Mix Breakdown Start to Finish: Mixing Masterclass with Chris Lord-Alge
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 6 сен 2024
- Watch more FREE mixing masterclasses here: www.waves.com/...
Watch Grammy®-winning mix engineer Chris Lord-Alge (Green Day, Bruce Springsteen, Foo Fighters) break down a complete mix, answer the viewers' questions, and share his TOP mixing techniques.
Originally streamed live on Wednesday, June 22, 2022.
Official Audio: ‘Hero’ by Kurt Deemer
Intro song: "Twisted Truth" by Project RnL
Subscribe to our RUclips channel: rebrand.ly/wav...
Follow us on Social Media:
Instagram: rebrand.ly/wav...
Facebook: rebrand.ly/wav...
Twitter: rebrand.ly/wav...
Linkedin: rebrand.ly/wav...
Telegram: rebrand.ly/wav...
Visit our website: rebrand.ly/wav...
#WavesAudio #CLA #MixBreakdown #ChrisLordAlge #Masterclass #Mixing
I feel much better about my lyrics now
LOL yeah, can't see it hanging on the wall outside the studio anytime soon 😂
🤣🤣🤣
It how my mind that music like this gets sent to CLA instead of just being put exclusively on to a USB stick and then flung out of a window.
Lol
It's completely ridiculous 😂😂😂
I haven’t appreciated this about CLA before: He might be the only ‘superstar’ mixer who *regularly* provides advice and encouragement to individuals who are complete beginners.
Andrew Scheps
Michael White (“Mixing with Mike”) is the best mixing teacher on youtube.
@@sevchyk Yes! I agree wholeheartedly.
@@MelodicDreamers Good point.
Pensado
"Keep mixing but remember: organize first, play later." (CLA, 2022)
2:35 SONG Hero by Kurt Deimer
6:00 Mix
7:55 Guitar FX
11:00 Guitar position
11:55 LCR/Pan elements
14:00 Session organization
18:55 Vocal Chain
22:30 SOLO & Drums Tribal/Room Sound
26:25 Snare Reverb
28:40 CLA Mixhub
29:30 Dynamics/Comp
31:35 Automation philosophy
33:40 Cohesive Mix, Plugins
37:25 Mix/Master Bus
39:32 Begginer Mix
42:58 CLA MixHub workflow
49:05 CLA MixDown benefit
50:40 The final tip: organize your session
TY
🙏🙏
thanks my friend, you are a friend!!!!
Is Kurt Deimer, Deemer is another guy
Chris is, by far, the best guy out there. I am working on my solo record and although I cannot afford to hire Chris, my saying around the house is that If I happen to hit the lottery, I will hire Chris to do it right. First time I heard CLA's work was when my very young daughter at the time asked if I could buy he a Avril Lavigne CD. I had never hear of her. When I plopped that CD and played it for he and her little friends from the neighborhood, I immediately said " WTF is this?" That record sounded great and there was a punch and clarity I had never heard before from any recording. Then I come to find out that Chris emerged from Unique Recording in Times Square and I had done recordings at that place as well! The next one was Green Day. Man, how those vocals punched through that record! Chris is simply a master at what he does!
And his brother Tom also happened to mix Avril Lavigne songs before.
@@WorldBurial His brother also puts out high quality work! Andy Wallace is another heavy hitter!
Chris and Tom are definitely the dudes I model a lot of my audio philosophies around as far as modern mixing goes (I still like to reference a lot of the ultra-clarity of Steely Dan’s Aja/Gaucho records, too). But the Lord Alge guys really took Bob Clearmoutain’s ideas and launched them into the modern rock era.
I used CLA and AR TG on an album last year and they told me it sounded West Coast, as a compliment. It's all you need.
When he said "no reverb is correct, you have to eq it" that just fucked my head up and i think that is one of my main problems!
Chris is a BEAST wit ittttt!!!! I do the LCR thing as well... I learned a lot from this guy. I also learned not to be a afraid to push the EQ if it sounds good and not harsh... Salute Chris
He’s a god. If I see him I would address him as Lord Chris.
This is the best Tools workflow i have ever seen . just bought mix hub, abbey road mastering, and a few other things awesome !!! cheers guys
I used to be an intern at that studio! Sorry for running the coffee machine while Stevie was listening to your mix CLA, my bad. - I was fired 😂
Damn
This channel view option in the hub is just a fantastic tool indeed. Even in Logic mixing will become much more like using an analogue console the advantage being you have everything in front of you. Amazingly brilliant.
can Waves do a session showing CLA's assistant consolidating the tracks and normalising them? can we see the mix prep process.
Get a good recording, open 4 different reverbs and 4 different delays as fx channels, name and colorize them as groups. Create busses for every group as a starting point. Then hit every channel to -18 db peak in VU meter. Im talking about every different playstyle of each channel. Like chorus, bridge and verse of each channel. Each part hits -18 dbvu max.
Yes, because every mixing session is always perfect in the lower and upper mid range…we just add highs and some low and our mixes are perfect.
If you're working with major label artists and worldclass engineers and producers this is pretty much what you get lol
He does say to clean up first, it goes back to keeping it well recorded as much as possible.
Garbage in Garbage out. If your mangling a recording so much to the point you're changing the sonics of it (with heavy correction of badly recorded tracks) At that point, your the one making the song, not the artist. I still believe mix engineer main job and priority is to mix, not to edit to correct. clean up is okay, but if your tryying to turn an sm57 on vocals that doesnt work on a 57 to sound like U87 then thats the problem.
Sure, I have always loved how Chris manages compression. And though rather heavy with often long release times, how he nevertheless keeps his tracks sitting within the mix but with dynamic range! Yeah, I know...seems counter-intuitive, right. But if one avoids leaning into the realm of how a compressor transitions into a limiting device, this makes sense.
But what I find truly enlightening is how, around the 36:10 mark, Chris talks about how he is utilizing the CLA Mixhub, this as not merely a dedicated "in line" element for most every track, but how simply passing signal through each unit manages a form of time-phase alignment/coherency. People, I am not sure as to how many picked up on this point, but this is truly brilliant. Ya know, I'm a couple years older than Chris, and back in those days of lore, back when managing dynamics always required an eye to how a vinyl cutter would respond to frequency energy, the utility of two-buss oversight was important. Hence, the two-buss art of master feeding became a specialty in the biz. Then, as multitrack units proliferated, managing multiple mic phase cancelation issues became a tracking concern. Shit, while one dude was gifted using a razor blade to man the mirror, having a sober dude capable of accurately cutting and splicing between two code-synched tape machines was key! And what Chris is getting at here is how passing each channel's signal through the Mixhub serves to gather things within a sonic commonality or frame.
Shit, we used to do this by literally having units switched off BUT having signal pass through said units; as the very presence of the unit in the chain imparted and provided an inexplicable difference that was pleasing and seemed to gather all the audio elements into a coherent whole. Well, I think Chris is here noting a 21st Century means of obtaining that same kind of coherency/glue; something that can be managed track to track (as nobody is racking up 95 1176 units or LA2As (or my old-school fav was a fucking $300 Yamaha analog rack delay unit or the early Maestro EP Echoplex tube units) so as to simply pass fucking signal through them for their mysteriously added "warmth".
I caught that "TUHTOREAL" line! Hahahaha good thinking on not pushing it further 🤣
“he mixed American Idiot… I’ll chill”
Man….To think I was worried about my lyrics being trite.
Always good to listen to this man since he loves good punches and we can hear that. I watched all his work and that helped me a lot with my mixes which are very good now.
just came back a few hours later to say holy shit what a game changer his basic tips are. I've been working so hard for months trying to figure out why my tracks don't sound glued together. But after putting a "channel strip" or any plug in like a tape saturator at the end of all my tracks...what a huge difference. I think if you're a beginner mix engineer...start with a console lol. seriously. use good speakers and physical effects
Yeah using channel strips and keeping it more bare bones as far as the amount of plugins has helped me a ton.
CLA is a legend. A genius in our field. Unfortunately, the turds that most of us spend our career attempting to polish will never, ever give us the chance to reach a level like his. Great video none the less chaps, Thankyou!
Speak for yourself.
@@sevchyk I am. And for thousands of others. Obviously you must have reached the same level as CLA and for that I congratulate you my friend.
Don't take on turd producing clients...?
Raise your rates to weed out the turds.
@@PlottingTheDownfall You know what; in 30 years I’d never thought about that…
Seriously though mate, that’s my point, the best artists go to people like CLA! I’ve been fortunate enough to work with some amazing artists over the years but a large percentage have also been average at best. And I’m sure many people watching this video who are in the early stages of their careers have no choice but to work with the turds.
You can see how efficient and concise Chris' mind works. The interviewer takes forever to get his ideas out. Lots of "ummmss". He takes forever to ask a question. Repeats himself. At first he didn't bother me but after listening to Chris for like 10 minutes, then every time the interviewer talked I was like, "C'mon, spit it out! You're wasting time!"
I THINK HE MAKES EVERYTHING COHESIVE BECAUSE HE KNOWS WHAT TOOLS HE NEEDS AND SPECIFICALLY HOW AND WHERE AND WHEN TO USE THEM SO THEY FUNCTION AT THEIR OPTIMAL LEVEL PRODUCING A HUGE CINEMATIC SOUND...
so, your CAPS button is broken.. ?
@@morbidmanmusic NO,I WRITE HOW I WANT TO...,I DON'T CONFORM TO THE STATUS QUO BECAUSE YOU CAN'T YELL THROUGH VOWELS AN CONSONANTS THAT CAN ONLY HAPPEN VIA THE LARYNX...
@@ashaolujimi3751 OK DUDE: YOU DO YOU:
@@sadmachinesaudio6462 I'm sure he wants your approval fancy boy.
Hope all the local upcoming artist here keep pushing to elevate to that next level including myself🙏🏼
This is EPIC!!. I have to say this sounds better than the original mix! Perhaps it’s the video engagement, but I’m not so sure.. Thank you guys! 👍👍
🤯😳OMG!!!!😳🤯 that mix sounds EPIC!!!!
Fabulous training here. Thanks so much. Will watch again to catch what I missed
This is inspiring and super useful. subbed !! so good to see workflow on a whole track in Tools and with someone at the helm who has zero doubt in his abilities. so much knowledge dropped in this one video awesome content!!!!!!
I want to watch this video but I don’t want to ever here this song again
Where buddy? Here?
The thing about the drums being recorded in one pass for the shells and another for the brass to allow more compression on the room mics on the pass with no tops really intrigued me. That’s innovative. I’ve been an engineer for 15 or so years and haven’t seen that done yet. Now I want to try it 😵💫. Also the drums sound fking sick.
Songs for the Deaf is a goated example of this technique
VH’s 1984 drums were tracked like this, as well. It might explain the nice separation on those mixes. Sonically, that album differs from DD and 5150.
Kiiinda wish 5150 would get a proper remix/remaster. Oh well
I didn’t know CLA was expecting, congrats dude!
CLA is in Tarzana?! So, I could go to Norm's and buy a vintage Strat and then go have Chris mix my record all in the same day. Killer.
Wow That is all i will ever need to know in one video. time to watch it again and again. so good best mixing video there is by far!!! cheers fellas!!
Always a pleasure to hear Chris. Very pragmatic.
Splendid! Thank you Waves and CLA 🙏
I highly recommend listening to the In Flames track "Stay with Me"....Mixed by CLA. It's fantastic and has his signature sound all over it.
Awesome. Thank you CLA and Waves! 🙋🏻♂️
Thanks for your time CLA
People talking smack about the lyrics must have some lyrical masterpieces floating out there. CLA has an outie.
That was inspirational! Lots to take away there. Thanks guys.
This kind of videos are magic, thank you so much for the info guys! Blessings from Spain
Thanks, but come on, guys. No need to stream at 60fps. Just makes streaming more difficult.
wooo, dropping the dime on the mix- thank you CLA and Waves for this video and insight.
Thank you for the Playlist. At least I have lessons being learned in order. Focus guaranteed. Thankyou. Great work Sir. Michael.
Thank you so much for this. Awesome training!
Cool Video! I'm inspired. Thanks.
as a drummer, i never thought about recording drums separately from cymbals. i probably won't because it would feel weird and no one ever really hears my stuff anyway, but i can see the tremendous potential for working those tracks as an engineer. as i'm typing this, i'm imagining myself playing at my kit but hitting my leg instead of my hi-hat. (still probably not going to happen)
i love the shark fin analogy. really makes it crystal clear about how everyone talks about vocals 'fitting in the mix'
also love the bit about - i'm going to put this plugin on every track just to eliminate the potential for phase issues caused by latency.
great video all around.... except maybe for that annoying Australian guy 😆
I had some mix I was procrastinating on, and after this video I feel inspired, like being blessed with CLArity hahaha
Very nice info thanks for sharing!
Wonderful video, very insightful questions and very thoughtful answers LOVE IT
bold choice to mix the worst song I've ever heard
😂😂😂
The spoken word bit in the middle absolutely creased me. Nearly choked on my own tongue 😂😂
thank you sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much for mixing
I get it. I was always using SSL and on top isotopes on top of Ableton
Where can I find this tooter roll Chris was talking about at 43:13?
Chris should make a mixing video game. I'd play it
(Super bummed he did this ITB tho)
Awesome!! Thanks for this.
Seems like the tracks are already pre-cooked; most of us can't just throw a bunch of 8k to the tracks and call it a day
Meaow 😂
Everybody eats convenience food.
listen, I used to think the same with his videos but its obvious tip number one is to get a good source.. if your guitars are recorded amazingly i promise all you need is a little eq and youre good.. same with all tracks
obviously these musicians are pros and know the sound their looking for..
Je vais te répondre en français car, compte tenu de ton nom, je crois bien que tu y comprendras quelque chose. Un des éléments importants est de bien ajuster le low-end directement dans le masterbuss. Si tu as un plugin style Pultech, je te suggère d'ajouter 3db à 60hz après ton compresseur de masterbuss. Comme ça, tout sonne plus gras et ne nécessitera la plupart du temps qu'un ajustement dans le registre des hautes ou des mids. Dans certains cas, tu devras également couper des basses (par exemple dans la voix), mais avec une recette comme celle-là, je t'assure que le travail de mixage sera beaucoup plus simple.
@@zeevshaff Yeah i'm not new to mixing, and I also do top down mixing on my busses; not looking for advice. Yes it's true that it's about the source, the clients he gets record in top class studios with engineers who know what they're doing. I'm just saying that it's well known he has assistants that do some prep work on his sessions and what we had now had already been "pre-mixed" to some extent.
Chri lord alge is a genius
thanks
I've learned so much just half in .
36:40 This is the first time I've heard "on the same wavelength" used so literally
great video ,i needed to see this thank you
Excellent cheers, the only the I wish see is the automation for the rides
Good to know my guitars arent the only ones with that much noise
Thanks guys!
can you do more Mix Breakdown Start to Finish: Mixing Masterclass with Chris Lord-Alge country song
This is just amazing
Haha! the over-automated "pile of poo" mix :)
We've all been there before :) Thanks Waves!
Awesome sauce!
Great stuff, Thank you!
I don't really understand Chris's comments about using the MixHub in 'Lite' mode. I use the plugin a lot (and love it) but my understanding was that the only minor difference was the processing in the EQ section of the channel strip. Not sure what difference it makes with regards to using (or not using) the 'Bucket View' elements.
I also thought of that when I saw this live. I read before that the Lite mode has a slightly less accurate EQ section. As you said, the Bucket View just shows an overview of all channels, regular and Lite, like a mixing desk. When he recommended to use the regular channel for bucket view, it sounded a bit weird since there's no correlation. I've seen him use the plugin before but he probably didn't get into specific details regarding the Lite mode. He just seems to have noticed that it uses less CPU and uses it for that reason. The question probably caught him by surprise.
@@WorldBurial Yeah, I use it in 'Lite mode' to conserve CPU but I've not really noticed any discernible degradation in the quality of the EQ. It can get a bit 'hungry' in regular mode with multiple instantiations.
@@CalRichards I don't really hear it either. Maybe a few times on certain sources and it was subtle. Though I mainly use regular mode for main stuff in a mix anyway if possible. One time I didn't change guitars from Lite to full before printing the mix though and the client didn't complain as suspected ;) This plugin has been my main one for mixing since release because of sound and workflow It personally feels closer to my hardware (SSL 4000 EQ) compared to a few other plugins. The hardware is maybe a bit less harsh/more open in the top end and the lows a bit bigger at more extreme settings. The plugin is good at emulating how analog pushes back when you boost a lot though.
No difference. CPU hit is up to 30% less in lite mode since the EQ is using shorter FIR.
43:35 My man exercising all possible restraint upon hearing about the tutorall.
The one thing I really wanna know is does it matter if the input and output meters in the CLA mix bus are banging off the end stops?
Whenever I see CLA using them they are often doing exactly that, I find that if I have to back the input an output levels off on his plug-ins so that they are still moving freely it loses the magic.
I just like Chris, he seems like a nice guy.
CLA IS A LEGEND
There is a certain genre that CLA shines this abviously isn't the one , I would want a mix from CLA if I made a song a a specific genre he is ruling there 💯
It's hard for me to imagine how you can get a drummer to skip ( not play) cymbals when recording ... Although I myself suffer with the cymbals that sit in all the microphones . He also says that he adds samples to the drums . To be honest , I hoped that this could be avoided . Yes. When the drums are compressed a lot of iron appears , which then you don 't know where to put it . But still ... I watched many of his videos and drew a lot of conclusions for myself. Thanks !!!!
What’s your opinion on that whole phase correlation going through the mix hub? Doesn’t the DAW already compensate for that? Also, wouldn’t any plugin following it affect the sample delay compensation anyway?
You got that absolutely right 😉😅 I also think, it’s pretty funny that CLA doesn’t know about delay compensation 😂
(However one could argue that if there was an anti DC and anti aliasing filter -> a low- and a high-cut in the plugin, wich is actually pretty likely as the mixhub can create extra harmonics …that would mean that the phase shift caused by those filters is the same on every channel if the plugin is inserted everywhere 🤷♂️)
@@wernergreuter8507 hmmm 🤔 is that how that works? Do you happen to have a link or recommendation to a paper or book that explains the up sampling process involved inside digital processing? I’ve been trying to find info online but it usually jumps from the basics to actual computer programming. I understand the “philosophy “ but not the process. I know we upsample the audio and that puts the nyquist frequency high enough as to where the aliasing is inaudible but what is the process to do that? I constantly ready that anti aliasing filters are only in the analog domain but I know that can’t be true. You seem to have your head wrapped around it. Any advice where I could start strengthening my knowledge? Thanks.
@@wernergreuter8507 also, regarding your comment. Would those filters even be in a place that would affect phase? I’m assuming it’s similar to how a high pass filter is dangerous when dealing with parallel tracks or multiple mics on a source. But that only affects the low end. When you get up into the higher frequencies there is very little effect. (As long as the filter isn’t moving). So wouldn’t those filters be out of range? Again. Idk so.. I’m just trying to figure it out in my head without starting a fire 🔥 😂.
Awesome thanks gentlemen, I picked up some tips. I do question why he normalizes tracks though? Not sure I would do that but he's far better than me! Also, this is to Waves. I'm on Windows 8 still, I'm afraid of upgrading to 10 on this machine. Do any of your plugins still run on Win 8, Studio One is my DAW. Thanks!
Hi there, thank you for reaching out. The last version of our plugins to support Windows 8 was Version 10. Please see our system requirements and supported hosts here: www.waves.com/support/tech-specs/supported-hosts
www.waves.com/support/tech-specs/system-requirements
To install V10, follow these instructions: www.waves.com/support/how-to-install-waves-v10
Keep in mind, not all of the latest plugins are available in V10.
35:44 I think we need to talk about this. What was Chris’ reasoning for using one compressor versus another?
“I like it.”
He just chooses some stuff cos he likes it, not for some pseudoscientific reason lol.
CLA looks like a happy little groundhog that popped out of the ground to mix a rock track
Seether's "Finding Beauty In Negative Spaces" album was mixed by CLA, and what a fantastic sound. That album came out in 2007, and the mix absolutely holds up today.
Excellent video! Am I wrong, or did I notice a distinct lack of saturator plugins? Please correct me if I am mistaken and point out where and what saturation plugs he was using?
The CLA plugins and compressors add saturation
I’d mix that first song with the faders down
44:01 Chris: "...and I can just, like, quickly do that....... 👁👄👁 ......ummmmm" lol
These videos really help me out a lot. would love to see one on recording levels and gain staging. even though I record at -18 db - -12 db already. I would like to see a session start to finish also I always get thrown off when I see the wave files and they look big like their clipping is that because they're being zoomed in.
There's a course out there (or several?) where he records a band and then follows it up with the mixing session. A few other sound engineers have also done such courses. About the size of the wave files. One reason is that they're all prepared before mixing starts to be at a certain volume since this helps with the gain staging when you use a mixing desk and outboard gear. The other is that they're also more visible.
You can resize PT waveforms v easily, yeah
What's missing here is the other half of the process...tracking. Most of these tracks may have been compressed on the way in as well as eq'd and other creative decisions made beforehand. Each one of these guys that recorded their own parts have their own instruments and gear. As in the video when CLA says that he has the shells and brass tracked separately, this was a conversation that had to transpire beforehand in the production phase. There's a lot of decisions ironed out before ever reaching this stage in the process. You are likely seeing his normalized tracks he said he has for vocals...interesting that he has them that hot and not "gain staged" for analogue modeled plugins.
@@WorldBurial could you send on of those courses??
they come in all shapes and different sizes in your face
Thanks!
This was great!!!!!
Thanks for this MPA!
can we talk about how CLA says tutorial at 43:12 ?? bro almost dies loll
Great Vid 💯💥🥊🥊
this is literally the worst song I’ve ever heard in my life
Listen how wide these guitars are. That allows way more space in the center. Some side chaining going on here. I am surprised how much low end is in those guitars on the sides. Mastering guys always want to trim those sides and I think that drives a mix guy nuts.
The best ever thank you.
im officially slated great vid miss it live but it was awesome still
It looks more like a Waves advertisement than a mix breakdown to me
waves is dope
lots of great info and ideas but - CLA usually mixes on his analog console, right?
Yep. Using the same tools but in hardware format. I've heard a few of his songs when I was in his room pre-pandemic that he mixed on the console, mixed with all waves, and mixed with all slate. They sounded close enough to one another that any of them could be released commercially and be just fine. It's the Ears/Mixer not the tools. The tools just get you where you want to go quickly. CLA is lightening fast on the console, vs in the box.
Great advice
Thank you ❤️
Thank you so much
43:18 Complete video tooteral
yeah, work!!!
Legendary 🎉