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In this video I simulate what a mastering engineer would do to a mix.
Of course, a true ME will use far more advanced tools than Ozone to do so, but I thought it would be nice to discuss what they look for and how a mix can be transformed.

Disclaimer, I'm not a mastering engineer, I don't have the space and tools and I wouldn't pretend being one..

This is only a sample to help us realize what happens to our mix when a ME work on it.

Mixing phase :

Credits : https://www.telefunken-elektroakustik.com/live-from-the-lab-season-3

Will Evans - "Me and My Crew"
https://www.youtube.com/c/WillEvansMusic/videos

Mastering with Explanations

Comments

kmetal Fri, 09/04/2020 - 11:29

I heard an interview with Andrew Scheps the other day and he mentioned he didn't pay attention to lufs or streaming specs, which i found kind of surprising. He said he hasnt run into any issues with clients as far as the level/mixes on streaming.

Ive been out of commission so ive not gotten around to testing it out, but it seems logical to use lufs.

pcrecord Fri, 09/04/2020 - 17:20

kmetal, post: 465415, member: 37533 wrote: I heard an interview with Andrew Scheps the other day and he mentioned he didn't pay attention to lufs or streaming specs, which i found kind of surprising. He said he hasnt run into any issues with clients as far as the level/mixes on streaming.

Ive been out of commission so ive not gotten around to testing it out, but it seems logical to use lufs.

As I understand it, it won't create any problem. Maybe Andrew has been mastering at lower levels for many years.. Where it get's tricky is for those who push the final limiter too far to cut a very hot CD.
Again it's my understanding and please correct me if I'm wrong, but when those hot files are uploaded, they will play fine, but their general levels will be put down, so you get a song with less dynamics because of the limiting and at a lower level.
You see the more dynamic music will have the same calculated level, but it will allow for lower parts and hotter parts if the sum is what is calculated..

kmetal Fri, 09/04/2020 - 17:30

pcrecord, post: 465417, member: 46460 wrote: Again it's my understanding and please correct me if I'm wrong, but when those hot files are uploaded, they will play fine, but their general levels will be put down, so you get a song with less dynamics because of the limiting and at a lower level.
You see the more dynamic music will have the same calculated level, but it will allow for lower parts and hotter parts if the sum is what is calculated..

That's how i understood it too. Maybe Amdrew just doesn't care that the volume is reduced, or would limit heavy anyway, so its literrally just a volume reduction. He did Metalica's death magnetic which won the loudness war, lol, so i suspect he's not shy with limiter.

If you do want to limit more for creative reasons, but it exceeds the streaming lufs limit, what would be the solution? Would you normalize the master to lower level? Maybe just do a clip gain reduction on the master?

bouldersound Fri, 09/04/2020 - 21:06

If you master really loud, the song will just get turned down by the streaming service, and your peaks will be lower than other songs. If you master really quiet then the streaming service has to apply its limiters to the audio to get it up to the spec without clipping. If you master to the spec then the song will be using the full dynamic range available, which is great if that's what you're going for.

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