Panning allows you to place each track in the stereo field. Bass, kick and all low frequency sounds stay central. This can cause issues with sounds sitting on top of one another but don’t worry, we’ll return to this. The popular ’imagine it’s a band on stage’ theory can apply so think of your tracks. May 05, 2019 Many people use Studio One 4 for mixing and mastering, but what you don’t hear about is Studio One’s mastering capabilities. Studio one has what they call “projects” that are a full-fledged mastering program. It’s almost two like having two pieces of software in one. May 04, 2019 Studio one is a fantastic production and mixing software, but it also has project sessions that are made just for mastering. In today's video, I show you how to master a song in Studio One 4. Apr 24, 2019 In this video I talk about why I made the switch from Logic Pro X to Studio One 4 for mastering. I still use Logic as my main DAW of choice for mixing and songwriting, but I needed a better option.
on Aug 11, 2014 in Presonus Studio One 1 comments
PreSonus Studio One is more than capable of being your companion from song conception to completion. In this tutorial, Gary Hiebner shares 5 essential mastering tips Studio One users can enjoy.
Studio One Professional comes packaged with a great mastering tool application. You can create songs, and then bring these songs into projects to master them. Let’s take a look at some of the tools that are available and how they can assist you with your mastering. First I’ll cover the different metering options that are available, and then I’ll finish off with a suggested mastering chain order to use.
Tip 1 – Using The Frequency Spectrum Meters
The Projects page comes bundled with great visual meters that can help to assist you with your audio mastering. You should always first be using your eyes to judge the quality of your mastering, but these visual aids can be really helpful in confirming what you are hearing. I like to use the Frequency Spectrum graph and set it to FFT mode. You get a very clear indication of where the audio is most prominent along the frequency range. Use this graph to make sure you’re not overcompensating in areas.
Maybe you think your mastering is sounding ok, but from the frequency spectrograph it is showing a bit of a bump in the low midrange. By using the meters you will pick this up and your can correct it by doing a slight frequency cut in this frequency region.
If you hover your mouse pointer over the region it will give you details on the frequency and level, so use these accurate meters to assist you.
I find using the Hold mode also helps. This will draw in a line where the highest peaks are. You can set different hold times so that you can see these peaks for longer, or shorter if you prefer.
Tip 2 – Using The Peak/RSM Level Meter
Studio One Professional has an advanced output metering system in the Projects page. It uses a Peak/RMS mode and you can also choose different K-metering systems. The Peak/RMS mode is a great way to see your peaking levels on the output by the Peak Meter, and the RMS shows the average level. So maybe your highest level peaks are at -2 dB, but the average is sitting at -10 dB. This gives you a good indication of how much headroom you have in your song.
There is also a clip button that will go red if any of the audio clips the output. If your output level does clip, adjust accordingly and then click the Clip button to reset it. Then check if your output is still clipping, as you don’t want any digital distortion being introduced into your audio.
Tip 3 – Using The K-Metering System Level Meter
The K-metering output options can be used to meter different styles of music, as the K-metering system suggests that different styles have different dynamic ranges and output levels. K12 is recommended for any broadcast audio. This will show a green meter and when it goes over the 0 dB level it’ll go yellow. The ideal level is below 0 dB, so probably around -6 to -3 dB, leaving you enough headroom in the audio. This metering system can also be used for rock and pop style music.
The K14 meter can be used with music and audio with more dynamic range, like the rock and country genres.
And K20 is used for styles with the most dynamic range such as orchestral and classical style or high fidelity recordings.
So if you want to use the K-meters, use the one that is most appropriate to the genre or style you are mastering. These meters are more sensitive to the audio than the Peak/RMS mode so make fine changes to the levels and keep a close eye on the meters to see when your audio is reaching the optimum level for the style.
Tip 4 – Using the Correlation Phase Meter to correct Phase Issues
If you have any potential phase issues in your audio, this is where the Correlation Phase Meter comes in handy. Ns virtual dj 6. 0 full exe free download for pc. This visual graph in the Projects page next to the level meter is a little small, so I’d recommend rather adding the Phase Meter plug-in to your inserts and viewing it from there. The big visual graph shows the stereo image of the audio, and the bottom line shows the correlation phase of the audio.
Try changing the pan of your audio, maybe pan your stereo audio track all the way to the left and see how this changes the stereo image of your audio. Now try something else. Add the Binaural Pan plug-in to your inserts and click on the Mono button to mono your audio. See how this displays on the stereo width display. So you can get a good idea of how narrow or wide your audio is on this graph.
Now looking at the Correlation meter at the bottom of the Phase Meter, this should jump around between the 0 to 1 range. If this drops into the 0 to -1 range then there could be a possible phase issue somewhere in your audio. You’ll probably need to go back to your mix and check the tracks to see where the phasing issue could be stemming from. So go back to your Song file and use the MixTool plug-in to help you correcting phase issues. First insert the Phase Meter on your master track. Then solo each track while viewing this plug-in and see which track/s could be out of phase. On the tracks that are causing the phase issue, insert the MixTool plug-in and invert the phase.
Tip 5 – Building Up a Master Inserts Chain
Bpm analyzer id3 osx software. What can really help streamline your mastering is to build up a mastering chain. This works especially well if you are working on a collection of songs for an album as you can have a coherent mastering process applied across your song and similar related mastering projects. The mastering processing chain is broken down into 3 sections. There’s the Inserts which is processing applied to each track, and then there is the Master Inserts and Post which is applied globally. So let’s build a mastering chain that can be applied across all tracks. Let’s do this by using the Master Inserts section, and then you can use the Inserts to apply processing to individual tracks.
First add a ProEQ. The ProEQ has a frequency analyzer as well so you can use this to analyze your audio. Use the ProEQ to make minor EQ adjustments. If you need to make any big EQ changes, rather go back to the mix to make them. I usually use the ProEQ to cut out some of the low frequencies that are inaudible (such as a low cut removing out all the frequencies below 50 Hz) and this will free up some extra headroom.
Next add the MultiDynamics plug-in. This is a multiband compressor that can be used to alter the dynamics on your stereo audio file. Maybe you want to tighten up the lower bands with some compression, and then increase its level. And then maybe you want to increase the level of the higher frequency band. This can all be done through a multiband compressor like the MultiDynamics plug-in.
After this, add in the Limiter to increase the overall perceived volume of your audio, but at the same time prevent the audio from clipping. With the Limiter, set the ceiling to -0.3, so no audio will go over this ceiling. Now increase the Input and hear how this raises the overall level of your audio, but it doesn’t clip no matter how hard you push the Input level. Just make sure to keep some space for dynamics, so if you push the Input too far it’ll squash your audio dynamics that you worked so hard on in the mix. You can also change the metering on the Limiter from the Peak/RMS to K-meters.
The beauty of the Projects page is that you can still go into each track and add different processing through the Inserts section. Let’s say on your one track you’ll like to add in a tad more reverb to the sound than the others, then you can add a reverb effect on the Inserts, and it’ll only be applied to that particular track.
Conclusion
Take these tips and apply them in your next mastering project. Using the visuals meters will really help guide you with your audio and confirm that what you seeing is what you are hearing as well. And streamlining your mastering with mastering insert chains will help you focus more on the audio and less on the setup process.
For more Studio One tips and tricks check out the following tutorials:
Related Videos
Studio One Tips & Techniques
The Project page can be used as a laboratory in which an album can be refined by matching songs to references. Here, ‘Welcome To LA’ is being widened to work best with the stereo width of other tracks. Note that EQ has also been applied to this track. The image widening created here with the Mid-Sides-based Binaural Pan plug-in may end up getting replaced in the mix by panning or image widening of individual instruments.
Studio One’s unique Project page lets you move seamlessly between mixing and mastering.
The rise of DAWs has eroded the division between the traditionally separate production phases of recording, overdubbing, editing and mixing. People now start mixing as soon as the second track is laid; and Studio One’s Project page creates the equivalent transformation at the other end of the process, breaking down the division between mixing and mastering, which traditionally has been thought of as a post-production process. The reality is that many projects simply have no budget for mastering, while the tools to do a credible mastering job at home are now easily affordable, leaving open mostly the really big question of skill: whether you can apply the tools appropriately.
Studio One 4 Mastering
There are limits to what can be done in mastering, however, and it is not unusual for a mastering engineer to request mix revisions by the mixing engineer rather than trying to treat issues less effectively in mastering. The integration of Studio One’s Project and Song pages facilitates exactly these sorts of revisions, and, in fact, encourages doing so as an iterative process I will call ‘integrated mastering’. The basic idea is to prototype changes on the Project page that get more carefully and comprehensively implemented on the Song page. I have very successfully used this technique on a few recent projects, and the whole system falls neatly into seven steps, which I impart to you this month.The Song menu enables you to add a Song document to a Project, or to update the mix in a Project when you’ve made changes to it.
- Step 1: Import the songs
To start, create a new Project document and import each song to it by dropping the Song document into the track column or lane on the Project page, or by opening the Song document, choosing Song / Send to Project, and selecting a Project.
Once the songs are imported, drag the songs in the track column to arrange them in a sequence you think will work well. Evaluating and refining this song order will be one of many tasks encompassed by integrated mastering.
- Step 2: Set basic track levels
The basis of integrated mastering is making comparisons between tracks, so you need to establish references to serve as points of comparison. An obvious place to start is the overall perceived level. First, identify the loudest moment on the album. If the level is not already pretty much at the top of the available dynamic range at that moment, raise the track fader until it is. This is now your track level reference.
Next, identify the loudest moment in each of the other tracks. For each track, jump back and forth between the reference and the track’s loudest moment, adjusting the level of the track until it sits well against the reference. Also compare each track to those already adjusted, making adjustments as needed to any of the tracks to get them all fitting together well. Use the track fader for these adjustments, as this makes it easy to remove the adjustments later.
Ideally, one could drop markers at the loudest moments and jump quickly between them. Unfortunately, there are no positional markers on the Project page, only track and index markers, so to start playback mid-song, you’ll need to click in the timeline as close as possible to the target moment.
![Studio one 4 mastering tutorial Studio one 4 mastering tutorial](/uploads/1/2/6/0/126036127/486101793.png)
I usually make a worksheet for each iteration where I record my judgments about needed adjustments. This worksheet is from a first round. I’ve established the songs that make the best starting reference for each attribute (coloured green and marked ‘0’), set channel faders for a decent level match, and made most of my notes about relative drum levels in the tracks. There is still much to do here!
- Step 3: Establish ‘closest to the mark’ references
Once step 2 is done, the tracks will be in the ballpark in terms of overall mix level. But there are many more attributes to consider, and you will want to apply the same basic process for adjusting those attributes. For each attribute, find the song that comes closest to how you want the album to sound and document it. Without going into a tutorial on mastering, here are a few things to listen for and compare:
Studio One 4 Mastering Download
- Level of key sources such as vocals, drums, and lead instruments. Are they consistent across tracks?
- Instrumental tone: Do the vocals sound like they belong on the same album?
- Image width.
- Tonality: If one song has a rich low end and the next is more punchy than beefy, it may be necessary to find a low-frequency compromise that suits both songs.
- Step 4: Compare across tracks using references
The idea now is to apply the same diagnosis-and-treatment procedure used for rough level setting to other attributes, but that’s not as simple as with levels. The listening part is similar: for each attribute, compare parts of each song to the reference and notice what is different. But making adjustments to bring the mixes closer to each other is harder. Some attributes, like the levels of individual sources, can’t really be adjusted on the Project page.
![One One](/uploads/1/2/6/0/126036127/585270902.jpg)
Image width and mix tonality, to name two other attributes, can be adjusted to a good degree using plug-ins. To match mix tonalities, for example, you could introduce a flexible EQ on an individual track and adjust it to bring the track closer to the sound of the reference. Similarly, stereo imaging plug-ins can help in matching mix widths. If a song has internal level issues, automation can be used to correct them, but this takes time to undo later.
This part of the process requires very close listening and a high degree of concentration. It is also a good time to start paying attention to metering, including spectrum and loudness meters. For attributes you can work with in the Project page, save as presets the settings of the plug-ins you use for matching. For attributes you cannot work with in that environment, make detailed notes of the differences you hear.
- Step 5: Make mix changes
Unfortunately, implementing the changes you identified in Step 4 is often not straightforward. The objective of going back to the mix is to be able to alter individual elements. Thus, a 4dB dip at 300Hz you made on the Project page might, after muting various instruments to isolate the source of the low-mid flab, actually translate to a 6dB dip at 180Hz on the bass plus a 4dB cut at 320Hz on the acoustic guitar. It is this part of the process — implementing changes on individual channels to obtain the desired overall effect — that requires the most ear training, technical understanding and intuition. It also yields the most profound of integrated mastering’s benefits. Nail this skill and not only will your album sound better, but your powers of sonic discrimination will be greatly strengthened.
Some adjustments will be easy. You might increase the level of a mix by adding compression on the drums or the mix bus.. or you might just need to raise the master fader a few dB. Some changes require only instantiating the same plug-in you used on the Project page and loading the preset you saved. A typical project has a mix of easy and not-so-easy changes.
Once you finish your adjustments, save a new version, identified by date and time, to which you can always fall back, if need be.
- Step 6: Go back to Project page and let mixes update
Once you’ve made changes to a Song, return to the Project page. A dialogue will ask if you want to update the mix for the song you were just working on. Click OK and a new mix is generated, replacing the old mix in the Project page. Be sure to bypass or disable all plug-ins on the channel and return the fader to 0dB. Fail to do this and you will double-process the mix, so don’t forget. If you did any track automation, be sure to remove that, too.
- Step 7: Reiterate steps 4-6, refining further on each pass
By the third or fourth iteration, your process should be close to finished and things should be stabilising. I rarely need to touch a track fader by the time I do a fourth iteration. After an iteration or two, it’s comfortable to make changes on several (or even all) songs before returning to the Project page and updating.The Update Mastering Files dialogue appears as soon as a Project is opened if any of the Songs in the Project have been changed since the Project was last updated. Updating can take a bit of time if you have changed a lot of Songs.
Catch The Bus
I usually add a little master bus processing around the second or third iteration. Project-based master-bus processing is best added late in the process, because you are trying to get the mixes as close as possible in the Song page environment. However, it is perfectly reasonable to want, at the very least, a brickwall limiter on the master bus to avoid clipping, and that is often all I do end up with.
Occasionally, I have added other processing (tonal, dynamic, spatial) earlier in the process, then gone back and successfully replicated those sounds in the individual mixes, leaving only the brickwall limiter on the master bus in the end.
Performed carefully and sensitively, integrated mastering can, at the very least, improve consistency across the mixes on an album, and, in the best case, eliminate the need for a separate mastering phase.
Published September 2016