In this tutorial, you will learn how to mix music in Pro Tools.
Fab mixes a full song, step by step, explaining every setting, using only Pro Tools 9 stock plug-ins. If you are using the latest Pro Tools 12 or Ultimate version, do not worry, most plug-ins are still present in the latest Pro Tools versions.
The attached zip file contains the original uncompressed files of the session.
Please download it and import these files in the DAW you use to make music (It does not necessarily have to be Pro Tools!) This way you can practice your skills and mix this song using your own tastes, tools, plug-ins and the guidelines provided in this video.
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00:00:07 Good morning children! Today,
we're going to mix a song together,
using nothing
but stock Pro Tools 9 plug-ins.
00:00:13 You know, the ones that come free
when you buy the DAW.
00:00:15 The artist name is Happy Roads,
the song's name is "She won't go",
of the album "Find me",
produced by Bob Muller. I urge you
to find the album, it's really good.
00:00:24 First things first, when I get a song
like this, that I don't know,
before I start mixing, I listen
to the rough mix,
or to the raw session,
before anything else,
so I get a vibe for the tone
of what I'm looking for.
00:00:36 That's what we're gonna do first!
This is the raw session for "She won't go".
00:02:05 Cool.
00:02:06 So here the point - I think -
of the song,
what they mean to do, is have a small
intimate verse,
and then hit you really hard
on the chorus when the bass drum hits.
00:02:14 That's what the emotion comes from.
00:02:16 I'm gonna focus on the chorus, because
that's where everybody is playing,
and you get to see the mixing of everything,
and how they interact with each other.
00:02:23 The first thing I do
is look for the vocal,
because this is pop music,
and it's a vocal thing.
00:02:28 Let's position ourselves
right at the top of the second chorus,
make a loop...
00:02:34 and find the vocal,
and see what it says.
00:02:38 This is a stem, so there's reverb
printed on it.
00:02:42 I'm gonna listen to it,
and listen to s's...
00:02:45 levels, is it even?
Does it need to be compressed?
Brightness, is it bright enough?
You know... on its own,
before I meld it into the song.
00:02:53 Let's listen to that.
00:03:07 Ok, lots of s's...
00:03:17 Ok, great singer!
Great singer who needs de-essing.
00:03:22 So let's put a De-esser on.
00:03:26 Digi stock De-esser,
I think it's really good.
00:03:29 I'm thinking 7k, and let's find out
how much it needs.
00:03:32 I'm gonna do it HF Only, so it doesn't
affect the signal too much.
00:03:36 Here we go.
00:03:40 It caught the T, that's nice.
00:03:49 Just so you remember, it sounded
like this without the de-essing.
00:04:00 We get hit in the head by the s's,
and especially the "She won't go".
Now with the de-esser, much nicer...
00:04:13 Ok, I think that's gonna do just fine.
00:04:16 I'm feeling like
I need a little bit of air.
00:04:19 So I'm gonna use an EQ.
00:04:23 Where is it? Here!
I tend to high-pass by default.
00:04:28 I'm thinking of making tee-shirts
that say: "High-pass everything."
Because: A, it doesn't hurt,
it's not like there's anything going on
at 100Hz down there,
but maybe there's a rumble, maybe there's
somebody hitting a mike stand...
00:04:40 I always high-pass everything, it makes
room for everybody else.
00:04:42 I'm gonna do a very broad,
a very gentle shelf, like this.
00:04:47 With the Digi plug-in, you can actually
soften it this way,
so you don't hear this big hole there.
00:04:53 You see, there's a hole here?
I don't wanna hear that.
00:04:55 I want it to be just a gentle rise...
and it would sound like this.
00:05:02 As opposed to this.
00:05:06 Do you hear how it's a little nosy?
She's got a little bit of a nose thing
going here.
00:05:14 And now...
00:05:18 That's nice and more open.
00:05:20 I would also probably kind of tuck in
that 300 area, where that nose is,
just to help out.
00:05:30 It feels more contained,
it actually feels more compressed.
00:05:33 If I remove what I've done...
This is the flat.
00:05:45 And now, with.
00:06:00 You see what I mean?
It's all in the energy
that comes at you from the vocal,
not always in the top, sometimes
it's in the bottom.
00:06:07 In this case, it's in the 300 area.
00:06:09 There's that energy that comes
on the attack that's kind of annoying,
and would stick out of the track.
00:06:13 So, just a couple of dBs down at 300Hz,
and it's gone,
and you don't have to worry about it.
00:06:17 We should probably put
a little compression on it...
00:06:20 and this is just to give it solidity.
00:06:23 Not that much, this is the standard
Digi default settings,
let's listen to them,
maybe they work...
00:06:31 Or maybe they're completely obnoxious!
Let's soften that a little bit,
let's see...
00:06:37 I don't need that much compression,
I don't need everything
to be compressed all the time.
00:06:44 That's neat.
00:06:46 Maybe lenghten...
00:06:53 I'm gonna lengthen
the Release a little bit,
so when it compresses, it gives
this solidity to it,
and compress a tiny bit more.
00:07:00 So...
when I say compress a tiny bit more,
it means: compress earlier
in the process on the lower levels,
but have less effect...
So do it more often, but less of it.
00:07:16 I like that.
00:07:22 It's a little much...
00:07:25 but it gives a nice vibe. Check it out.
So this is without.
00:07:41 And this is with.
00:07:56 Much smoother and together.
00:07:58 It doesn't sound too compressed,
and it will not sound compressed
at all in the track.
00:08:02 The next thing I would do here
is, although there's already...
00:08:06 reverb on the stem
that the producer sent me,
I would probably try and integrate that
with the reverbs that I'm gonna use
for my song.
00:08:15 Instead of having all that different
reverbs, I'd like to use one reverb
for everything in the song, so I get
kind of a together kind of vibe.
00:08:22 In this case, I'm using the AIR reverb.
00:08:24 I made myself a preset
out of their Hall preset.
00:08:27 It's using the Scoring Stage Type,
which is a nice wide hall.
00:08:31 This is the sauce of the mix.
00:08:33 Next to it here, I have a short reverb.
00:08:35 That's the back wall,
that's how I create depth in the mix.
00:08:39 Or that's how I lengthen...
00:08:42 the perception of instruments
that have been recorded too close,
like vocals, or percussions that have
been recorded very, very close.
00:08:47 Here, I have a 1/4 note delay.
00:08:49 Yes, it's a 1/4 note delay, because
I'm counting this song double time,
it's not an 1/8th note delay.
Then I have an 1/8th note delay.
00:08:55 I'm using the standard Digi plug-ins.
They sound great, they're repeaters.
00:08:58 If you wanna give them more vibe,
you can use the low-pass filter.
00:09:01 In this case, I'm using them clean,
because I really want something that's
cushiony and a little glistening,
so I like to keep it nice and open.
And those are clocked.
00:09:12 Here's the 1/4...
00:09:14 Here's the 1/8th.
00:09:16 Then, I'm using the Ensemble,
it's an AIR plug-in
that sort of resembles
an SPX 90 Ensemble preset,
I'm sure that's what they meant,
because it sounds really close.
00:09:25 And it's a pitch-shifting trick,
you know, how you can change
the pitch on the left,
and change the pitch
on the right of the same signal,
and then you blend the pitched signal
with the original signal,
and things sound a little kind of wide,
and an assembly,
like in a choir kind of vibe.
00:09:40 I'm using that to soften things,
and make the choir sound more choirly
or a little otherworldly.
00:09:47 First, I'm gonna listen to the reverb.
00:09:53 Less, obviously...
00:09:57 You see? It's not the cleanest reverb,
but it's actually doing
exactly what I want.
00:10:04 It's giving the air above the head.
00:10:06 And then, if I use the other one...
00:10:11 Ambience, here we go.
00:10:13 Lots of Ambience, so you can hear it.
00:10:15 I'm gonna turn the other one off,
so you can really focus on the Ambience.
00:10:21 Now you hear,
there's kind of a back wall going on.
00:10:24 Without.
00:10:28 With.
00:10:33 So instead of everything being there,
the attacks, they're kind of like deeper.
And the two reverbs together...
00:10:42 That's nice and smooth.
I play it again.
00:10:48 Cool. I'm happy with that.
00:10:50 Now, I'm probably gonna go
look at the bass.
00:10:56 And listen to it...
00:11:11 Funky! So...
00:11:14 The first thing I'm gonna do
is probably high-pass that.
00:11:19 Why would I want to high-pass a bass?
Well check it out.
00:11:21 Listen to it again
without high-passing.
00:11:32 Fair enough.
00:11:33 Now I'm gonna high-pass this
fairly severely,
say 24dBs per octave, turn it on,
in the 30 range.
00:11:39 This is high-passed.
00:11:45 Again, without.
00:11:52 And with.
00:11:59 The articulation is better.
It actually sounds a little fatter.
00:12:01 How's that possible?
Well, if you remove the stuff
that you don't need,
there's more energy left
for the stuff you need.
00:12:10 In this case, I'm probably gonna go
even a little higher...
00:12:13 and see how that does.
00:12:20 There's a little bit of a "mmm" thing,
in the middle there.
00:12:23 I'm probably gonna try and find it,
and remove it with this.
00:12:27 I'm assuming it's in the 100 range.
00:12:33 That!
The resonance there. I do not like.
00:12:37 So I'm gonna take it down
and make it a little narrower...
00:12:41 like this!
So now, check this out.
00:12:44 Our corrections...
00:12:51 Before our corrections...
00:12:58 If you listen to this on your computer
speakers, you're missing out!
Make sure you listen to this,
so you can hear the bottom.
00:13:04 Speakers are great,
or good headphones.
00:13:07 I'll do it again. Without...
00:13:15 With.
00:13:22 Cleaner!
I also would like it...
00:13:24 to hit me a little more in the chest.
00:13:25 Right now, it's all like balls,
but no chest.
00:13:28 So let's give it a little bit
of that 300 ring.
00:13:33 It sounds like this.
I'll start without, and add it.
00:13:39 Yeah!
Again, without.
00:13:52 And with.
00:13:59 It starts to be more dense,
more compact.
00:14:02 And then,
I'm gonna compress it a little bit.
00:14:05 This one, yes, thank you!
So...
00:14:07 Do I need to squash this bass?
No! It's been cut to tape,
well done, the transients
are already tight,
the playing is great,
it's already very compact.
00:14:16 I'm just trying to...
00:14:19 get it to be even more compact,
but gently of course.
We're civilized people here.
00:14:25 Check it out.
00:14:28 That's too much.
00:14:32 That's nice.
00:14:33 Maybe a little longer...
Release.
00:14:39 I like that.
00:14:41 Maybe a little less of the Ratio.
00:14:46 So we started here.
00:14:51 See how the "Ting-a-Dink" sticks out
a little bit? With this...
00:14:58 Everybody is more together.
00:15:10 So, to summarize...
00:15:13 we started here...
00:15:22 And now we're here.
00:15:30 A little more presence, and a little
less peaks on the hits that he slaps with.
00:15:35 So, with the vocal,
it sounds like this.
00:15:50 Great!
Now, I'm gonna go to the bass drum.
00:15:53 I'm gonna bring the bass drum in this,
because I wanna know right away
what the bottom is gonna be like...
00:15:58 and the bass drum is half the bottom.
00:16:00 The bass drum tends to be
a very important instrument
that takes a lot of room
in the mix.
00:16:05 So I wanna make sure that I'm actually
positioning my bass and my vocal
vis-à-vis my bass drum, as opposed to
just doing my thing,
and then bringing my bass drum later,
and being screwed,
because I don't have
enough room for it.
00:16:18 In this case, the bass drum is
one microphone,
or maybe there were two microphones,
but they were printed to one tape.
00:16:24 So here we go.
00:16:32 Let's listen to it with the bass.
00:16:40 We already notice that the bass
is too loud.
00:16:42 I'm gonna bring it down,
so we can hear the bass drum better.
00:16:45 It's always better to bring
the loud instrument down
than to bring the quiet instrument up.
00:16:50 Bringing the loud instrument down
saves you trouble later. Here we go.
00:17:00 What do we do with this bass drum?
It sounds great, right?
I think it could have a little more
"oomph" at the very bottom,
I think it could be
a little more open on top,
and also, I think it could be
a little tighter,
just a little bit tighter,
as far as dynamics goes.
00:17:12 A tiny, tiny bit.
00:17:14 The first thing I'm gonna do is,
you guessed it...
00:17:16 I'm gonna high-pass it.
00:17:20 Here we go.
00:17:21 Something like this...
It sounds like this.
00:17:29 A little higher...
00:17:32 With.
00:17:37 Without.
00:17:41 Isn't that fascinating?
I'll do it again.
Check it out without...
00:17:50 And now, with the high-pass.
I'm actually removing some bottom.
00:17:59 It's tighter, more compact,
it's actually fatter.
00:18:02 Again, just like with the bass,
good trick.
00:18:05 Now, there's a little nose there too,
that conflicts with the bass.
00:18:09 I'm gonna try and find that.
00:18:11 I'm gonna look to see
if it's in the same space.
00:18:13 I think it's a little higher.
00:18:18 That!
I don't like that.
00:18:28 So we started here.
00:18:34 And now, we're here.
00:18:39 All we've done is remove stuff.
It still sounds better and louder and fatter.
00:18:44 I'm gonna open the top a little bit,
because I wanna hear that beater
a little harder than I do right now.
00:18:54 Without.
00:18:57 With.
00:19:00 Without.
00:19:03 With.
00:19:07 So that's nice!
I have...
00:19:09 a tighter bottom,
a more open top,
it goes very well with the bass.
00:19:13 I'm gonna put a compressor on it.
00:19:16 I'm really gonna kiss it,
more than compress it.
00:19:18 I just want to do this.
00:19:21 I don't want it to,
like... hang like this,
I want it to be a little more compact.
00:19:25 To do that, I'm gonna compress it
very little, like this.
00:19:30 Maybe 2:1...
00:19:32 Close the Attack a little bit
to catch the transients...
00:19:36 That's good.
00:19:38 Some Make-up Gain,
so we listen to it at the same level.
00:19:40 So now, listen without.
00:19:49 And now, with.
00:19:50 Listen for the density, the attack,
and the attitude of it.
00:19:54 It's at the same level.
00:19:59 Actually, it's a little louder.
I'm lying to you.
00:20:01 Take it down a little...
00:20:08 That was with. Without.
00:20:15 That sounds a little real to me.
00:20:17 And I don't want this to sound real,
I want it to sound big.
00:20:20 So, with a little bit of compression...
00:20:27 Because my Attack is a little bit open,
it lets the transients go through
so I get a little more
of that initial attack,
and then, I get the density of
everything else being a little compressed,
so it's just a little... like that.
00:20:40 I like that very much.
And the two of them together is lovely.
00:20:42 Let's open the snare!
So in this case, I'm not quite sure
what I'm gonna do
until I listen to the overheads too,
because the snare by itself
doesn't tell me much.
00:21:00 So, snare and overheads...
00:21:08 I'm gonna take the overheads down.
00:21:21 Alright.
00:21:22 What I'm hearing here is that
no matter what I do,
I'm gonna have trouble getting presence
on the snare,
because these overheads are crucial
to the tone, but they're pretty far away.
00:21:31 First things first...
00:21:33 I'm probably gonna high-pass it,
just because we can.
00:21:44 Notice how the bass drum bleed is less.
00:21:47 Also, that little ring at the bottom there
is annoying.
00:21:51 So I'm gonna leave the bottom
as a low shelf like this,
and try and find
where that resonance is.
00:21:59 Ok.
00:22:00 We started... here.
00:22:03 And now...
00:22:05 On its own, it sounds a little thin,
and not necessarily pleasant.
00:22:09 But I'm probably gonna use the direct mike
to get the presence and the snap,
and use a lot of the tone from here...
00:22:18 the overhead.
00:22:21 Another EQ...
00:22:23 on the overhead.
Here we go.
00:22:26 Definitely high-passing that...
00:22:32 Ok. And now,
the three of them together.
00:22:37 Ok.
00:22:42 I went too far, and I made it too thin,
so I'm gonna...
00:22:46 go back on the close snare, and get
a little more of the bottom,
which is what I need.
00:22:51 That was a miscalculation on my part.
Here we go.
00:22:55 Better.
00:22:59 Now the snare is just sitting there
like dead fish.
00:23:01 I'm gonna compress it
and try and give it a vibe.
00:23:04 Go back to just the snare...
00:23:08 So...
00:23:11 If I close the Release, it's starting
to pump a little.
00:23:15 Maybe a little more like this.
00:23:19 Ok. Maybe a little more.
00:23:23 So we started here.
00:23:27 And now, we're here.
00:23:33 See how it has a little more sustain?
It's got a little more of a vibe.
00:23:36 It still sounds a little honky.
00:23:39 So I'm gonna do another EQ after.
00:23:42 Why would I have two EQs,
one before, one after?
If you notice here, I'm just high-passing
and removing stuff that's in the way,
that probably
would freak the compressor out,
further than I really want it
to be freaked out.
00:23:52 And then, here I'm gonna do
my enhancing.
00:23:55 If I were to do my enhancing before,
which I can do,
but say for example, if I add 4dBs at 6k
on this snare, before the compressor,
then everytime that it hits the compressor,
it's gonna slap it hard.
00:24:07 If I do it after, the compressor
is gonna leave it alone.
00:24:10 So, how about this?
And... a little higher.
00:24:22 I like that. Without.
00:24:26 With.
00:24:27 That's nice.
And then a little bit of a shine here.
00:24:32 Yeah.
00:24:35 So, without.
00:24:43 With.
00:24:47 Obviously, we're getting the presence
here, and it's clipping like crazy.
00:24:51 So what I'm gonna do,
because it was recorded too loud,
is I'm gonna pad the input
of the first plug-in down 6dB,
so that I don't clip the input.
Which means what?
Which means that I have to go back
and reajust my threshold here.
00:25:08 And raise my level.
00:25:15 So we started here.
00:25:23 Which sounds great by itself,
but in the track was too much.
00:25:26 And now, we're here.
00:25:30 We definitely get more bite,
more presence, and a funkier attack.
00:25:34 With the three of them together,
it sounds like this.
00:25:44 Now, did I do good
to make it so bright?
What if I remove my plug-ins?
It sounds like this.
00:25:53 No presence.
00:25:56 I know by experience that this is gonna be
a problem when everybody is playing,
the snare is gonna sound far away,
and the producer is gonna call and say:
the snare sounds far away.
00:26:05 I'm gonna anticipate this right now,
and make it a little too bright by itself,
but overall, it's gonna sound great.
00:26:11 So, with the bass...
00:26:28 Now, that's great...
00:26:30 but that's not enough.
00:26:33 So I'm gonna set up a crush bus,
or a parallel processing for the drums.
00:26:38 So I have it here, called CRUSH.
There's nothing on it right now.
00:26:42 What I'm gonna do is send
all three drum tracks to it,
into the Aux called CRUSH,
which bears its name very well.
00:26:52 I'm gonna set those tracks
so you can see them like this.
00:26:55 What I do usually is I select
those three tracks,
and I go to Edit, Automation,
Copy To Send, and this is Send E...
00:27:06 What did that do?
That copied my balance between
the three instruments to the Aux,
neatly, without having to do it by hand.
Rock'n'roll!
And then, I'm gonna make
those three tracks Pre,
so now I can have
one mix for the dry sound,
and one mix
for the crushed sound up here,
and they're different,
because these Auxes are pre-fader.
00:27:27 And then, I'm gonna put
a compressor on there.
00:27:30 And I'm gonna crush
the hell out of those drum tracks.
00:27:33 Because these are in Pre, I'm able
to listen to just the CRUSH bus.
00:27:40 Oh yeah!
Open this.
00:27:42 Close the Release to make it pump.
00:27:45 Be wholly uncivilized...
00:27:56 Ok. Cool...
00:28:01 We're getting the drums a face-lift.
Fair enough.
00:28:03 We're not gonna use this as is, as you've
seen in the Parallel Processing video,
we're gonna use it
to enhance what's already there.
00:28:11 I'm gonna high-pass the bottom...
Surprise!
And then, there's that little ring here...
00:28:23 A little lower.
00:28:25 Yeah.
00:28:33 That's better.
00:28:35 And now,
I'm gonna turn the other drums back on,
and then tuck this under.
00:28:47 Interesting.
00:28:49 I think it probably would work
even better if I make it less stereo,
and more in your face,
mono in the middle like this.
00:29:00 With bass...
00:29:14 You noticed I'm clipping
on the CRUSH bus.
00:29:16 That's because I'm getting out of here
way too loud.
00:29:19 So I'm gonna take it down on the output
of the compressor,
so it's no longer clipping after that.
00:29:31 And then, bring the output out.
00:29:45 That sounds great!
Now...
00:29:47 with the vocals, just to see
how it feels,
and maybe a tiny bit of reverb on that snare,
just to see if it sounds good.
00:29:54 You know, curiosity....
00:30:22 It already could sound like a record
for a very minimalist producer.
00:30:26 Next, I know there's two loops
that I'm gonna bring in,
because I wanna fill in the groove.
What do they sound like by themselves?
I think they sound great, but I foresee
a problem with the bass drum. Check it out.
00:30:45 And the bass.
00:30:53 In the sauce, that's gonna be too much.
00:30:55 So all I'm gonna do to this
is probably just high-pass
the very bottom of the loops,
so that all that extended low end
doesn't get in the way
of our driven bass drum.
00:31:08 It sounds like this. Did you notice
I just copied from one to the other?
A little higher.
00:31:18 You see, now they hang better.
00:31:22 Without the high-pass on the loops.
00:31:31 With.
00:31:36 Subtle, but useful.
00:31:38 Also, the one on the left is annoyingly
bright to me, I'm gonna low-pass that.
00:31:45 So that way, it's not in the way
of the vocal, which is here.
00:31:59 There's also a percussion track.
00:32:01 Listen to the transients and the attack,
especially of the lower pitched tone.
00:32:13 I don't like that... thing.
So what I'm gonna do is...
00:32:17 get rid of whatever garbages there...
00:32:23 by high-passing it.
00:32:25 That's already better.
00:32:27 And do maybe a little bit of
a peak limiting kind of trick,
using this compressor, and just kiss
that little "ding ding" thing.
00:32:35 Kiss it!
So, without.
00:32:50 With.
00:32:54 It just gets those things
to not do that.
00:32:57 Now with the drums, and all our stuff
that we have so far, and the loops...
00:33:03 Get rid of him. And the bass...
It sounds like this.
00:33:13 Alright! What else do we have?
There is a tabla.
00:33:16 Let's listen to the tabla.
00:33:22 I'm gonna have the same problem
with this as the rest. It's too fat.
00:33:26 It's gonna be in the way, and the whole
track is gonna sound too fat.
00:33:29 So I'm gonna make it less fat!
With.
00:33:37 Without.
00:33:40 I can afford to go a little higher.
00:33:46 The tabla sounds great,
it's really well recorded,
but it sounds a little close
for the vibe I'm going for.
00:33:51 I'm gonna put a little bit of the Ambience
in it to push it back in the mix.
00:33:55 Check it out.
First, I'm gonna play it dry,
and then I'm gonna raise this fader
and add more of the Ambience.
00:34:05 That's nice. Without.
00:34:08 Super dry. With.
00:34:12 Just a bit slapback kind of like
the back of a room kind of vibe.
00:34:15 And with the drums, it's nice.
00:34:20 Bass.
00:34:22 Loops.
00:34:26 Percussion.
00:34:37 And the vocals.
00:34:48 Everything is nice and together.
00:34:50 I think I could do the same Ambience
on the percussion as I have on the tabla.
00:34:54 The two of them together
sounds like this.
00:35:00 Without the A mbience.
00:35:03 Boring.
00:35:04 This sounds like a recording.
00:35:09 This sounds more
like the real thing to me.
00:35:12 Everybody is nicely blended together.
00:35:15 Now I'm gonna start thinking
about tonal instruments.
00:35:18 If you think I'm going really fast
on these percussions, you're right!
I'm going fast
because they're well recorded.
00:35:24 Do they need compression, EQs, things?
No! They sound great, leave them alone.
00:35:29 And they have vibe.
They don't need to be helped.
00:35:32 So what else do I have on this chorus?
Let's listen to this guitar.
00:35:46 That's great.
00:35:48 Again, that's a little bit too much
like a documentary to me.
00:35:51 I wanna make a vibe out of this.
00:35:53 I'm actually gonna start
with the compression
because those peaks are annoying me.
00:35:57 And then, I will see
if I need EQ after that.
00:36:01 First things first, let's try and find
those peaks and tame them a little bit.
00:36:13 Very long notes.
So I'm gonna lengthen the Release,
so I can really stay on top
of the whole sound.
00:36:23 Ok. I like this overcompressed tone
for this.
00:36:26 This is too much compression,
but I like it.
00:36:29 That's cool.
00:36:36 Cool. So, on this, I'm probably
gonna use my delays to give it a vibe.
00:36:42 So, let's try the 1/4 Note,
and the 1/8th Note delay right away.
00:36:49 I tend to have those set up
in every session.
00:36:55 That's the 1/4.
00:36:56 That's nice. And then the 1/8th note
is a super wide delay.
00:37:04 That's cool.
00:37:06 And then, I have an Ensemble too...
00:37:10 called Le Spread.
00:37:19 A little bit of a like 80s chorus
kind of vibe,
because the 80s are far away enough
that it's no longer shameful to do the same.
00:37:31 Ok, cool, that works.
00:37:33 And then, I think it's a little
too aggressive in the top.
00:37:35 So I'm gonna maybe tuck that.
00:37:41 That's gentler. High-pass it,
just because I can.
00:37:48 Ok. So we started here.
00:37:57 And now we have this.
00:38:05 How does this sound in context with
the bass
and all our percussions
that we worked on so far?
It works!
Next instrument is that Whistle thing.
00:38:41 Besides the "Na, Na", that's a little
aggressive, I think it's fine as is.
00:38:45 I'm gonna try and find that resonance
and get rid of it.
00:38:48 Hear it again. "La, la, la, la".
Listen to the resonance on that note.
00:38:59 I vote for 1k -ish.
00:39:07 Much better, now you can listen to it
in the track.
00:39:30 Ok. It sounds good there.
That's really the back wall, right?
Then, there's this thing I forgot
when I did the vocals.
00:39:36 There's this other vocal track
that appeared out of nowhere.
00:39:42 So that's really a pad,
more than a vocal track.
00:39:49 I like it.
00:39:50 What I would usually do when I mix
is probably copy the settings over.
00:39:55 Because I'm lazy.
00:39:57 And because it's recorded
by the same guy, and the same singer.
00:40:01 So good chance it's gonna work.
00:40:08 Actually, it doesn't need
to be so bright.
00:40:13 If you compare with the whistle,
it's the same range.
00:40:20 It does need reverb...
00:40:23 to give it an eerie sound,
and a more faraway sound,
and I think I'm gonna try
the Spread on it too.
00:40:29 I'm copying it over from here,
and maybe less of it.
00:40:37 What if I put the Spread
on that obnoxious Whistle thing?
Oh yeah!
It's a little gentler, a little softer,
a little dreamier, I like.
00:40:51 So, what do we have?
Choir, Lead vocal,
Whistle, Guitar FX, bass,
two loops, Percussion, Tabla,
the 3 drum tracks, and the CRUSH bus.
And it sounds like this.
00:41:30 You noticed at the end there,
it goes "Away" on the choir track,
and that's way too quiet.
00:41:35 So I'm gonna raise that. If you did not
notice, you will this time...
00:41:40 Find it...
00:41:50 Ok, I like that.
00:41:52 Now we have a full chorus,
and we actually went through everything
that's playing on the chorus.
00:41:58 I like everything.
I may...
00:42:04 That snare still sounds
a little too real for me.
00:42:08 So, I don't think it deserves to be
so verbatim.
00:42:13 Maybe I can find something that's gonna
make it sound a little off.
00:42:18 What do we have here?
Lo-Fi! Let's try that!
It's just the snare.
00:42:29 That's kinda cool.
00:42:33 I'll do it again.
00:42:35 Yeah! I like that.
00:42:40 Nobody tells the producer I'm doing this.
He doesn't want to know.
00:42:48 Original.
00:42:51 With. Again.
00:42:57 In the context of the drums.
00:43:04 Without.
00:43:10 I think we can gain a few years
by using this on that.
00:43:19 Since we already have an 80s reference,
and since nobody's gonna
sue me for this,
how about we put a non-linear
kind of like gate reverb on it?
Just to say we can.
00:43:31 Maybe a little less.
00:43:37 Wide. Shorter. Again.
00:43:42 Without.
00:43:45 With.
00:43:47 That's kinda cool.
The whole drums.
00:43:51 That actually has kind of the same vibe
as the loops, right?
This is the whole chorus with the last
two tricks I did on the snare
to try and give it some vibe,
and then without.
00:44:06 First, with.
00:44:20 And then without.
00:44:28 I vote with.
00:44:30 So at this point,
I have all my tones,
most spaces I'm pretty happy with.
00:44:36 Probably, actually I'm starting to get
an idea that it may be a good idea
to have the reverb on the drums,
on the CRUSH drums,
as opposed to have it on the snare
by itself.
00:44:47 That may actually give it more
of a spread, and sound less weak.
00:44:53 Let's go back to the rough mix,
listen for a few bars,
and then switch to the mix, so we can get
a before/after, with and without plug-ins.
00:45:00 Here we go.
Rough mix.
00:45:16 Mix.
00:45:33 Ok, I dig this.
00:45:35 It may not be the final mix, because
I have to listen to it again tomorrow
with a little distance, and I have
to bring the producer back in,
and listen to his opinion, hoping that
his opinion is not that I'm crazy.
00:45:44 So I'm gonna send it to him,
and wait for the phone call.
00:45:47 As a reminder, this whole mix was done
with the great stock plug-ins of Pro Tools 9.
00:45:52 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.
That DRUM PARALLEL COMP trick : putting the PC more mono is AMAZING. Is an great effect.
MICKY
2022 Jul 09
EXELENTE MAESTRO TIENE MI ADMIRACION FAB DUPONT COMPLETA
azazealmusic
2020 May 23
I take back my earlier statement about the song tempo being 81.5. He's got the tempo running double time, so it's 163bpm.
azazealmusic
2020 May 22
Tempo is 81.5 bpm
rwhitney
2020 Jan 30
What a great teacher!
thayajessie
2018 Sep 14
Great Video. Thanks for Pure Mix and Avid making me a Pro.
tomas.darthes
2017 Nov 30
Great Video! Is it possible that the exercise files are not working? I get compression error when i try to open them.
tee.b
2017 Apr 28
Awesome video!!
AirMusic
2017 Mar 14
WHATS THE TEMPO OF THE SONG ?
AirMusic
2017 Mar 14
Great instructional video, stock plugins get very little attention but you have shown their potential in less than 1 hour.
rmoreno
2016 Aug 20
Hi Fab I'd like to see you mixing song but using dangerous 2bus+ only without hardware.
mnsshmusic
2016 Aug 15
Very Informative, but since I don't have the same set up as he has in pro tools I'm struggling to follow up with his steps as they are only briefly explained.
rmoreno
2016 Jul 11
Great video. I see how you used the d-box here. Thanks
Aledes
2015 Feb 19
yahhh great work!
MarcioHenrique
2014 Nov 13
Great! Very Nice
cleliaaltair
2014 Jul 15
Un petit côté Grace J...
Nice.
oscarim
2014 Jun 24
Hi Fab.
your tutorial is very informative, but I would like to know the tempo of the song for setting dela.
thank you
White Cat Studio
2014 Feb 10
Another great video from Fab....
Just one question: I've noticed that you never used gate on kick drum or snare drum to clean the track. Why?
Cheers!!
kawamedavis
2013 Dec 24
i really have to say after my network is running smooth now. & then watching this tutorial i have a very good idea & feel much more confident that i can totally do a mix on some other peoples tracks & make them sound as good or if not closer. SHOUT OUTs to FAB & Guilaume. i will be watching much more of these videos.
victorsanti
2013 May 28
Awesome.
nbranch
2013 Feb 12
Concise. No nonsense. Another great video from Fab! However, if anyone else is interested in hearing more of the featured artist, the name is actually Happy Rhodes.
mrsunnycliff
2012 Jul 07
Amazing job using only PT9 stock plug-ins, gave the simple song some vibe and character like Fab... Love the new send level automation trick to the CRUSH track. Nice-
Becky Jo Benson
2012 Jun 19
Fab, thank you for mentioning headphones. There I was, listening through the computer speakers (Dahh)
Thank you for helping me see the view from this mountain that I'm climbing. Becky Jo Benson
joshwoods
2012 May 22
I would definitely buy your "high-pass everthing" shirt! :)
karim
2011 Nov 25
- You could enable the download of the pro tools session with the processing shown in the video, so we can tweak the plug-ins.
- I'm also having problems watching in full screen mode.
- I would like to be able to download the video, instead of only having the streaming option.
- I really like the teaching style. Focused, easy to understand, overall solid.
fab
2011 Nov 18
@ Icetea335
Yes I do. All the time. Now with ProTools 10 I use the clipgain function, which is nice too.
@ donobi
I don't believe this song was cut to a click. You have to use tap tempo to sync your delay. A little looseness does not hurt. It's ok unless you are delaying drums.
For reverb sends, it depends on the reverb and what you want to do. If it's a TRUE stereo reverb and if you want to sound realistic then yes, match you send pan settings.
You could just as well have a track panned left and send its signal hard right to a stereo reverb. It's fun and sounds rad. Try it.
Icetea335
2011 Nov 18
Thanks Fab!
Do you ever use trim plugins to bring down hot tracks?
dcherouny
2011 Nov 02
I can't believe I spent all that money on Waves!! These are sounding better than anything I've made in Waves
donobi
2011 Oct 29
Great video! Learned a lot, thank you! But I have two questions...hopefully somebody can help me out. What's the tempo of the song? I'd like to sync the delays correctly. My other question is: I always thought that it's important to copy the pan settings when sending tracks to reverbs or am I mistaken? I'm curious to know.
Thanks,
Thomas
surfz247
2011 Oct 04
How can you watch it Full Screen?
paulrocksuk
2011 Aug 26
Great Video, thank you. I love your approach to mixing.
Tkandrews
2011 Jun 14
This is a great video...45 minutes looked like 10 minutes.Thanks Fab
islandcode
2011 Jun 10
Oh, and it was a quick 45 minutes with you. Fast moving and no BS/filler.
Others I have watched tended to either have too much drama, were painfully slow paced and also rather boring.
We in the studio are kinda hooked to Puremix, now using downtime to learn together.
islandcode
2011 Jun 10
Thanks for the reply Fab! It shows your dedication and professionalism answering questions like mine (well, right now, I'm the only student asking these questions doh). I know you can appreciate where I'm coming from. As a working engineer, I am faced with horrendous mix situations on a regular basis; from badly prepared mix sessions to incomplete productions. Most of the mixing tutorials I've seen (and I've seen a lot) tend to work on a session that is just superbly recorded or properly prepared - which is just too far from my reality... and so on.. out of space here. tnx!
fab
2011 Jun 10
Hi Gerry,
1/ In 45 minutes we could either glaze over the whole song, or truly focus on one section. pureMix is more about in depth than general ideas. We chose the chorus because it has the live drums and is the most complicated.
2/ Yup. Producers send whatever they have. Sometimes because they are lazy, sometimes because they forget to turn off the FX when the print their stems, sometimes because they are not paying attention (Often), sometimes because that's the FX they want and it's not negotiable.
3/I have not noticed any latency problems w AIR plugins on auxes w PT9.
islandcode
2011 Jun 07
It's a great video production, AAA for production value and teaching style.
I do have some comments.
1. the mix was not of an entire song but just the chorus only?
2. do you usually get vocals like that? already processed (comp + EQ) and even with reverb printed?
3. lastly, no latency issues using AIR plugins on AUX busses?
but overall it's a great video tutorial, solid and focused!
Cheers!
starting5studio
2011 May 26
Thanks Fab, This was an amazing video. The two things that were amazing about this is 1) Your teaching style is straight forward and extremely effective. 2) The quality of the audio is the best I have heard online yet. When you bypass and/or compare before and after, I CAN HEAR; its no guessing what you have done. Great Job and I can't wait for more tutorials to be released.
yongjin.h@gmail.com
2011 May 05
Fabulous!! This is the most practical video I've ever seen.. There are many great techniques that can't be learned from books and even audio schools. I love it!
