Lance Prenc’s LOUD Master for Polaris’ “Dissipate”

Ever cranked a Polaris track and wondered, "How in the world do they get it that loud and punchy without it turning into a distorted mess?" You're not alone. Achieving that professional, aggressive, yet clear loudness is a huge goal for metal producers. We got a peek into how mix engineer Lance Prenc tackles this very challenge, especially on his mixes for Polaris, and a lot of it comes down to a carefully crafted chain on the master bus.

Forget just slapping a single limiter on at the end and praying. Lance employs a multi-stage approach using volume automation, several clippers, and a final limiter to create that "wall of sound" that still lets the details shine. If you want to dive deeper into how these techniques come together in a full mix, check out the Polaris Nail The Mix session where you can see it all in action.

Kicking Things Off: Strategic Volume Boosts

Before the signal even hits the main loudness processing, Lance sometimes uses a classic trick: a simple gain plugin to boost the overall level during heavier sections. This isn't about fancy saturation, just clean volume.

Think of it as an early-stage dynamic move. If a chorus or a particularly heavy riff isn't hitting with the impact you want, a subtle (or not-so-subtle) volume bump before your clippers and limiters can be the answer. This pushes the entire mix harder into the subsequent processing, giving those sections an extra dose of energy and perceived power. Lance mentions that sometimes these changes are so subtle the band might not even consciously notice them, but they contribute to the overall dynamic impact of the song.

The Core of the Loudness: Multi-Stage Clipping

This is where a significant portion of Lance's loudness magic happens. Instead of relying on one clipper to do all the heavy lifting (which can often sound obviously distorted and unpleasant), he chains multiple clippers together, each doing a little bit of work.

Why Stage Your Clippers?

Lance explains this with a great analogy: think about compression. Applying 8dB of gain reduction with a single compressor will sound drastically different—and often much less transparent—than achieving that same 8dB of reduction across four compressors, each doing 2dB. Each stage of compression (or in this case, clipping) effectively gets a "fresh ceiling." You're gently shaving off peaks in stages, which allows you to reduce the dynamic range significantly without introducing the nasty artifacts you'd get from smashing one plugin. The goal is to create that "sausage" waveform, but in a way that's not immediately audible as aggressive, unpleasant distortion.

Clipper 1: The Peak Shaver (e.g., StandardCLIP)

The first part of the clipping chain often involves a hard clipper, like StandardCLIP. Lance’s preference is almost always for a hard clip setting.

• No Oversampling: He keeps oversampling off on these initial clippers. The reasoning is simple: no added latency. He just wants the plugin to transparently trim off the peaks without any processing delay.
• Visual Feedback: A key feature Lance appreciates in plugins like StandardCLIP (which he likens to GClip in functionality) is the visual readout. Being able to see how much signal is being clipped helps him dial it in precisely. He can pull the threshold down and visually confirm the peaks are being tamed.
• The Goal: This first clipper is aggressively attacking the loudest transients, like kick and snare hits, chopping them down. You might even hear a touch of distortion in the low-mids if you solo it, but in the context of the full mix, it's about controlling those errant peaks so subsequent processors don't have to work as hard.

Clipper 2 & Beyond: Adding Character & More Control (e.g., Saturating Clippers)

Following the initial hard clipper, Lance might introduce another clipper that has more of a saturation character. He mentions something akin to the Event Horizon plugin, which acts as a soft clipper but also introduces more harmonic distortion.

• Drive and Shape: For these types of clippers, you're typically adjusting a "drive" control (which adds level and pushes into the clipping circuit) and sometimes a "clipper shape" or "mix" control. Lance might set a shape to 50%, looking for something that isn't purely soft (which can squash too much) but also isn't as brutally hard as the first clipper. It’s about finding a middle ground that adds pleasing distortion while still controlling levels.
• Layering the Effect: By staging these, the second (or even third) clipper isn't dealing with the massive initial peaks; those have already been tamed. This allows the later clippers to add their color and further control the dynamics in a more nuanced way.

This staged approach is a cornerstone of his sound. As Lance puts it, he hasn't often heard others talk about using four clippers in a row, but it's integral to achieving his signature loudness.

The Final Polish: FabFilter Pro-L 2

After the signal has been artfully clipped and shaped, it hits the final limiter: FabFilter Pro-L 2, which Lance calls "the best in the business."

Key Pro-L 2 Settings for Punch

For a punchy song or album (like the Polaris material), Lance opts for specific settings on the Pro-L 2:

• Style: "Punchy" – this algorithm is designed to maintain transient impact even while limiting.
• Lookahead: 0.25 ms
• Attack: 250 ms
• Release: 500 ms (He notes these attack/release settings might even be stock, emphasizing that sometimes the defaults work great!)
• Oversampling: Off. He mentions never consciously using it.
• Dither: Off. He feels most DAWs handle dither on export.
• Output Level: -0.1dBFS. While some aim for -0.03dBFS, -0.1dBFS is a safe bet to avoid any inter-sample peaks when the track is played back on various systems.

The Goal: Transparent Limiting by Taming Peaks First

The crucial part here is what the Pro-L 2 is receiving. Because the preceding clippers have already dramatically reduced the peak-to-RMS ratio (the difference between the loudest peaks and the average level), the Pro-L 2 isn't being slammed by wild, unpredictable transients. Instead, it's receiving an already heavily controlled, dense signal.

This means the limiter is working more consistently, applying a relatively similar amount of gain reduction throughout the track rather than aggressively reacting to sudden peaks. This consistent action is perceived as more transparent. You don't "hear" the limiter working as obviously because it’s not having to suddenly clamp down on a rogue snare hit, which can cause audible ducking or artifacts. The result? You can push the overall level higher.

The Caveats: When Extreme Loudness Can Introduce Artifacts

While this multi-stage approach is incredibly effective for achieving competitive loudness, Lance is upfront about potential downsides. With this much compression, clipping, and limiting, isolated elements – particularly vocals – can sometimes reveal audible clipping artifacts.
He describes it not as a pleasing track distortion, but more like a crackle "on top" of the sound, especially noticeable when a vocal is exposed. For instance, a powerful scream without much else around it might exhibit this. It's a trade-off, and whether it's acceptable depends on the context of the mix and what you're willing to live with. Buried in a dense mix, these artifacts are often unnoticeable.

Owning Your Sound: The Mix IS the Master

Lance's philosophy is clear: this aggressive, multi-stage processing is a fundamental part of his sound. He even mentions that he'll always master his own material because he doubts a separate mastering engineer would replicate this specific chain and achieve the same sonic signature. This really highlights how intertwined the mixing and mastering stages can become when chasing a particular modern metal sound.

If you're fascinated by these techniques and want to see exactly how Lance Prenc dials in these clippers and the Pro-L 2 on a real Polaris track, then you absolutely need to check out his full mixing session on Nail The Mix for Polaris.

Want to go beyond presets and truly understand how to craft powerful, modern metal mixes? Explore how to Unlock Your Sound with Nail The Mix and gain access to a wealth of knowledge from top-tier producers. At Nail The Mix, you get the multitracks from huge bands and watch the original producers mix them from scratch, explaining every plugin, every setting, and every decision. It’s the ultimate way to learn how to make your mixes compete.