Watch Fab Dupont Mix A Problematic Track Recorded In A Home Studio
We asked the pureMix Pro Members to send us sessions recorded in home studios with common problems that we all deal with. Distorted tracks, tracks with excessive bleed, you name it, we asked for it.
Mike Brown and the band “Gladhand” obliged with their track “All My Dogs”, recorded live to ADAT in 1996.
The track has all of the fairly common challenges. Too much high hat bleed in the snare mic, an unfocused mono overhead, tom mics that may have been a little far away from the toms, and more.
In this pureMix.net exclusive, watch as Grammy Award Winning Engineer, Fab Dupont, deals with everyday challenges to extract a vibe that is consistent with the band’s intent and deliver a stellar mix from source tracks that need a little love.
See how Fab:
Deals with a snare drum with too much ring
Replaces toms recorded with a less than ideal mic technique
Creates a vibe around the drums from a mono overhead
Adds definition, clarity and tone to the bass track
Creates space around close mic’d guitar amplifiers
Addresses clipping on the guitar tracks
Fits in an overdubbed violin track
Creates a two bus processing chain that adds movement and supports the groove of the mix.
After you've seen how Fab does it, download the stems and practice what you've learned!
Watch Fab Dupont, deal with everyday problems on tracks recorded in a home studio, while mixing “All My Dogs” from Gladhand. Only on pureMix.net
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00:00:07 Good morning children,
today we're going to fix a mix.
00:00:11 Basically,
we asked you guys to
send us your sessions.
00:00:16 Send us your poor,
send us your thirsty,
send your hungry.
00:00:20 We will feed them
...
00:00:23 Today's session
is sent by Mike Brown
who's says,
in the file accompanying the session,
that's it's horrible
in each and every way.
00:00:31 We'll see about that.
00:00:32 The session is called 'All My Dogs'.
I never heard it.
00:00:35 I never heard the song,
I don't know what it is.
00:00:37 I like the title already.
00:00:38 So what I'm gonna do is
unzip the file,
good first step,
zipping is good,
I'm gonna get rid of the zip.
00:00:48 What's in here?
Oh, it's an actual Pro Tools session.
00:00:51 Bananas!
Let me launch the session.
00:00:56 Some inputs are missing.
00:00:57 I know, always.
00:01:00 Alright.
00:01:02 This is all very reasonable.
00:01:04 This should take no time at all.
00:01:06 I wanna get rid of all
the stuff I don't need.
00:01:08 Which is most stuff.
00:01:10 It's not to tempo,
unless the song really is at 120,
which I doubt.
00:01:15 There are no markers.
00:01:17 This song is this 2:20.
00:01:19 I can hang,
if there's no tempo I don't need the bars.
00:01:22 Let's figure out the tempo.
00:01:25 This is definitely
not to the tempo,
maybe I'll look for the tempo
later when I grow up.
00:01:28 The first thing I'm gonna
do is re-route a little bit
so that you can hear this.
00:01:31 Because it would be nice
if we all hear the same thing.
00:01:34 So I'm gonna
route everything to a bus
that I'm gonna call
'SUM' for the moment.
00:01:38 And I'm gonna route that
bus to a print track
for later,
because that's the way I work.
00:01:43 Call it 'PRINT'.
00:01:44 This time it's gonna be a track.
00:01:47 I'm gonna make those two tracks red
so that you know what they are.
00:01:50 This is my stuff.
00:01:52 It's the only two
tracks that have names.
00:01:54 And then I'm gonna solo safe them
so that I can hear them,
put this on 'Input'.
00:01:58 Right now I can hear it,
for you to hear it I have to clean up
the I/O SETUP a little bit.
00:02:04 All of this is
not that useful, so I'm gonna
reset it.
00:02:08 Come back in here.
00:02:09 You can listen to
what I do if I send it to you
on B1-2
I don't know how loud this is,
let's see.
00:02:18 I'm sure it's reasonable, let's see.
00:03:24 It's definitely on the loud
ish side of things.
00:03:37 OK, cool,
it's not that bad.
00:03:39 Mike, come on!
I mean, it's not, you know,
this is not an Al Schmidt recording,
I know you didn't record it,
you just mixed this.
00:03:46 It's not your fault!
"It's not my fault!"
So I'm probably gonna
need delays on this
and I like them to be 'tapped to tempo'
and I hear a click at the top.
00:03:54 Just for the top.
Mind your ears!
They have an eight note click.
00:04:04 So in Pro Tools you could
do something like this:
Click on here and use your finger
and hit the 'T' once
you have selected
the tempo like we just
did and it goes...
00:04:15 One hundred seems
like a good candidate.
00:04:20 I wanna make a click track.
00:04:23 Right here,
make sure the click
track goes to my sum.
00:04:29 It will go.
00:04:33 So obviously it's not aligned
but that does not mean
it's not at the right tempo.
00:04:36 What I wanna do is select the
'All' group.
00:04:39 Zoom the hell out of everything.
00:04:42 Look at the waveform,
get rid of the stuff I don't need.
00:04:46 Let's switch to slip mode
and align the first click
on the downbeat of
beat 1.
00:04:53 Let's switch to
bars and beats grid,
that would be a lot smarter.
00:04:59 Let's see.
00:05:02 Zoom in.
00:05:03 Let's see if we are vaguely in time...
00:05:06 Ish.
00:05:12 I love the cough, I might keep that.
00:05:18 That's awesome.
00:05:20 So let's... I love it!
I'm gonna go to the end of the song
and see if I'm still mostly in time.
I am not!
Either two things are possible,
either it's the wrong tempo
or these guys could
not play to the click.
00:05:30 I'm not gonna make any assumptions,
I'm just gonna try.
00:05:33 It looks like it's an
option B kind of vibe.
00:05:36 So, I'm gonna keep that at 100,
because it's most more or less
ish in the tempo.
00:05:41 It's gonna enough for
delay purposes.
00:05:43 I'm gonna edit this obviously,
I'm just gonna mixing it.
Right Mike? Yeah.
00:05:47 The number one capital sin
of sending your track to get mixed
is to not name the tracks.
00:05:53 I bet you this is a bass drum.
00:05:57 So I wanna name it...
00:05:59 Bass drum.
00:06:03 This probably was
considered a snare drum.
00:06:08 What else?
I will put my money on
hi-hat for this one.
00:06:25 This...
00:06:28 sounds like a tom fill.
00:06:30 Let's see here.
00:06:33 Yo.
00:06:38 OK, cool.
00:06:39 That would be kind of a
rack tom kind of vibe.
00:06:45 And, this would be.
00:06:49 I think this was meant to be
a low tom.
00:06:52 But it's really far away from a low tom,
but we can fix that.
00:06:58 And this is.
00:07:04 Maybe a mono overhead.
00:07:07 Because I don't see anything
particular in the waveform.
00:07:11 Yeah.
00:07:20 Let's call it overhead.
00:07:22 I'm gonna write "Mono OH"
because I'm not used to it
and I'm gonna keep looking
for the other side.
00:07:26 And this is the bass.
00:07:28 Obviously we have
all our drums here.
00:07:30 Let give them a little bit of color.
00:07:32 This is the bass.
00:07:33 Bass, we want the bass.
00:07:50 This is double tracked guitar.
00:07:52 And it's quite loud.
So I'm gonna,
probably...
00:07:57 Well, let's name the bass first.
00:08:00 And then I wanna call it
'Heavy Guit L'.
00:08:04 What I put left and
what I put right
is completely arbitrary.
00:08:08 I'm putting them left and right
in order which they
appear in the session.
00:08:12 And I wanna make a group
for the guitars so
that I can lower them
by themselves like this.
00:08:21 I had not heard that,
that's awesome,
a violin.
00:08:35 I did not check
this only violin track,
which is pretty awesome.
00:08:52 Double tracked vocal,
I don't think the situation here
is like lead and background,
I think these two
qualify as kind of like,
you know, 'they all win'.
00:09:00 So, I'm gonna call them
'Vox 1' and 'Vox 2'.
00:09:05 'Vox 1',
'Vox 2'.
00:09:08 I'm gonna lower these guitars
and try and figure out a little
bit more of what's going on.
00:09:24 Quite a bit of bleed,
that's nice, all live.
00:09:40 Guitars clean up here.
00:10:26 OK, this is manageable.
00:10:29 The first thing I'm gonna do is
set up a little bit of a vibe.
00:10:34 Because everything
is so kind of like
real, there's not a lot of
magic going on,
everything is kind of like a recording,
some of it is a little loud.
00:10:42 I've heard much much worse.
00:10:46 I'm just gonna cover my butt here,
I'm gonna add a
little bit of vibe.
00:10:54 I think this would benefit from a
little bit of transient saturation.
00:10:57 Just a feeling.
00:10:59 I know I'm gonna need
some sort of a bounce,
I don't think it will
necessarily work here.
00:11:04 I think I'd like to try
the Fairchild.
00:11:07 Based on
past experience.
00:11:10 To try and slow all those
like very cardboardy
transients
this tend to work well,
I'm not gonna compress to start with,
we'll look at it later
when and if we grow up.
00:11:29 I'm not doing much,
I'm creating a vibe.
00:11:51 So obviously we're hitting
the Studer a smidgeon loud,
so what I'm gonna do
is create a master here,
a Master Fader for the Sum.
00:12:00 So the Sum Bus is now going
through this object before it hits
the Sum object and I can lower
my gain stage right here.
00:12:20 My signal that's going
through this object
is being brought down 12 dB digitally.
00:12:25 You won't hear it.
00:12:27 It's very good on 48 bit mixer
and that allows me to
work without squinting,
which is awesome.
00:12:34 Let's make this no color so
that way it's consistent.
00:12:38 I think what needs the most
work here is the drums.
00:12:41 So, let's focus on the drums,
I'm gonna mute everything else,
do a basic tone for the drums
and then I'll come back
and do some real mixing.
00:12:48 Let's choose a place where
they really bash, like here.
00:12:52 I'll loop it and see what I can do with it.
00:13:01 This is perfect because
everything that is a problem
is showcased here.
00:13:08 The first thing I'd like to to is
listen to the overhead and see:
'Hey, is the hi-hat this
loud in your overhead?"
So obviously for this I'm not gonna go
for a super hi-fi sound.
00:13:23 Fair?
Maybe what I could do is start
kind of crushing this a little
to see if it has any kind of vibe in it.
00:13:32 So I'm gonna use the dbx 160.
00:13:59 It could work as a kind of messy
kind of noisy kind of thing,
to blur lots of things.
00:14:07 Let's see what happens if I
push it further with tape.
00:14:26 I kind of dig this.
00:14:28 So obviously it's a bloody mess but
it's got definitely more
vibe and intention than this.
00:14:43 I may or may not use it like this
but it's given me a direction,
some sort of something to start with.
00:14:48 Let's listen to the bass drum.
00:14:59 It's not horrible but it definitely
does not have everything we need
so I'm gonna duplicate the track,
change the color so I know that
it's not in its natural color.
00:15:07 And then I'm gonna sound replace it
more like sound augment it
with our ApTrigga thing.
00:15:15 Because the ApTrigga thing is bananas.
00:15:17 Here's ApTrigga, my go to
sound augmentation
replacement system.
00:15:24 Let's find any bass drum
that would work for this.
00:15:28 I would say...
Here's some of my samples.
00:15:35 Maybe not.
00:15:37 The same one.
00:15:42 Let's see something a
little more acoustic
although,
it doesn't have to be acoustic.
00:15:49 It just has to have the 'boom'
that we need, like this guy.
00:15:52 I like.
00:16:10 Solo is on
'X-OR', let's put it on 'Latch'.
00:16:13 Here we go.
00:16:25 Let's see what happens
when he goes crazy here.
00:16:36 So I have to mention that
I raised the threshold
so that there's no false positives.
00:16:40 I'm gonna add a little
bit of 'LevelMod' too
meaning that the
sample is gonna follow
the dynamics of the
playing a little more.
00:17:03 So this is not my favorite
way to work
because the bass drum changes tone
depending on where it's playing.
00:17:13 This is alright and this is chocked.
00:17:17 But I like
to keep
at least the intention so that the drummer
recognizes his kit or something.
00:17:22 So, I wanna
get the bottom from my sample
but get the vibe
from his kit.
00:17:33 To do that I'm gonna
hi-pass the kick.
00:17:35 The original kick, not the sample.
00:17:44 So now the kick sounds like this.
00:17:48 We started here.
00:17:51 It's not half as bad
but it changes all the time
so that's not gonna work.
00:17:55 And this is with this.
00:18:07 I'm gonna make a group of the two.
00:18:11 That's decent.
00:18:12 Let's check this out with the
overhead to see if the overhead idea
was even in the ballpark or not.
00:18:34 It could work.
00:18:35 Let's see the snare.
00:18:39 Kind of the same thing, alright?
We're gonna give some
help to the snare.
00:18:43 Gentle help.
00:18:45 Friendly.
00:18:46 Let's see.
00:18:54 The snare probably had
a 57 or something on it.
00:18:56 But it sounds far away.
00:18:58 So I don't have a lot of presence.
00:18:59 And also,
it has a lot of ringing,
when I start compressing that,
the ringing is OK in proportion
but this level of ringing
is probably gonna create a lot
of problem if try to compress it.
00:19:11 Let's do that and see
where the problem is.
00:19:12 I'm still working with just
the direct snare.
00:19:22 It's usually in good taste
to use an 1176
to compress snares.
00:19:26 At least that's what I see the adults
doing so I wanna try and do that.
00:19:32 I wanna the 'Rev E'.
00:20:11 It's a little more even.
00:20:13 It's not exactly changing the
face of modern science but...
00:20:17 And then,
let's open the top a little bit
and see if that's possible on this.
00:20:36 We started here.
00:20:47 So I'm gonna do two
things to this snare.
00:20:49 I wanna parallel compress it,
I wanna crush it, here,
probably another 1176,
or maybe a dbx 160
actually would probably
be faster to get there.
00:20:57 So this is my second track of snare.
00:21:02 And to make that
less obnoxious
I'm gonna expand it before.
00:21:06 These are all pretty extreme
techniques
to try and get the most
out of the existing sound
so that the band recognizes itself.
00:21:13 Then,
after we see what we can do.
00:21:41 So that's interesting, right?
If I did not expand,
which mean, get rid of all the noise
before I compress the hell out of it
this would happen.
00:21:53 But with the expander...
00:22:03 With that I can focus this
crushed version of the snare
just on the snare or at least as
much on the snare as possible.
00:22:09 So this is the snare
direct and I'm gonna
raise the crush under.
00:22:23 I'm getting more presence but
not raising the noise.
00:22:33 So I'm gonna make another
copy of it,
I'm not gonna copy the inserts.
00:22:39 And I'm gonna use ApTrigga again
and I'm not gonna forget
to change the sample,
otherwise a bass drum will play
every time the snare drum hits,
which sometimes is fun but I don't
think the drummer would appreciate that
in this particular case.
00:22:52 Let me find something...
00:22:55 Probably not.
00:23:08 Let's see.
00:23:13 Play it Sam.
00:23:33 So here what I'm gonna
do is reuse the expander
so that the trigger
really understands the snare
more than anything else.
00:24:06 Let's try again.
00:24:18 That is a wrong
choice of sample.
00:24:19 Let's go back to the drawing board.
00:24:27 This could be good.
00:25:09 So if we look at the drums,
we started right here...
00:25:32 The hi-hat is a problem, right?
So I'm gonna lower the direct in
at the expanded version.
00:25:45 Let's see with the overhead.
00:26:05 How much of that hi-hat
are we gonna need?
I'm high-passing the hi-hat a
little bit because, you know...
00:26:27 It's really fat for a hi-hat.
00:26:29 There were probably
those huge things.
00:26:32 And I'm gonna lower the high-end
so that I can push the
direct signal a little bit
so that the hi-hat feels
like it's intentional
not just bleed from another mic.
Check it out.
00:26:53 I think that's OK.
00:26:54 With the overheads.
00:27:03 Let's see what the Toms do.
00:27:17 The tom adds a lot of...
00:27:20 Chaos.
00:27:21 So, we're gonna
expand those two.
00:27:23 I don't usually expand toms
unless I really really have to.
00:27:29 I'm gonna do that now.
00:27:33 I'm just gonna be lazy and copy this
and copy this.
00:27:36 Let's look at one tom at a time.
00:27:45 So, I don't need all
that 'clack clack clack'.
00:27:47 So I'm gonna use a
low-pass on the key
so that it only opens
when the tom is playing.
00:27:58 I'm adding some depth
so it actually lowers
the gated level more.
00:28:05 I'll make sure we catch everything.
00:28:14 That works.
00:28:16 The other one is probably
gonna be a lot harder.
00:28:18 I wanna copy this.
00:28:26 Let's see.
00:28:29 So this is a case for replacing, alright?
I'm gonna copy ApTrigga
and find some sort of a tom.
00:28:35 I don't really do that very often
but I'm sure I can find something.
00:28:44 That's the guy.
00:28:47 Cool.
00:28:48 The two of them.
00:28:54 OK, that's cool.
00:29:18 Let's make a kick and snare
kind of crushed thing.
00:29:21 We're trying to get more
transients out of this.
00:29:24 Let's call it 'K&S Crush'.
00:29:28 Let's see if I can do it that way.
00:29:30 Make sure it goes to the SUM.
00:29:33 It's mono, I'll take another 160.
00:29:36 And for you to see what
I'm doing I'm gonna make this pre.
00:29:40 And that way I can solo the 'K&S Crush'.
00:29:46 And nothing is happening
because I made a track
instead of an Aux,
it happens all the time.
00:29:52 Don't try this at home folks.
00:29:54 I'm a trained professional.
00:29:59 'K&S Crush', this goes to 'Sum'.
00:30:04 Problem solved.
00:30:10 That's nice.
00:30:12 Put a name.
00:30:13 Get rid of that track.
00:30:16 Go away.
00:30:19 Copy the name here.
00:30:23 Put this
as a transparent thing
so I know what it is.
00:30:27 Alright, so...
00:30:32 Pretty cool, so I'm gonna
listen to it in the context.
00:30:57 This is actually acceptable.
00:30:59 This is where we were before
the parallel compression.
00:31:22 So, as a reminder,
we started with the drums
here.
00:31:47 The question is:
Was the overhead a good move?
Let's see.
00:32:03 Maybe I could be slightly less
viking on the
Studer A800.
00:32:28 I'm happy.
00:32:51 I hear
the string rattling,
it doesn't have a lot of
personality, right?
And it's kind of like
woofy but not a lot of drive.
00:32:58 If I put it straight with the drums.
00:33:08 It does drag a little,
not drag as in a...
00:33:11 slow down but it kind of
grabs a little, which I like,
but it just has no,
no real vibe.
00:33:16 First let's try
an amp and see if that's what's missing.
00:33:22 Probably this should be an SVT, right?
Hi gorgeous.
00:33:37 Already it's pushing the right,
your buttons, right?
Let's see, less of this.
00:34:04 I think I need to high-pass
it before I hit the amp
because all that rubble
at the bottom is not helpful.
00:34:24 I dig that,
it needs to be more steady.
00:34:27 So I'm gonna compress.
00:34:41 That's OK but it's not bananas.
00:34:44 I'm gonna copy the bass again,
I'm gonna change the color so
I know that it's another,
and then this I'm just gonna
not be very nice to it.
00:34:53 Maybe the Sansamp would be cool.
00:34:55 Sometimes
you can't just be nice.
00:34:58 Sometimes you have to just be not nice.
00:35:45 I'm gonna high-pass
them both the same
so that I don't have any
phase cancellation issues.
00:35:49 If one is high-passed
and the other one is not
it's fuzzy. Check it out.
00:36:04 See how much fatter
when I high-pass both?
That's because there's no phase
cancellation
between the two due to the high-pass.
00:36:10 There's lots of other phase cancellations
but they didn't bother me before.
00:36:13 They just bothered me when
I started distorting.
00:36:15 The next thing I'm gonna do is
I'm gonna crush the hell
out of the distortion one
before the distortion so that
the distortion is more even.
00:36:22 And I can use it more as a
not a pad but kind of a layer of noise,
and see if that
fits the purpose.
00:36:30 Right now someone
in this band is like,
watching this like:
"What is he doing?"
"That's not what we meant!"
"We are really inspired by Enya."
And I just didn't get it.
00:36:41 It's possible.
00:37:14 With the bass we started here.
00:37:40 What I'm gonna do is group those two into
a single
submix if you will.
00:37:46 Because I may wanna
process the two of them together
as one unit now.
00:37:51 And I'm gonna solo safe those two,
make sure this one goes to the sum.
00:38:04 This sounds a lot more
like someone in the room
having fun with an amp to me.
00:39:04 That feels pretty good.
00:39:06 What else is going on?
I may have slightly
overdone it on the toms.
00:39:40 Let's make sure our
Studer is not freaking out
just with those two.
00:39:49 Plenty of headroom.
00:39:51 Vocal.
00:39:54 I feel the expander coming on.
00:40:01 Yeah.
00:40:04 I'm too lazy to go
and cut that stuff up.
00:40:06 And also we're in a hurry because
you've got somewhere to go, right?
I like the immediacy
that the expander gives,
at this point is
more like a gate,
at 30 dB,
but you know, expander,
gate, the same thing
depending how much noise
you leave in the signal.
00:40:53 I think I need to make this hard
but I'm gonna do it in two steps.
00:40:58 I don't hear anything terribly wrong
with the spectrum.
00:41:03 It's a little bit of a boom here.
00:41:16 I'm gonna do
something that I don't usually do
but I think is
appropriate for this.
00:41:22 I'm gonna compress with
the 1176 pretty hard.
00:41:25 Because that's the sound
that all those guys
go for and since I'm supposed to respect
the wishes of the band.
00:41:51 This is gonna be time to
rebalance everything.
So I have drums,
bass,
guitars, violin and vocals.
00:41:59 I'm gonna make 5 VCAs.
00:42:04 I'm gonna make myself some groups
for that purpose.
I wanna put all the drums together.
00:42:11 'vDRUMS', we're gonna go to VCA number 1.
00:42:16 Bass...
00:42:17 I'm gonna go to VCA number 2.
00:42:19 I wanna make a group with
just the bass in it.
00:42:23 Just so I can assign it to a VCA
and have all my
balance in one spot.
00:42:28 Guitars
There you go.
00:42:37 The violin is gonna get it's own thing
because it's special.
00:42:44 It's gonna get it's own spelling too.
00:42:48 And then I'm gonna put
the two vocals into
a group too.
00:42:54 That's our fifth one.
00:42:56 And since we are civilized
we're actually gonna name everything.
00:43:05 Pro Tools doesn't do that yet.
00:43:07 Maybe later when it grows up.
00:43:15 Vox.
00:43:17 OK, great.
00:43:20 Let's see.
00:43:22 I'll give myself a little bit of headroom
on the vocal.
00:43:26 I'll mute this
and this.
00:43:58 It's safe to assume that the other vocal...
00:44:03 Basically recorded
10 minutes later, here we go.
00:44:12 The double case, I tend to put
one softer than the other,
trying to get some sort
of a center on the pitch
and then the other one, you know,
supporting actor.
00:44:37 The actual,
I think the release
is as fast as possible,
that may not be a good idea,
let's see how it works...
00:45:12 Those are Ss are a pain,
let's get rid of it right away.
00:45:15 The easiest fastest is still
FabFilter Pro DS.
00:45:34 I wanna de-ess more on the double
because
I can and because
I don't need Ss on both.
00:45:52 And I'm de-essing before
the compressor because
it's a lot easier to get
the Ss before all the
dynamic is crushed.
00:45:59 If you crush the dynamic then
the Ss are really close
to the rest of the dynamic
whereas if you de-ess
before the compressor,
at least this kind
of compression level,
then the Ss are more separate
from the body of the sound,
it's a lot easier to de-ess,
you don't have to work as hard.
00:46:12 You can actually get it done.
00:46:14 And then I think this needs
some sort of an extension so that,
presence of sorts.
00:46:21 So I'll try this guy in 5 kHz.
00:46:41 This is where we started.
00:47:01 I could speed up the attack
at least on the double
so we don't have so much...
00:47:25 I'll keep moving and see if I do
something different later.
00:47:28 I'll put a little bit of space on it
so we're gonna add a tail.
00:47:32 And then I'm gonna add a delay.
00:47:37 Delay.
00:47:39 That would be just for the vocal.
00:47:42 So we're gonna call it such.
00:47:44 And...
00:47:46 I tend to make the effects track
yellow.
00:47:52 I'm gonna get rid of the comment
thing so you can see all in one
screen.
00:47:56 Much nicer.
00:47:58 I like my effects to
be in the same order as
the sends and, you know,
details, details.
00:48:03 Let's not forget to assign
the two effects to the sum
otherwise we'll hear nothing.
00:48:09 Which is not fun.
00:48:13 And let's not forget to choose
some sort of a reverb plug-in.
00:48:16 What would this be great with?
Let's if we can do something natural.
00:48:21 So I'm gonna use an Oxford reverb here.
00:48:23 And I'm gonna try and sound
like a Plate or anything.
00:48:26 And then for the delay
I'll use Echoboy Jr
because it's quick and it works awesome.
00:48:33 Let's start with the delay actually.
00:48:47 Where is the vocal?
It's right here.
00:49:08 Pretty nice, the reverb.
00:49:12 That sounds like this.
00:49:32 Cool.
00:49:59 So that sounds thick.
00:50:06 That sounds a lot less thick.
00:50:18 Let's put a little bit
of delay on this too
to give some sort of definition
because it's unbelievably just flat.
00:50:33 That could be good.
00:50:35 So, less repeats,
maybe a little faster.
00:50:55 I kind of like that because
it creates a vibe around
the guitar itself.
00:51:03 We started here.
00:51:24 That's nice.
00:51:25 Let's just see with the drums,
I wanna mute the vocals for now.
00:51:53 You know what would be interesting,
let's take this heavy guitar,
group,
and go into the 'Attributes'
and make sure that whatever
I do to one plug-in
is done to the other
plug-in on the other side.
00:52:04 So you can see it I'm gonna open them.
00:52:06 This is one, this is the other.
And now if I do this,
small screen,
now if I do this,
it does it there, which is nice
because now I can work in stereo
with just one move.
00:52:33 Let's see.
00:53:00 They are difficult to place,
I can't really find
a balance quite yet
where they balance with the drums
and don't eat the drums.
00:53:06 The drums and the bass
sound good by themselves.
00:53:53 That's OK.
00:53:54 I'm curious to know
what would happen
if I did something like this,
this is an experiment.
00:53:59 'GUIT SUBMIX'.
00:54:02 Because this feels very DIy
even though I don't think it is a DI.
00:54:06 I don't know what it is.
00:54:08 It sounds like an amp but it
feels kind of like plasticy.
00:54:11 It could sound better I think
and so let's see what happens
if I put them in a room.
00:54:21 Maybe that would work.
00:54:22 Maybe it will be an abject failure.
00:54:24 We're about to find out.
00:54:29 Let's see.
00:54:46 It's a sound, right?
I'll put the mic far way.
00:55:09 Then let's switch to more of a
reverb vibe then a reamp vibe.
00:55:30 There's something there.
00:55:45 I like the far away one a lot
let's try and find a good
use of the closer one.
00:56:33 What if I move the echo to after the room.
00:57:31 That's a very interesting sound
let's see if we're missing
an opportunity here.
00:57:35 I'm gonna make a copy of this preset.
00:57:37 I 'Shift+Cmd+C',
switch to the other room.
00:57:40 Whatever that means,
then it thinks about it.
00:57:44 And check it out.
00:57:50 I think that's even better.
00:58:05 I dig it.
00:58:06 So I like the 'A Room' better
so I'm gonna use that.
00:58:08 You may like the other one better,
I like this one better.
00:58:11 Mike, who sent the track,
said that the guitars
were clipping a lot.
00:58:16 I think that's a safe assessment.
00:58:18 Yeah, I think we can see they're
clipping a reasonable amount.
00:58:22 There's nothing you can
do about that except:
Does it sound good?
It's OK.
00:58:33 There's no need to agonize over that stuff
if it's not like life threatening,
as in like...
00:58:39 Then you have to
probably retrack.
00:58:41 But in this case we can
get something that's,
you know,
listenable
and that conveys the
spirit of the band.
00:58:47 I'm cool with it, I don't care.
00:58:49 Technically is it wrong?
Yeah.
00:58:52 Would anybody now?
Well, you do.
00:58:57 But anybody out of this
close circle of friends?
Nah.
00:00:00 I'm digging this but I feel that...
00:00:06 Let's see what happens
when we have everybody in.
00:00:13 This is a pretty good recording
so what I'm gonna do is just remove the
little bunched up
thing at the bottom here.
00:00:25 That stuff.
00:00:26 Sometimes I call it a mask
because it prevents you
from hearing other stuff.
00:00:32 You don't wanna go to
far and make this thin.
00:00:35 But I think we're safe here.
00:00:47 I'll add an echo
so that
my next moves are done
kind of in context.
00:01:03 It probably would benefit from
the 'Tail'.
00:01:16 This one needs a little bit of help
to get over the rest
so I'm gonna compress it.
00:01:32 The idea behind
compressing it is not to
crush before it to be able
to have the low levels
come up, I'm just trying
to bring the low levels up
and reduce the difference
between high and low levels
so I can park it in one spot.
00:01:46 It's not about the tone
as much as it is about
steady levels to go over the noise.
00:02:22 I think it's safe to say that we're
gonna need more of these guitars here.
00:02:51 Somebody had the Pro Tools window
scrolling
to page, somebody is an ex Logic user.
00:02:59 I know who you are.
00:03:02 I'll change that to
no switch.
00:03:06 I cannot stand when the
computer does something
without asking my permission,
like switch pages or anything.
00:03:11 I can't, can't do that.
00:03:12 It's against the rules.
00:03:14 Let's see the Intro.
00:03:18 This noise
is not from the guitars,
this noise is from the drums.
00:03:37 Why not mute the drums
so we can enjoy the Intro without noise?
Make a nice and clean hit
on the snare.
00:03:52 There you go.
00:03:57 That's pretty cool.
00:03:59 What else is noisy?
This dude looks noisy?
Don't be noisy.
00:04:04 There you go.
00:04:08 That should do the trick.
00:04:11 Yeah.
00:04:12 Maybe the vocals are noisy
too, I wanna get rid of
the vocal right here.
00:04:19 I assume the violin,
sounds like some sort of DI to me,
but here we go.
00:04:34 I think this could use a
little bit of a space vibe
that we may need to automate
but we'll see.
00:04:43 'Guit Tail'.
00:04:48 And...
00:04:51 Not the submix though, just the 'Tail'
goes yellow. And there you go.
00:04:55 And I'm putting this in the 'Sum'.
00:05:00 You know what? Let me try this
spring that PSP makes.
00:05:07 I never tried it on this,
let's try it.
00:05:36 And I think these guitars will rock
with extra saturation.
00:05:43 Can't have too much distortion.
00:05:46 There you go.
00:06:48 So I'm going to tweak
the 2-Bus a little bit.
00:06:51 The first thing I did is I remove a
little bit of the low frequency bump
on the
Studer because I felt
it was a little muddy.
00:06:59 Listen this on the muddy part.
00:07:04 Here.
00:07:14 I like that better.
Then, 670.
00:07:43 I'm going through the Fairchild
to get the tone
because that's the tone
of that kind of music,
you know, like really slow transformers
and tubes and stuff.
00:07:49 At least the old-school
version of that kind of music.
00:07:52 And then I'm compressing quite
a bit with a fast time constant,
to try and get a little bit of punch.
00:08:22 Then I go back to the clean signal
and just tuck in this new signal.
00:08:54 I dig.
00:08:56 Let's see what happens if
I high-pass a little here.
00:09:11 It's a little fatter, which is nice.
00:09:14 And then, here's the nerve of the war.
00:09:16 We'll do this when we have the vocals
but this is where I'm
gonna find my shine
if shine there is to be
without that hi-hat
becoming a real problem.
00:10:11 More de-essing because we have to.
00:10:13 Let's do a little bit of parallel
compression on that vocal too
because it doesn't have
the density that allows me
to really kind of like,
you know, make it cut though,
so I wanna do it for
the lead only right now.
00:10:25 I'll call it 'LEAD CRUSH'
so that I know what it is
when I come back to this for the recalls
if recalls there are.
00:10:31 'SUM'.
00:10:33 There you go.
00:10:34 And this is gonna be transparent.
00:10:39 At least no color,
and call it 'LEAD CRUSH'.
There you go.
00:10:45 So I think in this case
I'm gonna have to create
a custom sound for this.
00:10:50 I'm gonna go pre,
I'm gonna give it its own tone.
00:10:55 The de-esser is cool,
the expander is cool.
00:11:02 Then...
00:11:04 I feel like I need to compress again,
a lot more.
00:11:12 And here I don't
need the 'ts ts ts',
I have that from the lead,
so I wanna have a very fast attack,
a fairly fast release.
00:11:22 Cause I want body.
00:11:27 I'm gonna de-ess even more.
00:11:32 Come on.
00:11:37 I'm thinking that it
may be in good taste
to have some distortion.
00:11:43 For example,
our good friends
at Soundtoys make Decapitator
and it's bananas.
00:11:59 Let's tuck that in the lead.
00:12:23 That's gonna work,
I'm gonna put the two of them in a group.
00:12:26 Call it 'LEAD+CRUSH'.
00:12:30 So that they move
in concert now.
00:12:32 Because I use a pre
send to the distortion
so that the distortion is constant
now I have a good
balance between the two
and now this is my vocal sound,
the two of them together.
00:12:46 Probably put some delay on the distortion.
00:13:12 I had forgotten to put the mix to stun
on the delay, which explains
the weird change of balance,
I was like, "What's going on?"
And that's what's going on.
00:13:20 Let's try this again.
00:14:29 Maybe this deserves a room too.
00:14:34 Violins are people too!
Let's try this.
00:14:41 This
Ocean Way plug-in, by UA,
when I first listened to it I was like,
"Ahn, whatever."
And then I started using it
and it just...
And it's just great.
00:14:53 It's just great, just like the BX 20,
I have a BX 20 here, I was like:
"It doesn't sound
like my BX 20."
You know that kind of
ownership kind of thing?
And then I used it on a couple
records and it's so good.
00:15:07 This guys really crushed this.
00:15:09 Shall we consider this strings?
Yes.
00:15:28 The same vibe,
I don't think I need
the full reamp,
I just want some space.
00:16:02 The violin makes a lot
more sense like this right?
Check it out, this is with.
00:16:38 I'm gonna have to automate the violin
but I like where it is now
space wise.
00:16:43 I think I over-compressed this.
00:16:45 Let's go back to our 2-Bus.
00:17:39 Let's see if I can tame
the hi-hat a smidgeon more,
I don't think I can but let's try.
00:18:15 Maybe that will help a little.
00:18:31 When we use VCAs
and then you make a submix
out of two tracks
make sure you
revert the solo safe
so otherwise you hit the
VCA and nothing happens,
it's very frustrating.
00:19:13 The same thing with the
VCA and the 'LEAD CRUSH',
I have to make sure that my 'LEAD CRUSH'
is part of my voice VCA too.
00:19:23 And 'vVOX', 'modify',
go to the tracks
replace by the new choice.
And now,
my VCA...
00:19:50 I wanna ride that on the VCA.
00:19:55 I think that's a little obnoxious.
00:20:02 Here.
00:20:56 Alright, so to balance this, I'm gonna
turn on my
little fader pack here
and I'm gonna
bank over, it's gonna wake up in a second,
I'm gonna bank over to the VCAs,
Yeah, it woke up.
00:21:10 So that I have all my VCAs right here.
00:21:13 So let's see how it feels.
00:21:45 I think I overdid it
on the vocal so I wanna
put it in 'Trim',
I wanna go to 'Trim', here.
00:21:53 You know what, this is not a good look,
I wanna get rid of the automation.
00:21:58 Go back to non trim mode and
just find a better start level.
00:22:30 That last one was not necessary.
00:23:24 The violin is a little bit loud here,
this keeps jumping.
00:23:28 Here.
00:24:49 OK, I'm gonna have to clean up that ending.
00:24:51 But let's see what he's saying here.
Is he saying something?
Are you saying something?
He is.
00:25:03 We should support that motion.
00:25:14 One more time.
00:25:20 One more time.
00:25:31 While we're here, hanging out,
let's fix the end of that mess.
00:25:38 Why is it so noisy?
I'm not sure.
00:25:50 Who's the problem?
That qualifies as a problem.
00:25:56 OK, so let's just not even
consider this an option.
00:26:02 Let's hide the end of that and
the tail of the other like this.
00:26:09 Cool, guitar.
00:26:15 Those are clean.
00:26:17 So, who else?
Is it you?
It kind of is, isn't it?
OK, let's just...
00:26:37 do that.
00:26:39 I am to lazy to make
a group to do this,
or to find a group so I'm
just gonna do it by hand.
00:26:45 That is the true definition of laziness.
00:26:47 You do more work because
there's work you don't wanna do.
00:26:51 There you go.
00:26:54 That's how you do it folks.
00:26:57 You know what, the bass drum,
I don't care, the bass drum can go.
00:27:02 Here we go.
00:27:07 Alright.
00:27:08 That's interesting.
00:27:10 So, the whole thing is a little bit dull
and I'm still not happy
with the 2-Bus compression.
00:27:14 Obviously, because the stuff was recorded
basically free of good transients,
it's hard to get it to be punchy.
00:27:21 I'll have to find a
solution for that.
00:27:22 Till then I'm gonna find a solution
for the tone of it.
00:27:25 And I think the BAX would
be perfect for this.
00:28:45 I think I undershot the vocal
a little bit on the Chorus.
00:28:48 I have another idea.
00:28:49 What, if I don't compress here,
what if I create a couple
extra layers of padding this way?
I'm gonna select all this
and this. And create
let's say,
a 'RHYTM SECTION PUSH',
like this.
00:29:16 Make sure it's the same mix,
so I'm just gonna do it post.
00:29:21 And then pick a compressor of sorts,
something that can be very fast.
00:29:27 Let's see, where's this guy?
Let's try this guy.
00:29:43 Super slow attack and
super fast release, right?
This is just on the bass and drums.
00:30:04 I cannot forget to put it to SUM.
00:30:10 So, I'm compressing the drums
and the bass together,
all that stuff together,
and I'm gonna raise that under the mix.
00:30:32 I think I'm not gonna
put the hi-hat in there.
00:30:35 And maybe not the overhead, let's see.
00:31:03 That's nice, it gives a little more meat
to the stuff that really has punch.
00:31:08 Let's see what happens at the jam.
00:31:35 It's better, I think I'm
gonna skip this compressor.
00:31:37 Maybe I'll try the SSL to see if I can get
a little bit of help in the low-mids.
00:31:44 I think it's gonna fail, but we'll see.
00:32:44 It took it back, it's fantastic.
00:32:45 It was born to do this.
00:32:47 The SSL, not me.
00:32:54 I dig that.
00:33:43 Again.
00:34:34 It's starting to sound like a record.
00:34:36 So for, fairness,
and equal opportunity
and all that beautiful
stuff, I'm thinking,
so I'm gonna make
this transparent
so we know it's a parallel bus.
00:34:46 And I'm gonna move it towards here so
it's hanging out with the big kids.
00:34:51 I'm gonna try and make one for
everything else.
00:34:55 The same concept.
00:34:58 And I'm gonna call it 'BAND PUSH'.
00:35:05 And I'm gonna make it
like this.
00:35:09 And where did it go?
Hi.
00:35:12 It's here, I'm gonna put it here,
I'm just gonna copy the settings
from the 'RHYTHM SECTION PUSH'.
00:35:19 And then I'm gonna raise it under
the rest of the mix.
00:35:42 This is the mix
without the 2 pushes.
00:36:10 A smidgeon less of the two.
00:36:12 Of course if you listen to it
on-off, just like that,
you'll like the louder one,
but let me try and compensate for
level so you hear what I'm hearing.
00:36:21 This is with.
00:36:51 So you notice that
you get the energy but I think
with the extra parallel compression,
the two pushes,
for the rhythm section and for the band,
you get
a little more space,
a little more transients, check it out.
00:37:24 It makes me wanna push the
bass drum pick a little bit,
the 'puff puff' part.
00:37:58 My overall level is a little bit under.
00:38:32 Guitars a little
more aggressive.
00:39:11 Now I'm gonna do a quick pass
on the headphones
to make sure that the
very very bottom is OK
and that there are no extra masks
that I can't hear on speakers.
00:39:21 Also, it's nice to have
a different perspective,
because I've been listening of speakers
since the beginning of this video
and so, a change of scenario
will do me well.
00:39:30 So let's do that.
00:40:02 First things first, I went too far
on the attack of the bass drum.
00:40:44 I think we can do a little better here.
00:41:02 So I'm changing
the EQ of the center,
only the center of the 2-Mix,
to try and get a little more,
you know,
those
in the middle.
00:41:15 Let's see what happens when
I put the guitars back on.
00:41:33 Maybe a little lower.
00:42:01 So there's too much of
the transient of that
bass drum, the real bass drum.
00:42:05 What happens if I cut it from
the 'K&S CRUSH'?
Much better,
so let's get rid of the guitars.
00:43:44 So let's see if we can help
the vocal on the Chorus.
00:43:51 What if this came up on the Chorus?
The second voice, so it's like
more people screaming at you.
00:43:57 Let's see.
00:43:59 That would probably work pretty well.
00:44:04 But keep the rides that I've done,
with the VCA,
which is the joy of the VCA.
00:44:09 So now I'm raising
the local thing.
00:44:11 The whole thing is gonna raise.
00:44:13 And the VCA is gonna happen.
00:45:37 I felt that it could use a
little more bass in the center,
now that I've opened that up.
00:45:42 And the vocal trick works,
and overall I think we're getting close
to squeezing as much of the mix
out of these raw tracks as possible,
let's see this instrumental here.
00:47:03 Pretty cool!
So, there's a couple
spots where the hi-hat,
he hits the hi-hat on the downbeat,
open hi-hat on the downbeat
and they are really wicked loud.
00:47:30 So, we're gonna have to automate that
and that's not gonna be a lot of fun.
00:47:36 Let's see who is the biggest culprit.
00:47:47 It's the snare, but it's OK.
00:47:50 What we could do is we could make
a VCA just for that.
00:47:54 These guys
are called the 'SNARE CLUB'.
00:48:00 And the 'SNARE CLUB'
hangs together
and they have a leader,
his name is,
VCA.
00:48:09 There you go.
So now...
00:48:16 I can
afford
the luxury
of just dipping that one beat
a little bit, just on those.
00:48:37 It does the trick.
00:48:38 And I'm gonna
probably go down to like
a quarter note vibe
and copy that
and paste every time I hear a problem
that really draws me.
00:49:29 So it doesn't solve the problem
but it hurts your teeth less.
00:49:50 It hurts bad.
00:51:58 I'm thinking,
because I think, sometimes,
that a smidgeon of Inflator on
that vocal should just wrap this
very nicely.
00:52:09 Sonnox, because this is all very
clean, isn't it?
So a little bit of the Inflator here
and a little bit of the Inflator
there should help the cause.
00:53:20 It sounds genuine to me.
00:53:22 It's not my number 1 area of expertise
but I can hear everything.
00:53:28 Everything has a vibe.
00:53:30 Everything sounds kind of pissed,
which seems to be the gist of it.
00:53:34 And I can play this for the artist,
I feel comfortable with that.
00:53:38 Maybe we should do that right now.
00:53:44 I'm gonna call him now.
00:53:49 I'm calling Mike.
00:54:00 I hope he's there.
00:54:04 Not looking good.
00:54:06 'Hey, it's Mike, leave me a message,
I'll get back to you as soon as I can.'
Hey Mike, this is Fab from Puremix.
00:54:17 I just finished
a first pass of 'All My Dogs',
and I was wondering if you could
listen to it and tell me what you think
in case you'd like me to change some stuff.
00:54:28 So, call me back at this
number whenever you can.
00:54:30 Have a good day!
Cheers!
So what I'm gonna do is
I'm going to print it
and then send it directly to him
and see what he's feedback is.
00:54:38 I'm gonna call the print track
'All My Dogs Fabmix 1.0'
and I'm gonna just print.
00:57:20 Juicy!
My feeling is that
maybe
this is a bit...
You know what,
since there's no Melodyne here,
I can go here and just raise the level.
00:57:43 That's probably better,
so I'm gonna do an insert
off the mix, I'm just gonna
record that one section.
00:58:08 And I wanna join the two, this way.
00:58:13 A little bit of a fade.
00:58:17 Consolidate.
00:58:18 Rename with the right name.
00:58:21 And export it.
00:58:25 Let's see what the sample
rate of the session is.
00:58:28 24 / 48.
00:58:29 So I wanna export
a 24/48 file of the mix.
00:58:34 In the session of the mix.
00:58:37 Here, I create a folder called
'Bounces'.
00:58:40 And I put it there.
00:58:42 And also make an MP3 from Pro Tools
because the MP3 export
from Pro Tools sounds fine.
00:58:50 It's the MP3 that I'm gonna send
to Mike for him to listen to.
00:58:53 So that he can listen to it on his phone
or in his car or wherever he is
and doesn't have to
rely on full bandwidth
to download a full mix.
And by the way, if you notice,
the level of this mix
is just about Spotify level.
00:59:13 So say Mike want to compare
with, whatever on Spotify,
this would be comparably in the range
so that there's not
a big discrepancy.
00:59:22 I didn't master it, meaning,
I didn't try and jack it up
or change anything,
I just parked it more or
less in the Spotify level,
and since there's 14 dB
of headroom in Spotify,
for this kind of
stuff 14 dB is plenty.
00:59:35 So that's it for now.
00:59:39 As real life as it gets,
from never having hear the song
to having a mix that I feel comfortable
playing for the artist.
00:59:46 In front of your bewildered eyes.
00:59:54 Hello hello.
00:59:55 Hey Fab.
00:59:57 How are you doing?
Good, how are you?
Bananas!
Good!
So, did you get to listen to the mix?
Yeah I did, I got to listen to it
on a couple different systems.
01:00:08 Oh, thorough, awesome!
Yeah.
01:00:11 How are we doing?
Pretty good actually.
01:00:14 I like,
you got the ring
out of the snare,
it had a really bad ring on it man.
01:00:21 I know.
01:00:23 Yeah, I really like what you
did with the vocal sound,
like sitting there with the distortion
and a little bit of a
delay and compression.
01:00:33 Yeah, that was cool, the little reverb.
01:00:37 It seems like, yeah...
01:00:38 There's reverb but you
don't really hear it.
01:00:40 Yeah.
01:00:41 Is there anything that you'd like
me to update?
Change?
I don't know if you can change it but man,
that snare still sounds like a tin can
but I don't think we can do
anything about it really.
01:00:53 Not really,
unless we completely replace it.
01:00:58 But if we completely replace it,
because I augmented it
with another snare,
but if we completely replace the snare
then you gotta get rid
of the overheads too,
because it will show.
And that's gonna sound like a sample fest.
01:01:14 And which is really not
what you guys are doing, you know?
So I have already
quite a bit of
a sample in there.
I mean, I could go further
but I think the potential
for failure is very high.
01:01:33 Yeah.
01:01:33 Let's just put it that way.
01:01:35 I think I pushed it
as far as possible
to get as much energy of
that snare as possible
and I don't really see,
unless try and trigger
and try and fake a room.
01:01:46 But then it becomes like,
it's gonna sound weird,
it's not gonna sound like you guys
playing together anymore.
01:01:52 And the whole point is for you
guys to play together on this.
01:01:55 Exactly, yeah.
01:01:55 So, beside...
The snare clearly was a problem.
01:01:59 Yeah.
01:02:02 Besides that, vocal levels, bass levels...
Are you happy with the balance?
Yeah, really good actually.
01:02:08 Awesome.
01:02:09 Yeah, I think you nailed it.
01:02:11 Well, thank you so very much.
01:02:13 I'm gonna send you a link to the wave files
so that you have a hi-res one.
01:02:17 And then you'll see the video on
Puremix, no later than very soon.
01:02:22 Oh, awesome, it sounds good man.
01:02:24 Wonderful. What's the name of the band?
Oh yeah, 'Gladhand', all one word.
01:02:29 OK, noted.
01:02:30 G-L-A-D-H-A-N-D.
01:02:32 G-L-A-D-H-A-N-D.
01:02:34 OK, cool.
That's great.
01:02:36 Thanks a lot for letting me
torture your song
and
thanks for watching Puremix
and we will be in touch soon.
01:02:46 Thank you.
01:02:46 Alright, it sounds good. Thanks.
01:02:48 Cheers.
01:02:49 Bye.
01:02:52 Et Voilà!
Once logged in, you will be able to read all the transcripts jump around in the video.
Fab Dupont is an 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.
What I didn’t understand was the gainstaging here. Looked like most of the tracks were clipping and as I understand it the first thing to do is to clip gain everything down so that it’s leaking around -12 dbfs. But this didn’t happen and wasn’t even mentioned at all. Is this gain staging stuff a myth then?
Wiresed
2021 May 07
Makes it look very simple to get a great vibe out of a pretty messy session. That’s talent!
Adis Cengic
2020 Aug 31
The only thing i don't like on puremix is that all courses are based on mixing rock music. Give us hip hop, trap, or r&b examples.
onechoiz
2020 Jul 21
he copies the bass track what can we do on logic instead, I never used protools
yongsaifuk
2020 Jul 18
Need more this! Want to learn more! And also like Fab’s humor in his tutorial videos!
julián.ri
2020 Jun 07
En español por favor.
jaycarlinmusic
2020 Apr 03
Man, I watched 40:00 - 50:00 in this video like 5 times just soaking it up. It's so great to hear a track that isn't as immaculately recorded as the stuff you usually work with. Of course when you're working with tracks like the Chili Peppers or something, it's a little easier to mix. This sounds a lot closer to what a lot of us are working with on a daily basis.
Would love to see more of these. Really great stuff. It helps bridge that gap in knowledge that I assume many like me have.
JoeNino
2020 Jan 18
Magical.
r3zn
2019 Jun 23
Loved this one Fab. I'm also dealing quite often with sub standardly recorded material and this was a great toolbox to tackle a lot of common problems especially with live drums.
A bit off topic but that Mike dude seemed a little ungrateful. You did an amazing job with what you were given.
May I suggest more tutorials like this if you can mate.
Thank you.
Bellovacoco
2019 Jun 04
Very great tutorial. Loved how the mix was approached regardless of how the tracks sounded.
Jaume55
2019 Apr 20
Excelente vídeo, ¿sería posible traducción en español? please!!
logic718
2019 Apr 02
What headphones was Fab using? Great Video!!
patmaki
2019 Apr 02
Ocean way studios on stereo guitars...love the result!
L Pass
2019 Feb 17
This was a blast. It's amazing how often Puremix videos hit on exactly the info I need when I need it. I love your teaching style, Fab.
joaquimprado
2019 Jan 06
Just Amazing! This tutorial it self paid my puremix subscription. I am so glad I had the chance to see it. Thanks a lot
chogan
2019 Jan 04
Amazing. What started out pretty much sounding like a room mic at a band practice became a pro sounding mix. Learned a lot about how I can correct recordings during the mixing stage.
Skolan
2018 Dec 25
I have seen many tutorials from many "masters" and this is definitely one of the best.
pete.j
2018 Dec 20
Hey Fab,
I love this - not because the track or recording ist pure magic - no. Because it's kind of real life stuff one gets if you're not lucky enough just working with top notch musicians, producers etc.
It always seems to be kind of easier to get where you want if the quality of the recording is good in terms of technical and musical content.
You taking the risk of mixing this kind of project (not judging the music itself but the obvious lack of handcraft quality in recording) shows the quality of your work and the concepts you developed for yourself to mix tracks! Thanx !!
space.gadget@gmail.com
2018 Dec 20
Wow, DMX really going in a new direction....
This is a sweet tune!
merrittbooth@yahoo.com
2018 Dec 19
This is hands down my favorite video yet. Really fun watching Fab in his flow, trying to bang through this and not waste time. Nice to see the workflow without getting too side tracked. Really liked it. Thanks!
mataran
2018 Dec 18
A tomber par terre! That is a "Tour de force"! Thanks Fab for this awesome video. So much to learn from.
rickdrumss
2018 Dec 15
This is, IMO, one of the best "In the box" mixing tutorial!! Thank you infinito!
mloupe
2018 Dec 13
Feel like the highs on the guitars need to be rolled off a bit to get them out the air band. What y’all think about that?
telepathy
2018 Dec 12
Low note of the main riff on that bass is so sharp it's almost a re-harm.
puremixmark
2018 Dec 11
Great eye Chris.Massa! Fab was still hearing the parallel bus as it was going through his monitors. For this section, we went back and added the band push to the print track to make sure you could hear what Fab was hearing as it happened, along the way with accurate moves as Fab makes them in the video. It's a very fun job :) Once in a while, we work a few too many hours and miss a detail or two, but, all is well! The audio you hear in the video is as it should be.
chris.massa
2018 Dec 09
Question why is the "BandPush" going to Analog 1+2, instead of the SUM? How does that get Printed?
badmonkey
2018 Dec 09
This is the best tutorial I have seen. The real deal - how most people send us their sessions. Par excellance!! I am so happy to have found this!!
bryanhall
2018 Dec 08
This was almost too real! :) It felt like so many ADAT recordings from the 90's I witnessed or was a part of. It was so real it was almost uncomfortable. I could not believe the difference between the first list to the final mix. I was kind of shocked that the client wasn't more blown away in his initial response. But I love that Fab was so honest and willing to show what that process is like. Amazing work.
mike.p
2018 Dec 08
(comment prior to watching whole video)
Exactly what Ive been waiting for since I first subscribed!
I get a lot of clients with poor material, and I want to know different ways to tackle problems!
I would like more of these videos!
If you can tackle a poorly recorded track, I bet you can do good recordings too.
So, I vote for more home studio session mixing!
Home-recorded rap session
2-bus beat last resort improving
Thanks in advance!
curt
2018 Dec 07
Your videos and training are just first class. Watching and listening how you transformed this from a very rough start to a great sounding mix was greatly educational. I especially appreciated that you showed us the entire process. Thanks Fab!!
DaveNJ
2018 Dec 06
This is a great video - thanks Fab! Question - did we ever hear the Band Push? I see it's routed to Out 1-2 and not SUM...
Jalapainyo
2018 Dec 06
What an insightful look into artistic intuition, work flow, philosophy and vibe! Can this concept become a series, maybe with some additional mentors from Pure Mix? Presenting the unedited conversation with the artist after the first mix delivery is an invaluable snapshot of that experience with the client/ artist also. I don't know of any other Mix/Mentor sight that's ever exposed a sequence like that. Awesome!
Pearlpassionstudio
2018 Dec 06
This was great. Learned a lot on your approach with the mix. Yes, that snare was like a tin can, guitars were way to distorted. You made the best out of that live mix. Excellent work. Love these new tutorials and well worth the price of admission. Thanks
Masroor Sheidaei
2018 Dec 06
Pretty good job on this project which had lack of good vibes except some lines.
joethecomposer007
2018 Dec 05
i'm speechless. What you do Fab is sooooooooooo musical. Taking parts and molding them to be larger than life. I'm thinking this band is going use this mix )))))
sircletus
2018 Dec 05
The 90's were a hell of a time to be alive. I'm going to have ADAT-related nightmares tonight.
jaredvp
2018 Dec 05
Drop trou now
Audiobsesion
2018 Dec 05
Spanish , please !!!
MarcoPolo
2018 Dec 05
I really enjoy watching you work, Fab. Great stuff, thank you!
