In this one hour and twenty seven point three minutes extravaganza Fab mixes a new track from Indie Pop band Plastic Days.
Starting from scratch and explaining every step he takes and every choice he makes (Every breath he takes, every move he makes, oh can’t you seeeeeee....), he coaxes the track from rough mix to final mix using hardware eqs and compressors, many different plugins, analog summing, and a great array of tricks to make the song shine. Instruments dealt with range from vocals to bass, drums, guitars and keyboards (Oolala).
The attached zip file contains the original uncompressed files of the session.
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00:00:07 Good morning children! Today,
we're going to talk about sex.
00:00:10 No! Today, we're going to talk about
mixing with analog summing
which, some say,
is the next best thing to sex.
00:00:16 The first thing we're gonna show you
is how to set up your hardware.
00:00:20 It can be confusing, so we thought
we'd show you some actual hardware.
00:00:23 Here we go!
Here's what it looks like in real life.
This is my digital to analog converter.
00:00:29 16 channels are converted from digital
to analog, so I can stem my audio out.
00:00:33 Then the 16 channels coming out of
the converter are going to my patchbay
and are normalled to the inputs
of my 2-bus.
00:00:40 Normalled means they go there
without you doing anything.
00:00:44 Then, the stereo output of my 2-bus
because the 2-bus does the summing,
go from 16 to 2...
00:00:50 gets patched back into
the converter...
00:00:56 here, so it can go back to the DAW.
00:00:58 So, to summarize, we have...
00:01:00 16 channels that are converted from
digital to analog from this box.
00:01:04 Those 16 channels are fed
through the patchbay into the 2-bus.
00:01:09 The 2 channels of the 2-bus are then
fed through the patchbay again
back into the converter,
sent back to the DAW.
00:01:16 You don't need a patchbay,
but it's an awful lot of fun.
00:01:20 If you want to look at this
as a diagram, here you go!
Daw digital into the converter.
00:01:25 Converter's 16 analog channels
into the 2-bus.
00:01:28 Out of the 2-bus, 2 channels into
the converter, back into the DAW.
00:01:34 For this mix, the DAW is Pro Tools.
00:01:37 I'm going to show you how to set up
your return track next.
00:01:40 Pay attention, there's a trick to it.
00:01:42 We are also shooting videos about
this trick for Logic and Cubase users
but the principle is the same.
00:01:48 This is my session. I'm gonna create
2 new stereo tracks.
00:01:53 One stereo Aux input,
and one stereo Audio track.
00:01:57 I'm gonna color them red, because
I'm totally OCD, I do it every time.
00:02:01 Why do I need an Aux track?
You do, because in Pro Tools,
plug-ins are pre-recording.
00:02:07 Meaning that if you put a plug-in here
on this track, and you print to it
you're only gonna listen to
the plug-in, you're not gonna print it.
00:02:14 If you wanna print it, you've gotta feed
your return from the 2-bus into an Aux
put your plug-ins here...
00:02:21 feed the ouput of that Aux
into a track and print that...
00:02:25 which is what we're gonna do
right now. Check it out!
For input on the Aux,
I'm selecting Input 1-2.
00:02:31 If you remember, that's where I patched
my 2-bus into on my patchbay.
00:02:37 The ouput of that goes to a bus
that I called PRINT.
00:02:41 I thought it would be
easy to remember.
00:02:43 The input of the print track
is PRINT.
00:02:47 And the output of that final track
is gonna be my main monitor.
00:02:52 A couple of things need to be done.
First, let's name them.
00:02:54 Let's call this ANALOG RETURN.
00:02:59 And the next one...
00:03:01 which is your final mix, call it your mix.
So this is called POINTING FINGERS.
00:03:05 Put your name on it, be proud:
FABMIX 1.0.
00:03:11 First of many, I'm sure.
00:03:13 Then, you have to solo safe these
two tracks. What does that mean?
It means that you have to Command-click
on these two s's right here
so that when you solo something
in the session later...
00:03:23 these tracks don't get muted.
00:03:25 That will let you solo in your session,
and still listen to your final mix.
00:03:28 Lastly, you need to understand
what this button does.
00:03:32 This is called
the Input monitoring button.
00:03:34 Input... Monitor.
00:03:37 You're listening either to the input
or to what's coming from the track.
00:03:40 In our case, you wanna listen to
the input, which is...
00:03:44 the output of the print bus.
00:03:45 What's the input of the print bus?
The output of the Aux!
What's the input of the Aux?
The output of the 2-bus!
What's the input of the 2-bus?
The output of the converter!
What's the input of the converter?
Your session!
But we're not here
just to listen to this stuff...
00:04:00 We'd like to record it so we can
play it back elsewhere
for people like your mother,
grandmother, sister...
00:04:05 dog, girlfriend...
00:04:07 So... click the Record button!
Now if you press Record
the whole mess/mix will get recorded
onto this track.
00:04:15 Once you've recorded something...
00:04:17 when you remove
the Input Monitoring button
you are now listening to
what you just recorded.
00:04:22 So you can now compare what you recorded
and what you're doing right now.
00:04:26 There are a lot of
practical applications to this.
00:04:29 Side note...
00:04:31 The Dangerous 2-bus
has two sets of outputs.
00:04:33 One recording set, the one that
I patched back into my converter
and then a monitoring set.
00:04:38 That one I have always hard patched
to my monitor section.
00:04:42 Why do I do that?
Because, now I can listen to either
straight output of my 2-bus...
00:04:48 or, what my digitisation and plug-ins
are doing to the sound.
00:04:54 It's nice to know.
00:04:56 Enough talking,
let's listen to some music!
I'm gonna play you the raw tracks
of the song we'll mix today.
00:05:01 It's called "Pointing Fingers",
by a band called Plastic Days.
00:05:04 Producer Benoit Muñoz,
another French guy...
00:05:07 We're gonna focus on
a verse / pre-chorus / chorus structure
so we don't get overwhelmed by time.
00:05:13 Here we go!
It's gonna be fun!
So how can you think when
you're about to stem your session?
I have two sets of considerations:
practicality and tone.
00:06:12 Practicality, use your common sense.
00:06:14 You might want to put all your
background vocals together...
00:06:16 All your guitars together...
00:06:18 All your keyboards together,
that makes sense.
00:06:20 That little pad that comes in
for 2 bars on the third verse
does not deserve its own stem,
it can get with something else.
00:06:25 That makes sense... Tone.
00:06:27 Anything that has high transients...
00:06:30 bass drums, snare drums,
bass, vocals...
00:06:34 that get their own stem.
00:06:36 Also, it helps on the practical side
because if the bass drum is by itself
and I need to give it a little
"humpf!","humpf!"...
00:06:42 in the analog domain,
it's already separated.
00:06:44 That's where tone and practicality
meet. Let me show you!
Bass drum... Output 1.
00:06:52 Snare drum... Output 2.
00:06:58 Don't forget to hit the Mono button
on stem 1-2
because otherwise it's gonna go
"poum tchak! poum tchak!"
instead of "poum tchak! poum tchak!"
For the rest of my drums,
I'm gonna go to Output 3-4.
00:07:09 All the drums, the rest, what's not
a bass drum or a snare drum.
00:07:12 My parallel processing, because I know
I'm gonna use it on the acoustic drums
I'm gonna send it to Output 5-6,
so that I can use
parallel processing
in the analog domain.
00:07:22 My bass I send to Output 9,
it's a tradition, I like tradition.
00:07:26 Don't forget to hit the Mono button on the
Output 9 if you're gonna use Mono outputs.
00:07:30 While I'm here, I can go
to my lead vocals
and send them to Output 10
where I traditionally put them.
00:07:36 Go back here.
00:07:39 These other basses, I'm gonna consider
keyboards and send them to Output 13-14
where I usually put my keyboards.
00:07:46 Guitars... 7-8. Always.
I'm a creature of habits.
00:07:52 All my keyboards, that I usually color
pink, so I know they're keyboards...
00:07:55 go to Output 13-14.
00:07:57 And then my background vocals, in this
case, I'm gonna send to Output 13-14
because I'm gonna save my stem 11-12
for some tricks and just in case I need it.
00:08:08 All my effects are going to
Output 15-16.
00:08:12 There you go!
That's how I do it!
So why would you wanna do this?
Besides the tone benefits of analog
summing, I can think of 3 simple reasons...
00:08:20 headroom, headroom,
and then headroom.
00:08:22 Meaning, you won't have to worry
about gain management so much
like bringing all your faders down
6 to 12dBs
just because you're clipping
the mix bus over and over again.
00:08:31 Also meaning, you won't have to start
with the bass drum all the way down here...
00:08:35 anticipating for the problems to come.
00:08:37 Start with your bass drum up here,
where it belongs...
00:08:40 just like your snare belongs.
00:08:42 Everything that's loud or transient-heavy
can stay up there on the fader
because the 2-bus is taking the heat.
00:08:47 You don't have to be as cautious
as you would in the box.
00:08:51 Also, you'll notice that you're in
the sweet spot near unity for the fader.
00:08:54 So, you wanna take
this bass drum up .1dB?
Cush!
Try and do that down here...
Good luck!
Headroom and tone are the two reasons
why you wanna do analog summing.
00:09:07 Enough theory, let's get into
the practice.
00:09:09 Let's turn some knobs here and there.
00:09:12 Today, I'm gonna use a nice hybrid
of plug-ins and analog inserts.
00:09:16 Like for example the Roger Schult EQs...
00:09:19 ELI Fatso, RockRuepel Comp One
with a "k"...
00:09:23 I will also probably use
the Mercury Pultecs...
00:09:26 the TG1 by the good people at Chandler
and my trusty Dangerous Bax EQ.
00:09:32 This is a pop music track,
so let's start with the vocal.
00:09:35 That's where the money is.
00:09:37 Don't forget to make sure that
your print track is in Input Monitoring.
00:09:42 What do we have?
Let's see...
00:09:59 That's a pretty good recording.
00:10:00 I think it's a little fat
and a little dull.
00:10:03 So, first thing I'm gonna do
is clean up the bottom a little bit.
00:10:08 Hit this, not go crazy,
maybe a little bit of the low mids...
00:10:12 Let's see...
00:10:16 As opposed to...
00:10:19 Listen to the nose, "As it explodes",
listen to that.
00:10:23 Without...
00:10:28 With...
00:10:32 A little less resonance.
00:10:34 I feel I'll need compression on this.
00:10:36 Let me show you why.
This is the track raw.
00:10:47 "As it explodes, I can decode"
is one plane.
00:10:50 And when he goes up...
00:10:52 it kinda goes back a little bit.
00:10:55 Then the fourth line goes back forward.
I don't like that.
00:10:59 So I'm gonna compress
a little bit...
00:11:01 use this dude and come down here.
00:11:05 and see what it does. I'm just
completely making those settings up.
00:11:09 Hopefully, I'll get lucky.
00:11:21 See, that's better already.
The third line is more in line.
00:11:23 The fourth line...
a little too much forward.
00:11:27 So I'm gonna heighten the ratio
a little bit.
00:11:30 And then I'm gonna give
a couple of dBs of makeup gain.
00:11:34 So that I can listen on and bypassed at
the same level, so I don't fool myself.
00:11:39 So this is no compression.
00:11:51 You know how it's dancing
from phrase to phrase?
This is with the compressor.
00:12:07 Much more even!
Now, it's still a little dull.
00:12:11 I'd like to open up the top
and still give a little more
of the low-mid fat thing there.
00:12:16 So, do... this!
And I'm gonna do it
in the analog domain.
00:12:23 So here's what I do when I wanna insert
say, an analog EQ on my vocal stem.
00:12:27 These are the outputs of my Pro Tools...
00:12:30 and these are the inputs of my 2-bus.
00:12:33 In this particular session, the vocal
is on Output 10, so I take Output 10...
00:12:38 feed it into the input of my EQ...
00:12:41 take the output of my EQ...
00:12:44 and feed it into Input 10 of my 2-bus.
00:12:47 The audio no longer goes straight from
the output of the converter into the 2-bus
it takes a little roundtrip to the EQ.
00:12:53 You noticed, for the metrosexual amongst us,
that I have a tendency to use patch cables
that match the color of the track
in Pro Tools. Now, that's fancy!
Here's the Roger Schult EQ. You can
think of it as two separate EQs.
00:13:04 These three bands, and these
three bands are exactly the same.
00:13:07 On the vocal, I'm gonna use
these three bands.
00:13:10 I have a high end band, a mid range
and a low range.
00:13:13 What I propose we do
is play the vocal...
00:13:16 listen to it, and I'll speak over it,
explaining what I'm doing
and how I feel and how my brain
is functioning when I do this.
00:13:21 Or, maybe not functioning, I'm not sure
how to qualify it. Here we go!
Ok!
I like to hear a little bit of "hhaaa",
a little bit of "mmm" air up there.
00:13:37 So I'm gonna look for
my traditional 10k
and then start pushing it.
00:13:43 Oh, that's nice! Not too much.
00:13:48 Flat...
00:13:54 That's really nice and smooth.
Notice how much fun it is...
00:13:57 to just turn a knob, as opposed to...
you know, the mouse thing.
00:14:06 I'd like it to be a little bitier,
it's rock'n'roll after all.
00:14:10 My instinct tells me that
in the 1.8 to 2k range...
00:14:13 which is about here,
there should be something fun.
00:14:19 That!
That thing, that "ee! ee!" thing.
00:14:21 Less of it...
00:14:25 Ok. So, so far, we've done this.
00:14:28 Flat...
00:14:33 That's nice!
The high end band could be a little
broader, a little smoother...
00:14:40 By opening the Q, I'm actually
making it go like this...
00:14:43 which means it's gonna have more range,
but maybe a little less amount.
00:14:52 Again, flat.
00:14:59 With...
00:15:03 Alright now...
00:15:04 That's all fine and well,
but it's starting to be a little heady...
00:15:07 I'd like to get some chest.
00:15:11 My experience is that it would be
probably in the 300-ish range.
00:15:18 That stuff!
That, this, doing this tells me
that ok, that's gonna work...
00:15:23 but I'm a little high, it's getting
a little bit in the nose.
00:15:26 So I'm gonna lower it.
00:15:28 I like that! And then less of it.
00:15:35 This is nice!
So, we started... here.
00:15:46 And now we're here.
00:15:56 Notice that you can do this...
00:15:58 with a mouse, or just this,
or this.
00:16:01 The immediate appeal of being able
to tounch buttons, it's kind of fun.
00:16:05 You tend to forget when you work
with plug-ins...
00:16:07 then you start touching knobs again,
you're like "Hmm, this is nice!"
The analog EQ did the trick.
I like the tone of this.
00:16:13 Let me show you the reverbs, let's get
those out of the way...
00:16:15 because we'll use them on everything.
00:16:17 The first reverb I have here is my OFFICE.
00:16:19 You should watch the Mixing with Reverb
video if you have questions about this.
00:16:23 I'm using the Universal Audio
Room Simulator 1...
00:16:27 and it's my preset called Office.
I fancy that! So, this is dry.
00:16:32 This is a lot of the Office.
00:16:36 Big office!
And then, this is a little bit
of the Office.
00:16:42 Just a little bit of a back wall thing.
00:16:45 The second reverb is my Plate,
that I use for sauce...
00:16:49 I'm using the Universal Audio EMT 140.
00:16:54 This is a lot of the Plate.
00:16:59 You heard that sound before.
Here is a little bit of it.
00:17:06 For the Hall, I'm using my Oxford
reverb, I have a preset I made myself.
00:17:10 It's a modification
of the Hall Silky preset.
00:17:14 It's called the Fabulous Hall Silky.
00:17:16 This is a lot of the Fabulous Hall Silky.
00:17:22 This is just a little bit of it.
00:17:30 And my last effect is...
EchoBoy...
00:17:34 which is a really lovely delay
from Soundtoys.
00:17:39 16th note delay, locked to bpm.
00:17:43 No feedback.
00:17:44 High-pass it, so it doesn't sound
too fat.
00:17:47 High cut it a lot, so it doesn't
sound too bright.
00:17:49 Some saturation.
A lot of it sounds like this.
00:17:57 And then, a little bit of it
sounds like this.
00:18:05 So, so far... No effects.
00:18:11 And then, all four effects...
00:18:16 It's a good basis. I'm gonna adjust
this obviously
but now, I'm able to do this...
00:18:21 this...
00:18:23 some delay thing going on, and then
I have the height with the Hall.
00:18:26 So I'm ready to go.
00:18:27 I think we should switch to bass.
The vocals sounds good.
00:18:30 Here's what the bass sounds like raw.
00:18:32 Listen to aggressivity...
00:18:35 dynamics, drive,
and overall tone.
00:18:57 You noticed how some notes
are really fat...
00:19:00 some notes are less fat,
everything is kind of like...
00:19:03 floating around.
00:19:04 There's this compressor I really like...
00:19:06 from Universal Audio, that does
good things for that kind of stuff.
00:19:10 How do I know that?
Well, I tried it!
And it worked for me once,
and then I remembered it...
00:19:14 and now I'm gonna do it again,
and that saves me time.
00:19:17 So let's listen to how it sounds
with this compressor on.
00:19:19 I'm just gonna use the basic settings
and then adjust.
00:19:37 The basic settings work lovely.
00:19:40 I love it when that happens.
00:19:42 It's a little loud for comparison before
and after, I'm gonna lower the output
and maybe I'm gonna lenghten
the time constant a little bit...
00:19:48 so that it doesn't pump as much,
it just stays on more.
00:19:52 And it sounds like this...
So, raw.
00:20:03 And with.
00:20:17 I like this. It's steadier, it's more
together, it's more compact.
00:20:20 But we did lose a little bit of bottom and
a little bit of definition to the compression.
00:20:26 This drives the track, so I probably
gonna want to fix this
and keep the bottom tight.
00:20:30 To do so, I'm gonna fix it with an EQ,
probably the Schult.
00:20:33 Let's go check it out.
00:20:35 As before...
00:20:37 on this session, my bass is
on Stem 9.
00:20:40 Out of 9 into the input of the EQ.
00:20:44 Output of the EQ into 2-bus 9.
00:20:49 Again, it's red in my session...
00:20:51 if I have a red patch cable,
I'll find that, because...
00:20:54 when this is gonna be
a big bloody mess of cables
I can spot out my bass
and my vocal, even on the patchbay.
00:20:59 Isn't that lovely again?
Back to the Roger Schult, I think
it's gonna be great for this.
00:21:04 So, as we did for the vocal,
let's listen to the bass.
00:21:07 I'm gonna talk over it to explain
how I'm thinking.
00:21:11 Here we go!
Right away...
00:21:16 even though the compressor helps,
it feels a little bright.
00:21:19 So I'm gonna grab the higher band...
00:21:22 and...
00:21:24 darken it!
Probably 3k-ish, right? This?
That stuff I don't like.
So I'm gonna darken it
and make it pretty broad,
so it darkens quite a bit.
00:21:39 I wanna hear more
of the wood of the bass.
00:21:41 It's a real instrument,
let's take advantage of it!
From experience, I know that
it's gonna be in the 200 range.
00:21:47 So, I haven't used this EQ on bass before.
00:21:50 So, is it 260, is it 195?
I don't know.
00:21:53 I'm gonna shoot in the middle here
and then try it. Turn it on.
00:21:59 See? This stuff! I like that.
00:22:05 That's cool! So we started here.
00:22:10 Pretty light.
00:22:14 More body, it's nice.
00:22:17 Ok! Actually, this could be
a little broader.
00:22:26 I would like more low end extension,
the "mmm" part.
00:22:31 I know it usually hangs
in the 60-ish range.
00:22:39 That's nice.
00:22:43 As a reminder, we started here.
00:22:51 Darkened it.
00:22:54 Added some body.
00:22:58 And then...
00:23:00 restore the balance by extending
the low end like this.
00:23:04 This is very nice.
00:23:07 Here's how you can think
about this stuff.
00:23:11 Either by experience, or by trial
and error, find your frequency.
00:23:16 You can do that by jacking up
the amount and then doing your thing.
00:23:21 Then settle on the spot you like.
Try and pay attention...
00:23:24 Do you like what it does
at the frequency you selected? Good!
Do you like what it's doing above it,
and below it?
If yes, your Q is good.
00:23:33 If it's doing too much
around the frequency, tighten the Q.
00:23:38 If you'd like more of that, around
where the frequency is, broaden the Q.
00:23:44 That's simple.
00:23:45 That did the trick too.
00:23:47 I'm noticing in the session here
that there's another bass.
00:23:50 Let's look at where it's playing. It's
playing here in the chorus towards the end.
00:23:55 What does it play?
If you play it with the other bass..
00:24:12 That's a lot of people trying to share
the same space.
00:24:15 So I propose to try and spread
that new bass in stereo
and get it out of the way
of the bass we just made.
00:24:21 To do so, let's use a simple delay...
00:24:24 like... Digi's delay is great.
Here you go.
00:24:28 Here's how you do it.
00:24:29 Pick one side that you do nothing to.
Everything's at 0.
00:24:33 This is a good reminder that
nothing's happening. There you go.
00:24:36 Then, on the other side,
you do everything to it...
00:24:39 and... but no modulation.
00:24:42 Just a little bit of delay.
Now check this out. This is flat.
00:24:48 And this is with the delay.
00:24:53 What's happening is you have one signal,
and you're delaying it.
00:24:57 That delayed signal really sounds
like the second one, a little bit behind.
00:25:00 Now, imagine if you spread...
00:25:03 the dry one to one side...
00:25:05 and the delayed one to the other side.
00:25:07 It's gonna sound like this
a little bit. Right?
And that's gonna give you
the illusion of stereo.
00:25:11 This is flat again.
00:25:16 And this is stereo.
00:25:19 The fun part is you can play
with the Delay here
to decide how wild it is.
With 0ms, you're in mono.
00:25:27 And then...
00:25:30 you can find a fun spot.
00:25:33 I kinda like this.
00:25:37 That's cool!
I think it's a little static.
So I wanna put an effect on it.
00:25:41 For some reason that I can't describe,
call it inspiration if you will...
00:25:46 I'd like to use PhaseMistress,
which is the phaser by Soundtoys.
00:25:49 I just like it.
So, how does it sound?
Less... A little slower...
00:25:56 Less Resonance,
so it doesn't go "Woo! Woo!"
A little slower.
00:26:02 Probably Sine wave,
so it's more discrete.
00:26:07 That's fun! Flat...
00:26:15 That's nice.
Get a little harder into the box.
00:26:20 Ok!
What I'm gonna do now is probably
compensate using an EQ.
00:26:29 Raise the high end.
00:26:32 That's fun. And then some bottom...
it's supposed to be a bass, right?
Cool!
So we started here.
00:26:49 And now we're here.
00:26:53 A little too bright, right?
But...
00:26:59 how does it marry with the other bass?
It sounds like this.
00:27:09 As opposed to
the way it was like this.
00:27:19 I like it better with the effects.
00:27:21 So let's put them back on.
Here we go!
A little fatter.
00:27:36 I think this is gonna be great.
Let's move on.
00:27:39 At this point in the mix, I like
to set up my 2-bus processing
also known as my 2-mix processing
also known as the stuff you put across
the whole mix, compression or EQ.
00:27:49 You can put it as analog equipment
in between the 2-bus and the converter
or as a plug-in on that Aux track,
before you go to the Print track.
00:27:57 Why would I want to set up my 2-mix
compressor and EQ so early in the mix?
Why don't I just wait until the end
of the mix
and just sweeten the whole thing, compress
and EQ it, and send it to mastering?
Because that's not how it works.
00:28:10 If you set up your compressor
at the beginning of the mix
what's gonna happen is this...
00:28:15 Every time you're gonna hit it
with a transient, a snare drum,
a bass drum, overheads...
00:28:21 heavy duty guitars, the compressor
is gonna push back a little bit.
00:28:24 Instead of having endless dynamic
you're having kind of a gentle
push back against what you're doing.
00:28:31 It lets you control the overall
dynamic range of the whole mix
without squishing it, because you're
actually hearing what you're doing
and you're modifying the sound
of every tone...
00:28:41 based on what you're hearing
the compressor do.
00:28:44 If you were to do that at the end...
00:28:46 you already have your bass drum
that's too fat and too dynamic
and you're just trying to squish it...
00:28:51 when you do it at the end, it's gonna
squish the whole mix.
00:28:55 If you have your compressor while you're
designing your bass drum sound...
00:28:57 you're actually hearing what it's gonna
sound like at the end, more or less...
00:29:01 and it's gonna let you carve
the bass drum in function of that.
00:29:06 It lets you create records that are
more dynamically controlled
and sound less compressed
than if you're gonna put
the compressor on at the end.
00:29:15 The output of my 2-bus is
hard patched to my Pro Tools' in.
00:29:19 I'm gonna insert the RockRuepel first,
and then the Bax EQ.
00:29:22 So I take...
00:29:25 what I had going out of the 2-bus.
00:29:27 I'm gonna go into the RockRuepel instead.
These are my RockRuepel hard patches
The output of the RockRuepel
is going to the Bax EQ.
00:29:35 Then what was coming out
of the 2-bus before...
00:29:38 which is going into Pro Tools, is now
coming out of the Bax EQ.
00:29:41 So what's going on is:
2-bus into the RockRuepel...
00:29:44 Output of the RockRuepel into Bax EQ...
00:29:47 Output of the Bax EQ back into
Pro Tools to go to our Aux track.
00:29:51 My experience with this box
tells me that unity...
00:29:54 which is, what comes in comes out,
is In at 5, Out at 5...
00:29:59 Same thing on the right side.
Right here. Cool.
00:30:02 The threshold's at 0, so the box
is supposed to do nothing...
00:30:05 at least compression-wise.
00:30:06 You're still gonna hear the sound of
the box, but there should be no compression.
00:30:10 For attack and release...
00:30:11 basically, I'm putting it in the middle
and then, we'll see what happens.
00:30:16 The Bax, which is right after
the compressor, before my converter...
00:30:19 is set up as such.
00:30:21 Basic stuff that I use
very regularly.
00:30:24 I know I'm not gonna need much
below 24Hz...
00:30:28 that's pretty safe to say.
00:30:30 So I'm using the high-pass filter
at 24.
00:30:32 Then I'll adjust it, depending
how the bottom goes.
00:30:37 For the low-pass on the right side here,
start at 28.
00:30:41 That's 28,000, 28k. If you can hear
28k, send me a postcard.
00:30:45 So, anything above 28k can go to bed.
00:30:48 There are technical reasons for doing that,
but we're not gonna go into it here.
00:30:51 Then, I'm gonna add a little bit
of bottom...
00:30:54 maybe a dB at 74, or maybe 84Hz...
00:30:57 I don't know, we have to listen
to it in the track.
00:31:00 And then a little bit of high end.
00:31:02 Maybe a dB at 7k.
00:31:05 Although it only says 7.1k up there...
00:31:08 the Baxandall curves are so smooth
and so gentle
their actually reach is way down
in the mid-range.
00:31:15 It's not just "Pouf!",
a little bit at 7.1...
00:31:18 it really is a big broad curve,
and that why I like the EQ...
00:31:21 it's because it's so gentle...
so gentle...
00:31:24 Back to the RockRuepel.
00:31:26 I'm gonna raise the threshold
a little bit
so I get a little bit of compression,
just a smidgen of compression
while playing the track
with just the bass and the vocal.
00:31:34 So now we have the Bax EQ on
and the RockRuepel with a tiny bit
of compression. Here's how it sounds.
00:31:44 Maybe a little more.
00:31:57 And this is without.
00:32:11 Again, with...
00:32:26 Even though you don't see much
happening on the needles...
00:32:28 the box actually does something.
00:32:30 This compressor has the particularity
that it sounds good
even when it's not compressing. It does
something cool to the transients.
00:32:36 I actually lobbied really hard for them
to put an Amp only vibe on it.
00:32:40 So I'm not using the compressor
if I don't want to...
00:32:42 but I still get the tone of the
amplifiers in there, which sound great.
00:32:46 But today, we're gonna use
compression.
00:32:48 So you can think of your 2-mix
compressor
as kind of a boundary for your mix,
a play space.
00:32:54 And you can think of your 2-mix EQ
as the wallpaper.
00:32:58 The thing that defines
the color for it.
00:33:00 The compressor provides you the space,
the EQ provides you the color.
00:33:06 Now that we have
our 2-bus processing set up
let's go to our drums and see what
happens. First, bass drum.
00:33:11 I have 3 bass drum microphones.
At least, I think they're microphones.
00:33:15 First...
00:33:19 That's an inside bass drum microphone.
00:33:23 Then, this...
00:33:26 That's an outside bass drum microphone.
00:33:29 And this...
00:33:33 That's a sample that was added.
00:33:36 The 3 of them together
sound like this.
00:33:44 Not the best... Not bad,
but not the best.
00:33:47 Alright, let's look at the inside
bass drum microphone first.
00:33:50 I'm gonna do a little bit
of EQing here.
00:33:53 I'm probably gonna high-pass it
because it's the inside drum microphone,
so I don't need that much.
00:34:00 And then I hear a little bit
of a ring here.
00:34:02 So I'm gonna bring it down in this
hundred range I think. Let's see.
00:34:09 Versus without...
00:34:17 With...
00:34:19 Yeah! A little dryer.
00:34:21 I just want it to be a little dryer, so it
doesn't get in the way of the other guy.
00:34:25 There's a lot of snare bleed, let me
show you a little trick.
00:34:28 Here we go... Oxford Dynamics.
I'm gonna use an expander.
00:34:31 An expander is kind of a gentler,
more sensitive version of a gate.
00:34:35 I'm gonna tell the expander:
"Yo! Look for loud signals only."
And ignore the quiet ones.
00:34:44 So you have to figure out just how low
you have to go to just get the kick
and then, what you do is
you shorten the release.
00:34:53 A little Hold...
00:34:58 Here you go.
Maybe a little lower.
00:35:02 Ok. I'm having a problem separating
the snare from the kick.
00:35:06 So I'm gonna set up a little
side-chain to that. Check it out.
00:35:11 Let me play the side-chain, so you
can figure out what's going on.
00:35:14 What I'm gonna do is remove the snare
from the side-chain.
00:35:19 Like that. Right?
So now, it's pretty dark.
00:35:27 Ok. Now the snare is basically
EQ'ed out of that side-chain.
00:35:32 Since the side-chain is what
the expander is listening to
to figure out when to open and close
then now, I'm gonna be able to have
just the bass drum.
00:35:42 Much better, right?
That's good enough.
As a reminder, we started here.
00:35:51 Now we're here... nice!
A little bit of compression,
just to say we did it.
00:35:59 See? It gives a little point.
00:36:02 I'm sure you like this.
00:36:04 Again.
00:36:06 We started here.
00:36:12 We're here.
00:36:15 Ok. That's good enough.
00:36:17 Let's move on to the outside kick.
00:36:23 I'm too lazy to go back in the menu.
I usually copy things over.
00:36:28 There's not that much of a snare
bleeding here.
00:36:33 There's a little bit, so why not
use the same setting?
Cool.
00:36:40 EQ-wise, I just copied the setting over
I'm sure this is not gonna work.
I know the high-pass always works for me
because that's the kind of guy I am.
So let's listen to this.
00:36:51 That's pretty fat.
00:36:55 It's a little muffled,
it's a little kind of like...
00:36:58 it takes a lot of room in the mids.
00:37:00 I think this would help,
taking 3dBs-ish around 500Hz.
00:37:04 Check it out. This is flat.
00:37:08 And then...
00:37:10 You see? It kind of opens up
a little bit.
00:37:13 How does it sound with the other one?
Not bad!
Just the inside...
00:37:26 The two of them...
00:37:30 Just the outside...
00:37:34 Something makes me uncomfortable.
I really can't tell you what it is.
00:37:37 Usually, when something makes you
uncomfortable in the low end...
00:37:40 there's a phase problem. So I'm gonna
use the Universal Audio...
00:37:44 Little Labs... Where are you?
More plug-ins! More plug-ins!
Here!
Ok.
00:37:53 What I'm going to do is play with
the phase button here
and figure out if I can find a spot
that sounds better than this.
00:38:06 Ouh!
That's deep, right?
As a reminder...
00:38:16 With...
00:38:17 Ouh! I like that!
That's fat.
00:38:21 Ok. That's very nice!
Whenever you have a problem
in the bottom
and you're EQing for that 25 minutes,
and it still doesn't sound good...
00:38:30 probably a phase problem.
00:38:32 Start moving phase around,
all of a sudden, life is good again.
00:38:36 Let's see what the triggered
sound is for.
00:38:42 Ok, that's fat.
00:38:44 It actually kind of changes
my balance.
00:38:48 I probably would like a little more of that
and less of the inside bass drum mike
because the inside bass drum mike
is a little pointy. Check it out.
00:38:56 Right?
Versus this...
00:39:01 That's nice. And I like
that "kk! kk!" thing on top.
00:39:05 So if I have the 3 on and I just raise...
00:39:09 the fake bass drum and take the real
inside bass drum down a little bit...
00:39:13 the bass drum sounds like this.
00:39:16 I like that.
00:39:23 That's good enough for me.
Let's move on to the snare.
00:39:26 We have this one...
00:39:33 It sounds like a 57 to me.
00:39:35 We have this one...
00:39:41 It sounds like a sample to me.
And we have this one...
00:39:45 Wow!
Also sounds like a sample to me.
Let's deal with the inside snare.
00:39:53 Let's listen to it and try and imagine
what it needs.
00:40:05 It sounds pretty good to me.
What do you think it needs?
No, really, what do you think
it needs?
Ok, I'll tell you what I think
it needs!
It needs getting rid of the bass drum,
or I won't be able to do anything with it...
00:40:20 and then it needs to not sound
so real.
00:40:22 Obviously the track is pretty surreal
and has very processed tones to it.
00:40:26 I like the real snare vibe
but I think it needs a little bit
of an edge
and a little bit
of a processed vibe to it
while it just sounds like a really
good recording of a top snare drum.
00:40:35 So first thing, the EQ...
We've seen this one before.
00:40:40 I'm gonna high-pass it, so that the
bass drum is no longer so prominent.
00:40:45 Also, I'm gonna...
00:40:48 shave off a little bit of the bottom
of the snare drum. Check it out.
00:40:52 With...
00:40:53 Without...
00:40:57 With...
00:40:59 A little leaner... Nice!
And then, I'm going to compress
the hell out of it.
00:41:04 Traditionally, people have been
using 1176s for these kinds of tasks
so why don't we do that?
Going up a little bit in gain here...
Just being wholly uncivilized.
00:41:19 That's nice.
00:41:24 Without.
00:41:27 Sorry, I'm gonna try and match
the level.
00:41:32 With.
00:41:37 See how it's making the snare
more dense and more compact
because it's bringing all the low levels
together and lenghtens the tail a little bit.
00:41:45 Again, without.
00:41:50 With.
00:41:59 I like that.
00:42:01 For the next sample...
00:42:09 Whatever, let's just copy the settings
over and see what it does.
00:42:14 I kinda dig that. Together...
00:42:20 Why not? That's nice.
00:42:25 I could open up the top here
a little bit.
00:42:29 Check it out.
00:42:33 See, 5k...
00:42:36 That's nice!
A little bit of 10k...
in the high end.
00:42:43 See, now you have a certain presence.
00:42:46 By itself...
00:42:50 Flat...
00:42:52 A little dull...
00:42:54 With.
00:42:56 It's a little thin. Maybe I wanna
compensate, add a little bit of 200...
00:43:01 Ok. A little more.
00:43:04 As a reminder, that's without the 200.
00:43:07 Listen to the bottom of the snare.
00:43:11 With.
00:43:13 Ok! With the top snare...
00:43:18 Ok!
I like that, that's percussive.
00:43:23 We'll see how it feels in context.
We may have to adjust this.
00:43:26 But for now, that makes me
fairly happy.
00:43:28 Alright, and how about
the third sample?
So 1984... Alright, so... together.
00:43:42 Ok.
00:43:44 I think that the samples overpower
the real snare a little bit.
00:43:47 So how about I raise the real snare,
and bring the whole thing down?
A little less.
00:44:00 I like that.
00:44:01 With the bass drum.
00:44:10 I like that second sample. It wants
to be 80s... it's fun.
00:44:14 But I don't think it's 80s enough!
So I think we should put a gated
reverb on it to make it even cheesier.
00:44:19 Check it out.
00:44:21 I remember very clearly, last time
I had this problem...
00:44:23 I used the Softube reverb,
and it's right here.
00:44:28 And they have a preset called Vintage
Gate Snare that's always a good start.
00:44:32 It sounds like this.
00:44:35 Too much.
00:44:36 I bring it down...
00:44:40 That's cool.
00:44:41 Darker.
00:44:44 Oh yeah!
And then...
00:44:50 I dig that! Without...
00:44:53 With.
00:44:55 Rest of the snare...
00:45:04 Without the reverb, within
the context of the whole snare.
00:45:10 With.
00:45:14 Awesome!
With the bass drum.
00:45:23 That sounds great. Let's keep going.
Next, hi-hat, let's listen to it.
00:45:31 As you can hear, there's a lot of stuff
in the hi-hat mike, not just hi-hat.
00:45:37 The snare is in there loud.
00:45:40 What do I need a hi-hat mike for,
considering that the hi-hat instrument
is bleeding in every single microphone
on the set?
I need it for presence, because
on the other microphones...
00:45:50 the hi-hat sounds far away and dull.
00:45:52 So I'm gonna use the hi-hat mike
to bring it up front.
00:45:55 But I don't want to bring the rest
of the set up front...
00:45:57 because the rest of the set also bleeds
into the hi-hat mike...
00:46:00 which is all the fun
of recording drums.
00:46:02 What I usually do in this case,
unless it's a jazz record...
00:46:05 but for a record like this,
here's what I do.
00:46:08 Put an EQ on...
00:46:10 High-pass the hell out of it...
00:46:12 Make it really bright.
00:46:17 Like silly bright.
00:46:20 Ok? And then just...
00:46:24 tuck it in under the rest of the set.
00:46:27 With.
00:46:29 Without.
00:46:34 I'll play it again. Check it out.
00:46:35 Without, listen to where the hat sits.
00:46:38 Is it here and crispy?
Or is it here, but not crispy?
Check it out. Without.
00:46:47 With.
00:46:50 A little louder.
00:46:55 Without.
00:46:59 With.
00:47:02 I really like that.
00:47:03 That allows me to have
the subdivision...
00:47:06 that 8th note thing is
really crucial...
00:47:08 Front in center, rockin'!
As far as panning it, I always get the
question: where do you put the hi-hat?
Drummer perspective, audience
perspective...
00:47:15 I put the hi-hat in the middle for
this kind of stuff.
00:47:17 This is not supposed to be fancy
or subtle, this is supposed to drive.
00:47:21 So I put the hi-hat in the middle,
and it goes "tchik, tchik, tchik"...
00:47:24 That's what it does.
00:47:26 Let's listen to the tom tracks now.
00:47:31 It's a bloody mess!
By the way, this is how tom tracks
are supposed to sound.
00:47:44 If your toms are gonna sound good when
you hit them, they're gonna resonate.
00:47:47 So they're also gonna resonate
when you don't hit them.
00:47:49 If you start putting Moongel,
duct tape, and wallets...
00:47:52 and whatever else you're gonna put
on toms to get them to be quiet...
00:47:55 you're basically killing them.
Might as well not play them.
00:47:58 The best way to work with this is:
let the toms be toms
and then, deal with it later. That's
the one "fix it in the mix" thing...
00:48:05 that is sort of ok.
00:48:07 So let's go to a spot where the toms
are actually playing.
00:48:16 Alright? Not necessarily the best
sounding toms to start with.
00:48:19 We're gonna fix that. Again.
00:48:24 So what I do, is I loop that part
and then I look for things I can do
to make it better.
00:48:35 First, I can pan them.
00:48:36 One slightly to the left,
one slightly to the right.
00:48:45 Ok. Now I'm gonna start gating them.
00:48:48 I'm gonna mute the low one and keep
only the high end one.
00:48:51 I'm gonna use the standard Digi gate,
because it's really quick
and it works awesome.
00:48:57 I'm gonna use whatever preset
they have and adjust it.
00:48:59 Here we go!
That may be a little too tight!
So lower the threshold.
00:49:07 Ah ha!
Shortest possible attack. A little hold.
A little release.
00:49:18 That sounds good.
00:49:23 There's no need to agonize about
this and that...
00:49:27 the little transients and stuff like
that, it's fine.
00:49:29 That's actually gonna help.
00:49:30 It makes the drums a little more
buoyant and messy.
00:49:33 There's also no need to agonize about
the tail of the toms...
00:49:36 the overheads will take care of that,
provided you have them on.
00:49:39 So, let's just copy that
to the other tom.
00:49:42 The faster, the better.
It sounds like this.
00:49:48 Ok, cool. Maybe this deserves
to be a little higher.
00:49:54 Here you go!
That's fine.
00:49:57 Now, they don't sound so fat, right?
I like toms that go "Booom!"
So we're gonna put an EQ on them,
and see what we can do.
00:50:06 Alright, left side here,
right side here.
00:50:09 Maybe I wanna invert them,
so that it makes sense.
00:50:13 Here you go!
I know already that I need
some bottom...
00:50:16 so I'm just gonna go in the 60 range
and go crazy.
00:50:19 And also, I would like to hear
the "kkee! kkee! kkee!" thing.
00:50:21 So I'm gonna go in the 10k range.
00:50:24 Wide open on the Q...
00:50:27 and go crazy!
Keyword here, let's go crazy.
00:50:33 Ok.
00:50:36 They're a little muddy in the middle,
so maybe I wanna remove some like 300...
00:50:40 Try and carve them out a little bit...
00:50:42 Ah! Stay at 300, thank you!
Ok!
So, without any EQ.
00:50:54 Kinda dull... And with.
00:50:59 That's good enough for now.
Let's move on.
00:51:02 The last track is the stereo overhead.
00:51:04 Let's listen to it and try and imagine
what it needs.
00:51:10 That sounds great.
00:51:19 Here's what I hear.
00:51:21 It needs to open a little bit...
00:51:22 and maybe tuck in the bottom
of the snare a tiny bit...
00:51:25 and probably get rid of whatever
low-end - I'm not quite sure about...
00:51:28 and are definitely don't needed
in an overhead. It sounds like this.
00:51:31 Get rid of the bottom...
00:51:33 The bottom of the snare usually lives
around 250-ish.
00:51:37 Especially this snare.
00:51:39 And then, open the top a little bit.
00:51:42 Now you see me setting all that stuff
up like this...
00:51:45 How do I know?
I've done this before.
00:51:47 I remember. I've payed attention
last time for this kind of overhead.
00:51:52 I'm not gonna use these settings on
a different kind of overhead.
00:51:55 But this kind of overheads, this is
what they need. Check it out.
00:52:01 Flat.
00:52:05 With.
00:52:06 That's cool!
And now, with the whole set,
it sounds like this.
00:52:16 I could definitely use more overheads.
00:52:20 See the distance it gives
to the bass drum?
And I'm probably gonna like the toms
more anyway.
00:52:28 That sounds great.
00:52:35 Love it!
Ouh! Toms, bad!
Take them down.
00:52:44 Ok.
00:52:48 I like the sound of this.
00:52:49 These drums don't sound natural,
obviously
but they sound super punchy and cool
and they have their own sound, which
will be signature for the track.
00:52:58 That's because the producer was smart
and is layering options.
00:53:01 You noticed that most of the sounds
come from 3 samples.
00:53:06 The kick trigger...
and the two snare samples.
00:53:08 Otherwise, it's just
a regular drum set.
00:53:11 It's not that much work, and it makes it
really cool to listen to.
00:53:15 That said, I think it could be punchier
if we used some parallel processing
on the whole kit.
00:53:21 Let me set that up. I'm gonna do it
in the analog domain...
00:53:25 so you see how it's done.
00:53:26 First thing, you need an Aux. And that
Aux source is the Parallel Drum bus.
00:53:33 The output of that Aux goes to
stem 5-6 on my Dangerous 2-bus.
00:53:37 What's happening is I'm routing
in the digital domain
but I'm doing the compression before
the 2-bus, in the analog domain.
00:53:46 What am I gonna compress? I think
I'm gonna compress everything.
00:53:49 Check it out. I'm gonna select
all my tracks...
00:53:52 send them to the same Aux that feeds
the parallel processing bus...
00:53:56 and I'm gonna use the handy
Copy to Send feature
and copy my mix, which I just decided
I like, to that Send.
00:54:05 I'm gonna make all that pre-fader,
so that I can make my own mix up here...
00:54:12 and I'm gonna listen to that.
00:54:14 Mute the direct drums.
00:54:17 Listen to the drum mix.
00:54:24 Cool.
00:54:28 If this process just confused you,
you should probably have a look...
00:54:32 at the very detailed Parallel Drum
Compression video
which we have somewhere on the site.
Till then, let's move on.
00:54:38 I'm gonna high-pass this, because
I know I'm going to super compress it
and I don't want to overwhelm
the compressor with low end.
00:54:47 To high-pass it, I'm gonna use
the UA Precision Equalizer
because it is phase linear.
00:54:54 If you watch that Parallel Processing
video, you'll learn that...
00:54:57 non-phase linear EQs can make a bloody
mess of a parallel processing stem.
00:55:03 So we have our mix, we have the Aux,
let's set up the compressor.
00:55:08 I'm gonna grab a bunch of green cables,
because my drum tracks are green
and I'm still sticking to my principles.
00:55:14 I'm gonna come out of Output 5-6
from Pro Tools...
00:55:19 going into the compressor, which is
my trusty TG1 Limiter by Chandler...
00:55:23 Coming out of the TG1
into 2-bus Input 5-6.
00:55:29 The TG1 is set up on Limit,
as a limiter.
00:55:34 It also has a distortion setting,
but I'm not using this right now...
00:55:37 I literally want to crush this stuff
heavily.
00:55:40 Now, I'm gonna raise the level.
00:55:43 You can hear it be compressed.
00:55:46 I think I want it to be
more compressed.
00:55:49 Ok, that's getting out of control,
so I'm gonna lower the output...
00:55:52 which is gonna allow me to
compress more.
00:55:57 Ok, I like this! This sounds like fun.
00:56:00 Cool!
Maybe I wanna try a slower
Recovery...
00:56:05 It kinda chokes it.
Number 2...
00:56:09 Now, that's much fun...
00:56:13 That is fun and messy... Cool!
As a summary, this is what's going on.
00:56:18 My drums are going to the 2-bus output 1-2
for the bass drum and snare drum...
00:56:23 3-4 for the rest, and then through
an Aux...
00:56:26 are being sent straight to the TG1...
00:56:29 which is then fed into Input 5-6
of the 2-bus.
00:56:33 The reason why you wanna do that
is because now...
00:56:36 the parallel processing is done
in the analog domain...
00:56:39 and is handled by the 2-bus.
00:56:41 So you get no latency problems,
no phasing problems...
00:56:45 no problems, you just get parallel
processing. Isn't that wonderful?
While I'm here, because I have
a feeling that I may need
a little "Mmph!" on the bass drum,
I'm gonna insert a Pultec...
00:56:57 a reissue by Mercury...
00:57:00 on Stem 1, where the bass drum
lives. Like this.
00:57:05 So in case I need a little more "Mmph!"
on the bass drum, I can flip this on
and then go crazy with it.
00:57:12 If I were to add a lot of 100,
or 60...
00:57:17 in the digital domain with a plug-in,
I would have to worry about headroom
because that's a lot of energy for an
instrument that's super forward in the mix.
00:57:24 With summing, I don't! I have
headroom, I have room.
00:57:28 I have analog summing, that's
the whole point. I'll show you later.
00:57:33 Alright, let's listen to it!
These are the direct drums.
00:57:44 These are the crushed drums...
00:57:54 And this is the sum of the two.
00:58:06 For you to get the vibe, I'm gonna
bypass the TG1
so you can hear the drums with and
without parallel compression
at the same level. Here we go. We start
with, and then, I'll turn it off.
00:58:36 It sounds good, right?
The fun part is, if we remember then,
5 or 10 minutes ago...
00:58:42 we kind of dug the sound of the drums
by themselves.
00:58:44 But now that we have the parallel
compression, we're like:
"Ooh! Those unparallel compressed drums
sound so dull", right?
It's addictive, you have to be careful
not to overdo it.
00:58:53 Listening to it like this, I have
a feeling that I was well inspired
to insert the Mercury on the bass drum
because I think it is a little kinda
not quite what it's supposed to be.
00:59:04 So all I'm gonna do is add some bottom
to that, and see what it does.
00:59:16 Isn't that easy?
I could actually...
00:59:20 reach a little higher.
00:59:23 Also, I could open up the point,
all the way at the top.
00:59:29 I kinda dig that.
00:59:32 I'll play it again.
00:59:33 Flat...
00:59:38 With.
00:59:40 Yeah!
Flat...
00:59:46 With.
00:59:49 I'm adding 6 or 7 points on the Pultec
at 200Hz shelf
and 6 or 7 points at 8k shelf.
That's a lot of energy.
00:59:59 I don't have a clipping problem, because
I work in the analog summing environment.
01:00:02 I have all the room I need to do these
kinds of adjustments at the end of the mix.
01:00:07 What other drums do we have?
Let's look at the Edit window.
We have something called The Beat.
01:00:14 Let's listen to it.
01:00:17 It sounds like a beat.
Apparently, it gets louder here...
01:00:22 Cool.
01:00:24 That sounds great,
and then the hi-hat...
01:00:28 I see. Ok. That's fine.
01:00:31 I'm not too worried about
the fake hi-hat.
01:00:33 Let's see how the beat gels with
the bass drum, because that's the big deal.
01:00:41 Just the bass drum...
01:00:44 with the beat...
01:00:48 Just the beat...
01:00:53 That's not great.
01:00:55 Let's see if it's a phasing problem,
as we've discussed before.
01:01:01 Let's see.
01:01:05 Phase invert.
01:01:07 Ah ha!
Maybe a little...
01:01:13 I kinda dig that!
Without.
01:01:19 So this is subtle...
01:01:20 but it's worth it, because it's crucial
in this kind of music.
01:01:23 See if you can close your eyes
and listen.
01:01:25 When I hit the switch, see if
the bass drum does this...
01:01:29 forward to back motion...
01:01:30 and also see if, if you look at this
as a spectrum...
01:01:34 you see a little hole happening
when I switch the phase off.
01:01:38 Let's try with that first.
01:01:40 So, with my adjustment first.
01:01:42 2 bars, and then without,
2 bars.
01:02:01 You see how, when I don't adjust
the phase...
01:02:04 it's a little kind of like...
Quasimodo-style.
01:02:07 It's got a little bit of a hunchback
vibe.
01:02:10 But if I adjust it, although
the frequency range changes...
01:02:14 it feels more even, and more natural.
01:02:17 This is what it sounds like with the rest
of the rhythm section. Pay attention.
01:02:21 2 bars with the correction,
2 bars without.
01:02:24 Listen to the bass drum and its
relationship with the rest of the track.
01:02:44 It actually kind of ruins
the bass sound too...
01:02:47 if you don't adjust the phase
on that beat.
01:02:50 Phase is not just for microphones.
01:02:54 A bass drum sample will have a phase
relationship with another bass drum sample.
01:02:58 It's always good to check.
01:03:00 Let's listen to the guitars.
01:03:02 There are 3 tracks.
01:03:04 Here's one.
01:03:06 Nothing... Ah! It's on the other one...
Here's one!
Let's look at the Edit window...
Oh! Here... ok.
01:03:19 This one.
01:03:22 Ok, that obviously is the same part,
but double tracks
so I'm gonna put them in stereo,
that's probably what he wanted.
01:03:34 Fair enough. What else do I have?
Ok.
01:03:46 All that makes sense.
01:03:47 So, let's look
at the first two tracks.
01:03:49 I think that if you listen to them
with the bass...
01:04:00 There's a relationship problem,
just like with your girlfriend...
01:04:03 between the bottom of the guitars
and the top of the bass.
01:04:06 Check it out!
Let's listen to only the left side one
and EQ it
to see if we can fix that relationship
problem.
01:04:19 I think it's in the 200 range.
01:04:21 Everything is always a problem
in the 200 range.
01:04:28 Ok!
Without the correction.
01:04:37 With the correction.
01:04:44 I'm going to be bold, and move
the correction to the other side
by copying it. Listen to both of them.
01:04:56 As a reminder, this was our problem.
01:05:05 And now we're here.
01:05:14 That's fun.
01:05:15 I tend to like a little bit of a 1k bite
on guitars like this
that seem to be recorded directly
in the box, without an amp.
01:05:21 If I don't have the time to reamp them
I will add a little bit of 1k...
01:05:26 and it's gonna give them a little bit
of anger. Check it out.
01:05:37 Without the 1k...
01:05:45 With.
01:05:54 That was cool. I feel they're
a little dry.
01:05:56 They feel really boxy to me. So I'm
gonna add a little bit of the Hall...
01:06:01 that I set up for the vocal
a while back...
01:06:04 and see what I can do with that.
01:06:17 It adds that dimension, and the height
a little bit.
01:06:20 In the track, it sounds like this.
01:06:30 Without.
01:06:38 See if you can feel the space
behind the guitars.
01:06:40 They go "Tum Tum Ka! Uh Uh Hmm!"
After that second hit, see if you can
feel how dry they are without the reverb
and then how the reverb kind of fills
the space when I turn it on.
01:06:49 First, dry.
01:07:00 Again, memorize the one with reverb.
01:07:08 Dry...
01:07:14 It feels better with.
01:07:16 It feels more lyrical, and more
grandiose with, that's what we want.
01:07:21 The last guitar on the chorus
sounds like this.
01:07:25 Ok.
01:07:27 With the other two...
01:07:38 It's just there to provide a center
when the chorus hits.
01:07:41 I'm gonna copy the reverb over.
01:07:43 Listen to it with the reverb.
01:07:48 That's fine.
01:07:50 Maybe I wanna try a little bit of delay,
just because I can.
01:07:57 That's fun!
Ok, the whole track.
01:08:12 It sounds great, I'm not gonna agonize
over this. Next, keyboards!
What do we have...
01:08:19 for keyboards?
They play... the main part is this.
01:08:23 The first 3 tracks are just residuals
from...
01:08:27 getting into where we are, and getting
out of where we are.
01:08:29 Let's just listen to the main track
right now.
01:08:34 Ok! With the bass.
01:08:38 And the guitar...
01:08:41 Ok, guitar is not playing there,
that's weird.
01:08:46 Ok. Obviously, it's too fat...
01:08:48 at least obviously to me, it's too fat.
01:08:50 I'm gonna high-pass that
so that it doesn't step on
the bass's feet.
01:08:59 That's nice.
01:09:04 Apart from that, I like
the tone of it.
01:09:06 I would like it to be a little more
grandiose, like that guitar we just did.
01:09:09 So maybe I'll put some Hall on it,
and maybe the Echoboy too.
01:09:18 Right!
That's fun.
01:09:23 In the context of the track...
01:09:37 That sounds great, there's no need
to overdo it.
01:09:40 The producers knew what they wanted.
I like it, let's keep it...
01:09:42 and move on to the background vocals.
01:09:45 Alright, what do we have?
Let's switch to the Edit window.
We have this.
01:09:53 That's a double...
01:09:55 that goes with the lead vocal.
01:09:59 That's fine.
01:10:00 This is playing here.
01:10:09 I dig that... What is this?
That is not a background vocal.
Let's go back to guitars!
So that happens... here we go!
Somebody labelled their guitar "Oh's".
01:10:28 Name withheld... I'm gonna make it
brown so I don't make that mistake again.
01:10:33 I kinda like it on the side, that's
probably a mistake, but I like it.
01:10:35 Where does it play?
In this section here.
01:10:42 That's great.
01:10:46 Ok, obviously it's too dry,
so I'm gonna copy the Hall
and maybe a little bit of the Echoboy.
01:10:52 How does it sound like this?
Too much.
01:11:03 Again.
01:11:14 Let's go back to background vocals.
01:11:17 So we have a double, and then we have
that harmony thing...
01:11:21 and then, we have this track.
What's this track?
This track is the track for the vocal
on the chorus.
01:11:28 Let's listen to that.
01:11:36 It is a lot louder than the vocal
on the verse.
01:11:39 Let's adjust that.
01:11:42 I'm gonna copy the settings over
because I'm assuming they recorded
that the same day.
01:11:46 Not always necessarily true, but
I know these guys, they're consistent.
01:11:53 Let's tuck it in a little bit,
and listen to it.
01:12:04 It sounds good, but more aggressive
and peaky than the verse vocal...
01:12:08 especially the "Did you", and the
"Count the problems", things like that.
01:12:11 Check it out.
01:12:20 It's getting heavily compressed,
which is perfect for the style
but that "kk! kk!" thing annoys me.
01:12:26 So I'm gonna set up a limiter, right
after the compressor.
01:12:29 Short attack, and then look for
those peaks.
01:12:33 A little less.
01:12:37 A little less.
01:12:39 I like that!
Without.
01:12:49 With.
01:12:57 It does... this.
01:12:58 It's like, that shall stay here.
Period.
01:13:02 I like that! In the track.
01:13:19 These background vocals are gonna
need some help.
01:13:21 And the double needs
to be louder too.
01:13:27 Let's just copy the settings to the
background vocals, because we can...
01:13:30 Here we go.
01:13:47 Let's listen to the transition between
the verse vocals, and the chorus vocals.
01:14:18 That's fair enough.
01:14:20 I feel that the vocals lack density
or, "Hmff!", I dont know how to explain
that other than "Hmff!"...
01:14:26 you know, that "Rrrr!" thing.
01:14:29 I could put them louder, I don't
think it's gonna do it.
01:14:31 I could make them more aggressive,
but then it's gonna be aggressive.
01:14:35 I think we should try the same thing
we did for drums, but for vocals.
01:14:38 Let's do some parallel compression
on the vocals.
01:14:41 I have created an Aux,
called VOX PARALLEL.
01:14:43 Its source is a bus,
called VOX PARALLEL
and it's assigned to Output 11-12
on the 2-bus.
01:14:49 I'm gonna send all the vocals
to that Aux.
01:14:52 Select all the vocal tracks...
01:14:55 use my Send here, assign them
to VOX PARALLEL...
01:14:58 decide that I like this mix, make
everybody Pre
so that I can have my own mix
for my Sends...
01:15:04 go to Automation, Copy to Send,
Send F... Boom!
Now, we have the same mix down here
between all the vocals
and up here between all the vocals.
01:15:14 And this is gonna be my Send
to my parallel processing device.
01:15:19 Today, I'm gonna do it with...
what do I have left?
Fatso! Fantastic, let's do that!
Since they don't make orange and red
patch cables
or at least, I don't own any,
as a sign of defeat, I'll use grey ones.
01:15:31 That's the way it is. Coming out of Output
11-12 from the converter into the Fatso.
01:15:37 Out of the Fatso, back into
Input 11-12 of the 2-bus.
01:15:42 This is the exact same principle we used for
parallel processing on the drums with the TG1.
01:15:47 I'm going to focus on the chorus,
where there's the most amount of vocals
and try and find a crushed tone
on the Fatso
that's complementary to my dry tone.
01:15:55 I'm gonna solo just the crushed first
to look for the sound
and then we'll go from there.
01:16:03 So, while in bypass...
01:16:06 I set the Input, so I see a lot
of compression.
01:16:10 Need guesstimate...
01:16:13 where the Output could be...
01:16:16 Out of bypass...
01:16:18 It could use a little more gain.
01:16:24 Ok.
01:16:26 Bypassed.
01:16:29 Again.
01:16:30 Ok.
01:16:35 With.
01:16:39 I like that. It could use a little...
01:16:47 I love what the Warmth circuit does
to the "Did you...". Check it out!
Nice.
01:16:58 I could probably add
a little saturation
if I turn the transformer emulator on.
It's called Tranny.
01:17:06 Yeah.
01:17:12 So we started here.
01:17:20 Now, we're here.
01:17:29 It really gives it that claustrophobic,
compressed, dense quality.
01:17:35 I like that, I wanna listen to it
in the track.
01:17:38 As a reminder, these are
the straight vocals.
01:17:49 These are the crushed vocals.
01:18:00 These are the two of them together.
01:18:11 I'm gonna compare vocals parallel
processed and not parallel processed...
01:18:16 at the same level, just like we did
in the Parallel Compression video.
01:18:19 Check it out. This is
with parallel compression.
01:18:30 Without.
01:18:39 If you can't hear a difference,
let me help you.
01:18:42 Listen to the bottom of the vocal,
and listen to the center of the vocal.
01:18:45 Listen to the anchorage.
01:18:46 I'm gonna play it again without, just
the straight vocals the way we had them.
01:18:51 Try and visualize them this tall.
01:18:53 Ok? Give them a height.
01:18:56 Then, I'll play it again with
the parallel processing.
01:18:59 See if this happens,
or this happens...
01:19:03 but something here potentially
happens. Check it out.
01:19:06 So, no parallel compression.
01:19:26 It's subtle, but the extra density
and bottom...
01:19:29 not muddy, just thick bottom...
01:19:32 will let the vocals right over the track
without feeling louder.
01:19:36 They'll just be taking more room
and kind of like fighting against
the rest in a better way.
01:19:42 Let's check it out.
01:19:43 This is in the track,
with parallel compression.
01:20:02 Same passage, without.
01:20:19 One more time.
01:20:22 With.
01:20:38 The vocals feel better with
the parallel compression on.
01:20:41 They're not louder, they're just denser,
thicker and less infringeable if you will.
01:20:45 They have their own space,
and that's because they're denser.
01:20:49 That's a good trick to use
when you have a very thick track
and lots of stuff that you don't
want to give up on.
01:20:54 Ok, that's great! I feel like
I'm pretty much done.
01:20:57 So I'd like to start from the beginning
and listen to the whole pass.
01:21:01 It's always a good idea to start
from the beginning
and listen to the story of the mix,
because a mix is a story.
01:21:07 You may have a great sounding chorus
but if the transition between the verse
and the chorus is not tight...
01:21:12 then you don't have a mix.
01:21:14 So, let's listen to the whole thing
from the beginning.
01:21:34 Actually, I'm not happy
with two things.
01:21:36 First, I think the hi-hat's too loud,
it just hit me right away, for my taste.
01:21:41 Then, I think the bass is a little
too lean.
01:21:44 After all the enhancements we did
in the bottom...
01:21:46 the bass feels a little lackluster,
and a little back.
01:21:49 So, the hi-hat, that's gonna be easy,
I'll just take it and bring it down.
01:21:57 That's cool.
01:22:00 That's easy, that's great.
01:22:01 For the bass, I think I need more fat,
not more level.
01:22:05 If I put more level, it's gonna be
this slightly leaner bass more forward.
01:22:09 The bass is in the right spot, it's just
it doesn't go down low enough
to meet the bass drum where
I want it to meet.
01:22:15 Check it out!
Alright?
The bass is loud enough, it's just not
extended enough.
01:22:28 It sounds fine, but I think it'd be
more fun...
01:22:30 if the bass descended all the way down
to the thick of the bass drum
and we had this block
in the middle there.
01:22:36 To do so, I'm gonna add an EQ.
01:22:38 I could do it in here, in the box,
after the compressor, as a plug-in
but then I would have to worry about
gain staging
since the track is already pretty loud.
01:22:46 I can see it, because my fader is down.
That means that the track is loud.
01:22:49 Or...
01:22:51 I could add it in the analog domain,
like I did with the bass drum
and let the 2-bus take the heat.
01:22:55 I choose option B.
01:22:57 My bass was already going to the Roger
Schult EQ, from the beginning of the mix.
01:23:01 But I'm out of bands on that,
so I'm just gonna...
01:23:04 get out of the Roger Schult, get into
the Mercury, out of the Mercury...
01:23:08 back into the 2-bus Input 9.
01:23:10 So I basically just inserted the Mercury
between the Roger Schult EQ
and the Dangerous 2-bus.
01:23:17 What can we do with this now?
I can flip it on. I feel it's gonna be
about 100Hz-ish.
01:23:23 Play the track, and jack it up.
01:23:30 That's nice.
01:23:34 Without.
01:23:38 With. Cool.
01:23:42 In the track, with.
01:23:50 Without.
01:23:57 With.
01:24:03 Just what we needed.
01:24:04 Before you go, take a look at
the screen
and see where the fader positions are.
There you go.
01:24:10 They're all around unity. Fancy that!
Did you see me working really hard
at making that happen?
No! It happens by itself when you work
in the analog summing environment.
01:24:19 That's one of the benefits.
01:24:21 I'd like to play you the mix with and
without the 2-mix processing...
01:24:25 the compressor and EQ, just so
you get a vibe for what it does.
01:24:31 It's tricky, because if I had mixed
the song without those processors on
I would have automatically, instinctively
compensated for them, not being there
and processed more on each
individual track.
01:24:42 Still, I think it's kind of fun,
and interesting to know what they do...
01:24:47 being organically part of the process.
01:24:50 What's their impact?
Let's figure it out!
I'm gonna play 2 bars with, and 2 bars
without, starting with.
01:25:44 Obviously, fatter with. Much fatter.
01:25:48 Better transient definition...
01:25:50 more density, more intensity...
better high end extension.
01:25:55 It's a better sound, because it was
designed to go through this boxes.
01:25:59 If you remove them, something is
taken away.
01:26:01 Yet, it's very interesting to see what
these boxes did organically
without you thinking about it,
while you were mixing through them.
01:26:07 I find that kind of cool.
01:26:10 I can hear you think from here...
01:26:12 "Ooh, but I don't have
all the hardware that you have."
"Why should I bother with
analog summing?"
Actually, I mix plenty of records with
no hardware processing
but with plug-ins and analog summing.
I'm happy without the boxes
but I need the summing for the tone,
for the gain staging
and for how much faster
I get to my mix.
01:26:31 If you still feel bad about not owning
the hardware...
01:26:34 here's a couple of things that will
make you feel better.
01:26:36 Patchbays. I hate patchbays.
You will hate your patchbay.
01:26:40 Patchbays are evil. Taking notes?
I hate taking notes.
01:26:44 You will hate taking notes.
01:26:45 The last thing I wanna do when I've been
mixing a song for 14 hours
is to spend 20 minutes taking the notes.
I promise you'll hate that too.
01:26:52 Feel better? Download the tracks,
mix the song!
Et voilà!
Once logged in, you will be able to read all the transcripts jump around in the video.
Equipment & Software
Dangerous 2-Bus, Roger Schult EQs, RockRuepel Comp1, ELI Fatso, Chandler TG1, Mercury Pultec EQH1, Dangerous BAX EQ
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.
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.
Amazing video, thanks @fabulousfab. I have an issue though. I tried your trick of running the output from my SSL Sigma into an aux and then bussing that to the final print channel as demonstrated to allow for both digital and analogue 2-buss processing. Unfortunately I am unable to monitor the processed mix output without getting feedback as I am already summing audio through the output channels (1-2 to 15-16). I have 16 stereo channels available to me and all of them have stems sent to them. How do I make it so I am only monitoring the processed 2 buss channel to eliminate the issue?
rmoreno
2016 Sep 23
Hi Fab. Any Reason why do you put the Bax EQ after Ruper Comp? Thanks
miguelroja
2016 Feb 18
Awesome Fab! Great teacher, really
STEELWIZ
2015 Nov 28
Great tutorial, but I own a dangerous 2-bus + and d-box and still don't understand headroom? I still adjust faders in my DAW.Based on what you said analog summing headroom is more applicable with outboard processing? Thanks and hope you can respond to this soon or make a vid for viewers to understand this more especially with the new 2-bus+
Burekenge
2015 Oct 13
What a fantastic video. Fab, you have an great way of getting things across.
I'm using a Thermionic Fat Bustard for summing and I love it. There was no going back for me!
Fabulous Fab
2015 Jul 07
@Platypodes: these days I use a Dangerous Liaison (post 2Bus pre A to D)
Platypodes
2015 May 18
Hey Fab,
Wondering how you adjust your parallel processing level in the analog domain if using a summer like the 2 Bus which leaves volume control to the DAW?
Thanks man!
Fabulous Fab
2015 Mar 16
@highgardenaudio: just feed the monitor outputs of the 2Bus (That second set of XLRs) to the Analog input of the Dbox.
highgardenaudio
2015 Mar 16
Thanks for such a quick response Fab! Considering you are the de facto bastion of Dangerous gear, one more question- before I got the 2 bus and Apollo 16 I was running the D-Box/Apollo Duo combo, which of course let me monitor the summing of the d-box as well the digital input of the DAW. How would I set this up with the 2 bus? My mains and alternate monitors are plugged into the D-box for the great D/A and monitor control, and the digital connection to the Apollo to d/box is AES (no spdif on the 16)
Fabulous Fab
2015 Mar 16
@highgardenaudio: That's the way. Insert io. Otherwise no bus processing.
highgardenaudio
2015 Mar 16
Hello Fab, Thanks for taking the time to make such an in-depth and informative tutorial.
I produce professionally, and recently upgraded to an Apollo 16, 2 bus LT, and a d-box for monitoring control, TB, D/A, etc. I also have a lot of outboard. Being so used to the workflow of using buses inside of PT and using plugins on those buses, is there any type of work-around to process say process a vocal in the analog world yet still have the vocal bus processing effect it? Would the only answer be having more I/O to just use a hardware insert on said track?
Fabulous Fab
2015 Feb 12
@69bluesman: not really becasue I don;t use that much hardware and I plan ahead. But there is nothing wrong with that technique with modern quality converters.
69bluesman
2015 Jan 11
Nice Fab! Do you ever find yourself printing individual tracks processed through your analog signal just to free up pieces of gear to use on other tracks?
frnkg1
2014 Apr 03
Great tune to work with. I also have truncated files. Is this exercise intentionally only 47seconds of the song to work on?
thegoonmat
2014 Mar 26
thanks for your answer Fab
would be hard for me to do it cause i don't have the hardware ... i mostly ITB cause i think it's more convinient and fast ... and my girlfriend won't notice the difference ...
i'm on my way to buy an appolo and a D box, because of you ... ;-)
i think analog summing is exacltly was i was looking for ... best of both world ...
thnks again !
Fabulous Fab
2014 Mar 26
@thegoonmat: It basically impossible to do that because of gain staging. There will always be a difference in sound. My personal preference is summing but you should try for yourself and decide for yours. MIx the same song twice from scratch, once with and once without and see which mix you like best, which process was easiest, which was more fun, faster, which your girlfriend liked better, etc, etc... That'll be your sound.
thegoonmat
2014 Mar 25
hi,
here's a new really happy subscriber here !
you say at the end that you can do without the hardware ... so i would be really happy to listen to the same mix only in the box ...
so we can finally put some sounds on the eternal ITB/OTB debate ... and save a bunch of $$$ (actually €€€)
bye !!
sainpa
2014 Mar 19
Hi Fab,
Awesome video. I learnt a lot.
Many thanks.
Edouard
SoundReplay
2014 Jan 26
Nice tutorial Fab! Thanks for the effort that went into making this video. Greetings from Belgium! Dirk
Il Pianista
2013 Sep 24
At 1:25:28, when you enable the 2-buss processing moving your head, I had shivers. That moment really made me say "This is what I really like and I cannot live without". Thanks for your passion in mixing, and in teaching too.
DavidAnthony
2013 Sep 12
Thank You Fab for taking the time to make this great video and explaining all the routing.
wolfs
2013 Sep 09
Excellent!
Axel
2013 Aug 14
Hey Fab,
You can find orange patch cables right here to complete your collection !
http://www.seismicaudiospeakers.com/6-Pack-of-Orange-48-Inch-TT-Bantam-p/satt48c-orange6pack.htm
Et voilà !
Great video by the way.
Regards from France.
Athox
2013 Jul 29
Hey, why not use the trigger kick as side chain for the expander, instead of trying to eq out the snare?
Athox
2013 Jul 29
Hey, why not use the trigger kick as side chain for the expander, instead of trying to eq out the snare?
Scottybarrett
2013 Apr 12
I love this stuff .to me it is a perfect way to learn the tasks , process , tools , and then be able to practice all this implementing your own workflow on your own DAW and setup.extremly stoked on this pure mix purchase .
felixvoon
2013 Mar 21
Hi Fab,
I've tried downloading the ZIP file containing the session files with no success. I've attempted at least 10 times already, and the download gets "truncated", meaning to say, the downloaded ZIP file is always less than 106MB.
Please help. Thanks.
Felix
Fabulous Fab
2013 Mar 16
@angel72bg: It's really hard to base a purchase decision on someone else's taste. The 'some people' who think the Mytek is better might not have the same taste/vision/room acoustics/workflow/preamps as you do. Which makes their suggestion useless to you.
My advice to you is that the simplest rig is the best rig. Consequently I would stay away from mix and matching drivers and brands. If you listen to the Mytek and think that it blows the Lynx out of the water, then get that and make your rig an 8 channel summing rig. If not, then get the Lynx and make it a 16 channel rig.
Fabulous Fab
2013 Mar 16
@Wiz: I guess you could do that. It's not super elegant and it will definitely affect how plugins respond, especially compressors and reverb sends, but it's a workaround to tracks recorded too loud. I can see some other weird situations happening when you start grouping stuff, sub mixing and doing parallel compression. try it and see how it works for you.
angel72bg
2013 Mar 15
I am your client,you can see that in my account here.
I have only one question.
Help with some advise please.
Mytek ADDA 8 192 or lynx Aurora 16 for summing and recording.
They are about the some price but Mytek is 8 chanels and Aurora is 16.
Some people think that Mytek is better and the 8 chanels deserve the price.
If I buy Mytek and use 8 chanels for summing the most important part from the mix(Voc.BD,SD,Bass,overheads, and so on...)and the rest 8 chanels i will use my Focusrite Luqid 56.
Is that good idea?
Please Help
Best Regards
2nibroo
2013 Mar 11
Email : 2nibroo@gmail.com
Comment : bonjour , je viens d\'acheter \"Mixing hybrid\" et après avoir télécharger les pistes entrainement , le fichier Zip ne s\'ouvre pas j\'ai un message d\'erreur qui me dit que le fichier est vide... gasp!!! et voilà! ;) merci de me dire si cela est possible d\'obtenir ce telechargement ... ps pour Fab Dupont ...dommage que les vidéos ne soient qu\'en anglais.. cela me pose problème pour l\'entière compréhension des tutoriels je m\'accroche pas quand même...je rame see you letter ;)
Country : France
Wiz
2012 Jul 03
great video enjoyed it immensely. Confused on the headroom issue. If you had inserted a trim or gain plug, first in the channel of each instrument in PRO TOOLS and trimmed the level of each track, leaving the fader at unity. Would you have achieved the same headroom on the mix bus ITB? At least I think I understand that by not doing that and coming out in stems, you are using the Dangerous's headroom , and then bringing that back into PRO TOOLS at a level that is correct for printing the track. By using the trim plug, if you have to stay ITB, you get the faders around unit.
fab
2012 May 12
@MB5487: Sounds like a lovely rig. You can use all that stuff for tracking too. YOu should listen to every piece personally before you buy them. I know it's work but it' important.
MB5487
2012 May 12
Fab,
I'm considering joining the analog summing revolution. I was thinking of starting with some basic utilitarian pieces such as: 2 vintech x73i's, 2 distressors, and a avalon 747. This would give me 2 pre/eqs, a stereo comps, and stereo tube comp/eq for the 2bus. Any thoughts on the wisdom of this strategy?
Thanks, Great video as always,
Matt
jantzen
2012 May 08
Hi Fab,
Let me just say this: All very brilliant videos!!
And that's where the extra I/O comes in. I don't have enough I/O to insert the compressor!
Many thanks anyway,
Jantzen
Fabulous Fab
2012 May 08
@jantzen: If an instrument has so wide a macro dynamic range that you can;t have a post fader compressor then either use a plugin or use an io insert just for that instrument. It's fine.
Hope this helps.
Fab
Fabulous Fab
2012 May 08
@jantzen: the number of io does not change the fact that when you hit a compressor post fader the threshold varies. You are correct. I don;t see that as a problem, I kinda dig that sound actually, situation and style depending. Within reason, it can be nice to have the instrument be a little more squished when you push the level up. Dont; forget than when you send a whole song to mastering the compressor is essentially post your levels changes and is pushing back against all those subtle moves you spent weeks achieving.
jantzen
2012 May 08
Very cool video. Just got a Folcrom and using this with some good preamps. The main problem I'm having is, while it does sound very nice and it seems to come together faster, that anything in the analog domain aren't controlled by the fader anymore. This isn't a huge problem if it's just EQ in analog, but if I used my compressor then the send levels are all messed up.
I guess that's why you have 32 I/O while I have 8 ins and 16 outs.
fab
2012 Apr 23
@ Ankut: if you go Apollo I would consider a D-Box. It's a pretty amazing combo.
The Delay video is very requested, it's on the list.
Ankur
2012 Apr 23
thx fab,obv i have never tried the analog summing world. buts it very interesting. Dangerous 2 buss LT seems like a good choice for a project studio like mine. but before that i need to invest in a good interface with lots of outs. maybe UAd Apollo if i save enough. then followed by the 2 buss LT
thx for your insight Fab. U rock!
p.s. Please do one video specifically for delays n how to use them on different source material in different styles of music..
cheers!
fab
2012 Apr 23
@ Ankur: Plugins do not reduce headroom, they have the headroom that the DAW makes available to them that the track level no less. Depending on your gain stage techniques, you will find that the analog domain is more forgiving and leaves more space for things like big boosts on the bottom end.
The 2-Buss handles the signal in a way that let's you keep proper levels back in the DAW. As you see on the video returning levels are just right with all faders sitting at or around null. No clipping.
Your questions are very valid. They just show you have not tried this technique yet :-)
Ankur
2012 Apr 13
2)also the amount of signal pushing that you did with outboard gear eqs n compressors which gets summed in the 2 buss and post 2 buss processing also,
it comes back to the converters back to the daw. wont this signal be very hot and clip the print aux??
do you reduce the fader of the print aux to get back to a moderate level??
if yes, wouldnt that kill the headroom of the mix??
please do answer as i wanted to learn more about it. sorry if these queations are stupid.. cheers!
Ankur
2012 Apr 13
fab,
certain thing confused me in the above vid or maybe i misunderstood or maybe these are very idiotic questions as i m tryin to get my head around analog summing world or maybe i was not paying attention.
1) when you say that using plugins in the PT session will reduce headroom and you prefer using outboard gear on the way to 2 buss.
what confuses me is isnt the signal anyways going to the 2 buss through stems and coming back to the daw via print buss. so why do plugins usage reduce headroom in the mix
Ankur
2012 Apr 13
the whole mess!..... mix. hahahahaha!
bigtree
2012 Jan 22
What an awesome tutorial!
Stone
2011 Dec 09
OK. Let me get this out off my chest first...Fab when I grow up, I want to be just like you!!! :) Fantastic tutorial (as per usual).
I have a question regarding creating stems. If you had to create stems of your final mix, would you print these stems back into Protools (including all outboard processing/summing) with or without the 2-bus processing?
My thinking is that the 2-bus signal chain will probably react differently to single instruments so would you keep it engaged purely for its coloration effect?
Thanks again for this tutorial. I will be watching it over and over again!!!
ulrino
2011 Dec 08
hey fab,
great video, thanks!
i think i found a mistake at 2:06. in my understanding, PlugIns are POST recording, not PRE, right?
help me if i´m wrong...
stephane
2011 Dec 07
Now i'm trying to check it and there is a bug....
stephane
2011 Dec 07
Too bad we can't download.
jrod9900
2011 Dec 01
Great tutorial. I know I can overthink these things to death, and Fab just makes it seem to flow. I picked up some great tricks from this tutorial. Thanks Fab!
TaskUno
2011 Nov 10
This was one of the most helpful so far. I can already hear the difference in my mixes after a few small changes based on your approaches to listening and execution. I can't wait to get my hands on some analog gear to try the same techniques in that realm. Thnx for the gems!
Dave Zerio
2011 Nov 03
Great video Fab! You totally rocked the reupel on this one. Can't wait to go home and re-work some previous mixes. Stay tuned for lots of questions! DZ
thenoogs
2011 Nov 02
FAB !!!!! Thank You VEEERRRYYYYY Much .. for showing us how you do the things you do !!!! Of course we all here know whats a compressor ... but how ( sorry i have to say this word ) lovely you are using all this things. THANKS !!!! and also i really like how you say ROCKRUEPEL ... hahahaha ,,,,
dcherouny
2011 Nov 02
After watching this I spent a few hours touching up old mixes and they are sounding so much better just using a few of the things I learned. Thanks guys!!
claudine
2011 Nov 01
Wouah! ... just wouah!
thomaspirot
2011 Nov 01
Wow! Thanks you so much for this amazing video! so many tips! Everything seems so clear when Fab explains it! Most likely the most useful hour and a half i've spent in months! keep it up guys!
