Grammy winner Mick Guzauski opens up his final mixing session and gives you a look into how he polished Pharrell's production on the hit "Gust of Wind" featuring Daft Punk.
Hear how Mick worked layer by layer to bring this song to life and gain insights on how a multi-platinum engineer takes a great sounding production and turns it into a hit record.
Mick shows you the process he goes through when receiving a session that already has a strong creative vision and plugins in place. See how he thoughtfully adds sonic details, respects the artist’s vision and still takes the song to another level with his mix.
With this Inside The Mix tutorial, you’ll learn how Mick:
Sets up the session to work efficiently on his control surface
Processes every element of the track adding the perfect amount of color and vibe
Uses groups and sub mixes to create a cohesive tone for the instruments and vocals
Tightens up the entire mix using subtle bus processing
Please note: This tutorial does not include the multitrack stems as per the artist’s request.
00:00:07 Hi kids!
I'm your substitute teacher today.
00:00:10 And you know with a substitute,
you could get away with a lot more
[Beep] than normal.
00:00:15 Today we have a very nice song.
00:00:17 I want to go through a lot of things
about this mix
and mixing in general,
I think it will be
interesting and productive.
00:00:24 So try to listen!
What we have today is the song
"Gust Of Wind"
from Pharrell Williams' album "Girl"
out in 2013.
00:00:34 This project, and this song especially
from the project
is probably one of my favorite things
I've worked on in recent years.
00:00:42 So first we're gonna play
part of the song
so you can hear the mix.
This is the same mix that's on the record.
00:00:48 Then we'll go through the parts
and we'll break it down
and I'll show you the reasons for
some of the decisions made in the mix
and how this was put together.
00:02:35 So... When I get a session to mix,
more often than not a Pro Tools session,
it's usually sent to me with a rough mix.
00:02:46 In the case of Pharrell's, the rough mix
is very close to what he wants.
00:02:50 I'm just supposed to enhance it,
and not really change...
00:02:53 change the vibe of it.
00:02:55 I add effects, and spatial things...
00:02:58 sometimes little balance changes,
but mostly the rough is a good guide.
00:03:04 Sometimes they just go ahead
and there's no rough,
and we go from there, but... I have
to work in certain parameters on this.
00:03:12 Let's look at
this group of drums and percussion.
00:03:16 We have kicks.
There is 3 tracks of kick,
an 808, and then
kicks with two different sounds.
00:03:22 There's a snare.
00:03:24 There's a bunch of percussion tracks.
00:03:27 And a few clap tracks.
00:03:29 And they're all on one VCA,
so if you mute this,
all the drums mute.
If you change this volume,
all the percussion and drums
change volume with that.
00:03:39 And on a surface that you can spill,
you attention that VCA,
and all those tracks will spill
right in front of you, so you can
individually control them.
00:03:49 Now, you want in a mix
a little better control
than just all of drums and percussion
on one fader,
especially in a song like this
where the rhythm is so important.
00:04:01 So you see each of these tracks
—the kicks, the 3 kick tracks—
are sent to "kick sub."
The snare tracks are sent to "snare sub."
Everything else in the kit
is "percussion sub"
and the claps are "claps sub."
So there's a VCA that controls all those,
but then down here,
there are audio submasters
that control those four different
elements of that group.
00:04:28 So once you get
the correct balance in the group,
there's plenty of control down here
to control it within the mix,
without ever going back to the
individual tracks. But if you need to,
—if the console can spill—
all you need to do is
attention that VCA
that I showed you before,
and all the member tracks of that
will spill.
00:04:47 And I am set with a spill over
the audio subtracks,
so I can go within that group,
adjust anything I want,
then turn it back off.
And I have my whole song,
all the sections,
within these group faders.
00:05:00 And you just look at it as every group
of instruments is treated like that.
00:05:05 And all these group faders
—the group Auxes—
are assigned to a mix bus,
a stereo mix bus,
and they come back
to another Aux down here
called "Master."
And on that bus, we have a compressor,
we have an equalizer,
we have another equalizer,
and we'll get into why
I have two equalizers in there.
00:05:27 And then, a final limiter.
00:05:30 And I have a VCA controlling
all those audio subgroups
so I can adjust how hard
I hit that Master bus,
and how much
I have the compressor respond.
00:05:40 Then that bus is assigned to a track,
and that's where the mix lives,
that's where the final mix is done.
00:05:46 Now these Aux busses—or subgroups,
whatever you want to call them,
in this particular song,
there's 12 of them—
are also assigned to the mix bus,
which is the stereo mix bus.
00:05:56 So you'll see a little Plus sign
next to the assignment.
00:05:59 They're also assigned to a stem...
a stem bus.
00:06:03 So there's a Kick stem,
each one will have a different stem bus.
00:06:06 There is 12 hidden stereo tracks here
that are the stem tracks.
00:06:11 After we have the stereo mix,
after we have the record done,
we make stems, so parts of the song
can be used for live performance,
things can be removed
for different advertising TV purposes.
00:06:22 We have a good breakdown of the mix
—the same breakdown as we have
on the subgroup faders—
on 12 stereo audio tracks.
00:06:29 So we don't have to go back
to the multitrack
and do everything else.
The mix will play these 12 stereo tracks,
and it's the mix.
Minus the limiter, of course.
00:06:37 One other little point
I want to go through on this is that
since we're using—on the Master bus
we have a compressor,
we have two equalizers and a limiter—
we don't want to think about the
compressor or the limiter on the stems
because it's gonna dynamically respond
differently to each stem,
so it'll change the mix,
it won't be the same mix.
00:07:01 But when I do stems, I always take...
I just Option + drag
the two equalizers
—in this case there's two—
I Option + drag them to every subgroup
so when I make the stems,
it has the exact same EQ
that the Master does.
00:07:17 So if you play back all 12 stem tracks,
and put
that compressor and that limiter on,
you will have exactly the Master mix.
00:07:26 You know, as a mixer when mixing a song,
the songs that are easiest
and most fun to mix are the songs
that I or any mixer
has an emotional response to.
00:07:38 Because we can adjust the rhythm
where it seems like we accentuate
or help make it
a little easier to move to.
00:07:47 And then we can create a space
for all the different sounds to live in,
to be an interesting spatial environment,
and we can use rides
and subtle dynamic moves
on each group or each instrument to
—I wouldn't say
create emotion of the song,
but take what exists there
and enhance it a little bit.
00:08:06 It's like one of the senses you develop
as a mixer is...
00:08:10 Ok, I respond to this song.
What do I respond to?
And how can I present this
that will make more people respond
emotionally to it?
I think that's really the key
to what mixing is.
00:08:24 The rhythmic elements of the song
are the drums, bass, and guitar.
00:08:28 I've been really trying to get
the right perspective
to get the...
to make you want to move with that.
00:08:33 The pianos, the chordal things
in the right spot,
so they can generate a feeling.
00:08:38 There's all these other synth overdubs,
which you're really not even cognizant of
but they play a really important part.
00:08:46 I mean,
who really hears that in the song?
But the pulse is there.
00:08:53 I mean, if you'd took this
and mixed it up too loud,
it would have sounded pretty ugly.
00:09:02 Or too low...
00:09:06 It sounds a little empty.
00:09:07 This is the brilliance of Pharrell's
production on this.
00:09:10 There's always little subtle things,
you know as a mixer,
you kind of put them in the right place.
00:09:14 Now he has them pretty right
in his rough, and everything, but...
00:09:19 I guess it's a mixer's ideal to just...
a mixer's job to just
make sure the perspective is right there
to really convey the artist's idea.
00:09:29 But let's go back to...
00:09:31 to where I started on the mix,
with the drums, bass, and...
and piano.
00:09:38 I'm gonna show you
some of the processing we used,
some of the ways to get the sounds.
00:09:42 This stuff
all sounded very good coming in,
so there's not really
that much processing on it.
00:09:47 We will start with those two kick drums.
00:09:51 There's one kick drum...
00:09:56 There's the other kick drum...
00:10:04 You have that 808
on every other downbeat.
00:10:07 Ok, so let's go to the first kick.
00:10:11 Most of the punch is coming from there.
If we bypass these plug-ins...
00:10:22 So this plug-in here...
00:10:24 This is just operating
as an equalizer, really,
just adding a little top to it.
00:10:29 And a little low-mids.
00:10:43 I wanted
a little more punch out of this kick,
so I added this to it.
00:10:47 This is the SPL Transient Designer,
a plug-in version of it.
00:10:51 And what this does is
when you turn this towards Attack,
it emphasizes
the leading edge of the waveform.
00:11:00 It boosts the attack, the beginning
of the envelope of the signal,
so you get a little more of the punch,
a little more
of the leading edge of the sound.
00:11:10 Headphones Recommended
It's sort of subtle, so I'm gonna switch
back and forth with it running.
00:11:18 Headphones Recommended
But the reason for that is...
Here's the second kick.
00:11:31 Not much attack at all.
And this helps it punch through.
00:11:39 That helps the two sounds
marry each other
and sound like one nice big kick.
On the second kick...
00:11:44 I accentuated the low end
just a slight bit
with this Pultec plug-in.
00:11:49 When you both boost and attenuate
the low end,
it gives you a boost,
and then a cut above it
and then it comes back.
So you can boost the really low stuff,
and then it'll cut a little bit,
and then come back up,
so the muddy stuff right below the low
end is actually attenuated a little bit
when you boost the low end.
And then I added a little bit of 3K,
just for a little more of the click
of that kick to add to the attack.
00:12:14 So I'll play the two tracks together
without the EQ on the second one.
00:12:29 A little bit of bottom to the kick.
00:12:31 And the next thing that's processed...
And that is the snare.
00:12:37 This existed on the rough mix,
and again it sounded good,
so I didn't change it.
00:12:42 I added a little lower mid-range here
on 2, 2.5,
and a little bit around 1.5 here,
through the mid-range of the snare,
and looks like a tiny bit of top end,
so it just gives a little more air,
a little more attack.
00:13:04 And then on top of that,
I did pretty much the same thing
as the kick,
I used the SPL Transient Designer.
00:13:12 So let's listen without that.
00:13:14 Headphones Recommended
Now that's pretty subtle out of the mix,
but I'll show you basically what this
does. Let's exaggerate it a little bit.
00:13:44 Or if you go the other way with it,
if you want less attack on an instrument...
00:13:55 This plug-in really has to be used
judiciously, because...
00:13:58 it really messes with stuff
if you really take it too far
from what it originally was.
But just a little bit goes a long way.
00:14:06 It just really defines
the track in the mix.
00:14:11 So... We have another... An 808 kit here.
00:14:18 A little Roland 808 tom there,
and no processing.
00:14:21 It didn't need it.
00:14:23 Here we have a Cymbal.
00:14:27 Same thing. Fine. Like it is.
00:14:29 Here's a reverse cymbal swell.
00:14:36 Same thing.
Now here's the hi-hat coming up.
00:14:39 Very, very subtle amount of EQ on that.
00:14:41 I just added a little bit around 15k
to give it a little air.
00:14:45 And there's probably...
not even too many playback systems
you're gonna hear much of a different
sound on that, but... Here it goes.
00:15:08 A little hi-hat roll there.
00:15:20 So any of those are the elements that
make up the drum and percussion track.
00:15:25 As you see,
there's not too much processing.
00:15:27 So really the most important...
00:15:29 the most important thing in the mix
about these tracks is their proportion,
and where they sit,
where they're panned,
and what their balance is.
00:15:37 Anyways, here is... Here is
all the drum and percussion tracks,
everything we heard together.
00:15:57 Okay.
00:15:58 Now next, let's go to the clap tracks.
00:16:00 They were in there.
They definitely are the...
00:16:03 largest part
of the backbeat of this song.
00:16:08 So the Claps,
there's the SSL Channel on them.
00:16:11 Mostly the EQ...
So we've been adding about 7dB at...
00:16:14 —what is that?—8k shelf,
to add a little air on those claps.
00:16:24 Ok, that one's not too subtle.
00:16:27 Then there's these other two clap tracks.
00:16:38 Now, one thing I wanted to show you
about these clap tracks
is this is the first instance here
in the session
where there's processing
on the group where they return,
on the submaster aux.
00:16:49 So here we have claps.
On all the claps...
00:16:52 there is this equalizer
that's just removing low end
because they're live claps,
there was some room rumble,
and that's basically
what's taken out there.
00:17:02 This is mostly operating as EQ.
00:17:06 There is a compressor that brings down
the initial
high-level attack of the claps,
and lets the ambiance come up
so you can hear
some of the ambience in the mix.
00:17:17 And there's reverb.
00:17:18 Most of the times,
I use reverb on a send and return
but in the cases where a group
is just basically one sound,
it's just easier
and uses less system resources
to put the reverb plug-in
right on the Aux
and adjust the mix from the plug-in.
00:17:36 So in this case, I did that.
00:17:38 So I'm soloing the claps. One little
note I want to make here is that
I have all the Auxes solo safed,
so I can solo individual instruments
in the group.
00:17:48 If I had these solo safed
and not the groups,
then soloing your group would solo
everything within the group.
00:17:54 So... We want to be able to break
it down a little further than that.
00:17:57 That's why it's set up this way.
00:17:59 A lot of times
when the mix is almost done,
I'll change it—where I could solo
the group—once I'm really happy
with the balance
of each thing in the group.
00:18:09 I take away everything here...
00:18:15 Now some of this stuff
existed in the rough...
00:18:18 the Renaissance Channel...
These 3.
00:18:21 That's the Clap sub,
without any processing.
00:18:37 All that does is remove some room rumble
down at the low end.
00:18:42 This...
00:18:44 This plug-in is another EQ
that did exist there.
00:18:47 It looks like it's just
pulling a little out around 4k
to get rid of some of the harshness
of the claps, or whatever, with that.
00:18:53 The compressor... We talked about that.
00:19:07 See, by compressing,
we're bringing down the attack
at the front part of the claps,
where the most level and
the most density of the room sound is.
00:19:15 That's being compressed down,
and as the compressor releases,
and the gain comes up,
it's bringing up the room.
00:19:21 Which is really
what we need in the mix to hear.
00:19:23 You don't want to hear a dry clap!
This doesn't sound like anything.
00:19:27 The Multiband
I'm not sure what that was for.
00:19:29 That existed in there too.
00:19:31 Let's check that out.
00:19:42 It looks like that's being used
as compression mostly in the high end.
00:19:46 It is probably
helping the room ambience.
00:19:54 Yeah!
Then the last one is because
even with that amount of ambience,
the room wasn't really
speaking enough in the track.
00:20:02 We wanted to hear
a little more ambience on the claps
so we put this Altiverb in here
with a medium-large room.
00:20:17 It's a little deeper room,
a little stronger than just using
the room ambience.
00:20:21 But it attaches nicely
to the real ambience.
00:20:25 It sounds pretty realistic.
00:20:27 Ok, so I'll play the track now,
with and without
that last reverb we added.
00:20:53 It just melts the claps
with the rest of the track.
00:20:57 Ok. Next, we have the bass.
00:21:00 There's two basses in this song.
00:21:03 This is the main bass here.
00:21:14 And...
00:21:21 Just a little 16th note groove in there,
but it helps.
00:21:34 Okay!
So those are bussed together.
They make up the same part.
00:21:39 And on the Bass...
00:21:41 we have another Pultec EQP-1A
and if you look,
it's the same kind of deal.
00:21:46 Boosting the low end
and attenuating the low end,
which gives you a low end boost
and a little cut in the muddy region
of like 150-200,
and then another boost at 3k
just to get a little attack.
00:22:00 And that's all we did to the bass.
00:22:21 Usually, in addition I would be
compressing a bass a little bit,
but since this is
a sample of a live bass,
and not a live played bass,
dynamically it's very consistent, so
we don't need any compression on it.
00:22:34 Now we'll solo just the bass and drums
so you can hear both these elements
with the processing they have.
00:22:52 So that's where we are
with the drums and bass
and I'll bypass all the plug-ins
so you can hear them
without any of the processing.
00:23:21 All the processing just gives
a little more punch, a little more color,
it makes it a little more vivid.
00:23:26 Next, we're gonna go to the pianos.
00:23:30 We have two electric pianos.
00:23:52 One that's a line,
the other one is playing
an octave and the downbeats.
00:23:57 And there's an acoustic piano
in the Intro sections also.
00:24:07 See what he plays over here,
this is different in this.
00:24:22 Ok.
So let's look at the processing of this.
00:24:25 They all have
pretty much the same curve...
00:24:30 —minus that low cut there
on that Rhodes—
of each other,
which is just a high shelf,
just to brighten them,
and make them a little clearer.
00:24:39 The two Rhodes's have this plug-in,
which is a widening plug-in.
00:24:44 It does that by filtering
a band of frequencies to one side,
then an adjacent band to the other side,
then it just...
00:24:53 It's just like
taking some of the low end there,
then the next frequencies up over there,
and it generates stereo from a source
that isn't that wide...
00:25:04 in the frequency domain like this.
00:25:06 There's another way to do it with phase,
but you have to have some width
in the signal in order for that to work,
so we did it with these, because they did
a little better widening with this signal.
00:25:17 Ok, so I'll play the piano parts
with those plug-ins on them,
and then we'll bypass them
so we can hear the difference.
00:25:37 I used this widening plug-in
on the pianos
because I didn't want them
to clog up the center.
00:25:42 They needed to be pretty predominant,
but I wanted them to be more of
a feel on the sides in the stereo field
to leave
the center opened for the lead vocal,
which needed to be very focused,
the bass, the kick and the snare,
which needs to punch
and needs to be
very direct and right there.
00:26:02 So I wanted to move the other instruments
out of the way of that,
and that gives a nice stereo width
and a nice spread,
and it keeps things clear.
00:26:38 I know we started on the guitars before,
but let's get a little more
into that group of instruments now.
00:26:44 You heard this main rhythm guitar.
00:26:50 That pans like this.
00:26:52 And the nice thing about this is
when you put the other guitars in
—now these are all going to
the same guitar group—
whatever other part is going, you ear
gets sort of pulled to the movement,
to that panned guitar, so you never
really lose that main rhythm,
even when there's other licks going on.
00:27:12 The parts he does really complement each
other too, it's very well arranged...
00:27:16 This is Brent Paschke, the guitar player
on all the Pharrell's stuff. He's great!
And this...
00:27:53 Now all these guitars have been
processed together as one group,
since all their sounds
really work together perfectly.
00:28:01 So I'm gonna bypass everything here,
and we'll go through the plug-ins
so you see how this is all processed.
00:28:20 Ok, so that's with none of the
processing and none of the plug-ins on.
00:28:23 The first plug-in is a Sansamp,
which is a guitar amp simulator.
00:28:28 We're just using it to add a little
punch in the mid-range and a little grit,
a tiny bit of distortion.
00:28:33 It should still be clean guitars,
but it's giving a little bit of character.
00:28:37 So here's this.
00:28:59 Let's put the Sansamp back in,
and let's listen to this equalizer too.
00:29:04 As you can see, it's cutting off
a little bit of the low end,
and boosting some highs,
and a little bit of a peak here,
and then a shelf,
and you can see
a little bit of a dip here,
around 3.5-4k,
just to smooth things out,
and not quite as harsh.
But here we go with the equalizer...
00:29:50 Ok, let's move on to the compressor.
00:29:53 Let's play the same passage
with the compressor.
00:30:31 The reason for compressing this guitar
is all these parts work together
as one group of instruments in the song,
and it just seemed to work better
if it was more level dynamically
rather than one adding a lot of level
to another one coming in,
it just seemed to feel better with it
all sort of melted together like that.
00:30:52 The settings are a fairly fast Attack,
so we're not getting
a lot of the transient through,
it's clamping down right away.
00:30:59 Release is moderate.
00:31:01 So it'll release along with
the release of the guitar,
and just sort of
bring up the tail end of the notes.
00:31:08 The main thing is
it's reacting to that rhythm,
and the other guitars
sort of fit between it very nicely,
rather than ride over it.
00:31:18 Ok, Compression ratio is at 12:1.
00:31:20 It's a pretty hard ratio.
00:31:22 That means for every 12dB change
going in above threshold,
there's 1dB change coming out.
So it's holding it pretty tight.
00:31:30 Next thing we have here—now this
existed on the original session—
is the Multiband EQ.
00:31:37 And what it's doing is it's boosting
the upper two bands of it
to make it a little brighter.
00:31:53 But it's also clamping down a little bit,
so it gives it a nice edge,
but the edge doesn't get harsh,
because when there is a lot of energy
up there, it brings it down a little bit.
00:32:03 And then very last is a reverb,
the EMT 250.
00:32:08 We're at 0.8 seconds,
a really fairly short decay time,
just to give the guitars
a little bit of room sound.
00:32:15 In this case, I didn't put FX sends
on the original guitar tracks
and a return, I just inserted this
in line, since all the guitars
I wanted to have the same amount
of reverb send processing on them,
and this is a little easier to do
if you're doing that.
00:32:29 I'll first play it with it.
00:32:49 I just want to play you the whole track
with this reverb bypassed
and without it bypassed
so you can hear how the guitars fit
in a nice space with it on.
00:32:59 They don't really sound wet, you won't
really notice it being wet in the mix,
but it sounds like
part of a whole environment,
rather than a guitar dry in a recording.
00:33:40 Now let's go on to
the synthesizer tracks here.
00:33:43 In the mix, there's some
very little FX on them.
00:33:46 The arrangement of them, and the sounds
programmed are perfect for the track.
00:33:53 Really not too much done on these,
but I'll play you the parts
so you can really hear how this works.
00:33:57 This is pretty amazing
what Pharrell did.
00:34:00 First, on the Intro...
00:34:07 And on all the Intro parts.
00:34:09 But you're not really
cognizant of hearing it in the mix,
but if you take it out,
you'll hear it missing.
00:34:16 So here we are without it.
00:34:32 The next part I want to play you is...
this.
00:34:43 In the B sections, those two synths.
And in the track...
00:35:02 Very nicely reinforcing the piano part,
and giving a little edge.
00:35:55 That's really a great keyboarder,
this synth really complements the song.
00:35:59 Again here, I'll play the B section
to see if you can make out
each part separately here.
00:36:39 Now you've heard them all separately,
I'm sure you can hear them all in the mix,
but the first few times you hear it
you don't really
notice there's all that much going on,
but it just sounds nice and big.
00:36:48 Really great production he did on this.
00:36:52 He made my job easy!
One more thing I want to play too
that's really in the back here
is there's this sampled Gospel choir.
00:37:05 And this...
00:37:25 That's their perspective
in most of the song.
00:37:28 Very, very subtle.
00:37:29 And after we go through another section,
I want to show you one part
where that's sort of featured.
It works very interesting.
00:37:37 I'll tell you
the little story behind that too.
00:37:40 There is no processing
on the Keyboard bus.
00:37:43 On that EZ Rider sample,
there is a filter,
filtering some top end out.
00:37:49 And there is a EchoBoy
doing the repeat on it.
00:37:53 And...
00:37:55 On the big synth, a sort of raw,
deep sound in the choruses,
in the B sections,
EQ'ed with a little high end shelf.
00:38:04 And...
00:38:07 I don't know what you would call it,
it's called a Weppa...
00:38:14 That has EQ on it, and it has...
00:38:18 the EchoBoy,
again repeating the 8th notes
—16th and 8th.
00:38:23 And other than that,
there's nothing on the keyboards.
00:38:25 But there are on a couple of them
later on, and I'm going to show you.
00:38:29 Let's go on to the strings.
00:38:31 There is live
and sampled string tracks to this.
00:38:36 Here's the live strings in the intro.
00:38:47 Here is the sampled strings in the intro.
00:38:56 Together...
00:39:08 Here is the live strings in the hook.
00:39:21 And then
there's another set of sampled strings
that come in
in the second half of the hook.
00:39:40 So that's the string parts for the song.
00:39:44 On the top live strings,
there is a filter,
an equalizer cutting off
some of the low end
—since this is a live one—
to get rid of some of the room rumble.
00:39:52 And then a little top for definition.
00:39:55 There's a peak here around 5k,
and then a shelf starting just below that
but extending out.
00:40:02 And this is a compressor on the strings
just to keep that even in there,
and since they're live
and there's some dynamics in there
that all wouldn't cut through evenly
in a track like this,
so there's some compression
just keeping them even.
00:40:16 Ok! The compressor is set...
00:40:18 a fairly fast attack,
and a fairly fast release here
—1ms and 50ms.
00:40:25 A 2:1 ratio,
so it's not a really hard ratio.
00:40:29 For every 2dB change in, you get 1 out,
which is really enough for this part.
00:40:34 We didn't want it like... make it sound
like an exact sample everywhere
and really crush it, but...
00:40:39 we just wanted to keep that
dynamically in the track.
00:40:43 It's a sort of general compression.
00:40:54 Ok. The processing on the String bus,
on the subgroup,
is just reverb—Altiverb again.
00:41:00 And rather than being one of their rooms
that they provide which are great,
I wanted something a little bit brighter
and a little...
00:41:08 just to be a little tighter in the mix,
not really a real space.
00:41:11 So I have a mix of my own
Impulse responses for Altiverb,
which is very easy to do.
00:41:17 And this is a sample
of the old Eventide SP2016.
00:41:21 The real one, one from the 80s,
not any of their later imitations,
so it's a very special sounding reverb,
it's really nice,
and it just has
a nice shape to its decay.
00:41:31 So this is a sample of
a fairly short 2016 2.4s stereo room.
00:41:36 It's a very bright and short reverb.
00:41:57 I just want to play you this section too
so you can hear the higher part.
00:42:11 So there's a nice sheen
on top of it without EQ.
00:42:15 Now I'll play it in the track, with
and without it, both those sections.
00:43:00 The live strings are...
00:43:02 —I'm not sure exactly
who conducted everything—
it's Hans Zimmer's people,
with who Pharrell works with a lot.
00:43:08 He did the live strings, and then
he did the keyboard strings.
00:43:12 And they mix really well together!
That pretty much
takes care of the track.
00:43:18 Let's look at the vocals a little bit.
00:43:20 In different sections of the verse,
B section,
wherever there's a single vocal,
you see them recorded on separate tracks.
00:43:26 Sometimes there's a slight overlap.
00:43:28 Sometimes it's just a reason for having
a slightly different amount of reverb
on different lines.
00:43:35 So we have the A section of the verse.
00:43:59 Now, notice where it goes here
to the B section of the verse.
00:44:05 It's a little louder, and a little wetter.
00:44:07 That's deliberate.
It's just a little lift there.
00:44:09 So you notice the reverb level there,
and then on that next track.
00:44:14 So it's nice that
these lead vocal tracks are split up
because each of them can have
their own little space to live in.
00:44:20 They sound just slightly different
from each other.
00:44:22 As far as processing...
00:44:24 It's...
00:44:26 A compressor, which is
a fairly mild compression on it.
00:44:31 These compressors on the lead vocal
were there when I got the file.
00:44:35 They sounded good,
they kept everything in place,
so I just left them like they were.
00:44:40 There's also an instance of AutoTune
which isn't really doing much,
it's just...
00:44:45 sort of keeping it in the center
—for the pitch.
00:44:47 There's very slight action on that
so you don't really hear it.
00:44:51 And let's look at the processing
on the lead vocal coming back.
00:44:55 So here's the lead vocal group.
00:44:59 There is EQ.
00:45:00 A sharp cut for getting rid of subsonics,
mic pops, anything like that.
00:45:04 A little boost for warmth
and a boost up there for air.
00:45:09 A compression.
00:45:10 A medium soft knee. Compression is 3:1.
00:45:22 Looks like a maximum about 6dB.
00:45:23 That compressor I've put on there
to keep everything solid in the track.
00:45:27 And then after that,
we go to a de-esser.
00:45:36 So it's just gently attenuating
with these S's, probably 3 to 4dB.
00:45:41 And then the old multiband.
00:45:49 That keeps it nice and bright
but brings it down
before anything will get harsh
when it reaches Threshold
on the top end.
00:45:55 And that's pretty much it.
00:45:58 As far as... the echo sends
there are on the vocal...
00:46:04 We have two sends on most of the vocals
going to one reverb and one delay,
and I'll show you
what they are in a second.
00:46:13 On this one, you see they're going to
two sends over the same reverb.
00:46:17 That's because one of them is automated
so we can have a base amount of reverb,
and then what we need when the other one
comes on and adds some to it.
00:46:25 We could have done it
just by automating one,
but in this way,
it was just sort of easier
because we have the amount here, and
we set the amount in another section.
00:46:34 This delay just comes on this word.
00:46:39 Just on "Yeah!"
So that's what that does.
00:46:48 So you saw earlier on the subs
like on the guitar sub, on the string sub,
there was reverb in line,
with the mix just set on reverb...
00:46:56 —between reverb and dry—
because everything assigned to the subs
I wanted to have the same treatment.
00:47:03 Now on the vocals,
as I've showed you before,
there's slightly different reverb
on different tracks,
there's delays automated,
a slightly different delay
on different tracks.
00:47:14 So each of the track has a send to...
00:47:17 to the Pharrell...
The lead vocal ones...
00:47:21 See there is the delay
for that "Yeah" at the end.
00:47:25 Here is a vocal reverb.
Here is another delay.
00:47:29 And those are being fed from sends,
and notice all of these are
being bussed back to the Lead Vocal Sub.
00:47:35 So the tracks are sending to these FX,
the tracks are feeding the sub,
and these FX are coming back to the sub.
00:47:42 So when it goes into that Stereo sub,
it has all the FX
in the proper perspective.
00:47:46 If you want to see what this is here,
the delay is EchoBoy, 1/4 note.
00:47:54 The reverb is...
00:47:57 the 2016 Eventide again, the Altiverb,
it's slightly longer, 2.8 instead of 2.4.
00:48:03 And actually,
it gets chopped down a little bit,
so it's even a little shorter.
00:48:09 And... Delay 2 is...
00:48:13 a 1/8th and a 1/4, left and right.
00:48:17 That takes care of the lead vocal.
00:48:19 The group that says Background,
which is...
00:48:22 it's a little bit of a misnomer there,
because it's a lot of doubles,
unisons—4 tracks of unisons—
some backgrounds and leads, but...
00:48:34 Now you see the word Air
in all of the B sections
has repeats, and you see those open up,
automated on these tracks.
00:49:03 And the other tracks
just pretty much stay
with a little bit of delay
and a little bit of reverb.
00:49:08 Here is the B section vocals
with their effects.
00:49:31 So that's what that does, and...
00:49:33 Down here where those FX return...
00:49:37 Notice the "Air."
This one is "Air delay",
that's what we're using on that word
—an EchoBoy.
00:49:43 But it's also being sent back
to the reverb, and quite a bit of it,
so that delay is nice and wet
in the stereo perspective.
00:49:51 Ok, so also in the chorus there's only
other than all those stacks
of voices of Pharrell,
there's a pair of vocoder tracks
from Daft Punk, the Robots tracks.
00:49:59 So they are...
00:50:16 It's a pretty interesting vocal
to work with, isn't it?
Anyways, the only thing I'm using on that
is just a little bit of EMT 250.
00:50:24 1.2 seconds in line,
just to give it a little space.
00:50:28 But in the last chorus...
00:50:36 On the Robots track,
and on Pharrell's track,
a Flanger comes in,
just on the last chorus.
00:50:44 I play you the second chorus.
00:51:09 So there's something a little different
happening in the last chorus there.
00:51:13 The other section
I wanted to show you here was...
00:51:16 Remember earlier I showed you that
very faint Gospel vocal
and that vocal sample there.
00:51:21 There's a section here that was
originally going to be a rap first.
00:51:25 But nobody found anything that would work
and it was going to be left instrumental.
00:51:30 So what we did is...
00:51:32 we took that EZ Rider vocal
and the Gospel vocal
and turned them way up.
00:51:50 I'll play it to you again.
But the effects we used on it...
00:51:54 There is Altiverb, but now we have
the King's Chamber of the Great Pyramid,
which they actually have
a impulse response of,
with a 12.2 second decay time.
00:52:06 And then that's going through the Imager
to widen it out.
00:52:10 Coming back to the Vocal Bus...
Or the Synth Sub—that's where it's in.
00:52:15 And then, it's also feeding a Flanger.
00:52:18 So we have the reverb coming back widened
and the reverb coming back flanged.
00:52:39 I think it creates a nice,
mysterious effect in that section.
00:52:42 I'll solo the two elements so you can
hear what everything exactly is,
which is this EZ Rider vocal,
and the Gospel voices.
00:53:05 I'll play it a little bit first,
and stop it so you can hear the reverb.
00:53:17 The King's Chamber!
Anyways, I'll mute those sends so you can
hear it without any of the FX.
00:53:25 In the track.
00:54:13 And notice that when that section ends,
the FX returns are muted
so it comes in nice and dry
when it hits the next B section.
00:54:22 Now the Background Vocal Sub.
00:54:25 We have... EQ adding air
and removing some low end,
and a couple of little tweaks
in the mid-range there.
00:54:33 A compressor, again.
00:54:37 I also have a doubler, which...
00:54:39 This fattens
the background vocals up a little bit.
00:54:43 And... A De-Esser, and a Multiband.
00:54:47 Pretty much the same FX as the lead vocal,
but adding the doubler to it.
00:54:52 So we don't have to go
and solo each one of those.
00:54:55 The Robots...
00:55:04 There we're using a UA 1176 plug-in,
and it's just doing to keep
those vocals like this,
solid in the track.
About 5 or 6dB of compression.
00:55:13 The 1176 just has the right character
for that kind of thing.
00:55:17 And then after that... This plug-in.
00:55:21 It's a very interesting plug-in,
this is from McDSP, the AE400.
00:55:25 It's a parametric equalizer/compressor.
00:55:28 If you look at it, it's very similar
to a Multiband Compressor,
but rather than crossing over
into a band and out of a band,
and it compresses in this band,
you set it like a parametric equalizer,
and when it goes above the threshold,
within that band,
it attenuates that band.
00:55:46 This is nice for...
when there's a fairly sharp peak
and you can find
the center frequency of that,
the Q of it,
and have it dynamically respond to it,
where a Multiband Compressor
would be more...
00:55:58 That you want it to respond
to a wider trough,
to more of a range of frequencies,
rather than this one ring or resonance.
00:56:15 And then the next plug-in is just an EQ
adding a little fatness down there,
and a little air way up there.
00:56:22 So...
00:56:24 Let's go to that. Let's go to
one of the ones without the Flanger.
00:56:30 Ok. Here is the Robots with no processing.
00:56:33 But they still have the EMT 250 on them,
it's on their own track.
00:56:39 So let's go through that first.
I'm gonna take that off.
00:56:42 Ok. So here it is dry.
00:57:07 Ok, that's the reverb that's on them.
00:57:11 So next we go through a compressor,
the 1176.
00:57:14 I'll play it first half without it,
and then with it.
00:57:34 We're getting a lot of gain
out of that compressor too.
00:57:37 The next thing is the AE400,
this is gonna be very subtle.
00:57:43 First half without it, second with it.
00:58:01 This is getting a little of the sibilants
out, and there's a peak in there
that gets a little harsh around 6500,
so it just pulls that out when it needs to.
00:58:08 If I EQ'ed it out,
it would get a little dull.
00:58:11 With this,
it just grabs it where it needs to.
00:58:13 So that's what that does.
00:58:15 That parametric equalizer
just adds a little air on top
and a little fatness at the bottom.
00:58:21 Let's hear it without it first half,
then with it second half.
00:58:45 So the last element of this mix
I'd like to talk about
is the processing on the stereo bus.
00:58:51 All those subs are mixed down
to a stereo bus here.
00:58:55 The first thing on the bus is a compressor
—the UA model of the Neve 33609.
00:59:00 The second thing in there is
the Sonnox Oxford EQ.
00:59:05 The third thing is
the Universal Audio Massive Passive.
00:59:09 And the fourth thing is
the Fabfilter Pro Limiter—Pro-L.
00:59:15 I'll play it with
all of the stuff in the chain right now
for just a few bars.
00:59:57 Ok. So let's put the compressor in.
01:00:19 It's a little gentle compression
to keep it tight.
01:00:21 Medium Attack, slow Release.
01:00:23 And it's adding a little gain too
as you can hear.
01:00:26 Next thing we're gonna go through is
the Oxford EQ—the Sonnox EQ—
which is doing a very low frequency
12dB per octave at 20Hz cut,
just to keep subsonics out.
01:00:39 It's really not affecting
the program much.
01:00:42 And we have a little boost,
this is pretty much inconsequential here,
a half dB, at about 2k,
a little under 2k.
01:00:51 A tiny boost, about a half dB.
01:00:53 A tiny boost at... a little above 4k.
01:00:56 As you see, it's giving
a little hump here. And then a shelf,
starting way down at about 2300, so...
01:01:02 Look at the mid-range and the top.
I'm putting a little hump in the mid-range
and then a shelf straight out.
It'll just brighten the mix a little bit.
01:01:25 So it just adds a little presence,
and a little brightness.
01:01:28 Notice how subtle that EQ is.
Here is a half dB,
here's a third of a dB,
and here is 1.3 dB. That's the most
we have there, and it's audible.
01:01:38 Now the Manley Massive Passive.
01:02:00 Now this equalizer has a slightly
different sonic character than the Sonnox,
and what I'm using it for is
notice at 27kHz,
a very broad shelf,
quite a bit of boost.
01:02:11 So the boost is happening
way, way, way up there,
but since it's a very shallow shelf,
it's affecting the extreme top end,
so, say up at 10 or 12k, it's starting
to take off
and this gives us
a really nice sheen up there.
01:02:25 Below that, we have at 2.2k
a little boost, very broad.
01:02:29 This adds
a little presence in the mid-range.
01:02:32 Below that,
there's a little bit of cut at 180.
01:02:35 That's the frequency
—180 to 250, in that area—
where things
get a little woofy and muddy.
01:02:41 So when the whole mix is together,
I usually pull
just a little bit out there,
just to clear it up a little bit.
01:02:49 And then another shelf
way down at 47
just to give it some weight.
01:02:55 The Manley Massive Passive
is good at that.
01:02:58 And yeah, basically
I love the Sonnox in the mid-range,
and for a shelf start,
and for a little bit of a shelf.
01:03:05 And then for the very top end
and the very bottom, I like the Manley.
01:03:08 So that's what that does.
01:03:10 And then the Pro-L is a peak limiter.
01:03:13 So we just have it there
to get more apparent level
by cutting the peaks back.
So here is what that does.
01:03:37 See by compressing those peaks down
maybe 6dB,
it's really not affecting
the punch of it too much,
but we're getting
that much more average level
to make it competitive
with what's on the radio.
01:03:47 That's just a decision
of how much you want to use.
01:03:50 You can lose a lot of the dynamics,
and the crack, and the punch
and have it incredibly loud,
or you can have it incredibly dynamic,
but the average level will be very low.
01:03:59 So it's just finding
the right compromise to use that.
01:04:03 So, on the stereo bus,
on the Master bus in a mix,
I don't put it in all at the end
or at the beginning.
01:04:09 I usually start with this equalizer.
01:04:12 Once I get a balance on the track,
I try to do an average EQ
that'll pretty much work with that
and sound about right.
01:04:19 And then as I put more elements in,
I just keep tweaking this.
01:04:23 Then once it's pretty full,
and there's not gonna be much more
level or much more energy coming at it,
then I add the compressor and set that.
01:04:32 And then I just do a little icing
on the cake with the Manley,
and I get the level with the limiter.
01:04:38 But this stuff is getting continuously
adjusted through the whole mix,
it's not
a "set it and forget it" thing at all.
01:04:44 Like I said I start with the EQ,
I add compression,
maybe in some songs
I might have the limiter on first.
01:04:50 It just depends what I want to hear,
and the settings of this
probably get tweaked and built around
more than anything else in the mix.
01:05:26 So on a song like this
that's incredibly well written,
and incredibly well arranged and played,
the job of a mixer I think
is to enhance,
not to try to change,
not to try to put our personality
over what the artist is trying to do.
01:05:43 I think it's just trying to enhance
and make the whole product
a little more palatable and accessible
for the public.
01:05:49 And I'm sure you noticed
as when we went through,
turning
some of these plug-ins on and off,
there wasn't a huge change.
01:05:56 But collectively, I hope that it really
enhances the song to the listener.
Once logged in, you will be able to read all the transcripts jump around in the video.
Mick Guzauski has won 9 Grammy Awards and mixed over 27 #1 hits. Mick is considered one of the top mix sound engineer and mixer in the world.
Mick's love for both music and technology started when he was in high school. Growing up in Rochester, NY where there were no nearby commercial studios so Mick put together his own studio in parents' basement with equipment that he had begged, borrowed, built, repaired and modified.
In the early '80s, Mick worked with Maurice White and Earth, Wind and Fire at the Complex owned by George Massenburg (the father of parametric EQs in case you did not know...). "Being around George was a great learning experience in both the art of recording and in audio technology," said Mick.
Then in 2013, Daft Punk was looking for an engineer/mixer to team up with on their fourth studio album and at the recommendation of mutual friend Mick got the call. Unlike most dance albums, the sound of Random Access Memories is completely organic and incredibly dynamic (and fat!)
Mick is actually well-known for his natural and organic sound. Have a look at his pureMix videos and pay attention to his subtle eq and compression move. Whatever he does, it always sounds unprocessed, real and sweet to the ear.
With their thoroughly modern disco sound — a blend of house, funk, electro and techno — this French duo were one of the biggest electronic music acts of the late 1990s and 2000s. Guy Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter wore shiny droid costumes at every live show (and only allowed themselves to be photographed in said costumes) but their music was only sometimes robotic: Daft Punk were as influenced by rock bands like AC/DC as they were by classic disco acts.
With their thoroughly modern disco sound — a blend of house, funk, electro and techno — this French duo were one of the biggest electronic music acts of the late 1990s and 2000s. Guy Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter wore shiny droid costumes at every live show (and only allowed themselves to be photographed in said costumes) but their music was only sometimes robotic: Daft Punk were as influenced by rock bands like AC/DC as they were by classic disco acts.
Parts of this site and some files are only accessible to pureMix Pro Members or available to purchase. Please see below our membership plans or add this video to your shopping cart.
It perfectly explains all the "little flavors" that make Pharell's music so unique. Diverse claps, barely heard background synths, automated delays on single phrases... Great stuff Mick!
Romowings90
2022 Jan 27
Added small details and it all made a huge difference at the very end. Thank you for the amazing video!
greatfox
2021 Jun 17
Mick is probably my favorite mixer of all time, and he really seems like a great guy too. I'd love to just be eavesdropping in the back when he does a mix. I agree with people below, the guitar is so great sounding. I bet on the strings they had the synths as a guide track and then they added the real strings and just left the synths in for more texture.
nicola.l
2021 May 24
He is great! He does a lot of small things that do a lot of difference! Love the guitar sound! Love the piano with the widener!! Amazing :-)
glassheadaudio
2021 May 07
this is my second time watching.. tons of good info and an excellent insight into some pop production.
Pisko Music
2021 Feb 19
Mick is GREAT!!! Only thing is da artist didn't let us have da stems, how can we practice then???
yasin.k
2020 Dec 30
Very nice video but the recording quality is so high that it has to do very little
I would be happy if more homestudio recording mix videos come :)
yasin.k
2020 Dec 30
Sehr Nettes Videos aber die Aufnahme qualität ist so hoch das er sehr wenig machen muss
würde mich freuen wenn mehr homestudio Aufnahme Mix videos kommen :)
bassmothership
2020 Aug 22
No offense, but Mr. Guzauski our "substitute teacher", teaches way better than the regular one. Great vibe and humor but most importantly NO TALKING between A/B comparisons. It's extremely annoying and counter-productive listening to Fab talking while I'm trying to focus on the differences between the examples. Why do they still keep doing that?
Sandy Groove
2019 Nov 04
Thanks for sharing the experience! It's quite a big honor for us! Bless you Mick!
kuldeepnc
2019 Oct 25
That vocoder gave me goosebumps
runtelldat
2019 Jul 29
Wow - Mick is the truth! What a humble cat with a lot of knowledge. I really like his work smarter, not harder approach.
Douglas Shibata
2019 Jul 22
Is a great honor can see Mick works, awesome job. Tnks Puremix
mrntp
2019 Jan 13
What people need to understand is Pharrell is such an incredible producer/arranger, there isn't much Mick needs to do. And what he does is subtle but always audible and always adds a certain something to the track. He lifts it up. The rough tracks however are full and lush and everything is where it needs to be. If you get anything from this, understand that arrangement of instruments and layers of sounds is equally as important as your mix engineer. Mick seems like such an enthusiastic, happy guy and I respect and appreciate anything he has to say. One of the greats!
MarcoPolo
2018 Dec 23
Nicely paced walk-through of a really well-crafted production. Thanks, Mick! I enjoyed watching.
Komi
2018 May 05
Thanks! Great work all
jdavis49781
2018 Mar 09
Great video!! I love your passion and enthusiasm you have for your job. Very inspiring! I learned a lot! Thank you
duages
2018 Jan 05
What keeps the planet spinning ? (hu)
Mick Guzauski :)
Really Good ! Thank you !
pbails
2017 Jul 17
The large number of clips labelled "bip" on such a well-produced song is encouraging to those of us who can't afford a lot of outboard instruments.
Chrisdmcc
2017 May 08
The arrangement on this is insane. Perfect and just allows a mixer to not worry about fixing anything.
jayhelmus@gmail.com
2017 Apr 25
Love Mick!! One of the best! He radiates positive vibes and I love that about him!
miromackie
2017 Apr 12
Mick is the best!
stevesideas
2017 Apr 07
Thanks for the video. Very informative. So, I'm guessing, the reason you are using different EQ's, compressors etc for different tracks is because some compressors and EQ's are better for specific sounds or is it because if you used the same EQ and compressor plugins the track would sound less interesting ? Each plugin has it's own sound to give the overall mix a more interesting feel...
nightfilm
2017 Apr 04
Really well explained, loved this
rickdrumss
2017 Mar 19
i loved this way of mixing!! thank you Mick!
fangjin
2017 Mar 14
I like Mick!
I like the video.
Thanks.
SPORT
2017 Feb 25
No sidechain compression between kick and bass?
Clair de Lune
2017 Feb 24
I want to give him a hug
LSDXERXES
2017 Feb 14
The great thing is that I'm not only learning the mixing! but also get the idea of the arrangement!!
butlerbob
2017 Feb 05
Amazing video. Great info from Mick, and amazing to see a Pharrell produced session. Was really cool to see so many Logic stock .bip files in the session such as Liverpool Bass. Just a great reminder that it's not what you use, it's what skills you got! Thanks
davidkane
2017 Feb 01
Quel beau travail! BRAVO!
paolon
2017 Feb 01
Well this Video is more a look into Pharells awesome Production and thats great! The actual Mix happened before i would say and Mick only enhanced it really well!
Anyway a good video.
Richard Boyer
2017 Jan 16
You have wonderful ears thank you
LewisMe
2017 Jan 13
An amazing tutorial, loads of knowledge from the source.
Apparently the song is mastered there with the plug-ins?
SamuelHenry
2017 Jan 13
Loved it! Thank you very much!
jockees
2017 Jan 06
AMAZING
Richard Boyer
2017 Jan 03
You have ears of a GOD hahahaha
cfoggin
2016 Dec 31
When you send this for mastering do you keep ALL the Master Buss plugins ON?
ViciousLullabyz
2016 Dec 29
Hey Guys
What is the command Mick uses at 23:10mins to bypass ALL the plugins in ALL the channels.
No combination of cmd+shift+alt seems to do it and i can't find it on the avid forums.
Any help/input appreciated! ;)
Might even be a macro, i don't know.
B4Lasers
2016 Dec 26
GOAT.
nzwilson
2016 Dec 15
très intéressant et instructif
THX ;)
JASONFASHE
2016 Nov 30
M A E S T R O !!!
thyeks
2016 Nov 27
This Tuto is sooooooooo greaaaaat ! nice.
thyeks
2016 Nov 27
This auto is sooooooooo greaaaaat ! nice.
knobtwiddler
2016 Nov 23
These tutorials go above and beyond what I was expecting when I bought my subscription. I got a ton of notes out of that one and I can't wait to apply them. Guzauski is an outstanding mentor.
fedaroots
2016 Sep 25
Awesome. Thanks for sharing a real blockbuster song like this one! It's a production and mixing MBA!
Diegusva
2016 Aug 30
Amazing video!!! Thanks PureMix!!!
styner84
2016 Aug 25
Mick, you are just fantastic!
Producerpaul
2016 Aug 11
I'm sorry but this video did nothing for me. The mix is pretty much done. I don't know what "spill" means? I assume it means when tracks spill over into other tracks?!?
I'm very old school and this is not my kind of music, I'm a hard rock mixer.
He seemed to talk in circles to me, a little too esoteric.
And not to be mean, but the guy bugged me, I don't know why, but he did. Sorry to everyone who loves this guy.
surfz247
2016 Jul 30
How can you not like this guy? Amazing video! Very cool. Thank you!
Pablolach
2016 Jul 30
This mix is so inspiring and what a great song and arrangement, wow!
Thanks so much for show us this gem.
logic718
2016 Jul 23
Great job. Short and sweet and I dont feel like I'm missing anything.
I too would like to know what Mic and Pre Pharrell is using on this.
M.Y.
2016 Jul 23
It's incredible!
Thanks!
Kevin Gobin
2016 Jun 19
Excellent! Little goes a long way!
_francard_
2016 Jun 02
Awesome !!
Manley
2016 May 28
Wow Fantastic insight into serious mixes very interesting
One thing i would luv to see is production of sparse acoustic & vocal mixes & how to make them shine
drumex
2016 May 22
Awesome stuff guys!
gepe
2016 May 16
Really great one!! Any chance getting to know, what microphone/preamp Pharell was using for the lead vocals? ;-)
walt.trammell
2016 May 15
Great Tutorial! Really enjoyed it
Toddhotline
2016 May 12
Loved it gentleman! Thanks Mick. Your decisions are so tasteful! Subtle... yet they have great impact. Fab and Ben thanks so much! I love the entire mix breakdown especially with A-list artist's work (like Pharrell). Some mix sites show mix breakdowns but few with artists and engineers at the top of their respective game. Cheers!
danielteo
2016 May 05
thanks Pure mix, this tutorial was the winner!
Rems
2016 Apr 30
Bravo
Simon Blanco
2016 Apr 26
I don't know what's so important about reading every single parameter used in every plugin. Just listen to what it does.
Great video, great insight and.... wait, EQ3 used in mainstream productions? HERESY, HERESY I SAY!!!! :P
composermikeglaser
2016 Apr 18
Great video! It must be such a pleasure to mix music made by talented producers.
The resolution is a little wacky, as a lot of others commented on; not the end of the world.
I love the subtle additions Mick added in, yet he didn't touch the overall vibe of Pharrel's original vision.
Enhancing the details in a tasteful way, bravo Puremix!
Gary Leahy
2016 Apr 17
GOOD TUTORIAL. AS MICK SAID NOT MUCH PROCESSING DUE TO EXCELLENT TRACKING. A LESSON TO TAKE HEAD. i GAVE THIS A RATING OF 3 ONLY DUE IT'S POOR RESOLUTION. FAB, CAN THIS BE ADDRESSED ON FUTURE PRODUCTION VIDEOS THANKS
simplymuzic
2016 Apr 15
Great video, very insightful. Like others, I too experienced poor video quality. Please upload a hi-res version. I would love to re-watch it.
Also, what were the exact Altiverb ER/Tail settings? Like other tracks, it would have been highly informative to listen to the lead vocals without processing too, especially minus the reverb and delay. Vocals are the centre piece of modern pop productions and to me was the most important part of this video. I was waiting to hear about the decisions regarding the choice of reverb and how the amount was chosen.
Regardless, very good video!
leonhughes
2016 Apr 13
Great video. Posted on the forum too, not sure which is best. The thing that is missing for me is how Mick approaches his automation. There is detail on the broad stroke stuff, but not the realtime fader moves. I'd love to understand more about how different people approach this and at what point during the process they do it. There are different schools of thought on this and it would be great to learn how it is approached by different people.
69bluesman
2016 Apr 13
I love vids like this! To see all this broken down and just how subtle all Mick's moves are, really hammers it home that less is more. These tracks are all pretty pristine though...so that really helps. Thanks Fab and Co. for this one!
loki_s_anger
2016 Apr 13
Hi! Same comment / question as jmag02 : the video quality is really mediocre.
I can barely read the track/plugins names.
Did you change the resolution of the videos with the website update?
Cheers.
jmag02
2016 Apr 13
Stellar tutorial! Thank you to Fab, Mick, and Pharrell for giving us this opportunity to learn.
One question/comment: the video resolution seems to be lower than on previous PureMix videos. I'm connected via ethernet so I don't believe it's a buffering issue. Thoughts?
Soundsource20
2016 Apr 13
Absolutely great to hear how Mick has everything ready to go in one mix arrange window; from VCA's, busses, master mix to stems.
Also revealing to hear how efficient Pharrel works with truely easy and simple created sounds. But how Pharrel (and Mick) mix these simple elements with couple of high quality tracks, like great vocals, good recorded claps, a great merged kick drum sound and the ever soulfull strings, is even more revealing. What a video!
PageBoy
2016 Apr 13
Thank you for coming to PureMix! This was such a great tutorial to groove through. Great presentation. Thanks for sharing how the session was setup, and the VCA spill. Stellar.
