My experience in a super expensive studio was that our song there sounded as big a mount Everest. Gigantic. I was like “man, I never heard a song sounding this big”. What happened when I got home and checked my super song in my car, speakers, etc? I was like “meh, is not bad but definitely nothing special”. I want mixes that rock on airpods. That’s all.
Three Take-Aways: 1. NS10s will always be loved. 2. Analog gear is more fun to mix with but not required. 3. Don't fight the frequencies however tame or antagonize them when necessary.
Even decades ago, visiting engineers would turn up with their own near-fields if they were ones we didn't have. In one studio, we had wiring running through into the kitchen which had a crappy hi-fi stereo in it, and we had a transistor radio sitting on a rack. Great vid!
So much truth in a single video. My experience as a musician, when stepping into some local studio, was that the more the engineer stressed the importance of his fancy analog gear, the more his mixes tended to suck. The car test should be such an obvious piece of common sense to dispel all the audio illuminati nonsense, and yet.
I was really light handed with processing on vocals and it was really killing my mixes until I found one of your videos showing off like 3 or 4 compressors serially. Saved me from an existential crisis
That closing bit was pure gold. The food analogies are simple but effective. It resonates because the current track I'm working on has strayed into more frustrating/tedious territory than fun. I reckon that's showing when I re-track bits I'm unhappy with. Getting way too clinical. Will aim to focus on the energy of the track today and see if that helps me stop being so pedantic. It would be nice to finish some time this side of Christmas 😂 Cheers mate
For my job, I have to mix in all kinds of different environments on different equipment, and one of the things that’s really helped me is the Metric AB plug-in, where I can reference music quickly in real time across several different mixes. It allows me to quickly calibrate my ears to the situation and move on making confident decisions. Such great and freeing advice on your channel bud.
Great video, I listen to my beats ear buds for hours a day due to breaks at work and during working out. Between my treated room and those ear buds my mixes are sounding better than ever. Usually nail the first pass with a few small creative revisions afterwards. Knowing your reference source is absolutely key. I’m Using Audiomovers inject to reference on my Bluetooth ear buds. I can walk around the room and house and just passively listen for a bit and things will make themselves clear. Also started using less visual plugins and just use my ears. I crank dials then back them off until stuff fits. Don’t over think it
Solid, really good points! It really is so easy to get bogged down in this stuff and forget the very basics that matter most. You really distilled it into a very concise video! I'm always reminded that with 'normal' people who don't produce music, and don't care to, they NEVER, NEVER, NEVER say "wow, that's a really good mix!" about a song they love- it's just simply, "That's a really great SONG." You're so right, that no one will ever say that about a track that the 75 different EQ's were fiddled for months with- if the song itself isn't simply GREAT, well recorded, well performed.
Most important piece of advice in this excellent video was the "it does not matter what you mix on, it's how well you know it"....i still mix on my trusted Beyer DT 1990 Pro and even master on them some times, not a single unhappy client so far
Agree for the most part, however, not having an accurate room is a recipe for disaster for most people. It was for me early on even though I knew my room well and had the same speakers for years. The room added an EQ curve that was completely counterproductive to attempt to work around. I had to reference on multiple systems just to overcome it and the final mixes in the mix room never sounded "right". I'm on studio #5 now and the last two have been acoustically accurate rooms. My mixes are much more effortless and translated everywhere pretty much immediately. Mix revisions are few which saves me time and money.
I was actually about to say what you've said here. Rooms can be incredibly problematic and counterproductive. I can only somewhat agree with him on that point. Headphones are always a go to for me because of exactly that. Even half of what he was saying about being lost in big studios using their far field Genelecs is not knowing the room.
Agree. Mine just made me obsess over bass levels because the slightest changes in position were causing things to disappear in the bass. Its more a case of needing to pass a threshold of quality like most equipment and subsequent upgrades pay off less and less the more you spend. I always think to ask- does the advice giver mean its fine not having a 5k mic or do they mean not have an 57 quality. I think most room qualities Miguel not pass the last threshold. Rooms are one of the most expensive and useful tools. Or else headphones, lowing ties limitations, graphs and simple brief speaker tests on a couple systems do me fine.
I totally agree with you... and for the moment what I will add to your point is obvious! however the non-negotiable for me is the digital analogue conversion... even using good or regular monitors ... it is totally non-negotiable without a great Digital Analogue conversion to be able to make accurate decisions.
That very last point was the most important for me when I first started out. You can only do so much in the mixing process, it's very difficult to get a bad recording to sound even decent from the mixing process alone.
Love the bit about songwriting. Though I do mix on a board. I love how the mixing board just sort of "undresses" each track and reveals a lot about each element. But yes, for prolific outputs, board mixing is a real slow down.
This may be the best bit of info out there. Thank you. Use what works, not what is the new fad. Most important thing you said was about where does a good song come from. I am working on a song now that the tracks were layed down horribly. I am having to time align all sorts of stuff and tune vocals and guitars and fix tones. It's a good song, but, even with the best efforts of someone that has been mixing for over 50 years, it will never be great because of the lack of detail when making the music. Sad but true. BTW, your voice sounds the best out of about 50 of these YT creators that claim to be Pro's. Nicely done.
OH MY, thank you for mentioning the Mix Cubes, I've been eyeballing those for a while. Right now I have the Kali LP6 speakers, and this may be strange but for now I put Low and HIgh pass filters on my mix bus to mix, and so far I dig the results.
This is so good! It’s the monitors you know, not the price tag. When I bought monitors, I went with the goodest looking😀 Then learned them, and they’re great
I agree completely! at first it kind of baffled me, because I hadn't worked on any one system long enough, after 3 different rooms and monitors, room treatments, etc. I discovered I can only mix on headphones and cheap ones at that, AKG 240 studio, the reason is because I trust them, what I hear as sounding good, is, I'm not a great mixer by any stretch, but the theory works, if that's not goofy enough, my final check is on 1960's KLH 20 speakers, for the same reason, ok I'll quit rambling
I worked arround 16 Jears with smaller 2 Way Speakers in a not so good treated room. You can lern how your mix translates in a Car or on other speakers. Now I have a well treated Room and I found my big 3 Way Flush Mounted Speakers. Today I am happy with my mixes or masters 99% when I leave the studio and test them. I would say, if you compare the dollars you spend for a good treated room and vor a set of good speakers, you get more out of it than if you spend the money on other expensive stuf like microphones or analog compressors and stuff. Now am Working an other 9 years in my new Studio and as I sed, its worth it to have a well treated room and good speakers.
Great Video. I love the Panels you use in your studio, I made similar ones for my studio. You definitely need treatment on adjacent walls to remove room echo to mix clearly. I use the CLA10a to mix and have a separate mastering room with very clear reproducing full range speakers system. I think depending on mix or master and the final desired result, speakers can matter, but simpler is better for the mix.
The attraction of analogue gear IMO is the workflow and efficiency, no worrying about decision paralysis, more tacticle, no having to look at meters. I studied on SSLs and since starting to work on digital the work speed has been night and day, not in the good way so thats what I think attracts people to hardware/analogue.
Fantastic advice. Really like this - such simple, common sense ideas that often just get lost in the clickbait and gear wars. With the one rule to rule them all: use your ears. Then use your ears AGAIN.
Totally agree about the last point: the magic is in the songs, and just to prove it it is enough to see how many Nirvana b-tracks (and lot of other bands' ones) are enjoyable despite being recorded in a room or rehearsal space without any processing or mixing. Also, people nowadays listen and enjoy to lots of 8-bit remixes of many famous albums. If the art is there, it is going to transcend the mix quality.
I got my setup down to gain stage,light compression in cubase, rolling off low end in cubase, then saturation with BB Tubes by waves. I will also parallel a track by smashing the compression and adding more saturation. You can add depth to a bass track by paralleling it with low pass just around 100k and blending the two. Each part takes on its own sonic characteristic and sits well in the mix with little adjustments. I mix on a pair of KVR Rockets 5" and I have finally started to get really vibrant tracks that translate well to other platforms.Also keeping your overall master level down to -6db. Turn up your monitor output so that it's fairly loud, this helps stopping overloading the overall level and master output of you track. If you try to mix a low monitor volume the tendency is to push the individual track volumes too hard.
Yes,yes,and yes. I have delivered some of my best mixes in my house , because I know what it should sound like. And true I have been working on the same monitors for 14 years
i've been very fortunate to be able to use nice outboard gear and mix on a neve console and ssl console, and yes it does sound amazing in the room but that's because it' being monitored through 30k monitors in a well treated room. Of course its going to sound amazing. As soon as you take one of throes sessions into a normal listening environment they sound just like any other mix. Stll miss thoes consoles but man can they be a pain in the arse sometimes.
Great stuff. I’d add don’t ignore the sub frequencies. Even if you don’t have a sub to monitor at least tame those frequencies because some people do have sub woofers. 😃
Great to see. I have been increasingly horrified at the myths that have become false truths over the last couple of decades. Everyone seems focused on the very things that guarantee poor outcomes. Gear will not get you there. Mixing is an Artform, it is never about technical things. You cannot simply apply formulas and expect Exciting. Mixing is about creating the illusion of the Story of the Song in the feelings of the listener - and that is never everyone. This is why experience is what matters. :-)
The only thing I disagree with is the "knowing your room" analogy. The room needs to be flat so you can take the thousands of rooms in the wild - out of the mix. In the old days, every control room was finely tuned to not influence any frequency. If there are problems in the room - it doesn't matter if you know what the problems are - you won't be able to unhear the problems - your brain will mix them back in. Probably one of the reasons that you have had success with mixing on the NS10Ms is that they are always close enough to your ears ( near field monitors ), to remove the actual room problems - And I do agree that knowing them helps as well. But in the 1980s, I could pretty much walk into any studio in the world and the reference would sound almost the same. The client speakers in the room were always different and as you said were extremely hard to mix with.
100%. Working around clear problems, like SBIR and other room nodes, is a recipe for disaster for most people. Having an (at least reasonably ) accurate room is pertinent IMHO.
Its less about flat spectrum to me, but more about how room resonances are NOT just an frequency graph. Ears do adapt to different distributions, although they do matter just try mixing with an equalised wastes bus and you get different results yes. A room with resonance is reactive. Small changes in position change the sound. It obscures detail. It makes a dynamic response when a certain instruments note matches that resonance. One channel may sound different to another across left and right or phase cancel sides too much. Make you take off all the verb because the room lacks definition. Not so much flat, you can use non flat monitors like n s 10 in a good room.
Man...I agree....all you need to know is HOW YOUR MONITORS SOUND...lmao........I use Alesis M1 Active MK2s and AT 40 Headphones....for Analog Tracking through my SoundCraft LX7II.....the AT40's are always on point when prepping my mix to run through my Analog Chain...and Comparing them against the Digital in DAW with the MK2s......
Overall advice is solid. I’d say room response is important if you can control it because it’ll determine what you’re hearing. There are cheaper monitors that perform better but it’s generally whatever works best for whoever is mixing in the context of their space
I hadn't really considered deeply the idea of knowing your monitors. I mean I've heard it said and just thought they meant how it reacts at certain frequencies compared to other things. I guess that's part of it but the other part is knowing how things sound through it. How music sounds through it. I guess I've been doing this inadvertently because I use my monitors for everything. Listening to music, playing video games, watching youtube, playing guitar, and creating music. I do know how things are supposed to sound on them because I do everything with them and I think it's helped my mixes without really thinking about why.
The one thing I do agree with whole heartedly is the song and the performance is most important. The way it's record, mixed, etc is as well but less so. Also -- the analog vs digital debate -- most of the time only a real trained ear and detect the small differences.
While I'm only a life long hobbyist, I've always been pro-technology regarding music. Programs like QBase and Cakewalk bringing the studio into our homes in the 90's, MIDI tying and syncing things together in the 80's, synths setting it off and setting the stage in the 70's. Tech is awesome for music. There are only so many frequencies within our hearing range. Using tech to keep those frequencies sounding fresh and new is why I feel we don't run out of music. Multi-effects pedal units and modelers, solid state amps, all making more options available at more affordable prices. There's a reason these things exist and continue to evolve. And it's all really come a loooooooooooooong way since the 90's. Digital recording really started before the and took over in the 70's. (I want to say Sony started it in the very late 60's, but I could be off on that. 90% sure it was Sony but 50% on the date.) That's why it's so fun to hear the vinyl nerds talk about how records are more pure and organic, then you point out the sticker or blurb on the back that states that it was digitally recorded and mastered, leaving the elitists speechless. I'm not against vinyl by any means, and I do enjoy the way they sound, but it really is fun to pop that elitist bubble by pointing out their almighty organic record actually contains a digital recording. If they were really nerds, they would have read that part along with every other printed word on the dust cover, spine, jackets, and liner notes. Just sayin'. For me all of that literature and art is the only reason to get a vinyl record. Def not for it's static prone "superior" sound. Once again, I like that sound, but I wouldn't call it superior by any means. But that's just my $0.02 ;)
Great video. You didn't say these words, but I interpreted this as "let go of expectations and listen to the sound." That's always a struggle for me. So regular reminders are necessary, and it's why I like your videos. One scenario in which this doesn't seem to work is when recording and mixing my own songs. In that case, I wish the goal were "make an exciting mix," rather than "perfectly and accurately manifest the final product that has already psycho-acoustically existed, full-formed, since inception." But maybe that's just me...🤓🤡
Especially agree on the last part. A great recording / mix of a mediocre song is still a mediocre song, and an amateur recording of a great performance of a great song is still great.
i learned the hardway having bad acoustics ruined my mixing decisions, i've invested in my room about 50-50 with the gear i use now, and i'm really happy, everything translates so well on all kinds of speakers. No need for shitty ns10s, i also love to listen to music, so having a pair of dynaudio bm15a is not expensive, not overpriced! also having 2 subs changed my life, now i can hear compressing low-end with no effort. I dunno how i feel about your debunks, my holy trinity is the monitoring, the sound-interface and room acoustics, the rest are details...
for me when i discover the slate vsx change the game forever! my mixes improve 1000% no acustic problems and my mixes sounds great in everything.. dont use my monitors for mixing since vsx come out! YOU CAN'T MIX WHAT YOU CAN'T HEAR
yeah I had that happen the other day. I was like I can't mix on these genelecs. So I was able to get the tracking done but definetly no mixing. that will happen at home on my fav speakers
Seriously i don't understand ppl saying u need a perfect sound proof studio room floating above the ground with zillion dollar speakers pointed at the perfect angle when some guys going to be listening to it on their crappy laptop speakers😂
I got a set system with Nebula, Acustica Audio, vocals and my own gear On Mixing, Mastering a Mix, Mastering After Vocals, running that mix through my Gear...then Adding Tape...Usually, IK Media 388 or Acustica Aduio's Studer or MCI...and that point ive gota mix as good or better than anying on Pandora.....
These are all great tips, especially the "carve stuff up" points and the know your speakers points. Also, the framework points, I used to start from zero on every mix, now that I have my template dialed in my mixes sound so much more consistent and better. You obviously make different choices as you go along, and try new things, but why reinvent the wheel every time? Thank so much
I must respectfully disagree with point #2. The room is not a myth. It is way easier to mix in a good room, and it’s way more important than monitors. Rooms with mode problems or speaker boundary interference issues make mixing decisions difficult, especially in the low end. The rest of your points are spot on!
I montor on a pair of Kali LP6s and a pair of little Edirol MA-15D's for comparison. My final judgement though is often done in my car. My room is far from perfect but it does have some treatment. It's new though and I'm still getting used to it. In my Cubase 12 Pro DAW, I have a starting template that I use for every song. It affords me familiarity. As for the digital vs analog debate. Just think about your audience. Will they know and will they care? In both cases, I doubt it.
Это самое полезное видео на твоём канале, спасибо, друг. Ты просто подтверждаешь все те идеи, которых я начал догадываться. Все идут к Крису лорду за его фирменным звуком. А это Фреймворк или стек, который у него есть. И принципы работы на этом оборудовании, которые он выработал. Все песни разные, но Крис лорд одинаковый.
Grab your free Mixing Cheatsheet to learn the go-to starting points for EQ and compression in heavy mixes: hardcoremusicstudio.com/mixcheatsheet
nice. agree. thanks for that great video
I love that mantra "Don't be a separator, be a mixer". Thankyou so much for < liberating > us! So much practical wisdom here and all your videos.
Yes!! This was incredible!
This is so important
My experience in a super expensive studio was that our song there sounded as big a mount Everest. Gigantic. I was like “man, I never heard a song sounding this big”. What happened when I got home and checked my super song in my car, speakers, etc? I was like “meh, is not bad but definitely nothing special”. I want mixes that rock on airpods. That’s all.
Just make sure to gain stage monster cables into plug-in doctor with 8x over sampling while analog summing.
don't forget to ping back the doctor because you will see what you don't want.
lol
Ummm you forgot about dithering???
Every time mate. 😂
And bounce those compressors into quantization before auto tuning your rack folks. Very common mistake!
I've experience over 25 years in music industry. Now back again on NS10 (CLA NS10) - Highly recommend !
Preach bro preach. Placement of the speakers makes an incredible difference as well. Great video.
Three Take-Aways:
1. NS10s will always be loved.
2. Analog gear is more fun to mix with but not required.
3. Don't fight the frequencies however tame or antagonize them when necessary.
NS10s are trash
@@JA809_ if you can mix on ns10’s, you can mix on all.
@@JA809_ Kind of. But: If you get your mix to sound good on those, it likely sounds good almost everywhwere.
kind of , but i think we still have better options in budget..
I gotta say, this is quickly becoming one of my favorite mixing channels. The advice is so great! Kudos
Even decades ago, visiting engineers would turn up with their own near-fields if they were ones we didn't have. In one studio, we had wiring running through into the kitchen which had a crappy hi-fi stereo in it, and we had a transistor radio sitting on a rack.
Great vid!
So much truth in a single video.
My experience as a musician, when stepping into some local studio, was that the more the engineer stressed the importance of his fancy analog gear, the more his mixes tended to suck.
The car test should be such an obvious piece of common sense to dispel all the audio illuminati nonsense, and yet.
I was really light handed with processing on vocals and it was really killing my mixes until I found one of your videos showing off like 3 or 4 compressors serially. Saved me from an existential crisis
That closing bit was pure gold. The food analogies are simple but effective. It resonates because the current track I'm working on has strayed into more frustrating/tedious territory than fun. I reckon that's showing when I re-track bits I'm unhappy with. Getting way too clinical. Will aim to focus on the energy of the track today and see if that helps me stop being so pedantic. It would be nice to finish some time this side of Christmas 😂 Cheers mate
"Making different decisions within the same framework" That's so simple yet so difficult to see sometimes. Thank you.
Good advice! I use my studio monitors for all sounds coming from my computer, including my music collection. I've become quite attuned to their sound!
For my job, I have to mix in all kinds of different environments on different equipment, and one of the things that’s really helped me is the Metric AB plug-in, where I can reference music quickly in real time across several different mixes. It allows me to quickly calibrate my ears to the situation and move on making confident decisions. Such great and freeing advice on your channel bud.
It's absolutely essential for me. It sounds lame to point to one single plugin as essential but it is.
@@Jazzguitar00 I know what you mean. I feel the same way.
As long as you don't obsess over the analyzer it works great!
@@alessandrosummer yeah, I don’t even use it
Great video, I listen to my beats ear buds for hours a day due to breaks at work and during working out. Between my treated room and those ear buds my mixes are sounding better than ever. Usually nail the first pass with a few small creative revisions afterwards. Knowing your reference source is absolutely key. I’m Using Audiomovers inject to reference on my Bluetooth ear buds. I can walk around the room and house and just passively listen for a bit and things will make themselves clear. Also started using less visual plugins and just use my ears. I crank dials then back them off until stuff fits. Don’t over think it
The end of the video was probably a slap in the face for many. And thanks for including it!
Solid, really good points! It really is so easy to get bogged down in this stuff and forget the very basics that matter most. You really distilled it into a very concise video! I'm always reminded that with 'normal' people who don't produce music, and don't care to, they NEVER, NEVER, NEVER say "wow, that's a really good mix!" about a song they love- it's just simply, "That's a really great SONG." You're so right, that no one will ever say that about a track that the 75 different EQ's were fiddled for months with- if the song itself isn't simply GREAT, well recorded, well performed.
Really informative video, I needed to hear a lot of that. Thanks for the great content! 🤘
Most important piece of advice in this excellent video was the "it does not matter what you mix on, it's how well you know it"....i still mix on my trusted Beyer DT 1990 Pro and even master on them some times, not a single unhappy client so far
Agree for the most part, however, not having an accurate room is a recipe for disaster for most people. It was for me early on even though I knew my room well and had the same speakers for years. The room added an EQ curve that was completely counterproductive to attempt to work around. I had to reference on multiple systems just to overcome it and the final mixes in the mix room never sounded "right". I'm on studio #5 now and the last two have been acoustically accurate rooms. My mixes are much more effortless and translated everywhere pretty much immediately. Mix revisions are few which saves me time and money.
He says a decent room you know really well. No room is perfect.
@@MarcoRaaphorst still not great.
@@TBRNashville great for some, not great for others. It's all a matter of knowing your stuff and dealing with the stuff you're working with.
I was actually about to say what you've said here. Rooms can be incredibly problematic and counterproductive. I can only somewhat agree with him on that point.
Headphones are always a go to for me because of exactly that.
Even half of what he was saying about being lost in big studios using their far field Genelecs is not knowing the room.
Agree. Mine just made me obsess over bass levels because the slightest changes in position were causing things to disappear in the bass. Its more a case of needing to pass a threshold of quality like most equipment and subsequent upgrades pay off less and less the more you spend. I always think to ask- does the advice giver mean its fine not having a 5k mic or do they mean not have an 57 quality. I think most room qualities Miguel not pass the last threshold. Rooms are one of the most expensive and useful tools. Or else headphones, lowing ties limitations, graphs and simple brief speaker tests on a couple systems do me fine.
I totally agree with you... and for the moment what I will add to your point is obvious! however the non-negotiable for me is the digital analogue conversion... even using good or regular monitors ... it is totally non-negotiable without a great Digital Analogue conversion to be able to make accurate decisions.
That very last point was the most important for me when I first started out. You can only do so much in the mixing process, it's very difficult to get a bad recording to sound even decent from the mixing process alone.
Love the bit about songwriting. Though I do mix on a board. I love how the mixing board just sort of "undresses" each track and reveals a lot about each element. But yes, for prolific outputs, board mixing is a real slow down.
What a great video once again. So true on all levels
This may be the best bit of info out there. Thank you. Use what works, not what is the new fad. Most important thing you said was about where does a good song come from. I am working on a song now that the tracks were layed down horribly. I am having to time align all sorts of stuff and tune vocals and guitars and fix tones. It's a good song, but, even with the best efforts of someone that has been mixing for over 50 years, it will never be great because of the lack of detail when making the music. Sad but true. BTW, your voice sounds the best out of about 50 of these YT creators that claim to be Pro's. Nicely done.
OH MY, thank you for mentioning the Mix Cubes, I've been eyeballing those for a while.
Right now I have the Kali LP6 speakers, and this may be strange but for now I put Low and HIgh pass filters on my mix bus to mix, and so far I dig the results.
This is so good! It’s the monitors you know, not the price tag. When I bought monitors, I went with the goodest looking😀 Then learned them, and they’re great
I agree completely! at first it kind of baffled me, because I hadn't worked on any one system long enough, after 3 different rooms and monitors, room treatments, etc. I discovered I can only mix on headphones and cheap ones at that, AKG 240 studio, the reason is because I trust them, what I hear as sounding good, is, I'm not a great mixer by any stretch, but the theory works, if that's not goofy enough, my final check is on 1960's KLH 20 speakers, for the same reason, ok I'll quit rambling
I worked arround 16 Jears with smaller 2 Way Speakers in a not so good treated room. You can lern how your mix translates in a Car or on other speakers. Now I have a well treated Room and I found my big 3 Way Flush Mounted Speakers. Today I am happy with my mixes or masters 99% when I leave the studio and test them. I would say, if you compare the dollars you spend for a good treated room and vor a set of good speakers, you get more out of it than if you spend the money on other expensive stuf like microphones or analog compressors and stuff. Now am Working an other 9 years in my new Studio and as I sed, its worth it to have a well treated room and good speakers.
Great Video. I love the Panels you use in your studio, I made similar ones for my studio. You definitely need treatment on adjacent walls to remove room echo to mix clearly. I use the CLA10a to mix and have a separate mastering room with very clear reproducing full range speakers system. I think depending on mix or master and the final desired result, speakers can matter, but simpler is better for the mix.
The attraction of analogue gear IMO is the workflow and efficiency, no worrying about decision paralysis, more tacticle, no having to look at meters.
I studied on SSLs and since starting to work on digital the work speed has been night and day, not in the good way so thats what I think attracts people to hardware/analogue.
Fantastic advice. Really like this - such simple, common sense ideas that often just get lost in the clickbait and gear wars. With the one rule to rule them all: use your ears. Then use your ears AGAIN.
totally agree btw love the silencer
Totally agree about the last point: the magic is in the songs, and just to prove it it is enough to see how many Nirvana b-tracks (and lot of other bands' ones) are enjoyable despite being recorded in a room or rehearsal space without any processing or mixing. Also, people nowadays listen and enjoy to lots of 8-bit remixes of many famous albums. If the art is there, it is going to transcend the mix quality.
If the magic was in the mix, why would people love gigs and concerts? Yeah definitely agree with you
I got my setup down to gain stage,light compression in cubase, rolling off low end in cubase, then saturation with BB Tubes by waves. I will also parallel a track by smashing the compression and adding more saturation. You can add depth to a bass track by paralleling it with low pass just around 100k and blending the two. Each part takes on its own sonic characteristic and sits well in the mix with little adjustments. I mix on a pair of KVR Rockets 5" and I have finally started to get really vibrant tracks that translate well to other platforms.Also keeping your overall master level down to -6db. Turn up your monitor output so that it's fairly loud, this helps stopping overloading the overall level and master output of you track. If you try to mix a low monitor volume the tendency is to push the individual track volumes too hard.
Yes,yes,and yes. I have delivered some of my best mixes in my house
, because I know what it should sound like. And true I have been working on the same monitors for 14 years
Oh man you got this, that's how it goes in real life mixing💯🎯
i've been very fortunate to be able to use nice outboard gear and mix on a neve console and ssl console, and yes it does sound amazing in the room but that's because it' being monitored through 30k monitors in a well treated room. Of course its going to sound amazing. As soon as you take one of throes sessions into a normal listening environment they sound just like any other mix. Stll miss thoes consoles but man can they be a pain in the arse sometimes.
This is the best video I’ve seen of yours. For the first time, I completely agree with every single word you said!
Great vid... I love myth-busting, and apparently counterintuitive approaches. Thankyou
Thank you for Mixing Cheatsheet too
Great stuff. I’d add don’t ignore the sub frequencies. Even if you don’t have a sub to monitor at least tame those frequencies because some people do have sub woofers. 😃
#5 ...maybe the best explanation of this myth I've heard..
Really like the last one too. Thanks man 🤟
Great to see. I have been increasingly horrified at the myths that have become false truths over the last couple of decades. Everyone seems focused on the very things that guarantee poor outcomes. Gear will not get you there. Mixing is an Artform, it is never about technical things. You cannot simply apply formulas and expect Exciting. Mixing is about creating the illusion of the Story of the Song in the feelings of the listener - and that is never everyone. This is why experience is what matters. :-)
Really appreciate that last point 🙂
The only thing I disagree with is the "knowing your room" analogy. The room needs to be flat so you can take the thousands of rooms in the wild - out of the mix. In the old days, every control room was finely tuned to not influence any frequency. If there are problems in the room - it doesn't matter if you know what the problems are - you won't be able to unhear the problems - your brain will mix them back in. Probably one of the reasons that you have had success with mixing on the NS10Ms is that they are always close enough to your ears ( near field monitors ), to remove the actual room problems - And I do agree that knowing them helps as well. But in the 1980s, I could pretty much walk into any studio in the world and the reference would sound almost the same. The client speakers in the room were always different and as you said were extremely hard to mix with.
100%. Working around clear problems, like SBIR and other room nodes, is a recipe for disaster for most people. Having an (at least reasonably ) accurate room is pertinent IMHO.
Its less about flat spectrum to me, but more about how room resonances are NOT just an frequency graph. Ears do adapt to different distributions, although they do matter just try mixing with an equalised wastes bus and you get different results yes.
A room with resonance is reactive. Small changes in position change the sound. It obscures detail. It makes a dynamic response when a certain instruments note matches that resonance. One channel may sound different to another across left and right or phase cancel sides too much. Make you take off all the verb because the room lacks definition.
Not so much flat, you can use non flat monitors like n s 10 in a good room.
Man...I agree....all you need to know is HOW YOUR MONITORS SOUND...lmao........I use Alesis M1 Active MK2s and AT 40 Headphones....for Analog Tracking through my SoundCraft LX7II.....the AT40's are always on point when prepping my mix to run through my Analog Chain...and Comparing them against the Digital in DAW with the MK2s......
hey just confirming and thanking for the cheat sheet, it really made me fine tune my mixes!!!!
Overall advice is solid. I’d say room response is important if you can control it because it’ll determine what you’re hearing. There are cheaper monitors that perform better but it’s generally whatever works best for whoever is mixing in the context of their space
I hadn't really considered deeply the idea of knowing your monitors. I mean I've heard it said and just thought they meant how it reacts at certain frequencies compared to other things. I guess that's part of it but the other part is knowing how things sound through it. How music sounds through it. I guess I've been doing this inadvertently because I use my monitors for everything. Listening to music, playing video games, watching youtube, playing guitar, and creating music. I do know how things are supposed to sound on them because I do everything with them and I think it's helped my mixes without really thinking about why.
Good stuff, figure out what works for you and make adjustments or additions as necessary in your mix.
PPS member here. Can vouch for Jordan on all of this. Also, getting CLA-10s (NS10 clones) radically improved my mixing. Like, radically.
The one thing I do agree with whole heartedly is the song and the performance is most important. The way it's record, mixed, etc is as well but less so. Also -- the analog vs digital debate -- most of the time only a real trained ear and detect the small differences.
Love your honesty dude!
Loved the video!!!
where did you buy those acoustic panels?
Very important to add a soundgooderizer at the start and end of every channel
Still love my original Mackie HR824s. I've spent many thousands of hours listening to commercial releases and my own projects on them.
While I'm only a life long hobbyist, I've always been pro-technology regarding music. Programs like QBase and Cakewalk bringing the studio into our homes in the 90's, MIDI tying and syncing things together in the 80's, synths setting it off and setting the stage in the 70's. Tech is awesome for music. There are only so many frequencies within our hearing range. Using tech to keep those frequencies sounding fresh and new is why I feel we don't run out of music. Multi-effects pedal units and modelers, solid state amps, all making more options available at more affordable prices. There's a reason these things exist and continue to evolve. And it's all really come a loooooooooooooong way since the 90's.
Digital recording really started before the and took over in the 70's. (I want to say Sony started it in the very late 60's, but I could be off on that. 90% sure it was Sony but 50% on the date.) That's why it's so fun to hear the vinyl nerds talk about how records are more pure and organic, then you point out the sticker or blurb on the back that states that it was digitally recorded and mastered, leaving the elitists speechless. I'm not against vinyl by any means, and I do enjoy the way they sound, but it really is fun to pop that elitist bubble by pointing out their almighty organic record actually contains a digital recording. If they were really nerds, they would have read that part along with every other printed word on the dust cover, spine, jackets, and liner notes. Just sayin'. For me all of that literature and art is the only reason to get a vinyl record. Def not for it's static prone "superior" sound. Once again, I like that sound, but I wouldn't call it superior by any means. But that's just my $0.02 ;)
Your videos improved a lot. This is very useful. Or at least I came to the same conclusion and I'm biased, lol.
Great video. You didn't say these words, but I interpreted this as "let go of expectations and listen to the sound." That's always a struggle for me. So regular reminders are necessary, and it's why I like your videos. One scenario in which this doesn't seem to work is when recording and mixing my own songs. In that case, I wish the goal were "make an exciting mix," rather than "perfectly and accurately manifest the final product that has already psycho-acoustically existed, full-formed, since inception." But maybe that's just me...🤓🤡
Great insight my man, thank you!
I always look forward to a new video from you. Thanks.
Best advice you get on the net!!
"A great mix is never going to make up for a crappy song..." well...I feel attacked. What about crappy songs with crappy mixes? 🤣
Especially agree on the last part. A great recording / mix of a mediocre song is still a mediocre song, and an amateur recording of a great performance of a great song is still great.
Absolutely BRILLIANT !
"Practice is the Essence of Genius".......Them Ten Thousand Hours 😎🍻🤘
This man speaks nothing but facts
This is excellent advice.
i learned the hardway having bad acoustics ruined my mixing decisions, i've invested in my room about 50-50 with the gear i use now, and i'm really happy, everything translates so well on all kinds of speakers. No need for shitty ns10s, i also love to listen to music, so having a pair of dynaudio bm15a is not expensive, not overpriced! also having 2 subs changed my life, now i can hear compressing low-end with no effort. I dunno how i feel about your debunks, my holy trinity is the monitoring, the sound-interface and room acoustics, the rest are details...
Totally agree. Bang on.
I approve of this message.
Thank you.
Great video. Well said.
for me when i discover the slate vsx change the game forever! my mixes improve 1000% no acustic problems and my mixes sounds great in everything.. dont use my monitors for mixing since vsx come out! YOU CAN'T MIX WHAT YOU CAN'T HEAR
12:27 .. or a dawful of plugins (cool new word, like a handful - it's what you feel opening plugins > waves folder)
yeah I had that happen the other day. I was like I can't mix on these genelecs. So I was able to get the tracking done but definetly no mixing. that will happen at home on my fav speakers
Seriously i don't understand ppl saying u need a perfect sound proof studio room floating above the ground with zillion dollar speakers pointed at the perfect angle when some guys going to be listening to it on their crappy laptop speakers😂
I got a set system with Nebula, Acustica Audio, vocals and my own gear
On
Mixing, Mastering a Mix, Mastering After Vocals, running that mix through my Gear...then Adding Tape...Usually, IK Media 388 or Acustica Aduio's Studer or MCI...and that point ive gota mix as good or better than anying on Pandora.....
this the kind of video i need
I normally don't comment on any video but you are so true based on my own experience 👍👍👍👍
Love theses advices ! thank you
Totally agree with you man, great suggestions! 👍👍👍
These are all great tips, especially the "carve stuff up" points and the know your speakers points. Also, the framework points, I used to start from zero on every mix, now that I have my template dialed in my mixes sound so much more consistent and better. You obviously make different choices as you go along, and try new things, but why reinvent the wheel every time? Thank so much
Great Video !Jordan !
Wow soooo much good info .. THANK YOU!
Excellent video.
Absolutely luv this one!!!! Spot on!!!
Great video, and very reassuring for someone working in their bedroom. I've used the link for the cheatsheet, but the download button doesn't work.
I must respectfully disagree with point #2. The room is not a myth. It is way easier to mix in a good room, and it’s way more important than monitors. Rooms with mode problems or speaker boundary interference issues make mixing decisions difficult, especially in the low end. The rest of your points are spot on!
Excelentně shrnuto co je a není důležité👍
I montor on a pair of Kali LP6s and a pair of little Edirol MA-15D's for comparison. My final judgement though is often done in my car. My room is far from perfect but it does have some treatment. It's new though and I'm still getting used to it. In my Cubase 12 Pro DAW, I have a starting template that I use for every song. It affords me familiarity. As for the digital vs analog debate. Just think about your audience. Will they know and will they care? In both cases, I doubt it.
Good tips, but can't agree on the room though. It helps tremendously if you're in a well treated room - both for recording, mixing and mastering.
Great video. Amateur here, I learned I have to trust my ears over everything else.
Great content brother.
Love your mix cheat sheet. Quick question, wondering why there is not a keyboard EQ recommendation on the cheat sheet.
Это самое полезное видео на твоём канале, спасибо, друг. Ты просто подтверждаешь все те идеи, которых я начал догадываться. Все идут к Крису лорду за его фирменным звуком. А это Фреймворк или стек, который у него есть. И принципы работы на этом оборудовании, которые он выработал. Все песни разные, но Крис лорд одинаковый.
This is the best video ever!!!!
So true
Can confirm, the mixing cheat sheet is a phenomenal. my bands latest single sounds 1000x better than our first recording with the same gear.