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Mixing Q&A

Lesson 10 from: Robert Lang Studios Mixing Class

Casey Bates

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Lesson Info

10. Mixing Q&A

Lesson Info

Mixing Q&A

Does anyone have any questions? Any thoughts? I know there was, like a bunch of different compressors that used for different things, like different plug ins like what's been going on your mind Like which compress it. He used for what things and what, Uh, it's It's just about familiarity, like for me, Like I don't, uh, but with their so maney plug ins out there now like that, you know, learning diving into one and learning it is, I think it's a big benefit. And so, like, I've I'm not using a whole bunch of I mean, I'm using, like Renaissance compressor, and then I've kind of graduated to using a lot more of the A P I compressor. And it's not mean there's waves, makes an SSL When there's all kinds of them out there, it's just you gotta find one that you learn how to use and know how to get what you want to get out of it. Certain things. I like this. The BF 76. I don't know. I was kind of a thing. I've put on room Mike's before, and I just I use it. It's not. There's not really anything ...

specific. I could I could use the a p I there I could use I wouldn't use Ah, one thing I will say is I won't use the round sound suppressor for something, something where I want character in the sound I'm gonna use, like a like a 11 76. Or or the a p I or db x something that has character to it, whereas Renaissance co president means like a ah hospitals, just sterile. It's just but it's about just keeping control. So that's that's what thats probably My big difference between the two is I use that run sounds compressor for just control, and I use the other ones for some, some version of a character to it. Yeah, I have one more quick question for us. So when you're making these changes with the e que and the compression are usually listening to the full mix or do you like to solo the elements when you're doing that? Uh, I will usually miss it. Listen to the full mix unless I'm hearing something real weird that I want to dive in on. I mean, of course, I'm soloing things here now, but like one of the big takeaways I wanted you guys to have today was that is to get stuff going and get a mix happening before you start making big judgment calls on specific parts, because you you tend to get wrapped up in soloing. Ah, guitar tone, you know? And you just like agonizing over how it sounds When once you get maybe, like we saw today with the, uh when I got the bass tone going, it's san it'll Ah, all right. And then But then the guitars happened on top of it. All of a sudden, it was like, Okay, now this is making a little bit more sense. Like, if I had just worried about that bass tone, I might have skipped over and not used it. But now that I have this other reference in there, I'm like, OK, this is working now and you can keep going. Yeah, Trickle, you got one. All right. You Do you find yourself a time spending too much time in a certain area in the mixed or going back to a certain area. I I will. I used Teoh. That was a big problem for me. And and one of the things I do that kind of set almost like a mental timer with things like I want to move through stuff in because you can get caught up like universe. And you're just like, man, this is not sound right and and it bums you out and you start losing momentum with the song, whereas all, Maybe I'll work on a section for a little bit and it's not working for me, and I'm like, You know what? I'm gonna move onto the next thing I go on to the next thing and something sparks in maybe the bridge of the chorus or even a different song that go that I go. That's what I need to do in that verse like that's That's the direction I need to take it in. So I would stress to not spend too much time on things like Get gets, get it going, get get yourself, get to keep the momentum going. Keep yourself happy is that is a big part of it, because when you overthink things that does not work out most of time, what would be an acceptable amount of headroom toe? Leave yourself at the end of mix if you're not mastering it yourself, right? Uh, yeah, I you know, I don't when it comes, I try to master almost everything I do because I'm hitting it so hard that it's affecting everything else. So much like, if I were if I were to, like, create the mix that we're hearing right now, uh, without mixed bus compression on, and I were to send it off to be mastered, it would not sound the way I want it to sound, If that makes sense, like the If I had the drum levels the way they are with this compression on, you know, without any compression, when the compression was applied, the drums get pushed down even further. It's like That's why. I mean, when I take off this compression all of a sudden, you know, if we play this back here, you're gonna hear the drums, especially the snare is gonna sound way too loud. Thank you. And actually, the kick kick is quieter. Snare goes way loud, and so I like to hear. I mean, I'm running all this stuff most of the time just cause I want to be able to hear what it's gonna sound like now what you're talking about. I think as long as you're, you know, three or four db under the unity. I've never I've never had any issues. In fact, anything, anytime, stuff off to get mastered. As long as it wasn't peeking out, I had no complaints, so yeah, cool.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Audio Tracks from 'I Want My Money Back' by The Money Pit

Ratings and Reviews

Joe Wilkinson
 

Regardless if you've listened to the music Casey has personally worked on or not, you'll find a lot of great information on his methods for mixing. It is such a great idea that this class comes with the files that Casey is actually work with so you can work side by side. This class includes best practices in organizing mixes, using busses, and what I consider the most important take away: listening to the MIX and not necessary just a single track over and over again. My requests: attendees had better formed questions to ask and to do another class -- I would love to hear some of the techniques and mixing that went into Church Mouth by Portugal. The Man.

fbuser 42790ebd
 

It was straight forward and helped show everyone it doesn't take fancy plugins or shiny toys to make great records. Even his vocal chain is mid tier but he yields excellent results with years of knowledge on his side. Casey you should come back to do a song off Emarosa's 131 album. There has to be some cool tricks there.

Student Work

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