5 Bainz Mastering Techniques

Bainz is a mastering engineer behind some of the loudest, tightest, and most translatable hip-hop records of the past decade — credits spanning Young Thug, Future, Travis Scott, Gunna, and many others. His masters are recognizable: dense but controlled low end, a high end that is polished without being brittle, and a stereo image that holds up from earbuds to car systems to full club playback.

What makes his approach specifically worth studying is that he does not rely on a single hero plugin. He relies on a small number of decisive, slightly unusual moves — some of which contradict conventional mastering advice — and a monitoring chain that tells him when any one of those moves has gone too far. This article breaks down the five techniques that define his sound, with the exact plugins and starting-point settings he has used on commercial records.

1. Kick-to-808 Ducking with Volume Automation and Trackspacer

Most engineers chase a complex side-chain setup for kick and 808 interaction. Bainz uses one of the simplest possible techniques, and it is the same technique Jaycen Joshua has described using for years: hand-written volume automation on the 808.

The setup is straightforward. Move the 808 track below the kick track in your session so the two are visually adjacent. Write volume automation on the 808 that dips 3 to 6 dB every time the kick hits, then returns to unity over the next few milliseconds. The automation envelope mirrors what a side-chain compressor would do — the attack shape on the way down, the release shape on the way back up — but you draw it by hand, which makes it visually obvious and trivially easy to fine-tune per-hit. If one kick lands during a melodic 808 bend you want to preserve, you simply do not draw the automation dip for that specific note.

The second layer is Waves Factory Trackspacer. Insert it on the 808, side-chain the kick into it, and use the reduction knob to carve additional space in the exact frequencies where the kick and 808 overlap. The plugin analyses the kick's spectrum in real time and cuts those same frequencies out of the 808 only while the kick is playing. Do not push the reduction too far: heavy settings take longer to bring the 808 back to full level, which creates a noticeable hole after each kick. A subtle amount combined with the volume automation gives you control in both the time and frequency domain, which is the real reason Bainz's kick and 808 relationships sound locked without sounding pumpy. For a deeper look at side-chain techniques beyond this approach, see our guide on how to sidechain kick and 808: 4 advanced tricks.

2. SSL HF Compressor for Controlled Top-End

High-frequency compression is the fastest way to tame brittleness in a mastering chain without dulling the overall sound. Bainz originally used the SSL Fusion hardware HF Compressor, but SSL has since released a native plugin version that delivers essentially the same circuit behavior, which makes the technique accessible to anyone with a software-based mastering chain.

The plugin compresses only the high-frequency portion of the signal above a crossover point, leaving the rest of the spectrum untouched. The result is a gentle, tape-like top-end roll-off that controls harshness and sibilance while preserving transient detail. Attack, release, and ratio are fixed by design and optimized for transparency, so the engineer only adjusts two controls: threshold and crossover.

A reliable starting point on a full mix is a threshold of 2 dB and a crossover around 15 kHz. The recommended workflow matches the hardware: move the controls until the compressor's color LED just starts to flicker green occasionally. When you see consistent hard engagement you have gone too far and lost transient air; when you see nothing at all you are leaving harshness on the table. The goal is intermittent engagement that tames the hottest cymbal hits and vocal consonants without flattening the top end.

3. Spectral Balance with Soundtheory Gullfoss

Spectral balance — the even distribution of energy across the audible spectrum — is what separates a mix that translates across playback systems from one that only sounds right in the room it was mixed in. Room acoustics, ear fatigue, monitor quality, and personal preference all push an engineer's perception of balance around through a long session. Bainz uses Soundtheory Gullfoss as an objective second opinion on that perception.

Gullfoss is an AI-driven tonal balance processor that continuously analyses the input signal and applies surgical, frequency-specific adjustments in real time to even out spectral distribution. It has two primary controls. The Tame control reduces aggressive peaks in the spectrum and smooths harsh frequencies. The Recover control lifts quieter elements of the mix, pulling subtle detail forward. Used together, they deliver a polished, balanced master without the manual node-placement work of a traditional EQ.

The caveat is that the plugin is powerful enough to damage a mix when pushed. As a general rule, keep Tame and Recover values under 20–25 on a full master. Higher values flatten transients and introduce pumping in the midrange. If the mix has little content in a specific region — for example a sparse verse with no high-end activity — limit the plugin's processing range so it only operates on frequencies that actually need attention. This targeted approach is what Bainz uses on commercial tracks: moderate values on the full range during dense sections, and range-limited application on sparser sections to avoid processing silence. For the reference-target side of the same balance question, see our full walkthrough of iZotope Tonal Balance Control 3, which is the other half of the modern spectral-balance workflow.

4. The Drastic 28 kHz High Cut

This is the Bainz technique that sounds wrong until you hear it. He applies a high-cut filter around 28 kHz on his mastering chain, using hardware like the DW Fearn VT-5 or emulations such as Acustica Ruby 2, which models a Pultec-style EQ. The first reaction is always the same: why cut at 28 kHz when nobody can hear above 20 kHz?

The answer is filter slope. A gentle high-cut at 28 kHz does not create an audible drop-off at 28 kHz. It rolls the response off gradually, which reshapes the audible 10–18 kHz region without the sharp, dull character of a low-set filter. The result is refined, tape-like top end with less harshness from vocals, hi-hats, and cymbals, but none of the “closed” quality a low-set high cut introduces. The move is closely related to the +8 dB boost at 27 kHz used by Leslie Brathwaite on Lil Uzi Vert vocals — opposite gain direction, same underlying principle about how filter slopes reshape audible frequencies from outside the audible range. For the full breakdown of that companion technique, see our post on how to mix rap vocals like Lil Uzi Vert.

Paired with the SSL HF Compressor from step 2, the 28 kHz high cut is the second half of Bainz's top-end treatment: the compressor tames transients, the high cut refines the overall shape. Together they produce the polished, never-harsh high end that defines commercial hip-hop masters.

5. Reference Monitoring: Three Speakers, Three Jobs

Every chart-topping master translates. That does not happen by accident, and it does not happen from trusting a single monitor. Bainz relies on three distinct speaker systems, each chosen for a specific job, and he uses the contradictions between them to catch problems no single pair would reveal.

PMC IB2S XBD-A — the main reference. Large, highly accurate, full-range active monitors designed for professional mastering rooms. These are the speakers he commits to. When a decision sounds right on the PMCs, that is the version of the master he trusts.

Ocean Way Audio HR3 — the “big system” translation check. The iconic Ocean Way monitors are his proxy for how the master will sound on a large club system or festival PA. If the low end feels bloated or the top end feels abrasive on the HR3, the master will not hold up in a big room. The HR3 catches arrangement-level problems that smaller monitors simply cannot reveal.

CBS AoN prototype passive speakers — the low-end limit check. The passive AoN prototypes handle low-frequency information very differently from his main monitors. When the bottom end on these speakers starts to break up, Bainz knows he has pushed the low-end density past what the master can safely carry. This is the single speaker in his chain that tells him to pull back, and it is the reason his masters are loud and dense without distortion on playback systems that are less forgiving than a studio monitor.

You do not need this exact monitoring chain to benefit from the approach. The principle is the one that matters: pick one trusted reference, then add a “big system” check and a “low-end limit” check. A laptop speaker, a set of AirPods, and your car stereo can serve the same three jobs if that is what you have. Chris Lord-Alge makes the same point from the other direction — the car is a ruthless, honest playback environment, which is why he rates it a 10 out of 10 in our breakdown of Chris Lord-Alge's 19 mixing tricks.

Putting It All Together: A Minimal Bainz-Style Mastering Chain

Inside the box, a Bainz-inspired mastering chain can be built with four plugins in the following order. First, volume automation on the 808 plus Waves Factory Trackspacer already committed in the mix — these happen before the master bus. Second, the SSL HF Compressor at the start of the master chain for transient control (threshold around 2 dB, crossover around 15 kHz). Third, an EQ providing a gentle high-cut around 28 kHz — Acustica Ruby 2 is the closest native emulation of the analog units Bainz uses. Fourth, Soundtheory Gullfoss for spectral balance (Tame and Recover under 25, range-limited if the arrangement is sparse). A loudness-targeting limiter sits after these for level.

None of these moves individually is extreme. What makes the chain work is the discipline of keeping each move subtle and letting the aggregate do the heavy lifting. If any single plugin is doing most of the work, the master will sound processed. When the moves are distributed across four carefully chosen stages, the result sounds natural — which is the entire reason engineers of Bainz's caliber get hired to master the records they master.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Bainz?

Bainz is a mastering engineer widely credited on hip-hop and trap records including work with Young Thug, Future, Travis Scott, and Gunna. He is known for a dense, translatable low-end, an extremely controlled high end, and a monitoring-first workflow that uses three different reference speakers to judge tonal balance before committing to a master.

Why do engineers cut above 28 kHz in mastering when humans cannot hear there?

Because filters have slopes. A high-cut filter placed at 28 kHz with a gentle slope does not create an audible drop-off at 28 kHz. It rolls off the response gradually, reshaping the audible 10–18 kHz region without the sharp, dull character of a low-set high cut. The result is a refined, tape-like top end that vocals, hi-hats, and cymbals sit into more musically.

How do you side-chain a kick and 808 without a compressor?

Write volume automation on the 808 that dips 3 to 6 dB each time the kick hits, then returns to unity over the next few milliseconds. Layer Waves Factory Trackspacer on top with a kick side-chain to carve additional spectral space out of the 808 while the kick plays. This gives you both time-domain and frequency-domain separation without any audible compressor artifacts.

What does the SSL HF Compressor actually do?

It compresses only the high-frequency portion of the signal above a crossover point, typically around 15 kHz, leaving the rest of the spectrum untouched. Attack, release, and ratio are fixed by design for transparency. The result is a tape-like top-end roll-off that tames brittleness and harshness while preserving transient detail. Threshold and crossover are the only two controls you adjust. A good starting point on a full mix is threshold 2 dB and crossover 15 kHz.

How much Gullfoss should I use on a mastering chain?

Keep Tame and Recover under 20–25 on a full mix, and use the plugin's processing range limits to exclude frequencies that are already well-balanced. Even modest values make a noticeable difference. Pushing higher flattens transients and introduces pumping in the midrange. Start at 10 on both controls, listen for improvements in clarity and imaging, and stop when the result is obviously better — not when the meters tell you it is.