Ben Lindell demonstrates how he sets up his mix bus processing on a nearly finished mix. Using Universal Audio UAD plugins, Ben takes this dance-pop track from sounding good to great!
The goal with processing on the mix bus (aka 2-bus, mix buss, master fader, etc) is to deliver as close to a finished, mastered sounding mix to the artist. The closer you can get to achieving the sound and vibe the artist wants to hear the easier it will be for your mastering engineer to add their finishing touches.
It is critical to know how to achieve a coherent, rich, and clear sound at the final stages of the mixing process in order to deliver a mix that blows your clients away.
As always with pureMix, Ben details the purpose and function of each of these plug-ins, as well as the specific settings used. Apply these techniques to your own mixes and give them the finished, professional sound your clients are looking for.
00:00:11 Today, I'm gonna be taking you through
my 2-Bus processing on a mix that I did.
00:00:14 This is a dance/pop kind of song,
so I'm gonna be doing
a little bit of EQ, compression, and
just general beautification to my mix.
00:00:21 Now, this isn't mastering,
but what I like to deliver to my clients
is as close to a mastered sound
as I can get.
00:00:27 I did all my processing on this mix
using UAD plug-ins.
00:00:30 Let's get started!
Since I already finished this mix,
all my plug-ins are already set.
00:00:35 What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna
walk you through each plug-in,
explain a little bit about
why I chose it,
and what function it's serving,
and give you a little before and after.
00:00:43 The first plug-in in my chain
is the Cambridge EQ.
00:00:46 I'm not using it for a lot.
I'm just using the high-pass filter,
set at 24 dB per octave
and around 30 Hz or so.
00:00:53 What this is doing is
it's cutting all the extra fat
that I don't need at the bottom, and
giving me a tighter, punchier bottom end.
00:01:00 Let's check it out. Without.
00:01:10 And with.
00:01:20 It's a really subtle difference.
00:01:22 If you're listening on
laptop speakers, or earbuds,
you're probably not gonna hear it.
But in the mixing studio,
where I have a subwoofer,
or large main speakers,
I can really hear the difference
in the tightness of my bottom end.
00:01:33 The next plug-in in my chain
is the Fatso Jr.
00:01:36 This is
a tape simulator/compressor plug-in.
00:01:39 But since this is a dance track,
I don't need any tape simulation.
00:01:42 I don't need the song
to sound any softer,
I need it to pump a little bit more.
So I'm gonna turn of the Tranny,
turn off the Warmth setting,
and just use
the Buss compressor setting,
which is a slow attack, a fast release,
a gentle knee,
and about a 2:1 compression ratio,
and just hit that a little bit,
to make my song breathe
a little bit more. Here's without.
00:02:11 And here's with.
00:02:20 And again, without.
00:02:30 And with.
00:02:41 As you can hear, the Fatso is bringing
my whole mix forward a little bit.
00:02:45 It's not really doing anything
to the transients,
but everything else is pumping up
a little bit more,
and is just a little punchier,
which is exactly what I was looking for.
00:02:53 The next plug-in on my 2-Bus is
the Brainworx Digital V2 EQ.
00:02:56 It's a mid/side EQ that allows me
to expand the stereo width of my mix
and also find any problem frequencies
that are bunching up.
00:03:04 Let me show you what I'm talking about.
00:03:05 I'm using the Auto-Listen function
of this plug-in a lot.
00:03:08 It allows me to sweep around and find
problematic frequencies easily.
00:03:12 Check it out!
So you can see, right around 128 Hz,
I hear a little too much going on there.
00:03:29 So I notch it down between 1 and 2 dB,
and then I go to my Stereo Width knob,
just to open it up a little bit,
and now let's check out
what this sounds like before and after.
00:03:39 First, without.
00:03:49 And with.
00:03:59 Again, without.
00:04:09 And with.
00:04:19 So I feel like
my mix is basically there.
00:04:22 These last couple of plug-ins add
just the little finishing touches,
just a little bit more prettiness
to my mix.
00:04:27 The first one is
the UAD Precision Maximizer.
00:04:30 I don't really use this plug-in
for any of its limiting functions.
00:04:33 I just like the way
the Shape knob sounds.
00:04:35 It just adds
a little more excitement to the mix.
00:04:37 Check it out! First, without.
00:04:48 And with.
00:04:58 Once again,
this is a very subtle difference.
00:05:00 It's adding a little bit of harmonics
that extend the top end a little bit.
00:05:04 Check it out! Again, without.
00:05:15 And with.
00:05:25 You can really hear it
on the claps and the vocals.
00:05:28 And finally, the last plug-in
in my chain is the Pultec EQ.
00:05:31 I really love how this just gently lifts
the bottom and top of my mix.
00:05:35 I'm just going up a little bit at 30 Hz
and a little bit at 12 kHz.
00:05:41 Check it out. First, without.
00:05:52 And with.
00:06:03 Again, without the Pultec.
00:06:14 And with.
00:06:25 As you can hear,
all my processing on the 2-Bus
is just subtle little enhancements.
00:06:30 I consider this
to be part of the mixing process.
00:06:32 I'm just trying to give my clients
the best sounding mix possible
and make my mastering engineer's life
as easy as possible.
00:06:38 So now, just for fun,
let's listen to my mix
without any of my 2-Bus processing,
and then with.
00:06:44 First, without any of my 2-Bus plug-ins.
00:06:56 And now,
with all my plug-ins reactivated.
00:07:08 Again, with no plug-ins on my 2-Bus.
00:07:20 And with all my plug-ins enabled again.
Once logged in, you will be able to read all the transcripts jump around in the video.
Ben is a NYC based producer/engineer who has worked with artists from MGMT to Soulja Boy, Bebel Giberto to Lloyd Banks, Ryan Leslie, Olivia, Tony Yayo, Red Cafe, Edie Brickell, Carole Pope and hundreds of other artists from around the world. He grew up in Iowa and then attended the University of Miami.
In addition to being a fantastic musician he is also a tremendous geek when it comes to anything technical, be it software, plug-ins, microphones or outboard gear. It's this marriage of musical creativity and technical know-how that makes him an in demand producer/engineer.
What's the gain staging on the limiter - seems to be adding a lot with just the shape button?
TheBassist10
2017 Apr 17
I'd like to thank you for taking the time to explain these very important mixing processes. What I was most impressed with is the way you explained every step with great patience and communicated the reasoning for each step. I'm on board with you. All the best Pure Mix!!!!
jhonhiguera
2016 Jul 21
Cool but, Please do not Interrupt the comparison!.
bigdoghat
2015 Dec 05
Enjoying the vids very much so far but just one comment in agreement with the couple above. I would much prefer if playback wasn't stopped when doing the before and after comparisons. I've watched other tutorial vids where the content keeps playing and you can hear the voice is just mixed in under the music saying "with" and "without". I find when playback is stopped in between comparisons, I'm only able to pick out the differences one at a time. When playback is continuous, I can hear them all at the same time
ulrich labus
2015 Nov 10
Please do not Interrupt the comparison!!!!
ccbass
2015 Oct 26
Great content. I would find it easier to notice the A/B difference if you could do it without interrupting the listeners attention announcing the comparison.
Perhaps just looping the section and switching between the two.
steve2k2
2015 Jul 10
Really good. You can certainly hear the difference very clearly even on cheap headphones. Thanx.
10guthrie
2014 Dec 03
Nice tutorial, but like most of the video's on pure mix its hardly ever mentioned about the mix room and space! Your room is obviously treated, but making decisions about 2 buss eq and compression to help the mastering engineer may well be hindering the mastering engineer, is it taken as read that your subscribers mix in properly treated environments?
Kind regards
Brian Emerson.
benlindell
2014 Apr 07
Thanks for watching Frederik.
1) I chose my 2bus compressors by what I feel a track needs at a certain moment in time, my opinions are always changing. On this particular day I was feeling that the song needed a compressor that not only glued things together but also added some more character.
2) Yes I always send whatever version of the mix was approved by the client with all the processing intact. I always print a LOUD version that's at a "mastered" level (using a peak limiter) and a not loud version so there's additional headroom to work with in mastering.
Fbhall
2014 Mar 31
Great tweaks, Ben:)
A couple of questions:
1) Any particular reason why you chose the Fatso over, say the SSL or any clean sounding comp?
2 Would you send the processed version to mastering or?
Best
Frederik
rlooney
2014 Mar 27
Cleaned up the unneeded low-end on the mix. Nice job and nice tutorial. Thanks, Ben!
