Inside the mix
Episode 3
w/ Chris Tabron
Episode 3
27 min • 2023
English, Portuguese, Deutsch, Italian, Spanish, French
Join renowned mixing engineer Chris Tabron from his studio "Rumors" in Brooklyn, New York, as he delves into the masterful mix of "This Is A Life" by Son Lux ft. Mitski and David Byrne.
In this Puremix exclusive, Chris shares his expertise in crafting a mix under tight deadlines using both outboard hardware and In The Box techniques, the importance of discovering the intention of the song before tweaking, how he crafted the unique textures on Mitski and David Byrne's vocals, and much more.
Watch as Chris:
- Explains the origins and context of the project.
- Explores his unique combination of analog gear and digital techniques, and how he decides when to use each.
- Dives into the specific hardware chains used in the mix.
- Explains the pace of the project and how he managed time constraints.
- Demonstrates how he started the mix with the vocals, treating the intro line uniquely to draw listeners into the story.
- Breaks down the vocal chains used on Mitski and how David Byrne's lead vocal was treated with different textures to complement his role in the song.
- Reveals how he created space for the lead vocals through his handling of the background vocals.
- Teaches how he used auto-align to adjust the phase relationship between microphones on the drum kit.
- Shows how samples were added to the kick drum and the outboard UnFairchild, Pultec, and SSL Compressor hardware used on the drums.
- Explains how he dialed in the low end of the bass and kick drum to complement each other using side-chaining multi-band compression.
- Explores how he went through each element of the string ensemble to utilize them for texture in the mix.
- Adds the background vocals, explaining his treatment for each part of the arrangement.
- Talks about the Neve 1073 and Telefunken V72 microphone preamps used on the lead vocals and legato instruments.
- Deconstructs the outboard Pendulum ES-8 compressor, DW Fearn VT-5 EQ, Chandler Germanium Compressors, and Cranesong Head on the mix bus, along with the stereo bus plugin chain.
- Discusses the importance of discovering the intention of the reference mix.
- Helps you understand his print levels and how he interfaces with mastering engineers.
Watch Chris Tabron, mix “This Is A Life” from Son Lux, Mitski and David Byrne. Only on Puremix.
Hardware
- AMS RMX 16
- Chandler Limited Germanium
- Crane Song HEDD
- Dangerous 2-bus+
- D.W Fearn VT-5 EQ
- Lynx Hilo
- Neve 33609
- Neve 1073 EQ
- Pendulum Audio ES8
- Pultec EQP-IA3
- Siemens V72 transformers
- SSL 9000 K compressor
- SSL G384
- SSL X rack
- Unfairchild 670M II
Software
- Acustica Purple 3 HLF
- Brainworx console SSL 9000 J
- Brainworx Vertigo VSC-2
- Dyn3 De-Esser
- Eventide H910 Dual Harmonizer
- FabFilter Pro DS
- FabFilter Pro MB
- FabFilter Pro Q3
- Izotope Neutron
- Izotope Ozone 9 Imager
- Klevgrand Knorr
- Kush Audio Omega 458A
- Liquid Sonics Seventh Heaven
- Plugin Alliance Amek EQ 200
- Plugin Alliance Maag EQ4
- Plugin Alliance Shadow Hills Class A Mastering Compressor
- Softube Tape
- Sound Radix Auto-Align
- Soundtoys EchoBoy
- SSL Native FlexVerb
- Steven Slate Trigger 2
- UAD Empirical Labs Distressor
- UAD Fairchild 670
- UAD Pultec Pro Legacy
- UAD Studer A800
- UAD Teletronix LA-2A Gray
- UAD UA 1176 Rev A
- Valhalla Vintage Verb
- Waves API 550A
- Waves Q-Clone
- Wavesfactory Spectre
- Wavesfactory Trackspacer 2.5
5
9 reviews
V
VictorMiranda • Monday, April 29, 2024
joerainey • Thursday, March 14, 2024
Great guy! Really interesting stuff, with very good explanations! Highly recommended!
m
marco bailo • Thursday, August 31, 2023
por favor subtitulos, gracias.
1
Santiago Sposto • Wednesday, August 30, 2023
This was awesome, thanks Chris!
Benoit@ • Monday, August 28, 2023
Very good!
e
eslynton • Sunday, August 27, 2023
Nice job thanks Chris.
1
TonySollazzo • Saturday, August 26, 2023
Hi Chris - I don't know if you read comments but thank you, there were lots of things to learn from and just a few to mention: in ep1 32:40 I was surprised how effective trackspacer was; ep2 16:50 expander on sub of bass to boost/heftier kick worked great and was not a thing I'd thought of; and ep3 24:00 listening to the automated stereo width from the Amek was subtle but really effective. Also, in ep3, at 3:30 BVxxx tracks have RX8-MDc in filename, I'm guessing that is Mouth DeClick, wondering if that was all RX was used for? Thanks again, cheers, Tony.
T
TheGhost • Friday, August 25, 2023
Chris Tabron does an excellent job of articulating his mix decisions. He is an brilliant educator and I hope he does more videos in the future. Ghost.
andrew.r • Friday, August 25, 2023