Chris Lord Alge is one of the most renowned mixing engineers in the world. His style can be heard on records from legendary artists such as U2, Aerosmith, Prince, Bruce Springsteen, James Brown, The Who, Green Day and dozens more.
His plugins are some of the most used ever created, and his process is lightning fast.Now is your chance to sit at the console with one of the largest innovators of the mixingcraft and see the process he uses to help artists sell millions of records across the globe.
See how CLA uses techniques like:
Parallel Compression and Parallel EQ to bring elements of the mix directly in your face
Createexcitement in snare drums
Craft punchy and powerfulguitars
Identify and emphasize the special moments of a mix
Learn why he neveradds reverb to direct drum microphones.
In this 2-hour pureMix.net exclusive, watchCLA craft the mix for the Grammy award-winning song “It’s Not Over” from the fastest sellingdebut rock album of all time by Daughtry.
Once you’ve seen how Chris does it, download the stems and try it yourself!
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00:00:07 Greetings! I'm Chris Lord-Alge,
and welcome to The Twilight Zone.
00:00:12 You've now entered a new dimension,
a dimension of analog mixing.
00:00:16 Today we have a song by Chris Daughtry,
it's called 'It's Not Over'.
00:00:21 Very popular song by Chris.
00:00:22 It's a song I've mixed...
00:00:24 Nik, how long ago?
Eleven years ago?
- Most exactly.
00:00:29 - I mixed it eleven years ago,
and two days or three days from today.
00:00:33 And we're going to do this
like we did it before,
do it from scratch, ride it up,
and Rock n' Roll!
So here is how it's done,
here in my studio, on my SSL.
00:00:45 We have this thing that's called
a track sheet.
00:00:47 I know, it's a piece of history.
00:00:48 This might as well be
like the Dead Sea Scrolls.
00:00:51 It's that old, okay?
What this tells me is what's coming up
on my console, all right?
Coming directly from Pro Tools
through all these outputs.
00:01:00 So, originally this would have been
a track sheet for a tape,
a tape machine which I have.
00:01:05 So it's a 48-track, and it could
have been 24-track analog,
but for us, since I use 44 tracks
of my console for audio, here we go!
So, I will write it up.
00:01:16 A little grease pencil.
00:01:17 If you're in Pro Tools, you could do
the same thing to your tracks,
so when you're looking at them
in the Mix window, it can be similar.
00:01:23 I like it short and sweet,
so I have Vocal,
Vocal Double,
I have the 'BV's,
I have a 'VH', which is vocal harmony.
00:01:31 I'm going to adjust my pans
as I look at it, okay?
Then I have a Guitar Solo,
then I have Guitar 4,
which I just put a '4' there.
00:01:43 I have Acoustic Guitar, a big 'A'.
00:01:46 Guitar 1, '1'.
00:01:49 Guitar 2, '2'.
00:01:50 Guitar 3. Nice and simple.
Stereo pairs.
00:01:53 Then, Kick Drum,
which I call 'FT',
as in foot.
00:01:58 I've been doing this
since I was very young.
00:02:01 The person who trained me,
my mentor, Steve Jerome,
the first thing I noticed was that
he was writing 'FT' for the kick drum.
00:02:08 I said, "Steve, what's with the 'FT'?"
He goes, "It's the foot.
That's what I know, that's what I like."
Well, I adopted that
and it will never change,
so, unless it says foot,
I don't know what it is.
00:02:18 If it says 'kick', I'm like,
"What's a 'kick'?"
So, 'FT' is my foot.
00:02:22 Snare is just an 'SN' for me.
00:02:25 Toms are a stereo pair, so a big 'T'.
00:02:27 An 'O' for the overheads.
00:02:28 I have an 'R' for the room,
so, stereo pairs there.
00:02:32 I have my snare sample I'll call 'SN2'.
00:02:36 I have my second snare sample, 'SN3'.
00:02:39 That's for the center.
00:02:40 I have a snare bottom,
just an arrow pointing down.
00:02:43 Hi-hat, ride, most likely...
00:02:47 It could be drummer's perspective.
We'll find out.
00:02:50 Usually, if the hi-hat track
is on an odd number, it's left.
00:02:56 Even numbers are right, odds are left.
00:03:00 'HH', and then 'R' for the ride.
00:03:04 And then, what's left?
A mono room up the center.
00:03:07 We'll just put 'MONO' there.
00:03:08 And then I have a second kick sample.
00:03:11 'FT2', right?
So, after the second kick drum,
let's move on to the bass.
00:03:18 On this record I have four tracks of bass.
00:03:21 So, this is a Howard Benson production,
which, I've done many records with Howard,
and this was one of our finest moments
and one of our big songs.
00:03:28 He had a special way
of doing the bass on four tracks,
which means a designated distortion track,
the DI,
the bass amp of choice,
and then a sub track,
which was really cool
because it was just like
a miked subwoofer.
00:03:43 So it was basically everything
below about 50.
00:03:46 So, really cool to have
that combination,
so I'll just call it 'DIST' (distortion),
'DI', 'AMP',
and then 'SUB'.
00:03:53 Then I have four faders left
and it looks like I have...
00:03:57 ...a whole lot of nothing down there.
00:04:00 Empty parking for future stuff, okay?
Then we scoot around this way.
00:04:06 My last four faders
will be really exciting.
00:04:09 'SHAKER'.
00:04:10 Skip a channel,
then Guitar 5, okay?
So, we'll see if this holds up for us.
00:04:17 We have the console
basically normalled and flat.
00:04:21 Okay, welcome to The Outboard Zone.
00:04:24 You have now entered the dimension
of outboard equipment.
00:04:27 As you've all acquired plug-ins
over the years,
or over the months,
or over the time you've had your rig,
I've acquired my outboard gear.
00:04:35 So, since I've been at this
a few days longer than you,
before plug-ins,
these were my plug-ins.
00:04:41 So, when you go and buy
a delay plug-in like...
00:04:46 ...any of the ones that are out there,
or you buy a compressor plug-in,
I did the same thing
with my outboard gear.
00:04:51 A person who turned me on to
equipment was Dan Hartman,
he showed me the magic
of the 1176, okay?
Obviously, I've gotten a few of them
and they have a great sound.
00:05:01 And then if we look at the LA-3As,
it's another one that,
once I had one,
why not have a few?
Another interesting one is this device,
which started here, as the Vac Rac.
00:05:15 Steve Firlotte created these,
and my brother and I got the first ones.
00:05:21 And we liked them as limiters because
they were very simple: two knobs.
00:05:24 Not a lot to do.
Just make it sound good, right?
And this spurred on his whole line,
like Rev A, Rev B, Rev C.
00:05:32 So those are something I use, right?
And then if we move,
we have 1176s, got the LA-3s.
00:05:38 And then, of course,
I wanted to make sure I had some Neves,
so I got all three flavors
of the Neve compressor that I like.
00:05:46 Something else that I use, right?
We look over here,
there's more versions of the
"1176 style" compressor, right?
The 1178.
00:05:56 And then, of course,
we have some Distressors,
some de-essers,
and a continuation, right?
And then if we just go
this way a little bit,
we can see that
I still like analog delay.
00:06:08 Now, I started using these
when they first came out.
00:06:11 You're probably familiar with these.
This is another device.
00:06:14 I like analog delay,
so I use those.
00:06:18 And other vintage pieces.
00:06:19 Ultra-Harmonizers, okay?
Well, I'm using it for reverb
because it's different.
00:06:24 Bricasti, a modern piece of equipment.
00:06:27 Here's some more flavors of what I use.
00:06:30 So, the simple fact of it is
I like these on my vocals.
00:06:34 I like using these delays on guitars.
00:06:36 I like using this style of delay.
00:06:38 I like these reverbs on vocals.
00:06:40 I also like these.
00:06:42 These are tube compressors
by Steve Firlotte.
00:06:46 I like these on vocals, right?
I like these blue compressors
on my lead vocals.
00:06:52 And then the black 1176s,
which you see a few different
random flavors on,
are for bass or for some guitar parts,
or even for some drum things.
00:07:00 I like these 1178s on my drums.
00:07:03 These LA-3As are prepared
to be used on guitars,
acoustic or whatever.
00:07:08 So, these are my plug-ins and my flavors.
00:07:10 Now, the Neves
are kind of something
I use for a special occasion.
00:07:14 I kind of like these on snare drum.
00:07:17 So, that's it for now.
00:07:18 There's still plenty of stuff
to use and learn, right?
So, I don't use it all,
but it's all here just in case.
00:07:25 It's really simple how they're set up.
00:07:26 If you have a vocal coming in,
set at a certain level,
I have these set so when I...
00:07:34 when I turn this compressor on my vocal,
it's set to give me just the right
amount of compression,
so when I put it in,
it's the right level,
and it gives me a little bit
of a level boost after him.
00:07:45 So, it's kind of set up for unity gain.
00:07:47 What I mean by unity gain
is that if your signal is coming in
at a nice, healthy, zero level,
when I insert the compressor,
I'm going to get the desired
compression effects, okay?
If I have more level coming in,
I'm going to get more compression.
00:08:01 So sometimes, if I have this much...
00:08:03 okay, this much level coming in,
I'm going to get this much compression.
00:08:07 If I lower it, I'll get less compression.
00:08:09 So, it's all really based on how loud
the signal is coming in to me.
00:08:14 So that's how we define it.
00:08:16 The same thing in Pro Tools.
00:08:17 If you have a vocal in Pro Tools
and you put an 1176 plug-in on it,
if you clip-gain the vocal up
and have it set the same way,
it's going to compress more.
00:08:27 So it's set up exactly the same way
as a plug-in insert, okay?
So I have it set, as I said, in unity.
00:08:34 If this doesn't compress,
I'm not getting enough gain.
00:08:37 That means the vocal is not
coming in loud enough.
00:08:39 With a guitar, if it's not compressing,
I need to clip-gain the guitar up.
00:08:43 Same with the drums,
same with anything.
00:08:45 So all these plug-ins,
or all my outboard gear,
is completely designed absolutely the same
as a plug-in in Pro Tools.
00:08:52 You insert it,
and if the level you're
sending to it is right,
it'll give you a desired
compression effect
and come back
at about the same level
as what you sent it.
00:09:02 There you are.
The Outboard Dimension.
00:09:06 Let's talk about where
the signal comes from,
and where is it going.
00:09:10 I have my Pro Tools system
sitting in front of me,
I have my session, okay?
So I am outputting it to buses,
so those buses feed directly
to me on the console.
00:09:21 They go through my D to As,
which is my 3348 D to A system.
00:09:28 It goes D to A into my console,
which is line level, right?
So, my insert point
for my plug-ins and my outboard
is on the channel.
00:09:37 It's not really any different,
but what happens
is you have Pro Tools, okay?
Then the bus outputs
feeding through the D to A,
which is basically zero level,
it's just a D to A so there's
no level change there.
00:09:50 It comes straight into the console,
that's the same level,
and then, what happens is,
that's where my insert point is,
and I can make my insert point
pre-EQ or post-EQ.
00:10:00 So my insert could be pre or post.
00:10:02 I like them post. That's what I do.
00:10:04 Some things are pre.
00:10:05 It's all seasoned to taste.
00:10:07 Then, after that,
I have this thing called the fader.
00:10:10 So, just as you have your
Mix window with faders,
I have my faders, except I'm going
through an analog console
to get to my faders, okay?
So, for example,
if you set up your song
to be 48 Buses,
and you had 48 Aux Returns,
and all your audio
feeding through the buses,
it would be exactly the same thing.
00:10:30 If you took a channel strip plug-in,
put it on your Aux,
put an insert on it,
it's the same process I'm doing here,
except I'm physically going through
a piece of analog equipment.
00:10:42 Once it comes through my console,
it goes through my 2-mix bus,
which is just stereo.
Everything feeds the stereo.
00:10:49 And of course, across it
I have my outboard equipment,
which I have my Focusrite
Red 3 compressor,
and that feeds into my pair of Pultecs
that are on the rack.
00:10:57 So, after that point,
it feeds from that directly
to a second Pro Tools system
that mixes at 96/24. Okay?
Why do I not mix back to my session?
Simple: my sessions are 48/24,
my mixes are 96/24.
00:11:13 I want my mixes to be high-res.
00:11:15 Why? Because the mixes
are way more complicated data.
00:11:19 My stereo pairs are super complicated.
00:11:21 A kick, a snare, a guitar, a hi-hat...
00:11:24 Well, at 48/24,
after all the EQ I do,
then it's a complex waveform,
and that's what your mix needs to be.
00:11:31 So, if you have only one Pro Tools
system to mix back to,
well, that's fine if that's
what you need to do,
but for me, it's a separate Pro Tools
system just for the 2-tracks,
and one for the multitracks,
so, keep them separated!
So now we have the song
written up on the console.
00:11:49 I have a few fader parking spots.
00:11:51 So, what I want to do now
is I have my assistant, Nik,
and we will fire this thing up.
00:11:56 Since I'm using my SSL,
I have a disk in here
so I'm going to put my Title.
00:12:00 I'm just going to create my Cue List.
00:12:02 I have a cue list in Pro Tools,
which is fine.
00:12:05 So, what I will do
is listen to some of the audio,
and then put my cues in my session,
and then I'll start working on the song.
00:12:13 So the first thing I'm going to do
is just play the track
and see what happens.
00:12:18 All right! Let's go back to 1997,
because this computer
will not go past 2000.
00:12:24 It has the Y2K bug,
so we can't even put
the proper data there anymore.
00:12:28 So, the date is inconsequential.
00:12:30 So, obviously, let's put
the artist name in,
which is Chris Daughtry.
00:12:35 And I will try not to misspell that.
00:12:38 And boom, it put his name in there,
and the client is 19 Entertainment.
00:12:44 Boom! And the producer is
Howard Benson.
00:12:51 Okay.
00:12:52 Oh, 'I don't understand, STINKY'.
00:12:54 Okay. So,
it's very easy to make typos here.
00:13:01 And there we go.
00:13:03 Okay.
00:13:05 And our assistant is
Nik Karpen.
00:13:12 Okay! Very simple!
1986 technology!
Then, we now have a title,
'It's Not Over'.
00:13:21 So I'm going to quickly throw up
some quick faders here.
00:13:26 And we got verse 1.
00:13:28 Actually, I think this thing
starts with the verse.
00:13:35 So I will restart it,
and let's see where verse 1 is.
00:13:38 - I think it's that call one.
00:13:40 - I think it's right at the top, isn't it?
Like, one second.
00:14:25 We'll keep the cues very simple.
00:14:34 We never want to have
a different letter...
00:14:36 two letters that are the same in there,
so we want a different letter every time.
00:14:45 For me, since I'm automating here,
a 10 second pre-roll before each mix
is what I'm used to.
00:14:51 I've been doing that
since the beginning of time.
00:14:54 Why is there a 10 second
pre-roll in there?
Because it takes a few seconds
for these things
to lock up and be in time.
00:15:02 If you don't put a pre-roll before it,
you're going to run into problems.
00:15:06 I started putting pre-roll before mixes
when I was running two 24-track machines.
00:15:10 I'll tell you how much that fun isn't.
00:15:11 You have two tape machines
and they have to lock each time,
so when you go to the beginning,
they're both swinging around,
then we hit Play to get them locked,
and be locked when it plays.
00:15:20 So every time you rewind
and fast-forward,
you got like two guys
trying to find each other.
00:15:24 I was really happy in 1989
when I got my 48 DASH tape machine,
so I never had to use
two machines again.
00:15:45 Okay, so now I'll be starting
with the kick drum.
00:15:47 I've added some low end, taken out
some lower mids, added some top.
00:15:51 A little compression.
00:15:52 I'm looking over at what's
feeding the console
and the levels looked
just about right for what I need,
so I'm not going to really have to do
much adjusting over there.
00:16:00 So, I'll move on to the snare.
00:16:01 Just like I do with every song,
I'm going to get some general sounds
and then fine-tune it
all together as a package.
00:16:07 So I'll move forward.
00:16:26 Then, now I'm happy
with the snare drum right now.
00:16:28 I'm going to move on to the overheads
and start adding in
the other drum bits here.
00:16:39 I always check the phase of the
overheads against the drums.
00:16:52 Well, here they're in phase,
so no problem there.
00:17:05 So, with the overheads...
00:17:07 I'm not even going to compress
them to start with
because they make
such a good balance here,
so I'm just adding some low end
to bring out the snare drum
and just a little bit of sharpness.
00:17:16 Some 3 kHz, a little 8 kHz,
just to bring some top end there.
00:17:20 I'm not compressing it yet.
00:17:22 See, I don't use every
compressor all the time.
00:17:25 We'll just check the room tracks out.
00:17:42 So with the room tracks, the same thing,
I'm kind of adding a similar EQ
like I did on the overheads
but not any more bottom.
00:17:48 Why am I not compressing the room?
Why does everyone have to have
a compressed room track all the time?
Well, if I start compressing
the room track even more
it's just going to bring up
all these cymbals and all of this crap,
and you know what else is going to do?
It's going to kill the snare drum.
00:18:02 So I'll start without it
having the hammer on it, okay?
And keep it simple, right?
I'll move forward and see
what else I have here.
00:18:26 So they already have a mono room
that's been compressed,
so I can feed that in.
00:18:31 I don't have to do anything to it.
00:18:33 It's already got some stuff on it.
00:18:34 Am I going to give it like a similar
EQ boost as I did the other rooms?
Yes, so they kind of match each other.
00:18:40 So we'll move forward.
00:19:15 So the next step is
I add in the extra kick drum,
which I just feather in for the tone.
00:19:20 And I add the hi-hat/ride.
00:19:22 Same thing with the overheads.
00:19:23 I checked the phase because
there was a lot of snare drum
coming through the hi-hat/ride.
00:19:27 Do I sit there and thin it out
so there's nothing but top end in it?
No. Why would I do that?
These are point mics, okay?
It's basically like
if you mike an orchestra
and you have some point mics
on the violins.
00:19:38 You move them in.
Are you going to thin those out?
No, you're just going to
add them full-range.
00:19:43 If I thin it out,
then the snare goes away.
00:19:45 Why would I want the snare
to go away from any mic? Right?
So I just listen to my mix,
and I add those in.
00:20:07 I also solo the overheads and figure out,
"Where is the hi-hat?
Where is the hi-hat in that image?"
It's the most important thing you do:
if you solo the overheads,
you see where the hi-hat is.
00:20:18 If the hi-hat is left, then we're talking
about drummer's perspective, right?
If the hi-hat is right,
it's audience perspective.
00:20:25 How the overheads are,
I'm just going to keep it that way.
00:20:28 So this is now going to be
drummer's perspective,
so, my panning is correct.
00:20:33 The session came that way.
00:20:34 So, I'm moving forward here.
00:20:51 So, I'll look at the tom tracks.
00:20:53 An important thing about toms:
you can prepare them, which is
cut away the leakage, right?
Cut away the leakage,
except for the fills.
00:21:00 I prefer to just, if it's a tom fill,
all tom mics come on.
00:21:03 When the tom fill is over,
all tom mics go off.
00:21:06 Some people cut each mic individually.
00:21:08 That's not what I prefer.
00:21:10 I prefer it as a pair
so that it opens up the scene,
closes the scene down.
00:21:15 And I try to do it so the toms end
with the next crash cymbal, if possible.
00:21:19 Then you'll say,
"Well, the toms ring over."
Well, you know what? If your overhead
tracks have some low end into it,
it will fade right into that
and it will be fine.
00:21:27 So, I try to keep it simple there.
00:21:29 Since the toms are cut away,
I can EQ them and not have to worry about
all these crash cymbals coming through.
00:21:34 So, if we look at the toms,
I will add some upper bottom
to the high tom,
and some lower bottom
to the lower tom.
00:21:42 And the panning spectrum, okay?
I like them pretty wide.
00:21:46 I don't like them to be
exactly how you see it
because people wearing headphones
aren't looking at the drummer,
they are listening to the music,
so you want it to be cool.
00:21:55 And then, for me, it's real simple:
add a little bit of compression,
and add some top
and a little bit of bottom.
00:22:00 Take out a bunch of the 500,
which is the boxy part of the tom,
and then just blend it in
with the package,
and see if you can
get them loud enough.
00:22:09 So I always check that.
00:22:18 There was one fill right there.
00:22:35 So I checked those,
I have those balanced,
I have a basic start point here.
00:22:39 Then at this point I can say,
"Okay, am I going to have some
drum reverb to my drums?"
And I'm like, "Why not?"
So, I will select,
as you have on Pro Tools,
you have your sends.
00:22:50 I've had sends before you had them, okay?
So I can say, "Okay,
I'm going to put some reverb."
I'll use my sends here and put
some reverb on the room track,
on the samples,
the drum samples, right?
I'll put a little bit
on the snare bottom, okay?
I'm not going to put it
on the hi-hat or the ride.
00:23:08 The mono room, yes.
00:23:09 Am I going to put it
on the kick or the snare? No.
00:23:11 I'll put a little bit on the toms, right?
So I'm only putting it
on the indirect mics,
and the reason why is that that's...
00:23:19 I just want to extend the ambience,
not create some from the dry sounds.
00:23:23 Now, if you put reverb
on the dry kick drum,
it's going to sound different
than if you put reverb
on the room for the kick drum, okay?
That's not the sound I want.
00:23:32 Now, some of you say,
"I want to put reverb on the snare drum."
Well, enjoy yourself, okay?
That's a different sound.
That's not my sound.
00:23:38 My sound is not putting reverb
on the direct signals,
but putting it on the ambient signals
which would be the samples, or the rooms,
because I just want to extend that.
00:23:47 I don't want to get that proximity
of the snare drum into the reverb.
00:23:51 You're EQ'ing all this bottom
into the snare drum
to get the impact.
00:23:55 That's not going to sound
so great in the reverb.
00:23:58 At that point, if you
want to do dry signal,
"snare drum reverb," well,
there's a million ways you can do it.
00:24:03 The way I do it, the way
we're seeing here, is this way.
00:24:06 So, I've set some reverb, okay?
You know, I have my Sony reverb
and I have a Bricasti
that I link together.
00:24:13 So, I combine those two reverbs.
00:24:15 They're both set at one second.
00:24:17 Like anything,
you can pick any reverb
that you like. Right?
And so,
if you set it to one second
with no pre-delay,
it's apples and oranges,
it's a flavor, right?
So, the reverbs I have
aren't really available in Pro Tools,
but, they're very similar
to ones you have.
00:24:34 So,
you could take anything,
a plate, a chamber, whatever,
and find something that is like a room,
and put it at one second,
and you're going to have
a similar result.
00:24:45 So, my sonic result
is going to be different
because I'm using outboard gear,
but it's still the same concept,
the same way you put it together.
00:24:53 So, you send from the drums
on the "indirect" signals,
find the reverb that you like,
there is a million of them
in Pro Tools now,
bring that up on some returns,
and feather it in.
00:25:03 So, we're going to hear
what feathering in the reverb
sounds like to the drums, okay?
And this is just my flavor
of reverb, all right?
Now I've just added both my reverbs.
00:25:30 So what I have,
and you can do this in Pro Tools,
is that you take a send
and send it to two reverbs.
00:25:35 I use two reverbs.
00:25:36 "Why, Chris, do you use two reverbs?"
Because I want the two flavors.
00:25:40 Because I can.
00:25:41 Because two reverbs are better than one.
00:25:43 One has this character,
one has that character.
00:25:45 To be honest with you,
if I could have four reverbs
on one send, I would do it.
00:25:49 Together, it's just a better sound,
so, I bring them up equally.
00:25:53 A song like this,
I can tell already is kind of a dry song,
so it's not a big anthemic reverb song.
00:26:00 It's going to be a little bit
on the dry side,
so, a couple of reverbs at one second,
and I'll even set this one to 1.
It's on 1.25.
00:26:08 Spin the wheel back to 1.0.
00:26:11 They're both set at 1.0.
00:26:13 So, really simple.
00:26:14 It's not rocket science,
but all I'm doing is I'm going to be
extending the length of the ambience
without destroying the cymbals
or the hi-hat,
because I don't want those to get messy.
00:26:24 They're going to get a little messy
because the room tracks
obviously have that in it,
but they don't have direct signals,
so it makes more sense.
00:26:31 Parallel compression.
00:26:33 Let's explain that.
00:26:35 It's real simple.
00:26:36 You send the signal from your drums
over to another set of channels
and you could have a stereo
compressor there, okay?
So that's what we do.
00:26:44 We do it at unity gain,
so, what does that mean by unity gain?
Whatever balance you have
on the drums, it follows it.
00:26:51 When you put all the sends
at zero, from your drums,
you send that to your parallel compression
with the same panning.
00:26:58 All it does is it gives you
an additive sound to it.
00:27:02 So,
in our configuration, we use buses.
00:27:06 We don't use sends, we use buses,
so we bus it to those appropriate.
00:27:10 We check our buses for the panning.
00:27:13 They're all working!
We make sure they're right.
00:27:19 Then, for me, I have a pair
of Neve compressors.
00:27:23 If you have a plug-in,
it would be the 33609 plug-in,
if you want to use that.
00:27:28 You would set your Threshold at zero,
your Recovery at 100 milliseconds.
00:27:33 Your Gain doesn't matter,
your gain is just your gain structure.
00:27:36 Your gain could be at zero.
00:27:38 And I'll leave it at 8.
00:27:40 And then, your Ratio,
which is your compression ratio, 2:1.
00:27:44 That is your setting, okay?
That's exactly what they're
doing right up here,
and not stereo-linked.
00:27:51 Why not stereo-linked?
Because I don't stereo-link
anything, okay? Period.
00:27:55 If you want to stereo-link,
enjoy yourself.
00:27:57 If you have a big tom hit on the left,
what is it going to do?
It's going to duck the right.
00:28:01 So then, what does that do
to your drum sound?
So, why do that?
"Well, Chris, the kick drum
is going to move around."
Well, bloody dah!
I want it to be stereo, not mono.
00:28:09 If you link it,
it makes it sound more mono,
so I don't link, all right?
So we just do it nice and simple,
and then we have it come up
on a pair of channels.
00:28:18 Like in Pro Tools, you would
have it go to an Aux,
come up on another fader,
and you can season to taste
how much you want there, okay?
And then, for me,
I add a little bit of EQ to that.
00:28:29 I add like 3 dB at 8 kHz,
3 dB at 60,
and that just kind of adds
a little bit more point to those pairs.
00:28:37 So, you have your drums,
and then you have another pair,
like these,
and it brings it back.
00:28:43 And for me, I have this,
and I'll bring it back here.
00:28:45 We'll play those drums.
00:28:59 So, no parallel.
00:29:09 It's subtle, but inside the record,
it's helpful.
00:29:14 We have a shaker in here.
00:29:16 I will not put the shaker in
with the parallel
because I don't want it
to get even more in your face.
00:29:21 I want it to be subtle.
00:29:22 A shaker is one of those things that
if you think it's loud, it's louder. Okay?
So, as we get older and deafer,
the shaker is one of those things
you don't hear after a while.
00:29:30 So, I think when I'm 90,
all my mixes will have
really loud shaker in it,
and tambourine.
00:29:35 Funny stuff there.
00:29:37 We have our start point with the drums.
00:29:40 Let's look at what is happening
with our bass.
00:29:42 Since this bass is very well recorded,
I don't think it's going to
require too much.
00:29:47 I'm going to listen to the bass
with the drums in
because the bass is never
going to be in solo,
so it's never going to matter.
00:29:53 It's always going to sound good in solo.
00:29:55 It's how it sounds in the track.
00:30:42 So what we're doing is really simple.
00:30:45 If I'm going to add 6 dB
at 5 kHz with a Bell curve,
I'm going to do it to the distortion,
to the DI, and to the amp,
just so I add the same amount
of treble boost to all three.
00:30:56 The sub track, well, if I add
some 5 kHz to that,
that's not going to do much because
that's got nothing but low end in it.
00:31:03 Then all four of those basses
are getting an 1176, okay?
So they're all getting some compression
to hold them in there,
to take up a little bit less space.
00:31:12 So, really simple,
in your Pro Tools rig,
you EQ into your 1176
and you have four of them there.
00:31:18 And then you just blend that in
with your track.
00:31:21 In your scenario, if you don't
want to use four separate ones,
you can use one
and just bounce it to one.
00:31:25 In this scenario, I'd probably
use four different ones
because distortion is going to compress
differently than the DI,
than the amp, and the sub.
00:31:34 But,
to be really honest with you,
you could take these four,
you could take your four faders of bass,
send them down to either my bass
plug-in, which is a similar vibe,
or just use one 1176.
00:31:46 At the end of the day,
it's not going to be
the biggest difference.
00:31:50 Why am I using four?
Because these basses
are coming up on four faders.
00:32:10 Let's talk about where we're at.
00:32:11 We just did some drums and bass,
but I want you to notice that
since everyone thinks
that Chris Lord-Alge
uses more compressors than God,
and I have them,
doesn't mean I use them all.
00:32:21 In this scenario, I listen
with my ears and say,
"Does that need a compressor?
Or does it not?"
Well, in this situation,
the drums have zero compression
except the kick has a slight amount,
just to kind of flatten the dynamic.
00:32:32 Everything else is as it came,
just EQ'ed, right? For now.
00:32:36 We'll see if that holds up.
00:32:38 Now, the only compression
the drums would be getting
is a little parallel, and, of course,
I start with my bus compressor in.
00:32:46 Always. I have a bus compressor
chain that I use.
00:32:49 It's kind of my sound,
it's dialed, I start there.
00:32:52 That means the glue I want
is there from the get-go.
00:32:56 I'm building it with the glue.
00:32:58 And it's just always how I work,
which means, you know,
the finisher is kind of in there
helping me start with the start of it.
00:33:06 I'm not running the bass
to the drum parallel.
00:33:10 That's just for drums.
00:33:11 Sometimes I do,
but in this instance,
the bass sounds fine.
00:33:14 I will only do that if the bass
really needs some help,
but in this situation,
I'm only doing drums parallel.
00:33:20 So, we're going to look at
the rest of the song here
and just...
00:33:23 just kind of the arrangement
to kind of figure out how much guitars
I have going on here,
how much help they need.
00:33:28 So, we'll peek at those next.
00:34:05 The song starts out with a clean guitar
and there's a few other ones that come in.
00:34:09 So, I just do a little
season to taste here.
00:34:12 The first thing is I'll look at
the acoustic
which is probably
the most dynamic of them
because, look,
distorted guitars,
distortion means they are compressed
beyond compression and into distortion.
00:34:22 Do you really need to compress them?
Maybe not, maybe they just get dark
from all the distortion.
00:34:28 So, we'll look at what's dynamic
in the record as the acoustics
and take a peek at what
they're going to do.
00:34:33 And I look at my session and I see,
okay, we have acoustics
playing in chorus 1,
and chorus 2 and 3.
00:34:40 So, I will go to C2,
which is a longer stretch,
and just check them out there.
00:34:45 Play that section.
00:35:13 For this example,
what I'll do for acoustic,
I love my LA-3As,
which are back over here.
00:35:19 They're all set like we
talked about earlier
with the certain gain structure.
00:35:23 So I'll add a little bit of 3 kHz,
a little bit of 8 kHz,
take off some of the bottom
because as soon as you move a mic
to an acoustic guitar closer and closer,
it gets woofier and...
00:35:33 So, more and more bass
happens as you get closer,
so, obviously,
to get it in your face,
you're going to have some low end,
so you got to suck some of that off.
00:35:42 And then, when you compress it,
what's the compressor doing?
It's bringing the low end up.
00:35:46 You're probably going to end up
thinning it out a bit.
00:35:48 That's the first thing
we do to those guys.
00:35:50 So, we'll listen further
to the other guitars.
00:35:52 We'll just play the chorus
because the verses are kind of open.
00:35:56 In most songs, chorus 2
has the activity,
so, you use these
as places to start with your balancing.
00:37:00 As we're listening to the guitars,
what we find in this song
is that we have a pair of power chords,
like a line playing along,
and rather than compressing them,
because they're already distorted,
the compression is not
going to make it better.
00:37:14 They're pretty dark,
and the problem sometimes
with the heavy distorted guitars
is that they are kind of scooped-sounding.
00:37:20 So, you're kind of missing
some of the midrange and the bark,
so I'm just adding some 2 kHz.
00:37:26 I'm adding a little bit of 100.
00:37:27 I'm adding some low end
because I want them
to have some heat in the low end.
00:37:31 And just trying
not to make them too fuzzy,
but get some of the upper midrange
so I hear the notes more.
00:37:37 The problem with fuzzy distorted guitars
is the notes go away
because these guys,
it's all top and all bottom
and you don't even know
what they're playing.
00:37:44 So you want to kind of dig out the note.
00:37:46 That's the secret to me,
if I can hear the chord changes clear.
00:37:49 Then they have a...
00:37:51 a lead guitar line
that plays along with it,
which is...
00:38:13 So there, what we're trying to do
is a similar approach.
00:38:17 It's dark. Now, it being dark
makes it kind of be
in a certain midrange area,
but we always want to make sure
there's clarity on top of that
so we can peek over the power chords.
00:38:25 As I solo it there, you hear it.
00:38:28 I'll play it again.
00:38:40 And then, if I add the acoustic in,
you hear all three.
00:38:44 This is our chorus right here.
00:38:45 Three things.
00:38:47 Imagine that! A song with
three parts in the chorus.
00:38:50 Not that you see that very often,
but it was a huge hit and it worked.
00:38:55 Now we'll show you
the before and after here,
so here,
they play chorus 2.
00:39:19 And at that point
we have the package, right?
While we're doing this, we could also,
while we are in solo,
you're going to hear this.
00:39:28 If you hear this in the headphones,
you're going to hear this come up,
which is my parallel EQ, okay?
So, as we do with the drums, okay?
We do the same thing with the guitars.
00:39:46 They're in pairs,
we send them to a send, a bus,
bring it down to another channel.
00:39:53 What's on that channel? An EQ.
00:39:55 What's it doing?
It's adding some more heat to it, right?
It's adding some lower midrange
and some top end.
00:40:03 What's that doing?
That's just making the whole
guitar package go 'GRRR!',
come more forward.
00:40:08 So, we do that
and season that to taste,
so it's basically like taking
all the instruments
and adding like a little bit
of a supercharger to it.
00:40:16 So, adding a parallel EQ.
00:40:18 Is it being compressed?
No. It's just straight up EQ.
00:40:24 So, also in here, some more disclosure
on what we're doing.
00:40:27 The acoustic guitar is kind of peaky
on this record,
so we add an L1 on it
before it gets to me.
00:40:34 It's not really moving, okay?
There might be one spot coming up
where we see a move coming here.
00:40:40 It's probably grabbing one peak
out of the whole record.
00:40:42 There it is, so...
00:40:44 It's kind of there just to keep it
from running out of control.
00:40:48 You don't see any compression
but you kind of hear what it's doing.
00:40:51 So, it's a little bit of a helper.
00:40:53 From what I remember,
I think this is all Phil X playing,
all these guitars.
00:40:56 I could be wrong, but he's played
on most of these productions with Howard.
00:41:00 And he's a good friend of mine,
he's now out with Bon Jovi,
rocking the free world.
00:41:05 This song is a very simple guitar song.
00:41:08 Your verse guitar.
00:41:10 This is one stereo pair.
00:41:12 It sounds like a JC-120 Chorus.
00:41:14 Just stereo. One performance.
00:41:16 Then we move up to the acoustic.
00:41:18 It's a stereo track
which just has two performances,
so, hey,
acoustic 1, and double.
00:41:24 A stereo track. Imagine that!
You could actually do this, folks.
00:41:28 You could actually take your
multi-miked acoustic performances
that you probably have spread out
over six tracks, or something,
and make it into a pair.
00:41:36 And guess what happens when it's a pair?
It makes the vertical
real estate a lot smaller.
00:41:40 And you know what?
If we can make this a garden apartment,
it's a home run.
00:41:44 Then we move on to the verse guitar.
00:41:46 A double here,
which is a single track,
so I don't know why they call it double.
00:41:50 But anyway,
then we move down to the chorus guitar.
00:41:53 That's a pair.
00:41:54 That's two tracks.
00:41:56 We have a verse guitar
riff that happens
all by itself, which is
just a different part.
00:42:01 Then, if we look down
at the rhythm guitars
further down the screen,
we have the chorus guitars,
which is a single performance,
then doubled.
00:42:10 Then, the triple quad.
00:42:12 That means there's four passes
of the chorus.
00:42:15 He did it once, again,
again, and again.
00:42:17 It may have been different guitars,
but we combine all four
of those performances to a pair.
00:42:23 Why? They're playing the same part.
00:42:26 The only time they're not
is the pickup into chorus 2,
and the pickup into chorus 1
is only one pair,
so it's pretty simple layout.
00:42:34 And on top of the screen
— top of the screen, mom! —
is a solo guitar.
00:42:40 Happens in the tag and in the solo.
00:42:42 I know your productions
now can spread far and wide,
so this shows you
a little simpler situation.
00:42:48 All these tracks are stereo,
except, obviously,
the lead guitar is a mono track.
00:42:53 Our fill-in,
which is this thing called,
I guess, 'Vrs2GtrDbl-02',
is a one-time event in verse 2.
00:43:02 Everything else is a stereo pair.
00:43:04 So, very simple,
so I can kind of concentrate that
in my bucket of guitars,
then three faders over here
in my 22-23-24 area.
00:43:14 Look at the whole screen,
there is our vertical song.
00:43:17 I can see it all!
When I can see it all,
I'm not intimidated in the least by it.
00:43:23 If you can make your sessions
look this way, if possible,
it certainly makes it
a lot more manageable.
00:43:30 Let's move forward and see
how this all works together
as a package with the rhythm section.
00:43:40 But one thing I'm going to do right here,
I noticed there's like a feedback
moment in the song.
00:43:45 I'm going to check my original mix
from back in 1999.
00:43:57 It's not even there,
so let's just mute it.
00:44:00 Put your fade in it,
and it's gone by verse 2.
00:44:02 Even better!
So it always makes sense
to refer to the original mix
or to whatever mix is in the session,
always, to see about arrangements.
00:44:34 For me, I'm like, "I don't
remember that feedback,
and the feedback sounds
kind of like it shouldn't be there,"
so I checked the original mix.
00:44:40 And, of course, rather than me
sitting here and manipulating a fade,
it's gone. So we just
fade it out and it's over.
00:44:46 Always kind of refer to the rough,
or the original mix,
to any arrangement issues.
00:44:50 So, a simple one right there.
00:44:51 We just eliminate that part.
00:44:53 We'll see how our blend is here...
00:44:56 ...from chorus 1.
00:44:58 Let's see how it's shaping up.
00:45:41 I think with this clean guitar
we'll just add a little LA-3A.
00:45:44 We want to make it
take up a little bit less space
so it's a little bit creamier,
a little bit cooler-sounding,
so, add some compression on that.
00:45:51 So, that and the acoustic become the only
guitars we are compressing right now.
00:45:55 So, we'll move forward with that.
00:46:33 So we listen to our original mix there
just to make sure that we're not
missing anything.
00:46:37 Look, we want to recapture the vibe,
we don't ever take for granted
where it came from or where it's going,
so we want to have all the information.
00:46:45 So if I say, "Oh, I don't need to listen
to that, I'm just doing it this way,"
well, you know, just make sure
you're improving,
or maintaining.
00:46:53 And one thing we noticed
is there's probably,
now that we have the session here,
we can do a little move here
to make it more exciting
and save myself a bit of automation.
00:47:01 So, Nik,
the guitars leading into
chorus 1 and chorus 2.
00:47:08 Let's clip-gain those up too,
before they become a four-pack.
00:47:17 So, since it's two guitars becoming four,
I'm going to turn them
when it's only two guitars up,
and see if it's sexy.
00:47:25 Sexyyy, baby!
And now I'll take a quick peek at it.
00:47:31 - Good?
- [Nik] Yeah.
00:47:32 - Let me just check it.
00:48:01 Okay, that helped us.
00:48:03 By doing that change, it actually
takes one more thing for me
to remember out of it,
kind of does it automatically.
00:48:09 Some people are just, "Oh, let's
compress it, and then it will come up."
Well, just make it louder.
It's easier.
00:48:14 So, since we're, like, modifying it,
I always like to have guitar solos
come up on two faders.
00:48:20 So, in this example,
I think I will change
the output of the solo.
00:48:25 Let's make the guitar solo
come up on 11 and 12.
00:48:31 And let's just run it
through my guitar plug-in.
00:48:36 So if there's a mono
guitar solo on a song,
I can run it right through
my guitar plug-in,
and literally, stock out the box,
it's kind of automatically applied.
00:48:46 I'll play the solo section now.
00:49:06 So what we're going to do
is we're going to show you
the difference now, okay?
So that's giving it a little bit of love,
some EQ, some compression,
some reverb, some delay.
00:49:30 So we'll do that one more time for you.
00:49:32 You know, these are just
signature plug-ins,
they give you a taste of everything.
00:49:35 So, it's just what I like,
so I created these with sounds I like,
so this is what I would go to on the solo.
00:49:57 If the guitars are all stereo pairs,
and there's a guitar solo,
why not have that come up a stereo pair,
because you have the same level.
00:50:05 This way,
if your faders are at zero
for your main guitars,
then your solo could be at zero
for a stereo pair,
and then you can put
a stereo effect on it.
00:00:00 Let's check out what Chris's
vocals sound like.
00:00:02 We're going to see
what I can do to him this time.
00:00:05 So let's look at what we have.
00:00:06 It looks like Chris has given me...
00:00:09 We have a vocal and a vocal double, right?
It's broken up to a couple
of pieces because...
00:00:18 I think that those three tracks
will fold down to one.
00:00:22 He has a bridge vocal line.
00:00:24 He has this B section
vocal line every time.
00:00:26 I can see that. Right?
And then it looks like in the chorus,
the two answer lines,
each time he has separated out.
00:00:34 If we look at those audio files,
they pretty much don't overlap, do they?
They're pretty tight hand-offs
but it sounds like one performance.
00:00:43 So we will just solo his vocal
without anything on it, obviously.
00:00:49 We're going to start
by looking at what we did before.
00:00:53 Now, I know from my
previous endeavors with Chris
that probably the only thing
I would do before it got to me
is giving him a little L1'ing,
or an L1 limiter,
so let's just open one of those.
00:01:04 It's basically just to top it off,
so we're going to look at his vocal
playing with that limiter on it
and see what we're doing to him.
00:01:12 Let's play verse 1
and see what it sounds like.
00:01:16 I'll just go here to verse 1
since I got the wheel, kids,
and when I get the wheel,
it's scary for everybody else.
00:01:23 You don't want to be in the car
I will be driving.
00:01:31 But we don't see much going on,
it's just a topper, right?
It's just a grabber.
00:02:00 So there's his hand-off
leading into the chorus.
00:02:17 We just saw the three hand-offs,
there's a slight overlap in there
but it kind of works.
00:02:22 I'm not going to make
a big deal out of it.
00:02:24 All our L1 limiters are set the same,
so it's really all the same performance
just broken into pieces, obviously.
00:02:31 You see that he sang the one vocal.
00:02:32 They have a few different lines,
they're flowing in,
and there's a few that were added
to make the whole thing.
00:02:37 And there is a vocal double
that corresponds to the same thing
that the top vocal is doing.
00:02:45 The exact same breakouts with the vocals.
00:02:49 We're going to give them
the same treatment,
so all the same L1 setting.
00:02:53 And I will bring them back
on our console here,
and I think we're going to start off
by just listening to what his vocal
sounds like in the track
with those settings.
00:03:12 I want to go back to the blue one.
00:03:14 - [Nik] I'm just going to see
if I should bring that up.
00:03:16 - So we're just going to change
one patch in our patchbay.
00:03:20 We're going to have him going
through one of our blue
compressors in the rack.
00:03:24 All he's getting is L1, to me,
and then I'll use my compressor,
my blue 1176.
00:03:30 I'll use those in my insert chain,
so we'll hear what that sounds like.
00:04:22 So what we're doing is we're here
using my outboard blue limiters,
which are moving
considerably well there.
00:04:30 Adding about 9 dB at 3 kHz,
9 dB at 8 kHz,
maybe taking off a little bit of 100.
00:04:38 I like his voice to be really full.
00:04:40 So just, you know,
he's taking the compression real well.
00:04:43 Now, if you listen right now
you'll hear that.
00:05:12 This is listening to his vocal
completely dry.
00:05:14 Now, we go pretty dry with him
so we're not going to pile it on.
00:05:31 So for this, we'll look at our tempo.
00:05:34 Tempo is 146,
so let's go find out what 146 means to me.
00:05:40 Real simple, go over to this delay,
type it up to 146,
and we just go back to the note value.
00:05:47 Okay.
00:05:48 411.
00:05:49 So, we set these delays up here to 411.
00:05:52 If I put them both the same,
it's not going to be stereo.
00:05:55 I'll back this one up a little bit,
and then, make this one a little higher.
00:06:02 Our delays are going to be stereo.
00:06:04 So that's our tempo,
there's our quarter note,
we lock that into our delays
in case we want to use them at all, right?
Very simple. That's about the only
setting back here we changed,
besides the reverbs.
00:06:16 So we have that in case
we want to use it,
and I can sit here
and see if any of it works.
00:06:21 Any of it I want to use.
00:06:24 Any of it that's important.
00:06:25 So I'll just play the vocal
and see if any of these effects
work with his vocal.
00:07:09 So, we'll just go back to the chorus.
00:07:11 All I was using was just checking
to see if my effects were working.
00:07:14 I'm going to turn them back off.
00:07:15 So you saw that I set some delays, okay?
So all I'll do for him
is I have those delays left and right
and I have the returns over here.
00:07:25 And I'll season to taste
if I think they're necessary to put in,
maybe just the chorus.
00:07:30 So they're ready to go.
00:07:31 I also have a little slap over here
which is my Tape Eliminator right here,
which is very simple.
00:07:38 It does one thing: 15 IPS tape slap.
00:07:41 What's 15 IPS tape slap?
It's basically, if you put a tape
on a tape machine at 15 IPS,
it's the distance between the delays.
00:07:49 So this kind of emulates
a tape machine going that speed.
00:07:53 And then we have a simple
reverb going to his voice,
say, a 480,
on a vocal plate with a little pre-delay,
which I'm going to show you
what that sounds like right now.
00:08:06 There's his voice dry,
and if we put the reverb in,
this is going to be like that.
00:08:13 We'll put it back to a spot
where I feel it sounds right.
00:08:18 If we add a little bit
of the tape slap...
00:08:22 And if we bring it back,
it's going to be this.
00:08:25 If I add the delay in there...
00:08:34 I'll bring that back
if you get the next verse going.
00:08:39 We may not use that in the verses.
00:08:41 We might just use
what we have here right now.
00:08:55 So we'll check out
what else is happening with the vocals.
00:08:58 I mean, this song is very simple,
so all we have is a set of backgrounds
in the choruses,
and it looks like we have
a verse 2 harmony,
right?
- [Nik] Yeah, and one of them might be
on the answers in the chorus as well.
00:09:11 - Let's put the same setting
that we used for the lead vocal
across the other vocals.
00:09:17 We're using a little L1 to top it off,
so we're just going to drop that
on the other ones.
00:09:23 - [Nik] Just a one-off comp on 19-20,
just to see if that's
still working with this setup.
00:09:27 - Yeah, sure.
00:09:34 That was it?
That's pretty high!
So, since it's all the same singer,
then why don't you use
the same concept for each vocal?
Since all the vocals were probably
recorded the same way,
if you treat them all
with a similar type of compression
they're going to blend
a lot quicker, a lot easier,
so we're going down that road with them.
00:10:13 Let's check that vocal harmony in verse 2.
00:10:23 So let's use the same EQ that we're doing
on the vocal to the backgrounds,
all the same, so they get
exactly the same EQ.
00:10:44 It just makes it blend better,
so let's hear the chorus.
00:11:08 Vocals now... backgrounds
have the same treatment
as the lead vocals.
00:11:12 So, it's really only five faders:
vocal, vocal double,
backgrounds, there is one comp
in the backgrounds
where a super high part comes in.
00:11:21 That blend is pre-fixed,
we're happy with it.
00:11:24 And then one extra mono vocal,
so it's not really that...
00:11:28 it's not really that horrible,
it's pretty simple.
00:11:30 So, it really gives you
a small playing field here to deal with.
00:11:34 We take the vocals as far as we can,
so then we put our vocals
as you can do in Pro Tools
where you have a couple of groups.
00:11:40 We have our lead vocal on one fader,
our backgrounds on another.
00:11:43 The only thing I need to really
worry about riding
are these two faders
rather than the five,
so I keep that simple
with the VCA grouping.
00:11:51 Now that we've gotten
all the things individualized,
what I'll do is I'm going to go across it
and see if there's any more "hot sauce"
I need to add to anything to make it cool.
00:12:01 So, make sure it's exciting enough
and make sure it's where I want it to be.
00:12:05 So I'll just check it once from the top,
and let's see what happens there.
00:13:40 While we're here,
let's just turn that verse 2
guitar up two more dB.
00:13:44 This will be something less
to worry about.
00:15:21 So, what happens is
once you put everything in,
the first things that you were looking at
may start to feel dull.
00:15:29 You look at, "Okay, what
other elements can I clear up?"
So, I'm like, "Oh, the hi-hat, ride,
cymbal tracks, a little bit more of that.
00:15:35 The overheads, give a little bit
more shine to them."
It's always the snare drum.
00:15:39 It's always the snare drum!The snare drum has always got to be
as exciting as the vocals.
00:15:44 So, what happens is we push
those two together.
00:15:47 So now we've done the refinements of,
once you add everything together,
you want to go through
and only EQ
inside the mix.
00:15:57 So we're EQ'ing inside the mix,
not separate, okay?
So once you've gotten everything
on a place where you want it,
and you're playing it all together,
then you go, "Oh, what's inside
the mix that I want to tweak?"
So I just did that,
I topped off a few
equalizations to the drums.
00:16:12 And you want to make sure
that that snare drum,
that pesky snare drum,
is as exciting as possible.
00:16:17 At that point, I'm comfortable
with everything I have now.
00:16:20 Now I can turn my automation on,
which is VCA automation,
which is a lot simpler
than Pro Tools automation.
00:16:27 Even though it's all the same,
it's recording your moves, okay?
The difference is I could probably back up
and punch in,
and not have to worry
about moving faders
because they don't move,
they just write those moves.
00:16:41 So, that's what I'll do next,
which is very simple.
00:16:44 On this, I hit one button,
I go back to the top of the song,
I hear a cricket,
there he is.
00:16:52 That tells me that all the lights are red,
just like you'd see in Pro Tools.
00:16:57 It's red, it's ready to go.
00:16:59 A big difference here
that you can't do that I can do
is my faders are exact level.
00:17:03 If I move them into a position
and rewind and join my automation,
it's going to pick up
exactly where these faders are.
00:17:10 In Pro Tools it's not necessarily
going to do that
because when you roll back,
it rolls back, and the faders move.
00:17:17 You can't really do that, so,
I'm just letting you know that,
that I can set up new levels
and then punch in.
00:17:22 That's something that I can't
necessarily do with Pro Tools
because this is VCA and that is non-VCA.
00:17:27 That's Absolute, so,
here we go, the simplest part
of the job here is automating it.
00:17:33 I will do that.
00:17:35 Knowing that I want the song
to start a little bit
without all these effects,
I will just peel them back,
mute them.
00:17:42 And,
it starts with the vocal,
so I can literally do this quietly.
00:17:49 And it has my pre-roll on it,
so let's see what I can do
with Chris's song here.
00:18:30 So, I got my start point,
I can just go right back here,
and...
00:18:36 To the top, and...
00:18:39 ...drop it in,
and then rewrite it here.
00:19:29 I fine-tuned it. I'll go to the top
of the chorus and drop in.
00:19:37 I can punch him right at the top
of the chorus,
I'll make a move right here.
00:20:02 I also want to do one other thing,
so we'll go back.
00:20:12 I want this chorus to be
a little bit wetter.
00:21:18 There's a little guitar moment here
with some arpeggiating guitar,
let's hand-pan it, okay?
Hand-panning means you make it
go left and right, manually.
00:21:51 Keep that, and then we can work over that.
00:21:53 I'll make sure it's not too much.
00:22:25 So what we're doing there
for our second B section,
you see I'm doing a little bit
of a delay move.
00:22:30 My delays are on a fader,
so I can ride them wherever.
00:22:33 So I see there's this moment
where he's holding a note,
let's make it do something cool
in the hole there
because we can, right?
Because it just makes that section
be a little bit different.
00:22:42 We just add it right to the
automation, quickly.
00:22:56 A little pickup on the guitar, why not?
So we just keep connecting the dots,
so, we're building a song that's like,
I'm not going to sit here and do,
"Oh, let me just do the guitar moves
in one pass.
00:23:30 Let's do these guitar moves." Okay?
You got to do it all in one pass.
00:23:33 Now, you guys can do it
any way you want,
but for me,
I want to hear this song
in completion as I go,
and if I do anything on the second pass,
it's just to fine-tune something
I can undo, right?
or I want to refine.
00:24:10 Let me go back
and drop in,
because as the chorus was playing,
I'm like, "Okay, it's a little bit
out of control here."
Now, I've got it right where I want it,
go back, and...
00:24:23 ...drop right back in.
00:24:54 And then this guitar here
is kind of getting noisy.
00:25:24 Then our solo is over.
00:25:49 We'll go back to our
last little B section,
let's see if we want to fine-tune that.
00:26:30 I want to make sure
our stop is exciting here.
00:26:36 Double check this B section
one more time.
00:27:14 Now we'll make sure
our vocal is not too loud
in our bridge section there.
00:27:24 We'll just try the solo
one more time here.
00:27:42 We add a little bit
more shine to the solo
because it was slightly dark.
00:27:49 I don't want the solo
to be too loud, right?
So what we do there
is we got a hole coming up.
00:28:37 The effects we're using on the vocals
are going to be too messy in the break,
so we just want to make that
a little bit drier
so he stands out front.
00:28:44 So, a little trick right there
when I mute those. We did that.
00:29:02 So they drop in here, in the solo.
00:29:47 Right there, we write our fade.
00:29:49 Boom! It saves that.
00:29:51 There's pass one.
00:29:53 So what I showed you there is that...
00:29:56 I hear it one way in my head,
I want to make sure I get it
that way, all in one pass.
00:30:00 I hear a mistake,
I hear a better balance,
I back up, I join,
I back up, I correct.
00:30:04 Section A, I get it great,
and I move into section B.
00:30:07 It's not that great, I come back,
I punch in section B,
I just keep moving forward, right?
I don't just go forward and then,
"Oh, I'll do another pass.
Oh, I'll do another pass."
Every pass you make in a mix
is a pass toward boredom, okay?
If you can't do it in a couple of passes
then you're doing something wrong.
00:30:24 When it's like pass two,
pass three, pass four,
that doesn't work.
00:30:29 Imagine that everything is a live show
and you got to get it balanced
and do it live.
00:30:33 Okay? Put some excitement into it.
00:30:35 Then go back and say,
"Okay, I got 90% of it,
95%."
You go back to,
"Oh, now, toward the end,
I'll get my drum balance
exactly how I want it."
So, then go and just punch in
your drum balance
so it stays static, which is what
I'm going to do right now.
00:30:50 So, I'll take pass two.
00:30:53 Very simply.
00:30:54 I'll say, "Well, you know, the drums,
by the end of the record,
were the exact balance I want,"
so boom, boom, boom.
00:31:00 Those are all in Absolute.
00:31:02 They're fine.
00:31:04 Toms.
00:31:05 Then, what am I going to do now?
Let's get his vocal right.
00:31:16 I don't want him too loud, right?
And that's how we do that.
00:34:45 So, refining the lead vocal
on top of the mix.
00:34:49 You know, when you do the whole pass,
by the time you get to the end,
certain things are, like, right
in the spot you want them to be,
so...
00:34:56 a lot... as you saw, I didn't do
any moves to the drums,
I just did some static moves.
00:35:00 Once I got that balance,
this kind of song...
00:35:02 you know, I had it to the point,
it was set it and forget it,
it didn't have to move, so,
besides a couple of minor EQ moves,
I got it where I wanted.
00:35:09 It's done. For me, I'm good.
00:35:11 So I'm just going to listen back to it.
00:35:13 I've been listening to it so quiet
because, like I said,
it has to be exciting at a low level.
00:35:18 So I'll check it a little bit louder,
make sure that there's...
00:35:21 ...not some cow in there mooing
that I didn't hear.
00:35:24 I'll make sure it's super exciting,
so,
'It's Not Over' there,
put to bed quickly,
and revisited
eleven years later and three days.
00:35:37 Let's see how I did.
00:35:49 Let's do a 'bye-bye pop'
on that 'Blown away', right?
All right, the very first line
of the lyric, 'Blown away',
it seems like there's a big pop on it.
00:36:05 The old 'blow'. There it is.
00:36:09 When he said 'blow',
it moved a lot of air and made it pop.
00:36:11 If we even look at the waveform,
it looks like a kick drum.
00:36:15 So, we create a preset
that gets rid of the pops,
and we spot-correct it,
which basically means you take
the least amount of the audio file,
you render it with a high-pass
to get rid of the 30 cycles.
00:36:30 It happens so quick you don't notice it,
so it just makes that big thump go away.
00:36:35 It's like de-popping, right?
Thank you, Mr. Nik.
00:36:39 We will listen to that now.
00:36:41 It's one of the things
you do with the vocal:
create an EQ setting
so you can stamp
and render the little spots
where the pop is.
00:36:48 You don't have to be rolling
this low end off.
00:36:51 It's just to get rid of the pops.
00:36:52 And it's normal,
the guy is moving air,
you know, when you
don't have a pop filter.
00:36:56 I'd rather have a good performance
with some pops in it than not,
so, it's your job to,
if you hear it and it bothers you,
to get rid of it.
So let's see what we did.
00:40:28 So, yeah!
We crank it up and it rocks,
and then we make a couple
more refinements
and now it's ready to print.
00:40:34 So we just realized when I turned it up
that maybe the bass was slightly too loud,
and maybe the snare drum...
00:40:39 It's always the snare drum!
It wasn't loud enough!
You know, and we see if something
is too dark, if something is too bright,
so just a couple little things
we were checking there.
00:40:47 It was all just...
00:40:50 ...EQ changes, so...
00:40:52 And just a slight balance change,
so, we'll run that now.
00:40:55 We got a 2-track we can take it to?
- [Nik] Sure.
00:44:27 There she goes!
'It's Not Over' is now over.
00:44:31 So we finished that, made that all work.
00:44:33 We hit End,
we call it 'UP 1'.
00:44:37 And then we take a snapshot of it
for posterity.
00:44:41 So we take our recall picture,
and you'll get the screen.
00:44:45 1985.
00:44:46 Here we go! A night in the wood.
00:44:49 And then we can play it back
and see what it looks like.
00:44:54 And we'll look at the channel for you.
00:44:59 Boy! Okay! Let's play Tetris!
And there it is as we left it.
00:45:05 It works, it's not sexy, it's not...
00:45:08 ...iOS 10, it's like iOS -10.
00:45:12 And there's two mixes and a final,
and bye-bye Louis!
So there you have it, 'It's Not Over',
completed here today
for pureMix, with CLA!
Once logged in, you will be able to read all the transcripts jump around in the video.
Chris Lord-Alge is an American mixing engineer based in LA where he owns the studio Mix LA.
His extensive use of compression earned him the name of the "Lord of Compression". His impressive collection of compressors were modelled by plug-in companies such as Waves Plug-ins with whom he collaborated to create his own line of plug-ins.
Chris is one of the most renowned mixing engineers in the world and his style can be heard on records from legendary artists such as U2, Aerosmith, Prince, Bruce Springsteen, James Brown, The Who, Green Day and dozens more.
Chris mainly mixes analog on his SSL console. Chris uses Pro Tools as a playback engine in the back of the room then focuses on what he hears, sitting at the console, patching vintage pieces of gear, making SSL EQ and compressor moves and pushes his levels through the console for great sounding results.
On pureMix, you can see how Chris mixes Daughtry on his SSL, explaining every move he makes.
Chris Daughtry is an American singer, songwriter, and lead vocalist for the rock band Daughtry.
Daughtry was the fourth-place contestant on the fifth season of American Idol, after his elimination from Idol, he was given a record deal by RCA Records and formed the band, Daughtry.
Their self-titled debut album became the fastest selling debut rock album in Nielsen Soundscan history, selling more than one million copies after just five weeks of release.
Chris Daughtry is an American singer, songwriter, and lead vocalist for the rock band Daughtry.
Daughtry was fourth-place contestant on the fifth season of American Idol, after his elimination from Idol, he was given a record deal by RCA Records and formed the band, Daughtry.
Their self-titled debut album became the fastest selling debut rock album in Nielsen Soundscan history, selling more than one million copies after just five weeks of release.
Parts of this site and some files are only accessible to pureMix Pro Members or available to purchase. Please see below our membership plans or add this video to your shopping cart.
If you get to record CLA again, might I suggest an over-the-ear headset mic (ala TedxTalk) instead of this lav buried in his larynx flanked by spandex tee and dog-chain (the perfect storm)... Or consider a hat mic, since he's always wearing a cap
hummarstra
2019 Oct 18
Take a moment to appreciate the amazing opportunity these amazing mix sites have given us with footage like this. Watching masters like CLA mix a song was unthinkable just 20 years ago. Sometimes I have criticized CLA for his teaching coming up short, but then he drops amazing golden nuggets of wisdom and you and then shows you some amazing skills you really needed. One thing I'm sure of: Chris is not hiding his tricks of the trade. He really has his heart in the right place and wants to share his wisdom with other musicians and mixers to benefit the music and the people who make it.
juandavid.z
2019 Oct 06
Really enjoyed the video. There were a lot of minor details and tweaks that weren't very elaborated upon, and I'm sure those make a huge difference!
logic718
2019 Apr 01
Ok. I now see why CLA is one of the best at what he does. That was really fun and informative to watch. You can really see that he's in total command. His assistant is lighting fast as well. And I'm glad you guys picked a really good song. Great job!!
One Critique.. The word "Everything" in the first verse sounded like too much of the waveform was cut off at the beginning. The pop/click was more noticeable that the first one you guys fixed. You can really hear it with headphones on.
Other than that, great work!
joethecomposer007
2018 Sep 23
4 seconds to eq the snare and then he says I like the snare , ,made me laugh. What a master. Thanks for sharing
Elton Collins
2018 Sep 19
Would have loved to have seen why he made the choices he did. He moves at breakneck speed! I guess that comes with the years. Dave Pensado said I can teach you to mix a great Snare Drum but I can't tell you what a great snare is... I would like to know...What makes a great snare drum. even CLA picks on the snare. How? What makes a kick and bass sit like it does in this track? The seperation is incredible! working in analog, what is thethe signal level being sent to the comps>? so Many questions!
peteymix
2018 Aug 02
Great video! Picked up so good stuff!
Arnold Vigh
2018 Jul 30
He is the Boss! No question
DRocksRecords
2018 Jul 22
Wow thats awesome... the guy is truely good. I mean he even surpasses his previous grammy aeatd winning mix in front of the camera.. thanks to Nik who also assists here. Chris likes to eq in context and often say it but here you understand why.
sarielaurelio
2018 May 17
Excellent tutorial, thanks to Puremix for showing us the philosophy of mixing of great engineers. Also, thank you very much for the subtitles in Spanish. Thanks Fab!
rickdrumss
2018 Apr 29
really cool!! i`d like to watch more videos from him. Thank you!!
Best regards from Chile
JASONFASHE
2018 Apr 23
GOLD!!!
LucaSkyline
2018 Apr 09
Amazing video!!! Love watching these legends explaining their tricks :) thanks Puremix, always over the top !!
frums
2018 Apr 06
Top Chris, please subtitles in Italian ;)
The Rocker
2018 Mar 31
Great to see Chris work on such a great song !!! Thanks Chris and Chris !
This one course is worth the price of admission !
He knows his equipment so frigin well. Knows music to his ears. Learned so much and to revisit with him, will surely have me revisit this session several times. And as a reminder.
imuagarza
2018 Mar 30
I really enjoyed watching him groove during the automations. The way he grooves with his board is cool it's like an instrument. Like a 48 string guitar. Mahalo!
buche
2018 Mar 29
Very Good Video and explains well how CLA did it. Would it be possible to have a screenshot of the SSL setting during Mix printing, because it's hard to see during the show.
chrisdover
2018 Mar 25
Not only is Chris a (best) great mixer, g whiz he is really a phenomenal teacher! He communicates so well. With the digital recording boom, you can tell Chris wants to do his bit to make sure music is continued to be presented well. Epic Legend imo
69bluesman
2018 Mar 25
His speed and comfort zone on his SSL is just inspiring. These tracks are just recorded and produced so well, making CLA's job a ton easier.
hoviedopro
2018 Mar 24
My men, what a great piece of video! This guy makes you to change your point of view on what's to mix a song!
up4it1000uk
2018 Mar 24
Canymanjl - thanks that makes sense. I’m not from the analogue world so it seemed odd to me.
dupont.romain
2018 Mar 23
I rarely enjoyed watching a mixing video as I enjoyed watching this one.
It's nothing that I would be able to do or even try but man... so fun to see thing guy make love to his console... Refreshing in some way...
It rocks! Sweet bonus to be add to what we already got from premix.
Thanks
elisha_g
2018 Mar 22
Pure joy! Thank you Pure Mix
shanegrush
2018 Mar 21
Hey Puremix Crew / Chris,
Is there a rule of thumb for dialing in the release on a limiter like L1 (For Vocals)?
Maxiemixer
2018 Mar 20
In pro tools is possible to get the faders like the vcas (they stay in place) using the PREVIEW MODE. It's tricky but works.
I am curious to know how Chris monitors. I notice that the master fader is DOWN and probably bypassed in patch.
Maxiemixer
2018 Mar 20
In pro tools is possible to get the faders like the vcas (they stay in place) using the PREVIEW MODE. It's tricky but works.
caughtinjoy
2018 Mar 18
Loved watching it! It was like Rambo meets Aliens II. Thank you Chris and Puremix for posting it up!
gonzostudios
2018 Mar 18
por favor subtítulos en español
gdrums
2018 Mar 18
AWESOME tutorial. Having a problem thou. When I downloaded the exercise files and drop them in PT they are not in sync, everything is playing some different part of the song. Is there a fix to this other than manually doing it?
Thanks...!!!
White Cat Studio
2018 Mar 18
Great video!!! CLA is so fast on his SSL wow...
I'm just sad that we can only have 1 minute of the song but it's a great song!
Thanks Puremix and CLA!
michaeltinker
2018 Mar 17
35.40
Candymanjl
2018 Mar 17
up4it1000uk, the console insert sends are always active, that's why you see the Distressors working. But until he hits the insert switch you're not hearing them.
Star Jee
2018 Mar 17
AMAZIIIINNGGG ! Thanks a lot.
up4it1000uk
2018 Mar 17
Interesting video but there is a lot more to it that isn't mentioned in this short video. The 'dry' tracks are recored so well and already have a ton of processing/editing added during the recording or 'pre-mix' editing stage. Therefore don't be disheartened if you can't get your raw tracks to sound like that in 2 hours.
Also why are the 2 Distressors not mentioned, you can clearly see they are both compressing the drums during the mix?
Thanks Puremix, and thanks Chris, I always enjoy your videos.
joebonn
2018 Mar 16
This is a terrific guide to going with gut instincts before you overthink it. The tutorial goes by as fast as CLA mixes! As for achieving SSL style "join" automation, those of you on ProTools HD can take advantage of "Preview." It's not exactly the same as VCAs on the console with the motors off, but it's close. With faders in latch mode, go into preview and adjust faders to your liking for that "scene." Command+click the Preview button to suspend, rewind to the previous section and as you roll in, punch preview and you'll hear the change! Keep rolling and stop to return to prev. levels.
caesarjamesaugustus
2018 Mar 16
The most informative CLA tutorial he's done & have seen many (removing pops with EQ, signal path, ambience on drums, delay settings, 2 ProTool systems, etc.) Thank you for mixing with analog gear, it is still the most superior sound only transformers & tubes can deliver. Thank you for mixing & sharing with analog CLA, it is the icing on the cake.
plays_gibsons
2018 Mar 16
This was great. Key points for me were 1) how close the original tracks are without Chris doing anything (record it right!) 2) Having all those SSL EQs to hand rather than plugins is 1 million times faster than protools and 3) Chris managed to add so much to it with what seemed fairly simple eq and comp moves. Very impressive! Much more practice needed for me!!!
mataran
2018 Mar 15
Outstanding video! So instructive. It's really impressive to see CLA at work. I've already seen tutorial videos by CLA, always time well spent. I'm glad that he joined the PureMix mentors. "Keep it simple!" :-) Thanks to CLA and to PureMix.
Joven35
2018 Mar 15
More please! This was great. Awesome info and perspective. Thanks PureMix!
Pearlpassionstudio
2018 Mar 15
Hi Chris. Excellent approach with this great song. Learned a lot especially your reasoning with the drums, balancing, verbs segment. Saw your performance at Sweetwater last year, hopefully you'll be there again and Fab Dupont. Your the best, thanks
