best landr mastering for instrumental hip hop

#Best landr mastering for instrumental hip hop how to

Choose HIGH intensity to boost your mix up to the level of a commercial master. Don’t worry about that when you’re mixing. You make the rules here - BUT REMEMBER - let LANDR take care of the overall loudness. PLUG-INS! Use any tools you feel are necessary to get your mix sounding it’s best. If you’ve eaten up most of your dynamic range using compression and/or limiting, creating headroom by lowering your master fader, normalizing down or lowering your limiter ceiling won’t help - true peak headroom is only valuable if your track still has some dynamics left.Aim for a dynamic mix with some peak headroom.Make sure none of your mix channels are clipping above 0 dBFS (including your master!).

Avoid using compressors or limiters on your master output just for the sake of loudness (LANDR will take care of that for you).Once you’ve exported your audio from your DAW, always make sure to check that the file plays back correctly and is the correct duration before uploading to LANDR.

#Best landr mastering for instrumental hip hop how to

How to prepare your mix for LANDR masteringħ tricks to create headroom and how it will save your mix The best thing you can do is keep these things in mind when you start mixing so you’re not scrambling at the end!Ĭheck out more details in these blog posts we've published: Sometimes this is ok but because we can't see everyone's mixing session and what kind of gain staging they have going on, we recommend this to be safe. NOTE! It's always best to achieve peak headroom by mixing rather than taking a shortcut and reaching for your master fader (leave it at 0), or using a limiter.

That’s why your meter goes red! So avoiding this is your main goal. 0 dBFS is the digital limit before distortion occurs. Remember that we’re talking about your loudest sounds here, not your average level.ĭon’t get too caught up in the numbers - the biggest concern is peaks above 0 dBFS. It's ok if some peaks hit higher than -6 dB, just make sure you maintain a few dB of headroom. 6 dB is generous - we recommend this to be safe. Aiming for around 6dB of headroom is nice and safe, which means your master output (all of your tracks' combined signal) should peak around -6 dBFS. The final mix should have a fair amount of headroom (the room between your highest peak levels and 0dBFS, which is the maximum level digital audio can have). LANDR is restricted in what it can do for your mix if it has no room to play with. Peak Headroom is crucial for mastering because again, LANDR uses the space you leave to apply all of its mastering adjustments. The next thing to consider is Peak Headroom. This is the best way to figure out how you like to master. So if you prefer mixing hot - go for it! But we encourage you to experiment with your mix and see the different results you can get with LANDR. We’ll never tell you that there’s only one way to mix - this just isn’t true. So adding some compression on individual tracks and busses is fine, as long as it isn’t working too hard and squishing your track! But it often sounds better to add small amounts of compression at different stages in the mixing process than adding more at the end. Controlling your dynamics using compression can contribute to a better master.

You can definitely have plugins on your master bus, just not ones that are there strictly to push your mix to the limit!Ĭompressors are often a vital tool used to control dynamics - which we totally encourage. limiters and compressors) to your master channel for the sake of loudness. LANDR uses those dynamics you leave, so we recommend not adding any dynamic plugins that are typically used during the mastering process (i.e. If you like mixing loud, no worries - just turn your monitors up!

We get it, using compression and limiting at the master or stereo output of your mix adds loudness and intensity, and you want your mix to be BIG! - but if you’re planning on using LANDR for that final touch - LANDR will take care of this for you. The main culprit behind mixes with low dynamic range is heavy compression or limiting. Mastering involves compression techniques that use this space in order to add intensity, presence and glue your mix together - if the dynamic range is already gone - there’s not much LANDR can do on that front. You can also think about dynamics on a more micro scale-as the difference in level or intensity between the sounds in your track. When it comes to dynamics, there’s a couple things to keep in mind when preparing your mix for LANDR.Ī dynamic track has a range of material that is relatively quiet to loud. They have to do with dynamics and peak headroom. We don’t want you to feel too restricted when you mix, so there’s only a couple of things we recommend to get the best possible results from the mastering engine. We appreciate that mixing is a personal thing and everyone has their own style.