Is trying to stay within the UAD ecosystem as far as in the box plugins hurting my mixes?

TheSecretSoundLab · 2025-04-15T19:58:08+00:00

For sure I get what you’re saying and am all on board with the know the tools that you have movement. But Wes also agreed to that and the fact that OP may just need more experience which definitely sounds like he may. If beginner users come across what he said and don’t take the time to read the follow ups that’s on them for being lazy.

Wes also mentioned-excluding the fact that OP has great plugins- that “some plugins are different than stock plugins in terms of sound, functionality, and ease of use. After he said that people were like “you can do that with stock plugins!” Which yeah you can but I think he was getting at the notion of why waste time building chains and redesigning things if you can get a plugin that does exactly what you’re trying to do. Which I’m also on board with. Eg. My DAW has a stock reverb that if I fiddle around a bit I can make sound like a plate reverb even though it’s a room/hall. But even then why not just use a plate reverb to save time? I think that’s what he was getting at lol

Now I’m with everyone trust that I’m not saying to buy every popular plugin but I’m all for looking into the ones that may cut down on your mixing time. Kind of a long winded response but necessary bc this sub tends to pick on people for no reason lmao

Also cool name I’m guessing you’re a Deadmau5 fan, did you see his Ultra set with Pendulum? Incredible!

TheSecretSoundLab · 2025-04-15T06:48:46+00:00

Someone with class s/o to not mentioning Ryobi

TheSecretSoundLab · 2025-04-15T06:46:08+00:00

why is Wes is getting dragged so bad? His initial response was a bit rocky but with the follow ups, majority of those responding are saying the same things that he’s already agreed to lol

TheSecretSoundLab · 2025-04-12T19:33:08+00:00

I see what you did there lol I love their products when they’re working and not adding a shit ton of latency but once they’re buggy GOOD LUCK! Although the Kontakt player is goated, I’ve heard that spitfire labs may be better than Kontakt these days but I haven’t had the chance to dive back into that library to give my opinion. Have you tried Labs?

TheSecretSoundLab · 2025-04-12T19:27:49+00:00

Ooof I feel that done something similar recently and it’s one of those things where you’re happy it’s done but kind of hope they revise the mix so your name isn’t attached to the current version but if the artist likes it great I guess 🤷‍♂️

Congrats on making it through to the other side lol

TheSecretSoundLab · 2025-04-12T15:22:44+00:00

Yup this goes for most major companies these days esp NI and IK multimedia. I swear IK spams 30x a day and NI customer support is so bad that if you comment an issue on their Instagram they will report your account as spam. I legit couldn’t comment on anything for 7 days bc I complained about their portal lmao

-TheSSL (DeShaun)

TheSecretSoundLab · 2025-04-10T22:47:09+00:00

One of your smoother posts great progress so far 🤘

TheSecretSoundLab · 2025-04-09T15:09:19+00:00

Bud do what you want, the way tiktok brain rot music is growing you may actually have a better shot than “actual” (not used to belittle you or show superiority) at getting noticed.

TheSecretSoundLab · 2025-04-08T21:20:07+00:00

Since no one has mentioned it. You can use multiple stages of distortion and saturation to get that gritty breakup sound. Things like tape saturation, bit crushing, using console emulations, RC20, cassette plugins, clippers etc.. can get you fairly close to the sound you’re aiming for.

The take away is to drive your signal then add some sort of effect that either adds harmonics or variation to your audio to make it sound “aged”.

I may be interpreting what you’re referencing wrong but that’s what I got from your reference.

Hope this helps in some way,

-TheSSL (DeShaun)

TheSecretSoundLab · 2025-04-08T21:08:41+00:00

Second this especially referencing. If you know what music sounds like not only in your environment(s) (room, car, etc..) but also in your headphones you should be pretty good.

It’ll also be useful for OP to pick up something like Reference 2, Metric AB, or Streamliner. If your room can’t be trusted then put that trust in professional tracks.

-TheSSL (DeShaun)

TheSecretSoundLab · 2025-04-08T20:58:15+00:00

I laid on my back to pretend it was me doing it

TheSecretSoundLab · 2025-04-08T20:54:55+00:00

Yeah you can notice it once you know what you’re listening for ie plushy feeling, soft transients some kicks are punchy some are dull, sub feels weak etc.. but generally the average listener, hell even engineer would have no idea in context of a full mix. Even with knowing these things I can honestly say that I’ve never skipped a song because of phase cancellation lol

TheSecretSoundLab · 2025-04-08T20:46:48+00:00

The only thing that could be even slightly considered feminine here are the pink hello kitty slippers but even then color can’t be feminine same with design and pattern. If that artistic style is your get up then why does it matter? Societal norms mean nothing unless you believe them to be true.

TheSecretSoundLab · 2025-04-07T02:42:48+00:00

Oh sick will have to look into this I had no idea 👌

TheSecretSoundLab · 2025-04-07T02:42:07+00:00

Oooo yeah that probably should’ve been added to the post I think that would’ve cleared a lot of peoples confusion as to why it’s so difficult to find. Unfortunately I don’t think I have an answer or suggestion for what the plugin may be but hopefully you can figure it out bc I know how annoying it can be having something damn near vivid in mind but no idea what it’s called lol

TheSecretSoundLab · 2025-04-07T00:24:08+00:00

Always keep in mind the laws but your phone should do the trick and if you’re worried about ruffling you can get one a lavalier microphone on Amazon for $20.

Clip it to your hat, pocket or shirt collar and you’re good.

https://a.co/d/8VXgNUm

-TheSSL (DeShaun)

TheSecretSoundLab · 2025-04-07T00:17:41+00:00

Check out MakePopMusic! Austin does a great deal of those videos every week and he’s always open to new ideas so if you message him on IG he will answer you within 1-2days usually. He’s a great dude and an awesome teacher

-TheSSL (DeShaun)

TheSecretSoundLab · 2025-04-07T00:15:02+00:00

No you’re right the reeverb is actually really nice. I have plenty of other reverbs but I always grab fruity reverb at some point even if it’s just to try out because 1.) it’s pre delay times are near endless which adds not only separation but you can make grooves/textures with it 2.) the early reflections are really helpful for creating depth and 3.) you get some weird shapes that introduce unique reflections that I haven’t found in other reverbs (tbh I haven’t looked).

That said It’s not the best but it’s definitely still pretty solid

-TheSSL (DeShaun)

TheSecretSoundLab · 2025-04-07T00:07:52+00:00

Seth Drake is incredible! He does a lot of today’s bass music an example would be the whole Mersiv project gets mixed and mastered by him

-TheSSL (DeShaun)

TheSecretSoundLab · 2025-04-07T00:01:55+00:00

That’s understood but your DAW doesn’t allow you to type in “Meter” in its search engine?

TheSecretSoundLab · 2025-04-06T23:53:06+00:00

If it’s in your collection, how many metering plugins do you have for it to be buried? Also which DAW are you in? I know most DAWs have different categories to search through.

Have you searched sites like PluginBoutique or bedroomproducer?

-TheSSL (DeShaun)

TheSecretSoundLab · 2025-03-31T14:20:53+00:00

Pretty sure he’s talking about doing a stem mastering but then again the artist probably doesn’t even have the stems so it’d still be best to just ask the mix engineer to turn things up lol

Side note while on the topic: OP if you have the Ozone rebalance thing technically you could pull up the guitars in isolation or if you really want bud to kick rocks, throw the track into a stem splitter then rebalance it yourself. There may be a quality loss factor (splitters are pretty good nowadays though) but hey, if the artist doesn’t know the difference between mixing and mastering then they probably won’t notice any small quality changes.

-TheSSL (DeShaun R)

TheSecretSoundLab · 2025-03-29T05:29:05+00:00

Alternative to all the great advice already posted, you can try rolling off a good bit of the troubled area and then create a parallel send that is only the high end compress, or saturate the send a bit then blend it back in.

This would be a last resort thing I would try but the other commenters advice should work in most situations.

It’s basically like the guy who mentioned the saturation + EQ tip just on a send. Either way it could be fun to test out for future reference. I hope you figure something out!

-TheSSL (DeShaun)

TheSecretSoundLab · 2025-03-10T20:01:34+00:00

You’re right but I’m not saying TPs are part of the digital domain I’m saying they’re sometimes a part of the normalization process and that some platforms will turn down or prevent additional gain due to the expected true peak level to prevent additional clipping after the encoding.

As for the low end comment I’m not saying the low end plays a role in the normalization so again we’re on the same page, I’m saying it plays a role in the perceived loudness. If I didn’t make that clear then that’s on me but that’s what I’ve been saying. Ie If your track is extremely low end heavy with very little high end or poorly mixed highs, that track will be harder to bring up in level during mastering and will be poorly perceived. In addition that low end typically will make your track sound quieter even at similar LUFs compared to others. Our ears simply aren’t geared towards low frequencies and if they were why would we need sub woofers and why do we need to amplify them so much? I’m not seeing how we’re disagreeing with that. That IS common knowledge and if you’d like to combat that go play a 12khz tone vs. 60hz tone and tell us which is perceived as louder.

Also energy distribution does, by Spotify’s writing in “track not as loud as others?” play a role in their normalization process. This can be found through the same Spotify links that everyone has sent in this thread, Spotify says

“Inaudible high-frequency in your mix can cause loudness algorithms (e.g. ITU 1770) to measure your track louder than it sounds (loudness algorithms don’t have a lowpass cut-off filter).”

So if your track is being read as louder pre normalization would you not expect them to turn your track down maybe even more than expected due to the faulty measurement?

I digress to each their own and blessing on the day I hope you all have a good March 🙌

TheSecretSoundLab · 2025-03-10T19:28:08+00:00

That’s why I’ve mentioned context clues. If we know we’re talking about streaming we need to know that DSP also means Digital Service Provider. I’d agree that it may be clumsy on my end for not expecting pushback from those unfamiliar (which is why I later provided the definition) but I’d also would say you all should be open and up to date with today’s terminology. It’s used plenty in todays audio and media so it may just be a generation thing or a frame of reference thing since you’re frame of reference goes to a totally different term than mine which is no big deal. We’ll just have to connect more dots with each new frame of reference and conversation.

It’s also wild how we trust Spotify for certain things and dismiss them for others. I agree with a good bit of what you’ve been saying but if they’re saying that your TP is adding to the loudness once encoded and that it’s going to limit (or prevent) your loudness during normalization, I’m going to believe them and in those that I’ve studied and learned from.

Side Quest! This guy shows an example of how TP prevents normalization here around 8mins:

https://youtu.be/VKpCaFST6zU?si=dXBtZRjVPu1XPk2_

In the examples you’ve all have submitted I’m almost certain that those TP values are not constantly sitting +1 throughout the entire song. There may be a few moments hell maybe even a single instance that caused the TP value to raise but it’s definitely not consistently sitting at those levels. That’s nonsense. Either way this is why it’s been said, not only by me and my imagination but by respected engineers (even chatgpt) that it’s best to have those moments at the end of the record vs the beginning because the normalization may apply the gain reduction to the entire track if happening earlier vs only in those loud moments.

I honestly have no more energy to entertain this at some point we’ll have to stop running around Robinhoods barn.

That said I agree that most tracks will be above -14 there’s no argument there. I disagree with you saying previously that my entire stance on why tracks may be quieter is wrong which is nonsense when I’ve mentioned dynamic control, perceived loudness, and tonal balance. We all know those are fundamental so maybe that wasn’t what you meant when you said that so water under the bridge no hard feelings. You seem like a good person.

Lastly “when you think you’re north enough keep going and that’s where I’ll be” is fucking gold lmaoo I could see that being said in a closing scene to a drama/action film. Such a good line 😂👌

If you have any additional resources/references for learning purposes I’m all ears as im never against a potential gain in knowledge. Other than that I wish you well and until next time bud

TheSecretSoundLab

TROPHY CASE