Michael Brauer The Evolution From Analog to Digital "Brauerize"©
04h 27min
(125)
It's here! For the first time on video, Michael Brauer unleashes his signature "Brauerize©" method, 100% in the box, featuring his famous multi-bus compression techniques.
For the past 44 years, Michael Brauer has helped shape the sound of modern music with global superstars like Coldplay, John Mayer, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, The Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi, and countless others. Michael's commitment to musicality during the mixing process has connected billions of listeners with the artists that call upon him. His ability to convey emotion and excitement in mixes is unparalleled, thanks in part to the tireless development of his signature "Brauerize©" method.
Since the Brauerize © method began to accrue fame in the early 2000s, engineers have strived to re-create the technique in the box, with countless blog articles and videos surfacing in attempts to master the technique.
In this pureMix.net exclusive video, Michael Brauer sits down to explain every component of the Brauerize © method in perfect detail in the box. After he and his assistant, Fernando Reyes, explain the history of creating the Brauerize© Pro Tools template, Michael mixes a song from scratch on camera.
Once you have seen how Michael does it, download his actual template and try it for yourself!
In this video, you will sit next to Michael as he:
- Explains his career history
- Discusses How he learned to hear compression
- Tells the story of how he had to fight with the balance of low end and compression on Aretha Franklin's "Freeway Of Love", which led to his development of the "Brauerize©" method on an SSL 6000 console that changed everything for him
- Explains the importance of performing a mix
- Discusses the evolution from analog to hybrid and eventually hybrid to fully digital in the box
- Explains how COVID limitations pushed transition to a 100% digital workflow
- Breaks down each section of his template, discussing his plugin and setting choices on each channel
- Teaches his multi-parallel compression technique on vocals
This is your chance to learn from one of the world's most treasured mixing engineers. Watch Michael Brauer teach the Brauerize© method. Only on pureMix.net
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.
Once logged in, you will be able to click on those chapter titles and jump around in the video.
- 00:00 - Start
- 01:01 - Background
- 03:38 - Learning Compression
- 04:39 - Learning The Hard Way
- 07:45 - Give Me More Bottom
- 11:36 - Performing The Mix
- 14:08 - The SSL 6000 And Multibus Compression
- 22:01 - Parallel Compression
- 27:00 - What's Going On Here, And Why?
- 00:00 - Start
- 00:0 - How To Visualize It
- 09:28 - Brauerize© It
- 13:20 - Why Go Hybrid Or In-The-Box
- 21:08 - Transition To Hybrid
- 33:45 - Transition To In-The-Box
- 00:00 - Start
- 00:0 - Development Of The Template
- 04:20 - The Covid Push
- 07:59 - Working Virtual With An Assistant
- 10:09 - Routing Overview
- 13:39 - Trigger Tracks
- 14:20 - SSL On Every Folder
- 15:06 - Drum Tracks
- 17:20 - Bass
- 23:04 - The Acoustic Guitars
- 26:53 - Keyboards
- 00:00 - Start
- 00:0 - Background Vocals
- 04:30 - The Delays
- 09:30 - The Processing
- 29:42 - Reverbs
- 00:00 - Start
- 00:0 - Bus A
- 02:47 - Bus B
- 09:11 - Bus C
- 11:51 - Bus D
- 13:40 - Bus E
- 13:59 - Bus B Alternatives
- 18:53 - Vocals
- 39:59 - Shaping The Vocal First
- 00:00 - Start
- 00:0 - The Master Fader
- 05:56 - Fader Processing
- 20:20 - The Last Plugin
- 21:43 - This Is The Way
- 00:00 - Start
- 00:0 - Listen To The Busses
- 07:46 - Listen To The Rough
- 11:06 - Build The Mix
- 16:31 - Adjusting The VCA Master
- 23:05 - Final Tweaks
- 00:00 - Start
- 00:33 - History and Concept
- 04:15 - Tone and Meter Setup
- 06:03 - Compensating for Pan Depth
- 07:55 - Bus A
- 14:08 - Bus B
- 22:13 - Bus C
- 23:54 - Bus D
| Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 |
00:00:07
Hi, I am Mike Brauer,
a record mixer,
that's what I love to do.
00:00:12
That's what I've been doing
for almost 44 years.
00:00:16
And I've discovered along the way that
if you want to continue being a mixer
there's a couple of
things you need to do.
00:00:24
One,
you need to evolve at
the same rate as the
artist, the music.
00:00:30
And two,
technically,
you need to evolve.
00:00:34
Because times change,
needs are different.
00:00:38
So I'm very excited
today to share with you
my whole Brauerize© approach,
in-the-box.
00:00:48
So this is going to be
pretty exciting for me.
00:00:52
I've been working on it for
a few years.
00:00:55
Thanks to Covid
I pretty much had no other choice.
00:01:01
Let me just give you a little background,
a little history on how this all started.
00:01:05
I love mixing on a console,
I started at Mediasound
and we had a beautiful Neve
console there, an 8068.
00:01:14
I learned
everything from
the greatest engineers there,
my mentors were
Harvey Goldberg and Michael Delugg.
00:01:24
But there was also Tony Bongiovi
from Motown and Bob Clearmountain,
Joe Jorgensen,
Godfrey Diamond, Alan Varner.
00:01:34
I've probably left out a few but
these were just
all
great engineers
who just loved to get a
sound with a completely
different approach from somebody else.
00:01:47
You know, if Clearmountain
got a great sound on the toms,
micing on the top,
Godfrey would: 'I can do
the same thing underneath.'
There were no rules.
00:01:56
It was great.
00:01:58
The only rule is that
you didn't distort
unintentionally,
so we we all learn the rules
of
you know, a recording.
00:02:09
And then you could break them
as long as it was musical.
00:02:12
There was so many
protocols in place
at Media, it really was about
not just
being
recording of the highest
quality but how you
had communication with the artist.
00:02:29
How you always made the room
feel comfortable.
00:02:33
That no matter what was going on,
the artist, the producer would come in
and they knew they were in good hands.
And that's what I learned from many.
00:02:43
My two main mentors,
Harvey Goldberg and Michael Delugg,
they were 180 degrees
different from each other.
00:02:50
Michael, it was,
boy, if you're going to
do something out in the
studio you have to run.
00:02:56
You have to be right
over his left shoulder,
ready to go,
alert.
00:03:01
Yeah, it was an intensity that I enjoyed
but it was a whole other approach for him.
00:03:07
While Harvey,
'I don't want to see you.'
'I don't want you in my periphery.'
'Lay back,
when you get out to the studio just be
comfortable, just go out there,
you don't have to run.'
'Be invisible until I need you
but when I need you,
you better be alert to
the situation that's going on.
00:03:24
It's not like because I don't
want to see you
that you're going to be reading a
magazine or something,
you have to be alert to
everything around you.'
And so these were the two
that I learned from, which was
a great, great balance.
00:03:38
And Michael
was the one that taught me compression.
00:03:43
He was
absolutely the king of compression.
00:03:47
And I learned a lot from that with Harvey
too but really understanding compression
because,
honestly,
for the first few years,
I did not hear compression.
00:03:57
This was a problem for
an aspiring engineer.
00:04:00
I simply couldn't hear it.
00:04:02
I would listen to the LA-2As
and the LA-3As and
the 1176s and I just...
00:04:09
It was a frightening experience,
not that I let anybody know,
but I thought: 'I don't understand it.'
Who cares where do you use
this compressor or that compressor.
00:04:18
Here I am with,
you know,
at this point where my
compressors are probably
better known than I am.
00:04:24
That's how it started and eventually
something clicked.
00:04:29
And
I could hear the difference
more in attitude and tone
than
really what the sonics was,
and that I grasped onto.
00:04:40
And
a quick aside,
when I really learned about compression
is when I absolutely killed the mix.
00:04:47
And I don't mean killing
in a good way, I mean,
I had that thing so compressed
that
I thought I did a great job
and I left and then
I got a call from production
at Mediasound,
that night or the next day and
it says:
'You need to come into the studio,
the clients got an issue
with your mix.' I was like:
'What could it be?'
And at the time Michael Barbiero
was a senior engineer there.
00:05:15
I was in my first year of it.
00:05:17
And he goes:
'Hey Michael,
sit down. Sit down Michael.
00:05:20
'Yeah, yeah'.
00:05:22
He goes:
'So I heard your mix.'
'Awesome, cool. What do you think?'
He goes:
'Well, this is what I think.'
And he plays it
and he plays it at one volume.
00:05:33
And he goes:
'You hear that?' I go: 'Yeah, yeah.'
He brings it up louder and I go...
00:05:38
He goes: 'Do you hear a difference?'
I'm like:
'No, it kind of sounds the same.'
No pants,
it's kind of small.
00:05:46
He goes:
'Yeah, that's called over compression.'
'You squeezed that things so much
that it doesn't matter
what the volume is.'
I was like,
'Oh!'
So I didn't touch a compressor
for another four or five months,
I was so scared of them but
that's how I got my feet wet
on compression.
00:06:07
Anyway,
as time went on
I learned
that for me compressors were really more
about tone and attitude.
00:06:17
As years went on.
00:06:19
I had learned the traditional way
of mixing
where
you put all the tracks up,
you have a great stereo compressor
and
you are compressing
your mix.
00:06:34
And then all the individual tracks,
you would put an insert
so that would be pre-compression,
and you could squeeze it all you want,
get the sound,
and no matter where you put the fader
the sound was already
created.
00:06:50
That worked fine I was doing R&B
I was doing Change.
00:06:55
The bottom end was really
important to be nice and tight.
00:06:59
Everything was working off the compressor
and at the time I was
using the Neve 33609
or the desk version of that,
the 33609 was the outboard.
00:07:11
But that was the sound and
because we had all of these Neves
compressors and EQs, of course,
on the 8068 model.
00:07:19
And so,
everything was going in there.
00:07:22
My records were tight.
00:07:24
They were sounding good.
00:07:27
Things were going great, my career
was moving, I couldn't be happier.
00:07:31
I had done already one Aretha
record that I had recorded and mixed.
00:07:36
Which was the 'Jump to it' album.
00:07:38
And then I did the second album,
recorded and mixed also, both in Detroit.
00:07:43
'Get it Right'.
00:07:46
And now it's getting to be
around 1985.
00:07:49
I get a call to do
Aretha's third record
but I haven't recorded it.
00:07:55
And it's the
great producer of that era,
Narada Michael Walden.
00:08:01
Great drummer
and he records it,
or his team records it,
he brings it to New York.
00:08:09
And
I start mixing it,
the big hits on that record was
'Freeway of Love', 'Who's Zooming who?'.
00:08:15
I start mixing it and it feels good.
I am not used to the sounds
because I didn't record it.
00:08:21
At that point it was still
kind of new to me to be
mixing what I hadn't recorded.
But that's OK, I kind of
adjusted and got used to it.
00:08:30
It feels really good,
I got a nice tight bottom,
Michael walks in and he goes:
'It sounds good.'
'Gimme a lot more bottom.'
I'm like: 'OK.'
And so I added
more bottom to the bass
and,
as many of you know,
bottom end is what triggers a compressor,
not the top end.
00:08:53
So as I
start adding more bottom end,
and he was like:
'No, I mean, I want a lot of bottom end'
'OK.'
As I'm adding it
I could hear Aretha
starting to get quieter.
00:09:05
Right?
Because the stereo
compressor just started
to work harder and harder,
I'm just like...
00:09:10
And he goes:
'Bring Aretha back up.'
And I was like: 'Ahh'
So if I tried to bring Aretha up
he goes: 'What happened to the bass?'
It was this
just
Catch 22,
I was between a rock and a hard place.
00:09:25
So I would bring my sub-master,
because everything was
assigned to that before the compressor,
and I would bring it down, bring it down,
bring it down and then it would unglue
and it wouldn't sound as good and...
00:09:38
It was one of those
times where, I never got nervous,
I never got scared,
I always got excited but I would
never get like where I need to vomit
and I'm sitting, at this point,
I'm actually thinking:
'I might fail at this.'
I've just,
you know,
the more bottom I add
Aretha goes down, the more Aretha I add
I bring it all down.
00:10:02
I probably took a break
a little bit and I start thinking
and I just figured it out.
00:10:08
I got through that day,
I got through that record.
00:10:12
That particular song,
which was Freeway of Love,
it was a big concern,
and even to this day,
it's hard for me to hear that song.
00:10:21
I heard it maybe a month ago, I go:
'That doesn't sound that bad.'
But
I was like,
if it wasn't for that record
I wouldn't be here
showing you what has
eventually evolved into
the Brauerize©.
00:10:35
Which I'll get into why
that's even coined that way.
00:10:39
What am I going to do?
Anyway, I survived it,
everybody is happy.
00:10:44
And at the time I was
a bike racer,
I did a lot of training maybe
15 hours, 20 hours a week,
15 hours.
00:10:54
And on the bike
I'm thinking to myself:
'What am I going to do?'
Was this a fluke?
Was this
simply a fluke
that
it'll never happen again,
that I won't have this issue?
Or number two,
is this the beginning of the end for me
because this will happen again and
I won't know what to do
about it. Because I really didn't.
00:11:18
I figured it out, I don't remember
what I did, I didn't sleep well,
but I figured it out.
00:11:23
Or three: 'Do I just throw away
the whole approach
that I was brought up with?
And just come up with something new
to
adapt and address what
now is a lot more bottom?'
Because one of the issues I was having.
00:11:39
is I didn't feel like
the song was emotional enough.
00:11:43
It wasn't moving enough.
00:11:45
Now,
having been a drummer in a band
and being on the road,
one of the things that actually
set me apart
at Media, which I wasn't aware of,
is that when I came to Media
I wanted to continue playing,
but I knew I wasn't good enough,
and I would probably end up
being in a wedding band
or something which might
be nice for others but for me
it would mean that I'd still be in a
cover band, I wouldn't be creative.
00:12:10
Everybody's got their own reasons, for me
I was like...
00:12:14
I'm not good enough drummer.
00:12:16
So I'd been recording my band
so I'd gotten to know what it's like
to get a sound with a
couple of microphones,
and I'm sure most of you guys have,
you know,
done the same thing.
00:12:26
So I'm sitting there and I'm mixing but
I wanted to feel like I was
performing like I was on the stage.
00:12:32
And so on my mind I used to think
that there was an audience out there
and then when I would be
mixing
I'd be standing up and I'd be
moving the faders, you know.
00:12:42
And there was an excitement, it felt live,
felt like I was on stage.
00:12:46
People noticed that.
00:12:48
And...
00:12:49
and sonically,
from an emotional standpoint,
I was always crescendoing, like on
Luther's first record you hear almost
every four bars something goes up.
00:13:01
And all this was manual,
there's no automation yet
I was very happy, I was in my element
because for me I was still performing
but doing a much better
job than I was as a drummer.
00:13:11
So here I am now,
1985, I started in 1976,
I'm an engineer by 1978.
00:13:18
Eighty five,
I suddenly,
I'm questioning whether
I'm going to continue.
00:13:24
Because I'm recording,
I haven't really started producing yet,
but I really enjoy the mixing part but
it's not a gig where that's all you can do.
00:13:34
At least at that juncture.
00:13:36
So now I'm thinking:
'What do I do?'
Because I do have to figure out
option 3, which is that
it'll probably happen again
I gotta figure out what to do.
00:13:48
And is the traditional way of my mixing
going to work?
And the answer was:
'No.'
There has to be something different.
00:13:59
I'd be on my bike,
I'd be thinking about it and
very frustrated and not much
was going on in my
head with that because
it's throwing away
everything I was taught.
00:14:09
Then one day,
as it always happens to all of us,
I was at Right Track at the time,
I had moved out of
Mediasound.
00:14:19
Frank Filipetti was the
senior engineer,
the head engineer at Right Track.
00:14:25
He had this main room studio and he goes:
'Hey, Michael come in here,
we got a new console, check it out.'
I was on the SSL 4000.
00:14:36
And he comes in and
he shows me and he goes:
'Check this out, it's a 6000!'
I'm like:
'6000?'
'What is it?'
He goes:
'Well what's really cool,
it is for film mixing.'
I'm like: 'OK'.
00:14:49
What's different?
He goes: 'Well, you've got now
A/B/C, you get three stereos.'
A nerd I am not, I'm thinking:
'Who's going to listen to three stereos?'
It makes no sense to me.
00:15:03
He kinda looks at me, you know,
he goes:
'No, they're sub-stereos,
they sum to a stereo.'
And I'm like: 'Who cares?'
He goes: 'This is the way it works,
you've got
the music on A,
you've got the dialogue on B
you've got effects on C
and then you combine 'em all.'
And I go.
00:15:28
'Yeah.'
'Okay.'
And he goes: 'And then you can
put processing across each one,
compressors or whatever,
across, A, B and C.
00:15:37
And then it goes to the main stereo.'
I was like: 'Hold on a second!'
Because in my mind
what was my issue?
My issue
was that Aretha
was stepping on the bass.
00:15:52
Or the bass was stepping on Aretha.
00:15:55
How can I divide them,
how can I have them individual?
So that
I don't care how loud
I'm going to get Aretha
it is not going to make the
bass player any smaller.
00:16:07
Or if I've got,
when I'm mixing, you know, sometimes
when you've got a great groove going,
you get the compressors working really
well, you get the drums and bass together
and it is feeling good
then you add the guitar.
00:16:19
Then you add the percussion,
then you add a few other things
and that nice sweet spot you had on
your compressor starts to disappear.
00:16:25
Right? And you go:
'What happened?' Well, what happened
is like everybody's jumping in the party.
00:16:30
So as he's saying
A/B/C, I looked at him and I go:
'So I could actually have
drums and bass,
I could have everybody in A.'
And I could have
the vocal in a separate one.
00:16:49
You could do that, I mean,
but this is for film.
00:16:53
It's a film mixer...
I was like:
Boom!
I just stood there,
had a body rush.
00:17:00
I was like:
'This is it!'
Because when you're looking for something,
when you're searching
and you've got
a mystery, you know,
you're trying to solve a problem,
it just sits in the back
of your head all the time.
00:17:15
You might wake up in
the middle of the night
and suddenly have the answer,
you wake up in the morning,
because it's just there,
it is just waiting
to make a connection.
And that's what had happened to me.
00:17:26
If I hadn't been thinking about it
it would have just passed by.
00:17:30
If he hadn't said: 'Come into the
room and check out my console',
it would have passed by.
00:17:35
But fate,
things that, you know, luck all those
things that you kind of make for yourself,
all
came together.
00:17:45
And I was like:
'This is great!' And then I don't
think I heard another word he said
because at this point my mind was just...
00:17:55
So then the next day
I'm finally now on my bike again
where I can actually
start thinking about this,
as I start making little
combinations in my head.
00:18:06
And I discovered,
well, I discovered at a very early
age that I would never be a songwriter.
00:18:13
A melody has never come to mind
unless it was somebody else's.
00:18:17
I've have never been able to
have any of that happen or lyrics.
00:18:24
You know?
We all have emotions and
we all might need to release them,
unfortunately I could never release them
in a word or in a book
or in a story or in a song.
00:18:36
But I realized that as a mixer
I could release and reveal
that feeling of that song.
00:18:43
for myself and that was...
00:18:46
that was the way I brought about
peace for my head.
00:18:50
What I did discover though
is when I was on the bike,
because I'd been hearing
sounds and compressors so much,
as I was thinking of combinations of
what would go to A or what would go to B,
and what kind of compressor
would would go across A or B,
I started hearing those sounds in my head.
00:19:10
I would imagine a certain kind of like,
imagine a Rickenbacker bass
That's got a certain sound.
00:19:16
Or imagine
what happens if you put an
LA-2A across that Rickenbacker.
00:19:22
Or if you put, you know,
I would put all these
different compressors
across an obvious sound.
00:19:29
I would hear things because
I've been hearing him all day long,
day in, day out.
So it wasn't that far a stretch.
00:19:37
And then I come up with combinations,
then I'd go back into
the studio the next day
and I would try those ideas.
00:19:45
And that is
the earliest, earliest stage,
at this point, of multi-bus compression.
00:19:53
It was soon, once I decided on the blend,
and at that time I actually had
everything going to A,
so it was an instrumental on A,
Capella on B,
and then because
the 6000 had these
great little sends you could,
you know, you could send to each other,
without doing feedback,
it was anti feedback,
I would send A
and B.
00:20:18
A being
the instrumental, B being the vocal,
to C
and C I had off but I had this Aphex B
it was a really cool
tingling sound, right?
And when I would bring that up it would
just excite the whole song and it was great
for radio and
at this point
it's 1987, 1988,
you know, two, three years are going by,
I'm working on this
and I could,
I realized only later, and I think it
was someone who actually brought it up
that what I was doing
by mixing into A and B
was that I was mixing into compression.
00:20:59
Sometimes the mix just sounded really
really small, it just didn't feel exciting
and in others it felt flat
but in other times, if I had it just right
it played.
00:21:10
It would be playing.
00:21:12
I would hardly even have to
move the faders and it would just
come back at me and had this
movement,
natural movement, so
this was really exciting.
00:21:22
And that was the essence of
mixing into compression,
post-compression.
00:21:28
As opposed to the pre-compression
that I said earlier where you have
everything
already processed on the fader
and no matter where you
bring that fader up or down,
it doesn't matter because
it's already processed.
00:21:41
Here, as you push into the compressors
it starts to play.
00:21:45
A quick visual because,
you know,
at some point
I'm going to
describe the
the actual technical aspect, which I find
unbelievably boring but I'm gonna try and
give you a reason for this tool,
is that
what we do
is all about
bringing out
certain emotions.
00:22:09
And,
so as I...
00:22:11
as I got better into
figuring out A and B
I found that I was
starting to get restricted.
00:22:19
And I remembered having worked
with this one British engineer
who
would
have two 1176s panned left and right.
00:22:31
And instead of bringing
something up louder on the left,
he would just pan maybe the guitar
to this 1176 and had the British setting,
where all the ratios are in.
00:22:41
It wasn't like
the guitar in the left got louder,
it got more exciting and got fatter
it had this movement, like everything.
00:22:49
I was like: 'Oh my goodness,
this is so so cool!'
So I started it incorporate that
because I was kind of already doing it.
00:22:57
And that's when
the idea of multi-bus compression
now moved over into parallel compression.
00:23:04
Because any time you're sending
a source to more than one
destination,
and it's two then it's a parallel.
00:23:14
Of course, I don't know any of this...
00:23:16
Many years later, I can tell you
technically what's going on
but I didn't have a clue
because I was just going
for sound, I was going for...
00:23:24
What I notice is that, when I was mixing
they just were so much more emotional
it was impacting.
00:23:31
It was exciting because it reminded me
of being back on stage, right?
Still continuing what I
was doing with Luther.
00:23:39
When I would record when I would
mix Luther I'd be mixing standing up,
I'd be, everybody in the room,
moving with me and, you know,
I was having fun.
00:23:49
So, I found that mixing this way
was closer to how I was performing.
00:23:56
And it wasn't feeling static
because I found that lot of the stuff,
which worked well for Rn'B for awhile,
and
back in that period,
that was really good,
it was a nice slik cool sound
but, you know, music was changing.
00:24:10
I just kept working on this approach
working on this approach
and then eventually,
sending things to C,
that excitement mid-range
was a beautiful pop rock
on radio, but then
that got a little tired and
the music was changing.
00:24:30
And so I
stopped that and plus I wanted
C.
00:24:35
I needed, now I'm just like:
'You know what?
I want to separate the guitars
from the bass and drums and percussion.'
And so
slowly, as I'm like:
'Wow, what more can I do?'
I would drop off some
ideas and develop others.
00:24:51
Because every time I would
run into a situation where I was like:
'Man I got nowhere else to go.'
Then I go: 'Well, what could I do now?'
Because this was one of these
setups that
it was basically, if you could just add
one more thing, one more
idea
that worked, you know, I would develop it.
00:25:13
I mean,
you know this may sound like
this happen over a couple of years.
00:25:17
At this point now I've been
doing it for ten, twelve years.
00:25:21
This is the way I hear.
00:25:24
And people are starting to catch on
but I don't really talk
much about it, not because
I was trying to keep a secret,
I just didn't know
anybody really would care.
00:25:32
And then
I was asked by TapeOp
in 2003
it was an early, you're looking at
Ep 37,
I mean, that was 37, right?
So,
Larry's hadn't been around with
the magazine for that long.
00:25:52
I got interviewed
and it was,
you know,
'Would you reveal what you're doing?'
I'm like,
'Yeah.'
'Sure'.
00:26:02
So by 2003, I'd already done I think
enough important records
that people were wondering:
'How's he doing that?' So that's
where curiosity comes in, right?
'Wait a minute,
this seems different,
why?'
At this point
I had,
I was using multi-bus compression
and I was using parallel
compression together.
00:26:28
And so I
did this long interview.
00:26:31
Unfortunately he left out
one important part of it
which was the 1176s
because that was crucial
to the glue factor
of what I was doing.
00:26:43
It wasn't until
2019,
at this point now I have done so many
changes, I've evolved so many ways
that Larry interviewed me
himself,
this point I'm already in the hybrid
learning how to do hybrid and I showed a
diagram and stuff.
00:27:03
So, what's going on here and why?
Well, it's important to understand that
by the time I'm at Electric Lady,
which I was there for nine years,
I went from a 4000 to a 6000
and from a 6000 to a 8000.
00:27:20
And in the 8000
you got one more stereo bus.
00:27:24
It's like...
00:27:26
I'm in heaven!
Right? So now I can actually,
maybe put all, anything that's just
sustaining, like strings and piano,
horns and...
00:27:37
You know, synths and stuff.
Maybe that will have its own because
I wanted each one to have
its own type of compression.
00:27:45
Before we move
forward any more
let me just give you a visual
understanding, right?
Because as I said earlier,
getting technical
makes me crazy because I never
understand what anybody is saying to me.
00:27:58
They have to like
write it down or show me.
00:28:01
For those of you that are more like me,
this is the way it is.
00:28:08
I'm at this point,
I have four
buses.
00:28:12
Actually, five.
I have four have: A,
B,
C,
D.
00:28:17
And then
E would be the unprocessed.
00:28:21
Right?
That means that
all the transients go right through,
it is not holding anybody back.
00:28:30
Now A,
A was the compressor
the chain that I started with.
00:28:38
All, until I decided to go into
the multi-bus idea,
everything used to go into
my Neve 33609
out of there into my two Pultecs
where I push some 8 kHz for the ear candy
and a little 100 Hz for the low end.
00:28:54
Radio loved it.
00:28:56
I always maintain that because sometimes
this wonderful tool
is too rich, it's too emotional,
it's just too big.
00:29:05
And I'll just remove it all
and I'll go right back to A.
00:29:08
So I can always go back to the
traditional way that I learned.
00:29:11
I never rejected it.
00:29:14
But I felt that the way the music
was going and the things that I was to
express
through these,
through great records,
through great artists,
needed to have this setup.
00:29:26
B,
now
is
all about the rhythm section.
00:29:32
When I say the bottom end of
the record I don't mean the EQ,
I mean the anchor,
generally, the anchor of the record,
B.
00:29:39
It could stand for bottom if you want
but it has full bandwidth.
00:29:46
But we're talking about
drums,
bass,
percussion.
00:29:52
In general,
things that, very quick
attack,
lots of transients,
I want to be able to control them.
00:30:01
Now, I used to try,
you know with the bass
somewhere else but after
many
attempts at doing different things,
it's a combination.
00:30:10
So what I end up doing,
and again,
this was over a period of years,
in the beginning,
everything would go
right to
the drums and the percussion
would go to B. The B...
00:30:25
I'll skip to the earliest...
00:30:27
Once I discovered the Distressor,
and I got to be friends
with David Derr and I
you know,
I said: 'Wow!'
This is the compressor of the future,
this is everything I'm looking for.
00:30:39
Long story short, I put that across B.
00:30:42
And out of there
I wanted to EQ it also.
00:30:45
And I had
win
from Avalon,
I had these great, great,
they only made, I don't know,
maybe ten pairs, not pairs,
boxes of these
EQs, I think they were
I don't know,
E55s or something.
00:31:07
They were just class-A.
00:31:09
And so I would push some 4000,
because that's what I like on drums, right?
I would push some 12 to 14 kHz
because that's what like on the cymbals,
and I push some 90.
00:31:18
And maybe I'd take out a
300 Hz just to clean things up.
00:31:22
And
the Distressor would just,
you know, just be
touching.
00:31:28
And so that was my
bottom end of the record, my drum sound.
00:31:32
Now,
let's go over to C.
00:31:35
C for me was the center of the record,
where things were happening.
00:31:40
The guitars.
00:31:41
When the guitars would go in
I wanted to find
a nice kind of a
shimmering, like the harder
you hit it the more it shimmers.
00:31:51
You know, when certain guitars
like...
00:31:54
I think a...
00:31:56
It was
it will come to me,
there are certain compressors,
in particular
this turned out to be the
the Pendulum ES-8.
00:32:05
As you hit it harder
it will just start to shimmer.
00:32:09
And that was a great guitar sound.
00:32:11
Then D,
and I didn't need to put an EQ.
And then D
it was for widening.
00:32:17
I want something just to go wider,
so I had a widener across it.
00:32:21
I don't remember what it was, probably
the Edison or something like that.
00:32:25
And then
E was really, back on the console,
it was just a stereo.
00:32:31
I know this sounds like
totally crazy complicated and wacky.
00:32:35
And you're probably right but,
when you pick the hood up of
an amazing engine
right?
You're not driving the engine,
you driving the car.
00:32:45
And the car, a great great car,
it just has everything automatically,
you just drive and you have a good time.
00:32:53
So in essence
what I was doing is I was
doing all this so all
I needed to do was mix.
And that's essentially
exactly
what happened.
00:33:03
So I never thought about
any of this other stuff.
00:33:07
That's why it's hard for me to explain,
you know,
to go through this technically but
it's just a tool
and it was a tool
that allowed me to be as creative
as I wanted to be.
00:33:19
That's all this is.
00:33:21
And you can use parts of it
or not.
00:33:24
But
this was all about
creating a tool
that
I could just set and forget.
00:00:00
So now.
00:00:01
Let's just talk a bit, some visuals again.
00:00:05
If you think about
a rubber sheet,
right?
Profile.
00:00:10
And you think of something where
when you push into this thin sheet,
if you push into it,
let's talk, let's
make that the attack
and then when you let go of it
let's make that the release.
00:00:23
So now let's talk about
these 3 or 4 different compressors
that I'm using as a stereo.
00:00:29
You remember, I am now
mixing into these compressors.
00:00:33
If I'm pushing too hard
what it would feel
like is, if it's just right,
if I, let's say A, A was a lush 33609,
it's a lush compressor,
it's a beautiful
attack and it's a beautiful release.
It really just works.
00:00:51
So if you're looking at this and you're
thinking about this sheet, let's say,
it's not that thin,
right?
So it pushes
and then when you let go it kind of
nicely just follows the hand back.
00:01:04
Right?
And that would be anything that's
sustaining, that's what A was for.
00:01:09
Strings and so, as the strings
were digging it would like: 'Yes!'
And then it would slowly let go.
00:01:15
And as it would let go you would
feel the volume coming back at you
but very very subtly.
00:01:21
B
was for my drums and
and, you know,
things where I just wanted...
00:01:27
I just wanted that
attack and wanted to grab it and let it
go, I just want excitement, right?
So 'B' was all about
figuring out
the transients.
00:01:38
And
over the years what I discovered
is that
it would be holding the drums back a
little too much, I was feeling like this.
00:01:47
And so what would I do?
I would also send it to E,
which is unprocessed so E
let all the transients through.
00:01:55
B was holding back the transients.
00:01:58
And this blend
is
what started becoming this
really interesting drum sound.
00:02:05
There's many records out there
but I think,
in general, I mean,
whether you even hear it of course,
it's big
but it's controlled.
00:02:18
Like: 'What?'
How's that?
So that was
how I decided with B, now B is like this:
B imagine a very thin sheet,
right?
And
as you put your hand in
it grabs it right away and as soon
as you take your hand out it goes...
00:02:37
It follows you right back,
it's very thin right?
So fast attack, fast release.
00:02:43
And
that's the visual of what
was going on with that.
00:02:47
Now with all that attack
if
you have also going to E
it's almost like you stick
your fingers through
that rubber sheet
and then let go.
00:02:58
It's like...
00:03:00
All transients
with the whole, and then you let go.
00:03:03
That's the visual for that.
00:03:06
Then the guitars.
00:03:09
The guitars was
quicker than what A was like.
00:03:13
Guitars
would just
work with the guitars.
00:03:17
It had a slower attack.
00:03:20
And a fairly
fast release.
00:03:24
Right?
It just worked with the guitars
And this particular compressor,
this was a tube compressor,
as you pushed it harder and it starts to
work the tubes, it would start to shimmer.
00:03:35
So it is a fantastic,
fantastic compressor.
00:03:39
Then D
it was,
I think a friend of mine told me,
I think it was actually
Ryan Hewitt who actually turned me on,
he goes: 'Michael, I've got a compressor,
you're gonna love this!'
He doesn't quite talk like that.
00:03:53
He goes:
'I got this Edward The Compressor.'
I go: 'Seriously?
Edward The Compressor?'
'Yeah, and it's red!'
'OK.'
So I get it.
00:04:04
And he goes: 'You're gonna love this
for like the width and so.' Because Ryan,
I had trained for a couple of years,
he had been with me when
I was at Sony Studios,
so he knew everything, he was right there,
part of the developing. At that point
I'm already on D,
I'm already on the SSL 8000.
00:04:22
Right?
He's seeing this finally
really coming together.
00:04:28
So I tried it and
it copies this compressor and that
compressor and that compressor.
00:04:32
I was like: 'Yeah, yeah'.
And I put it to 1
and I was like: 'Wow!'
And I think simply,
it was a VCA or something
and then there was a width that
went from 0 to 120 or something.
00:04:43
'A hundred and twenty,
I'll put it at 120.'
You know?
Would send it...
00:04:48
And the thing would
be crushing on me like
'Oh my god, this can't sound good!'
And I wouldn't hear any compression.
00:04:54
And the meter was smacking,
I was getting the shimmering
width and stuff. I was like: 'Wow!'
'This is the most awesome widener.'
And so that was D.
00:05:06
So there's no rubber sheet on
that one, that's just an FX.
00:05:10
So if I,
if I have backing vocals, right?
And I just want them be a bit wider
I would send it to A
and I would send it to D.
00:05:20
So
the idea of
parallel compression,
somebody put a word on it later
but I didn't know it really.
00:05:27
I didn't know any of that, I didn't care.
00:05:29
I'm like: 'Oh, let me try this idea,
let me try that idea.'
Which is the only way
you should be doing this.
00:05:34
Like: 'Wow, this works
and that works and that works.'
'That doesn't work at all.'
'I hate this.' I don't know why,
I don't care.
00:05:42
Again,
we're going back to simply
a tool
that allowed
me to be more expressive.
00:05:52
This particular way of doing
the A, B, C, D
avoided
one group of instruments
from having an adverse effect
on another.
00:06:05
That was my issue way back
mixing 'Freeway of Love'.
00:06:09
Because now
I can get that sweet spot
on the drums and the bass
and then when I add the guitars and
everything I'm not going to lose that.
00:06:17
I'm going to keep that all way to the end.
00:06:19
That was
the glory, the benefit of all this.
00:06:24
And I discovered that if
I find the right sweet spot, right?
Where that movement is
basically bouncing back,
I would just not even have to move
the faders and I could feel the movement.
00:06:38
I could feel this extra depth.
00:06:42
That's cool.
00:06:43
Then I thought:
Well, I want to incorporate, of course,
everything that I already have,
as I told you earlier the 1176s
had left and right,
they would show up on a couple of faders.
00:06:55
And then
I could control that so I could have
for example,
I could have the drums
going to B
and E where they're
allowing all the transients.
00:07:09
And then I would like:
'I want more snap on that snare,
I want more snap on the kick.'
So I would send it to my 1176s.
00:07:17
Understand, you have to
have them perfectly calibrated
because when you've got the
British settings in they go totally wacky.
00:07:26
You spend a lot of time but you gotta
be able to send a signal in there
and they both compress at the
same time and both let go, right?
So once you get that
going, cause if you don't,
you add kick to it and suddenly
your kick is left heavy.
00:07:39
Just a little aside.
00:07:40
And I would get that snap but
the coolest thing I discovered,
again by accident,
because there's so many options
on this whole setup
that
you could try anything,
you'll never, at this point in time
you'll never run out of options. And
each one gives you something cool
or different or shitty,
you know?
Who knows, who cares?
It's whether it feels
good to you, for the song.
00:08:05
The coolest thing is
I once had a...
00:08:08
And I think this was
I'm almost positive,
it's on
the Parachutes record.
00:08:16
On one of the songs where
the acoustic is playing.
00:08:20
And
it was
you know, just a mono acoustic guitar.
00:08:25
But I wanted
something, I wanted to accentuate more
what Chris was singing about, right?
And so
I removed it from C,
cause guitars are all going to C.
00:08:39
So now it's not going anywhere.
00:08:41
And then I started bringing up
the 1176s.
00:08:46
Right?
And because they
both kind of act differently
as I was bringing it up and the
harder that was pushing it into 1176s
the more movement there was.
00:09:00
And it was exactly
what I was looking for
to really enhance the story.
00:09:08
Right?
I don't do any of these for:
'Hey, sonically, wow, that's cool.'
I could care less.
00:09:14
Right?
Cause sonically good
without any soul is sonically crap.
00:09:20
Right?
These are the kind of things
that I would do and I really really
enjoyed and I was like:
'This is just the coolest thing.'
The years go by and I'm
getting better and better.
00:09:32
I've mixed the
first Coldplay record
I didn't mix the second.
00:09:37
And
it didn't look like I was going to
mix the third. So, obviously,
as we all know, when we love
a band and we don't get the job
it's kind of a bummer.
00:09:48
But life goes on.
00:09:50
And then one day
I get a call from Guy.
00:09:54
Guy from Coldplay, Guy Berryman.
00:09:56
And he goes:
'Hey listen
let's have dinner.'
'OK.'
We're sitting there and he goes...
00:10:04
This was right before,
right after Christmas,
he goes: 'You know, before Christmas
we finish our second record
and
our third record at this time.'
And
we all met back after the holidays and
looking at each other like,
'Man, this record
doesn't sound good, it just doesn't
feel exciting enough.'
All the guys in the band always
look to Guy as the hi-fi guy.
00:10:31
And he goes,
'Hmm.'
'Guy what do you think we should do?'
And guy goes:
'We need to Brauerize© this!'
And that's how it got coined.
00:10:43
So
I go:
'So you need to Brauerize©?'
He goes:
'Yeah.'
'Let's do it.'
I go: 'OK.'
And so
we, at the time I was
at Electric Lady.
00:10:58
We just started mixing the record,
got it done, that was 'X & Y'.
00:11:03
That turned out to be an amazing record.
00:11:05
In the beginning I always called it MBC.
00:11:08
Right? Multi bus compression.
00:11:10
But
by the time that...
00:11:13
within five or six years,
it wasn't multi bus compression anymore.
00:11:17
It was
parallel compression,
there was send/return compression.
00:11:22
So, at this point in the story
I not even talking about the vocals.
00:11:28
At this point lead vocals
were also going to A
and D if I wanted for...
00:11:34
You know, or it would be A
and then sending to my 1176s.
00:11:39
All of that changes
a little bit later
which I will
discuss on the next part.
00:11:46
But at this point
what
is so important is that
I was able to bring out the emotions
of
the music
in a much better way
than I personally could
before.
00:12:01
Right?
So,
if it was a happiness type of song or if
it was a sad type or if it was an angry
or if it was just club,
right? Just physical.
00:12:11
This tool
really allowed me to go
in any direction I wanted.
00:12:16
Because
there was a point where
I decided I didn't want to be
anything but a mixer.
00:12:24
And so
I was mixing all styles of music.
00:12:29
And this particular tool
just allowed me. There were times,
a few times,
once with John Mayer,
once with another artist where
it was just
too radio ready, it was just too enhanced,
it wasn't honest enough, it wasn't
vulnerable enough.
00:12:50
And
I immediately said:
'Wait a minute.' I'm like: 'Oh!'
And I just
put all the faders down,
put everything in A,
brought it up,
fifteen minutes later
he walked in he was like:
'What?'
You know.
00:13:06
'That's what I'm looking for.'
So, it's a tool.
00:13:09
And like anything else
you use it to help
yourself become more creative.
00:13:17
The more creative you are
this tool will just keep going.
00:13:21
So why go hybrid?
Why go in the box?
Well,
at this point.
00:13:28
I'm at Electric Lady,
things are really going well.
00:13:32
The whole
Brauerize© thing is working beautifully.
00:13:36
There's no limitations
at this point with this,
with this tool so
there's no real need to
develop anything further.
00:13:45
I'm doing great, I'm really happy.
00:13:47
But here's where the
real world sets in.
00:13:50
After every album that I would mix,
I would put two to three
days aside for recalls.
00:13:57
This was a time when
artists
would attend the mix.
00:14:02
So as I was mixing
they'd be in the lounge
and I had a ping pong table in there,
I had movies going on in there,
I had the coffee machine,
whatever I can, I was even
at one point when I was
on
in the middle of Broadway,
there was a strip joint downstairs
they could keep busy down
there while I was mixing.
00:14:25
But when I moved to Electric,
it was down in the village,
beautiful iconic Electric Lady Studios.
And I was in B at the end.
00:14:34
I had my beautiful 9000,
it was an early 9000,
it was painted purple.
00:14:41
It was only, I think
only one in the world that was for that.
00:14:44
And
supposedly it was for Depeche Mode
to mix their record, they wanted purple,
I don't know if that's true.
00:14:53
But it was a punchy sounding console.
00:14:57
So I would mix
and then I would usually,
I'd say: 'OK guys.' If I started at 10.
00:15:03
'Guy come back at 01:30
I'll text you when I'm ready
but be within thirty minutes.'
And being in New York city,
thirty minutes away was simple.
00:15:13
They come in,
I play them the mix.
00:15:17
They would make comments,
I would make the changes.
00:15:21
And that was
pretty much it. Then we would print,
they didn't usually go back and
say we gotta look at this song again.
00:15:28
Maybe it might happen
but generally the comments
that were made right there and then
that became the master.
00:15:37
And then I would mix another song.
00:15:39
Same process over and over and over.
00:15:41
But
then
things started to change.
00:15:45
They would
do the changes.
00:15:50
And then I would do the
changes for the whole album.
00:15:55
And then they would say: 'You know,
on this first song we want to
just revisit that one more time.'
So I understand
that every time
that I would mix a song
I would have to have
all of those
racks
notated.
00:16:16
Cause I had the SSL automation,
that was fine.
00:16:20
But it's nothing without
all the inserts that
I've got going on.
00:16:25
So, I would have to have my assistant
going through all of that.
00:16:30
We made custom Photoshop
recall notes of every piece of gear,
so it wasn't a stock Neve or something.
00:16:38
It was the actual
picture of every piece of my gear.
00:16:42
And then they would go
through this and there was paper.
00:16:45
Right?
And they would go through and
if I didn't use that piece of gear
they just cross it off.
00:16:52
And they had exact notes.
00:16:55
And that took time.
00:16:57
And then if they wanted to do a recall
all recalls
came back
absolutely perfect every time.
It was incredible, but it took time.
00:17:05
It took
two and a half hours
to recall two or three songs in a day,
that was a really really
long day because not only
would you have to
spend time on the recall
and then do the recall
and then do the prints of the,
usually the vocal up,
the vocal down, so on and so forth.
00:17:25
If I was
really fast that day we could do maybe
four songs but
the guys were working until
two or three in the morning.
00:17:34
Right?
My assistants.
00:17:37
It just became
really inefficient.
00:17:40
And so...
00:17:42
and this was where Manny really helped
cause I was calling him, like:
'What are you doing?'
I mean it's crazy people are...
00:17:50
they're not happy with just one set
or sometimes they're not showing up.
00:17:56
And he said: 'Well, I just print stems.
00:17:59
I just do all the passes and then
if there's a recall
I just use the stems.'
I go: 'Wow, how do you do that?
What if it's an internal problem?
Like, when it is within the drums
and stuff.' He goes: 'Well, then I'll just
bring that back up on the desk
but in general it's all really doable.'
I say: 'That is amazing.'
And then I thought well what do you
do with, if you're doing individual stems
and the way that I've got
compressors at the end,
it wasn't just the
multi-bus that I was doing
but at the end I wanted
to glue it together.
00:18:33
In that part of the sound, when you've got
the whole track going through it,
if you just put one in individual element
it's not really compressing.
00:18:42
And so
when you do all those passes
and you play it together
it wouldn't match the
original mix because
the chorus might get
like way too loud and
maybe the intro would be too
quiet so it wasn't really matching.
00:18:59
So what I discovered
is that there's a key
at least on the 9000.
00:19:05
Right? And so you would,
you would take the
unprocessed mix,
send it into that,
so now the compressor
thinks that it's got the full mix.
00:19:16
And then when you would record
a stem
it would do the right
compression and
that addressed that problem.
00:19:24
Now
we're becoming more efficient
because
when a mix would end
we would do
the 30 or 40 passes.
So now you can imagine
my guys are always
working like twenty-hour
days because if I,
I would always mix two songs a day.
00:19:42
Sometimes I would just like:
'I just gotta go to the next one.'
So they would have to recall both
and that was
something like
two, almost three hours per song.
00:19:53
But
at least we didn't
have to go back to them.
00:19:56
Right?
Because now
the rest would be done
basically in the box.
00:20:01
Right?
And then they came up
with this, Steve Vealey at the time
came out with the brilliant idea of
actually working off
a stereo mix and then
if you wanted something
less he could flip the phase
and suddenly it would
disappear out of the mix.
00:20:20
You know, they just did clever stuff.
00:20:22
There was a point now where
it was still
a lot of time, I mean these
guys are working really full days
and burning out from this.
00:20:33
And it's all because
of the client
who doesn't want to be there anymore
or has way more revisions than what
used to happen because, you know,
'I wanna try more now.'
'A little more hi-hat,
a little less hi-hat.'
The days of one being
the client, the artists always
being there, was disappearing.
00:20:57
The idea of
committing to,
to the comments
was disappearing.
00:21:04
That's where you had to evolve
and we're saying:
'OK, we're going to do stems now.'
And then
there was a point where
two close friends of mine,
Tony Maserati and Nico,
they came in and we were
talking and he goes:
'You know, you should try
mixing hybrid or in the box.'
And I'm like: 'Never,
never that could never sound good!'
And he goes: 'No, no. Really, it will
and it will so much more efficient.'
The truth of the matter is I was scared,
absolutely scared
that I would have to now learn
a new format,
a new approach.
00:21:44
That was the truth of it but
Nico actually flew to New York he goes:
'Let me show you how it's done.'
And he had this you know,
this set up in the box, and he goes:
'Look, can you see? You can A/B, it sounds
the same it's going to be great.'
'OK, thanks, thanks Nico.'
I was just too scared.
00:22:05
And Tony was like:
'I'll show you how to do it. It's really
great, it's a hybrid and I can do this,
I can even travel and come back
and open it back up.' And I was like:
'Ah.'
I'm thinking, well, how am I going to,
if I go hybrid, when am I doing?
I want to replace the console.
00:22:25
OK.
00:22:26
I replace the console.
00:22:28
How do I find my sweet spot?
Ah, this is going to be a problem because
it might look like a console
but it's just a control surface.
00:22:38
So what next? Well, I have to at least,
if I replace a lot of the reverbs and the
delays and other stuff,
what do I still have to have?
Well, I still have to have the hardware.
00:22:49
across A, B, C
and D.
00:22:53
So I said: 'Alright.'
'I'm going to do this slowly
because it's the only way.'
Cause all my friends are already starting
to do hybrid, it makes sense and why?
Because now
artists are showing up
less and less and less,
comments are coming in from
left and right. Repeated comments,
more this, more that.
00:23:13
It's just too inefficient
to do anything but at least try to see
if I can get closer to the digital.
00:23:23
So
I got
identical gear
of A, B, C and D.
00:23:29
And
now that nobody is in the
lounge anymore,
which was really the live room,
I said: 'Right,
this is going to be my hybrid room.'
'I'm going to set up the
exact template.'
I wanted everything just like my console.
00:23:46
All my sends
I wanted to be the same.
00:23:50
My A, B, C, D,
everything that I do when
I bring a fader and I want to add
you know, more reverb, I want it to
be that same position, that third send
and everything.
00:24:03
And I said to my first assistant who
started this whole thing, Ryan Gilligan.
00:24:08
I go: 'So, start working on a template.
00:24:12
I'll get the gear
you start working on
a template so that it
looks just like my console.'
And so he started
working on it, working on it.
00:24:22
At some point he goes: 'OK, try this.'
So I sat down and I'm like,
'This doesn't work,
I don't know this sound.'
All I am looking for
is I just want to mix.
00:24:34
And at no point do have
any interest in compromising.
00:24:38
This is not going to be like:
'Well, now I'm hybrid,
it just doesn't sound as good,
but you know, it's a lot more efficient.'
That's not gonna happen.
00:24:45
It's going to have to be as good
or better.
00:24:49
And really the 'or better'
is what's important here.
00:24:52
It was a very slow process for me,
at the point
Steve Vealey,
the next assistant took over from Ryan
and he started developing it even better.
00:25:04
The thing is that the A, B, C, D,
there's very strict calculation
on how it's set up. So once you do that
everything is already working well but
how's it going to work in this situation?
And I would sit down
and I would start to mix something,
something that was
unimportant, just a test.
00:25:27
And I would get so frustrated,
so pissed off.
00:25:32
I'm like: 'This will never work!'
And I would get up and I would
stomp out of the room.
00:25:38
Like a two-year old.
00:25:39
Like: 'This is bullshit.'
I slammed the door and I'm like
and I go back into
my SSL room and I'm like...
00:25:49
'This is where I want to be!'
And then,
you know,
a month or two sometimes would go by and
and then Steve would go:
'Come on Michael,
you gotta try it again.'
'I don't want to!'
'You gotta try it again.'
'Come on.'
'You'll be okay.'
So I sit down there and I'd be like:
'OK.'
'Alright.'
You know, whatever.
00:26:13
And then
I started slowly becoming
more familiar and then,
like anything,
my issue is that
I was learning a new instrument,
I was learning how to execute my ideas.
00:26:27
I had stopped thinking when
I was mixing, it's been years.
00:26:31
You know? I just play it.
00:26:34
I don't have to think
about how to get this.
00:26:36
That was the frustrating part,
that was the scary part for me.
00:26:40
I just wanted my sound.
00:26:43
With
these little
Artist Mix faders, you know?
With a control surface.
00:26:52
So, eventually one day,
I'm mixing something and I was like,
as I put the tracks up I was like:
'Wow! I'm getting there so much
faster than I normally would.'
'This sounds kind of good,
it can be this easy.'
'The bottom end sounds right already,
I've hardly done anything.'
You know?
And I put something else
And then I was like:
'Maybe now I can close my eyes.'
Because that's the way I like to mix
and I am sitting there
mixing and I can imagine
where I'm going and then I
finally just have finished a mix.
00:27:33
And I'm like:
'Man,
This feels like me!'
'This feels really good,
this is emotional.'
And that was,
for me,
a transition of:
'OK,
I'm going to be OK.'
'This is a good idea.'
I would do these little indie projects
that had too small a budget
for me to be doing at Electric Lady
but as long as I was
working in the main room
and paying
paying the main rate
I could be in
the hybrid room
mixing these smaller
projects and getting good
at what I was doing
because I'm still a mixer.
00:28:16
You know?
I might take more time
but I was learning and I go:
'What's better about doing it this way?'
What are the sounds and
we slowly started to, you know,
come up with more and more ideas
toward software. Because in the beginning
my mind,
I would scan through all my analog gear.
00:28:39
If I was trying to get an idea, a
certain attitude or something,
I would just scan,
it would be like a flashcard and then
my eyes would stop on a particular
piece of gear
and it would connect it with
the issue I was having
and I would plug it in,
I listen and I go:
'Perfect!'
And now I started doing this more and more
with plug-ins, learning plugins,
I spent hours and hours on
on a piece of hardware,
I would put it cross everything,
I would push it too hard to see what
would happen when it distorts.
00:29:14
So then as plug-ins were getting better
I was doing the same thing with
plug-ins, because in the beginning
they looked like that piece of gear
the GUI was about all
you got going for you,
you know, the sound was just
awful so I didn't care about using them.
00:29:28
But now
Waves and UAD
Plugin Alliance,
I don't even know if they had
even started yet, but, you know,
all, Softube,
all these guys are coming together,
you know, and they're musical.
00:29:43
There's like musical guys in there,
you know,
better developing these, it's not just:
'Let's make it look
like the piece of gear.'
And so I started thinking about now
more of a balance, where,
even when I was in my main room
I would start using plug-ins.
00:30:01
Cause I don't care.
00:30:03
There is no 'one is
better than the other'.
00:30:05
Yet there is one better than the other
if it's appropriate for that sound
but not because in general
one can't,
I mean, there used to be those little
panels where they'd say,
you know,
Digital vs Analog.
00:30:22
That is
disappeared years ago
because digital sounds
so warm, so natural
they have been sitting around.
And so I find myself more and more
learning new plug-ins and using those
and applying it to what
I was doing and then one day
there was a situation where
I had mixed the album
for this great rock band
Marmozets.
00:30:50
There was one song that they just,
one mix that just
wasn't happening and they were going to
give it to somebody else.
00:30:57
And I said:
'Guys, you gotta give me at least a shot,
to try it.'
'Right? Because I mixed the whole album.'
'I get the idea that I didn't nail this
one but give me a second chance.'
And it was a very complex mix,
lot of changes had to happen.
00:31:14
And I was like: 'You know what?
'Here we go!'
'Let me do it in the hybrid.'
Because I think I can dig deeper
and go in ways that I just wouldn't
be able to go on my 9000.
00:31:29
And I'm going to be able to use some
plug-ins and stuff that
it's just...
00:31:35
'Let me try it.'
And I did it.
00:31:37
I nailed the mix.
00:31:39
They used mine for the album.
00:31:41
And it was at that point,
that very record, where I was like:
'OK. I'm back to not
thinking when I mix.'
'It's just another instrument.'
'I feel great.'
Now,
at this point
I am completely
comfortable in the hybrid.
00:32:04
After being at Electric Lady
for nine years
it was time because Indie budgets were
a lot of things were changing.
00:32:14
And my focus was like:
'Right, well, if I want to do more
of these other types of projects.
00:32:21
I'm going to have to find a room where
the monthly nut is a bit smaller
and I don't feel the pressure.
00:32:27
So I found another studio that I had
built for me.
00:32:32
And now,
at the new studio,
the main room was the hybrid,
because I got that down,
and I got this beautiful S6 console,
it is like a Rolls Royce,
it was just absolutely
beautiful control surface.
00:32:50
I don't even feel like I was
on anything other than
an analog desk, it felt so natural to me
it looked like a great console, beautiful.
00:33:01
And I was just mixing away
and I had 32 channels,
a lot of faders around me.
00:33:06
So I'm still doing everything I do
except that now
I'm in a hybrid situation.
00:33:12
Then,
in the live room,
was the room where all the preps
would be going and at that point
Fernando Reyes
has become my main assistant.
00:33:25
And he's in the room
and all of that is in-the-box,
because at this point
when I would mix a song,
Steve had hit a script where
all the stems would be
done automatically.
00:33:38
You know, he'd come in the
next morning and just check them.
00:33:41
And so now
anything that we have to do or correct
can be done in the other room.
00:33:47
And at that point
I'm looking at Fernando and I'm like:
'So,
you know, when I was in the analog room,
my assistant
helping
set up a template for the hybrid.
00:34:03
But now that I'm in the hybrid
I think we should just
start working on a template
that is all in-the-box.'
I don't know if that is going to work.
00:34:12
And at that point
certain pieces, crucial pieces of gear,
had not come out yet.
00:34:18
Like, a crucial one was the 33609
that UAD ended up doing,
but that wasn't out there.
00:34:26
And you can't mimic that one.
00:34:28
And the Distressor wasn't really
out yet, you know.
00:34:33
David had done a variation of it.
00:34:36
It wasn't sounding like that so.
00:34:39
I couldn't really go all in
if I didn't have at least
some of the same
tools that I was using
in the analog world.
00:34:48
But that changed.
00:34:49
And understand one thing too, which,
when Fernando joins us he'll show.
00:34:55
The great thing about having gone hybrid
is that I grew up on a Neve.
00:35:01
Then I went to an SSL.
00:35:03
I went to 3 variations of the SSL,
they all sounded different.
00:35:07
Basically the 4000 and the 6000
sounded similar but then the
9000 was a whole other architecture.
00:35:17
And it gave me full bandwidth, right?
So when I moved,
decided to completely move to hybrid,
I thought:
'You know,
instead of having one console
why don't we have a
console sound across A,
different to B, different to C?'
Because there's going to be summing amps,
right? Summing mixers.
00:35:41
So I ended up putting
the Neve summing
across A
and then I put Chandler's great mixer
across B.
00:35:55
And then I had Tonelux, I had Paul Wolff's,
which he modified for me,
they had that brilliant,
that API clarity across the guitars.
00:36:07
So all the guitars were going in there.
00:36:09
And then D I think I had the Burl.
00:36:12
The real analog thing.
00:36:14
And then all the effects would go to D.
00:36:16
The delays and you know,
a bunch of stuff.
00:36:20
And then of course E was, 'nada'.
00:36:23
Empty, clear.
00:36:25
So now I'm like working off this sound and
I've got all these great different sounds
going it was so exciting for me because
now I've got more character.
00:36:35
And so,
as you can see,
my excitement is just getting...
00:36:40
you know,
increasing because now I can really just
mix different styles,
different sounds, different tones.
00:36:49
I've got the best of different
consoles in a sense.
00:36:52
And
one thing I never stopped doing,
was I still had SSL
across all my channels.
00:36:59
But there was like four or five
different companies doing that,
I went through them all, A/B them,
decided which one
felt the best at the time.
00:37:08
What Fernando now had to do was
try to emulate not only my A/B/C/D,
just the actual gear,
but the sound that I was creating.
00:37:20
He would like: 'OK.'
So I say: 'Alright.'
'I'll check back in with you in a month.'
And he eventually was working, templating.
00:37:30
And he goes: 'Here listen to this.'
And I would put a mix that I have
been doing now through it.
00:37:37
And I'd be like:
'Yeah, I don't like this,
I like that. This is cool. This is close.
00:37:43
This doesn't feel,
it's not doing that thing.'
And then he'd just go back
and then another month
would go by and he would go:
'Here, try this.'
And it slowly took it.
00:37:56
I'm just giving you the
the non-nerd part.
00:37:59
What's really going to be great is
that Fernando's going to be joining me
and he's going to actually describe how
this whole evolution happened because
it was unbelievably complicated
to make something so simple.
00:38:15
To make it feel
so that I can just mix.
Really, because that's all it comes down to.
00:38:22
But, you know, I don't care
what's under the hood.
00:38:25
I just want to drive.
00:38:27
That's all there is and
Fernando spent
months working on this.
00:38:32
So, this is going to be
really really exciting.
00:00:00
It's amazing
that in so few years
technology has gotten to the point
where
I can be as musical as I want to be
using
just digital gear.
00:00:14
And that really is important
because
as I was transitioning
from the idea of going
strictly analog into hybrid
that could not be any compromise.
00:00:27
And within this whole structure
it had to actually,
it had to be a better reason
than just so I could do recalls.
00:00:35
I wanted to find something more
that I didn't know existed yet
but there had to be something
that could be bigger than
the limitations of analog.
00:00:46
As the long as the sonics
were still great.
00:00:50
And that has always been the factor.
00:00:53
There cannot be any compromising.
00:00:56
So, at each one of the stages
it would take me forever
to accept it because
I had the mindset:
'Oh, it can never sound as good as analog.'
'This doesn't feel good to
me and now I have to think
when I do something'.
00:01:11
So I was always kind of way
behind the eight ball to my friends.
00:01:15
But once
I realize the power
I had going
into hybrid mode where I was
now depending more on
the almost
endless
abilities that you could get through
software
I could start doing things
I could never have done
in the analog world.
00:01:36
One of the quickest things, one of most
the obvious were the tools like Izotope,
of how you could de-ess or you could fix,
you can repair.
00:01:45
I couldn't do those before.
00:01:47
In the beginning I almost used
the plug-ins more as tools than
I was using them as something musical
because I had everything
I needed behind me.
00:01:57
But then as plug-ins
became more interesting
and more creative and more musical
I started using them.
00:02:04
When
I gave this,
you know,
this proposition to Fernando,
my assistant, I say:
'Look, let's see what we can do
to go completely in-the-box,
it will certainly helped me
when I'm doing seminars because
trying to get this hybrid
half the analog and stuff,
it just takes too much time.'
So I was thinking more of an educational
point, I wasn't...
00:02:30
I wasn't convinced any more than
I was originally when the hybrid started
that I could get something
that sounded as good
as I ever did
with the use of,
at least,
some hardware.
00:02:45
I wasn't in any rush.
00:02:47
I was in my main room, Fernando was in the
the other room doing his stuff.
00:02:52
And I said: 'Look, just
keep working at it, there's
no rush, let's do this slowly.
00:02:57
And when you feel you're ready,
when you feel like you can be
mixing something,
show me.'
And
he would come to me
after a month or so and
I would listen,
I'd make comments and,
again my comments are strictly:
'I don't know, this doesn't feel as good
and maybe here's why.'
That's about as far as I got it.
Because that's all we care about.
00:03:22
Does it feel good or doesn't feel good?
I don't care what
problems or challenges you've got.
00:03:28
That's going to be your
problem, my problem
is simple:
I'll let you know when I like it.
00:03:35
And...
00:03:36
And he was like: 'Fine.'
He would go back in and he would
examine and then come back.
00:03:41
And then eventually
it got really really good.
00:03:45
To the point where we even
Compared a hybrid mix
to an in-the-box mix.
00:03:52
And at point where we started:
'OK, we need to tweak this,
we need to tweak that.'
So at this point
it's more
use as a
an option B when I'm traveling
to teach something,
I wasn't really yet thinking about
that
I would have to be mixing records
seriously for clients.
00:04:15
But I wanted to get to know it a
little bit so I would do it but
I wasn't really serious.
00:04:20
And comes along Covid
and we're all stuck at home.
00:04:25
And
I'm not going to be able to
bring those 6 or 7 racks of gear
down into this little space.
00:04:33
I said: 'Alright,
'here we are'.
00:04:35
I grabbed basically
everything from Fernando's room
put it in my car,
and brought it down here.
00:04:42
And this became my room,
at the time I didn't even have
any analog gear, except for my
Benson
delays and a couple other
analog delays, that I'll never stop.
00:04:55
And I had my faders.
00:04:57
And I had
this
fairly new template that
I hadn't done much with but
I still had work.
00:05:04
So I was like:
'Alright, here we go!'
And not only was I
trying to adjust to that, I was adjusting
to a new room, fortunately it actually
sounded quite, quite good.
00:05:15
And as the months went by
I started saying: 'You know what?
That's a great template.
00:05:23
But maybe we don't need to be so
restricted to exactly the way it was
when I was
in an hybrid situation or even
back when I was only on the analog desk.'
And so almost every other day I'd say:
'Fernando, this is our new default.'
And maybe I would change delays
or would change some of my reverbs.
00:05:44
And go:
'OK, today this is the default.'
And then,
two days later:
'Hmmm...'
I find myself liking something better,
I didn't like what I had before.
00:05:53
'Fernando this is our new default.'
There was no question that
it would be OK if the sound wasn't
quite as good, there was no compromising.
00:06:04
At this point I'm convinced
that if I dig enough and I keep going
I'm going to find things
I could never have done
in the analog and even in the hybrid.
00:06:13
Where I was pushing the
the A/B/C/D to its limitations,
because I had limitations of
you know, the overhead,
if a transient hit the overhead I would
like: 'Oh, I gotta bring everything down.'
There was just a lot of
restrictions that I was used to.
00:06:32
And thinking: 'Wow,
what if I don't have those
in this new world?'
And that became the case.
00:06:39
And I just got happier and happier and
I think three or four months went by.
00:06:45
And then one day
I'd been thinking about this for one day,
I looked around, I was like:
I have not even thought or missed
all the gear that I've grown up with.
00:06:56
I put my thumb behind
me because I used to have
6 or 7 racks behind me that was,
you know...
00:07:02
And they were were double-sided.
00:07:04
It's like,
'I don't miss them at all.'
In fact I'm kind of relieved.
00:07:09
I can actually just get up and go.
00:07:13
And yet everything I'm doing
sounds just as warm
and
dynamic
and exciting as it ever has.
00:07:24
So, I was like:
'Well, this is it.'
I'm gonna move forward
this and that's at the point where
I decided:
'Well, I'm gonna sell
just what I don't need.'
I still have some treasures
that I'm keeping around.
00:07:41
But it was at that point that I knew
I could keep going
and
stay within the digital
world thanks to technology,
thanks to the advancement.
00:07:52
You know,
monthly basis with these great
great companies around us
that allow us to do that.
00:07:59
And we also, about the same time,
we had Team Viewer
and Audiomovers. Without those,
I didn't have my assistant here,
Fernando was in New York, I was here.
00:08:10
Yet we were working seamlessly
and then
I'd have Facetime or whatever
it is, Skype, whatever you have.
00:08:18
He'd be there all day long,
I'd be just looking at him
as if he was in the other room.
00:08:23
And he was hearing everything I was doing
and this was and opportunity for him
to actually
listen and watch me mixing, for a year.
00:08:34
It was a great opportunity for him
and at any point, if I'm,
you know if I'm trying to learn because
I was,
I didn't know much
really about Pro Tools.
00:08:44
I have to admit.
00:08:46
So he was right there all the time.
00:08:49
And then,
if I had an idea and wanted to
try something, he was right there.
00:08:53
Even though he was
you know,
200 miles away.
00:08:57
Had it not been for Audiomovers and
Team Viewer this would have been
a very very hard transition for me.
00:09:04
But now,
here's the part,
for me it's extremely boring,
and anyway,
I don't know how it was put together
but
Fernando does and Fernando is with me.
00:09:16
And
he's going to explain
how this whole template
came about.
00:09:22
And I'm going to reveal
pretty much
the whole template.
00:09:27
And
who better
than
Fernando himself to explain how
that came about and
how the template evolved.
00:09:36
So, Fernando Reyes,
my great assistant,
who we've been together for five years.
00:09:42
It's been a great great experience.
And because of Fernando
I'm sitting here,
mixing in-the-box happily.
00:09:50
Because
He's way more technical than I am.
00:09:54
But he's also extremely
musical and understands
how this is important,
how it has to translate.
00:10:02
At this point,
Fernando,
I'll let you take over and
explain to everybody
how the template works.
00:10:10
So I want to start
with a little overview
so everybody understands
the general signal flow.
00:10:16
When we receive tracks from the clients
the first thing that will
happen is we will route
the audio tracks into these folders.
00:10:23
So for example, the kick will go to
the kick, the snare will go to snare.
00:10:27
And these folders are pre
loaded with some plug-ins
and sends that Michael
likes to start with.
00:10:34
They are also routed into
the corresponding buses.
00:10:38
The drums
you can see, are already going to B
and to E through a send.
00:10:46
The guitars are going to C.
00:10:50
Pianos, the keyboards,
the synths, the strings,
the horns,
the sound effects are going to A.
00:10:56
Backing vocals go to A
but they also go to D
with the widener, through a send.
00:11:03
The lead vocal routing
is a different animal, we'll get to that
a little bit later.
00:11:08
The lead vocal wet and
the lead vocal effects
will go to
what we call the 'V Bus'.
00:11:14
Which is basically just a routing
thing because it's unprocessed.
00:11:17
The lead vocal dry will be
with no effects from the client
so Michael has that option.
00:11:23
And the lead vocal wet
will be fully processed
too match the reference mix of the client,
so Michael has the option to use
either/or, or to make a blend.
00:11:32
All the A/B/C/D buses
are all summed
to our master fader.
00:11:38
So we can apply
mixbus processing.
00:11:41
The
other processes we have in
the template, like our delays,
our lead vocal compressors,
some parallel processing and the reverbs
will also be summed
to one of these busses,
most likely to the unprocessed E,
a couple of them go to A.
00:11:57
So, at the end, everything will be summed
to the master fader.
00:12:01
Down here
we can also see that
we use a lot of VCAs.
00:12:05
We use these to control all of
the routing folders at the top.
00:12:09
The lead vocals are controlled
by the VCA lead vocal.
00:12:12
The backing vocals controlled by the
VCA backing vocals, so on and so forth.
00:12:17
All of these VCAs are ultimately
controlled by the VCA master
which is
pre
A/B/C/D.
00:12:25
That way, if during the mix
the buses are being hit incorrectly,
either too soft or way to hard,
Michael can control
them with just one fader.
00:12:34
They're also very useful
if we need to listen to just the drum mix,
for example,
we can just solo all the
drums with one fader.
00:12:41
Or when we're printing
instrumental or a cappella passes,
we can just mute all
the vocals with a couple of faders
instead of going through all the tracks.
00:12:48
Another thing we do when
we first get the audio tracks is,
I will evaluate
the general level of them.
00:12:54
So we won't mess with internal
blends that the client has decided
but we will trim them all up or down.
So if the tracks are too low
we will trim them up and if
they're too hot will trim them down.
00:13:06
What I will do to achieve this
is group all the audio tracks into these
'audio trim',
which is also a VCA.
00:13:13
So I will predetermine a
good level for Michael to start
but also, he can just
adjust it during the mixing.
00:13:21
This trim is pre
all of the folders, which means
that it will affect how the inserts
are being hit.
00:13:29
If the compression on some of
the inserts are too hot or not enough
Michael can also
adjust it with this 'audio trim'.
00:13:35
So we have two
different points of control,
in pre and post different
sections of the template.
00:13:41
So the first four tracks
we use are Slate Trigger,
2 triggers for the kick, 2 triggers for
the snare so Michael can enhance
what the client has
given us if necessary.
00:13:53
The way these are routed
is I have a couple of tracks down here
they are called kick trigger
and snare trigger,
I will just copy the kick
track and the snare track here
and they're bussed up
into here.
00:14:07
And he can choose the
samples he would like.
00:14:10
And then he can also use any of the sends
or any of the plug-ins from the template,
they are already pre-routed
with the drums to Bus B and Bus E.
00:14:21
As you can see,
we have the SSL plug-in across
all of our folders, this is to emulate
the console that Michael has
been mixing in the most of his career.
00:14:31
Because of preference,
we have a couple of different models.
00:14:34
For the drums
we've chosen the 4000
from the Plugin Alliance
because we really like how it punches.
00:14:41
For the rest of the instrumentation
we have the 9000,
which is more open and more airy.
00:14:47
And I love the low-mid
range frequency setting.
00:14:52
the little blue.
00:14:53
That's exactly the sound
that I had on my desk.
00:14:57
In fact, that plug-in
sounds exactly like my desk.
00:15:02
Because I 'A/B' it, I tested it.
00:15:05
Please move on.
00:15:07
Let me show you some of the defaults
that Michael starts every mix with.
00:15:12
The kick and the snare come preloaded
with a send to his 'kick punch',
which we will get into,
his Boiler compressor.
00:15:21
And the snare has its own 'snare punch'
and a Zener compressor.
00:15:27
If we open the folders here.
00:15:30
we also have the Motowns
which are actually his Motor City
EQs, they are hardware.
00:15:35
So I will
print them ahead of time,
because he always likes to use them,
and then when he sits
down to mix they're printed
he can just bring them up with a fader.
00:15:45
The toms come with the Kramer PIE.
00:15:48
He used to have the original PIEs in the
analog world so we've emulated them with
the great Kramer PIE from Waves.
00:15:56
The overheads
have the Fatso,
which he used also to have in
the analog version
and we've created the exact same setting,
UAD did a fantastic emulation
so this was very easy, just a one
to one, put the same settings,
it sounds the same.
00:16:12
I kind of got it on a set of 'Warm'.
00:16:15
So when those cymbals hit
it kind of holds a little bit longer,
it's just this beautiful
flow
and keeps it
really really clear,
exciting
and
warm.
00:16:32
So you don't get that transient
hit of a cymbal because sometimes
it's not recorded all that well.
00:16:38
And so the Fatso just really
handles that beautifully.
00:16:42
What kind of setting do
I have on that? I've got
the bus tracking and the
GP.
00:16:48
And then
I've got the Tranny setting on there.
00:16:52
And then the 'Warm' level is at 4.
00:16:55
And I usually hit it
hard enough so that when you're
looking at the compressor lights
it's usually somewhere between
the green and orange.
00:17:04
And that's when it
starts to really wake up.
00:17:07
So when I'm prepping the session for Michael
I will play the overheads and usually,
in the loudest chorus,
when
there's snare hits in the overheads
if it's usually
around seven of compression
is a good sweet-spot.
00:17:21
Before Fernando
shows a breakdown on the bass
what I've done
for the bass for many many years
is I break it into
two parts.
00:17:34
One part of the bass
is going to be the neck
and the other part is
going to be the body.
00:17:41
And I treat those completely differently.
00:17:44
And the reason for that is
quite often,
depending on
the record I'm making,
there might be a need to
just bring the bass line up
the articulation up.
00:17:56
But you don't want all the
bottom end to go up with it.
00:17:59
Right? So,
by having just the neck
I can bring the articulation
of the fingering or the notes
and just ride those up
without having to try to do with some
tricky compression or anything.
00:18:12
It's just by hand.
00:18:13
You're just riding that line
and then back down.
00:18:16
But then there's other times where
you don't necessarily want that.
00:18:20
Maybe
up until chorus one you want
less bottom,
you want it to just be a bit lighter
so that when the chorus comes in
the whole
bottom end of the record really comes in.
00:18:32
I'll just bring that bass down
until that chorus and
I'll bring it back up
or it might be where there are a few
notes, without having to go into all the
compression which can be done,
maybe I just want to ride
some of that low-end
on a particular note or
sometimes when the
acoustic guitar starts the song
and then the bass is playing underneath
but you don't want all that bottom,
you really just want the top,
just the neck.
00:18:56
I'll just take the whole body,
that second one, completely out.
00:19:01
And so you have a really... It just
feels like a fat acoustic guitar playing.
00:19:06
And it's very easy, there isn't
any extra work, I just turn one off
and I move on and then
when I'm ready I can slide
the second bass on.
00:19:15
So, that's the reasoning for
always multing the bass.
Fernando, why don't you
break it down and see what
I'm actually doing on those.
00:19:24
So bass one
is the bass neck,
as Michael was explaining.
00:19:28
And he likes to start
with the RS 124 from Waves.
00:19:33
Back in the hybrid
he used to have the
Altec 436 in there.
00:19:38
But this plug-in just works great
to achieve the same type of sound.
00:19:43
The bass two is the body of the bass.
00:19:46
And we have the 737
some compression and some EQ.
00:19:51
The exact same setting
that he had on his.
00:19:54
And here in-the-box,
he really likes the Black Box,
you will see it a lot in our template.
00:19:59
So he also starts
with quite a bit of
saturation in the Black Box.
00:20:05
Let me show you the two
EQs we have
in the consoles.
00:20:11
On the left we have the default EQ for
the neck and on the right for the body.
00:20:16
So if you look on the top left
you will see how the filtering
is happening.
00:20:21
For 'BASS 1', which is the neck,
everything below
90 Hz
is taken out.
00:20:27
And everything above
almost 10 kHz is taken out.
00:20:32
In the body
you have the full range down there
but you have nothing
above 3.8 kHz.
00:20:38
We also have some compression happening
in both instances
and some EQ.
00:20:45
For the neck
we're also taking out
a good 6 dB
at 83 Hz,
it's a shelf so 83 down.
00:20:55
Some articulation at around 500.
00:20:58
And again at around 900.
00:21:01
Good three dB.
00:21:04
And for the body we're adding a
lot of low end around also 80,
good almost 6 dB.
00:21:10
Adding in some 200 as well,
3.7 dB.
00:21:13
And taking out some more top end
at 3.8 kHz.
00:21:18
Again in shelf.
00:21:19
Almost 9 dB.
00:21:21
And hardly any compression if anything.
00:21:23
It's just letting a lot of it
go through.
00:21:27
Now let me show you some of
the default sends that he starts with.
00:21:31
In the neck
he likes to send just
a little bit to the 1176s.
00:21:37
A little bit to the 'Dim D',
just to spread out
those high notes a little bit more.
00:21:43
A little bit to the great 'Federal'.
00:21:46
And very little to the Zener compressor.
00:21:50
Note that the
neck
is only going straight to B,
it does not get multed into E.
00:21:58
I don't do that because I want
it to be controlled, I want,
I want the compressors
to hold it down.
00:22:06
Because B
I send to E
which is
non-processed so
that low-end
is allowed to just flow through
without limited amount of control.
00:22:20
So the bass body, Bass 2,
goes to the Boiler.
00:22:26
Also to the Federal.
00:22:28
And that's it. It's getting outputted
to bus B as well as bus E.
00:22:33
The breakdown of the neck and
body is usually for bass guitars
when we get mono recorded bass guitars.
00:22:39
Even if it's a stereo stem but it's
mono information we can mult it.
00:22:43
But if we actually get a stereo bass
where maybe they have recorded through
some sort of chorusing or they've added
a widening plug-in and it's true stereo
we're not gonna mult.
00:22:53
So, we have this channel,
which is just stereo bass.
00:22:56
And it just comes preloaded
with a 737.
00:23:00
And in also goes straight to B and E,
nothing different about it.
00:23:05
The acoustic guitars.
00:23:07
The acoustic guitars are routed to C,
they don't have any specific
sends but they all come preloaded
with
the Black Box, again.
00:23:15
And this is the particular
setting that he likes to start with.
00:23:19
I have a lot of presets
for every instrument.
00:23:24
All of those, which I think are out,
I believe I sent those out.
00:23:29
They should be available.
00:23:31
So you can see that I've got some
for like a more aggressive bass
or different types of guitar if they're
playing diamonds or is just a warm guitar.
00:23:40
Because
over the months, every time I do something
to one of the guitars, I go:
'That's really cool, that's really
good for this particular type.'
I would just name it.
00:23:50
And then
down the road next time
I run that same guitar
it's just a starting point because
you can see it's all in bypass.
00:23:58
Fernando would go: 'OK, here's the
guitar that he likes and it's a diamond.'
Or it's
nice warm. Boom! He throws that in there.
00:24:06
And then,
at some point, if I wanted to
actually enhance that acoustic guitar
then
I just, in one second,
I can pop it in, I like it,
fine!
Maybe I'll tweak it. I don't like it
it just stays in bypass
and eventually I disable it.
00:24:25
So, it's like a starting
point that is there for me
just because he knows
how I like it.
00:24:32
And
it's convenient for me because
I've done many many EQs,
many different compressors.
00:24:38
I just find that particular
plug-in just really
enhances beautifully
what I'm looking for.
00:24:46
So, I tend to start with it
if I want to.
00:24:49
If the guitar needs it.
00:24:51
And one of the things that has
developed over the past couple of years
is that I,
I no longer think about
what am I trying to emulate
in the analog world.
00:25:03
I've become so comfortable
with new plug-ins
that are actually
emulations of
hardware I'd never had,
never heard of
and I like it.
00:25:15
And so
I've moving so much more into
what's new, what's coming out,
that's exciting to me.
00:25:24
If it sounds great and
it makes something
better sounding quickly
then I'm very open to the idea.
There's absolutely
no being set in my ways.
00:25:37
I'm set in my ways until
I find something better.
00:25:40
And then if I like it I like it,
if I don't, I don't.
00:25:43
It's that simple with plug-ins,
it was that simple with hardware.
00:25:47
You know, you just,
just because it's
50 dollars or
100 dollars and 500 dollars
doesn't make my sound
any better because it's 500.
00:25:57
If it sounds good I'll use it.
00:25:59
And if it doesn't sound good
there's at least
I don't know,
100.000 other plug-ins I could try
which is too overwhelming for me
so I only work within
kind of a small batch.
00:26:11
I have a friend, when he'll start
telling me about a new plug-in I go:
'Please, no, no, no.
I can't handle it any more.'
It's like:
'Let's change the subject.'
There is no
default plug-ins for the electric
guitars but he does like to start with
preloaded sends to to his Edison widener
which is
not really the Edison, that's what
it was when he had the hardware.
00:26:34
I kept the same name so it would be
familiar for him when
he's doing the sends,
even though
the plug-ins that I used to
emulate that specific piece of gear
have nothing to do
with the Edison or the...
00:26:46
The sound.
00:26:47
The sound, exactly.
00:26:50
The other preloaded send
is the Zener compressor.
00:26:54
The default for the piano was actually
an emulation of his
piano chain that he had
in the analog gear.
00:27:03
He would always have a pair of
LA-3As
which were
unlinked.
00:27:10
And we have here the LA-3A from UAD,
if you can see they are
multi-mono, unlinked,
so they can react slightly
different to the left and the right.
00:27:20
The other part of the chain that he had
was these
Focusrite
EQs.
00:27:27
When I first created this template,
I can't quite remember what I had
but this plug-in wasn't available
so we had to sort of use a different
EQ that sounded similar.
00:27:37
But as soon as Plugin Alliance
came out with their Focusrite console
we jumped right into it.
00:27:42
I emulated the EQ section
to the EQ that he had,
there is no compression going on,
or any gating or anything else.
00:27:50
It's also multi-mono.
00:27:52
And the left EQ
is very different from the right EQ.
00:27:56
So if you imagine a piano,
the left hand
which has the lower keys,
is EQed to sound with that weight
while the right side,
which is where the right-hand
will play the higher keys
is more EQed to sound
with more air and top end.
00:28:13
That piano sound
is
based,
well loosely at this point, but
early on
I loved
the Elton John
piano shimmering sound.
00:28:27
Specially from the early Elton,
that's all I could think about.
00:28:31
Any time I would be recording a piano
I'll try to record it so
that it would shimmer.
00:28:36
And that's the first time I ever
heard that word, shimmer.
00:28:39
When you would listen
to some of those piano
when he would hit a
chord and it would just
shimmer and then you could hear the
the harmonics rising,
being the prime example
as the first record I ever
really recorded and mixed,
Luther Vandross'
'Never Too Much' album.
00:28:56
You'll hear, whenever a chord is hit,
you could hear the
the harmonics rise but I was also riding
the faders up so you could really hear it.
00:29:07
But I love that sound.
00:29:10
So this setting
is really based on
that sound of bringing
that up and then in the EQ
I would usually bring out
the 4000 and
2000 areas to really just
accentuate all those harmonics.
00:29:29
And again,
it's really depended
on what kind of piano
and what its performance is,
what its function is in that particular song.
00:29:37
But if it's really meant
to be percussive and
to be driving the song
that would be
the kind of processing I would do to it.
00:29:48
And
also I think we send it to
one other different type of widener
that again,
it's in name only because
all of these sends are exactly the
way they were on my console.
00:30:05
You know,
it might not be an Edison but as far as
I'm concerned I'm looking for the Edison.
00:30:11
Because I know I want the widener.
00:30:13
But I had two different
types of wideners.
00:30:16
One of them was the Edison
and the other one was a Portico.
00:30:20
And so the Portico
is generally across the keyboards.
00:30:26
It's a different kind of widener,
a different kind of sound, but again,
it widens in a more subtle way.
00:30:33
So, like Michael just said,
all the keywords
all the synths, the strings,
the horns, they all get
preloaded with a Portico send,
which is the widener.
00:30:43
Moving to the organs
he loves the Culture Vulture.
00:30:48
And we have different
settings, so if it's a Wurly
we have a
Wurly preset.
00:30:56
If it's a Rhodes it comes
with a Rhodes preset.
00:30:59
And if it's an organ we
have a general organ preset.
00:31:03
The strings and the horns,
the default is the J37.
And even when
we were on the analog
console back at Electric Lady
this plug-in was always across
the strings just on Pro Tools.
00:31:18
He used to use very
little plug-ins back then
but the J37 on strings and horns,
always a classic
and still to this day.
00:31:27
We have a 'MHB Strings 2', preset.
00:31:29
And
'MHB Horns 2',
for the horns.
00:31:35
And if you open that up
you'll see that I have presets
for every instrument.
00:31:40
So every time I find a new instrument,
I get a cool sound,
boom!
Preset.
00:31:49
As a starting point.
00:00:00
For the backing vocals,
other than going to A and D,
the only preloaded send we have
is the Dimension D.
00:00:08
Which is a chorus unit.
00:00:09
Michael used to have
the actual hardware.
00:00:12
And we will show you later
what I had to do to match it
because there are a couple of
Dimension D plug-ins
that are not
one to one emulations.
00:00:22
So, I will show you the
five plug-ins we had to use
to emulate the one hardware.
00:00:27
And also you you'll notice that
whenever he's opening one of these
they're deactivated.
00:00:34
It's not as if
I start off
with that particular sound
going through them already.
00:00:41
They are there for me,
if I want it
I open it up, otherwise
it just sits in the background.
00:00:49
Understand that
I always felt, when I was
mixing on a console
I had all the buses.
00:00:58
I had 48 buses
assigned to all my toys.
00:01:02
Everything.
00:01:04
So
that when
I had a thought
and an idea that I wanted to try
I just went to that particular bus
and in a second
I heard the idea,
if I liked it, I kept,
if I didn't I went to try
another idea
because, you know, I could have
different buses to different effects,
I could be going to DP4, I could be going to
a delay or it could be going... Anything.
00:01:25
And then boom.
00:01:27
Immediately I could hear the idea
and if I liked it, fine.
00:01:32
What I didn't like about
mixing in Pro Tools is that I have to
go to a plug-in, find the plug-in.
00:01:40
And then see if I like it and blah
blah blah, and then I didn't like it.
00:01:45
Two minutes went by, I was like,
'I hate, I hate this.'
I want everything right at my fingertips.
00:01:53
The things that I would probably,
really would try first,
let me have those ready to go.
00:02:02
But I actually have a little playlist,
favorite playlist of all my
favorite EQs and compressors.
00:02:09
You see,
all the things that I use
that maybe is a go-to,
the Abbey Road,
the Black Boxes,
my Brauer Motion,
Chris's
Vocals, I like.
00:02:25
And then there's a Magic Death Eye
and then of course Manny's distortion.
00:02:29
Then I've got a bunch of PSP
and of course we've got the Scheps,
I use the Omni Channel
for almost anything,
if I'm doing Brazilian
that's always going across
the percussion.
00:02:41
And I've got all these presets for
the different types of instruments.
00:02:45
And I've got the Smack Attack
that's real simple.
00:02:48
I love the bx_subsynth,
I'll use that on heavy guitars.
00:02:53
And then my,
the things that I used to have
that UAD has done a
great job with the 1081
the Pultec, the LA-2As.
00:03:02
And then of course The Culture Vulture.
00:03:05
So, for me,
without having to dig in
or type it in,
I could just go...
00:03:11
Because I'm so used to that.
00:03:13
You know, I was going to there before
you are able to type stuff in.
00:03:18
I liked that,
I'm able to look at and go...
00:03:21
Done.
00:03:22
And lot of this is of based on a habit.
00:03:25
What was scary for me from going
to analog to anything else is that
I was going to have to relearn everything.
00:03:32
And so,
the criteria that I gave
my guys was like:
I want everything to be in
the same place as my console.
00:03:42
And that's what you see here
but
over now the last two years
I can move on from that
because
I have that,
you know, I'm good with it.
00:03:52
But it's still all based on
the original set up that I had
from 30 years ago.
00:03:59
And
it's all very natural to me.
00:04:03
I have an idea, it's right there.
00:04:06
And I have 4 or 5 different sounding
reverbs, which we'll get into, same thing,
they're all in the same kind of situation
but now I have way more options
which is something I couldn't
have done in the analog days.
00:04:20
For the final part of the folders we're
here with the lead vocals
but we'll get into those in a moment.
00:04:27
Moving on, here are the delays.
00:04:30
When Michael started getting more
comfortable with mixing in-the-box
and started embracing some of the plug-ins
for their musicality and not really for
if he had that piece of
gear in the past or not
the delays were probably one of
the first things that started changing.
00:04:47
What you see here
on our current template
really doesn't reflect what he
used to do in the analog world.
00:04:56
He definitely had the 3000 gear,
which we still have here,
great sounding delay from UAD.
00:05:03
And
the Binson is actually
a hardware insert for
the actual Binson
which is sitting behind.
00:05:08
Because I have yet to hear
a Binson plug-in that sounds like mine.
00:05:15
Even though I have changed
a lot of maybe the plug-ins
what has not changed is the reasoning for
the assorted delays because what I do is:
This is actually going
from short to long
except for the Binson.
00:05:32
The Ampex, which also has
other plug-ins that I can use,
which is why I love
mixing in-the-box,
because I can just go:
'Maybe I'll do something different.'
This is a very tight tight
84 114.
00:05:48
Alright it's almost kind of in
the general area of what the
AR 300 tape emulator
sounded like, kind of.
00:05:58
But it really just opens
up the sound,
this Ampex just
sounds so incredible.
00:06:05
It's the perfect delay.
00:06:07
And it goes back to the
days when I actually had
tape delay.
00:06:11
That was before the
digital delays were out.
00:06:14
And then I move to
what originally I had,
which was an Echoplex.
00:06:20
I like to just
control a little bit before
it hits that because
that plug-in tends to,
if it really goes in the red
it's not musical.
00:06:30
I like to control a little
bit before it gets there.
00:06:33
But this is, again,
at that point,
I mean, I have it at 345 milliseconds but
I'll do
200 milliseconds,
125, it really depends on the
song where I just want a bit of a slap
and sometimes with some repeat
and sometimes without.
00:06:54
Then I move into more of the
3000 which is generally my 8th note.
00:07:00
And what I do there
is, because it's a mono,
I send it to
the Brauer Motion
which
is set to 1/8th
so it's going back and forth
so I'm getting a little stereo
on times that I will send a delay to that.
00:07:18
So instead of it
being right down the center
you're hearing this but sometimes
I'll bring the stereo in so
it doesn't feel distracting.
00:07:26
That's my 1/8th
and then I move on to my 1/4 note.
00:07:32
Which can be the 1/4
note and sometimes
One side is 1/4, sometimes
the right side may be an 1/8th but
that again is a ping-pong
and that's what I used
to do all the time
with one particular delay
and I would just have it going
into one side and then the other side
and I really like that back and forth
of that quarter note because
if I send it in
after the note is
holding out I can actually,
it feels like that
particular vocal is holding that note
forever.
00:08:05
And then I get into the
longest one which is a half beat.
00:08:10
Again,
you're basically
repeating a word on that.
00:08:14
So it's: 'Hello... Hello... Hello'
'Goodbye... Goodbye... Goodbye'
And then if I want to do a lo-fi with it
or want to modulate so it goes...
00:08:27
You know? I can do all of that.
00:08:28
And so you're looking at tied
to sixteenth,
to eighth, to quarter, to half.
00:08:36
And then the Binson is
just a whole other animal.
00:08:39
You get incredible guitar sounds with that,
incredible vocal sounds with that.
00:08:45
And that's my Binson
that sits right there,
just ready to
fire up and then I'll get the sound
I'll like and then I immediately print it.
00:08:54
Just for those wondering
why we have three trim plug-ins,
the Binson is pretty low gain, when
it used to return in a fader
in the SSL console we
would crank the input gain.
00:09:05
So to do able to get the
same amount of level
without having to send way too
much from the actual track
we return it with quite a bit of level.
00:09:14
Final thing for the delays
is where do they go.
00:09:17
If you see here
most of them are going to A
and
getting multed to E.
00:09:24
The only one that doesn't go to A and just
goes straight to E is the Ampex because
that's how we liked the sound.
00:09:31
Now we get into the processing
which is all the parallel,
either compression or distortion or
different things that Michael has going on.
00:09:38
And
besides
the A/B/C/D buses, this part
was the most challenging for me
to emulate with plug-ins
based on the gear he was using
when I was putting this together
this took a lot of
different
iterations to get it right.
00:09:58
Let's start with the federal.
00:10:00
You will see we have 4 plug-ins.
00:10:02
for the one piece of gear.
00:10:05
Obviously, when I first
started matching it
the first instinct is:
'Great there's a plug-in,
let's bring in the settings,
it should work, right?'
It didn't.
00:10:15
Some of the characteristics
but it's quite different.
00:10:20
So let's see what I came up with.
00:10:22
And
let me just point out that some
of this plug-in chains might
theoretically make no sense, I have no
idea why or how I came up with them.
00:10:31
It was just a matter of me
sending something into the gear,
sending into a plug-in and then
reacting to what I felt was lacking.
00:10:39
And trying to find something
that would give me that
regardless of what it was.
00:10:44
Smack Attack.
00:10:45
Most likely what I was feeling here was
that the attack of the bass,
because the Federal is used
on the bass, as I said earlier,
the hardware was giving me way
more of the pick-up or the strings
which the plug-in was not doing.
00:10:59
So I most likely put this
Smack Attack and added some
of the attack of the transients
to try and emulate that.
00:11:05
Afterwards we have the Slate
VMR with a couple of modules,
the Revival is adding some thickness
to try to compensate
for the lack of weight
that the plug-in had versus the gear.
00:11:18
And also the gear has a really
nice and musical sort of distortion
that the plug-in does not have at all.
00:11:24
So I went through a lot of different
distortions to try to get that character
and I ended up with this
New York strip
distortion from the
Virtual Tube Collection.
00:11:35
and these are the settings,
around 5 saturation
and a little bit of parallel mix there.
00:11:42
And the last plug-in is
the Pro-Q 3, if you see this,
the curves are kinda like weird.
00:11:50
So I reached a point
where I was pretty happy
with the chain
but there was just like that
final stage that I just couldn't get.
00:11:59
Because your hardware was so modified.
00:12:02
Keep that in mind,
in defense of that plug-in,
that
I had modified my Federal or had it
modified so it was very very unique
and it has a mid-range graininess that
is why I used the Federal as send,
never as an insert,
for my vocals, for my bass,
for anything where I wanted,
you know, something more in the
throat or if in the bass, I want more
articulation in the lower
mid-range in a natural way,
through a compressor
as opposed to using
an EQ, a filter.
00:12:37
The way I came up with this curve was,
when I was
pretty much happy with my chain
I send
a bass to the hardware
and also to the plug-in chain
and then I put a blank Pro-Q 3 in both.
00:12:52
And then I run
the spectrum analyzer
which will show me
what was missing.
00:13:00
What I found is that when I match
the curve of the gear to this
what the Pro Q 3 was doing was
pretty exaggerated
so I ended up deleting a lot of the
curves that it was telling me to use
and sort of like
blending in the ones that I wanted
to keep to where, to my ears,
it was matching.
00:13:21
And when I was done with his chain
I showed it to Michael,
he approved it and we were very
happy to emulate that piece of gear.
00:13:29
I'll be even happier if I get mine
modeled.
00:13:34
The kick and the snare punch
are not emulating anything,
these are actually
plug-in chains that Michael
himself came up with
a very long time ago.
00:13:44
He had this even in
the analog console days.
00:13:48
So
I just transfer these,
I really didn't have to do anything.
00:13:52
But I'll show them to you.
00:13:53
The Kick Punch starts with a 33609
into
a Tubetech EQ,
originally it was a Pultec EQP1A.
00:14:06
But we replaced
most of our Pultecs with the Tubetechs
because we find that the sound
is very very very close.
00:14:14
And we try to minimize
our use of UAD in our template
for processing power saving.
00:14:20
And the final plug-in,
dbx 160 compressor.
00:14:24
Mr. Punch.
00:14:26
The Snare Punch is pretty similar.
00:14:29
It starts also with a 33609.
00:14:32
Same EQ but with a different setting.
00:14:37
dbx 160.
00:14:39
But it goes a little further
in the aggression
with the Black Box again.
00:14:47
I believe the original iteration of this
was maybe Decapitator or something.
00:14:52
-But once you get into the Black Box...
-I think it was the Culture Vulture.
00:14:55
It might have been.
00:14:56
It was eating up,
I was using so much UAD.
00:15:01
So following the kick and snare punch
there's a bunch of sends that are preloaded
just for every single
track in the folders.
00:15:10
The first one
is a send to the 1176s.
00:15:15
The second one is to the Gold Plate,
which is one of our reverbs.
00:15:19
The next one is to our spring reverb.
00:15:22
Altiverb reverb.
00:15:23
Plate reverb.
00:15:25
Capitol reverb.
00:15:27
And the Bricasti.
00:15:28
And also
E
is active by default in the
drums like I said but it's also
right there for any of the other tracks,
in case Michael wants to send
anything else to E during the mix.
00:15:42
Cause there are times
when I've got a really good sound,
the guitars are really pumping just right
but I want them just to
explode a little bit
more in a very natural
transient way
where it doesn't feel like
they're being controlled.
00:15:59
And at the point where
everything feels good
making it louder isn't gonna help,
bringing it down isn't going to help.
00:16:05
I can undo
the nice glue I've got going
and so I just hit E,
for example I just open the E up, boom!
I can just
Bring that level down.
00:16:17
And I'll just bring it up
like that, maybe too loud
so I'll just bring it down all the way.
00:16:22
And then slowly bring it up into the mix,
I'm like:
'Man that just feels really
open and exciting yet still
punchy and controlling.'
And so
that's right there. Boom!
Like this.
00:16:36
The 1176s,
which Michael explained a lot earlier,
honestly they were pretty easy to emulate
because the 1176 from UAD
is just an exact copy.
00:16:45
I started by just matching
the settings that we had.
00:16:49
If you see it's also multi-mono,
unlinked,
so the left and the right can
act a little bit differently.
00:16:56
The only thing that I had to change is,
on the hardware we used to have
the input and the output at around 18
to get the
calibration that we wanted.
00:17:05
In the plug-in
I found myself doing a little bit less,
in between 24 and 18
to get the same amount of
compression
when we would send a
tone signal.
00:17:17
So besides that
little difference in level the
sound is exactly the same.
00:17:23
Now the Akai is very interesting
because the Akai was a
sampler box that Michael had.
00:17:30
But he only used it to distort the input.
00:17:34
Because it gave a really
warm and musical sound.
00:17:38
That one was
pretty challenging.
00:17:42
I
first started
with a bunch of different chains.
00:17:47
But then it just sort of dawn on me
that the answer was just
right there because Waves
emulated that box
for the Drive
and the Dirt portion of the Brauer Motion.
00:18:00
So I had that
Eureka moment.
00:18:02
I put in the plug-in,
I set it to direct.
00:18:06
So if you see, there's no mix,
it's just direct signal
but on the direct signal
I am going all the way to Dirt
and then I played with the drive
to where the amount of distortion
was matching the amount of distortion
of the actual unit.
00:18:23
The Boiler
is a compressor that Michael had
in parallel for his kick and his bass.
00:18:30
It's a very unique and
boutique compressor
so there's nothing to emulate it directly.
00:18:38
So through a lot of just
plug-in experimentation
this is the chain
that I ended up with.
00:18:44
Not to mention that
this particular Boiler,
I was at the studio where
this was being built.
00:18:51
On I don't know that that studio is
any longer, I think it
was called Rich Farm.
00:18:56
And the tech who...
00:18:58
who was making these
basically at the same stage
you know, just in the garage, in the back,
and he says: 'You wanna listen to this?'
I was like: 'Wow, this sounds great!
Can you give me maybe some
setting for even
harmonic distortion?
And then:
Maybe can you
also give me a
sidechain so that I can
let the sound through
till may be 90 Hz?'
He said: 'Yeah, OK.'
So he built that for me and
I was there for a couple of weeks so I,
you know,
said: 'Close...
00:19:38
Close
close, better, better. OK, perfect!'
And I had my even harmonic distortion,
toggle switch, and then
I chose at 92 Hz when I popped it in.
00:19:50
All this craziness wouldn't start until
above 92.
00:19:54
and that particular board
was really kind of based on
the SSL talkback that everybody
knows from Phil Collins.
00:20:04
From Hugh Padgham
engineering, getting that sounds
through the talkback in the ceiling.
00:20:10
And so the Boiler Maker
was kind of like in that
scope but I wanted some more
harmonic distortion even in particular.
00:20:18
And so that worked
perfectly for me. In fact,
I think a few years ago he wrote me
he had never
actually written down what he had done.
00:20:28
He was wanting to get my
Boiler Maker back and I was like:
'No.'
'Thank you but no.'
'No.'
So the Zener is another one that
was very easy.
00:20:42
Initially when we were
all analog Michael had the
EMI compressor.
00:20:49
But when we put the
hybrid room together he actually
replaced that with the Chandler Zener.
00:20:56
And UAD's emulation,
as usual, is just fantastic.
00:21:00
So this was also very easy
to just match one to one
with the settings
from the hardware.
00:21:06
The Dimension D was
very challenging
because...
00:21:11
They didn't nail it.
00:21:13
Yes, they didn't nail indeed.
00:21:15
This is the setting that
we would always use
which is the buttons
one and four pressed.
00:21:20
When I was
putting this together I thought:
'This is going to be very easy,
let me put the one and four
we're done.'
It wasn't the case.
00:21:28
The chain to
match it, it isn't that complex honestly,
let's look at it.
00:21:35
The first thing that I noticed was that
when I was sending a certain amount of
vocal into the Dimension D
I was getting these
chorusing and reaction right away
and if I would send
the same to the plug-in
nothing would happen.
So I needed that when Michael
send from his vocal he could
send the level that he was used to
and get the same
reaction from the plug-in.
00:21:56
The next plug-in in the chain
is
a PSP Vintage Warmer.
00:22:01
I felt
that the Dim D
had a sort of
presence and even a little bit of a
compressed sound that
the plug-in didn't add.
00:22:11
So
I was trying different things and I ended
up with a mixture of the Knee
and the Drive of the Vintage Warmer
before going
into the Dimension D really helped to
emulate that character.
00:22:25
The next part of our chain for
this one is another trim plug-in.
00:22:30
Because now I was getting
the same amount of
effect when I was sending
but the return was much
lower than the hardware.
00:22:38
So I did 3.5 dB to match the output of
the plug-in chain versus the hardware.
00:22:44
And then once I had the tonality correct
I felt that the Dim D hardware
was spreading things out
a little bit wider than
the plug-in was doing.
00:22:57
So I ended up adding this Shuffler
from Waves
just to open things up a little bit more.
00:23:03
And once this was together I could
finally show it to Michael
compare to his Dim D.
00:23:08
We took five plug-ins but we got
the sound that we were looking for.
00:23:13
The first widener that we had on hardware
was the Edison which is what Michael uses
to widen his guitars.
00:23:20
I use the brainworx
from Plugin Alliance,
the bx_digital v3
to emulate it.
00:23:27
I did a little bit of work with the
gain in and out, the same as the Dim D
to match the gain staging
and then I used the wheel in the
stereo width, with my eyes closed,
until I could match the placement
of the guitars in the stereo field.
00:23:42
And then finally
I felt that I needed to match
a little bit of the EQ curve
that the hardware was providing
and I did that only in the stereo section.
00:23:52
So we can see here I have
about 3 dB of 115 Hz shelf.
00:24:00
A little bit of 244
in a bell setting, also almost 4 dB.
00:24:06
A little bit of mid-range,
5.8 kHz, a couple of dB and
then again a shelf in the top-end,
10 kHz,
almost 4 dB.
00:24:18
The second widener that
Michael had was the Neve Portico.
00:24:22
And
he uses this one to widen
keyboards and synths.
00:24:28
What is different
versus something like the Edison is
that the Edison is pretty much straight up
widening the sound
but the Portico
was almost more like a mid-side thing where
it's exciting more the sides and maybe
like dipping the mids a little bit and
that's really cool with synths because then
you don't cloud
your middle of the mix
and you sort of have them
be wide just on the sides.
00:24:53
So I used this
plug-in from UAD
called the K-Stereo.
00:24:59
I am dropping 1.1 dB
in the middle of the signal
and adding quite a lot of side, 4.5 dB.
00:25:08
The other thing
that the Neve was doing,
being a Neve, is adding a beautiful
top end.
00:25:16
Which this plug-in doesn't do,
so once I had the stereo
placement correct I followed it with
the Maag.
00:25:25
On the air band,
which is just magnificent,
a good 4 dB at 10 kHz and that gave me
that air
that the hardware was
giving us by default.
00:25:36
The final piece in our
process in the folder here
is
what we call Tchad drums.
00:25:43
And it is not emulating anything,
these we actually
incorporated this
like a year ago.
00:25:49
This is something inspired by
a Tchad Blake video where
he's mixing a song by The Kills.
00:25:56
And the song has two different drum-kits
and in one of the drum-kits he is putting
these very wild
chain across them.
00:26:07
So I showed it to Michael
and
we decided to incorporate it as a send
so when he wants to add
some more attitude
or drive to some drums in a certain song
he can just add some of the
drums into this parallel chain
It can be, generally, to maybe
make the
chorus just change tonality a bit
if it needs to be a little dirtier.
Sometimes you'll hear
the artist will go: 'Can you
make the drums a little dirtier?'
And you're thinking...
00:26:42
'But I like it clean in the verses.'
I go: 'OK.'
And so that's it.
00:26:49
I just go: 'OK.'
I automate the sends to Tchad
on the choruses.
00:26:57
And immediately they go:
'Yeah, that's what I'm looking for!'
And then I'm done.
00:27:02
Thank you Tchad.
00:27:03
The king.
00:27:05
The king, the pioneer
of distortion.
00:27:08
The man.
00:27:09
The legend.
00:27:11
And I'm very happy to copy it.
00:27:14
Which is what we do.
00:27:16
I mean,
that's how I learned.
00:27:19
How did I get this far?
By learning from all the engineers
at Mediasound.
00:27:24
And
back then that was your only option.
00:27:27
Once you became an engineer there
was nobody to learn from anymore.
00:27:31
And if you were in a
situation where you were
basically learning on your own
or you had one person to learn from
where would you get all
these different experiences?
Which is why
what we're doing today
just
is so great for all of us
because it doesn't have to
be just you going:
'Oh, let's see how he does it?'
How about me?
I'm like: 'Wow, this sounds really great!'
Tchad just let us all
know how to do it? Cool!
Let's do it.
00:28:05
For me it's about
just trying to accomplish
the objective of the sound
of getting something exciting.
00:28:13
And if I can,
you know, grab somebody else's idea to
get that idea cross for the artist
this is wonderful and it's all about
the creativity, it's just a tool.
00:28:27
How am I going to use that tool?
It's not that when I put that on
it's guaranteed is going to be Tchad,
I doubt that Tchad would do it this way.
00:28:36
If he was mixing my particular
song he would not do this approach.
00:28:42
This is my interpretation of getting
some Tchad feel into this song.
00:28:47
And you know what? The artist says:
'Wow, this sounds great!' He's not asking:
'Who was that? Are you copying somebody?'
They're just like:
'This feels good.'
Done, move on.
00:29:00
This was a great
great little gift,
you know,
watching these videos helps all of us.
00:29:08
So most of these parallel processing
are being routed straight to the
unprocessed bus, which is E.
00:29:15
Except the kick and the snare
punch which they go straight to B.
00:29:19
So just a quick explanation on that.
00:29:22
Generally I don't want extra processing
on reverbs, I don't want extra processing
for my
widths and all this stuff.
00:29:32
I've already done it once.
00:29:33
What I'm sending to it
is already being processed.
00:29:37
I don't want a double up.
00:29:39
And that's why
you're seeing what you're seeing.
00:29:44
So now we're going to our reverbs.
00:29:46
This track is called Gold Plate
but currently
we don't have the Gold Plate,
well it's here but it's inactive.
00:29:53
But Manny reverb
in Chamber is what is
being used right now.
00:29:58
Sometimes we'll just
keep the names so we don't have to change
the routing in the template
but we'll just put different plug-ins even
if it's not what it's exactly called.
00:30:07
The next reverb we have is the spring
and these 4 plug-ins are actually
all springs, the default one
is
the PSP SpringBox.
00:30:17
But we have a couple of different types
in case Michael wants to switch between,
we have the UAD BX 20,
that we all know.
00:30:24
SPR Spring Reverb from
Black Rooster.
00:30:28
And
the straight-up spring
reverb from Pro Tools.
00:30:33
Moving on we have our Altiverb channel
with an instance of
Altiverb with this great
IR from studio La Fabrique
chamber in the south of France.
00:30:44
The other plug-in we have in the 'Alti' is the
Avid Space which is loaded with an IR
of a real EMT 250.
00:30:52
So the Plate chain
comes from the analog days where Michael
had this PCM delay as his pre-delay.
00:30:58
We could have done the
pre-delay just in the reverb plug-in
but
you know, it was cool to just use the
same one that he was using.
00:31:05
Same value, 129.
00:31:08
Followed by
this de-esser, which he
also had the SPL de-esser
to control some of the ss
going into the plate. So we kept it.
00:31:17
And then the plate is just
another IR of Michael's Altiverb.
00:31:23
The next reverb is the Capitol,
the same as the Gold Plate,
what we actually have in right now
is Abbey Road from Waves.
00:31:31
But we also have the
UAD Capitol as an option.
00:31:34
And finally we have the Bricasti
which is emulating the Bricasti
M7 that Michael used to have.
00:31:40
We're using the Verbsuite Classics
from Slate.
00:31:44
If you go to their website there is a
section where you can download the IRs from
the actual Bricasti unit. So, this does
not come preloaded with the plug-in
but you can get them for free.
00:31:54
So we downloaded those,
We are using the 'clear ambience'
patch which is
one of the most used patch that
Michael had in his actual Bricasti.
00:32:04
So what you see here
is
the ability to go to
different types of reverbs.
00:32:12
I like a Spring
or maybe with the 'Alti'
I want kind of that stairway
sound of a chamber.
00:32:20
Then I like a traditional sound
of a Plate, the way that sounds
and they're all going to have different
lengths. A plate is going to be longer
obviously than a chamber sound.
And the spring,
spring is a unique sound which
within the context of a
mix gives it this
almost like a little highlight of
of the instrument that is going
through because it's going...
00:32:45
It just has a mid-range excitement to it.
00:32:49
And then the Bricasti is really
just a very short clear ambiance.
00:32:54
The kind of thing so that
if I wanted
the...
00:33:00
a tom
to sound more like it was in a room.
00:33:05
I grew up at Mediasound, Studio A,
if I wanted just that nice large room
where it just opens it up
and it just gives clarity.
00:33:14
It's almost like popping a
little spotlight on the tom.
00:33:17
So with all the other things going
on you hear more of that Tom.
00:33:22
Giving it that short ambiance,
very clear ambiance,
is perfect.
00:33:28
So what you're seeing here
are variations of short to long
springs,
plates,
rooms,
all that is right there at my fingertips.
00:33:40
All the time.
00:33:42
And so as I'm trying
to think of an idea
I might quickly just throw it to three
or four different ones and they're all
right there at the sends.
00:33:51
Right? It's not like I have to
search for anything, they're there.
And what is awesome,
which I couldn't do
back in the analog days,
at least not easily,
is I can have 4 different types
of Plate sounds, I can have
you know,
I was loving the Gold Plate sound
and then when I was mixing some Dylan
I needed more of a
chamber with a delay and it was
something that Bob Rosen,
Bob's manager was really looking
for a certain sound on Bob's voice.
00:34:24
I opened up Manny.
00:34:25
You know, what's in there are his
favorite sounds all in one little box.
00:34:29
So you've got,
you know, you got rooms,
you got halls, you got plates,
you got a space, you got ambience,
you got everything over here.
00:34:38
And you can distort it,
you can compress it,
you can phase it.
00:34:42
I mean,
what's not to love?
So that became my, you know,
my default because that
particular Chamber, Medium,
with my delay. How much delay
did I have? Probably 125 ms.
00:34:58
And that number by the way is just based
on originally, before digital,
we ran off
a tape machine and the
space between the record
and the playback head,
at least on the machine I was using,
it was 125 ms.
00:35:18
And that was at 15 IPS.
00:35:21
And so I continued using it.
00:35:24
When I replaced the tape machine
the PCM 42 sounded really good
with delay and I had it set at 125,
it snuck up a little bit to
129 but it hardly matters.
00:35:38
And even if you open that up you'll see
that it's probably
half wet, half dry, so it's a
combination of dry and wet
signal. So instead of going...
00:35:49
You're hearing...
00:35:51
Right? So it's just the...
00:35:53
It's a better blend of
of direct and delay.
00:35:57
So now I play with this
and then recently,
on the Plate,
actually with the 'Alti'
I've added one more
which is
the Sunset.
00:36:11
Because that's
kind of my new default.
00:36:14
And Ross Hogarth
was instrumental in
making the Sunset Sound plug-in.
00:36:22
This is ridiculously great sounding.
00:36:24
And this is from Sunset Sound Studios.
00:36:28
Studio 1 Plate, Studio 2 Plate.
00:36:31
He told me some of the
great acts that were using
one Plate over the other.
00:36:36
They're just great sounding plates
and so
I'll play with that for awhile
because it's something new.
00:36:43
And it's just one more little
thing in my arsenal.
00:36:47
And it's right there,
because it's sitting in there,
all I gotta do is:
'I don't know if I want this sound,
maybe let me try this one,
because maybe for this
record I'm looking more for
different forms of plates.'
And there they are.
00:37:00
Today's companies, it's...
00:37:04
I don't know what their technology
is but obviously you've got a lot of
artificial intelligence
working into all of this
and you've got brilliant musical techs.
00:37:15
And then you've got
people like Ross Hogarth
who directed to make
sure that it is absolutely
the vibe and the sound,
those iconic classic
places really ring truth.
00:00:00
So now we're here
in the buses,
the most important part of the template.
00:00:05
Here we go!
The big reveal!
No we're not going to show this actually.
00:00:11
OK, good night folks.
00:00:12
It's great to see you, come back again
next time.
00:00:17
Series two we're going to show
this to you. Right Fernando?
Let's get out of here, let's get a pizza.
00:00:22
Alright.
00:00:23
-OK.
-Let's show them now.
00:00:25
Show them.
00:00:26
The first bus is
something that I implemented just
in-the-box just for routing purposes.
00:00:31
We didn't have this in the analog,
it's just something I call 'V'
where we send our lead vocal wet.
00:00:37
It has no processing,
maybe I'll put a de-esser some point.
00:00:41
But we start now with A.
00:00:43
When we went hybrid
the summing mixer that we
were using was the Neve 8816.
00:00:51
If my memory
doesn't fail me.
00:00:54
So before actually emulating
the compression
I had to emulate the tone that
that summing mixer was adding.
00:01:03
I went and listened to all the
summing plug-ins available
and this is the one that I ended up with.
00:01:11
Virtual Mix bus from
Slate on Brit N setting,
we all know what that stands for.
00:01:16
What does it stand for Fernando?
British Neve.
00:01:22
Thank you.
00:01:22
I think.
00:01:23
And I ended up using
around six of their drive.
00:01:29
And obviously, noise reduction on,
so we don't want any unwanted noise.
00:01:33
So that did the trick for
what the summing was doing.
And just so you understand,
the way we had everything patched
was, from our interfaces they would
go 16 channels into
the summing mixer
which then would sum
down to two channels
into the 3609 hardware which
then would go into the Pultecs.
00:01:55
So when I was actually doing
this I had to break our setup apart
so I could listen to just
the summing mixer so I could
truly get the sound of the summing mixer
and emulate it.
00:02:07
So once I was happy with that I
patched back in the 33609
and
33609 from UAD.
00:02:16
Not much to do.
00:02:18
One to one settings,
the same way we had them on the hardware.
00:02:21
And it sounds just exactly
like it. So that was very easy.
00:02:26
And when I first put together the template
I used the UAD EQP1A,
I know they're one to one emulation,
which since
we have change it to this Tubetech for
the same reasons that I explained earlier.
00:02:38
Basically it sounds pretty much the same
and we save a ton of
processing power in our computer.
00:02:44
There it is, that's A,
that's the big reveal.
00:02:47
So moving to B,
we actually have 3 chains for B,
which I will get to in a moment
but starting with the original
chain that I actually modeled,
same as with A,
we had a summing mixer
before the compressors
and this was the Chandler Mini Mixer.
00:03:06
Same process,
I was looking for a summing
plug-in that would give me that sort of
punch characteristic
that the Chandler had.
00:03:15
And I ended up with the Waves NLS
on the Mic mode.
00:03:20
Five point five drive, just under six.
00:03:22
And again, it gave me
that tonality I was looking
and then I could move to actually
matching the compressor.
00:03:31
When I first started doing
this this plug-in didn't exist.
00:03:35
There was a version where we had the
Arousor from Empirical Labs,
which was
kinda like their plug-in
version but not really.
00:03:43
And then
there was some obscure plug-in,
like some indie plug-in,
that was doing the Distressor that we
had for a moment, that wasn't that great.
00:03:50
Then Slate came out with the Distressor.
00:03:53
That was very exciting at the moment,
so we had that for a little bit.
00:03:57
But then UAD came out
with their Distressor and
it's just a perfect match.
00:04:03
The problem.
00:04:04
Yes.
00:04:07
This doesn't have the British mode.
00:04:09
We used to have a Distressor
that actually have the British mode
but their plug-in does not
emulate the British mode.
00:04:17
It was a toggle switch
that have popped in that
that I asked David to
put in,
customize
into...
00:04:26
into his unit.
00:04:27
Because I wanted to kind of get
that 1176 with all the
buttons in kind of feel.
00:04:33
Which was my answer,
which is what I always had in.
00:04:37
So when the
Distressors came out
none of them had that in
and it really changes the character
of the Distressors for me.
00:04:46
So I ended up
basically using,
of course the original
Distressors don't have,
you got a dry/wet mix on here.
00:04:56
And so I'm kind of
leaning towards the
dry to help a little bit with
that initial transient that
I was getting when I had the
little toggle switch in.
00:05:08
So besides that little
caveat
it was a great emulation and
I started with the same things we had.
00:05:16
I believe I might have had to
tweak just a little bit of the input
to get the same gain staging but like
we're talking about like
millimeters here,
it was pretty much perfect.
00:05:25
After the Distressors Michael
had his Avalons E55s.
00:05:29
They had a very specific
sound and it took me a while
to get here, there were very
different iterations with just
I think I was using the
Manley EQ at some point.
00:05:40
The Millennia EQ from UAD
and just different EQs
to try to get to that sound.
00:05:47
And then
when you UAD came out
with their 737
I was like:
'Well, that's a compressor
but it has an EQ section
and it has the Avalon sound.'
So
UAD 737.
00:06:01
Compression section is off.
00:06:04
Preamp gain
is just at unity.
00:06:06
So what we're really working
with here is the EQ section.
00:06:10
So the bass frequency I'm
just leaving alone because
in the E55s
we were just using three bands
which I am using here.
00:06:18
For the low band we are boosting
around just one dB at 75
a couple of dBs add 4.5 kHz.
00:06:27
And a couple of the dBs shelf
around 12 kHz.
00:06:31
Which are pretty much the same frequencies
we were doing on the E55s.
00:06:35
The thing missing to me
which was kind of
maybe unintentional maybe not but
if I remember correctly
when we would put stuff through B
the E55s at the bottom
had that little LED light.
00:06:51
And they were usually red.
00:06:53
So
what was happening was the
signal would come in a little bit too hot
and the output of the
EQ would distort a little bit
but that became part of the sound.
00:07:03
Right? Which this plug-in was not doing.
00:07:06
So what came to the rescue again,
because it was just like a little bit,
Black Box again.
00:07:14
I just added this Black
Box at the end just
to get a little bit of
that extra character.
00:07:19
And that really
put this whole chain together.
00:07:22
Let's think about this
for a second, right?
This is how detailed he got,
not just from a technical standpoint
but from a musical standpoint.
00:07:33
Which means that
every step of this
he had that opportunity
to listen to the real world compared to
the digital world so he could compare
and know immediately
this was good or this was not good.
00:07:49
But
the detail that he would go through
each of these,
you know, I didn't pay attention,
I wasn't watching over him.
00:07:57
I just said:
'Please, I wanted to feel the way
I do right now.'
So the fact that he went
to these lengths, especially
you know, the little green
light that would turn red,
that to him was a sound,
I never paid attention that.
00:08:14
I never had any idea like:
'Oh, it turned red.'
He's like,
'It turned red and I can hear that there's
something different'. For me I'm like,
I like the vibe, I am a vibe guy.
00:08:25
He's like,
that's very nice, I gotta figure out
how to emulate your vibe, you know?
And so
this is actually the first
time I'm hearing of all of this.
00:08:35
You know, the lengths and
how he went through this,
that's very very interesting.
00:08:40
You know, as far as you guys
are going to be concerned it's...
00:08:43
if you can,
you know,
have access to these plug-ins,
your starting point is where I left off.
00:08:51
You know, thirty years of
developing this kind of
stuff to the point where
it still sounds like this
in-the-box.
00:09:00
So let's move to the other two buses so
we finish with the actual emulation
and then we'll come back to the
extra chain we created with the
just in-the-box that we added later.
00:09:11
So for guitars, for Bus C we had the
Tonelux OTB 16 summing mixer.
00:09:17
Which
was modified by Paul for me.
00:09:21
Because
I loved the
widener that was on the Neve
summing, right? I was like:
'Hey Paul,
can you give me that on your Tonelux?'
And he's like:
'Yeah, sure.'
And
so
mine is the only unit that actually
has the same kind of widener.
00:09:39
And of course, I'm putting guitars on it,
so it's nice to already have the guitars
just a little bit wider.
00:09:45
There's a little bit of a chain.
00:09:47
Mr. Slate comes up again.
00:09:50
So you'll see that I'm actually
playing a little bit with the input
and the output to
hit it a little bit harder
but then not actually make it louder.
00:09:59
So, a little bit of gain staging there.
00:10:01
And I chose the Brit 4K E setting.
00:10:05
And again,
why I chose these one which is probably
modeled after an SSL?
It was just by ear.
00:10:12
It's what sounded good to
me compared to the actual unit
but you can see, actually I use
more drive on this instance.
00:10:19
It's up to nine.
00:10:20
But I had to follow it with Revival
adding quite a bit of thickness
and
also a good amount of shimmering.
00:10:28
And that gave me the tone was looking
for but it will probably make it too loud
so I just add had a plain trimmer and
took it down to where
the input and the output
level were the same.
00:10:39
Michael just said that
his unit was modified
to have a widener.
00:10:43
So I had to incorporate that too.
00:10:46
I'm sorry!
Brainworx, again,
very simple
just stereo width to 120,
nothing else happening,
I just added it to
open that up a little bit more.
00:10:57
And the summing mixer
the widening was
a little bit, so you started with
the guitars a little bit opened
but it wasn't like one of
like our other two wideners.
00:11:07
So it does that with just a little 20%.
00:11:09
And then we get into
the actual compressor.
00:11:12
So, we had the Pendulum ES8,
which was a very new type of compressor.
00:11:17
So...
00:11:18
Manley Vari-Mu actually
did the trick very well.
00:11:21
Obviously, this is not a one to one.
00:11:23
So I had to play with this quite
a bit to make it react in terms of
attack and release and
amount of compression and
how it would move when
you actually put in guitars.
00:11:33
Similar to how the ES8 was doing.
00:11:36
So once I got it to a point where
I could put the guitars through
the ES8 and through these
even though they're separate units
but they're behaving the same and
are making me feel the same,
then I was happy with the chain
and as usual
sent to Michael to check it out
and he was happy with it.
00:11:52
The final process bus is D.
00:11:54
Which is the compressor/widener
for the backing vocals.
00:11:58
When we were back in the
analog console
Michael had Edward The Compressor, which
was a compressor/widener, in the main room.
00:12:06
So the hybrid room that
the former assistant put
also had an Edward but they
had already started playing
with trying to make a
version of the in-the-box.
00:12:19
And what they came up
with was this plug-in
called the S73
by Softube.
00:12:26
So I started with that when I was
putting this together.
00:12:30
And I could understand why they
chose it, it kind of did the same thing.
00:12:35
But not really so when I
actually had to match the thing
it didn't work.
00:12:40
I started playing with just
a lot of compressors to
try to get the same feel.
00:12:46
And the one that really worked for me
was the Magic Death Eye, from the DDMF.
00:12:52
So I originally started with
the
grey version which is the the mono version
but it was obviously the stereo plug-in.
00:12:59
And then
later on they came up with the actual
stereo version which is the black one.
00:13:05
And I ended up using that one,
it just sounded fantastic, it reacted
compression wise,
pretty much like the Edward was reacting.
00:13:13
And the tone was very very similar.
00:13:17
And then
bx again, with a lot of widening,
200% of widening.
00:13:24
And
if you can see here just
a very very very small
EQ curve just half a dB at 500
and .3 dB at 4.5 kHz,
which were probably just like
very very small frequencies
that were being added by the Edward
that I just wanted to
make sure we had here.
00:13:41
That's it,
then E is just our unprocessed bus,
it comes from the LF mix from the SSL.
00:13:48
We actually had called it LF Mix
for a little bit but then
we were like:
'Let's call it E to go in order.'
And that's what it ended up being.
00:13:57
So those are the chains that I emulated.
00:14:00
Later on, as Michael started
mixing more and more in-the-box
we started coming up with a couple
of different chains for the drums,
which are not emulating anything,
it's just
stuff that we like how they sound.
00:14:11
So the second chain.
00:14:13
It starts the same as the other one,
with the same emulation
and it finishes with the same EQ
but the compression changes.
00:14:23
This Oxford Dynamics
is very very transparent.
00:14:27
We're using it on records
may be like fusion or jazz
where we're trying
to get the controlness
but we don't really want to
color the sound too much.
00:14:35
What I like about the Oxford
Dynamics is, one, it is clear.
00:14:39
And there are certain
records where I just don't want
to really hear the processing yet
I want a bit of a transient control.
00:14:48
And it has that ability, it's almost like
to a much lesser degree
than the Smack Attack but
there's something about it
that just gives me a
little bit more presence.
00:15:00
Without the
other artifacts of processing and stuff.
00:15:04
So I really really like it,
I mean everything that Sonnox does is a
really really musical.
00:15:12
Incredibly useful for whatever
application you're working for.
00:15:16
And so,
I don't use it often but there
are times where I just don't
want
my whole Distressor thing
going on and I just want to
just to kind of...
00:15:28
just temper slightly without
really noticing what's going on.
00:15:32
Leave the drums alone.
00:15:34
I could even take it out
and have nothing
but I do like the bit
of the glue factor that
the Oxford Dynamics
adds and what we're doing
on it is pretty soft, I mean,
I've got the Warmth in,
I've got the compressor in.
00:15:50
The attack is at around
19 milliseconds.
00:15:54
A bit of a hold
a nice release.
00:15:58
It's just a very natural
sounding
transparent
dynamics section.
00:16:05
So that was choice two,
which I wouldn't have done
back in the day when B was always
allocated to my Distressors.
00:16:14
And so this was great and then
I was doing some records and I was like:
'This Distressor just seems
a little
too aggressive and
too pumping for
the kind of record I want to be doing.'
And Fernando goes:
'I've been using this other chain
when I'm mixing stuff.'
I'm like:
'Oh, can I hear it?'
And so
he opened it up
and
It was exactly what I was
looking for this particular song
that had more of a
I don't know, I was looking for a more
urban bottom...
00:16:54
More like a pop modern, old
programmed drums, urban low type of feel.
00:16:58
Tight and not,
so rocky, which Distressors tend to
put you in that direction.
00:17:05
So he was using
this blend with
David's
great EQ.
00:17:15
I use that often or sometimes
he'll just put it in because he thinks
that's the right direction for the song.
00:17:21
I'll be mixing alone,
and like: 'Oh, this feels good'.
00:17:25
I wonder if he put his chain in there.
00:17:27
I'll go through it and I'll go:
'He didn't put that chain in there!'
And then I'll go: 'Well just to
make sure' and then I'll just do,
you know,
What? A Shift+2, 3 or whatever.
00:17:39
Whatever that thing is
and I could just jump between the two,
I'll close my eyes,
I'm like:
'Oh, this one sounds good.
00:17:47
This is Fernando's chain.
OK, we're good.'
We continue.
00:17:51
I think that's great.
00:17:53
I think it's great to have
these kind of options.
00:17:55
Do I want to do that on the
guitars or do I want to do that on A?
No.
00:18:01
Not for me.
00:18:02
You guys,
go for it.
00:18:03
Have your options, this is,
this is your starting point.
00:18:07
This is a combination of
30 years of
doing this. Remember, I started
with the most basic
back in 1986 or something
1987.
00:18:21
Because by the time I did
the first TapeOp in 2003
I'd already been doing it for years,
right?
Here we are, starting from
actual multi-bus mixing,
compression mixing to now,
who knows, who cares?
Everything is flying. You know.
00:18:39
Anything is available, which is what
I think is wonderful by being in-the-box
as long as what you end up
with sounds great.
00:18:47
Again, this is a tool
for your creativity.
00:18:51
Not a tool to guarantee anything.
00:18:55
So now, it's time to talk about
the vocal.
00:18:59
Because
originally
the lead vocal
used to go
into
A
and D.
00:19:07
And the 1176 I was sending.
00:19:11
That worked fine for years.
00:19:13
Then
my friend David Kahne
showed me
a way that he would mix vocals.
00:19:21
And this was right around
the time I think that Nirvana hit,
because I remember I had a
serious downtime
where
I wasn't...
00:19:31
I wasn't
really that busy.
00:19:34
That happens.
00:19:35
The way he would do it is he would
compile
a vocal
by using different sounding compressors.
00:19:45
It's a completely new concept to me.
00:19:48
And so what he would do
is,
he would find a compressor
that had
maybe
a lot of throat to it
and another compressor
that had like sweetness.
00:20:01
Another one with kind of a head tone.
00:20:04
Another one that might
have intensity to it.
00:20:07
You know, and he would just
build this,
the vocal
by different sections of the head.
00:20:17
In the chest, one compressor might sound
very chesty, another one
might sound very rich and dull but
but with a brighter compressor maybe with
the 1176 it would just match
And
out of that
you would have this really
big sounding compressor
out of all of these compressors.
00:20:38
The way the sound would come
out is that you'd have a vocal
big and present but it wasn't
knocking the meter down
So I'm like: 'How do you get that...?'
And you could hear
the full, full tone of his voice
or her voice and
and as you would push it
the vocal would blossom.
00:21:00
This is incredible.
00:21:02
Now,
his approach
was to...
00:21:08
to compile this vocal sound.
00:21:12
And then
he would
assign all of those, that blend,
so with one fader they
would all go up and down.
00:21:22
His vocal sound was all about
the return.
00:21:28
So it's already, in essence, is pre
compression. He gets that sound,
he goes to the return of the compressors
and he assigns them all to one
fader and then they all go up and down
and that's the sound.
00:21:41
I had committed to
mixing into compression
because I found that to be exciting.
00:21:47
What I did was,
I would build, I would be sending the
vocal to these four or five compressors.
00:21:55
I would get my sound
and then I would leave those alone.
00:22:00
And then I would ride
the main vocal that was floated,
it wasn't going to a stereo,
it was only returning to
these five or six compressors.
00:22:10
And I discovered that
I had maybe,
you know, an inch, inch and a half
of space where I could
just ride the vocal
and as I was riding into the
compressors it would blossom,
the vocal would get
just more exciting,
not more compressed
it was dependent because
there was a small window where
it would be too much or not enough.
00:22:34
But, you know,
by experimenting a lot there got to
be a point where I had the vocals at...
00:22:40
the returns are at a good level
and then I could push
into it and I found that
that it was all almost a
reverse mixing but I could just,
when somebody wanted
to get loud I could just
you know,
I could back off but it would still be big
and then for quiet I could just
dig into the compressors and send it,
sometimes I would
go this far up the fader
into these compressors and you
would just hear the voice blossom.
00:23:08
The best example of that
is Parachutes.
00:23:12
The way that vocal
sounds so vulnerable
and open
and
it just takes you in, as a listener,
right from the beginning.
00:23:24
And that was all
going on with this send/return approach.
00:23:30
Back then I had
on the desk, I had
a Fairchild 666.
00:23:36
I had my Federal.
00:23:38
I had an 1176.
00:23:41
I had a Gates compressor.
00:23:45
That was four, maybe back then
I only had four. Was there another one?
And maybe an LA2 sometimes.
00:23:53
But
that's how I got my tone.
So then, when I went hybrid,
when I went hybrid I was still
trying to use some of the analog.
00:24:04
Everything was analog except
the 1176 Blue Stripe.
00:24:09
Oh, right.
00:24:11
Again, I'd bought four or five,
I couldn't buy a second
666.
00:24:18
I still have that one.
00:24:20
I managed to
substitute with something else
but they were still mostly analog.
00:24:27
Then,
when we
really moved into the
template of all in-the-box,
we had to try to emulate
these and what was the function?
The function was, well,
you need to find a compressor
that has
throatiness to it, another one
that kind of has a chest feel to it.
00:24:47
Another one that has kind of a head tone
and then give me one that
gives me intensity if I wanted.
00:24:53
Oh, I know what was another one,
I think I had a Distressor coming up too.
00:24:57
Yes, we still have that.
00:24:58
The Distressor was part of that group.
00:25:01
That was the function,
it wasn't trying to emulate
the compressors.
00:25:06
It was trying to emulate
what is all this. Then you
put that little picture together,
then you got yourself a vocal.
00:25:15
Which by the way
I am designing
with a particular plug-in company
so that you will at some point
get this whole vocal chain.
00:25:26
kind of in one plug-in.
00:25:28
Hopefully.
00:25:29
That will be exciting.
00:25:30
Or you'll probably see
this video one day and go:
'Whatever happened to
that plug-in? Where is it?'
For now,
Fernando why don't you
show everyone
what you did to
get that
across.
00:25:46
Just a quick rundown
on the signal flow so
everybody understands how this is routed.
00:25:50
The vocal
audio track will come into the folder,
just like every other channel,
but then the output of the
folder is not going to any bus
it is going to these
utility track that we call:
'Lead vocal dry sends.'
And if you see the output
of lead vocal dry sends
it's 'NOOUTPUT'.
00:26:10
So like Michael was saying
you won't hear the vocal
coming out anywhere but through
the returns of the compressors
and obviously any effects
like delays and reverbs.
00:26:20
On the sends of the
lead vocal dry sends track
we have the sends
to all of our different
compressors.
00:26:28
And also
the vocal delays that
we showed you earlier.
00:26:34
So with these fader, the lead vocal dry
sends fader, Michael can control how much
he's sending into all of the
compressors. And obviously,
these compressors
are all calibrated
so that when he sends to all of them
none is compressing
way more than the others.
00:26:50
Everything is receiving
the same amount of compression and output.
00:26:54
Which is 1 dB.
00:26:56
So I make sure that
every compressor
will see 1 dB of compression
and then the return will all
match at zero. So, no matter
which one I listen to,
they're all coming back at the same level
and they're all compressing
the same amount. So therefore,
when I'm sending that vocal through,
I know that everybody's getting the
say same. The exception, of course,
would be the 1176 with all the buttons in.
00:27:26
And that is just what it is.
00:27:29
And then,
on the Distressor,
I usually have it in Nuke.
00:27:34
And again,
these are two
compressors that I use when
I'm trying to deliver more intensity
to a vocal that is lacking intensity or
it needs to
yell a little bit more. And so, these are
specific compressors to specific jobs.
00:27:53
One of the things that
is important to note is that
that send
is post my main fader.
00:28:03
Right? So...
00:28:05
Just...
00:28:06
Explain that real quick.
00:28:08
I am not riding
this fader.
00:28:14
I am riding
that fader.
00:28:16
So these whole concept
is emulated from the SSL console.
00:28:22
So, the folder.
00:28:24
is acting
as the large fader in the console
and the lead vocal dry sends is
acting as the little fader, which is post.
00:28:32
When Michael is actually riding
the vocal he's riding the large fader,
which is the folder,
and the lead vocal dry sends,
which would be the small fader,
is just static.
00:28:43
So, we start at -13, because that's calibrated
and that's mostly where it stays,
but depending on the song he might want
a little bit more, a little bit less
and he'll just put it where he
likes it and it will stay static.
00:28:54
So now we're going to
the actual compressors.
00:28:57
When I first
started modeling this,
because most of his compressors were very
boutique,
or special or rare
I couldn't model one to one. So, like
he said, what I was trying to achieve was
find something that was
achieving the same characteristic.
00:29:14
That being said,
these compressors that we're seeing now,
only the Blue Stripe,
the Distressor and the Fairchild
are from my original template because
the Blue Stripe was always a plug-in,
since we were hybrid,
the Distressor was
modeling the Distressor
and the Fairchild was
modeling the Fairchild.
00:29:33
The other four compressors
have been in-the-box additions
just through experimenting with a
lot of different compressor plug-ins
and Michael picking which ones he likes,
putting the settings how he likes.
So this is a completely in-the-box thing
obviously doing the
same result and function
but it is not a one to one match.
00:29:52
So,
let us show you what we have going on.
00:29:55
So the first plug-in is the TLA 100.
00:30:00
This one is really interesting because
I know
the guy who originally
built this. This was
Anthony DeMaria.
00:30:10
And when I first got this
you'll get compressors
and go: 'Yeah, yeah, yeah.'
You know, nothing special.
00:30:17
And he brought this compressor by
and
you just don't want to
look at the meter because
if you
if you look at the meter and go:
'Oh, like 3 dB, that should just be fine.'
You know?
You close your eyes and you
listen to it and when it would get that
around 7 it suddenly would wake up and
this whole other thing would be happening.
00:30:41
Again, that shimmering kind of sound that
it was so exciting to a vocal.
00:30:47
It wasn't sounding compressed,
it just sounded like a
different character, very very exciting.
00:30:55
That was so well done by Softube
and that became
the main
compressor of the chain,
I would almost always start
with that
and then build around it.
00:31:09
So the TLA was
more of a
kind of the feel of the face.
00:31:16
Right?
Then
let me find something that's got
real graspy, throaty stuff.
Like...
00:31:24
...going on
And that became
Pawn Shop.
00:31:31
It looks cool,
it sounds cool.
00:31:35
And there's all types of
combinations going on in there.
00:31:38
I don't remember any of it.
00:31:40
I haven't touched it since
I've found the sound that I like.
00:31:44
But that's got kind of
like that nice throaty
guttural kind of thing going on.
00:31:50
Which,
you know,
you can use it if need be.
00:31:56
Alright? I mean every vocal
is going to be different but
Pawn Shop,
that was all about
something going on down in here.
00:32:04
And was there anything
else on that? Oh, I think I had...
00:32:07
Across all of this,
just so you know we have a Pro Q3
just so we don't get that extra
essing or a little harshness.
00:32:15
But on this particular
compressor we also
have a little Pultec.
00:32:21
And that's what I would do. When I had
all my compressors returning on the desk
I had the SSL across all of them
because they were loading up
on the 300 Hz generally.
00:32:33
And so if you go to the SSL
you'll notice that probably there's
attenuation, right? And there you go.
00:32:39
So for the most part I would take some
300 out because when you get
all these compressors together
you needed that clarity
and it's in a bell function, right?
And then, depending on the compressor,
as you can see I attenuate a little
bit of 380 or something.
00:32:57
Why?
Because
you know,
because. And we'll leave it at that.
00:33:02
So we take that out, now we go into
the Presto.
00:33:06
Now,
Presto is a very very special compressor.
00:33:10
It was actually Powers who
turned me on to that compressor.
00:33:15
It was a Jersey, I think it was a
it was a Jersey radio compressor,
in the 60s.
00:33:21
He had it modified.
00:33:25
And so when I heard it I was like:
'Wow!' There's just this
sweetness to it.
00:33:34
Yeah, it's just kind of lush
sounding compressor.
Its beautiful, it's a tube
it was a tube compressor,
as was the TLA.
00:33:45
It has a choice, you can do the
the P41 or the LA 1B.
00:33:51
And I think that was
copying the early
Teletronix maybe, I don't recall,
but the P41 is all I cared about.
00:34:02
And it's good.
00:34:03
It's in the ballpark. I mean,
he is, you know,
he's absolutely
fanatical about making sure that
these
plug-ins are proper.
00:34:13
And so that made me really happy
because when he told me that he had one
of course I was the first one:
'I gotta hear this.'
And then what do we
have on that for the Q?
Is there anything that is...?
Again, there's just a
little bit of that going on.
00:34:28
And then probably
this one didn't need it.
00:34:31
I didn't. I took a
little 60 out
otherwise it felt fine.
00:34:36
And again, remember,
I always had these returning on the SSL,
so I'm just continuing that path.
00:34:43
I just...
00:34:44
I am a SSL
through and through
and
just because I'm not on the console
doesn't mean that I don't want to
continue hearing the SSL in my head.
00:34:55
So then we go into
the Blue Stripe.
00:34:59
The function of the Blue Stripe
is really
about that British setting.
00:35:05
That real intensity.
00:35:07
Because sometimes a vocal
just sounds a little bit lame, you know,
the performance could have been better.
00:35:14
and
this is a miracle setting where it just...
00:35:19
It excites
a non-excited vocal. I believe all the
ratios are in.
00:35:26
Correct.
00:35:27
And so
that thing
just
goes crazy
and that's its whole function.
It's really more of an
urgency factor.
00:35:38
And here I don't seem to need anything
because it doesn't really have much
low-end, mid-range anyway.
00:35:47
Then we go to the compressor, the Distressor.
Now, what's interesting about
this particular
mode is that
I had to change it a little bit
but what I used to do,
I would have it in
6 to 1.
00:36:05
Or maybe 10 to 1 with his toggle switch.
00:36:09
I mean, what I was hearing
is that I wasn't a hearing
the distortion from the plug-in,
the toggle switch,
is what was creating.
00:36:18
And
what I told David about that he goes:
'Wait a minute let
me look at the circuit.'
And
actually it bypassed
the actual distortion part
but it was still giving the excitement.
00:36:30
And I believe that was when I would have
it at 10 to 1 Opto it changed.
00:36:35
The opto circuit was different
than all the other numbers.
00:36:38
And so, I would put it in 10 to 1
and the little
British setting toggle, which eventually
I think that's going to come out,
I'm gonna switch everything
and we'll go right into that.
00:36:50
We'll have to look at it all again.
00:36:52
It became
beautiful beautiful character.
00:36:57
But
for this one
it's 6 to 1
with,
you know, fairly fast release,
very quick attack
and a lot of input.
00:37:08
And,
you know, these attack and releases
are references
I wouldn't say to you that...
00:37:16
The attack really is what
controls the input threshold.
00:37:20
So
I wouldn't put everything on:
'Well, that's gotta be a fast attack.'
Because if you put it at 7
there's no compression going on at all.
00:37:29
It's really more as like playing
between the input and the attack.
00:37:33
That's more like the nasal area.
00:37:36
That's just kind of
the front of the face.
00:37:39
And the EQ
doesn't look like I needed
to take anything out.
00:37:43
Then
the Pultec,
I took a little top-end off.
00:37:48
But the fact that it just goes
through that particular Pultec
is just this
warmth, I mean, that is such a
beautiful modeling.
00:37:58
I use it all the time because I don't
even have to put the EQ in.
00:38:02
you put the Pultec across an instrument
and you just get this extra little,
I don't know, it's a combination
of warmth and presence.
00:38:13
This was beautifully done.
00:38:16
Then we get to the Fairchild
which is more of a head tone.
00:38:21
You know?
Up in here area.
00:38:24
Head, chest kind of thing.
00:38:27
Again, a really good job on the Fairchild.
00:38:31
It's just as silky
sound.
00:38:35
And again it's interesting,
I don't have that many
attenuation going on here.
00:38:40
I don't know why
but
I don't hear the vocals
as feeling muddy.
00:38:46
So, that's probably why.
00:38:48
You know, as I'm mixing I'm
constantly tweaking, for the first year
I was constantly tweaking everything
because I'm trying to recreate
what I was doing on the desk,
the sound of the desk,
the sound of that particular compressor.
00:39:00
You know it.
00:39:01
I was just like constantly:
'Oh, what is this? What do I have to do?'
And so
this is what I've ended up.
00:39:10
And then the last one
is the Vocal Box - Inflator.
00:39:16
This one,
again,
just had a
different
sound than the others, it had a
a clarity to it.
00:39:26
I use it sometimes and
sometimes I don't.
00:39:28
It's got a few things in it.
00:39:30
So it's almost like a channel strip.
00:39:33
It has a certain upper
mid-range clarity that I like.
00:39:38
And again,
I don't use all of these. Sometimes I do,
sometimes I don't.
00:39:43
I have one starting point,
I bring the vocal into it
and then I'll just go...
00:39:51
Then I'll go over there and
then I'll just fidget.
00:39:53
These are the returns but
here's something that's important
that we have to discuss
that probably should have been
discussed before we get to this,
is the tone,
I am doing some pre-compression,
so let's go back to the vocal.
00:40:10
Because
I need to tame it a little bit.
00:40:14
Right?
Because if this vocal
is really really dynamic
I don't want it to
adversely affect some of these
compressors so that some of them are
are acting a little crazy.
00:40:27
I want to tone it down just a little.
00:40:30
In general
I'm going to create the
character of the vocal
on the insert.
00:40:38
In other words,
if it's a vocal that needs to be warmed
up and fattened up I will use the LA-2A.
00:40:45
And so
that tone
then sends to the other compressors.
00:40:52
Right?
And so the all the other compressors are
reacting to this tone.
00:40:59
And I'm just taming it.
00:41:01
I rarely have it
going to
half a dB or 1 db.
00:41:06
Unless of course it needs
and it needs to be smashed.
00:41:08
But in general that's not the case.
00:41:11
And if I,
you know, if that's too warm
then maybe I'll put it through a 33609.
00:41:19
Maybe because I want it to be silkier
and richer and lusher and then as it goes
and you can tell how well it works by
how it sends to the other compressors.
00:41:30
And you can hear that tone right away.
00:41:32
Or
maybe I'll put it into something even clearer.
What have I done in the past?
Tube-tech CL 1B.
00:41:40
Magic Death Eye.
00:41:42
The LA2,
LA-2A silver.
00:41:46
Right.
00:41:46
An the LA-2A Silver has a
much different character.
00:41:51
And so these are all subtle,
some are subtle,
others not so subtle.
00:41:56
I temperate
and I create
the character
at the top.
00:42:01
And that's the only point where.
00:42:04
I'm doing pre-compression.
00:42:06
So that
no matter what I'm doing with the fader
it has tamed it just a little bit
as it sends to the
other 4 or 5 compressors.
00:42:17
And that is the chain. Now,
what's also is interesting,
and again,
I had no idea actually that I was
doing this.
00:42:26
But
because the main vocal
is floated
I still sent all my reverbs
off of it.
00:42:35
And I sent my 1176.
00:42:39
What I do with the 1176,
this adds the presence.
00:42:45
If there's a lot going on and I just bring
this in, suddenly you have more presence.
00:42:51
Without getting anything really louder.
It's almost like a presence meter.
00:42:57
But
it's also going to all the reverbs.
00:43:01
When people would listen
to the vocal they go:
'How is it that the reverb on the vocals
just seems to be so
suspended and so clear?'
Then what I realized is that
those
reverbs and everything are
sending off the original vocal
before any of the process is going on.
00:43:24
So when the compressors are working,
and forming and stuff,
they're doing that
separately from
what the reverb is seeing.
00:43:36
And so
that's what was creating
this beautiful depth.
00:43:41
That in reality is because
the vocal is floated.
00:43:45
So, that is the whole vocal chain.
00:00:00
And finally everything sums
down to the master fader.
00:00:03
So let me explain a couple of
the utility sends we have here
before we get into the plug-ins.
00:00:08
So our master fader goes to our main
output so we can hear through the speakers.
00:00:13
We also have a send
going to our meter track
which is just an Aux where
we insert our meter plug-ins.
00:00:19
We used the Nugen so we can
check our LUFS level for the overall mix.
00:00:24
And
also some old school VU meters
which are actually
calibrated, if you see here the headroom
is at 8, not 18,
which is the default that
the plug-in comes with.
00:00:34
And what this basically does is that
when Michael sees the VU around 0 dB
it's actually the LUFS target
level that I want him to be at.
00:00:45
And that's always up in the corner
in my peripheral, at any point.
00:00:51
And plus, because I know
how everything's happening in my A/B/C/D,
I can look at that meter
and if it's looking hot
I'm like: 'You know what?
I'll betcha it's time to
play with my sub master
bring it down a little
bit and see whether
I'm just pushing all
the compressors a little.
00:01:10
I can open up the plug-ins of A/B/C/D
primarily,
B
and confirm it but I can
already hear it.
00:01:18
I'm like...
00:01:19
'You know, I haven't been paying attention
things are starting
to move a little less.'
And then I'll
just take that sub master fader,
I'll bring it way down
and then slowly bring it up.
And I'll just kind of do one of these
up down and there is a point where
it just feels really exciting again
and that's my new setting.
00:01:39
And then I'll look over to
the meter and generally
I'm down a couple of dB
but yet it's feeling bigger.
00:01:47
We usually bring the mix around -8,
-7 LUFS, it's where we feel comfortable.
00:01:51
If I am checking the meters and we're
going louder I will probably
make Michael aware of it
and then we will drop
the overall volume a little bit more.
00:02:02
And
those numbers have been
determined by the fact that
I like to leave
my master engineers
like 1 db or 2 to play with.
00:02:12
I know
some friends of mine don't want to
leave their mastering engineer anything.
00:02:16
It's it, you've got about
a quarter of dB to play with.
00:02:19
I use,
Joe LaPorta or Pete Lyman
and always like to give them
a little bit of headroom to play with.
00:02:29
So generally I'm looking
at my numbers and it's...
00:02:33
I like to keep it right around 9.
00:02:36
When I get into 8
I'm like: 'OK, I can go into 8.'
But I like to kind of
be closer to the 9.
00:02:44
And then if I'm pay passing
eight and going into the 7s,
depending, if it's a really rocking song
I'll make Fernando where I'm like:
'Hey, listen in this last section,
I'm hitting
you know sevens.' And he'll listen
and go: 'You know what, you're OK,
it's really exciting it'll be good.'
Or
he'll say: 'OK, let's just trim this
down a half a dB
and you're going to be good so.'
My eyes always
looking at that meter just to
be sure that I'm in the right place
it's very very important.
00:03:17
You can't be delivering records at
around 5 or 6. I mean,
sometimes we'll get reference mixes
that are absolutely smashed and I'm like:
'Well I am not going to match that.'
Right?
Because I'm just not going to.
00:03:35
That's not going to...
00:03:36
Spotify won't even play it to begin with
but more importantly,
in order for it to be that loud
there's no dynamics, it's a straight line.
It looks like you just had a heart attack.
00:03:47
It's just like that.
00:03:50
I won't do it.
00:03:51
I'm going to keep it
again at the level I want.
And then if they want it louder
I don't usually, I used to, there was a
time when I always delivered everything
I would put it through
a limiter and deliver two or three
dB because that's just the way,
everybody was listening and they want.
00:04:12
'We want it to sound already...'
You know, the fake mastering and
I'm like: 'You know what?
I'm at 9
that's already plain loud.'
Level is a tricky thing because
even at 8 or 9 already
there's that
school of thinking that you should be
you know,
you shouldn't be mixing more than
at 12 or something
and I'm like:
'No way I'm going
that low either because.'
There's just absolutely
no competition there
anybody listening to that low
psychologically,
they're not going to think about
bringing their volume up.
00:04:50
So I think that
that volume
that we chose,
which is what my
mastering engineer said:
'Look, give it to me
somewhere around 9, between
9 and 8, I'm OK with that.'
It's by their direction that
we've decided that that's
my reference number.
00:05:08
We also have the Print send which is just
sending here to our print track.
00:05:13
Right now it's just called MHB mix 1.
00:05:15
I will put the name of
the artist and the song.
00:05:17
And then the other thing
you see here is the stream,
which is going to our stream track,
which has the AudioMovers plug-in
and that how I can listen what
Michael is doing and work with him.
00:05:29
And is also how we can
do revisions with clients.
00:05:33
The final thing here
is we have a reference track where I will
paste the reference mixes that we get and
is going into a different input in Michael's
monitor controller,
that way he can A/B his
mix and the reference mix.
00:05:45
And I have this RX monitor track
which just has the RX
monitor plug-in for Izotope RX 9,
which allows me to listen
when I am cleaning
any type of noises.
00:05:56
So finally let's get into the
processing that we use in the fader,
across the whole mix or the mixbus.
00:06:04
What he will start with is
the SSL compressor which
comes obviously from his
days in the analog console
and when we were in hybrid
we had the Obsidian compressor
which is an SSL style compressor.
00:06:15
-Great compressor.
-Amazing compressor.
00:06:19
That would be nice if
they had that in a plug-in.
00:06:21
Hopefully.
00:06:23
The settings are the same that he used
both in the console and in the Obsidian,
he just has to mess with the
threshold, depending on the song.
00:06:31
And then
the Germaniums,
from Softube. These were
the go to
mixbus compressors,
both in the analog and in the hybrid.
00:06:41
We have quite a few
mixbus presets here.
00:06:46
You can see.
00:06:47
Because we do find that the plug-in adds
quite a bit more bottom-end
then the hardware did.
00:06:54
The straight up mixbus is the exact
match of the hardware in terms of
just where the knobs are
but it had way too much
bottom. So 'Mix Buss 2'
is sonically what actually
matched the hardware version.
00:07:11
And then we did a
couple of extra versions.
00:07:13
One with less bottom,
one with middle bottom
so he can flip between
those depending on the song.
00:07:18
And
that bottom end is being created
by the feedback, isn't it?
Go to Buss 2.
00:07:27
You see how the feedback is up?
Now go to
mid bottom.
00:07:33
And now
the feedback goes down,
and the output goes up to make up for it.
00:07:38
But in the process
the feedback is cleaning up the sound.
And then if you go to less bottom
again, you'll see that the
feedback goes down even more
and the output goes up.
00:07:50
And that's how
really you're controlling how much
of that bottom end is pushing.
00:07:57
It's an incredible
compressor.
00:08:02
When I first got it
from Wade,
the hardware,
I didn't use it.
00:08:07
probably for the first year or two.
00:08:09
To the point where I thought:
'Well,
I probably should return them.'
And then
Something came up because I used to have
a rack with four different compressors.
00:08:22
And I had them,
just with a quick switch I could change.
00:08:26
So I had my
ADL 670,
I had these,
I had the
modified
API 2500 that Paul modified for me.
00:08:40
And I had
one other. Oh, I had the Manleys.
00:08:45
The Vari-Mu.
00:08:46
The Vari-Mu Manley.
00:08:47
Those were
the four compressors.
00:08:50
And I had the Curve Bender.
00:08:53
As the one EQ.
00:08:54
And so I could switch from
one compressor to the other
and I would still have my EQ.
00:09:00
It is a beautiful setup.
00:09:02
And then one day
nothing I was using really I liked and
then I went to the Germaniums
and it was night and day.
00:09:10
I guess the tweak that you're seeing
where there's a fair amount of parallel
because it's really heading, it's like at
one o'clock on the dry.
00:09:19
I don't know if I'd been
tweaking and tweaking
but at one point I thought:
'This thing must have aged.'
It's like something must have aged
in it and and now has just awakened.
00:09:29
And that was it.
I think from that point on
I was using it 90% of the time,
it had just a character
that I was looking for.
00:09:40
And when you go to this one you will see
one of my settings but not the
less bottom or mid bottom, which probably
we should get to Softube so they can
get that out. I don't know if they ever
add, you know, presets to updates
but you guys really should
check it out because it's...
00:10:02
I don't think I've ever used
it except across the stereo bus.
00:10:05
But it's really a unique piece of gear.
00:10:09
Really, really exciting.
00:10:11
So the next thing we have is
the Studer.
00:10:15
Which I present to him bypassed
so it's not coloring the
sound from the get-go.
00:10:21
But 98% chances he will
use it in the mix.
00:10:24
-It's either that or the ATR.
-Yes.
00:10:27
And then the limiter that we have
at the end is the Invisible Limiter.
00:10:32
I know a lot of people get the final
loudness in their mix through their limiters,
we do not do that,
we use the input gain at zero,
we achieve the
loudness just through
the mixing,
just organically.
00:10:44
So all this is doing is
giving the ceiling of -0.1 to
protect our peaks from not
distorting or going red.
00:10:52
Now the other things that you see that
are inactive are other things that Michael
like to put but I don't
start him with those,
he can just add them into the mix later.
00:11:01
So let us show you what we have here.
00:11:04
This is something that
just recently I started doing.
00:11:08
I don't know what led to it,
I think this particular song
was lacking
low end punch, it was lacking a presence
that the way it had been
recorded was deficient.
00:11:21
And
I just
pop this in, I was like:
'Wow.'
It's like night and day, I just,
again,
I don't...
00:11:31
I didn't grow up with this type of gear.
00:11:33
I didn't grow up with the Abbey Road Red,
I'd never heard it,
so it was all new to me.
00:11:38
And I put this in, I'm like:
'Wow, I can recognize that
sound that's very very cool.'
And I fell in love with it and
I've been using it a lot lately.
00:11:49
Why? Because it's something new.
00:11:51
It's some just playing with it,
I may do five or six records with this.
00:11:56
I'll go five albums,
I'll go two or three months with it
and then one day I'll just stop using it.
00:12:00
And maybe I'll try something
different and I'll get excited by that.
00:12:05
And then
I'll run with with
something else for awhile,
which is the way you
should always be doing
you don't want ever
sit complacent and be like
in that comfort zone forever.
00:12:17
And of course, it depends
on the record.
00:12:20
I'm now using on records
that certainly are not deficient
in their quality of recording but
It's exciting,
it's doing something to the
bottom end so that the bass feels
just more conformed
and glued. It's a really...
00:12:36
you know, so there you have it.
But it doesn't start
with it as a default, it's just in there.
00:12:42
And
if I wanted,
I don't start mixing it with it in.
00:12:46
I mix for a while and then I'll go:
'Well, I wonder if it would
sound better with that.'
Then I'll pop it in
and it's a yes or no.
00:12:55
So that would be across
the whole mix.
00:12:58
Then there are times when I want to
create a little bit more of a width,
a little bit different excitement
in a chorus or maybe in a bridge.
00:13:09
And there's different
ways to go about that.
00:13:11
These are two of them.
00:13:13
The Unisum
and the Shadow Hills. And
the Shadow Hills you'll notice
has got a stereo width to it.
00:13:20
And sometimes I'll go between
'steel'
'iron' and 'nickel'.
00:13:27
It just depends,
it's just a nice little you know, tone.
00:13:31
And maybe
the chorus comes in, I just want
that chorus to just open up a little bit
and then I'll take it back out
for the verse.
00:13:38
So it does one of these,
it kind of brightens up,
get a little smile on there and then...
00:13:44
Back into a focus.
00:13:45
Because remember, there's a
widener on it. It widens a little bit
and then focuses back on the verse.
00:13:52
And sometimes
it's a great way to do that when
really not much is happening
instrumental
an arrangement wise from verse to chorus.
00:14:01
Everything kind of is
the same arrangement,
same playing,
there's no really new
introduction of another element.
00:14:10
So you want to do it sonically
and sometimes, by the way,
to get that chorus to be opened
you'll do something that widens
it and you'll do something that
makes it brighter and lower.
00:14:20
And so now the picture gets bigger.
00:14:23
So as a listener
you get that physical effect.
00:14:27
It's basically like a sleight-of-hand.
00:14:30
Because
nothing really
much happen but you're physically
feeling that change in emotion
and then you're feeling it
going back into the verse
when maybe there's less bottom.
00:14:42
The whole track tightens up a
little bit, the stereo tightens up
and there's more focus on the
vocal again. So these are little
ways of of helping
a chorus become more of a hook.
00:14:55
Then we have the two
Master EQs, which
most likely will be either or.
00:15:01
It's very rare when we will sum them,
although it has happened
a couple of times
but it will be dependent on the song,
which one feels better.
00:15:08
The top one
is a straight-up EQ.
00:15:12
I used to have the Elysia
and so I know it well
and
I used it often.
00:15:18
There's a clarity,
it almost reminds me of what
Paul Wolf did with the
API where you just have
a certain clarity about things.
00:15:29
It's a little bit more clinical,
it's still musical but much cleaner.
00:15:34
And the way the EQs,
the curves and stuff works,
it's got a cool sound to it
and it's a bit more transparent.
00:15:41
Now, the Curve Bender,
I used to just use as an EQ,
but then I decided:
'Well, I think I'm gonna
start doing a mess with that.'
Again it's another way of
popping in maybe on a
chorus to widen it.
00:15:56
Maybe the idea of putting the Shadow in
didn't work for me because it was
compressing a little bit.
00:16:02
But EQing, opening up some
lower mid range in the middle
and then
opening up,
EQing the sides a little bit more
and actually
bringing the level up by
a half a dB on the sides
gives you that
'Aha!' moment
that it just needed.
00:16:22
And sometimes that doesn't work
because it takes the
focus away from the vocal
and so I'll go to the other
EQ and see if that works.
00:16:29
And then
I'll decide that neither
of them really work
because it just took away
from what was already a good thing.
00:16:37
And even with,
you know, sometimes I'll do
that and I'll run it by Fernando
because I always ask him
what does he think, what does he...
00:16:45
Because if I'm trying new ideas
it's nice to have that sounding board.
00:16:50
You know, he'll listen, he'll go:
'You know, I don't like it.'
And he'll tell me why,
not just I don't like it.
00:16:57
'So I don't like it because
you know, it takes a little
bit away from the vocal now.'
And then I'll listen again, I'll go:
'Wow, you know, you're right,
we don't need that.'
And I'll take it out.
00:17:07
And then maybe I'll go:
'What do you think of this idea?'
And I'll throw that at him.
00:17:11
And again it's his opinion,
I can take it or leave it.
00:17:13
But it's nice to have
a nice
take on what I'm trying to do.
00:17:18
Because I'm all alone here
And most of these decisions
I'm making on my own.
00:17:24
In fact,
all of them.
00:17:26
But
it's nice to go: 'Hey,
what do you think of this?
Does this make you feel
better when I put this in?'
And...
00:17:34
And that's one of the great
things about mixing in-the-box
is that you can do this.
00:17:39
And you can do it just
in one section.
00:17:42
You couldn't do that in
the analog world unless you
you know, you cut tape.
00:17:48
We stopped using tape
after people kept asking for recalls.
00:17:53
And also the tape, the quality of tape...
00:17:56
went down so you couldn't
really depend on that anymore.
00:18:00
So, the bottom line is that,
with all these opportunities,
I'm so much more excited
about mixing in-the-box
because I can do all these things.
00:18:08
What's the result of that?
It's a result of a song that
just feels more dynamic,
feels more emotional,
is exciting to listen to
in a very natural way.
00:18:21
And...
00:18:22
Unless you go too far,
you know, and if you wanted to go too far
for a desired effect, you can do that too.
00:18:29
There are times when
I just put the whole mix
into a phaser if I want to or maybe
I do a high-pass or a low-pass
you know, in one little section
and you're going from nothing to...
00:18:42
And you could do that so easily, you
automate it, back in the days of analog,
this was a process.
00:18:49
It's whatever your
imagination
comes up with.
00:18:54
These are the advantages, this is
why I didn't look back and I decided that
my need for
hardware
was no longer a need.
00:19:07
This is the reason why
it developed into where we are now.
00:19:12
With the help of Fernando.
00:19:14
Because
you've just heard him now,
for the last hour,
describe what he went through
the fine detail
that I could never, I don't even
know I could have heard this stuff
that he was hearing.
00:19:28
You know, he's got fresh young
ears that can just laser into something.
00:19:33
I'm always listening to the
big picture I could care less,
I'm going for the vibe.
00:19:38
But
in order for him
to allow me to have the vibe
he had to go through all that work.
00:19:43
So it's extraordinary
because I never really paid
attention to what he was doing.
00:19:48
I would just sit there and I go:
'Yeah, I like that.' or 'I don't like it'.
00:19:52
And he's back there,
you know,
going through this,
it is extraordinary.
00:19:58
But what he accomplished
is simply that I can
mix and it feels just like
I am when I was on the
analog desk and then the hybrid.
00:20:08
And now
there's no stopping,
now we're going into the next level of
what it's like to be mixing in-the-box.
00:20:16
We're taking that to the next level,
which is really really exciting.
00:20:21
So now we've shown you the template.
00:20:23
And,
I mean from a
technical standpoint
I'm sure
you know, it's interesting,
for me this is absolutely boring.
00:20:32
Because there's no
music playing through it yet.
00:20:34
So that's going to be
the next thing we do.
00:20:36
Is there anything else
that we need to show
as far as this is concerned?
The last plug-in that we
just didn't show you is
Ozone 9.
00:20:45
Which everybody already knows,
we will use it sometimes to juice up
a little bit
if it's like a more modern song.
00:20:54
This is not our settings,
this is just how it loads.
00:20:57
We'll usually create
something from scratch.
00:21:01
We do use a lot of the exciter, the imager
and maybe a little bit of the maximizer.
00:21:05
I use this maybe
2% of the time because
it's usually applied to some kind
of record that's really pumping
and it just has enough
of that modern element
that it's just gonna
excite the hook a lot better.
00:21:24
And
if I didn't do it probably the mastering
engineer would end up doing it.
00:21:29
It's one of those things where
when I pop it in I go: 'Oh, yeah!'
This takes it home
for me then I'll use it but generally
it's just too powerful and
processing that, you know,
it has to be appropriate
with what's going on.
00:21:44
For many of you who
have been to some of my seminars
I've always been very open about
what I'm developing.
00:21:52
With the TapeOp I'd already
been doing this for
over 10, 15 years before
I revealed what I was doing.
00:22:02
Not sure that anybody would
really like it anyway cause
I didn't know, we all live in a
vacuum here when we're mixing.
00:22:09
Then when I did the hybrid
and I did the interview in 2013,
again, the kind of a follow up
with Larry,
where now at this point,
I'm in the hybrid.
00:22:22
And it's just natural that
we went from hybrid into the box.
00:22:27
So, to be able to share with you
through Puremix
is really really exciting because,
for those of you who've been
trying to do it on your own.
00:22:38
I've seen many many say:
'This is the Brauerize© approach.'
I'll look at it and I'll go...
00:22:48
It's so wrong.
00:22:49
So
don't waste your time on all those.
00:22:55
Come here.
00:22:56
This is the way.
00:22:58
This is my way.
00:23:00
This is what you guys are looking for.
00:23:02
And what you do is,
you start with this, this is just a tool.
00:23:06
I take this and you apply it
to how you work.
00:23:10
To how you are creative.
00:23:12
And some of these things
you're going to change around.
00:23:15
It doesn't matter to me
What you need to understand is how
this whole thing is about
mixing into compression.
00:23:24
And so
these are the tools that
we've ended up going through
that Fernando has put together
over 2 years?
Three years?
Not that quite.
00:23:37
Almost, I mean a long long
time of slowly developing it
and it didn't really really get
super serious, I mean where I now
got into and go: 'OK,
now we need to tweak' until
two years ago, when Covid began.
00:23:53
It's been quite a long process and
now we're at a point where, yeah,
I can reveal this because it's solid.
00:24:01
You know? We keep doing this template,
it doesn't really change much.
00:24:06
And I think a lot of you will get
a lot of benefit because
back in the day when I was trying to
do it in hybrid
we had to buy gear.
00:24:16
Nobody buys gear, nobody has got
that kind of budget generally.
00:24:21
And it was complicated.
00:24:22
Well, this is complicated too
but once you set it up you leave it alone.
00:24:26
Which was the way
my whole setup has always been,
you leave it alone. But again
you know,
you had to buy a lot of hardware.
00:24:33
Here
it's all in the software.
00:24:36
You just have to invest in
you know, in these companies.
00:24:40
And
if you really want to
go exactly how I'm...
00:24:45
how we're doing it
then, yes,
you know, I think we're going
to provide you with a whole list of
all the plug-ins that are needed for this.
00:24:53
If you want to substitute
by all means you can
go ahead and try to substitute.
00:25:01
But then you won't really know
what your substituting for
cause you need to know the sound first.
00:25:08
So, maybe you try and do a
demo,
you know,
of exactly what I have.
00:25:16
Do some prints, do some stems.
00:25:18
Really, really get into the
detail of it
and then you can
spend time trying to find substitutes
by the time the demo runs out.
00:25:28
Or, if it's really great,
you know,
sell the dog,
sell the cat,
but the kids away,
you know,
and get your plug-ins.
00:25:38
I mean,
I didn't do that but,
you know,
it depends on how important
it is to have those plug-ins in.
00:25:45
Good luck with it all
and I think you'll have great time
except there's only one
more thing that we gotta do.
00:25:52
Now we're just going to put it into use.
00:25:55
So it's time to
put the gloves on
and
hear what this tool,
this little powerful engine can do.
00:00:00
Now that we've reviewed
the whole technical aspect
let's put it into play.
00:00:07
I think the best way to
show what
all these little toys do
is to listen to it with the A/B/C/D
bypassed
and then listen to it with it in.
00:00:21
So Fernando,
why don't we play this song?
This is a great song
by the Como Brothers.
00:00:28
It's called 'Feeling the Night',
which I've just recently mixed.
00:00:33
Let's try it.
00:00:33
Let's see what we got.
00:00:35
Play the song
as is
for a little bit, maybe go into
the first chorus.
00:00:43
Sure.
00:01:45
This is the mix with
A/B/C/D, all the processing in.
00:01:49
A/B/C/D.
00:01:51
What I've got going for the sends,
what I've got going across the bus,
the master fader.
00:01:56
So why don't we start off by
listening to a section,
maybe going into verse 2,
where there's probably
a lot more going on.
00:02:06
And
primarily in this song
right now we're listening to
A, that's across all the
pianos and synths and stuff.
00:02:16
And then B, which has
all the drums
and
bass and
any percussion that might be in there.
00:02:24
There's also
a little bit of C going on,
which is the guitars.
00:02:29
Which I think we have guitars in here...
00:02:31
Acoustic guitar.
00:02:31
Acoustic guitar, OK.
00:02:34
Let's just listen to it with
the
A/B/C/D
bypassed.
00:02:43
So let's put it in,
during the verse
it will go from
processed
unprocessed.
00:03:21
What you're hearing there
is
the difference between that slight
glue where there's some movement
and where it's just
free-flowing.
00:03:32
Let's go to a chorus
where
there's more action going on and see.
00:03:37
This is going to be with everybody in.
00:04:08
This is very new to me,
doing this
bypass, because I haven't thought about
what it's like without
this processing in years.
00:04:18
So,
my first reaction when I'm
hearing everything bypassed
is that it sounds flat.
00:04:25
It just doesn't have
the natural movement.
00:04:29
I might be moving faders
I might not be moving faders
but when I take it out
there is a bit of a depth that disappears
a little bit of the width but
it just feels a little flatter to me,
it doesn't sound like there's movement.
00:04:43
And of course the whole
thing about what I do
is bringing the emotion
out of the song
either by using my hands
or by the use
of the whole Brauerize© approach,
which we were talking about earlier
where when you push
into these compressors,
because you're mixing into compression,
when you do it just right
it bounces back a little bit.
00:05:06
And so, with that in mind
let's hear this section again
and see if you're feeling
a little bit more of this
movement going on
and this extra little depth that happens.
00:05:40
If I were just to be
listening to the music without
doing any thinking,
which is generally how we mix,
my body would move differently.
00:05:48
I can tell right now that
with everything in
I have kind of an up feel, it just
has me moving.
00:05:57
While the other approach,
with it in bypass
just kind of lays there.
00:06:03
And so,
quite often it's what your body is doing.
00:06:07
It's how it's
reacting to the music
without you thinking about it
you don't force yourself
to mix on the upbeat,
It's just a natural
thing and then you don't
tap your foot unless something
makes you want to tap your foot.
00:06:21
So here's a perfect example of
where all the subtleties of
these different compressors where
individually they've got a groove going
with the drums and bass
that are not being affected by
the guitars or the vocal.
00:06:36
Everybody's just happily,
harmoniously,
working together.
00:06:42
And the result is just a,
you know, it just feels good
and I'm just bopping along.
00:06:49
And again, there's this additional
emotional movement going on.
00:06:54
It's not supposed to be night and day
but in music
the more subtle stuff
can just be
a huge difference, it doesn't have to be
'Wow!'
You know?
But that subtleness
about the 'wow' is that,
it just feels better to me.
00:07:14
That's the only thing
we're looking for here
I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel.
00:07:20
We're just trying to
have the song become
just a little bit more dynamic
with a little bit more depth
on it's own.
00:07:28
Without having to touch the faders.
00:07:31
This is a prime example.
00:07:33
I'm glad this happened because
I had no idea whether
it's going to work or not.
00:07:38
Because I haven't,
I never do this.
00:07:42
But it looks like I haven't
wasted my time or yours
on explaining all this.
00:07:47
Now it's time to build the mix.
00:07:50
What I like to do first
is listen to the rough.
00:07:53
And get my ideas.
00:07:55
Usually during that
period of time I'm thinking of
what I like about the rough mix,
what I don't like.
00:08:01
And generally what are the most important
three elements in any one section.
00:08:07
Because I'll probably build
a song up starting with that.
00:08:10
I don't always start
with the drums and bass,
I start with what's
really important to me.
00:08:14
If for example, they were
playing in a little cafe,
they don't have the
whole band and everything,
what are the most
important elements that gets
the message of the song across?
Let's hear the rough mix.
00:10:54
OK.
00:10:55
It feels good,
it's a good song.
00:10:58
What I'll do now is
start discovery.
00:11:01
Putting the tracks up.
00:11:03
I've already mixed this song once,
I know it pretty well.
00:11:06
But I'm just going to build it up and
and I think instead of starting
at the intro I'll probably go into
maybe a chorus,
where there's more going on.
00:15:36
It doesn't take long just to
get a groove, especially when
you start with the essence of the song.
00:15:41
You heard
what to me was important.
00:15:44
You see me throwing faders up
and putting it back down because,
you know what, that's a support.
00:15:49
I'll bring that up later.
00:15:51
And then at one point
when it felt just good and
now it's time for the rhythm
I bring the drums up
and they fall into the right place,
they're not too loud,
they're not too quiet
because I know
where they need to sit within the song.
00:16:05
Because I'm working around with what
the melody is and what's important.
00:16:09
And then you
heard me bring up
a bit more of the 4 on the floor,
that's a trigger that I had,
a kick and snare
just to give it a bit
more of a 'discoey' feel.
00:16:20
That was a bit different
than what they had given me.
00:16:23
So I'm just enhancing what they've got.
00:16:26
Almost never replace
what they've given me, I just like to
enhance whatever those elements are.
00:16:32
At some point,
when I'm writing all this,
remember,
I'm mixing into compression
so it feels good to me,
it feels like it's pumping.
00:16:40
But am I going a little too far?
Am I not going far enough?
And this is where
going to VCA A
comes into play because now
I'm going to listen to it
and I'm going to start bringing it down
and then you'll see
that, if I open this up
I'm going to see how hard
the drums and
the other instruments are hitting
my multi-bus.
00:17:52
That's
down a couple of dBs from where I was.
00:17:56
And
what you heard me doing is going too far
where you just heard it
actually break up and distort,
but I'm just going too far.
00:18:04
You go too far, you go too little and then
you find your spot right in the middle.
00:18:09
And then where it felt good to me
is just that one particular spot.
00:18:13
Sometimes I'll make up with the volume,
bring the volume back up so I don't think
it was better when it was
a little louder because
psychologically,
acoustically,
that will mess with your head.
00:18:25
I'll do it one more time, I'll play it
where I originally had it.
00:18:31
Which was,
I think,
a little bit louder.
00:18:35
And then we'll see how it sounds
brought that a little bit better.
00:19:04
So right at that point,
which is actually even lower than I had it
just in my previous play,
now I feel like the drums,
everybody is just really
punching forward in a happy way.
00:19:16
There's no kind of
bit of a control,
it's a happier sound.
00:19:21
And sometimes that's
what you're looking for.
00:19:24
You know?
And looking at what you're
doing is never going to be helpful,
your eyes will always deceive you.
00:19:31
It's best to do all of this with your
eyes closed,
just sitting there in the middle.
00:19:37
Just chilling out,
lower it all down
bring it up.
00:19:41
Go back and forth until there's a
point where you physically feel good.
00:19:45
And then you can make
it up with the volume that
you're listening to in your
headphones or whatever.
00:19:49
And just go:
'Alright this feels good.
What am I looking for?'
I'm looking for a point where it
just opens up.
00:19:59
It just feels a bit more dynamic.
00:20:02
And in essence,
am I feeling the song,
is the song
talking to me a bit better?
Right? Because
all this is based on feel.
00:20:13
I don't care.
00:20:14
Yes,
you know this is an interesting tool
it's too complicated,
it's wacky.
00:20:22
But at the end of the day
when things are just right you can hear
how all this is working together.
00:20:29
What's the result and what's the goal
that I don't really have to do much.
00:20:33
It just
it just helps,
it plays with me as I'm mixing.
00:20:38
And so at this point
I'm like:
'Alright, I'm happy at this level.'
So it's very important
that at some point
where you feeling good to go
over here to your master
and just bring it down a
little bit and just play with it
and see if there's a better position.
00:20:55
Because sometimes, as you're building
your mix up you tend to want a bit
a few things a little harder
and it slowly adds up.
Even though, individually,
things are independent
from each other you're still
mixing into compression,
so if you start hitting too hard
things are going to resist.
00:21:16
And remember that
visual I had of you
pushing that rubber sheet,
I'll do exactly
to me what it feels like.
00:21:26
Right now this is what
the mix feels like to me.
00:21:29
In the general feeling of
the attack and the release.
00:21:46
Just that constant little
movement going on.
00:21:49
But what happens when I push it too hard?
So, when I was
pushing into the mix too hard.
00:22:26
it wasn't giving back.
00:22:28
Right?
It's just kind of staying in there.
00:22:31
And that makes the the whole
sounds smaller because it's not...
00:22:35
the whole purpose here is that it
should be playing, it should be bouncing.
00:22:39
Your throwing something
against the wall, it's like a
tennis ball,
you throw it in and it comes back to you.
00:22:46
And if you're pushing too
hard you throw the tennis ball
and it just kind of sticks in there.
00:22:51
It almost looks like memory foam.
00:22:52
Boom!
So you don't want that,
you want the music to be
flowing and being dynamic.
00:22:58
This is the function of
assigning everything to one subgroup
master before it hits the master bus.
00:23:07
Now I'll play from the top
and see what else I can do.
00:26:35
You know,
mixing.
00:26:39
Here we are,
it took 5, 6 minutes to build up a mix.
00:26:45
You can see that I was focusing on
what the essence of the song was.
00:26:49
I chose one section where pretty
much everybody is playing to build it up
and then I'd go to the
top then I'd start to tweak.
00:26:57
There's no automation on yet,
This is more like a discovery.
00:27:01
So
some things were out of place
but the essence of what's going on,
excitement for me,
is happening here.
00:27:08
And then at the point
where I really learn
the function of
where the hooks are,
what's building the hook,
what are the little side
show going on,
all those things and I'm going
to start really just fine tuning.
00:27:24
That's where
really now the mix starts to conform.
00:27:28
And
you can see
that at some point when,
I'm building up the mix,
I like to see
where am I at
since I'm mixing into compression,
and I go a little too loud,
a little too quiet and I find a nice spot
where it just feels like it's
opening up. And as it turns out,
I was down almost 4 dB from my initial
mixing compression going on.
00:27:53
This is why it's important to try that.
00:27:55
And you can see it.
00:27:56
You could hear it.
00:27:58
And it's important to
do this with your eyes closed.
00:28:02
Because your,
you know,
your eyes will deceive you.
00:28:06
And it's also why I keep the monitor
to my right and not in front of me.
00:28:10
I have a big monitor in front
of me right now but it's off.
00:28:15
Because I don't want to be distracted by
other things going on,
I just want the music
between these two speakers.
00:28:22
That's the one thing I really
want to be looking at
when I do have my eyes open.
00:28:27
So here's the process,
it's a simple one.
00:28:30
It is a complicated setup
and many of you
may not
have all the toys necessary.
00:28:37
But you get the idea.
00:28:39
And you can try your own approach to it.
00:28:43
But the function here was just to
reveal
how I go about it.
00:28:49
In the past seminars
I started with just
on the board.
00:28:56
And then as I learn how to go hybrid
I started teaching how it was the hybrid.
00:29:02
And it's only in the last two years
that I really got to the point where
I'm super comfortable going in-the-box.
00:29:10
Because you can see, I only have a
few pieces of gear sitting around here.
00:29:13
Because I just don't need the other ones.
00:29:16
And if I needed them they'd be here.
00:29:19
At no point I'm doing this like:
'Wow, I wish.'
Well, if I wish than I can get it.
00:29:25
But
I'm really happy with this approach.
And it's so efficient, it's so fast.
00:29:30
For what's going on today
this is perfect for me.
00:29:35
I like it.
00:29:36
I'm happy.
00:29:37
I'm not compromising.
00:29:39
And
this is the Brauerize© approach
getting it emotional.
Once logged in, you will be able to read all the transcripts jump around in the video.
- Acustica Pensado EQ2
- Audio Ease Altiverb 7
- A.O.M Plugins Invisible Limiter
- Cradle The God Particle
- DDMF Magic Death Eye Compressor
- Fuse Audio Labs VCL-864U
- Kazrog True Dynamics
- Komeff Audio Pawn Shop Comp 2
- Kush Pusher
- Kush Goldplate
- McDSP EC300
- Pulsar Echorec
- Slate Digital Virtual Mix Rack
- Slate Digital VerbSuite Classics
- Sonnox Oxford Dynamics Comp/Lim
- Avid Trim
- Fabfilter Pro-Q3
- IK Multimedia Sunset Sound Studio Reverb
- PSP Spring Box
- PSP Lexicon PSP42
- PSP Vintage Warmer 2
- Plugin Alliance SPL De-Esser
- Plugin Alliance Black Box Analog Design HG-2
- Plugin Alliance Maag EQ4
- Plugin Alliance Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor
- Plugin Alliance Shadow Hill MAstering Compressor Class A
- Plugin Alliance bx_console SSL 4000E
- Plugin Alliance bx_console SSL 9000J
- Plugin Alliance bx_digital V3
- Process.audio Decibel
- Softube Chandler Limited Curve Bender
- Softube Summit Audio TLA-100A
- Softube Chandler Limited Germanium
- Softube Tube-Tech EQ
- Slate Digital Trigger 2
- UAD Korg SSD-3000
- UAD Manley Variable Mu
- UAD Distressor
- UAD Hitsville EQ Mastering
- UAD EP-34 Tape Echo
- UAD Neve 33609
- UAD AKG BX20
- UAD Struder A800
- UAD EMT 140
- UAD Capital Chambers
- UAD Precision K-Stereo
- UAD Studio D Chorus
- UAD Pultex EQP-1A
- UAD Avalon VT-737sp
- UAD Manley VoxBox
- UAD Ampex ATR-102
- UAD UA 1176 Rev A
- UAD Fairchild 670
- UAD UA 1176LN Rev E
- UAD Fairchild 660
- UAD SSL G Bus Compressor
- UAD Oxford Inflator
- UAD Oxford Envolution
- UAD Zener Limiter
- Waves Kaleidoscopes
- Waves Brauer Motion
- Waves dbx-160
- Waves H-Delay
- Waves NLS Channel
- Waves Manny Marroquin Reverb
- Waves Abby Road Plates
- Waves REDD17
- Waves REDD37-51
- Waves REQ 4
- Waves RD56
- Waves S1 Shuffler
- Waves Smack Attack
For the past 44 years, Michael Brauer has helped shape the sound of modern music with global superstars like Coldplay, John Mayer, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, The Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi, and countless others. Michael’s commitment to musicality during the mixing process has connected billions of listeners with the artists that call upon him. His ability to convey emotion and excitement in mixes is unparalleled, thanks in part to the tireless development of his signature “Brauerize©” method.
Since the Brauerize© method began to accrue fame in the early 2000s, engineers have strived to re-create the technique in the box, with countless blog articles and videos surfacing in attempts to master the technique. When COVID hit, Michael doubled his efforts to recreate the technique in the box out of necessity, and has brought the first demonstration of the in the box Brauerize© method to pureMix.
Coldplay
John Mayer
Bob Dylan
Aretha Franklin
The Rolling Stones
Bon Jovi
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