Bro I had to watch this one again.. What the heck.. You just made a dent in my mixing for sure. I've never seen this before and man, it's effective... Thanks for this one kuz.. Gemalicious.. Fasho..
I don't know you may be a game-changer yourself as far as video content this is very different from what the other video guys are saying but very effective this is wow.
Very cool and unique, makes perfect sense too. Great video. When I want to get rid of/reduce a frequency I do the opposite of the (UA-cam noob) boost and sweep with a narrow Q factor (because it just resonates frequencies that most likely shouldn't be removed and aren't issues), the opposite being - I make a reduction/cut and move it around the frequency area I want to reduce until it basically removes the frequency that I didn't like, then I set the bands gain to unity and then reduce the frequency until it sounds how I want it to sound.
Glad it helped. Yeah there are so many ways to apprach EQ. I almost didn't share this because I thought it was a little weird but it really works for me!
The eq techniques used in sonox, of course, are very interesting in this sense in producer mode. Good content as always, Sonnox Claro has helped me a lot in understanding frequencies better and combining them better between instruments.
One of the best mixing tips in UA-cam - and to really fine tune this tip you can use Mid-Side option (For example lead Vox is typically in the Mid, so cut instruments only in the Mids).
Alex, I LOVED what you shared with regards to “it being easier to identify what’s missing rather than what’s been added” (I’m paraphrasing and also hope that I haven’t misquoted you). I find this to true generally in life, you know, with the whole “you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone”.
Cool! This and your mid side EQ video for the vocals are on point and very helpful! Also the Dynamic option is nice and can add to the cohesion of a track with out losing energy sometimes.
The masking feature is purely visual. It will show you where the competing frequencies overlap, but my technique is much quicker for me whiles also training my ears over years to be able to identify frequencies. Also the masking feature is purely analytical in that it shows anything that’s clashing technically but sometimes you actually want to keep those frequencies in so I’d say just keep in mind to trust your ears rather than eyes.
Been at it for a few years now and this has been really helpful. I have been finding that making very drastic and surgical cuts and boosts tends to give the opposite result especially when paired with saturation. I do have a question for you, what is your monitoring set up like and generally, how often do you use head phones for mixing because I have noticed that you largely use your monitors for playback? I would imagine that since you make such broad strokes as the first step you neutralize some of the problems that arise in every mix before having to do any surgical work but I believe it does not completely eliminate the need for mixing in headphones. What are your thoughts on that and what's your work flow usually like? I'm really trying to pick your brain to find out more of that genius work flow. This is very efficient and time saving
1. Monitor setup So for me honestly I will use headphones when i don’t trust the room I’m in or if I need to be quiet, but speakers is always the first choice. I’ve spent literally years trying different speakers and learning and growing. My room & monitoring is at a point where I hear more things in my speakers than my headphones. But I kinda got real OCD about room acoustics and speaker placement a few years back, It drove my wife mad cause I was constantly playing sweep tones as I took room measurements looool but it paid off. I first realised the importance of room acoustics and speaker choice when I would work at purpose built studios for the record labels and my stuff always sounded better their, and when I checked it on my phone it sounded good. But when I got back to my studio it sounded bad, that’s when I knew speaker choice, placement and room acoustics are to be prioritised. 2.EQ: Surgical vs braodstroke So generally I will always cut before I boost. regarding surgical EQ, I will track down any nasty frequencies and cut them before doing any compression or saturation or anything, this is because saturation adds harmonics to the original sound, so the better the starting sound the better the outcome. And compression will bring up any nasty sounds in volume and make them more present, so I cut nasty freqs before compression also. So In general I always cut those nasty frequencies first. Once Ive done that then I will apply the technique mentioned in the video above. Reason: Your trying to get each sound to a place where it sounds as good as possible first and foremost, and then after that you can tackle the problem of prioritising sounds and making them fit together. Additional point: A mix engineer has no control over the raw sound of the stems but a music producer has potential super powers when it comes to mixing because they can just change the sound. If something isn't working together maybe place one up the octave and the other one down the octave this is the same as placing them into two different frequency ranges. The better the sound selection the less mixing is required. Any questions just shout me, always got time for you bro!
@@WhoIsAlexElliott Thank you so much for that information fam. Truly insightful. You've altered my perspective on monitoring. Surgical eq before saturation & compression just makes perfect sense. I've seen you use the fabfilter Saturn 2 on bass in one of your shorts, would you say that it's your go to saturation plugin and which would you say is your go to compressor (plugin or gear) and why! You're the best bro ✌🏾
@@abbadonproductionincno problem my bro. I would say my go to saturator now is the P44 or sometimes just Decapitator. If I need to get surgical then I’ll use Saturn cause of the multiband. Go to compressor for vocals will always be a blue face 1176. And I don’t really compress drums individually that often but rather parallel compress with “devil loc” or “UAD Distressor”. Notable mention: I do own the hardware fatso so I find myself lately getting both saturation and compression from that unit.
@@WhoIsAlexElliott hol up! I didn't know that Devil Loc could be used as a parallel compressor. I am aware of how saturation affects the micro and macro dynamics of a signal but it's never crossed my mind to use it for parallel compression. From my experience, Devil lock is a bit heavy handed so how do you work around that? Do you combine it with another dynamics processor or do you have a sweet spot when dialing it in that gives the right amount of compression without adding too much colour?
@@WhoIsAlexElliott the 1176 is goated by the way. Can I put you onto something? I've been a huge fan of analog gear but the closest I've ever gotten to that is touching a mixer during a live engineering set and some consoles at college. A few years back I found what I consider to be the best analogue emulations and they are from the company Analog Obsession. I have no idea what the original gear sounds like but damn those plugins sound phenomenal. Especially their 1176, it has so much control, even a side chain EQ built in for even more surgical needs. On vocals it is superb and sounds great on just about anything. Their saturation algorithm is silky smooth on the high end especially their channel strip plugin called the Brit Channel. Their plugins have built in oversampling & an unmatched auto make up gain and I just think they beat a lot of the stuff for sale on the market. Please check them out and even do a shoot out on your own and decide if it's video worthy. Let me know if you want me to give any suggestions, I've tried all of them. Simply spectacular 👌🏾
@@WhoIsAlexElliottI usually listen to for example the vocal with a competing keys instrument, and listen for what freqs are masking from the instrument and reduce it, but this way faster although perhaps less precise, will definitely try it out. Can be good for faster general shaping earlier in a mix!
WOW!! This was outstanding..
Glad it was insightful 🙌
Bro I had to watch this one again.. What the heck.. You just made a dent in my mixing for sure. I've never seen this before and man, it's effective... Thanks for this one kuz.. Gemalicious.. Fasho..
Ahhh glad it has been helpful to the community 🙌❤️
Wow, so simple and effective. Thanks for sharing.
No problem. I’ll try to keep the content coming. Glad it was helpful
Long time mix engineer.
Found this helpful still
Ahh then the long hours making this were worth it. Hopefully people see this comment and trust the information in the video a little bit more 🙌.
Very useful video. Thank you for sharing.
No problem at all. Glad it was of help!
this is an eyeopener ,thanks alot bro and keep the videos coming !!!
Glad it’s helpful ❤️
Nice one mate - great video and attitude
Thankyou very much ❤️
Definitely wanna see more mixing tips like this. Low end next maybe?
will try get that uploaded for you this week!
Very nice technique, I'll try this, thanks !
Let me know how it works for you
This is fantastic, thank you so much!! Helped a lot in shaping the bass especially!
Glad it helped 🙌
Bro this is gold!
Happy it’s helpful to people
Top Tip!
Glad you find it helpful.
I don't know you may be a game-changer yourself as far as video content this is very different from what the other video guys are saying but very effective this is wow.
Ah bro glad it’s helpful. Just sharing things I actually do on a day to day basis
Very cool and unique, makes perfect sense too. Great video.
When I want to get rid of/reduce a frequency I do the opposite of the (UA-cam noob) boost and sweep with a narrow Q factor (because it just resonates frequencies that most likely shouldn't be removed and aren't issues), the opposite being - I make a reduction/cut and move it around the frequency area I want to reduce until it basically removes the frequency that I didn't like, then I set the bands gain to unity and then reduce the frequency until it sounds how I want it to sound.
Glad it helped. Yeah there are so many ways to apprach EQ. I almost didn't share this because I thought it was a little weird but it really works for me!
The eq techniques used in sonox, of course, are very interesting in this sense in producer mode. Good content as always, Sonnox Claro has helped me a lot in understanding frequencies better and combining them better between instruments.
I’ll be sure to check out the Sonnox plugin. I havnt heard of that one but love their drum gate and inflator. 👌. Thanks for comment also!
@@WhoIsAlexElliott thanks !
One of the best mixing tips in UA-cam - and to really fine tune this tip you can use Mid-Side option (For example lead Vox is typically in the Mid, so cut instruments only in the Mids).
Thanks for the compliment. And yes the M/S is powerful. I use M/S with Trackspacer on my “balancing vocals on a beat video” 🙌
Amazing video my G, apologies for not checking the videos sooner my new work schedule have me upside down 🙃. Technic is 👌🏾👌🏾🔥💣💥
Never have to apologies bro. 🙌
Cool tip,10 years i haven't thought of this
Glad it helped still 💪
Alex, I LOVED what you shared with regards to “it being easier to identify what’s missing rather than what’s been added” (I’m paraphrasing and also hope that I haven’t misquoted you).
I find this to true generally in life, you know, with the whole “you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone”.
Yes exactly that!
🔥
Glad it helps 💯🙌
This is actually so simple and clever. I feel dumb for not doing it this way 🤣🤣
It just dawned upon me one day 😂
Cool! This and your mid side EQ video for the vocals are on point and very helpful! Also the Dynamic option is nice and can add to the cohesion of a track with out losing energy sometimes.
💪💪💪. Glad it helped. And the dynamic eq is powerful
This is a top tier technique. Thanks very much. Looking forward to a video on arrangement.
Glad you found it useful. If you want to see a little more about the musical arrangement you can check my choir video tagged at the end also!
Excellent video mate
My favourite UA-camr!
Don’t make me blush haha
For the algo!!
Great work
💪🙌
Thanks, this helps. Best/Mathias
Glad it helps out!
Man like Elliott back wid it..nice..Think I'll try this. Does the masking feature in ProQ work the same as the technique you used if you don't boost?)
The masking feature is purely visual. It will show you where the competing frequencies overlap, but my technique is much quicker for me whiles also training my ears over years to be able to identify frequencies. Also the masking feature is purely analytical in that it shows anything that’s clashing technically but sometimes you actually want to keep those frequencies in so I’d say just keep in mind to trust your ears rather than eyes.
@@WhoIsAlexElliott ok ears over eyes makes sense.
Been at it for a few years now and this has been really helpful. I have been finding that making very drastic and surgical cuts and boosts tends to give the opposite result especially when paired with saturation. I do have a question for you, what is your monitoring set up like and generally, how often do you use head phones for mixing because I have noticed that you largely use your monitors for playback? I would imagine that since you make such broad strokes as the first step you neutralize some of the problems that arise in every mix before having to do any surgical work but I believe it does not completely eliminate the need for mixing in headphones. What are your thoughts on that and what's your work flow usually like? I'm really trying to pick your brain to find out more of that genius work flow. This is very efficient and time saving
1. Monitor setup
So for me honestly I will use headphones when i don’t trust the room I’m in or if I need to be quiet, but speakers is always the first choice. I’ve spent literally years trying different speakers and learning and growing. My room & monitoring is at a point where I hear more things in my speakers than my headphones. But I kinda got real OCD about room acoustics and speaker placement a few years back, It drove my wife mad cause I was constantly playing sweep tones as I took room measurements looool but it paid off.
I first realised the importance of room acoustics and speaker choice when I would work at purpose built studios for the record labels and my stuff always sounded better their, and when I checked it on my phone it sounded good. But when I got back to my studio it sounded bad, that’s when I knew speaker choice, placement and room acoustics are to be prioritised.
2.EQ: Surgical vs braodstroke
So generally I will always cut before I boost. regarding surgical EQ, I will track down any nasty frequencies and cut them before doing any compression or saturation or anything, this is because saturation adds harmonics to the original sound, so the better the starting sound the better the outcome. And compression will bring up any nasty sounds in volume and make them more present, so I cut nasty freqs before compression also. So In general I always cut those nasty frequencies first. Once Ive done that then I will apply the technique mentioned in the video above.
Reason: Your trying to get each sound to a place where it sounds as good as possible first and foremost, and then after that you can tackle the problem of prioritising sounds and making them fit together.
Additional point: A mix engineer has no control over the raw sound of the stems but a music producer has potential super powers when it comes to mixing because they can just change the sound. If something isn't working together maybe place one up the octave and the other one down the octave this is the same as placing them into two different frequency ranges. The better the sound selection the less mixing is required.
Any questions just shout me, always got time for you bro!
@@WhoIsAlexElliott Thank you so much for that information fam. Truly insightful. You've altered my perspective on monitoring. Surgical eq before saturation & compression just makes perfect sense. I've seen you use the fabfilter Saturn 2 on bass in one of your shorts, would you say that it's your go to saturation plugin and which would you say is your go to compressor (plugin or gear) and why! You're the best bro ✌🏾
@@abbadonproductionincno problem my bro. I would say my go to saturator now is the P44 or sometimes just Decapitator. If I need to get surgical then I’ll use Saturn cause of the multiband.
Go to compressor for vocals will always be a blue face 1176. And I don’t really compress drums individually that often but rather parallel compress with “devil loc” or “UAD Distressor”.
Notable mention: I do own the hardware fatso so I find myself lately getting both saturation and compression from that unit.
@@WhoIsAlexElliott hol up! I didn't know that Devil Loc could be used as a parallel compressor. I am aware of how saturation affects the micro and macro dynamics of a signal but it's never crossed my mind to use it for parallel compression. From my experience, Devil lock is a bit heavy handed so how do you work around that? Do you combine it with another dynamics processor or do you have a sweet spot when dialing it in that gives the right amount of compression without adding too much colour?
@@WhoIsAlexElliott the 1176 is goated by the way. Can I put you onto something? I've been a huge fan of analog gear but the closest I've ever gotten to that is touching a mixer during a live engineering set and some consoles at college. A few years back I found what I consider to be the best analogue emulations and they are from the company Analog Obsession. I have no idea what the original gear sounds like but damn those plugins sound phenomenal. Especially their 1176, it has so much control, even a side chain EQ built in for even more surgical needs. On vocals it is superb and sounds great on just about anything. Their saturation algorithm is silky smooth on the high end especially their channel strip plugin called the Brit Channel. Their plugins have built in oversampling & an unmatched auto make up gain and I just think they beat a lot of the stuff for sale on the market. Please check them out and even do a shoot out on your own and decide if it's video worthy. Let me know if you want me to give any suggestions, I've tried all of them. Simply spectacular 👌🏾
I wanna your Mixing course, Please
I don’t have one as of yet but will consider this for the future 🤞
Fabulous tip! Its not easy or obvious how to de-mask elements, this is a good approach!
It really helps me. So I’m glad it’s helping others 🙌
@@WhoIsAlexElliottI usually listen to for example the vocal with a competing keys instrument, and listen for what freqs are masking from the instrument and reduce it, but this way faster although perhaps less precise, will definitely try it out. Can be good for faster general shaping earlier in a mix!
@@caspermaster-com Thats exactly how I use it. for early shaping quick decisions and then I fine tune afterwards