Mastering an R&B Song from QUIET to LOUD

[00:00:00]What's up, YouTube? It's your dog Buggy Oaken, and we back with another video.

[00:00:03]Today, I'm going to be showing you how I master an R&B song from scratch. I'm going to be showing you the steps and the process of everything that I do to get the song sounding loud, balanced, and radio ready. So, with that being said, let's get to it. Y. Okay, bet. So, the song that we have here is Never Better by Devos. If you seen my previous video, uh, my previous mixer video, you seen that I mix, I show the entire process of mixing this song from scratch and getting it to sound radio ready from a mixing perspective. So, I'm going to link that video um, in the description as well, so you can check that out if you want to. But, we have that full song. That full song was fully mixed, but I want to show you guys today how we get that song from sounding mixed to a mastered version where it's loud, it's competing with other songs. and when you throw it, let's say if you're at a event or whatever, you're listening to the song and the song comes on next to another commercially radio song, it doesn't sound lower, it doesn't sound like it doesn't compete, doesn't sound like it doesn't fit with that song. So, the goal of us mastering today is to make sure that everything is tonally balanced so that it can sound good in all type of speakers as well as sound loud enough. So, when it's on streaming services and when it's on uh the radio, it sounds loud as other songs. So, with that being said, let's get in the mix and let's show you how to do that. So, we have our full two track session right here, right? And I'll show you guys what I do um when I'm mastering. The first thing I do when I'm mastering is pull up a song that you're going to be using as like your reference. And that's a very important thing. Pull up a reference so that you can AB between the song that you have and the master that you're doing to another song that is already commercially mastered so that you can make sure you get as close to that as possible. Obviously, for copyright reasons, I won't be able to do that for this song. I mean, for this um video.

[00:01:56]But what I would do if you have Ozone, you just come to Ozone, go to this reference spot right here, click this plus button, and I honestly have a bunch of reference mixes where I could just pull up and load up into here. You feel me? So, I would just load up any song that I feel like is close to this one. I believe for this mix I will probably be using let's see I think I used if I'm not mistaken I used stutter by Chris Brown. Boom. So you open that and have it you can listen to many different sections of the song and I'll just use that to compare back and forth as I am um mastering my song. If you don't have ozone what I would do is I would pull up my track here. Stutter here. If you don't have ozone, there's another way to do it. I would just pull up stutter, right? Or whatever the song is, place it on our track, right? And then create like a master track. And so, let's say create like a master track, right? And all I would do is put like a C4 or C6 or anything that could go through frequencies. And you could just compare frequencies. So, I would listen to my song, listen to the low end, and then compare it to the other to the other song, the low end, and then make sure that that those align, those are similar. Then I'll go to the mid-range, do the same thing, [music] and make sure that those are sounding good and similar while I make my changes. So, that's another way that you could do it. Just make sure your mid-range sounds similar to the reference that you're using, your high end sounds similar to the reference that you're using, the low end sounds similar to the reference that you're using, and then you'll have a master that is similar and close to the one that you're using. But I have ozone, so I'm going to use that. So, the first thing I'mma do when it comes to mastering my record, one thing that I always like to do is I'm always going to start off by sometimes I do this in my mix in general, but I'm always going to start off by just cutting everything off that's 20 hertz below and 20,000 hertz.

[00:04:04]I just get that out of there because it just cleans up the record in terms of the high end and low end. Right. I'm going to keep this o zone on cuz we're going to use uh this uh at the end of our everything is already bypassed but we're definitely going to use this maximizing adventure limiter. So I want to hear what that's going to do to my record when it's getting limited already. We're going to limit it more just so we can get more loudness but I just want to hear what it's going to do to it from the gate.

[00:04:28][music] >> All right. So we can we as we can see we also want a paz analyzer here just so we can see our frequency spectrum and I want a WLN because um I want to make sure that I'm getting at least 9 LUFS at the end of my master to make sure that I'm getting a super loud song cuz if it's negative9 LUFS at the end of my master then I know I'm good and I'm getting the same type of loudness as radio ready or streaming ready records.

[00:05:03]So boom.

[00:05:06]>> So let's listen without it before and before. You could before and after. You could see that this cleans up the bottom end a whole lot and it makes sure that the bottom end is stands out as as well as cleans up the top end too.

[00:05:24]>> I love this music [ __ ] She changed my life.

[00:05:31]>> [singing] >> All right, bet. So, I'mma go to the hook anyway.

[00:05:36]>> So, I'm going go to the loudest part of the record.

[00:05:39][singing] >> All right. And we're going to keep this.

[00:05:44]All right. So, the first thing we're going to do is we're going to start attacking problems and things that we feel like our problem frequencies. So, me listening to it already, I feel like the highend is a little bit too. But this why it's very important to use reference track cuz I feel like the high-end is a little bit too uh harsh.

[00:06:02]So I'm going to tame that a little bit.

[00:06:04]But honestly refer it to your reference track and just try to match it to your reference track. That's the best thing to do.

[00:06:11][music] [singing] >> So we're going to search for this part where it's super sharp and then we're going to get rid of it a little bit. And whenever I'm doing mastering changes, I always go by the rule of I either boosting or removing um 0.5 at a time. So I remove at 0.5, then I remove at one, then I remove at 1.5, and then I'm never doing nothing big.

[00:06:36]Cuz if I got to make big changes, then that means go back into your mix and fix that. And that's why usually a lot of times I do master two while I'm in my session just so I can make the changes in the session that I need to make to fix. But I just want to show you sometimes you might get a two track from an artist and you got to master that and you won't be able to go back into the mix. So I'm going to show you how to fix certain things when when this is all you have.

[00:07:04]So this part is a little harsh. We can tain this a little bit.

[00:07:10]So 0.5. We going to take away five of it. Let's clean up the high end a little bit.

[00:07:16]Ask me [music] if I'm okay.

[00:07:19]>> Before and after.

[00:07:22][music] [singing] >> That's good. And I think what I'm going to do too is add like a shell. Just a small shell just to keep this a little duller.

[00:07:39]>> Not too much.

[00:07:42][music] Okay. [singing] I'm never fighting battles in my own way. [singing and music] Never wanted you to sweat it all.

[00:07:52]Okay.

[00:07:53]I'm better in my own way. [singing] [music] >> All right. And then we're going to start looking for places of like buildup and places that just have too many frequencies going up cuz that's going to open up the mid um going open up the song a little bit more because I don't want the song to sound like a little bit too muddy. So if I feel like the song is muddy, I'm going to start looking at um certain areas to remove. Usually I'm be looking at like 300, 600, 800, those areas from that range. I'm going to be looking at those to remove mud if it's there. Don't just if you gut out too much from there, your song is going to sound empty. But usually those are the areas that I'm going to start attacking first.

[00:08:41][music] >> It doesn't really sound muddy. It really sounds like a lot. Uh it's it's still clarity there. So, I don't really want to remove too much from there. Let's go somewhere else. [music] I actually like how this sounds. So, I'm going to boost this up just to give a little bit more energy in the mid-range.

[00:09:18][singing and music] >> And that's just going to lift up the mid-range a little bit. Let's close this up though. I don't want it to be too much.

[00:09:33]>> Right.

[00:09:54]>> [music] [music and singing] [singing and music] >> So, one thing I could do over here too is game match on this oz on just so it could let me really know um if what I'm doing is really making changes or if it's just making my record louder. So, let's go. [music] [singing] [music] >> [music] >> All right. So, I don't want to really do too much cuz it really sounds good. The mix sounds good. Nothing is really competing frequency wise. So, I don't really want to take out too much. When I start adding compression and adding saturation, things like that. If more things start feeling a little bit too extra, then we'll start doing more removing. But it's nothing too crazy now. [music] I'mma add a little bit more over here just to add a little bit more brightness to the overall record.

[00:11:41]It might be a little too harsh though.

[00:11:43]We'll see.

[00:11:46][singing] wanted you to [music] sweat it all. If you ask me if I'm okay, I'm going say I'm never better. Wish that I could say we both change, [music] but I guess I just leave that alone.

[00:11:59]So if you [music and singing] ask me if I'm okay, I'm never [singing] sweat it all. If you ask me if I'm okay, I'mma say I'm never fighting [singing and music] battles in my own way. Never wanted to. If you ask me if I'm okay.

[00:12:22]>> All right, we probably do a little bit more >> in this area just to clean up a little bit.

[00:12:38]But you see, we're doing little little tweaks that are just going to help along the way in terms of like tonally balance and everything. And you could really use um I would use a better honestly I would use a better analyzer, but you could really use a analyzer to um to really show you the problem, the places where you have problems. So re really what you want this to look like is like you want your bass to be higher, right? And as it goes down in frequency, it's sloping down not too much. Sometimes it could be like straight pull up a a song that's already fully mixed and mastered that you like that's like on a radio streaming server that's like really well mastered really well mixed and then look at the frequency spectrum you'll know that it's usually high here and then it starts sloping down and then around like 16 it get down. Sometimes it'll be a little bit straight on its end. But when you start having too many dips in certain places or too many boosts you'll know okay this way I have the problem frequency. So then you can make adjustments from there. Oh, if you [music] ask me if [singing] I'm okay, I'mma say I'm never better. Fighting battles in my own way. [music] Never wanted you to sweat it up. If you ask me if I'm okay. [singing] >> So, I'm going to turn this down. And I'm not going to boost this six because I feel like when I boost this six, it's it's making the the snare a little bit too snappy.

[00:14:02]All >> [music] >> right. So, I like how that sounds. We put this right here.

[00:14:08]Cool. We'll leave this right here. And the next thing that we are going to do is I'm actually going to go to compression first. So, usually if you see my mixes, you notice that I compress uh before my mastering chain, but I took that off just to do this mastering video because I would usually compress and do my mix plus on the mastering on the mastering chain. So when we're mastering on this level, we really not trying to do too much mastering. We really trying to do a small amount of mastering. We don't need nothing more than like two.

[00:14:39]If it's a song that you really need to glue together, very transient heavy, then maybe you'll go like three. But I'm for the most part, I'm aiming for like one, two, one or two dB most of the time.

[00:14:50]>> And I'm going to go uh I'm trying out this new plugin. Um, I usually, like, if you watch the video, I use like our compressor, but with this, I'm using this uh, Shadow Hills plugin because I really like what it does to the low end.

[00:15:05]>> So, we're going to go for this the threshold right here. So, we're going to go for like one 2dB max gain reduction.

[00:15:12]I try [singing] my own. [music] >> Turn the optical out and just make sure that this is the only thing working.

[00:15:28][music] [singing] [music] >> All right, let's see where we at.

[00:15:37]volume.

[00:15:39][singing] [singing and music] >> See how it's gluing everything together immediately.

[00:15:51][music] >> And with this plugin like these three options. So basically this will be more focused on compression of the high end, the mid and the low. So I play around with this just to see how it's going to change my overall mix. But for the most part, I like what it does to the low end. But I'll see which one sounds better.

[00:16:10][music] [singing] >> Fighting battles in my own way. [music] Never wanted you to sweat it all. If you ask me if I'm okay, I'mma [music and singing] say I'm never fighting battles in my own. Never wanted to it. If you ask me if I'm okay, I'm never better. Wish that I could say we [music] both change, but I guess I just leave that alone.

[00:16:38][music] I'm okay. [singing] I'm better.

[00:16:44]>> And this is like the attack and the release.

[00:16:48][music] [singing] I'm fighting.

[00:16:53][singing] you sweat it up. If you ask me if I'm okay. [music and singing] >> All right. So, let's listen. Let's listen to the before and after of the compression that we adding.

[00:17:12][music and singing] [singing] [music] >> If you notice, it's pulling everything together. I really when it comes to mastering compression, what I'm really using my ears to listen for is what is it doing to the sides? Like how much is it pulling my sides in? Because sometimes your record will feel like this. It'll feel like it will feel like separate elements. Like things will feel like it's okay, I hear the high hats over there and then I hear another sound coming up over here and then the side sound bar. You want it to be a wide song at times, but you want it to all feel like one song, one experience. Nothing is too low, nothing is too high.

[00:17:52]Everything is just compressed and compact. You feel me? So, every time I'm doing masculine compression, I'm paying attention to this to what it's really doing to my sides.

[00:18:02][music and singing] [singing and music] If you ask me if I'm okay battles in my own [singing] [music] >> I'mma go with this for now. We're going to keep this like this and then me trying out like these new um plugins that I'm re really trying out. Usually, as you guys see, I do everything in ozone, you feel me? But I got these new plugins and they were pretty cheap. It was on sale, you feel me? and I'm just trying it out and I really like how they sound. I really like what they do to the mixes. So, this is really um uh Blackbox. It's really a midside saturation plugin and it really has some good presets. So, I use that just to, you know, make the sound make the song and it mix sound a little bit more warm and and more like a analog type of sound. And the reason why I did the compression first is because it it really is more of a texture thing for me as opposed to like uh I would want to hear the compression how everything is getting glued together. Then I can add the texture for my ears. So that's how I use it.

[00:19:18]>> So let's see before and after.

[00:19:26]>> So let's choose. I really have a good I like this preset right here. in my own.

[00:19:32]>> Oh, let's loop that again.

[00:19:39][music and singing] [music] >> Let's listen to this before. Oh, why does she keep doing that?

[00:19:52][singing] >> Let's listen to the before and after.

[00:19:57]I'm never fighting battles in my own way. [singing and music] Never wanted you to sweat it up. Oh, if you ask me if I'm okay, [singing] I'mma say I'm never better fighting battles [music] in my own way. Never wanted you to sweat it up. If you ask me if I'm okay, [singing] I'mma say I'm better. Fighting battles in my own. [singing] Never wanted you to sweat it [music] up.

[00:20:21]If you ask me if I'm okay, I'mma say I'm better. Wish that I could say we both [music and singing] change, but I guess I just leave that alone. If you ask me if [singing] I'm okay, say I'm never fighting [music] battles in my own way.

[00:20:37]Never wanted you to sweat it all. If you ask me if I'm okay, I'mma [singing] say I'm better. Fighting battles in my own sweat [music] it [singing] say.

[00:20:53]Wish that I could say we both [singing] change, but I guess I just leave that alone.

[00:20:58][music] I'm okay. I'm better. The air m is making the snare a little bit too poppy. So, I'm taking that off. And then after I do that, I'm going to come here to this F6. Um, and I'm really just going to use a preset for this. But basically what I'm going to do is around the 300 level, right, is going to be like where the kick and a lot of the boxiness is going to be in. Right? So sometimes depending on the record, if it's a little bit too boxy, what I like to do is I'll solo it, right? And just hear the part where it's super boxy, right?

[00:21:32]>> 309 mostly there.

[00:21:46]>> [music] >> Yeah, around 309. So, I want the kick to just sit back and just not punch out a little bit too too much. So, what I'm doing is I'm just using, you can use any plug, any dynamic EQ or any um yeah, any type of dynamic EQ that you have. And what I'm going to do is uh kind of like a mid attack and like a mid release. Um I mean kind of a mid attack and a kind of quick release. And all I'm doing is just going to literally slightly just um compress it. So when anytime um that muddiness is punching through from that kick, it's controlling it.

[00:22:20]>> And this is like so subtle. [music] by OD. You're going to see it.

[00:22:26][singing] I'm never fighting battles in my own.

[00:22:31][music] >> See, when I exaggerated, you hear the clarity between the kick and the um bass a little bit more, but it's squashing the hell out of the bass, and the bass is losing life. So, that's why I do it way more subtly. [singing] [music] I'mma say I'm never better. Fighting battles in my own way.

[00:22:52][singing and music] Never wanted you to sweat it all. If you ask me if I'm okay. I'mma say I'm never better. Fighting battles in my own [singing] way. [music] Never wanted you to sweat it all. If you ask me if I'm okay, but I guess I just leave that alone.

[00:23:15]>> Really just pay attention to what it's doing in the kick and how how much more it's controlling the kick and keeping it like from punching out in your face too much. I don't want the kick to be super aggressive. It's a R&B song we working on. So, I won't do this every single time, but it just depends on the record.

[00:23:30]None of these things is like guarantee you do every time. You go based on the record and both based on what I'm trying to achieve for the song. [music] [singing] [music] >> All right. So now, usually I would do my EQ and everything here and we wouldn't use this EQ pre everything, but I wanted to EQ first before it goes into compression. And then what now I'm going to do is I'm going to do more of the midside EQ in ozone and start using more of the ozone things to control everything and get it to our final uh step.

[00:24:10]>> So the first thing I'm going to do, I'm going to turn this into midside and I'm going to boost the sides a little bit. So everything not too much because if you do do it too much it's going to be a little too harsh. But we control the size already in the stereo. So now everything 15,000 and up for this record. I just want it to be a little bit brighter. The side especially we have a lot of a lot of background vocals and everything. We just gonna turn that up. [music] >> No, this is actually made. So I almost made a mistake. So anything on the side here see 15,000.

[00:24:48][music and singing] You see how like the the background just fighting battles. They're moving up way more. They're a little bit more present.

[00:25:00]A little bit lift more lifted. That's what I'm looking for. [music] [singing] [music] [singing] >> I'm turn this down cuz I still don't want that harshness to come in. I might just move this up. [music] Cool.

[00:25:26][singing] And then we're going to go do the same thing on the sides. We're going to do the same thing to everything. I'll say like 60 below. So basically on the side information, I don't need too much of that low end information because it's just going to be it's that's when your song is going to sound or start feeling a little bit muddy. So, because I boosted the high, I'm just going to turn down the lows a little bit um on the side just so it can feel a little bit more balanced. But like I said, I'll probably do it the same amount. So, I turn it down by four.

[00:25:58]Let's see. [music and singing] [music] You ask me if I'm okay. I'mma [music] say I'm never fighting battles in my own [singing] way.

[00:26:17][music] [music] >> I like that. I'mma keep it at I'm going to make it.3 cuz I feel like 04 is too loud and.3 is too low. So negative.3.

[00:26:32]We're going to leave it there. And now I'm going to go to this mids and try to control that snare snap a little bit because I'm hearing that a little bit too much.

[00:26:59]Right there.

[00:27:01]Turn that down like one dB.

[00:27:09][music and singing] [singing and music] >> And while I'm doing this, I'll obviously be comparing to my record. I can't do this cuz I will get copyrighted, but I'll just be flipping through and just making sure that everything is close to the other record. Feel me? So, let's control a little bit more of that snare pop.

[00:27:48]And usually if you watch my mixes, I'm doing a lot of this work while I'm in the mix anyway because I just I because I if I'm in if I know I'm going to be in charge of mixing and mastering, I'm making these tweaks like on the mix buses. I'm making a lot of these tweaks tweaks on the mix buses and making sure that these things ain't even in problem.

[00:28:06]So if I if I was to send it to a master, it's going to sound already close to like the finished version. So they'll just have to do slight tweaks before for me. But we're just I want to show you guys if you just get a two track, how you would be able to achieve this without uh having access to tweak everything like you would you would be able to if you were mixing your own song.

[00:28:29][singing] battles in my own. [music] >> Let's listen before and after. [singing] [music] Fighting [singing] battles.

[00:28:50]>> That snare is way more controlled. Way more control. I might pull this up cuz I don't want it to uh Yeah, that's fine.

[00:28:56]I'm put this at zero negative 0.5.

[00:28:59]That's fine.

[00:29:01]>> [music and singing] >> Let's look for if we have any more mud.

[00:29:07]>> This is not like mixes. So, you're not doing nothing big changes. You're not just searching for frequencies to find problems. If you hear the problems and you hear areas areas that are bad, you remove it. But otherwise, don't do too much. Otherwise, you'll mess up your song.

[00:29:25]>> [music] [music] [music] [singing] >> And I'm boosting that area just so I can have that vocal come out a little bit more. [music] [singing] >> See, I'm boosting the mid. I'm never better. Fighting [music] battles in my own way. Never wanted you to sweat it up. If you ask me if I'm okay [music and singing] in my own.

[00:30:07]>> All right, bet. So, now we're going to do a little bit more dynamic control, more multiband compression just to control everything of the whole record.

[00:30:15]I mean, then we're going to make tweaks from there. [music and singing] >> All right, cool. So, I know I'm going to want to control the low end way more.

[00:30:25]So, I'm going to go through everything from like 150 down. We're going to control that.

[00:30:35]>> And probably just going to give a little bit more faster release and a little bit of compression. We're not doing nothing too crazy. And this is where the part where I say you'll be comparing. So if you had a C4, what I would usually do is I would create like a master channel, put a C4 on it, right?

[00:30:54]And just listen to the low end and then I would AB the reference. So I would listen to the low end of the reference track that I have and I'll listen to the low end of mine. If mine is way more unclear than theirs, then I know I got to make some adjustments. If theirs is way more um punchy than mine, then I know I got to make mine a little bit more punchy. You know what I'm saying?

[00:31:23]way more controlled.

[00:31:28]>> We're getting like 1 dB, so we're not really going to turn up this volume.

[00:31:32][music and singing] >> [music] >> And we'll control this mid-range too.

[00:31:48][music and singing] Fight it up. If you ask me, I'mma say I'm better. Fighting battles in my own. [singing] Never wanted you to sweat it up. If you ask me if I'm okay, I'mma say I'm never better.

[00:32:08]I could say we both [music] [singing] ch that high end. That high end is a little too sizzly.

[00:32:34]it.

[00:32:43]Oh, if you ask me if I'm okay, I'm never changing [music and singing] [singing] battles [music] in my own bra. Never wanted to sweat it up. [singing] Let's >> listen to before and after. [music] >> I'm better in my own [music] [singing] fighting battles in my own.

[00:33:26]>> All right. So, I'm going to use this vintage comp here cuz I just like the comp that's in um Ozone. We're not going to do nothing too crazy because Ozone's compressor um I already have compression on this. I don't want to compress too much. So, we're just going to use Ozone's compressor and just slightly compress this. Probably not even have it hit the d have any dB come down, but I just like how it just glues everything up together slightly. [music] [singing] >> [music] >> See, we're not seeing no dB.

[00:34:03]>> Now we seeing it, >> but I don't need it to be that [music and singing] low.

[00:34:16]>> And it does make a difference. Even though we don't see no DB, we can listen to it. [music and singing] >> [music] >> just very slight feel me. So then we're going to go to this stabilizer. We could use this stabilizer. We might use this, we might not, but I'm just going to choose this R&B soul and cut down the mids a little bit. [music and singing] own way. [singing and music] Never wanted you to sweat it up. If you ask me if I'm okay. [singing] [music] [singing] >> I really like what this stabilizer does to like balance out everything. And because we're working on an R&B soul type of record, I'm just chose that um preset. And I just put the amount at like 45 46 just to keep it you know um partially I don't want to do it overdo it to where it be to where it be to where it is extreme [music] [singing] >> now we're just going to focus on the imaging of everything and then we're going to start making things louder. Um, usually I will make the lows. So, how I like to image my tracks is lows, it's like a tri, it's like a upside down triangle. So, the lows will be uh more narrow and as I go up the frequency spectrum, we get much and much wider.

[00:35:55]Feel me? But like I always say, AB between your records to make sure that you're getting it just as loud. Use the C4 solo your highs and listen to it like, okay, these highs are way wider.

[00:36:07]My highs are way lower. You know what I mean?

[00:36:10]>> I mean, my wide my highs are way uh more not as wide.

[00:36:16]>> So, what I can do is start off uh [ __ ] where we going to start off.

[00:36:28]And I'm using these presets just to give me the bands really, not really in terms of uh where we're going to choose, but multi band. I'm not looking for that.

[00:36:38]mon. Okay, cool. So, I just wanted to just choose the band for me. We could also use this learn and it'll do that for you. But I just like these bands because I know I can when once I adjust it, it'll attack the frequencies, the ranges that I'm looking for.

[00:36:53][music] >> Turn this down a little bit.

[00:37:01]>> [singing] >> And >> I can make this range a little wider.

[00:37:06]Let's move this up.

[00:37:18]Ask me if I'm okay. [singing] Mama say I'm never better fighting battles in my own way. Never wanted you to sweat it up. If you [music] ask me if I'm okay.

[00:37:46][singing] So, let's listen before and after what we've done. Uh, just game match it and bypass [singing] this >> with no volume [music] increase.

[00:38:01][singing] [singing and music] >> [singing and music] >> And then then what we're going to work on is getting this louder. So we need this to get to um we need this to get to9 LUFS. You feel me? That's the goal. You feel me? But when I'm using like the limiters and the maximizers and the soft clippers, my thing is I'm focusing on the low end. If the low end begins starts to become a little bit too countryy, then I'mma dial back and I need to get more headroom elsewhere so I could be able to boost it up louder. Like if I'm not able to reach my loudness, but the low end is getting a little too crunchy, that means I need to tame the lows or tame the mids a little bit more somewhere else so I can achieve that loudness. Feel me?

[00:38:56]>> So let's start off by build pushing this threshold on this maximizer. [music] >> [singing] [music] >> Oh, game matches on. I'm like, why is it not getting louder? Let's go. [singing] [music] [singing] Ask me if I'm okay. I'mma say I'm never better. Fighting battles [music] in my own way. [singing] Never wanted you to sweat it all. If you ask me if I'm okay, [singing] I'mma say I'm never better. Wish that I could say we both change, but I guess I'll just leave that alone. Oh, if you [music] ask me if I'm okay, I'mma say I'm never better. Fighting battles in my own way.

[00:39:46][singing] Never wanted you to sweat it up. If you ask [music] me if I'm okay, I'mma say I'm never better. Fighting battles [music] in my own [singing] way.

[00:39:56]Never wanted you to sweat it all. If you ask me if I'm okay, I'mma say I'm never better. Wish that I could say we both change, [music] but I guess I'll just leave that alone. [singing] Oh, if you ask me if I'm okay, I'mma say I'm never better. Fighting battles in my own way.

[00:40:13][singing] Never wanted [music] you to sweat it up.

[00:40:16]If you ask me if I'm okay, mama [singing] say I'm never fighting battles in my own way. [music] Never wanted you to sweat it up. Oh, if you ask me if I'm okay, I'm Oh, if you ask [music] me if I'm okay, [singing] I'm never bettering my own. [singing and music] And you notice once I start adding these more things like these compressors and these limiters and it starts doing things to the record that I probably won't like. So that's when I go back and like, okay, now I'm hearing a little hot. I'm hearing some of the sharpness on the size a little bit more. So I'm going to go back to these frequencies and I'm going to get it out of there.

[00:41:05]And if I need to change more things, I'll do that. But the more you add, the more it'll start tweaking some of the things. And then you just going back making minor switches until you're fully complete. [music and singing] Okay, I'mma say I'm never better.

[00:41:20]Fighting battles in my own [singing] way. Never wanted you to sweat it up. If you [music] ask me if I'm okay, I'mma say I'm never better. Fighting battles in my own way. [singing and music] Never wanted you to sweat it up. If you ask me if I'm okay, I'mma say I'm never better.

[00:41:37]Wish that I could say we [music] both change, but I guess I just leave that alone. Oh, [singing] if you ask me if I'm okay, I'mma say I'm never better.

[00:41:47]Fighting battles in my own [singing and music] way. Never wanted you to sweat it up. If you ask me if I'm okay, I'mma say I'm [music] never better. Fighting battles in my own way.

[00:41:57][singing] Never wanted you to sweat it up. If you ask me [music] if I'm okay, I'mma say I'm never [singing] better. Wish that I could say we both [music] change, but I guess I'll just leave that alone.

[00:42:09]>> [singing] >> Oh, if you ask me if I'm okay, I'mma say I'm never better. Fighting battles in my own way. [singing and music] Never wanted you to sweat it up. If you ask me if I'm okay, I'mma say [music] I'm never better. Fighting battles in my own [singing] way. Never wanted you to sweat it up. If you ask me if I'm [music] okay, [singing] I'mma say I'm never better. Wish that I could say we both change, [music] but I guess I just leave that alone.

[00:42:37]if you ask me if I'm okay.

[00:42:42]>> I can even [music] give you everything you ever wanted. Cuz you just wanted something that [singing] I can give you [music] and it's okay that I wasn't enough for you. And I [singing] wish I could be enough for you. But at least I try. [music] So if you ask me if I'm [singing] okay, I'mma say I'm never better. Fighting [music] battles in my own way. Never wanted you to sweat it all. If you ask me if I'm okay, I'mma say I'm never better.

[00:43:15]Fighting battles in my [singing] own way. Never [music] wanted you to sweat it all. If you ask me if I'm okay, I'mma say I'm never better. Wish that I could say [music] we both change, but I guess I just need that alone. If you ask me if I'm okay, I'm never fighting battles in my own way. [music] got battles I can even give you everything you ever wanted [music] [singing] you for you and [music and singing] I wish I >> what I'm doing right this I was paying attention to the snare was popping a little bit too much so in the original mix I use the R compressor if you pay attention to the wrist I use the R compressor to glue everything at the end of the mix on my all music channel and that was that was highly controlling the snare. So, because I printed it without it, the snare is popping out a little bit more than I would like to. So, now I have to in this master session have to control that a little bit more. But, like I said, sometimes you get two tracks that might sound like that. And if you could if you if you have a relationship with the engineer or you have time, you could tell the engineer, "Yo, go fix the snare. Go dial it back a little bit." But if you don't, you make these adjustments. I have both of these uh [music] [singing] [music] >> so now we aim to get that 9 and we should be good and we should be loud enough as compared to our reference. So let's listen. cuz you just wanted [music] something that [singing] I can give you. And it's okay that I wasn't enough for you. [singing] And I wish I could be enough for you, but at least [music] I try. So if you ask me if I'm okay.

[00:45:09][music] and how I choose my soft clipping in terms of like for the overall record. It really just depends on the record because hot is really going to be very aggressive, very like decapitator feeling is going to feel way more like like there's an amp on it. And sometime for R&B record that might not be what you want. If I'm working on an aggressive trap record, then I might go um for high and that's going to be super aggressive because it don't matter if it's if I'm listening to those Playboy Cardi type of records or like those super aggressive records. I don't care if there's that much rumble or if it's super aggressive cuz that's what we're going for. But for a R&B record, it's more chill. It's more of a vibe. I don't need that. Feel me?

[00:45:49]>> Battles. [music] I can even help you out with I could [singing] never give you everything you ever wanted.

[00:45:57][music and singing] I can't give you that for you. [singing] And I [music] wish I could be enough for you, but at least I try. Oh, if [music] you ask me if I'm okay, [singing] I'mma say I'm never better. Fighting battles in my own way.

[00:46:16]Never wanted you to sweat it up. If you ask me if I'm [music] okay, [singing] I'mma say I'm never fighting battles in my own [music] way. Never wanted to sweat it up. If you ask me if I'm okay, I'm better. And we just get a little bit more louder and we should be [music] just that I can give you. It's okay.

[00:46:44][music] [singing] >> I'm getting um like 1 dB on this limiting which I would honestly won't last like maybe negative 1 dB. [music] I could never give you everything [singing] you ever wanted. Cuz you [music] just wanted something that I can't give you. And it's okay that I [singing] wasn't enough for you. And I [music] wish I could be [singing] enough for you. But at least I try. So [music] if you ask me if I'm okay, [singing] I'mma say I'm never better. Fighting battles in my own brain. Never wanted you to sweat it up. If you ask me if I'm okay, I'mma say I'm never better. Riding battles in my way. Never wanted [music] you to swe it all. If you ask me if I'm okay, I'mma say I'm never better. Wish that I [music] could say we both change, but I guess I just leave that alone.

[00:47:45][music] >> And with that, now we have a fully mastered song. We have the loudness. We balanced it tonally and everything sounds good. So now the most important thing is just making sure that everything is balanced and controlled in terms of your mix. Because when everything is balanced and controlled in terms of your mix, when you bring it into this, that's when you have a good master and that's when you have uh enough headroom to be able to make your song louder. So if you like this video, go ahead and drop a like and go ahead and comment and tell me let me know what other type of videos you would like to see from me and what's the thing that helped you the most in this video. With that being said, let's get to it, y'all.