r/mixingmastering

Hi. I've gotten to the point where i feel like im going in circles with this mix. Im still a beginner I've been mixing for about a year in my freetime. In the heavier sections Ive been trying to get the density and huge reverb excitement that is present in post rock. It's getting harder for me to be objective with this mix so any feedback from you guys would be amazing.

Thanks in advance

I have been seeing so much about mixing with kick at 0 and I want to try as a beginner but after adding a couple other elements I’m clipping the master and the distortion is easily audible.

Do you need to mix into a limited when doing this? It seems like a good idea but idk why they don’t care about clipping I try not to care and no individual channels clip my master is clipping by 6 db and like I said the distortion is awful.

I really have no idea how people mix like this!!

hi guys, noob here.I'm still learning the ropes of mixing and I always try my best to do proper gain staging. However, just to be on the safe side, I usually put a limiter at the end of my individual tracks to catch any random stray peaks that might slip through.

Up until now, I've been using the native Logic Pro limiter for this job. The problem is that I've noticed it tends to color the sound a bit and slightly changes the EQ of the track, even when it's barely doing anything.

I'm looking for a free alternative and I found LoudMax. My question is: is it good enough to do this specific job (just catching stray peaks transparently without coloring the sound)? My computer isn't very powerful, so I need a plugin that won't kill my system if I have it loaded on multiple tracks at the same time.

Would you recommend it or maybe it isn't good enough?

I'm quite new to music production and recording, and I know the basic principles of mixing, but to be honest I'm quite terrible at it and it's not something that's captured my interest enough to get really good at it. Me and my band have released a couple of singles that I mixed myself, but for our next one I'd like to have it done properly by someone who actually knows what they're doing.

I don't need this mix to be super professional or anything, frankly the recording and performance isn't super professional either. I just want someone who is noticably better than I am at mixing, so if you're not super experienced but still have a grasp on what you're doing, that's kind of what I'm looking for.

Also, since this is the first time I'm doing this, I do ask nicely for some patience if I don't quite know the process on my end, and I'd appreciate if there was room for some back and forth, throughout the whole thing really.

About a month ago I'd posted a song for feedback here and you all were a ton of help on it - it's part of an album of ten songs and while I haven't made as much progress as I'd hoped lately (I spent most of the time between then and now so sick with a nasty lingering head cold that it felt like a bass knob had been turned down on the whole world),but I'm finally feeling well enough to get back to work and mostly truat my hearing again.

So, I'd love some fresh ears on this:

https://drewpeterson.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/01-At-the-Top-of-My-Lungs.mp3

Style is in the Joe Satriani/Andy Timmons/Nick Johnston vein, though the song itself is basically an unabashedly pop tune, with a more rock solo section (the riff made me grin ands crack up when I came up with it, so I wrote a song around it). Since Kurt Cobain was the reason I first picked up a guitar back in the day, though, I've been trying to mix this album with more of a grunge vibe, so in addition to a couple Satch albums, Timmons' "Resolution," and Johnston's "Remarkably Human," I've been spinning Nevermind as a reference a lot.

All guitars are live, real amps, drums were Superior 3 but programmed by hand and raw audio going into Reaper where I mixed it from scratch, rather than a preset, and the bass was recorded direct and I'm relying on a combo of the DI and TSE BOD for the bass sound. Happy to answer any other questions. Thanks!

From my research people say the HS4’s don’t have enough low end to properly mix low end heavy genres. So if I paired them with DT 770’s would that be adequate? I didn’t get the hs4’s because of budget I originally wanted the 8’s but I’m in my bedroom and didn’t want to get monitors that were absolutely overkill.

Hi everyone!

I've noticed that there are a lot of questions out here about specific LUFS values, which value is correct for a certain type of music, and so on.

Below is my take on that. It might be controversial, and it involves one specific limiter plugin, but I think it might help someone. I’ve already posted similar replies in a few threads, but decided to put them together in my own post.

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Suppose you already have a reasonably well-balanced mix, you're in the process of mastering it, and you want to make it competitively loud. Here's what I would do:

1. Use FabFilter Pro-L2 as your final limiter;

2. Engage the 1:1 option (it's unity gain - the output level is compensated as you increase the input), play the loudest section of your track and start increasing the input gain until the limiting becomes too noticeable (you start hearing pumping or other artifacts);

3. Decrease the input gain a little bit until the artifacts are no longer noticeable, or at least negligible;

There you go. You've found the sweet spot.

4. Disengage the 1:1 setting and bounce your master.

There is no point in chasing a specific LUFS value unless there is a requirement from the client/label to do so, which is rarely the case.

Just get it as loud as possible without making the mix sound worse, and you're good.

When using a reference track, rely on perceived loudness rather than a specific LUFS value. There will always be some differences in the arrangement that can affect the LUFS level, so there’s no need to be too nitpicky about it.

Hope that might help someone.

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Some more thoughts on the subject.

If your track isn't well balanced/mixed to begin with, you might simply not be able to achieve the same loudness as some commercial recordings (your limiter will be overloaded), in which case the mix itself needs to be revisited, but that's a different discussion.

Another trick is to use a clipper before the final limiter, especially if the track you're mastering has percussion/drums. Cut 1-3 dB with a clipper and a few more dB with a limiter, and you can get competitive loudness without noticeable pumping artifacts, which you can sometimes get if you use only a limiter.

If the mix sounds a bit too clean or sterile, a saturator might be used before clipping/limiting stages. Beef up the mix with some saturation and it will also get compressed naturally. As Andrew Scheps puts it, “Distortion is fun, and it’s EQ for free, and it’s compression for free.”

Also, not every track needs to be equally loud. For instance, if you bring a solo piano recording and an EDM track to the same LUFS value, the piano one will sound much louder and just fall apart due to limiting artifacts.

PS Most limiters don't have a unity gain option, that's why FabFilter Pro-L2 would be my first choice in this approach. Otherwise you might get fooled by the loudness boost. Sometimes, when the sound gets too loud and your room isn't perfectly treated, room artifacts start getting in the way, making you think the sound has gotten worse when it's actually just the room affecting what you're hearing.

OK, that's it. Sorry for the long post :)

Cheers!

I love UADs plugins.

They're incredible.

But I HATE how I have to have my interface plugged in to use some of them and the others have inconsistency with UADx.

I just want to buy a plugin and use it regardless.

I'm not asking if theres good plugins out there - I know there's a ton. But true 1:1 for the replication/recreation of classic plugins hardware?

Like I don't know of anything that can recreate the air on vocals the way Maag can.

Hey! Recently, I started listening to music in more detail. I was wondering how bands balance their instruments. I've been listening to Deftones, Red Hot Chili Peppers, KISS, Slipknot, etc., and I noticed that guitars always have a lower volume than drums. Sometimes the hi-hats and overheads are even louder than the vocals. Is it just me, or am I onto something**?**

Hi folks!

I’m working on mastering my OST for a video game ready for a stand-alone streaming release.

Obviously in-context some of these tracks were intended to be much lower than others. I’ve done a first pass through of the album mastering each track to what feels natural relative to the other tracks when listened through. It all feels reasonably good and balanced as an album, and nothing feels out of place when played through on shuffle either.

My only concern is the different ‘types’ of tracks are hitting wildly different LUFS and Peak levels to feel natural. The three Boss Fight tracks sit at around -12LUFS and peak at -1dB. The regular gameplay loops sit comfortably at -15 to -18 LUFS and also all peak at -1dB. The more ambient and minimal tracks, however, sit at around -21LUFS and only peak between -6 and -8dB. If I try to bring up these particular tracks they sound AWFUL, really unnaturally loud and in-your face.

What’s the general wisdom surrounding this kind of situation? I don’t really see a way around it.

What would happen if I sent this off to streaming sites with such a track-by-track disparity in these levels?

Thanks in advance!

#1: do you gainstage before running everything through a mix bus? i'd imagine, because if there's any sorts of subtle leveling issues in whatever the client sends you, those issues would become less apparent the more they were processed- so best get them sorted out beforehand?

#2 do you often change your mix bus depending on the genre/piece you are working on? if so, what commonly determines those changes?

I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions as to how I could best optimize my approach and mindset towards mixing and mastering, from the basis of being a music producer. I'm reasonably experienced, but I think in terms of dedicated mastering knowledge, I'm still amateur.

I've realized that one of the main values of music production is the manual craft itself, and learning skills purely for the sake of my own progression. I don't really think this is a matter of going and learning specific technical knowledge from books, but I may be wrong.

My inclination is that the best approach is to learn as I go about producing my tracks, learning through the process of finishing the work itself. However I'm aware that in some sense this is a bit open ended, and could leave me not really developing any skills, even with consistent output. Maybe I'm just wondering if anyone has any suggestions as to what a good approach would be in regards to keeping yourself open to new insights, as I work on the craft itself.

My genres are mainly electronic music based, but also interested in metal, and rap.

Before i type out my question I do think it is important that there is always the nuance of "if it sounds good, it works". The question specifically is aimed to know if the technique I'm using is common in the genres I work in (dream pop, psychedelic indie, shoegaze)

So my question is: I lately started to use busses (specifically mid range bus) to process my sounds together (i did this before for eq and compression but not with other fx). I will for example send my dry pads and synth keys to a bus => add modulation, eq, compression and saturation/distortion as inserts on the bus to create cohesion

I would then set up a send for my time based effects like granular delay, reverb, etc and eq this send (if needed also sidechain it to the dry signal)

I tried doing this with drums or bass added, but this makes it too cluttered like i expected (gotta try to know)

What I've noticed till now is that for cohesion this is golden, it really makes everything feel really glued together (especially if you print the audio and resample as well or use things like halftime in combination)

The biggest downside is that you lose the flexibilty of having effect automations affect a singular sound (while some advanced routing can bypass this partially, it's not that easy). Panning, volume, filters etc can still be automated on a track level so that doesn't pose a problem.

What is your guys take on this method and are there flaws that I'm overlooking in your opinion/are there better ways to achieve similar results?

Hi all, so I’ve been having issues with guitar pick chirp sound when recording guitar. I have my guitar into my pedal board, then straight into my Audio interface. I have the inst switch on also. I’ve been struggling for months with pick chirp sound. I’ve tried different picks, made sure my technique is fine, tried both my guitars, tried using a desser and compression, different amp sims to no luck.

It’s like it’s across the whole frequency spectrum.

It’s as if the pick sound is going in way louder than the actual guitars sound. I don’t have the issue when recording micing an amp, it’s only without.

I don’t really know what else to do or try wondered if anyone had any advice? The guitars I’ve tried are Gibson SG and a Fender Jazzmaster, both humbucker pickups. I use the Jazz 3 picks.

Thanks!

Hey there! I saw a vocal chain breakdown that consisted of a:

\-main vocal
\-2 backing tracks repeating the main
\-2 adlibs harmonizing

My question is regarding the actual mixing and recording of these additional takes. I know that you’re supposed to do new takes for the backing tracks that repeat the main instead of just copying and pasting them. As for the actual mixing, what kind of eq, compression, etc. should I be using?

Is there a certain way reverb, auto tune, delay etc. is used on these additional vocal tracks that differs from the main vocal? Should I be bus processing them? I know this will be different depending on the vocal but I just wanted to get a general sense of what other people do.

This has always been an area I struggled with. Would appreciate any help!

what are your remedies for a master that is distorting? I have tried reducing the peaks on the kick, bass, snare, lead using a soft clipper. im not in red / clipping anywhere on the channels. i´m also compressing on individual channels where there are high transients. TP is -2/3db. But to gain commercial loudness I have to drive the limiter in what seems almost unreasonable amount of gain, and then it starts sounding distorted. I dont have much else going on in the master chain except an Oxford Inflator. Is soft clipping on the master the solution? I just dont want my tracks to sound way lower in volume than others on Spotify and similar platforms. Thanks for any help!

I'm pretty average at mixing local studio recorded drums (not perfect VST samples) and would love to know what people's workflow is for approaching drum part prep and mixing. Alternatively, pointing me towards a great tutorial series where you learned the most about mixing drums would be equally awesome. I really want to get over this annoying hurdle! Cheers.

Edit: just wanted to say thanks to everyone. Some great replies here.