Grammy Award Winning Engineer, Mick Guzauski is trusted by the world’s top-level talent to consistently deliver the exciting and creativemixes that he has become famous for.
The challenge that comes with being one of the most in-demand mixing engineers in the industry, is that you have to develop a system that allows you to work quickly and efficiently, while still making every mix asincredibleas the last. To rise to the occasion, you have to get the technology out of the way so that you can get right to work and stay creative.
In this puremix.net exclusive, Mick Guzauski walks you through the exact template he uses on every mix to quickly sort tracks, add effects, navigate his Avid S6 console, and create all of the stems the artist may need in the future, in just one pass.
Once you have seen how Mick does it, you can download his personal template perfectly translated for the following DAWs:
00:00:07 Hi! I'm Mick Guzauski,
and,
I'm going to show you today
the template I use
for all the mixes I do,
except for 5.1 and surround.
00:00:17 Those are a different template,
but for 90% of what I do
I use this template.
00:00:21 So I'm going to show you
the template first
and explain how I use it,
and then,
we're going to open a session
that I've never seen or heard before,
and we're going to set it up
to that template
and set it up on the Avid S6 console
the way I usually set up a session.
00:00:35 This is my template.
00:00:37 Let's open this up here.
00:00:40 I have 16 stereo subgroups,
and, all the groups of tracks
are assigned to these
when I set up the session.
00:00:47 They're just labeled 's1' to 's16',
as the subs,
and then,
below that,
I have a VCA master
for all the subs (*SUBS*)
so I can adjust the level
of the final mix into the bus.
00:01:00 There is another VCA
set up as a VCA master (*MSTR*)
that controls the level of all the tracks,
so I can adjust the level of the whole
source into the mix buses.
00:01:10 The 'MASTER' fader,
which is a stereo subgroup.
00:01:13 All the subs I have, the 16 subs,
are assigned to a stereo bus,
it's labeled 'mix bus'.
00:01:19 That comes back on an Aux here.
00:01:21 And I put whatever processing
I use on the final stereo mix
in this 'MASTER' fader,
and do the fades on this channel also.
00:01:28 And then it goes to another stereo bus,
the 'record bus',
that goes to a stereo track
where I print the mix.
00:01:34 That is going to 'Stereo Monitor'
to monitor it.
00:01:38 That's the first part of my template.
00:01:39 Now I'm going to open
everything I have in the template
so I can show you.
00:01:46 Underneath the mixes
I have different versions of the mixes:
'vocal up', 'vocal down',
'tv', 'track', 'acapella',
in case we need to print those.
00:01:55 Those are all hidden and deactivated,
but rather than having to make
a new track and label it,
I just turn those tracks on
if I need to print those versions.
00:02:02 Then we'll see underneath there
there's 'r1' through 'r24',
which is reverb, or effects returns.
00:02:08 Each one of them is fed
from a corresponding bus,
'r1' through 'r24',
and there is no output
selected on those.
00:02:16 If I assign
an audio track to an effect,
just like, say, on 'r1',
then I would label that,
I'd put the plug-in,
whatever effect it is, in the channel,
activate the channel,
and return it
to the subgroup that that
instrument is returned on.
00:02:31 All my effects follow
the 16 master subgroups.
00:02:35 That's why these aren't
assigned to begin with,
because I do it as I work.
00:02:39 Below that,
there are 16 audio tracks
that are fed correspondingly
from the 16 subgroups.
00:02:47 So, after the mix is all done,
all I have to do is put
those 16 tracks and record,
and they record what's each subgroup,
so it's one pass to make the stems.
00:02:56 It doesn't matter whether I'm going
to external outboard gear,
it's just one real-time pass
to do up to 16 stems.
00:03:03 That's pretty much what this is.
00:03:04 I'll show you all the busing.
00:03:08 You see 'Stereo Monitor',
Aux Monitor 1 and 2.
00:03:13 Those I can assign rough mixes to,
they are in the session.
00:03:16 Whatever I need these for,
like, maybe I'll use 'Aux Mon 2'
for a return solo,
'Aux Mon 1' for the rough.
00:03:22 'Stream' is,
in my studio, actually
sending it out Dante
to a streaming program
so I can stream live to clients.
00:03:30 'mix bus' and 'record bus' you've seen.
00:03:32 And then, all the buses
that correspond the inputs
and outputs here.
00:03:38 At the end, I have some unused ones,
Buses 1 through 8 as four stereo pairs,
and 9, 10, 11, 12 as mono buses.
00:03:46 And those are just there
in case I have to do another subgroup,
or anything with the mix.
00:03:51 I just have those few buses
already set up if I need them.
00:03:55 So, I'm going to open a session
that I've never seen before,
and just go through how I set this up.
00:04:00 So I'm opening this session now.
00:04:02 I've never seen or heard
this session before,
which is usually the case
when I get something to mix.
00:04:08 I'll just show you quickly
how I'm going to set it up.
00:04:11 I'm not going to go through it
as comprehensively as I would
if I was really setting this up to mix,
because in that case
I'd have to listen to every track
and group through tracks and figure out
where I'm going to assign them.
00:04:22 In this, we're just going to
sort of do a cursory
version of that.
00:04:27 The first thing I would do
with the assignments that are in here...
00:04:36 We'll check out these rough mixes,
see what the song is about.
00:05:44 So after playing the rough mix,
I'll play it a few times
and really try to see where
everything is in the song,
and then, go through
and start soloing tracks,
see what kind of grouping
I want to make on this.
00:05:55 Then,
I'll look to see what sends
and what inserts are already
in the session.
00:06:05 I'll just open all the possible
sends and inserts up,
and just sort of take a look.
00:06:10 Special attention to the sends
so I can see what effects
are already in the session there.
00:06:16 Right now I'm just looking to see
if there's any Auxes as returns.
00:06:19 So it looks like all these sends
that are in the session
are orphaned, pretty much,
so we really...
00:06:25 We don't need them
because we have no idea
where they're going to go.
00:06:29 So,
after doing that,
I'll go to the Setup,
and I'll get rid of all the busing
that's not being used.
00:06:43 'DIG OUT' is our monitor,
and this one I just designed to...
00:06:47 The '1/8 Delay' is going to the 'Video',
so we're keeping those.
00:06:52 'Mix Bus' is where all the tracks
are assigned.
00:07:03 So we're getting rid of
all these buses here.
00:07:10 Now let's see where this 'Mix Bus'
is assigned, it's probably...
00:07:13 yeah, it's assigned to this track here.
00:07:15 Let's put this in Input
so we can start going through the tracks
and seeing how we want to assign
to the groups I have.
00:07:21 Oh!
Let me just interrupt myself
here for a second.
00:07:25 I want to make sure that here
I turn Automation Follows Edit on.
00:07:29 I go through and just like to
set up Pro Tools,
the Preferences,
like I always use them.
00:07:33 So,
I'll go to Preferences,
and I usually have the Clip Color
as the Track Color,
and then,
Default Track Color Coding, None.
00:07:42 I can just have it
independent of groups
and independent of assignments.
00:07:46 Then, in Mixing,
I always, before I start,
put Coalesce Trim Automation to Manually,
so when I'm mixing and going through
the Trim is not coalescing
every time I stop
and putting moves on top of moves,
so this way I have the choice.
00:07:58 So that's pretty much what I do
for the Setup there.
00:08:00 Now,
I'll start going through
some of the tracks.
00:08:16 I'll make sure the tracks
are in the order I like.
00:08:18 Usually, I like to put drums first.
00:08:20 I'm going to just hide this click for now.
00:08:25 And then,
this is the same way I would set this up,
the drums, then the claps,
percussion.
00:08:35 Let's see what this is.
00:08:43 It looks like the green group of stuff
is effect-y kind of things.
00:08:50 Yeah.
00:08:51 Okay, and then bass.
00:08:53 So this session is already set up
very much like I would set it up.
00:08:58 The next thing I would do
is go to the last track
before the rough mix
and highlight that so I can insert
my template in there.
00:09:05 So, now I'm going to go to Import,
Session Data.
00:09:13 Select everything,
and All.
00:09:19 I should have all my I/O settings.
00:09:23 I want to put 'Stereo Monitor'
to monitor ('MON').
00:09:27 And we'll take the existing...
00:09:32 ...assignments and just put them down
at the bottom there
so I have all the assignments
from my template there.
00:09:38 We'll keep everything
assigned to 'Mix Bus'
so we can monitor before we
assign them to the group.
00:09:46 One thing I also want to do here
is I'll bring the rough mixes...
00:09:56 ...right before the returns.
00:09:59 Any return we turn on
is under the roughs.
00:10:02 That's how I usually do it.
00:10:05 Okay, let's take all the drums,
and we'll assign that to...
00:10:10 Let's get rid of the inputs.
We don't need them.
00:10:14 And we'll assign that to 's1',
sub 1.
00:10:20 We'll rename that to 'drums'.
00:10:25 And then we'll go down,
we've got these claps here.
00:10:29 Let's take a listen to what this track is.
00:10:36 Okay. I guess that would go
with the claps.
00:10:39 So, we'll assign all the claps.
00:10:51 Okay, so those are all assigned to 's2'.
00:10:53 I'll rename those for 'claps'.
00:10:57 Now, the reason I don't unassign these
before I assign them,
in the session that was there,
remember we kept the 'Mix Bus',
which is what we're monitoring through,
and I keep all the tracks assigned to that
until we reassign them to the subs.
00:11:12 And there's a couple of reasons for that:
one is so I can solo a track
and hear it,
to see where it should...
00:11:19 to see what it should be grouped with,
what we want to do with it,
where we want to assign it.
00:11:23 And also, having it assigned to that
keeps the pan information
when we reassign it,
so the pan information from
the original session is still there.
00:11:31 Okay, now we have...
00:11:33 starting with percussion here.
00:11:35 Now, in actuality,
if I was doing this mix,
I would solo and check out
things a lot closer.
00:11:40 I don't really know
how I'm going to group them.
00:11:43 Right now I'm just sort of doing this
in a cursory way
just to really show you how the
template works and how I do this.
00:11:49 I'll make sure we have no input,
and then,
we'll assign that to Bus...
00:11:55 ...3 ('s3').
00:12:04 Now, these green tracks are effects.
00:12:23 We can see they're assigned
to the buses here,
and we're not using 11 through 16,
so the next thing I would do
is just select 11 through 16,
and Hide and Make Inactive.
00:12:36 Then I go through each group here,
I label them
whatever the buses
that are feeding were labeled.
00:12:52 We've just reassigned
everything to groups.
00:12:54 The groups are going to the 'mix bus',
and the 'mix bus' is going to
the track, and it's going out.
00:12:58 So we've actually changed
nothing about the mix,
none of the balances are changed
because these groups
are all at unity gain.
00:13:04 But now we've got the session set up
to start splitting things out
where we can work on balances
within groups,
work on EQ and processing with groups.
00:13:13 Everything is set up to where the stems
can be made in one pass
once the mix is done.
00:13:18 The final mix is on these audio groups,
the individual tracks in the audio groups,
but since I use the Avid S6 console
which allows you to spill
VCA groups to faders,
I set up the mix on VCAs too.
00:13:32 So,
in a very small area of the console,
I can have as many tracks as I need.
00:13:37 So let's go and assign...
00:13:41 Now let me just turn on...
00:13:45 turn on the Track Numbers.
00:13:48 We'll do
drums and...
00:13:54 drums and claps.
00:13:55 They'll go on one VCA.
00:13:57 Let's just see what the Global...
00:14:00 I actually set these groups to do nothing
so that the tracks are only for the VCAs.
00:14:05 They're not for grouping,
for editing the track.
00:14:07 Now, in this situation, see,
all the tracks, I'll edit individually,
but if I do activate the group like that,
then I can edit the whole group together.
00:14:18 Whether this is on or off makes no
difference at all on how the VCA sees it,
the VCA will control them either way.
00:14:24 It's a nice little bonus of this, too.
00:14:26 So let's go to the next one.
00:14:28 We have percussion,
and...
00:14:33 it's sort of starting at 15 there.
00:14:36 We got percussion and effects.
00:14:38 I didn't want to include the bass in that.
00:14:40 We have room, because...
00:14:41 it just logically wouldn't go
with that group.
00:14:46 Now we go bass...
00:14:50 Bass and guitars will be a group.
00:14:59 Then, keys.
00:15:08 Keys,
then...
00:15:12 brass.
00:15:19 I usually don't assign more than
16 tracks to a group
so I don't have to scroll
when the faders are spilled,
which I'll show you in a minute.
00:15:26 But just for expediency,
now I'm just going to assign
all these background vocals to one VCA.
00:15:35 And then we'll do the lead vocal.
00:15:49 I'm going to get rid of these old groups
that were in the session
just to make things
a little clearer to see.
00:15:59 I'll bring the 'subs' (*SUBS*) down here.
00:16:01 So we've made seven groups.
00:16:03 That group, that 'subs',
is already assigned to the subs.
00:16:06 So now we just need to make
seven VCA faders.
00:16:17 And, there we go,
assign it to 'drums claps',
percussion and effects ('perc fx'),
bass and guitars ('bass gtrs'),
'keys',
'brass',
'bgs',
lead ('ld vox').
00:16:33 And then, since these are all assigned,
we'll just go...
00:16:37 ...and assign them
to the VCA master (*MSTR*)
that's already in the template.
00:16:41 And that's a way of control
over every track
just with that VCA master.
00:16:45 Then we just label these.
00:16:47 And I usually do that,
I usually put an asterisk around them,
so we know they're VCAs.
00:16:54 Notice how I'm keeping everything
to eight characters or below,
so that when it's displayed on the console
we don't see it start getting abbreviated.
00:17:03 That is the entire
setup of the mix so far.
00:17:08 Now, if we were,
let's just say
that we needed an effect on a guitar.
00:17:15 So how we would do this is just,
if one of the guitars, say,
needed a certain reverb or anything,
we just open up a return,
and then,
activate it, label it.
00:17:29 Whatever we're going to use it for,
I usually just copy that
and
assign it...
00:17:36 ...to the same name
so we know what's feeding that.
00:17:39 And then,
we would return that to
the guitar bus ('gtrs') so it returns
right to that subgroup,
and when we make stems
that reverb isn't going to any other stem
other than guitars.
00:17:51 So then we would just...
00:17:52 say it was this guitar,
we would just assign that to
guitar verb ('gtr verb').
00:17:57 So it's being sent on that group,
it's being sent
to an effect that returns
to the same group as the guitars.
00:18:04 And now we're talking about the
audio group there, not the VCA group.
00:18:07 And, of course, we put in...
00:18:10 ...whatever effect we want.
00:18:15 There's 24 effects
in the template already,
so,
I usually don't run out.
00:18:20 Also, I want to show you
that now that we have this set up,
these subgroups here,
see, these say '+' because they're
assigned to two different buses,
so this bus,
it's assigned to the 'mix bus',
which goes to the 'record bus'
from the Master,
and it also goes to 't1',
which is stem 1.
00:18:38 So, correspondingly,
these 10 are going to the first 10 stems.
00:18:41 So when the mix is all done,
we just open those tracks
and just do one pass in the stems,
or the...
00:18:47 the stems are the exact mix,
you play the stems back
and they are exactly
what feeds the stereo bus,
minus the effects
that are on the stereo bus,
which brings me to one other
thing I do is,
if I EQ on this 'MASTER',
then what I do before I make the stems
is just copy the EQ up to every group
so the stems collectively have
the same EQ as the mix.
00:19:09 I don't copy dynamics
because, of course,
it's going to respond differently
to the mix than it will to each stem,
so the dynamics still has to be put in
at the end of the stems
if it's going to be...
00:19:20 if we're going to duplicate
the actual mix.
00:19:22 Also, I have this preassigned,
this Pro-L,
and the reason I have that,
that's usually the limiter
I use on the output,
but also, it has very nice metering.
00:19:30 Very nice peak and average metering.
00:19:33 I just like to have that there
from the beginning of the session
to see what's coming out
of the stereo bus.
00:19:38 Okay, so now that the mix
is set up in here
and we have our VCAs,
we set up the console with that,
and what we do is we go
to the Track menu here,
and to Assign.
00:19:50 Let's take... I usually put the VCAs
right on the left of me
and everything else on the right.
00:19:55 So,
there's the seven VCAs,
and we will put those on 18 through 24.
00:20:03 There they go!
And,
also,
I want to put a couple other things
that I don't need in front of me
all the time over there,
so we'll put the VCA master
of all the VCAs
over to here, on 17.
00:20:17 We'll put the two rough mixes
for reference on 15 and 16.
00:20:22 So that side is set up.
00:20:24 Now we go down here.
00:20:32 Here are the ten subgroups,
which will start at 25.
00:20:37 And then we have
the VCA for the subs
put right after that.
00:20:43 The audio master fader after that.
00:20:46 Mix 1 after that.
00:20:48 And then we could also assign, like,
if we want to have the lead vocal
or something up all the time,
we could assign that to any of these,
but we'll just start like this.
00:20:56 Okay, and then we just go to Store
in the Layout.
00:21:00 We'll store this mix.
00:21:03 And,
save this,
and the layout will save with the session.
00:21:08 So now what we have
is
the ten subgroups here,
and the track.
00:21:14 We have this track in Input.
00:21:16 And we have the VCAs here,
so the whole mix.
00:21:20 Okay, if we want to get to
the drums and claps,
we just hit that,
that VCA there,
just Attention it.
00:21:27 There's everything that's assigned
to that VCA.
00:21:30 Percussion and effects.
00:21:36 Bass and guitar.
00:21:38 Keys.
00:21:41 Brass.
00:21:43 So now, remember on the background vocals
I assigned more than 16 of them
to this one VCA.
00:21:48 Let's assign that VCA,
and you see this is 16 faders.
00:21:50 Now,
since we're on Right Spill,
we can scroll...
00:21:58 ...within that.
00:22:04 As soon we reach the end,
they fall off the end, but,
if you have more than 16 channels
assigned to a VCA
and you have a 16-channel Spill Zone,
you can scroll within the Spill Zone.
00:22:17 So let's go and let's just play this mix.
00:22:30 Okay, so we're seeing now,
see the meters for the subs.
00:22:39 We're actually peaking
at a really nice place,
about -4, -5,
on these meters.
00:22:44 Now, suppose the tracks
were hitting it too hot.
00:22:46 This is what this master
of all the VCAs is for.
00:23:02 This one fader is the entire session
through its VCAs into the subgroups,
so we can get a good level
on the subgroups.
00:23:10 Now,
if the subgroups are collectively too hot
into the stereo bus...
00:23:20 They are, they are going over zero.
00:23:34 The 'subs' VCA is the VCA
for all the audio subgroups,
so,
if we're hitting the subgroups...
00:23:43 ...at a good level, but collectively,
all the subgroups summed
are hitting the 'MASTER'...
00:24:00 then we can bring the 'subs' VCA down,
which brings all the subgroups down,
which lowers the level into the 'MASTER'.
00:24:06 So, by doing this
at the beginning of the session
once the balances are set,
we actually have a good operating level
and any plug-ins we plug in
are in the right part of their range if...
00:24:15 if something isn't 32-bit float.
00:24:17 It's not going to overload.
00:24:19 That's pretty much how I set up
a session with the template.
Once logged in, you will be able to read all the transcripts jump around in the video.
He's won 11 Grammy Awards and mixed over 27 #1 hits, engineer/mixer Mick Guzauski is one of the top mixing engineers in the world.
Mick's love for both music and technology started when he was in high school. Growing up in Rochester, NY where there were no nearby commercial studios so Mick put together his own studio in parents' basement with equipment that he had begged, borrowed, built, repaired and modified.
In the early '80s, Mick worked with Maurice White and Earth, Wind and Fire at the Complex (then George Massenburg Studios). "Being around George was a great learning experience in both the art of recording and in audio technology," said Mick.
Then in 2013, Daft Punk was looking for an engineer/mixer to team up with on their fourth studio album and at the recommendation of mutual friend Mick got the call. Unlike most dance albums, the sound of Random Access Memories is completely organic and incredibly dynamic (and fat!)
Super useful to be able to print stems at once! Working on a film track with a bunch of incidental music and it is saving me hours and hours of time. BANANAS
EmissarySound
2018 May 24
That's cool.
LucaSkyline
2018 May 05
If you don't have the possibilities to work in a studio, closer with an experienced engineer...Well, we got puremix.net ;) Thanks a lot guys! these videos are extremely well done !!
onlinemusic
2018 May 04
Thanks Mick! The VCA spill grouping is clever. Would love to see a follow up with some of your plugin and outboard choices.
G.MICHAELHALL
2018 May 03
Mick is such a likable articulate easy to understand incredible talent, wish he would do lots more!;-)
