Aye. I'm 25 mins in and this is one of your best vids. More of this long form content please. I do have some hope for the algorithm though, it tells me when Dan Worrall opens a bag of crisps, never mind a detailed video on stereo imaging 😂. Edit: couldn't agree more about Recording Studio Loser, great channel.
And entire Hour, Im half way through, have to watch the second half tomorrow because it feels weird wathcing an hour long video thats not a livestream.
This is such a poignant video, just subbed. I think you also indirectly highlighted a general trend in music & arts nowadays. No one is talking about the journey and the often non-linear process it takes to compose, dance, paint, etc. anymore. It's all about fast hacks - do this to achieve that. Not only is the context then missing, but it's like it's being forgotten that music, painting, dancing, sculpting, etc. are much more than just the gear and a number of steps. It's about utilizing a blend of valuable in-depth knowledge, experience, informed intuition and sensibility to express who we are and what we feel towards the world and how we see the world. But in a world where streams and views are the new gold rush, everyone is trying to sell shovels i.e. what you called the surface things. People are less and less encouraged to delve deep into topics and critically analyse what is being offered. And let's not even get started on AI, it's like the internet is slowly becoming a huge bin of recycled topics of AI generated content made to feed the algorithm. The search on YT and Google is almost unusable... Which is why it's nice to see someone take a stand and talk about all this. Thank you!
Basically an acknowledgement that Ive read your comment. Lots of people comment on videos without ever knowing if the creator has even bothered to read the comments section Sometimes it's just nice to know that your response has at least been acknowledged
@@PaulThirdthanks for replying .. I was sincerely wondering and hoping you didn’t think I was trolling.. amazing job on this video btw .. I’ve only watched so much of it thus far and I’m about to watch the rest but by seeing the names of the chapters you have in the description coupled with what I’ve already watched I’m thrilled you getting this message out there … much respect!
Paul, honestly, you're the ONLY person who actually addresses the elephant in the room. The reality of providing a platform and elevating the voices of people with zero experience or zero credibility (credentials) is something we all have to learn how to deal with. From my personal experience of being in this industry for close to 20 years, I've never experienced such a lack of professionalism. Everybody is a "mixing engineer" these days. Hell, I get notes from my clients telling me what multi band compressor I should use and how they could use a Maag EQ for that 10k sheen. Democratization of tools and the market machine that keeps shoving their products down everyone throat, turned our profession into a "cirque du soleil". The greats will always be greats and their mixes will always sound amazing because that's not their HOBBY, because they don't watch RUclips reviews, because they spent decades upon decades learning the craft. Unfortunately the current reality doesn't care about any of this as long as you can slap CLA Vocals (which I actually like) and call yourself a mixing engineer.
The obsession with CLA has really gotten out of hand. It's like everybody wants to be CLA but nobody can actually tell you why they want to be like CLA. The Internet just puts it on a plate every week and they lap it up
I’ve still to watch the whole video but I’ve started a series “Fixing Bad Music Production and Mixing Advice” precisely because of this problem! It’s also why I only post once a month or so. It’s impossible to post daily/weekly at a high level if you also work in the industry. Edit - just got to the plugin Doctor part. That plugin alone has prevented me from making video content on at least 100 plugins on release day. Reviewers often don’t even test gear before promoting it.
Michael you are one of the reasons why it's pointless to make beginner content cause you've covered nearly everything haha Man even a fortnight is a struggle for me right now but I'm kinda glad that I'm leaning back instead of forward cause it's giving me more time for the studio and mixing. Itd be impossible for me to do youtube weekly now. To do it right you either have to devote yourself to it or just take your time and work bit by bit. I just find youtube so unrewarding now but maybe with only focusing on quality content again I'll start to enjoy it again
@@PaulThirdI hear you. I really hope you can find a rewarding middle ground. These days I find myself almost completely in the service of my clients (mastering) and it’s so much more rewarding than RUclips. When I am working in audio I feel that I learn something every single day and with each new project. On RUclips, it’s much more confusing!
Yeah it's all just reviews now and clickbait. If I could ditch youtube today I would. Now just more of a hassle for me cause I've answered pretty much most of the questions I needed answered. I've got a big list of ideas, but it's whether I can be bothered making it 😅
Plugin Doctor shows that most plugins are just the same algorithms with slightly different coefficients and completely different GUIs. They can pump out unlimited plugins this way just because consumers are not technically savvy, and most of them just say "use your ears". Our cochlea/brain are unreliable measurement systems compared to our eyes but these guys are religious, it's like an thermal engineer should just use their skin to measure temperature. However this is the fundamental reason why wine tasting/audiophile/michelin restaurants can make money.
I had the idea of showing problems with My production and the video will follow My process of fixing the problems, with no guarantee if I'll actually succeed every time.
When I clicked on this video the first thing I thought was, oh my god this thing is 1 hour long. My algorythm brain screamed get lost I can't do this :) Thanks for explaining to my brain why that is. I've been trying to learn mixing skills via RUclips for many years now. And I had to realize that it is exactly as you say. I can't manage to break through the layers. I've made progress, but it's so slow and it is so hard to put all the small pieces together. I do mixing as a hobby, but I have the ambition to achieve good results. So time is definitely the limiting factor for me. You have to find a balance. But only scratching the top level over the years and trying to compensate with presets is a waste of time. Thank you for addressing this issue and this trend.
This is a great video, Paul. Thank you for discussing these issues. You are a "real one," keep up the great work in audio, and produce more videos like this. Your knowledge and opinions are much needed and very refreshing. Thank you.
Great video as always!! As a producer/ musician/ creative for over 2 decades, I spent a long time focusing on the creative aspect and ignorantly overlooked the importance of the technical “knowledge”. It took me a long time to reluctantly realise the importance of the “audio journey”! Music is science, mathematics, arts & physics! Fast forward, such knowledge is my obsession! Please don’t only do plug in reviews! Your insightful videos have played a valued part of my “audio journey” and for that, I 🫡 you! More power to you! The Audio Journey is real!!
Keep it up man, I've been chatting with another RUclipsr who says exactly the same, although not publicly. We need the really difficult questions being answered, just be on the right side of history.
Thanks Paul. Good concise breakdown of the situation. Its good to hear the names of the few individuals I still watch regularly brought up in your vid. As long as you just do you, I wish you all the best and look forward to seeing whatever you post next. 👌
This is the reason you and others like Nick (panorama mastering) don’t get the credit you deserve! Keep doing the right thing and educating us all as in depth as possible 👏
Ironically I found the channel through reviews. They’re fantastic. The truth is reviews in general have always needed to be taken with a grain of salt. We’ve lost the vast majority of magazines where we would read reviews (among other things) that we’d wonder how they weren’t influenced by making advertisers happy… I admire your resolve and look forward to seeing the channel evolve.
I promise I will finish watching this whole video! just got done night shift and need few hours sleep first. the 15 mins I've watched so far is splendid though, great work as always Paul.
Good video. As a beginner on the Audio Journey I particularly appreciate the acknowledgement of how hard it is for beginners to know who to listen to, and I'm sure the couple of recommendations you made will help me endlessly, so thanks for that.
Brilliant. There's so much truth in what you say. I got my first access to Cubase VST back in 2000. There was no RUclips engineering content back then. I was just amazed to have access to multiple, multiple tracks with non-destructive editing and built-in FX (no 3rd party plugins). I also worked with a few people that had music production enterprises, which helped extend my knowledge beyond the earliest live mixing gigs I'd done. But it wasn't until about 7 years ago that I realised that the reality of the output I self recorded and produced was sadly lacking when it came to comparing to professionally released material. Some good stuff, some good ideas and some reasonably good mixes, but overall there was still a big hole in quality in a lot of it back then - I just didn't know enough. So, when I rekindled my interest in recording, engineering and mixing those 7 years ago, I was at first very surprised and happy that I found You Tube content creators releasing videas that actually explored this. I immersed myself in the first few of these, finally settling on 5 or 6 channels that I felt had integrity and really useful knowledge. They still pop up regularly on my feed, because of the algorithms, and still - largely - produce useful and informative content. But what I noticed down the line a bit was, there was this wealth of new channels, most of which either appeared to be dropping the usual, 'do this trick to get the best bass sound etc.' that I started to see the things you talk about here. Thereafter, I stopped buying plugins willy-nilly and started to realise what I hadn't understood before was never going to be 'fixed' by buying another plugin. I also discovered that the foundation of a great mix (for me) started with a great static mix; gain staging, filters, panning, levels, before even thinking about plugins. In short order, I've started to expand my ear from the first point. I did technical exercises, where I imagined I was working in a cheap 1970s studio, without lots of outboard gear and worked hard to get it to sound 'decent', with no plugins or sometimes even EQ!. I'm still on the journey, and the improvements are incremental as I progress and gain that important experience through doing. Now, while I don't want to make out I am an engineering god, or a mix master, I now get big, solid mixes using a tiny fraction of the hardware emulations I used formerly, because, if the recording is good, I know it, and there is no longer that crippling need to throw another compressor on something that doesn't need it. Btw I did rather criticise Atmos on one of your videos, but I also wished you well in your voyage, and still do - I think with your skills and mentality you'll see good results. But yes, there is this dumbing down of the process on You Tube, though part of that has come from the so-called democratisation of music, i.e. the availability of relatively cheap software and hardware, and more people give it a go. Yet, so many have this 'preset mentality', or this 'gimme the simple version of this complex world in 10 minutes' attitude, so many so, that what is still, relatively, a niche area of study was, prior to this age of the digital domain, even more niche, 20, 30, 40 or 50 years ago. My YT feed tries to convince me that the whole world knows what Waves plugins are, or how a studio mix is created, but it's still a dark art for the vast majority of people, as a recent conversation down the pub recently brought home. Most people aren't interested or don't know the first steps. They weren't intersted before the digital revolution, and they still aren't. Next, the global market is now a bigger place to operate, musically, but the majority of music creativity has perished, as the music demands of todays producers (creators) doesn't require the same journeyman skills, anymore. That's not to say there aren't exceptionally talented people out there, there are loads in all areas, but the process of producing music is now less demanding. In this age of 5 minute relief, it's rampant. I don't blame midi, or sampling, or even non-destructive editing, I use these also, but with Autotune and mixing vocals to a two-track is relatively simple. I wonder what would have happened if a rapper and a home producer turned up at Capitol for a session with the late Al Schmidt, exactly whare he would start... Finally (I hope you made it to the end, I did with your vid 🙂) I look forward to your continued output, with far less plugin reviews, and more about your journey
You nailed it with these comments. I've been doing this for 35 years. About 20 years ago, I assumed the new generation of audio guys would take over and I'd be out of a job soon enough. I embraced all the new amazing tech along the way, but always applied my experience, and I'm still full time producing and mixing. Nice one, Paul.
Something I can proudly say, especially from all our conversations, is that you GENIUNELY want to deliver your trutth, your journey, and with a very conscious effort to enrich thise who follow it. Even though dolby atmos isn’t the most “sexy youtube” topic. It’s one of your current drives and passions and you share that with your community as part if your audio journey. This is awesome! I can’t wait to see more from you! Regarding my Audio RUclips journey. Paul is a major reason for my channels growth, his behind the scenes advice, direct way to tell me if something could be improved and our chats have really driven me to think outside the box to DELIVER for the audience like he does. Paul, I am here to watch you in the long game, not just this week, month or year. But long term, I can’t wait to hear and experience what you’re doing in your audio joruney in 3,5,10 years time! Keep being amazing!
Paul, this was a breath of fresh air thank you....I've been on my own audio journey for the last 10 years in the Film & TV business, and I totally understand your message about making decisions for yourself and learning the right way, it's the only way to achieve anything.
Great video, Paul..spot on. 👍 One thing that struck me as I was listening is the fact that no everyone who produces wants to be an audio engineer..they just want to be creative and make music. To them the two are completely different beasts..and that's the problem. They honestly don't see the need to learn to walk before they get to run. I think we all kinda start off from that place..and then the point comes when you realise you know sod all and then you either knuckle down and get busy or you start to float off to some other less demanding interest instead. Plugins will only take you so far..the same goes for being creative..but it's an understanding of how things work that pulls it all together..even if that understanding is the very basics, like EQ and Compression.. it's the holy trinity of making music: a) Having the creative vision of knowing what you want to do..b) Knowing what gear / plugins / samples you need to create it, and c) having enough technical smarts to be able to actually do effectively. You don't have to become an audio engineer to make music..but you do need a working knowledge of the basics if you want to give both you and your work the chance to be the best that both can be. Thanks again for keeping things honest..much appreciated, man. 😉👍
Stumbled across this video and you earned an instant fan/subscriber. Been frustrated with the surface level content on here for a while, but you said it all better than I could have. Thanks for being unapologetically you, Paul.
Love this. I’m always more interested in watching individuals and their own journey in their careers. I started making videos to give to clients to make those first conversations easier. Also, because it was so hard to relate to some of the ones putting out videos. And when I thought back to some of the best mentors I ever had, their advice was never “here’s how to do-x-“. It was “here’s this item/technique and here’s my thought process on how put it into practice in this particular context because I screwed it up in these other contexts.” Btw. I remember watching Pensado’s place constantly. So much gold there. Ps Can believe it was almost a year ago when I met you and Ed in LA.
Thanks for making this video. You hit some seriously good and important points. Working in this industry is a journey, a never ending learning experience.
You just got yourself another sub for this video. I'm not a pro producer. My story is complex and long and I won't bore you with it but I am re-learning everything and strive to improve every time I record a song. We are living in a tiktok world where "everything one needs to know" is squashed into a 30-second video and this is what people want now.
Spot on. I have been doing this since 1976, and I have watched and experienced so many transformation in engineering and mixing. The RUclips generation wants everything free and fast. Screw experience.
I'm still watching (about at the level of how monetisation has dumbed down audio) but I wholeheartedly agree. Those audio folks who play a musical instrument (and I am far more instrumentalist than engineer due to my point), know that it also talks an age to be vaguely good enough at your instrument then many more years to master it, if indeed you ever do. The audio world on RUclips is the equivalent to telling a budding guitar player to just play these few notes from a Jimi Hendrix solo to be a pro, or a budding saxophonist to just use this method for storing reeds that John Coltrane used and you too will be a giant in the Jazz world. It's bloody nonsense, yet this is what we are spoon fed every day on RUclips.
It is like you read my mind with this video. I was just talking about this last week with someone, in general but also with regards to music / recording RUclipsrs (where many are either shilling gear, or at very least click-baity plugin reviews, turning them into shows where one goes more for entertainment or confirmation bias than for engineering knowledge with depth). A race to the bottom in terms of quality - a quick fix mentality, and one where either gear / software, or some sort of insta-process is supposed to make up for inadequate skills or process. I’ve never worked in any commercial studio - and while I’ve def learned a great deal of tactics via sifting through RUclips, it hasn’t been half as valuable as what I’ve learned from engineers in pro studios either while I’ve been there recording, or more so in the private instruction I’ve sought from some of those people over the past couple years - WAY more than I could learn on videos, including why some tactic is done (not just what / how), where it comes from, how it ties in to other things, etc. So I say - don’t ever get delusion that quick-vids replace in-person experience; siphon what useful info you can online by all means, but be aware of the ecosystem and how it works, and wary of wasting time on channels that are more “content creation hubs” or product shill channels than ones going into the nitty-gritty of engineering… but ya Paul, I do hope you keep making vids when you want to in the manner that you prefer - keep fighting the good fight!
Generally speaking, I think your nerdy approach reaches the people that come for what you are talking about here. You, Dan Worrall, House of Kush, Panorama, etc. There's lots. Personally, I can never get enough of videos breaking down how compression works and how to use it to your advantage and my journey started in the 1990s as a teenager with a Tascam 414. It never ends. I think Gregory Scott's videos on how to hear compression and then using it as a tone shaping tool are, hands down, some of the best out there at conveying what compression even is, does, or CAN do. I think videos on mixing philosophy is also a good topic to explore. One size does not fit all and I don't think I have ever heard a plugin preset (that wasn't a synth) that I didn't have to tweak to death, leaving me thinking why I even started with the preset in the first place. Speaking of manuals, reading the manual is something that is simply required with some of Acustica's plugins. Do you still use any of their stuff? Keep at it, Paul, you're exactly where you need to be. Blah, blah, yadda, yadda, rant over
I still use some acustica stuff but they've been resampling everything and completely changed the sound of stuff I liked. Amber 4 is very different to Amber 3. Amber always had a compressor with a lot of L+R difference which I always used on acoustic guitar and piano as I liked the side information it added just on passthrough. Made out that their stuff was the most accurate and then completely change the sound of the plugins 🤷♂️ Don't know what to believe now
Every book used to be hand scribed by incredibly talented calligraphy artists, decades of experience and honing of skills, until Gutenberg invented the printing press. The problem with nerds like us Paul , is it's easy to get lost in the science, the training, the mastering of ones own skill, the refining of our art through process over a multiple decade journey. But if you disappear down that rabbit hole long enough, you forget the most important part. Our job is to make sure sounds translate emotionally to the audience. The audience is always the final Arbiter. And the audience does not care if their favorite tune was mastered by AI or a human who took 30 years to get to that stage. Robots still can't tune a piano properly, and piano tuners are now both rare, highly skilled, and expensive. Does it make piano tuning a sustainable business industry? No. Speak to any poet why they still write art in the face of no industry. My niche is teaching music theory in the context of dance music, but the reality is some of the biggest hits ever made but guesswork , both engineering wise and musically. You get there how you get there. The only thing that matters is can you change the world.
Respect Paul! I'm not an audio engineer aspiring to be one, but just want to engineer and mix my own music with the limited time I have. So while I do like all the help I can get from good plugins, I still like to understand what's going on behind. Your channel is such a fresh breath in the new world of content turning into ads with even more ads built in. Thanks.
If I can make guys like yourself comment then I know I've succeeded somewhere in this video haha.. In the words of the wise man Borat.. GREAT SUCCESS!!
You rock 🤩 same issues happens when making music in general, the records sell out and the pressure comes to follow up with something similar, not, something authentic, luckily IDGAF and I know what tries to influence me, it's hard to get in the authentic headspace, it takes a lot of thought and time, sometimes it's a serious existential crisis, maybe more than I care to admit, but we are musicians, we soldier on. Love ya!! 🥰
Coming to the end now (and I re-watched a few sections). I'd say the following: 1. The reason why so many people are 'lazy' is because RUclips is really the only way to learn. A lot of other ways to learn either cost money that people don't have and still seem kind of basic, like online courses. Fader Pro and what you can get from stuff like Computer Music Magazine, MusicTech Magazine etc. Or sitting in a studio with a decent engineer, which is next to impossible or paying literally thousands of pounds/dollars/euros whatever and three-four years of your life full time in a uni course of which you need to hit an academic standard to take part anyway. So like eager students, people come to the people who are teaching them which are you guys. However ,the info is dumbed down like you say, so it breeds dependency. It's not really laziness if you aren't taught how to critically think and find the info in the first place and the info you go to find, is behind a pay wall or email mailing list. Better the devil you know and all that. 2 Who has the time to try and learn what plugin doctor actually does when you are trying to learn mixing, mastering, how to produce in a lot of cases and for a lot of people music theory then seeing the likes of yourself, Dan Worrall, that Ukrainian guy who is in Canada (EDIT Andrew Zeleno) talk about a lot of complex things like null, reverse phase etc? For an amateur it's like being a year seven kid going to a physics lesson only to find it's being taught by Stephen Hawking who is going to take them through the math of how to predict the location of black holes. It's the same stuff but it goes from 0-1000. I think that also breeds helplessness because it's too much for people who then assume they'll never get it and then just listen to their music guru of choice who does seem to get it and can help them out. 3 can you tell I'm from an education background? 😅 i can only really say this from my own experience, ultimately. I do think it may somewhat be laziness but then also there are so many pitfalls for people wanting to take it seriously that it's really hard to develop confidence in yourself. Saying that, I'm loving learning myself and I'm finding little techniques which i can add to my little 'almanac of ideas'. It's not easy but i think if we had more Paul Thirds, we might stand a chance.
Mixing engineers handbook is like £20 and covers basically everything for somebody starting out, and it comes from all the credible sources. Its a little outdated in places so there are places where you'd need guys like me and Worral but for all the main stuff thats on youtube, it's all there It was actually forced reading in my college course. We all had to buy it haha
This was some serious factual evidence to digest. I'm thankful for interning a little and working under experienced engineers where I gained the context needed to make smart decisions. Context is everything
Finally able to finish up the vid now! Had to take it as a 2 parter but I don't mind ❤🎉 It killed me though cuz first part sucked me in and I didn't want to get pulled away 😢
The audio journey was never a chore for me. I grew up reading almost every article in Sound On Sound, Keyboard magazine, Music Maker, etc. I still read and listen to interviews with audio engineers and musicians. I watch masterclasses of film composers, audio enigineers, mixers and sound designers. I went deep into synthesis and signal processing. Everything I've learned through the years comes from reliable information from people in the audio trenches. I've worked my way through portastudios, ADAT recorders up to and including modern DAWs and created music in a wide range of genres. I've salivated over gear that i never could afford, like fairlights and oberheims. I've read manuals of equipment i never owned. The audio journey was not a chore. It defined me.
Long-form content like Pensado's place I only started to find in the last year or so - they're great and I can listen like a podcast and really absorb what they're saying. Luckily I do practical work, so it's conducive to learning at the same time. Hey, plus you don't have to keep finding new vids every 8 mins and no ads! I've only been watching youtube vids for production for about that long anyway ... I'll try to check out the other folks you mentioned. P.S. if you want earlier episodes of Pensado's place, there is a youtube channel "Vintage Pensadosplace" that has a few ... Sadly Pensado's place starts at episode #65 ...
I have spent 7 years (65+) learning from RUclips. How to play Guitar, Learning Sound design, Acoustics & Treatment of a Studio. How to do and make a DAW etc. From nothing I have what I need to know to start making the correct tracks, Software Howto's & Operation to the point of REW Analysis, speakers, headphones and how to mix at its basic starting point. I agree with you Paul I am doing it a bit old fashioned and it has taken those Hours & Years and survive a Global Pandemic Panic by Ass-hats. You have a legit bitch of the kind of things real musicians are scared to death of. Being payed for what they Love. Mary Spender has 20th Century Musician offering, Amy Noltee and Neal want to Continue Musicianship using & playing real Instruments. Period. Hats Off Paul Third. Thanks
There's a lot more than justifying that it's RUclips and its algorythm dumbing down what's happening to the music industry. It goes deep. It's a full on social and even political experiment I would say... not wanting to get into "conspiracy theories"... But never before there were so many people listening to music on basic cheap earbuds everywhere they go, when just getting the lyrics and a small part of the frequencies is enough to make them feel something. Most lyrics nowadays are also dumbed down to bare bones of what they used to be in the past 20 years. Taking into an example this new rap music or trap music that every young person and any adult of any age is exposed to now, like a virus coming out from any media, it's really a trap, pun intended, because it's everywhere, with lyrics that are almost just mumbles, and as long as there's an 808 with distortion with a few melodic effects it's enough to make people bob their heads and any girl twerk. New teenage producers appearing every day are more focused on producing 20 beats a day rather than 1 song per week, because if they don't do it someone else will. Competition is ferocious when now everybody can produce their own music in their little laptops full of plugins and even mix and master on earbuds, because it's just enough and accepted. These producers make beats with loops all day. Even so their music goes to artists filling up arenas and all of them are getting more money and more quickly than most classic renowned engineers and producers who took decades to craft their art. The same with the drawing/painting artforms, people just need to login to Midjourney and after 5 minutes they've got the next big thing they can print and market everywhere with little effort and super cheap. If they don't do it, someone else will... And nobody cares if the artist was a real painter or an AI. It is what it is. But if we want to blame youtube then we might as well also blame McDonalds for initiating the fast food revolution. People are just satisfied with eating while driving. Fast and Now. No matter if later on everyone is taking pills for anxiety... The collapse of a society happens when people fill they have no more time, a self-inflicted non-sense, as our time is a virtually accepted collective construct. This started a long time ago but now it's getting even more accelerated by... THE MACHINES (Morpheus voice).
The biggest challenge for many starting out is lack of understanding the tools they have. We start out with stock plugins in a daw and have no understanding what they do or how to use the settings to get the sound he want. First is understanding the engineering language attack, intensity, ducking , mud, input and the so on. To how to use it. If you are even listening to a mix by masters or how guru using these terms starting out your eyes start to glaze over. Back in the day interning was definitely the way to go as you use the senses your ears and eyes watching , listening and emulating a seasoned engineer workflow and if he was patient enough to explain the how and why he was doing it. During downtimes you practice and get hands on experience until your intuition and those aha moments with your teacher/guide coming in later giving you constructive feedback on how to improve your skills. Two way communication is the key to getting knowledge, understanding, anfd ultimately intuition to get your feeling and style beyond the technical aspects. Without understanding of the technology and the how to use it then the why we get caught with. Because it won`t matter if it a highly rated plugin or the top hardware cuz us users wouldn`t know what we are doing. We need great teachers to show us just like before as an intern in a experienced studio. Learning first is the key before buying the latest and greatest.
Most OG engineers learnt from working hard before RUclips even existed. Knowledge comes from experience, not from watching RUclips videos. Remember the YT algorithm made the flat earth community become a reality! If you want a six pack go to the gym. If you want great mixes, start mixing. Thanks for making this video Paul!
Firstly, you have excellent taste in who you watch and follow Secondly, I feel this community needs more "plugin police" / scientific evaluation of plugins etc. Now that you and Weaver are effectively out of the review space, I hope that I can follow in your large footsteps. (And yes, I know exactly who you're talking about that runs a plugin company and came out against plugin doctor in a video)
I'll always come out if a plugin is getting rave reviews and making MASSIVE marketing claims when it's not delivering but tbh if that's something that you want to get into then good cause there aren't many out there and I can't be arsed looking at every plugin that comes out now 😂 I just keep an eye on the big ones but YT has chilled out now a little after Harrison & BB tubes Just ensure that you prove everything you do. And use doctor properly. Not understanding the linear analysis can be your downfall before you've even began
These kind of issues really are a double edged sword. But this happens with anything, really. McDonald’s came along and now everyone wants their food right away. Might make you feel good in the moment but in the long run you realize learning how to cook in your own kitchen will help your health long term. HAHA Over the pandemic I really wanted to understand audio concepts I hadn’t fully understood. So every morning I would watch every video there was on compression and other topics, listening to different people try to explain it in their own different ways until it made sense to me. Now mind you, I live in the Philippines where we don’t really have access to a lot of great audio stuff, and the quality of the music here wasn’t always the best, so the internet is our best bet, and I’m thankful for all the audio guys, including yourself that taught and inspired me. Thanks to RUclips tho, we have so many young and talented producers and mix engineers who are improving the quality of the music in our industry here, and it’s truly refreshing and inspiring! I feel like those who are really serious about this will eventually realize they need to put in the work, and they will. And eventually they will be the ones to rise to the top with their craft.
I agree with you Paul. However I am fortunate to have started my audio journey on a 4-track cassette back in the 1990s. I did take advantage of those £30 because, well why not? However I am one of those people who knows the hows and whys because of my long journey, and although I did build up a plugin collection, the more time went on the more I realised I didn't need to keep loading up, and needed to not neglect the "less is more" approach. A lot of the plugins I use these days are stock plugins as well as free js plugins designed by REAPER plugin makers. I interlace them with a few things like God Particle, Slate Digital and Waves stuff too, but being an old fart and having a body of knowledge before RUclips, or even affordable digital devices even existed has kept me grounded and anchored. To be honest I'm glad I'm not starting this journey now exactly for reasons you point out.
Hey Paul, awesome honest thoughts as always truly refreshing. I create vocal chains and presets, which I genuinely enjoy and believe to be a good starting point. Although These don't do the mixing for anyone. That comes from hard work. However, I do believe that the style of videos you create is a reflection of you and your unique approach. Which is the reason I love your vids. Others may find their path through different methods. And there is nothing wrong with that if it's done honestly.
As long as there is why and a context behind it I don't see a problem. But if it's just all how and no why then I don't really find it education, merely monkey see monkey do which ends up creating a sea of people doing stuff purely cause they've been shown. Can act as a quick fix but without context the user simply falls at the first hurdle when that technique or chain doesn't work. Its just like the old saying. Give a man a fish he'll eat for a day, teach a man how to fish and you'll feed him for a lifetime.
Great video Paul. I am a year deep on my YT journey. I do mostly guitar lessons, songwriting, and music production. I'm in this for the long haul and will just stay consistent. The number one thing I want is to build a community of learners that like my channel due to the way I deliver the information. I'm growing fast, but long consistent growth is where it's at. On a side note, I worked in studios for years. Mostly as a player, but of course I love engineering and soaked in everything those guys did and talked in depth. It blows my mind how fast people want things these days without putting in the work. Keep doing what you do my man. Maybe one day we can do a collab. I know you are a player and writer too. Until then, I shall earn my YT stripes. Keep going brother and keep speaking your truth. :)
Had time to watch it now. Good video, but a little bit all over the place and long! Still, I get it, because dividing it into 3 videos would provide very little value. Two notes: 1. The value you brought to my journey was definitely your scientific approach to "decode" plugins. The amount of money that saved me and how that ultimatively also impacted my workflow significantly is beyond what I can express and you can understand. I will stay thankful for that indefinitely. 2. You need to understand, that not everybody is or can be a geek or a "music journey" scholar. There are so many independent artists that just want to get their tracks sounding less bad. They aren't even artists professionally, you can't expect them to become recording, mixing and mastering engineers professionally. These people not only have a job they don't like and try to become better artists, no they also need to do their own marketing on social media. On top of that they'll have merch, pay a distributor, pirate instrumentals and try to run a RUclips Channel that lives off their music. Most of them don't have the budget to pay for professional producers, mixing and mastering engineers and they certainly don't have the time or mental capacity to learn it themselves. Many artists (and people in general) lack the necessary education and character that enables you to learn "deep". Where you get stuck in, others get overwhelmed. The manual you understand would require some people to go to university for 2-3 years first. Where I have the time and energy to question every statement anyone makes, others need to decompress from family, work, life, etc.. What I'm saying is: There is a high demand for easy solutions but NOT only due to lazyness! Life is fast, money is tight, not everybody is as privileged as you and me. I don't fault these people for gravitating towards easy solutions and being fooled by regurgitating wannabes. Unfortunately, ignorance makes it easy to be fooled and capitalism (and other functions and structures that serve it, such as RUclips algorithms) gives plenty of incentive to fool people for your own benefit, by selling something that is low in production cost and creates dependence. There is no simple solution to that.
Ive been finding the comments regarding the video length hilarious (not yours as you actually watched it) These guys complaining that it's a 57 minute video are proof of what youtube has become. I scripted it loosely so I remembered what to talk about and edited it also in post. It was just a long conversation that involved me hitting every layer I could. Spoke to my audience like human beings. These were my views on the entire topic and some were like.. This could have been 6 minutes 👀 Could you imagine meeting me in a boozer and I condensed the conversation like a YT video. People would call me rude as fuck and be like bro why are so uninvested I just want a bit of your time and you want away as quick as you can. Its genuinely like an hour is too much cause "I could be watching so much more content" Yeah sure go piss your time away watching a hundred Tik toks of idiotic wasteful shite that has no other function than to pacify your interest for 30 seconds.. If you can last that long Such a sad world we live in now where everybody is on the clock. If I had Paul McCartney in a room I'd sit and listen to that man for 6-10 hours if that's how long he wanted to chat. Get the beers in and I'm all yours 🤣
I get your point on the artist front but I'm a firm believer of everybody keeping their jobs so I believe that an artist should go to a mix engineer, in the same way that labels should stick to artists and musicians and scrap AI. I know times are tight and some people don't care but I just don't see the point in releasing songs you believe in but making them sound pretty shit cause you have no interest in mixing at a professional level. Take the time to save for a good mixer and then release your music so it sounds as good as it should. Music is so playlist swiped these days that many people will go... Eww that sounds terrible, skip. I undetstand that my view is a very unpopular one though.
@@PaulThirdI agree with your comment about the length. On another day I may have been bored and frustrated and turned it off myself haha. Tonight I was in the right mood. Sat down on the sofa and listened to your elaborate rant. Yes, it was very human indeed and I see your point about how weird it is, that it's perceived as a time waste. I understand both sides of the equation. You wanting to be a human and them wanting a service. Ideally we try to combine both, but depending on the topic one or the other is uncalled for. For this topic I found your way quite fitting. When it comes to independent artists paying for producers, mixing engineers and mastering engineers, I will have to disagree. Paul, that's too expensive for most - but that doesn't mean they don't care. Paying for studio time (and the time and expertise of the recording engineer), paying for a good instrumental (or even worse: live musicians), paying for a (good) mixing engineer and a (good) mastering engineer .. that's a lot of money. If you don't waste time in the studio, all in all (studio, mixing, mastering), you won't be able to get it much cheaper than 400 Bucks - if you actually want SOME quality. Obviously, you can go to fiverr and pay 40 for mixing and mastering, but I don't think that's what you meant when you said "take the time to save for a good mixer" and honestly, I'd advise them to "take the time and save for a decent recording session" first. Some of these independent artists make more songs than they would be able to afford even paying 40 bucks for. And honestly, some of them are really talented and sometimes I'm amazed what results they produce without knowing ANYTHING "deeper" about mixing and mastering.
Agreed 100% Except I believe that the Audio Journey does not start with gear or even scicency shizz. To me, that is a a huge amount of the reason that we have much of the messed-up-edness we have today. The Audio Journey starts with Music and the feel it brings to the individual (and masses if it was a Rod Stewart record). It must finish with the Creation & Delivery of a Scene & Story via audio. None of that is technical, it is all Feel. Sure we use tools to take the strummer's strumming (we'll call him Joe) and get it to the delivery platform. There is learning there but very little of the technical compared to the feel. This is why a Mix Engineer should learn at the feet of a Master. The Master is never like the doofi (plural) on YooBoob who present fripperies as if they are the things that matter. Fripperies sell with the lazy because when presented with someone like Alan Parsons or Rick Rubin talking about the mindset, which is what really matters, they a) won't take the time and b) only want to hear what knob to put at what setting as if that is what a mix engineer does. That has, as you say, trivialized what the Production of music really is and really requires to deliver things that matter. This is a core part of why I say that DAWville has become a Toxic Religious Cult. It has become so bad that many genuine Engineers can no longer get work as it goes to Fiverr Freddies who would have been sent home before 10:00am because they do everything ass-about and skite shite that sells to the snake-oil suckers. The consumer wants the lies, not music that matters. ruclips.net/video/gmFo1cOANB0/видео.html
From Divine Styler's 1989 "Word Power" album "I feel each one should teach one, for everybody has two jobs. For those that know your job is to teach. And for those that don't know your job is to learn."
This is a great video, that's why I don't make content, im too busy trying to go through the work and my own journey. I am no authority by any means, I just enjoy the actual pros that decide to share their secret sauce!
Yeah youtube isn't for the faint hearted. If you don't give the algorithm everything then it essentially hands you the video back like.. No thank you haha Its soul destroying at times
Love this video. I probably watched a few audio tutorials at the beginning of my audio journey, but as with most things I was hellbent on figuring it out alone lol The videos are filled with fodder, and waves promotion. Yeah, they’re perfectly fine professional tools. But you don’t really know what they’re doing or why you’re using them sometimes. I don’t like that. You can do a lot simply by understanding acoustics, transient shaping, gain staging, frequency, dynamics, and harmonics. You don’t need the fancy new plug-in to modify these qualities, you just have to know what you’re doing.
The audio engineer journey is much like a builder building a completely new type of house each time that has completely different techniques of building. Because you are not a production line of the same thing each time, each time it's completely different even if it's a similar song. I do find RUclips can dumb it down but also if you search right there's things you find out you needed to know. Anyone passionate about things do not need someone to hold their hand to tell them to keep learning, only if they are being told to do something they aren't really into. This is why I find most college courses redundant, they teach for the good part of course as if they are trying to get you into the subject and so most passionate people become bored of the courses and I'm sure in some cases people with passion lose it. I do find shorts are great for getting a good tid bit, but equally if you do not know enough already you'll easily be brainwash with incorrect information just because a short makes every sound more plausible. The thing is I like to come across little bits of information but I also like to know the entirety but then again that due to me. I loved Chinese medicine, and then didn't just take in sip bits otherwise I would not like it, it was the depth of it that I liked and when I studied in in dept. I then saw how much false tid bits of information there was, or how completely pulled out of context the tid bit was if it was right. One think I hate is how little the importance acoustics is and if you are considering speakers for monitors in your studio, which pretty much any does, you have to first become a expert on acoustic treatment and the cost of that is part comes before your speakers. And you just watch people that are long past that part and you heard about speakers all day but rarely about acoustics unless someone makes a specific video. The problem is, if someone new takes a while until they find people giving real good advise they might not stumble on this advise still for a number of years... or hear bits but not enough for it to hit home because they do not watch that specific video. But also people who make such content, like yourself for instance, don't want to harp on about that in any video containing speakers because you think it'll be annoying to regular watchers but again, a new person could turn up and then still never learn this as the most important thing about monitoring. You often bring it up and you do well due to that, but still it's not enough for someone to realise as myself back in the day when studying this suggest was always put as a side note... just a "do the acoustics" at the end which you end up thinking is a luxury not absolutely essential.. more important than any expensive gear. But then, all these others that are professionals for years with big studios do not think about it because it's always there. Before they had a studio to make content from they did all that and the acoustics are now in the past and not in their mind. Such people are also why there's very little information on headphone mixing and most stir people away from headphones. They haven't explored actually finding good headphones for mixing so their advice is always speakers because they only know these typical headphone "designed for the studio" that are actually not as good as some others if they took the time to explore that are not "designed for the studio". "Studio Headphones" to me has become as useless of a title as "Gaming Headphones". The problem with dumbing down is the fact it's so easy for anyone to put out information now and so you naturally get 90% of the people doing it either talking out of their arse or giving information to teach when they have barely learned enough themselves. Which is why it's best to put of content that is about learning, about discovery, rather than just bark advice. Again, you do this quite well... Ed also... there's a few that I loved that have turn a bit ingenuine over time, but I'm assuming this can happen because the passion for truth is taken over by what's more simple. And this then becomes good content but with a element of dumbing down to it due to the lack of care for being completely genuine. Now there's a part of getting a great sound where you accidently did it by setting things up without caring, but it's helps you to understand why that sound was made, the science, so you can work on creating even more creative stuff. Otherwise you are someone throwing paint at a canvas until a splat makes a picture. I totally agree with the "the best mixing technique" "want a perfect low-end" then a short just to know this one trick that is only relevant to take track and so it leaves people thinking "all I need is a bunch of these little bits of information and I can be a amazing mix engineer". I see them and think, "okay, that'll be good to save to try out on some things later" if I then use one, it'll only teach me something about the science which then gives me ideas for other things. I can't imagine trying to teach techniques I come across because I do not see how the context of it being used will fit for enough cases for it to be considered a technique to teach others. Although most of the time I just feel angry at the context most of the time and I'm pretty much rage baiting myself. I'm only got the time for this because I'm waiting to build a studio... so I am here for entertainment between research that ends up being a bit of research also, if it's also to research the BS out there to learn what sort of way this BS is being presented. I want to then do RUclips also and thinking I'd be only covering the journey of learning. But, to have a channel also where I can get a lot of clicks I can just review headphones from a audiophile perspective and be able to be honest and pump out stuff as everyone is just looking for a subjective understanding. Which it all is because even the objective stuff differs from each person and the simple love for music and how to listen to it is meant to be a dumb affair... "I just want the headphone that will make the music I like sound amazing". When it comes to the studio it'll be so hard to make proper recommendations because a set of headphones might suit me for translation but will not for other person. So simply adding my changes in a journey is the most I can do and even then I have to accept it's not completely helpful to most. I think showing the research you are doing and discoveries you are making is probably the only way to make content that is helpful, but really, you doing that for others is then not making it helpful as it's best for us to learn it ourselves so we understand more than just what we learn on the surface. So I think make things fun so it's then at least entertainment but constantly push home becoming a nerd... but again, entertainment can keep people hooked and away from these journeys because they are actually boring when you start and then become interesting once you get deeper into it. Even now I know the second I have a studio it's going to be about half a year of a lot of boredom pulling myself from entertaining myself while researching back into actually living the journey. The actually journey is better but it takes time for the immersion to over take the simple pleasures of entertainment. Lets face it, if you have time to take in a lot of this you aren't doing it... I know because I only have time because I can't do it right now. I could be doing a tiny bit but I'm used to doing it properly and I find it much like playing with toy cars when you a sports driver. I'll just bore myself and learn barely anything. Currently, at least a decent headphone setup will see me be able to do things enough where it's back on track so that is where I'll begin. The thing is, people dumb themselves down and if everyone didn't, there wouldn't gaps in the market. I do feel this is part of why some people put out stupid shorts... keep the people stuck as consumers and keep our jobs secure
Musicians used to dream of being in a great band, and then getting a recording contract, then getting huge and rich. They didn't need to worry about these things, but thankfully there were the clever engineers etc who did. But the gatekeepers of music ensured that only the 'best' musicians would ever experience this lofty world. Now anyone can record, and if you make music you kinda have to know a bit of everything. So most creative people are having to dabble in areas they don't really want to be in. And there and no gatekeepers, and there is also no money. Which scenario was better? Screwed if I know, but I think that might be part of the reason. Only a small percentage of people who watch your videos will want to go really deep. They are dabbling in this, and in graphic design and in marketing and all these allied areas that democratisation has opened up to us, when they really just wanted to write songs and be in a band, and leave the rest to the industry.
Yeah I understood a long time ago that my demographic was more people who want to make it a profession. But I do think that it's important to seperate the process. A producer shouldn't be writing for the artist, the mixer shouldn't be producing for the producer, and the mastering engineer shouldn't be mixing for the mixer. If you follow the steps, the music will recieve the best journey, instead of sounding like a half arsed mess. Just let the people with the right experience do what they do and let them serve the music
Well said sir. The workflow seems to be, start a RUclips channel, talk about the basics of "audio engineering". Be relatable to your viewers, tell them they don't need expensive gear and paint sucessfull engineers and "real" studios as unnecessary. - when the RUclips money, popularity and endorsements start happening, what's the first they do?? BUY a ton of great gear! -wow You need to be mental with a solid work ethic to really be effective as an audio engineer most people would hate the insane hours, failed relationships, people stealing your work/ credit. The amount of technical knowledge and lived work experience to be "that person", its a personal journey. Those who manage to get to the point of doing "solid" work, often just market the shit out of themselves and foccous on the "brand". I mostly stopped making albums and mixing, however two of the recent "audio" related projects I am involved in... are. 1. I was part of a small team of specialists, we recently completed the new Atmos mix room at Amazon Music studios in L.A. 2. I am finalizing sessions for a client who hired me to engineer and co-produce his new album, CLA already mixed the frist five tracks, five more on the way. Good times. 🎉
Don't get me started on the analog thing. If you want distracted from the journey, get into the modern mindset behind analog gear. Buy it and use it without having any understanding of what it's actually doing cause "it's analog and analog always makes everything sound better" People spending all of their budget on gear and ruining their mixes by over processing, over compressing & over saturating.. But sell themselves as being "pro" cause they have a shit ton of expensive gear when in reality most of the biggest mixers are either hybrid to an extent or completely in the box. Jaycen and serban being ITB proves beyond all doubt that you don't need analog for mixing. Workflow is king in their game as they could be mixing up to 3 records a day and nobody in their right mind would sit there and slate Serbans mixes as "they sound digital" That's why I keep in touch with so many industry mixers as they act as a sanity check. That new release sounds amazing man what did you do to get the low end so tight? "bit of eq and compression, nothing special" Its hardly ever some expansive crazy technique, it's just less is more mixing. As soon as I got into the less is more approach my mixing changed practically improved overnight
I don’t disagree, but sometimes I prefer short form content because I’m stuck on one aspect of a mix; I want to quickly review some tips and get back to my daw and apply what I learned to what I’m working on because there is no universal solution and it usually takes a good bit of tweaking to apply what I’ve learned to a real life mix that wasn’t used as a video example 🤷♂️ great vid!!
IMO the root of most information related problems on the internet is the lack of transparency and publishing regulations. It’s hard to check or even find sources between all the fact and fiction people spread, largely motivated by selfish gains - and people often don’t like to hear the truth, that’s where the drama sells…
I agree totally with this. I feel the craft/art/science of audio engineering is being "devalued", with all this . At the same time, this is a long road to walk. Academically/practically, how do you use a learning resource like you tube, as your mentor? For audio especially, some stuff you can't teach, have to learn to ride that bike yourself.
19:52 - Kneejerk reaction here - You know, I hadn't thought of it that way. LOL - I'm a cocky b*****d. My wife calls it "unearned confidence". I KNOW I can write a song. I KNOW I can learn what I need to produce my own tracks. I KNOW I'm going to raked over the coals on social media (don't care). To pull this back to your Essay, you're 100% right - this is a Journey! And like most Journey's it's about the experiences along the way and not just the end destination.
I think this is kind of true. Definitely, if you are here watching RUclips most of the time, while you are creating or mixing, mastering whatever... then you'll lose your own unique path and understanding. Equally, it's important to find a good amount of demystifying information. That infomercial becomes blurred when you watch all the time because every creator can not off true value to every person while uploading frequently. I myself while I'm waiting to be on my feet enough to build a decent studio to start again being on RUclips a lot, but, while I'm not doing, I'm mostly entertaining myself and bettering my mental health while I xsn by immersing myself in the topic and research of it. Very rarely do I come across very worthy things to note down. Mostly, it's just an ever involving list of gear and plugins to look at when the time comes. If I remained doing this when the time comes, I will have a very dumbed down idea and copy cat approach to things. Even with mixing advice... you can get taught, but the best kept secrets will still be kept from you. Especially with creation advice... good to gander to get going, but you really have to do this yourself. As long as you can take it as research while taking it all with a pinch of salt and entertainment to fill a gap, you should be able to clear out the things that are nonsense to you. I'd like to also include RUclips content when I do, so it's also a feed of a broad scope of presentation ideas... not yo copy but to have a palette of many different approaches to better be yourself.
I admit my career in software development helped me care more about the intricacies of mixing. Before I just wanted to put something out for creativity purposes which isn't a problem but it stops you growing at some point. Being in engineering and or physics helps you care more about the theoretical side of things, but reading documentation and papers is a skill everyone should learn in my opinion
My mixes probably aren't technically perfect, but I've just built a good room, and used my ears to build something that I think sounds great. I don't listen to what anyone else does or says, I don't use reference mixes. I just use my ears, and the basic tools of audio processing. EQ, compression, reverb and delay. That's the toolbox. Develop your room and ears, great sounding mixes will follow.
I dunno it's we don't wanna take the journey.. most of us have a full time job n kids.. and studios aren't taking on extra people.. most the time atleast where I live it's the owner who's the engineer and they might outsource or have 1 extra guy for mastering .. things aren't in the 90s anymore as much as I'd love it .. great video paul as usual
The key for all this is genuine interest and playfulness with it. That's what the greats had and what drove them to discover new techniques.. Coming to RUclips to find hacks or quick tips to solve problems is the opposite, like practicing exam papers to pass rather than genuine interest in the subject.
@@PaulThirdYep - and maybe you can relate with autism - as someone with ADHD, I can't learn like that anyway, I've got to have genuine interest .. and at that point cant find motivation to follow the prescribed curriculum, let alone revise for exams. Haha. I wouldn't be surprised to find a high degree of neuro divergence amongst the great mixers and producers..
@@natdenchfield8061 it's definitely a common thing I would say. I've met and spoke to quite a few mixers now and my autism spidey senses have tingled many a time haha I think that in a Neurotypical world, social interactions are extremely important but in a neurodiverse world, locking yourself in a studio for 8-10 hours a day is actually preferable 🤣
As someone who can play a lot of different instruments and has worked very hard to learn so much music theory and music history that it's actually a challenge to find new information about those topics, I feel like this dumbing down is happening in a lot of places in addition to audio engineering.
Most likely. When you make your base of learning and main source of information an algorithm that doesn't care if any information is actually valid or factual then you'll dumb yourself down by proxy. Thats why i stay well clear of Tik tok cause at least with youtube I decide what I watch
I looked in the mirror and youre right, we are in a world where we want the information as quick as possible and a lot of us think that theres some 'secrets' out there we must be not aware of and were constantly looking for them! The only way is the 10000 hour rule type of way! Im off to delete a load of plugins i keep like some hoarder 😂😂
As soon I enforced the less is more approach I genuinely started to see better results instantly. Don't over complicate the methods and don't over simplify the tools. I always find that approach to work for me. Do only what needs done and understand your tools inside and out so you know exactly what to use, how to use it and most importantly why you are using it
Hi Paul. This is 1000% true and some people like you are struggling with this deal to doing fancy things and stuffs to make more content At the end of the day we all’ …we … watcher and U making cotent are obviously responsible of the all thing which makes money for dark people I think of the last video of Cameron AKA Venus theory…. Making a trip and introspection about what is art and finally what makes every artist moving forward … I don’t buy plugs anymore I did a clean install and seriously i’ve got almost a hundred plug-in to sell and don’t even install them Anyway thanks for this video …. And sure…. Watch it till the end !!! Cheers buddy
I watched every minute and I loved it. The software industry is going the same way. Surface knowledge and AI assistance. I heard a couple of AI-generated tracks this month and they are worryingly good compared with last year's creations. Still poor but the improvement was a shock.
How hard it would be to collect data about RUclipsrs in one place? Education and work history, released music (how to make videos), released mixes and masters (mixing & mastering tips and hacks). Content analysis about paid and promotional videos, gear and plugin reviews. Something towards spirit in this video essay to get info about content and creator behind it. Don’t know, just asking. I would definitely be interest about that data. I don’t have experience to find right parameters, maybe somebody is clever enough 🙂 Good thoughts in video essay, lot to think about for sure.
It would need to be all manually done. You can get certain youtube stats from socialblade, check certain discography sites for credits and Facebook and maybe linked in and website for history but that's about it. There's no way of calculating the amount of sponsored videos unless you watched every single piece of content and figured it out I genuinely couldn't imagine a more boring job to collect all of that data haha
Boring ain’t bad, some very useful things are considered boring. Reading, even I think it’s a very fun. I got some messages about this saying it will be complicated, but not all manual. What are the moving pieces and percentages varied. Since it’s touching real peoples earnings it should be 100% correct data. More you look about it, more complicated it gets. So, boring like you said. Stillll intrigued by it.
I started off disagreeing with the title, but after watching, I do sort of agree with what you're saying. The main point that I think you nailed is the attention span and people not wanting to put the work in. I think a big part of art is the blood, sweat, and tears that go into its creation, but today it's very marketable to claim you can skip that step, if you just use our quick hack! I think that's terrible. But the part I mostly find hard to agree with is the "journey" part. Like you said, most people don't have a big studio or the money to ever have one, nor do they know someone who works at one that they can go hang out with and learn from. While I agree that people aren't getting the audio journey that CLA and other legends were able to go through, RUclips is the best thing they have to substitute for it. Overwhelmingly, this is a nuanced topic and I don't think you're wrong overall, but because of Adsense and our culture as it stands, I don't see an obvious solution.
The correct information is on youtube, it's just hard for many new to the game to know where that's coming from due to over saturation and content creators understanding how to abuse the algorithm to get near the front of the queue RUclips is a great resource but nothing beats actually mixing for years. You don't need the CLA journey, you just mix and mix and keep learning from your mistakes
@@PaulThird True, and nothing really beats having a solid foundation of understanding that gets decorated with those neat little tricks and tips you can find on here. I often wonder how many people think mixing is easy and are really just using presets and weird, esoteric, niche little tricks just because they saw it online, but have no firm grasp on how mixing works on a fundamental level. Either way, I liked your video! Good talking points all around
Just do me one favour... Watch the whole thing eh!!!
Paul the Thirrrrrrrrrd in the house!!!!
Whenever I have the time 😂
Aye. I'm 25 mins in and this is one of your best vids. More of this long form content please. I do have some hope for the algorithm though, it tells me when Dan Worrall opens a bag of crisps, never mind a detailed video on stereo imaging 😂. Edit: couldn't agree more about Recording Studio Loser, great channel.
Hey Paul, I’m wondering… what kind of headphones should I use for the specific purpose of….
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And entire Hour, Im half way through, have to watch the second half tomorrow because it feels weird wathcing an hour long video thats not a livestream.
This is such a poignant video, just subbed. I think you also indirectly highlighted a general trend in music & arts nowadays. No one is talking about the journey and the often non-linear process it takes to compose, dance, paint, etc. anymore. It's all about fast hacks - do this to achieve that. Not only is the context then missing, but it's like it's being forgotten that music, painting, dancing, sculpting, etc. are much more than just the gear and a number of steps. It's about utilizing a blend of valuable in-depth knowledge, experience, informed intuition and sensibility to express who we are and what we feel towards the world and how we see the world. But in a world where streams and views are the new gold rush, everyone is trying to sell shovels i.e. what you called the surface things. People are less and less encouraged to delve deep into topics and critically analyse what is being offered. And let's not even get started on AI, it's like the internet is slowly becoming a huge bin of recycled topics of AI generated content made to feed the algorithm. The search on YT and Google is almost unusable... Which is why it's nice to see someone take a stand and talk about all this. Thank you!
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@@PaulThirdwhat does this emoji face with glasses response mean? Sincerely asking …
Basically an acknowledgement that Ive read your comment. Lots of people comment on videos without ever knowing if the creator has even bothered to read the comments section
Sometimes it's just nice to know that your response has at least been acknowledged
@@PaulThirdthanks for replying .. I was sincerely wondering and hoping you didn’t think I was trolling.. amazing job on this video btw .. I’ve only watched so much of it thus far and I’m about to watch the rest but by seeing the names of the chapters you have in the description coupled with what I’ve already watched I’m thrilled you getting this message out there … much respect!
@@PaulThird that was the question that answeed 'The Why' thing.. 🙄
Paul, honestly, you're the ONLY person who actually addresses the elephant in the room. The reality of providing a platform and elevating the voices of people with zero experience or zero credibility (credentials) is something we all have to learn how to deal with. From my personal experience of being in this industry for close to 20 years, I've never experienced such a lack of professionalism. Everybody is a "mixing engineer" these days. Hell, I get notes from my clients telling me what multi band compressor I should use and how they could use a Maag EQ for that 10k sheen. Democratization of tools and the market machine that keeps shoving their products down everyone throat, turned our profession into a "cirque du soleil". The greats will always be greats and their mixes will always sound amazing because that's not their HOBBY, because they don't watch RUclips reviews, because they spent decades upon decades learning the craft. Unfortunately the current reality doesn't care about any of this as long as you can slap CLA Vocals (which I actually like) and call yourself a mixing engineer.
The obsession with CLA has really gotten out of hand. It's like everybody wants to be CLA but nobody can actually tell you why they want to be like CLA. The Internet just puts it on a plate every week and they lap it up
I’ve still to watch the whole video but I’ve started a series “Fixing Bad Music Production and Mixing Advice” precisely because of this problem!
It’s also why I only post once a month or so. It’s impossible to post daily/weekly at a high level if you also work in the industry.
Edit - just got to the plugin Doctor part. That plugin alone has prevented me from making video content on at least 100 plugins on release day. Reviewers often don’t even test gear before promoting it.
Michael you are one of the reasons why it's pointless to make beginner content cause you've covered nearly everything haha
Man even a fortnight is a struggle for me right now but I'm kinda glad that I'm leaning back instead of forward cause it's giving me more time for the studio and mixing.
Itd be impossible for me to do youtube weekly now. To do it right you either have to devote yourself to it or just take your time and work bit by bit.
I just find youtube so unrewarding now but maybe with only focusing on quality content again I'll start to enjoy it again
@@PaulThirdI hear you.
I really hope you can find a rewarding middle ground.
These days I find myself almost completely in the service of my clients (mastering) and it’s so much more rewarding than RUclips.
When I am working in audio I feel that I learn something every single day and with each new project. On RUclips, it’s much more confusing!
Yeah it's all just reviews now and clickbait. If I could ditch youtube today I would. Now just more of a hassle for me cause I've answered pretty much most of the questions I needed answered. I've got a big list of ideas, but it's whether I can be bothered making it 😅
Plugin Doctor shows that most plugins are just the same algorithms with slightly different coefficients and completely different GUIs. They can pump out unlimited plugins this way just because consumers are not technically savvy, and most of them just say "use your ears". Our cochlea/brain are unreliable measurement systems compared to our eyes but these guys are religious, it's like an thermal engineer should just use their skin to measure temperature. However this is the fundamental reason why wine tasting/audiophile/michelin restaurants can make money.
I had the idea of showing problems with My production and the video will follow My process of fixing the problems, with no guarantee if I'll actually succeed every time.
Thank you Paul for being authentically you. And not being afraid to start the honest conversations. You are a beacon of light man
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When I clicked on this video the first thing I thought was, oh my god this thing is 1 hour long. My algorythm brain screamed get lost I can't do this :) Thanks for explaining to my brain why that is. I've been trying to learn mixing skills via RUclips for many years now. And I had to realize that it is exactly as you say. I can't manage to break through the layers. I've made progress, but it's so slow and it is so hard to put all the small pieces together. I do mixing as a hobby, but I have the ambition to achieve good results. So time is definitely the limiting factor for me. You have to find a balance. But only scratching the top level over the years and trying to compensate with presets is a waste of time. Thank you for addressing this issue and this trend.
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Paul, you’re not alone! Thank you for speaking the truth, mad respect. I think this is the beginning of the next big era for you.
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This is a great video, Paul. Thank you for discussing these issues. You are a "real one," keep up the great work in audio, and produce more videos like this. Your knowledge and opinions are much needed and very refreshing. Thank you.
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Great video as always!! As a producer/ musician/ creative for over 2 decades, I spent a long time focusing on the creative aspect and ignorantly overlooked the importance of the technical “knowledge”. It took me a long time to reluctantly realise the importance of the “audio journey”! Music is science, mathematics, arts & physics! Fast forward, such knowledge is my obsession! Please don’t only do plug in reviews! Your insightful videos have played a valued part of my “audio journey” and for that, I 🫡 you! More power to you! The Audio Journey is real!!
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Keep it up man, I've been chatting with another RUclipsr who says exactly the same, although not publicly. We need the really difficult questions being answered, just be on the right side of history.
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Thanks Paul. Good concise breakdown of the situation. Its good to hear the names of the few individuals I still watch regularly brought up in your vid. As long as you just do you, I wish you all the best and look forward to seeing whatever you post next. 👌
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This is the reason you and others like Nick (panorama mastering) don’t get the credit you deserve!
Keep doing the right thing and educating us all as in depth as possible 👏
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Ironically I found the channel through reviews. They’re fantastic.
The truth is reviews in general have always needed to be taken with a grain of salt. We’ve lost the vast majority of magazines where we would read reviews (among other things) that we’d wonder how they weren’t influenced by making advertisers happy…
I admire your resolve and look forward to seeing the channel evolve.
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I promise I will finish watching this whole video! just got done night shift and need few hours sleep first. the 15 mins I've watched so far is splendid though, great work as always Paul.
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Good video. As a beginner on the Audio Journey I particularly appreciate the acknowledgement of how hard it is for beginners to know who to listen to, and I'm sure the couple of recommendations you made will help me endlessly, so thanks for that.
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Brilliant. There's so much truth in what you say. I got my first access to Cubase VST back in 2000. There was no RUclips engineering content back then. I was just amazed to have access to multiple, multiple tracks with non-destructive editing and built-in FX (no 3rd party plugins). I also worked with a few people that had music production enterprises, which helped extend my knowledge beyond the earliest live mixing gigs I'd done. But it wasn't until about 7 years ago that I realised that the reality of the output I self recorded and produced was sadly lacking when it came to comparing to professionally released material. Some good stuff, some good ideas and some reasonably good mixes, but overall there was still a big hole in quality in a lot of it back then - I just didn't know enough. So, when I rekindled my interest in recording, engineering and mixing those 7 years ago, I was at first very surprised and happy that I found You Tube content creators releasing videas that actually explored this. I immersed myself in the first few of these, finally settling on 5 or 6 channels that I felt had integrity and really useful knowledge. They still pop up regularly on my feed, because of the algorithms, and still - largely - produce useful and informative content. But what I noticed down the line a bit was, there was this wealth of new channels, most of which either appeared to be dropping the usual, 'do this trick to get the best bass sound etc.' that I started to see the things you talk about here. Thereafter, I stopped buying plugins willy-nilly and started to realise what I hadn't understood before was never going to be 'fixed' by buying another plugin. I also discovered that the foundation of a great mix (for me) started with a great static mix; gain staging, filters, panning, levels, before even thinking about plugins. In short order, I've started to expand my ear from the first point. I did technical exercises, where I imagined I was working in a cheap 1970s studio, without lots of outboard gear and worked hard to get it to sound 'decent', with no plugins or sometimes even EQ!. I'm still on the journey, and the improvements are incremental as I progress and gain that important experience through doing. Now, while I don't want to make out I am an engineering god, or a mix master, I now get big, solid mixes using a tiny fraction of the hardware emulations I used formerly, because, if the recording is good, I know it, and there is no longer that crippling need to throw another compressor on something that doesn't need it. Btw I did rather criticise Atmos on one of your videos, but I also wished you well in your voyage, and still do - I think with your skills and mentality you'll see good results. But yes, there is this dumbing down of the process on You Tube, though part of that has come from the so-called democratisation of music, i.e. the availability of relatively cheap software and hardware, and more people give it a go. Yet, so many have this 'preset mentality', or this 'gimme the simple version of this complex world in 10 minutes' attitude, so many so, that what is still, relatively, a niche area of study was, prior to this age of the digital domain, even more niche, 20, 30, 40 or 50 years ago. My YT feed tries to convince me that the whole world knows what Waves plugins are, or how a studio mix is created, but it's still a dark art for the vast majority of people, as a recent conversation down the pub recently brought home. Most people aren't interested or don't know the first steps. They weren't intersted before the digital revolution, and they still aren't. Next, the global market is now a bigger place to operate, musically, but the majority of music creativity has perished, as the music demands of todays producers (creators) doesn't require the same journeyman skills, anymore. That's not to say there aren't exceptionally talented people out there, there are loads in all areas, but the process of producing music is now less demanding. In this age of 5 minute relief, it's rampant. I don't blame midi, or sampling, or even non-destructive editing, I use these also, but with Autotune and mixing vocals to a two-track is relatively simple. I wonder what would have happened if a rapper and a home producer turned up at Capitol for a session with the late Al Schmidt, exactly whare he would start... Finally (I hope you made it to the end, I did with your vid 🙂) I look forward to your continued output, with far less plugin reviews, and more about your journey
I can tell you watched the whole video 🤜🤛 haha
You nailed it with these comments. I've been doing this for 35 years. About 20 years ago, I assumed the new generation of audio guys would take over and I'd be out of a job soon enough. I embraced all the new amazing tech along the way, but always applied my experience, and I'm still full time producing and mixing. Nice one, Paul.
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Something I can proudly say, especially from all our conversations, is that you GENIUNELY want to deliver your trutth, your journey, and with a very conscious effort to enrich thise who follow it.
Even though dolby atmos isn’t the most “sexy youtube” topic. It’s one of your current drives and passions and you share that with your community as part if your audio journey. This is awesome! I can’t wait to see more from you!
Regarding my Audio RUclips journey. Paul is a major reason for my channels growth, his behind the scenes advice, direct way to tell me if something could be improved and our chats have really driven me to think outside the box to DELIVER for the audience like he does.
Paul, I am here to watch you in the long game, not just this week, month or year. But long term, I can’t wait to hear and experience what you’re doing in your audio joruney in 3,5,10 years time!
Keep being amazing!
Good to see you!
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Nice one, Nich! You're a gentleman!
Paul, this was a breath of fresh air thank you....I've been on my own audio journey for the last 10 years in the Film & TV business, and I totally understand your message about making decisions for yourself and learning the right way, it's the only way to achieve anything.
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Great video, Paul..spot on. 👍
One thing that struck me as I was listening is the fact that no everyone who produces wants to be an audio engineer..they just want to be creative and make music. To them the two are completely different beasts..and that's the problem. They honestly don't see the need to learn to walk before they get to run.
I think we all kinda start off from that place..and then the point comes when you realise you know sod all and then you either knuckle down and get busy or you start to float off to some other less demanding interest instead. Plugins will only take you so far..the same goes for being creative..but it's an understanding of how things work that pulls it all together..even if that understanding is the very basics, like EQ and Compression.. it's the holy trinity of making music: a) Having the creative vision of knowing what you want to do..b) Knowing what gear / plugins / samples you need to create it, and c) having enough technical smarts to be able to actually do effectively.
You don't have to become an audio engineer to make music..but you do need a working knowledge of the basics if you want to give both you and your work the chance to be the best that both can be.
Thanks again for keeping things honest..much appreciated, man. 😉👍
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Stumbled across this video and you earned an instant fan/subscriber. Been frustrated with the surface level content on here for a while, but you said it all better than I could have. Thanks for being unapologetically you, Paul.
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Love this.
I’m always more interested in watching individuals and their own journey in their careers.
I started making videos to give to clients to make those first conversations easier. Also, because it was so hard to relate to some of the ones putting out videos. And when I thought back to some of the best mentors I ever had, their advice was never “here’s how to do-x-“. It was “here’s this item/technique and here’s my thought process on how put it into practice in this particular context because I screwed it up in these other contexts.”
Btw. I remember watching Pensado’s place constantly. So much gold there.
Ps Can believe it was almost a year ago when I met you and Ed in LA.
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Big ups, Jeremy!
Nothing to add... Simple and straight to the point, thanks Man!
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Thanks for making this video. You hit some seriously good and important points. Working in this industry is a journey, a never ending learning experience.
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My favorite youtube channel:) thank you for not promoting products 💕💕💕
You just got yourself another sub for this video. I'm not a pro producer. My story is complex and long and I won't bore you with it but I am re-learning everything and strive to improve every time I record a song. We are living in a tiktok world where "everything one needs to know" is squashed into a 30-second video and this is what people want now.
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Spot on. I have been doing this since 1976, and I have watched and experienced so many transformation in engineering and mixing. The RUclips generation wants everything free and fast. Screw experience.
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I'm still watching (about at the level of how monetisation has dumbed down audio) but I wholeheartedly agree. Those audio folks who play a musical instrument (and I am far more instrumentalist than engineer due to my point), know that it also talks an age to be vaguely good enough at your instrument then many more years to master it, if indeed you ever do. The audio world on RUclips is the equivalent to telling a budding guitar player to just play these few notes from a Jimi Hendrix solo to be a pro, or a budding saxophonist to just use this method for storing reeds that John Coltrane used and you too will be a giant in the Jazz world. It's bloody nonsense, yet this is what we are spoon fed every day on RUclips.
Pretty apt comparison
It is like you read my mind with this video. I was just talking about this last week with someone, in general but also with regards to music / recording RUclipsrs (where many are either shilling gear, or at very least click-baity plugin reviews, turning them into shows where one goes more for entertainment or confirmation bias than for engineering knowledge with depth). A race to the bottom in terms of quality - a quick fix mentality, and one where either gear / software, or some sort of insta-process is supposed to make up for inadequate skills or process. I’ve never worked in any commercial studio - and while I’ve def learned a great deal of tactics via sifting through RUclips, it hasn’t been half as valuable as what I’ve learned from engineers in pro studios either while I’ve been there recording, or more so in the private instruction I’ve sought from some of those people over the past couple years - WAY more than I could learn on videos, including why some tactic is done (not just what / how), where it comes from, how it ties in to other things, etc. So I say - don’t ever get delusion that quick-vids replace in-person experience; siphon what useful info you can online by all means, but be aware of the ecosystem and how it works, and wary of wasting time on channels that are more “content creation hubs” or product shill channels than ones going into the nitty-gritty of engineering… but ya Paul, I do hope you keep making vids when you want to in the manner that you prefer - keep fighting the good fight!
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Generally speaking, I think your nerdy approach reaches the people that come for what you are talking about here. You, Dan Worrall, House of Kush, Panorama, etc. There's lots. Personally, I can never get enough of videos breaking down how compression works and how to use it to your advantage and my journey started in the 1990s as a teenager with a Tascam 414. It never ends. I think Gregory Scott's videos on how to hear compression and then using it as a tone shaping tool are, hands down, some of the best out there at conveying what compression even is, does, or CAN do. I think videos on mixing philosophy is also a good topic to explore. One size does not fit all and I don't think I have ever heard a plugin preset (that wasn't a synth) that I didn't have to tweak to death, leaving me thinking why I even started with the preset in the first place. Speaking of manuals, reading the manual is something that is simply required with some of Acustica's plugins. Do you still use any of their stuff? Keep at it, Paul, you're exactly where you need to be. Blah, blah, yadda, yadda, rant over
I still use some acustica stuff but they've been resampling everything and completely changed the sound of stuff I liked. Amber 4 is very different to Amber 3. Amber always had a compressor with a lot of L+R difference which I always used on acoustic guitar and piano as I liked the side information it added just on passthrough.
Made out that their stuff was the most accurate and then completely change the sound of the plugins 🤷♂️
Don't know what to believe now
Good to see a video from you my friend! I agree with all of this, fantastic job!
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Genuinely thank you for making this video.
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Every book used to be hand scribed by incredibly talented calligraphy artists, decades of experience and honing of skills, until Gutenberg invented the printing press.
The problem with nerds like us Paul , is it's easy to get lost in the science, the training, the mastering of ones own skill, the refining of our art through process over a multiple decade journey.
But if you disappear down that rabbit hole long enough, you forget the most important part.
Our job is to make sure sounds translate emotionally to the audience.
The audience is always the final Arbiter.
And the audience does not care if their favorite tune was mastered by AI or a human who took 30 years to get to that stage.
Robots still can't tune a piano properly, and piano tuners are now both rare, highly skilled, and expensive.
Does it make piano tuning a sustainable business industry? No.
Speak to any poet why they still write art in the face of no industry.
My niche is teaching music theory in the context of dance music, but the reality is some of the biggest hits ever made but guesswork , both engineering wise and musically. You get there how you get there.
The only thing that matters is can you change the world.
Respect Paul! I'm not an audio engineer aspiring to be one, but just want to engineer and mix my own music with the limited time I have. So while I do like all the help I can get from good plugins, I still like to understand what's going on behind. Your channel is such a fresh breath in the new world of content turning into ads with even more ads built in. Thanks.
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Love how you start kind of a geek, and come around the other end as a punk !! Real talk. Be following you around for real audio talk 💪🏼🎵✨🕊
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I never comment but avid watcher….Paul thank you for everything! This video was excellent and you have my full support!
If I can make guys like yourself comment then I know I've succeeded somewhere in this video haha.. In the words of the wise man Borat.. GREAT SUCCESS!!
You rock 🤩 same issues happens when making music in general, the records sell out and the pressure comes to follow up with something similar, not, something authentic, luckily IDGAF and I know what tries to influence me, it's hard to get in the authentic headspace, it takes a lot of thought and time, sometimes it's a serious existential crisis, maybe more than I care to admit, but we are musicians, we soldier on. Love ya!! 🥰
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Coming to the end now (and I re-watched a few sections). I'd say the following:
1. The reason why so many people are 'lazy' is because RUclips is really the only way to learn. A lot of other ways to learn either cost money that people don't have and still seem kind of basic, like online courses. Fader Pro and what you can get from stuff like Computer Music Magazine, MusicTech Magazine etc. Or sitting in a studio with a decent engineer, which is next to impossible or paying literally thousands of pounds/dollars/euros whatever and three-four years of your life full time in a uni course of which you need to hit an academic standard to take part anyway. So like eager students, people come to the people who are teaching them which are you guys. However ,the info is dumbed down like you say, so it breeds dependency. It's not really laziness if you aren't taught how to critically think and find the info in the first place and the info you go to find, is behind a pay wall or email mailing list. Better the devil you know and all that.
2 Who has the time to try and learn what plugin doctor actually does when you are trying to learn mixing, mastering, how to produce in a lot of cases and for a lot of people music theory then seeing the likes of yourself, Dan Worrall, that Ukrainian guy who is in Canada (EDIT Andrew Zeleno) talk about a lot of complex things like null, reverse phase etc? For an amateur it's like being a year seven kid going to a physics lesson only to find it's being taught by Stephen Hawking who is going to take them through the math of how to predict the location of black holes. It's the same stuff but it goes from 0-1000. I think that also breeds helplessness because it's too much for people who then assume they'll never get it and then just listen to their music guru of choice who does seem to get it and can help them out.
3 can you tell I'm from an education background? 😅 i can only really say this from my own experience, ultimately. I do think it may somewhat be laziness but then also there are so many pitfalls for people wanting to take it seriously that it's really hard to develop confidence in yourself. Saying that, I'm loving learning myself and I'm finding little techniques which i can add to my little 'almanac of ideas'. It's not easy but i think if we had more Paul Thirds, we might stand a chance.
Mixing engineers handbook is like £20 and covers basically everything for somebody starting out, and it comes from all the credible sources.
Its a little outdated in places so there are places where you'd need guys like me and Worral but for all the main stuff thats on youtube, it's all there
It was actually forced reading in my college course. We all had to buy it haha
@@PaulThird Lol never been so happy to be wrong.
I'll buy it today :P
You and Weaver are the only audio guys I follow on YT.
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Ha! Paul, you are mad craic! AND you speak the truth, RUclips is a hard mistress. I look forward to your journey ☘💪🏽👀👍🏽☘
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I’m in Paul. Been watching your videos for a while now and just subbed. Sick of the tail wagging the dog, seemingly in all walks of life.
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no lies were told in this video. cheers mate
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This was some serious factual evidence to digest. I'm thankful for interning a little and working under experienced engineers where I gained the context needed to make smart decisions. Context is everything
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Finally able to finish up the vid now! Had to take it as a 2 parter but I don't mind ❤🎉 It killed me though cuz first part sucked me in and I didn't want to get pulled away 😢
This is the content we need to be rewarding, as viewers 🎉
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One of the best videos i've seen in a long time!!
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The audio journey was never a chore for me. I grew up reading almost every article in Sound On Sound, Keyboard magazine, Music Maker, etc. I still read and listen to interviews with audio engineers and musicians. I watch masterclasses of film composers, audio enigineers, mixers and sound designers. I went deep into synthesis and signal processing. Everything I've learned through the years comes from reliable information from people in the audio trenches. I've worked my way through portastudios, ADAT recorders up to and including modern DAWs and created music in a wide range of genres. I've salivated over gear that i never could afford, like fairlights and oberheims. I've read manuals of equipment i never owned. The audio journey was not a chore. It defined me.
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Long-form content like Pensado's place I only started to find in the last year or so - they're great and I can listen like a podcast and really absorb what they're saying. Luckily I do practical work, so it's conducive to learning at the same time. Hey, plus you don't have to keep finding new vids every 8 mins and no ads! I've only been watching youtube vids for production for about that long anyway ...
I'll try to check out the other folks you mentioned.
P.S. if you want earlier episodes of Pensado's place, there is a youtube channel "Vintage Pensadosplace" that has a few ... Sadly Pensado's place starts at episode #65 ...
I have spent 7 years (65+) learning from RUclips. How to play Guitar, Learning Sound design, Acoustics & Treatment of a Studio. How to do and make a DAW etc. From nothing I have what I need to know to start making the correct tracks, Software Howto's & Operation to the point of REW Analysis, speakers, headphones and how to mix at its basic starting point. I agree with you Paul I am doing it a bit old fashioned and it has taken those Hours & Years and survive a Global Pandemic Panic by Ass-hats. You have a legit bitch of the kind of things real musicians are scared to death of. Being payed for what they Love. Mary Spender has 20th Century Musician offering, Amy Noltee and Neal want to Continue Musicianship using & playing real Instruments. Period. Hats Off Paul Third. Thanks
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There's a lot more than justifying that it's RUclips and its algorythm dumbing down what's happening to the music industry. It goes deep. It's a full on social and even political experiment I would say... not wanting to get into "conspiracy theories"...
But never before there were so many people listening to music on basic cheap earbuds everywhere they go, when just getting the lyrics and a small part of the frequencies is enough to make them feel something.
Most lyrics nowadays are also dumbed down to bare bones of what they used to be in the past 20 years.
Taking into an example this new rap music or trap music that every young person and any adult of any age is exposed to now, like a virus coming out from any media, it's really a trap, pun intended, because it's everywhere, with lyrics that are almost just mumbles, and as long as there's an 808 with distortion with a few melodic effects it's enough to make people bob their heads and any girl twerk.
New teenage producers appearing every day are more focused on producing 20 beats a day rather than 1 song per week, because if they don't do it someone else will. Competition is ferocious when now everybody can produce their own music in their little laptops full of plugins and even mix and master on earbuds, because it's just enough and accepted.
These producers make beats with loops all day. Even so their music goes to artists filling up arenas and all of them are getting more money and more quickly than most classic renowned engineers and producers who took decades to craft their art.
The same with the drawing/painting artforms, people just need to login to Midjourney and after 5 minutes they've got the next big thing they can print and market everywhere with little effort and super cheap. If they don't do it, someone else will... And nobody cares if the artist was a real painter or an AI.
It is what it is. But if we want to blame youtube then we might as well also blame McDonalds for initiating the fast food revolution.
People are just satisfied with eating while driving. Fast and Now. No matter if later on everyone is taking pills for anxiety...
The collapse of a society happens when people fill they have no more time, a self-inflicted non-sense, as our time is a virtually accepted collective construct. This started a long time ago but now it's getting even more accelerated by... THE MACHINES (Morpheus voice).
Everything goes deeper
The biggest challenge for many starting out is lack of understanding the tools they have. We start out with stock plugins in a daw and have no understanding what they do or how to use the settings to get the sound he want. First is understanding the engineering language attack, intensity, ducking , mud, input and the so on. To how to use it. If you are even listening to a mix by masters or how guru using these terms starting out your eyes start to glaze over. Back in the day interning was definitely the way to go as you use the senses your ears and eyes watching , listening and emulating a seasoned engineer workflow and if he was patient enough to explain the how and why he was doing it. During downtimes you practice and get hands on experience until your intuition and those aha moments with your teacher/guide coming in later giving you constructive feedback on how to improve your skills. Two way communication is the key to getting knowledge, understanding, anfd ultimately intuition to get your feeling and style beyond the technical aspects. Without understanding of the technology and the how to use it then the why we get caught with. Because it won`t matter if it a highly rated plugin or the top hardware cuz us users wouldn`t know what we are doing. We need great teachers to show us just like before as an intern in a experienced studio. Learning first is the key before buying the latest and greatest.
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Most OG engineers learnt from working hard before RUclips even existed. Knowledge comes from experience, not from watching RUclips videos. Remember the YT algorithm made the flat earth community become a reality! If you want a six pack go to the gym. If you want great mixes, start mixing. Thanks for making this video Paul!
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Firstly, you have excellent taste in who you watch and follow
Secondly, I feel this community needs more "plugin police" / scientific evaluation of plugins etc. Now that you and Weaver are effectively out of the review space, I hope that I can follow in your large footsteps. (And yes, I know exactly who you're talking about that runs a plugin company and came out against plugin doctor in a video)
I'll always come out if a plugin is getting rave reviews and making MASSIVE marketing claims when it's not delivering but tbh if that's something that you want to get into then good cause there aren't many out there and I can't be arsed looking at every plugin that comes out now 😂
I just keep an eye on the big ones but YT has chilled out now a little after Harrison & BB tubes
Just ensure that you prove everything you do. And use doctor properly. Not understanding the linear analysis can be your downfall before you've even began
These kind of issues really are a double edged sword. But this happens with anything, really. McDonald’s came along and now everyone wants their food right away. Might make you feel good in the moment but in the long run you realize learning how to cook in your own kitchen will help your health long term. HAHA
Over the pandemic I really wanted to understand audio concepts I hadn’t fully understood. So every morning I would watch every video there was on compression and other topics, listening to different people try to explain it in their own different ways until it made sense to me.
Now mind you, I live in the Philippines where we don’t really have access to a lot of great audio stuff, and the quality of the music here wasn’t always the best, so the internet is our best bet, and I’m thankful for all the audio guys, including yourself that taught and inspired me. Thanks to RUclips tho, we have so many young and talented producers and mix engineers who are improving the quality of the music in our industry here, and it’s truly refreshing and inspiring!
I feel like those who are really serious about this will eventually realize they need to put in the work, and they will. And eventually they will be the ones to rise to the top with their craft.
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Got Plugindoctor because of you. Got rid of a lot of plugs after. Best investment I ever did in the audio world.
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I agree with you Paul. However I am fortunate to have started my audio journey on a 4-track cassette back in the 1990s. I did take advantage of those £30 because, well why not? However I am one of those people who knows the hows and whys because of my long journey, and although I did build up a plugin collection, the more time went on the more I realised I didn't need to keep loading up, and needed to not neglect the "less is more" approach.
A lot of the plugins I use these days are stock plugins as well as free js plugins designed by REAPER plugin makers. I interlace them with a few things like God Particle, Slate Digital and Waves stuff too, but being an old fart and having a body of knowledge before RUclips, or even affordable digital devices even existed has kept me grounded and anchored. To be honest I'm glad I'm not starting this journey now exactly for reasons you point out.
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Hey Paul, awesome honest thoughts as always truly refreshing. I create vocal chains and presets, which I genuinely enjoy and believe to be a good starting point. Although These don't do the mixing for anyone. That comes from hard work. However, I do believe that the style of videos you create is a reflection of you and your unique approach. Which is the reason I love your vids. Others may find their path through different methods. And there is nothing wrong with that if it's done honestly.
As long as there is why and a context behind it I don't see a problem. But if it's just all how and no why then I don't really find it education, merely monkey see monkey do which ends up creating a sea of people doing stuff purely cause they've been shown.
Can act as a quick fix but without context the user simply falls at the first hurdle when that technique or chain doesn't work.
Its just like the old saying. Give a man a fish he'll eat for a day, teach a man how to fish and you'll feed him for a lifetime.
Great video Paul. I am a year deep on my YT journey. I do mostly guitar lessons, songwriting, and music production. I'm in this for the long haul and will just stay consistent. The number one thing I want is to build a community of learners that like my channel due to the way I deliver the information. I'm growing fast, but long consistent growth is where it's at.
On a side note, I worked in studios for years. Mostly as a player, but of course I love engineering and soaked in everything those guys did and talked in depth. It blows my mind how fast people want things these days without putting in the work.
Keep doing what you do my man. Maybe one day we can do a collab. I know you are a player and writer too. Until then, I shall earn my YT stripes.
Keep going brother and keep speaking your truth. :)
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”Addicted to surface layer content” - I’m stealing this man. Sorry. ❤
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Had time to watch it now. Good video, but a little bit all over the place and long! Still, I get it, because dividing it into 3 videos would provide very little value. Two notes:
1. The value you brought to my journey was definitely your scientific approach to "decode" plugins. The amount of money that saved me and how that ultimatively also impacted my workflow significantly is beyond what I can express and you can understand. I will stay thankful for that indefinitely.
2. You need to understand, that not everybody is or can be a geek or a "music journey" scholar. There are so many independent artists that just want to get their tracks sounding less bad. They aren't even artists professionally, you can't expect them to become recording, mixing and mastering engineers professionally. These people not only have a job they don't like and try to become better artists, no they also need to do their own marketing on social media. On top of that they'll have merch, pay a distributor, pirate instrumentals and try to run a RUclips Channel that lives off their music. Most of them don't have the budget to pay for professional producers, mixing and mastering engineers and they certainly don't have the time or mental capacity to learn it themselves. Many artists (and people in general) lack the necessary education and character that enables you to learn "deep". Where you get stuck in, others get overwhelmed. The manual you understand would require some people to go to university for 2-3 years first. Where I have the time and energy to question every statement anyone makes, others need to decompress from family, work, life, etc..
What I'm saying is: There is a high demand for easy solutions but NOT only due to lazyness! Life is fast, money is tight, not everybody is as privileged as you and me. I don't fault these people for gravitating towards easy solutions and being fooled by regurgitating wannabes. Unfortunately, ignorance makes it easy to be fooled and capitalism (and other functions and structures that serve it, such as RUclips algorithms) gives plenty of incentive to fool people for your own benefit, by selling something that is low in production cost and creates dependence. There is no simple solution to that.
Ive been finding the comments regarding the video length hilarious (not yours as you actually watched it)
These guys complaining that it's a 57 minute video are proof of what youtube has become. I scripted it loosely so I remembered what to talk about and edited it also in post. It was just a long conversation that involved me hitting every layer I could. Spoke to my audience like human beings.
These were my views on the entire topic and some were like.. This could have been 6 minutes 👀
Could you imagine meeting me in a boozer and I condensed the conversation like a YT video. People would call me rude as fuck and be like bro why are so uninvested I just want a bit of your time and you want away as quick as you can.
Its genuinely like an hour is too much cause "I could be watching so much more content"
Yeah sure go piss your time away watching a hundred Tik toks of idiotic wasteful shite that has no other function than to pacify your interest for 30 seconds.. If you can last that long
Such a sad world we live in now where everybody is on the clock. If I had Paul McCartney in a room I'd sit and listen to that man for 6-10 hours if that's how long he wanted to chat. Get the beers in and I'm all yours 🤣
I get your point on the artist front but I'm a firm believer of everybody keeping their jobs so I believe that an artist should go to a mix engineer, in the same way that labels should stick to artists and musicians and scrap AI.
I know times are tight and some people don't care but I just don't see the point in releasing songs you believe in but making them sound pretty shit cause you have no interest in mixing at a professional level. Take the time to save for a good mixer and then release your music so it sounds as good as it should. Music is so playlist swiped these days that many people will go... Eww that sounds terrible, skip.
I undetstand that my view is a very unpopular one though.
@@PaulThirdI agree with your comment about the length. On another day I may have been bored and frustrated and turned it off myself haha. Tonight I was in the right mood. Sat down on the sofa and listened to your elaborate rant. Yes, it was very human indeed and I see your point about how weird it is, that it's perceived as a time waste. I understand both sides of the equation. You wanting to be a human and them wanting a service. Ideally we try to combine both, but depending on the topic one or the other is uncalled for. For this topic I found your way quite fitting.
When it comes to independent artists paying for producers, mixing engineers and mastering engineers, I will have to disagree. Paul, that's too expensive for most - but that doesn't mean they don't care. Paying for studio time (and the time and expertise of the recording engineer), paying for a good instrumental (or even worse: live musicians), paying for a (good) mixing engineer and a (good) mastering engineer .. that's a lot of money. If you don't waste time in the studio, all in all (studio, mixing, mastering), you won't be able to get it much cheaper than 400 Bucks - if you actually want SOME quality. Obviously, you can go to fiverr and pay 40 for mixing and mastering, but I don't think that's what you meant when you said "take the time to save for a good mixer" and honestly, I'd advise them to "take the time and save for a decent recording session" first. Some of these independent artists make more songs than they would be able to afford even paying 40 bucks for. And honestly, some of them are really talented and sometimes I'm amazed what results they produce without knowing ANYTHING "deeper" about mixing and mastering.
Agreed 100% Except I believe that the Audio Journey does not start with gear or even scicency shizz. To me, that is a a huge amount of the reason that we have much of the messed-up-edness we have today. The Audio Journey starts with Music and the feel it brings to the individual (and masses if it was a Rod Stewart record). It must finish with the Creation & Delivery of a Scene & Story via audio. None of that is technical, it is all Feel.
Sure we use tools to take the strummer's strumming (we'll call him Joe) and get it to the delivery platform. There is learning there but very little of the technical compared to the feel. This is why a Mix Engineer should learn at the feet of a Master. The Master is never like the doofi (plural) on YooBoob who present fripperies as if they are the things that matter. Fripperies sell with the lazy because when presented with someone like Alan Parsons or Rick Rubin talking about the mindset, which is what really matters, they a) won't take the time and b) only want to hear what knob to put at what setting as if that is what a mix engineer does.
That has, as you say, trivialized what the Production of music really is and really requires to deliver things that matter. This is a core part of why I say that DAWville has become a Toxic Religious Cult. It has become so bad that many genuine Engineers can no longer get work as it goes to Fiverr Freddies who would have been sent home before 10:00am because they do everything ass-about and skite shite that sells to the snake-oil suckers. The consumer wants the lies, not music that matters.
ruclips.net/video/gmFo1cOANB0/видео.html
Thank you for this video, its sad that everything has dumbed down
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Great video, Paul. The best video I've seen from you by far. Nice one!
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Excellent video, very thought-provoking.
So, what plugins should I buy...? 😁
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Great episode Paul! pls do more of these
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Telling it like it is! More power to you.
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From Divine Styler's 1989 "Word Power" album
"I feel each one should teach one, for everybody has two jobs. For those that know your job is to teach. And for those that don't know your job is to learn."
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This is a great video, that's why I don't make content, im too busy trying to go through the work and my own journey. I am no authority by any means, I just enjoy the actual pros that decide to share their secret sauce!
Yeah youtube isn't for the faint hearted. If you don't give the algorithm everything then it essentially hands you the video back like.. No thank you haha
Its soul destroying at times
Love this video. I probably watched a few audio tutorials at the beginning of my audio journey, but as with most things I was hellbent on figuring it out alone lol
The videos are filled with fodder, and waves promotion. Yeah, they’re perfectly fine professional tools. But you don’t really know what they’re doing or why you’re using them sometimes. I don’t like that.
You can do a lot simply by understanding acoustics, transient shaping, gain staging, frequency, dynamics, and harmonics.
You don’t need the fancy new plug-in to modify these qualities, you just have to know what you’re doing.
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I love how you keep it real, and call us lazy😂😂😂
I have the best intentions 🤣
The audio engineer journey is much like a builder building a completely new type of house each time that has completely different techniques of building.
Because you are not a production line of the same thing each time, each time it's completely different even if it's a similar song.
I do find RUclips can dumb it down but also if you search right there's things you find out you needed to know.
Anyone passionate about things do not need someone to hold their hand to tell them to keep learning, only if they are being told to do something they aren't really into.
This is why I find most college courses redundant, they teach for the good part of course as if they are trying to get you into the subject and so most passionate people become bored of the courses and I'm sure in some cases people with passion lose it.
I do find shorts are great for getting a good tid bit, but equally if you do not know enough already you'll easily be brainwash with incorrect information just because a short makes every sound more plausible.
The thing is I like to come across little bits of information but I also like to know the entirety but then again that due to me.
I loved Chinese medicine, and then didn't just take in sip bits otherwise I would not like it, it was the depth of it that I liked and when I studied in in dept. I then saw how much false tid bits of information there was, or how completely pulled out of context the tid bit was if it was right.
One think I hate is how little the importance acoustics is and if you are considering speakers for monitors in your studio, which pretty much any does, you have to first become a expert on acoustic treatment and the cost of that is part comes before your speakers.
And you just watch people that are long past that part and you heard about speakers all day but rarely about acoustics unless someone makes a specific video.
The problem is, if someone new takes a while until they find people giving real good advise they might not stumble on this advise still for a number of years... or hear bits but not enough for it to hit home because they do not watch that specific video.
But also people who make such content, like yourself for instance, don't want to harp on about that in any video containing speakers because you think it'll be annoying to regular watchers but again, a new person could turn up and then still never learn this as the most important thing about monitoring.
You often bring it up and you do well due to that, but still it's not enough for someone to realise as myself back in the day when studying this suggest was always put as a side note... just a "do the acoustics" at the end which you end up thinking is a luxury not absolutely essential.. more important than any expensive gear.
But then, all these others that are professionals for years with big studios do not think about it because it's always there.
Before they had a studio to make content from they did all that and the acoustics are now in the past and not in their mind.
Such people are also why there's very little information on headphone mixing and most stir people away from headphones.
They haven't explored actually finding good headphones for mixing so their advice is always speakers because they only know these typical headphone "designed for the studio" that are actually not as good as some others if they took the time to explore that are not "designed for the studio".
"Studio Headphones" to me has become as useless of a title as "Gaming Headphones".
The problem with dumbing down is the fact it's so easy for anyone to put out information now and so you naturally get 90% of the people doing it either talking out of their arse or giving information to teach when they have barely learned enough themselves.
Which is why it's best to put of content that is about learning, about discovery, rather than just bark advice.
Again, you do this quite well... Ed also... there's a few that I loved that have turn a bit ingenuine over time, but I'm assuming this can happen because the passion for truth is taken over by what's more simple.
And this then becomes good content but with a element of dumbing down to it due to the lack of care for being completely genuine.
Now there's a part of getting a great sound where you accidently did it by setting things up without caring, but it's helps you to understand why that sound was made, the science, so you can work on creating even more creative stuff.
Otherwise you are someone throwing paint at a canvas until a splat makes a picture.
I totally agree with the "the best mixing technique" "want a perfect low-end" then a short just to know this one trick that is only relevant to take track and so it leaves people thinking "all I need is a bunch of these little bits of information and I can be a amazing mix engineer".
I see them and think, "okay, that'll be good to save to try out on some things later" if I then use one, it'll only teach me something about the science which then gives me ideas for other things.
I can't imagine trying to teach techniques I come across because I do not see how the context of it being used will fit for enough cases for it to be considered a technique to teach others.
Although most of the time I just feel angry at the context most of the time and I'm pretty much rage baiting myself.
I'm only got the time for this because I'm waiting to build a studio... so I am here for entertainment between research that ends up being a bit of research also, if it's also to research the BS out there to learn what sort of way this BS is being presented.
I want to then do RUclips also and thinking I'd be only covering the journey of learning.
But, to have a channel also where I can get a lot of clicks I can just review headphones from a audiophile perspective and be able to be honest and pump out stuff as everyone is just looking for a subjective understanding.
Which it all is because even the objective stuff differs from each person and the simple love for music and how to listen to it is meant to be a dumb affair... "I just want the headphone that will make the music I like sound amazing".
When it comes to the studio it'll be so hard to make proper recommendations because a set of headphones might suit me for translation but will not for other person.
So simply adding my changes in a journey is the most I can do and even then I have to accept it's not completely helpful to most.
I think showing the research you are doing and discoveries you are making is probably the only way to make content that is helpful, but really, you doing that for others is then not making it helpful as it's best for us to learn it ourselves so we understand more than just what we learn on the surface.
So I think make things fun so it's then at least entertainment but constantly push home becoming a nerd... but again, entertainment can keep people hooked and away from these journeys because they are actually boring when you start and then become interesting once you get deeper into it.
Even now I know the second I have a studio it's going to be about half a year of a lot of boredom pulling myself from entertaining myself while researching back into actually living the journey.
The actually journey is better but it takes time for the immersion to over take the simple pleasures of entertainment.
Lets face it, if you have time to take in a lot of this you aren't doing it... I know because I only have time because I can't do it right now.
I could be doing a tiny bit but I'm used to doing it properly and I find it much like playing with toy cars when you a sports driver.
I'll just bore myself and learn barely anything.
Currently, at least a decent headphone setup will see me be able to do things enough where it's back on track so that is where I'll begin.
The thing is, people dumb themselves down and if everyone didn't, there wouldn't gaps in the market.
I do feel this is part of why some people put out stupid shorts... keep the people stuck as consumers and keep our jobs secure
Musicians used to dream of being in a great band, and then getting a recording contract, then getting huge and rich. They didn't need to worry about these things, but thankfully there were the clever engineers etc who did. But the gatekeepers of music ensured that only the 'best' musicians would ever experience this lofty world.
Now anyone can record, and if you make music you kinda have to know a bit of everything. So most creative people are having to dabble in areas they don't really want to be in. And there and no gatekeepers, and there is also no money.
Which scenario was better? Screwed if I know, but I think that might be part of the reason. Only a small percentage of people who watch your videos will want to go really deep. They are dabbling in this, and in graphic design and in marketing and all these allied areas that democratisation has opened up to us, when they really just wanted to write songs and be in a band, and leave the rest to the industry.
Yeah I understood a long time ago that my demographic was more people who want to make it a profession. But I do think that it's important to seperate the process. A producer shouldn't be writing for the artist, the mixer shouldn't be producing for the producer, and the mastering engineer shouldn't be mixing for the mixer.
If you follow the steps, the music will recieve the best journey, instead of sounding like a half arsed mess.
Just let the people with the right experience do what they do and let them serve the music
Well said sir.
The workflow seems to be, start a RUclips channel, talk about the basics of "audio engineering".
Be relatable to your viewers, tell them they don't need expensive gear and paint sucessfull engineers and "real" studios as unnecessary.
- when the RUclips money, popularity and endorsements start happening, what's the first they do?? BUY a ton of great gear! -wow
You need to be mental with a solid work ethic to really be effective as an audio engineer most people would hate the insane hours, failed relationships, people stealing your work/ credit. The amount of technical knowledge and lived work experience to be "that person", its a personal journey.
Those who manage to get to the point of doing "solid" work, often just market the shit out of themselves and foccous on the "brand".
I mostly stopped making albums and mixing, however two of the recent "audio" related projects I am involved in... are.
1. I was part of a small team of specialists, we recently completed the new Atmos mix room at Amazon Music studios in L.A.
2. I am finalizing sessions for a client who hired me to engineer and co-produce his new album, CLA already mixed the frist five tracks, five more on the way.
Good times. 🎉
Don't get me started on the analog thing. If you want distracted from the journey, get into the modern mindset behind analog gear.
Buy it and use it without having any understanding of what it's actually doing cause "it's analog and analog always makes everything sound better"
People spending all of their budget on gear and ruining their mixes by over processing, over compressing & over saturating.. But sell themselves as being "pro" cause they have a shit ton of expensive gear when in reality most of the biggest mixers are either hybrid to an extent or completely in the box.
Jaycen and serban being ITB proves beyond all doubt that you don't need analog for mixing.
Workflow is king in their game as they could be mixing up to 3 records a day and nobody in their right mind would sit there and slate Serbans mixes as "they sound digital"
That's why I keep in touch with so many industry mixers as they act as a sanity check.
That new release sounds amazing man what did you do to get the low end so tight?
"bit of eq and compression, nothing special"
Its hardly ever some expansive crazy technique, it's just less is more mixing. As soon as I got into the less is more approach my mixing changed practically improved overnight
Good rant, subbed
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I don’t disagree, but sometimes I prefer short form content because I’m stuck on one aspect of a mix; I want to quickly review some tips and get back to my daw and apply what I learned to what I’m working on because there is no universal solution and it usually takes a good bit of tweaking to apply what I’ve learned to a real life mix that wasn’t used as a video example 🤷♂️ great vid!!
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Just started watching but I can already tell that this will speak from my heart
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IMO the root of most information related problems on the internet is the lack of transparency and publishing regulations. It’s hard to check or even find sources between all the fact and fiction people spread, largely motivated by selfish gains - and people often don’t like to hear the truth, that’s where the drama sells…
That's why I've made the decision to scrap reviews all together
I agree totally with this. I feel the craft/art/science of audio engineering is being "devalued", with all this . At the same time, this is a long road to walk. Academically/practically, how do you use a learning resource like you tube, as your mentor? For audio especially, some stuff you can't teach, have to learn to ride that bike yourself.
a 1000's miles in one step, how do you teach that ?
You ride that journey yourself and attempt to find a few trusted journeymen along the way
And my granny used to say 'Why' is ALWAYS the answer to any question.
Thank you Paul!!!!
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19:52 - Kneejerk reaction here - You know, I hadn't thought of it that way. LOL - I'm a cocky b*****d. My wife calls it "unearned confidence". I KNOW I can write a song. I KNOW I can learn what I need to produce my own tracks. I KNOW I'm going to raked over the coals on social media (don't care). To pull this back to your Essay, you're 100% right - this is a Journey! And like most Journey's it's about the experiences along the way and not just the end destination.
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Your last chapter here is very good.
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Really great video Paul
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I think this is kind of true.
Definitely, if you are here watching RUclips most of the time, while you are creating or mixing, mastering whatever... then you'll lose your own unique path and understanding.
Equally, it's important to find a good amount of demystifying information.
That infomercial becomes blurred when you watch all the time because every creator can not off true value to every person while uploading frequently.
I myself while I'm waiting to be on my feet enough to build a decent studio to start again being on RUclips a lot, but, while I'm not doing, I'm mostly entertaining myself and bettering my mental health while I xsn by immersing myself in the topic and research of it.
Very rarely do I come across very worthy things to note down.
Mostly, it's just an ever involving list of gear and plugins to look at when the time comes.
If I remained doing this when the time comes, I will have a very dumbed down idea and copy cat approach to things.
Even with mixing advice... you can get taught, but the best kept secrets will still be kept from you.
Especially with creation advice... good to gander to get going, but you really have to do this yourself.
As long as you can take it as research while taking it all with a pinch of salt and entertainment to fill a gap, you should be able to clear out the things that are nonsense to you.
I'd like to also include RUclips content when I do, so it's also a feed of a broad scope of presentation ideas... not yo copy but to have a palette of many different approaches to better be yourself.
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Very inspirational! Nothin like a Scotsman telling you to take one on the chin to get you motivated for the Journey 👊
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I admit my career in software development helped me care more about the intricacies of mixing. Before I just wanted to put something out for creativity purposes which isn't a problem but it stops you growing at some point. Being in engineering and or physics helps you care more about the theoretical side of things, but reading documentation and papers is a skill everyone should learn in my opinion
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My mixes probably aren't technically perfect, but I've just built a good room, and used my ears to build something that I think sounds great. I don't listen to what anyone else does or says, I don't use reference mixes. I just use my ears, and the basic tools of audio processing. EQ, compression, reverb and delay. That's the toolbox. Develop your room and ears, great sounding mixes will follow.
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Mix A has the high pass enabled on (kick n bass) or on fullmix. Mix B sounds full (original).
You kept it real in this video 👏🏼
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Thanks
I hardly ever get these haha.. RESULT
I dunno it's we don't wanna take the journey.. most of us have a full time job n kids.. and studios aren't taking on extra people.. most the time atleast where I live it's the owner who's the engineer and they might outsource or have 1 extra guy for mastering .. things aren't in the 90s anymore as much as I'd love it .. great video paul as usual
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Its not only youtube but also the one dial plugins and plugin in general
Yeah plugins in general are just completely over saturated
The key for all this is genuine interest and playfulness with it. That's what the greats had and what drove them to discover new techniques..
Coming to RUclips to find hacks or quick tips to solve problems is the opposite, like practicing exam papers to pass rather than genuine interest in the subject.
It's actually a lot like school. teaches you a whole load of stuff and you get out in the real world and wonder why you aren't making millions
@@PaulThirdYep - and maybe you can relate with autism - as someone with ADHD, I can't learn like that anyway, I've got to have genuine interest .. and at that point cant find motivation to follow the prescribed curriculum, let alone revise for exams. Haha.
I wouldn't be surprised to find a high degree of neuro divergence amongst the great mixers and producers..
@@natdenchfield8061 it's definitely a common thing I would say. I've met and spoke to quite a few mixers now and my autism spidey senses have tingled many a time haha
I think that in a Neurotypical world, social interactions are extremely important but in a neurodiverse world, locking yourself in a studio for 8-10 hours a day is actually preferable 🤣
As someone who can play a lot of different instruments and has worked very hard to learn so much music theory and music history that it's actually a challenge to find new information about those topics, I feel like this dumbing down is happening in a lot of places in addition to audio engineering.
Most likely. When you make your base of learning and main source of information an algorithm that doesn't care if any information is actually valid or factual then you'll dumb yourself down by proxy.
Thats why i stay well clear of Tik tok cause at least with youtube I decide what I watch
I looked in the mirror and youre right, we are in a world where we want the information as quick as possible and a lot of us think that theres some 'secrets' out there we must be not aware of and were constantly looking for them! The only way is the 10000 hour rule type of way! Im off to delete a load of plugins i keep like some hoarder 😂😂
As soon I enforced the less is more approach I genuinely started to see better results instantly.
Don't over complicate the methods and don't over simplify the tools.
I always find that approach to work for me. Do only what needs done and understand your tools inside and out so you know exactly what to use, how to use it and most importantly why you are using it
You're a treasure, mate, cheers.
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Inspiring!
Thank you!
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Hi Paul.
This is 1000% true and some people like you are struggling with this deal to doing fancy things and stuffs to make more content
At the end of the day we all’ …we … watcher and U making cotent are obviously responsible of the all thing which makes money for dark people
I think of the last video of Cameron AKA Venus theory…. Making a trip and introspection about what is art and finally what makes every artist moving forward …
I don’t buy plugs anymore
I did a clean install and seriously i’ve got almost a hundred plug-in to sell and don’t even install them
Anyway thanks for this video …. And sure…. Watch it till the end !!! Cheers buddy
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I watched every minute and I loved it. The software industry is going the same way. Surface knowledge and AI assistance. I heard a couple of AI-generated tracks this month and they are worryingly good compared with last year's creations. Still poor but the improvement was a shock.
Yeah it's becoming way too advanced way too quickly
How hard it would be to collect data about RUclipsrs in one place?
Education and work history, released music (how to make videos), released mixes and masters (mixing & mastering tips and hacks).
Content analysis about paid and promotional videos, gear and plugin reviews.
Something towards spirit in this video essay to get info about content and creator behind it.
Don’t know, just asking.
I would definitely be interest about that data. I don’t have experience to find right parameters, maybe somebody is clever enough 🙂
Good thoughts in video essay, lot to think about for sure.
It would need to be all manually done. You can get certain youtube stats from socialblade, check certain discography sites for credits and Facebook and maybe linked in and website for history but that's about it. There's no way of calculating the amount of sponsored videos unless you watched every single piece of content and figured it out
I genuinely couldn't imagine a more boring job to collect all of that data haha
Boring ain’t bad, some very useful things are considered boring. Reading, even I think it’s a very fun.
I got some messages about this saying it will be complicated, but not all manual. What are the moving pieces and percentages varied.
Since it’s touching real peoples earnings it should be 100% correct data.
More you look about it, more complicated it gets. So, boring like you said. Stillll intrigued by it.
Thank **** ! Your my new hero, if only politicians could speak that truth & we would reset the ****** talent! THANKYOU PAUL #naebolloks
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I started off disagreeing with the title, but after watching, I do sort of agree with what you're saying. The main point that I think you nailed is the attention span and people not wanting to put the work in. I think a big part of art is the blood, sweat, and tears that go into its creation, but today it's very marketable to claim you can skip that step, if you just use our quick hack! I think that's terrible.
But the part I mostly find hard to agree with is the "journey" part. Like you said, most people don't have a big studio or the money to ever have one, nor do they know someone who works at one that they can go hang out with and learn from. While I agree that people aren't getting the audio journey that CLA and other legends were able to go through, RUclips is the best thing they have to substitute for it.
Overwhelmingly, this is a nuanced topic and I don't think you're wrong overall, but because of Adsense and our culture as it stands, I don't see an obvious solution.
The correct information is on youtube, it's just hard for many new to the game to know where that's coming from due to over saturation and content creators understanding how to abuse the algorithm to get near the front of the queue
RUclips is a great resource but nothing beats actually mixing for years. You don't need the CLA journey, you just mix and mix and keep learning from your mistakes
@@PaulThird True, and nothing really beats having a solid foundation of understanding that gets decorated with those neat little tricks and tips you can find on here. I often wonder how many people think mixing is easy and are really just using presets and weird, esoteric, niche little tricks just because they saw it online, but have no firm grasp on how mixing works on a fundamental level. Either way, I liked your video! Good talking points all around