) maintaining a consistent monitoring level, these practices*greatly* improved my mixes. All the best to you in your journey.
Outstandingly good advice. The difference in Mark's recommendations is that it is applicable to mixing material that has a very wide dynamic range. Even for those that are aware of these points, it is easy to level-set consistently when mixing rock with lots of distortion on the guitars, bass, even drums, and everything is just loud, but not at all easy when mixing a jazz group, classical music or other experimental music/alternative music. Thank you! Please give us more on how you mix difficult jazz sessions.
5:31: The origin of The good old suggestion Trick. When I work with clients from advertising, I use it almost every session. My Version is (its always about "more bass") to not only grab a dead grab a knob, but slowly drawing clockwise, looking the Client deep in the eyes till he says "Excellent". Funny thing: Its always the same point when its "Excellent")
"Level matching" has been recommended since several decades. And no one argues the fact that it should be part of the workflow. But as you mention, it's been mostly ignored or underestimated. Even by seasoned mixers. I am also guilty of neglecting this element. Thanks for emphasizing once again its capital importance!
Inestimably valuable advise! That you so much for your time and sharing this wisdom accumulated through your great work. Saving us a great amount of time in trial and error
This is essential, fundamental and true advice that will save hundreds of hours and accelerate the learning curve exponentially. The real opportunity cost of falling for loudness over quality is the hours wasted rather than learning to actually balance music.
I’m brand new to the world of music making, and by listening to you and reading through the comments, I’m glad I’ve stumbled upon your videos sir!!!🤔👌🏾✅
This is very good .... he’s right.... my master is always hitting at minus 6db ... and always mix not too loud and always try to mix at the same volume most of the time.... the sooner I started doing all this.... my mixes improved a lot
Great advice on level matching plugins. I noticed that Pro C2 does this, so I made my own default preset that turns off autogain and starts at a more neutral setting of just compressing a couple DB. Changed my life
Many thanks for this - really well explained process for getting consistent levels and a workflow through mixing and mastering. A tiny increase in volume level from plugins - some as you say at zero settings - can really fool your ears as to 'improvement' in sound!
Very well done. I have heard all of this advice many times from many people over the years. What they usually fail to do is explain "why" you should follow these principles. I know that for myself (and perhaps for Mark) there was a lot of trial and error, and many mistakes made along the way. So thank you for explaining in such a clear and concise way.
Thank you for the useful advices. The implication of the new knowledge is that a mixer engineer should work as fast as possible before getting tired with his/her auditory system.)
This video made me re-think my approach to what I was doing wrong in my mixes. I could tell this was happening but did not know it was this. Now I know, I know how to correct the misalignments in my mix. This applies to level, saturation, and all mark advises here. This Is Golden Advice!!
This is the best advice on youtube about mixing “ getting used to the one level workflow really allowed me to hear what plugins do and how to hit the sweetspot alot better
Really great advice, very clear and so very important! also love your delivery on this topic. It's so easy to end up chasing your mix endlessly, with days crap as the result....
Awesome video! Thanks Mark. Just ordered a sound meter as I’ll be recording a new album this winter. Sooo many future frustrating days will be avoided.
Really good video! Tdr slickeq M is something that’s useful for fixing mixes after working at too loud or quiet. It has an EL curve EQ that can be useful on the master bus to nudge something back in the right direction
Being a little facetious of course-- great video! Def gonna pay attention to my maximum mixing level because I am for sure guilty of mixing with the volume up high. My rule of thumb is if it sounds good at a reasonable level, it will sound good at a loud level.
How many times I have noticed the db trick a lot of plug ins use. Always questioned it myself and now I am glad someone else recognizes this practice. I generally stay away from plug ins short of a few dedicated to sidechaining and dealing with kickdrums and low end signals such as bass. Great video brother! 👊🧡👍
Thank you for your valuable information! In youtube there's lots of a material about quick and "cheap" tricks and tips and also overwhelmingly detailed stuff for the beginner as myself. Not many are reminding to get your fundamentals and workflow right at first. Nice to see though that I have somewhat intuitively gone to the right direction but this explained a lot of things I kinda had been starting to notice. The way I'm trying to stay on the map while mixing is I've measured the "standard" mixing volume by listening at the same pleasant and probably quite average volume some stuff that I like and consider nicely mixed and mastered (and that also have lots of details and is somewhat in the same field with the stuff I create). Time to time I check my creations with different type of devices and volumes. I've put other people listen to my work in progress to get at least some feedback even though not that professional. I also like to working on couple of songs and changing from time to time to another. That is also because of it works better for my creativity and maybe helps not to overcomplicate things and also not to get bored. Still have noticed a day after some too long session that I've done stupid stuff and wasted a lot of time for less quality. Btw, lots of people also say to just trust your ears but actually you can't really trust too much :D Well, more of a musical and artistic aspects that's maybe more true.
Great discussion. I truly appreciate your thoughts on saturation and how many plug-ins claim to better a signal simply by running through it. I've often wondered whether or not this was 100% true. Saturation has become a bit of a buzz word in our world, and can be misused, as you stated. Everyone wants a "warm" and "punchy" mix, no matter the genre, but few have the vocabulary to explain exactly what this means. My world changed when I switched from saturation plug-ins to using Rupert Neve Designs 542 tape emulators. They do exactly what you describe, subtly bring everything to life, without raising volume. I've also had nice results with very small touches of plug-ins like Radiator and Decapitator. Softtube has also some great saturation plug-ins that work well in very light moves. Love the video. Thanks for sharing. Cheers,
Great points made. I wonder though, if Tonal Balance Control by Izotope solves many of these issues. You could be listening loud or soft, or using fatigued ears, or even mixing in a poorly treated room, and still see visually whether or not you're hitting your EQ targets. Maybe it's not a cure-all, though.... like, it doesn't help you know how to EQ your overheads, or individual instruments, but it does give you the general balance of things overall, which then can help you make decisions about individual instruments. The other thing I find helpful is to make rough mixes, and then go play them through my laptop, and as I'm sitting there listening, I try to master the tracks to make them sound the best they can on the laptop. (I have this software called SoundSource that runs my laptop system sound, and it allows me to load AU plugins. So while I'm listening to a rough mix, I just load up a compressor, or something like Gulfoss, or ozone .) Then I take what I've learned and go back and apply it to the mix. This is like doing the old car test, only it's the laptop test. And it seems to help me with ear fatigue...
I'm sure Tonal Balance is a useful tool. But I don't think a visual indicator can replace using your ears well. In my experience there are too many variable for that. Eg: you could mix a song in five completely different ways but still see a similar curve in Tonal Balance. It's certainly a great tool for finding and fixing problems, and can be a great way to give you a sanity check that you have not lost the plot on your mix. But in my experience crafting a great mix or master can't rely on visuals to fix what you can't hear well, you really need to use your ears. That's my experience anyway.
@@heronislandstudio8054 Good point. I see the five different ways analogy clearly... I do think though that there is less of a need to worry about your listening volume when you've got such a specific visual indicator helping out. At least in terms of volume levels and differences... So you can pick a volume, like something quite low, to protect your ears and let you last longer per day. But really it comes down to knowing what you're doing, Knowing your monitors, knowing your listening level and how to make EQ decisions at that level, knowing when your ears are fatigued and you're not making decisions clearly. Of course, the one thing you can't really know is how much high-end hearing loss you have... For that you need analyzers.... Or the advice of small children. :) Thanks for another great video.
Great advice Mark. Point 3 was a biggie for me. I remember being so in the zone about what I was doing that i'd regularly do all-nighters and worked on things for 12 hours straight. When I listened back the next day, it was like listening to somebody elses track, because the brain had EQ'd it and I'd become acclimatized to the resonaces. Even now I still sometimes have to just reset all the faders to zero again and introduce them one at a time until I achieve something more balanced.
volume is like adding salt when you cook. salt is important but shouldn't be used to mask the fact that the food tastes dull. good food should taste interesting without salt and taste amazing with a very deliberate amount of salt.
Great video. I have gradually learnt most of these points through time. Very well explained sir 🎯👍🏼 Although I generally don’t put any limiter on my stereo channel / 2 bus (mixing), at any stage. That is a whole next conversation… ‘gain staging’ and ‘headroom’ etc 😃👍🏼
This s a very informative video. It’s definitely information I know and techniques I practice but it’s dead on accurate! I even had a hunch what number 3 was before we got there. Lol but that’s the great part! It’s obviously coming from genuine experience from a person who knows what they are talking about. Plus it reminded me of some bad practices I’ve gotten lazy with. Like the level matching. I used to do it more but lately kinda not so much. I do feel like I can hear those minute volume Changes and can differentiate from actual saturation. But it’s probably also hindering my work at times. So. That’s a good reminder to stay on track. I also thought you were gonna mention possibly using reference material when you got into the brain EQ thing only number 3. Sometimes recalibrating with a song you know and love will keep you on track with tonal balance. But there is that point when there’s no helping the ear fatigue and you start to feel like you going on n a circle. That’s my que to shut it down! Looking forward to more video like this! Thanks!
Hey! Really great video, if you could dedicate a video about how to setup your projects to have a safe level of volume to produce longterm that would be great! Definately something that is overlooked!
That's why "Perception AB" from MeterPlugs is one of the best plugins. Sure, it's not sexy, but it improves your mixes immediately, because you don't fall for the loudness scam of the plugin manufacturers.
Lol I use these techniques as well. I also do this in live shows where people think they need more sound and I fake like I’m making it louder and they tell me that’s much better lmao!!!😂😂😂😂
The first Minutes trigger me very well..u are a good teacher..and u help me little bit better to understand loudness better..thanks and big Respekt..best wishes from Vienna ✌️ 🇦🇹
Haha, the PSP Xenon Limiter is on my Mixbus for at least 10 years now. If there was one thing I couldn't live without...that's it. Default setting is 7dB boost and I must never hit more than 3dB of gain reduction. With this Method I know always end up with around -14LUFS on any Mix I make. Not that I did target -14LUFS on purpose, it just turned out that way.
I run a tone through ALL of my "go-to" plug-ins. I set a "unity gain preset" as MY "default starting preset." I do this so I'm NOT fooled by putting that plug-in I line. It takes a few hours to do this, but it's well worth the trouble.
I like the earfocussed aproach of things here, still the most overseen by mixers all over the world ,thanks for the reminder (ps: still no consensus that everyone can hear a 1dB difference but that will be around the hearable level )
I don't use sound level meters to measure what my speakers are putting out. I simply set a level which I will work at that is comfortable to my ears and keep it there as the system volume, then I measure the audio using an analyzer and set the sound to whatever volume I am wanting going for such as -14 LUFS, all the way to -9 LUFS and a maximum pea value of -.6 to -1 for head room. Of course genre have a lot to do with what level you want to be at, or what they insist on. But, I want to put it at a competitive level. Which any more is actually fairly loud. Also always aware at transferring from formats of audio because often more than not the peak level will change.
Great video. 👍🙏 It's so difficult to balance a mix as we all hear different, depending on our ear damage. I was told by an ENT specialist, they are seeing more teenagers with hearing damage because of the hours they spend with headphones or earpods in.
i was thinking about something similar and wondered, if it's possible to have a plugin that counterbalances the very own and unique hearing threshold. or also if wide spread hearing damage could influence music in the way that more tracks with less high frequency information would be created. If I'm not mistaken, the pieces that Beethoven wrote when his ears were already really damaged had the tendency to have more low frequency notes because that was what he could hear.
Lots of good insights, one thing bothers me though: If changing volume makes our ears EQ things, am I wrong assuming that the same happens when the end user is listening to the final product? So if you mix for low volume playback and play it loud, the mix is not what it should be. Same thing for a track being played back louder than the engineer expected/aimed for. Does that mean good mastering is done with a loudness that sits somewhere in the middle of the expected playback volumes? For example, club music, most likely to be blasted, would call for a higher volume mixing setup, whereas a folk song, more likely to be listened to at home, would call for a lower mixing volume?
Yes you're right listeners will hear it differently depending on the playback level. The idea though is that with some exceptions it's difficult to predict what the listener will do. So what you want is to have a calibrated level which you learn by comparing reference tracks to you mixes. At a certain point you just know how things will sound on different systems as long as you're at your calibrated level. Having said that, some mixers to check their mixes on the environment eg EDM mixed for a club environment.
Such a great video ! Mark, do you think some of these issues could be resolved with the regular use of a reference mix ? In terms of judging where one is at despite perceptual issues
Agreed, although I'm possibly the odd-man-out in that my primary monitoring level is "very, very quiet." Like ~50dB, quiet enough that if someone talks in a normal speaking voice, you can't follow the music. I jump to 80dB fairly often, but only for a few minutes, generally just to see how things are hitting my body, or to help dial in things like sharpness vs. softness. But man, I LOVE dialing compression, distortions etc. at whisper volumes. You need a really, really tight room to hear transients and 50Hz at 50dB, but it's just so easy to hear what's actually cutting thru and what's playing background when the whole mix is barely reaching to begin with 🙂
It took me years of painful trial and error to learn things that you've summed in 30 minutes so perfectly! great video
Years... Decades...
Plugins that say they are game-changers, when in reality they are merely gain-changers....
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Excellent analysis of audio perception challenges and how to mitigate them.
Absolute gold mine of a video, i am one year into music production and didn't know any of this. I am so happy to have learnt this now rather than later.
Definitely valuable information and discussion. Also something to go over down the road and revisit as a reminder when utilizing any kind of mixing skills.
Likewise, Mir. Once I learned the importance of 1) maintaining gain structure along a channel’s signal chain and across a mix and 2) maintaining a consistent monitoring level, these practices*greatly* improved my mixes. All the best to you in your journey.
@@fivebyfivesound 💯% 👊🧡👍
Outstandingly good advice. The difference in Mark's recommendations is that it is applicable to mixing material that has a very wide dynamic range. Even for those that are aware of these points, it is easy to level-set consistently when mixing rock with lots of distortion on the guitars, bass, even drums, and everything is just loud, but not at all easy when mixing a jazz group, classical music or other experimental music/alternative music. Thank you! Please give us more on how you mix difficult jazz sessions.
5:31: The origin of The good old suggestion Trick. When I work with clients from advertising, I use it almost every session.
My Version is (its always about "more bass") to not only grab a dead grab a knob, but slowly drawing clockwise, looking the Client deep in the eyes till he says "Excellent". Funny thing: Its always the same point when its "Excellent")
Absolutely awesome video!
"Level matching" has been recommended since several decades. And no one argues the fact that it should be part of the workflow. But as you mention, it's been mostly ignored or underestimated. Even by seasoned mixers. I am also guilty of neglecting this element. Thanks for emphasizing once again its capital importance!
Great, I like how you keep identifying important topics and share your insights.
#2 is particularly important and something I ought to address. Thank you for your insights!
Tools from Tokyo Dawn Labs are free and employ LUFS based level matching as standard. Highly reccomend integrating such tools into mixing workflows
DROPPING GEMS! Thank you
Thank you algorithm gods. Great stumbling on this!
*ez subscribed*
Inestimably valuable advise! That you so much for your time and sharing this wisdom accumulated through your great work. Saving us a great amount of time in trial and error
This was great, thanks so much for the gems
That limiter on my 2 bus is set at -.6 db
This is essential, fundamental and true advice that will save hundreds of hours and accelerate the learning curve exponentially. The real opportunity cost of falling for loudness over quality is the hours wasted rather than learning to actually balance music.
I’m brand new to the world of music making, and by listening to you and reading through the comments, I’m glad I’ve stumbled upon your videos sir!!!🤔👌🏾✅
wow what a gem from all the engineers who didn't have mentors to teach them this. thank you
This is very good .... he’s right.... my master is always hitting at minus 6db ... and always mix not too loud and always try to mix at the same volume most of the time.... the sooner I started doing all this.... my mixes improved a lot
Again incredibly useful information here. Game changing. Thanks so much.
Thank you so much! I learned to stop mixing after 2 hours and take a 30 minutes break. You are so right!
Great advice on level matching plugins. I noticed that Pro C2 does this, so I made my own default preset that turns off autogain and starts at a more neutral setting of just compressing a couple DB. Changed my life
I don't know how I got here but you got yourself a new subscriber
Very good info! I liked, and subscribed!😊
Many thanks for this - really well explained process for getting consistent levels and a workflow through mixing and mastering. A tiny increase in volume level from plugins - some as you say at zero settings - can really fool your ears as to 'improvement' in sound!
Wow this is going to change my life, I have literally probably re mixed thousands of ideas not knowing this. Thank you
Very well done. I have heard all of this advice many times from many people over the years. What they usually fail to do is explain "why" you should follow these principles. I know that for myself (and perhaps for Mark) there was a lot of trial and error, and many mistakes made along the way. So thank you for explaining in such a clear and concise way.
Thank you for the useful advices.
The implication of the new knowledge is that a mixer engineer should work as fast as possible before getting tired with his/her auditory system.)
Or just take breaks.
This video made me re-think my approach to what I was doing wrong in my mixes.
I could tell this was happening but did not know it was this.
Now I know, I know how to correct the misalignments in my mix.
This applies to level, saturation, and all mark advises here.
This Is Golden Advice!!
Great information, very underdiscussed basic principles. thanks so much
This is the best advice on youtube about mixing “ getting used to the one level workflow really allowed me to hear what plugins do and how to hit the sweetspot alot better
Really great advice, very clear and so very important! also love your delivery on this topic. It's so easy to end up chasing your mix endlessly, with days crap as the result....
Cheers!
Awesome video! Thanks Mark.
Just ordered a sound meter as I’ll be recording a new album this winter. Sooo many future frustrating days will be avoided.
Really good video! Tdr slickeq M is something that’s useful for fixing mixes after working at too loud or quiet. It has an EL curve EQ that can be useful on the master bus to nudge something back in the right direction
Being a little facetious of course-- great video! Def gonna pay attention to my maximum mixing level because I am for sure guilty of mixing with the volume up high. My rule of thumb is if it sounds good at a reasonable level, it will sound good at a loud level.
Wow, what a fantastic video
Thank you so much. This video is pure gold, your tip number 3 is a life changer.
I love this because I've never heard anyone talk about this before in this way
Wow, best mixing advice EVER, so much here that's pure gold..Thank you Mark.
How many times I have noticed the db trick a lot of plug ins use. Always questioned it myself and now I am glad someone else recognizes this practice. I generally stay away from plug ins short of a few dedicated to sidechaining and dealing with kickdrums and low end signals such as bass. Great video brother! 👊🧡👍
This channel will grow so much!! Amazing video. You are great at teaching!
So much gold in this 🔥
Excellent advice. I am going to listen to this several more times to burn it in my brain. Thank you. Great video.
Very serious topic right here. Thank you, sir.
I love this video! Intelligent and usuful advices for things all of us can daily get wrong !
Missed your educational content! Great stuff
excellent breakdown and presentation
Your definitely spot on about your brain turning certain EQs down. I have noticed this but I didn't realise what it really was until watching this.
Greetings from York Mark !
Hey, is that Ben?
Extremely wise words …. Wish we all had the ears and means to be able to judge all this on a day to day basis
You sir are correct an all counts.
Nice sound logo! 🔥
Huge. I kind of knew all of this, but it is valuable to hear it all spoken as a single subject. I can't tell what Ive done without level matching.
Awesome advice.. Love this
Thank you for your valuable information! In youtube there's lots of a material about quick and "cheap" tricks and tips and also overwhelmingly detailed stuff for the beginner as myself. Not many are reminding to get your fundamentals and workflow right at first. Nice to see though that I have somewhat intuitively gone to the right direction but this explained a lot of things I kinda had been starting to notice. The way I'm trying to stay on the map while mixing is I've measured the "standard" mixing volume by listening at the same pleasant and probably quite average volume some stuff that I like and consider nicely mixed and mastered (and that also have lots of details and is somewhat in the same field with the stuff I create). Time to time I check my creations with different type of devices and volumes. I've put other people listen to my work in progress to get at least some feedback even though not that professional. I also like to working on couple of songs and changing from time to time to another. That is also because of it works better for my creativity and maybe helps not to overcomplicate things and also not to get bored. Still have noticed a day after some too long session that I've done stupid stuff and wasted a lot of time for less quality. Btw, lots of people also say to just trust your ears but actually you can't really trust too much :D Well, more of a musical and artistic aspects that's maybe more true.
Gratitude & Appreciation 💯
Great discussion. I truly appreciate your thoughts on saturation and how many plug-ins claim to better a signal simply by running through it. I've often wondered whether or not this was 100% true. Saturation has become a bit of a buzz word in our world, and can be misused, as you stated. Everyone wants a "warm" and "punchy" mix, no matter the genre, but few have the vocabulary to explain exactly what this means. My world changed when I switched from saturation plug-ins to using Rupert Neve Designs 542 tape emulators. They do exactly what you describe, subtly bring everything to life, without raising volume. I've also had nice results with very small touches of plug-ins like Radiator and Decapitator. Softtube has also some great saturation plug-ins that work well in very light moves. Love the video. Thanks for sharing. Cheers,
The new buzz word is "spectral"
Thank you Mark this soooo helpful! Thanks a lot!
solid advice! I would add that when you are calibrating DAW to SPL int he room, also consider RMS in the the DAW along with peak as you mentioned.
Yes great advice, thanks.
An excellent video. Thank you for taking the time to explain everything from an experienced point of view.
Great points made. I wonder though, if Tonal Balance Control by Izotope solves many of these issues. You could be listening loud or soft, or using fatigued ears, or even mixing in a poorly treated room, and still see visually whether or not you're hitting your EQ targets. Maybe it's not a cure-all, though.... like, it doesn't help you know how to EQ your overheads, or individual instruments, but it does give you the general balance of things overall, which then can help you make decisions about individual instruments.
The other thing I find helpful is to make rough mixes, and then go play them through my laptop, and as I'm sitting there listening, I try to master the tracks to make them sound the best they can on the laptop. (I have this software called SoundSource that runs my laptop system sound, and it allows me to load AU plugins. So while I'm listening to a rough mix, I just load up a compressor, or something like Gulfoss, or ozone .) Then I take what I've learned and go back and apply it to the mix. This is like doing the old car test, only it's the laptop test. And it seems to help me with ear fatigue...
I'm sure Tonal Balance is a useful tool. But I don't think a visual indicator can replace using your ears well. In my experience there are too many variable for that. Eg: you could mix a song in five completely different ways but still see a similar curve in Tonal Balance. It's certainly a great tool for finding and fixing problems, and can be a great way to give you a sanity check that you have not lost the plot on your mix. But in my experience crafting a great mix or master can't rely on visuals to fix what you can't hear well, you really need to use your ears. That's my experience anyway.
@@heronislandstudio8054 Good point. I see the five different ways analogy clearly... I do think though that there is less of a need to worry about your listening volume when you've got such a specific visual indicator helping out. At least in terms of volume levels and differences... So you can pick a volume, like something quite low, to protect your ears and let you last longer per day. But really it comes down to knowing what you're doing, Knowing your monitors, knowing your listening level and how to make EQ decisions at that level, knowing when your ears are fatigued and you're not making decisions clearly. Of course, the one thing you can't really know is how much high-end hearing loss you have... For that you need analyzers.... Or the advice of small children. :)
Thanks for another great video.
Thanks for all the reminders!!
Excellent and thought-provoking! I have subscribed.
Great advice Mark. Point 3 was a biggie for me. I remember being so in the zone about what I was doing that i'd regularly do all-nighters and worked on things for 12 hours straight. When I listened back the next day, it was like listening to somebody elses track, because the brain had EQ'd it and I'd become acclimatized to the resonaces. Even now I still sometimes have to just reset all the faders to zero again and introduce them one at a time until I achieve something more balanced.
I know that feeling. Time goes so quick. That's the problem. 12 hours doesn't feel like 12 hours. 👍
volume is like adding salt when you cook. salt is important but shouldn't be used to mask the fact that the food tastes dull. good food should taste interesting without salt and taste amazing with a very deliberate amount of salt.
Great video. I have gradually learnt most of these points through time. Very well explained sir 🎯👍🏼
Although I generally don’t put any limiter on my stereo channel / 2 bus (mixing), at any stage. That is a whole next conversation… ‘gain staging’ and ‘headroom’ etc 😃👍🏼
Wow! You made my day! What a fantastic explanation and advices❤
This s a very informative video. It’s definitely information I know and techniques I practice but it’s dead on accurate! I even had a hunch what number 3 was before we got there. Lol but that’s the great part! It’s obviously coming from genuine experience from a person who knows what they are talking about. Plus it reminded me of some bad practices I’ve gotten lazy with. Like the level matching. I used to do it more but lately kinda not so much. I do feel like I can hear those minute volume Changes and can differentiate from actual saturation. But it’s probably also hindering my work at times. So. That’s a good reminder to stay on track. I also thought you were gonna mention possibly using reference material when you got into the brain EQ thing only number 3. Sometimes recalibrating with a song you know and love will keep you on track with tonal balance. But there is that point when there’s no helping the ear fatigue and you start to feel like you going on n a circle. That’s my que to shut it down! Looking forward to more video like this! Thanks!
Hey! Really great video, if you could dedicate a video about how to setup your projects to have a safe level of volume to produce longterm that would be great! Definately something that is overlooked!
Calibrate your refference point (0dB rms) to 80dB with the help of a pressure meter. Then try to mix not into the red. Search for K-system
17:00 you can set a recall level in RME software and have your reference level at the touch of a button.
Fantastic video, thank you!
That's why "Perception AB" from MeterPlugs is one of the best plugins. Sure, it's not sexy, but it improves your mixes immediately, because you don't fall for the loudness scam of the plugin manufacturers.
wow! just watched a youtube video about it. Will buy immediately. Best software tip in a long time, thanks!
@@adeledazeem3187 De nada :). It's a shame that it is not more famous, but just has no bells and whistles like most other plugins
GainMatch plugin does pretty much the same thing and is easier to use (in my opinion).
Superb!
Thank you sir!
So useful, thank you!
Lol I use these techniques as well. I also do this in live shows where people think they need more sound and I fake like I’m making it louder and they tell me that’s much better lmao!!!😂😂😂😂
Great video~ Thanks!
The first Minutes trigger me very well..u are a good teacher..and u help me little bit better to understand loudness better..thanks and big Respekt..best wishes from Vienna ✌️ 🇦🇹
Thank you so much Sir!
Haha, the PSP Xenon Limiter is on my Mixbus for at least 10 years now. If there was one thing I couldn't live without...that's it. Default setting is 7dB boost and I must never hit more than 3dB of gain reduction. With this Method I know always end up with around -14LUFS on any Mix I make. Not that I did target -14LUFS on purpose, it just turned out that way.
I run a tone through ALL of my "go-to" plug-ins. I set a "unity gain preset" as MY "default starting preset." I do this so I'm NOT fooled by putting that plug-in I line. It takes a few hours to do this, but it's well worth the trouble.
Very valuable information and advice. Hit the sub, bell and like button within seconds. We appreciate you Mark! Keep dropping them gems 💎
Gold. Thank you!
I like the earfocussed aproach of things here, still the most overseen by mixers all over the world ,thanks for the reminder (ps: still no consensus that everyone can hear a 1dB difference but that will be around the hearable level )
I don't use sound level meters to measure what my speakers are putting out. I simply set a level which I will work at that is comfortable to my ears and keep it there as the system volume, then I measure the audio using an analyzer and set the sound to whatever volume I am wanting going for such as -14 LUFS, all the way to -9 LUFS and a maximum pea value of -.6 to -1 for head room. Of course genre have a lot to do with what level you want to be at, or what they insist on. But, I want to put it at a competitive level. Which any more is actually fairly loud. Also always aware at transferring from formats of audio because often more than not the peak level will change.
Very important topic, thank you for this video!
Great video. 👍🙏 It's so difficult to balance a mix as we all hear different, depending on our ear damage. I was told by an ENT specialist, they are seeing more teenagers with hearing damage because of the hours they spend with headphones or earpods in.
i was thinking about something similar and wondered, if it's possible to have a plugin that counterbalances the very own and unique hearing threshold. or also if wide spread hearing damage could influence music in the way that more tracks with less high frequency information would be created. If I'm not mistaken, the pieces that Beethoven wrote when his ears were already really damaged had the tendency to have more low frequency notes because that was what he could hear.
@@marihi8621 how interesting. Very good points. 👍
Great sesh, thank you. I haven't been able to find a definitive answer to this, but do you measure spl with dBA or dBC filters?
SPL C weighted is what I use.
@@heronislandstudio8054 I thought that made sense, thanks for verifying :)
I hear alot of mixes that have been done on a too low level - harsh sounds
time is always short - pressure is privilege, result - focus
cheers to a future where all plugins have autogain level matching!
Lots of good insights, one thing bothers me though: If changing volume makes our ears EQ things, am I wrong assuming that the same happens when the end user is listening to the final product? So if you mix for low volume playback and play it loud, the mix is not what it should be. Same thing for a track being played back louder than the engineer expected/aimed for. Does that mean good mastering is done with a loudness that sits somewhere in the middle of the expected playback volumes? For example, club music, most likely to be blasted, would call for a higher volume mixing setup, whereas a folk song, more likely to be listened to at home, would call for a lower mixing volume?
Yes you're right listeners will hear it differently depending on the playback level. The idea though is that with some exceptions it's difficult to predict what the listener will do. So what you want is to have a calibrated level which you learn by comparing reference tracks to you mixes. At a certain point you just know how things will sound on different systems as long as you're at your calibrated level. Having said that, some mixers to check their mixes on the environment eg EDM mixed for a club environment.
@@heronislandstudio8054 Got it, many thanks for the explanation!
Such a great video ! Mark, do you think some of these issues could be resolved with the regular use of a reference mix ? In terms of judging where one is at despite perceptual issues
Good question but i think the reference will also be eq'd by our brain
There are two books behind him that say "BOOK". Very classy.
Very Valuable Advice👏
Thank you!
Sooo helpful! Thanks a lot!
great stuff
This was awesome, good work
Thanks for the info, very useful. :)