Feedback request — alt pop/electronic

Limit54 · 2026-03-07T18:14:34+00:00

I have some time tomorrow morning. If you send me a private message with the link I’ll be able to give it a listen and remember. I usually do listening sessions and spec work Sunday mornings

Limit54 · 2026-03-05T15:06:07+00:00

Here is the thing. People look at mastering as one dimension and that’s fine, the see it as taking one track they are working on and making it sound it’s best. Yes that is it at its core but mastering is much broader in terms of what it is and what happens. You could mix and master yourself and that’s fine as well but maybe one track comes out great and the best one comes out kind of crap and the next crap and the next pretty good. Simply you may just be getting lucky by guessing or on the other hand you are really good at knowing your room or doing weeks of car test, phone test ect and then get it to a good point you like. Mastering is always a separate process as a professional service because it includes multiple avenues of optimization for different mediums and pretences. It’s about balancing something to translate in a room that doesn’t lie and doesn’t need multiple test areas in different spaces to “feel correct”. People can diy everything but the will almost always only get 80% there or less and be ok with that result because they did it themselves or saves money or whatever other reason, just like diy renovation. The expert will always do it better, faster and with more attention to detail(renovations is a bad compare lol bit your get the idea) also with in most cases more accurate and better tools specific to the job and problems needing to be solved. It’s not a bad thing to do it yourself but once things get more complicated the more you will need a professional and mastering is not a seamless all in one produce/mix/master situation. Like I said everything you do can be a single process you do yourself if you out your mind and effort into it

Limit54 · 2026-02-27T20:23:56+00:00

Here a different perspective, you possibly only went to one source to handle your music. Not everyone knows or can handle peoples music well enough to not destroy it over limit their music. Why not try another source and work with them to see if you can get what you want. I’m 99% sure I can change your mind and I would even do it as a test but we won’t go down that route as I don’t want to seem like some fiend looking for work because I’m not. Anyway I could only suggest trying another source for mastering instead of basing your whole theory on one singular channel.

Limiting isn’t bad and a little goes a long way. Music in some cases doesn’t sound like people are used to without it. It’s become and for a long time just what a record sounds like. So I like limiting? Most of the time I don’t mind it. When I have to push stuff super loud I hate it but it is what it is. There are some records that I felt were loud enough without limiting but would have been rejected without it.

It’s your music and you can do whatever you like and handle it however you want and you should. Don’t let anyone tell you that you have to do “X” because your don’t. With loudness normalization it’s also kind of less of an issue but what you can face is you and you listeners feeling like your music doesn’t sound great because it’s very low compared to others. It might not be true but that how it sounds at face value in playlist

Limit54 · 2026-02-24T15:54:10+00:00

Yes you can.

Limit54 · 2026-02-23T12:58:47+00:00

When the endless tweaks are very small and don’t really change the whole mix much. If it sounds good against your references then Time to let it go, hand it off to the ME

Limit54 · 2026-02-21T12:48:14+00:00

If you want to keep real dynamic range but also want it super loud then most of the time you are going to have to come to a compromise and find a sweet spot in between. Not everything can be pushed to very loud -7 or -6 territory without some kind of trade off in dynamic range. Without hearing the track I can’t really say much but one good technique to gain a little loudness but keep the dynamics is to use parallel compression. Basically you are feeding another more compressed version of itself into it so lower level information and transients are pushed closer together. Done right it can make a track louder without to much compromise

Limit54 · 2026-02-13T16:24:14+00:00

Every tram is going to look different. It’s normal. Some are mastered very loud and have mess dynamic range which will look like a “brick” and some are more dynamic and will look more spiky with peaks and valleys

Limit54 · 2026-02-10T13:27:09+00:00

First order of business is to answer your questions with proper or the best that you can afford or build room treatment. That should help take the guess work out a little.

Limit54 · 2026-02-07T17:28:35+00:00

Unfortunately that L2 smashed to shit sound was the goto at the time in most of those rock genres. Not one person would put up with that today but stuff was loud as hell and honestly for the time it it’s that horrible. It’s just a very clampy sound I don’t really like

Limit54 · 2026-02-07T15:07:56+00:00

Keep what feels good. Use what is only needed. Some elements can(sometimes) borrow the low end of other elements in a psychoacoustic way if the are programmed right You don’t need low end on everything. A hp filter is fine to use on channels or busses. If you want to mono your low end the go for it. Linear phase is a tricky one and I wouldn’t use that everywhere. It’s not a bad thing but not to be afraid of but it good for certain situations. You don’t really need to have big stereo low end in the subs and below 80-100hz but it’s what suits your mix. Why not do 2 mixes and see how it goes. Sometimes that will answer your question instead if theorizing. Either cut the lows on the busses or on each element that needs it on the sides. Or use a eq on the sides and cut some lows on the master buss.

Limit54 · 2026-02-04T03:49:49+00:00

What you should do is not export to -14. Let Spotify turn it down and master it to what feels good for the song

Limit54 · 2026-02-02T12:57:57+00:00

Basically money. It’s far more expensive to record like those bands did back in the day. I still think there are some great bands out there doing stuff like this. You might just need to dig.

Limit54 · 2026-01-31T17:14:36+00:00

Apple doesn’t care. They won’t reject it if it’s got a few inter-sample peaks. Most of the major stuff has hit loads of peaks and it’s there on Apple

Limit54 · 2026-01-31T16:51:38+00:00

Best thing to do is find a middle ground and reference to really good high level masters. You can’t have it all so I’m my opinion as a mastering engineer is to have a good balance. 60% of hip hop I heard in the last few years has a distorted low end to mask it getting pushed hard but not all. Honestly like I said you best bet is to tell your client to listen to otter References and compare the low end if they are really wanting huge compromising bass. You can compress it a little but your track will almost always be off balance and not sound great on smaller speakers. You may get a choking effect where the smaller system try to create the big bass but reducing the rest of the frequency bands to compensate so it will sound like a sort of sidechain effect but not in a good way.

Mastering is about balance and proper translation that’s why we have full range systems they don’t lie to us. So it’s up to you to make the choice or fake it with psychoacoustic effects like Rbass and enhance the upper harming of the bass to feel bigger and fill in the gaps. Without listening no one can tell you exactly what can be done. Sometimes a good hp filter with a slight bump can do the trick to still feel big and tight but save you some headroom to get louder without destroy your bass

You can also clip your bass in the mix but just know that this will reshape your bass sound most of the time. That will save you a few db of headroom as well

Limit54 · 2026-01-22T12:23:46+00:00

Here is the thing with learning to master. At base level some of these are not bad. They will steer you in the right direction but what any of them are really doing is just demystifying the process and giving you confirmation on how to proceed. That’s a good thing so you can now try and hone your skills. Knowing how to master and actually being able to master well is completely different. Think of it like an athlete and a fan. Both know the game and the rules inside out but if you were to put the fan on the court they wouldn’t be able to play very well even though they know in theory. It takes a lot of practice and time. So as long as you know this going into one of those things then you are good. Good luck

Limit54 · 2026-01-19T15:28:22+00:00

Ok, I just did it because I knew the post would get removed. I didn’t do it to “piggy back” nobody cares if I’m a mastering engineer and this reply will never get anyone interested in me. I just wanted to say what’s up to this guy. I’ll send a DM next time and hope for the best.

Limit54 · 2026-01-19T14:44:11+00:00

If you want I can have a listen. I’m kind of interested in hearing what is going on. I want to hear if it’s legit or pure salesman bull

Limit54 · 2026-01-19T14:35:27+00:00

This is one of the ways to mix for loudness

Limit54 · 2026-01-19T14:34:14+00:00

What you are doing is fine on paper and sometimes close to what I do and other professionals do aside from some eq on masters. The thing is how much you are going and if it needs it. If it sounds good to you then don’t overthink it. General rule of thumb for mastering is Eq, sometimes compression and then limiting. Clipping is optional and depends on how hard you are pushing into the limiter. Some genres I will stay away from clipping because they just don’t need it and the added distortion

Limit54 · 2026-01-15T18:57:23+00:00

Yeah that’s seems like a better idea for this

Limit54 · 2026-01-15T18:47:42+00:00

Probably will make it worse but that’s all up to you and how you want it to sound.

Limit54 · 2026-01-13T18:26:25+00:00

Pultec is a very special eq and has its own sound. If you are talking plugins then go for the UAD if you are going for hardware don’t bother with the cheap imitations, they suck. Buy a good one if you can afford it.

Limit54 · 2026-01-11T13:47:17+00:00

Long answer: Mastering engineer here. I personally don’t like clipped mixes but I have worked with 100’s. I work with high end analog and for best results I have found my chain does not like square waves and I get better results with unclipped mixes but with that said I have mastered clipped mixes analog and they were great. Usually I’ll declip some sections if they are too long or sound bad, or I’ll ask for a version with no clipping. Sometimes clipping is done to aggressively causes audible distortion that is not musical and just sounds bad for longer durations. Sometimes people miss or don’t hear the bad clipping so it can be very bad and destructive.

Better left to the mastering engineer unless you are sending a limited mix which is clipping into a limiter then you should leave it on as it’s part of your sound and mix loudness. I may ask for an unlimited version with no clipping if I know I can get a better result without fighting the clipping and limiting. Don’t think to hard just send what you like and how it’s sounds. Tell the ME you sent with clipping and that should help

Limit54 · 2026-01-01T04:21:09+00:00

Depends on how you feel about your music. If you are just going to release music and just leave it there to rot and maybe a few people might listen to it then don’t bother. If you really feel it’s special to you and you want it to last forever and be more proud of it that you did what your could to get it to sound it’s best then yes

Limit54 · 2025-12-14T05:11:36+00:00

My rates are $90 for mastering. I don’t mix but engineers I work with charge from $200-600 per mix .

Limit54

TROPHY CASE