INTRODUCTION

You’ve just spent hours - maybe even days or weeks - cooking up a track that
you just know is going to crush it on the dancefloor. The drums are hitting, the
synths are shimmering, the bass is pumping - you feel like your mix is tight.
What comes next?

Mastering is the final step for any audio production, and drum and bass is no
different. Think of it as putting the final bit of glossy polish on your track. It’s
meant to add a bit of sheen.. It makes the good stuff even better.

But it’s crucial that you have good stuff to begin with. Mastering won’t
make up for awkward arrangement or muddy mixes. Before you start master-
ing, make sure that every aspect of your track has been fine tuned to the best
of your ability.

Of course, no mix is 100% perfect, but you shouldn’t go into the

mastering stage with a track that you haven’t taken the time to really balance.

Like we said, the purpose of mastering is not to magically fix any lingering
problems your track might have after mixing. Mastering is done to get your
track to a commercial volume level and bring out the best in it so that it
sounds phenomenal on any and every device.

In this ebook, we’ll run through some best practices for each step of a popular
mastering signal chain. At the end, we’ll breakdown our picks for the best mas-
tering plug-in bundles.

Ready?
 MASTERING
FOR
DRUM AND BASS

Mastering is not a one-size-fits-all process. Similar to mixing, how you master a

song depends heavily on which genre you’re working with. For example, a country
song won’t need the drums to stand out in the same way a drum and bass song
will. Even different sub-genres might have unique requirements. Many Daft Punk
songs feature percussion that sort of blends in as opposed to standing out, where-
as no drum and bass producer worth their salt would put out a song where the
snare felt distant!

Accordingly, a good drum and bass producer will take many steps to ensure
their kick, snare and bass are sitting nicely in the mix well before they get to
the mastering stage. To quote Spinal Tap, mastering takes something that’s al-
ready a 10 and turns it up to 11. So make sure your track is a 10 before you turn your
attention to mastering.

If you’re working on a large project, like an EP or an album, it can be very beneficial

to enlist the services of a mastering engineer.

By comparing their results to yours, you can learn a lot about how you hear your
music versus the way others do. This can be really illuminating. Sometimes as
producers, we can lose the forest for the trees: because we spend so much time
lovingly tweaking each and every minor detail in our tracks, the overall picture of
how all of these elements come together can get distorted.

Mastering engineers don’t always come cheap, but if you can afford it, their
experience can prove invaluable.
SIGNAL CHAIN
A little mental trick that can help your tracks sound clean before mastering is to
try and mix them as if they won’t be mastered. In other words, how good can they
sound before that extra polish is done?

If all your ducks are in row before hand, the mastering process itself can actually
be completed pretty quickly.

A simple yet powerful mastering signal chain might include:

• A compressor to chop down peaks

• An EQ to balance frequencies
• A stereo imager to add depth
• A limiter

You’d be amazed by how far these four units will take your track. Young producers
or those new to mastering will likely find this signal chain sufficient for their tracks.
It’s important not to overcomplicate the chain, as that can lead to all of sorts of sonic
chaos if you don’t know what you’re doing.

Once you are more comfortable mastering, however, a more complex signal chain
might look like:

• A compressor to chop down peaks

• An EQ to balance frequencies
• A stereo imager to add depth
• A coloring EQ
• A saturator
• A vintage analog/emulation compressor

Alright, so now that we have a rough idea of what mastering is (and also what it
isn’t), let’s break down the mastering chain step-by-step and take a look at the pur-
pose and function of each tool.
 01
COMPRESSOR
Compression is the process of decreasing the dynamic range between the qui-
etest and loudest parts of your track.

If your mix is solid, the overall dynamics should already be pretty good. The aim
of this master bus compressor is two-fold:

1. To add a bit more glue that will hold all

of the tracks together
2. To add some headroom in the mix to
help with limiting

This compressor should chop off any errant peaks in volume that might be
hiding in your mix.

Even within the drum and bass genre, there is a stylistic spectrum across
which compression is used to create different sounds. In hardcore and neu-
rofunk, compression is pushed to the limits to achieve a heavy-hitting, direct
sound. By contrast, liquid producers use soft, sparing compression to retain an
organic feel.

Give your song a full listen while monitoring the compressor, and watch out
for any sudden explosions of sound. Overall, this should be very gentle com-
pression. Keep the ratio no higher than 3:1 with quick attack and release times,
a strong knee, and hardly any make-up gain. Anything more than 2dB of gain
reduction is too much!
02
BALANCE EQ
Now it’s time to give your track the Marie Kondo treatment and do a final declutter
of the frequency spectrum.

As a matter of course, you typically want to cut all of the sub-frequencies below
20Hz. Humans can’t hear that low, but the information will still be there clogging up
speakers if you leave it in, which can cause buzz or rumble.

Additionally, you’ll probably want to do the same to any high frequencies between
around 18 to 20 kHz, but this can be more of a stylistic choice. If you’re mastering for
vinyl, for example, you’ll typically cut everything above 16 kHz, as vinyl can’t convey
frequencies in this range.

One pro technique that can work wonders for your track is mid/side EQ.

Usually, when you’re equalizing, you’re applying EQ to the entire audio signal, be it
in mono or stereo.

Stereo
Certain EQs offer more precision by allowing you to apply equalization that only
affects the middle or the sides of the signal. This can lead to mixes that have incredi-
bly rich stereo depth.

Side Mid Side

REFERENCE TRACKS

At this point, it can be really helpful to employ the use of a reference track.

Find a song whose sound you are trying to emulate, or that is in a similar genre,
and throw it onto a track in your DAW (make sure it is in a lossless file format
like .wav, .aiff, or .FLAC, otherwise you might not be hearing the original master’s
actual signal). Then adjust the track to match your own headroom by adding an
instance of gain. For example, if your track has -9 dB of headroom, turn the
reference track down to -9 dB.

Solo the song and monitor its frequency spectrum. Then compare it to your own.
Maybe you have too much going on around 2 kHz, or perhaps the low-end has
been softened to the point it’s not coming through the way it should.
Reference tracks are like cheat codes, and if they’re identifying major problems,
don’t be afraid to re-visit the mix before moving on!

If the reference seems to show that you’re on the right track (see what we did
there), then start applying some subtle EQ to bring your song more in-line with
what you’re hearing. A couple of rules of thumb:

• Cut around a frequency before you try to boost it

• Don’t boost more than 4 dB
• When boosting, use wide, gently sloping bands; when
cutting, go sharp and surgical
• If your EQ has the ability to change phase, switch it to
linear phase before finalizing your master.
 03
STEREO IMAGER
Stereo imaging is another process that is highly subjective and genre depen-
dent. Different people have wildly different ideas of what good stereo imaging
sounds like.

KICK

SYNTHS GUITAR
BASS

It’s generally advisable to situate everything below 125 - 150 Hz in mono. Above
that, you can begin working in stereo.

You also want to ensure that every element in your track is mono compatible.
As with all else, subtlety is the name of the game here. Don’t overdo it with ste-
reo imaging, lest you end up with some whacky phasing.
04
COLOR EQ
Using a color EQ is sort of like adding garnish to a dish: it’s not absolutely necessary,
but when done properly, it can add layers of rich sonic diversity to your track.

What does it mean to “color” your tracks?

It’s one of those buzzwords that has no set definition. Different people will use
different descriptors, but generally speaking, when you “color” a sound, you are
making more aggressive adjustments to the frequency spectrum, which results in
unique harmonics and saturation.

You can think of it this way:

A “transparent” EQ adjusts the sound in a way that is hard to notice, whereas a “col-
or” EQ adjusts the sound in a way that pops out at you.

It’s easy to see why deciding whether or not to use color EQ is mostly a stylistic
choice. If you’re looking to add some analog warmth and fullness to your track, for
example, color EQ can help you achieve that vintage sound.

The ACQUA - Diamond - Color Eq 3 from Acustica is a highly respected color EQ.
 05
SATURATION
Saturation is the result of a machine’s electrical hardware being overloaded to
the point that the signal being fed into it begins to be compressed and and
starts gaining additional harmonics. The result is a warmer, crunchier sound
that has both stylistic and practical applications.

Saturation in the mastering stage makes use of this compression to sort of

plug up any holes in your tracks dynamic range. It can also help to glue things
together by adding a harmonic effect to all of the sounds in your track, which
makes them seem like they exist together in the same real space.

A solid technique is to add a saturator to your master chain and play your
whole song through. The added excitement should bring out any problem fre-
quencies in your mix. Address those, and then push the saturator to the point
that its effect is very noticeable. From this point, slowly dial the saturator down
until the extra warmth blends in
instead of popping out.

Do an A/B comparison to your

reference track to see if the
saturator has done its job. Take note
that saturation will increase the
overall loudness of your song, so
make sure that this decibel boost
isn’t tricking your ears into thinking
the actual mix is better. The Abbey Road J37 Tape Saturation Plug-In
from Waves is a popular saturator.
06
VINTAGE COMPRESSOR
Vintage bus compressors, such as the SSL 4000, are highly sought after due to the
tonal qualities they impart. They simultaneously act as color EQs and compressors.
It might seem like overkill, but adding another dollop of EQ and compression can
really help give your track a professional sound.

Slate’s FG Stress is an emulation of the classic Empirical Labs

Distressor.

Getting your hands on a real one is a costly endeavor, but luckily there are dozens of
software emulations available for purchase.

You’ve probably picked up on the theme by now: there’s no right answer when it
comes to using a bus compressor. Play around with the EQ and compression knobs
and see how it alters your track. As a rule of thumb, keep the attack fairly slow and
gain reduciton to a minimum.
 -03
dB/h 07
LIMITER
Last but not least, limiting is usually the final flourish in any mastering chain.

A limiter functions somewhat similarly to a compressor. They both even out

transients and random spikes in volume, but the end goal of a limiter is to raise
the overall loudness of your track while avoiding any clipping. Clipping occurs
when a waveform is pushed to an output level that is higher than its amplifier
can handle (generally above 0 dB), which can lead to random pops and clicks.

When you load up your limiter, keep in mind that the goal here is to add a gen-
eral increase in volume without introducing distortion, but louder doesn’t nec-
essarily translate to better. Exercise restraint.

Try loading up some of your limiter’s presets and see how they affect your
track. Play around with the attack and release ratios. Generally speaking, you’ll
want to set your limiter’s output to around -0.01 to -0.04 dB and then slowly in-
crease the gain. By pumping up the gain as opposed to the output, you’ll mini-
mize the risk of inter-sample peaks, which can cause phantom clipping.
PARTING THOUGHTS
There you have it: a quick rundown on the general principles of mastering with a
particular eye toward how you can implement them on drum and bass tracks.

Mastering is just as much art as it is science; it can be as much about feel as about
technical know-how. Don’t be discouraged if some of this information sounds con-
fusing. Mastering engineers devote their entire careers to collecting and honing
this skill. These are just some guidelines that can help you begin to develop your
own mastering abilities. And as we said, if you can afford it, it’s never a bad idea to
hire the services of a professional mastering
engineer.

At the end of the day, the goal of mastering is to make sure that your songs sound
incredible no matter what medium they’re being played on: professional speakers,
a smart phone, beat up old headphones, etc. Use that as your guiding principle.

We hope you got a lot out of this quick guide (and maybe even had fun along the
way). Keep reading to get our recommendations on the best mastering plug-in
bundles, and don’t forget to make use of our drum and bass mastering checklist to
help organize your workflow.

Keep on producing!

For more information on mastering and other fundamentals of

drum and bass production, click here to enroll in our

DNB FOUNDATIONS
TRAINING PROGRAM
MASTERING CHECKLIST
Your mastering session should have one channel containing a bounce of your track and one channel containing a
reference track that is stylistically similar to yours. Remember to decrease the volume of your refernce track to m
match the amount of headroom available in your own mix.

1. Compressor
Make sure the dynamic range is in check. Chop down any footloose peaks and fill in valleys. Create some
headspace for your limiter.

2. Balance EQ
Cut frequencies below 20 Hz and above 18 to 20 kHz. Do a quick pass through the song with your EQ
engaged and be on the look out for problematic frequencies. Subtract BEFORE adding.

3. Stereo Imager
Compare you track to the reference to see how their stereo images matchup. Don’t overdo it. Apply
correction where needed.

4. Color EQ
This is all about tone and style. Toy around with different non-graphical EQs (like a parametric EQ) to
bring out shades of richness.

5. Saturation
Load up a saturator and increase it to the point that its effect is noticeable, then slowly dial it back until its
presence is more subtle.

6. Vintage Compressor
A slow attack and minimnal gain reduction will help a vintage compressor add another layer of sonic

diversity to your track.

7. Limiter
Add volume without introudcing clipping. Keep output around -0.01 to -0.04 dB. Use a preset as a starting

point.
MASTERING BUNDLES
Building a sound that is uniquely yours is one of the most challenging yet
rewarding parts of music production. One way that producers begin to develop their
style is by collecting an arsenal of tools and plug-ins that they use heavily. As opposed
to offering you a piecemeal assortment of individual mastering plug-ins, we’re reccom-
mending our favorite bundles from some of the top names in sound design. Listed in
no particular order, these bundles have everything you need to master like a pro.

Waves Grand Masters

Waves is one of the biggest names in audio
production, and their Grand Masters
bundle provides you with everything
needed to start mastering your own tracks.

Complete with 15 plug-ins, including linear

phase EQs, parametric EQs, stereo imagers
and more, you’re covered at every step of
the signal chain.

$319
Fab Filter Mastering

Many consider Fab Filters’ suite of plug-ins

$499
to be industry standards. With their
Mastering bundle, you gain access to the
powerful Pro-L 2 Limiter, wildly popular
Pro-Q 3 EQ, the Pro-C 2 compressor, and
the Pro MB multiband compressor. The
quality of these tools cannot be
overstated.
Slate FG-X Mastering Processor

The FG-X Mastering Processor from Slate

Digital is one plug-in comprised of three
effect units: a compressor, a limiter, and a
metering panel. This can be purchased as
a standalone VST, or used as part of Slate’s
unique All Access Pass, which allows you to
use $5,000 worth of plug-ins for $149
annually.

$129

Melda Production
MMasteringFXBundle

Ignore the run-on name, this assortment

of 23 plug-ins from the Prague-based

Melda Productions puts an army of

mastering effects at your disposal. It’s got

everything you could ever need, and each

plug-in features a sleek, inutive UI.

$702
Kilohearts Toolbox Ultimate

Kilohearts is a smaller audio software

company, but their unique modular
approach to signal chains allows you to
create your own custom effects racks. The
Toolbox Ultimate contains every plug-in in
their lineup, allowing for a robust
mastering signal chain. And at $499, this
thing is a steal.

$499
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THE DRUM ‘N BASS

MASTERING ROADMAP

Copyright © 2020 DNB Academy

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