Polaris Loudness: Lance Prenc’s Staged Clipping & Limiting Chains

Ever crank a Polaris track and wonder how they get that insane, wall-of-sound loudness that still feels punchy and clear? You're not alone. Achieving that level of perceived volume in modern metal without turning your mix into a distorted mess is a serious challenge. We got a peek into how mix engineer Lance Prenc tackles this, specifically how he gets those crushing, yet defined, masters. Spoiler: it involves a whole lot of carefully staged clipping.

If you're aiming for mixes that can compete in the loudness war while retaining impact, understanding these techniques is crucial. Let's dive into how Lance Prenc masters LOUD, with insights from his work on Polaris. You can even grab the multitracks for Polaris's "Nightmare" on Nail The Mix to try these concepts yourself!

The Core Philosophy: Taming Peaks for Maximum Headroom

The secret to getting a mix incredibly loud without it sounding like a complete disaster isn't just about slapping a limiter on the master bus and cranking it. According to Lance, a huge part of it comes from ensuring very few, if any, significant peaks are hitting that final limiter. By controlling transients before the limiter, you can push the overall level much higher without the limiter audibly struggling or introducing unwanted artifacts. It’s all about preparing the mix to be limited.

Setting the Stage: Strategic Gain Boosts

Before the clippers even enter the picture, Lance sometimes employs simple gain plugins to push the level. This isn't about fancy saturation (that comes later), but pure volume.

Think of it as a "classic boost" for heavier sections. If a part of the song isn't hitting with the desired intensity, a subtle (or not-so-subtle) gain increase before the main dynamics processing can be the answer. This might be an initial mixing gain stage plugin, or even an additional boost added later during revisions if a section needs more oomph. The idea is to get the signal hot enough to drive the subsequent clippers effectively, providing a bit more crush and perceived energy just before the limiting stage.

The Multi-Clipper Gauntlet: Transparency Through Stages

Here's where things get really interesting. Instead of relying on one clipper to do all the heavy lifting, Lance chains multiple clippers together. You might be wondering, "Why not just smash one clipper super hard?" The answer is transparency.

Why Multiple Clippers? The Art of Gradual Peak Reduction

Think about it like compression strategies for metal. If you need, say, 8dB of gain reduction, using four compressors each doing 2dB will sound vastly different—and usually much more transparent—than one compressor doing the full 8dB. The attack and release characteristics reset with each plugin, leading to a smoother, less "grabby" sound.

Staged clipping works on a similar principle. By shaving off peaks in small increments across several clippers, you can achieve a significant amount of overall peak reduction without the aggressive, unpleasant distortion that a single, overworked clipper might produce. Each clipper essentially gets a "fresh ceiling" to work with from the output of the previous one. This way, you can get your mix into that "sausage" waveform shape, but in a way that the listener doesn't necessarily hear as aggressive, audible clipping.

Clipper #1: The Initial Peak Shave with StandardCLIP

Lance often reaches for Sir Audio Tools StandardCLIP as one of his primary clippers. A key reason is its visual feedback; being able to see exactly what the clipper is doing to the waveform is a big plus for mastering decisions.

• Setting: Hard Clip is the go-to. Lance mentions he pretty much always uses hard clip and rarely, if ever, deviates.
• Oversampling: Typically OFF. For this stage, the goal is immediate peak trimming without any added latency that oversampling can introduce.
• Function: This first clipper is all about aggressively attacking the peaks. You'll see it visibly chopping off the kick and snare transients, and even some of the sustained material in the low-mids might show a bit of pleasing distortion. It's doing a lot of the initial "damage control" on the dynamic range.

While plugins like JST Clip are fantastic (often cited as great drum clippers designed to be cranked and destroy), StandardCLIP's design, with its detailed metering, makes it well-suited for these kinds of mastering bus applications where visual confirmation is helpful. You simply pull down the ceiling and let it trim.

Clipper #2: Adding Character and Further Saturation

Following the more utilitarian clipping, Lance might introduce another clipper that’s geared more towards adding a specific type of saturation or color, rather than just transparent peak removal. This could be something akin to a soft clipper or a plugin that emulates the behavior of something like the Event Horizon plugin.

• Function: This clipper isn't just about taming peaks; it's also about adding harmonic distortion and character.
• Settings: You might drive the input and then adjust a "clip shape" parameter. For example, a 50% setting could offer a blend – not entirely soft, but also not as brutally hard as the initial StandardCLIP. This stage adds another layer of control and subtle distortion, further shaping the loudness and density of the mix.

Lance emphasizes that he might have several clippers and gain stages like this in his chain, each contributing a small amount to the overall loudness and character. This multi-stage approach is a cornerstone of his sound.

The Final Gatekeeper: FabFilter Pro-L 2 for Maximum Impact

After the gauntlet of clippers has tamed the peaks and shaped the density, it’s time for the final limiter. For Lance, FabFilter Pro-L 2 is often the "best in the business" for this job.

Pro-L 2 Settings for a Punchy Master

Given that Polaris's music is inherently punchy, the settings on Pro-L 2 reflect this:

• Style: "Punchy" – a logical choice for energetic material.
• Lookahead: 0.25 ms
• Attack: 250 ms
• Release: 500 ms (Lance notes these attack/release settings might even be stock, highlighting that sometimes default values work great).
• Channel Linking: Transient and Release both at 0% (effectively running it as dual mono, though he clarifies he doesn't use the explicit "dual mono instance" feature here).
• True Peak Limiting: OFF.
• Oversampling: OFF. Lance mentions he's rarely, if ever, consciously used it.
• Dither: OFF, as most DAWs handle dither during export.
• Output Level: -0.1 dB. While some suggest -0.03 dB as the maximum before digital converters might introduce issues, -0.1 dB is a safe bet and the difference is inaudible.

With this setup, the Pro-L 2 isn't being slammed by rogue transients. Instead, it's working on an already heavily controlled and dense signal. This allows it to bring up the overall level significantly and consistently, because the gain reduction is relatively constant. You don't "hear" the limiter working as much because it's not reacting wildly to sudden peaks.

The Result: Transparently Crushed (And a Word of Caution)

The outcome of this intensive staged clipping and limiting process? An incredibly loud, dense mix where, ideally, the processing is transparent. You get the volume, you get the aggression, but without the obvious, nasty artifacts of a single plugin pushed too hard. The constant gain reduction from the limiter, because it's fed a pre-crushed signal, doesn't draw attention to itself.

However, there's a potential downside. With this much compression, clipping, and limiting, isolated elements – particularly loud, dry vocals – can sometimes reveal audible clipping. It might manifest as a subtle crackle or fizz "on top" of the sound, especially noticeable on the sides if the vocal is panned centrally. For instance, an isolated scream might exhibit this. In a dense mix, it's often buried and unnoticeable, but it's something to be aware of and decide if it's an acceptable trade-off for the extreme loudness.

Want to Hear It in Action and Learn More?

These techniques, focusing on staged clipping and careful limiting, are key to how Lance Prenc achieves those powerful Polaris masters. It’s a deliberate process of gradually reducing dynamic range to achieve maximum loudness with perceived transparency.

If you’re serious about elevating your heavy mixes and want to see exactly how pros like Lance Prenc, Will Putney, and Forrester Savell build these sounds from the ground up, you need to check out Nail The Mix. Every month, you get the actual multitracks from huge metal songs (like this Polaris session) and watch the original producer mix it live, explaining every plugin, every setting, and every decision. It's more than just presets; it's about understanding the why behind the moves, helping you unlock your sound in modern metal. Give these clipping strategies a shot in your next mix!