Lesson 3 - Jay-J - Mastering Lows, Comps and Limiter

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Mastering Lows, Comps and Limiter

All of these settings and examples and the workflow relies on a decent amount of
headroom in the track being mastered. In my mixing class we talk about ending up with
about 10 dB of headroom or the actual PEAKS of the loudest part of the song are no
louder than -10 the PEAKS! Not LUFS. Since headroom is the amount we are away from
0 or the difference between the loudest peaks in the song and zero dB in the digital
world.

So the FIRST things I do is make sure I have enough headroom to work with the master
and that the rest of my plug-ins will work the way they are intended - especially the
analog modeled ones as many plug ins today are designed to work internally more like
the analog world which s a much lower operating level internally - as the norm.

So bring in the song to be mastered and after all the session is set up I make
adjustments to the clip gain to make sure i'll be Starting with 10 dB of headroom if not
12

Step By Step from here. . .

Mono low frequencies below 100


Set the Utility with bass mono about 100Hz. I am usually settling anywhere from
90 to 180 and occasionally higher.
Mono maker on BX Digital 3 EQ

Making sure our low end is pulled together and downmixed to mono helps assure no
surprises on odd sound systems, can create a more defined and together low end and
works within the confines of sound.

Low frequencies are not Directional per say, we don't really get a sense of “Where it is
coming from, we just feel that it is present.

Bus / Mastering compression


To help reign in a little bit try some master bus / mastering compression. I talked about
the settings and examples in the compression class and notes but here is a quick
rundown.
Master bus #2 (from my mixing class) ​ - Achieves a cohesive, together sounding whole
often referred to as “glue”
Going for just a touch of gain reduction 1-3 dB
Sidechain eq: set for high pass filter around 200-350Hz
Threshold: 2-4 dB lower than the input
Attack: 10ms
Release: about an eighth or 16th note 110-200ms
Ratio: 2
Knee: none
Make up: 1-3 db or equal with uncompressed sound when bypassed
Dy/Wet: 100%
*With this #2 setting the sidechain eq removes a lot of low end from the
threshold detection and focuses the compression response to the mids and highs.

Mastering parallel compression


Often I will also do this Mix Bus or Master Bus type compression or Parallel
Compression concept in addition. Bob Katz developed this workflow and ideology.

Similar to the WEISS Mastering Compressor/DeEsser and even Brainworks Master


Desk. Both these plugin products were released around the same time a couple of
years ago and I studied them, the usage and arrived at a way to achieve the same result
with a free plugin.

The free compressor I use


TDR Kotelnikov: https://www.tokyodawn.net/tdr-kotelnikov/
The setup idea is that a parallel compressor set to always be in compression with a
release set to not sound distorted or pumping around 250-300 ms. The threshold at -50,
Attack as fast as possible.

This adds a subtle smoothing and rounding of the transients, that analog texture I like
and have discussed, and It also works to push a bit up the lower parts of the song.

Notice how the Dry Mix is all the way up, this is the level of the Dry Signal. Like some
plugin where the Dy/Wet knob is set to just Dry. But then on this plugin, the makeup is
adding in the compressed signal. Like Mixing in a compressed signal on another track,
similar to old school parallel compression done on 1 dry track and 1 compressed track,
mixing in the compressed track to taste.

I usually end up with the compressed signal set at -10 - anywhere between -15 and -5
could work depending on what you hear. I usually don't set too much above -8 or below
-13, so just finessing the compressed signal a bit around the -10 starting point.

Apply Limiting
In order to make records as loud as they need to be nowadays, a Limiter must be used.
It's just not possible to achieve the levels of today without it. Many contemporary
productions are so loud in fact that for an unbalanced mix it’s almost impossible to
make the final as loud, and even a well-mixed song can often be difficult to reach the
extreme loudness of many releases.
Limiters are a specific area where the Tool itself Matters. We ask a lot of it when trying
to stay competitive releasing music today. A good tool can help achieve clean, clear
loudness, many are inferior. If relegated to only using Ableton here's some setting to try
- but this will be difficult to achieve a clean sounding high level output.

Stereo
L/R mode is 2 separate limiters - one for each channel - could affect the stereo
image
Lookahead 6 ms or 3ms
Heavy limiting and heavy bass will be cleaner with more lookahead

Release - I like auto

For gain, you will be adding enough to reach -10 LUFS on the master channel and will
now once again match the level of -10 LUFS we set for your reference tracks.

Ableton Limiter vs Fabfilter Pro-L


Ableton limiter sounds REALLY good! BUT - to achieve a LOUD master that doesn’t clip
via intersample peaks you’ll need a more advanced limiter.
Fabfilter Pro L 2 is able to monitor Intersample peaks or True Peaks and also adds
another limiter section designed to address true peaks or intersample peaks, this
technology can ensure no intersample peaks and clipping.

Set output of limiter to -1


Set ceiling at -1 (this offers headroom in the master for lossy conversion like mp3)

Music lately is consumed in a few ways almost all of which are lossy conversions,
mainly to save space and or file size.

This conversion process often leads to masters that are clipping when played back.
Have you noticed when dragging an mp3 into the DAW the file is clipping and or in the
red. This is because the conversion process eats up any headroom that was there.

A WAV or AIF file needs no file conversion so it has the most amount of headroom, but
even then there is some playback conversion when the file goes from Digital to Analog
or in the Digital to Analog Converter (DAC). This is why people bring the ceiling or
limiter output down a touch like .3 dB to add a little headroom for DAC.

Intersample peaks occur when a file is played back and some buildup BETWEEN the
digital sample rate plot points can occur on playback.
Picture from -
https://www.masteringthemix.com/blogs/learn/inter-sample-and-true-peak-metering

Once we start to convert to actual Lossy conversion codecs or algorithms such as MP3
and MP4 / AAC That headroom gets eaten up even more.

Headroom usage for intersample peaks and conversion

File type / Codec Approx headroom needed


WAV / AIFF .4/.3 dB
AAC / MP4 .7 dB
MP3 320 HQ 1.2 dB

Adjust Limiter gain while watching analytical tools


At this point, I first check the LUFS meter and also open up the spectrum analyzer and
adjust the limiter gain. Once I have the right loudness via the amount of limiting I go
back and listen to reference tracks and start comparing the frequency relationships.
Spectrum Analyzers offer good insight for EQ
With the reference music and track to be mastered level matched and now ALSO limited
we can compare frequencies and overall feel for adjustments via what we see and what
we hear.

Low Cut / High Pass filter


Inserted just before limiting and after all other processing. The initial adjustments
made right after applying to limit to achieve the correct analytical level on the master.
WHich we set at -10 and the channel fader of the track being mastered is down 2 or set
to -2. Sub frequencies eat up headroom and can give a louder LUFS reading so
continually looking and adjusting or fine-tuning keeps everything in control when
analyzing and preparing for final adjustments,

Usually set at 24dB slope filter and around 30-40Hz, depending on what needs to be
controlled. That low is hard to hear on all but the best monitoring systems, so I rely on
my analytical tools to help me adjust below 40H. Span helps me see and the level
matched reference tracks offer me a guide.

Here we see 3 different reference tracks but a consistent average of where to adjust the
sub frequencies.

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