What's up Audiosex?
I have issue that I want to learn a lot of time...
I saw a lot of tutorial it's help me to improve my skills...
The issue is compressors on the mastering chain .
When I compare my track to professional Mastered tracks I am notice that their track are compressed very well and they can pick up the volume at the limiter without get any distortion.
For example:

It's Remake for Thomas Newson & Magnificence – Blizzard.
You can see the difference between my track and the original.
I used "Uad G buss Compressor" and "Uad Multiband Precision"
Can you give me some tips how to make my track compressed like they do?
I also Upload my remake and the original so can you take a listen?
If it's take your time I will pay for it this issue is one of the important part of mastering and I am really want to learn it.
The original
http://soundcloud.com/ori-lizer/blizzard-original
My remake:
http://soundcloud.com/ori-lizer/blizzard-remake
(Download are enable)
Thank you very much!!

 

I wouldn't call that "very well compressed". It's just super-limited. (By the looks of it)

Also, what is one to understand from an 8-seconds intro?

I have found that the constant/flat peaks that create the rectangular shape are usually caused by the kick.

 

I didn't know how to say it but you said the correct word :"rectangular shape" I want to make it "rectangular shape"
When you write are "usually caused by the kick" what did you mean?
To make Sidechain with the kick?

 

The original track is limited (as is almost all mastered music).

to get the rectangular shape, you have to use a brickwall limiter, not a compressor. Limiting is a form of compression, however.

With limiting, the attack time = 0 and the ratio is ∞:1.

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-a-compressor-limiter-and-a-soft-clipper?share=1

 

Thank you very much!
Just a Little question I used izotope maximizer and thare are not attack and ratio I upload Image so you can see:

Thare are any option to make "rectangular shape" with izotope maximizer?
And if not on which limiter there are attack and ratio?

 

There are 2 possibilities:

1. You can raise the level of the music you send into the limiter. Your music will sound loud and all peaks get limited (this will get your rectangular shape).

2. You can lower the ceiling of the limiter until all peaks are limited. Your music won't sound as loud as other songs but it will have that rectangular look.

 

The attack is the "Character" control.

By saying that it's usually the kick, I didn't mean to sidechain it (that's actually done to create [slight] pumping). It's just the main element that has high, constant peaks that contribute to the waveform shape.

Be careful with the threshold. It can actually make some elements quieter. That needs to be fixed during mixing (on the particular stem). Don't squash everything else to make a single element louder. Same goes for something that is too loud to begin with. You'd want to bring that down during mixing (either by gain/volume decrease or compression); not compress the whole track to bring that down.

By that, I mean you should be certain you're just augmenting an already balanced track and not messing with the balance or "correcting" it.

 

Here's a tutorial for the maximizer of Ozone 5. Looks a bit different but the usage is the same.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jXMlkugmUs

 

I'd say it's clipped. It's much better than limiting.

 

This is one track i'm currently working on. Normal vs Clipped

beware, too much clipping can ruin your track

 

Perfect opportunity to post this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY4UFEZFRpg

 

You have UAD, but you don't know a lot of things.. O_o
or?
It sounds like "I've bought all ProTools product line, the most expensive analog gear, all legendary synths, but I know nothing about music production, or maybe I want make games or make software for offices or draw pictures or build houses...".

 

Yeah we've talked abou8t this a lot on Audiosex before, the issue of loudness. First of all, it starts with the mix, and it starts with gain staging and EQ. You need to have your instruments and different parts of your mix balanced.

In terms of mastering it's also about balance, then compression of course...and lots of it but in little doses. This is a mistake a lot of people make and a little trick I'll share with you guys ;). To go that loud and that compressed you can't depend on one single compressor to do all the work. You need to split it up.

1) First, use a gentle compressor to glue things together - slow attack, medium/slow release, ratio of 2:1 or 4:1. Bring the threshold down until you just hear things start to come together, you'll hear the kick tighten up and get closer to the rest if the instruments.

2) Multiband compression - quick attack, quick/medium release, ratio 2:1 - 4:1. You just want to catch 1-2 db's from each frequency band here, nothing major. Split up the bands in a way that makes sense for your song, there's no right and wrong here but just use common sense.

3) Peak Compressor - quick attack, quick release, ratio of around 3:1, bring the threshold down again until you hear things tighten up and smooth out more, don't crush any transients or kill the attack on your drums. Try a soft knee at this point too it works quite nicely.

4) Limiting - at this point, when you combine all the little bits of compression from the previous steps, you should have reduced the dynamic range quite a bit, and now the limiter doesn't have to do too much work.

IF after you've done all of those steps you STILL can't get it loud enough (as loud as commercial releases), then you need to go back to your mix and rebalance things, cut out some louds, compress some transients etc...

 

Who said you that I don't know a lot of things?
There are a lot of edm producers that send their track to Mastering services..
I spend 6000$ on my studio..(Dynaudio bm5a monitors , UAD Apollo sound card)
I bought UAD before a year and you don't want to hear my mix before the UAD....
I learn a lot about sound design.. sylenth1, xfer serum....
multiband compressor , eq , mid side eq with Izotope imager..
Uad is not a magic there are a lot of things to learn ...
Mix & Mastering is a issue that take minimum 3-4 years to study.
I haven't enough money to take a course that cost 3000-4000$
For me this forum is the best place to share and learn from each other.
And I Can promise that if one day I become a Mix & mastering master.
I will help and share all my knowledge with beginner member like
Baxter , Fuad, Motowest, Manducator and all of the kind persons on this great from that always help!!!
I post this topic today and wasn't believe that I will get so much comment!!!
Thank you guys!!

 

Hahahahhahahahha very good tutorial.....

 

Look the key to mastering, as fuad just posted, is increasing gain by stages. Your mix should be quite loud to begin with. Want to see how the pros do it? Check out this video, Dubvision talking about Turn it Around. Towards the end of the video you'll see their master chain is extremely simple and that record sounds pretty darn good (but honestly not that loud for the EDM standards when you compare to other tracks).


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB6EZGxW288

If you want to get really loud masters, I've personally found that the best plugins for such tasks are the glue compressor by cytomic (it colours your mix a lot though! but still sounds good) and a.o.m limiter, which lets you clip over the 0db threshold but since its soft clipping it wont sound bad. Thats actually what the pros do as well. Put under control by Calvin harris in your daw and youll see how much that clips!! Again though, make sure your mix is LOUD. Compress in the mix (not to much, but enough for loudness) with different compressors, use Ozone on busses or groups, Sausage Fattener, limiters and the sort. That will give you quite a loud mix and that's the best starting point!

 

Man... once you get the whole mix finished, just THROW A LIMITER ON THE REMAKE AND CRANK IT UP HARD at the end of your mastering chain! It will look as rectangular-ish as the original.
I hope you won't expect that, once your remake's waveform looks similar to the original, to sound like the original just because they look the same. *no*
BTW, the look is not called "Rectangular" shape, it's actually "Squashtangular" shape, if you know what i mean.