Music Production Podcast for DIY Music Producers and Artists | Inside The Mix
If you're searching for answers on topics such as: what is mixing in music, how I can learn to mix music, how to start music production, how can I get better at music production, what is music production, or maybe how to get into the music industry or even just how to release music. Either way, you’re my kind of person and there's something in this podcast for you!
I'm Marc Matthews and I host the Inside The Mix Podcast. It's the ultimate serial podcast for music production and mixing enthusiasts. Say goodbye to generic interviews and tutorials, because I'm taking things to the next level. Join me as I feature listeners in round table music critiques and offer exclusive one-to-one coaching sessions to kickstart your music production and mixing journey. Get ready for cutting-edge music production tutorials and insightful interviews with Grammy Award-winning audio professionals like Dom Morley (Adele) and Mike Exeter (Black Sabbath). If you're passionate about music production and mixing like me, Inside The Mix is the podcast you can't afford to miss!
Start with this audience-favourite episode: #175: What's the Secret to Mixing Without Muddiness? Achieving Clarity and Dynamics in a Mix
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Music Production Podcast for DIY Music Producers and Artists | Inside The Mix
#108: The Magic of EQ: A Deep Dive into EQ in Mastering and Tonal Balance
Ever scratched your head trying to figure out what is the best EQ setting for mastering? Or maybe you're stuck trying to figure out what is tonal balance. Then check out EP 108 of the Inside The Mix podcast.
Ever wondered how to create a perfectly mastered track that sounds clear, warm, and pleasant? Dive into the beautiful complexity of mastering and tonal balance with us. We dissect the stark contrast between mastering and EQing and accentuate the pivotal role of the mid-range in music creation. We also delve into the interesting influence of music genres on the frequency content of a track. You'll learn how to skillfully balance different elements, and just why mastering should be audible from another room.
As we lift the veil off mastering, you'll discover the delicate dance of frequency boosting and attenuating. Attune your ears to the impact of changes in one frequency range on others and the unique magic of EQ in reducing warmth. Unearth the secret to mimicking a five-kilohertz boost effect. As we round off the episode, we'll leave you equipped with cost-effective tips to produce professional-sounding masters - including an introduction to the powerful TDR Nova EQ. Get ready to train your ears and achieve tonal balance in your tracks. You don't want to miss out!
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You're listening to the Inside the Mix podcast with your host, mark Matthews. Hello and welcome to the Inside the Mix podcast. I'm Mark Matthews, your host, musician, producer and mix and mastering engineer. You've come to the right place if you want to know more about your favorite synth music artists, music engineering and production, songwriting and the music industry. I've been writing, producing, mixing and mastering music for over 15 years and I want to share what I've learned with you. Hello, folks, and welcome back to the Inside the Mix podcast. If you are a new listener or viewer, if you're on YouTube, make sure you hit the subscribe button and also ring that notification bell so you get notified anytime there is a new Inside the Mix podcast episode. And if you are a returning listener, as always, a big welcome back.
Speaker 1:So it's busy times here at the Inside the Mix podcast. Many things going on, folks. I'm rolling out some new stuff in the lead up to 2024. Notably this week, we have well, it was there already, but I wasn't really doing anything with it the Patreon. So there is an Inside the Mix podcast Patreon and if you've listened to episode 107, you would have heard all about this. But please do go check it out.
Speaker 1:I'll put a link in the episode description for this as well, and notably one of my favorite bands actually Sylosus has released an album and that album was released last week or a couple of weeks ago and it's called A Sign of Things to Come. I'm just looking at it here and it is a return to form. I absolutely love Sylosus. We'll go way back to the amazing album Conclusion of an Age, and I saw them at download 2008,. I think it was in the tent at download and they were on point. What a band. Absolutely love it and I've loved everything that they've done since, and also Josh Middleton with Architects. I'm a big Architects fan as well. But, yeah, a Sign of Things to Come. If you are a listener to the podcast, you will know that I'm a Metalhead at heart and probably my favorite song on this album to date is Pariahs, but that may well change. Deadwood's a great track as well, and absent. It's a fantastic album. But I thought I'd throw that out there, being a Metalhead, and I'm also looking forward to seeing them with Malevolence in Bristol. I'm looking at the show dates here. Actually, they're on tour. When am I watching them in Bristol? I'm watching them at some point I think it's in November at some time. I can't find the date.
Speaker 1:Anyway, let's crack on with this episode, this episode 108. So we're putting the proverbial cherry on top of our mastering journey in this particular episode. So we're going to be exploring the first principles of mastering, cracking the secrets of tonal balance and deep diving into the yin and yang of EQ. So let's dive into this episode. Okay, so let's start with a fundamental idea that changing anything affects everything. It's philosophical, doesn't? It Really does, really does.
Speaker 1:But what does this mean in mastering? Okay, what does this mean? This means mastering is an art of compromise, right, you have to weigh the pros and cons and understand what is sonically possible. Remember, mastering isn't the same as EQing, in mixing, for instance. Here we go, folks. If you decide to boost the low base of a mix, you're inadvertently affecting the extreme highs, like the vocals, for example. Okay, so one might sound amazing with a specific snare drum, but tweak one and the other could suffer. Remember, mastering is the final touch, not a surgical operation.
Speaker 1:Now you might think well, mark, these are all sweeping statements when it comes to mastering. But it is an idea, it's just putting it into context for you. Consider them the first principles of mastering. So then what we have is tonal balance and what we want to achieve is good tonal balance. But what is tonal balance? Okay? So this is like the scales of justice for your track. It should weigh evenly, feeling just right to the human ear. For example, pop music often shows a gradual high frequency roll off on a spectrum analyzer. Once again, a sweeping statement. But this is a generalization. But don't be fooled. We're not using the spectrum analyzer as a compass. So this is what you shouldn't be doing. We're using our ears.
Speaker 1:Now you'll probably hear that a lot, a lot of people will say that we'll just use your ears. But I'm going to contradict exactly what I just said then. But there are tools available, like tonal balance, for example, which can really help, specifically in the low frequencies and the low end, if you haven't got access to a sub. So just to develop this idea of tonal balance, a lot rides on the mid range, because you can think that's where the core message of your music lies. So think about what lies in the mid range. You've got your vocal, you've got guitars, you've got a synth and any other bits and pieces going on in there Drums, snare, for example. So here's a trick If you stand in another room and the music's essence still comes through, so you can still hear that mid range, you can still hear clarity in that mid range, you're on the right track in terms of your mix and your master.
Speaker 1:The goal is to create a sound that's pleasant, warm and clear, if that's what your genre demands, because once again I'm probably going to contradict myself here, but other genres sort of have different frequency contents If you look at them on a spectrum analyzer. Like reggae is going to have a lot of low end, for example, and punk is going to sound quite harsh, not necessarily brittle, but it's going to sound aggressive. So you've also got a way in what genre of music you're working with. I mean, I'm using pop as an example here and I said earlier that that in pop on a spectrum analyzer you'll have that gradual high frequency roll off. But if you were to put a pop track and a bit with a reggae track or a punk track, you're going to see different frequency response on a spectrum analyzer. So do bear that in mind.
Speaker 1:Okay, so let's talk about a fascinating and interesting mastering EQ technique called Yin and Yang. So what's the idea behind this? The idea is that contrasting frequency ranges can affect each other, right? So if you boost the low frequencies, the overall sound might seem duller, and vice versa. So this is where the idea of Yin and Yang comes into play. So if you're working on a track and the overall level is too high, you can reduce the frequencies that have the least impact on the song's essence, as it were.
Speaker 1:So let's give this a go. So we're going to do this in a creative context. So if you're watching this on YouTube, I'll explain it for the audience listening. We've got the song here Let you Go featuring Indigo. It's going to feature on my upcoming EP that I've been banging on about now for a while, called Lost and Found, and I've got the TDR Nova EQ here. It's a free EQ. I'm using a free one, so this is accessible to everyone, and I'm also using Reaper as well. Please do head over to synthmusicmasteringcom and download my five essential free mastering plugins, of which this is one of them. So let's add some context to this Yin and Yang idea.
Speaker 1:Okay, so let's give this a go. So we are going to start with the low frequency information, the idea being that adding low frequencies is going to make it sound duller and it's going to make it sound less bright. It's going to reduce that brightness and I'm also then going to attenuate some low frequency information and that's then going to make it seem brighter. So I've got two EQs so I can flick between them. I've got one, tdr Nova, with a low shelf okay, 80 Hertz, with a 3dB gain and a Q of one. And then I've got another EQ with it's set to 80 hertz again, and this time it's minus three dB in gain, with a one Q, the idea being that I'm gonna attend you. At some low frequencies it's gonna sound brighter. So I'm gonna play the track without any EQ and let's see what it sounds like.
Speaker 1:Oh, do I know you don't need to know? Do I know you don't need to know? Turn it on and on and on. Okay, I really like the balance on this track. I think it sounds really really good. I just need to master it now.
Speaker 1:So this time I'm gonna play it and then I am going to add some low frequency information. So three dB boost at 80 hertz and it will sound duller. So let's give that a go. Okay, so this is without any boost. Now I'm gonna enable the EQ with a three dB boost at 80 hertz. So here we go. So this is with the boost, this is without. So this is still without. So I know you don't need to know, this is with, I know you don't need to know.
Speaker 1:So hopefully, what you can hear there is when you have that three dB boost at 80 hertz, it's almost like it's slightly attenuating those higher frequencies, and I also find that the vocal kind of takes like an inch or two back from the microphone. It sounds like as well. It sounds like it's the vocalist is taking a slight step back. So now we're gonna do the opposite. So I'm just gonna disable that EQ and I am now going to play the track, and at the moment it's bypassed, but I'm then gonna enable the EQ with a minus three dB at 80 hertz. So let's give it a go, we'll play from the beginning of this region. So this is without, this is with. So this is with the minus three dB at 80 hertz, this is with. So this is still without any EQ. So this is with the minus three dB. So I'm gonna add it back in now. So, once again, hopefully, what you can hear there is the vocal is kind of like taking a step forward, like an inch or two forwards. It's that yin and yang idea. And you've got it's a touch brighter in that top end as well. So what I'm gonna do with this, folks, is that yin and yang.
Speaker 1:If you are attenuating or boosting in one particular frequency range or band, it's gonna have a knock on effect elsewhere. So be mindful of that in mastering. So we're going to do a similar exercise again, but this time I'm going to go to the other end of the frequency spectrum. So this time I've got a high shelf here and it's set at 15 kilohertz. Same queue, again one, and I've got a 3 dB boost at 15 kilohertz. So what I'm expecting to hear here is when I enable this EQ, those higher frequencies are mainly here. It's kind of like a tambourine. I've got the high hats as well and any high frequency information is going to be boosted and that's going to slightly send it out.
Speaker 1:Remember what I said earlier about weight, a scale, as it were, scales of justice and it's going to send it slightly out of whack. It's not going to be quite how I want. So for those of you who aren't familiar with the phrase out of whack, because it is a transatlantic audience, international audience. That means it's going to be skewed. Once again, I'm using words that you're not familiar with. It's going to mean that it's not balanced. Let's go with that, that's probably the better way to put it. It's not balanced, so let's give this a go.
Speaker 1:I'm going to play it in a from the similar position and let's give it a go. So this is without a boost, at 15 kilohertz, okay, and this is with. So hopefully you can immediately hear there by boosting 3db I mean that's quite harsh to do in mastering as well that 3db sweeping statement. Again, others might say different, but you can immediately. It kind of sends that balance out and you've got those extreme highs, too high, and you can almost visualize how, on a set of scales, that low frequency information would be lower, ironically, and you've got that boost there. So now we'll do the opposite.
Speaker 1:I'm just going to disable this EQ and go over to this one here. So this TDR EQ for those of you listening, it's 15 kilohertz, again minus 3db this time. So I'm attenuating those higher frequencies and let's have a listen. So I'll play from the same position and I'm going to start without any EQ, as I usually do. We've got that balance, okay, now I'm going to enable it. Okay, so that's still with the EQ. Now, to be fair, it was less noticeable here when I attenuated by 3db, probably because there's not a massive amount of information, a lot of massive amount of content up in those higher frequencies, specifically in the verse, because in the chorus I've got this tambourine going, so it's more noticeable. But you can slightly again here it sends it slightly out of balance.
Speaker 1:Once again, this is just reaffirming that point, confirming that point that yin and yang when you are attenuating, boosting in one frequency range, it can have a knock-on effect elsewhere in the mastering, and that's what you need to be aware of, folks, that's what you need to be aware of. In mastering you can see how it's different from mixing, because in mixing I could go in and if I know there's a bass instrument that's too much there, I can just go in and either notch out that bass frequency on that particular instrument, reduce it, or do something with it individually, rather than affecting the whole mix, as it would happen in mastering. And the same at the other end as well. If I've got a hi-hat that is just really harsh, or a cymbal that's really harsh, or even a vocal that's really harsh or a snare. I could go into the mix and do that granular, that individual processing and changing and editing, whereas in mastering, if I make a change, a perceived change, to that vocal, for example, it's going to have a knock-on effect at any other instrument that sits in that range. So there we go, folks Yin and Yang, eq in mastering.
Speaker 1:So, just to summarize, we've got the first principles of mastering, in that if you affect or if you change something, it's going to have a knock-on effect elsewhere, and what we're trying to achieve is good tonal balance. Remember that mid-range is that vocal frequency range whereby you should be able to stand outside of the room and listen and you should be able to hear with clarity that particular range, albeit, that being said, it does depend on the genre of music, and remember what I said about reggae and punk, for example but we are looking for good tonal balance. And then we looked at Yin and Yang, the idea being that if we attenuate or boost a certain frequency range, it can have a knock-on effect elsewhere. So, as a result of this, folks, what you might want to do is this exercise so get an EQ, get a mix that you're happy with and a slight dip in the low-mid range. So you're looking at around 250 hertz, reduces warmth and has a similar effect to a boost at five kilohertz. Give it a go and see if you can pick up the difference. These exercises are really really good ear training exercises as well for you to do, so you can hear what's happening when you're making changes in a certain bandwidth and certain frequencies. Okay, really really good exercises to do. And there we go.
Speaker 1:That wraps up our mastering journey that we've been on over the last 10 or so episodes. I hope you've got a lot out of this. Please do send me a message on Instagram at Inside the Mix podcast. Alternatively, leave a comment on YouTube. Let me know your thoughts.
Speaker 1:If you need any help with mastering or you would like me to cover a topic in a future episode, please do reach out. Once again, you can do that on Instagram or you could head over to synthmusicmasteringcom and get in contact that way and just let me know. More than happy to have a chat with anybody about mastering or if you want a particular topic covered. But we are now going to be moving on to some other topics, but there will be the odd mastering episode dotted here and there. But before you go, folks and I've been banging on about this for the last God knows how many episodes do head over to synthmusicmasteringcom and download my guide to the top five essential free mastering plugins. They are fantastic. The TDR Nova EQ is one of them and why spend all that money buying expensive plugins when you can use these amazing five plugins and achieve professional and amazing masters?
