Throughout his impressive career, Mark Needham has been trusted by artists like Imagine Dragons,The 1975, Walk The Moon, Blue October, and The Killers to create the exciting and in your face mixes he is known for.
In this puremix.net exclusive, see how he carries this legacy over to Mona’s hit single “In The Middle”.
During this 2 hour tutorial, Mark will show you how he creates his energetic mixes using techniques like parallel compression, harmonic saturation, creative effects and how he splits up the heavy lifting of tasks like EQ and compression across multiple plugins.
After you watchMark mix the track with his signature techniques, you can download the multi-track and mix the song yourself.
00:00:08 Hi! My name is Mark Needham
and we're here at my studio
in Griffith Park,
and we're going to mix a song
called 'In The Middle'
by a band called Mona today.
00:00:18 The first thing I would do is
just take a listen to the reference
that the artist, Nick, sent me,
and just kind of get a feel
of what the tune is going to end up
sounding like.
00:01:38 I listened to the reference on this
and that gives me a pretty good idea
of how I'm going to approach this song,
which, normally on a lead vocal,
I'm cutting the lead vocal
into verses, pre-choruses, choruses,
doing slightly different varying
effects on those.
00:01:52 On this song, I won't do that,
I'm going to have one vocal
all the way through
and it's going to have
a really consistent effect.
00:02:00 I'm listening to this tune,
I just get the one guy
with lots of emotion.
00:02:06 I don't want to have people focusing
on hearing a changing effect
from verse to pre-chorus to chorus,
I want it to just feel like one guy
singing all the way through,
so I'm going for a little bit
of that live feel that way,
so I'm not going to be
cutting the vocal up,
so that will make life easier.
00:02:24 What I would do now,
I would just start getting a balance.
00:02:28 I have a combination of live drums,
some extra added samples
and some machine drums,
so I'll probably just start getting
a balance on the live drums
and start adding other stuff in
and I'll just show you
what I'm doing as I go.
00:02:42 I'm just going to loop a kick here
and I'm going to get a balance
on a few different kick drums.
00:02:47 There is a kick in, a kick out,
and a kick replacement,
and I'll do the same thing for the snare
and then start getting sounds on those,
and then there's some
extra ones we'll add,
we'll stop and add them in.
00:02:56 So, first thing, I am just going to
listen to these kick drums.
00:03:25 So that's what I'm going to do,
just a blend to start with on those kicks,
and I'll do the same thing on some snares.
00:03:31 Right now I'm just summing all these up
to a kick return and a snare return
for the live drums.
00:03:52 When I'm doing the snare top
and the snare bottom,
I always bring the bottom up
and make sure that it is actually in phase
with the snare top mic.
00:04:00 You'll hear all the bottom go away
as you bring it in
if they're out of phase.
00:04:24 There are two snare bottom mics,
and
the second one is out of phase.
00:04:29 You'll hear it.
00:04:37 You can hear all the bottom
goes out of the snare.
00:04:40 I'm not sure why I have two,
but I'll listen to see
if I want both of them. Hold on.
00:04:56 Yeah, I like that one,
so I'm just going to flip the phase on it.
00:04:59 And I have two replacements.
00:05:18 Here's one other kick.
Let me take a listen to it here.
00:05:34 That would be the balance
on my live kicks
and the snare's multiple mics,
and then I would go back and
get a sound on...
00:05:43 get a sound on the kick and the snare,
and then I'll go through
the rest of the drums,
and then I'll start trying to add in
some of the electronic samples as well.
00:05:52 I'm putting a set of different
plug-ins on here
and I'm going to use a combination
of three or four different things
to get the sound that I'm looking for
on the kick drum.
00:06:03 And the compressor,
and then we'll go through
and get sounds on these in a second.
00:06:12 On this SSL,
I'm going to use this for a compressor,
a little bit of a boost at 8 kHz,
and
some at 50 Hz.
00:06:37 I'm boosting at 50,
but I'm rolling off
at about 49 or 50 as well
to keep it from getting too tubby
down in the 30 Hz range.
00:06:58 I'm just adding a little...
00:07:00 you know, like in the 1.5 kHz, 2 kHz range
to get a little different attack on there
so it doesn't get too clicky.
00:07:15 On kick drums,
I just can't help myself,
I've always used...
00:07:20 I've always had Pultec EQP-1As and
I do the 100,
either the 100 Hz or the 60 Hz boost.
00:07:28 Boosting 3 dB and attenuating 3 dB.
00:07:40 Let's do it at 100 Hz this time.
00:07:42 Let me play it a little, with and without.
00:07:53 And let me switch to a different
kick drum actually.
00:07:56 I'll go to this one.
00:08:10 Let me hear the 100 Hz
and the 60 Hz again.
00:08:19 I'm going to leave it at 100 Hz.
00:08:21 We might switch this back
to 60 Hz at some point.
00:08:23 And I'm boosting within...
00:08:25 I put the attenuation
usually about the same,
so that keeps it a little tighter.
00:08:30 If I take that all the way off,
it starts to get a little flappy
to me on the bottom.
00:08:35 I want to use the Fatso
to try to just compress
some of the attacks off
if it gets some really hard attacks.
00:08:42 I don't want this to get too clicky.
00:08:56 I'm setting my filter
so I'm not compressing
below 480 Hz on this.
00:09:00 Kind of a slower attack
and a fast release.
00:09:03 I'm just going to go down maybe 2 or 3 dB.
00:09:14 Lastly, I'm going to look at this EQ.
00:09:16 I'll have to hear it if I want to use this
when I get the bass in.
00:09:56 I like the...
00:09:58 just 1 dB or 2 of the 50 Hz on this,
and then putting on a filter at 27 Hz.
00:10:03 Somehow the combination of all those
seems to get a nice, fat bottom.
00:10:08 I could probably do it with a lot less EQ,
but I like the sound,
the way these all fit together.
00:10:27 Let's look at these snares really quick,
and then we have a few other kicks
we're going to have to blend in as well,
but let's get the live set kind of set up
and then we'll start adding in
these additional kicks.
00:10:57 I just wanted to check my level
on these snare bottoms,
make sure I'm not getting
just too much of that sound,
it was a little rattly there.
00:11:04 I'm going to do a couple things
that I probably didn't do on the original,
but, what the heck!
I'm going to use this Oxford Envolution,
I'll just lightly gate this snare drum.
00:11:25 I'm going to do a few different EQs.
00:11:31 560.
00:11:36 Let's start with that.
00:11:38 Well, let's pull this down here.
00:11:42 I'm using these EQs
just for some different things,
there are different parts
of each one that I like.
00:11:52 We're going to go
for a little of that 8 kHz
and a little 200 Hz on the SSL.
00:12:10 And I'm going to get
just a little bit of compression,
I'm just barely going to hit
the compressor meter there.
00:12:26 I'm just trying to get
a little fatter bottom
and a little more rattle
on the top with that.
00:12:32 I'll give it a little midrange punch
with that API.
00:13:01 And just a little bit of distortion
with the Decapitator.
00:13:30 I'm going to add
just a little extra attack
and a little longer sustain
on the snare.
00:13:35 It's pretty slight, but...
00:13:45 So that will be my kick and snare
to start with.
00:13:55 Let's go to some overheads here
really quickly.
00:14:02 I'm going to use a combination of the SSL
and the LA-2A.
00:14:09 And here I have some presets
that I want to go to.
00:14:13 This is an overhead preset,
it's just adding a little at 450 Hz
and a boost at 8 kHz.
00:14:18 I know I'm going to pull back
the top end a little bit,
but let me hear what that is.
00:14:40 I'm going to try picking up a little
extra compression with this LA-2A.
00:15:19 Let me look at our toms really fast.
00:15:22 Do we have some?
Yes, right here.
00:15:32 I have a couple presets
that I'll probably start with,
I already know I'm going to change
a few things on them.
00:16:08 I'm trying to get a little
of that attack at 8 kHz,
some midrange, like at 1.8 kHz,
and
a little bottom,
like at 120 Hz, something like that.
00:16:18 You know, and maybe...
00:16:20 maybe 3 to 5 dB of compression
on the peaks of that.
00:16:30 So now I've made a combination.
00:16:33 I've also thrown in
a tom replacement track
on both of these.
00:16:37 Let me hear what that is.
00:16:48 I'm not sure if I actually
want to use this,
but if I do, I need to shorten
the decay on it,
like, quite a bit,
so I'm going to use
this Oxford Envolution to do that.
00:17:17 And I'm going to gate it a little bit too,
that's a big ring.
00:17:58 I'm basically using this
to try to get a little more attack
on the live drum rather than replace it.
00:18:04 If I try to get that much of it
on the other drum
while he's playing the ride,
I'm going to be getting
a lot of cymbal bleed,
so I'm just trying to get a way
to pick up more top end
without getting, like,
a lot of cymbal bleed into the tom.
00:18:15 So let's look at the same thing
on the floor tom.
00:18:33 Let's see if we can use this
to gate this just a little bit.
00:18:37 That's just a lot of bleed.
00:19:06 I'm going to take a look
at this tom replacement track
and just see how much...
00:19:10 what kind of a combo I'll be able to use
to get the top end on that.
00:20:16 Yeah, so something like that for starters.
00:20:20 I'm going to hide these
kick and snare tracks.
00:20:23 I'll just get them
off the screen for a minute.
00:20:28 Before I get into the...
00:20:29 that kind of added kicks
and machine drums,
I'm going to get just a little bit of...
00:20:35 some parallel bus chains going here,
and,
also maybe a reverb
because I don't really have much
in the way of rooms on this track.
00:20:45 This is a pretty simple...
00:20:48 I'm just using two parallel bus chains,
sometimes I do more,
but I have one that is just an API
and then I have another one
that has a few other elements in it,
including some distortion,
so there will be some kind
of a combination of those two.
00:21:05 Let me just get a send
up on the kick here real quick.
00:21:37 I'm just sending to one,
and I'm going to send that same send level
to this one that is adding
a little bit of distortion in.
00:21:54 I'll switch them in and out for you.
00:22:04 They're adding level,
but they're also just adding
a little aggression,
especially this last one
that's adding a little aggression overall
with the distortion
and the limiting on it.
00:22:16 I'm going to send that
from the kick and snare,
and then,
from the overheads and toms.
00:23:18 I have a couple of extra kicks
that I've added in
outside of the...
00:23:24 outside of our regular kick drum chain,
a little more on the 808 side
that we're going to add in with these.
00:23:31 I'm going to pull over
just these three to start with,
I'm going to probably change
the sound on these, but,
I know I'm going to want to cut
some bottom out of these.
00:23:42 Let's turn these two off
and work with the SSL.
00:24:24 I'm going to boost at 350 on these
and then filter off at maybe 27 or 47 Hz
to try to get some tone
in this kick on the verse.
00:24:58 I'm looking for something like that,
we'll see when we get the bass
and the guitars in,
and I'm going to add
the same kind of thing
in the chorus as well.
00:26:02 Yeah, that's generally
what I'm looking for on this.
00:26:05 We'll see if we can get all this to work
with the other drums and with the bass
and not have it be
a complete mess in the bottom,
but that's kind of the concept
I'm going for.
00:26:13 We'll see how this works.
00:26:15 I have some machine drums
I'm going to add in here as well.
00:27:38 I'm adding a little bit
of, like, 60 Hz,
and maybe a little bit of 8 kHz.
00:27:43 Basically I'm using the compressor on this
more than anything else.
00:27:57 On the chorus I have three more kicks.
00:28:01 Let me just start with the SSL
on all these
and figure out what the balance
is going to be on these.
00:28:39 I want a little bit of that splash,
get that splashy spring reverb,
but I'm trying to turn down
the top end on it just a little bit.
00:29:07 And then I have one other kick.
00:29:25 Let's do a different midrange EQ
for the top here.
00:29:29 I'm going to put this Pultec back in.
00:29:54 That's all those kicks.
00:29:56 I'm going to leave the toms off
and just put this
and try to get these added back in
so it all makes sense.
00:31:01 This song,
if you just listen,
I mean, from listening to the reference,
and
Nick has this
super-powerful voice,
this could easily start to go pretty retro
and sound like a Bruce Springsteen song
or an early U2 song.
00:31:18 We're not really trying to do that,
we're trying to find some ways
to...
00:31:25 with the sounds,
and especially in the bottom end
and things like that,
to really...
00:31:31 ...keep this a little more
in the alternative rock world now
with, you know,
his voice over the top.
00:31:39 We're just trying to come up
with some other ways
to make this bottom end
just a little different from a straight...
00:31:46 because it could easily be
a really straight-sounding rock song,
so we're just trying to make it
a little weirder.
00:31:51 This particular song,
it was about putting
a lot of different kicks
that are adding these different tones
going in the bottom underneath.
00:31:57 I'm going to make the bass
probably quite a bit brighter,
it's not going to be
a super-subby bass
because we're filling up
a lot of that with the kick,
so I'm going to go for
some of the bass part
that's a little snappier and riding
over the top of that.
00:32:09 I've got a few different snares.
00:32:19 This is a...
00:32:21 on the snare that is doing this roll
I'm going to do...
00:32:54 Let me just try a room instead.
00:32:56 I didn't really like that
right off the bat.
00:33:21 That's going to be a little extra ambience
just on that snare
in the verse,
and then let me solo some chorus snares
and we'll listen to this whole thing
and see if it actually makes sense.
00:33:54 I'm just making this
more of a little midrange
kind of 'toc' thing.
00:34:00 And let me hear the next one.
00:34:09 This is going to be
kind of a common theme with these,
I'm just trying to push
just a little more midrange
and attack on this snare.
00:34:37 And one more.
00:35:12 I'm just going to get a blend of those
added in with the live snare.
00:36:09 I want to add
a reverb on this.
00:36:13 This is a ReVibe program
and we have this thing
called Bright Ambience.
00:36:18 We're going to add some of that in
on the snare as well.
00:36:22 Bus 9.
00:36:38 With just the straight live drums
and the vocal delivery
this could really start to sound like a...
00:36:44 more vintage rock
than I would want it to be,
so, hence we're...
00:36:49 we're trying to change the bottom on this.
00:36:53 So, the kicks are going to be playing
the most important role
in the sub frequencies,
the bass is going to be playing
a little brighter and on top of that,
but we're just trying to have
the thing really evolve
as it goes sound-wise,
so I'll play this through
and you'll hear it.
00:37:07 And then again,
the snare is going to change
when it hits the chorus,
it's going to have
all these kind of dancier
type of sounds that come in.
00:37:27 That's a live kick, that low sub one,
and then there's the machine kicks.
00:37:34 That's playing along.
If I turn that on and off,
that's really adding
just some more attack
to these two kicks in the verse.
00:38:03 I have a hi-hat
and some tambourines
that I'm going to add in
in this chorus as well.
00:38:08 And then we'll get the bass
working around this
so that the bass is playing
a little on top of this stuff,
just frequency-wise.
00:38:28 We're going to just compress this hi-hat
just a little bit.
00:38:57 We'll call that our drums for now.
00:38:59 Again, we're going to go...
00:39:00 We'll do the same thing I did before,
we're going to run through the track,
get our general levels
in town and everything,
and then I'll go back and mute everything
and run through it all one more time
to set our final levels.
00:39:12 Let's look at our bass here really quick.
00:39:16 So there's one bass track.
00:39:18 They had a single DI,
and I'm taking that
and splitting it into two tracks.
00:39:23 I want to use a couple
of different amp simulators
on this bass.
00:39:30 I'm going to start with the UAD one.
00:39:35 An SSL.
00:39:45 So let's start with that
and...
00:39:49 I'll have those the same,
but this will be a different plug-in on...
00:39:54 I have one that's kind of a subbier side
and one that's a brighter side.
00:39:59 Let's see how that works.
00:40:51 So I'm using this SSL to compress it,
picking up a little 50 Hz,
maybe something at 300-ish, 300 Hz,
and maybe at 1 kHz,
just trying to get
the midrange a little clearer,
and also putting a little 2 kHz
for finger noise.
00:41:06 This is going to be the subbier
of these channels.
00:41:11 So I'll make a combination
of two compressors.
00:41:17 A Fatso. I'll set the High-Pass
Side Filter at 240 Hz.
00:41:21 And this at 30 mS.
00:41:36 I'm trying to
just keep a couple of the top notes
from peeking out too much
on this particular channel.
00:41:49 We're going to filter this at 27 Hz.
00:41:53 We'll probably push a little at 800 Hz.
00:42:14 There's one note that is ringing a lot.
00:42:17 Let me put this FabFilter
multiband on that.
00:42:44 All right, now let's do this top end side.
00:42:58 I'm just going to start out
with that preset there,
that Rock A.
00:43:28 The compression will be pretty light
on this channel,
I want those notes to peek out
a little more on this.
00:43:46 And we're going to try to
warm this up a little bit,
I'll filter it at 47 Hz
and then I'm going to boost it
at, like, 300 Hz.
00:44:19 I may keep this multiband
going on with this,
it's...
00:44:22 I'm just worried about that...
00:44:24 that kind of 100 Hz ring
building up on this.
00:44:27 Maybe I'll try something else,
I want to get this warm
but without getting
that buildup in the low end.
00:45:55 Something like that,
so I'm going to try to go
for kind of a light...
00:45:58 you know, a brighter, snappier bass part.
00:46:00 I'm going to just keep rolling
through these tracks
because I think I kind of already hear
I'm going to have to do
something else with this snare,
but let's just get the rest of these in
so we can kind of hear everything together
and just see how that's affecting
my top end on the drums.
00:00:00 So we have an acoustic track
here that's...
00:00:02 this one is pretty sparse,
it's just like some strumming in it.
00:00:12 And with that
I'm going to do...
00:00:17 I have an acoustic plug-in,
this one,
which is going to be...
00:00:21 it's just kind of a midrange...
00:00:23 a pretty midrange-y boost
with some compression on it.
00:00:52 That alone is basically
just looking like a percussion part.
00:00:56 I have a second acoustic here
which is going to be playing
some more chordal stuff.
00:01:09 There's a little few things on this one.
00:01:11 Let's bring in RBass.
00:01:31 I'll try to do that to just get
a little more body in this thing,
and then let's hear
this SSL for a minute.
00:02:07 I'm boosting it at...
00:02:08 ...maybe 3 kHz,
and at 4.5 kHz,
and a little at 450 Hz.
00:02:14 Rolling some bottom off.
00:02:16 I'm just trying to get this
to punch through a bit.
00:02:18 I'm not going to use its compressor.
00:02:22 We're going to go to a silverface 1176,
I want to have a quick release on it.
00:02:40 We'll just hear this guitar again
with the track.
00:02:52 Okay, that's working for me.
00:02:54 We have a few electric guitars here.
00:02:58 Let me hear this guitar for a second.
00:03:13 These guitars are double miced.
00:03:16 I'm going to make a combination
of a few plug-ins for this guitar sound.
00:03:21 Maybe an SSL,
a Neve 1081,
a Maag EQ.
00:03:30 You can do a lot of this
without using these,
I just... I like particular bands
on certain EQs better,
for certain things.
00:03:39 We're going to use an SPL
TwinTube,
and
I might use this
midrange on this 560,
so let's see.
00:03:50 We'll just listen
to that one guitar for a second.
00:03:58 Let's start by turning down
the input level.
00:04:17 I'm using the 8 kHz
and just a real soft compression on this,
just hitting the first light.
00:04:23 We're going to use this boost
a little bit at 1.8 kHz.
00:04:41 So we're going to use that
to boost at 1.8 kHz
and then a little at 470 Hz.
00:05:02 With this Maag I'm going to do
just 0.5 dB at 2.5 kHz
and 1...
00:05:07 it has a Sub EQ
which is kind of a very broad Q
across the bottom
to kind of add a little
of a ribbon mic sound,
and then,
we're going to use this SPL
just to add a little extra harmonics.
00:05:31 Let me look at this API.
00:05:32 I don't know that I need this.
00:05:49 I'm trying to even out some of the gain
on this strumming just a little bit
because I think it's going to add
a little more excitement to the track.
00:05:56 I mean, I still really want to feel
the pulse of the strumming up and down,
but if I...
00:06:01 the closer I can keep those
in level,
it's just going to add a little bit more
excitement to the track when it's driving.
00:06:09 I'll listen to these two mics together
and see if I'm a big fan of both of them.
00:06:57 I'm going to lose this midrange push
that was on the dynamic.
00:07:01 This thing is a condenser
and a dynamic, if I remember right.
00:07:04 On the dynamic I'm going to lose
these two midrange boosts that I was doing
because it just gets too gritty.
00:07:10 Then we have a double of that guitar.
00:07:14 So, let's move these over
and just check and make sure
what our double sounds like.
00:07:28 And our double sounds
quite a bit different.
00:07:31 Hold on, we're going to go
through both these.
00:07:34 We'll just take all of these off
for a second.
00:08:05 We're going to roll off a bunch of bottom
and push this at 8 kHz.
00:08:09 It's still pretty tubby
but we're going to pick up
some more midrange in a minute,
and I'm also compressing
just on the pickings
so I'm keeping those picking notes
just a little more even.
00:08:33 We're just going to do the 1.8 kHz,
not the 470 Hz boost with it.
00:08:48 And I'm going to do that 2.5 kHz boost.
00:08:56 And we'll do this
also with the TwinTube,
boost the harmonics a hair.
00:09:18 I always add just a little bump
on these APIs in the midrange,
with these 560s,
because it always sounds great to me.
00:09:25 And let's look at
the second mic.
00:09:51 That works, so let's get a blend
between these guitars.
00:10:17 So we have like a high
ambient guitar here.
00:10:30 Again, on that we need
less bottom.
00:10:33 We need more of this midrange-y
kind of feel happening.
00:10:36 Let's just start with that.
00:11:33 This has a couple of spots
where it's getting really loud
and some of them are really soft,
so let me just check those.
00:12:10 And then we have
one more guitar on the bridge
over here where this one is.
00:12:24 A lot of bottom on that.
00:12:26 It just needs kind of the same
starting spot
we had on the other ones here,
where we had these really bassy ones.
00:13:11 That seems to be working pretty well,
except I'm putting a little of the bottom
back in on this 560
that I had taken out.
00:13:17 Let me pull just the level
of that 560 down a hair.
00:13:29 Something like that
is a good starting spot.
00:13:31 Let's just get to these keyboards,
get some general vocal sounds up,
then we can run back through everything
and get this all to fit together
and I'll explain some
of my routing as well.
00:13:44 I've got a couple little intro pads here,
let's see what they are.
00:14:30 I started with just a preset
that I have for piano, but,
it has this boost around 200 Hz
that's just warming...
00:14:43 I want to add just a little
compression on this.
00:14:49 I'm just warming up some of the bottom,
and a little bit more midrange
so I'm not getting too much
of the really spanky top end on it.
00:14:56 And then,
the next pad we'll add is...
00:15:28 I'm just adding a little bit of midrange,
cutting a little bottom out of that one,
and just a hair of compression
again on that.
00:15:55 I just grouped these two
as the key intro here,
because the next pad,
there are actually three pads
that play together
that go through the rest
of the choruses,
so these two are just at the intro.
00:16:23 Let me go to these choruses here
and just check these balances
on these other three pads.
00:16:37 This next one we're going to
definitely need to compress.
00:16:39 I don't want that high note
to come out that much.
00:17:01 So I'm just going to compress it,
I will not add any midrange to that
because it's already got
that kind of piercing...
00:17:32 I'm just going to keep a little bottom
out of that one as well.
00:17:42 I'm just going to filter off
some of the real top of that
and put a little mid
and take out a little of the bottom,
and then we'll get a blend on these three.
00:18:05 There's that one ringing note
that gets a little too loud for me,
I want to try to just use
a multiband to pull that down.
00:18:21 So that will be our
key chorus plan for a minute.
00:18:40 And then we have
two more keyboard tracks.
00:18:54 We have like a little
string part at the end,
let's put
a little top on that.
00:19:14 And I'm going to even that one out, too.
00:19:26 And then we have an outro keyboard.
00:19:44 Let's leave that for a second
and just get to some vocals here.
00:19:49 Let me hear this vocal for a second.
00:20:06 We're going to do
a Wide Band de-esser.
00:20:28 I'm going to use two different de-essers,
a combination of two because
this vocal is going to have...
00:20:33 I'm just going to be pretty aggressive
on the compression,
and so that added distortion
and the 'esses'
could easily get to be problematic.
00:20:51 I'm going to use
a narrow band de-esser as well,
so this we're going to narrow down
and just try to get some of these
really specific ones
at like 6 kHz or so.
00:21:35 I'll use this SSL to boost at like 8 kHz,
4 kHz,
and 2.5 kHz.
00:21:40 I'm just going to try to get this
a little more aggressive.
00:22:09 We're going to add in a Pultec.
00:22:13 I'll try to get a little feel
of proximity effect on it,
which will be like that 100 Hz boost,
a 100 Hz cut.
00:22:35 We're also going to use
a Decapitator on this,
probably pushing around 3, I think.
00:22:53 We're going to go to this 480 simulation,
add a Snare Plate.
00:23:02 I'll get it to about 2.40 seconds
and a little pre-delay on it.
00:23:35 Yeah, let's start with that.
00:23:37 Again, usually I would cut it up
between verses and choruses.
00:23:41 On this, I want to try to find something
that really feels good
all the way through.
00:23:45 Once I get this other track,
I might change this reverb,
but I'm just trying to find
kind of one unified sound
that works all the way through.
00:23:53 I have one extra harmony vocal
that comes on the end here, I think.
00:24:07 All right, we're going to do...
00:24:09 we'll add the same vocal approach on that.
00:24:12 Sound-wise,
we'll have to adjust this compressor.
00:24:23 And we're going to put it
in the same space,
reverb-wise, right now.
00:24:39 And then we have two background parts
in these choruses.
00:24:49 Again, I'm going to keep
the same de-esser thing going
just because I don't want these to start
filling up a bunch of 'esses'.
00:24:57 There's a lot of lyrics on this
that have 'esses' or are consonants.
00:25:57 I'm going to try this plate
on these instead.
00:26:18 Okay, so we're going to go back
and just kind of...
00:26:20 just tweak these levels really quick
and get our master bus on,
and see what this sounds like.
00:27:24 I'm just changing my snare a little bit
on these choruses,
just making it a little brighter.
00:28:50 The acoustic is a little too bright.
00:28:53 I'll mellow that out.
00:29:23 And then, let's get these guitars in.
00:30:20 On routing,
you know, a lot of people do
groups of instruments like drums
to stereo auxes
or master faders.
00:30:33 I personally,
I didn't do that when I was on a console.
00:30:37 On this particular song
I'm using
two parallel compression buses, but,
everything is routed to the mix bus.
00:30:46 And I use separate auxes for reverbs,
returns, but,
I was never comfortable doing it
with everything running up to auxes.
00:30:54 It's been the way I learned,
and,
you know, I just stick with what I know.
00:31:00 We're just going to continue
going through here,
just getting our general
balances on stuff.
00:31:06 Guitars,
right now I'm going to hit
this chorus again
and guitars are a little loud,
and I'm losing my bass.
00:31:35 I'm trying to get a little more of,
like, low mids out of this,
the top channel of this bass right now.
00:32:27 Let me get a little more
of the heavy rhythm guitar.
00:32:47 And I'll get our two
intro keyboards.
00:33:18 And then we'll look at these
three keyboards
together as a group in the chorus.
00:33:42 I forgot to check the bridge guitars.
00:34:07 And then we have two keys.
00:34:24 And then the very outro one.
00:34:36 And we'll go back to our lead vocal.
00:34:56 And then, let me just get
these backgrounds in the chorus
and we're going to start looking
at the master bus.
00:35:35 My master bus
is usually a combination
of some variation
of these same things here.
00:35:43 I'm using the Shadow Hills
as a really soft compressor to start with.
00:36:01 I'm trying to get maybe just 0.25 dB,
0.5 dB on the Optical side with that.
00:36:06 I use a combination of that
and an SSL 4K.
00:36:19 This varies, sometimes I'll be using Auto.
00:36:22 On this particular song,
I'm going for a pretty fast release
and
like a medium attack on it.
00:36:30 I'm using this Optical
just to get 0.5 dB,
do 1 dB of compression.
00:36:35 Again, this will be useful
when I'm getting to my input stages here
to be able to get a lot of gain
but still not sound super-compressed,
so I'm using this as basically
a real soft overall compressor.
00:36:47 The SSL,
I usually use it two different ways,
which would be either Auto or super-fast.
00:36:56 Using it on the Auto release,
it's probably a little less noticeable.
00:37:00 It's going down 4 dB in Auto
and 4 dB in a super-fast release.
00:37:24 You're not really hearing it
totally smacking and pumping,
but it's a little more aggressive.
00:37:30 I'm using this K-Stereo plug-in,
just to push some more
information on the sides.
00:37:48 I'm using this Maag EQ here,
which I will be using on this song.
00:37:53 I'm using that to just pick up
some overall kind of sub warmth,
and
push some of the midrange at 2.5 kHz.
00:38:00 I like both of those on this plug-in.
00:38:15 On this song I used two
kind of tape recorder simulations,
one being an ATR.
00:38:31 And I also used this Kramer plug-in,
which just adds like a little weird
kind of midrange thing.
00:38:46 It's adding in just like a little more
midrange crunch distortion.
00:38:50 We'll leave that on for a minute.
00:38:52 And then,
this Curve Bender,
I'm going to pick up a little more
at 12 kHz, maybe.
00:39:10 And I'm going to put
a 20 Hz filter on this.
00:39:25 And then, the last two things
I'm just using for gain.
00:39:29 The first is a Manley Variable Mu.
00:39:32 I'm going to set this as a limiter.
00:39:34 I'm just going to try to come down
maybe 0.25 to 0.5 dB on the peaks.
00:39:53 The last thing I'm going to use
is an Oxford Limiter.
00:39:57 This is going to be hitting
a little harder than that.
00:40:51 I'm trying to get that to hit
at the loudest sections,
I'm coming down
like 0.25 to 0.5 dB.
00:40:59 On all my mixes I'm running
two different levels of mixes,
I'm running one that's
elevated at about +6,
and another that's running
at zero level for mastering,
so I'll have a plug-in here
that's just kicking the gain up on it.
00:41:30 That's probably the level
of a really hot CD,
and then I'm going to turn
this down about...
00:41:36 sort of about 6 dB lower.
00:41:37 That will be running
to a separate channel.
00:42:02 So I'm just going to go from the top here
and just make some little tweaks here.
00:42:19 I'm bringing up
that little rimshot sound there.
00:43:11 I'm just making the vocal
a little less aggressive.
00:43:54 I'm just brightening up
these kicks a hair,
and I'm still not liking my snare drum.
00:44:30 So right there I'm adjusting
the parallel buses.
00:44:34 I'm hitting them a little too hard.
00:45:46 I'm going to change
one thing on this vocal,
I just want to get
a little more body in it.
00:46:26 So, at this point I would probably do
some master fader rides.
00:46:31 The first thing I'm going to do is just
print all these levels in the automation
so I'm not losing stuff here.
00:46:38 All right, so that gives me
my kind of starting point
in the automation.
00:46:41 And then,
I'm just going to do a pass-through
on this master fader.
00:46:46 This whole intro is going to be down
a little below what the chorus level
will end up being,
so the intro will be kind of medium loud
and when the verse comes in
I'm going to be dropping down
another, like, 0.8 dB.
00:46:59 Right before the chorus hits,
I'll be riding it up a little bit
and then a big drop
right on the top of the chorus.
00:49:05 I'll hold that down until the end.
00:49:09 I just want to listen
with this master fader in.
00:49:13 There are still some things
that are bugging me a little bit.
00:49:38 That kind of midrange key
is just bugging me a little bit
in the group of those three synths
for the melody there.
00:50:17 My 'esses' are still bugging me.
00:50:31 I'm going to change this vocal setup
just a hair,
I'm going to pull this 1176 back
so it's not compressing quite as hard,
and I'm going to use
an LA-2A, just really soft,
at the end of the chain.
00:52:00 I just want to change this snare.
00:52:01 It's still bugging me.
00:53:42 I was just brightening up
the kicks in the chorus a little bit,
and I'm just getting
a little more clarity
on the low side of that bass.
00:56:04 For that bridge I'm just going to get
some more ride cymbals and toms in here.
00:57:01 That chorus again there.
00:58:07 I'm just getting my overall level down
and I just need this bass
or something to drive this bridge more,
or more kick.
00:58:55 Let's ride this kick way up
on the bridge here.
01:01:41 On this track,
because I have so much sub,
I'm using a multiband
just coming down a couple dB
at, like, that 70,
maybe 60 Hz down,
just when I get
all the kicks sliding up
and the bass note
so that I'm not really
crushing my stereo bus
with that extra low end.
01:02:32 That's done,
and then we'll print it.
01:06:21 Something like that.
Once logged in, you will be able to read all the transcripts jump around in the video.
Mark Needham is an L.A. based record producer and mixer whose credits include a diverse array of internationally recognized superstar artists including The Killers, Fleetwood Mac, Imagine Dragons, Walk the Moon, Shakira, Pink, Moby, Dolly Parton, Chris Isaak and many more.
Mark is currently working in his studio "The Ballroom" in Hollywood, California.
Needham is a self-taught engineer how manages to stay on top of all the latest technologies and music genres. His mixing style is very versatile and ranges from The Killers' rock sound to Shakira's modern pop music.
Mark recently migrated from a 100% analog setup to a 100% digital rig using 2 Ravens side by side.
If you watch Mark's pureMix videos, you will see that his decision making process is very fast and that he has no problem handling gigantic sessions with more than 200 hundred tracks!
Mona is an American rock band based in Nashville that rose to fame appearing as part of the BBC's Sound of 2011 poll. The band was also crowned the Brand New for 2011 title at the MTV Awards. Their debut album was released in 2011 in the UK and 2012 in the US.
Mona is an American rock band based in Nashville that rose to fame appearing as part of the BBC's Sound of 2011 poll. The band was also crowned the Brand New for 2011 title at the MTV Awards. Their debut album was released in 2011 in the UK and 2012 in the US.
Loved the tutorial ... Forget the "less is more" attitude, he throws the kitchen sink on these tracks and it sounds sooo good!
RedPineHill
2021 Feb 18
I'm sure this will be an unpopular opinion, but this is probably my least favorite video on PureMix to date. The song is mediocre at best, but honestly, I had to stop watching/listening when, after more than an hour since he slapped it on the vocal, he left that god-awful, fry-your-eyes, bright ass 80's reverb on for the rest of the mix. How anyone could leave that on there and start finalizing a mix with it is beyond me. Was the room really dark or something? Maybe the stuffed animals were absorbing a few too much high end? IDK... Guess I 'll have to listen to the final version.
MrJetlag
2019 Dec 10
When I get a recording deal - I'm insisting the record company book him or its a deal breaker !
peterkcraft
2019 May 01
I had the privilege of recording with Mark at Hyde St Studios in San Francisco more than 20 years ago. My band sucked, but you wouldn't know it by his reaction. He treated us like we were the rock stars we weren't. When I completely botched a drum part he decided to pull it from the first verse, which would be completely trivial to do today. This was with 2" 24-track tape and a razor blade. I will NEVER forget that. Nobody deserves their success more than he does.
sammywoods
2019 Mar 30
Why is he mixing in solo for the most part??
jano.l
2019 Feb 21
Is that a fake dog?
DRocksRecords
2018 Jul 14
holy shit... had to pause the video to say that this kick mixing technique is never ending candy haha. Never thought so far has he does. This is excellent!
Didihendrix
2018 Jun 04
Oh my god! He just Killed!!!!
PoPe
2018 Jun 04
Oh MY GOD!!!! Soooo gooood.
STNKNMNK
2018 May 31
Musically this track is really firing on all cylinders, it’s so cool to see the process up close.
tommijk
2018 May 31
Love Marks style. Fast workflow with great results!
composermikeglaser
2018 May 31
Awesome tutorial!
Mark makes the track so much more punchy and exciting in such an effortless way.
Good stuff :)
