6 videos
@ 2:23
Apogee
Creating unique sounds with contact mics and speakers as mics
Shawn Everett explores the idea of exclusively using contact mics and speakers for the recording of the song "Blurred View" from Big Thief, bypassing traditional microphones to craft a distinctive sonic palette. This approach allows him to capture unique, organic sounds that emphasize emotion and creativity. During the recording sessions, Shawn mixes live, ensuring that the rough mix at the end of each day is album-ready. This workflow requires him to adapt his mixing techniques on the fly, maintaining a focus on emotion and immediacy. Shawn employs unconventional methods, such as using a rewired speaker as a contact mic on a kick drum, to achieve unusual textures. He also creatively repurposes old Apple headphones as contact mics for guitar amps, demonstrating his innovative approach to sound capture. For vocals, Shawn tapes headphones to the singer's throat, resulting in a lo-fi vocal sound that adds a unique character to the track.
@ 15:30
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.
@ 16:38
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.
@ 11:21
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.
@ 4:45
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.
@ 2:21
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.