5 videos
@ 16:46
SonicScoop
Using the vocal mic as a drum room
Catherine Marks creatively repurposes the vocal mic to capture drum room ambience. By leaving the vocal mic open during drum recording sessions, she harnesses its characteristics to add depth and character to the drum sound. The vocal mic's signal is processed with the same reverb and delay effects intended for vocals, using an Echosex delay pedal and a Holy Grail reverb pedal. This approach creates a spacious quality that she blends with the rest of the drum mix for added dimension. Additionally, Marks employs gating to tighten the sound, allowing for a controlled yet expansive drum ambience.
@ 21:33
SonicScoop
Mixing top-down into compression, saturation and EQ
Catherine Marks shares her preferred mix bus chain, emphasizing a top-down approach by setting up her mix bus processing early in the mixing process. This method allows her to efficiently glue the mix together from the start. Her chain includes the Thermionic Culture Fat Bustard as a summing mixer and for initial EQ boosts, followed by the Dramastic Audio Obsidian compressor, the Manley Massive Passive EQ, and finally the Inward Connections Vac Rac TEQ-1. Marks highlights the importance of consistency in her settings, particularly on the Massive Passive, to maintain a stable tonal balance. She employs multiple stages of EQ to shape the mix, with notable boosts at 10kHz and 50Hz on the Fat Bustard, and additional adjustments on the Vac Rac and Massive Passive. The Obsidian compressor is set with a classic SSL-style slow attack and fast release.
@ 20:50
SonicScoop
Add excitement with parallel distortion
Catherine Marks uses distortion to add character and excitement to the overall drum mix. First off, there is a Soundtoys Decapitator (in the Neve setting with brightened tone) on the drum bus, giving the drums more character and presence. To this, she adds further distortion on a parallel bus with the Little Radiator, which is kept quite low in level, but yields additional excitement.
@ 9:40
SonicScoop
Add presence with parallel EQ
Instead of a simpler EQ approach, where one would attempt to make a signal more present by either adding high frequencies or cutting low frequencies, Catherine Marks adopts a different method using parallel EQ. She duplicates the dull-sounding drum loop onto a new track, applies EQ there (primarily high-pass filtering), and then blends this modified signal back with the original sound. This technique allows her to brighten the loop, enhance its character and crunchiness, and create space for the body of the live drums, all while preserving some of the warmth from the original loop sound.
@ 5:22
SonicScoop
Session organization and color coding
Catherine Marks emphasizes the importance of organizing and color-coding tracks in a mixing session. She outlines her personal approach, which includes placing drums at the top of the session, followed by bass, guitars, synths, and vocals, each color-coded for easy identification. This method enhances mixing efficiency and intuitiveness by maintaining a consistent and visually clear layout.