Hey guys! Julian here with Production Music Live and today I'm going to talk about mastering in Ableton with only Ableton plugins. I just want to start off by saying that my process of mastering is really just a final loudness push and maybe like a tiny bit of gentle rebalancing and just gentle eq moves. It's like the final five percent last push and polish of the track.   Before I master the track I already have mixed it to sound exactly the way I want it to sound once it's mastered - obviously just not as loud. So if...

Mastering Chain Setup: Lets set up a powerful mastering chain in Ableton with the goal of only using built-in audio effects. When “mastering” on this basic level, we are trying to accomplish 3 things: balance the mix clean up resonance add loudness (punch) to the track Of course there are different definitions of mastering and many philosophies on the order of your effects used. For example, one could perfectly argue, that the multiband dynamics should go in front of the Glue compressor. Chain Layout: But lets go ahead and lay down our chain as we are using it inside of the...

Did you know that the mixing engineer behind Kendrick Lamar’s breakout album, Derek Ali, mixes in mono for the first 80% of his process? Today we’re going to discuss what pros and cons of this approach.  Why mix in mono? 1. Because it’s better for achieving the right EQ balance When you mix in stereo, you have some elements coming from the sides, some coming from the center. That may fool you into thinking that your frequencies are not clashing, when in fact they are. When you mono your track it’s easier to spot the mistake because you don’t have...

Contents covered in this video: Workflow:00:30 Producing without strong musical ideas02:25 Focusing too much on sound design at the beginning04:16 Not organizing your DAW properly Mixing:06:00 Mixing solely on monitors in a non-treated room07:30 Tweaking samples instead of choosing the right sounds08:42 Using effects without knowing what they do09:45 Not mixing in stereo11:31 Too much stereo enhancement13:22 Not dealing with clashing frequencies14:58 Not dealing with transients on drums Mastering:17:18 Too much master processing19:00 Not taking advantage of monitoring tools   Join our MIXING COURSE (from start to finish)      k-pizza I’m a music maker who likes to share his experiences with...

1. Doing all the compression/limiting on the master While master compression and limiting is great for making a track loud, too much of it will kill the dynamics of a track. You can often achieve more natural sounding results if you compress in stages. Try grouping or creating bus tracks for different kinds of instruments and compressing them. A common example is putting a compressor on a drum bus to even out the volumes of drums before the master. Try also dealing with transients on loud drum hits (like kick and snare) before the master (for example by limiting them)...

1. Mixing on monitors in a non-treated room Before you start mixing a track you need to be able to hear it in enough detail. The problem with studio monitors is that often producers buy them before investing in room treatment. With bad acoustics you’re not going to hear your track the same way you would in a treated room. If you can’t afford room treatment a temporary solution could be to buy good studio headphones. With headphones you’re not dependent on your room’s acoustics. I recommend that you still use monitors to check what your mix sounds like on...

A compressor is an important tool when it comes to mastering. Today we’ll go through some tips to get the most out of it. First: What is a compressor? A compressor, in short, is a device which reduces the dynamic range of an audio signal. Dynamic range is the difference in loudness between the loudest and quietest parts of your mix or any kind of audio source. A compressor reduces the volume of the peaks or louder parts of a mix (for example when a kick drum hits). As a result, you get a more „flat” audio curve. The dynamic...

Referencing is a very useful tool when mixing or mastering any track. Here are a few tips on why and how to compare your track to a reference. It helps you making the right decisions. After hours and hours of listening to a track, your ears get used to the sound of your mix. With the complexity of today’s music, it’s necessary to spend a lot of time on drum patterns, melody writing or sound design. By the time you get to the mixing stage, your ears have already gotten used to the sound of the mix - and that’s...

When mastering a track it’s crucial to understand the difference between RMS and peak levels. Today I’m going to show you what they are and how we can use them. Back in the day when I was starting out with making music, I faced the problem of my tracks being too quiet. Even though the „peak volume indicator” showed that my track’s highest volume was around 0dB, it was still too quiet when played alongside professional tracks. Loudness ≠ Peak Volume What I was trying to get out of my track is loudness. What I was looking at instead was...

In this article we’re going through the mastering chains of pro producers like Deadmau5 and Laidback Luke. We will also show you our PML Mastering Chain, made with Ableton stock plugins. These racks come in handy when polishing up your tracks - that’s why we have included them as a free download. Enjoy! Get the free download of our Ableton-only mastering rack in the free section Deadmau5's Mastering Chain   1) LinEQ (Waves) Low Cut: roll-off below 32HZ (depends a bit on input track) Removing low frequencies we can hardly hear on most playback systems and gaining headroom for our other elements....