PRO Mastering Engineer VS AI

in this video I'm going to be comparing using artificial intelligence compared to using a pro mastering engineer on a track that I recently just finished a mix on the whole goal here is to see what's the difference between different AI platforms we're going to be comparing Lander e-master mastering studio and we'll also be comparing the ozone 10 Advanced plug-in as well since this is like a one-time thing you buy and then can use the plugin forever we're going to be comparing that to a professional mastering engineer out of Nashville we're going to talk about a few different things related to how much does it cost what are we really getting out of it and then what is the quality of these Masters and then finally how big of a difference is this ultimately going to make in terms of actually Distributing your music let's do it so the very first thing I want to do is I want to actually show you the original mix of my track now as you can see over here if we look I do have gain added here that is the only thing I'm not doing any compression any any limiting no clipping absolutely nothing so you can get an idea of what just my mix sounds like I did mix this this is my own mix and then we're going to see what mastering does to this so again I boosted volume so we're going to be sitting at about 0 DB at the loudest points but you're going to see the mastering is still going to make it significantly louder in terms of perceived loudness but I did bump this up but the actual mix that I sent to my mastering engineer was at about -60b at the loudest point so let's just go ahead and take a listen to a couple different sections of the song we're going to start the very beginning which is as you can see very dynamically soft let's just play a little bit of it [Music] so this is where things kind of start building start growing we had that low end that kick foreign [Music] that's when we get loud let's go to the verse here [Music] don't hide from the truth come on out so nice vocals that are sitting pretty well on top I think the mix on this sounds really great let's just skip to the very end which is the loudest point [Music] from the darkness [Music] all right so again nice big vocals big drums big bass as we can see this is a really Dynamic track and this is one of the reasons why I want to show this is because the suspicion that I have is that artificial intelligence is going to have a little bit of a harder time adjusting for the overall dynamic as opposed to a pro mastering engineer so let's actually take a listen where I want to start here is with some of the AI mastering so we're going to go ahead and start with Lander which is probably one of the ones that people know the most now the very first thing I'll say is you can tell right away looking at this that these Peaks are getting it looks like they're getting clipped versus mastering Studio which you can see it looks like we still have some some space up here all the other ones are not doing that the Lander is the only one that is doing that so I'm kind of curious to see how this sounds so we're gonna go ahead and start with a soft intro see how it handles that and then that big intro which is a really big Dynamic shift we're going to compare the different AI platforms first this is Lander foreign [Music] yeah so the drums feel pretty darn squished especially the snare I can really hear in the symbols the symbols are really getting squished quite a bit I'm just kind of curious to go the loudest part here at the very end man yeah it's like when the snare hits It's almost like it's kind of throbbing a little bit and that's not good that's not something you want it just it feels it feels pretty over the top which I'm just going to say I've used Lander a lot in the past and Lander I have felt has done a really good job in the past this is probably one of the worst Masters I've gotten from Lander just personally again nothing against Lander I've used them I have nothing wrong with Lander but like I said when the snare hits like just listen to when the snare hits and just try to listen to the rest of the instrument foreign because that's such a loud moment I'm really listening to the symbols I can hear the symbols are kind of just throbbing a little bit which is not great not a very good thing so let's kind of go to one of the quieter moments in the bridge [Music] that is super bright too on the vocals like you can hear it is just extremely bright I'm just kind of curious just to compare that with mastering let's just compare the vocals it's the brightest your fear control you are yeah listen to the difference on that like just listen to the difference in the brightness this is Lander don't let your fear like I'm all for brightness but that's that's super super over the top like just really harsh so let's listen to e mastered I'm curious to see what the e-master does on that vocal [Music] control it's still bright but not nearly as bad as Lander I like mastering Studio better still got some Shimmer on it but it's it's a little bit of a darker sound it's not so harsh so mastering studio is the plug-in Alliance AI platform it's the one I think people probably know the least about it's one of the newer ones true you are [Music] don't hide come on that bass sounds really good I'm curious on later again [Music] man I think it's really easy to be thinking well Lander's louder but the problem is that it's squishing everything so bad like I'm hearing like this again listen listen to how it's getting whenever the snare hits I come on up into it's louder but I just don't feel like it's actually better [Music] that's handling it much much better let's go to the loudest part here this is mastering Studio I like that that's actually really good I'm really impressed with that what about you mastered that's a little more like Lander in terms of the brightness but it's not overdone and it still sounds good again let's just go back to the original mix obviously it's gonna be quieter I'll bump it up a little bit foreign I feel like the balance is really good on that I think Lander again is is way way over the top yes there is more loudness it's just so over the top and it's so crushed I would never release that I would never release this Lander version mastering Studio I think is the best so far out of the AI options foreign [Music] studio is getting a little bit more loudness than e-mastered it also just feels to be handling the frequencies a little bit better not quite so bright I'm all for a bright Master but there is a point to where I think sometimes it's easy to be kind of manipulated into thinking a brighter Master is better because sometimes brighter Masters just kind of sound louder let's actually take a listen to Ozone 10. so ozone 10 all I did on this was I did an amp analysis using their AI technology I set it to pop I did set it to rock initially but I felt like the rock version I did listen to it it sounded a little bit over the top so I did set it to pop I feel like that Blended the best overall with what I was looking for so let's actually take a listen to Ozone 10. that's there's a lot of loudness there there's a lot of loudness there I'm just kind of curious to compare this to a studio master or mastering Studio I'm going to compare this to mastering studio now because I'm kind of at this point out of the three AI ones that we've tried so far that you can pay for online I think Mastery studio is the winner so at that point I'm going to kind of Whittle it down or to compare mastering Studio to Ozone 10 and then we're going to compare those two from the ProMaster here we go this is mastering Studio [Applause] [Music] that's that's louder ozone 10 is definitely louder and again I didn't do anything with ozone 10 at all [Applause] [Music] [Music] man that's that sounds pretty darn good it sounds a little bit crushed I'm going to kind of turn the soft clip off foreign [Applause] [Music] now I I did have this set to to go to zero DB so on the optimization it's it's optimizing for for 0.1 db0 0.1 DB all right if we were to set this to streaming it's not gonna be as loud and it is setting it to -1 DB which is what what they want for True Peak so let's compare that now in terms of loudness so here's mastering Studio foreign [Music] [Music] yeah so now once we do that I can hear there's a lot more low end on mastering Studio but I feel like it's a little bit more defined on ozone 10. it's not quite as as Woofy it's it's just a little bit more defined and now I'm mastering CEO's ladder since I made that adjustment let's actually take a listen to the ProMaster though this is going into that final course which is the loudest moment foreign [Music] you can hear the symbols there's no like throbbing habiting in the symbols it's very very consistent which is really really good the vocals sound awesome let's go to the intro here and kind of hear how it sounds at the very beginning this is the ProMaster foreign [Music] [Music] ER is brighter let's go back to ProMaster and then we'll do mastering Studio [Music] foreign [Music] that's very comparable actually [Music] the drums are a little better on the ProMaster for sure listen to Drums foreign there's more simmer on the drums like hi-hats and symbol symbols have there's just more clarity on those [Music] vocals sound better on the ProMaster don't hide from the truth come on what are you hoping for time doesn't wait for you major tonal difference when we go to Ozone 10 it's it's a lot more crispy and a lot less warm man the thing with the ProMaster is it's just got such a good balance of all everything everything is so well balanced there's a perfect amount of warmth there's a perfect amount of clarity and then there's a perfect amount of low end so the real question becomes what about the price and what's the real differentiating factor between all of this so when it's all said and done Lander and e-mastered are typically working off of subscription-based platforms I'm gonna be completely honest with you I'm not a huge fan of subscription-based platforms that's my personal opinion because you know some weeks I might use more and then others less I would personally rather just pay per per thing as opposed to you know I guess doing it that way and you know in my particular case I just recently got ozone 10 so I haven't really used ozone 10 a whole lot and my thought is is that for me where I'm making as much music as I am and getting more into licensing of a new and stuff for television I would probably prefer using ozone 10 and then just getting really good at using ozone 10 because you pay for it one time and then you can just use it forever but if I'm going to be going for a legitimate release I personally would go with the ProMaster yes is the difference like oh my gosh so staggering between like mastering studio and the ProMaster these were relatively comparable in mastering Studio which is the plug-in Alliance version is also one of the more affordable options so I personally think mastering Studio did the best job I don't know what you guys think you can let me know in the comments what you think I think mastering Studio out of all of the AI options master stream Studio did the best ozone 10 I didn't do any tweaking with I just literally clicked up the AI thing it listened to it it made the tweaks made the adjustments but my thought is is that I could very easily go into ozone 10 here and then start working to match it to the ProMaster or to mastering studio and then over time really learn how to use ozone 10 again I've spent literally no time with ozone 10. so when it's all said and done the ProMaster was 150 to get this master and I know that this is going to be a phenomenal master that is ready for all platforms and I also got the instrumental Master as well so that's the other thing is that if you want an instrumental Master you're gonna have to pay twice with these different AI platforms and the other thing that is a little bit concerning about that is that you're not really guaranteed to get a good comparable master from the instrumental to the actual master and you want them to be comparable like you want them to be the same you don't want them to sound different because especially if you're going for something like licensing where people are going to be using maybe just the instrumental in um you know television or in a commercial or any number of different things you don't want to be in a situation where you are having to deal with one master sounding really bright and nice and shimmery and then the instrumental is not that way so that is one of the biggest challenges that would concern me about using AI for more official purposes Like official releases or licensing and stuff like that so at the end of the day my opinion if I were to rank this ProMaster definitely the top mastering studio is second and then ozone 10 I would put more as a third option with a big hyphen that says I could probably get it sounding a lot better than it does sound right now let me know in the comments what you think and if you thought this video was helpful give it a thumbs up we'll see in the next one

Channel: Nathan James Larsen

Views: 41,716

Keywords: nathan larsen, nathan james larsen, nathan larson, nathan james larson, pro vs ai, pro vs ai mastering, online mastering vs real mastering engineer, mastering engineer vs online mastering, is online mastering good, is online mastering worth it, e mastered, landr, mastering studio, how to master music, how to master music online

Id: MPesXCXlg4U

Length: 16min 27sec (987 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 11 2022