Perfect Mastering Chain (How to Get Loud & Clean Masters Every Time)

We look at what loudness levels are appropriate for mastering, as well as how to master for Spotify - getting the maximum loudness whilst retaining dynamic range and making sure your track doesn’t get penalised.

💪 [EDM TIPS COACHING - SPOTS LIMITED]
Learn how to produce chart-topping electronic dance music and make money from it in a matter of weeks not years.

Tools and plugins I mention in this video. Some of these are affiliate links:

👍 If you enjoyed this video, please hit the “like” button and consider subscribing to this channel!

In this tutorial, we cover…

00:00 - Mastering (Intro)
00:34 - Why Mastering is important
01:53 - Mastering Set Up
05:09 - LUFS (Average vs Peak Volume)
07:02 - Spectrum Analyzer
08:01 - Is your mix ready for mastering
11:04 - Colouring Phase
14:09 - Reductive EQ
16:44 - Compression
18:27 - Multiband Compression
20:05 - Sweetening EQ
22:05 - Loudness
24:36 - How loud should you master your music
27:12 - Mastering your Music for Spotify
28:50 - Secret Hack of Mastering for Spotify
30:53 - Make Music Sound Professional on All Systems
32:11 - Biggest Mastering Mistake Most Producers Make

📝…And here’s the blog version of this video: ???

Gear I use in this video…

🔈 My Audio Gear:

🎛 Discounted Plugin Deals:

💻 …And some of my Favourite Software…

🎤 Vocal Processing (I use all of these):

….AND SAY HI ON THE SOCIALS, BRUH:

Cheers, and happy producing!
Will

OTHER VIDEOS TO CHECK OUT:

LEARN HOW TO PRODUCE LIKE FAMOUS ARTISTS:

AND…

#mastering #masterchain #musicproduction

[FurkanTopal]

7:06 if anyone wonders how he opened two different track's span plugin screen at the same time, go to your preferences > plugins > auto-hide plugin windows: off

[seadoo]

My fav tip in here was about the reductive EQ, cutting out the ultra low end below 30-40hz. I never imagined doing that, but I just tried it out and was able to get my overall master louder as you mentioned, without losing that low end energy. Another awesome video full of highly practical tips.

[oliverhoschi]

Would like to say thanks! i´m producing music since 1998 but the Mastering was always a mystery for me. Now after 25 Years of making music, i can master my tracks myself with insane results. God bless you my friend!

[seanconleyy]

Hey Will, I am sitting here about to master my first official track I'll be releasing on Spotify within the next week or two and I just wanted to say thank-you. Kind of a surreal moment. I've been starting every morning of my day for the past year learning music production through your channel and to see how far I've come from exactly one year ago when I decided to go all in on this is crazy. I cant believe I know the skills I have now, and that is all thanks to you. Your teaching structure, course, youtube content, and friendly/easy going personality is always the highlight of my day and we appreciate you more than you know.

[yugeoc]

It was the simplest and easiest to understand Mastering Tips I have ever seen.
In Japan, there were no engineers who could give such easy-to-understand explanations. It was very helpful. Thank you very much.

[mageprometheus]

Thanks Will. As a God Mode sound designer and producer I don't ever need to mix or master my perfect tracks. Mage! Mage, wake up! You're dreaming. 😄

[scottbitz]

As someone who does live sound mixing, even if a live system is capable of putting out under 40hz, it can just muddy up things anyways especially with edm where you can easily push any frequency to any level.

Since I'm also a bassist, on a bass guitar the low b on a 5/6 string bass is ~30 hz and the low e is around 41hz and many headphones you barely hear the low e and even cheap guitar tuning pedals can't even process the low b due to how they're built!

If you really want to, when you're playing a show have a live mix with some of those lower frequencies with a shallower HPF so it still attenuates and doesn't just rattle the subs, stage, etc!

[EDMTips]

Thank you for watching! What are you favourite plugins for mastering? Let me know in the comments below 👇👇👇

[StormbreakerYT]

Soothe 2 is best way to get an anti annoying sound . Dynamically reducing the 3-4k frequencies makes your track sound less harsh and more smooth without lacking there . Also Tonal Balance Control helps me to make sure I have enough lows, mids, highs . Sometimes my tracks have waaaay to much highs and really quite bass . I only use eq and a limiter and those two plugins for mastering . No compression, no saturation, no Ozone 9 or 10 . And it always sounds completely dynamic, aggressive yet smooth and I peak around -5 to -6 LUFS . Perfect

[Barncore]

That Bark of Dog plugin is already a hipass filter (with a resonant peak), and then you used another hipass filter again with Pro-Q, just so you know. Great way to get phase issues

[lubro_official]

Mate this video was so helpful. Never really took the time to properly learn mastering, plus my mind was cluttered with so many tips and tricks from Youtube tutorials. So I needed a new approach and dial down on just the basics. I found your video and applied this chain to my Mix... It worked wonders. None of my previous tracks have ever sound so furbished and clean. Brilliant video man. You're a lifesaver!

[jaysundj]

A "shortcut" way to master your tracks is to throw on a Linear Phase EQ on the Master. Roll off everything under 30Hz, make a 2-3db boost at around 2500-3000Hz, then add a 4-5db gain at everything over 8000Hz. This will give your track a lot more clarity from the get go.

[borisvillar]

So many useful mastering tips here I’ve never seen on any other channel Thank you 🙏

[surdaybeats]

hi! I do not really enjoy writing coments, but now I feel like I have to. I've stucked with my music few year ago, and fortunetly your videos started to answer my questions that I was analizing. I must say that it is truly the best edm tips channel on YT. Congratulations ! And thank you master. Greatings from Poland :)

[papabear_music]

One of the best tutorial on youtube... I did most of the things before watching this video... but now... my master just sound top end!!! Thanks Will!!! One of my fav channel together with @AlexRome

[nickfarrant]

Getting back in to producing and finding my way again these tutorials are brilliant many thanks for sharing

[AKAtAGG]

reference track, reference track, reference track. Single most important stage. great video as usual.

[dimitriz]

I use SPAN to reference like you do here but, you can actually sidechain the reference and have both waveforms in one spectrum analyser. That's so much easier !

[DjAli]

شكرٱ ويل .. أنا أحترم عقلك يا رجل كل الحب لك
من ليبيا ❤

[vladimircerovic]

This is epic content. Needed this info so bad!