Mark Needham is a Grammy nominated and multi-platinum mix engineer who has a track record for not only mixing hit records but also working early in the careers of artists such as Fleetwood Mac, The Killers, and Imagine Dragons. See how he uses his custom presets and a creative workflow to quickly set up an effortless mix of a massive session with layer upon layer of production.
Absorb how Mark works on each element of the mix with full transparency. Like a game of chess, every move he makes has a purpose and sets him up for success later in the mixing process. Learn from Mark's intuition that comes from over 35 years of experience working with superstar artists such as Chris Isaak, Shakira, Moby, Pink, and more.
"It's Time" by Imagine Dragons is certified 3x RIAA platinum and was the band's first Billboard Top 40 single. The song blurs the lines between genres and epitomizes the band's mix of alternative rock and pop that focuses on deep bass, strong drums, and powerful vocals.
In this tutorial, you'll learn how to create epic sounding mixes that:
Identify and maximize the emotional impact and "hook" of a well written, recorded and produced song
Take an already powerful vocal performance to the next level with lead vocals that jump out of the speakers
Make a mix that's not just loud, but also punchy, clear and HUGE sounding
Use a blend of recorded and emulated ambiences to define the space for the entire mix
Quickly blend multiple kick drums and snare drums, combining several microphones and samples
Handle dozens of drum layers with clever parallel processing and channel strip plugins
Manage the low end information on not just bass drums and bass guitar tracks but also stomps, synths and room tracks
Combine keyboards, synths, electric and acoustic guitars that interweave and fit together like a sonic glove
Add the finishing touches to a mix with master bus automation and mix bus processing using multi-band compression and more
This is a unique chance to absorb Mark's unique mixing techniques and methods. Learn all the tricks he used to mix a hit song and then apply them to your own mixes!
PLUS you get access to the raw stems from the original sessionto practice and perfect all of the tips and techniques you'll pick up from Mark Needham and Imagine Dragons. Explore the tracks on your own! Please note: stem files are truncated and contain the un-mixed and consolidated wav files for every track in the original session from the intro to the 2nd verse.
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00:00:06 I'm Mark Needham.
We're gonna mix a song
by Imagine Dragons called "It's Time."
I'm gonna run through the process that
I did in 2009 or 10 when I did the song.
00:00:18 One of the first things that I would do
is probably
just take a listen to the rough,
to see where the band
left this song in the studio.
00:00:25 This is just an instrumental
with no vocals,
but at least it'll give me an idea
of the vibe that they were listening to
in the studio.
00:01:36 One of the things
I really love about these guys
is just their live show.
I'm probably gonna try to make this...
00:01:42 Right off the bat I'm gonna try to make
this sound like a big live feeling track.
00:01:47 I always like to have my tracks lined up
exactly the same way every time.
00:01:52 It just makes it so much easier to find.
00:01:54 Anything you're looking for,
I know right where to go to find it.
00:01:57 So the first thing I'll do is...
00:01:59 I'm bussing 3 kicks and 4 snares
to their respective channel.
00:02:04 I'm just gonna go through
and get a balance on those mics.
00:02:26 The Kick Out mic has a D112
just outside of the head.
00:02:30 That's this mic right here.
00:02:36 All that sub information
is a little too much for me,
so I'm gonna compress that
and cut a little of the low end
so it's a little more consistent.
00:02:44 I also hear–I'm kind of wondering–
sometimes I'm getting a big ring,
sometimes I'm not.
00:02:50 So I'm just compressing that
like... 4dB. A fast Release.
00:02:55 And I'm just filtering out a little
of the low end, like 38 or 40 cycles.
00:03:01 So that would be the kind of balance
I'd start with, with those drums,
and I'd just do the same thing
for the snare.
00:03:18 Doing the snare top
and the snare bottom mic,
whenever I go into this, I'm always
listening for phase on mics.
00:03:23 A lot of people don't.
00:03:25 They put a mic on the bottom of
the snare but they don't flip the phase
when they're recording on that.
00:03:29 If you put those two together, all your
bottom end is gonna go out of the snare.
00:03:32 All those are things to listen for
as you go into the drum mics.
00:03:52 I have two replacement tracks here.
00:03:54 I'm probably just gonna go
with this one on 7.
00:03:57 The other one is adding
a little more ring than I want.
00:04:18 At this point, I would start probably
just to put in some rough plug-ins.
00:04:23 I'd probably take those tracks
and hide them since they're bussing.
00:04:32 The kick drum. I'm gonna use
a few different plug-ins
that I'm gonna put on this,
which is gonna be an SSL...
00:04:40 As I work on plug-ins, I know...
this MN Kick Drum 1 is gonna be good
for this kind of a sound.
Here also I have a lot of those presets
that I've kind of saved.
They're good starting points for me.
00:04:53 You'll find I do this a lot
when I use an SSL,
I use a Neve, I use a Maag EQ.
00:04:58 I could do this all with one EQ
and probably come up with a result
that wasn't way different,
but I really kind of like
certain bands on certain EQs,
and that's what I'm gonna be doing.
00:05:08 I'm gonna put
a Fatso compressor on here.
00:05:17 I'm gonna put a Pultec.
00:05:24 And also this VEQ.
00:05:27 Let me turn these off for a sec.
00:05:36 I really like the 8K range
on this SSL Waves plug-in.
00:05:41 I use this 8K boost a lot
on a lot of different instruments.
00:05:45 Then I'm using the compressor,
with a fast Release.
00:05:48 I'm using the filter,
just to filter this...
00:05:51 just a slope down
from like 75 cycles down
so I don't get a big rumble-y kick.
00:05:56 And also I like this 50 cycle boost.
00:05:59 So I use a combination of the cut
and a bell-curved boost
to get kind of a fat bottom, but not an
overwhelming down in the 30 cycle range.
00:06:09 If I'm getting a little too much click
on some of the attacks of the kick,
if the guy is really whacking
every 4th beat hard,
I use this Fatso compressor.
00:06:19 On that I'm gonna set that filter
like at 400...
00:06:23 I'm gonna set, maybe a 30ms Attack,
and a super-fast Release.
00:06:38 Coming in like the first hit of these quarters,
it gets a little too sharp for me,
so let's kind of pull down
some of the top end on those.
00:06:49 I've always liked
the sound of the Pultec,
pushing that at 60 or 100 cycles
where you're boosting 3,
and also attenuating 3,
and that's a nice big kind of fat warmth
so I'm gonna do that.
00:07:13 The last thing I'm gonna do...
00:07:16 is I use this VEQ a lot to...
00:07:19 I like this 27 cycle filter.
00:07:21 I just have to be careful, I know
I'm gonna get a lot of information
that has a lot of big low end
when I get to this.
00:07:27 There's a lot of stomp tracks.
And I'm gonna be trying to get
a lot of low end out of those,
and just don't want to...
00:07:33 I want to be careful right off the bat
to not get a lot of rumble-y low end
and a lot of crap all the way across the track.
00:08:05 Sometimes I'll boost a little more
at 100 cycles,
or even at 330,
depending on the kick drum.
00:08:12 I'm just gonna use
this 27 cycle filter on it.
00:08:15 So I'll go from that.
I'll go to our snare...
00:08:19 Which is gonna be...
00:08:21 I will start with that one.
00:08:33 I use this 8K boost a lot
on this particular EQ.
00:08:37 I'm also boosting
like a bell at 200 cycles
just to get a little more bottom.
00:08:42 Again, that's just
kind of a starting point that I know...
00:08:45 Especially in this particular rock world,
I'll use this, my Mark Needham Snare 1.
00:08:49 That just worked on a lot of stuff,
and it's a good starting point for me.
00:08:52 So I'm boosting a little bit at 3K,
and quite a bit at 8,
and boosting at 200.
00:09:18 I have a fast Release compressor
like at 3:1,
and I might be
compressing down a dB or so.
00:09:25 That's a really soft compression.
00:09:27 And I pulled that 200 cycles back,
like a dB...
00:09:31 Sometimes I'll start at 8 or 9,
I'm back to about 7 or something now.
00:09:36 I'll probably try
a couple other things on this.
00:09:39 I want to hear this Maag EQ,
and I want to hear... Let's do this.
00:09:47 This Maag EQ...
00:09:59 2.5... I'll use that several places,
probably up a half a dB.
00:10:05 I don't hear like a big boost
in the EQ with this,
but it adds like
kind of a nice punch to me.
00:10:11 And I'll probably distort this snare
just a little.
00:10:26 I'm trying to add a little crunch,
and a little more sustain to the snare.
00:10:30 I'm always using like 3 parallel
compression busses on the drums,
which are doing different things.
00:10:37 What I'm gonna do is I'm just
gonna run through these compressors.
00:10:40 I'm using 3 different ones
that kind of do 3 different things
and add in some different amounts
of a little aggressive distortion.
00:10:50 This is an alternative rock track,
and I'm looking for pretty aggressive,
slightly distorted drums.
00:10:56 This is a Fabfilter Pro-C.
00:10:59 I'm using that with a super-fast
Release, really like 10:1 compression.
00:11:04 I'll use that especially on the snare,
and the hi-hat, and things like that,
to really... have a really tight smack
on the snare and the hi-hat.
00:11:15 I'm using another bus here, which
I'm just using on the kick and snare
which is a combination of 3 things,
which is the API 2500,
which I'm just using to compress down,
just on the kick and the snare,
about 2 dB...
00:11:31 along with a Variable Mu
set up in Limit mode,
that I'm using a super-fast Release on.
00:11:38 And then I'm using a Decapitator
that I'm probably pushing about
the Drive at 5 or so.
00:11:44 And that's just to get a little more
aggression on the kick and snare.
00:11:48 So that would be like...
00:12:21 I'm just setting those compressors
so the Variable Mu is maybe
coming down a dB,
the API 2500 about 2dB,
and then just pushing the Decapitator.
00:12:32 The kick and snare are both running
through those 2 chains.
00:12:35 The snare is also gonna be running
to a couple of different reverbs.
00:12:40 I'm gonna use this Ocean Way plug-in,
which is set up on Studio 2,
which is probably one of my favorite
rock rooms in the world.
00:12:47 I usually put the drums on that wall
and do re-mics back over here
when I'm over at EastWest.
00:12:53 I'll use a little of that maybe on
the kick–probably not the kick on this,
because I have
a lot of other roomier stuff,
but I'll use it a little bit
on the snare and on the toms
just to add a little extra life.
00:13:22 I'm just getting enough of that room in
to fill out just a slight stereo spread.
00:13:28 I'm not looking for
a huge room off of that.
00:13:31 Let me try this as well...
00:13:36 This ReVibe bright Ambience on the
snare here, I sometimes like as well.
00:14:01 So I'll probably use a combination
of that shorter and a longer one.
00:14:06 So, I'm not super happy
with the low end on this kick.
00:14:12 I might start for just a minute
with some of this,
a little of this R-Bass in there.
It's adding a little more sub information
that I might lose out
as I get more kicks in, we'll see.
00:14:59 What I'm doing is just trying to do
a little less compression on that kick.
00:15:02 He's really... There's a lot of dynamics
on this kick,
and when he's hitting it hard, I really
hear the bottom end compressing down.
00:15:10 Usually, I always have my kick drum
–because of these parallel
compression busses,
my kick and snare are gonna be
pretty low on the faders.
00:15:18 I always end up almost in the...
pretty close to the same spot.
00:15:21 I always start my kick at around
-28 along with these parallel busses.
00:15:26 I usually end up at almost that exact
same position by the end.
00:15:29 I try to really
not have creeping faders.
00:15:32 Usually at the end of my mix,
everything will be
generally
about the same as the starting point.
00:15:37 A lot of times I'm just stopping
and bringing some stuff down.
00:15:41 So the next thing I'll get onto
is the overheads.
00:15:44 And again I'm gonna just
kind of move through these pretty fast
and then we'll go back
and look at the whole drum chain.
00:15:52 I have kind of an overhead
–a couple overhead starting places
and we'll probably go with this one
which has
a little bit of a boost at 400,
and again this 8K boost up here.
00:16:04 We'll throw in a different compressor
instead of this one.
00:16:07 Let's go... an LA2A.
Let me just hear it on one cymbal.
00:16:33 On this I'm just boosting–you know,
I'm doing an 8K boost again,
I'm boosting also at around 400,
just to get a little bit warmer cymbals,
and not much compression
off the SSL,
but picking up a little more
with this LA2A,
compressing down 2 or 3dB.
00:16:48 I'm just gonna drag that exact same set
of plug-ins over to my other overhead.
00:16:58 And then I have a ride cymbal too.
00:17:01 On this ride, I have... I have a little
bit different setting that I like.
00:17:32 For the cymbals,
I'm gonna use these sends...
00:17:35 Just to...
2 of these parallel compression busses.
00:17:39 Then I'm gonna send that just...
00:17:43 to this one, which is what
I'm looking for, and where I have
the hi-hat, cymbals and snare.
00:17:49 That's a super kind of crunchy
mid-range compression.
00:17:52 And I will also be sending it to...
00:17:56 this one, which is a super hard,
saturated compression.
00:17:59 On this one I have–I'll go back to these,
but I have 4 things in a row
that are kind of getting
a fairly kind of crunchy,
compressed distortion on the drums.
00:18:09 So, let's see my level of those
against the kick drum.
00:18:24 For hi-hat,
I'm using a few different things.
00:18:27 I'm gonna put a tape simulator on it.
00:18:33 I'm gonna use an Omnipressor.
00:18:38 And I'm gonna use this SSL.
00:18:44 So it's gonna be a combination
of those 3,
I don't know how much of the hi-hat
is going to be playing here, not a lot.
00:18:54 Having recording on analog
for many years,
I kind of like what an analog–just
the feel of what an analog tape recorder
does to a hi-hat
with the tape compression.
00:19:03 So I'm emulating that a little bit
with the combination between this
and this Omnipressor.
00:19:09 So I'll set a super-fast Release.
00:19:33 I'm gonna send that to the same
two busses as the overheads are in.
00:19:47 I always put drums
drummer's perspective
since I was a part-time
guitar player and drummer.
00:19:54 I'm just so used
to hearing drums that way
that I have always been doing
my drums drummer's perspective
since probably the 70's I guess,
I've always done it that way.
00:20:06 Toms. Let's find some toms.
00:20:08 We'll keep going through these,
get the rooms,
and we'll go back to the whole set.
00:20:27 I was just listening for
the amount of cymbals
to see if I need to do any gating
on those, but they're not bad.
00:20:47 Mostly on this floor tom,
what I want to do is get a little
clarity on the top end and the attack,
but I don't want it to get ticky,
so I'm pulling the top end back a little bit.
00:21:21 So I'm gonna boost around maybe 5 or 6
a little bit for attack,
and probably about 1.8,
and picking up a little bit of bottom
around 90 or 100 cycles here.
00:21:33 Compressing very lightly
these two floor tom mics.
00:22:06 So that was 2 floor tom mics.
I just wanted to listen
what they were together
and make sure that–you know,
that they're not out of phase,
or otherwise sound rumble-y.
00:22:15 That looks like there is
an overdub set of toms as well...
00:22:19 Let's hear what these are.
00:22:31 That's just an overdub like maybe
another take of that same tom.
00:22:36 It's the exact same tom.
Let's pull that over.
00:22:40 I'm gonna use
the same overhead compression bus
on these toms as well.
00:22:48 I'm also gonna put
a little of that room
that's on 5-6, that we have the snare
going into. The Ocean Way 2 Room.
00:23:04 Let's drag that same amount
across the other ones here.
00:23:26 I'm gonna go on to these room mics
really quick.
00:23:28 I'm probably going to start with...
00:23:32 just a Multi-Band compressor,
just to pull down
a little of the overheads,
the big crashes in there, so I get more
of the actual room sound of the drums.
00:23:48 So that would be the first thing I do,
I'm just pulling down
those crashes 4 or 5dB.
00:23:56 Let's go this room here.
00:24:07 On this one,
I'm boosting a little bit at...
00:24:11 Around 1.8, about 6...
00:24:15 6K, and around 100 cycles.
00:24:18 Pulling back some 500 cycles.
00:24:33 Trying to warm up and keep
that kind of lower mids
really kind of booming
through this track.
00:24:39 There's a left and right room. Let's
just put that same thing on both those
and hear both together.
00:24:57 It's always good to listen both sides
of your pair of left-right room mics,
because sometimes one will be
a completely different microphone,
or EQ'ed weird, or a bad patch on
the compressor when they were recording.
00:25:10 Sometimes those can be wildly different,
but these sound like they're actually
the same, which is good.
00:25:15 So I have
another stereo pair of room mics,
I'm gonna listen to those real quick.
00:25:28 These are really compressed.
00:25:40 I'm just trying to compress
that cymbal down enough
so I can have the room mics loud
without just an overbearing cymbal.
00:25:53 These are
already compressed a little bit,
I'm putting just a little more
to even it out.
00:25:57 I want to be able to get
a kind of nice, continuous rumble
on those toms going.
00:26:09 Let me solo them together.
00:26:21 As you're going through
your overhead pairs, room pairs,
or if you have some mono rooms,
always listen as you're putting
those all together
or some of them together
that they're not out of phase
with each other
or out of phase with the kick drum
or the rest of the set.
00:26:33 A lot of times you'll hear
your bottom drop away
and you know something's out of phase,
or if you hear this kind
of weird stereo spread.
00:26:42 The middle sucks away,
you know something's wrong.
00:26:45 So I'll get those 2 rooms together.
00:27:09 Let me look at these mono rooms.
00:27:21 Same thing. I'm gonna put
this Multi-Band across all of those,
just again trying to keep
my cymbals manageable.
00:27:40 Good. And then this last one.
00:27:55 E-Series for these as well.
00:28:00 I'm gonna look for some more
kind of–instead of the 8K,
I'm gonna look for some more
of the mid-range in the 3 or 5 range,
and probably drop the low end more,
closer to 50 cycles
and really get some kind of
a little more aggressive
super bottom end, high end, upper mids,
down the middle on the mono mics.
00:28:33 Something like that, boosting
kind of around 4 or so,
and on the top at 4K. I'm gonna filter
a little of the bottom out at 50
and then also boost at 50 on the Bell
to get kind of a nice little curved bell
with a steeper roll-off
on the bottom end side.
00:28:48 Let me hear that across all 3 of these.
00:29:10 I'm gonna stay away
from the fast Release on this.
00:29:13 It's kind of getting that nice continuous
rumble with the Release back
on the compressor.
00:29:45 This room mic I hear
is out of phase with the other one.
00:29:54 If I put that out of phase,
I can hear the bottom again.
00:30:00 So the phase is rather on that one.
00:30:09 I want to hear this first mono mic
against the kick drum,
because it's out of phase with two
in a row, so that makes me suspect
that maybe it's out.
00:30:30 No, it's right,
the other two are out of phase.
00:31:08 You know, it's a good idea
to really keep an eye on the phase
is when, I mean, I see this with kick
drums, with room mics out of phase,
where people have
15 kick drums in the session,
and the kick is still barely audible,
and they have all these phase issues
and they just keep adding in
more and more subs
so they might get some real subs
on the kick
and maybe some top,
but most of the kick is missing
because it's just out of phase.
00:31:31 It was the case with those 2 mono mics.
We were really just losing
a lot of bottom on the toms,
on the room mics and on the kick drum.
00:31:38 I've got one last thing
in this first set of drums
which is–there's an actual
whole nother stereo drum track
that's just playing along with this
as well, along with these drums.
00:31:55 It's a stereo drum track pre-recorded.
00:31:58 I'm gonna do a couple of things on that.
00:32:00 I'm gonna do kind of the same thing
that I'm doing on that mono room.
00:32:04 I'm gonna make this super aggressive.
00:32:18 So I'm compressing that a bunch.
Let's see...
00:32:40 Let me try something else here.
That's not really killing me.
00:32:59 So I might do something like this.
I'm gonna put this Decapitator
and put the Thump function on,
which adds a little more of low end.
00:33:06 I'm just gonna roll
the whole top end back.
00:33:09 I just do a high cut on the Decapitator.
00:33:12 Let me just go back
to this whole drum set really quick.
00:33:15 Just get a better balance
and see how that other kit
is gonna fit in here, so I'm just
gonna mute the whole drum set again.
00:33:22 When we originally started here,
I just started with
my 3 kicks and my 5 snares.
00:33:29 I got a balance on those
that I liked.
00:33:31 That balance is not really gonna change,
so I'm just hiding those.
00:33:35 All the kicks are bussed
to the Kick return,
all the snares are bussed
to the Snare return.
00:33:40 So they're not part of
the actual drum group.
00:33:43 I just muted all my drums,
and I'm gonna start with the kick again.
00:33:46 The first thing I'm going to do,
I see my kick is getting
a little loud for me,
I can see already I brought it up.
00:33:53 So I'm just gonna bring that whole
drum group down a little bit
and just get started here, just getting
a balance between everything.
00:34:15 I want a little more crack
out of the snare.
00:34:20 I'm gonna use a API 560.
00:34:33 And I'm just pushing a little
at 4K with that.
00:35:11 I'm gonna call that whole...
00:35:13 That whole group will be 'Drum 1'
I guess here.
00:35:26 On to Drums 2! Like likely we don't have
like 80 tracks of drums on here,
but we've got a few more to go,
so I'm gonna mute those for a minute.
00:35:35 Let me see just what I have here.
It looks like I've got a few snares.
00:35:57 So I've got just one machine kick,
and two machine snares.
00:36:06 I'm gonna move
this original live kick down...
00:36:13 I'm gonna pull these across,
because I want to use something
pretty similar.
00:36:19 And I'll probably use the same parallel
compression busses that we see here.
00:36:26 I'm gonna pull that back.
00:36:28 We're gonna go to this kick drum
for a minute.
00:36:33 I'm gonna tone down that dead
high-end click on this one for starters.
00:36:37 Let me take the rest of these off
for a minute.
00:36:58 Here I'm going down like a couple of dB
with that Fatso.
00:37:32 Pick up a little more
50 cycles with this,
and the 27 cycle filter,
with this VEQ.
00:37:40 And I'm pulling down a little of this,
just around 300.
00:37:52 Let me hear that
with my other kick drum real quick,
and make sure everything
is phase-aligned.
00:38:42 Let me hear the snare,
just making sure that those...
00:38:45 what the phase was like
between those 2 kicks.
00:39:19 So on this I'm just picking up
a little of that 800 range,
just trying to get a little more
mid-range out of the snare,
but compressing it so it's not
getting too jagged.
00:40:04 I'm getting back to these...
These two kicks.
00:40:09 These are time-aligned together
so they're not flaming.
00:40:12 As I'm trying to keep
kind of a live feel on this,
the machine drums are actually
quantized in with the live drums.
00:40:20 I'm gonna usually go one to the other.
00:40:22 Sometimes I'll let the flams go,
sometimes the flam is a cool thing,
it's kind of a judgment
you've got to make song by song.
00:40:29 In this case, I know there's
a lot of tracks of stomp and claps
that are gonna go with this,
and so we're gonna get a lot of flaming
I don't think we needed to have any more
of that, especially with the bottom end.
00:40:41 Now we have our first live drum set
and our machine drums here.
00:41:21 There's a lot of tracks of
kind of stomps and claps here.
00:42:06 What I'm trying to do is just pick up
a little more warmth and bottom
out of these things,
and we're gonna make
a pretty big deal
out of these stomps and claps.
00:42:14 There's a bunch of them here.
00:42:17 I'm gonna drag this across
as a starting point here,
and then just go through all of these.
00:42:23 As I remember,
they're all pretty similar,
at least these sets of stereo,
or these first ones,
I think they're all pretty much the same.
00:43:02 And... This is next one.
Ah, snaps alright.
00:43:14 For the snaps, I'm just really
kind of pushing around 1500 cycles.
00:43:23 With the bell here.
00:43:27 Let me just take a listen to what
the rest of these stereo ones are.
00:43:32 I think we have 4 more sets of claps,
let me double-check.
00:43:46 We've got two claps.
00:43:55 It's another stomp there.
00:43:57 I'm gonna move these back,
sometimes they're not quite in order.
00:44:08 So that should be the same as this.
00:44:15 So I've got those...
We've got two snaps.
00:44:25 And I think we have 3 claps.
00:44:38 So I'm gonna look at these claps here
really quick.
00:45:07 So these claps
I'm gonna compress just a little bit.
00:45:10 I want to keep them kind of uneven,
I don't want them too even.
00:45:14 I'll do a boost again at 1.5,
but probably not a bell this time.
00:45:19 Just on both these claps to get
a little more clarity on them.
00:45:29 We have one last track, which is
kind of a combo track, I think.
00:45:50 Let's get a quick level on all of these.
00:46:29 Now we're gonna go on
to our next set of stomp and claps.
00:47:03 These are all stomps.
00:47:04 I definitely want a little more
low impact out of this batch.
00:47:09 Let's go to this R-Bass again here.
00:47:26 I want that, more of that
kind of energy on these.
00:47:36 Alright. And then, let's go...
00:48:09 I'm gonna try to push
a little more the bottom end
and make sure
I get enough mid-range on these
so they really cut through the track
when I get all this together.
00:48:33 This is kind of a really crushed
version of that.
00:48:47 I'm gonna put
a little less R-Bass on that one,
because it's getting pretty rumble-y.
00:48:51 Then let me see
what these last ones are.
00:49:02 I'm gonna drag this R-Bass
across those as well.
00:49:05 Then this whole group is gonna have
a lot more low end in it.
00:49:47 That will be our Stomp/Clap group 2.
00:49:50 And then we'll put all this together,
and hopefully we'll have
something close to a drum set here.
00:50:47 So again, just going to my Drum 1...
00:50:50 I was bringing my level down
overall on that
so I'm not, again,
giving too much creep.
00:50:54 Then we've got our Drum set 2
with that on the chorus here.
00:51:39 That will give us a general starting
point for our drum group here.
00:51:43 Let's go to our bass.
00:51:45 I just have a bass DI track.
00:51:51 We just have that one bass DI, so
what I normally do in these situations,
I mult that bass DI track
and I'm gonna make
2 separate amplifier chains out of it.
00:52:03 So I'm gonna use this B-15,
and I'm gonna make a couple different
amp chains here using that.
00:52:25 Also I'm gonna back to this SSL E again.
00:52:33 So I'm gonna push like around... 2.2,
around 8 or 900.
00:52:41 I'm pushing a little bit at 3,
and a little bit at 50 cycles.
00:52:45 Lightly compressing.
00:52:53 I'm gonna go back
to this amp for a minute.
00:52:55 I'm just gonna have the HI off,
and I'm using the Ultra-Low mode.
00:53:00 I'm using this for
like the low-end side of the amp,
so I'm not gonna go for
the super punchy top on this channel.
00:53:06 That's going to happen more
on the duplicate that I've done of it.
00:53:09 I'll end up with two bass amps
that I can alter,
and if I need
a little more top on choruses,
I can just kick that up.
00:53:16 So I'm pushing a little bit the top,
some mid-range on this, but not a lot.
00:53:26 I'm gonna use this Fatso again
to compress some of the top end on this,
so I'll go to...
like 280 on the high-pass filter.
00:53:34 I'll go again to 30ms for the Attack.
00:53:38 A fast Release.
00:53:46 I'm trying to tone down some of those
parts where he really attacks hard again.
00:53:55 We're gonna do this VEQ.
00:53:59 I'm gonna punch
a little bit more at 100.
00:54:03 And probably do this 27 cycle roll-off.
00:54:32 So I'm just pushing a shelf at 100,
and a little more at 680.
00:54:36 These are both a bit lower frequencies
that I'm doing on the E Channel.
00:54:40 I'm pushing a little more at 2.2,
just trying to get a little more pick
out of this low side.
00:54:45 I'm gonna pull this chain over
to what is gonna be
my higher end side of the bass.
00:54:52 The main thing I'm gonna do different,
I'm gonna take this Low off.
00:55:13 I'm pushing a lot more
the mid-range and treble.
00:55:15 I don't have a super low end on this.
00:55:18 I'm pushing the amp a little harder
so I get a little distortion.
00:55:31 My E will stay about the same.
00:55:33 I'm using
a little more compression on it.
00:55:43 Maybe I hear it more on the Fatso.
00:55:46 I'm just trying to keep this smooth.
00:55:48 On this V–on the high side–
I'm gonna do a shelf at like 330,
and then roll it off at 47.
00:56:31 I can go back and really adjust
the balance between those 2, depending...
00:56:35 you know, if I get a lot of stuff
with high-frequency information
and it's gonna start
phasing out the top end of that bass,
I can just add a little more
of the high side to punch through.
00:56:45 Drums and bass! On to guitars!
There's some acoustic guitars,
a mandolin part, a sitar part...
00:56:53 There's several acoustic things
which are actually gonna be
a pretty big part of this song.
00:56:58 Let's start with Acoustic 1 here.
00:57:09 That's a little boxy
and super-compressed sounding.
00:57:15 Again, I have a lot of presets set up,
so I have like probably
5 or 6 different acoustic ones,
that I kind of know
where I want to go with them.
00:57:43 So I'm just modifying that preset.
Not quite a bit on this one, but...
00:57:49 We're gonna do
a couple other things here.
00:58:02 I use this silverface a lot
on acoustic guitars
and aggressive stuff in rock music.
00:58:08 I had a lot of these
when I first started,
I had 2 or 3 rack units
and I kind of got used to the sound of them.
00:58:14 So we're gonna do that...
I'm gonna go back...
00:58:18 to this VEQ as well on this.
00:58:22 I'd like to get a little more sparkle
out of this guitar.
00:58:26 So I'll probably boost at like 15,
and maybe at 3.
00:58:45 I'm rolling off some at 45.
00:58:47 I don't need a lot of low information
on this type of thing.
00:58:59 I pull that Acoustic over to Mandolin.
00:59:02 I can use these same plug-ins.
I'll just modify them a bit.
00:59:25 I'm pushing some at 450 on this.
00:59:27 Pulling back that top a little bit,
but definitely pushing a little more
the warmth than I was on the acoustic.
00:59:33 And again
a slight compression with the 1176.
00:59:44 Not quite as much of that spanky top
as we had on the acoustic.
01:00:16 Let me get this mandolin and the AC
together, we'll make a group out of those.
01:00:22 Our next group of acoustic stuff I think
is a little more of a melody.
01:00:29 There's that melody that everybody
recognize when the song comes on.
01:00:33 I'm gonna drag these same plug-ins,
and I'm gonna use
some variation of these plug-ins
on all 3 of these.
01:00:39 I'm gonna start with this mando.
I'm gonna take these off for a minute.
01:01:00 So again I'm just adding a little at 450.
01:01:03 A little bit upper high-mids.
01:01:15 Now the 1176.
01:01:20 We don't need that VEQ on this one.
01:01:29 I'm gonna find my mandolin in the bridge.
Hopefully, it's pretty close.
01:01:39 Now that's back into
the strumming mando,
which I've actually had set up over here.
01:01:46 It's just another version of that track.
Let's take a listen to that.
01:01:56 I'm gonna move that one over,
'cause this is a strumming track
like the other mando.
01:02:16 I'm gonna change
this first group that I made,
since that's actually
kind of part of that...
01:02:21 first AC 1 group there.
01:02:25 There's a sitar and a mandolin
that are playing the melody
and those will be
our second kind of acoustic group here.
01:02:47 So here's just the sitar on its own.
01:03:02 I'm gonna keep that same start on the E.
01:03:05 I like that low end
and that kind of 450 thing on all these,
and a little of this top.
01:03:11 Let me see this compressor.
01:03:28 I'm compressing that
a little bit harder than the other ones.
01:03:31 I just want to keep
that rolling melodic thing,
which I think will
kind of smooth this whole thing out.
01:04:01 And I'm gonna use this
for just a little of this 3.3.
01:04:06 I'm gonna get a balance
between those and the mando.
01:04:35 It's a catchy melody.
01:04:37 We left off at electric guitars.
Here we go!
We've got a few different E-bows here.
01:04:48 I'm gonna pull out one of my normal
starting points for electric guitar.
01:04:53 I have a combination of 3 EQs that I use.
01:04:57 I might not use all of them,
but a lot of times I'll just start.
01:05:00 Usually, I find that
any guitar situation with these
I can kind of mold what I want.
01:05:05 Sometimes I'll swap one of these out
for an API 560.
01:05:10 So with this E-bow,
I'm probably gonna go...
01:05:14 I'm gonna use that 8K...
01:05:17 On this SSL again, which I like a lot.
01:05:34 And a little bit of compression on it.
01:05:37 And then, I use a Neve 1081
to push like...
I'll push a little at 1.8.
01:05:49 I'll probably push a little
the lower mids, like 400 with it.
01:06:01 And then this Maag EQ,
that I talked about earlier.
01:06:06 I really love this 2.5, I use it a lot.
01:06:09 Depending on the microphone
used on the guitars,
I use this Sub on the Maag EQ a lot.
01:06:14 If I don't have 2 mics, a ribbon
and a 57 or something, I'll use that
to get that bigger sound.
01:06:19 I'm not necessarily a big fan
of multiple mics on guitar cabs,
but if there isn't phase, it can be great
and this can emulate that...
01:06:26 that same feel of having 2 mics.
01:06:37 And then, I also use
this SPL harmonic generator a lot,
just to add
a little extra upper-end harmonics.
01:06:56 So, I only have 3 guitars on this.
01:07:00 So I'm just gonna drag those same
plug-ins across all 3 of those
and then go back and modify them.
So I have 2 E-bows.
01:07:10 The second E-bow
is a little bit brighter
so I'm gonna pull some top off of it.
01:07:31 Let me go back to this other E-bow.
01:07:33 The first one is in the verse,
the yellow ones are in the chorus,
and these get a little brighter, but...
01:08:11 And then we've got... like 5 pianos.
Some are doing some low notes.
01:08:17 I should go through the pianos
one at a time.
01:08:23 I'll probably start with this E again.
01:08:36 I'm pushing like 7, 1.8,
maybe 800 or so,
and I'm pushing
a little bottom at like 2.
01:08:45 And I changed the Release
to a pretty fast Release on this.
01:08:55 Let me find the other piano
that plays with that.
01:09:05 So we have a big low-end one here.
01:09:34 I think I have another octave here.
Let me check that out real quick.
01:09:58 I might drive that one a little bit.
01:10:00 Let me hear all 3 of these together.
01:10:44 Sorry, I forgot one guitar.
Let me go to the end here.
01:10:53 This is a super crunchy guitar.
01:10:56 I'm gonna pull this compression back.
01:11:12 I'm gonna pull that Sub back
on the Maag too,
'cause it's just getting really muddy.
01:11:27 So, let's keep going. Let me look at
these other 2 piano tracks,
and then we'll kind of judge
all these pianos together.
01:11:34 There's two more.
01:12:15 I'm gonna solo all these
and kind of get a blend of them here.
01:12:44 I'm just gonna reverse the pan
on these 2,
'cause they're both kind of left-heavy,
with the left hand of the piano,
so I'm gonna reverse those
to kind of double that.
01:12:59 We'll get a more of the feeling
of the low note being doubled.
01:13:02 And then, let me go back
to these last 2 tracks here again.
01:13:29 Overall, these pianos are pretty dry.
01:13:33 Here again, I'm gonna
try and keep with our big room.
01:13:52 I'm gonna just pull
a little bottom out of that reverb.
01:14:08 Soon we'll be at the point we guys
to go back to all this stuff
and make it sound like a song.
01:14:13 So I've got... Looks like...
01:14:15 Maybe 4 or 5 synths here.
Let me see what everybody is doing.
01:14:30 Ok, so that's a nice big heavy line.
01:14:33 Next thing I'm gonna do
is I'm gonna double that,
just to make it a little wider.
01:14:43 I need to push a little more the top
and control the bottom a little more.
01:15:18 I'm just gonna push a little the top.
01:15:20 Let me try like a little 800 here,
just to get that bottom.
01:15:44 We're compressing that a little bit.
Not a super-fast Release.
01:15:49 Trying to push some 800, and 2.5.
01:15:52 I think that helps to clear up
the bottom end
when you have a lot of low end.
It's something that'll help make it
really cut through the track.
01:15:58 And I think spreading the stereo is
gonna allow us to cut through the track
a little more
and be able to keep it down on level
but still hear it come in.
Let me see what these are doing.
01:16:17 Let's put a SSL on these.
01:16:33 So I'm gonna actually pull
some of that 8K off on both of these.
01:16:46 Let's throw a compressor
on both of these.
01:17:05 Not quite that much.
01:17:22 Something like that range. And then...
01:17:26 I'm gonna try this kind of filter
with delay on both these as well.
01:17:31 Maybe change it
a little bit on each side.
01:17:54 That still sounds kind of mono to me.
01:17:57 I'm gonna put another doubler
on the right-hand one of these.
01:18:01 Take the direct side off.
01:18:03 I'm gonna just use two delayed
version of it for every pitch.
01:18:07 Pitch it up and down like... I don't
know, 9 or 10, something like that.
01:18:34 Let me compress that a little harder.
01:18:53 Let's hear that.
01:19:05 Let me see what these last 2 tracks are.
01:19:38 I'm gonna compress these again like 3:1
and I'm boosting like at...
01:19:42 1.9 or 2K, something like that,
but filtering a little
of the top end off above that.
01:20:03 This one I get a little more string-like
by boosting at 8K.
01:20:06 Let me put these 2 together.
01:20:15 I'm trying to pick up the kind of high-
mid-range-y bell thing with that first one
by cutting some top end
and getting more of the string top
with the second more sustain-y synth.
01:20:48 We have a crowd right here.
01:21:01 It's the NFL cheering crowd!
Alright. Perfect.
01:21:05 You know, another thing
I'm just feeling overall on this track,
I'm running a stereo bus across
like all the instruments,
including my drum auxes.
01:21:16 What I'm gonna try to do
is even get this...
01:21:18 I still feel this needs to be like
kind of roomier and bigger overall.
01:21:22 So let me throw in another bus here.
01:21:26 I'm gonna throw something really big
like a stadium here.
01:21:29 Let me just hear this for a minute.
01:21:50 I'm gonna shorten that a little bit
and take some bottom out.
01:22:15 Let me go back to the top,
that might be a little long still.
01:22:53 I'm just trying to get a blend between
that mandolin, the sitar,
and these 2 synths.
01:23:06 That synth is still
really left-heavy. Let's see.
01:23:22 Alright.
Let me throw the blend of those in.
01:23:44 I'm kind of digging this stadium.
01:23:46 This isn't something
I would normally do.
01:23:49 Let me just hear it,
I want to shorten it up a little bit.
01:23:55 We're gonna stick with this reverb,
this big reverb on everything.
01:23:59 I kind of dig it.
01:24:00 It gives the track kind of like
a cool little wash, which is nice.
01:24:04 Lead vocal!
Hey! We're making progress here.
01:24:13 I have a kind of again a pretty standard
vocal chain that I'll put up.
01:24:18 I know I can probably accomplish
whatever I want with this.
01:24:21 A De-Esser. We're gonna do...
01:24:26 a Waves 1176. I take
that Noise thing off, which I hate.
01:24:34 We're gonna do a second...
01:24:37 De-Esser, and I'll show you why
I'm doing 2 De-Essers in a minute.
01:24:43 We'll do an SSL EQ, we're gonna do...
01:24:51 Let me go this Pultec.
01:24:55 Then I'll show you why I'm doing
all of these in just a second.
01:24:58 We're gonna put... Some people
may call this overkill,
but I used to do the same thing
when I was on a console,
I used every patch cord in the studio.
01:25:07 Again, you can accomplish
a lot of what I'm doing
without using this many plug-ins.
I just happen to...
01:25:12 I have things I like... the mid-range
of one EQ better than another.
01:25:15 When I have enough DSP Power,
I can put this stuff across 90 channels.
01:25:21 So the first thing I'm gonna use,
this Fabfilter De-Esser
I'm gonna set just like
in a wide band mode
and just try to hit
the really big kind of top.
01:25:41 Especially like that first line
of the chorus, it's always...
01:25:49 So with this 1176,
which I'm gonna set
Attack at noon, super-fast Release...
01:26:02 I'm going down to maybe 5dB,
I'm hitting this pretty hard.
01:26:06 So then this second De-Esser
I'm gonna set
as a pretty narrow band,
at about 6.5.
01:26:14 Let's go back to
"the city never sleeps" line.
01:26:35 So I'm just using that to catch
just some super high S's.
01:26:38 I want to be able to get enough
top end on this vocal...
01:26:42 That's really feeling
aggressive and clear to me, but...
01:26:47 without that,
those S's are taking your head off.
01:26:50 I'm starting where I usually start
this vocal EQ with this SSL.
01:26:54 Again, I like that 8K.
01:26:57 These 2 bands here,
I have one about 4, one around 2.5,
depending how aggressive I want
to push the mid-range on this vocal.
01:27:06 I'll use this start like, maybe
around 2dB.
01:27:10 So I'm gonna push a little at 8K,
a little bit at like 4 and 2.5.
01:27:15 I'm gonna pull back some 160.
01:27:19 And then I'm going to use...
01:27:21 I'm gonna use this Pultec at 100
to try to get basically a proximity
effect of the mic,
so you're getting that kind of
boomy bass,
so that really sounds
like he's singing right on the mic.
01:28:15 I'm kind of pulling back a little
on that one at 160.
01:28:18 I'm trying to get the feel of the low
end, without making the vocal too tubby.
01:28:27 I find sometimes this Maag Sub
does that in an interesting way
without getting
that kind of tubby... at 160.
01:28:41 That's kind of a nice feel
with that bottom,
so I'm trying to push that.
I might push a little my magic 2.5
on that Maag again.
01:28:53 And I'll probably push...
01:28:55 the Decapitator,
like on 3 or so on this.
01:29:06 I'll pick out a couple of reverbs.
01:29:09 I'm gonna do a combination of 2 reverbs,
one a little shorter, one longer.
01:29:50 I'm gonna use this 250 to just
kind of spread the vocal a little bit,
and feel like a little bit
of a stereo feel out of it.
01:30:08 I'm not sure about this reverb,
this longer reverb yet.
01:30:11 We'll see with the rest of the track.
01:30:31 Now our breaths are getting a little big
here too. Let me go back.
01:30:56 So I'm just toning
that compression down a little bit.
01:31:21 Let's leave that for a minute.
01:31:23 I've got some backgrounds here.
01:31:26 I'm gonna pull that De-Esser over.
01:31:32 I'm gonna pull
a few of these elements over.
01:31:35 Again, I'm pulling that Pultec over.
01:31:38 I'm not gonna have this
try to sound as close on the mic.
01:32:08 I'm using these 2 compressors.
01:32:11 I'm using this one
at a super-fast Release,
and a little harder compression.
01:32:16 I'm just trying to pick up
like 1dB of compression with this LA2A
just to really
kind of smooth it out a little bit.
01:32:36 Again, sometimes if I have something
where I know I've got 5 BVs
that are pretty much the same,
if I can get...
01:32:43 if I get one pretty close, I can just
pull them over
then jump through each one individually,
and we're gonna be pretty close.
01:32:48 It won't take us long to tweak.
So these first BVs.
01:33:18 A normal instinct would be to pan these
left-right from each other.
01:33:22 But I'm really trying to have
more of a live feel.
01:33:25 I'm gonna keep this vocal and its double
just off to the right a little bit.
01:33:30 Again, trying to keep
this more of a live feel
than a big production feel.
01:33:59 Again I'm just checking those
compressors, the De-Esser on those,
and make sure we're not hitting
anything too hard.
01:34:05 So there we have...
01:34:22 I'm just keeping these all right.
01:34:24 On this one,
we have a guy doing one line here.
01:34:37 Again I'm putting
a subtle De-Esser on all these.
01:34:40 I just don't want the S's to build up,
like I did on the lead vocal.
01:34:57 I'm gonna leave all of her vocals right
and then his one vocal–
he comes in on the other vocals
only slightly left, just feeling again,
going for the big band-type thing.
01:35:11 Let me look at a quick effect
on those as well. Not that.
01:35:24 Let's do that.
01:35:30 I was thinking about what kind of verb
I wanted to start with on these BVs.
01:35:35 Which I think will be just an EMT,
nothing too crazy or wild.
01:36:12 I'm just shortening that up a little bit,
pulling a little of the bass
out of the plate and a little more top.
01:36:40 And then I've got a gang.
01:36:52 I'll make this a little simpler here.
01:36:54 I'm just gonna go...
Let me go back to this vocal.
01:37:18 I'm just gonna go back to this E
which adds just a tiny bit of top end,
and, maybe a dB in these upper mids.
01:37:27 Not much at all.
And I'm gonna use a soft compression.
01:37:32 These are just duplicate tracks here.
01:37:35 That one and that one. And that one.
So those are all gonna be...
01:37:54 So those are all duplicate of each other.
01:37:57 Then these stereo tracks,
let me look at that for a minute.
01:38:22 These are all just in a room.
They are already pretty compressed.
01:38:26 I'm gonna put maybe
just an extra dB or so of compression.
01:38:29 I'm not really doing any EQ on this.
01:38:40 I'm gonna drop that
across these room mics.
01:38:44 These are all just
multiple passes of the same thing.
01:39:05 I'm gonna give you just a rough idea
of what my stereo bus chain
is gonna look like.
01:39:10 I switch this up every now and then,
because I get bored,
I want to change to something else.
01:39:15 Right now, this is kind of what I'm using
on the stereo bus channel,
which is like a lot of crap,
but I kind of like the way it's working.
01:39:23 Right now, I'm just gonna tweak.
01:39:25 So there is these compressors
I'm just barely hitting.
01:39:28 I'm just going to take everything off
to start with this Shadow Hills.
01:39:32 I'm gonna roughly set how I think
I'm gonna be using these compressors,
I'll have them pretty light right now.
01:39:44 Just doing the Optical side of this.
01:39:47 I'm gonna try to pick up about
a half dB, maybe a dB of compression,
just a real soft with that.
01:39:54 I'm also using a SSL compressor,
their stereo bus compressor.
01:39:58 I'm using it at a really fast Release.
01:40:14 Trying to pick up maybe an extra
dB or so of compression.
01:40:18 It's kind of a combination between
the Shadow Hills and the SSL
I'm really looking for.
01:40:23 Then I kind of massage them
when I really get all the levels up.
01:40:26 I use this K-Stereo a lot,
which I really like.
01:40:31 I kind of like the M/S gain on this.
01:40:33 This really gives
a kind of stereo spread
without really getting that phase-y
feel that lot of them get.
01:40:48 I'm gonna use this Maag EQ
to kind of just do a Sub overall
a little bit on this track.
01:41:05 I'm just doing that to kind of just
warm up overall the feel of the bottom.
01:41:09 I have 2 EQs that I use.
01:41:11 Either the Maag, or this Precision EQ.
01:41:14 I do a combination of those 2,
between top and bottom.
01:41:19 Let me hear this one.
01:41:36 Normally, I would probably push this 9K.
01:41:40 I'm gonna leave that flat for right now.
01:41:42 I'm pushing like a little extra bottom
at 68 with this as well.
01:41:47 At least the past year or two,
I've been using kind of a combination
of 2 analog tape recorder simulators
put together.
01:41:56 So I'm using this ATR at 15 IPS.
01:42:06 Sometimes I put this one behind it too.
01:42:15 I like the sound of these 2 together.
01:42:17 This Kramer head has kind of a nice
little crunch thing on the top end.
01:42:21 I don't always use it,
but I'll leave it on this time.
01:42:23 I use to have a limiter running on here.
01:42:26 That's one of the last thing
that I'll set,
after all the tracks
really have the levels that I want.
01:42:48 Be like maybe a half dB of limiting.
01:42:53 So this will be super subtle.
01:42:55 I'm using a Maximizer
to just elevate the levels.
01:42:59 I generally run my stereo bus levels,
without anything on it.
I'm running them pretty low.
01:43:12 It's maybe -8, or -9.
01:43:15 And then I'm picking up
with some final gain at the end.
01:43:18 Sometimes when it's getting
really hot on Pro Tools and everything,
sometimes it starts to feel like
the stereo field collapses to me.
01:43:27 I know that's just me, but...
01:43:29 I've heard other people
have the same feeling about it.
01:43:33 I have kind of rough setting
of where the Master is gonna be.
01:43:37 I just made a overall band group,
and muted everything.
01:43:43 Now I'm gonna just start
going through the whole thing,
and putting things up and really kind of
fine-tuning my levels from that point.
01:43:49 We'll just print the automation
across my basic starting point,
do some Master fader rides,
and then we'll go back and tweak stuff.
01:43:57 But I think we're getting close
and it feels pretty much like the song
running through.
01:44:01 I'm gonna go to a chorus here,
start bringing up my drums,
and just double-check all my levels.
01:45:40 In this process, I usually
turn stuff down, more than stuff up.
01:45:45 Usually, when I set my drum levels
when I first start a mix,
it isn't usually exactly
where they end up being at the end.
01:45:50 So if you can...
You know, just not...
01:45:52 get that fader creep
and make everything louder.
01:45:55 That's a really easy thing to do,
but if you try to hold back from that,
you should be able
to go through this pretty quickly,
and get everything...
make sure you're not burying stuff.
01:51:49 I'll do something like that.
01:51:51 Now I make a Master group here
for my Master faders.
01:51:55 I'll go through on the Master fader,
and just do a ride,
at sort of probably 1dB on the Intro,
I'll go down 1.8 on the verse.
01:52:04 Coming into the chorus,
I'm gonna swell a little bit
and then do a hard drop right to 0,
coming back just like a little re-Intro.
01:52:11 Coming back into the 2nd verse,
I'm gonna come back down.
01:52:13 Basically, I'm just gonna ride
the dynamics a little bit
and really make those choruses
really pop.
01:53:25 So we've got our Master fader rides in.
01:53:28 There's one last thing I want to check
on the stereo bus.
01:53:33 I use this Multiband a lot
to keep the bottom big,
but not get too big
on these kick downbeats.
01:53:40 Especially, you know,
as you go in the alternative rock world,
they just want the levels
like stupid loud.
01:53:46 You know, you have one giant kick,
and it's gonna just
completely destroy the track.
01:54:06 With that Multiband, I compress down
a couple of dB on the big hit.
01:54:13 This would normally be,
maybe a 2 and a half hour process for me
from beginning to end.
01:54:18 This is kind of where
I'd probably take a 10 minute break,
come back with fresh ears.
01:54:23 Generally,
that's what my mix would sound like.
01:54:26 This would be pretty close.
This is probably...
01:54:30 a half an hour away in tweaks
from where I ended up on the album.
Once logged in, you will be able to read all the transcripts jump around in the video.
Mark Needham is an L.A. based record producer and mixer whose credits include a diverse array of internationally recognized superstar artists including The Killers, Fleetwood Mac, Imagine Dragons, Walk the Moon, Shakira, Pink, Moby, Dolly Parton, Chris Isaak and many more.
Mark is currently working in his studio "The Ballroom" in Hollywood, California.
Needham is a self-taught engineer how manages to stay on top of all the latest technologies and music genres. His mixing style is very versatile and ranges from The Killers' rock sound to Shakira's modern pop music.
Mark recently migrated from a 100% analog setup to a 100% digital rig using 2 Ravens side by side.
If you watch Mark's pureMix videos, you will see that his decision making process is very fast and that he has no problem handling gigantic sessions with more than 200 hundred tracks!
Imagine Dragons are a Grammy Award-winning alt-rock outfit with a knack for crafting stylish, stadium-ready anthems as emotionally charged as they are radio-friendly.
In 2012, Imagine Dragons hit it big with the Continued Silence EP and their debut long-player, Night Visions, the latter of which debuted at the number two spot on the Billboard 200 and landed the group multiple awards -- it later went double platinum in the U.S., largely on the smash success of "Radioactive," which became the biggest-ever digital rock track in America.
Imagine Dragons are a Grammy Award-winning alt-rock outfit with a knack for crafting stylish, stadium-ready anthems as emotionally charged as they are radio-friendly.
In 2012, Imagine Dragons hit it big with the Continued Silence EP and their debut long-player, Night Visions, the latter of which debuted at the number two spot on the Billboard 200 and landed the group multiple awards -- it later went double platinum in the U.S., largely on the smash success of "Radioactive," which became the biggest-ever digital rock track in America.
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.
Not liking this one. Lesson should start with aux routing to see the direction things are headed in. Instead we're needing to pause, rewind and study the channel strips repeatedly to figure out what's happened. You don't have to start with a specific template for every song, but he obviously has ideas about how he's building up the sound. Let's hear about that! Also—this goes for all Puremix—how they are approaching gain staging would be helpful. Lots of times I was setting the fader where he did, same plugs, but the sound wasn't the same. Not equal start levels or mix bus was.
MarcoPolo
2019 Feb 05
Really like Mark's style, workflow, and results. Great lesson, thanks!
beau.s
2018 Oct 31
I think if you watch this and you’re not at an advanced level in your skills, it’s going to give you whiplash. Mark is fast. I’ve watched this 3 times and have absorbed so much great information. The complainers need to spend more time really watching with intent and stop complaining that it’s boring. I really love this course and will continue to reference it, especially since this music genre is exactly where I’m working right now. Thanks Mark! You’re amazing.
monoescape
2018 Aug 10
Well, I don't know why, but I expected more than a guy reading me the values of his plugin chain.
In my opinion, there are too few explanations of why he does what he does and how the routing in his session is really setup.
So, Mark is definitel a very experienced mixer, but unfortunately this video just didn't teach me anything - at all... and let's be honest: the static mix he started with already sounded pretty finished to me!
prula
2018 May 29
Ben I have a question.. after Mark is done, does he send it over to a mastering studio? And if yes, how is the procedure for the Mastering? Any Videos you can recommend on that? Love it! I would never have mixed that way! Learned so much!
Elton Collins
2018 Jan 26
Had my OCD all over the place for a minute, and I was wonderfully surprised how the mix turned out. What do I take away from this? ... There are many ways to skin a cat.
caesarjamesaugustus
2017 Sep 17
I've seen many courses, seminars, including all the Mix With The Masters videos & this course by far ranks among the best 2 or 3 ever. Mark has phenomenal taste & effortless logic in his decision making throughout a mix. The plugins he used were top notch choices & when he pulled out the Precision K on the Mix Bus I knew he had serious game & knowledge about this sport. His levels were especially well done & loved the space he had left by the end of the mix. This was just very well done, guided by superior logic, knowledge of tools, of superior tastes. I Salute You.
demixstudio
2017 Jul 15
A couple of things I learned from this video:
- Listen to rough for a bit, then EQ every channel in solo using presets
- Boost, don't cut, at least three bands per track
- Keep your faders low, where there is no resolution
- Use compression on everything
- Put reverb on the 2 bus
Haha. Guess I also learned that vision and talent go a long way ;-)
This video is not really a lesson like the rest (very little is explained), more a chance to look at someone working. Pretty valuable nonetheless. Thanks!
tyrobins
2017 Feb 24
@benlindell Any idea what those Neve 88RS plugins are doing on his +6 and +0 master faders (before the P Maximizers)?
Looks like the +0 print track picks up some gain when comparing to the aux track master bus with all his processing. I'm wondering if that is coming from EQ boost in the Neve 88RS, or the P Maximizer, or both.
Also, is the send output "1-2" on the master bus aux for him to monitor the master bus, +6, and +0 separately, or is that where you grabbed the audio for the tutorial? Wondering what we're hearing during the video.
Thanks!
tyrobins
2017 Feb 24
Great video. So much to learn from someone with so much experience!
LenyM27
2017 Jan 18
What would he do without that SSL e channel ? Haha
shade2316
2016 Dec 20
vaya cuanto talento! gracias maestro
aledez
2016 Nov 19
is it just me or are the ebo and other guitars missing from the stems? Great tutorial! So such progress in such a short amount of time.
sral68
2016 Oct 16
Lots of great stuff here. All tastefully done.
Love howe he uses multi band compression to tame the cymbals on the room miss and the master bus.
I need to watch this a couple more times I think.
Its great that you get such masters to show us howe they work.
eagle007
2016 Oct 09
Super! I loved this video Both the song and the way Mark lead us through the mix and his working process. Mark, please do more videos here.
composermikeglaser
2016 Sep 23
This tutorial is a perfect glimpse into the professional word of mixing! I love that Mark still works like he's on a console, but uses the power of technology to take flat sound and sculpt it into a musical masterpiece. Mark proves that a good mix is the sum of many subtle changes, watch closely and learn.
caminitia153
2016 Sep 21
Not bad. Quite dragging throughout... and he is not very clear in his descriptions of what he is doing. But not bad.
I WILL say, however, that when someone sends me an acoustic that sounds this bad, I re-record it myself. There is absolutely no need to extremely compress anything to tape, especially an acoustic. Nothing can uncompress something other than re-recording it.
Downloading these tracks and mixing them was fun -- worth the price of admission to puremix if you ask me. Hopefully the quality of these tutorials will increase.
Damirichi
2016 Sep 15
Amazing, all work well, i'm happy))) Because i'm doing mixing right now and really needed some tricks. Thank you!
Damirichi
2016 Sep 15
Guys, this video can change all the way that you work on mix. Is a great tutor, but when it's so need, is not working, so sad) Hope you will fix it guys. God bless you)
prosoundstudioz
2016 Sep 06
Hey Ben great video. Thanks to the Puremix team for putting this out. An issue..I was wondering if anything got lost during the transfer of the audio...I can't hear the musical contents high mids and highs clearly on my speakers (Focal Twins). I checked it with the retail version of the song and the difference is pretty huge. I don't think its the mastering; I might be wrong.
benlindell
2016 Sep 05
Hey everyone, Ben from pureMix here. Our video player and Safari aren't getting along at the moment so it's only loading the mobile resolution unless you have Flash enabled. We're working on the fix as we speak and in the meantime please try using Firefox or Chrome and you'll have access to the 1080p playback. Apologies for the inconvenience.
benlindell
2016 Aug 27
@Gary - Very good question, I have a pretty good idea of how he's doing it but Mark would be best to explain it. In fact, he's doing a Q&A over on Gearslutz next week, you should ask him about it there - https://www.gearslutz.com/board/q-mark-needham/
Gary Ambrosino
2016 Aug 27
Very specific question - I hope someone can comment - Fab ? Ben ? Mark ?
In the mix bus section. I see two Master faders I assume being fed by the Mix Bus which all the channels are feeding.
First time I've seen two master faders - is this a gain staging thing ? Mark mixes all the tracks at very low levels.
Second, I don't see how the masters are being fed - there is no input bus to these faders.
Seems to be an important part of Mark's workflow - would like some more detail on this.
styner84
2016 Aug 25
Amazing tutorial!i loved that he used minimal plug ins and despite a few extreme eqs, most of his moves were subtle! A great mix is the sum of hundreds of subtleties and he demonstrated this to a T. This really solidified the thought process for me when i'm mixing and he taught me to trust my instinct more.
Al-B
2016 Aug 24
Way too complicated and too much time spent on the claps (as just one example). His mix obviously works, but the video puts me to sleep.
kenzeal
2016 Aug 23
This tutorial has changed my entire knowledge of mixing from 30% to 70%... Thanks Mark Needham
GavinS
2016 Aug 22
Wow. I'm finding this very confusing without knowing how he's got all his tracks and busses routed. so many plugins on so many auxes, etc. just on the snare and kick! :-)
Moduler
2016 Aug 22
Very nice tutorial indeed.
All these micro changes really bring out the best of the recording!
Gary Ambrosino
2016 Aug 21
Hey Mark, where is your Needham Rockets t-shirt ?
Dominik Aster
2016 Aug 20
One of the best Tutorials I have seen! He is so cool!
composermikeglaser
2016 Aug 19
I loved how Mark sculpts this incredibly dense mix into a transparent beefy track. The power of the SSL Channel strip is greatly demonstrated in this video:)
