All language subtitles for 3. Saturation to Tame Transients & Increase RMS

In the last video we had a look at
saturation and using it to create little

pockets of frequency density to allow us
to rebalance sounds and almost use it

in the same way as we'd use EQ to try
and separate things out, declog areas

create kind of little areas of
frequencies and sounds to help the mix

of the speakers and be a bit more full
of life.

Now we're going to have a look at
another use of saturation which is

it's just another by -product of
saturation really.

We're going to do that in context of
this Tech House style track. Now, this

track I made for the Producing Tech
House series on Groove3. So if you like

kind of music and you like the sound of
the track, then definitely go and check

that out.

So what we're going to do now, we're
going to use Decapitator again to create

sound which has a higher RMS versus
peak.

Now, this is especially important for
drums because obviously we have really,

really loud transients and loud peaks in
our drum sounds.

Then we're going to hit our... ceiling
of 0 dB full scale quicker than if those

peaks are slightly tamed and the RMS is
higher.

So the tail, the sustain of the sound is
louder in comparison to the peak.

That's how compression works. We all
know that. If you're not sure what I'm

talking about in terms of compression,
then read up on that because that's an

important principle to understand.

But in the same way as compression
allows us to bring down the peak, bring

the sustain, or it could allow us to
actually increase the peak or the

transient. and bring down the sustain,
but a lot of time with compression we're

trying to tame peaks and bring up RMS.

Saturation can have the same effect and
can actually do it in a more transparent

way in some ways, or maybe not even
transparent, in some ways it actually

the sound bigger, fuller, larger than
life in the same ways we saw in the last

video, but it has the byproduct of also
taming the transient and bringing up the

sustain. Let me demonstrate.

Now let's have a quick blast of the
track.

So let's have a look at this clap sound.

So I'm going to bring in Decapitator.

Now what I'm going to do with this, or
what Decapitator is going to do is

some kind of audio magic for me, because
we're going to be able to increase the

perceived volume of this clap without
actually increasing the peak volume of

Let me demonstrate what I mean. So I'll
just dial in some parameters. I'm going

to put the punish mode on, so this is
going to be quite extreme overdrive.

low cut it a little bit, increase a bit
for the brightness.

because it's a clap sound we want that
to come through a little bit now i'm

going to mix this in in parallel i'm
going to keep the output quite low okay

let's just bypass it

okay so let's have a

look at our peak level here

So with decapitator in, we're peaking at
minus 15.

And with it off,

we're

peaking at minus 13. Once again, minus

15,

minus 13.

Okay, so now focus on how much louder
the clap feels.

So that means to say that this clap
sound is now in terms of peak level two

decibels quieter than it was but in
terms of perceived level it's far far

so we could actually kind of bring this
down even further

we're actually losing some of our kind
of compression or suppression of the

transient because I'm bringing down the
mix control.

Now we're even higher, minus 16.

So it's 3 dB quieter, but obviously much
louder in terms of perceived level. Now

this is an extreme setting, so I don't
have to have the punish on.

But listen to all that extra level I've
got without there actually being any

extra level. So the next challenge is to
fine tune this so it isn't too hard,

you know, and it kind of works in the
context of the track. Now, it's good to

this in parallel a lot of the time
because that means you can maintain the

transient as it is. So what you're
really doing is just dialing in a load

extra sustain energy, which allows the
track to come through more in the mix.

that's just a fantastic demonstration of
that.

Let's have a look at the hat sound here.

Actually, let's choose this hat because
that one already sounds quite crunchy.

So you can hear, again, that hat is
coming out of the mix so much more, but

there's no real change in level. I think
it was slightly louder, maybe a dB, but

if I actually gain match that, or volume
match that exactly, then I'm sure

you'll find, again, we'll be saving
ourselves peak energy.

Okay, so let's try taking all our drums,
and we'll put them to a bus,

and let's try a little bit of bus
processing for this.

Let's just try...

using radiator so again this is going to
be saturating the

drums I'll do it with the mix control
down and bring it in

So we're getting it a little bit louder
but all that extra volume we're getting

out

I mean it is louder so it's going to
come out a little bit more but it's not

just volume it's adding extra harmonic
to the drums creating life and vibe in

the drums

because I've EQ'd this again taking that
little bit of bass and boosting

slightly the treble I'm kind of tilting
the drums or tilting the radiator output

which we're mixing in to be favoring the
high frequency slightly so it's kind of

bringing out and decluttering again that
low mid area helping kind of the bass

sit a little bit better because the
drums are being taken away from there a

little bit so you can see again another
use of saturation different style of

music but still works perfectly so
enabling us to tame our transients,

our sustains, increase our RMS.

When you come to mastering your track at
the end of it, you're going to thank

yourself if you try and do this as much
as possible.

Subtly, a little bit goes a very long
way. You don't want to overdo saturation

because the mix will just fall apart.

So you've got to be really, really
mindful when you're doing it. Just

bits here and there. And by the end of
it, you'll have a mix which has got a

really nice, warm kind of feel to it.

And I don't mean that in a kind of
negative way. If you're looking for a

kind of punchy mix, that's fine.

But it's going to have that kind of
density to it that you get with analog

emulations and saturation.

And this is why when digital first came
in, in the kind of 80s and 90s, all the

engineers hated it because they didn't
get anything back from it. It was just a

true representation of sound.

Whereas when we had analog gear before
that, and obviously now we're still

analog gear now, these plug -in
emulations, they bring in extra

from the kind of degradation of the
signal. It's the limitation of the

itself. But actually our ear likes the
fact that it brings in these slight

imperfections to the sound and that's
what saturation is. So what we're trying

to do is inject a little bit of that
principle using these plugins to create

extra harmonic, tame transients, create
nice big fat waveforms. And as I said,

when it comes to mastering, it's a far
easier job than trying to limit the hell

out of everything at the end because
you've got all these crazy transients

very low RMS.

Okay, so that's saturation.

In the next video, we're going to have a
look at some of the spatial effects in

the sound toys bundle.

Thanks for watching.