Mastering

Mastering is the last step: making the finished mix sound its best and reach the right loudness for where it will be played. In Nebula it happens on the Stereo Out, with a loudness meter, a chain of Nebula's own processors and a Mastering Assistant that sets them for you and explains what it did.

Open the Mastering panel

Choose the Stereo Out channel strip. In the row where a track has its sends, the Stereo Out has one box: it reads MASTERING before anything is measured, then MASTER and the loudness on the target's measure. Its colour says how close you are: green within the target, warning below it, danger above it or over the peak ceiling.

Click the box to open the Mastering panel. At the top are Reset Meter and the Target menu. When Nebula Loudness's own panel is available, a Loudness Panel button sits beside them and opens that panel with its history, peaks and range; without it, the button is not shown. Below are three tabs: Assistant, Loudness and Chain.

Choose a loudness target

The Target menu says what the master is aimed at. It is kept with the song.

  • Club: Psytrance Club (−5 LUFS on its loudest moment) and Club (−8 LUFS).
  • Streaming: Streaming (−14 LUFS), Spotify, Spotify Loud, Apple Music, YouTube, Amazon Music, Tidal and Deezer.
  • Broadcast: Broadcast (EBU R128) (−23 LUFS), Broadcast US (ATSC A/85), Broadcast Japan (ARIB TR-B32) and Broadcast Australia (OP-59).
  • Other: Podcast and Custom.

Each target also has a true-peak ceiling. Most are judged on the whole song (integrated). Psytrance Club is judged on its loudest moment, because its breakdowns pull the whole-song figure down however hot the drops are.

Claude can do this for you: ask it to aim the master at a target.

Measure the loudness

Play the song. The Loudness tab shows what the Stereo Out measures while playing, without the click: Momentary (400 ms), Short-term (3 s), Integrated (the whole song so far), Range, True peak and Sample peak, with the loudest moment and the loudest 3 seconds.

The Stereo Out's strip also shows two figures all the time, in the row where a track has its group: I (integrated) and S (short-term), in LUFS. Click them, or Reset Meter in the panel, to measure again from the next note played. The mixer's View menu ▸ Meters sets how every channel's meter reads (see Mixing).

Claude can do this for you: ask it how loud the master is, or to reset the loudness meter.

The mastering chain

The Chain tab lists the stages on the Stereo Out, in order: Nebula EQ, Nebula Multiband, Nebula Compressor (as glue), Nebula Exciter, Nebula Punch, Nebula Stereo, Nebula Clipper and Nebula Limiter. Each row has a switch to bypass it and Open for its editor. A stage that is missing says Not added.

Set Up Chain (or Add Missing) adds Nebula EQ, Nebula Stereo, Nebula Clipper and Nebula Limiter in their places. The multiband, glue and punch come only when the assistant matches the feel.

Claude can do this for you: ask it to set up the mastering chain.

Learn from reference tracks

The assistant matches your mix's tone to finished records you like. In the Assistant tab, under References, click Learn from Folder… and choose a folder of finished masters in your genre. Nebula measures each one (loudness, tone, width) and keeps only the figures; nothing leaves this Mac. Online masters count half, and unlimited files count for tone only. Learn Again… measures a folder afresh.

After a master, a chart shows your mix's tone by octave against the references: right of centre is more than they have, and the shaded band is how far the references differ among themselves.

Claude can do this for you: ask it to learn references from a folder.

Master with the assistant

  1. Choose a Target.
  2. In the Assistant tab, choose a character: Balanced (as the references are), Punchy (more kick, less mud, a quicker limiter), Warm (fuller low mids, a softer top) or Bright (more air and presence).
  3. Under Tone, choose Your references or one reference track, and how far the EQ goes toward it.
  4. Tick Match the feel too — punch, movement, width to have it search the glue, the width and the clip stage until the loudest stretch feels like the references.
  5. Click Master for your target.

The assistant listens to the whole song, matches the tone with the EQ, sets Nebula Stereo and Nebula Limiter for the target, then renders the result and measures it. It shows the loudness before and after, the true peak it measured, and What changed, and why, one line per decision. With feel on, a table compares Punch, Kick punch, Movement, Low width and Top width without and with matching, against the reference.

It is one undo step. After changing the mix, click Master Again for your target.

Claude can do this for you: ask it to master the song for a target, with a character and feel if you like, and it reports what it changed.

Compare the master with the mix

Turn on Compare, then choose Master or Mix (the song without Nebula Stereo and Nebula Limiter). With Same loudness ticked, the master plays quieter while comparing, so you judge the sound and not the level; the panel says by how much. Turn Compare off for the real thing. Comparing is never saved, and a bounce always plays the master.

Claude can do this for you: ask it to let you hear the mix or the master, at the same loudness.

Loudness when you bounce

The bounce's Level can make the file Peak −1 dBFS or a chosen Loudness with a true-peak ceiling, measured the same way as the Stereo Out's meter. That only turns the file up or down; it never limits. To make a master loud, use the assistant and the limiter; use Level to deliver it. See Bounce and export.