Have you ever wondered how you can make your songs stand out and sound exciting on Spotify? This is probably the most common dilemma to solve for many artists and producers. You want your songs to stand out next to other music or at least blend in. It’s easy to think that this is all […]
How to make your music stand out on Spotify Read More »
Now we’re going to discuss a central concept in mastering – Tonal balance. Tonal balance describes the overall relations between the lows, mids and highs in a recording. When we get the tonal balance right, then the master will sound natural and, well, balanced. So, what is a good tonal balance? Is there some objective
Tonal balance – The key to a natural sound Read More »
Compression in mastering is quite a misunderstood subject. It’s easy to think that compression is mainly used to control the dynamics and make the loud parts quieter in order to increase the overall level. And sure, that happens at times. Some mixes are too dynamic and need to be controlled with some compression. This happens
How to use compression for shaping transients Read More »
Have you ever listened to a great sounding record and marveled at how the high-end sounds open, sparkly and engaging, while still being smooth and well balanced? There are several methods that you can use when mastering to enhance the high-end. These methods can also be used while mixing, so they are well worth learning
Getting that smooth high-end Read More »
Using a VU metering plugin can sometimes be helpful when mastering, despite it being such an old and outdated way of measuring loudness. The LUFS meter is generally more useful for measuring loudness, but the VU meter can provide some basic visual information about dynamics and tonal balance. Note that all “VU meters” are not
Three VU meter tips for mastering Read More »
We’ve received a lot of questions about how we calibrate the Sennheiser HD 600 headphones for mastering. In this article, we’ll walk you through the process step by step and show you the specific settings we use. Whether you’re mastering, mixing, producing or just want to ensure that your headphones are performing at their best,
Calibrating the Sennheiser HD 600 for a Flat Frequency Response Read More »
This is a trick for Kotelnikov GE that you can use for both mixing and mastering. It is especially useful for music where the kick drum is important and you want the compressor to bounce along with the kick. A common problem when doing this with a normal compressor is that the low end gets too
Get fatter bass when mixing and mastering using Kotelnikov GE Read More »
This is the first part in a series about building your own mastering chain. We will dive deeper into specifics about the different parts of a mastering chain, like EQs, compressors and peak limiters later. But the first and in our opinion most important step to building a great sounding, versatile and reusable mastering chain
Gain staging – Build your perfect mastering chain Read More »
There are many features in Reaper that are very useful when mastering. In this article we’ll have a look at three features that in my opinion are the the most important ones! Feature # 1 – Custom keyboard shortcuts A big reason for the popularity of Reaper is the ability to customize it however you
Three must-know features in Reaper for mastering Read More »
Thomas has made a video about tonal balance which is the balance of lows, mids and highs in a mix. Getting the tonal balance is important. It’s not always completely self evident what the tonal balance should be, but there are general windows of acceptance in different genres. It gets easier to hear what the
What is tonal balance? Read More »