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Copyright © 2018 by Mastering The Mix Ltd

https://www.masteringthemix.com

Written by

Tom Frampton

All rights reserved. This eBook is protected by international copyright law. You may only use it if you have bought a licensed version from https://www.masteringthemix.com or an

authorised reseller. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions” at the address below.

This eBook is published by Mastering The Mix Ltd

3rd Floor, 86-90 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4NE

Although the author and publisher have made every effort to ensure that the information in this book was correct at press time, the author and publisher do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss, damage, or disruption caused by errors or omissions, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause.

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CONTENTS

About The Author

Part 1 - The Music Comes First

Introduction

What’s Stopping You From Finishing Tracks?

Establishing A Strong Musical Idea

Chord Progressions

Hooks And Melodies

Writing For Your Audience VS Writing For Yourself

Simplicity VS Complex

Repetition

Structure And Arrangement

Structuring Your Track

Arrangement

Limitless Environment

Building The Instrumental

Where To Start?

Making Music

Creative Momentum

Gain Staging

Production Approach

Sound Choices And Vibe

Innovate

Creating Emotion

Keeping It Interesting

Lyrics And Vocals

Choosing The Words

Recording Vocals

Producing A Great Vocal

Collaborators

Working With A Vocalist

Working With Musicians

Working With A Producer

Working With Decision Makers

Songwriting Checklist

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Part 2 - From Solid Mix To Next Level Master

Hiring A Pro vs Doing It Yourself

Never Stop Learning

Getting A Solid Mix

Levels and Balance

Headroom

Noise Gates

EQing

Compression

Stereo Placement

Depth

Creating Context

The Bigger Picture

Technical Details

Taking The Mix To The Next Level

Musical Mixing

Mixing Low Frequencies

Using Reference Tracks

Magic Final Touches

Getting A Solid Master

Fundamentals Of Mastering

EQing and Shaping Your Master

Using The Limiter

Taking The Master To The Next Level

Musical Mastering

Making Sure The Master Sounds Better Than The Mix

Understanding And Using Loudness Range

Know When A Track Is Done

Final Checklist

EXTRAS

Production Timeline

Stereo Placement Cheatsheet

Structure Cheatsheet

Deconstructing A Mix Cheatsheet

EQ Cheatsheet

Songwriting Checklist

Bonus Chapter: Decoding The Mix: The Hit-Maker Engineers

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tom Frampton is an audio engineer with one driving goal; to help music producers get the best possible results.

The past few years have been a whirl-wind for Tom. Mixing and mastering songs for thousands of clients, his plugins being used by tens of thousands and his blog read by hundreds of thousands.

Every day presenting a new challenge, and a new opportunity to learn.

Hearing the music related struggles expressed by his clients and readers has positioned Tom perfectly to uncover unique techniques and workflows to help them create better-sounding mixes.

Tom wrote this eBook to compile and share all of his most valuable information into a single resource. Having been involved at every stage of the production process in various scenarios, he found there are some approaches that work brilliantly, and some that guarantee sub-par results.

Toms approach to music production, as defined in this book, has opened the door for him to release remixes on influential labels and work with world-renowned artists.

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Part 1 - The Music Comes First

Emotion is essential if you want to connect with people.

INTRODUCTION

Whether music production is a hobby or a profession, being able to finish your musical ideas to a high standard is an important goal. Why?

Because finished songs are your greatest assets in your musical journey.

They are your primary marketing tool to show the world what you have to offer. A finished track has emotional value and will be something you can forever be proud of. A great song finished to a high standard also has considerable financial potential.

An unfinished song is almost impossible to monetise and is emotionally unrewarding.

This begs the question: Why do so many projects remain unfinished? Why do music producers abandon projects that are 90% complete to start something new? And how can we overcome this issue and finish more tracks to a high standard?

The purpose of this book is to give you the information you need so you never get stuck again.

From musical idea to final bounce, each chapter will give you actionable advice on how to get great results. A single resource that you can turn to for the inspiration and techniques required to finish a track to a great standard.

There’s nothing wrong with occasionally not completing your tracks. It would take a seriously dedicated music producer with superhuman self-control to finish every track they started.

Focusing on the songs you feel are the strongest is definitely an intelligent approach.

This book will help you take your best songs all the way to the finish line.

Music surrounds us. It’s everywhere. Your music has the potential to reach billions of people. But to get in front of this massive audience, you need finished music… So, let’s begin.

WHAT’S STOPPING YOU FROM FINISHING TRACKS?

If we understand what stops productivity in the studio, we’re better equipped to take action against it.

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Boredom

When you’ve heard your work in progress hundreds of times, you might lose your enthusiasm towards the track. That’s perfectly natural, but keep in mind that what sounds stale to you is novel

to someone else. Research has shown that creativity is a state of mind that is often born out of boredom. Moments of inspiration and brilliance can strike at any time in the studio. Perseverance can lead to a breakthrough.

Overworking A Simple Musical Idea Into An Inflated Mess

When something isn’t quite working in your track, you might be tempted to add another element or layer to enhance the sound. Sometimes this can work, but it’s often the case that excessive layers will lead to your production sounding bloated. This will detract from your musical idea and be detrimental to the production quality. Trim the fat from your productions. Use a smaller number of better sounding elements for a focused and high-quality production.

Distractions

You probably have hundreds of things competing for your time and attention. It’s up to you to make the time to create and finish your music. Try to switch off from any distractions and get into the zone. The University of California found that it takes an average of 25 minutes to fully return your attention to your original task after an interruption. Plan your session, and shut out all distractions to become a more efficient music producer.

Perfectionism

You want your track to sound as good as it possibly can, that’s understandable. But endlessly tweaking the minor details will most likely not make a significant difference to your track. Theres a checklist at the end of the book that will help you determine when your track is ready to release.

Budget

Don’t postpone finishing your music until you have better gear. By spending time learning new techniques you’ll make the best use of what you have today.

Environment

Wherever you make music, make it inviting. Keep it clean and organised for when you do find the time to make music. Remove any barriers that stop you from being creative in your studio space.

Not Knowing The Next Step To Take

When you create a groove, melody or chord progression that you love, you might find yourself just listening to the phrase on loop without progressing the track. This is unproductive and can also lead to boredom towards the track. Working fast and efficiently is a very effective way to stay motivated. To work fast you have to know what the next step is in the music making process. The information in this book will help you push on to the next phase in production when you hit this wall.

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Establishing A Strong Musical Idea

How will you form your composition? Will you sit on a beach with a guitar, pen and paper? Or sit behind a keyboard in the studio? It doesn’t matter how you do it, but the first step is to conceive and capture your idea. Find your preferred writing method in which you can be as creative and expressive as possible. At this stage, you should be looking to record the idea in a way that doesn’t interrupt your creative process.

There are no rules on where to begin in songwriting. You might start with a drum groove, a bass line, some chords or a vocal hook. To establish a strong music idea that is worth finishing, you will need chords and a melody at the very least.

Chord Progressions

To attract and maintain the attention of your listeners, you’ll need a ‘catchy’ chord progression.

Your audiences brains are hardwired to ignore familiar sounds and concentrate when they hear something unusual or extreme. So you’ll need a chord progression that stands out from the crowd.

Music theory is a vast subject that can be studied in depth. But there’s enough information in this section to get you going with a contagious, digestible and memorable chord progression.

Chord Degrees

Chord progressions can be defined as chord degrees of a given scale. Chord degrees are written as Roman numerals, and they tell you which note of the scale a chord relates to. If we were in the key of C major, the fifth note of the scale would be G. G major as a chord degree of C major would, therefore, be written as ‘V’. Chord degrees use capital numerals for major chords and use lower case for minor chords. The infographic below shows the chord degrees of a D Dorian mode.

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Major / Minor

Major and minor keys are commonly used in music. This makes these chord progressions very digestible, but not very unique. However, they can still be the foundation of a great track. Here are a few classic chord progressions that have been used in countless hits over the years.

Typical C Major Chord Progression

Chord Degrees

Chord

Notes In Chord

I

C

C / E / G

V

G

G / B / D

vi

A minor

A / C / E

IV

F

F / A / C

Typical C Minor Chord Progression

Chord Degrees

Chord

Notes In Chord

i

C minor

C / D# / G

v

G minor

G / A# / D

VI

G#

G# / C / D#

iv

F minor

F / G# / C

Uplifting C Major Chord Progression

Chord Degrees

Chord

Notes In Chord

I

C

C / E / G

IV

F

F / A / C

I

C

C / E / G

V

G

G / B / D

Dark C Minor Chord Progression

Chord Degrees

Chord

Notes In Chord

i

C minor

C / D# / G

VI

G#

G# / C / D#

iv

F minor

F / A# / C

v

G minor

G / A# / D

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All of the above chord progressions are in the scale of C. But you can use the chord degrees to transpose these progressions to any key using the Key Cheatsheets below. For example to generate a Typical F Minor chord progression, match up the chord degrees with the F minor line.

So, i / v / VI / iv becomes Fm / Cm / C# / A#m.

Key

I

ii

iii

IV

V

vi

vii

C Major

C

Dm

Em

F

G

Am

B dim

D Major

D

Em

F#m

G

A

Bm

C# dim

E Major

E

F#m

G#m

A

B

C#m

D# dim

F Major

F

G#m

Am

B

C

Dm

E dim

G Major

G

Am

Bm

C

D

Em

F# dim

A Major

A

Bm

C#m

D

E

F#m

G# dim

B Major

B

C#m

D#m

E

F#

G#m

A# dim

Key

i

ii

III

iv

v

VI

vii

C Minor

Cm

D dim

D#

Fm

Gm

G#

A#

D Minor

Dm

E dim

F

Gm

Am

A#

C

E Minor

Em

F# dim

G

Am

Bm

C

D

F Minor

Fm

G dim

G#

A#m

Cm

C#

D#

G Minor

Gm

A dim

C#

Cm

Dm

D#

F

A Minor

Am

B dim

C

Dm

Em

F

G

B Minor

Bm

C# dim

D

Em

F#m

G

A

Modes

Modes are used less frequently in modern music production, so they’re something of a secret tool to give your chord progression an edge.

Try these chord progressions for a different flavour. The Ionian (same as Major scale), Aeolian (same as minor scale), Phrygian and Mixolydian modes are the most commonly used. Dorian can be described as a little more ‘out there’ and the Locrian mode is the most obscure.

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Ionian Chord Progression

Chord Degrees

Chord

Notes In Chord

I

C

C / E / G

V

G7

G / B / D / F

VI

A minor7

A / C / E / D

IV

F7

F / A / C / E

Phrygian Chord Progression

Chord Degrees

Chord

Notes In Chord

I

E minor7

E / G / B / D

IV

A minor7

A / C / E /G

I

E minor7

E / G / B / D

V

B diminished

B / D / F

Mixolydian Chord Progression

Chord Degrees

Chord

Notes In Chord

I

G7

G / B / D / F

V

D minor7

D / F / A / C

IV

C

C / E / G

VI

E minor7

E / G / B / D

Use the chart below to help you efficiently formulate your own chord progressions based on modal scales.

Mode

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

Ionian

C

Dm7

Em7

F7

G7

Am7

B dim

Dorian

Dm7

Em7

F7

G7

Am7

B dim

C

Phrygian

Em7

F7

G7

Am7

B dim

C

Dm7

Lydian

F7

G7

Am7

B dim

C

Dm7

Em7

Mixolydian

G7

Am7

B dim

C

Dm7

Em7

F7

Aeolian

Am7

B dim

C

Dm7

Em7

F7

G7

Locrian

B dim

C

Dm7

Em7

F7

G7

A

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‘Deep House’ Chords

These chord progressions require the least amount of music theory knowledge and are very easy to program into your DAW (digital audio workstation). Create a chord you like in midi, then shift the chord exactly as it is up or down the piano roll for the following chord.

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Inversions

Sometimes it can feel like your chords make too much of a leap from one chord to the next. It can make your progression feel jumpy and give your track an awkward and unmusical vibe. Using

‘Inversions’ is where you change the octave of some of the notes within a chord to make the note jumps as close as possible. If there are ‘common notes’ between two chords, try to match them up on the same octave. Don’t forget to check the relationship of the first and last chord in the progression.

Here is an example of how you can improve the flow of a i / III / IV / VII chord progression in the Dorian Mode using inversions.

Dorian D progression built from chord degrees. Feels jumpy and lacks flow.

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Same Dorian D progression with the note transposed to flow better.

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Hooks And Melodies

The most prominent melody in a song is usually the vocal. We call it a ‘hook’ as the idea is to catch the listeners attention and keep them engaged. Attention spans are so short that a lot of music consists of hook after hook after hook. The verse, pre-chorus and chorus all have super catchy hooks to keep the audience captivated.

How do we engage and captivate the audience with a hook?

The melody has to balance out predictability with unpredictability. Familiarity allows the listener to digest your music without too much effort, drawing them into the song and making it memorable.

The unpredictable aspect of the hook surprises them which makes them more alert and focused whilst listening. Make your hook stand out with an unexpected twist to the melody and rhythm.

This is a trial and error approach where you should give yourself the freedom to be as weird and experimental as you like in the pursuit of something different.

Hook Checklist

• Could your audience sing along easily?

• Are the melodic phrases somewhat repetitive?

• Does it have both predictable and unpredictable characteristics?

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Writing For Your Audience VS Writing For Yourself Having an idea of how your music will be consumed will help give you direction with your songwriting. If the song is an artistic project and you have no interest in how it’s received by the public, that gives you a lot of freedom to express yourself however you like. If the public love it, great, if not, no problem. However, if you’re hoping to appeal to a wide audience you might want to put more conscious effort into creating an enticing and engaging song.

The vast majority of music producers have the end goal of moving people either physically or emotionally. When you’re forming your composition, think about how it will affect your listeners. If you have no direction when writing your song, you might find yourself with a finished track with no clear message or purpose, and that won’t resonate with your listeners.

Simplicity VS Complex

When we’re in the studio making music, we are 100% focused on our song. This allows us to comprehend more complicated musical ideas. However, music is rarely consumed in this way. It’s often heard in the background whilst another activity is the main focus. Think about the context in which your music will be heard. If you’re making a pop track for radio play, the genre and context call for more simple and accessible musical ideas. If you’re composing a classical piece that will be performed in front of a silent audience, the genre and context allow for more complexity.

Keep the genre and context in mind when creating your hooks. Try to conceptualise the listeners perspective when you’re in the studio to direct your melody writing.

Repetition

Repetition can sometimes be seen as musically bland, but it has an infectious effect on the listener. It allows the listener to anticipate whats coming up, which can help them participate and sing along; which is enjoyable. However, too much repetition and you’ll have a musically static track which is monotonous to listen to. So how can we utilise the power of repetition without losing our audiences attention?

• Our brains are more sensitive to rhythm changes than harmony changes. So you can occasionally switch up the notes but keep the same rhythm to add a surprise.

• If you have a 1/2 bar melody, and a 1 bar chord progression, the melody will play twice and feel slightly different over the second half of the chord progression. This different tonality will balance out the repetition and keep it interesting.

• Changing the lead melody instrument can add a new flavour to a repeated phrase. For example, a lead synth can play a very close variation of the vocal melody from the previous section.

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• You can keep the melody, rhythm and instrument the same but modify the performance and expression used. For example, you could automate the parameters on a synthesiser to modulate as the track progresses, or transpose the vocal melody by an octave.

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Structure And Arrangement

Structuring Your Track

The structure of your track is how long each section is and how you order your different sections.

This is the musical journey you take your listener on and you can improve that journey by being deliberate and purposeful with your structure.

The most commonly used pop structure is as follows:

intro / verse1 / chorus1 / verse2 / chorus2 / middle 8 / chorus 3 / chorus out.

Sometimes written in this format: ABABCBB

There are no rules here, but building your listener up from a catchy verse to an explosive chorus is generally a good idea. Whatever structure you establish, if you’re aiming for a chart hit or to impress an industry decision maker it’s advisable to get to the chorus at around the 30-45 second mark.

A great exercise to help you decide on the flow of your song is to deconstruct the structure your favourite reference tracks. Take a track that you think flows really well from start to finish. Break the song down into sections and then count the bars in each section. You can then use this as a template to flesh out the different sections of your own song. You can use The ‘Structure & Arrangement Cheatsheet’ on the following page (and in the EXTRAS chapter at the back of the eBook) to help you with this. Each line represents a different element within the mix. Mark out where the sections (intro, verse, chorus etc) begin at the top of the sheet. Each of the faint boxes represents 4 bars, fill the box when that instrument is playing.

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Arrangement

Arrangement refers to your choice of instrumentation. A great arrangement will convey the musical idea in the best possible way whilst adding variation between the different sections.

Similarly, with the structure deconstruction exercise, we can unpack the arrangement of our favourite songs to decode the building blocks of the music. Let’s look at Shape Of You by Ed Sheeran. As you can see from the arrangement and structure infographic below, there are three main elements playing throughout the track; Vocals, Guitar Percussion Loop and Plucked Chords.

Other elements come in and out to add contrast between the sections, but they are secondary.

This focus on simplicity keeps the listener engaged to the music without too much effort on their part.

Shape Of You - Arrangement Infographic

What can we learn from this? When we’re producing and mixing, often it’s better to use fewer sounds rather than stuffing the mix with a load of layers. Too many layers can make a mix sound congested and ends up confusing the listener.

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The simple arrangement of just three elements in the verse sets a sparse reference point for the listener. The difference in the amount of instrumentation between the verse and drop is considerable. This gives the drop a dramatic lift from the verse and another dramatic change of energy when the verse returns. This dynamic journey is interesting for the listener and keeps them engaged for the whole duration of the song.

We can also see that there are a few minor arrangement changes that differentiate repeated sections. So verse one has a slightly different arrangement from verse two, pre-chorus one is different from pre-chorus two etc. Keeping the melodies and chords the same but altering the arrangement used is a great way to repeat your hook without boring your listener.

In the Shape Of You arrangement infographic, we can see that the kick and bass only come in together during the drop and final chorus. In this instance, they used the arrangement to add tension and release. The verse has dominant mid frequencies building the tension, and when the chorus comes in the frequency range is full and releases that tension.

How Arrangement Affects the Mix

Keeping the final mix in mind even at the early stages of composition becomes easier with experience. Be purposeful with your arrangement and try not to overcomplicate the mix with lots of similar sounds in similar frequency ranges. Add in complimentary layers, not competing layers and you’ll avoid mix problems later. This is particularly important with the lower frequencies. For example, a low bass pad might hinder the impact of the main bass channel. If the pad was a few octaves higher in the lower mids you might avoid this issue.

Limitless Environment

The digital environment is virtually limitless for the number of tracks you can have. Stay focused on what the song actually needs. Spend time creating and tweaking the perfect sounds rather than adding layer upon layer. This will also help you create a balanced mix in the later stages of production.

Going back a few decades an audio engineer was limited to the number of channels on their mixing console. They’d often be limited to less than 40 in total. This set up required a lot more consideration as to how to use the channels in the most effective way. Any excess was removed and the focus was on doing the song justice. The engineer also wasn't using plugins. They will have had a limited amount of analogue EQs and various other outboard gear. So they would have sparingly used their limited equipment to get the best result for the music. This contrasts heavily with whats available today. Powerful plugins with endless capabilities that have such low CPU that each channel have many instances. It’s common for producers to aimlessly add plugins and spend a long time tweaking and going around in circles. Don’t be a busy fool. Be sure that you’re focused within your DAWs limitless environment, and make each step count towards the final goal of finishing your track.

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Building The Instrumental

Where To Start?

Your DAW presenting itself as a blank canvas can be intimidating. These actionable steps will ensure you hit the ground running every time you open a session. This will also help you get into the zone faster and maintain momentum throughout your production process.

Create A Template

A basic template that already has a few synth sounds that you love and a collection of your favourite samples will let you jump straight into working on your idea. You can change the samples and synth patches as you go along, but spending the first 10-20 minutes searching for sounds every single time you go to write a track is inefficient and can stifle your creativity.

Save Your Own Channel Presets

When you’re nearer the end of your production, remember to save your channel settings so you can pull them up again quickly in the future. You may have spent hours on a guitar sound that you absolutely love, use this is your starting point for your next track.

Experiment With Different Starting Points

If you play an instrument, you’ll likely use that as your starting point, as it’s where you feel most comfortable and musically expressive. My preference is to begin by creating the chord progression. I discovered this by taking a number of different starting approaches. Beginning with the drum groove and bass part is also very effective as it sets the foundation for the track. Your starting point is never set in stone and you’ll most likely change some notes or the rhythm later in the production.

Making Music

Whether you’re recording raw audio or producing an electronic song, your genre possibilities are vast. Being creatively liberated is great, but it can hinder your focus; it helps to begin with a goal.

Get inspired by listening to your favourite music in the genre you’ll be working in. Take note of the fundamental instruments and sounds used. This will help you quickly chose awesome and appropriate sounds for your own production.

Recording Audio At Home

Hiring a pro studio with an experienced audio engineer to capture the perfect recording and vibe for your track is tried and tested approach to get an incredible sound. But, that doesn't mean that you can’t get great results at home. It’s not about the gear, it’s about you and your willingness to learn, experiment and improve.

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Keep in mind that each room has its own sound. If you walk around a few different rooms talking or clapping and listening to the reflections, you’ll see what I mean. Record a few dummy tracks in a number of test locations and see which one sounds best before laying down your final takes.

Reflection shields and basic acoustic treatment can help you capture a more defined sound in a non-commercial recording space. It’s a worthwhile investment if you’ll be recording music often.

Be sure to leave plenty of headroom when recording, you can always turn it up later.

Midi Keyboards and Controllers

Though not impossible, it’s difficult to get musical results from simply using your mouse and laptop keyboard. Midi keyboards and controllers capture the velocity and energy of your performance, giving your synths and virtual instruments a more musical feel.

Filling In The Gaps

You may find it easy to establish your initial idea, whether it’s a recorded acoustic guitar or a programmed chord progression. But, what comes next? What steps do you need to take to transform this initial idea into a finished backing track?

Once that first idea is down, you’ve got the ball is rolling. Each additional musical element you add should compliment (not compete with) what’s already in your DAW session. Instruments can compete in many ways, such as frequency, rhythm, timbre, energy, stereo width and volume.

Some overlap is fine if it’s musical, but you’ll want to add elements that fill in the gaps to give your track a great balance.

You can use the table below to help you identify what instruments would compliment your arrangement. For example, let’s say you started with a piano with the frequencies focussed in the high mids, a basic rhythm, warm timbre, laid-back energy, mostly centred stereo width and a medium volume (these attributes have been highlighted in blue on the graph below). To compliment your piano you might choose to add an element that doesn't conflict with the majority of these characteristics. You might choose a bass with the frequencies focussed in the low end, a complex rhythm, dark timbre, upbeat energy, mono stereo width and medium volume (these attributes have been highlighted in green on the graph below). If you have multiple elements in your mix that are very similar in all 6 categories your music will sound cluttered.

Attribute

Description

Frequency

Low End

Low Mids

High Mids

High End

Rhythm

Drone / Pad

Basic Rhythm

Rhythmic

Complex Rhythm

Timbre

Dark

Warm

Bright

Harsh

Energy

Laid Back

Moderate

Upbeat

Powerful

Stereo Width

Mono

Mostly Centred

Wide

Very Wide

Volume

Quiet

Medium

Loud

Up-front

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Creative Momentum

Keep Moving

The trick is to lay an idea down and keep moving on to the next stage. Prioritise your creativity knowing that you can always come back and fix things later. If you find you often get stuck listening to the same musical phrase on repeat without progressing it, set a timer for 20 minutes.

This will give you a deadline and help you manage your time and stay focused.

Loops

Whether you’re starting with your intro, verse, chorus or drop, you’ll want to loop that section and try a number of different variations of your idea to settle on the perfect melodic and rhythmic parts. Remember to move fast. Too long spent listening to a loop can lead to losing perspective and overworking a musical idea.

Flow

Once you have a verse and a chorus loop built, the next tricky step is working out how to make them flow from one to the other. Rising sweeps, down-lifters and automation can help blend and glue the sections. Rather than using a different synth sound for each section, use the same fundamental parameters, but change the filter cutoff or ADSR (attack decay sustain release) settings. Subtly introducing upcoming elements will also make the track flow well. For example, you might introduce the chorus bass line and gradually open a filter during the build up. When the chorus drops it won't feel like a foreign musical idea.

Gain Staging

Audio has a limited amount of headroom and will clip if over 0dB (decibels). So you have to manage the gain of your audio from the very beginning. When recording audio into your session, it’s crucial that your audio stays below 0dB otherwise it will clip. That damage is irreversible. I prefer to turn down my input volume and give myself plenty of headroom.

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As you add channel after channel your overall gain will begin to increase. Keep your master channel peaking no higher than -6dB during this creative stage and you’ll have plenty of headroom later in the mix to make EQ and FX adjustments without surpassing 0dB.

If the peak level of your mix breaches the threshold of -6dB, then you need to lower the overall level to give yourself more headroom. There are a number of ways to do this. My personal favourite is to select all the channels in your session and lower them simultaneously. By keeping the faders relative to each other, you won't change the balance of your mix. Remember to keep the output and master fader at 0dB. Note that this method is only possible if you have no volume automation.

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Production Approach

Sound Choices And Vibe

An often overlooked or rushed part of the songwriting process is how the sounds are chosen.

When choosing the sounds think about the vibe you want your track to emit. For example, a pop track with a weak kick might lack the energy your listener expects from that genre. If you’re using kick samples, test a number of options in the context of your track before settling on a final choice. Listening to and adjusting synth presets is also best done in the context of the whole mix.

If you select your preset listening to the channel in solo, you might find that you choose sounds that are overpowering within the arrangement.

Focus on laying down high-quality source material from the start rather than fixing difficult audio to work with your production. Choosing the perfect samples and synth patches will help push the vibe of your track in the right direction and save you time later during the mix.

Also, consider the sonic range of your kick and bass when you’re selecting or recording the sounds. It’s much more effective to cut and control low frequencies than it is to boost them.

Boosting low end that isn't very powerful in the first place sounds feeble in comparison to having full range source material. Keep this in mind when you're selecting your sounds…You’ll thank yourself later.

When you’re capturing a take, be conscious that the delivery is in keeping with the vibe of the track. A powerful snare rim-shot doesn't work in every context and no amount of EQ or compression will fix that.

Innovate

There is a clear consistency with the sounds used in certain genres. But the tracks that capture listeners attention are the ones that use interesting and unique sounds. If you feel stuck you might use quality presets as a starting point, but tweaking the sonics and making them your own will set you apart.

Use your plugins and virtual instruments in experimental ways to get unusual results. Try exaggerated settings for dramatic effects and work them musically into your track. You can reject dozens of unsuccessful attempts before you stumble across a lucky but incredible sounding setting.

In your personal approach to production, you’ll find that you develop systems. A series of tasks that just seem to work every time. For example, I like to EQ before I compress, and I’ll always follow a reverb with an EQ etc. These systems are there for a reason, they’re fail-safe and get your good results quickly. But every now and then it’s worth coming at the problem with a different approach to see how the results vary. Mix up your systems from time to time in a way that might

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even sound ludicrous. For example, you probably don't often use auto-tune on a snare. What interesting and unique sonics can that bring to a mix?

Innovation doesn't have to be confined to post-production, there have been some incredibly unique approaches to recording audio too. In Billie Jean, the ‘Don’t Think Twice’ lyric was sung through a long cardboard tube. There was no need for any post-production. When Ant Whiting was recording the kick drum on John Newman’s album, he placed an extra (well wrapped) microphone in a bucket of water to catch deep and wavy sub frequencies. The rich harmonies in Bohemian Rhapsody sound so full as the four members of Queen each sung every single layer.

Whether you sample a fish being dropped on the floor to back up your snare transient or create a synth patch from sampling yourself coughing, the weirder the better.

Creating Emotion

Performance & Delivery

Injecting emotion into music productions can be tricky in the digital domain, but it’s crucial if you want to connect with people. The electronic sounds and synths available in a DAW can only produce the sounds we program, and if we don’t program in any ‘feel’, we won’t get any out.

A live performance is often dripping with emotion. The performers are feeding off the crowds energy, and it shines through in the way they play their instruments. This is one of the reasons why live performances are often so full of emotion. The musician is also prone to making mistakes, even if they’re minor such as the drummer not playing a perfectly quantised groove. Bringing these emotional and human characteristics into the studio is a great way to make music that resonates with people.

Whether you’re recording a guitar or programming a bass, think about the energy of that performance. If you’re making a dance track, the bass should make the listener want to get up and dance. It should be uplifting, funky, and energetic. If you’re recording the guitar for a sad piece of music, then that should be reflected in the way the guitar is played. The less subtle you are with this the better. Make every performance count towards pushing an emotional agenda on your listener.

Midi Programming

The quantise function is a great time saver when it comes to making music, but too much quantisation will suck the emotion out of your music. Humans don’t play instruments or sing perfectly in time, so they find it more difficult to connect with music that has these robotic characteristics. Once you have a midi part programmed into your DAW, you can manipulate it to achieve a well-timed and organic performance. In most DAWs you can set the percentage of quantisation, so rather making everything land perfectly on the beat, you can quantise to around 70-80% to keep things a little loose. Listen to how this sounds in the context of your entire mix and you can quantise any individual notes that are too loose to 90-100%.

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The velocity of the midi notes is also very important. When a pianist plays the piano, their fingers don’t press each key with equal pressure. The fingers don't land and lift from the keys at the same time either. Add some velocity and note length variation between the notes of your chord progressions to emulate the performance of a pianist. It can make all the difference.

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The statement that a musical performance has a greater emotional effect than a static performance has been scientifically proven and published in a paper titled, ‘Dynamic Emotional and Neural Responses to Music Depend on Performance Expression and Listener Experience’. 29

people were analysed using fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) technology and written examinations as they listened to two different versions of Frédéric Chopin's Etude in E major, Op.

10, No. 3. One version was played expressively by a talented pianist, the other had the note length set and quantised to exactly match the original musical notation. The velocity was also set to constant throughout the performance. Below is a quote from the finding of this study.

“These results provide evidence that temporal dynamics of expressive rhythmic performance increase emotion-related neural activations, and that musically experienced listeners are more sensitive in this regard.”

Source: Chapin H, Jantzen K, Scott Kelso JA, Steinberg F, Large E (2010) Dynamic Emotional and Neural Responses to Music Depend on Performance Expression and Listener Experience. PLoS

ONE 5(12): e13812. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0013812

Dynamic Variation

When stylistically appropriate, a song with a nearly constant volume throughout can have a driving feel. This is very common in hip-hop. Most of the time, however, a dynamic variation between sections will add interest and excitement to the music. A verse that gradually builds will draw your listener in, then the crescendoing chorus satisfies them with the euphoric lift they were hoping for during the build. It’s not so simple as making the dynamic variation as large as possible to have the greatest impact. If your verse is too quiet your listener will struggle to hear the details and might get a shock if the chorus comes in surprisingly loud. What you’re looking for is an obvious but not ear-drum obliterating lift in volume from verse to chorus. Listen to your chorus at a

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comfortable level and jump back to the verse at the same listening volume to see if it’s loud enough to hear all of the detail.

Keeping It Interesting

Structure and arrangement play a large part in keeping the listener’s interest. But we can use a few other techniques to keep the listener engaged at all times during the song.

Automation

Each channel can have its own journey that works within the whole song. Rather than having a constant distortion setting on an electric guitar channel, you might automate the distortion to morph and change as the song progresses. Perhaps a softer overdrive during the verse that gradually builds and becomes a decimated distortion during the chorus. Or you might choose to increase the reverb size of a channel just before the chorus drops. This helps build tension as the listener can sense a change is coming. Solely using static effects across all your channels can make your production sound rigid and motionless.

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Background Elements

The focus of your arrangement might be just a few dominant instruments, but the background elements can fill gaps in a production in an unobtrusive way if done correctly. Elements that are positioned far back in the mix can add an atmosphere encapsulating the listener without competing with the main instruments. Light rain sampled or a vinyl crackle can immediately set an emotional tone for the listener, even if they can barely hear it.

Silence

Being musical is about knowing when to play and when not to play. Less is sometimes more when it comes to melody writing. The breaks, gaps and silence let the music breathe and stops too many notes being forced into the listener’s ears. If you find your track is sounding too busy, try cutting out a few notes in the hook, or adding some silent space within the chord progression.

You might find your musical ideas come across as more coherent once you’ve trimmed the fat.

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Lyrics And Vocals

Choosing The Words

I understand the difficulty of summoning creative lyric writing in the studio. Sometimes it can take you hours to write just one line that makes you cringe the following day.

I’ve worked with some brilliant lyricists over the years so I thought I’d share some of their top tips with you!

A quick win from a few simple tips isn’t going to secure you a long-term career as a great lyricist.

So how can you get exponentially better in the long-term? What's the long-term plan to separate you from the artists that weren’t willing to put in the effort?

READING!

Poetry, literature, lyrics…anything that speaks to you on an emotional level. Find writers whose words inspire you, and try to understand why their words had such an impact. Just the act of reading and taking in the information will give your brain a creative boost and you’ll subliminally learn techniques that you can pull from when writing lyrics.

There’s a great book called Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon which goes deeper into the topic of getting inspiration from other artists. Here’s a great quote from the book:

"If you steal from one author, it’s plagiarism; if you steal from many, it’s research."

Wilson Mizner (1876–1933)

Training Your Lyric Muscle

Great lyricists often keep a journal as a way to materialise and immortalise their ideas. They write down their dreams or how they’re feeling just to channel the thoughts.

Try an exercise where you simply scribble down your thoughts and you try to not stop. This is always difficult at first as a blank canvas can be intimidating. Write anything that comes into your head without judgement and don’t stop. If you flex your 'ideas muscle' often, you’ll find your flow much quicker in the studio.

Stay In Your Flow

Lyrics can be the embodiment of matters that are very important to you. So it’s understandable that an element of perfectionism worms it’s way into the process. This is why lyricists can get stuck on one line for hours at a time. A pro tip is to just write the gist of what you want to say on that line and move on. This will help you stay in your flow.

The first draft might end up being the final lyrics. A moment of brilliance where everything just clicked. But don’t be afraid to redraft and see if you can sculpt a better version of what you’ve

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got. With that in mind, keep hold of all of your works, complete and incomplete. You may find a way to turn an unfinished work in progress into a fully formed piece of art.

Tools and Techniques

A rhyming dictionary and thesaurus can be a great way to give your lyrics some added flavour.

You might be endlessly searching for that perfect word and these tools can save you the time and drop them right in your lap. Don’t get dragged into using over-complicated words or phrases.

This can be confusing for the listener and distract from the intended message. Simplicity is usually much more effective.

Your audience probably won't read your lyrics, they'll hear them. So don't just write them down during the creative process, you have to say them or sing them to hear how they sound.

Recording Vocals

Which Mic Should I Use When Recording Vocals?

If you’re serious about recording a lot of vocals, then you should head down to a pro audio dealer and try the microphones yourself. Different microphones have different tones. Finding one that works well with your voice will have a positive effect on your vocal productions. Below are two microphones that I think are the best in their price range.

Beginner: sE 2200a II

Pro: Neumann U87

Simple Home Studio Vocal Booth

Think carefully about which room you record vocals in if you’re in a home studio. You probably don’t want to record in a room with a prominent echo, so choose a room with a flatter sound. A reflection shield is an inexpensive and effective way to tame reflections in your room. Placing some acoustic treatment or a duvet behind the standing point of the singer can also be very effective for getting a clean sound. Always use a pop shield to reduce the energy of the plosive syllables.

Capturing The Performance

When recording the vocal, focus on getting a captivating and emotional performance above all else. Great tuning is also important but pitchy vocals are fixable to some extent. So warm up before you start singing and give it everything you’ve got.

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Producing A Great Vocal

So you’re at your starting point, you’ve got a raw mono vocal recording to work with. Getting that pro sound takes time. The vocal is often the most important feature of a track so it deserves a proportionate amount of your attention. Your mix will suffer if you skip any fundamental steps.

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Essential to-do list before using any plugins:

1. Chose the best takes based on performance, tuning and timing (and prioritise the selection of the takes in that respective order… Performance first, then tuning, then timing).

2. Clean up the audio. Remove clicks and unwanted noises.

3. If needed, splice and move the audio to make sure the timing is on point.

At this point, the vocal should be sounding pleasant to listen to when soloed. If it doesn't sound good, ask yourself why and try to improve on that when you re-record.

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The Vocal Chain

When you’re shaping the sound of your vocal, you want to be listening to the vocal in the context of the whole mix. It’s fine to do a few tweaks with the vocal channel soloed, but don’t spend too long making mixing decisions whilst the other instruments are muted.

Controlling the dynamics Part 1

Vocals are extremely dynamic. It’s important to control the dynamic range so the quiet parts of the performance are easily audible and the louder parts don’t shock the listener. Most people use a compressor for this job, and it can yield good results. But even when the vocal is moderately dynamic, the compressor ends up working too hard and it sounds unnatural. A better option is to insert a gain plugin as the first plugin in your vocal chain. If you take the time to automate the gain of your vocal you will get a much more natural sounding final result. Note, it’s important to use a gain plugin rather than automating the channel fader. This is because the channel fader can be used for the overall volume of the vocal and it will be difficult to tweak if you have already written the automation.

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Corrective EQ

The sonics of a voice are most prominent around 300Hz to 7kHz. For that reason, you can and should use a low cut filter on a parametric EQ to remove any low frequencies that the microphone may have picked up during the recording. That low-end space should be kept free for the kick and bass elements in your mix. You may want to make other subtle changes to the balance of your

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vocal at this point. Listen to your vocals in the context of the whole mix to get a feel for the tonal balance. Is it too harsh, too bassy, too tinny?

Pitch

If you’re using a pitch correction plugin, place it after your corrective EQ in the vocal chain. Make sure you’ve identified the major or minor key of your track and play with the settings of the plugin to suit your preferences. Go for longer note transition times for more subtle correction.

Controlling the dynamics Part 2

We’ve balanced out the dynamic range of our vocal already, but light compression can be used to round off and even out the sound. Sometimes using two compressors with light settings in succession can have a better sound than using one compressor with heavier settings.

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De-essing

The esses can sound very sharp and oftentimes will need to be tamed. I like to use a de-esser with subtle settings to begin with as I know I’ll need to tweak it once I’ve added more character and attitude to my vocal. Be careful not to overuse the de-esser as this will make your vocal sound muffled. It’s always good to listen to your vocal in the context of the whole mix regularly to make sure you’re heading in the right direction and you don’t negatively process the sound.

Attitude

We’ve set a great foundation so far and now we can start to have fun shaping the sound. There are a number of things you can do give your vocal some attitude…

Compression

Analogue emulation compressors can add some harmonic content and interesting character to your audio. You can play around with the attack and release settings to add some bite to the sound of your vocal. In the example below, I’ve used a Fairchild 670 to add some harmonics to the upper frequencies giving it a little distortion which also adds clarity. The Fairchild also enhances the depth of the low frequencies giving the vocal more body.

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EQ

You can use a sweeter sounding analogue emulation EQ plugin here to get your vocals to cut through the mix. Boosting tastefully in the 1kHz-5kHz region can really put your vocal at the front of the mix. You can also play around with some high-end air anywhere above 10kHz to add some sparkle. If you find this is making your esses too harsh then back off the boost or tweak the de-esser settings.

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AUX Channels

I like to keep the main vocal channel free of any spatial effects like reverb or delay. I prefer to create aux channels and send the vocal signal to them. This allows me to make clinically precise adjustments with ease.

Spatial Effects

Short Verb: I’ll insert a short slappy reverb here. I’ll set the wet/dry to 100% wet (as the vocal channel already has the dry signal perfectly balanced in the mix). If I want the vocal to be punchy and close I’ll have the short reverb slightly more prominent in the mix than the long reverb Long Verb: I’ll insert a longer more ambient reverb here. Again, I’ll set the wet/dry to 100% wet and play with the settings until I’m happy with the sound. These long reverbs can make the vocal sound a bit washed out and flat, which is why I find the pre-delay setting to be very important here. The pre-delay is the amount of time before the reverb kicks in. The more you increase the pre-delay the more separated the main vocal and the reverb are. This can add clarity but too much separation won’t sound musical. With longer reverbs, I might use an EQ after to further shape the sound. Especially if I feel the reverb is picking up the esses too much and sounds harsh.

Delay/Echo: I might use a few delay and echo aux channels when producing a vocal. It will depend on the rhythmic nature of the track. If a track has a fairly simple rhythm, I might create something of a feature using a ping pong delay (jumping from the left speaker to the right speaker) and automate the settings to add suspense and release in the mix.

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Character Effects

SLAM: On this aux channel, I’ll insert a limiter or a compressor and make the vocal sound like it’s really pumping aggressively. Fast attack, fast release, the threshold set to make the compressor kick in heavily with every syllable. I’ll then blend this into the mix very subtly until I feel the vocals are sitting in front of the other elements in the mix.

GRIT: Sometimes a vocal needs that extra squeeze of something to give it more flavour. I might use an exciter, distortion or some tape saturation to add some grit to the sound. Again, I’ll create an aggressive setting and just add a touch of it into the mix to add energy without overdoing it.

AIR: On this aux channel, I’ll insert an EQ plugin with a super sweet top end. I love the UAD

Pultec EQP-1A for this job. I find this EQ really comes to life when you fully boost the 8, 10, 12 or 16 on the KCS knob. However, if this setting was used on the main vocal channel, it would produce far too much high-end presence and would ruin the balance. By using an aux channel I can dial in just the amount I want and blend it with the more natural sound of the vocal channel.

Detuned Width / Micro-shifting: I like to open two aux channels with the vocal send. One panned hard left and the other hard right. I’ll then add a pitch shifter to each of the two aux

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channels and change the pitch very slightly (less than a semitone). If I increase the pitch of the left channel, I’ll decrease the pitch of the right. I’ll have these quite low in the mix but they will add some subtle width to the vocal whilst adding a bit of ear candy.

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Backing Vocals

There are a few simple rules to follow when producing backing vocals.

1. Perfect tuning isn’t important. Actually, if all the BVs had perfect tuning (using heavy pitch correction) there would be a good chance of overlapping frequencies and therefore phase cancellation.

2. Timing is very important. Unison BVs should be perfectly in time with each other and the lead vocal. Especially the esses as they will stick out if they’re not in time.

3. Breaths can be totally removed to get a cleaner sound.

4. They should compliment the lead vocals, they need to be more ambient and less ‘in your face’

than the lead.

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5. Use the stereo field. The lead vocal should be in mono and central in the mix but the BVs can have as much width as you like. Keep it balanced, pan as many left as you do right.

How Loud Should The Vocal Be In The Mix?

This question is subjective to a certain degree, however, most tracks have the vocal in a ballpark area that just works. A quick way to get a great level is to use a reference track. Listen to the reference track in mono through one speaker and focus on how loud the vocal is in the mix. Flick back to the track you’re working on and adjust the level of your vocal to sit in your mix in a similar way. Why mono? I find it makes it easier to assess how the mix is balanced.

When setting the level of the vocal (and working on the vocal in general) I highly recommend spending some time using headphones. It gets you really close to the intricacies of the sound and allows you pick up on things you might miss when listening through monitors. Listening to your mix in both mono and stereo is great. When using headphones you don’t have to listen in mono through one headphone, this is only advised for monitors.

How Should I Mix Vocals For A Club Sound System?

Firstly let me clear up why it is notoriously tricky to get your vocals sounding great on both your studio monitors and on a club sound system. The club sound system outputs audio in mono whereas your monitors output the audio in stereo. When the stereo signal is summed to mono, overlapping frequencies and phase issues can cause some elements in your mix to sound like they've gotten quieter.

How can we avoid this issue? Simple, check your mix regularly in mono through one speaker.

You’ll be able to hear your track as it will be heard in the club. If there is an obvious change in the loudness of your vocal then you probably have phase issues. These phase issues are most often caused by the spatial effects such as the reverbs and delays. Luckily you created aux channels for these effects so you can mute each aux channel until you find the one causing the problems.

Once you’ve found the problematic channel (or channels) you could try tweaking the settings whilst listening in mono through one speaker. You could also try slightly panning the channel or even using a sample delay plugin to push the audio on the channel back a few miliseconds.

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Lead Vocal Still Isn't Cutting Through The Mix?

Sometimes the other instruments can compete for the same frequency range as the vocals. This can mask the vocals and make them hard to hear. This is particularly common with pianos, synths and guitars around 1kHz to 5kHz. There is a simple fix for this issue; using a multi-band compressor and side-chaining the vocal. This will make the problematic frequencies ‘duck’ out of the way of the vocal, giving it more space to be heard in the mix.

1. Open a multi-band compressor on the problematic channel. In this example, it’s a Synth.

2. Sidechain the vocal to see what frequencies are clashing.

3. Create a band in that frequency range and set the compressor to duck just the right amount to let the vocal cut through.

Final Thought

Nailing the vocals isn’t easy. These techniques will get you on your way but it takes practice to consistently get professional results. Even engineers who have been mixing vocals for years are constantly looking for ways to improve their sound. The best way to improve is to hear your mixes on many different playback systems (your car, the kitchen radio, the TV etc). Use reference tracks on these playback systems too and listen for ways you can improve the sound of your vocal. Then get back in the studio and make those tweaks.

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Collaborators

It’s very common for music creators to have multiple positions in the production process. But collaborating with talented people who can help take your project to another level can have many benefits. It’s possible and advisable to work remotely with musical talent from all over the world through online collaboration platforms such as Soundbetter. Once you know what your track is missing, you can scout a suitable collaborator to work with.

Working With A Vocalist

Let’s say you’ve got an instrumental that you’re very excited about, but it needs vocals. You have a number of ways you can proceed. You could write the lyrics and vocal melody yourself and hire a session singer. This has the benefit that you hold all the publishing rights to the songwriting.

However, you might find that giving a vocalist total artistic freedom can drastically improve your song, therefore making it more valuable. In this scenario, the publishing royalty is generally split 50% for the backing track writers and 50% for the lyric and top-line melody writers, but it’s always negotiable.

The vocal will often steer the production in a certain direction. For this reason, you might want to get the vocals recorded before you finalise the sound choices within your production. For example, certain synth patches will either compliment or clash with the way the singer performed the vocal. On the other hand, a great session singer will be able to work with the timbre and energy of a finished backing track and make it work.

In the major label world, a backing track can be sent out to a number of top-line writers, and the label will choose which they like the best. This is a great way to get different options as each writer will take the track in a different direction.

Working With Musicians

The majority of music is made purely with tools found within a DAW without the use of recorded instruments. The more expensive instrument emulations can be very effective and an experienced midi programmer will know how to get a musical sound out of the software.

Quantised midi with a static velocity can make for a rather mundane sounding song. There is a certain magic about getting a live recording from a great musician that can pepper in an organic and human feel to your production. This can help your music resonate emotionally with your listeners.

Working With A Producer

The production of a track needs to present the song in it’s best possible light to bring out its maximum value. As the artist, you can direct the producer in how you want the song to sound,

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and they can help you realise your sonic vision. Finding the right producer for your project is key to getting a result you’re happy with. Listen to their previous work, and show them examples of tracks that are comparable to your expectations.

It’s worth having a contract in place before you begin to stipulate whether the producer is part of the songwriting process and is entitled to a share of the publishing rights, or if they’re working for a flat fee and no publishing.

Working With Decision Makers

As your musical projects become valuable enough to have financial potential, you’ll find yourself dealing with more and more decisions makers. You might be providing a remix for an artist, composing the music for an advert or releasing your own music through a label. It’s a privilege to be in a position where you’re getting paid to create music when so many are willing to do it free of charge. So it’s important to manage relationships professionally and balance your own artistry with the decision makers requirements.

Dealing With Feedback

The decision makers will often have feedback on your work. It could be a small change such as increasing the vocal volume or a drastic change such as a total rework of the chorus. If there is a team of decision makers, try to decipher who’s opinion will overrule the others (this is usually the person paying) and prioritise their feedback. A back and forth is to be expected when working in these scenarios so accept any feedback with decorum and do your best to deliver what the decision makers want. This can be harder to accept when it’s a label releasing your original music, but keep in mind that the feedback might make your track more appealing to listeners.

Professionalism

Delivering a great experience for the people you work with will mean they’ll come back to work with you again. Always aim to overshoot their expectations, and avoid undershooting at all costs.

If you told your client you would deliver their remix within 7 days, make sure it’s delivered within that timeframe. If your remix is late, at best they’ll be disappointed, at worst you’ll have missed a deadline and you won’t hear from them again.

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Songwriting Checklist

At this point, your track is fleshed out with a catchy chord progression, captivating structure, interesting arrangement and a great vocal. So what now? You might choose to materialise a collection of songs to this state and then finish the ones you like the most. Or you might work on finishing one track at a time. The latter is more common in recent years as artists are opting to release singles rather than albums.

Getting an honest external opinion on your songwriting can be extremely helpful. It will enhance your progression as a songwriter to have someone willing to act as a mentor to give you feedback. A good candidate for this position is someone whose music you admire. Don’t just rely on one source though, share your works in progress with a number of friends whether they are musical themselves or not.

To help you focus your music production efforts as efficiently as possible, use the checklist below to ensure your songwriting is complete before moving on to the mixing and mastering stage.

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Part 2 - From Solid Mix To Next Level Master Give your listeners the best possible experience.

HIRING A PRO VS DOING IT YOURSELF

Many music producers are disappointed with their home studio mastering results as they have unrealistic expectations of what they can achieve without acoustic treatment and high-quality monitors. In a nutshell, it's very difficult to make good mix decisions without a flat listening environment. It's amazing how much of an effect the room can have on how you perceive the sounds of your mix. You might pump up the bass to what seems to be the perfect level in your home studio. Only to find that you've made your track sound muddy and unbalanced when you listen elsewhere. In your home studio you might feel like Quincy Jones, then you hear your mix in the car (or worse... in public) and it can be a nasty shock to hear how different it sounds.

Is it a bad idea to mix and master my music myself?

A lot of producers mix and master their own music. Some do it exceptionally well, and some don’t. Having heard your song a million times, your brain is unable to detect and fix those little issues that make or break a track. Hiring a pro with a fresh pair of ears that you can trust is usually a recipe for success. However, if you have your production ready and you’re determined to mix and master your own music, the best thing you can do is give your ears and brain a break from the track. Get your production as close to the final sound as you possibly can. Then take at least a week-long break from the track. Don't listen to it at all, no matter how tempted you are. When you come to mix and master your track you’ll do a much better job with fresh ears.

Part 2 of this book focuses on the mixing and mastering steps you can take to get the absolute best results from your productions. From Getting A Solid Mix to Taking The Master To The Next Level, each stage gets you one step closer to finishing a high-quality production.

Even if you chose to work with a professional, Part 2 will help you give your engineer the best material to work with. You’ll also learn how to test their work to ensure they’ve done a great job with your music.

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NEVER STOP LEARNING

A brutal reality is that you might not be improving much in your music production even though you’re working hard at it. Why is that? And what can you do to overcome that stagnation?

When you’re making music, whether you’re producing, mixing or mastering, you’re trying to get things done as best as you can. You’re often in a high-stakes situation where you’re working on getting the best sound for a client, or finalising a track you’ve poured your heart and soul into.

This is known as the performance zone.

• Goal is to do as best as you can.

•

Focus on perfectly executing your known skills.

•

Aiming to minimise any mistakes by taking less risks.

To become better in the performance zone, you should spend more time in the learning zone.

• Doing activities specifically with the goal of improvement.

•

Focus on improving your known skills and learning new ones.

•

Mistakes are expected.

Learning Zone

Performance Zone

Goal

Improve.

Do as best as we can.

Focus

Improving known skills and learning new Perfectly execute our known skills.

ones.

Outcome

Mistakes are expected.

Aiming to minimise any mistakes

by taking less risks.

How can you spend time in the learning zone?

By closely analysing the mix of your favourite songs, you’ll learn some useful ideas to infuse into your own productions. This process will also dramatically improve your ears, allowing you to make more informed mixing decisions in the future.

Pull in one of your favourite mixes into your DAW and fill in the ‘Deconstructing A Mix Cheatsheet’ to really get to grips with whats happening in that mix. Every time you do this with a new song you’ll not only train your ears to decipher whats happening in a mix, but you’ll also uncover some interesting techniques used by the mix engineer of that song.

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Getting A Solid Mix

Whether you’ve yet to begin your first mix, or you’ve already finished 100 productions, this chapter will help you tick every box making your next mix super solid.

Levels and Balance

No doubt you will have roughly balanced out the elements of your mix during the songwriting and arrangement stage. That process was the uninterrupted creative part, the mixing phase calls for more attention paid to the details of the balance. The relationship between your instruments and how they work together in the mix is crucial to your music reaching its sonic potential.

Some engineers like to start with absolutely every channel at -infinity (silent) and pull each fader up one by one. I recommend that you try this, but I have made a slight adjustment to this approach in my own productions. I adjust the levels and balance of my mix a lot during the production stage, so it feels unproductive to start from scratch. So I found a nice trick to get the best of both worlds. I play the full mix, then bring one channel, let’s say the kick, down to -infinity on the fader. I’ll then hear the mix without the kick for a few seconds, then slowly increase the volume to bring it into the mix. When I feel like the umph is powerful and the harmonics just about click through, I’ll stop. I do this with, at the very least, the lead vocal, the kick, the bass the snare and whichever instrument is dominating the chord progression. This approach leads to a balanced mix across the board, with no channels sticking out in an obvious and ugly way.

If you want to get two channels to really fuse together, there is a trick you can employ using a

LUFS meter. A LUFS (Loudness Units relative to Full Scale) meter will tell you the perceived loudness of audio. So using this tool we can match the balance of two or more elements in our mix. Let’s say we want our kick and bass to have a similar perceived level. We analyse the short term LUFS of both channels during the drop. If the bass is around -20 st LUFS and the kick is around -18 st LUFS, we would increase the volume of the bass by 2dB to bring it up to -18 st LUFS, as 1 LU (loudness unit) is equal to 1dB. So both channels are now around -18 st LUFS. You can balance any two channels as a starting point and make adjustments from there. For example, you might want your guitar part to sit just behind the vocal. 2 or 3 LU quieter should make your vocal the focus point.

Headroom

Headroom is the space between your loudest peak and 0dB. You’ll want your mix to peak no higher than -6dB on your master channel (with both your master and output faders set to 0dB).

This will give you or your mastering engineer the opportunity to make changes during the mastering stage without being constricted.

As mentioned earlier when discussing gain staging, to give yourself more headroom select all the channels in your session and lower them simultaneously. By keeping the faders relative to each other, you won't change the balance of your mix.

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The most effective way to turn something up in the mix is to turn everything else down. Let’s say you wanted your bass to stick out of the mix a bit more. If you put the volume up on the bass channel you might start going above -6dB. So instead, select all the faders except the bass (be sure to not select the master and output channel), and bring the volume down until the bass feels louder relative to the rest of the instruments. If you feel the level of the mix has reduced too dramatically, you can select all the instruments, including the bass, and bring them all up relative to each other until your mix is peaking around -6dB.

Noise Gates

A ‘noise gate’ (also called ‘gate’ or ‘audio gate’) is a dynamic processor that lowers the volume of a signal when the volume drops below the threshold. You can use a noise gate to remove quieter unwanted noise from your audio efficiently. Background noises, unwanted reverb tails, static, other instruments caught in the recording or the common ‘space-bar’ hit when you’ve finished recording can all be eliminated using a noise gate.

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Using a gate can make the channel sound clear and defined. It can also help you isolate the audio on that channel that you want to work with. For example, you might have recorded snare audio that has bleed from the cymbals and toms. By setting up the gate to only allow the snare through you can process that channel only affecting the snare sound and not the other sounds from the drum kit.

To set up a gate, instantiate a noise gate plugin on the channel you wish to clean up. Set the threshold to 0dB, the ratio to ∞:1 or the highest possible setting, fast attack, fast lookahead, fast release and the ‘floor’ or ‘range’ should attenuate the audio as much as possible. These dramatic settings will help you find the correct threshold efficiently. Now slowly reduce the threshold until the audio you want to hear is passing through your gate unaltered. Now check that this threshold is attenuating the unwanted noise in other parts of your audio. If you’re happy with your threshold then you will want to adjust the settings of the attack, hold and release to work musically with your audio. You can increase your attack time until the gate is opening gradually and the transient of your signal sounds clean. Then increase the hold time until the gate is open long enough to allow

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the entire duration of the wanted signal to pass through. The release allows you to control how gently or abruptly your gate closes. Increase the release to work musically with your audio.

Cleaning up your audio in this way will cleanse your mix and set the foundations of a mix that will sound pure and refined.

EQing

Equalisers give us total control over the frequencies of our mix. They allow us to sculpt and shape our sounds to our desire. It only takes a few wrong settings from these powerful tools to totally mess up the tonal balance of your mix. This section should not only help you avoid these issues, but also help you get the best results from your EQing.

When you’re EQing, you’re doing one of two things; you’re cutting or boosting the frequencies.

Generally, producers have either a compressor or an EQ as their first plugin insert on a channel. I almost always go for EQ first, as the audio that’s fed into a compressor will change how the compressor reacts. I might tweak the settings of the EQ and compressor simultaneously, but the EQ comes first in the chain.

The first thing I’ll do with my EQ is attend to any problems that I need to fix on that channel. By default, I’ll check the low end of channels that I don’t want to have low end. If the vocals, guitars, pianos, pads, synths have excess energy below 100Hz they will conflict with my kick and bass channels. That space below 100Hz is exclusively for my kick and bass elements. I’ll use a parametric EQ to create a steep low cut / high pass filter (35db to 90dB slope) to totally remove those frequencies. Don’t ever skip this step. It will bring clarity to your mix and give your kick and bass the space they need to be powerful.

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Once the mix is feeling decongested, I’ll look at any other problematic frequencies that have crept into the mix. I’m looking for disproportionate frequencies that make a channel sound unnatural when soloed. It doesn’t matter what the audio is (vocal, keys, guitar etc) my approach is the same. I want to make it sound like I’m hearing it being played live in front of me. The way a sound is recorded will affect how it sounds in a DAW. If the singer sings directly into a microphone with no pop shield then you might find excess plosive and harsh esses in the recording. The best option is to re-record but sometimes that’s not possible. Reducing just those frequencies surgically with a parametric EQ is the only way to make it sound natural. Again, the goal at this stage is to make the audio sound similar to how it sounds when you hear it in real life. If possible, switch between 2 or more sets of monitors, speakers, earbuds or headphones to get a broad perspective of how you're shaping the sound. If your channels are beginning to sound ‘real’ through all playback systems you’re on the right track.

Unpleasant resonant frequencies are common in recorded audio but can also creep into mixes through synth settings and virtual instruments. I find it incredibly effective to make an obvious EQ

boost to exaggerate the problematic frequencies. Once I’ve located the nasty frequency I’ll reverse the boost into a cut and adjust the gain to work with the material.

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At this point, you have a decongested mix that resembles how the instruments and vocals would sound if they were there in the room with you. Now you can begin to colour and enhance your sounds with further EQ treatment. When you’re fine-tuning the sonics within your mix, you want to do so with a clear mixing perspective. It common for producers and artists to spend hours EQing their mix only to find it sounds too boomy in the car, and harsh through earbuds. The best way to recalibrate your ears when EQing is by listening to how your favourite mixes sound. A great song with similar instrumentation and sonic properties to your own production will help guide your EQ

decisions as your add character to your track.

This infographic shows you the general results you’ll get from cutting and boosting certain frequencies.

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When we use an EQ to boost frequencies, we increase the overall volume of that sound. Likewise, when we attenuate frequencies, we decrease the overall volume of that sound. When we’re using EQ to colour the sound, we need to adjust the output level of the EQ to compensate for the gain

change. Why is this level matching step so important? Research shows that the human ear interprets louder sounds to have a fuller bass and more clarity in the top end. Put another way, we perceive quieter sounds to be thinner and duller. Even an increase of just 1dB can create the illusion of a slighter 'better' mix. Understanding and applying level matching techniques will allow you make more informed, more objective and therefore better mix decisions.

I now approach all my projects by asking myself..."Are my EQ decisions improving the sounds, or simply making them louder?" Let's say I'm working on a lead that needs a bit more presence to find its place in the mix. So I boost the high frequencies using my UAD Pultec EQP 1A. This

increases the perceived loudness of the lead, tricking me into thinking I've made a great EQ

decision when I compare it to my original sound. To make a more informed mix decision, I lower the output level on the EQ relative to my initial boost. The goal is to achieve a constant loudness of the lead when the EQ is toggled on and off. By doing this, I can be sure that I'm making genuine improvements to the audio. More importantly, I avoid being under the illusion that the lead sounds better when in reality it simply sounds louder.

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There seem to be endless EQ plugins, it can be difficult to know which one is most appropriate for the job at hand. If you’re fixing a problem or making a precise adjustment, go for a parametric EQ

such as Fabfilter Pro Q2. If you want to add colour, warmth and character to your audio, go for an analogue emulation EQ such as a Pultec. If you want to musically adjust the tonal balance, go for a dynamic EQ such as Sonnox Dynamic EQ.

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So far I’ve discussed colouring your audio using a standard static EQ. But there is another very musical way to enhance the frequencies. A dynamic EQ works in a similar way to a normal EQ, but it can react to the dynamics of your audio. Your cuts or boosts can be minimised or exaggerated depending on the level of those frequencies. This can be very useful if you only want to attenuate frequencies that are particularly loud in some sections without attenuating the same frequencies when they’re quieter. This approach adds movement to the way you shape your audio giving it a natural and organic sound.

I would advise you to never use presets. Not even as a starting point. Presets are a shortcut that will slow your progress as a music producer. To be a great producer you need to know how to

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manipulate your audio to how you want it to sound. Read the manuals of your plugins and experiment with them to see how they change your audio. A preset might sound ok, but audio is so unique that every channel will need bespoke settings to get the best possible result.

Compression

In a nutshell, compressors reduce the difference between the loudest and quietest parts of the audio its processing. They allow you to control, colour and manipulate the dynamics of audio.

They’re powerful tools but using the wrong setting can suck the punch out of your music. So when should you use a compressor and how should you tweak the parameters to work with the material?

The first step is to decide whether the compressor the right tool for the job. As I mentioned earlier in ‘Producing A Great Vocal’, using a compressor to balance out audio with a large dynamic variation will give a very uneven sound. The softer parts will sound unchanged and the louder parts will be squashed in an unnatural way. Automating a gain plugin is a much more natural approach to level out audio with large dynamic variations. Once your channel has an even volume balance, you can use a compressor to thicken the sound and control the transients taking an artistic approach rather than a corrective approach.

Any compression you use should preserve the character of your audios transients. Even when you’re using a charismatic compressor with lots of colour or applying intense settings for obvious effect, your goal should be to musically bring out the natural dynamics of your signal. As you’re tweaking your compression settings, think about what you’re trying to achieve. Are you adding character or adjusting the transients and dynamics range? How has the compression changed the relationship between the loud and soft parts of the audio? How have the transients changed? Do these settings slam the audio in too much of an obvious way?

Vibe and Purpose

Compressor Characteristics

Which Compressor?

Punchier Transients

FET circuitry, analogue emulation.

Universal Audio 1176

Dynamic Control

Clean sound, no colour.

Fabfilter Pro C2

Parallel Compression

Opto circuitry. Works slower adds a nice Universal Audio LA2A pumping effect thats beefs up the sound.

Add Colour & Harmonics

Analogue emulation.

Fairchild

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The main parameters that you can tweak on a compressor are: Threshold: Sets the level at which the compressor will start reacting to the audio signal. If your audio is peaking at -10dB and the compressor threshold is set to -4dB, the compressor simply won’t react to your audio at all. If you wanted your compressor to only look at the peaks of your audio (-10dB again) then you would set the threshold to around -13dB. If you wanted to heavily compress your audio then you would set the threshold to react to both the loudest and quietest parts of your audio.

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Ratio: Sets the amount of gain reduction. The higher the ratio, the more extreme the compression. To give you a ballpark idea, 1:1 is no compression, 2:1 is light compression, 3:1 is moderate, 4:1 will be substantial, 8:1 will be very noticeable, and anything above 10:1 can sound rather slammed unless used in tandem with a very light threshold. ∞:1 is limiting and nothing goes over the set volume.

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Attack: The amount of time it takes the compressor to react to the incoming signal. If the attack is immediate or super fast, the compressor will catch the transients of your audio material. This can be really useful for when the transients sound a bit sharp. You can use a compressor to make the transient feel a bit blunter, and therefore a bit thicker. If you want to add some levelling to your audio but you want to leave the sharpness of the transients intact, go for a slower attack time.

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Release: The amount of time it takes for the compressor to return to a non-compressing state. A fast release will mean the compressor will stop compressing quickly after the audio is no longer over the threshold. A slow release will mean it takes longer for the compressor to stop working once the audio is no longer surpassing the threshold. I like to set the release to work rhythmically with the audio that’s being fed into the compressor. For example, If I’m compressing a kick, I will set the release to just long enough that the compressor returns to a neutral state before the audio re-triggers the compressor again. For a more obvious and pumping sound, you might choose to go for a longer release.

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Knee: Soft means the compression will be applied gradually as the signal approaches the threshold. Hard means the compression will be applied quickly as soon as the audio surpasses the threshold.

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Input / Output or Gain: The compressor is effectively turning down the louder parts of the audio and leaving the quieter parts untouched, thus reducing the difference between the louder and quieter signals. So this will turn down the overall volume of that channel. So you’ll most likely want to use the output or makeup gain to bring the level back up so it works well in the mix. I like to bypass the plugin on and off to make sure the channel is still well balanced in the mix.

Type Of Sound

Ratio

Attack

Release

Upfront Vocal

3:1 to 4:1

15 to 30 ms

40 to 80 ms

Agressive Bass

3:1 to 4:1

16 to 20 ms

50 to 300 ms

Tight Drums

2:1 to 4:1

1.5 to 6 ms

50 to 250 ms

Piano Weight

3:1 to 8:1

20 to 75 ms

0 to 30 ms

Controlled Guitar

3:1 to 4:1

10 to 20 ms

40 to 100 ms

Thicker Sound

2:1 to 4:1

3 to 12 ms

20 to 75 ms

Parallel Compression

8:1 to ∞:1

0.5 to 1.5 ms

50 to 150 ms

Fast attack and release times can sometimes cause low frequencies to distort. Low frequencies have long waves so the fast attack causes the gain reduction to begin working within one cycle of the wave causing it to clip. The problem is, sometimes you need the fast attack time to attenuate the transient of the audio. My preferred fix for this is to increase the ‘lookahead’ time. This means the compressor begins the gain reduction a few milliseconds before the transient, allowing the low frequencies to pass through undistorted.

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Stereo Placement

A professional sounding mix requires a purposeful approach to stereo placement. You may want your main elements to shoot straight up the middle in mono, and your more atmospheric channels pushed to the sides. But how do we decide what goes where in the stereo field to get the best result from our mix?

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A wide sounding mix is created when the left and right channels have contrasting content. The more obvious the difference, the wider the mix feels. This is a balancing act, as too much difference can lead to lopsided mixes that fall apart in mono; and we humans like mixes that are naturally balanced in the phantom centre.

There are a number of different ways you can alter the mid/side balance of your mix. Panning within your DAW is a simple and effective way to push a channel to either the left or right side.

Listen carefully when tuning the pan knob to find that sweet spot of where the channel sits in the mix. Try to keep a fair balance between the left and right channels whilst panning.

In some circumstances, you’ll want a channel to sound wide but balanced between both the left and right speakers. To do this, you can double track audio and pan one left and one right by an equal amount. The most effective way to do this is to record two separate takes of audio, or if it’s a synth you can slightly alter the patch. If neither of those options is possible you can use EQ and effects to create a difference between the two channels. You could also use separate delays and reverbs on each channel to give each their own sense of time and space. Note: If you simply duplicate the channel and add no effects or alterations then the audio will sound like it’s coming from the phantom centre (not wide).

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Another approach is to use micro-shifting (see mixing vocals for the infographic). Micro-shifting can add either a dramatic or subtle width to a channel that you also want to be centred in the mix.

To achieve this, duplicate a channel twice so you have three versions of it. Keep the first centred in the mix, then pan second hard left and the third hard right. Then pitch the second channel up by 5-10 cents and pitch the third down by the same amount. You can then adjust the gain of the second and third channel to suit the material.

To fine-tune your frequency balance in the stereo field you can use an EQ or compressor with mid/side functionality. Having your mid-channel too dull and your side channels very bright will sound unnatural and strange to your listener. Be consistent to produce a more cohesive sounding mix.

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It’s natural that elements within your mix have some overlapping frequencies. Whilst you may have reduced overlapping with EQ or side-chaining, stereo placement can help you get more separation in your mix. If you hear two or more channels competing for the same frequencies, try one of the widening approaches described above until the channels work more harmoniously together. Switch between listening in stereo and listening in mono through one speaker when you do this and you’ll get a great perspective of how things are really sitting in your mix.

Widening high-mid and high frequencies in your mix will give them a perceived lift in clarity and presence. This can sound great on duller mixes, but if your mix is suffering from harsh sounds this will worsen the effect. When you’re panning and widening the elements in your mix, keep an eye on this tonal balance, and make EQ adjustments if necessary.

We’ve looked at how to add width, now let’s look at how to decide where things should be positioned in the stereo field. A great starting point for this again is to analyse the stereo placement of your favourite mixes. I’ve done this for Shape Of You by Ed Sheeran, and it yielded interesting results. You can use the stereo field template at the end of the eBook to analyse your own favourite tracks.

Shape Of You - Stereo-Spread Infographic

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As in any mix, the frequencies of the different elements overlap, but everything more or less has it’s own space in the mix. Let’s unpack it further.

Low Frequencies Analysis: The kick and bass only come in simultaneously during the drops and the final chorus. The kick dominates the low end and punches through at a slightly higher frequency than the bass. The bass has a rounded low end and soft harmonics. The bass sits subtly behind the kick in the mix whilst proving a solid foundation of the key. The kick is short and punchy whereas the bass has a longer tail. These contrasting characteristics mean they aren’t competing for space and attention so they glue together well. I can hear that the kick is mono whereas the bass is a little wider. The low pass filter in the stereo spread section of LEVELS helps me confirm this.

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If the low frequencies were pure mono they would be dead centre but there is a little bit of width in the bass. Not enough to cause any problems, just enough to add some separation between the kick and the bass.

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Middle Frequencies Analysis: This is where the bulk of the action is happening. The three driving elements of the track (Lead Vocals, Pluck Chords and Guitar Percussion) all sit in the mids. Notice the Pluck Chords and the Guitar Percussion don’t compete for the same frequencies and can, therefore, both be mixed centrally in the stereo field. The vocal sits on top of the mid frequencies in terms of volume.

The mixing engineer has used the stereo spectrum to push overlapping frequencies wider so they don’t compete for space. The strummed guitar, BVs and Choir are pushed wide to give space and attention to the Lead Vocal and Plucked Chords (which drive the track). As you can see below, the instruments and vocal in the verse are placed very mono. Whereas during the chorus the mixing engineer has really opened up the stereo field. This contrast between the sections gives a really interesting lift to the chorus.

High Frequencies Analysis: Many pop tracks have a glistening top end with hi-hats and FX.

Shape Of You doesn’t! Above 10kHz you’ll only find natural frequencies and harmonics giving the track a warm and organic vibe.

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Phase

The correlation meter on a vectorscope shows the degree of similarity between the left and right channels. A reading near +1 indicates a well-balanced mix. If the pointer hovers passed the central point towards -1 it indicates that the mix has phase issues. This can cause the mix to fall apart when played back in mono. Phase issues can creep into your mix when recording audio using two or more microphones. In a nutshell, this is because the ‘nearly identical’ audio signals induce comb filtering. This makes the sound weak and thin rather than rich and full. Different elements of your mix that have overlapping frequencies can also introduce subtle phasing issues.

A good way to reduce phase issues whilst recording is to use the 3:1 rule. Place the second mic three times the distance from the first mic that the first mic is from the source. So, if your first mic is 10 cm for the source of the audio, the second mic should 30cm away from the first mic. If you're

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at the mixing stage and can't re-record you can try a phase alignment tool. Alternatively, you can try just nudging the audio a few milliseconds forward or back. Even a small adjustment might have incredibly positive effects on the phase of your mix. Do this whilst listening in mono through one speaker and listen for the sweet spot where the audio stops phasing.

Low Frequencies

Having low frequencies placed very wide can have negative effects on your mix. Wide bass frequencies might suffer from phase cancellation when played in mono, making your mix sound weak. Bass also takes up a lot of space, so by keeping it mostly mono, you can utilise the rest of the stereo spectrum for other elements in your mix. The team at Mastering The Mix created a feature in LEVELS to analyse where low frequencies are positioned in the stereo field. When you engage LOW PASS in the Stereo Field Section (by clicking the ‘Low Pass’ button), you can see the low frequencies that are too wide glowing yellow and red in the vectorscope. The goal is to keep the low frequencies in the more central green area. This will lead to a more powerful and balanced mix. If you have wide low frequencies, you could try using a stereo placement plugin to place the low frequencies of your kick and bass in mono.

Depth

In the context of music production, depth is how close or far away a sound is perceived to be. The depth or distance of sound ads another dimension in which we can add separation between the elements of a mix.

Reverb gives the listener a very obvious sensation of experiencing a sound in a defined space.

You can make a channel feel very close and personal to the listener by using a short and subtle room reverb. Conversely, you can make a channel sound like it’s far off in the distance by adding a longer and more dramatic chamber reverb. Your listeners will interpret more separation from your mix if you use different reverb settings for different channels. If you wanted to go for a more cohesive space you could go for very similar settings or even run a number of channels through the same reverb. Try using both mono and stereo reverbs in a mix to get a variety of depths whilst not flooding the stereo field.

Too much reverb can make the mix feel washed out, so subtly is key. A great approach is to use a

‘send’ channel rather than inserting the reverb on the source audio itself. This way you keep the dry signal intact and you can dial in the perfect amount of wet reverb. If you feel the reverb is interfering with the intelligibility of the audio, you can make use of the pre-delay feature. The pre-delay sets the amount of time before the reverb kicks in. The more you increase the pre-delay, the more the reverb separates from the audio. This can add clarity without affecting the size of the space. To further increase the clarity, you can add an EQ after your reverb. This will enable you to shape and sculpt the space to suit the sonics of your song. When you EQ, be sure to remove any unwanted low frequencies that the reverb has introduced, as the low frequencies can make the mix sound muddy.

Your studio space will have an effect on how you experience your audio, especially if it lacks acoustic treatment. Producers tend to add more reverb when listening through monitors, and they use less reverb when listening through headphones. Jump between monitors and headphones to

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get a second perspective on the spaces you’re creating and tweak the settings to work in both listening environments.

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Creating Context

If everything is mixed loud, nothing sounds loud. If everything is mixed bright, nothing sounds bright. If everything is mixed wide, nothing sounds wide. Our perceptions can be fooled by our reference frame. If we listen to a mix with very piercing high frequencies and then listen to a well-balanced mix, we might perceive the second mix to sound dull. We can use this to our advantage whilst mixing. By creating the context you can give your listener a reference point. If you want loud, upfront lead vocals that have a glistening presence, contrast it with quieter backing vocals mixed super wide with the high frequencies tamed. Similarly, if you want your chorus to have a dynamic impact, your buildup or verse will need to be quieter. If you want your chorus to feel like it’s much ‘larger’ than the verse, then mix your verse elements narrower and mix your chorus elements wider. If both your verse and your chorus are mixed wide, then neither will sound wide.

Utilise context to prime your listener. Then contrast the reference frame to add drama and excitement to your mix.

The Bigger Picture

There’s a specific point in a mix where many producers make a fundamental mistake. They spend too long tweaking the settings on a channel whilst listening to it soloed. This is a problem because they lose the perspective of how that channel sounds in the context of the whole mix.

They make copious adjustments, only to find it sounds out of place when heard with all the other elements of the production.

When you’re fine-tuning your mix, switch between soloed channels and the full mix often to keep perspective of where things are headed.

You can broaden your perspective even further by switching between monitoring in stereo and monitoring in mono through one speaker. Monitoring through different speakers that have

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different frequency ranges is also helpful. I switch often between full range Genelecs, Yamaha mid-field monitors and an Avantone Cube that has a smaller range. I’ll listen to the single Avantone in mono at a reduced volume to give me a totally different perspective on the mix. I find listening at a very low volume can help me find the perfect level for the lead vocal in a mix. If at a low volume I can still hear the lyrics above the instrumental, my vocal is upfront and punches through well. If you build you mix on impressive full range speakers, you might find your music sounds weak when heard through laptop speakers; which is how a lot of your listeners will consume your music. I advise you to build your mix on smaller more modest monitors, then make final adjustments on full range speakers.

Technical Details

Your ears and musical mind should always have the final say in your mixing decisions. But knowing the technical details of your audio can help uncover any critical errors that your ears may have missed. It can also help you get a better result from your master.

Peak: If the very loudest part of your track is louder than -6dB, you won’t have much headroom to adjust your sound during mastering. Keep your options open by keeping an eye on your peak level.

Integrated LUFS: Integrated LUFS (or ‘int’) is an accumulating calculation that gives you the overall loudness reading of your entire track. The closer to zero your track is, the louder it is. A track that suffered from over-compression during the ‘loudness wars’ era might see mastered tracks reading as loud as -5 int LUFS. Spotify streams mastered audio at around -14 int LUFS, which is generally considered to be open and dynamic. For mixing, you want to be aiming for around -18 int LUFS for a dynamic mix, certainly no louder than -15 int LUFS.

Short-Term LUFS: Short-Term LUFS (or ‘st’) takes a constantly updated 3-second snapshot of your track. Once your audio breaches around -6 st LUFS, it will affect how full-bodied and punchy your audio is. Try to keep your mix below -9 st LUFS to avoid any issues.

Dynamic Range / PSR: Dynamic Range and PSR look at the short-term punchiness of audio. The lower the number, the less dynamic range your track has. To get a more dynamic mix, look at the compressors and limiters in your session and lower their ratios.

Loudness Range: The Loudness Range will tell you the statistical measure of loudness variation of your entire track. This long-term reading will give you an idea of the difference in volume between the verse, chorus and other sections of your track. The lower the number, the less dynamic range your track has. A loudness range between 6 LU to 12 LU shows that a track has a considerable difference in loudness between the various sections. Tracks with a loudness range below 4 LU

could be considered rather static in loudness. Loudness range is subjective and totally depends on the material you’re working on.

At Mastering The Mix, we created two tools to analyse this technical data. The first is LEVELS, which monitors these measurements in real-time in your DAW. The second is EXPOSE, which is a standalone application where you can drag and drop a bounced audio file to get all the measurements in seconds.

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Taking The Mix To The Next Level

Musical Mixing

There’s nothing wrong with music producers that strive for a better and more defined sound. In fact, that’s awesome! Becoming a master of the technical side of mixing will take your productions to their fullest potential… But it’s crucial that you don’t lose your creative flair and artistic direction.

What makes a great mix sound great? A great mix is achieved when the producer has sculpted the music to a point where you feel like you can reach out and touch the sound. It sounds REAL, which gives the listener a super immersive experience. So how do you mix music to make it sound real? What mixing techniques give your audio a lifelike feel? And what can stop a mix from sounding immersive?

Tip 1: Keep Recording Until You Have AWESOME Takes

This factor is not always under your control… But if possible, keep recording until you have AWESOME takes. Cutting, splicing, tuning and that other stuff can work like a charm, but nothing beats the authenticity and beauty of a real take in its original form Tip 2: Human > Robot

I rarely quantise a performance to 100%. If I need to tighten things up a bit I’ll make an effort to quantise the elements that really need to be on the money. The kick, snare and bass generally need to be mostly playing in unison, but having a few elements that are a bit looser can inject some serious magic into the music.

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Tip 3: Your DAW Is Your Instrument

Rather than reaching for the compressor to level the dynamics, link up your midi keyboard fader to automate the gain of a channel. Try to see riding the fader as you ‘playing the mix’ in the same way that a musician ‘plays an instrument’. Your DAW is your instrument, play it musically. Go through the whole track and use the fader to balance the sound and also to add overall dynamic range to enhance the excitement in the music.

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Tip 4: Feel

Is the track laid-back? High-energy? Loose? Tight? Try to understand what the music is conveying then make decisions to preserve and enhance that feel and vibe. There’s more to a ‘beat’ than simply being bang on the click. As a drummer myself, I understand the importance of being able to play in front of the beat, on the beat and behind the beat. If you move the audio in a channel very slightly forward, it will sound like it’s ‘In front’ of the beat. This will give you a driving feel. If you quantize your audio so it’s perfectly in time with the click, this is called ‘On’ the beat. This will give you a tight sound with energy somewhere in-between ‘In front’ and ‘Behind’ the beat. To get a more laid-back feel, pull the audio from a channel back a few samples. This is called ‘Behind the beat’.

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Tip 5: EQ As If You’re Experiencing The Sound Being Performed In Front Of You When I’m EQing anything performed by a musician (Vocals, guitar, drums etc) I try to make it sound like I’m physically experiencing that sound being played live. It will of course sound more controlled with the processing, but the goal is to make it sound real. This ‘real’ sound might be hindered by the recording techniques used or the acoustic properties of the space it was recorded in. This is where you utilise plugins to inject that real sound back into the performance.

If I’m mixing a vocal, I’ll sing myself in my mixing chair to give my ears a fresh reference to a live voice. This definitely works better if the actual vocalist is in the session with me, but this isn't always the case. I’ll do the same with acoustic guitar parts. Grabbing a guitar and strumming a similar performance to what I'm mixing can put me in the right mindset to get a great sound.

Tip 6: Sprinkle Organic Touches

The easiest approach to making music is to use sample packs and sound banks for your synths.

There’s nothing wrong with doing this but infusing some more human elements will give your productions a greater depth. So rather than using a normal pad patch on your favourite synth, why not try to sing to the notes, and create a unique sound that no one else can replicate. You could also replicate a synth lead on an electric guitar and mix it so it sits just behind the main lead. If you use electronic samples, you could back them up with ones you've created yourself. I once recorded a door slamming and used it to back up an acoustic kick… It resulted in a really unique and super punchy sound.

Tip 7: Keep The Listeners Focus

Attention spans seem to be constantly diminishing. So how can we keep the listener engaged in the music? Being unusual will get you noticed, but being truly unique will guarantee it. Think about someone walking down a road with two arms… You expect it so you pay no attention. Now think of someone walking down a road with one arm… This is unusual and you will probably notice. Now think of someone walking down a road with three arms… This is truly unique and you probably won’t be able to take your eyes off them. Do something truly unique in your music and you will keep the listener engaged and immersed.

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Mixing Low Frequencies

What Frequency Range Is Considered To Be ‘Low End’?

Most of the kick and bass low-end action happens between 60Hz (hertz) and 250Hz. Below 60Hz is considered ‘sub bass’ and above 250Hz is where you’ll hear the upper harmonics of the fundamental bass frequencies.

Why Is Mixing Bass So Difficult?

Simply put, room acoustics. Low-frequency sound waves in an untreated space will have dips and peaks which gives the listener a misrepresentation of the sound. This causes the producer to make negative mixing decisions that sound great in their studio but are not comparable with other commercial releases in other listening environments. Understanding your monitoring system and your room is important to get the best results. I recommend using the Room EQ Wizard (free) with a Behringer ECM8000 omnidirectional microphone (£40) to see where your room problems lie at a

minimal cost. Sonarworks offer a more comprehensive room correction approach.

Who Are You Mixing For?

Full range speaker systems sound fantastic. When your music is destined to be played through a club sound system, the low frequencies should pound the listeners in the chest. However, it’s important to bear in mind that the majority of music is consumed through laptop speakers, iPhone speakers, small portable speakers etc. None of which have an impressive bass range. This chapter will look at techniques that help clarify the low-end information on both full-range and small-range systems.

Source Audio

When you're at an editing stage, it’s much more effective to cut and control low frequencies than it is to boost them. Boosting low end that isn't very powerful in the first place sounds feeble in comparison to having full range source material. Keep this in mind when you're selecting your sounds...You’ll thank yourself later.

THE KICK

In most musical scenarios, the kick drives the track. It sets the vibe, establishes the energy and guides the rhythm. Careful attention to shaping and enhancing the kick will take your music to new heights. Dropping in samples with a ‘set and forget’ approach will make your track sound ordinary and bring about problems in the mix.

Getting Your Kick Sound

Choosing the perfect kick is a tricky selection process. Sample packs offer hundreds of different kick sounds to suit any genre. There are also kick generating VSTs such as KICK, BazzISM and EZdrummer. Your goal at this stage should be to choose or create the best possible source material to use as a starting point. Trying to add sub-bass with EQs is less effective than choosing

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a kick with a lot of low-end energy to begin with. This goes for recording acoustic kicks too. Be certain to capture the vibe you want from the source and not to rely on EQs to give that extra low-end thump.

Tuning

A kick that has no relation to the key of a track can work well if it has the right attitude and characteristics. However, a kick that is tuned with the key of the track will on most occasions groove with the music and sit better in the mix. Find the root note of your track and match the key of the kick to this note. To identify the key of a kick you can use an EQ with a frequency analyser and sweep the low end to find where the note resonates. You can use Logic EXS24 to change the key of your kick if you need to. Convert your kick sample to ‘New Sampler Track’ then transpose the pitch to the desired key. Your low end may just magically fall into place.

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Fundamental Note

Note

E

F

F#

G

G#

A

A#

B

C

C#

D

D#

Hz

41.2 43.6

46.2

48.9

51.9

55

58.2

61.7

65.4

69.2

73.4 77.7

It’s difficult for the human ear to identify the tuning of frequencies this low. Use this chart along with a frequency analyser to help you find the root note of your kick.

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Pressure Point

Note

E

F

F#

G

G#

A

A#

B

C

C#

D

D#

Hz

82.4 87.3

92.4

97.9 103.8 110 116.5 123.4 130.8 138.5 146.8 155.5

The pressure point is the frequency range in which the kick packs its punch. The ‘umph’ that hits you in the chest. Use this chart to help you find the pressure point.

The pressure point of the kick resonates when a

high Q EQ boost is inserted. This Kick is in the key

of F

(87.3 Hz)

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Root vs Dominant

Another school of thought on this subject argues that tuning the kick to the 5th of the scale helps the kick sit in the mix. This is particularly useful when the bass consistently plays the root note in the performance. By tuning the kick to the 5th the frequencies are in harmony as opposed to fighting for the same frequency range. Try both to see which works best for your track.

Tail Length

This often overlooked aspect of the kick is of paramount importance when it comes to mixing low frequencies. Slight adjustments in the length of the kick-tail can make or break a mix.

Kick Tail

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Controlling The Tail

An effective way to adjust the kick-tail is by using fades in each sample. Below you can see examples of three different types of fade, all of which have a different effect. Fade A is a normal fade and will bring down the level of your kick tail smoothly. Fade B is a quick fade. This will have a very obvious tail shortening effect on your kick. Fade B works very well when you have other prominent bass parts in your track. Fade C is a more subtle approach. Use this curved fade when the kick is a driving and dominant aspect of your track, but you feel it could be tamed.

Fade A

Fade B

Fade C

Avoiding Clicks

If you decide to shorten the length of your kick, be sure to add a fade out. This will prevent a small click at the end of your sample that will happen due to the cut audio wave.

THE BASS

The genre and vibe of your track will be factors to consider when choosing your bass sounds.

Much like the kick, it’s better to have a full and deep sounding bass that you can cut and sculpt to your taste. If your original bass sound has weak low-end energy, a low-end EQ boost will only get you so far.

Kick vs Bass Dominance

The low-end spectrum only covers about 250Hz. This is a small amount of physical space compared to mid and high frequencies that have a range of thousands of Hertz. Overlapping low frequencies make a track sound muddy and uses up valuable headroom. For that reason, it is important to choose which element is more important to your music, the kick or the bass. In most scenarios, one must give space to the other.

Kick Dominance

For the kick to stand out, the low frequencies in the bass need to ‘duck’ out of the way of the kick.

This is done using side-chaining. If you have a bass synth that has a lot of detail in the mid and high frequencies then you may only want to reduce the conflicting frequencies. Below you can see how I’ve used a multi-band compressor to select only the lowest bass note to duck it out of the way of the kick.

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Dark Grey - Bass Pre Sidechain

Conflicting frequencies reduced

Light Grey - Bass Post Sidechain

Red - Kick

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Bass Dominance

You may want to have the bass dominating the kick. How you do this will depend on your source material. If you have long bass notes you may want to reduce the tail length of your kick. This will free up that space for your long bass notes. Alternatively, If your bass is playing short stabbing notes you may want to control the attack of the kick. By reducing the attack on the kick we give space to the bite of a punchy bass. We can achieve both of these characteristics by compressing the kick in different ways. Similarly to adding a fade as discussed earlier, you can compress a kick to lower the level of the tail. This will give your long bass notes space to be the prominent feature in your mix.

Controlling The Tail

1.

Slow attack means the

compressor wont affect the

kicks transient.

2.

The compressor should release

in time for the next kick to keep

the level even.

3.

Larger ratio = more

compression.

4.

Larger range = more

exaggerated effect.

3.

1.

2.

5.

The threshold is the volume at

5.

which the compression will

start. Play around with this to

4.

get the tail control you’re after.

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Reducing the attack of the kick is best achieved using either a compressor or a transient shaping plugin (such as SPL Transient Designer) you can copy the settings I have dialled in below and tweak to your taste.

Controlling The Transient

1. Fast attack to catch the very

start of the kick.

2. Enable lookahead to allow the

plugin to preempt the

incoming signal.

1.

3.

3. Fairly fast release if you don't

want to affect the tail of the

kick.

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2.

Harmonics

Harmonics are an important characteristic when it comes to the perceived loudness of low frequencies. If the fundamental notes in the bass are happening around 60Hz or below we will be able to better interpret the sound from the first harmonic an octave higher. Interestingly, our brains are able to 'imagine' very low fundamental frequencies if we can hear the harmonics. This is true whether the fundamental note is present or not. It is also important to note that not everybody will listen to your music through full range speaker systems. A lot of music is consumed through laptop speakers with a poor low-end response. A harmonic exciter will help make your bass more audible on these systems.

Load up a harmonic exciter, saturation or distortion plugin onto your bass. Try and monitor through small range speakers whilst selecting the amount of harmonic excitement you want. Then move back to full range speakers and tweak to your taste. A harmonic exciter may reduce the perceived and actual level of the fundamental frequencies. If your music will be played through a full range club sound system be careful that you don't remove too much of the fundamental information.

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Waves - Vintage Aural Exciter

Waves - Maxx Bass

SPL - TwinTube Processor

Acoustics and Monitoring

To make good mix decisions, you have to be able to hear exactly what is happening. This is particularly difficult when it comes to the low-end for a number of reasons. Firstly, accurate full range speaker systems are expensive. And secondly, without acoustic treatment even the most expensive speakers are ineffective.

The shape and size of a room, along with the density of the walls will have a unique effect on sound heard within the space. In a nutshell, the sound generated through a monitoring system will jump around a room in such a way that it sounds very different when it reaches the listener’s ears.

The acoustics in a room can create peaks and dips of up to 35dB giving the listener a false representation of the sound. To control the low frequencies in a room, thick bass traps should be placed along any 90-degree angles in the room. You can't overdo bass trapping so install as much as you can.

Full range speakers in a treated studio environment will give you an accurate representation of your low end. This, however, isn't always available. If you understand the limitations of your room acoustics and gear then you can compensate and point your mix in the right direction. As stated earlier, a small kitchen radio for less than $50 can be a great tool when monitoring. If you can make your mix sound great through that, it will sound even better when played through other systems. I also advise you to listen at a very low volume. This will minimise the rooms affect on the audio, reduce ear fatigue and help you get a natural balance of the instruments in your mix.

SubWoofers

Subwoofers can extend the frequency range and give the listener greater insight into what's happening in the low end. However, more often than not they cause more problems than they solve due to incorrect installation. It also worth noting that the cheaper subwoofers will simply produce an inaccurate, mono-tonal 'umph' sound. Again these do more harm than good as you're not hearing what's truly happening in the mix.

When placing a subwoofer in a room, avoid the corners and any positions that are equidistant from two adjacent walls. This will minimise the negative effect of standing waves. When you hook your subwoofer up to your satellite monitors, try and have the crossover at around 80hz. The crossover from the subwoofer to satellite speakers is the crucial make or break moment for a sub setup. The last thing you want is a 'hole' at the crossover point.

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Even though it might sound impressive to have the sub at a high volume, if you frequently monitor at this level you might end up with bass light mixes. 85dB SPL (sound pressure level) is a common suggestion for monitoring level, but this is for larger spaces. Most home studios are smaller than 142 cubic meters, so 73-76dB SPL (C weighted) is a more appropriate target. More than 76 dB SPL and the bass will feel louder, so you will bring the low end down in the mix which leads to a bass light mix. Quieter than 73dB SPL and the low end will feel too soft which will lead to you boosting the bass too much. Keep this in mind when monitoring at different levels.

Subpac

I use a Subpac on every project I produce, mix or master. The Subpac vibrates relative to the energy of the low frequencies in the audio you are listening to in an incredibly accurate way. It’s an immersive and forward-thinking way to fine tune your low-frequency levels when working with audio.

Using Reference Tracks

Reference tracks are used by producers and engineers at all stages of their careers. It’s a great way to make sure our mixes sound as good (or at least comparable) to commercially successful releases. Reference tracks shouldn't stifle your creativity or force you to make decisions that aren't right for the music. Reference tracks help you recalibrate your ears when you’ve been working on a track for a long time. They help you create music that translates well on different playback systems and in different environments. The team at Mastering The Mix created a plugin called

REFERENCE to help producers get the possible results for using reference tracks. Even if you don’t own a license you can use the principles in this chapter to get closer to the sound of your favourite tracks.

Preparing The Comparison

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In your mixing session, load up an instance of REFERENCE as the final plugin on your master bus.

REFERENCE should come after your metering plugin but before any speaker/headphone calibration software (if you use it). Drag and drop the reference tracks you want to use onto the Wave Transport and set the mode to FREE. Here is a checklist to follow when selecting your reference tracks:

• Chose reference tracks that are in the same genre as the mix you’re working on.

• Chose reference tracks with similar instrumentation and sounds to the mix you’re working on.

• Use reference tracks that you think sound amazing.

• If possible, select reference tracks that have had commercial success.

• Use high-quality files. You don’t want to try and match your sound to a low-quality MP3.

Once you’ve loaded your Reference tracks, click the Level Match button to balance the tracks so they all have the same perceived loudness. Your mix will most likely be a lot quieter than your reference tracks giving you the misconception that it has a weaker bass and less clarity in the high frequencies. The Level Match button will allow you to compare your mix to the reference tracks without bias, allowing you to make informed mixing decisions.

Comparing your mix to the reference tracks

Now that your tracks are level matched, you can begin to objectively look at how your mix sounds compared to your reference tracks.

Some questions to ask yourself when using reference tracks:

• Are the vocals too hot?

• Is the Kick level too loud?

• Is the bass too quiet?

• How do the reverbs, delays and other spatial effects compare?

• How does the balance compare with other tracks in a similar genre?

• Is the stereo image wide enough?

You might choose to make your mix slightly more dynamic than the mastered reference tracks to compensate for any compression and limiting that might be applied to your mix during mastering.

Trinity Display

When you listen to your reference track and you compare it to your own music, it can be difficult to put your finger on what changes you need to make. The one-of-a-kind Trinity Display uses intelligent algorithms to show you how the balance and punch of your track compare to your reference. You can create from 1 to 5 moveable frequency bands in the Trinity Display. Each band gives you a specific reading of how the punch and balance of your track compare to the punch and balance of your reference in the corresponding frequency band.

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Level Lines

The white Level Lines show you how the balance of the frequencies in your mix compares to your reference tracks. If the Level Line is above the centre line then those frequencies are more prominent in your mix. If the Level Line is below the centre line then those frequencies are less prominent in your mix. Ctrl+Click anywhere in the Trinity Display to add more frequency bands to get a more detailed view. Ctrl+Click on a frequency band divider to remove it.

If the Level Line in the low-frequency band is lower than the central 0dB line, you may choose to increase the volume of your kick and bass. Alternatively, you may decide that adding EQ boosts to the low-end of your bass elements might be a better option to get your low-frequencies sounding more comparable to your reference.

If the Level Line in the high frequencies is above the central line, you might decide to reduce the volume of your hi-hats, cymbals and sweeping effects. Alternatively, you may decide to create some EQ cuts to reduce the high-end energy to make the high-frequency energy comparable to your reference.

Punch Dots

The purple Punch Dots in the Trinity Display will tell you how the short-term dynamic range of your track compares to the short-term dynamic range of your reference. If the Punch Dots are moving towards the white Level Line then those frequencies are more compressed in the mix. If

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the Punch Dots are moving away from the Level Line then those frequencies are more dynamic in the mix. The brighter the dots are, the greater the difference in the dynamic range. If the dots are invisible then the dynamic range is the same in that frequency band in both the mix and the reference.

The Punch Dots give you a detailed indication of how punchy the different frequencies are in your mix in comparison to your reference. It’s quite easy to hear if your high frequencies are piercingly loud in comparison your reference, but it’s more difficult to tell if they are over-compressed or over-dynamic in comparison.

If you create a frequency band ranging from 2k-20kHz, and in that band the Punch Dots are very clear and moving away from the Level Line, then your mix is much more dynamic in that frequency range than your reference track. You may decide to add some compression to the prominent elements of your mix in that frequency range. This insight will help you get your mix sounding closer to the sonic qualities of your reference track.

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Magic Final Touches

Warmth, Clarity and Colour

The word distortion can come with negative connotations of sounding harsh and digital clipping.

The most familiar distortion sound is that of a heavy guitar, but distortion is actually very versatile and offers a wide range of sounds. When used correctly and musically distortion can inject your productions with warmth, bite and detail.

Distortion occurs when audio is passed through a non-linear device, such as a saturating tube amplifier. This changes the amplitude of the waveform and introduces upper harmonic frequencies at octaves musically related to the audio signal. This results in a change of timbre that adds character that both artists and listeners absolutely love. When making music solely using a computer, your tracks can end up sounding very ‘clean’, especially when compared to the hissing, popping and clicking that listeners experienced with vinyl. In the digital world, if you surpass 0dBFS (decibels full-scale) your audio will digitally clip. In the analogue realm, those louder signals would add musically-pleasing harmonics rather than digital distorting. The louder or ‘hotter’ your audio, the more obvious the effect. This is why dialling in some tape emulation can add warmth to your audio giving it a rich and rounded sound. Plugins have the added benefit of giving you

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complete control over the hiss and noise to suit your preference. So when your music is feeling too polished, reach for that tape emulation plugin.

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An EQ can only enhance the frequencies that exist in your audio. Like distortion, exciters can introduce a whole new timbre of brightness, clarity and detail to your audio. They’re best used in a subtle way as they can be fatiguing to listen to. Exciters also add more volume to the channel they’re used on, so be sure to level match the output and compare the before and after to make sure you’re making the right decisions. So if one of your channels needs an extra push to jump out of the mix, try an exciter.

Buss Processing

Stereo buss processing is where you add compression, EQ or saturation to your stereo buss to affect the overall sound of your mix. There is a debate whether you should add buss processing at the beginning or end of your mix, but it really comes down to your preference and workflow. Buss processing can be the cherry on top of your mix that glues everything together and sweetens up the sound with extra flavour and character. If you add it near the start of your mix, the dramatic improvement to your sound might give you an instant boost of confidence. That can be great for your mixing morale as long as you keep in mind that buss processing won’t fix any problems in your mix. When you make adjustments you affect every single channel in your mix, so if there’s only one channel causing a problem it’s better to fix that problem on the individual channel. If you do choose to add buss processing near the end of your mix, be sure the settings don’t dismantle the mix you’ve spent days crafting. For example, buss compression with a fast attack can affect every transient in your mix and reduce the overall punch of your production. A slower attack with a fast release and low ratio (no higher than 2:1) can glue your mix in a subtle way whilst adding punch and energy to your overall sound. Going for broad EQ curves with boosts or cuts not surpassing 3dB is also a good rule of thumb. Just keep in mind that with the stereo buss, a little goes a long way, so subtly is key.

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Clean It Up

Excess sounds, hissing, clicks, beeps and other various noises can work their way into the mix.

Little by little they build up and the accumulating result can distract the listener from the music.

A common problem that I find in my clients mixes is that they’ve used an analogue emulation plugin that emits a constant low-end hum or high-end hiss. Trying to EQ the hum or hiss will affect the overall sound of the channel, so I use a de-noise plugin to reduce only the hum and hiss frequencies. There are a number of de-noiser plugins available that learn the profile of the problematic noise, then subtracts that noise when a signal’s amplitude drops below the specified threshold.

It’s a simple process…

1. Find a section of the audio file that contains the hiss and hum, but no other sounds.

2. Use a de-noiser plugin to learn the profile of this audio.

3. Change the threshold so the original audio still sounds natural but the unwanted noise is gone.

There are usually a number of channels in a mix that have a small amount of noise like this. It might not sound like the de-noiser has a dramatic effect, but it all adds up to a much more defined mix. Even if you do want a bit of noise in your mix for character, I recommend that you control it in this way so you can sprinkle in the perfect amount into your song.

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Getting A Solid Master

Fundamentals Of Mastering

The original goal of mastering was to take a collection of songs (album/EP) and make sure they played back at a consistent level whilst taking the listener on a musical journey. The purpose of mastering has evolved in a number of ways. Firstly, releasing a single is far more common than releasing an album or EP. So an engineer frequently deals with just one song rather than a collection of songs. Secondly, mastering is no longer simply a technical formality. Artists expect mastering to drastically improve the sound of their mix. We mastering engineers have adapted to fulfil the needs of our clients.

Stereo VS Stem Mastering

There are two types of widely accepted mastering practices. The first is stereo mastering. This is where the audio engineer enhances and prepares just one single audio file for commercial release. The second is stem mastering. Stem Mastering is the process whereby an audio engineer takes grouped stereo mixes from a final mix, enhances the sound and creates a technically excellent releasable version of the track. Stem mastering gives the audio engineer a greater amount of control over the master as the sounds are separated into groups of similar sounds. This allows the engineer to make discreet changes to individual sounds within the mix as well as applying the standard processing of stereo mastering. The goal of both is to get the music sounding as high quality as possible. The majority of the techniques described in this chapter can be used in both stereo and stem mastering, however the focus will be on stem mastering as I have consistently found it gives better results.

The ‘Technically’ Excellent Final Mix

A question to ask at the beginning of the mastering session is: ‘Are there any issues with the mix that I can’t fix with mastering’? What one can do with a single stereo file is very limited compared to a full mix session. An example of an unfixable issue in a stereo file would be If the vocal was sounding muffled but the hi-hat was sounding piercing in the same frequency range. An EQ boost might help the vocal but the hi-hat presence would also increase relatively. A quick alteration in the mix will be far more effective than trying to make the best out of a bad situation during mastering. Whether you're stem mastering or stereo mastering, it’s crucial that you get the technical aspects of your mix on point to set yourself up for success. Address each of the bullet points below to get that technically excellent final mix.

• The mix peaks at -6dB [decibels]. This gives you space or ‘headroom’ that you will need to make EQ adjustments.

• The mix has a good dynamic range (no limiters or compressors on the master/output). This keeps the transients intact giving your music punch and clarity.

• The balance of the instruments is comparable to other tracks in the same genre.

• The high and low frequencies are comparable to other tracks in the same genre.

• You’ve listened to your final mix in deferent environments (Studio monitors, car speakers, sound dock, earbuds, headphones, iPhone speaker… the more the better)

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Creating Stems For Mastering

So at this stage, you should be totally happy with your mix. Now you want to create the stems that you will use in your mastering session. You are going to break your mix up into 6 categories that will become your 6 stems. It’s crucial that you group similar sounds together. This will give you more freedom to make adjustments during mastering.

Bad grouping example - Let’s say you have a sweep with a piercing top end in the same stem as a dull lead. You won’t be able to boost the top end of the lead as it will make the sweep even more piercing. If you want to tame the sweep, it will make the lead even duller.

Good grouping example - Let’s say you have a dull lead and a pad in the same stem. You should be able to slightly boost the top end without the pad becoming horribly prominent in the mix.

Below is an example of an effective way to break up a mix into stems. It’s important that you bounce your kick and bass to separate stems. The low-end frequencies are the trickiest to get perfect. By separating them you’ll be able to tweak and fine tune until they sound just right. Be sure to bounce your bus processing and effects with its dry signal. For example, include the reverb and delay of your lead vocal in the Vocal stem.

1. Vocals - lead and backing.

2.

Effects - sweeps, sub drops.

3.

Music - pad, synth, guitar, piano, strings, lead,

4.

Drum tops - snare, hi-hats, cymbals, toms, percussion.

5.

Bass - all bass elements.

6.

Kick - by itself.

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I like to move the channels around in my mix so they’re adjacent to other channels in their stem category. I then the colour code the categories so I can easily see the groups.

Final checklist before exporting your stems…

• Make sure the loudest part of the song is peaking at -6dB.

• Make sure there are no limiters or compressors on your master channel.

When bouncing your stems…

• Solo each channel in a group.

• Bounce each group one at a time.

• Bounce the audio at 24bit or higher, and whatever sample rate the session is in.

• Bounce In Stereo (even if you kick is in mono).

• Do not dither or normalise.

Preparing The Mastering Session

As Benjamin Franklin said ‘By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.’ Preparation is key to set yourself up for a successful mastering session. Import your 6 stems into the project. At this point, you should create a bounce of this final mix as it is if you don't already have one.

Reference Tracks

I continuously compare my master to reference tracks to ensure I'm heading down the right path.

I'll use REFERENCE to be confident that my master is sounding better than my mix and comparable to my reference tracks.

Awesome Mastering Chain

In its most basic form, your mastering chain should have 5 plugins in the following order. A gain plugin, an EQ, a compressor, a limiter, and a metering plugin. There are lots of awesome and expensive mastering plugins, but your DAW will also come with all of these plugins as standard.

The additional tools you use will completely depend on the goals of your mastering. For example, if you wanted to get a more dirty vibe you might choose to insert a tape emulation plugin.

My mastering chain usually looks something like this…

Fabfilter Pro Q2 (Clean EQ for minor and precise frequency adjustments)

Fabfilter Pro MB (Multi-band compressor to shape the sound and control the punch)

UAD Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor (Analogue emulation compression)

UAD Manley Massive Passive EQ (Tube EQ to add smooth and rich frequency adjustments)

UAD Oxford Inflator (Harmonic Distortion to increase perceived loudness and energy)

Fabfilter Pro L (Limiter to control the output and tame transient peaks)

LEVELS (Metering to understand what my adjustments are doing to the audio)

REFERENCE (To check how your master sounds against reference tracks)

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I’ll disable any plugins that aren't necessary for the session but I have them ready if I decide to use them. My goal whilst mastering is to make minor adjustments that have a positive effect on how the song sounds. If your track needs major adjustments, make the changes in your mix session.

Now that you’ve set up the session and have the mastering chain in place, now is the time to take a break from your music. When you come back to the session with fresh ears you will be totally prepared to focus your energy on the master itself rather than having to create the project from scratch.

Mastering Techniques

The techniques that I discuss will give you an insight into my approach to mastering. Don’t take everything I recommend as gospel, tweak my ideas to suit your style. Each mastering session is unique in its needs and should to be approached with an open mind. Below is the chronological process I go through to stem master a track.

Set The Loudness

I begin my session by checking how loud my reference tracks are. I use the LUFS meter in LEVELS to find the integrated LUFS value. Let’s say it's -11LUFS. I then run my stems through the mastering chain and adjust a few of the settings to make sure my tracks loudness sits around

-11LUFS. My limiter usually has an output of -0.5dB (which minimises inter-sample peaks and distortion post transcoding) and a makeup gain of around 3dB. I personally like having the Oxford Inflator working at 100% as I find it gives a track amazing energy. If I still need a bit more volume I’ll increase the gain on the Pro Q2, as it is a 'clean gain' which adds no extra noise. If I need less volume I’ll pull back on the limiter as that will increase my dynamic range as well as decrease loudness.

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EQ Adjustments

Once I’m happy with the loudness of the track I get to work on any EQ adjustments I want to make. I solo my reference tracks and l listen carefully to the balance of the low and high frequencies. I don't try to match them exactly, but I use them as a guide as to how I want the balance of my track to sound. I can also use the Trinity Display in REFERENCE to give me guidance on what EQ changes will help me get closer to the sound of my reference tracks.

I use the Pro Q 2 to make small clinical adjustments to my overall sound and I use my Manley Massive Passive to add top end sparkle and warm up the mids. If I think the mix is feeling a little muddy, I’ll identify which stem is causing the issue and use the Pro Q 2 to take out any problematic frequencies around 100-400Hz. The beauty of having stems is that I can remove any mud without my adjustments affecting the whole mix. I’ll dive deeper into EQing and Shaping Your Master in the next chapter.

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Compression And Balance

The majority of the compression will have been done during mixing. During mastering, I’ll compress lightly to get a rounded feel to the overall sound. I’ll set a low threshold of 1.2:1, a long attack, and a short release. These settings are just my personal preference to get a nice open sound. I know many producers love the CTF (Compressed to F***) sound and aim for hotter settings. I use a multi-band compressor on every master I do. The control it gives me to shape the sound is perfect for what I want to achieve. When setting the bands, make sure the crossovers aren't set right in the middle of an important sound, such as the frequency where the kick punches through. I also like to have consistency in the thresholds of each band. I find this gives a more natural sound. I’ll use my ears and reference tracks to find the perfect balance and punch for the track. I'll use the dynamic range feature in LEVELS to make sure I don't over compress the music.

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Output Level

The output channel within the mixer of DAWs uses a Peak Sample meter. This type of meter isn't accurate enough to display what we actually hear through our speakers. A digital to analogue conversion takes place when our audio goes from being a digital file (WAV MP3 AAC) to sound waves coming through our monitors. During this conversion, the sample blocks go through a reconstructing filtering process that gives us our smooth sounding end result. However, when the sample blocks are hitting close to 0 dBFS (zero on the output meter) The reconstruction process can induce a small amount of clipping.

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Inter-sample peaks can be avoided by using a quality true peak meter to make sure your audio won’t distort when converted from digital to analogue. This will give you the information you need to leave the correct amount of headroom between the peaks of your master and 0 dBTP

(decibels true peak).

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Mastering Tips And Tricks

Release On Limiter - If you’re trying to get your track sounding really loud, it might start to get crunchy. Try increasing the length of the release of the limiter to lessen this distortion.You could also try decreasing the attack time. By decreasing the attack time you might start affecting the punch of your music so make conscious and informed decisions when playing with the settings.

Dynamic Phase On Multi-Band Compressor - A multi-band compressor can induce phase shift and pre-ringing as it uses filters to split the audio into the separate bands. A dynamic phase or linear phase setting will minimise these sonic issues.

Harshness Control - Brainworx Bx_ Refinement is an awesome tool that subtly removes the harshness from audio. I sometimes use this in my mastering chain, or on the individual channels that are inducing the harshness. I would recommend that you use delicate settings as it can make the mix sound a bit thin if you overdo it.

More Character - Subtle distortion or analogue tape emulation can add more character to your master if you feel it’s lacking. Apply with caution though as these powerful effects can obliterate your mixes if overused.

Getting Your Master LOUD - Loud masters are best achieved when there is moderately heavy compression on the individual stems during the mix-down stage. Remember, the louder you go, the more your dynamic range suffers.

EQing and Shaping Your Master

How should we sonically shape our master? How should we approach the EQing process itself?

And how does the rest of the mastering chain affect the frequency balance? Let’s dive into how we can shape the sonics of our track during mastering.

If I’m happy that I can get a great result from the mix, I’ll run it through my favourite mastering chain starting point as stated in the previous chapter. The chain starts out with very subtle settings that I will tweak and adjust to suit the needs of the track. I load my whole default chain rather than adding a plugin one by one because I believe the plugins interplay with each other to create the perfect final sound. If I focused just on the first EQ then added a compressor, the compressor might level out my EQ work and be a backwards step from what I was trying to do. I might also boost some frequencies with the EQ only to find out that they become harsh when the limiter is added.

The first sound shaping tool in my mastering chain is the parametric EQ. It’s a surgical and transparent EQ that I use to manipulate the balance of the frequencies. Fab filter Pro Q2 is already loaded up in my chain in the natural phase setting (linear phase is not a higher quality setting sonically speaking, it’s just different). Below is a list of possible changes I would choose to make with the parametric EQ during mastering.

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• Low Cut. If the track is feeling too bass heavy I might have a gentle cut anywhere up to 50Hz and a mild 6dB slope. A steep slope/high Q can phase the low end and even make it distort. The low cut will give me extra headroom to work with and tighten up the remaining bass.

• Low Mid Cut 150-350Hz. I’ll make this cut If the track is feeling boxy and needs a bit more clarity; as a mix often does.

• Playing With The Vocal (1kHz-5kHz). This is where I roll out the M/S (mid/side) processing. The lead vocal is almost always centred in the mix in mono. This means I can set the EQ band to ‘M’

meaning ‘mid/mono’ and make the boosts or cuts to get the vocal sitting perfectly.

• Reducing Stereo Low Frequencies (anything below 200Hz). Again, this is where M/S is put to use. Low frequencies wide in the stereo field can make a mix sound muddy and loose. I might engage a low shelf on the sides to tighten up the balance. (This might be a re-mix situation if the stereo low-end info is too much!)

There is a general ‘rule’ repeated by many mastering engineers that states that one shouldn't make boosts or cuts greater than 3dB. If you find yourself wanting to make these kinds of changes, then it’s more than likely that the track needs to be re-mixed. Another fact to consider is that a low-end boost has a secondary effect of dulling the high-end. Though the high frequencies haven't been reduced, the human ear perceives them as having less presence due to the increase in low frequencies. Another ‘rule’ is to keep the Q’s wide rather than pushing or cutting resonant frequencies. These ‘rules’ are a good starting point and more often than not I stick to them… but don’t be afraid to break the rules if it will have a positive effect on the music.

Shaping With Multi-band Compression

The multi-band compressor sits just after the parametric EQ in my chain and can have dramatic sonic shaping qualities on a master. For starters, the different bands can be boosted and cut in the same way as an EQ. The compression/expansion will also have an effect on the overall tonal

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balance. Below is a list of things to keep in mind when using a multi-band compressor to shape a master.

• Dynamic Phase is by far the most transparent setting and is, therefore, the most suitable for mastering. Avoid using multi-band compressors without dynamic phase. When the band crossovers split your audio it can add unpleasant ringing to your track. Dynamic phase minimises this.

• Compression will reduce the volume of the frequencies in a band. Compensate with a gain boost if you need to.

• Expansion will increase the volume of the frequencies in a band. Compensate with a gain reduction if you need to.

• The ratio of all the bands should be very similar. Aggressive compression in one band and light compression in another can lead to an unbalanced sound. The ratios should also be lower than 2:1, otherwise you might find yourself sucking the life out of your music.

Working Backwards

At this point, my master is really starting to take its shape. Following the multi-band compressor, I’ll dive into the limiter, main compressor and exciter settings. These plugins are often the culprits for bringing about an excess of unwanted distortion. They also add the most volume to the master which also has an effect on the perceived balance. Louder music sounds fuller in the bass and more present in the high frequencies than a track with EXACTLY the same balance but a few decibels quieter. Getting the correct loudness of the master will help me balance the frequencies fairly against the reference tracks. The limiter and compressor can also have a flattening effect on the EQ curves of the parametric EQ and the tonal balance of the multi-band compressor. I’ll use my metering plugin to make sure the master is at the loudness I want it to be without compromising the dynamic range or true peak. Once I’ve set the limiter, compressor and exciter I

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might tweak the settings of the EQ and multi-band compressor to compensate any differences in frequency balance.

Adding Character With An Analogue Emulation EQ

In my workflow, this is the final stage of shaping the master. Everything else is in place and sounding great. I’ll head over to my analogue emulation EQ (usually the UAD Manley Massive Passive) and make a start on the final tweaks. For me, this stage is to enhance the character of the track. Below is a list of possible changes I would choose to make with the analogue emulation EQ

during mastering.

• Low-end warmth can be achieved with a soft boost below 100Hz. I’m cautious to not overdo this as low end takes up a lot of headroom and can cause some distortion if too much is added at this point.

• A low-mid boost can add a touch of body to the track giving it a fuller sound. Again, caution is needed as too much of a boost in the 200-500Hz region will reduce clarity.

• High mid presence can bring out the vocals, add some attitude to the snare and give the track an overall subtle boost in clarity. If a track needs it, I’ll boost around 3-7kHz.

• Glistening top end sparkle is best achieved with an analogue EQ in my opinion. It can give high frequencies a really crisp feel without being overly crunchy or harsh.

The tools available to us mastering engineers are plentiful and powerful! The skill is having the musical discretion to know what to improve in the mix and what to leave as it is. The mastering process can be a journey of discovery into a completely revitalised mix. It can also a be a lesson in asserting self-control, not EQing for the sake of it and doing what’s best for the music. As we did in the mixing stage, using reference tracks can help guide our EQ decisions and recalibrate our ears.

Using The Limiter

The limiter is the final piece of the puzzle in music production. It’s the last plugin your music goes through before you release it to the world. Not all limiters are created equal. At a minimum, you want a limiter that has gain, output, attack and release parameters, as well ISP (Inter Sample Peak) mode. This will allow you to fine-tune the way the limiter reacts to your audio. Using a limiter without these parameters will hold your music back from reaching its full potential.

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Let’s assume your mastering chain is sounding great. All that’s left is the final tweaks on the limiter to get it to the perfect loudness before you release the track. Start by increasing the gain to bring the loudness of the track up to the level you’re after. To get this absolutely perfect, I look at my LUFS meters. Let’s say I’m aiming for around -14 LUFS integrated, and no louder than -9 LUFS

short term. I will increase the input gain until my LUFS meters are showing these readings. Next, I want to make sure that my attack and release are fine-tuned to suit the audio material. To get these just right, I like to boost the input gain right up to around 20dB to exaggerate the effect of the distortion introduced by the limiter. I then tweak the attack and release to minimise the distortion at this level. I then bring down the input gain by about 50% to listen to how the transients are working with these settings. If I want a bit more punch I might increase the attack. If I want smoother more controlled sound I might increase the release. Finally, I bring the input gain back to the 3dB I initially set and I can be confident that the settings I’ve chosen will work well with my audio.

The infographic below explains how the parameters of your limiter affect the distortion of the master.

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• As gain increases, distortion increases.

• As release time increases, distortion decreases.

• As attack time increase, distortion increases.

The output of the limiter is often overlooked. It’s extremely important to set it correctly to avoid clipping when your music is played back through speakers. Making sure your track peaks below 0dBTP (decibels true peak) will ensure that your audio doesn't clip when transcoded to lossy file formats for streaming or digital delivery. I’ll turn on the ISP setting on my limiter and keep an eye on my true peak meter to ensure I don’t breach my threshold of -0.1dBTP. There can be a discrepancy between the output of the limiter and what a true peak meter is showing. If this happens, they have different oversampling capabilities. When assessing true peaks I use LEVELS which has 16X oversampling, making it very accurate at detecting true peaks.

During mastering, your limiter should be used in a musical way to set the volume of your audio to its ideal level. Avoid smashing your song with a lot of input gain, and focus on a light setting that works perfectly with your audio.

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Taking The Master To The Next Level

Musical Mastering

Before I make a start on mastering, I like to get in the sonic zone. I listen to a brilliantly produced track with similar instrumentation to the song I’ll be mastering. This for me is a crucial step to achieve a successful final result. Skipping my warm-up would be comparable to a footballer stepping onto the field without stretching; he won’t perform to the best of his ability! Once my ears are in tune, I’ll begin listening critically to the track I’m mastering. I’m listening to hear what I do and don’t like about the track in its current state. My brain is searching for ideas on how to improve the sound. I believe it’s important to have an idea in my mind of where I want to take the track sonically, rather than just aimlessly changing the sound until I eventually find something that works.

One of my favourite processing techniques for mastering is using clinically precise upward expansion. So what exactly is expansion? Think of expansion as the opposite of compression.

There are a few different types of dynamic processing but let’s keep it simple for now and say: Compression decreases the volume of the louder elements, whereas Expansion increases the volume of the louder elements. Expansion is particularly useful when you feel your track just isn't punchy enough after mastering.

How To Use Expansion On A Master

I use the expander in ANIMATE (by Mastering The Mix) to target specific frequencies in the material I’m working on. In the example below I wanted to add a bit of enhancement to the transients in the upper mid frequencies in the mid-channel to add some edge in a dynamic and musical way.

1. Create a band that focuses on the ‘bite’ of the upper mid frequencies (in this scenario around 650Hz to 5kHz).

2. Set the mode to ‘M’ to process the mid-channel.

3. Play with the threshold so that the signal exceeds the threshold.

4. Set the ratio to around 1:1.5

5. Increase the amount slider.

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And now we start tweaking the settings so it works musically with the rest of the master. I’ve set the attack to very quick so the transients are pushed up. The release is on a moderate setting. It doesn't return to the original level immediately as I find that to not be very musical, but it’s not too slow either, which keeps it moving.

Here are some other scenarios where an expander can be really helpful.

1. Increase the punch of a kick without affecting the sub or the click.

2. Increase clarity of the hi-hat and cymbal transients on the master bus.

3. Adding a dynamic lift to the lower mids of a synth (careful not to make it sound muddy).

4. Adding subtle transient enhancement to an entire mix. I’ll usually only do this in the upper mids and high frequencies.

An expander is a great tool to bring some punch into your music with incredible control. It’s a dynamics processing technique that is not talked about often and certainly underexploited. Give it a spin on your next track and listen to the difference it makes!

Making Sure The Master Sounds Better Than The Mix

Mastering can change the sound of your mix both subtly and dramatically. In either scenario, you want to be absolutely sure that the changes are positive.

You can level match your master to your mix by ear or use a LUFS meter. But if you miss the mark by as little as 0.5 of a decibel it won’t be a fair comparison. And when the changes are subtle, how are you going to be sure about which frequencies have been more compressed, or even expanded in the master? Or which frequencies have become more or less prominent in the mix? I would ask myself, ‘has this plugin increased the low end of my track… And by how much?’ These are all the questions I was constantly asking myself when mastering my client’s work. I wanted to make sure that what I delivered back to them was a certain improvement on what they had sent me. As we did during the mixing stage, we can use REFERENCE to identify the intricate differences between the mix we’re working on and the final master.

In your mastering session, load up an instance of REFERENCE as the final plugin on your mastering chain. REFERENCE should come after your metering plugin but before any speaker/

headphone calibration software (if you use it). Drag and drop the bounce of your final mix onto the Wave Transport and set the mode to Mirror. If your mix has more silence at the start of the track than your master, you won’t be able to jump between them seamlessly. Click the Track Align button in REFERENCE to align your two tracks perfectly so the song plays continuously when you jump between them.

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The next step is to click the Level Match button to balance the two tracks so they have the same perceived loudness. Your master will most likely be a lot louder than your mix giving you the misconception that it has a fuller bass and more clarity in the high frequencies. The Level Match button will allow you to compare the two tracks without bias, allowing you to make informed mastering decisions.

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Now that your tracks are level matched and aligned, you can begin to objectively look at how your mastering has changed the sound of the mix. Focus on the individual elements of the mix (kick, bass, vocals etc) one at a time and determine if the sound has improved or worsened. As before you can use the Trinity Display and Punch Dots to analyse how the tonal balance and punch has evolved from the mix to the master.

Understanding And Using Loudness Range

You might have guessed that Loudness Range relates to the dynamics of your audio, but how can we use this measurement to help achieve our musical goals?

Definition of loudness range: Loudness Range [Measured in LU (loudness Units)] will tell you the statistical measure of loudness variation of your entire track. This long-term reading will give you an idea of the difference in volume between the verse, chorus and other sections of your track.

If there is a big difference in loudness between the various sections of your track then your loudness range will be a higher number.

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If the various sections in your track have a very similar or equal loudness, the loudness range will be smaller.

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A loudness range between 6 LU to 12 LU shows that a track has a considerable difference in loudness between the various sections. Tracks with a loudness range below 4 LU could be considered rather static in loudness.

As a general rule, I would recommend aiming for a Loudness Range above 5 LU if you wanted to create a track with tension, release and an epic chorus that explodes out of the verse. But this suggestion can be taken with a pinch of salt! If you’re aiming to create a track with a consistent energy throughout then, of course, you would end up with a lower loudness range.

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Loudness Range isn’t like true peaks where most people can agree that clipping doesn’t sound good. Loudness range is subjective and totally depends on the material you’re working on.

Understanding what loudness range means can help you achieve your musical goals. For example, if you felt your chorus didn’t give the track enough of a lift, and your loudness range was a low reading, that might encourage you to add some automation to create a more dramatic dynamic difference. On the other hand, if you were looking to create a track with a relentless drive, or any other constant vibe, but your loudness range was over 5 LU, you might have missed the mark.

I’ve taken the average loudness range readings from various genres to give you an idea of what you might want to shoot for in your own productions. To find the loudness range, I’m using EXPOSE, an app we created at Mastering The Mix to quickly measure the technical details of bounced audio. You can do the same by downloading the free trial and assessing the technical details of your favourite mixes.

Average Loudness Range

Pop

6.4 LU

EDM

5.9 LU

Rock

5.6 LU

Country

7.6 LU

Hip Hop

4.0 LU

R&B

5.5 LU

House

5.3 LU

Electronic

7.2 LU

Ballad

9.9 LU

See EXTRAS for loudness range data.

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Know When A Track Is Done

When is it time to stop? Is art ever really finished, or simply abandoned? This whole process from start to finish has taken so much effort that you might think investing just a bit more time won't hurt… But actually it might! There is a point at which you tweaks and adjustments really don’t make a difference to the overall sound of your track. At best you’re wasting your time, but at worst you might overwork your track and damage your sound. Setting a deadline for your release and sticking to it is a great way to let go of your tracks. Once they’re out, they’re out and there’s no need to re-open the project again. As stated in the introduction of this eBook, finished tracks are your most valuable assets in your musical career. The short checklist below will help give you confidence that the time is right to share your music with the world.

Final Checklist

You should be able to enjoy your music as a consumer would. When hearing your finished track, are there any details that remove you from an audiences perspective and puts you back in the music producer perspective? If you get pulled out of the ‘song’ and back into the ‘mix’ then go back and fix those minor details, it will bring out the best in your music.

Every moment should have something that engages the listener. Whether it’s an interesting sound, lyric, effect, chord or mixing technique, every second counts. If there are a few seconds where you feel you might lose the attention of your listener, you should consider re-working that part, either in the songwriting, arrangement or mix.

From a musical perspective, THAT’S IT! If you can hold your listener’s attention and keep them engaged, you have a great finished product.

From a technical perspective, there is a final quality control step that can ensure you deliver the best possible listening experience. It's quite surprising how many songs are released that end up clipped and over compressed. This happens for a number of reasons. Firstly, the loudness war plays a big part in this. But also, you'll find a lot of clipping with music from iTunes. A lot of artists, labels and engineers send Wav files to iTunes peaking at 0.0dBFS. When iTunes converts these to AAC for delivery, the peak almost always increases; more so if the track is particularly compressed and loud. So the file that the customer receives is clipping. This is just relating to iTunes. Platforms such as Spotify and Youtube have their own ways of delivering or streaming audio. A lot of the music currently on these platforms still being mastered as if it’s being delivered on CD. Hence, we have a lot of music with a lot of issues.

The team at Mastering The Mix saw this issue and created a final quality control application called EXPOSE. It takes just a few seconds to make sure you don’t have any technical issues that might hold back your song from reaching it’s fullest sonic potential on the major distribution platforms.

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!

How To Use EXPOSE In 6 Simple Steps

1. LOAD A TRACK: Open the application and drag your audio onto the dashboard.

2. PRESETS: In the bottom left corner you’ll see the presets. Click on the text and select where your audio will be heard.

3. READINGS: The four sections give you detailed information about the loudness, peaks, stereo/

phase information, and dynamic range of your audio.

4. IDENTIFY ISSUES: If EXPOSE detects that issues would arise, the section icon and problematic readout will turn red. The waveform will also show you the exact location of the issues.

5. ISOLATE ISSUES: Click on one of the numerical readouts to isolate those specific issues on the waveform.

6. PREVIEW AUDIO: You can click on the waveform to preview that part of the audio. Once you’ve identified what and where the technical issues are you can efficiently resolve them in your DAW.

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EXTRAS

Production Timeline

Stereo Placement Cheatsheet

Structure Cheatsheet

Deconstructing A Mix Cheatsheet

EQ Cheatsheet

Songwriting Checklist

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Bonus Chapter: Decoding The Mix: The Hit-Maker Engineers

In this bonus chapter, I’ll be analysing the track My My My by Troye Sivan. I chose this track as it was mixed by Serban Ghenea, who is currently without a doubt the most sought-after mixing engineer in the world. The track was mastered by Randy Merrill, one of the senior mastering

engineers at the highly acclaimed 'Sterling Sound' studios. Serban and Randy are credited with some of the most successful releases in recent years. By taking a really close look at how these ‘hit maker’ engineers approached the track we might uncover some ways we can improve our future productions.

Structure and Arrangement

This track is led by the vocals, bass, and kick, which are heard almost constantly throughout the track. These three elements are embellished by the secondary channels that come in and out of the track to add contrast between the sections and to keep the listener engaged. This simplicity helps keep the musical ideas simple to digest which adds to how memorable the track is. The track’s arrangement can be broken down into 10 main elements (counting the backing vocals as one). Next time you’re sitting in front of a mix with 90 channels, ask yourself if simplifying the arrangement would give you a better result. Perfecting a single sound will often give much better result than adding layer upon layer. Too many layers will eventually give you a bloated sound and your mix will suffer.

!

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Separation In The Mix

During the busiest sections of the track, there are about 9 elements playing simultaneously. Let’s look at how Ghenea has placed each element in the frequency spectrum and in the stereo field.

This track is mixed super wide! There’s a build-up of instruments from 200Hz to around 5kHz, so to give each element it’s own space, the stereo width has been utilised.

Low Frequencies Analysis

The kick and bass drive throughout the whole track at a pretty constant level. The only times they’re not in the arrangement is during the 4 bar intro and the 8 bar bridge. Both the kick and the bass have a short and punchy character and they almost glue together as one sound. The kick is slightly louder than the bass in the balance of the mix and has a slightly higher frequency range.

The kick is pure mono whereas the bass is mixed slightly wider which gives some separation to the two channels. The kick and bass have no obvious volume automation from verse to chorus.

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Mid Frequencies Analysis

The majority of the channels have energy in the mids, so the mixing engineer has had to use the whole stereo spectrum to give each element it’s own space. As you can see from the image below, LEVELS is showing that the correlation during the chorus is right on the brink of phase issues becoming a serious problem.

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Listening in mono certainly changes the mix considerably. The widest element in the mix is the Vocal Synth which is what has the most obvious phase issue. It’s soloed during the intro so I was able to zone in and uncover how much phasing was going on. The image below shows what happens when you push sounds super wide. It sounds great in the context of the whole mix, but some frequencies disappear when heard in mono.

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High Frequencies Analysis

The verse has quite tame high frequencies with the focus being the vocal, kick and bass. The hi-hats in the chorus open up the sound and give a dramatic lift to the high frequencies. The vocal synth has a slowly opening low-pass filter during the last 8 bars of each verse. It then opens out during the chorus giving a massive lift to the energy of the track in the high frequencies.

Verse Width vs Chorus Width

The verse seems to be deliberately mostly mono with a hint of wide elements here and there. This puts the listener in a frame of mind and sets a reference for the width of the song. The chorus is

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mixed extremely wide, giving an almost shocking juxtaposition to the verse. This contrast differentiates the sections and keeps the listener gripped to the song.

Effects and Depth

I find using headphones the best way to unpick the use of reverb and spatial effects in a mix.

The musical elements in this track have an amazing sense of space yet still sound really punchy, and if you listen to the reverb in the first verse you can see why. A gated reverb has been used on the rhythmic elements. A gated reverb opens up the space then cuts out before the next transient. This let’s you increase the reverb while keeping the overall mix clean and transparent.

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The vocal reverb during the verse is quite subtle, giving a close sensation to the listener. This then opens up to a more prominent and longer reverb during the chorus which gives the impression of a growth in space.

Technical Analysis

Transients

Just by looking at the waveform we can see this isn’t your standard ‘loudness war’ master. The transients are very clear and the sounds haven’t been squashed by compression or limiting. The sections are very clear and distinguishable. The verse looks more sparse and slightly quieter than the chorus and the middle 8 shows a considerable change in loudness and instrumentation.

This kind of master is only possible when a lot of thought goes into carefully controlling the dynamics during the mix. You can get the same result from a balance of great tracking, purposeful automation, and transparent compression.

MFiT

My My My has the ‘Mastered for iTunes’ badge on the iTunes store, so I was surprised to find that my download was clipping. The idea with MFiT is that the mastering engineer leaves enough headroom to ensure no clipping will happen when the file is transcoded to AAC for delivery to the customer. That being said, the master is a lot more dynamic than what you would expect to find from a loudness wars master. During the loudness wars, it was common to find tracks mastered to

-6 LUFS integrated. At -10.5 LUFS integrated this track certainly hasn’t had the life compressed out of it. The loudness range is 6.9 LU, which shows there is a considerable dynamic difference between the verses and choruses.

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YouTube

This is where it gets interesting… In the ‘Stats For Nerds’ section of YouTube, you can see that the normalisation has only brought the track down by 0.1dB. If they had uploaded the same file as the MFiT bounce, YouTube would have reduced the loudness by about 2dB. That leads me to believe that they created a ‘YouTube optimised’ bounce.

We can see that the YouTube bounce has more punch (+0.7DR) and a lower loudness relative to the peak compared to the MFiT bounce. So they reduced the compression to create a more dynamic master whilst keeping the peaks much lower. Bottom line is that this is a great example of mastering for YouTube done right. (The red at the beginning is EXPOSE catching the phase issues from the Vocal Synth).

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!Spotify

My My My Streams at -14.1 LUFS integrated which is almost bang on the average of -14 LUFS.

The peak is a little lower on Spotify at -2.34dBTP (decibels true peak) which suggests that they may have used the same bounce for both Youtube and Spotify. Considering the track is already very dynamic, I would consider making just one ‘streaming’ bounce perfectly reasonable.

What Did We Learn:

• When there is build up in the mids, use the stereo spectrum to achieve separation.

•

Gated reverb gives rhythmic elements space without compromising punch.

•

Mixing the chorus wider than the verse adds impact and contrast.

•

We can still get a huge sounding mix with just 10 elements.

•

We should be creating streaming bounces if we’re not already.

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Loudness Range Data

Pop: 6.4 LU Average

• Rita Ora - Anywhere: 4.5 LU

• Charlie Puth - How Long: 7.4 LU

• Niall Horan - Too Much Too Ask: 6.4 LU

• J Balvin - Mi Gente: 3.7 LU

• Camila Cabello. - Havana: 3.9 LU

• Dua Lipa - New Rules: 5.3 LU

• Sigala - Came Here For Love: 7.2 LU

• Beyoncé - Formation: 12 LU

• Rag’n’Bone man - Human: 7.1 LU

• Bruno Mars - 24k Magic: 6.7 LU

EDM: 5.9 LU Average

• Martin Garrix - Animals: 9.9 LU

• Martin Solveig - Intoxicated: 8.8 LU

• Calvin Harris - We Found Love: 6.6 LU

• David Guetta - Titanium: 6.2 LU

• Avicii - Wake Me Up: 4.9 LU

• Zedd - Clarity : 9.0 LU

• Bingo Players - Get Up: 3.3 LU

• Oliver Heldens - Gecko Overdrive: 3.0 LU

• Swedish House Mafia - Don’t You Worry Child: 7.7 LU

Rock: 5.6 LU Average

• Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit: 5.8 LU

• Guns N Roses - Sweet Child Of Mine: 5.8 LU

• AC DC - Back In Black: 5.6 LU

• Deep Purple - Smoke On The Water: 5.3 LU

• Bon Jovi - Livin On A Prayer: 3.9 LU

• Rage Against The Machine - Killing In The Name: 4.9 LU

• Blink 182 - All The Small Things: 4.4 LU

• Foo Fighters - Everlong: 7 LU

• Green Day - Basket Case: 6.7 LU

• Red Hot Chili Peppers - By The Way: 6.8 LU

Country: 7.6 LU Average

• Tammy Wynette - Stand By Your Man: 8.7 LU

• Johnny Cash - Ring Of Fire: 3.6 LU

• Dolly Parton - Jolene: 5.5 LU

• Garth Brooks - The Dance: 14.9 LU

• Conway Twitty - Hello Darlin’: 8.2 LU

• Keith Urban - Blue Ain’t Your Colour: 4.5 LU

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• Luke Bryan - Fast: 4.4 LU

• Dierks Bentley - Black: 9.6 LU

• Kenny Chesney - Bar At The End Of The World: 9.6 LU

• Sam Hunt - Take Your Time: 6.9 LU

Hip Hop: 4.0 LU Average

• Sugarhill Gang - Rappers Delight: 2.4 LU

• Grandmaster Flash - The Message: 4.1 LU

• Dr Dre & Snoop Dogg - Nuthin But A G Thang: 1.3 LU

• Notorious B.I.G - Juicy: 3.2 LU

• 2Pac - California Love: 2.9 LU

• 50 Cent - In Da Club: 2.1 LU

• Rob Base - It Takes Two: 2.2 LU

• Eminem - Lose Yourself: 12.1 LU

• JAY Z & Kanye West - Paris: 4.8 LU

• OutKast - B.O.B : 5.2 LU

R&B: 5.5 LU Average

• Kelis - Milkshake: 2.8 LU

• Bel Biv DeVoe - Poison: 2.4 LU

• R Kelly - Bump n Grind: 2.9 LU

• Blackstreet - No Diggity: 6.8 LU

• Montell Jordan - This Is How We Do It: 3.2 LU

• Crazy In Love - Beyoncé: 5.8 LU

• The Weeknd - Can’t Feel My Face: 6.1 LU

• Rihanna - Needed Me: 10.2 LU

• Drake - One Dance: 10.3 LU

• Amerie - 1 Thing: 4.0 LU

House: 5.3 LU Average

• Hot Natured - Benediction: 3.6 LU

• Eric Prydz - Generate: 6.8 LU

• Eats Everything - Dancing: 7.8 LU

• Second City - I Wanna Feel: 4.9 LU

• Gorgon City - All Four Walls: 6.9 LU

• Leandro Da Silva - I Love House Music: 4.1 LU

• Camelphat - Cola : 6.6 LU

• Oliver $ - Pushing On: 3.5 LU

• Ed Ed - I Got: 4.6 LU

• FormatB - Chunky : 4.2 LU

Electronic: 7.2 LU Average

• James Blake - I Need A Forest Fire: 15.2 LU

• Daft Punk - One More Time: 5.0 LU

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• Fat Boy Slim - Praise You: 7.2 LU

• Pendulum - Tarantula: 8.6 LU

• Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc: 6.0 LU

• The Chemical Brothers - Salmon Dance: 6.8 LU

• Madeon - Icarus: 4.0 LU

• La Roux - In For The Kill: 3.7 LU

• Basement Jaxx - Good Luck: 7.8 LU

• Chase N Status - End Credits: 7.2 LU

Ballad: 9.9 LU Average

• Damian Rice - Cannonball: 11.4 LU

• Sam Smith - Stay With Me: 7.2 LU

• Adele - Set Fire To The Rain: 8.3 LU

• Ben Howard - Keep Your Head Up: 15.2 LU

• Michael Jackson - Man In The Mirror: 8.2 LU

• Ed Sheeran - Lego House: 7.1 LU

• Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You: 16.1 LU

• Barry Manilow - Unchained Melody: 9.8 LU

• Bruno Mars - The Way You Are: 6.6 LU

• Cher - If I Could Turn Back Time: 9.2 LU

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Document Outline

About The Author

Part 1 - The Music Comes First

Introduction

What’s Stopping You From Finishing Tracks?

Establishing A Strong Musical Idea

Establishing A Strong Musical Idea

Chord Progressions

Hooks And Melodies

Writing For Your Audience VS Writing For Yourself

Simplicity VS Complex

Repetition

Structure And Arrangement

Structure And Arrangement

Structuring Your Track

Arrangement

Limitless Environment

Building The Instrumental

Building The Instrumental

Where To Start?

Making Music

Creative Momentum

Gain Staging

Production Approach

Production Approach

Sound Choices And Vibe

Innovate

Creating Emotion

Keeping It Interesting

Lyrics And Vocals

Lyrics And Vocals

Choosing The Words

Recording Vocals

Producing A Great Vocal

Collaborators

Collaborators

Working With A Vocalist

Working With Musicians

Working With A Producer

Working With Decision Makers

Songwriting Checklist

Part 2 - From Solid Mix To Next Level Master

Hiring A Pro vs Doing It Yourself

Never Stop Learning

Getting A Solid Mix

Getting A Solid Mix

Levels and Balance

Headroom

Noise Gates

EQing

Compression

Stereo Placement

Depth

Creating Context

The Bigger Picture

Technical Details

Taking The Mix To The Next Level

Taking The Mix To The Next Level

Musical Mixing

Mixing Low Frequencies

Using Reference Tracks

Magic Final Touches

Getting A Solid Master

Getting A Solid Master

Fundamentals Of Mastering

EQing and Shaping Your Master

Using The Limiter

Taking The Master To The Next Level

Taking The Master To The Next Level

Musical Mastering

Making Sure The Master Sounds Better Than The Mix

Understanding And Using Loudness Range

Know When A Track Is Done

Know When A Track Is Done

Final Checklist

EXTRAS

EXTRAS

Production Timeline

Stereo Placement Cheatsheet

Structure Cheatsheet

Deconstructing A Mix Cheatsheet

EQ Cheatsheet

Songwriting Checklist

Bonus Chapter: Decoding The Mix: The Hit-Maker Engineers

Bonus Chapter: Decoding The Mix: The Hit-Maker Engineers

Bonus Chapter: Decoding The Mix: The Hit-Maker Engineers

Bonus Chapter: Decoding The Mix: The Hit-Maker Engineers

Bonus Chapter: Decoding The Mix: The Hit-Maker Engineers

Bonus Chapter: Decoding The Mix: The Hit-Maker Engineers

Bonus Chapter: Decoding The Mix: The Hit-Maker Engineers

Bonus Chapter: Decoding The Mix: The Hit-Maker Engineers