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7 Pro Tips For LOUDNESS! 🔥

7 Pro Tips For LOUDNESS! 🔥

Did anyone tell you that your mix sounds "thin" and "quiet"? I know how that feels and how you reacted, since that happened to me many times in the past. However, we're here to change that, right?

In this blog post, my goal is to show you 7 Pro tips you can use in your next sessions to achieve louder & cleaner mixes and masters.

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What makes a mix or master loud?

I often see people focusing on Peak & LUFS values mostly, but these are not the only indicators that'll help you to achieve loudness. Overall spectral balance, proper gain staging, compression, equalization, clipping, limiting, imaging etc. makes a mix/master loud.

So, on which values should you focus mainly? Instead of monitoring only Peak & LUFS, pay an additional attention to your RMS value. LUFS value can go even to -6 but your mixes will sound quiet. You should question yourself why that happens.

Good LUFS, but quiet mix? What's the problem?

If you didn't treat your low end frequencies well at mixing or mastering stage, they can take a lot of your headroom which you're I believe familiar with. However, low frequencies carry a lot of energy. If there's too much energy in the low end (which isn't treated well), that energy will push the LUFS to go to even -6 or greater, but your master will sound quiet. Why? Because your track becomes overfilled with low end (becomes boomy).

RMS & LUFS relationship is important!

I will highly suggest to monitor LUFS and RMS at the same time. What are their values? If your RMS and LUFS value are the same (let's say -10), that means your track is not balanced well. There's too much low end energy there which keeps the RMS around -10 (in this example) and LUFS value much different (-6 in this example).

The worst case that can happen is this: -10 RMS, -6 LUFS. This is terrible and your master won't sound quiet. But yes, there are ways to fix this. You'll need to get back into mixing and do the mixing much different.

The good case and also my aiming point when mixing and mastering is this: Between -8 & -6 LUFS, -4 to -4.5 RMS. These are healthy values and if your track has these values, it's surely loud enough. However, don't stick to any straight points since each track is different and should be treated accordingly to taste & clients' requests.


Now, once we covered the importance of knowing why you should pay additional attention to RMS value, let's jump into 7 Pro tips to make your mixes & master loud. 

Tip 1: Deal With The Low End

FabFilter Pro Q3 - Mid/Side Mode

If you receive a mix with a lot of loud low frequencies, the possibilities to make it loud are very low. In that case, a shelf or high-pass filter on sub frequencies can be your friend. However, you'll have to carefully listen and judge since this can eliminate the energy from your mix. Optionally, if it's not possible to that master without losing energy, I would advise to get the mix back to the client and ask for a better version.
While treating a master like this, remember to use either Natural Phase Mode or Linear Phase Mode. Stay away from Zero Latency mode in mastering. Yes, Natural Phase mode is similar to Zero Latency, but it actually processes each cut/boost differently.

Tip 2: Use 2 Limiters

A combination of 2 Pro L2's can be a "dream-team".
By using 2 limiters, you can split the gain reduction between them which will enable you to achieve a much more natural limiting. This will make sure you're not relying on only one processor.
For example, let's imagine that you need to push 3dB of gain reduction with your limiter in order to get the desired amount of loudness/limiting. Take the first limiter and push 1.5dB in let's say "Punchy" mode, and take the second limiter and push another 1.5dB with "Transparent" mode. This is an awesome idea I tried a lot of times and sounds great. However, feel free to experiment around it.

Tip 3: Expander Between The Limiters

First, you're going to use a limiter to push around 1dB of gain reduction (or less). Set is as you would usually, but make sure to avoid going over 1dB of gain reduction. Also, turn the True Peak limiting off.
Next, you're going to place an expander. I used a FabFilter Pro MB in expand more for this purpose, but you can also use Pro G in Upward mode which works basically as an expander.
By placing an expander after your first limiter, you can recreate the dynamics squashed by the first limiter. But, why would you limit, then expand? You're probably asking that question. Well, before limiting, the dynamics are not tight, right? For that reasons, we're first tightening them up with a limiter and then expanding (re-creating) to get a more consistent signal (no, it won't sound the same if you used compression).
 

Finally, you're going to insert your final limiter. It will be used to push your track even louder without distorting it, thanks to our expander. If you already got the loudness you want, you can avoid even pushing anything with your final limiter. It'll be used only to prevent the peak from going above 0dB (or -0.5dB when you set output of the limiter). It all depends on your taste.

Tip 4: Use A Faster Release Time

If you set the release too fast, it could cause distortion, but if you time it fast enough, you can gain loudness. It's a bit tricky to get it, but once you do, you'll be very impressed with the results.
The compressor will recover quickly which will introduce loudness to your master. Try this technique with different compression styles.

Tip 5: Try Maximizers

Maximizers are very similar, but they don't work exactly the same as the limiters. They have one goal - to MAXIMIZE loudness.
Here are some great tips for the maximizer I'm using (Ozone 5 Maximizer):
1. Turn the Intersample detection which'll help to prevent distortion
2. Set the margin to -0.5 (optimal value) and lower the threshold until you're satisfied with the loudness (be careful not to overdo).
3. "Balanced" character worked very well for me, try it out for yourself. Also, try different characters. Experiment with their time too. I went for a bit faster.
4. I always make sure to turn on transient recovery which'll help you to retain transients and avoid losing punch while maximizing.
5. Almost forgot to mention, try the IRC III mode if you're going for loudness!

Tip 6: Upward Compression

Believe or not, upward compression can increase loudness by bringing quieter details up, which means we'll be able to hear and perceive them much better. If you're new to this, just get that Waves MV2 which is as simple as the plugin can get for upward compression.

Tip 7: Use Acustica's ASH

Acustica Audio's recently released this clipper called "ASH". And, it's the monster for loudness! It's gives that "disrespectful" grit and loudness to your master which I more than enjoy to!
What I did here is I increased the input gain and focused my clipping more towards mids, made it a bit softer since the track wasn't that aggressive and added a bit of post clip. Using the big knob, I determined the exact amount of clipping I wanted.
Don't forget to use oversampling for this one! Use it as high as your PC/Laptop can maintain without crashing. It's very important for this unit!

Want Part 2?

As you probably know, I have a lot more advices and techniques for achieving loudness, in both analog and digital world. So, if you want me to make part 2, let me know via my mail address or DM me on Instagram. Our staff will forward your message to me.

If you want to add a recommendation for the future blog post and get featured on, feel free to reach to our DM on Instagram or use our e-mail address: marko@md3sign.com
Filed in: Mastering, Mastering Tips, Mastering Tricks
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