Logic Pro 9 Tutorial - Mastering

[Smeatdawg]

this seems like a stupid question, but how do you bounce the song at the highest quality?

[LiamMcRaeMusic]

thats a mono audio track that you're importing your aif into yeah? also any particular reason you make it aif and not wav?

[mpigsley77]

@LiamMcRaeMusic aif is mainly used by logic and is a higher quality file.

[Vipmaxp]

@mpigsley77 Aiff is not a higher quality file.

[weraswero]

@mpigsley77 not correct.

[fearthefallen]

I like how you're baked haha or look it at least .. thanks for the tips bruh

[altenArmin]

Cutting at 60? dude dont do that. Good though that everyone who tries this will end up going to a professional mastering engineer

[chrisbarretto10]

Nice, my friend. Your vid helped a lot. That's why I also need to share a good message through songs with my friends. It's nice to show what I'm doing with my life. LOL

[LilSwaggaOfficial]

my mastering has a really shrill sound why is that :S ?

[mpigsley77]

@LilSwaggaOfficial try decreasing the makeup gain on the multipressor for the high frequencies.

[epotosi]

Cool dude. Thanks for the video. A newbie question: why can't i see the "imaging" plugin menu in every project i make? what's the difference that enables it? thank you

[mpigsley77]

@epotosi It might depend on what kind of track you are trying to add it on.. like output vs auxiliary vs normal. I can't think of a time where it didn't show up for me though..

[elementsk8er506]

thanks for the time to make this dude

[renacademyrecords]

I usually use the stereo spread on single instruments like acoustic guitar, but you should never on frequencies below 1000 since you want your bass and root notes dead center, then you can spread overtones such as fret noise or string squeak and it's really neat. Also try mixing the whole track down to about -10dB peak (your pre-mastered mix looks like it already has some 0dB peaks before you even touch it) before mastering for some headroom. You'll be amazed at how much flexibility you have

[mpigsley77]

@renacademyrecords Yeah this was an old mix down and it was at a time when I didn't know too much... haha anyway I agree with the stereo spread on the low end. Thanks for the suggestions guy!

[333halfcut]

Nice vid - thank you.

[rubenevangelista]

Very nice dude!!! thanks!!!



[LiamMcRaeMusic]

what song are you mixing? it sounds cool

[mpigsley77]

@LiamMcRaeMusic I have a better mixdown but for what it's worth here ya go soundcloud(dot)com/fathermaldo­on/cloak-of-innocence

[LiamMcRaeMusic]

If i'm making orchestral flim scores, i shouldn't use that low cut, right?

because that low rumble can create ambiance right?

[mpigsley77]

@LiamMcRaeMusic yeah you need that low end!

[luvertskywalker13]

what program did you use to film this video with? When I try to find a program that lets you use this feature no one knows what I am talking about.

[mpigsley77]

@luvertskywalker13 I use ScreenFlow. Best software ever

[phonevideo12]

can you give me your opinion about doing the mastering while in the mix ?

i mean instead of mastering the final one aiff file , doing the mastering before that.

is that basically the same thing ? i don't see the difference ?

so what is better ?to master that one aiff file or mastering in the mix?

putting all stuff like limiters and compressors can be done in the mix or is that different ?

[mpigsley77]

@phonevideo12 I realize ypu can do that and the main reason that i dont... is because i need organization to work efficiently. when j start using the same file to mix and master then shit gets crazy and I'm not a fan

[RasburryMuphinz]

best Logic mastering video on youtube. thank you!

[caklipakli]

hi bro! awesome stuff, it really helped me mixing cause usually mixing is the part i suck for most time. Anyway, I was messing around with other stuff, and Im really confused because I havent find any solutions yet, and maybe you can help me: when i click with flex tool on an audio track it asks for the mod (like rhythmic, polyphonic), and thats ok, i click ok on rhytmic, and then it smashes my track into a useless, shorter clip with a quicker tempo..shit..it really can make upset..any tipps?

[mpigsley77]

@caklipakli I always use polyphonic so give that a try... I recall this happening to me a long ass time ago but I forgot what I did to fix it. Let me know if the different setting works for you.

[caklipakli]

@mpigsley77 thx for the quick reply. I tried with polyphonic too, same result. It speeds up the track and moves a bit left, no idea why..i feel im gonna jump out of my window right now :/

[mpigsley77]

@caklipakli alright I'm going to work right now but I'm going to research this a bit more and I'll shoot you a message when I find something out.

[caklipakli]

@mpigsley77 have you found anything so far? :/ (just ask..) im a way puzzled, it seems the only hope i have is you

[mpigsley77]

@caklipakli Okay well my question to you is... do you have tempo changes inside of this song that your doing?

[caklipakli]

@mpigsley77 (lets continue this in private)

[PatricioFear]

Hey dude! Thanks, thanks and thanks for taking the time of posting this tutorials, they really help. I applied some of your advice to finalise this song: soundcloud(dot)com/ecrite/ata-­d

Best!

[mpigsley77]

@PatricioFear SICK! Loved the song and thanks for the kind words!

[iplaydrumsye]

was happy when you pressed play and it was a metal track, i don't see many videos on how to mix/master metal music. Please do some more! Great video mate x

[mpigsley77]

@iplaydrumsye Haha thanks man! I'll be sure to do that

[iplaydrumsye]

@mpigsley77 specifically mixing metal music, there is none on youtube, gap in the market haha!

[mpigsley77]

@iplaydrumsye I'm doing my best to exploit that gap. I have been mixing down a single metal song for around 4 months now and basically I'm just experimenting on different techniques so once it is done I can't wait to start showing people some of the things I did.

[iplaydrumsye]

@mpigsley77 awesome dude, stoked to see those videos, perhaps do something related to mixing sub drops, i can never get them the right volume, they're either too quiet or wayyyy to loud. Have you ever heard of an english hardcore band called While She Sleeps? they have sub drops in their songs which sound like explosions but they don't hurt your ears haha its awesome.

[mpigsley77]

@iplaydrumsye Sick! I'm gonna have to check them out. I have a couple drops in the song I've been working on so I can easily make a vid on that

[iplaydrumsye]

@mpigsley77 Here man have a listen at 3:11 when the breakdown drops.

watch?v=OzkAl5nBC1g

[AjMoLAbErG]

I cannot find the multipressor, is it an absent function in the Logic 9 Express version or?

[mpigsley77]

@AjMoLAbErG yeah its a bit absent in the express version..

[mpigsley77]

oh man.. yeah a snare with it's own track is helpful so that you can eq it differently from those cymbals.. that sux

[OC616]

This helped a lot, but I'm finding the snare vanishes i some of the more chord-y sections of a song. Before all the plugins the snare whilst not the loudest according to Logic's volume levels, is certainly the most heard thing, would this be a connection?

[mpigsley77]

@OC616 hmmm... if your snare vanishes I would eq the snare in a bit more then to bring it out in the mix.

[OC616]

@mpigsley77 I know this is probably the cause of the problem, but I use superior drummer, but my computer can only handle 2 SD tracks before the track crashes so I have to keep the snare and cymbals in the same one.

[mrdelerious2009]

cheers for the vid, most helpful I've come across so far! 1 question tho...

When i boost the gain on my limiter it starts clipping even tho the output level of the limiter is set to 0.0db???

[mpigsley77]

@mrdelerious2009 try setting the limiter to 0.1db. That should do the trick!

[Jaydrummer92]

And your not using multi meter whilst mastering? oh dear...

[TheDynastyEnt]

Hey man this is a great tutorial as usual, i have a question though, when i master the songs and i look at my limiter and multimeter the volume line always jumps up and down but never passes 0, while every tutorial on youtube the people's volume are always at 0 and don't move around. what does this mean? and are there any solutions for this?

[mpigsley77]

@TheDynastyEnt The amount of 'jumping around' on the output volume is related to the amount of gain you add to the track with the limiter. Also this could be dependent on the kind of song also. Some songs have very quick ups and downs from heavy kicks maybe. It never passes 0 because you set the limiter to cut off anything above 0.

[TheDynastyEnt]

@mpigsley77 ohh i see, thanks, so it it bounces around like that it isn't a big deal?

[mpigsley77]

@TheDynastyEnt I wouldn't worry about it too much just make sure your adding a decent amount of gain to the limiter and you should be good

[BigBrightBlueBox]

another awesome tutorial. thanks Mitch. youre the man. Do you think it makes sense to master songs in logic or Waveburner rather? or is it the same maybe? which do you prefer. thanks again bro.

[mpigsley77]

@BigBrightBlueBox I have actually never used waveburner. I don't think it would make too big of a difference. I like logic so I usually just keep it all in logic.

[BigBrightBlueBox]

@mpigsley77 Sounds good. Thanks again for making these videos. You're the only one I seem to be able to learn from. I've been improving my mixing techniques quite a bit since watching your videos.

[mpigsley77]

@BigBrightBlueBox Thanks man! Means alot!

[vibrancy3]

face lol

[acaciamusicofficial]

Helpful video :) one tip from me would be not to bounce the song, all the inserts that are used for mastering can be inserted on the output channel. It's just on the right of the regular channel strip.

[MrMvdwant]

Very helpful. Thanks.

[NolleGroen]

thanks man! really helpfull. sounds a million times better!

[liamrittikie]

Nice vid mate:)

[SamThorn94]

this has helped me alot, hopefully my mastering will be much better and my tracks i have produced will sound good as well. thanks, much appreciated

[willieponthekeys]

Good job on this video Bro... Really helpful. Thanks again!

[Jiezeru]

Nice vid man, gonna give it a try!

[fog2fg]

UNDER 60HZ IS JUST A RUMBLE!?! C'mon dude u never heard of sub bass hows the tune gonna have any weight

[mpigsley77]

@fog2fg Depends on the kind of music definitely. It was just a suggestion. I usually do rock/alternative music so that is what I would do for that.

[SGwizard1]

@fog2fg dude most big masterings stuios will cut about 9k and under 50.

[Zazquatch1]

@fog2fg Well, you're right when it comes to Dub Step or so, but this shitty crap "music" hasn't got anything down there to work with.

[mpigsley77]

@Zazquatch1 music is music whether it be shitty to you or not. Other people like it. that comment helped no one. THANKS so much for posting it. ass

[RamaPetersen]

Thanks a lot, my friend. You really helped me. This is what I needed to finish my recordings.

[Faeriepunk23]

hahha. This is awesome. thanks. Great limiter joke. Kudos on the mastering tips. G

[TomFBrady]

You are a genuine genius. That multipresser technique really made getting a good compression easy for me, thanks :P

[mpigsley77]

@TomFBrady Your very welcome sir!

[fuknoz]

you got a good head start in the recording game. keep up the vids- i need all the help i can get!

[ExtremeWales]

Total legend! Thank you for the masterclass!

[AlbertaDMode]

Great, really great tutorial. Lots of useful information. Now I know why my bounce is so quiet :) By far your video gives best guidance through mastering stage of the project!

[uncletomable]

Good shit brother. YouTube search: uncletomable

[miguelgmusic]

Very informative, thanks for sharing.

[metaldemonseanknels]

condom rape surprise lol that's almost what it sounds like you said \m/

[fog2fg]

this guy doesn't have a clue

[DTL131]

@fog2fg then why dont you teach us?

[fog2fg]

@DTL131 look up the user soundsLogical not me but at least he has a clue about sound

[DTL131]

@fog2fg alright thankss. people suck at teaching mastering unless your actually in a college course.

[mpigsley77]

@fog2fg Done it a million times bud. I have a clue. All that comment means is that you have no idea what your doing. You don't like it? Don't watch it.

[badmanflexer]

@mpigsley77 actually no, rumble is below 30hz. A lot of the things in your videos you seem to only half know... You boost far too much on your multipressor, destroying headroom, you didn't explain why you briefly brought up the multimeter and where the correlation bar should be and why. You also have a badly mixed down track, you can see from the waveform. Mix down your tracks before you master, mastering is the final polish. Also its best not to master your own tracks.

[hondatom777]

@badmanflexer correct

[SoulTRIBE93]

@fog2fg this guy does have a clue. hes showing you how to do something that you came here to learn. he didnt say this is the bible for mastering so follow it exactly. each song is different and requires unique attention. 60hz its okay for rock and metal music. when you have a lot of bass tones fighting for stereo space its a good idea to cut out some lows so it doesnt rumble. get monitors or some good headphones and youll hear the difference

[mpigsley77]

@SoulTRIBE93 got my back brotha. thanks corey

[yatindimebag]

Great Stuff! Really helped me out! I was really trying to find someone who did a mastering tutorial involving the rock/metal genre. Thanks A Lot Man! :D

[mpigsley77]

@yatindimebag Your welcome guy! Glad I could help

[groovekilledme]

GREAT tutorial, really helpful! There was one part though which confused me: I didn't understand how much you boosted the gain in the multipressor...

Another question:

If a song is clipping, what tool do I use to fix that problem? I'm completely new to this

[mpigsley77]

@groovekilledme Okay. Say you compress a band of the compressor to -22dB and since we started at -15dB we need to increase the gain to +7dB so that we can make up that loss that occurred during the compression.

If you have a song file that is clipping or is way too loud... there is no tool to unclip it. You have to go back to your previous song and work with levels then bounce it all again. That's a good call... I have been meaning to do a mixing video or two so I'll try to work on that.

[groovekilledme]

@mpigsley77

Thank you!

So if a song is properly mixed, it cannot start clipping suddenly during the mastering process?

[mpigsley77]

@groovekilledme Even if a song is properly mixed and the gain levels aren't right then you will start clipping during the mastering process. It is something you just need to watch out for until you put on that 'brick-wall' limiting. Then you can add as much gain as needed and clipping will not occur.

[djlipbass]

thanks for the advice dude!! very nicely done :)



[ArGyProductions]

You sir... are a genius and have just earned a new subscriber :)

[mpigsley77]

@ArGyProductions thanks for the kind words and the sub friend!

[SouthSideRyderz3]

hey dude i want ask something i have a compressor but not the vst the big ass machine compressor .. do i still need to give a vst compressor to my vocals too ?

[mpigsley77]

@SouthSideRyderz3 There is such a thing as over-compression and there is a fine line between not having enough and having too much. If it were me I would just stick to one compressor so the vocals (which are the center-piece of the song) are not over-compressed and boring. Hope that helps

[SouthSideRyderz3]

@mpigsley77 thanxx

[TITAN081345]

nicee tutorial mann twas quite useful

[mpigsley77]

@TITAN081345 Thanks guy! Glad it helped!

[jayqueezy24]

do you know how steep the curve is on that low cut filter? like what the q value is...is it sharper than the low cut that is on the channel eq?

[mpigsley77]

@jayqueezy24 as far as I know there is no curve.. but logic has their own filters where you can edit the curve to your liking without having to mess with the channel eq.

[jayqueezy24]

@mpigsley77 f

i think i worded my question wrong....is there an advantage to using the low freq cuttoff plugin vs. just enabling the low cut on the channel eq? I do this same step when mastering but i just use the cuttoff on the channel eq instead of using a seperate plugin.....also sometimes if find it useful to place a compressor with low ratio 2:1 maybe slow attack and slow release to act as a "leveler" to smooth things out b4 it hits the limiter.....thanks

[mpigsley77]

@jayqueezy24 there really isn't too big of an advantage. If you like the more graphical sense of the channel eq then go for it. And as for the compressor I agree with you but I was using a multiband compressor so I didn't want to compress it too much. There will always be different ways to "pseudo-master" in logic so you just gotta find the way the you think sounds the best.

[niltondemenezes1]

thanks homie, good helping out

[mpigsley77]

@JohnLoxley Hahaha thanks man glad you enjoyed it!

[xp4550]

Best explanation of Mastering for a beginner like me I've heard so far! Thanks a lot!

[mpigsley77]

@xp4550 You are very welcome sir

[dnassi6]

thanks guy!

[rinzg]

good job .... very helpful