So we have around 5 post a day about soundcloud quality or how SC destroyed my master.
What i want to address here is how to use SC horrible quality to make you a better engineer.
SC Is crap and we know this. But what can we do? I can master a track like a mofo, but what can I do to make it better on sc?... very little, close to zero.
My best advice is listen to some vinai, or 2013 r3hab where the tracks are pushed very hard, sound super distorted. Next listen to some legit versions of those same tracks. You will discover that for some reason, they are NOT LOUD AF ON SC. It sounds terrible, worse than tape. (really listen and get a feel for how squashed/distorted everything is)
So in my personal experience w sc, I KNOW THE MORE I PUSH A MIX PAST THE CAPABILITY OF THE STREAMING SERVICE, THE WORSE IT SOUNDS!
Next is over compression, this is when your typically used to compressing more and limiting more. With streaming we wanna do our compression on our groups, and minimize how much we pull off on the master. We have to be mindful to EVERYTHING we add compression to, bc there is going to be SEVERE LOSS when we upload to sc no matter what.
-1db is plenty on your master compressor. Natural loud. Why bc THERE IS A CEILING WITH STREAMING SERVICES/RADIO AND THE MORE YOU PUSH PAST THE CEILING THE WORSE YOUR TRACK WILL SOUND.
Use your makeup gain for volume and use a limiter to hold it down vs add another -12db if gain reduction w your limiter on the master.
Follow these tips and your streaming music will be cleaner, less distorted, and actually appear louder than tracks like vinai.
EDIT: to all the anti headroom fellas out there, SC is when headroom matters. Work any volume, but when your about to mix, select all and drag down faders until its -9 to -12ish. If your individual channels are around -16 this is fine, this is actually in the area you want to be in. You can bring the vol back no prob, the issue comes with bringing back mega compressed audio and pushing it with unrealistic expectations for the streaming service.
BASICS, LESS IS MORE.
Hope this helps
Submitted August 01, 2017 at 11:10PM by TurntReynolds https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/comments/6r13pc/quick_tip_soundcloud_and_streaming_mastering/?utm_source=ifttt