How to MIX LOUDER – in 10 Easy Steps! 🔥🔥#mixing #mastering #loudness

Why is getting a loud mix and master important?

Getting a loud mix is important despite the fact that streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music attenuate the volume to make playback between various songs more similar.

This is because, if your song or track is getting played out in a venue, and the DJ plays your (quieter) track after a louder one, the energy on the dance floor can drop.

When I started producing this happened to me when I’d play my own music out as a DJ. Not good!

But, obviously you want to get it loud WITHOUT crushing the dynamic range out of your mix, and you can only go up as far as 0dB peak.

So, we need to increase the AVERAGE volume. It’s just the PERCEIVED LOUDNESS we’re after - not higher peaks of volume.

(Even if you are just producing for streaming services, these techniques are still good practice as they’ll help you achieve a cleaner overall production!)

In this video, I show you 10 steps to getting a louder mix and final master. It start early on in the production process!

NOTE: I recommend watching this video with at least a semi-decent set of monitors or headphones so you can hear all the small differences that we’re making throughout the tutorial.

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Ok, here are the points covered in today’s video:

PART 1: SOUND DESIGN

1:34 Layering

3:11 Audio editing (editing transients / shifting audio)

PART 2: MIXING

4:21 Saturation & harmonic excitement

5:49 EQ out unnecessary low end. Be wary of taking it out of everything, otherwise you can end up with a tinny mix.

6:41 Reductive Surgical EQ.

8:17 Reverb (another kind of layering).

8:47 Compression.

10:57 Parallel Compression.

PART 3: MASTERING

12:36 Limiting.

15:42. Referencing & Metering (LUFS)

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There you have it! You are now armed to the teeth with loudness weapons. Use them carefully and wisely :)

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Are you going to give any of these techniques a try? Let me know what results you get in the comments below!

#mixing #mixingedm #ableton

[EDMTips]

YO! Are you going to give any of these techniques a try? Let me know! 🥳

[viybeztremorrecordsintl]

Ur the best producer teacher I've watched on YouTube thus far. Pure clarity and practical demonstrations. Big up. I've learnt a lot from u

[Servesta]

Definitely the best loudness tutorial I have seen

[griffingibson]

Damn this was so comprehensive. I think I'm gonna reference this video about 100 more times before I get it down but I'm glad it's here.

[Darksliderific]

I'm 100% sure somewhere in the world someone is looking at this video thinking 'Damn I've paid a lot of money in the past for these tips and now it's on YouTube for free' :D Thanks Will!

[crazysapertonight]

This probably the best video on loudness increase

[deepitkujur]

took some productive insights from this video.

[jarrald]

This video is exactly what i was looking for! Thanks for the help

[jasonshaw]

There are tons of "loudness" videos on YouTube, but this one was exactly what I needed to fill the missing gaps. I've never heard layering explained exactly in this way. I knew about choosing sounds for frequency, but dynamics and spread as well? The other thing that struck me is the amount of boost the last two limiters are adding. Your individual tracks are really low compared to what I've been trying to do. Thanks for sharing this!

[pascalouzuena]

Great tuto, as usually!!! This will really help me improve my loudness objectivity. Thanks Will😊

[eijffelbridge]

I have watched this one 3 times now, I understand most of it and will try to implement these steps in my fl studio projects.
I already learned a lot from your gain staging video and I my mixes our sounding more clear.
Next thing to tackle, more loudness!
I Will let you know if I was succesful.

[Fox_is_Fox]

Thank you for your concision! that is a rare quality :)

[nasound]

Thank you. Crisp, clean, and clear instructions. Definitely subscribing from here on.

[blacktea]

Thank you very much, pro tutorial, informative and down to business, outstanding

[URYPHONK]

another great video, i learn good valuable lessons from you, good work brother, keep it up!

[briancase]

Thanks, this is great, like your other videos. I think I watched it a year ago, but now it's even more helpful. One thing I would say: almost all the steps you outline can be explained as improving the crest factor. I think this is a concept that you should introduce here as a unifying principle. You're beating around the bush at it when you talk about increasing the headroom or increasing the perceived loudness, but it's better to just be explicit about it. A mix with a good crest factor has the potential to be loud. A mix with a bad crest factor cannot be made loud without distorting. Another thing: if you use a meter on your favorite EDM tracks, you'll see they exceed true peak A LOT. It's not necessary to keep all peaks below 0db because doing so robs you of final loudness if you need/want it. For example, put Guetta'a Titanium through youlean. You'll see what I mean. When I do it, I get true peak of +1.9db and tons of red at the top indicating that it is clipping A LOT. But, that's ok because it actually makes it sound *better* (clipping is like another round of saturation when the mix is loud). We like that because the industry has conditioned our brains to like it. 😝 Also, you didn't talk about using a clipper in at least the master chain. It's often used right before the limiter(s). But, that's ok because you really did a great job of explaining the most important steps.

[sh-kwox]

Awesome tips. Think it really depends on type of tracks your after to.
If you want a perfect pop or dance record to sound like radio then yep eq surgically etc.
But if you want it raw and underground, go buy an analogue mixer and roughly eq on there, overdrive the channels for a bit of dirt . Tidy up slightly in ableton and your away.
The early recordings on trax records were rough as hell but that gave the tunes character.

Look at artists like lady starlight, Mr G, they literally just record hardware straight into the daw and that's it before mastering.

[alexpick]

great video will, taught me a lot man and immediately helped todays mix. Keep em coming!

[kristofferolofsson]

This video is reaaallllyyy good - on point as hell

[Itsmeitscharles]

Really great and informative tutorial, thanks for sharing!