How to Achieve Cohesion and Dynamics in Your Tracks: A Mastering Engineer's Insight

Hey y’all!

For the first time in my audio career, the number of projects I’m working on has really picked up, so I’m collaborating with mastering engineers a lot more often. This new era of music slay has me thinking a lot about dynamics, cohesion, and what it takes to make a track sound cohesive while keeping its dynamics intact. I thought it’d be vibe-ullar to dedicate this week’s blog to the topic and chat with a mastering engineer to get their scoop!

On that dynamic note, I had a blast chatting with award-winning mastering engineer Slatin (Kabasaki, KG970, Pol Granch).

Balancing Dynamics and Cohesion in a Master

I asked him: “How do you approach balancing dynamics and cohesion in a master? Specifically, how do you retain the track’s natural movement while still achieving a polished, unified sound?”

He said: “Thank you for the great question, Abi. This topic is very close to my heart because I'm truly passionate about dynamics! I spend nearly half of my workday just fine-tuning dynamics in my Mastering Studio, so I could discuss this topic endlessly! Haha

I believe many people underestimate the power and impact of properly fine-tuned dynamics. Many producers and artists simply drop a limiter or clipper on their master track and call it a day, but they don't realize how important it is to choose the *right* dynamic processing for the song.

I can understand — sometimes, it’s hard to hear, perceive and understand exactly what’s happening unless you’re using high-fidelity monitoring and good acoustics. 

Furthermore, nowadays, it’s very common for people to move onto mixing with headphones, subtle dynamic movement can be easily lost. I believe that to be able to accurately listen to the movement of your song — it should ideally be done on a good pair of monitors. Sound waves need some space to fully develop, and there is almost no space between your ear and the driver in headphones. So it can be really challenging.

When the acoustics and equipment are set, there are multiple ways to address dynamics from that point onward. Ideally, the mixing engineer or producer will find the correct movement for the song during the mixing process by applying mix-bus compression or even some micro-dynamic processes on groups and individual tracks. Obviously, the most experienced mixing engineers do not have that issue at all. But when the producer is also the mixer, it can be hard for them to dial in the right attack and release settings or choose the right compressor for the tone and vibe of the song. In those cases, I have to ask them to send me the song without any mix-bus compression or limiting, so I can adjust it on my end.

The most common issue I encounter is people not setting the sidechain filter on the compressor correctly. The majority of modern music is very bass-heavy, and since sub-frequencies are relatively quiet in terms of volume perception, we have to boost them significantly to be able to hear them. The compressor does not have the same "EQ" that our ears have, so when the sub becomes the loudest element in the mix, the compressor will be automatically triggered by it. Since sub-frequencies are the slowest waves, dynamically, they are quite boring and flat. Therefore, using sidechain filtering in your compressor definitely helps a lot in finding that initial movement and groove for the song. In certain situations, preventing the compressor from being triggered by shakers, hi-hats, or rapid percussive elements can also be crucial.

Mastering Techniques for Maintaining Natural Movement

Moving on to the mastering stage—based on what I hear, I will have a different approach. Some songs require "regular" mix-bus compression for that “classic” glue effect and dynamic coherence. In other cases, you need to combine that process with additional parallel compression, which generates a more aggressive and noticeable movement that you can utilize. You can get more creative with sidechain filters and switch the compressors to focus on specific elements, like kick and snare, while ignoring hi-hats, for example. This will create a well-defined groove, then you blend it with the original dry signal. In other instances, mix-bus compression can do more harm than good, which is usually true for heavy electronic music or some wall-of-sound type rock songs. In those cases, I prefer using expansion instead. I can dial in accurate upward movements with dynamic EQs. Those bands can be triggered by different frequencies or elements in the song, depending on the movement and impact that you are aiming for.

Finally, your choice of limiter plugin or hardware, its attack and release, look-ahead, and channel-linking settings will drastically affect the outcome. For many years, I only used two limiters, combining them with some clippers depending on the color I was aiming for. However, recently, I conducted a significant experiment; I built a large FX rack with more than 15 limiters from different companies. To my surprise, there wasn’t a limiter that was perfect for absolutely every song. I was impressed by how differently limiters behave on different songs. In some cases, where one limiter shines, in others it completely destroys the dynamics, transients, and the track’s vibe. This discovery made me want to remaster all my previous songs, haha.

Final Thoughts on Dynamics and Cohesion

Returning to the original question, finding the right limiter for the song is crucial to retaining that natural movement. After my dynamics are dialed in, during mastering, I spend the most time on comparing limiters and finding the correct one for the song. Sometimes, surprisingly, no limiter at all is the best approach; you can dial in your groove and just use a clipper on the output. There are no rules. The only truth is that there is no magic preset or plugin that works for everything, so mastering remains a very interesting and important part of bringing a song to its full sonic and dynamic potential.”

My Key Takeaways

I absolutely loved reading Slatin’s answer! I must start by saying that his limiter experiment really got me thinking: in the wonderful audio ether, there’s a lot of discourse around the different vibes and sounds you can get from various compressors, EQs, and the like—but I hadn’t really considered the impact of choosing the right limiter for each song. MIND BLOWN. His insights made me realize I’ve got some work to do in testing out different limiters and learning how to make more informed choices during the production and mixing stages.

Another key takeaway for me is that technical knowledge, when applied mindfully, can enhance the groove and vibe of a song, ultimately serving the art. For example, knowing when mix bus compression isn’t the vibe for a track and what alternatives may be more of the vibe. I really took note of how intentional Slatin is with his technical choices to let the groove and vibe shine through. It was a powerful reminder that the more technical knowledge I gain, the better I can serve the art and preserve the track’s essence. Slay!

Thanks Slatin for your insightful answer!

Catch y’all next blog!