The House Of Kush
Gregory Scott demonstrates how the release knob on a compressor shapes the movement and tonal color of drums, particularly focusing on the ride cymbal. He explains that a fast release creates a bright, flickering effect, while a slow release results in a darker, swimmy sound. This manipulation of release can add exciting movement and character to your drum sounds. Scott further explores the use of parallel compression to blend these textures, allowing for nuanced control over groove and density. By understanding and hearing these subtle changes, you can transform compression into an artistic tool, enhancing the overall vibe and emotional impact of your mix.
SonicScoop
Tony Maserati explores his hybrid mixing approach, combining in-the-box digital techniques with external analog summing. He uses auxes to create a flexible system, allowing mixes to be processed either digitally or through analog gear like a Neve sidecar or a Chandler mini mixer. Maserati highlights the sonic benefits of analog summing, which often yields a fuller, wider, and more dynamic sound. He discusses collaborating with his assistant to assess whether analog processing enhances a mix, underscoring the importance of adaptability in achieving the desired audio quality. While acknowledging the expertise of all-digital mixers like Tchad Blake, Maserati emphasizes the creative possibilities his hybrid setup offers. This approach allows for nuanced decisions about whether a mix benefits from analog warmth or remains purely digital.
Agartha Podcast
Mastering engineer Ryan Schwabe shares his approach to learning clipping techniques using his Gold Clip and Orange Clip plugins. He advocates positioning the clipper before the limiter and adjusting the clipper's ceiling to manage gain reduction effectively. This method minimizes the limiter's impact on the mix by shifting some of the gain reduction to the clipper, allowing the limiter to perform more transparently. Schwabe emphasizes starting with small adjustments, such as 0.5 to 1 dB, to achieve a clean sound and advises ensuring the clipper isn't adding gain to accurately assess its effect. For those aiming to achieve loud mixes without compromising punchiness, Schwabe's insights reveal how balancing the clipper and limiter can lead to aggressive yet clean results. His techniques offer a way to manage dynamics while maintaining the mix's aesthetic appeal.
Electrical Audio
Jon San Paolo explains the differences between active and passive DI boxes, focusing on their construction and power requirements. An active DI uses a vacuum tube or transistor, requiring phantom or external power, and allows signal flow in one direction only. In contrast, a passive DI uses a transformer, which doesn't need external power and can handle signal flow in either direction, offering flexibility. San Paolo's insights highlight practical applications of passive DI boxes, such as direct recording and re-amping, making them versatile tools in the recording studio.
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Freaking Out With Billy Hume
Billy Hume shares a unique technique for enhancing snare drum sound using an AKG 414 microphone placed 6-8 feet above the snare. By driving the mic through a preamp to introduce distortion, he creates a distinct, gritty overhead sound. He then uses a pre-fader bus send from the regular snare track to a gate plugin on the distorted mic, side-chaining it to the snare. This ensures the distorted mic only opens when the snare hits, adding thickness and sustain to the snare sound. This method is a staple in Billy's drum mixing process, offering a way to achieve a fatter, more impactful snare that stands out in the mix.
The House Of Kush
Gregory Scott delves into understanding and controlling drum transients using the Kush Novatron. He demonstrates how a slow attack on the compressor lets transients through, creating a punchy and authoritative sound, while a fast attack results in a softer, mellower tone. Scott shares a practical tip: lower your mix volume significantly to better hear the changes made by adjusting the attack knob. This technique helps beginners grasp how compression shapes the texture and dynamics of their mix. Mastering transient management allows you to shape and place mix elements effectively, bringing the right sounds to the forefront while subtly supporting others in the background, creating depth and clarity in your music.
Producertech
Ellie Dixon shares her technique for enhancing a finger-played bass guitar by layering it with Logic's Sculpture synth using the Dirty Planet preset. This approach adds pick attack, impact, and stereo width to the bass sound. She explains key parameters of the synth, such as string material and the steel/nylon axis, before recording a MIDI bassline. To ensure the synth and bass guitar blend seamlessly, she quantizes and manually aligns note endings and adjusts velocities. The synth is mixed low, supporting rather than dominating the bass guitar, creating a cohesive and polished Alt-Pop bass sound. This comprehensive tutorial covers tool selection, MIDI editing, and blending techniques, highlighting how each step contributes to the final mix.
Electrical Audio
Steve Albini demonstrates how to achieve a balanced and clear bass sound using two mics. He combines a Beyerdynamic M380 and a Sennheiser MD 421 to capture both low and high frequencies from a Traynor TS 50B amp. The M380 is positioned close to the speaker to exploit the proximity effect, enhancing the low-end response, while the MD 421 captures high-frequency detail. By aligning the diaphragms to maintain phase coherence, Albini ensures a clean and articulate recording. In the control room, he blends the two mic signals, similar to how a woofer and tweeter work in a hi-fi system, providing an accurate representation of the speaker's sound. This flexible approach can be adapted for various instruments like electric keyboards and synthesizers to ensure they all have strong bass presence.
Produce Like A Pro
Marc Daniel Nelson showcases a powerful technique for achieving deep but clear vocals using a combination of delay, reverb, and a sidechain compressor. He chains an Acustica Lemon delay with a large Valhalla plate reverb, placing a sidechain compressor at the end. The compressor, keyed to the dry vocal, provides around 6dB of gain reduction with medium attack and release settings. This setup ensures the vocal remains punchy and clear, allowing the ambient effects to swell naturally during pauses, adding depth without overpowering and cluttering the mix. Nelson also fine-tunes delay panning and feedback to enhance spatial effects. The video covers the entire signal chain, including delay panning and feedback, reverb pre-delay rationale, and before/after comparisons of the ducking effect. This approach enhances vocal clarity and depth, providing a rich, immersive experience.
Elysia
Explore the "droom" technique to achieve a drum room sound free from the flamming effect of direct drum hits. By using hypercardioid mics, such as the Sennheiser 441, positioned in front of the drum kit and aimed at the opposite corner, you capture the room's ambiance while minimizing the direct drum sound. This clever mic placement ensures that the direct drum sound falls into the mics' dead spots, allowing you to compress and distort the droom track heavily without the harshness of direct hits. The result is a stereo room sound that enhances the perceived size of the space and maintains a tight, cohesive mix.
Izotope
Explore the importance of phase alignment in audio mixing with iZotope's Neutron 5 phase module. This video delves into the theory of phase relationships, explaining how constructive and destructive interference can impact your sound. Learn how misaligned phases can lead to a loss of low-end frequencies, especially when layering sounds like kick drum samples or using multiple microphones on a single source. The video provides practical demonstrations, showing how to identify phase issues.
Agartha Podcast
Ryan Schwabe shares his insights on the power of automation in mixing, highlighting its importance in enhancing musical dynamics. He frequently automates the master fader, adjusting volumes in various song sections to create an engaging sonic arc. Schwabe emphasizes the vocal's role as the premier instrument, dedicating automation efforts to adjust volume, effects, and stereo width, particularly during transitions between verses and choruses. This detailed automation ensures the music feels dynamic and alive. He also discusses automating volume changes into clippers, ensuring gain staging maintains clarity without unwanted clipping. Automation introduces energy shifts, making modern, compressed tracks feel more vibrant and exciting, utilizing even minor changes for dramatic effects.
Pensado's Place
Tom Elmhirst highlights the importance of a lean and organized session workflow to boost efficiency and focus during mixing. He achieves this by bouncing down large multi-track sessions into essential stems, such as combining layered elements or multi-mic sources, which helps avoid the clutter of excessive tracks. This preparation allows for intuitive and goal-oriented mixing. Elmhirst often relies on assistants for this task, but the principle remains the same: streamline your session to focus on creativity rather than organization. If you're working solo, try organizing your session a day in advance. This way, you can dive into mixing with a fresh perspective, enhancing creativity and focus.
Sage Audio
This bit delves into the use of linear phase EQ to address phase rotation issues caused by equalizers. By employing a linear phase setting, you can maintain phase integrity, avoiding interference and ensuring the phase stays at 0°, as demonstrated with the free Burum EQ analyzer. While linear phase filters are beneficial for preserving phase relationships, they can introduce pre-ringing distortion, which affects transients. However, this distortion is minimal, making the advantages of linear phase EQ outweigh its drawbacks. The bit also highlights the challenges of parallel processing, where phase interference can occur if phase rotation is introduced. By using linear phase EQ in parallel setups, you can prevent destructive phase interference and maintain the integrity of your mix.
Produce In a Minute
In this segment, the speaker demonstrates how to use Izotope's Ozone Imager to identify and manage phase issues in a stereo mix, focusing on a bass line. The key tool here is the phase correlation meter, which helps ensure a balanced stereo image by indicating the phase relationship between the left and right channels. A reading between 0 and +1 is ideal, as it suggests a good balance without phase cancellation. The speaker shows that increasing stereo width can risk phase issues, as indicated by the meter dropping below zero. Conversely, converting the signal to mono can achieve perfect phase correlation, highlighting the importance of monitoring and adjusting stereo width to maintain audio quality.
Eric Valentine
Eric Valentine showcases how Empirical Labs Distressors on the drum bus can inject energy, excitement, and aggression into a drum mix. He uses a 20:1 ratio with a slow attack to boost the drums' punch, adjusting the release to match the song's tempo for a musical swell without overpowering cymbals. Valentine emphasizes engaging the high-pass, presence, and link settings to prevent over-compression of the kick drum, maintaining balance. The high-pass reduces sensitivity to low frequencies, while the presence boosts high-mids in the sidechain path, resulting in a smoother sound with less strident cymbals. This technique, paired with subtle EQ shaping, dramatically transforms the drum sound, enhancing the mix's overall impact.
RecordingMag
Exploring different mic placements on an acoustic guitar can dramatically affect the recorded tone. This video compares four key positions: at the sound hole, near the 12th fret, at the bridge, and from above the guitar. Placing the mic at the sound hole often results in excessive low-end, while the 12th fret offers a balanced sound with clear highs. The bridge position adds fullness in the lower mid-range, and above the guitar provides a balanced upper mid-range. Many engineers favor the 12th fret for its tonal balance, but each position can be optimal depending on the song and production context. For even richer textures, combining these positions in a multi-mic setup is possible—just be mindful of phase issues.
Elysia
Explore the creative possibilities of compression with negative ratios using the Elysia mpressor|500 on drums. Traditional ratios like 2:1 or 4:1 are reducing the output gain incrementally. Infinite:1 limits any increase past the threshold. Unlike that, negative ratios invert the dynamic curve. As the input gets louder, the output becomes quieter. This adds punch and movement. Negative ratios introduce unique envelope shapes and sonic textures, serving as a "magic spice" when seeking unconventional dynamic effects.
Produce Like A Pro
Darrell Thorp demonstrates using a pre-delayed reverb on vocals to enhance clarity and depth in the mix with Valhalla VintageVerb. By applying a chamber reverb with a long tail and adjusting the pre-delay between 60-100 milliseconds, he allows the dry vocal to be heard before the reverb kicks in, creating a more pronounced and spacious effect. Thorp highlights how this use of pre-delay, a staple at Ocean Way Studios, prevents the vocal from being smeared, ensuring it remains clear and impactful within the mix. Experimenting with pre-delay can significantly improve the perception of reverb without overwhelming the vocal.
Tube-Tech
Gabriel Roth delves into shaping vintage drum sounds using a passive EQ, focusing on the "Pultec trick" with his Tube-Tech PE 1C equalizer. This famous technique with Pultec-style equalizers involves applying both boost and attenuation in either the low or high bands simultaneously, producing unique EQ curves. He describes boosting around 10k sharply while pulling down on the top shelf to achieve a crisp drum sound without harshness, eliminating unwanted frequencies above 15k. For the low end, Roth applies the "Pultec trick" around 60Hz, balancing the kick drum's punch with reduced muddiness. This results in a peak at 80Hz and a dip at 200Hz, tightening the low frequencies while maintaining clarity. Roth highlights the musicality of passive EQs, especially when compared to more clinical parametric units, emphasizing their effectiveness in capturing the warm, vintage character of Daptone's legendary drum sound.
EngineEars
In this segment, Teezio details his mastering process for Victoria Monét's "On My Mama". He focuses on cutting out unwanted frequencies to enhance clarity without boosting unnecessarily. Teezio applies multiband processing to manage low-end dynamics and uses a final limiter for volume control, ensuring the mix retains its intended vibe and energy. This meticulous approach highlights the importance of surgical EQ and controlled dynamics in achieving a polished, professional sound.
Electrical Audio
Steve Albini highlights the nuances of recording a violin with Susan Voelz at Electrical Audio studio, focusing on microphone selection for capturing a natural sound. He explains the importance of a smooth high-frequency response and compares two microphones: the Lomo 1918, a tube condenser, and the STC 4038, a ribbon mic. The Lomo offers detailed precision, while the STC 4038 provides a softer, smoother tone. Albini also demonstrates isolation techniques, such as using a lavalier microphone attached to the violin. This setup can help achieve good isolation in ensemble settings, emphasizing the balance between capturing natural tone and managing instrument bleed.
SonicScoop
Tony Maserati discusses the choice between analog and digital equipment, emphasizing his preference for a hybrid approach that combines both. He highlights the unique qualities of analog gear, specifically mentioning the Chandler RS.124, which he believes adds a special character to vocals that he hasn't replicated with plugins yet. Maserati underscores the importance of using what works best for your workflow and sound goals. He values the distinctiveness of certain analog tools but remains open to digital advancements, suggesting that the right gear enhances creativity and results.
SonicScoop
In this segment, Joel Hamilton demonstrates using a hybrid approach with digital and analog processing on a nylon string guitar. He employs a UAD Fairchild 660 plugin for subtle tonal enhancement, followed by the Chandler Zener hardware for added character. The Fairchild plugin is used minimally, primarily for tone and slight gain adjustment due to the lower recorded volume of the instrument. This bit offers insight into Hamilton's creative mixing process, efficiently combining digital and analog tools to enhance the sound without overwhelming it.
SonicScoop
In this bit, Matt Lange explores creative ways to add movement and complexity to a pad using Soundtoys plugins. He begins with two Filter Freaks in series; the first is a two-pole low-pass filter with step-sequenced modulation, creating rhythmic motion. The second combines a low-pass and high-pass filter, forming a custom band-pass effect that adds unique tonal characteristics. Lange further enhances the stereo field with PanMan, crafting intricate panning patterns for dynamic movement. Finally, EchoBoy adds a warbly delay effect, enriching the sound with a touch of vintage character. Together, these tools transform a simple pad into a lively, rhythmic element, demonstrating the power of modulation and effects in electronic music production.
Electrical Audio
In this segment, Steve Albini and banjo player Taylor Hales explore the unique timbre of a banjo. The video offers insights into the differences between resonator and open-back banjos, detailing how these affect sound projection and tonal quality. The use of dampening techniques is also highlighted to manage the instrument's natural resonance and volume, ensuring a cleaner recording.
Electrical Audio
Steve Albini shares practical microphone placement strategies, such as positioning a lavalier mic near the bridge for clarity and trying internal mic placements for additional low end. Although a microphone placed inside the banjo was found unsatisfactory for sound, a ribbon mic alongside the lavalier provided a fuller sound. This segment showcases innovative techniques for capturing the distinct timbre of a banjo and learning to record acoustic stringed instruments with precision and depth.
Universal Audio
Producer and engineer Jacquire King shares essential tips for recording string ensembles, emphasizing simplicity in recording setups. He highlights the importance of allowing string players to balance themselves and focuses on strategic microphone placement. King recommends using darker mics on cellos and brighter ones on violins, with a focus on the instrument's body above the bridge. A stereo pair for the ensemble captures ambient color and room balance. He advises on headphone monitoring, suggesting panning to one side to minimize leakage, since a lot of times the players have one ear out of the headphones. Encourages recording multiple passes to enhance texture and lushness, using the ensemble and close mics creatively. Lastly, King stresses collaboration with musicians, acknowledging their feedback to ensure a supportive and co-creative environment. Engage these tips to elevate your string recording sessions with clarity and depth.
Record Production
Renowned recording engineer Owain Fleetwood Jenkins shares his approach to capturing a great piano sound using a C. Bechstein Model C grand piano. He employs a HUM Audio RS-2 stereo ribbon microphone in a Blumlein configuration to achieve a natural, classical tone that captures the room's ambiance beautifully. For a more contemporary and punchy sound, Jenkins uses a pair of close AKG C-414s positioned over the hammers, adhering to the 3:1 rule to ensure phase coherence. This setup provides a distinct punch to the notes, helping them cut through the mix effectively. Jenkins emphasizes the importance of microphone placement and room acoustics in achieving the desired tonal characteristics, whether aiming for a natural or brighter sound. His techniques demonstrate how different microphone combinations can be tailored to suit various musical genres and recording contexts.
NPR Music
Josh Rogosin from NPR's Tiny Desk Concert series demonstrates the classic Glyn Johns drum mic setup, a technique famously used to record drummers like Keith Moon and John Bonham. This method involves placing two microphones, each 30 to 40 inches from the center of the snare drum at a 90 degree angle and ensuring they are equidistant to avoid phase cancellation. This precise placement allows the sound waves from the snare to reach both microphones simultaneously, preventing a hollow sound and maintaining the integrity of the drum recording. Rogosin highlights the effectiveness of this setup, even with limited equipment, making it a valuable technique for achieving a full, balanced drum sound with just two microphones.