Before You Start Mastering a Song Watch This!...

I tend to leave -6db peaks and -12 average level on a track before applying final eq, compression and limiting. The final metering levels depend greatly on the material. That's on my own material but I know many mixes won't have that much headroom to work with, which is a good reason to clip gain them down to a more manageable level.

Gratitude & Appreciation💯

Do you need headroom if your export in 32 bit float tho?? Thats the real question

Your videos are awesome, i want you to teach on brickwall limiter in the mix before mastering

This is so fucking amazing

Whats the difference between mono-ing cca. 120hz on a master channel with a gain/utility plugin or removing 120hz from the sides with an m/s eq?

Ótimo vídeo, parabéns! Só o Proq3 que seria importante alterar para linear phase para alterar mid/side sem problemas de alinhamento de fase.

Personally, I like to set my mix at -6db before mastering
Then I'd use tape saturation, EQ, stereo imager, limiter and clipper(optional depending on mix)
in that order.. however you have to do a nearly perfect mix for this chain to work

Very useful tips! Thanx Sage!
Regards from Bcn!
🤘🏼

Dear friend I want to your help my song mastering... Because I am newly start my home studio

Greetings from Colombia, your videos are freaking awesome!!! a new subscriber.

n9ce

Thank you! Love this video. With digital systems now being all 24 bit higher most of the time isn’t having low db audio not as much of issue as it used to be? Or am I confused. I like to take the clip gain around -15db every track before I start mixing and mastering.

Outstanding again.. Wow.. This channel is 100% Ill.. What the heck man.. MAn, you're going to turn us all into Tony Maserati, in Logic.. This is outstanding.. Dude, your knowledge is bananas...

Great tips!
Very useful video!

It's always fascinating, and there's always something new to learn. Thank you.

That's why I always let at least 6db of headroom on my mixing before mastering.

If reducing clip gain reduces the available bits, is it better to use a gain plugin at the start of the chain instead of clip gain?

One thing: You should always use ProQ3 or any EQ in "Linear Phase Mode" for mastering purposes

you dont achive more headroom if you put a highpass on the master you loose headroom from the slope of the filter causing phasing issues giving a bump at the cutoff... if anything u prevent DC offset and get rid of un needed low end for clearity but not to gain headroom

Some helpful tips. Thank you.

Love your guys channel it's literally helping me tons with my upcoming album!

You shouldn`t use a steep high pass filter to cut out the lows at the sides, your causing phase issues, you can already hear them in this example. Try to do as less processing as needed in the eq, maybe a little low shelf on the sides is enough, even for vinyl mastering. Even a linear phase eq ins`t always the solution because of pre ringing artefacts.

Very interesting video because you put gain staging as a priority before the mastering process. I think it helps a lot also understanding mastering from the mix itself and anticipate this while mixing!! thank you 💫💫💫💫

Thank you for these tips. My question is related to gain staging. I’ve heard analog plugins have sweet spots around -18dbfs. If we aim to be around -3dbfs, wouldn’t that make the plugins be out of its “sweet” spot when mastering?

¡Gracias!

Please what is the name of the song used in the imaging part

I just listened that song and i'm in love, but that track doesn't exist on Spotify :'(

I have a huge doubt. You being a Mastering Service provider, is it not counter productive to your business to teach the secrets to the world? Just curious. Btw you have an amazing channel. A perfect place to understand mixing and mastering.

The best audio channel.

Something in the background music’s melody or groove is in Kanye West’s “Get Em High” 🧐

Really need to understand how you do your vocal chop !

Very good advice listen everyone foreal lol

Song name?

Great video!!!!!!

sorry i am a bit confused, shouldnt the bass be cut of the mids than the sides, you cut it of the sides than the mids?
pls explain

Thank you for the gems

Maybe, from time to time, like in this video and according how Pro Tools works, you could compare the signal flow of different DAWS.
Anyway, great info as usual. 😉

I really appreciated the examples of proper vs improper gain staging. Really helps give clarity on the subject. Thankyou 😀

I sincerely like your videos and I often learn a lot. So thanks. But, in this case, you're making an error. Your warning about distortion because of overs (the signal going over 0dB) in the processing chain of a channel is most of the time not correct. DAWs and the vast majority of plugins use 32-bit (or even 64-bit) representation internally. Your signal cannot distort because you go over 0dB. Thirty-two-bit FP representation gives you essentially infinite headroom (you'll never use all that is available). Now, it is possible that a plugin--especially a faithful analog-modeling plugin--will deal with a signal over 0dB in a way that causes distortion, but that is intentional. Usually, if you have over 0dB on a channel's chain and end it with a limiter or other plugin that reduces the signal again to under 0dB, you are fine (and even if the signal stays over 0dB, you're likely just fine). What matters is what happens at the very end, when you mix down and create the final signal and level. Many times, you'll end up boosting the signal into your final limiter anyway! In fact, again because of analog modeling, you might even need this to be so; you want the saturation that you get from a plugin by going over 0dB. Now, when you output your signal to your audio interface, yes, over 0dB will be clipped, by definition (the representation at that point will be 16-bit or 24-bit PCM, and that cannot represent anything over 0dB). So, I hope that clears things up, and again, thanks for the great videos.

Gainstaging: What about each plugin’s ‘optimal’ input level (especially with analog-emulation plugins like Tape)? Are you using a -18db calibration somewhere etc?

Thanks for your vids :)

This is pure gold!

dont you get a whole lot of phase mess, when putting such steep filtercutoffs in the lows?

i tend to use clippers just to reduce the immediate peaks of audio tracks, it helps to not clip each track.

Dear Sage audio ,
You said all the things such as basic and advanced before the Mastering and how to start it.
Dear Sage audio,
I don't know why I am afraid of using ms eq on Mastering, I haven't got a good result, I sometimes get a good feeling after a right stereo equalization and I think that I don't need to widen my mix more!
Tnx for every thing , Gain staging is the main part of starting master the songs
But before that I hear to the mix several times and first I master it in my imagination and finally I decide what to do, I don't know does it can help me or not but it has been a habit for me.

Amazing stuff you been posting. Love from India

💎💎💎💎💎