Nolly Roasts My Mixing Tips!
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- Опубликовано: 27 июл 2024
- Two mixers. Two approaches. One goal.
Legendary mixer Adam “Nolly” Getgood joins us to chat about his engineering approach, how he gets powerful yet natrual drum sounds (without samples), why he uses some opposite techniques that I do… plus some live Q&A with you. 
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This video was more informative than 90% of the youtube mixing videos out there
It just backs up the idea that doing is knowing. You try so hard until you get back to the basics and Bam! In yo face!
Balancing levels super carefully is so underrated. Nobody talks about it because it’d be a short video and talking about EQ is more interesting. But at the end of the day, once you get your sounds processed as you want them, the make-or-break thing is gain balance; bringing up bass by half a dB can have a huge impact on the emotional resonance of a song. It’s crazy how much tiny moves can add to the emotion of a track. That stuff can be hard to teach too because it can be tough to judge emotional impact without loads of practice / ear training. “Does this .5 dB on the kick during the chorus support the track better?” At some point the answers to those questions come forward.
Totally, especially if you’re driving it all into a bus comp. Can change the whole relationship
I agree
Litteratly the biggest problem with aspiring mixers. Myself included when I was getting started. Its not flashy or even fun, but it is what will make your mix decent vs PRO. Automation is your greatest friend in the world.
I experienced this very often that the main problem with my mix was one of the tracks/instruments being too loud. Ironically, a loud guitar track can radically take away from the impact of the overall sound. It's ironic because beginner mixers would like their favorite instrument loud so it's powerful but it actually does the opposite effect, it takes away and can ruin the whole mix. It's not a single track giving power to the mix but the relationship of all the tracks.
Totally agree - and volume automation is very underrated too.
Nolly is the Nasa Engineer of Mixing. Learned so much from his teaching.
7:48 I’ve felt this whenever I’ve watched Nolly mix and it flipped a switch in my head. To the point that now when I mix I carve a lot into each instrument, without fear, to get my ideal sound. It makes the boosts, saturation and compression moves sound even better because I’m enhancing exactly what I like. The only caveat is you have to know what you’re looking for and how to do it tastefully without being destructive. In the end context is king, but soloing is a powerful tool if you use it right.
Regarding the "eqing in solo" thing, I must say, as a Reaper user, one of the most mind-blowing (and yet simple!) features it has is "solo in front", where you solo your track/s but the rest can still be heard in the background and you can easily change the overall level of that background. It´s SO amazing, adds so much flexibility!
Hey, what is that "solo in front" thing? I use reaper but dont know that
it's the same in Cubase - there it is called the "Listen Button" (has an L on it)
This comment changed my mixing! I paused the video after reading it to set up Reaper to solo in front. So useful, it makes mixing much faster and it is a little humbling hearing your moves more in context. I finally came back to finish the video today. So thanks for bringing this up! It has made a big difference.
@@NACHOTHEIST Amazing! So glad to help! 🖤
I loved this! More of this in depth collaborative videos please 🙏🏻
Thanks Jordan, I’ve learned so much from you over the years. Hardcore Mixing changed my life for sure.
This was such a treat. Thanks so much to Jordan and Nolly for making this happen!
My two favorite producers in the same video?!?! You guys have both produced several of my favorite albums, to have both of your prospectives in the same video is seriously crazy, I definitely never saw this one coming. Great job (on everything) you guys
Thank you to both of you! That was interesting and an awesome experience to get to watch two of my favorite mixing engineers.
adam is so nollydgeable
Yes nolly
Two amazing mixers that I look up to in one video! Thanks for making this possible Jordan.
This was fantastic guys! Thank you for doing this! I’ve learnt so much from both of you over the years and you’ve both had an immeasurable influence on me and my growth as a mixer! Thank you!
Holistic and pragmatic approaches from you guys. I really appreciate the bit about atoms moving around the room. Also being a person that has been producing and mixing electronic music in Detroit for the last 10 years I’m really loving learning all the techniques needed to get raw material sounding good as I transition into recording and mixing bands.. thanks guys this was very helpful
Lots of great perspective in this conversation, many thanks for this.
Good shit my dude.. so glad I got your course... you are the real deal!
This was so great! I would love it if you guys ever wanted to do this again!
I'm super late to finishing this, but thanks so much Jordan for putting this on. This "therapy session" was awesome, very reassuring. And grateful for the lightbulb moments sprinkled throughout!
Funny thing is they’re just doing the same thing with EQ, but in different ways. Jordan boosts where his desired frequency is, Nolly removes everything until it is basically just boosting the desired frequencies left.
Such a killer and insightful interview! Thanks guys!
this is such gold content. thanks JV
LOL "You can get away with murder as long as the bleed isn't too bad" - Nolly about cutting mids out of toms. @1:16:53
This video is incredible. Thanks both of you!
Great content Jordan. I also find de Nolly plugin to be awesome. I've been learning from both of you guys for years now. Thanks for everything.
O gosh I missed this one. Them together ❤. They are both my only RUclips teachers and one of the fewer who knows what they’re talking about.
The more i listen to pro mixers. The more i realize there is no one best way. Every one of them does it differently.
So much talent & knowledge between these two gents
OMG THIS IS GREAT! I love this…it made me lives!
My two favorite producers on a podcast. Love the work you put out Jordan
Speaking of therapy, this was therapeutic to listen to as well. Hah. I loved it, and hope you guys do it again soon.
Very thanks for doing this!) you're both really great mixers!)
Really enjoyed this conversation, great job guys :)
Thanks for doing this Jordan and Nolly.
I recently started using a downward expander on my drums instead of a gate and it has changed my life. My band’s drummer LOVES to hit cymbals and the snare at the same time, so using the expander makes it so I can slam the snare with as much compression as I want and the high end won’t blow out.
You should get Taylor Larson on one of these. Would be a great convo as well
That was so fun, thanks guys!
Regarding drum quantization:
There's a GREAT podcast by Kendal Osborne from The Recording Lounge podcast. He's a legit producer whose main gig is the studio/production and only rarely releases any other podcast/video content. Episode 140 of his podcast is titled "How the Drum Sound Affects Feel, Groove, and Vibe." The argument he suggests - if I remember correctly - is that a quantized kick/snare rarely destroys a groove and that groove is much more of a dynamics thing than a timing thing. Especially in the rock genres.
And Kendal is a much more "natural" music guy than a lot of us heavy rock guys are. When he says something like that and you guys say something similar I'm always going to be inclined to act in a similar way.
What a cool chat, I loved the laid back "two guys talking shop" kind of vibe to it... But it felt like a real conversation rather than something forced for a show. Really, really good interview & discussion.
Wonderful conversation guys.
This was great! Thanks for this!
This was awesome, lucky to pickup some tidbits, gonna try the saturn 2 trick
awesome discussion, really insightful. Would actually be amazing to see you try mixing "Nolly style", Jordan. And vice-versa, Nolly trying to mix Jordan/CLA style.
Because so many people are asking for the Neumann mic model for snare top micing:
There are only 2 handheld condenser mics from Neumann, the KMS 105 and KMS 104.
I'm pretty sure Nolly means the KMS 105, because that mic has a super cardioid polar pattern which essentially is almost like a shotgun mic, so it rejects a lot of cymbal bleed. The KMS 104 "only" uses a normal cardioid pattern, still probably an amazing mic for snare.
Enjoyed the content interesting conversation of the recording techniques and workflow.
The very last snare hit on Periphery IV, the end of Satellites..... you hear the room so well and I couldnt imagine a better way to end that record. Well, other than suck my balls, but musically speaking lol. I love so much how Nolly includes the room sound in the snare hits most of the time.
hey I'm your big fans since I get attached to your RUclips channel my mixing now getting to a next level and all the things you shared is true. I be shd known this long time ago bro🙏🙏🙏🙏 cheers from the Solomon islands
The best mixers mix to serve the artist's vision. Final decisions should be made by the artist, its their art. Too many mixers want to play artist with the artist's creation and change or inflict intent, which is fine, if the artist's agree.
Best thing on the internet for us ❤️
Really good discussion guys and so much to think about. For me, I spent years trying to get a good mix using cuts and it just does not work. The mix can be almost there but you end up with dull or weird sounding mixes. Then I saw Chris Lord Alge do a mix and he barely cut. I found it hard to let go of the technique I had spent years honing. Then I came across Jordan's channel and it reminded me I may need to change direction in my mixes so I adapted his thinking. Now finally after all these years, my mixes sound polished and professional
So bro what is barely cut like how much should I cut only low cut and leave rest of the frequencies or how?
I was lucky enough to sit in with CLA years ago for a seminar, it was indeed amazing how he boosted like crazy and barely cut.
@@coreygarrett9545 To be fair those tracks are already EQ'd to a certain degree by his assistant. So the cuts were already made in advance during the tracking stage or during the prep.
@@EthanRom true but unless it was a track that needed major fixing the cuts were quite small compared to the amount of boosting which was quite large, the class was actually surprised because it really went against traditional wisdom of "don't boost too much it sounds bad", Tony Maserati on the other hand did less boosting and more cutting, but when he did boost it would be stronger than you think (just maybe not quite as aggressive as CLA), dramatically changing the sound not just a tiny little bump. But he would automate it during certain parts a lot (another thing a lot of people don't think to do, automating stuff like EQ boost/cut amount)
This is an AMAZING VIDEO!!!!
Thanks! Great video!
This was fun!
Adam, good move to the headphones! Thank you 🤟
"Hey! Vsauce! Nolly here"
Great insights.
Super interesting conversation
love this content. although I would have loved a sample sound of this mix at the beginning for some context.
Can you guys please another one of these?
Pure gold! Also that fabfilter Saturn trick has been the key to me not having to use sample on my drums for years! So cool to see that the great Nolly himself uses the same trick!!
Is there a video on this trick? I’ve been searching around but couldn’t find anything. Would love to see how it’s done
@@bryankelso3668 great idea for a quick video - I’ll try making one myself
@@AforAleph I would be very interested in that too!
I didn't quite catch what exactly that does. Can you explain what Saturn does to reduce the cymbal bleed so much? Something about a dynamics knob, he mentioned.
@@mrcoatsworth429 If you turn the dynamics knob up on each band it compresses it, if you turn it down it expands it - he’s doing that on the high band
Nice Nerd-Talk. i liked it alot
His take on ns10 transients is right on point.
Amazing!
I have such a love hate relationship with mixing. but this was really cool and informative
I recently learned that monitors Frequency trancient is more important that frequency responce in terms of mix translation
Loved this. Only gripe would be about quatizing the drums. IMHO, quantizing is a tool to be used to FIX something. Drummers have "feel" just the way a singer does. I would never touch the drums of a good drummer. That being said, there are a lot of not so talented drummers out there that need the help. Thanks for taking the time.
Is there a video of how to do the Saturn trick on the Snare? Would love to give that a try
Nolly is really investing on his monitoring environment (daym those Kii monitors), and it's definitely worth the shelling.
I’d love to engineer a project with both of you. Both so damn good 👍
Awesome!
Back in '80 Metallica recorded Master of Puppets drums at slower speed and then speeded up to sounds tighter. Basically a form of quantizing.
Nolly was using a potato for a webcam at the start then plugged in his Logitech C310 a minute in for extra sharp quality.
Hi guys.. Did he mention if this streaming is going to be taking down again anytime soon? Thank you. 🙂
Does anybody remember the video of Nolly mixing Devin Townsend's song and looking for a computer with Logic? and I think they installed it for him in the end.
I absolutely relate to "borrowing" someone's chain or mixing approach, even on the exact same or a very similar source, and it just doesn't work for me.
I don’t quantize the drums. I lock everything else to them wherever they fall. Still tight as hell but retains the feel. But it’s progressive. Not modern metal. And I’m the drummer, Bassist and vocalist. So there is no one to fight me on it. Lol
The joys of being a (nearly) one man band! Haha fair play to you 🤘🤘
I've heard that's what animals as leaders (my favorite band) does. Their music is so fast paced and all over the place that they want to retain the feel of having a real drum groove and pocket. Otherwise they'd probably actually sound like robots.
@@jonathanebers9422 they actually discuss Matt and animals during this podcast/interview, always great to hear different approaches and how precise Matt is
@@edwardrummer yeah once I got to that spot I was like "whelp waddayah know" haha
What video of Nolly is being referenced? Is there a video or course out?
Audix d6 on toms are greate in my humble opinion
So throw Saturn 2 on my snare track, make a band for just the high mids (2-6khz) and turn down the dynamics knob? And that will drastically reduce cymbal bleed? Kind of like a cleaner gate?
at the end of the day it is all about taste. And people have different tastes.
Josephsons on toms. Kurt Ballou and Albini style.
GGD PV CONFIRMED!!!
Adam's moving atoms. 😀
Hell yes
Personaly i think the band,like Nolly in this case with this song, should have more to do with the mixing as they should know what sound they are looking for...as he played the bass part i gotta give it to Nolly....their is different ways to doing things ,does'nt mean Jordan got it wrong it's just that if Nolly played bass & the band were happy with his mix then fine..we all mix things differently even though their are some common sense rules we all have our own way of doing things,anyone trying would mix the song differently...does'nt mean it's wrong ,unless the band don't like it...more musicians should get into mixing their own bands material imo....good chat guys
What handheld Neumann Condenser was Nolly saying that Peter Miles of Middle Farm recommends?
Neumann KMS 105
The grid. That's why most all music today sounds the same regardless of genre. Beato had a vid, "Computers Ruined Rock Music". I agree for the most part.
As a person who lives in rent houses and apartments, I have no space for the drum set I have....but I am using a drum module and a rock/metal drum library....is it better to simply record the audio from the library instead of going through MIDI processing, especially seeing my computer slow down after I start using 15 or more tracks? there was a project where I had about 4 or more midi for simply rerecording in order to transfer the new performance to the original performance, especially if and when I made a mistake in the original. My thoughts are involving the amount of trouble MIDI can be, especially remembering the slowness I'm worried it brings.
Yeah midi tracks eat up much more RAM than audio files. Also running lots of plugins like virtual drums, guitar amp sims, melodyne, etc uses a lot of CPU. Bouncing those tracks down to audio and removing those plugins will help a lot. Just remember to take off any other added effects off (EQ, compression , etc) before bouncing it so you can still adjust those while mixing.
Saturn example of bleed reduction at 21.45
Did they ever say which Neumann mic Nolly used on the snare?
Neumann KMS 105
New GGD in a few weeks ??
ah man, the voice coming out of the speaker
Nolly is just the most kind sounding humans. Such a proper gent.
Jeez kii three are $7000 monitors now im really sad with my hs8 s and explain my frustration with them
Get some Neumann KH120, they are the best bang-for-buck REAL entry level Monitors.
Flat as a ruler, very good dynamic bass and clean, detailed high end.
You can later get a KH750DSP Sub to complement them, with build-in phase alignment and room correction
My friend has this setup in his studio and it is insane. When played in an acoustically treated room, it'll make your hairs stand up and your girlfriend cry because it is so emotionally overwhelming, listening to music on such a level.
The next step up would be Geithain RL904 or PSI A17-A.
Ai Summary for you all with short attention spans haha ;)
06:24 The video begins with the host and Nolly introducing themselves and discussing their excitement for the live stream and their past conversations about different videos.
08:29 Nolly explains that he was nervous about an experienced mix engineer reviewing his work but was relieved to find that the reviewer’s opinions aligned with his own decisions and goals in the mix.
12:03 The host expresses his nervousness about offering feedback on Nolly’s mix and discusses the specific mix decisions that he found unique and effective.
16:59 The conversation shifts to Nolly’s approach to adding space to sounds, particularly vocals and lead guitars, where he leans more on delay rather than reverb, emphasizing the use of subtle delay for a cleaner sound.
25:30 Nolly discusses his approach to using live recorded drum tracks, noting the importance of mic positioning, drum room, and the drummer’s performance in creating a unique and high-quality sound.
33:59 The host and Nolly discuss the anxiety they experience during the mixing process, particularly regarding the initial excitement, mid-process doubts, and eventual confidence in the final mix.
42:26 The host outlines his specific steps for approaching a mix, including naming and organizing tracks, setting up buses and routing, rough balance and panning, heavy lifting (processing), and automation.
46:53 Nolly shares his experience with automating overhead mics to ensure consistent high-end energy in the mix, and the importance of addressing specific mix issues early on in the process.
50:55 The speaker discusses using a compressor for mixing and explains how they use Fabfilter Pro C2 for a crushed mix, using pre-emphasis to prevent excessive snare capture and using a high pass filter in the side chain to focus on the high end of the snap. They also mention a plugin called Oxygen that filters out the high end and compresses it specifically.
55:24 The conversation shifts to discussing automation, with the speaker explaining their process of automating drums first, followed by bass and guitars, and saving special effects for the end to avoid getting lost in presets. They also mention a final listen through with minimal distractions to finalize the mix.
59:25 The speaker and their guest discuss their approaches to using amps and speakers for guitar tones, with one focusing on verifying information for consistent results.
01:07:55 They discuss their preferences for using microphones on drums, with one favoring Sennheiser e604s and the other discussing the use of Sennheiser e604s and the challenges of mixing purely electronic music.
01:16:24 The conversation ends with a discussion on mixing techniques and the importance of taking breaks and changing contexts to identify issues in a mix.
Overall, the video features a conversation between two individuals discussing various aspects of music production, including mixing techniques, automation, and using specific equipment for recording and mixing.
who needs limiting... just put a clipper everything!
Fun fact, “Nolly” is British for “gnarly”
“That’s a Nolly mix ya got there.”
Why yes it is
(EDIT: 1:00:52 there it is. The angry Nollyness)
I feel like Nolly hasn't actuall watched that much of Jordan's content... For him to say Jordan doesn't use that much snare compression, come on.
What this illustrates is there is no single way. All the preachers need to step back from their egos and listen more. Boosting EQ works sometimes, but I rarely start there. Hi pass, level, and pan position are the first steps. (Yes, pan position changes the tone.) Then lowering some frequencies. Then a slight EQ boost to bring out the details. Seems many mixers forget about the details and dynamics of music. They process and remove detail and dynamics. (I never need to boost greater than 4-5 db.) Over saturation, over compressing, and clipping are things I rarely if ever use but are seriously over used by many.
You don't mix in solo. It's been tried over and again. The button is there for a reason but it isn't mixing with using only one track.
Nolly explaining solo mixing would be like listening to Gordon Ramsey explain the different flavor profiles of 15 different salts and why you can’t use certain ones.. dude most people don’t operate that way.. and explaining to people to mix in solo is why most mixes by amareaturs sound like ass
Why would he explain mixing outside of solo if that's not what he does and no what he's comfortable with? This is a chat specifically about what Nolly does and differences between the two of them.
Why does Nolly looks so disinterested
Btw those Kii Three speakers he’s talking super casually about…are made of pure Unobtainium…they’re hard to even get your hands on in North America and they’re £18k
Which is like $25k UsD…which is $35k CaD here in canada…safe to say most of us will never see those…and having a conversation about next gen DSP super speakers with the NS-10’s is like a guy driving a Bugatti drinking sparkling water like andrew tate having a convo with a dude driving a sup’d up honda civic from the 90’s who is drinking redbull