[0:00] Do you find it almost impossible
to get your own music loud and clean?
[0:04] You might try and push your mixing master
[0:06] to sound like the pro's,
but it just gets distorted.
[0:09] Or on the flip side,
you try and play your own original song
[0:13] in a DJ set
and it's way quieter than the other songs.
[0:17] it's not easy to achieve loud and clean.
[0:20] But it is possible.
[0:23] everything you're going to need to know
to do this the right way.
[0:26] whether we like it or not.
[0:28] Many modern electronic music
genres have put an emphasis on loudness.
[0:33] what do we actually mean by Loudness
is often confused with volume,
[0:36] and in reality
there are two entirely different concepts.
[0:40] Volume is a scientific measurement
of the quantity or power of a sound
[0:44] where loudness is a bit harder to quantify
because it's subjective
[0:48] and based entirely
on your personal perception of sound.
[0:52] an awesome example
that will make sense of this.
[0:54] These two songs are technically
[0:55] the same volume
as they're both peaking at zero decibels.
[0:59] do they sound equally as loud?
When I flip back and forth,
[1:10] Your ears perceive the second song
to sound louder,
[1:13] even though they are both hitting
the same peak level.
[1:18] is the challenge
we face when we compare our song
[1:22] to other professional mixing masters.
[1:24] Every genre has its typical
or expected loudness levels,
[1:29] your song is not close to that level,
it's just going to sound quieter.
[1:32] When played back at an equal volume.
[1:34] This becomes a huge problem
when you try and play your own song
[1:39] in the middle of a DJ set.
[1:40] okay.
[1:41] Well, I don't care about DJing,
so what about streaming?
[1:45] is a big one.
[1:45] You've probably heard this.
[1:47] Loudness doesn't matter on Spotify
because they match the perceived volume
[1:52] of every song. Great.
[1:53] So we don't have to worry
about a thing right? more
[2:00] about it.
[2:01] Hate to break it to you.
[2:02] Every little thing is not going to be
all right.
[2:05] me explain. lOAfS or loudness units.
[2:07] Full scale is the measurement we use
for comparing perceive loudness in songs.
[2:12] You'll usually see it in a form
of a number like this.
[2:15] Spotify does take every song
and bring it to one uniform laughs level.
[2:21] This is just an attempt to create a better
and more consistent listening experience
[2:25] because every song should technically
be the same perceived loudness.
[2:29] You're not going to jump from one
really loud song to one really quiet song.
[2:33] Let's test that theory.
[2:34] Both of these songs are -14 laughs,
[2:38] so they are the same perceived loudness
level, correct?
[2:42] listen and be the judge.
[2:51] for crying.
[2:55] I love that
[2:58] guy. I
[3:03] Wait a second.
[3:04] I thought if I just make my song
-14 laughs, it will be equally
[3:08] as loud as every other song on Spotify.
[3:10] Unfortunately, loudness can't
be quantified as some arbitrary number.
[3:15] There's more that goes into this
and mix balance
[3:19] is one of those very important factors.
[3:22] Song One is a much more balanced mix.
[3:25] It provides
ample volume in the lows, mids and highs,
[3:29] where Song two is not a balanced mix
because it's concentrating
[3:33] most of its volume to the low end
and it doesn't have as much in the mids
[3:36] and highs, which is very important
for perceived loudness.
[3:40] although they're both -14 loves
the mix balance
[3:43] in Song
two is why this still sounds quieter.
[3:47] In addition,
there are also so many other important
[3:50] contributing factors to perceive loudness
like sound selection and placement
[3:55] using dynamic tools like compressors,
limiters, clippers.
[3:59] so much shit that goes into this, and
that is exactly what I want to talk about.
[4:05] The nitty gritty what you can actually be
doing in the production
[4:09] mix and master to achieve
that competitive loudness and clarity.
[4:14] In the end. here's my disclaimer.
[4:16] I have to say this everything
I'm about to show you can 100% work.
[4:20] I'm sure of it
because it's worked for the 700
[4:23] plus students
I've taught here at Cosmic Academy.
[4:26] used these exact techniques
we're about to go through
[4:29] to sign to the biggest labels
across all genres.
[4:32] But please understand they don't have
[4:35] some secret, step by step recipe
that they were taught.
[4:39] weren't given some Ableton Rock
to magically achieve loudness straight up.
[4:44] They know their shit.
[4:45] truly learned the tools and techniques
[4:48] to achieve loudness and clarity
in their music, in their genres.
[4:53] This concept is just so important
to understand.
[4:55] It's why we do one on ones during our boot
camp.
[4:59] drop a link in the description in comments
for anyone who wants to work with that
[5:03] level of personalized But regardless,
I can still help you a shit ton.
[5:08] So let's go through the tools
and techniques
[5:11] so you can use this in your own music.
[5:13] one for.
[5:13] Everyone is going to be using reference
tracks
[5:15] to learn what the General Lofts
range is for your genre.
[5:19] This will be drastically different
depending on the kind of music you make.
[5:23] making bass music, don't be shocked
to see levels of minus two or minus three.
[5:28] If you're making something
like melodic techno,
[5:29] you might be seeing minus six,
seven or eight.
[5:32] truthfully reaching these levels
and having a loud master
[5:35] is only going to be possible
if you have a good production and mix.
[5:39] So let's revisit balance.
[5:41] But this time we're going to look at it
[5:42] from a sound design and sound selection
standpoint.
[5:46] important thing here is going to be
to think about creating differences
[5:50] amongst your sounds.
[5:52] if you have similar sounding instruments,
sitting in the same frequency space,
[5:57] also sitting
in the same part of the stereo field,
[6:00] sounds will just mask each
they're not able to provide audible
[6:03] value loudness or clarity
because they're overlapping one another.
[6:07] So instead focus on selecting different
[6:10] sounds, different timbral characteristics
from layer to layer,
[6:14] spread them across different octaves
and frequencies.
[6:18] Have them sit in different parts
of the stereo, feel,
[6:21] think, monitor stereo, left versus right
or even front to back.
[6:25] by creating these differences
in your sound selection, you're able
[6:28] to bring value to the mix loudness
and clarity to the mix.
[6:33] this concept is not even just limited to
your sense, but it could also be applied
[6:37] to things like your drums. right.
[6:38] Once we have balance in our sound
selection, we need to talk about balancing
[6:42] those instruments
in terms of their level and volume.
[6:46] I've made an entire video on this
which is going to pop up here.
[6:48] I've also linked it in the description.
[6:51] highly recommend watching that,
because it's extremely detailed
[6:54] and going to pair very well
with this next point I'm going to make.
[6:58] We spoke about mix balance
before in the Spotify example,
[7:02] sure the contour of our mix was correct.
[7:04] one of my favorite little cheats
[7:06] to get this right
is using a tool called the Match e q
[7:10] however, I'm not going to use it
the way you might think.
[7:14] your poison in terms of which match
IQ plugin you'd like to use.
[7:18] I'm going to go with the isotope version
here and it's placed on my master channel.
[7:22] Before I start,
[7:22] I do like to match the perceived
loudness of my song and the reference.
[7:26] So when I flip back and forth,
they're on a level playing field.
[7:29] B can do this in one click,
but if you don't have the plugin,
[7:32] you could just use your ears
and manually adjust the fader on a channel
[7:35] to match those levels.
[7:36] You want to be able to flip
[7:37] between the two songs and have them sound
like they're roughly the same volume.
[7:41] Next, I'm going to play my reference track
and hit this capture button.
[7:44] the plug.
[7:44] It's going to start to understand
the general mix balance
[7:46] in the low mids and highs.
[7:48] it play for a little bit
and then I'm going
[7:49] to repeat the same thing
and capture my song.
[7:52] What you'll notice is
the plugin will try and IQ my mix
[7:56] to match the balance of the reference
track.
[7:59] showing me where I might need
to push some volume or where I might need
[8:03] to reduce some volume
to get my mix balance to be similar.
[8:07] It's pretty slick, right? Good.
[8:09] Now turn that plugin off
[8:10] because we're not going to use Instead,
we're just going to have it guide us to
[8:14] those problem areas
and we are going to fix it ourselves.
[8:17] example, if the plugin is telling you
[8:19] that you need more volume in the upper
mids and highs, figure out why.
[8:23] Which elements in your mix
sit in that range and make them louder.
[8:26] It's literally what
the plugin is telling you you need to do.
[8:29] flip back and forth between yours
and the reference
[8:31] focused on those frequencies and notice
which elements in your track
[8:37] are a little quiet
compared to the elements in their track.
[8:40] Final little tip though with this tool.
[8:42] Try to use more than one reference
track to compare to.
[8:45] more the merrier.
[8:46] Here you will get a more accurate
mix balance
[8:49] if you do it that you can also do
a pretty simple eyeball test
[8:52] by using a spectrum overlay
like this in metric A, B, can visualize
[8:57] my general balance
and those references in real time.
[9:01] Moving on.
[9:02] Let's refocus here
because we're about to get into dynamics.
[9:07] play a huge role in the perceived
loudness of your Dynamics are good.
[9:12] We want things to sound dynamic
but not necessarily be dynamic.
[9:17] more dynamic a sound or performance
is, the less perceived volume it has.
[9:22] So if you're not addressing this
on your individual sounds, your groups,
[9:25] your masters, you could be missing out
on a ton of potential loudness.
[9:29] three dynamic tools
[9:30] we're going to talk about are compressors,
clippers and limiters.
[9:34] Compressors can do some very helpful
things.
[9:36] could be used to shape a sound similar
to an ADR envelope in a synth
[9:40] where you can shape the front, middle
and tail end of a sound.
[9:43] They can also be used to balance out
the volume of an overall performance.
[9:48] Think of a singer
where we can create consistency in there.
[9:50] Incredibly dynamic performance
as the volume changes.
[9:54] Word two word phrase, the phrase,
we can level that or take
[9:58] this drum loop is an example.
[9:59] Notice
this one hit is louder than the rest rest.
[10:05] So I have a question for you.
[10:06] If you wanted to hear
[10:07] the quieter parts of this loop,
which we can't really hear right now,
[10:12] what would you Would
you turn up the volume so we can hear it?
[10:19] Well shit
[10:20] I was able to hear it,
but now that one loud hit is even louder.
[10:24] So that didn't really work.
[10:25] But what happens
if that one hit wasn't as loud?
[10:30] It was closer
to the other parts of the loop.
[10:32] I could do this by just taking this
one part in lowering the volume, right?
[10:36] Of course,
[10:36] could also do this by putting a compressor
on and it's going to do the same exact
[10:39] I can set this threshold to only compress
and lower the loud part that exceeds it.
[10:44] now, if I compare these two loops,
which one sounds louder?
[10:54] they're both
technically peaking at the same volume,
[10:57] but the compressed loop
does have a louder perceived volume.
[11:01] If this concept of balancing dynamics is
making sense, give my boy moose a pound.
[11:06] Whether you're on your phone, laptop
or TV screen.
[11:11] Next, let's talk about my favorite part
of this entire video.
[11:14] And for all my cosmic fan that have taken
the program, you know, I love this shit.
[11:18] Clippers and limiters Both of these
dynamic tools do a similar thing.
[11:22] However, they have their strengths
and weaknesses and really
[11:25] I just want you to be able to use them
to get the best sound.
[11:28] Clippers are the shit
[11:29] and they could provide insane returns
in the form of loudness.
[11:33] They're really good at removing
stray unnecessary peaks.
[11:38] Let me show you what I mean by that.
[11:39] Imagine we're mastering your song
and we're bringing it up to zero decibels.
[11:43] It's final mastered level.
[11:45] What's going to hit the threshold First,
these peaks, right?
[11:48] notice, because they stand out so far,
they're going to prevent
[11:52] the rest of the track from getting up
to that threshold and being louder.
[11:55] Now, imagine you were able to create
a more balanced, dynamic mix.
[11:59] Notice when I bring everything back up
to the threshold again,
[12:02] the entire song is getting there
rather than those straight peaks.
[12:06] Eliminating them
allows your whole song to be louder.
[12:09] Now you might be thinking,
[12:11] song doesn't have those straight peaks,
because if they did,
[12:13] I would have heard them
and I would have mixed them already.
[12:16] Well, I hate to break it to you.
[12:17] You can't hear this.
[12:19] Neither can I. run a test.
[12:21] Which of these two sounds
is the louder one hitting zero decibels.
[12:33] me guess.
[12:33] You naturally thought
the one that sounded louder is probably
[12:37] the one hitting zero DB is right.
[12:39] Well, you would have been wrong
because the louder sound
[12:42] was actually quieter
in terms of peak volume.
[12:45] my meter was telling your ears
don't always understand peak volume.
[12:50] They're better at understanding
perceived value, more average volume
[12:53] volume over time.
[12:55] volume is this instantaneous
snapshot of your volume.
[12:58] It could be a split second.
[13:00] Your sound hits a certain level,
but it's too quick for our ears
[13:04] to understand
so these peaks could be all over your mics
[13:07] spiking way above everything else,
preventing you from pushing things louder.
[13:12] In the end.
[13:13] what if we can clip these earlier
in the process?
[13:16] Problem solved.
[13:17] Now, how do we figure this out
if we can't hear them?
[13:20] can visualize these peaks on individual
sounds groups or even your entire mix
[13:24] using an oscilloscope
Once you've identified them,
[13:28] you can go in with a clipper
and begin to remove those peaks
[13:32] by having the peaks exceed the threshold.
[13:34] Keep in mind though, Clippers can add
a noticeable amount of distortion
[13:38] pretty quick.
[13:38] and because of this
they tend to sound better on drums
[13:41] rather than musical instruments,
because most drums or drum samples
[13:45] noisy to begin with, distortion
sort of blends in with it.
[13:55] we're
all like a smooth musical instrument.
[13:57] That distortion
and crackle become super obvious.
[14:08] I do think it's worth mentioning here
[14:10] There are many genres
that will use clippers to shave
[14:12] those peaks and create that distortion
more as a creative sound design choice.
[14:18] Knowing your tools allows you to break
the rules, the two modes of clipping
[14:22] you can mess with would be hard
clipping and soft clipping.
[14:25] if clipping usually sounds better,
if you're going to be pushing things,
[14:29] this can be utilized, especially from a
sound design perspective, as the harder
[14:33] you work into soft clippers,
they can add a significant amount
[14:37] of perceived loudness
and it sounds pretty damn good.
[14:40] This distortion is harmonic
and much more pleasant than the hard
[14:44] clipping form.
[14:57] Limiters are another tool
that can be used to control dynamics,
[15:00] including those peak examples we just went
[15:02] limiters are often a bit cleaner sounding.
[15:04] And this usually works
well when you do need to control peaks
[15:08] on those musical instruments,
[15:10] typically don't produce the distortion
as fast as a clipper would.
[15:13] Limiters can also be used to balance out
a dynamic performance over time.
[15:18] Just like we were doing
with a compressor earlier.
[15:20] However,
it's in a much more exaggerated form.
[15:24] usually not going to sound as natural
as a compressor.
[15:26] All three of these dynamic tools
[15:27] are typically used
during the mastering process as well.
[15:31] limiter or clipper
is usually the final plug in on our chain
[15:34] that we slam our song into.
[15:36] This would be your safety net,
which doesn't allow volume to exceed
[15:39] zero DB also allows us to achieve
maximum loudness in our song
[15:43] because we can push beyond
that zero DB threshold.
[15:47] For example,
[15:47] I can drive the input gain on this limiter
and raise the volume of my song.
[15:51] Eventually it will try and cross zero DB,
which in that case
[15:54] the limiter begins to work and squash
those peaks down.
[15:58] I can push it further and further
and eventually it does sound like shit,
[16:02] there's usually a small window
of a few decibels that can exceed that
[16:07] zero DB threshold and it still sounds
pretty natural and transparent.
[16:11] This is typically what we do on a master
So now that I've got my song
[16:15] at this rough, mastered level of zero DB
is let's compare it
[16:19] to the reference tracks here on Metric B,
I have my loudness section
[16:23] which shows me all my law's values
and I can make comparisons.
[16:27] also like to use this dynamics tab,
which shows me just how compressed
[16:31] and squashed my song is relative
to the reference tracks.
[16:35] Okay.
[16:35] Then next up, let's talk about low end
and how
[16:39] this is impacting loudness
in terms of our master.
[16:43] This one requires us to go a bit deeper.
[16:45] So I made a whole video
on this exact topic
[16:48] so I can show you how to compress
your master.
[16:51] This is going to be especially useful
if you're making music, which
[16:54] I think you are, but as a shit ton of low
end, Come join Moose and I over there.