This video features Fab Dupont mixing a Liza Colby Sound song from a to z, live on stage with no safety net, explaining every move and showing how he tweaks every track.
This is Part 4 of this seminar, dealing with 2bus treatment using Universal Audio UAD plug-ins in Presonus Studio One with a Dangerous Music rig.
00:00:00 ...Because I feel that
it needs a little more magic.
00:00:02 To do so, I'm gonna bring
some of the hardware.
00:00:05 The way this is set up
is that my full mix,
the output of the sum from the analog
summing box in the D Box,
comes out and goes
through the output 2 of the Liaison.
00:00:16 The Liaison is the insert box, so I can
decide what I want to put where. Ok?
It just so happens that
on the bus B of the Liaison,
there is
Parallel Processing capabilities.
00:00:28 So what I'm gonna do now is I'm gonna
crush this a little bit, and then...
00:00:31 tuck it back under,
just like I did for the drums,
but I'm gonna do it on the whole mix,
and in the analog domain
with the Liaison and the Vari Mu.
00:00:39 So, for example...
00:00:41 Let's go here.
00:00:48 The sticker here says that...
00:00:51 the Manley Vari Mu Limiter/Compressor
is on insert 4.
00:00:55 So I'm gonna hit number 4 here,
and start compressing.
00:01:19 So, without...
00:01:21 Sorry...
00:01:30 With...
00:01:47 Again, without...
00:01:59 With.
00:02:07 What am I doing?
I'm crushing it, right?
I have a super short attack
to kill all the transients,
and then kind of a slow-ish release
so that it pumps,
and I'm being
wholly uncivilized with it...
00:02:19 maybe a little more,
let's just be...
00:02:22 How about stun?
Fantastic!
And then, what I'm gonna do now
is I'm gonna take this
and remove it from the processing,
so I'm back to unprocessed,
because hitting this blue button here
takes this compressed signal
out of the chain.
00:02:48 And it sounds natural.
00:02:51 Ok?
And then, with this knob here,
I'm gonna be able
to tuck that crushed signal back under,
just like you saw me do it with the fader.
00:02:59 Except here, I'm doing it
in the analog domain,
which brings a phenomenal amount
of fun, because I can do this.
00:03:07 And it sounds good!
You hear the difference in density?
It's very hard for me to match levels,
I'm gonna try the best I can.
00:03:32 This is without.
I'm gonna raise the level a little bit.
00:03:45 And this is with.
00:04:04 Without...
00:04:17 With.
00:04:33 Who likes without better?
Ok. Who likes with better?
Ok.
00:04:40 I'd like to hear the transition
between the verse and the chorus
and see if this parallel compression
did not ruin the dynamic of the song,
because otherwise my Mastering
engineer who's coming up in 30 minutes
is gonna get really upset with me.
He's bigger than me,
I can't have him be upset with me.
00:04:59 Also I feel it's a little thick
in the bottom, so what I may do...
00:05:02 It's thick in a good way,
but I feel it's maybe a little too much,
so I'm gonna insert, on Insert 2 here
I have the Dangerous Bax EQ,
that happens to have
High-pass and Low-pass filters,
and also a nice EQ,
so I'm gonna...
00:05:14 while I'm listening to this,
I'm gonna play with the EQ,
and this is across
the whole mix, right?
So the whole mix is going
to the input of the Liaison,
I'm gonna EQ it
with the Dangerous Bax EQ,
and then it's also being crushed
by the Manley compressor,
and being fed back into the DAW
to print.
00:05:31 So while I'm listening, I'm gonna also
deal with the EQ a little bit.
00:06:50 I think this is sounding like a record,
pretty close to a record.
00:06:54 Let me play you the difference in EQ.
00:06:57 This is an EQ that's across
the whole mix, and it's a Baxendall EQ,
meaning it's a very, very gentle
curve thing.
00:07:03 It's not... if you have a room tone,
and you're removing 8dBs at 200Hz
because you were too close to the wall
when you mic'ed this,
that's not gonna do that.
00:07:11 This is gonna help you shape the mix.
00:07:13 Here, I'm actually high-passing,
removing all the bottom up until 43.
00:07:17 It's gonna have a gentle slope
at the bottom.
00:07:19 Then I'm jacking up a little bit at 74,
so it does a little bit of this thing...
00:07:24 So I have
a little more of the thickness,
but a little less of the garbage
at the bottom. Fair?
Then I'm adding a little bit of
1dB at 4.8k.
00:07:32 So I'm gonna play it...
And I'm low-passing at 28k.
00:07:36 Of course, only your dog
can hear 28k.
00:07:39 But we can feel 28k,
and when I got this box,
I was totally stunned...
00:07:44 to be able to hear even the difference
between 28 and 18k.
00:07:49 In theory, since I've been doing this
every day for many years,
I shouldn't be hearing above...
you know... 5k...
00:07:55 but...
00:07:58 but somehow, when I got this box,
I was able to tell the difference
between 18 and 28.
00:08:03 What's the rationale of cutting stuff
above 28k?
Well, this is taking care
of your converters basically.
00:08:10 Even if you don't hear it, it's there.
Your compressor will have to listen to it,
your converter will have
to listen to it, and deal with it.
00:08:16 So it's good to get rid of the stuff
you don't need,
and this box lets you cut
all the way down to 20Hz,
and above 28, so I'm basically
putting it in this... you know...
00:08:27 formatting it for being recorded again.
00:08:29 So I'm gonna play a few bars with,
and a few bars without...
00:08:32 starting with!
Do you hear the high and shine?
It's a subtle, nice little shine,
but it's really nice,
and I'm sure Mike Wells is gonna
thank me for it, profusely.
00:09:14 So...
00:09:16 I'm gonna declare myself happy
with this mix,
so I'm gonna print it,
and I'm gonna put it on a little dongle,
which I forgot... No, it's here!
And I'm gonna give it to Mike Wells.
What could Mike do better?
I don't know. I'm dying to find out!
I definitely don't expect a wide stereo
image with everything down the center.
00:09:32 It is what it is. What I could do here,
we should experiment maybe,
is I could spread this
a little bit to the right, the guitar,
and maybe spread the vocal
a little bit to the left.
00:10:06 Let's do that and see what he says.
00:10:08 I may get hate mail.
00:10:10 We'll see... But I'll be there,
so he has to be polite, right?
So I'm gonna print this.
00:10:15 If you want to listen to the whole song,
this is the moment to listen to it.
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Fab Dupont is a award-winning NYC based record producer, mixing/mastering engineer and co-founder of pureMix.net.
Fab has been playing, writing, producing and mixing music both live and in studios all over the world. He's worked in cities like Paris, Boston, Brussels, Stockholm, London and New York just to name a few.
He has his own studio called FLUX Studios in the East Village of New York City.
Fab has received many accolades around the world, including wins at the Victoires de la Musique, South African Music awards, Pan African Music Awards, US independent music awards. He also has received Latin Grammy nominations and has worked on many Latin Grammy and Grammy-nominated albums.
The music, the process and the editing are so well done here!! Damn. Great job all around.
Thanks guys!!
cadheo
2014 Aug 24
great stuff man. is it possible to download the files for this section?
angeloboltini
2014 Jul 05
Mastering segment would be great!
juancopro-flow
2013 Nov 04
Fab n Liza, killer combo!!!
mattyb208
2013 Nov 01
Awesome segment, the speed at which you get results is truly inspiring. Any chance we are going to see the mastering segment on pureMix? Love your work.
