Puremix
Creating room sound with speaker playback
Vance Powell explains how he creates a natural room sound by playing back recorded signals through studio loudspeakers and rerecording them with microphones. This technique is particularly useful when the original recording lacks room mics, as it can simulate the natural ambiance of a real room in a very convincing way. In this live take, Powell strategically splits up the band, placing the drums in a booth but leaving the door open to allow some natural spill and echo. This setup provides the needed isolation between the louder drums and the quieter acoustic instruments, while preventing full isolation of the signals, enhancing the depth and cohesiveness of the recording. Feeding the recording back into the studio loudspeakers then augments the illusion that all instruments are playing together in the same room, creating a unified and immersive sound.
Produce Like A Pro
Create space and separation with widening
Nelson amplifies the presence of the main guitar in the mix by applying two key adjustments to a supporting synth track: widening its stereo image and subtly reducing its low-mid frequencies. These changes carve out a spacious backdrop for the guitar, ensuring it stands out with greater clarity. The widening relocates the synth to the mix's outer edges, enhancing the stereo field, while the EQ cut prevents the synth from masking the guitar's tonal body.
Produce Like A Pro
Enhance character with reverb
As an example of how specific reverbs can enhance the character of a sound, Marc Daniel Nelson uses the UAD Lexicon 224 reverb to imbue synthesizer parts with depth and emotion. This choice is driven by the Lexicon 224's historic synergy with synthesizers, famously used by Vangelis to create iconic sounds. Nelson illustrates how the right reverb choice can instantly convey a specific vibe or era, in this case, evoking a 'Blade Runner'-esque atmosphere.
Produce Like A Pro
Balance the stereo image with mono reverb
Marc Daniel Nelson shows how to achieve a balanced stereo image by applying a mono spring reverb, panned opposite to a guitar signal. The original guitar track is panned to the right, creating an imbalance in the stereo field. By strategically panning the reverb to the left, Nelson subtly fills out the mix, enhancing its spatial depth without the effect becoming overly prominent or detracting from the mix's overall balance. This approach is especially useful in mixes where a prominent instrument is panned to one side, and there's a need to maintain a cohesive and engaging stereo image. It also works well with other types of mono reverb, delays or modulation effects.
Produce Like A Pro
Add fullness with colored EQ
Marc Daniel Nelson utilizes a unique, hidden characteristic of the Helios Type 69 EQ to add fullness to the main guitar. The trick involves setting the low-frequency band to 60Hz, but without adding any boost to the band's gain control. This way the EQ circuit subtly shapes and colors the sound, enhancing its richness and thickness without introducing muddiness. The original inspiration for this technique came from Andrew Sheps.
Produce Like A Pro
Get bigger, more spacious guitars with panning
Marc Daniel Nelson showcases a technique to create a bigger, more spacious guitar sound by using two microphones (Shure SM57 and Beyerdynamic M160) and panning them hard left and right in the mix. This approach leverages the slight tonal and phase differences between the mics to craft a wider, more immersive guitar presence. Key to this method is adjusting the volume of one mic slightly lower than the other, enhancing spatial depth and reducing phase issues without losing the guitar's clear position in the stereo field. Nelson further enriches the guitar's character by applying bus compression with a dbx 160VU, ensuring a vibrant sound.
Mix with the Masters
Add character to a banjo with compression and saturation
Shawn Everett demonstrates how to add character to a banjo using compression and saturation. He starts by heavily compressing the banjo with a UAD LA-2A, which he associates with the instrument's typical sound, making it more consistent and controlled. To further enhance the banjo's character, Everett applies the Soundtoys Decapitator for distortion, adding warmth and grit. He also removes some low-end frequencies to ensure clarity and balance in the mix. This combination of compression and saturation results in a banjo sound that is both lively and distinct, fitting well within country and pop genres.