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Post by schmalzy on Mar 2, 2021 16:39:13 GMT -6
A new level can completely alter how you're hearing your EQ moves. I know there are auto volume adjusted EQ plugs and USB faders but I haven't gotten into them. Not sure why really. Because all those automatic EQ/fader plugs suck. That's why. I mean, I guess they might be good for some people... newbies and/or people striving for the "paint by numbers" milquetoast mix... get to that point where the song is so balanced its boring. Otherwise right, bumping the level up or down 1.5dB will completely alter EQ perceptions and all other relationships. That 1.5db spot is a really interesting space to work in. Small enough that it's not crazy but also large enough that you have a gut reaction to it. It's not squint-mode but it's not automatically destructive to the mix. I heard of a couple big name guys who've talked about finding the right level for a vocal/topline. They put two plugins on the vocal bus; one is a 1.5db boost in level and the other is a 1.5db cut in level. If they're fighting with themselves about what the right level is they'll activate one or the other of the plugins. If it goes down and it's too far down then you know down isn't the answer. If you click up and it feels like it jumps too far out in front of the mix then you know up isn't the answer. If you make an adjustment and it doesn't break your mix then adjust your level on that part by 1.5 db in the direction that didn't break your mix and go work on something else. After a few minutes repeat the process.
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Post by schmalzy on Mar 2, 2021 11:17:38 GMT -6
For me I've curbed my over-EQing tendencies with self-imposed limits, tricking my brain, and working in iterations.
For example, I primarily do most of my EQ on tracks with a Console1 channel strip (could be anything with limited bands of course) and only allow myself a couple notches per source from a different EQ plug. Vocals will typically have something resonant in the 1.8k-3.6k region so now I'm only left with one other EQ notch if I need it. Guitars will often have something weird but going too far neuters them. Cymbals will often have something weird but going too far turns them into white noise. I have different limitations depending on the track and I'm always willing to break my own rules but INTENDING to keep them and then going above-and-beyond to do so most of the time has given me mixes now that I think are better than anything else I've done.
Making decisions in context is helpful, too - especially on vocals. I'm intentionally going for retaining the character of the vocalist so I trick my brain into ways of guaranteeing that. I'll have the vocal a little too quiet when doing things like eliminating problems (so I eliminate 90% of a problem if it's part of the "good" character) and a hair too loud when doing things like tonal EQ (so I don't just boost and get crazy with top end or warmth or whatever when the answer is probably "turn it up a little").
If I process a source to my gut reaction and I still hear a little of those tiny issues I'll move on. If I'm still bothered by it after making a million other decisions then I'll address it with some restraint. If I come back to it later and it's STILL bothering me I'll go further with the problem-solving.
Weird non-audio-specific thought but also a thing that changed my music production business for the better: I spent a lot of time REALLY sitting with and thinking about the fact that I don't have to believe everything I think and every thought I have is not necessarily true. REALLY spend some time with that. Just because I had a thought doesn't mean it's correct and doesn't mean I have to believe it. That pressure to stop living and dying by the tiniest thoughts has helped me move through mixes faster and get better results.
A person pulls out in front of you in traffic "You're a fuckin' moron!!!!" Is that true? Can you absolutely know it's true? What changes if it's true? What if the opposite were true?
"There's too much 326hz ring on the snare drum." Is that true? Can you absolutely know it's true? What changes if it's true? What if the opposite were true?
"That band should have had me producer their record with them." Is that true? Can you absolutely know it's true? What changes if it's true? What if the opposite were true?
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Post by schmalzy on Feb 28, 2021 9:26:34 GMT -6
I could live with either but if I had to pick one for both of these sources I'd pick Pre 1.
I liked how it handled transients in comparison. For modern music production methods which can often leave transients too aggressive and pokey I felt like Pre 1 sounded more forgiving rather than truthful. If we're going preamp-to-converter then Pre 1 is my pick. If you plan to process with a lot of other outboard then maybe Pre A is the choice if you need really delicate and accurate details. I'm often not going for accurate anything so I'd still go with Pre 1.
Good luck with your decision and I'm excited to find out what everything is/was!
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Post by schmalzy on Feb 24, 2021 12:39:11 GMT -6
Just a quick heads-up: A KILLER rock producer named Beau Burchell has an IGS Tube Core 3U Mastering Edition for sale right now. It's listed in his instagram story. I think you could throw a message into his instagram DMs to grab it from him. www.instagram.com/beauburchell/
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Post by schmalzy on Feb 21, 2021 15:02:44 GMT -6
Kush has plugin versions of both. The Kush Hammer EQ is really good. It's my go-to for stuff that needs a more useful relationship between 600hz and everything above it before getting any other processing, it's my go-to when - after the mix has come together more - something need to be pushed toward this listener, and it's my go-to when I need beautiful top end. I take it you have the plugin and not the hardware? Correct. I don't have that hardware. How do you think the plugins compare to the hardware?
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Post by schmalzy on Feb 21, 2021 12:46:33 GMT -6
I have 1U rack space free and this is not helping!!! 😅 One of the reasons I didn’t buy it is because the Hammer EQ high bands are really good. If I hadn’t had a hammer 😄 the Clariphonic would be mine already... Kush has plugin versions of both. The Kush Hammer EQ is really good. Kush's Hammer and the Softube Summit EQF-100 are my two most common mix bus EQ plugins. Hammer has a little more personality and wildcard-ness while the Summit sounds a little more buttoned up and well-mannered...if that makes sense. But....we're talking about the Kush Clariphonic. I use Clariphonic in about 50% of my mixes. I probably use it on the mix bus 20% of my mixes. It's great at what it does. I don't need what it does on the mix bus THAT often but I bet I could start with it on the mix bus and be perfectly happy with it on 100% of my mixes instead. I use it most often, though, on ANYTHING that needs to be opened up. I mix other people's tracking a lot - a lot of DIY recordings - and often they just don't have a handle on how bright things could/should be tracked. Vocals, snare drums, room mics, overheads, pianos, heavy guitars (super awesome there for some reason...I don't know exactly why - maybe it messes up the phase stuff less because of the parallel nature of the EQ). It's my go-to for stuff that needs a more useful relationship between 600hz and everything above it before getting any other processing, it's my go-to when - after the mix has come together more - something need to be pushed toward this listener, and it's my go-to when I need beautiful top end.
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Post by schmalzy on Feb 12, 2021 11:05:03 GMT -6
I'm gravitating back to my Kush Goldplate. It's doin' it for me.
I'll have to try that Goodhertz one. I like the idea of a Quadraverb. I mixed a band live that had one and I was like "THAT'S cool!"
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Post by schmalzy on Feb 5, 2021 5:37:54 GMT -6
I guess I never understood the controller thing. I just moved the mixer out of the studio because I found working ITB to be faster and easier. Moving a trackball and using keyboard shortcuts is a lot faster than reaching for faders and pushing menu buttons 20 times to flip through all your settings.. I agree. I sold console one and my faderport. They just got in the way when it was all said and done. Oh, man. I can't imagine not using Console One. It's just so helpful and useful for my workflow. It's a super disappointing moment when I realize I need to add a plugin with different options than Console One gives me. WHY MUST I USE THIS MOUSE!!!!!!!! ??
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Post by schmalzy on Feb 4, 2021 13:10:47 GMT -6
I wonder if something like FabFilter's Saturn could help. Add some mid-lows harmonics in the vocal. Then multi band compress to push those forward and keep 'em consistent.|
Maybe even something as obnoxious as RBass could work to add those lows into the vox.
Then at least the bass could be pulled back to sane levels and that loud vs quiet bass thing could be chosen for the times it's emotionally helpful rather than just always up.
Of course, it might be perfect as it is!
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Post by schmalzy on Feb 3, 2021 13:36:54 GMT -6
...and this is exactly why my console is off to the side and behind me by about four feet. I love having the preamps and EQs, I've summed through it a few times, if I need to use it for some OTB mixing stuff I'll make the adjustments on headphones, but HOLY CRAP did it sound bad when it was positioned between me and the monitors. When I'm EQing harsh stuff out of guitars I hold my arms out toward my monitors. They absorb/diffuse/change the sound bouncing off the desk and reveal where the sharp, pinchy upper mids ACTUALLY are rather than the 3.4kHz (or whatever it actually is) that is emphasized by my work surface. Listen with my arms extended, diagnose, make the changes in the DAW (using the very same arms that had previously been extended), and extend again to compare/listen. I would seriously love to see a video of you doing “the mummy” while mixing. I've forgotten I had artists in the room and they were like "...uhhhhh...are youuuuuuu....ok?"
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Post by schmalzy on Feb 2, 2021 22:38:10 GMT -6
It's been argued that reflective sound coming off a console is a benefit....<snip>. I'd imagine once one gets use to it, it would be fine. I've never run across anyone that argued that a console made things sound beneficial. ?? ...and this is exactly why my console is off to the side and behind me by about four feet. I love having the preamps and EQs, I've summed through it a few times, if I need to use it for some OTB mixing stuff I'll make the adjustments on headphones, but HOLY CRAP did it sound bad when it was positioned between me and the monitors. When I'm EQing harsh stuff out of guitars I hold my arms out toward my monitors. They absorb/diffuse/change the sound bouncing off the desk and reveal where the sharp, pinchy upper mids ACTUALLY are rather than the 3.4kHz (or whatever it actually is) that is emphasized by my work surface. Listen with my arms extended, diagnose, make the changes in the DAW (using the very same arms that had previously been extended), and extend again to compare/listen.
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Post by schmalzy on Jan 31, 2021 0:30:29 GMT -6
I feel like I could work with A or D.
B felt boomy.
C was deceptively "good" but had a harsh thing that I'd have had to notch out...that - when gone - would probably reveal some other stuff I'd have to notch out.
I feel like A or D with Kush Clariphonic to lift the top end away from the lows would be right where I'd need it.
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Post by schmalzy on Jan 13, 2021 3:14:16 GMT -6
Still on Soothe 1 but it gets used every mix. It's almost a better De-esser in some ways...so I use it on my vocal bus. I like to pair it with a multiband compressor. It seems more transparent when each is doing a little vs. one doing a lot. I'll use it on overheads where the drummer had sharp/loud cymbal(s). I had a chirpy sound in a distorted rhythm guitar part I was sent to mix. It seems like they were going for a little of a scrapey guitar pick sound but the scrape ended up being distracting. It wasn't always in the same frequency area so Soothe did a great job with that. I've also used it to deal with a player who didn't pick through the string quickly enough on a lead part so there was a super chirpy note that kept sounding as the pick touched the string (essentially fretting a note on the imaginary 30-somethin'th fret) before they finished the picking motion. Soothe got that thing to settle down which really saved that part. I've used it on a snare drum top to take out some of the grossness from off-axis cymbals while leaving the rest of the top end less-messed-up than it would have been had I just notch EQd. I've used it LIGHTLY on a whole ass mix someone sent me to master, too. Again, resonant frequencies that didn't stay in one spot but needed to be tamed a little. So I tamed...a little. It's easy to overuse it so - when I hear it working and relaxing the pinch (or whatever physical way I hear the resonance), I'll check the delta in the plugin to make sure I'm not doing too much, possibly back it off a small touch more, then forget about it.
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Post by schmalzy on Jan 12, 2021 13:02:09 GMT -6
ALWAYS get DIs.
It's not my preferred way to work - that's to get the right tone right away - but it's a lot better than being stuck with a bad tone.
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Post by schmalzy on Jan 11, 2021 13:26:40 GMT -6
I'm here to confess my sins: I'm a one-man-band project studio guy who doesn't mix anything beyond rough demos. I figure that if I can write a song that doesn't suck (or come up with a worthy cover arrangement) and manage to... - Nail the guitar
- Nail the bass
- Nail the drums
- Nail the keyboards
- Nail the vocals
- Nail any other samples or instruments
- Nail the groove, feel, vibe, emotion, attitude, etc.
- Track all of the above well
...then the very last thing in the world I want to do is completely %&$# up the end result with my amateur mixing "skills". If the song is worth publishing, I'll send it to professionals for mixdown and mastering.
Sure, I could learn to mix, but it'd take many years just to get to an almost-professional level. Frankly, I'd rather spend that time learning how to write better songs. My studio is set up for tracking with zero consideration for mixing, and any rough demos I mix happen ITB in headphones on a couch.
Anyone else here taking this approach?
Send me something. I'll mix it for you, just for fun . . . in between paying work. I was about to say something similar. Album mixed by RGO message board?
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Post by schmalzy on Jan 10, 2021 0:59:33 GMT -6
I just mixed with Console1 on a punk mix. I used it on EVERY channel including my pre-master bus (which I hadn't done previously - I used it only on the channels I was processing...others like two different guitar amp mics, some blended sources like snare top and bottom, or the individual mics of a stereo pattern didn't get it)) and my mix turned out significantly different. I was aiming for dirtier than my normal mix - that's why I used it on every channel and went a little heavier on the drive control - but what I got was a mix that seemed to gel, glue, sag, and stay together MORE even though my automation moves were bigger and the decisions I made seemed to be more drastic than they had been previously.
...plus my mix was accidentally WAY louder than it normally would have been. Like...3db LUFS louder prior to mastering-style plugs.
Edit: I should re-state that. My mix wasn't "louder" - I pay attention and keep my room SPL in a few different specific spots - as much as my peak-to-average was narrower than average effectively making it "louder" if I pushed it up near 0dbfs.
I don't know what console summing sounds like in a recording situation. I've never been lucky enough to use something analog that sounded the same or BETTER when things were summed together. But I thought this result was good enough to mention soooooooo...use that info however you'd like!
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Post by schmalzy on Dec 29, 2020 23:42:59 GMT -6
I do a bit (as appropriate and necessary) of what the cats in this threat have already mentioned.
I'll often hi-pass the sides of drum overheads to keep the shells more "at home" while grabbing a little more width. This works especially great on X/Y overheads and is less common for me on ORTF or spaced pair overheads. I'll do something similar in the midrange of a room mic pair looking to accentuate the spread of whatever - probably the snare - and de-accentuate something else - probably the cymbals.
Distorted electric guitar pairs will sometimes benefit from a reduction in upper mids in the middle channel and low mids on the side channel. Just a little bit of EQ in these sorts of ways can make a world of difference to keep the guitar feeling huge without overpowering a vocal
I also do some m/s EQ on ambience channels that need to be loud but shouldn't be distracting. EQ the distracting/masking stuff out from the locations you hear it and leave it in the other channel.
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Post by schmalzy on Dec 29, 2020 23:31:15 GMT -6
The market is just targeted at tweakers who don’t have to do anything with their defective tools, who never release anything that’s been pressed commercially by someone else, who don’t have to do anything with a deadline. They never are paid 30-500 bucks a track to get it by the weekend and fixing that drummer’s drums is going toward keeping the lights on and letting me eat something other than peanut butter. The gearslutz apologists for bad stuff don’t understand that if said drums have defective compressor (Waves, Slate) clicks, weird crunchy old digital high end, or sounds like old death metal typewriter or modern rock sample and sinewave drums, the mixer is not getting paid that day. Revise or be fired. This is an interesting thing that I recently experienced. I had a guy in the studio who brought in $5000 worth of synthesizers for a noise record he and a friend of his wanted to do. They booked a day so we did the day! He talked up an down about how this analog synth was amazing and this other analog synth was amazing and how this Waldorf thing is the only digital that's amazing and... ...then he proceeded to push buttons and change patches for an hour trying to find something good to start with. His buddy and I created a sound on my MiniBrute and started four-handedly tweaking it in real-time creating a morphing bassline that became the basis for the whole track. It's speaking a little to what you're saying: the tools are to be used to accomplish a goal. Use good stuff that helps you work faster/better and enables you to help your artists create the art of their dreams.
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Post by schmalzy on Dec 20, 2020 22:08:37 GMT -6
If you do it again and I'm not busy mixing/mastering I'll be around!
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Post by schmalzy on Dec 16, 2020 15:15:59 GMT -6
Things I've done a couple times when I had a similar problem:
1. I was monitoring the inputs in Console and didn't have input monitoring on in the DAW. 2. Monitoring my insert outputs rather than my master bus on the way back in. 3. Had the wrong inputs armed.
I'm sure you've checked those but that's all the info my experience can lend at this moment.
Good luck! Let us know if you figure it out (and how you fixed it)!
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Post by schmalzy on Dec 15, 2020 15:17:13 GMT -6
That makes sense to me, I am finally a "believer" in cabinet tone. Once you hear it it's pretty obvious how significant that is. They are speaker systems after all. I used to, in my ignorant youth, think the drivers were the only thing that really mattered. Decades ago I had a Rectoverb with a single Mesa speaker in a combo. It was, surprising? how good the clean channel was on that amp. Yeah, the speaker cab thing is an interesting phenomenon. I've been a fan of having a few different cabs available for a while now. I didn't know/care if it was speakers or the cabinet making most of the difference. I just knew that I wanted to have a variety of tones available. One of my favorite sounds on my Single Rectifier is the clean channel in "pushed" mode with the gain pretty high. Dark, dusty, boxy (in a good way) and driven/distorted but COMPLETELY the opposite of the lead channel. When the opportunity comes along to do something with it, I'd like to try to blend the high gain channel with the clean channel on different takes and see how they mesh and stack up together.
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Post by schmalzy on Dec 15, 2020 8:41:53 GMT -6
But if you're exclusively talking about recording bass, I usually wouldn't hi-pass on the way in at all. I almost never hi-pass DI instruments unless the low end is just totally overwhelming. I'd rather keep the low end in tact and filter out LF when I have the final tone. But that's just me. I have an opposing experience generally, bassists beat on that thang and DI signals almost always have larger percussive energy below 35 Hz, frequently down to DC. Cleaning that junk out makes EVERYTHING better. It's similar to a mic that needs a shockmount, but 10 times worse! For this purpose, I built HPF's with 12/16/25/31Hz selections. This is why I use my Neve-style preamps for bass DI whenever possible. I think their transformers do a not-that-efficient job down at 30hz. It kind of cleans some of that stuff up before it even gets to my compression. I'll often do a multi-band sort of thing with the bass when I'm working with inconsistent playing or music that needs ultra-consistent lows. Compress (limit if ya' feelin' nasty) the low end before hitting any other processing and let everything else pass through the multi-band comp with little-to-no compression.
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Post by schmalzy on Dec 15, 2020 7:59:46 GMT -6
I finally sorted out the guitar amp sound I've been wanting but resisting the most obvious way to get it. Turns out, there's no way to get a certain guitar sound except for using certain gear. Mesa Single Rectifier Solo Head into a Mesa 2x12. That Solo Rectifier is one that got away from me, that I miss a lot. Great sound. Are those the Vintage 30's or the MC90 black shadows? I haven't opened it up so I don't KNOW for certain but they sound like Vintage 30s to me. I have a different cab with some older UK Vintage 30s and the sound coming out of the Mesa 2x12 sounds like a tweaked version of the cab with Vintage 30s rather than a completely type of speaker...if that makes sense.
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Post by schmalzy on Dec 15, 2020 1:33:23 GMT -6
I finally sorted out the guitar amp sound I've been wanting but resisting the most obvious way to get it. Turns out, there's no way to get a certain guitar sound except for using certain gear. Mesa Single Rectifier Solo Head into a Mesa 2x12. The cab saw a lot of use touring but the speakers sound great. I don't care about how it looks. I knew a Rectifier into a Mesa cab was the sound I wanted. I just didn't want to get it from exactly that setup...but that's the sound. It sounded SO good with so little tweaking.
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Post by schmalzy on Dec 15, 2020 1:24:58 GMT -6
undertone mpeq-1 incredible flexibility with the EQ, loving it so far Oh, man. I've been lusting after that thing HARD. I see no reality in which I ever own one, though. How is it so far? How would you describe the timbre? On second thought, don't answer that. I'm pretty sure I know how good it is and I don't need to want it more.
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