This is the most accurate answer. There is no plugin, no one technique that will get you there. It’s the product of 1000 smart mixing decisions during a session, learnt by years of experience
I find it funny most comments specifically mention clip to zero, yet nobody mentions the actual separation between your elements.
CTZ will only get you a small part of the way if you neglect stereo image and frequency content from one channel to another, especially with their huge melodic layers
Another aspect of CTZ is how loudness should shape the structure of the music for loudness. When applying this approach to DnB it makes the separation and bussing even more important
CTZ actually accounts for everything you mentioned, I’d recommend watching all the videos entirely, use 2x speed
Spatial arrangement, frequency distribution and stereo image is all covered
I read the google doc on it cause i can’t sit through videos lol.
although i must admit i can get very bad with adhd reading most of the time. Must have just not even looked at that section lol..
Thanks for correcting me👌
Yeh that’s what I did at first, but then I saw the vids contained the majority of the content which the doc left out.
If you like, I have a page containing notes from every video
A few years ago i would have appreciated that mate, but i’ve gotten to a point where i really don’t need any more tutorials or specific techniques.
I’ve come to have my own specific way of doing things, and it allows me to have a recognisable sound aswell as hit loudness war worthy levels on my own masters.
I don’t know the specific artist and can’t listen to them right now because I’m not home…
But I’d bet that one of the primary things to do would be „caring more about space“.
That means space in the frequency spectrum as well as in the time-dimension.
Specifically: remove any element that isn’t needed - frequency wise (for example by low-cutting your cymbals…. Or any other element that isn’t bass) as well as time wise (removing unnecessarily long tails of sample, using extremely short drum samples, fine tuning every release parameter on every element to only be as long as needed).
But careful: don’t remove too much and always be aware what you remove and why exactly you remove it. Otherwise your music will sound in-alive and very sterile.
That way you make sure every single element has its own, very specific nieche.
Loudness in general is a lot of waves stacking up on each other. The more different stuff stacks up, the quieter the individual element feels (and is, due to the fact that there’s only so much space to fill up) much more quiet.
Reducing that overlap / stacking of waves to the absolute minimum, while also making sure it sounds good / the way you want it to is the way of increasing the loudness.
That’s very basic mixing knowledge and probably not helpful if you already know that and apply that every chance you get. But sometimes remembering the basics is all you need. :)
Choosing the sounds and elements to take up the entire spectrum and not overlap is prolly a big part.
every instrument in an orchestra has its own place in the frequency spectrum.
Their tracks are pretty formulaic (drums are almost identical each track, similar piano chords), so they’ve probably got a pretty good routine for specific elements to sound a certain way.
The topic of clean, loud mixes has been done to death on this sub. If you do a search for loud mixes you will get all the answers given to this question.
I tried YouTube and it was a shit creek of bs and people just promoting their newest plugin that’s already been made a thousand times but somehow it’s different because they used different colours lol. I’ll have a look on here.
[kraveu.com](https://www.kraveu.com) look under the Invaluable Mixing and Mastering advice section. Look at which curated playlist you want to find your answers. But from what I hear now.. its sound selection (which frequencies complement each other) Phace does this really well in his latest album. Minimalism and knowing which sounds needed to be under a veil of muted high frequencies and which need to be boosted. They do a great job at clean vocals and drums. Ahee has a video which has the vocals going to the master channel along with the subs untouched ( not put into the premaster) so they keep the airy and full nature to them. Reid Stephan ( the puppet) has a great video on how he processes vocals.
It all comes down to sample selection. Picking super clean drum samples in the first place and using gates appropriately. then once you have a loop you need to ensure that those samples or sounds are inhabiting their own frequency ranges. It's much easier to do that by swapping samples than overprocessing something to death.
Eg if you have a bassline with some higher notes going up to 80hz, then you pick a kick where the bulk of the frequency response is above 80hz, rather than trying to make the kick you already picked with a lower response sound good with it.
Also if you're aiming to go super loud (ie -5.0 LUFS and above) then you need to exaggerate the snare volume in your mix and allow the master clipper or limiter to handle it.
If you set up your mix to sound like a finished track without working into a limiter you're going to find it sounds completely different once it's mastered.
Correct use of bass harmonics will also help add volume, but really it's not difficult with the wide range of high quality drum sounds out there these days to do the clean sound if that's what you're looking for
This is a huge subject.
You’re effectively trying to squeeze as many different elements into a waveform as possible, in a fashion that sounds good.
This involves knowing what parts of the waveform to clip, which parts of individual sounds to leave out (not just frequency components but envelopes as well), understanding psychoacoustics (particularly masking), experimenting and developing judgment around what artefacts are acceptable.
In its most fundamental form - your tracks must be constructed around these concepts, rather than composing first and then chopping away at your tracks. Your approach should predominantly revolve around how your low frequency elements interact. You are assembling a jigsaw puzzle. It’s an art and a science.
I mean they probably hire someone (or a team) for £££ who have been mixing music for decades. Don't try to do everything yourself. I expect some of the bigger artists just factor this into the cost of making a track for the sake of time.
The million dollar producer question
Look into clip to zero baphometrix on YouTube has a good playlist about it.
Years of practice
This is the most accurate answer. There is no plugin, no one technique that will get you there. It’s the product of 1000 smart mixing decisions during a session, learnt by years of experience
soft clipping is a massive part of modern loudness, also good attention to stereo width in your highs.
I find it funny most comments specifically mention clip to zero, yet nobody mentions the actual separation between your elements. CTZ will only get you a small part of the way if you neglect stereo image and frequency content from one channel to another, especially with their huge melodic layers
Another aspect of CTZ is how loudness should shape the structure of the music for loudness. When applying this approach to DnB it makes the separation and bussing even more important
CTZ actually accounts for everything you mentioned, I’d recommend watching all the videos entirely, use 2x speed Spatial arrangement, frequency distribution and stereo image is all covered
I read the google doc on it cause i can’t sit through videos lol. although i must admit i can get very bad with adhd reading most of the time. Must have just not even looked at that section lol.. Thanks for correcting me👌
Yeh that’s what I did at first, but then I saw the vids contained the majority of the content which the doc left out. If you like, I have a page containing notes from every video
A few years ago i would have appreciated that mate, but i’ve gotten to a point where i really don’t need any more tutorials or specific techniques. I’ve come to have my own specific way of doing things, and it allows me to have a recognisable sound aswell as hit loudness war worthy levels on my own masters.
I don’t know the specific artist and can’t listen to them right now because I’m not home… But I’d bet that one of the primary things to do would be „caring more about space“. That means space in the frequency spectrum as well as in the time-dimension. Specifically: remove any element that isn’t needed - frequency wise (for example by low-cutting your cymbals…. Or any other element that isn’t bass) as well as time wise (removing unnecessarily long tails of sample, using extremely short drum samples, fine tuning every release parameter on every element to only be as long as needed). But careful: don’t remove too much and always be aware what you remove and why exactly you remove it. Otherwise your music will sound in-alive and very sterile. That way you make sure every single element has its own, very specific nieche. Loudness in general is a lot of waves stacking up on each other. The more different stuff stacks up, the quieter the individual element feels (and is, due to the fact that there’s only so much space to fill up) much more quiet. Reducing that overlap / stacking of waves to the absolute minimum, while also making sure it sounds good / the way you want it to is the way of increasing the loudness. That’s very basic mixing knowledge and probably not helpful if you already know that and apply that every chance you get. But sometimes remembering the basics is all you need. :)
Choosing the sounds and elements to take up the entire spectrum and not overlap is prolly a big part. every instrument in an orchestra has its own place in the frequency spectrum.
Their tracks are pretty formulaic (drums are almost identical each track, similar piano chords), so they’ve probably got a pretty good routine for specific elements to sound a certain way.
The topic of clean, loud mixes has been done to death on this sub. If you do a search for loud mixes you will get all the answers given to this question.
Amen
Break
[удалено]
Everytime
I tried YouTube and it was a shit creek of bs and people just promoting their newest plugin that’s already been made a thousand times but somehow it’s different because they used different colours lol. I’ll have a look on here.
[kraveu.com](https://www.kraveu.com) look under the Invaluable Mixing and Mastering advice section. Look at which curated playlist you want to find your answers. But from what I hear now.. its sound selection (which frequencies complement each other) Phace does this really well in his latest album. Minimalism and knowing which sounds needed to be under a veil of muted high frequencies and which need to be boosted. They do a great job at clean vocals and drums. Ahee has a video which has the vocals going to the master channel along with the subs untouched ( not put into the premaster) so they keep the airy and full nature to them. Reid Stephan ( the puppet) has a great video on how he processes vocals.
I specifically started making dnb because of the hybrid minds essential mix.
Arrangement / sound choice is probably the number one factor.
It all comes down to sample selection. Picking super clean drum samples in the first place and using gates appropriately. then once you have a loop you need to ensure that those samples or sounds are inhabiting their own frequency ranges. It's much easier to do that by swapping samples than overprocessing something to death. Eg if you have a bassline with some higher notes going up to 80hz, then you pick a kick where the bulk of the frequency response is above 80hz, rather than trying to make the kick you already picked with a lower response sound good with it. Also if you're aiming to go super loud (ie -5.0 LUFS and above) then you need to exaggerate the snare volume in your mix and allow the master clipper or limiter to handle it. If you set up your mix to sound like a finished track without working into a limiter you're going to find it sounds completely different once it's mastered. Correct use of bass harmonics will also help add volume, but really it's not difficult with the wide range of high quality drum sounds out there these days to do the clean sound if that's what you're looking for
C.L.A vocals game changer
This is a huge subject. You’re effectively trying to squeeze as many different elements into a waveform as possible, in a fashion that sounds good. This involves knowing what parts of the waveform to clip, which parts of individual sounds to leave out (not just frequency components but envelopes as well), understanding psychoacoustics (particularly masking), experimenting and developing judgment around what artefacts are acceptable. In its most fundamental form - your tracks must be constructed around these concepts, rather than composing first and then chopping away at your tracks. Your approach should predominantly revolve around how your low frequency elements interact. You are assembling a jigsaw puzzle. It’s an art and a science.
They're on a progressive house label so they have the adjuna beats secret. Basically just a lot of chorus running at all times
More than likely they just make the mix clean and leave enough headroom for a mastering engineering to do their job - like most big artists would
Getting mastered by engineers at a progressive house label is what is giving them the unique (to DnB) sound.
I mean they probably hire someone (or a team) for £££ who have been mixing music for decades. Don't try to do everything yourself. I expect some of the bigger artists just factor this into the cost of making a track for the sake of time.
this will give you a good starting point [https://youtu.be/Y6xO7GndaTI?si=0gRU9iFGgci7VGB3](https://youtu.be/Y6xO7GndaTI?si=0gRU9iFGgci7VGB3)