In the final episode of Greg Well's Epic Start To Finish Series, Greg and Brian Lucey of Magic Garden Mastering, complete the master of Bryce Drew's "Lucky Number".
In part 1 of this two part mastering video, Greg and Brian cleaned up some areas of the mix with digital EQ, did broad tonal shaping with Brian's well curated analog mastering chain, and focused on a few key moments of the song with specific techniques.
In part 2, watch as Brian and Greg:
Discuss Loudness
Emphasize the bass
Discuss revisions, communication, and collaboration
Fix some "crunchiness"
Keep the energy building throughout the master
Manage the low end
Complete the production of "Lucky Number"!
This is your chance to see what an attended mastering session looks like with two of the world's most highly regarded music creators, in real-time.
00:00:26 Just before the second half of the bridge,
that plays a nice little line.
00:00:30 I should have mixed it louder.
00:00:46 I think that overall the bass could
be a hair louder in the Bridge.
00:00:53 The whole Bridge?
I think, yeah.
00:01:48 I have one less super tricky
annoying request.
00:01:51 There's a bar I want
the bass to be louder, if possible.
00:01:55 Even louder, OK.
Which one?
In the middle?
Just before the middle.
00:02:13 Five notes there.
00:02:15 Yeah.
00:02:18 Alright.
Let's see what I can do.
00:02:22 Producer's gone crazy.
00:02:27 It's tricky, we're near the limit
but let's see.
00:02:31 Push its...
00:02:48 - It helped.
- Let me try another bell here.
00:02:54 In the mid only.
00:03:24 I think that's it.
00:03:27 I don't know how you get
more bass to come out
by turning up like really kind
of mid-range frequencies
where we don't really hear the bass
but I hear the bass more.
00:03:42 It's in there, it's harmonics too,
it's not necessarily fundamentals.
00:03:47 And it just...
00:03:48 It's just hunt-and-peck really.
00:03:58 In coming out of that I think we should
keep the bass up
a little bit. So, let's just kind of
do
a little like this.
00:04:26 A little known fact but Brian
makes excellent home
made chocolate cookies
however
how on Earth are you getting
the bass guitar to come out of
the stereo mix
by cranking frequencies
where clearly
I'm not really hearing a
fundamental bass note come.
00:04:40 So,
when working in the low-end, whether be
kick drum up, down,
bass up, down, it's usually not both,
that would be a mess,
The first thing to think of is that
as we use this Mid only EQs,
whether be,
narrows or wides or combinations,
the main priority is not to
screw up the bottom as a whole
because the bottom as a whole
is part of the bigger picture of the song.
00:05:07 The track momentum
is directly tied
to the low-end as a whole.
00:05:13 So,
if we're gonna boost something,
we're probably gonna cut something.
00:05:18 Not just for a technical reason
but for a musical reason.
00:05:22 The thing here is, you know,
the quick mix,
Greg saying
more bass.
00:05:27 So,
I could
you know, we could get our numbers chart
and we could say what key is it in
or we could do all that. We don't do that.
00:05:35 We're just gonna grab
this little listening tool
and roll it around.
00:05:41 And try and pick up
some bass frequencies
that are not necessarily
fundamental frequencies
but probably more likely
harmonics,
early harmonics
of the bass.
00:05:53 The bass harmonics go way up
but the most prominent ones
are just pass the fundamental.
00:05:58 So we wanna grab those
because they're probably
living in their own space
that doesn't mess with the vocals,
doesn't mess with the kick,
doesn't mess with the rest of the song.
00:06:06 So we're gonna try to boost
those and as we boost those
we're gonna cut down here below
which is kick drum
or maybe it is just
below the fundamental.
00:06:15 I'm not sure.
00:06:16 We're gonna play with
this boost/cut ratio
to get more bass but
not jack the whole low-end into
a space that ruins the
momentum of the track.
00:06:27 A quick editor's note.
00:06:28 If you don't know
what the harmonic overtone series is
I think that's a lot
of what Brian is referring to,
check it out, it's fascinating,
it's really really cool.
00:06:38 It's a huge part of every sound we all
hear, including me talking right now.
00:06:42 It's not just one note,
there are, technically infinite amounts
of notes but we really hear it like,
you know,
probably the first three or four of...
00:06:52 Anyway, just check it out.
00:06:53 There's dozens of notes on top
of the fundamental note.
00:06:57 So, if you play the A on a guitar
and the same A on a piano
you immediately know a guitar and a piano
not because of the root note
but because of the overtone notes.
00:07:07 There's a lot of numbers here,
I'm not looking at any of that.
00:07:10 I'm just doing a little listen to,
we're rolling around.
00:07:12 You don't have to have this listen tool,
although it's a godsend,
I've only have this EQ for about
a year, the last videos we shot
I didn't use it. I mean,
I would just do it by ear.
00:07:22 This makes it even easier
but I don't rely on
solo, relying on soloing things out
is always a bad idea.
00:07:31 You use the solo feature
but then you listen and feel
the whole song, you know,
with all the frequencies.
00:07:39 So, it's a nice trick but it's not
necessary. If you don't have this EQ...
00:07:44 you should probably get it,
but if you don't have this EQ,
and you've got some other
EQ, you don't need that,
you can still just roll it around,
ignore the numbers
and try to find the bass
notes that are gonna
bring out that bass line.
00:07:57 This cut I did,
I do wanna check it though.
00:08:00 Because interestingly, if you noticed,
this section here was like
a little five note run,
that was the initiative,
bring that five note run up.
00:08:09 But what that did do is,
it did reset
the momentum expectation
for the bottom-end.
00:08:16 So then, we had to do
more low-end here as well
and that one looks like...
00:08:24 That one. Oh, I have it backwards.
00:08:27 So this one has
this crazy big peak here.
00:08:31 This is the line
with the run.
00:08:33 And then this was boosted a little bit
in the this section
to keep the momentum because
if we go back to this section
we see a smaller
amount of boost here in the mids.
00:08:47 So this was the first,
this was the second, this was the third.
00:08:53 It's a musical priority
before a technical priority
but if we can do both,
then,
everybody's happy.
00:09:01 So, let's go back now,
let's get out of the weeds.
00:09:06 Get out of the trees,
to the edge of this
little forest
where we will notice that
we dealt with the breath.
00:09:12 We dealt with a little sidestick,
we dealt with a little
momentum building
kick thing
at the top.
00:09:23 We dealt with
more bass during the run
and then maintaining
the momentum of that,
more bass but down a bit
for the rest of the section
and then coming out of it
in the next section.
00:09:35 So, we did a lot and
here's the whole package.
00:10:30 I don't like the low-end bump here.
00:10:32 It's a little out of hand
so let's mitigate a bit.
00:11:09 OK, a little more King Kong.
00:11:10 Bigger drier or bigger wetter?
Bigger drier.
00:11:15 OK, it's this one.
00:11:19 OK.
00:11:22 Like the big wide, dry,
top thing.
00:11:27 I dig everything in that moment,
except I just wanna hear like more
80 Hz or something.
00:11:32 Yeah. It's in the middle, right?
Or is it not? Is it to the side?
It's a little left.
00:11:41 Alright, so let's...
00:11:42 I'll do this one as a side EQ.
00:11:45 And...
00:11:48 Let's try and find it.
00:12:07 Nice?
I think I can get it a little...
00:12:30 even a little more peak out of it.
00:12:32 A little more
leading edge.
00:13:19 People often ask, you know,
'How loud can you make it?'
'Or how do you think about
how loud it can go?'
This is kind of a
dumb answer, it's not a dumb question,
it's kind of a dumb answer because
how loud I can make it
and how you or someone else could make it
is gonna be totally different.
00:13:39 What's happening in this case is,
when we get to this
loudest bit of the track,
which ultimately determines
what the whole track can do,
it's just on the edge of kind
of starting to crap out, for me,
in this room.
00:13:54 So that's kind of where I'll
go with things and then send them out
and if someone wants
to go pass that, we can.
00:14:02 But probably,
you'll be OK with it.
00:14:05 You will know when you go home,
that's where we're at
in terms of the overall...
00:14:09 you know, level.
00:14:10 We're leaning in to
a little bit of a nasty but only for
the only last little bit of the song.
00:14:17 So, for me it does sound a
little crunchy in the last chorus.
00:14:20 - It is a little crunchy.
- And because I've
insisted that you boosted some
of the bass elegance,
I'm missing it in the last chorus
and I'm missing some of
the dynamics of the kick drum,
it feels a bit...
00:14:32 a bit scrunched.
00:14:33 We can do some things in there
if you wanna play with it.
We could try and clean it and try to get...
00:14:38 - Let's chase it.
- OK.
00:14:41 Because it does get a little...
00:14:43 Partly...
Let's check the mix.
00:14:45 Let me just boost the mix up quite a bit.
00:15:00 Alright, so it's me.
00:15:01 The mix is fine.
00:17:01 Let's hear from like, the Bridge.
00:17:54 It doesn't sound crunchy anymore
but there's an energy drop for me.
00:17:58 There is, I agree.
00:18:10 Near the Bridge we really kind of went
maybe too far.
00:18:14 So we have two choices,
we can lower the whole
song before the last chorus
or we can maybe just look at the Bridge.
00:18:20 Because the Bridge is pretty hot.
00:18:22 Let's look at the momentum from,
you know,
this section versus the section before.
00:18:46 I grabbed all this,
I'm gonna save it so I can undo,
I'm gonna pull this whole
bit down maybe about
two tenths of a dB,
let's see what happens.
00:19:32 Another thing we can do...
Are you OK with that?
I would split the difference.
00:19:36 With the Bridge, OK?
From there?
Yeah.
00:20:06 So, that was 8 hundreds of a dB,
that whole section down.
00:20:10 And then we have also,
this nice little
place here,
this is a good place to fade
after the Bridge.
00:20:17 We can fade a little
more, perhaps.
00:20:19 And set up
the final Chorus level.
00:20:39 Still not quite enough, is it?
It helps.
00:20:44 So, you know,
I'm bringing this down a little,
bringing this Chorus up a little,
just trying to play with it,
and we're in the
tenth last of a dB.
00:21:07 Might as well fade this up.
00:21:09 Starting here.
00:21:11 It's going from the lower to a higher,
I'll just let it ramp up.
00:21:57 So, that's one option,
or, another...
00:22:00 Another option is
I'll copy this down here.
00:22:06 And...
00:22:07 Bring back Mr...
00:22:11 Brightening compression.
00:22:15 Let's take the EQ out, just for fun.
00:22:49 Too poppy?
Check the console mix.
00:22:53 Because I like what's going on,
although it didn't
sound mastered to me,
but I like what's
going on down low.
00:22:59 - In the console mix?
- Yeah.
00:23:09 Just tight?
Just sounds right to me,
I don't know how to articulate it.
00:23:14 It's bright and tight.
00:23:16 The vocal is up,
the kick and the bass are way back.
00:23:19 To mitigate a little bit because
we're a long way from that now,
in terms of our bass
and kick overall...
00:24:00 So, I think this
compressed thing is a
better starting place.
00:24:05 And then maybe just,
clean up a little bottom end.
00:24:45 The only way cleaner than
that, which we could do
is just have to bring
the whole thing down.
00:24:49 Because at this point we're in
the world of analog distortion
from like,
80 Hz down.
00:24:55 Let's bring it all down.
00:24:57 So we can bring it all down.
00:24:58 Let's bring it all down,
I don't mind that.
00:25:00 I want this last Chorus obviously
to be as cathartic and sort of...
00:25:04 plus, we've raised the key
so all the bass
notes are higher.
00:25:08 But I still want to have that kind of...
00:25:10 OK, so let's just do a half dB here.
00:25:14 Take this one from 7 to 6.5.
00:25:30 Or...
00:25:51 I think it's actually,
without the compression,
the plug-in compression
is always a little crappy.
00:25:57 And we don't have any of that in the track,
so I'm gonna mix that idea.
00:26:01 I think this is now pretty
close to the mix louder.
00:26:22 Can I hear that last
Chorus with like a little
20 Hz up?
Super super low.
00:26:31 Sure.
00:26:32 It will add to
tendency to crap out.
00:26:35 You know?
That low stuff, maybe not 20,
we're talking like...
00:26:39 40.
00:26:40 Like super low.
00:27:12 OK, so we listen from
the second Chorus now?
It's still not as
opened as I want.
00:28:57 I know we're cranking
and everything
but it's starting to...
00:29:01 a miss that like...
00:29:03 The final Chorus in your mix is quite
thin and sort of lean
so let me just take out.
00:29:10 Let me take out this...
00:29:12 I like what all the
bottom stuff is doing
in that mix,
like the bass and the kick drum.
00:29:16 I'm missing that hair.
00:29:20 You like what the bass
and the kick are doing
in the mix?
Yeah.
00:29:24 Because I'm saying...
00:29:27 Let's listen to the mix again
because the whole low-end
is leaner in the mix.
00:29:33 And so,
I was gonna lean out what we have,
to kind of get closer to that.
00:29:38 So that the energy
comes from the top end
and not the bottom end.
00:29:41 Sort of letting go of the momentum
through the Bridge of the bottom end
and have it just be opened up
and be top end,
that's what you were saying?
I like what you're
doing with the top.
00:29:52 OK...
00:29:53 Let's just check, maybe from here.
00:29:58 Because the low-end kind of,
the low-end fades here
and it becomes brighter.
00:30:03 We're gonna be closer here.
00:31:11 I turned the compression down
so it's a half dB, at
most, in this section.
00:31:16 I think that helps.
00:31:17 It's not smashing the bottom quite so much.
00:32:04 I like it.
00:32:05 That seemed good.
00:32:06 It seems to be
balancing the things
that need to be balanced.
00:32:11 It feels right.
00:32:13 OK, so what we did there
was...
00:32:16 you know, we worked our way through
the song and we push push push,
and we get to the final Chorus
and things were crapping out.
00:32:22 And they were crapping out
because when I started
the process
and I listened to the end of the track,
I set levels
in the analog world
for sort of the raw mix
and...
00:32:35 I just did it quickly,
so maybe I was wrong.
00:32:37 Maybe it was too hot in the first place.
00:32:39 We boxed ourselves into
a corner by pushing.
00:32:42 And we got to this final Chorus
things were crapping out because
in the analog world
part of the tone is
that you're pushing into
the limit, right?
It's like driving fast,
when you drive fast is
at the limit.
00:32:55 And with a tube amp
or preamp
or analog desk like this
things sound the best
at the limit
but there's over the line
and that line is defined by
the client who happens to be...
00:33:10 this guy.
00:33:11 So, he was saying
'I really like the mix.'
And it turns out
the mix is quite clean in the bottom
so we pushed a lot of things through
to get the bass up,
because again, it was a quick mix,
not enough bass, blah blah blah.
00:33:22 So we're getting the bass up,
we've got bass and kick,
I probably got more kick going
just as a general habit that I like,
you know,
kick and bass to be there.
00:33:30 So, we just kind of boxed
ourselves in a corner
then the question was:
Do we bring the level down
of the Chorus overall?
Yes, we did. So I did a half dB
in the analog world
before getting to the converter,
and then,
from there it was like, well...
00:33:46 Where does the energy of
that last Chorus need to be?
Greg's loving
his mix's last Chorus,
which is a brighter
thinner thing
than where we were before.
00:33:55 So we're like:
OK how do we do the
brighter/thinner thing,
which is clean
and not crapping out the analog world,
but at the same not loose
the connection to
the rest of the track
where we had done
a lot of bass guitar boosting
and my general
tonal inclination, which is to have...
00:34:12 let's say a healthy low-end
for lack of a better term.
00:34:15 So,
we kind of found a way in
that last Chorus to keep
a thread
of the low-end,
although really it did get much thinner
while the whole track got louder,
brighter, more opened.
00:34:28 It's a happy ending, basically.
00:34:30 It's a track with a happy ending.
00:34:32 So it doesn't need the darkness,
it needs more of the light
and that's where we are.
00:34:38 It's very hard to strike that balance,
On 'The Greatest Showman',
any song with tempo,
any song with drums,
this was the struggle from
section to section to section,
where everyone wanted
it to have just like,
collar grabbing, like vein popping.
00:34:53 The Verses had to feel
like the most intense thing
but how do you make the Chorus feel intense
after a really intense Verse?
It took me...
00:35:00 months to crack that
code on all those songs.
00:35:04 They never wanted to
relent, at all.
00:35:09 It was just like constant...
00:35:11 It's tough you know,
we... yeah...
00:35:14 It's easy to paint yourself
into some kind of corner.
00:35:17 Because you do want
the party to continue
and to get more boisterous
on a song like this.
00:35:22 It's tough and sometimes
taking away
like we did,
just drop the level a little bit,
gives us more room to then
crank it a bit. It's a funny balance.
00:35:33 Yeah, and in the analog world,
as far as analog mastering in particular,
I mean,
I'm doing hybrid here obviously,
but the analog desk is doing
a big part of the heavy
lifting of the tone.
00:35:46 So, low-end is where
the distortion is gonna more easily occur.
00:35:52 So, this is what accounts for
my inspiration to start mastering,
which was 90s music in general,
which was compressed
and mid-rangy
without any bottom.
00:36:00 That's a cheap, easy
lazy way to get level, basically.
00:36:05 You just cut the low-end, right?
So, what we're trying to do here
is have nice, rich, human
you know,
African rhythmic low-end
in every track.
00:36:17 But when we get to the end of a thing
we might have painted
ourselves in a corner.
00:36:21 And luckily for me,
Greg wants
a brighter, clearer low-end.
00:36:26 A brighter, clearer
happy ending
type of Chorus, where everything is all,
I forgot the word you said,
but it is releasing, it's just big.
00:36:34 Cathartic!
That was the word.
00:36:37 So that made it easier in a way
because I can pull out the low-end
which is going to be the
first thing to distort
in the analog world
where I'm pushing at all times
up into the...
00:36:49 up into the limit.
00:36:50 Up into
where the pre-amp craps out.
00:36:54 That's the...
00:36:56 That's the trick with the analog.
00:36:58 I'm a person who
lives at that limit,
sometimes I go over
and I leave it to the client to say:
'Hey, you went too far.'
But I rather go too
far then not far enough
and live in a fearful world of
you know,
leaving things
on the table that weren't
exploited, you know?
I got one more little tweak.
00:37:15 It's so simple.
00:37:17 The second last part of the song,
there's a hi-hat that just
grips my head off every time.
00:37:22 And I think we can duck it
because there's no vocal over it.
00:37:25 - Bastard hi-hats!
The open hi-hat is the
only thing happening.
00:37:32 - That thing?
- That guy.
00:37:37 Why?
Alright.
00:37:39 Only the drummer.
00:37:41 Yep.
00:37:41 Yeah, we can just do that with the EQ.
00:37:45 What do we got?
Oh yeah, we got a whole lot.
00:37:47 Let's just take that out.
00:37:48 Please do.
00:37:54 That did it.
00:38:00 Take a little more out.
00:38:02 Sure.
00:38:11 Please split the difference.
00:38:17 Sounds weird to you?
No.
00:38:19 I think it sounds actually understated.
00:38:22 It's like, it's a sneaky hat.
00:38:24 Yes.
00:38:25 It's not a...
00:38:26 It was not sneaky before.
00:38:27 We're done.
00:38:28 Right,
it was a bee over the head.
00:38:32 It was a drummer's
solo record moment.
00:38:33 It's a clever little sneaky hat.
00:38:36 Now we send it.
00:38:37 You badass.
00:38:39 Now we listen to this at home.
00:38:42 And we go from there.
00:38:43 I think I drove you
a little bit nuts
but it's fun to do this
with you in person.
00:38:46 And actually, your room sounds amazing.
00:38:48 After three to five minutes
I kind of acclimated.
00:38:52 Yeah.
00:38:53 The speakers are amazing,
this whole room sounds great.
00:38:55 Oh, thank you.
00:38:56 It takes a minute
but it's definitely
it's not...
00:39:00 it's not a crazy room,
it's a learnable room.
00:39:02 Yeah.
00:39:04 Alright, so...
00:39:07 here we go with 'Lucky Number'
master 1, we're gonna
listen all the way through.
00:39:15 Hopefully neither one of us will
raise
the hand. Here we go.
00:39:25 Stop!
I already did.
00:39:28 I need a little noise
fade in the beginning.
00:39:30 We need a little noise
fade in the beginning
because
there's like a little clicky,
let me turn it way up.
00:39:40 That's just
holy unprofessional.
00:39:43 Analog.
00:39:49 And we even have choices here,
if you wanna be really,
if you wanna be insane about it
you could EQ it out.
00:39:56 It's way too late...
00:39:57 Or we could
leave a little in
because...
00:40:03 I tend to go there,
if I went here with it...
00:40:08 It would sound potentially like
a cleaner, poppier, more digital recording.
00:40:13 And, if I go
here with it and
don't do it at all...
00:40:17 OK, that's a mistake.
00:40:19 I'm gonna do it like here
because it gives a little
noise and a little room sound.
00:40:23 And it's a little more organic
and it was done in one of
the world's coolest consoles.
00:40:29 In a quick session and so...
00:40:31 I'm gonna go with the organic fade in.
00:40:34 Not the super poppy fade-in.
00:40:46 And I'm gonna do that knowing
that no matter what I send,
it's not forever, right?
He's gonna comment,
I can tweak it.
00:40:53 The first pass is always,
it's not safe, but it's like a nice
musical middle ground
that...
00:41:00 that feels right.
Obviously, we've done this one together
but it still,
maybe when he gets
home it's gonna be like...
00:41:08 Something comes up.
00:41:10 Unlikely.
00:41:12 However, with other people,
with other mastering
engineers I have met,
there's some records I've mastered
three, four, five times,
you know...
00:41:21 Even though I was in the
room and making changes,
I got home, listen in my car,
listen like, whatever,
and it wasn't right
or quite often what happened, specially
when I really started to seriously
mix stuff,
is I would hear mistakes in my mixes
that were revealed more
by the mastering process
and I would have to go back
and mitigate my own
'Oops' factor.
00:41:47 And then hear it again mastered,
sometimes I haven't
fixed the mistake enough
which I couldn't tell, because I wasn't
listening through their mastering chain.
00:41:54 But with Brian,
I've never needed more
than one revision.
00:41:59 And often there's no revision
so it's humble of
you to say I'm gonna
come back and tweak
with a whole set of notes
but my guess is...
00:42:07 This is it. But,
you know, when you're
hiring a mastering engineer,
you got get it right.
00:42:14 And if you need to tweak it again,
just like a mix engineer,
I'm always doing mix revisions for clients.
00:42:20 The artist will hear something
that I just won't hear.
00:42:23 They have a perspective
that no matter how deep
in it I am,
they're gonna hear it differently.
00:42:29 Specially singers,
with their voice,
that's a lane I won't
ever be able to drive in
and I can pretend,
I can try to get into their heads,
that's what I'm
always trying to do,
like, if I were the singer this is what
I'd like it to sound or feel like.
00:42:42 But it turns out I'm not them.
00:42:45 So don't be afraid to ask
from a mix engineer
or a musician, or a whatever,
or someone who's making
you food in a restaurant,
you're hiring them.
00:42:55 You can ask for changes.
Don't go crazy,
but you got get it right.
00:42:59 We've had a little no revision
or one revision thing
but in my work,
sometimes it's two, sometimes it's
three, it could be four,
instrumental music often
goes further than vocal music,
which is kind of it's own side topic,
but the only time that things fail
is when communication breaks down.
00:43:21 As we kind of demonstrated,
like you go in here
and turn the dog into a cat.
00:43:28 That only happens with communication.
00:43:30 You know, so...
00:43:32 Communication in creativity is key.
00:43:34 And the only time in
my work experience
that things ever go wrong
is when people stop talking.
00:43:41 Right.
00:43:42 Because there's nothing
wrong that you can't ask for.
00:43:47 But it can go wrong
if you don't talk.
00:43:51 So,
there's no shortage of
that in this room today.
00:43:55 - I'll take full responsibility.
- We've said a couple things.
00:43:58 We've got about 30 pieces...
00:44:02 No, we're good,
let's run it through
and have a listen
and really feel the song, beginning to end.
00:44:09 And if something bothers
be I'm gonna stop.
00:44:12 If something bother Greg, we're gonna stop.
00:44:15 But hopefully at this point
we can let it roll and we won't stop.
00:47:39 Good?
Belissimo!
It seems good to me.
00:47:43 I like it, it's very nice.
00:47:46 It's a very nice...
00:47:48 You know, the other
amazing thing about this
when you have the right fit
with the mastering engineer is
it makes me sound like a better mixer.
00:47:56 Which, of course, my ego
doesn't hate.
00:48:00 It is amazing what mastering
brings to the table.
00:48:03 I'm a huge Brendan O'Brien fan,
he is a genius,
complete,
you know,
Jedi bad-ass record maker.
00:48:13 I did at one point get to
hear Blood Sugar Sex Magic
unmastered
and then mastered,
it's really different.
00:48:21 You know?
Yet when I'm listening to that record,
which I've done hundreds of times
since it came out,
I, you know,
I feel like I'm listening
to Brendan's mixes.
00:48:32 And I am.
00:48:33 But I'm listening to his
mixes through the filter
of Howie Weinberg who mastered that record.
00:48:38 I think that came out like,
early 90s?
92, 93?
- Really a fun, like, crazy...
- It's a great record.
00:48:48 But Howie brought a lot of that
eccentric, tons of personality factor
to what already had a lot
of that stuff
and, it's just,
it's the best part of collaboration to me.
00:48:59 You know, how
we all sort of wind up with
something at the finish line
that none of us would
have come up with on our own.
00:49:05 It's having the honor of
playing on a really great team.
00:49:09 It kind of brings the best out of
me, whatever it is I do
or don't bring to the table,
there's a better
spotlight on...
00:49:17 in the hands of someone like Brian.
00:49:19 And,
I love it, that's why I tell everyone
it's my favorite stage
of making a record.
00:49:23 Well, yeah,
let's have a quick moment
of reciprocity in this conversation,
because,
I do this everyday
for lots of people,
and working with Greg's
stuff is fantastic.
00:49:34 It's musical
and it's fantastic.
00:49:37 He's work is great.
00:49:39 So, we all
love team
and those,
to me those are the
best creative people.
00:49:46 The people who understand team.
00:49:48 Which is a word you just used.
00:49:50 And the honor is mine in this case.
00:49:52 No.
00:49:54 I love you.
00:49:55 Oh, me too. Let's have some lunch.
00:49:57 Yes.
00:49:59 OK, from beginning to end,
this is the end.
00:50:03 I could not be happier
with the results Brian, thank you.
00:50:07 Bryce is not here with us.
00:50:09 The first thing I'm gonna do
is I'm gonna play this for her.
00:50:12 And...
00:50:13 If we're hearing something
or she has some comments,
I always want the artist
to weigh in on how this feels.
00:50:19 Because it's her name on the record.
00:50:22 She's seeing we're all
helping her tell
the story of this,
my instincts
are that we're
not gonna come back with
any revisions.
00:50:30 I can tell what I'm
hearing in here.
00:50:31 I can't believe I get
to do this for a living.
00:50:34 You know?
I probably speak
for Brian as well.
00:50:37 Certainly this job
was not modeled for us
growing up, like, it didn't even exist.
00:50:41 I didn't even know
what a record producer was
when I was growing up in Canada.
00:50:45 And I still pinch myself,
even though I'm and
old man at this point,
but getting to come to a
place like this to hear
something that I helped work on
come through the speakers
and sound like this.
00:50:55 This is why I do music!
So, whatever you're
at in your career,
you know,
no budget,
a little budget, medium budget,
way too much money,
whatever it is, however you get to
your own finish line,
always push yourself,
always try to hear it at every
point of the process,
at every stage,
as if you are
a fan listening to it,
maybe not even a fan, just a listener.
00:51:20 And you're trying to
achieve that objectivity that we loose
when we listen to a piece
of music several times.
00:51:28 There's a quote
that I think that I made earlier
in this series,
where George Martin said:
'We have to remember
we're making the records
that we want
the listeners to hear
not that we wanna
hear for ourselves.'
We're painting the picture
not that we wanna see,
that we wanna other people to see.
00:51:48 And it's always just
sort of lifting the veil
and taking away the gear.
00:51:51 That's another fantastic part
of this process to me,
the more you apply your chops
and your esthetics,
and your choices to this
to me
all of the gear becomes invisible
and the music,
the spirit of the song goes like...
00:52:07 And starts flying out of the speakers,
and it's so hard to get to that point.
00:52:11 I think that's why I say
mastering is my favorite part.
00:52:14 It finally sounds like the record that
I've been imagining in my head.
00:52:18 And to hear that come
through the speakers
is one of the most rewarding feelings,
so thank you.
00:52:24 - Thank you!
- Thank you!
Once logged in, you will be able to read all the transcripts jump around in the video.
Grammy award-winning, Canadian musician, songwriter, and record producer, Greg Wells, has been dubbed “A Swiss Army Knife” in the recording studio by the legendary Stewart Copeland for good reason.
As a multi-instrumentalist, he has the ability to artfully mold his productions with incredible precision, craftsmanship, and most importantly, taste. Combining his musicianship with his uncanny abilities as a producer, engineer, and mixer, he has seen album sales top 120 million, with streaming numbers in the billions. With a B.
His diverse list of credits includes superstars such as Adele, Dua Lipa, Twenty One Pilots, Katy Perry, Keith Urban, Celine Dion, Deftones, Kid Cudi, Weezer, OneRepublic, Ariana Grande, Pharrell Williams, Aerosmith and so many more that we would need a really long scroll bar to list them all.
Greg has seen monumental success recently with the release of the motion picture soundtrack for “The Greatest Showman”, which he not only produced but played on as well.
What a depressing ending of an otherwise above average series! If anything, I learned about a few mistakes to avoid them myself. I also listened to the final release on YouTube Music and really feel sorry for Bryce. It was almost there. But the final mastering and some careless edits in her vocal make the final record sound strained and glitchy. For example, at 1:14 the glitch on the word 'close' is an unforgivable mistake and should never have passed critical listening approval. I just started watching and really hope the other series will be of higher quality.
Isaac Jean
2021 Oct 02
Love watching these videos. I learn soooo much. Is Sequoia only available for PC and not Mac?
kauemuniz.produtor
2021 Aug 15
I can't believe that! The mastering ruined this great song ! THIS IS A grammy winner? Damm!
foolion
2021 Jun 01
Everything is wonderful until it goes to the mastering part. The mastering just killed all the depth and dynamic. But the rest is fabulous, I really learned a lot! Thank you, Greg, Bryce and Zach. Thank you Puremix!
brconflict
2021 Apr 06
Such a great process, and validating of my own processes, and how I work. Listening to Greg critique is cleverly exactly what most newer Mastering Engineers might never have experience with. Brian is amazing, but he still works with what his client wants. That's what you don't learn from YouTube.
My only gripe is that the PureMix streaming quality is lower than the artist release as you can hear on Tidal, so the compression on the bottom here is misleading and too pumping. I urge viewers to go listen to the final release on high-resolution platforms to hear the intended master.
MillSounds
2021 Mar 27
Great series from top to bottom. I was really surprised to pull this song up on Spotify and hear an almost completely different mix though! What happened?
tskolits
2021 Feb 19
Amazing series. I am so inspired on so many levels. All of the in-between moments and communication all documented were huge for me to learn by. I love these series. Thank you PureMix, Greg Wells and Bryce.
Dcadoch
2021 Jan 27
Thank you Gregg and the team for an amazing learning experience!!!
Uncovered Pitch
2020 Aug 04
Loved the whole series from start to finish. What would top it off for me: to find out more about the changes between Master 1 and the Spotify version. To me it sounds like the mix was recalled; for example there's more room on the sidestick and the bass sounds louder and gels with the kick better(sidechain compression?). Also it sounds slightly less crunchy which was a problem that to me plagued the mastering session throughout. It couldn't be the video conversion since the original mix sounded super-clean. Very impressive though how gracefully those two steadied the ship at the end!
MarcoPolo
2020 Jul 25
Thank you to Bryce, Greg, Brian, and the entire pureMix team for this end-to-end look at a production. It was artfully done and very much a creative collaboration. Thank you for sharing the process with us.
kirill.b
2020 Jul 20
The video is great. I thank PureMix everytime I watch new series. I learnt a new technique on my favourite compressors. Greg is a good musician and wise producer. But the shock for me was to hear the end product. It sounds complete rubbish after mastering. Dirty low end and heavily overcompressed mix killed the music. That's SO unprofessional for such rated producers. I think PureMix knows about it, but they still decided to publish it. That's really very strange. What are they teaching us then?
Dear Fab, I know, your ears are Gold. You should explain the audience how it could happen.
brandonhill.rn@gmail.com
2020 Jun 22
I actually like the pre-mastered version more than the mastered version. It sounds more natural, in my opinion. Listening to the released song on Amazon music, it sounds a little too compressed for my liking.
giovanni.ta
2020 May 06
Something wrong in the audio? I can't really ear what they are doing.. audio is too distorted for me. It is hard to "study" music stuff looking at a video..
JorgeZM
2020 Apr 27
Subs in spanish please!
kope
2020 Apr 26
definitely a 5 stars for me!!! Great class top to bottom, production to mastering - such a great wealth of useful information. But guys don't leave us in the dark!!! What happened between this and Spotify/Youtube version? I can definitely hear an improved low end - kick has a better attack, it's round and punchy, snare body @150-200 low mids became solid and better defined and the overall song eq is different. Was it a recall with drum augmentation? track remastered? Puremix, please go the full distance and teach your students the secret to the final release? Thanks!!!
marijeanjoron
2020 Mar 29
Bonjour peut on avoir des sous titre fr svp video au top merci greg wells
Frankisoulmmxx
2020 Mar 27
Job well done. But i ain't feeling that kick, too heavy
puReTom
2020 Mar 22
The whole series Is great, really great! But the master? I don't like it. For me the song sounded fresher and matched the artist better before mastering. Maybe the mastering was a bit heavy handed, particularly the distortion in the bass drum? For me it does not "up" the song...
pipo
2020 Feb 25
What an amazing series! Greg is so inspiring, and really fun.
Listening to the track on Spotify (and Deezer), it sounds quite different from the final master in the video. Were there some revisions after all?
geragera
2020 Feb 24
Amazing series. And ear-opener. I really learned a lot from it. Thanks, Greg, Brian, and Bryce. Really, really appreciate it.
Tipotipoti
2020 Feb 16
In the end of this looooong story, distortion from hackintosh. Back to console mix. Less is more...
slammy80
2020 Feb 12
@StudioSix - if it were the video host, then the distortion would still be there when they switch to Greg's original mix, but it's not. When they switch back to the original, it sounds glorious. It's such a shame.
studiosix
2020 Feb 11
Amazing moments with gold in the casual banter. For the sound, I wonder if the video streaming host is altering the master.
marsa
2020 Feb 11
Looks like a nightmare having the whole band, the producer and the mixing engineer present at your mastering session ;)
AnnapolisBob
2020 Feb 09
Absolutely fabulous series -- thank you Greg, Bryce, Zach, Brian and the entire Pure Mix crew! Keep 'em coming!
mataran
2020 Feb 08
Masterpiece!! From the beginning to the end. Thank you so much to all for sharing this. It's difficult for me to tell how this is valuable for a hobbyist like me but what I can say is that it has definitely changed and improved a lot the way I record and mix. Merci!
Stormwarner
2020 Feb 08
Following the other comments: Yes, great series thank you! But still the kick is butchered.
The printed mix is much better.
Pearlpassionstudio
2020 Feb 08
WOW.....What a great series. Artist has to be overwhelmed with joy with this fine piece of work. Great song, great engineer/producer and Brians final touches. Thanks for this. Best yet on Puremix.....besides Fabs tutorials. :)
2nibroo
2020 Feb 08
super moment partager avec Greg Bryce et Brian
j'espère que PureMix renouvellera ce type d'expèrience
on y apprend beaucoup à commencer par l'humilité de ces grands personnage du monde musical..merci merci merci !!!
bien sur la qualité de l'audio n'est certainement pas au niveau bien que amélioré par rapport à la première partie du mastering.. cela ne m'empêche pas ne m'être régaler(bananas in english? Yep! )
Denis please again
pho
2020 Feb 08
First I'd like to thank PureMix for this wonderful series. I'm a great admirer of both Greg's and Brian's work, so I imagine the clipped sound of the presented master has nothing to do with what was achieved in the studio and is the result of some faulty edit or conversion? Please fix this if possible, as the current state is not a good representation of this up to this point absolutely well done production.
Best regards from Germany and keep up the good work!
slammy80
2020 Feb 08
That distortion in the master is still killing me. :( It's such a great song, and well performed. I feel like these guys must not be hearing what is coming through the video's audio. Every time the kick drum hits, there's a nasty clipping and distortion that is depressing.
leobro
2020 Feb 08
This whole series has been excellent. I've commented earlier in praise of Greg and Bryce, but I want to add my compliments to the Puremix video crew who captured both visual and behinid-the-scenes audio that lets us feel like we're right there. No easy feat! Congratulations.
filipwil
2020 Feb 07
Great conclusion to the best PureMix videos of all time, in my humble opinion. Thanks Greg!
leesparey
2020 Feb 07
It was nice of you to send an email following up my comment on the last video but I don't really agree with you that the issue of the distortion has been fixed. I've worked with radio presenters most of my life and most of them will say they're only as good as their last programme. I have no doubt that Greg and Brian have produced a lovely master but I can't hear it here and if you haven't captured the session honestly I think you'd be better off pulling the final two eps and leaving the series in the recording studio
Iburwell
2020 Feb 07
This guy is awesome.. I love watching his work .. I have leArnt a lot regarding composition, mixing, production and mastering .. thank you Greg for your inspiration .. each mix I produce contains the qualities I’ve learned from your experience!
