10 Critical Mastering Mistakes You Should Avoid | Are You Listening? Season 6, EP 1

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10 Critical Mastering Mistakes You Should Avoid | Are You Listening? Season 6, EP 1

Рет қаралды 74,220

Күн бұрын

If you've mastered a song before, you've probably made at least one of these mistakes. Season 6 of 'Are You Listening?' kicks off with 10 of the most critical mastering mistakes to avoid. In episode 1, professional mastering engineer and Berklee professor Jonathan Wyner shares mastering pitfalls like mixing while mastering, using the same signal chain on every song, relying too much on the high end, and more. By the end of this video, you’ll have a strong set of mastering guidelines to follow as you master your own tracks.
Watch all seasons of ‘Are You Listening?’: www.izotope.com/en/lp/are-you...
Get 50% off mastering tools used in ‘Are You Listening?:’ www.izotope.com/en/shop/deals...
Learn more about mastering with free tutorials:
www.izotope.com/en/learn.html...
Learn more about Jonathan Wyner:
www.izotope.com/en/learn/jona...
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:58 Mistake #1 Mixing while mastering
01:37 Mistake #2 Matching your references
05:28 Mistake #3 Relying on targets
07:18 Mistake #4 Is gain-staging stupid?
09:58 Mistake #5 Forgetting to listen
10:37 Mistake #6 Relying on high-end
12:51 Mistake #7 Working to your room
14:01 Mistake #8 Using the same signal chain
15:16 Mistake #9 Relying on limiters for loudness
17:08 Mistake #10 Processing after your limiter
19:37 Outro
#iZotope #AreYouListening #mastering
SYNC ID: MB01AJHPI6YNFZC
*The spelling of Jonathan Wyner’s name is incorrect in the introduction of Season 6. Please see this video description and the Are You Listening? website for the correct spelling.

Пікірлер: 112

@neuroxik Жыл бұрын

Mastering: Fix it in the mix -> Mixing: Fix it at the source / prod

@valentin_boes Жыл бұрын

I love when you're showing the extremes and not only how it looks and sounds with the perfect tweaks. It is so much easier to understand a feature or what a knob is doing that way.

@JackLove Жыл бұрын

18:29 this is a Thing I Learned Week Ago when in I was getting Master Distortion on SIDES , even though the Track was not sounding Distorted on Stereo and Mono , i spent 2-3 hours finding every possible error in a mix , Masking , cutting transients with clippers but yet still was getting distortion , i paused the work took hot tea ! and mistakenly i bypassed the Plugin after Ozone Limiter and every distortion Gone !! sometimes we learn from sudden mistakes , SO SAY NO TO ANY PLUGIN AFTER FINAL LIMITER !!

@justinmoore1136 Жыл бұрын

Sooo ready for the new season! Love this series!!

@OfficialStevenCravis Жыл бұрын

4:42 looks like a stressful day at Wall Street!

@mikew4646 Жыл бұрын

Bravo iZotope! Thank you for continuing this series with Jonathan. Great stuff!

@baselinesweb Жыл бұрын

Welcome back! I always pick up something new to think about even after 5 seasons. We all appreciate what you do.

@EricLevineItsEze Жыл бұрын

I feel like I just got the Cliffs notes in video form from my Berklee Mastering class. Great work as always and glad to see the excellent knowledge sharing with another season of Are You Listening.

@AnnexationMusic Жыл бұрын

As someone who has a copy of Ozone pretty much to master my own stuff exclusively, I'm definitely guilty of trying to zero in on a 'one size fits all' chain. I do think there's loads of learning potential in experimentation and trying something new every time, but it can be hard to motivate oneself to go for it. Hearing Jonathon advocate for it is inspiring.

@GloveBunniesVideos Жыл бұрын

Such a great series. So helpful!

@musicforworldpeacerecords324 Жыл бұрын

Great to have you back! I missed watching your very informative video tutorials.

@UriShavitFineArt Жыл бұрын

Love your show. So clear and easy to understand. Keep it up !

@rikn1750 Жыл бұрын

This series is incredible !! Love it !!!

@DMMirval Жыл бұрын

Thanks for the clear and useful presentation. Congrats !

@iZotopeOfficial Жыл бұрын

Are there any other mastering mistakes you’ve made that you think others to avoid? Share in the comments! Improve your masters with tools like Ozone and RX: www.izotope.com/en/shop/deals.html

@BigTrouble324 Ай бұрын

I usually start with an eq to even things out discretely, then go to the multiband comp, and another eq to balance out small issues caused by the compressor, then the limiter at the end. Works most of the time, but might change plugins depending on taste. But the order is usually eq, comp, eq, lim.

@stevesrecordingtips7247 Жыл бұрын

Great advice about loudness targets.

@stallmak8 Жыл бұрын

Great video as always. Thanks

@n1tr0sys09 Жыл бұрын

#4.. it is just really great to see this quality of info, where it is important and where it's irrelevant basically, kudos to the great teaching on this channel and tools. Great work :)

@SoundFreqsOnline Жыл бұрын

This is a great video. Time well spent. Thanks Ozone and Jonathan

@bigkidband5731 Жыл бұрын

Great info, Thanks!

@Esotericvaultofgems Жыл бұрын

Thanks for the tips!

@AlbertNorris 2 ай бұрын

Very informative videos, Jonathan. Thank you for doing these. (Cool T shirt, too). 😀

@monkmusic5994 Жыл бұрын

Wow, what a helpful and at the same time superior advice!

@stevenneufeld3791 Жыл бұрын

great video! thank you

@AdamElteto Жыл бұрын

Even as an iZotope plug, this series is great, and Jonathan Wyner is an amazing engineer anyone can learn tons from. I really like his common sense and approachable attitude. Plus that T-shirt. Geek cred. Enough said.

@witnessthelightmusic2954 Жыл бұрын

You guys have been at the cornerstone of my audio addiction… thanks for all the knowledge and the best tools in the industry.

@iZotopeOfficial Жыл бұрын

Appreciate your kind words 😇

@KarryConway Жыл бұрын

thankyou i learned a lot from this !

@bluewavesmastering2284 Жыл бұрын

Slowly but steady I am getting more and more into Masterring!, I love it!... Thanks for this amazing videos!!!

@notyourtypebeats Жыл бұрын

wow, that´s some real good content! Thanks for sharing :)

@oskarwroniewicz Жыл бұрын

I could happily listen to you talk all day. We are really fortunate to be blessed with your knowledge and the impecabble presentation

@Skimatik_DnB Жыл бұрын

Since “Are you listening” series 1 Iv been following and implementing and learning 🙌 as long as you make them I’ll listen 😎 we can always learn something new 😎✌️💚☯️

@williamhively3295 Жыл бұрын

17:49 What a tender way to describe how some of us feel about our creations. They have to make their own way among all the other tracks out there. We try to set them up for success. The rest is out of our hands.

@bhargavdobhal5327 9 ай бұрын

Thank You 🙌🙌Very Helpful Video🔥🔥.

@lennix_music Жыл бұрын

Thank you for all the valuable information

@golbeatspro Жыл бұрын

Thanks iZotope for such quality content... Grato 😊😊😊

@nayanmirza2507 Жыл бұрын

Great work 🙏

@by_nalavi Жыл бұрын

Thank you!

@pawel9450 Жыл бұрын

Thank you 😎🤘

@Jess-P Жыл бұрын

YESSSS I’m listening!

@CarloLibertini Жыл бұрын

NICE!... Thank you Jonathan!

@bloodwerk6156 Жыл бұрын

Thanks for this video!

@bassManDavis1953 Жыл бұрын

I have just got around to watching this video? My god! what a ton of info, so cool, so easy to listen and presented in such a great way. thank you so so much, this is one I'm gonna keep at the top of my list and favourites. Absolutely brilliant.

@iZotopeOfficial Жыл бұрын

Thank you! Glad you like it. Keep your eyes peeled for more videos from this season 🥳

@Mdjagg Жыл бұрын

Your voice recording here is phenomenal, btw! Love to see that tutorial.

@bco0t6 Жыл бұрын

This is a great video wish it was around 5-6 years ago when I first started engineering

@espanievac Жыл бұрын

Thank You.

@KLAUSPavlock Жыл бұрын

I wanted him to play the extreme match

@emiel333 Жыл бұрын

Great video

@mrfleamino9350 Жыл бұрын

thank you

@rybotekk Жыл бұрын

Thankyou.

@EclectickMusic Жыл бұрын

He’s baaaaack! 😁😁😁

@ModusVivendiMedia Жыл бұрын

I learned the hard way both about having an EQ without a limiter following it, and not saving intermediate files in 32-bit float. I had to redo noise reduction on a few tracks because I'd inadvertently introduced clipping, then saved the files as 24 bit linear.

@thaexception3406 Жыл бұрын

Welcome back

@savagetofu1 Жыл бұрын

good show.

@vitaminfian Жыл бұрын

JW is BOSS !

@paisleepunk Жыл бұрын

wow, does that read horribly out of context

@peterhorvath8153 Жыл бұрын

@19:02 That little laugh says it all :D

@Entertainment_Records Жыл бұрын

Got to get you as my mixing engineer teacher 👨‍🏫

@bboymac84 Жыл бұрын

JW is back!!💪🏽😁

@KYTHERAOfficial Жыл бұрын

I love theese videos (:

@robertsimpson5801 Жыл бұрын

Hi, John! Thank you for another great video! You probably don’t remember me, but I was one of your students in the year 2020! I have a question for you in regards to mastering signal chains in “mastering by rote.“ When you are mastering tracks for an entire project, do you typically set up a single mastering chain, and use it for all of the tracks of the project (manipulating the setting in the chain) to give the entire project a unified “vibe,“ or do you still treat each song Primarily as an individual piece of music?

@markrude Жыл бұрын

Ufh great video really! I would argue though that especially when mastering only a specific type of genre it may not be a red flag to always do similar-ish moves

@adamsunderland0823 Жыл бұрын

This was helpful. I was curious about ozone eq match. Also the whole gain staging argument. Should you be gain staging Ableton stock plug inns.

@theandroids Жыл бұрын

Epic t-shirt.

@nicklegendmusic Жыл бұрын

Best combination using Ozone 10 in Wavelab Pro 11

@bennyb7ee Жыл бұрын

I'm all ears

@eccentricworx Жыл бұрын

#4... just use a VU meter as you would have in the analog days...

@kingech_B15 Жыл бұрын

I use IZotope de-click after the limiter. Works fine

@LETTMusic Жыл бұрын

Always love this video series. They have helped me improve my own mixing/mastering greatly over the years. The one thing I want to ask though about the end of this video, it suggests not to do any processing after the final limiter, but for me, I still like to add one final gain plugin after the final limiter, and use it to create an automation clip where 100% on the automation clip is set to 0dB on the volume/gain plugin. That way, I've got one final automation clip to handle the fade ins and fade outs of my song, it's only purpose is total volume reduction. Does it not make sense for me to have this after the final limiter rather than before it, because a limiter is doing some compression work, wouldn't it potentially cause weirder things to occur from the limiter than for me to treat volume fades post limiting? Should it really make a difference if my final fade ins/outs are before or after the final limiter since I'm never pushing anything up, only reducing volume down? What if I wanted to make the verse 90% of the volume of the hook/chorus, would a volume automation on the master be better served before or after the final limiter?

@DarkTrapStudio Жыл бұрын

It depends, most of engineers put it like a the start of the chain, but everything is possible, after the limiter gain automation will sound more mechanical especially if the limiter is hitted in the rms more than burst, I like often to put it after the clipper and before the final limiter. For musicality on a good master, putting it at the start could make more sense, try and hear !

@LETTMusic Жыл бұрын

@@DarkTrapStudio I thought putting it at the start is the worst place you can put it. Say you have distortion/saturation or compression in your master chain. Those plugins often apply processing and add character based upon the Input level, so if you do volume automations at the start of a chain, you're affecting the processing amount of distortion/compressors later in the chain; which is why I feel like volume automation last in the chain is the only way to ensure your processing is exactly as you want it, and you have one final fader at the end to basically do your fade ins/outs. I may experiment with trying right before the final limiter plugin.

@DarkTrapStudio Жыл бұрын

@@LETTMusic Yes, when you shout you have more saturation, so when there is less volume it is more natural to have less distortion, Its the natural way, like I said Its not complicated, when you put it at the end it sound mechanical, but you may like it/fit the song.

@DarkTrapStudio Жыл бұрын

When I do automation for hook, chorus, verse I can do gradually 2 db, on a pro master it will sound good, but me being medium skilled it doesn't make sense most of the time It break the master, so I do it after the most triggered compressor or like I said after the clipper before the limiter.

@PatAutrey Жыл бұрын

thanks for these great insights - quick question, I am older now, and after spending in the military around jet engines, and jamming live for the last 35 years, my hearing has diminished - do you have any recommendations on how to visually discern if a mix has been done "correctly" where you are not depending entirely on what you are hearing?

@nicolasfox Жыл бұрын

Yay, the cat shirts are back! 🙂

@zazoomatt Жыл бұрын

Now Just started to Make songs & record w/ Midrange Equipment, 2 pairs 6" Biamped speakers Presonus & Behringer all room treatment (REW & ARC3 Room Correction completed) w/ Good 6 pairs of Headphones & 6 starter mics just getting to spectrum Analysis. Now to LISTEN ! This SERIES IS INVALUABLE TO ME RIGHT NOW.

@alainsellier7751 8 ай бұрын

Thank you for all your tutorials. I have a question. Is it better to use Ozone on a finished mix track or also use Ozone at the mixing level of your tracks on the main master bus?

@visheshl Жыл бұрын

Whats your opinion on not mastering at all if you feel that the mix sounds great as it is ? Or is mastering a requirement...and if that is the case, what would be the primary goal when mastering a mix that you feel sounds great just the way it is ?

@OfficialStevenCravis Жыл бұрын

Jonathan, I’m interested to know: Does Izotope plan any integration of Ozone with Dolby Atmos (Spatial Audio and Surround) in future updates?

@tonekerneymusic Жыл бұрын

i am listening

@connelljacintorealestate4361 3 ай бұрын

Thank you for the excellent tutorial. When using a reference, is it important that the tempo of the reference track match the track being mastered ? My track is 130 BPM. I found a reference track that closely matches the style and sound of the track but is at 150 BPM.

@lameraviglia Жыл бұрын

👂👂👂👂👂👂👂👂👁👄👁👂👂👂👂👂👂👂👂 that's me when i see a new jonathan wyner video is out. and yes i know i only have left ears, don't judge me.

@chrishaertwig Жыл бұрын

🖤

@Frankie_G_ Жыл бұрын

See that Trio6 in the background

@artist1303 Жыл бұрын

Should I remove my limiter in my mixing stage before I send it to mastering?

@Pulse2AM Жыл бұрын

Holy H*ll I didn't see the true peak limiter button on the limiter. Yikes, I mastered a track without that engaged set to -3dbs now looking at it again since the limiter was last in the chain I see some peaks got through. If you have peaks at .3 coming through has that destroyed the mastering? Yikes!

@jacksmith4460 Жыл бұрын

"when trying to play guitar make sure you play guitar and not piano" tip number 1

@randomschittz9461 Жыл бұрын

What was the reference track? Sounded very familiar.

@Songwriterbehindthecurtain Жыл бұрын

Is remaster and remix album 💿 still tell the same story or different story? Because this is what grant Norsworthy from Paul colman trio said he said that I think if an album is remastered and/or remixed, it’ll tell the same story but (hopefully) better. But Jonathan Byrd he said that Sure! It’s a different album, more or less, depending on how much they changed things. For instance, ZZ Top did some radical remixes on their earlier albums, and older fans hated it. From their perspective, they were very different albums from the originals. what’s your opinion about it?

@jacksonreazin6042 Жыл бұрын

Tell us where to get the shirt. Please.

@dsmond Жыл бұрын

Is it recommended to master on ozone stand-alone or in a daw? does anyone knows this? i’ve tried both, but i can pin which i like the most or is better.

@leonardogabrielgarcia Жыл бұрын

👍👍👍

@Fouche_tv Жыл бұрын

I want that shirt

@CraigFlowersMusic Жыл бұрын

Where did you get that shirt. TELL ME! NOWWWWWWW!

@moxenrider Жыл бұрын

How do I get a cat shirt?! 🐈

@BrownestHarry 6 ай бұрын

JOLO CHAINSHNACKS TENINS OLVITAR EEEE

@TNT-km2eg Жыл бұрын

I wonder how could producers make all those fascinating masters before the age of PC and all these visual substitutes for actual hearing ?

@nicklegendmusic Жыл бұрын

They used their ears more plus they had meters

@D3NXIE Жыл бұрын

Producing with $10 dollar headphones is really embarrassing when I'm watching these videos.

@henri-fillipbauer6579 Жыл бұрын

For some reason I can’t stand the sound of isotopes maximizer

@repasiv Жыл бұрын

After using Ozone since version 5 or 6 the last update was the first one I didn't get. In fact I ditched Ozone and now I'm using another mastering application and I get easier and better results.

@valentinlechene916 Жыл бұрын

Which one? i'm thinking to not using it anymore too

@repasiv Жыл бұрын

@@valentinlechene916 Might sound like a joke, but TC Finalizer. I didn't even know that there was a software version of it. Somehow it barely made the news. It is a standalone application with no plugin support. But I think it is brilliant. It always analyses the whole file and updates the representation if you change something. You can set the output stage to loudness maximization and it is 100% sure the file hits the set target. And it is kind of fool proof. If I need a better master than I need to give it to a mastering engineer. Ozone is nice and flexible but it never got me that close to a professional sounding master. It is for sure depending on my skills and listening environment, but the finalizer really takes these kind of out of the equation. Within minutes the track will sound polished in the right way.

@repasiv Жыл бұрын

@@guitar.knackshack2210 I didn't state any of that and initially didn't even say what my go to solution became, only after being asked. Don't be a Kevin. I purchased Ozone 4 in 2010, updated to all new versions up to Ozone 9 and used Ozone for over a decade. The new tools of Ozone 10 are mainly AI stuff to give you a new starting point, but no other significant update. It started to feel like such an automated mastering service. I found myself using this AI stuff in Ozone 9 also too much. In contrast I tried the mastering plugins from Plugin-Alliance, which yielded also good but different results. But in the end I stick to the Finalizer which I just discovered recently. I always wanted the hardware unit, but never got one. The software is a suite with a set of tools and it is very refreshing not stacking all kind of plugins but to be confined to the set of tools inside Finalizer. It just works quiet well for me. I think you should be grateful for an opinion even which might you not agree with. If the guys from Izotope read this, I wish for them to take it as a constructive critic from a long time user and may this serve as an input for their future development. I use the majority of their products, but this AI direction isn't one I'd like to go.

@valentinlechene916 Жыл бұрын

@@repasiv Hey thanks for this clear answers i'm looking about it now, kind of curious thing i didn't come across but seem really interesting ! I was thinking the same about Ozone, this is kind of you go in the good direction but not much or sometimes thats worst haha, i try to avoid using it or just some of these plugins