Fantastic feedback and take here. I have slowly eradicated these myths from my process but several of them have ruined my mixes for years. Listen to this guy and I promise your music will sound better!
Are you talking to me? You can watch my channel and hear loads of my mixes. I only show my mixing on this channel. Or you can visit my website and under services you should find a link to a portfolio on Spotify.
Possibly one of the most freeing videos to date for me. Some of the points made I’ve wondered about and questioned. It’s nice to know you’re not crazy when you’re a pretty new mix engineer. Adhering to “never” may at best land you with a safe mix but it comes at the cost of creativity and learning.
Amen 😂 thank you for this video. Totally agree with everything you said. Love your channel especially the „mix critiques“ and mixing tutorials. All the best from Germany
Hey just wanted to say thank you for doing what you do! I’ve always been interested in recording music and have messed around with it since I was about 15. Now I’m 22 and taking it seriously with recording my own band and my friend’s bands. Mixing is a very daunting thing if you let it be, and watching your videos has helped so much with either doing what you recommend or just gaining the confidence to try things out and see what happens. Can’t wait to continue to watch and learn from your videos! Thank you legend!
Records as early as 1943 used tricks to replace or layer drums with samples. Earliest example I can think of off the top is the classic claw-foot tub kick.
I totally agree with your statement about not mastering to -14. And in fact, there's actually some very interesting science behind why a track that is mastered to -8 will sound way louder on Spotify even after Spotify turns it down. Justin Colletti, the mastering engineer who runs Sonic Scoop, has talked about it at length. It has to do with the fact that we're dealing with integrated LUFS, which is essentially perceived loudness over time. It's not actually measuring the peaks. If you pull up an indie rock record made on a budget and expensive pop album on Spotify, I can guarantee you the pop album will sound louder despite the so-called normalization. Anyway, I'm personally happy with -9 or so. Sometimes even -10. I find that to get to -8 or louder, I have to make too many compromises. I'm an old man, I guess. -9 is pretty standard CD volume. My friend wanted me to master a few of his demos, and he sent me a song his band had recorded in a studio and had professionally mastered for comparison. It was -5! It was a metal song. I know that's part of the genre now, but I thought it sounded terrible. There are a lot of things that bug me about modern metal, but I think the insane density of it is my least favorite part. Everything is so in your face that nothing matters, imo.
Yes that’s right, it’s all about the integrated lufs. I agree, I like masters around -9, -8… but I still have clients who want them louder so I do what needs to be done 😁 in a perfect world softer masters would be my preference! Wouldn’t it be great if there was some sort of standard we had to stick to 😂
#3 drives me crazy. This idea that everything needs to be pure di clean no effects or processing going in is ridiculous. Its one thing to have a di backup track available, but stifling creativity of sound with dry recording only is nuts.
The phase one is insane. Hardware EQ works by manipulating phase shift and has always worked this way. Every single hit song mixed through hardware has incredible amounts of phase anomaly built into it and nobody cared until it was something they were told to care about.
Freshly coming back from NAMM and got quite a few really useful talk with some big mixing engineers and the common things was : do what's work for you. If it sounds good that's it. Also, there is a huge difference sometimes on the advice itself and how people understand it. Sometimes, especially in today's world, people don't necessarily understand nuances in the advice. Like the HPF one. It is like people understand HPF pn everything or pn nothing at all. The reality is HPF when it is needed and like you said if it hurt the track just don't do it. Thanks for the video
I'm glad someone called this out as this stuff is trotted out way too much. A lot of this was borne out of the very early days of digital and has absolutely no relevance now. Decades ago my mentor taught me how to mix by only using high and low pass filters/shelves. I still think of those bracketed frequencies to this day. Agree also about the business of filters and phase - nobody used to take ANY notice when you had to rely on your ears not your eyes. 'Imagine a great sound and twist knobs until it sounds like that'.
Thank you thank you thank you! Specifically the idea that you must use multiple limiters with only 3 db of gain reduction per limiter. I suspected that was a nonsense rule, but it's nice to hear it from someone that knows what they are doing.
Sometimes stacking limiters works great, sometimes it sounds worse than one limiter. I always test it out and see how the track sounds comparing those methods and make a decision which way to run with it!
On the topic of high pass filters, people yell about phase like it’s a secret killer but really it’s just good to be aware of. It’s sometimes even a hidden gem and an efficient way to actually bring elements INTO phase by high passing one of them. Sometimes kick and bass gel better when one shifts a little! 🧑🍳
Whatever sounds the best wins. Sometimes when you blend samples together and they are out of phase it can create cool blends too. It might not be “right” but it can work!
The reality is , you never get into the recording stage without a clear goal in mind. This goes from song structure , arrangement and vibe. This are the things that makes you grab a certain EQ or Compressor for an specific task while recording . This way of working of hitting record without knowing what you really want or going for , expecting ideas to flow WHILE recording , leads to bad decisions that youll gonna want to compensate in mixing stage later on. The famous "fix it in the mix" work flow. Thats why a lot of great engineers before gettin into a session they ask a lot of questions from "whats the vibe you going for" to "lets hear what you guys have" That way the engineer gets an idea what to use and what to avoid at recording stage, thats how you achieve a great mix. You could record without any processing at all , thats not wrong . But me personally love to lay down the idea in my head early on the recording stage but also leaving space for enhance that later when mixing. If you recording something straight out flat with no life because you already have an idea for that later at mixing, you could run into the situation that your idea morph into something else completely different later. This could be a good thing or a worst thing case scenario. Something to have in mind.
One issue that seems hotly contested is gain staging. I was told you push the gain on your interface until you clip with your instrument, then dial it back so you stay in the safety zone. Others argue that your interface gain should only ever be at unity or just above.
I don’t think it matters tbh. I typically try to record a healthy signal with levels hitting -6db at the loudest In daw. whatever level your gain is set at will introduce the same level of noise - it’s more about the microphone and the source to minimize that problem. Like using a mic with a high self noise that needs lots of gain on a quiet source is a recipe for disaster.
Andrew Schepps also said he never worries about gain staging. The only time I think it's important is if you're using presets from mixing engineers, like with the CLA 1176, all the presets are set for gain staging, so to get the "sound" of the preset you need to be in the ballpark.
Banger videos as always, man. Keeping it real. The start of my mixing career suffered a TON because of a lot of those "tips". The whole loudness, limiting and compression stuff that just puts you on a leash that will never let you get a good sounding mix. Back in the day, that was THE advice, a shitty one! On the LUFS and limiting stuff in specific, I was dipping my toes in mastering a few years ago and ended mastering in -14 LUFS like people said. And guess what? No surprise, the tracks came out really anemic and I had no idea why. Took me quite some time to say "fuck it" and just work my way through getting loudness from the mix all the way to mastering. Just yesterday I was pushing smart:limit to the limit (lol) because I realized that it does the Inflator magic right into it. You can push it really far before you start losing stuff. Technology is awesome, and I would be glad if people stopped offering advice they learned from old algos like Waves and Ozone that can't compete with modern limiters!
Another way to avoid messing up the phase of multi mic recordings is to either apply the same phase altering process to both mic tracks with exactly the same settings (digital only, as analog has too many variances to do this sucsessfully in most cases), or one that works for both digital and analog is to group them together first, and then apply the hpf/lpf etc. to the group with both mic tracks going into it, so both tracks are altered after being combined, and will keep their phase relationship even though the phase is being altered on both of them.
Yeah totally, i would normally apply a filter to a group. But for example if you want to highpass your overheads that can mess with the phase relationship of the close mics - a linear phase EQ for the highpass keeps the relationship intact. That’s what I’ve discovered anyway!
@@spinlightstudios Oh yeah I only didn't mention linear phase because you already mentioned it, it's also a very viable option! If you don't want to have the same phase altering processing on both, you have no other option than linear phase really. For stuff like freqency splitting a dance track midbass for example, you have to high pass the top end, high and low pass the mid, and low pass the bottom end, essentually creating crossovers between the mid and low and the mid and high, which will then later be recombined, and there's no way to sucessfully have it hold together whilst putting differing processes on each without using linear phase for any processing that would otherwise touch the phase, including the filters used to split the freqency bands!
Great video, thank you. I have a rule I developed over my years of real world experience and also watching every tutorial/mix advice video on RUclips. My rule is “never say never”. If any RUclipsr says something like “never eq in solo” it’s a red flag they don’t know what they’re talking about. And maybe it’s my frustration with universal language or universal thinking but I never say never in the studio. Other than doing something dangerous to you or your equipment, there really are no rules. High pass everything except the vocal, hard pan the snare, auto tune the singer that doesn’t want auto tune, stack ten compressors on a sample, use stock plugins, don’t use any plugins. There really are no rules. Maybe those things won’t sound good, but good is so subjective so who cares. And this experimentation helps you develop your own sound and technique. Invent your own secret sauce. There IS something to be said about knowing the rules before you break them, but y’all know what you’re doing! Don’t be too precious with this whole thing. Purists and “rule makers” are usually just people that don’t have any creativity and just teach because they could never make it as an artist or producer.
Thoughts on Sage Audio's latest videos on using maximization/waveshaping rather than limiting to achieve loud masters while retaining transient clarity? Not really a "you should never use limiters" train of thought, but I'm interested to know if you've tried that approach before.
Lufs is not just about loudness though, its about how consistent the dynamics sound. Most pop songs need to be mixed very even and flat in dynamics, so thats why -14 might sound messy dynamically, or feel not controlled enough. Also a very loud mix might work better in the car or in noisy places. Plus a very dense good eqed mix will sound way louder even if the lufs read lower. Meters can not always tell how loud it is percieved. Im kinda conflicted though, because all of my favourite sounding songs incedentally are even lower than -14 haha. Sometimes -20!
I love dynamic music, and definitely appreciate a song that can go from really chill to huge and climatic - cinematic stuff etc. but I’m just stating how mainstream music is still very loud.
The one thing I’d disagree with that you won’t get loud masters with only 3dB of limiting. That all depends on the crest factor of the mix. A routinely push -5 LUFS with as little as 1-2 dB of GR on the limiter. But that’s because the dynamics have all been highly controlled prior to mastering. And by this I am not referring to mix bus processing being responsible for it prior to mastering. But at the same time, I’ve seen guys who have won Grammys hit 7dB of GR on a limiter before it ever goes to mastering and it sounds great. There’s no right or wrong as long as your mixes and masters objectively compete. That said, to say you can’t hit -6 LUFS with only 3dB of gain reduction on a limiter is factually incorrect.
There is many ways to bake the cake, I suppose it depends which way you want to go about it, but like you said, as long as it gets the end result you are after. I have been sent songs for mastering where I didn’t have to push the limiter hard for it to be loud, but I couldn’t tell you if they had already done a bunch of clipping, limiting , saturation to the track before sending it over / which no doubt they had. My point is that you shouldn’t be afraid to limit a bit harder / if it sounds good that’s what matters / if it sounds bad… probably don’t do it 😂
I just saw a video released today by a mastering tutorial channel, recommending people to use the RX adaptive phase rotation algorithm by default on every master….theres so much trash out there.
Haha yeah… you just need to not digitally clip the mix when exporting for mastering… yet people still manage to do do that 😂 I still tell people to leave a few dbs when exporting a mix for me when mastering just so they don’t mess it up 😂 but yeah it could be -0.1 on the loudest peak and be fine ha
I don't get it. You said all the songs at the top of the charts are mastered louder, right? Why? I thought the point was that it doesn't matter what loudness level you master your tracks to. If it sounds better at -8, do that. If it sounds better at -14, do that.
The problem is no one does it, it’s not a standard. So the few people who do end up mastering to -14lufs wonder why their song sounds so quiet next to other songs. It’s also problematic for the online stores because your track will be so quiet next to everything else. In the end, it’s a choice you can make to master to that loudness - but it’s not a standard which is what people seem to be mixing up. It’s a playback volume of one streaming service.
@spinlightstudios You answered quickly. Thank you. I was editing my comment... But anyway the point is the same. Why do tracks mastered to -14 sound quieter on a loudness normalized site? Or do they? I work with a professional mastering engineer, guy who's been doing it for 40 years, who likes to listen to music that has more dynamic range, so my songs generally are mastered to even quieter than -14. I have yet to understand what I'm actually sacrificing.
If it sounds better to you at -14lufs, than that’s what matters. If you don’t care about loudness and keeping up with what the “pros” are putting out, then it’s not an issue. It’s the blanket statement that you should master to -14lufs that is the problem. Master it -16, master it -6, whatever makes your song sound the best to you. Spotify and other streaming services will then average out all the different master volumes so the listener enjoys a more level playback experience. It’s the issue of mastering to one streaming services playback volume when that doesn’t cater for every streaming service out there + the online store issue - people buy your track and it’s half the volume of everything else they own. I’m sure there is some great videos out there that dive into the subject deeper but that’s just my take on it. If you are happy with mastering to -14lufs, stick with it. But it’s not a standard and that’s the problem with people acting like it’s a rule that has to be followed. That’s the point I’m trying to get across.
The loudness thing has to do with a tracks integrated lufs, crest factor. If the mix is too dynamic it will sound quieter than a mix that has a more controlled dynamic range. There is a lot of factors to it. But that’s not really the point I was trying to make.
@@spinlightstudiosthank you for taking the time to answer. I appreciate it. Right, the actual message that keeps coming across is that the pros master louder and we should too, which is basically the loudness war 2025, right? I think the pros feel they HAVE to master loud, otherwise somebody else will get that work. And that leaves the rest of us sitting around thinking well I guess if the pros do it we should do it too. But the fact remains, on a loudness normalized streaming site, it technically doesn't matter UNLESS your track is TOO low and isn't turned up. So the only remaining reason to master louder must have to do with digital downloads. I can't think of anything else. Or it's the possibility that the user will manually turn off loudness matching on their Spotify or Apple Music, etc.
I thought LCR panning might make an appearance here. I think the grain of truth from it is don’t be afraid to pan things fully but personally I like my guitars and bgvs in different parts of the stereo field.
Absolutely .. I never stick to LCR … seems too limited and puts everything in the same spaces. It can work for basic mixes though. But definitely purely not a rule to stand by imo.
I always take away a new 'tool' from your videos, Rhys. I purchased your 'Skipping Stones' and 'Pop Punk Easycore Mix Course' a while back. It was a massive help. I know you're busy - and it would require a tremendous amount of energy - but I'd love to see a full blown mixing course from you. I love the way you teach. Something I've been thinking about - relating to your sample packs: I don't recall you ever doing a specific video on how to use a sampler. Maybe you did - and I overlooked it. I know that you've touched on it in other videos. When I first started mixing, and people would talk about samples, it was presumed that people knew how to use them...but I didn't. If you haven't done a vid specifically about 'getting started with samplers', it might be worth considering. It could serve two purposes: it could be a great teaching opportunity - and also - transition nicely to selling more sample packs. I own all of your samples and they're great. Another great video. Cheers, man.
12:39 that is unless you are the guy who has repeatedly had people like studio owners and other drummers come up to you after a show and ask what sample you used and you get to tell them “none” to their disbelief. With ALL aspects of the chain from plate to speaker considered, yes, you CAN get THAT sound without a sample. That’s engineering. Form the player to the speaker. The entire chain. But yes, I agree there’s nothing wrong with samples.
Haha look, you can definitely get awesome drum sounds without samples! There’s just some drum mixes that are so heavily reliant upon drum samples as part of the sound.
@ I don’t disagree with the existence of them coupled with their importance in those genres. For sure. It’s just that the ability to run them live comes with some complication for the MAJORITY of shows therefore I have spent 26+ years having to go without them literally 99.99% of the time. I had some good mentors who challenged me and my mixing and pushed me to focus on the player, the drum tuning, the mic placement, the fundamentals, the system tuning, and then all the other aspects of mixing in that order. With 85% of the result coming down to the player and how your relationship with them allows you to speak into their playing. Or not. I have had many live mixes that can be used purely alone for a commercial release because the drums are tuned well and have minimal bleed. They can be compressed and or gated to all hell and still work. Whatever the need is. Proper use of phased, dynamics, blend with the overheads, and reverb and pow, you have people asking what drum samples you use without a single sample in sight live or in the session. Granted, 95% of my work is CCM but they LOVE them some fat snare samples AND parallel compression. I never NEED them with the right drummers and when I have control of the capture. But. I have had more than my fair share of mediocre to poor drummers, and usually terrible captures. Nothing saves those mixes like a good sample library. INCLUDING cymbals 😂😂😂😳😁
Bruh im glad to see more people calling out these Geartubers who are more Salesman then actual music or producers. Would rather make you run in circles with a carrot on a stick then actual take you to where you need to be and become a better player/producer. Yeah im talking about you Neural dsp and MANY MANY MANY other people. I hope to make more content like this. Thank you for your time, effort, and wisdom🤵🏿♂️🤌🏿
I was taught at Uni not to compress vocals more than 8db. Saw a video from Tom Lord Alge on Angels and Airwaves mixing, and he's smashing the vocals well over 20db 😂
You mean the video where Jordan from Hardcore Music Studio made a comparison without proper loudness matching? Yeah, that was an example of bad advise.
highpass filters do objectively ruin phase purely because of how minimum phase filters and especially butterworth filters coded with biquads work. this is not so much of an issue with analog filters. whether you like the sound or not is another matter in entirely, and lowshelves are perfectly fine for the majority of low frequency issues, and i work with almost primarily electronic music which has stuff down to infrasound at quite healthy levels. if it's perfectly capable of being sufficient in my situation, it's more than sufficient for somebody dealing with recorded material that doesn't put out anywhere near the same level of sub, low mid punch or infrasound as recorded instruments do. if people stopped mixing with their eyes they would realise this, or at the very least knew how to scale their spectrum analysers so what it represented aligned some degree (though not really)with what they was hearing Onto limiters. if you need to push a limiter to hit an almost constant 3dB to get a track loud then your mix wasn't meant to be loud to begin with. there's this weird understanding of limiters in professional audio communities that they are used to get things loud. no they aren't and I speak as somebody who has had briefs for getting the finished masters touching -4-5 LUFS with the limiter barely registering a single dB of gain reduction, and any mastering sessions i've sat in on they very rarely if ever have the limiter doing anywhere near that amount of gain reduction. 3dB of limiting on complex program material like an entire stereo mix is always going to sound like ass that's just the nature of how limiters work which can be thought of as like a clipper with multiple envelope stages with their own internal logic attached to it. the whole "a compressor with an infinite ratio"hasn't been true since before the L1 hit the market. now, whether the client likes the sound or not is another matter entirely, but it will be audibly degraded and even moreso if you are using a lot of look-ahead to get away with that level of limiting as you wont have the immediacy of the upper frequency transients to create a contrast between them and the averaged parts of the finished mix Forget all that though..There's no such thing as bad mixing advice and no amount of mixing advice will make you a better mixer .nor will calling other people out in clickbait videos like this make better mixers either. mixing is based entirely on two things. your learnt sonic preferences, and your own internal compass or judgement in applying those to other peoples audio material. handwave all you like about EQ etiquette and trivial things like whether or not you should process at the recording stage or not. there's somebody out there that will apply either situation better than you undoubtedly. congratulations on being another voice shouting into the ether that is social media. stay out of my RUclips feed if you can. much appreciated
I’m not shouting anything, just stating too many people get boxed in by these “rules” that everyone spreads around. The whole point of this video is do what works for the song and don’t put limitations on yourself.
Not bad advice but I think it’s followed as a set in stone rule when it’s not: notch 4k on guitars. But watch now everyone will start boosting since Nolly recently talked about boosting it haha
Do you think that how a mix sounds matters to the average listener or do you think it only really matters to the mix engineer and artist ? Just curious is all😊
I think it matters less to average listener when it comes to the little nitty gritty aspects of a mix, but the overall sound still matters, most people can still tell if a mix sounds really bad haha
As a drummer myself, I don't care if there are drum samples being used as long as it's used to enhance the drums rather than replace. If it is replaced, then that's on me for not having good tracks to begin with. In terms of mastering, it took me three different mastering engineers to find the right one for my band. The first two butchered the songs, but I eventually landed with the right engineer. His price did go up over time, but we enjoyed his work, we were willing to pay the price he's charging.
I don’t like complete replacement on drums, but layering samples with real drums works well for me! Glad you found someone you like to work with for mastering!
Blanket mastering is boring. Having a mastering engineer who engages with the dynamics to keep the listener hooked and bring out details the hard work you put into the mix. That’s where it’s at.
It’s relevant to peak loudness. A mix that has been limited will be louder than one that hasn’t been. For example you have a mix and the loudest transients are touching 0db. If you limit the mix 3db - most of that would be the drums hitting the limiter. So those transients are being limited but the rest of the mix is now 3db louder. Compared directly to the unlimited mix which will sound 3db quieter. Both mixes would have a peak volume of 0db but the limited one will sound louder. Hopefully that makes sense.
You forgot, " You have to edit your stems/performances." Sometimes, a track might need it, but the people who insist that it's necessary seem oblivious to the fact that all their mixes sound gridded and kinda soulless. Knowing how to tighten shit up when needed is an important skill, but that doesn't mean you should sterilise every performance you ever mix.
Yeah totally. Some people might disagree, but I tend to like editing drums, and then leaving most other stuff fairly unedited unless it calls for it. Have a tight foundation means less editing later. But if an artist said they didn’t want to edit the timing I would be fine with that. Whatever gets the vibe!
@spinlightstudios agreed. Personally, I'll only edit drums if there's an obvious gaff or if the drummer is pretty bad. Or sometimes even a good drummer will have a blast beat get away from them, and you have a bar where the kick and snare go out of whack or something. Or maybe the bass or one of the guitars comes in noticeably late on a big chorus. Those kinds of situational cases make plenty of sense. In my case, if a band can't perform their own shit without corrective surgery, I'd rather not be associated with them. I'll leave a good drum performance alone most times unless there's something they ask me to fuss over. Sample-heavy industrial music is probably the only time I go out of my way to get the drum performance as rigid and precise as possible. Usually, just by getting the drummer or songwriter to program some midi. Long story short, not against editing. Just the advice circulating that it's always a crucial part of mixing. I think that advice is a slap in the face to people who take the time to learn how to play and perform well.
Even in the scientific field, something like 10% of what were considered proven "facts" 50 years ago, will no longer be considered so. Just as in 50 years from now roughly the same % of proven fact will no longer hold up to scrutiny with the extended knowlage we will then hold. So (getting back into music now) to set any hard and fast ruels that you follow blindly for your entire career, through technology changes, popular opinion changes and even changes in your own taste and even hearing, is just kind of tone deaf (no pun intended). A lot of the "ruels" you talk about here were at some point or even still are applicable, but often only in very specific scenarios, and sometimes have been negated by advancments in the field, either be it by technology or just by the way we now approach things. Some of them are also just misinformation, but like you say very often they have seeds of truth, or at least did, and are just massively taken out of context.
1. It's not bad advice in and of itself, it's just been misinterpreted plenty of times. 2. I agree completely! 3. Again, agree completely. 4. The fact is: high-pass filters cause phase shift. If you're aware of this and know where it's most prominent, you'll never have an issue high-passing in practice. 5. Agree. This feels like ludites saying that photography is not art. 6. I half-agree. You need a degree of experience to do it well enough, and you must be prepared to go back to the drawing board a few times. 7. Couldn't disagree more. 2-3 dB of gain reduction is where I usually am on my final limiter on mastering. Note the word "mastering". I absolutely NEVER mix a limiter on my mixbus. It's objectively only detrimental, because it takes away punch from transients and causes intermodulation distortion; from experience, it always sounded like gunk. I don't care if X famous engineer does it, it's objectively bad. I do other things (saturation and limiting on INDIVIDUAL tracks, light saturation on my mixbus) to achieve the crest factor I want, so I don't make my final limiter fart out in mastering. 8. I agree. You EQ the amount you actually need and not chase numbers here. 9. You need to understand and know the rules in order to break them effectively. Otherwise, you're throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks and, IMO, that's a big waste of your time.
All these things are simply a way to do something. It's foolish to take anything as dogmatic. They're all suggestions. Don't mistake a suggestion for an imperative and you'll be just fine. Learn from all these ideas. BTW, linear phase high pass can cause pre-ringing (transient slur) on percussive sources. Important to know
I agree. The pre-ring of linear phase is only an issue if you can audibly hear it. This is also something people scare others into not trying/using. I’m also not saying it’s the only way, but I find it useful.
You should only be sweeping if you know there is something you’re looking for. Blindly sweeping can be problematic if you decide to cut frequencies just because they sound bad when boosted.. some frequencies just sound bad loud but probably weren’t an issue where they were already.
Great video! “Overthinking” is a good description. A lot of bad advice comes from YT people who are desperate for attention. Sadly, they get rewarded for creating controversy, so they keep doing it. I think the type of mixing advice that grates on me is anything that shouts “10 mixing mistakes to avoid at all costs!!!” or something like that. This plays to people’s fear, and no good mix ever resulted from a state of fear. I’d love to see a title that says something “10 mixing mistakes you NEED to make to get good”. Mix without fear. You’ll make heaps of mistakes and sound rubbish for a looong time, but so what? It’s not like anyone is going to die as a result of a bad mix. If you do it long enough, gradually all those mistakes coalesce into a thing called “experience”. Slowly but surely, you learn to avoid the bad mistakes, and the good mistakes become your “style”.
That’s a tricky one when you don’t have complete control. When a band pays you to mix their song / they want some creative control in the final sound too. There is always some level of compromise to make everyone happy and feel like a part of the project.
@ True, I just see a lot of kids these days get sucked into listening to whatever mix engineer has the best looking studio set on TikTok, and treating their words as gospel rather than just listening for what the track is telling you it wants to be. Of course, client input is always important, but I wouldn’t take a client showing me a TikTok where a popular mix engineer has done a video saying “LA2a’s are bad, don’t use them” and then not allow me to use an la2a…(as an example) But if a band says “yeah, we like it so far, but can we have it a bit more modern” that leaves you open to suggest your own opinion as too how that should be achieved I.e, more ferocious limiting, saltier snares/kicks etc, whatever you think will work, not what someone else in a different studio with different gear thinks. Awesome video dude!
im stopping your video on loudness advice. The problem with tracks higher than -14 lufs is, that they loose too much dynamic range. There’s no way around it. Sure a heavy power-electronics track doesn’t need much DR , but if you do in a way average music … may it be techno, electro, rock, pop it does sound good and lout at -14 lufs. for some very dynamic styles this is already too loud. The problem when Spotify or whatever are lowering the volume of your overlimited track - it will feel not loud and powerful enough anymore. So keep your music around something in the -14 lufs ballpark as goal is a good advice!
If you like how your music sounds at -14lufs then go for it. That’s a decision you can make, but people need to be aware that no main stream music is mastered to that volume. None.
I’d also like to point out I’m not telling people to master loud / you can decide the master volume that works the best for you. If you’re curious to know what most “pros” are mastering there tracks to all you need to do is download some popular songs from the iTunes/google play store to find out for yourself. If you want to compete with those levels is then up to.
Yeah no you’re wrong. I used to master to -14 and was always kicking myself because my mix never sounded as loud as my reference mixes I pulled in a Zach Tuch mix from a digital download I had and it was at -5.4 from that day on I always aim for that. My mixes sound loud af and competitive and they still punch just fine because I get dynamics dialed right
Fantastic feedback and take here. I have slowly eradicated these myths from my process but several of them have ruined my mixes for years. Listen to this guy and I promise your music will sound better!
Thanks mate! Something’s you just have to learn over time! But hopefully this encourages people to at least test these ideas for themselves!
I want to believe you but also want to make sure you are speaking from experience. Let’s hear some of your mixes.
Are you talking to me? You can watch my channel and hear loads of my mixes. I only show my mixing on this channel. Or you can visit my website and under services you should find a link to a portfolio on Spotify.
@@spinlightstudios nope not you, the original commenter.
Found your channel recently, one of the best ones on youtube tbh. Please keep doing what you do, the audio world needs more people like you :D
Thanks! Glad you’re enjoying the channel! 🙏🏼
It’s awesome you address stuff like this brotha.You’re so full of knowledge and seem very trustworthy. One of the reasons I love this channel!
Thanks legend! I’m all for keeping it real 😁
Possibly one of the most freeing videos to date for me. Some of the points made I’ve wondered about and questioned. It’s nice to know you’re not crazy when you’re a pretty new mix engineer. Adhering to “never” may at best land you with a safe mix but it comes at the cost of creativity and learning.
Triggering effects with samples is so nice because you don't get bleed triggering the effects.
Fantastic video! Thanks for the advice!
No problem!
This is very informative and a welcomed topic. Thank you
Thanks mate!
Amen 😂 thank you for this video. Totally agree with everything you said. Love your channel especially the „mix critiques“ and mixing tutorials. All the best from Germany
Haha thanks legend! Will have the first mix critique video for 2025 very soon!
Hey just wanted to say thank you for doing what you do! I’ve always been interested in recording music and have messed around with it since I was about 15. Now I’m 22 and taking it seriously with recording my own band and my friend’s bands. Mixing is a very daunting thing if you let it be, and watching your videos has helped so much with either doing what you recommend or just gaining the confidence to try things out and see what happens. Can’t wait to continue to watch and learn from your videos! Thank you legend!
That’s awesome! It’s really cool to hear your story and how mixing has progressed for you. Keep going Legend!
Records as early as 1943 used tricks to replace or layer drums with samples. Earliest example I can think of off the top is the classic claw-foot tub kick.
I totally agree with your statement about not mastering to -14. And in fact, there's actually some very interesting science behind why a track that is mastered to -8 will sound way louder on Spotify even after Spotify turns it down. Justin Colletti, the mastering engineer who runs Sonic Scoop, has talked about it at length. It has to do with the fact that we're dealing with integrated LUFS, which is essentially perceived loudness over time. It's not actually measuring the peaks. If you pull up an indie rock record made on a budget and expensive pop album on Spotify, I can guarantee you the pop album will sound louder despite the so-called normalization.
Anyway, I'm personally happy with -9 or so. Sometimes even -10. I find that to get to -8 or louder, I have to make too many compromises. I'm an old man, I guess. -9 is pretty standard CD volume. My friend wanted me to master a few of his demos, and he sent me a song his band had recorded in a studio and had professionally mastered for comparison. It was -5! It was a metal song. I know that's part of the genre now, but I thought it sounded terrible. There are a lot of things that bug me about modern metal, but I think the insane density of it is my least favorite part. Everything is so in your face that nothing matters, imo.
Yes that’s right, it’s all about the integrated lufs. I agree, I like masters around -9, -8… but I still have clients who want them louder so I do what needs to be done 😁 in a perfect world softer masters would be my preference! Wouldn’t it be great if there was some sort of standard we had to stick to 😂
Integrated lufs is not good for music. But that might be the way it goes when the almighty computer brand dictates the rules.
Been saying this for years.
Awesome video brother!!
#3 drives me crazy. This idea that everything needs to be pure di clean no effects or processing going in is ridiculous. Its one thing to have a di backup track available, but stifling creativity of sound with dry recording only is nuts.
The phase one is insane. Hardware EQ works by manipulating phase shift and has always worked this way. Every single hit song mixed through hardware has incredible amounts of phase anomaly built into it and nobody cared until it was something they were told to care about.
Too many people mixing with their eyes and not their ears
Freshly coming back from NAMM and got quite a few really useful talk with some big mixing engineers and the common things was : do what's work for you. If it sounds good that's it.
Also, there is a huge difference sometimes on the advice itself and how people understand it. Sometimes, especially in today's world, people don't necessarily understand nuances in the advice. Like the HPF one. It is like people understand HPF pn everything or pn nothing at all. The reality is HPF when it is needed and like you said if it hurt the track just don't do it. Thanks for the video
Perfect 👌🏼
Great advice! They’re no rules when mixing💯
It's all about experimenting and finding what sounds best!
People tend to forget that most filters are a gentle slope not a brick wall. 6 or 12 db per octave doesn't remove everything below the corner freq.
I do all the structure sounds in solo..kick, snare, hi hat, bass….those things are not gonna turn your mix off balance too much when you solo adjust.
I'm glad someone called this out as this stuff is trotted out way too much. A lot of this was borne out of the very early days of digital and has absolutely no relevance now. Decades ago my mentor taught me how to mix by only using high and low pass filters/shelves. I still think of those bracketed frequencies to this day. Agree also about the business of filters and phase - nobody used to take ANY notice when you had to rely on your ears not your eyes. 'Imagine a great sound and twist knobs until it sounds like that'.
Great list! 👍🏼
Cheers mate!
Thank you thank you thank you! Specifically the idea that you must use multiple limiters with only 3 db of gain reduction per limiter. I suspected that was a nonsense rule, but it's nice to hear it from someone that knows what they are doing.
Sometimes stacking limiters works great, sometimes it sounds worse than one limiter. I always test it out and see how the track sounds comparing those methods and make a decision which way to run with it!
I heard "Dont use reverb because it gets muddy. Use delay instead.". But I do the opposite, I often don't use delay but always reverb.
Yeah…. Use what sounds good
Hell yeah man! Great vid Rhys! Let’s go, Analog Crew represent!
Haha thanks dude! How’s NAMM? I’m jealous!
Another great set of tips, thanks!
Thanks legend!
One thing I always ignore is when people tell me to do “ top down mixing “
Top down mixing can work, but it’s just one method for approaching a mix.
Everything you have mentioned here resonates! I trust your judgment and opinions, Thanks!
Thanks mate!
On the topic of high pass filters, people yell about phase like it’s a secret killer but really it’s just good to be aware of. It’s sometimes even a hidden gem and an efficient way to actually bring elements INTO phase by high passing one of them. Sometimes kick and bass gel better when one shifts a little! 🧑🍳
Whatever sounds the best wins. Sometimes when you blend samples together and they are out of phase it can create cool blends too. It might not be “right” but it can work!
I really love your videos. They are honest. I like the way you describe how to do things. They make sense.
Appreciate the love!
Pretty much anytime someone says always do this or never do that its usually wrong
If only mixing were that simple 😂
Brilliant video man.
Thanks legend!
Great advice! Many thanks!
Glad it was helpful!
The reality is , you never get into the recording stage without a clear goal in mind. This goes from song structure , arrangement and vibe. This are the things that makes you grab a certain EQ or Compressor for an specific task while recording . This way of working of hitting record without knowing what you really want or going for , expecting ideas to flow WHILE recording , leads to bad decisions that youll gonna want to compensate in mixing stage later on. The famous "fix it in the mix" work flow. Thats why a lot of great engineers before gettin into a session they ask a lot of questions from "whats the vibe you going for" to "lets hear what you guys have" That way the engineer gets an idea what to use and what to avoid at recording stage, thats how you achieve a great mix. You could record without any processing at all , thats not wrong . But me personally love to lay down the idea in my head early on the recording stage but also leaving space for enhance that later when mixing. If you recording something straight out flat with no life because you already have an idea for that later at mixing, you could run into the situation that your idea morph into something else completely different later. This could be a good thing or a worst thing case scenario. Something to have in mind.
One issue that seems hotly contested is gain staging.
I was told you push the gain on your interface until you clip with your instrument, then dial it back so you stay in the safety zone.
Others argue that your interface gain should only ever be at unity or just above.
I don’t think it matters tbh. I typically try to record a healthy signal with levels hitting -6db at the loudest In daw. whatever level your gain is set at will introduce the same level of noise - it’s more about the microphone and the source to minimize that problem. Like using a mic with a high self noise that needs lots of gain on a quiet source is a recipe for disaster.
Andrew Schepps also said he never worries about gain staging. The only time I think it's important is if you're using presets from mixing engineers, like with the CLA 1176, all the presets are set for gain staging, so to get the "sound" of the preset you need to be in the ballpark.
Banger videos as always, man. Keeping it real. The start of my mixing career suffered a TON because of a lot of those "tips". The whole loudness, limiting and compression stuff that just puts you on a leash that will never let you get a good sounding mix. Back in the day, that was THE advice, a shitty one!
On the LUFS and limiting stuff in specific, I was dipping my toes in mastering a few years ago and ended mastering in -14 LUFS like people said. And guess what? No surprise, the tracks came out really anemic and I had no idea why. Took me quite some time to say "fuck it" and just work my way through getting loudness from the mix all the way to mastering.
Just yesterday I was pushing smart:limit to the limit (lol) because I realized that it does the Inflator magic right into it. You can push it really far before you start losing stuff. Technology is awesome, and I would be glad if people stopped offering advice they learned from old algos like Waves and Ozone that can't compete with modern limiters!
That’s awesome mate. Testing that stuff for yourself and breaking free 🙌🏻
That’s awesome mate. Testing that stuff for yourself and breaking free 🙌🏻
Another way to avoid messing up the phase of multi mic recordings is to either apply the same phase altering process to both mic tracks with exactly the same settings (digital only, as analog has too many variances to do this sucsessfully in most cases), or one that works for both digital and analog is to group them together first, and then apply the hpf/lpf etc. to the group with both mic tracks going into it, so both tracks are altered after being combined, and will keep their phase relationship even though the phase is being altered on both of them.
Yeah totally, i would normally apply a filter to a group. But for example if you want to highpass your overheads that can mess with the phase relationship of the close mics - a linear phase EQ for the highpass keeps the relationship intact. That’s what I’ve discovered anyway!
@@spinlightstudios Oh yeah I only didn't mention linear phase because you already mentioned it, it's also a very viable option! If you don't want to have the same phase altering processing on both, you have no other option than linear phase really.
For stuff like freqency splitting a dance track midbass for example, you have to high pass the top end, high and low pass the mid, and low pass the bottom end, essentually creating crossovers between the mid and low and the mid and high, which will then later be recombined, and there's no way to sucessfully have it hold together whilst putting differing processes on each without using linear phase for any processing that would otherwise touch the phase, including the filters used to split the freqency bands!
I try and wait a few days between finishing the mix and starting the mastering. It gives my ears some time to reset.
Definitely not a bad method!
Great video, thank you. I have a rule I developed over my years of real world experience and also watching every tutorial/mix advice video on RUclips. My rule is “never say never”. If any RUclipsr says something like “never eq in solo” it’s a red flag they don’t know what they’re talking about. And maybe it’s my frustration with universal language or universal thinking but I never say never in the studio. Other than doing something dangerous to you or your equipment, there really are no rules. High pass everything except the vocal, hard pan the snare, auto tune the singer that doesn’t want auto tune, stack ten compressors on a sample, use stock plugins, don’t use any plugins. There really are no rules. Maybe those things won’t sound good, but good is so subjective so who cares. And this experimentation helps you develop your own sound and technique. Invent your own secret sauce. There IS something to be said about knowing the rules before you break them, but y’all know what you’re doing! Don’t be too precious with this whole thing. Purists and “rule makers” are usually just people that don’t have any creativity and just teach because they could never make it as an artist or producer.
Love it 🙌🏻
Thoughts on Sage Audio's latest videos on using maximization/waveshaping rather than limiting to achieve loud masters while retaining transient clarity? Not really a "you should never use limiters" train of thought, but I'm interested to know if you've tried that approach before.
I actually haven’t watched it, I’ll have to try it out before I give an opinion on it. Have you tried it?
Lufs is not just about loudness though, its about how consistent the dynamics sound. Most pop songs need to be mixed very even and flat in dynamics, so thats why -14 might sound messy dynamically, or feel not controlled enough. Also a very loud mix might work better in the car or in noisy places. Plus a very dense good eqed mix will sound way louder even if the lufs read lower. Meters can not always tell how loud it is percieved.
Im kinda conflicted though, because all of my favourite sounding songs incedentally are even lower than -14 haha. Sometimes -20!
I love dynamic music, and definitely appreciate a song that can go from really chill to huge and climatic - cinematic stuff etc. but I’m just stating how mainstream music is still very loud.
The one thing I’d disagree with that you won’t get loud masters with only 3dB of limiting. That all depends on the crest factor of the mix. A routinely push -5 LUFS with as little as 1-2 dB of GR on the limiter. But that’s because the dynamics have all been highly controlled prior to mastering. And by this I am not referring to mix bus processing being responsible for it prior to mastering.
But at the same time, I’ve seen guys who have won Grammys hit 7dB of GR on a limiter before it ever goes to mastering and it sounds great. There’s no right or wrong as long as your mixes and masters objectively compete.
That said, to say you can’t hit -6 LUFS with only 3dB of gain reduction on a limiter is factually incorrect.
There is many ways to bake the cake, I suppose it depends which way you want to go about it, but like you said, as long as it gets the end result you are after.
I have been sent songs for mastering where I didn’t have to push the limiter hard for it to be loud, but I couldn’t tell you if they had already done a bunch of clipping, limiting , saturation to the track before sending it over / which no doubt they had.
My point is that you shouldn’t be afraid to limit a bit harder / if it sounds good that’s what matters / if it sounds bad… probably don’t do it 😂
I just saw a video released today by a mastering tutorial channel, recommending people to use the RX adaptive phase rotation algorithm by default on every master….theres so much trash out there.
Spot on dude!
Thanks mate!
You forgot the hilarious "you need to leave headroom for the mastering engineer".
Haha yeah… you just need to not digitally clip the mix when exporting for mastering… yet people still manage to do do that 😂 I still tell people to leave a few dbs when exporting a mix for me when mastering just so they don’t mess it up 😂 but yeah it could be -0.1 on the loudest peak and be fine ha
I don't get it. You said all the songs at the top of the charts are mastered louder, right? Why? I thought the point was that it doesn't matter what loudness level you master your tracks to. If it sounds better at -8, do that. If it sounds better at -14, do that.
The problem is no one does it, it’s not a standard. So the few people who do end up mastering to -14lufs wonder why their song sounds so quiet next to other songs. It’s also problematic for the online stores because your track will be so quiet next to everything else.
In the end, it’s a choice you can make to master to that loudness - but it’s not a standard which is what people seem to be mixing up. It’s a playback volume of one streaming service.
@spinlightstudios You answered quickly. Thank you. I was editing my comment... But anyway the point is the same. Why do tracks mastered to -14 sound quieter on a loudness normalized site? Or do they? I work with a professional mastering engineer, guy who's been doing it for 40 years, who likes to listen to music that has more dynamic range, so my songs generally are mastered to even quieter than -14. I have yet to understand what I'm actually sacrificing.
If it sounds better to you at -14lufs, than that’s what matters. If you don’t care about loudness and keeping up with what the “pros” are putting out, then it’s not an issue. It’s the blanket statement that you should master to -14lufs that is the problem. Master it -16, master it -6, whatever makes your song sound the best to you. Spotify and other streaming services will then average out all the different master volumes so the listener enjoys a more level playback experience.
It’s the issue of mastering to one streaming services playback volume when that doesn’t cater for every streaming service out there + the online store issue - people buy your track and it’s half the volume of everything else they own.
I’m sure there is some great videos out there that dive into the subject deeper but that’s just my take on it. If you are happy with mastering to -14lufs, stick with it. But it’s not a standard and that’s the problem with people acting like it’s a rule that has to be followed. That’s the point I’m trying to get across.
The loudness thing has to do with a tracks integrated lufs, crest factor. If the mix is too dynamic it will sound quieter than a mix that has a more controlled dynamic range. There is a lot of factors to it. But that’s not really the point I was trying to make.
@@spinlightstudiosthank you for taking the time to answer. I appreciate it. Right, the actual message that keeps coming across is that the pros master louder and we should too, which is basically the loudness war 2025, right? I think the pros feel they HAVE to master loud, otherwise somebody else will get that work. And that leaves the rest of us sitting around thinking well I guess if the pros do it we should do it too. But the fact remains, on a loudness normalized streaming site, it technically doesn't matter UNLESS your track is TOO low and isn't turned up. So the only remaining reason to master louder must have to do with digital downloads. I can't think of anything else. Or it's the possibility that the user will manually turn off loudness matching on their Spotify or Apple Music, etc.
I don’t have the place to record drums. My songs for the last few years are all samples.
Samples, midi drums.. it doesn’t matter. What matters is keeping on creating and enjoying the process.
You are spot on with this.
Thanks!
Who will be the first to sample your handclaps? Great video. Thanks.
Haha perfect for your next pop track 😂
I thought LCR panning might make an appearance here. I think the grain of truth from it is don’t be afraid to pan things fully but personally I like my guitars and bgvs in different parts of the stereo field.
Absolutely .. I never stick to LCR … seems too limited and puts everything in the same spaces. It can work for basic mixes though. But definitely purely not a rule to stand by imo.
I always take away a new 'tool' from your videos, Rhys. I purchased your 'Skipping Stones' and 'Pop Punk Easycore Mix Course' a while back. It was a massive help.
I know you're busy - and it would require a tremendous amount of energy - but I'd love to see a full blown mixing course from you. I love the way you teach.
Something I've been thinking about - relating to your sample packs: I don't recall you ever doing a specific video on how to use a sampler. Maybe you did - and I overlooked it. I know that you've touched on it in other videos. When I first started mixing, and people would talk about samples, it was presumed that people knew how to use them...but I didn't. If you haven't done a vid specifically about 'getting started with samplers', it might be worth considering. It could serve two purposes: it could be a great teaching opportunity - and also - transition nicely to selling more sample packs. I own all of your samples and they're great.
Another great video. Cheers, man.
Thanks mate! That’s a good idea for sure! I’m also planning on putting together a new mix course pretty soon!
@@spinlightstudios You had me at 'new mix course'. Lol !! Can't wait.
@ haha thanks 🙏🏼 I was planning to make it in January but looking more like Feb 🤞🏼
12:39 that is unless you are the guy who has repeatedly had people like studio owners and other drummers come up to you after a show and ask what sample you used and you get to tell them “none” to their disbelief. With ALL aspects of the chain from plate to speaker considered, yes, you CAN get THAT sound without a sample. That’s engineering. Form the player to the speaker. The entire chain. But yes, I agree there’s nothing wrong with samples.
Haha look, you can definitely get awesome drum sounds without samples! There’s just some drum mixes that are so heavily reliant upon drum samples as part of the sound.
@ I don’t disagree with the existence of them coupled with their importance in those genres. For sure. It’s just that the ability to run them live comes with some complication for the MAJORITY of shows therefore I have spent 26+ years having to go without them literally 99.99% of the time. I had some good mentors who challenged me and my mixing and pushed me to focus on the player, the drum tuning, the mic placement, the fundamentals, the system tuning, and then all the other aspects of mixing in that order. With 85% of the result coming down to the player and how your relationship with them allows you to speak into their playing. Or not. I have had many live mixes that can be used purely alone for a commercial release because the drums are tuned well and have minimal bleed. They can be compressed and or gated to all hell and still work. Whatever the need is. Proper use of phased, dynamics, blend with the overheads, and reverb and pow, you have people asking what drum samples you use without a single sample in sight live or in the session. Granted, 95% of my work is CCM but they LOVE them some fat snare samples AND parallel compression. I never NEED them with the right drummers and when I have control of the capture. But. I have had more than my fair share of mediocre to poor drummers, and usually terrible captures. Nothing saves those mixes like a good sample library. INCLUDING cymbals 😂😂😂😳😁
Bruh im glad to see more people calling out these Geartubers who are more Salesman then actual music or producers. Would rather make you run in circles with a carrot on a stick then actual take you to where you need to be and become a better player/producer. Yeah im talking about you Neural dsp and MANY MANY MANY other people. I hope to make more content like this. Thank you for your time, effort, and wisdom🤵🏿♂️🤌🏿
Thanks mate!
Bro Parkway Drive got me through high school, listened to them almost exclusively back then 🤘fkin love that band
They go hard! Saw them at Qudos arena last year! Was epic 🙌🏻
The first one is so true. I guarantee every real professional solos sounds to edit all the time.
They definitely aren’t scared of the solo button!
I was taught at Uni not to compress vocals more than 8db. Saw a video from Tom Lord Alge on Angels and Airwaves mixing, and he's smashing the vocals well over 20db 😂
Haha yep… vocals can be compressed heavily in the right circumstances!
You and Jordan from Hardcore Music Studios should do a collaboration!
... and you sure have some good audio going on in that video!
Me?
You mean the video where Jordan from Hardcore Music Studio made a comparison without proper loudness matching? Yeah, that was an example of bad advise.
Regardless, you could hear the dramatic difference in processing between each version / that’s all I’m getting at.
There are a lot of self proclaimed "producers" out there. I've forgotten more about mixing than what half of those guys know.
highpass filters do objectively ruin phase purely because of how minimum phase filters and especially butterworth filters coded with biquads work. this is not so much of an issue with analog filters. whether you like the sound or not is another matter in entirely, and lowshelves are perfectly fine for the majority of low frequency issues, and i work with almost primarily electronic music which has stuff down to infrasound at quite healthy levels. if it's perfectly capable of being sufficient in my situation, it's more than sufficient for somebody dealing with recorded material that doesn't put out anywhere near the same level of sub, low mid punch or infrasound as recorded instruments do. if people stopped mixing with their eyes they would realise this, or at the very least knew how to scale their spectrum analysers so what it represented aligned some degree (though not really)with what they was hearing
Onto limiters. if you need to push a limiter to hit an almost constant 3dB to get a track loud then your mix wasn't meant to be loud to begin with. there's this weird understanding of limiters in professional audio communities that they are used to get things loud. no they aren't and I speak as somebody who has had briefs for getting the finished masters touching -4-5 LUFS with the limiter barely registering a single dB of gain reduction, and any mastering sessions i've sat in on they very rarely if ever have the limiter doing anywhere near that amount of gain reduction. 3dB of limiting on complex program material like an entire stereo mix is always going to sound like ass that's just the nature of how limiters work which can be thought of as like a clipper with multiple envelope stages with their own internal logic attached to it. the whole "a compressor with an infinite ratio"hasn't been true since before the L1 hit the market. now, whether the client likes the sound or not is another matter entirely, but it will be audibly degraded and even moreso if you are using a lot of look-ahead to get away with that level of limiting as you wont have the immediacy of the upper frequency transients to create a contrast between them and the averaged parts of the finished mix
Forget all that though..There's no such thing as bad mixing advice and no amount of mixing advice will make you a better mixer .nor will calling other people out in clickbait videos like this make better mixers either. mixing is based entirely on two things. your learnt sonic preferences, and your own internal compass or judgement in applying those to other peoples audio material. handwave all you like about EQ etiquette and trivial things like whether or not you should process at the recording stage or not. there's somebody out there that will apply either situation better than you undoubtedly. congratulations on being another voice shouting into the ether that is social media.
stay out of my RUclips feed if you can. much appreciated
I’m not shouting anything, just stating too many people get boxed in by these “rules” that everyone spreads around. The whole point of this video is do what works for the song and don’t put limitations on yourself.
Not bad advice but I think it’s followed as a set in stone rule when it’s not: notch 4k on guitars. But watch now everyone will start boosting since Nolly recently talked about boosting it haha
Haha it’s all about the context. Maybe the guitar is kinda dull and need some 4k hype… but if you’ve already got that 4k please don’t boost it more 😅
"mix into a multiband limiter" one of the worst i came across.
Haha oh yeah that’s not a good idea 😂
Do you think that how a mix sounds matters to the average listener or do you think it only really matters to the mix engineer and artist ? Just curious is all😊
I think it matters less to average listener when it comes to the little nitty gritty aspects of a mix, but the overall sound still matters, most people can still tell if a mix sounds really bad haha
As a drummer myself, I don't care if there are drum samples being used as long as it's used to enhance the drums rather than replace. If it is replaced, then that's on me for not having good tracks to begin with.
In terms of mastering, it took me three different mastering engineers to find the right one for my band. The first two butchered the songs, but I eventually landed with the right engineer. His price did go up over time, but we enjoyed his work, we were willing to pay the price he's charging.
I don’t like complete replacement on drums, but layering samples with real drums works well for me! Glad you found someone you like to work with for mastering!
Good Advice: Take the (brackets) off your chapter headings to let YT read them :-)
Ahh whoops! thanks!
Blanket mastering is boring. Having a mastering engineer who engages with the dynamics to keep the listener hooked and bring out details the hard work you put into the mix. That’s where it’s at.
Oh for sure. That’s all about respecting the track and improving it - not going to town and destroying it 😂
What's some bad mixing advice you've heard on RUclips? Support this channel and grab a sample pack or mixing course here: spinlightstudio.com/shop/
Totally agree, if it sounds good, sounds good, period!👍
Absolutely
The ONLY rule I follow, is "Make it sound as good as you can" how you get there ? .... It all depends on what is necessary..
If it sounds good, it sounds good 👌🏼
I don't understand when you talk about limiting. How can a mix be louder when you do more limiting?
It’s relevant to peak loudness. A mix that has been limited will be louder than one that hasn’t been. For example you have a mix and the loudest transients are touching 0db. If you limit the mix 3db - most of that would be the drums hitting the limiter. So those transients are being limited but the rest of the mix is now 3db louder. Compared directly to the unlimited mix which will sound 3db quieter. Both mixes would have a peak volume of 0db but the limited one will sound louder.
Hopefully that makes sense.
Good advice.
Thanks mate!
You forgot, " You have to edit your stems/performances."
Sometimes, a track might need it, but the people who insist that it's necessary seem oblivious to the fact that all their mixes sound gridded and kinda soulless.
Knowing how to tighten shit up when needed is an important skill, but that doesn't mean you should sterilise every performance you ever mix.
Yeah totally. Some people might disagree, but I tend to like editing drums, and then leaving most other stuff fairly unedited unless it calls for it. Have a tight foundation means less editing later. But if an artist said they didn’t want to edit the timing I would be fine with that. Whatever gets the vibe!
@spinlightstudios agreed. Personally, I'll only edit drums if there's an obvious gaff or if the drummer is pretty bad. Or sometimes even a good drummer will have a blast beat get away from them, and you have a bar where the kick and snare go out of whack or something. Or maybe the bass or one of the guitars comes in noticeably late on a big chorus. Those kinds of situational cases make plenty of sense.
In my case, if a band can't perform their own shit without corrective surgery, I'd rather not be associated with them. I'll leave a good drum performance alone most times unless there's something they ask me to fuss over.
Sample-heavy industrial music is probably the only time I go out of my way to get the drum performance as rigid and precise as possible. Usually, just by getting the drummer or songwriter to program some midi.
Long story short, not against editing. Just the advice circulating that it's always a crucial part of mixing. I think that advice is a slap in the face to people who take the time to learn how to play and perform well.
100% agree with you on this
Cheers!
Even in the scientific field, something like 10% of what were considered proven "facts" 50 years ago, will no longer be considered so. Just as in 50 years from now roughly the same % of proven fact will no longer hold up to scrutiny with the extended knowlage we will then hold. So (getting back into music now) to set any hard and fast ruels that you follow blindly for your entire career, through technology changes, popular opinion changes and even changes in your own taste and even hearing, is just kind of tone deaf (no pun intended). A lot of the "ruels" you talk about here were at some point or even still are applicable, but often only in very specific scenarios, and sometimes have been negated by advancments in the field, either be it by technology or just by the way we now approach things. Some of them are also just misinformation, but like you say very often they have seeds of truth, or at least did, and are just massively taken out of context.
rules*
1. It's not bad advice in and of itself, it's just been misinterpreted plenty of times.
2. I agree completely!
3. Again, agree completely.
4. The fact is: high-pass filters cause phase shift. If you're aware of this and know where it's most prominent, you'll never have an issue high-passing in practice.
5. Agree. This feels like ludites saying that photography is not art.
6. I half-agree. You need a degree of experience to do it well enough, and you must be prepared to go back to the drawing board a few times.
7. Couldn't disagree more. 2-3 dB of gain reduction is where I usually am on my final limiter on mastering. Note the word "mastering". I absolutely NEVER mix a limiter on my mixbus. It's objectively only detrimental, because it takes away punch from transients and causes intermodulation distortion; from experience, it always sounded like gunk. I don't care if X famous engineer does it, it's objectively bad. I do other things (saturation and limiting on INDIVIDUAL tracks, light saturation on my mixbus) to achieve the crest factor I want, so I don't make my final limiter fart out in mastering.
8. I agree. You EQ the amount you actually need and not chase numbers here.
9. You need to understand and know the rules in order to break them effectively. Otherwise, you're throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks and, IMO, that's a big waste of your time.
Sound advice!
Literally 🔈 😂
Thanks!
Agreed with every point!
🙏🏼🙏🏼
Are these the same people who say that putting reverb on a bass or an 808 is wrong? Stupid crazy RUclips puppets
Whatever gets the sound you like. I’ve heard some cool tracks with reverb on bass!
Exactly, there are also thousands of patch on old synths that use reverb or delay on sub bass or bass similar to an 808.
All these things are simply a way to do something. It's foolish to take anything as dogmatic. They're all suggestions. Don't mistake a suggestion for an imperative and you'll be just fine. Learn from all these ideas. BTW, linear phase high pass can cause pre-ringing (transient slur) on percussive sources. Important to know
I agree. The pre-ring of linear phase is only an issue if you can audibly hear it. This is also something people scare others into not trying/using. I’m also not saying it’s the only way, but I find it useful.
I dont like the one that says sweep to find frequencies
You should only be sweeping if you know there is something you’re looking for. Blindly sweeping can be problematic if you decide to cut frequencies just because they sound bad when boosted.. some frequencies just sound bad loud but probably weren’t an issue where they were already.
@ thats for people with untrained ears, but I get it
can we normalize calling out shitty mixing advice on youtube? love the vid :)
Haha you can definitely leave a comment and let them know! Hopefully not on my videos 😂😂
Great video! “Overthinking” is a good description. A lot of bad advice comes from YT people who are desperate for attention. Sadly, they get rewarded for creating controversy, so they keep doing it. I think the type of mixing advice that grates on me is anything that shouts “10 mixing mistakes to avoid at all costs!!!” or something like that. This plays to people’s fear, and no good mix ever resulted from a state of fear. I’d love to see a title that says something “10 mixing mistakes you NEED to make to get good”. Mix without fear. You’ll make heaps of mistakes and sound rubbish for a looong time, but so what? It’s not like anyone is going to die as a result of a bad mix. If you do it long enough, gradually all those mistakes coalesce into a thing called “experience”. Slowly but surely, you learn to avoid the bad mistakes, and the good mistakes become your “style”.
Totally get your point of view. Sounds like a good video idea 😉
Always wear a wide brimmed hat when mixing guitars. If you want the best integration into the rest of the track.
🤠🤠
best mixing advice : be a good musician and record with soul
It definitely helps!
This why he’s the goat
THE GOAT!!!
🙏🏼 🐐
Mixing on other peoples opinions rather than what sounds good and works for the song..
That’s a tricky one when you don’t have complete control. When a band pays you to mix their song / they want some creative control in the final sound too. There is always some level of compromise to make everyone happy and feel like a part of the project.
@
True,
I just see a lot of kids these days get sucked into listening to whatever mix engineer has the best looking studio set on TikTok, and treating their words as gospel rather than just listening for what the track is telling you it wants to be.
Of course, client input is always important, but I wouldn’t take a client showing me a TikTok where a popular mix engineer has done a video saying “LA2a’s are bad, don’t use them” and then not allow me to use an la2a…(as an example)
But if a band says “yeah, we like it so far, but can we have it a bit more modern” that leaves you open to suggest your own opinion as too how that should be achieved I.e, more ferocious limiting, saltier snares/kicks etc, whatever you think will work, not what someone else in a different studio with different gear thinks.
Awesome video dude!
im stopping your video on loudness advice. The problem with tracks higher than -14 lufs is, that they loose too much dynamic range. There’s no way around it.
Sure a heavy power-electronics track doesn’t need much DR , but if you do in a way average music … may it be techno, electro, rock, pop it does sound good and lout at -14 lufs. for some very dynamic styles this is already too loud.
The problem when Spotify or whatever are lowering the volume of your overlimited track - it will feel not loud and powerful enough anymore.
So keep your music around something in the -14 lufs ballpark as goal is a good advice!
If you like how your music sounds at -14lufs then go for it. That’s a decision you can make, but people need to be aware that no main stream music is mastered to that volume. None.
I’d also like to point out I’m not telling people to master loud / you can decide the master volume that works the best for you. If you’re curious to know what most “pros” are mastering there tracks to all you need to do is download some popular songs from the iTunes/google play store to find out for yourself. If you want to compete with those levels is then up to.
Yeah no you’re wrong. I used to master to -14 and was always kicking myself because my mix never sounded as loud as my reference mixes I pulled in a Zach Tuch mix from a digital download I had and it was at -5.4 from that day on I always aim for that. My mixes sound loud af and competitive and they still punch just fine because I get dynamics dialed right
Hers the best advice..use the gear you have-and if it sounds good to you it is good.