Mastering Techniques: Increasing Loudness and Enhancing Depth

The mix was initially at -14.7 lufs, but through various processes, it was boosted to a whopping -8.1 lufs, maintaining quality.

### Mastering Engineer's Guide to Achieving -8.1 LUFS Master
* 🔊 Mastering engineer demonstrates how they boosted the mix's loudness from **-14.7 LUFS** to a whopping **-8.1 LUFS**, with a long-term integrated loudness maxing out at **-6.2 LUFS**.
* 💰 The engineer emphasizes the importance of **"buying Headroom"** through various processes, treating every decision as a trade-off between **loudness and mix fidelity**.
* They start the process by using a Clipper to manage consistent peaks, clipping only a few dozen samples at a time to achieve a **significant gain of 5 dB**.
* 🥁 Adding a compressor to create separation between guitars and drums, without focusing solely on loudness, brings the overall loudness back to **-10 LUFS**.
* 🌌 To add depth to the mix, the engineer uses a plugin to **subtly move the drums to the sides**, enhancing the stereo field.
* 🎛 A client request leads to a **-1 dB cut at 50 Hz** to reduce excessive subs, while a **0.5 dB boost at 740 Hz** adds aggressiveness to the guitars and vocals.
* 💥 Using an "impact" module to make the snare stand out, the engineer maintains the loudness at **-11 LUFS** before applying a maximizer.
* 🎚 By using a maximizer with soft clipping and true peak mode, with the ceiling set to 0 dB, the engineer achieves the final loudness of **-8.1 LUFS**.

[Music] Yes. [Music] [Applause] [Music] You heard that right. The before mix hanging around 14.7 lufs, and now it's blasting at a whopping negative 8.1 lufs. Long-term integrated it maxes out at negative 6.2 lufs. But you need to guess what. Guess what. The artist loved it. The mixing engineer loved it, and it sounds absolutely insane even at full volume. Everything's punching and coming through. So I need you to not forget to smash the like button and subscribe because in this video, I'm going to show you exactly, exactly how I did this. The first thing I always try and do is buy Headroom. Now I'm going to use the word buy because every process is always a trade-off, and if you're conscious that every process you're trading off with either the Fidelity or the Integrity of the mix, you start to think like a mastering engineer. Not only do you use critical listening to inform your decisions, but also your knowledge of

your tools and how they interact and impact the sound of a mix. So throughout this walkthrough, while we're adding plugins to the chain, I'm going to keep a tally of how each process affects the overall loudness. And we're going to do that by subtracting the peak value from the long-term integrated loudness of the whole master. So what's my first purchase for Headroom? We are going to buy some Headroom using a Clipper. Now, I usually start with manual limiting or clipping, but for this session, I chose clipping. And I'll show you the waveform now. All the Peaks are consistent, drums, snare, kicks happening consistently. Sometimes, if there's an offshoot of one Peak, I don't bother to clip at all. I just go in and manually edit it. But here, every Peak is very consistent, very easy to manage. And how I dial this in is, I actually use the d-clip mode in audio editor to give me a visual representation of where all the Peaks are. Now, I use a negative six decibels for this session. I use an

English six decibels on the Clipper so you can see all the Peaks. It's clipping, and you're probably wondering about three to four dozen Peaks that you're clipping. Are you gonna hear it go to the loudest Peak? The loudest Peak is at 1.2 decibels over here. Okay, we're over here. How many samples do you reckon that is? Okay, let's zoom in, and this is the beauty of audio editor. You can actually see all the sample points. That's a total of 32 samples. 30 samples divided by 48,000. You're in the thousandth of a second that that clipping's occurring. So any of the distortions, any of the harmonics being introduced is on a very micro scale. And I actually went through and looked before this video to see what was the longest amount of samples clipped at any one stage. It actually happens just after that initial Peak there. Let's go across there. 65 samples. So that's still within a thousandth of a second that it's

clipping in any single instance so you it's inaudible. You won't hear that clipping. And to show you this, let's actually listen turning the Clipper off and then back on. [Music] [Applause] [Music] that's ridiculously subtle. Maybe it's just taking a little bit of the poke out of it, but really the mix is holding together nicely. And with just 62 consecutive samples clipped at any one stage at a thousandth of a second, to trade-off for that to get five decibels of additional gain is what I call a bargain. When we're discussing the trade-off to keep with our tally, we're now at negative 10 luffs overall. Not everything's all about loudness. I wanted to create a bit of separation between the sustain of the guitars and the smack of the drums, so I set up this compressor here. Okay, the catalnikov. You know I love this compressor. It's awesome, and I use a relatively slow attack time, relatively slow release, and that was just allowing

me to sustain the guitars behind the smack of the drums. Now, this didn't get me any extra loudness. If anything, it might have put me back a few fractions of a luff. However, it was mainly about feel and getting the feel of this master right because I'm not willing to sacrifice the loudness for feel. So, take a listen to this and get an idea for how it's sitting the pocket makes it sit in um because this is part of the chain. And I had to share this with you because it's not always just about making it as loud as possible. [Music] associated [Music] [Applause] [Music] now that compressor brought us back to a total of negative 10 luffs. Following that compressor, I wanted to add some depth to the overall master. We're dealing with live drums, and I wanted it to feel like the kick was subtly bleeding into both the left and right channels. So, have a listen to the side Channel with this turned off Baseline Pro turned off.

[Music] All right, I don't get any bleed from the kick, and I think the drum bus might have had an elliptical filter on the subs. And none of that punch or movement is happening out on the sides. But fear not, you know I love Baseline Pro for exactly this. Take the mid signal, add some harmonics to the side signal, and then blend it in. [Music] Okay, so it's just moving a bit of those drums out the side, especially the transient stuff from the kick, and some of the snare in the middle. It's just giving it a little bit out the stereo field. Now, haven't listened to this before and after because I really like what this does to the overall master. [Music] Yes. [Music] [Applause] [Music] I love the way that it gives it this nice breadth and depth to the overall mix. It's actually pulled the overall down, so it actually created a few more Peaks, especially between the left and right Channel and the overall loudness.

has gone down to negative 11.3. Next in the chain was this sontek four three two. Now believe it or not, this low shelf EQ here for negative one decibel was actually the request by the client. They felt as though the first master I sent them was a little bit too much, too much subs in it. And in hindsight, I actually agree. There were too much subs in it. So this is a really cool move, this negative one decibel of 50 hertz. But I did boost at its a half DB boosted around 740 hertz to help that guitar and vocal cool just sit a little bit more aggressively in your face. So when you're playing it through, just feels like it's hitting you a little bit. Now when it comes to the two models, the analog models is a four three two. There's the pure analog and the aggressive analog mode. I tend to prefer the aggressive analog as when I'm aiming to add a little bit more edge to a signal. This just I feel and feel is

it's a good word to use, but because it's not objective, it's not measurable. This does add more fourth and fifth-order harmonics, but it's so micro you really shouldn't be able to hear it. However, I just use the aggressive analog mode when I want a little bit more edge, okay, a little bit more edge. Let's have a listen to this, all right. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Might not be as exciting now, but as we start to drive the signal, it makes a lot more sense because there was quite well, there is quite a lot of low-end energy there, but overall, this 432 EQ move just helps bump our lofts up a little bit to negative 11. I was also listening through this in the mastering session, and I wanted the snare to pop a little bit more. To make the snare pop and really stand out, I employed using the impact module. Let's have a listen to the delta signal to hear exactly what this is doing. Okay, now let's listen to a before and

after without the impact module, and then with. [Music] yes. [Music] [Applause] [Music] and doing that subtle process. It's only adding like after this about at single instances in that frequency range. It didn't change the overall loudness breeding, so we're still at negative 11 lufts. Then I've used the maximizer with no more than a decibel of limiting using the transient mode. And why transient mode, you ask? Well, I feel like this particular mode gives me the best low-end extension, and that's really important to give it that extra oomph. We're using the soft Clipper here on Media mode, and that helps us bring us to our negative 8.1 lufts. And that's really important. This here helps us get us to that final loudness, that soft clipping, which is really important. And there's also a little Easter egg at the end of this because you're probably wondering if you're using true Peak mode, you're definitely going over zero decibels and

here's the thing. I was this is this is a trick I learned from somebody I know, and I had to do it to believe it. I used true Peak limit mode in maximizer, and I've always used tripping limited maximizer, and they told me use true Peak mode in maximizer on a separate maximizer, but just how the ceiling set to zero decibels, okay, like this, and they go it will sound better, trust me, and I thought, well, that's you just you just use the true pick one there, why would you have to use a second one, it won't work any different, but trust me, I did some blind tests, it actually sounds better, so the overall peak level of this 8.1 loss Master is zero decibel, now let's have another listen to this before I give you my final thought. [Music] that's how we boosted the final laughs of a mix, which was negative 14 negative 15 lufts all the way up to eight luffs, if you're interested in exploring mastering more, here are two videos where.

I break down some really interesting techniques regarding mastering and processing so click on one of them and enjoy.

INSIDE an -8.1 LUFS Mastering Chain!

Hello. I'm Nicholas Di Lorenzo. I'm a mixing and mastering engineer and owner of Panorama Mastering Studio in Melbourne, Australia. I’m an Italian-Australian. born and raised in Melbourne.

This channel is for anyone involved in the music making process, artists, engineers, producers or musicians.

To stay up to date, hit the "bell" icon for alerts as I release videos weekly on all things audio, mixing, mastering and industry.

-

Want to learn more about what I do?
https://panoramamastering.com.au 
@Panorama_Mastering

Panorama Mixing & Mastering

Achieving Insane Loudness in Music Production

The mix has significantly increased in loudness, reaching a peak of -8.

1 lufs, while maintaining clarity and punch.

The process involved using a Clipper to manage consistent peaks, allowing for a 6-decibel clipping to enhance loudness.

The careful management of peaks and clipping has resulted in a micro-scale introduction of distortion and harmonics, contributing to the insane loudness of the mix.

The Impact of Using a Clipper and Compressor in Music Production

Using a clipper in music production can subtly improve the mix by reducing clipping, even with a minimal impact on the overall sound.

The use of a compressor in the mastering process may not increase loudness significantly, but it can greatly impact the overall feel of the music.

Adding depth to the master through subtle channel manipulation can enhance the presence of specific elements, such as live drums, in the final mix.

Adjusting the Drum Bus and EQ for a Better Mix

The speaker uses Baseline Pro to adjust the drum bus and create movement in the stereo field.

By adding harmonics to the side signal, they achieve a better overall master with increased breadth and depth in the mix.

A client request leads to a -1dB cut at 50Hz and a 0.

5dB boost at 740Hz using the Sontek 432, enhancing the guitar and vocal presence.

Using Audio Effects for Sound Enhancement

The 432 EQ move adds fourth and fifth-order harmonics for a subtle but noticeable impact on the sound.

The impact module is employed to make the snare stand out, without significantly changing the overall loudness.

The use of the maximizer with transient mode and soft clipping helps achieve the desired loudness level without exceeding zero decibels.

The Impact of Using True Peak Mode in Maximizer

Using true peak mode with a ceiling set to zero decibels can significantly improve the sound quality in mastering.

This technique allows for a boost in the final loudness of a mix, resulting in a more pleasing audio outcome.

Exploring mastering further through specific techniques can also enhance the overall sound production.