I just learned more in the last 11 minutes than I have in the last 11 years... I just subbed and hit the bell... I've got a lot of experiments to run...
I'm new to sound mixing, this is my first vid from this channel and I sub'd immediately after hearing how Gregory's voice sounds here - I said, yeah, this guy knows what he's talking about.
This is probably the best EQ video on youtube. It doesn't give you any "tips" or "tricks". It just teaches you how to explore, which is something much more valuable than learning some crazy formula.
Honestly I don't think it does sound great, at least through headphones. It's not terrible but it's uncomfortable. It sounds way too close and hot, like when someone's trying to tell you something in a club by talking right in your ear. It's just a little tooooo intimate. Also seems to be slamming that de-esser too (or heavy low pass). Clearly he has the chops to mix great vocals. Just for whatever reason he over-bakes his dialogue on his own UA-cam vids. Don't get me wrong, the dude is great, it's why I'm subbed.
Oh my god! JUST the 1k push/pull technique fixed the most annoyingly out of place vocal on one of my new tracks that I've been trying to get to sit for MONTHS. LITERAL MONTHS I've tried everything to get it to sound good with the rest of my mix, and this finally did it. Thank you so, so much. You guys deserve every subscriber and more.
The algorithm screwed up. How did it not recommend this till now.....stupid algorithm. Giving the principles and thought behind the decisions! Love it man!
That’s one of my favorite things to hear man, I know how hard it is to keep the faith sometimes and how easy it is to get stuck in a rut. For me the answer always seems to be “more collaboration”, it gets lonely in that cave of one!
"The different pockets of energy in the human voice" Just the way he connects terminology with philosophy is brilliant. I actually learned something life changing with mixing and wasn't even looking for it this time. Again, brilliant!
Thanks! In my mind, _every_ sound has lows, mids, and highs, even a hi hat! It can be helpful to think fullness/presence/detail. It's just a question of where each zone sits for a given sound. Like, the warm lows on a bass are 80-150Hz, but fullness on a hi hat might be 400-600Hz.
Gold again! Less EQ? Someone should have told me this waaay before...On the other hand, independently of the 100 Hz, 1k or 10 k, what I can hear here is a guy who loves his work and is spreading that love, thank you very much again.
If after listening to the quality of this man's voice you hit "Dislike" then you, my friend, are the problem. Brilliant video and advice - liked and subscribed!
When I first started getting into audio engineering about 8 years ago I watched a shit load of UA-cam tutorials to learn. At a certain point I completely stopped because I felt like everybody was saying and doing the same things (cut 400 hz, put x thing on your mixbus for glue, bass tricks, etc). These videos have gotten me back into learning because your approach is so much more about the emotion of music and high level approaches an engineer needs to take.
UA-cam video are mostly terrible, at the lower end of the spectrum they're pretty hilarious,. I saw one talking about the fruity loops clipper as a secret weapon..
The important thing is there is no single way to do something every time. I used to do the abbey road trick on every instruments reverb bus. I feel like there are starting points you can learn, much like preset EQ settings, but you should always use your ear at the end of the day to make it work for that particular mix. Just my two cents.
I love this guy's approach. Doesn't treat it like rocket science but rather uses practical methods to stress the actual musicality inherent in the vocal. Way better than being told to throw on a huge complicated chain with 3 compressors and whatnot. Great stuff!
Aaaaaaahh! Just finished a long night of composing, mixing, mastering, bouncing, video editing and We Transferring! Now it’s time for Chinese, ginger beer, dark chocolate cherry liqueurs and the House of Kush After Hours! Perfect way to end a night! This channel soothes and chills me out so much! It always puts me in a great relaxed, creative, positive mood! Greeting from Ealing, West London, UK at 1:38am! And cheers for the all great advice and inspiration as usual!
This guy has the best teaching style (for me). I love the way he addresses problems by first making you think about what you're doing. So many other UA-camrs' first response is let me show you how to fix it with this $300 plugin. It works but I have no idea what just happened. I'm going to go back and watch all his videos.
The best advice I have seen anyone give on how to eq vocals. I tried the techniques and straight away I could tell this is the way to go. Brilliant...thank you!
This man just taught me more in 11:12 minutes than what I learned in school.. this man also charged me $0. I’ve spent more than anyone needs to for vocals. (Nectar, etc...) 🙄 thanks cool dude. You’re the BOB ROSS of audio..
you learnt me everything in 11 minutes that I needed, this is the most professional video about audio I've ever seen and you're nice to listen to. *I love this*
This is what i eventually learned after working at a proffesional studio for a few years a while back. Two other good tips that engineers might want to get into... 1) Most of your energy should be going to the actual recording process. the better the recording, the less EQ you really need to do and the more you can focus on making it sound cool instead of trying to "fix" the vocals. 2) Instead of using a compressor in post, go through the entire vocal and raise/lower volumes of words or phrases manually, so that they are all typically the same visual height (or sound the same in volume). Manually lower the volumes of siblance by physically looking at it in the program (high frequencies are very short and spiky waveforms). Get rid of the noise floor between vocals so that you don't need to run a denoiser (which effects the vocal)...By doing these things, you give yourself more headroom and more space to mix your vocals like this guy is saying in the video. It might take longer, and require more work...but using a compressor as a be and end all solution in post means you sacrifice quality for efficiency. Save your compressor for the actual recording process. Edit: Also a neat trick...To avoid POPING when you do hard cuts when reducing volume, zoom in and look at the waveform closely, and make your cuts when the waveform hits 0DB. Making your cuts on 0DB means you will never hear a pop in your life without having to quick fade anything
1 & 2. Hell yeah. Obviously. But zero crossings instead of fades? Not with that. I'm assuming you can snap ur edits to Zero crossings automatically, otherwise it sounds like a massive waste of time... Personally, I want my edits exactly where I make them and doing batch X-fades takes a whole 1-2 clicks in that one DAW, the one that makes all others look like obsolete chumps. the 20 year love of my life sweet lil LP10
The Reaper DAW seems to do a good job of preventing pops when doing cuts and trims. It adds a little cross-fade. You can enable or disable it in the Settings. I don't know for other DAWs. :)
@@CAVEDOLLtv Hey, Late reply, but no, i don't batch process anything, I comb through the entire vocal, and manually go into each phrase, or sentence zooming in and applying 0db hard cuts, and then adjust words in that phrase/sentence to the same perceived volume. No shortcuts or anything automatic. Cool thing about these techniques is that they aren't exclusive to particular DAWS like Protools either. I now don't even bother doing most of my pre-edit sound mixing in a real DAW and just use Audacity for these tasks. The whole purpose of these things is to give your vocal, more room and space in the mix without changing or altering the quality of the vocal. Anything that changes the waveform in any way, is a departure from what the artist truly sounds like, which is helpful when the artist or vocalist has a very crispy unique quality in their voice and you don't want to lose that to an EQ or a compressor smushing waveforms at a ceiling. It is well worth the longer process to keep this higher fidelity in quality, and it gives you the space you need in a mix to make the vocal presence come forward a lot more.
11:11 almost like ya did it on purpose. This is some interesting stuff. Love how you outlined the concept of 100/1000/10000hz...for a newbie like me, it opened up a new way of looking at and understanding all of the frequencies. Thanks GS.
The first ever audio engineering related video without seeing consoles and plugins and I'm hooked!! Very very informative. U got a new subscriber... Thanks a gazzillion!!
You're incredible at articulating the creative thought process. It's so difficult to put words to production concepts yet you seem to do it so effortlessly. Well done Greg!
I stumbled across this video again and I just wanted to say, this excersice has had a huge impact on my approach to EQ. I can't express my gratitude enough for it made me so much more deliberate in my eq moves, thanks!
I stumbled across your video series by accident. I'm a multi-instrumentalist and composer/songwriter, not an engineer but I do all my own mixing on my DAW at home. Your videos have changed the way I approach the mixing components of the process, starting with your video on how to hear compression. Amazing!! Thanks Gregory. I'll keep watching.
Right on! I’d say if you do all your mixing on a daw at home, you’re an engineer. You may not think of yourself as one, or think you’re a very good one, but that doesn’t change the facts 😛
@@TheHouseofKushTV I did a tracking session today and in my arrangements I used your "rule of pairs". Holy shit!!! I hear the difference. Wow. Greg, your vids are making a difference. So glad you're putting these up bud. Cheers from Sydney.
Best conveyance of mixing vocals I’ve ever come across. I’m 4 yrs “in the chair” and learning constantly. So glad I found your channel and thanks for the great lesson.
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! I know that this is a 4 year old video, but brains, facts and the ability to communicate so brilliantly never grows old 🙂 Having been away from recording for a couple of years, I needed to re-learn that less is more. You just saved my vocals on a couple of new tracks, and for that I thank you 🙂
Your videos are gold! I’m getting back into music after a 20yr curveball.. I’m a song writer learning to live loop with a DAWless rig & with that learning production techniques. They way you break things down is really cool man, thanks again
Nice. Its also a good idea to play with saturation noting how it can change the tone & compress the signal at the same time(while uniquely shaving the transients, especially in the high mids where youre used to de-essing like crazy & cutting to try & get rid of that unwanted digital brightness). Nothing gives a thin sound more weight than saturation. Saturation formulas & multiple saturation plugins/hardware options can greatly improve any mixer who lacks them. Everything we hear on the radio or in film that we like & think sounds expensive is tailored with masterful use of saturation. Before we even learn what a compressor does, we should first learn saturation & automation as primary alternatives(especially in this digital earbleed era so very much in need of warm saturated analog curves of old that never failed us).
I just found this video completely by accident. This was the best 11 minutes I've had all year (with my clothes on). Seriously, this was amazing. I keep watching people who teach you how to use an EQ until it looks like an etch a sketch drawing of the Manhattan Skyline, and you know it's just wrong to do that. I am truly looking forward to watching all your stuff now!
@@TheHouseofKushTV I crave the F out of a lot of tracks, man there are some good ones out there and occasionally I like some of mine too! I only have to carve the F out of a few of my own though, thankfully. Haha sorry for spellchecking, I subbed, maybe that'll offset it! Seriously though, love this video. Super organic compared to many other youtubers, a natural vibe teaching a natural approach to managing a natural thing.
Great tutorial Gregory. I applied your concept to a large vocal arrangement and it sounded so much better with less tweaking on the EQ. Wow! Thank you so much for your awesome insight :)
What an incredible lesson. Although it's predominantly for vocals....I was really excited thinking about guitars...I will do this more purposefully with guitars as well, and ultimately as a "push and pull" balance between guitars and vocals...lots to think about here. Great stuff for those inspired to take this lesson a step further than just vocals.
You're instinct is right, the topic here is vocals but the exercise is a universal technique, pushing one thing while pulling another. It's an art that got almost completely lost when the world went DAW, but it is SO worth the effort to get happening.
Damn you just turned my band's album around with the simplest tip ever - I had most insane effects chain trying to tame all the resonances -Soothe + RESO + multiple instances of Pro-Q maxed out + 3 compressors and it still sounded just weird. I took all that off and started over like you suggested, with 3 bands only, and got it to sound way better/richer/fuller/clearer than before, and once dialing the compression in on top of the three band EQ, it is sitting way better in the mix, and I can only identify one resonant frequency that I still need to deal with. How is it this simple!! I'm also pretty shocked at where all of those supposed resonance issues I was having have disappeared to. Suddenly those things are not even an issue, and it turns out I was just butchering the sound 🤯 I don't know how I had managed to complicate it so much before. Thanks for changing my life, not to mention making this way easier and faster. Thank you for thinking to even mention this tip. You're amazing dude
Your videos are consistently the most helpful that I have seen on youtube. Everything from this to your video on hearing compression is absolutely top notch. Thank you!
I’ve never had a teacher, I just watch random UA-cam videos and never take notes, but today I subscribed to you, my teacher, and for the first time I have gotten a notebook cos I’m getting serious with this mixing and mastering, music business, thank you sensei !🙏
I always recommend your videos to students and colleagues. This one is even better than usual. And very, very happy with my subscription to Kush plugins.
ummmm...how did you just make me feel so warm and fuzzy and comfortable while simultaneously telling me I been effin' up my vocal mixes for the past 10 years all at the same time?!?? subbed and begging the Mrs. for more HoK money to accompany my beloved Omega friends. thank you!
Going to be that guy... There's been many, many fine mixing desks that have had 3 band EQ that have been doing the rounds for a whole bunch of decades.... Back in the day, if you got a desk that had MORE than 3 bands and didn't involve a wad of cash in a plain envelope and a music shop that would only take cash (true story), you either did such a good job with the 3 EQ desk you could afford to upgrade OR you had done several favours for a bunch of guys named Vinny, Tommy and Joe involving a car trunk and a hole... All joking aside, although limiting - if it's a GOOD combination of bands, 3 is perfectly good to mix a track with.
I'm tempted to binge watch this! But to get the maximum value I need to try out each video, step by step. Really good content, easy to grasp, interesting and to the point information. 👏
Love this video so much. I think the deeper issue though is that a lot of people are recording badly (sometimes very badly) at source and are conditioned into thinking it doesn't really matter because you can just process/correct it later.
To describe all in one word... INSANE !!! Subscribed within the first two mins. You damn know what your talking about Greg. Such a Gem of advises. Cheers... God Bless You...
Really, I feel like I've adsorbed a bundle of staff from the tones of sound-engineering "spec-guides" which is full all around the internet, spending hours, listening the same rules repeatedly narrated by random 'specialists' one over the other - useless. And to be honest now I might seems th 95% of them didn't actually knew shit about wat they were talking.. ..until I finally get here. It just so obvious that finally hearing someone who know exectly what is the point of matters he is talking about, sharing the obvious knowledge and experience and the write points delivered in the way that everything is uderstanable so easilly.. - so there's no way the noob guy like me don't get the proper knowledge and clearly find out how the things works and understand what actually is hapening in your mix and why. Really enjoing to laern from you. Really glad to find your channel and great thanks for the awesome and (finally) super usefull tips you decided to share for free all of peaple that couldn't get any opportunity to ;earn from nowhere else. Trully gratefull. Thanks
Gregory reminds me if my audio professors at Columbia college: Passionate, articulate, and extremely qualified in all areas of audio. We paid a lot of attention to the subjectivity in audio and how theres a ton of psychoacoustics involved in mixing, artistic motivation, and technology.
I'm new at this. An illustration of what you're talking about would be really helpful, to get a much better understanding of what you're talking about. I did learn something valuable by watching this lecture. I learned that the human voice exist between 800 to 2500 hertz. Now I know that I have to slightly cut out those frequencies from the instrumental to make room for the vocals. Thank you. And please illustrate what you are talking about. PS I subscribed.
The idea of relafive frequency placement on a vocal to replicate how you would hear someones voice in person is something that I have been interest in regarding the mid range, but I've never really thought about the other bands and their effect. This has opened me up to the idea of applying this concept in a mixing sense, to strike a balance between a realistic sounding vocal, and a vocal that feels equalised to the rest of the mix. This has given me a whole new perspective, thank you
The way it's explained is so engaging and interesting.. I feel like I'm watching an actor being interviewed for "behind the scene episode" of his successful blockbuster movies! :) thanks Scott.
This is the second video I've watched and got damn, I've learned more in 30 minutes from you than the countless hours I've put into audio engineering and producing! Please don't let this channel die brochacho
I will definitely test and train this. For a 5 star review outcome I would have loved to actually hear examples of the things you are describing. Fader - 1kHz - 10kHz - 100Hz - finale
brilliant. i've watched like 3 videos and they're all mind-blowing. Kush is by far the best at explaining the art and tonality to mixing rather than technicality, by USING the technicality to achieve the art and tonality.
A fundamental tone doubles in its harmonics each ascending octave, use broad EQ and boosts/cuts on harmonic octaves or in-between, depending on track priority and overall spectral scheme. use mic and mic-distance to control spectral balance. Ideally, use a measuring mic (flat) to reference the raw instrument/vocal for insight on tonal balance. Everything else is the instrument, arrangement, and performance quality. Everything else is subjective. No ambient room, absorb everything except the floor for a little life.
I would like to hear an example if you can sing and set the three levels plus fader. Or have a singer(s) come in and do the conceptual adjustments on their examples. Thanks!
Yes this guy knows what he talking about boy n girls this is absolutely bear basics of engineering. If you dont know this and you call yourself a engineer or producer then you need to stop and learn alot more! Forget about all the plugins u think u need or that people poke your eyes with and learn the basics, in reality all u need is an eq! Its the most powerful tool a real engineer has.
Ohhh, gloveslap! I mean, I love eq --- REALLY love it --- but for the way I mix, distortion is every bit as powerful and essential. Compression I actually need very little of, just give me eq and clipping and I'm a happy man!
Dude I am a professional touring engineer of 10 years working at a commercial level and you kinda just blew my mind. I am TOTALLY rethinking how I approach vocal EQ. I tried this out with a beta 58 over a live PA and the whole world changed. EVERYTHING sounds better. My hat is off to you sir!
Just stumbled onto this from my recommendations (since I've been looking up audio editing). You are my new favorite teacher. Thank you, sensei! *Subscribed! Ding!*
I'm on the Kush users mailing list and occasionally Gregory Scott puts out little drops of wisdom like this and examples of music, etc. He's a very interesting guy with a different way of imparting knowledge than most guys on UA-cam. He's a musician too, which I think had a lot to do with it. And Kush plugins ROCK by the way, in case you don't know that already!! lol
Such good stuff. It's like your a spiritual guide on the path toward audio wisdom, teaching us to think and hear for ourselves, instead of just telling us what to do.
Really interesting way of looking at EQ. One interesting thing I read whilst I was studying was to not think of a microphone as for a particular purpose, but think of it like an artists paintbrush. If an artist wants a thin brush they will use that to pick up the paint and apply it to the canvas, if they want a thicker brush it will apply more paint. So if a microphone is good at picking up a certain frequency then think of it in terms of a brush. You would probably not pick up a D12 for vocals per se, but it will record a vocal. The point is to think of the microphone differently
@@TheHouseofKushTV I can tell. Those moments where you start bursting out in laughter are genuine. By the way, I just happened to working on a mix when I watched this and it made me rethink the whys behind why my vocals wasn't sitting right. Ended up using the fader to get it right. It's funny cause I do it all the time, but I just never think about it...especially when I've been mixing for hours and plugins are flying everywhere. Also picked up the bundle about two months ago. Loving them all, especially Novatron and UBK-1 for both drums and bass. Once I've got the funds, I'll probably get some hardware off of you guys for the studio. We'll be sure to put it on blast once we do. Studio's called Big City Jacks in Manchester, UK. Keep them coming, dude. Thanks for all the insight so far. Cheers, TL
The fader thing is interesting point, and I think in digital domain there's something called "auto gain" that some EQs have, that basically auto adjusts the volume. Some EQs do this different than others (I think Fabfilter's implementation of this feature is only so-so), TDR SlickEQ (both versions) seems to do this the best.
Yeah, autogain can be useful, but for this exercise it would defeat the point: to get you moving two controls at once, interactively and in response to each other, in order to explore the complex relationship between tone and level. Most of the time, your fader will not be moving in direct proportion to your eq gain, nor should it. So if your eq moves are automagically offset with algorithmic precision, you miss out on 90% of the fun!
I just learned more in the last 11 minutes than I have in the last 11 years... I just subbed and hit the bell... I've got a lot of experiments to run...
Now THAT's what I'm talkin' about!!
Same! This is the first video I've seen here and this was an immediate sub!
😄👍
I'm new to sound mixing, this is my first vid from this channel and I sub'd immediately after hearing how Gregory's voice sounds here - I said, yeah, this guy knows what he's talking about.
feel the same :)
same !!
This is probably the best EQ video on youtube. It doesn't give you any "tips" or "tricks". It just teaches you how to explore, which is something much more valuable than learning some crazy formula.
All about being pointed in the right direction.. aaah, the mix jesus.. :)
“‘Sibilance’ is one of the words that has the most sibilance in it”- Mitch Hedberg
Onomatopoeia! :-)
Supercalifragilisticexpialadocious
“I used to do drugs....I still do, but ai used to too”-Mitch Hedburg RIP
I know why all the pictures of Bigfoot are out of focus, jus' sayin'.
@@passenger62 Bigfoot is blurry!
When a guy is giving vocal EQ tips with such a great sounding voiceover you have to take notice. Subbed.
Well said
Ha, I misread this as "sobbed". It really is powerful stuff though 😭
Honestly I don't think it does sound great, at least through headphones. It's not terrible but it's uncomfortable. It sounds way too close and hot, like when someone's trying to tell you something in a club by talking right in your ear. It's just a little tooooo intimate. Also seems to be slamming that de-esser too (or heavy low pass). Clearly he has the chops to mix great vocals. Just for whatever reason he over-bakes his dialogue on his own UA-cam vids. Don't get me wrong, the dude is great, it's why I'm subbed.
@@Super-id7bq I bet it’s hard as fuck to make you happy..if you have a girlfriend I’m sure she’s ready to leave your ass
Oh my god! JUST the 1k push/pull technique fixed the most annoyingly out of place vocal on one of my new tracks that I've been trying to get to sit for MONTHS. LITERAL MONTHS I've tried everything to get it to sound good with the rest of my mix, and this finally did it. Thank you so, so much. You guys deserve every subscriber and more.
I have a love/hate relationship with 1k, but there's no denying it's one of the most powerful frequencies we got and SO critical to get right!
This man could run a cult of he wanted to
I think he does and that's how we got here and can't leave
😂😂😂
From the comment section it looks like he is.
His voice and energy would convince me to jump off a ship jedi mind trick style
Facts!
What is this? Someone who doesn't waste time and knows what he's talking about? Subscribed.
5000 subscribers, woohoo! Thanks for the support everyone!!!
Holy shit, 81000 subscribers in 8 months. THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!
@@TheHouseofKushTV And here we are @ 157K - thanks for the vocal EQ tips
The algorithm screwed up. How did it not recommend this till now.....stupid algorithm. Giving the principles and thought behind the decisions! Love it man!
You're making me excited about mixing again. Really appreciate your videos and your teaching skills.
That’s one of my favorite things to hear man, I know how hard it is to keep the faith sometimes and how easy it is to get stuck in a rut. For me the answer always seems to be “more collaboration”, it gets lonely in that cave of one!
His podcast is doubly informative. Kush4life
@@LimewaterMusicgod bless you!!
"The different pockets of energy in the human voice" Just the way he connects terminology with philosophy is brilliant. I actually learned something life changing with mixing and wasn't even looking for it this time. Again, brilliant!
Thanks! In my mind, _every_ sound has lows, mids, and highs, even a hi hat! It can be helpful to think fullness/presence/detail. It's just a question of where each zone sits for a given sound. Like, the warm lows on a bass are 80-150Hz, but fullness on a hi hat might be 400-600Hz.
Gold again! Less EQ? Someone should have told me this waaay before...On the other hand, independently of the 100 Hz, 1k or 10 k, what I can hear here is a guy who loves his work and is spreading that love, thank you very much again.
It's true, there are very few things on earth that light me up as much as finding a killer sound!
Who's this cool looking dude and why is he giving me useful tips? Subbed
I dont know, why does this have 69 likes? ;)
That's Chad Kroeger. He lost his day job.
Hahaha seriously
So... I should stop boosting 1.5K then?
Lol
If after listening to the quality of this man's voice you hit "Dislike" then you, my friend, are the problem. Brilliant video and advice - liked and subscribed!
I was actually put off by the quality of the voice in the video. If this is his EQ at its best, I'm back to butchering :D
Those LED meters in the back are so satisfying.
When I first started getting into audio engineering about 8 years ago I watched a shit load of UA-cam tutorials to learn. At a certain point I completely stopped because I felt like everybody was saying and doing the same things (cut 400 hz, put x thing on your mixbus for glue, bass tricks, etc). These videos have gotten me back into learning because your approach is so much more about the emotion of music and high level approaches an engineer needs to take.
UA-cam video are mostly terrible, at the lower end of the spectrum they're pretty hilarious,. I saw one talking about the fruity loops clipper as a secret weapon..
@Bad Lamb Records Awesome! Now all I have to do is find the one guy who had a vocal masterclass ; )
@@ottam ooh that's a bit of a dodgy question!
The important thing is there is no single way to do something every time. I used to do the abbey road trick on every instruments reverb bus. I feel like there are starting points you can learn, much like preset EQ settings, but you should always use your ear at the end of the day to make it work for that particular mix. Just my two cents.
Daniel Trevino beautifully said
This dude is the Bob Ross of audio. I always learn something and walk away relaxed. :)
Boom!
Him and Mike DelGaudio from Booth Junkies
omg yes
😂😭😂😭😂
I couldn’t agree more
I love this guy's approach. Doesn't treat it like rocket science but rather uses practical methods to stress the actual musicality inherent in the vocal. Way better than being told to throw on a huge complicated chain with 3 compressors and whatnot. Great stuff!
Aaaaaaahh! Just finished a long night of composing, mixing, mastering, bouncing, video editing and We Transferring!
Now it’s time for Chinese, ginger beer, dark chocolate cherry liqueurs and the House of Kush After Hours!
Perfect way to end a night! This channel soothes and chills me out so much! It always puts me in a great relaxed, creative, positive mood!
Greeting from Ealing, West London, UK at 1:38am!
And cheers for the all great advice and inspiration as usual!
I can listen to this while following asleep and wake up a Grammy award winning track mastering machine
Amazing INTRO LOL
Exactly!!
It's the ninja
Lmao really
Beep beep
Don't know who this guy is but he definitely knows what he is talking about.
All good, I have no idea who I am either!
The House of Kush “how am I not myself?”
See all that outboard gear flashing next to him? He designed it all.
There's yet a different type of voice clarity -it's the way truth sounds to our ears. And brother, you're speaking the truth. Subbed.
Daaammmnnn... high praise indeed, I'll take it!
This guy has the best teaching style (for me). I love the way he addresses problems by first making you think about what you're doing. So many other UA-camrs' first response is let me show you how to fix it with this $300 plugin. It works but I have no idea what just happened. I'm going to go back and watch all his videos.
I wasn’t ready for this 4 months ago, I get it now! Thank you for your service
The best advice I have seen anyone give on how to eq vocals. I tried the techniques and straight away I could tell this is the way to go. Brilliant...thank you!
This man just taught me more in 11:12 minutes than what I learned in school.. this man also charged me $0. I’ve spent more than anyone needs to for vocals. (Nectar, etc...) 🙄 thanks cool dude. You’re the BOB ROSS of audio..
This is so annoying. Now i'm gonna have to go and watch ALL this guys videos ffs
Gotcha!
Exactly! damn
Such a great video, love the speed and quality and this guy is great!
Check out his podcast too, it has helped me a ton! It's called The UBK Happy Funtime Hour
Same, from yesterday ..he pulled me in with the old 'this is how you hear compression' ploy
Possibly the best video on EQing vocals on UA-cam. Thank you!
This is the best audio mixing channel on UA-cam. This guy is a genius. It’s also wonderfully entertaining, he knows how to focus. Focus. Focus. Focus
you learnt me everything in 11 minutes that I needed, this is the most professional video about audio I've ever seen
and you're nice to listen to.
*I love this*
Glad it helped!!
gomw
This is what i eventually learned after working at a proffesional studio for a few years a while back.
Two other good tips that engineers might want to get into...
1) Most of your energy should be going to the actual recording process. the better the recording, the less EQ you really need to do and the more you can focus on making it sound cool instead of trying to "fix" the vocals.
2) Instead of using a compressor in post, go through the entire vocal and raise/lower volumes of words or phrases manually, so that they are all typically the same visual height (or sound the same in volume). Manually lower the volumes of siblance by physically looking at it in the program (high frequencies are very short and spiky waveforms). Get rid of the noise floor between vocals so that you don't need to run a denoiser (which effects the vocal)...By doing these things, you give yourself more headroom and more space to mix your vocals like this guy is saying in the video.
It might take longer, and require more work...but using a compressor as a be and end all solution in post means you sacrifice quality for efficiency. Save your compressor for the actual recording process.
Edit: Also a neat trick...To avoid POPING when you do hard cuts when reducing volume, zoom in and look at the waveform closely, and make your cuts when the waveform hits 0DB. Making your cuts on 0DB means you will never hear a pop in your life without having to quick fade anything
1 & 2. Hell yeah. Obviously. But zero crossings instead of fades? Not with that. I'm assuming you can snap ur edits to Zero crossings automatically, otherwise it sounds like a massive waste of time... Personally, I want my edits exactly where I make them and doing batch X-fades takes a whole 1-2 clicks in that one DAW, the one that makes all others look like obsolete chumps. the 20 year love of my life sweet lil LP10
The Reaper DAW seems to do a good job of preventing pops when doing cuts and trims. It adds a little cross-fade. You can enable or disable it in the Settings. I don't know for other DAWs. :)
correct mic placement will solve problems that eq can't touch.
@@CAVEDOLLtv Hey, Late reply, but no, i don't batch process anything, I comb through the entire vocal, and manually go into each phrase, or sentence zooming in and applying 0db hard cuts, and then adjust words in that phrase/sentence to the same perceived volume. No shortcuts or anything automatic.
Cool thing about these techniques is that they aren't exclusive to particular DAWS like Protools either. I now don't even bother doing most of my pre-edit sound mixing in a real DAW and just use Audacity for these tasks.
The whole purpose of these things is to give your vocal, more room and space in the mix without changing or altering the quality of the vocal. Anything that changes the waveform in any way, is a departure from what the artist truly sounds like, which is helpful when the artist or vocalist has a very crispy unique quality in their voice and you don't want to lose that to an EQ or a compressor smushing waveforms at a ceiling. It is well worth the longer process to keep this higher fidelity in quality, and it gives you the space you need in a mix to make the vocal presence come forward a lot more.
This is the authoritative kind of mixing lesson I have yearned for, for so long. So very long.
11:11 almost like ya did it on purpose. This is some interesting stuff. Love how you outlined the concept of 100/1000/10000hz...for a newbie like me, it opened up a new way of looking at and understanding all of the frequencies. Thanks GS.
The first ever audio engineering related video without seeing consoles and plugins and I'm hooked!! Very very informative. U got a new subscriber... Thanks a gazzillion!!
I feel like this guy is about to take me to the Black Lodge
When you see me again, it won't be me...
Mulholland Drive vibes to me (in a good way)
@@feelingevaporated2912 Same Director/Writer.
What year is this?! - aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh
that EQ you like is coming back in style
You're incredible at articulating the creative thought process. It's so difficult to put words to production concepts yet you seem to do it so effortlessly. Well done Greg!
You can't get any more straight to the point than this. Subbed
this is one of the best explanations of how to eq voice that I've seen in a long time. thank you.
I stumbled across this video again and I just wanted to say, this excersice has had a huge impact on my approach to EQ. I can't express my gratitude enough for it made me so much more deliberate in my eq moves, thanks!
I stumbled across your video series by accident. I'm a multi-instrumentalist and composer/songwriter, not an engineer but I do all my own mixing on my DAW at home. Your videos have changed the way I approach the mixing components of the process, starting with your video on how to hear compression. Amazing!! Thanks Gregory. I'll keep watching.
Right on! I’d say if you do all your mixing on a daw at home, you’re an engineer. You may not think of yourself as one, or think you’re a very good one, but that doesn’t change the facts 😛
@@TheHouseofKushTV I did a tracking session today and in my arrangements I used your "rule of pairs". Holy shit!!! I hear the difference. Wow. Greg, your vids are making a difference. So glad you're putting these up bud. Cheers from Sydney.
Best conveyance of mixing vocals I’ve ever come across. I’m 4 yrs “in the chair” and learning constantly. So glad I found your channel and thanks for the great lesson.
Wow, thank you!
I dig this dude’s vibe a lot, instant subscribe.
The amount of time this will save is crazy! Thank you for this video!
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! I know that this is a 4 year old video, but brains, facts and the ability to communicate so brilliantly never grows old 🙂
Having been away from recording for a couple of years, I needed to re-learn that less is more. You just saved my vocals on a couple of new tracks, and for that I thank you 🙂
This is gold. UBK is so underrated.
Your videos are gold! I’m getting back into music after a 20yr curveball.. I’m a song writer learning to live loop with a DAWless rig & with that learning production techniques. They way you break things down is really cool man, thanks again
Nice. Its also a good idea to play with saturation noting how it can change the tone & compress the signal at the same time(while uniquely shaving the transients, especially in the high mids where youre used to de-essing like crazy & cutting to try & get rid of that unwanted digital brightness).
Nothing gives a thin sound more weight than saturation. Saturation formulas & multiple saturation plugins/hardware options can greatly improve any mixer who lacks them. Everything we hear on the radio or in film that we like & think sounds expensive is tailored with masterful use of saturation.
Before we even learn what a compressor does, we should first learn saturation & automation as primary alternatives(especially in this digital earbleed era so very much in need of warm saturated analog curves of old that never failed us).
I just found this video completely by accident. This was the best 11 minutes I've had all year (with my clothes on). Seriously, this was amazing. I keep watching people who teach you how to use an EQ until it looks like an etch a sketch drawing of the Manhattan Skyline, and you know it's just wrong to do that. I am truly looking forward to watching all your stuff now!
Thanks! I mean, sometimes you do need to crave the living F out of a track, but... not usually, and not as often as people think :-)
@@TheHouseofKushTV I crave the F out of a lot of tracks, man there are some good ones out there and occasionally I like some of mine too! I only have to carve the F out of a few of my own though, thankfully.
Haha sorry for spellchecking, I subbed, maybe that'll offset it!
Seriously though, love this video. Super organic compared to many other youtubers, a natural vibe teaching a natural approach to managing a natural thing.
love your ability to comprehensively describe frequency with a physical location, these videos are my favorite
Great tutorial Gregory. I applied your concept to a large vocal arrangement and it sounded so much better with less tweaking on the EQ. Wow! Thank you so much for your awesome insight :)
Just what I needed. You just gave me a great understanding of the EQ and how to use it. Before this I was just mindlessly using the stock EQs. Thanks!
Glad it helped!
What an incredible lesson. Although it's predominantly for vocals....I was really excited thinking about guitars...I will do this more purposefully with guitars as well, and ultimately as a "push and pull" balance between guitars and vocals...lots to think about here. Great stuff for those inspired to take this lesson a step further than just vocals.
You're instinct is right, the topic here is vocals but the exercise is a universal technique, pushing one thing while pulling another. It's an art that got almost completely lost when the world went DAW, but it is SO worth the effort to get happening.
The House of Kush I made this on a iPad right now. You can press more than one button at time. iOS world is perfect for your work. Guess you’ll like
Damn you just turned my band's album around with the simplest tip ever - I had most insane effects chain trying to tame all the resonances -Soothe + RESO + multiple instances of Pro-Q maxed out + 3 compressors and it still sounded just weird. I took all that off and started over like you suggested, with 3 bands only, and got it to sound way better/richer/fuller/clearer than before, and once dialing the compression in on top of the three band EQ, it is sitting way better in the mix, and I can only identify one resonant frequency that I still need to deal with. How is it this simple!! I'm also pretty shocked at where all of those supposed resonance issues I was having have disappeared to. Suddenly those things are not even an issue, and it turns out I was just butchering the sound 🤯
I don't know how I had managed to complicate it so much before. Thanks for changing my life, not to mention making this way easier and faster. Thank you for thinking to even mention this tip. You're amazing dude
Your videos are consistently the most helpful that I have seen on youtube. Everything from this to your video on hearing compression is absolutely top notch. Thank you!
I’ve never had a teacher, I just watch random UA-cam videos and never take notes, but today I subscribed to you, my teacher, and for the first time I have gotten a notebook cos I’m getting serious with this mixing and mastering, music business, thank you sensei !🙏
Welcome aboard!
I always recommend your videos to students and colleagues. This one is even better than usual. And very, very happy with my subscription to Kush plugins.
I appreciate the support!
ummmm...how did you just make me feel so warm and fuzzy and comfortable while simultaneously telling me I been effin' up my vocal mixes for the past 10 years all at the same time?!?? subbed and begging the Mrs. for more HoK money to accompany my beloved Omega friends. thank you!
your vibe kept me here mr. keep that smooth tone
Thanks! It keeps getting smoother with each release, spoken word eq is verrrry different than music and I'm still learning!
This entire channel is so fruitful, and complete with complimentary wisdom! Bless up, thanks for the goldmine.
"I'm gonna make you use three bands on an EQ and a fader. That's all."
Finally a tutorial for Ableton Live Lite users!
Hahahahaa meeee
lmfao. sad.
@@monkeyrobotsinc.9875 yes. They should make their priority music and should spend up all of their money on music production. Simpletons.
Going to be that guy... There's been many, many fine mixing desks that have had 3 band EQ that have been doing the rounds for a whole bunch of decades.... Back in the day, if you got a desk that had MORE than 3 bands and didn't involve a wad of cash in a plain envelope and a music shop that would only take cash (true story), you either did such a good job with the 3 EQ desk you could afford to upgrade OR you had done several favours for a bunch of guys named Vinny, Tommy and Joe involving a car trunk and a hole...
All joking aside, although limiting - if it's a GOOD combination of bands, 3 is perfectly good to mix a track with.
Lol!
I'm tempted to binge watch this! But to get the maximum value I need to try out each video, step by step. Really good content, easy to grasp, interesting and to the point information. 👏
This guy has to be the Bob Ross of audio production
fairly certain that title is already well well well applied to someone else in the field but the name isn't coming to me at the moment
乁dragon違 dave pensado
Some things are so simple you just overlook them. Thank you.
I think this is my favorite channel.. The advice here is solid and open. Help bolster my ear and my creativity...
3:13
I really respect the sudden edit you made here. There was thought behind that seemingly casual cut.
Thanks! There's that level of thought behind every single cut... which I'm sure is NOT related to my beeing OCD :-P
@@TheHouseofKushTV it shows! thanks for the videos
He has the formula. Always have stacks of equipment with LEDs behind you. And lots of experience. Appreciate it. I'll try it out Cubase.
Love this video so much. I think the deeper issue though is that a lot of people are recording badly (sometimes very badly) at source and are conditioned into thinking it doesn't really matter because you can just process/correct it later.
Just discovered your channel today and make no mistake, I will be watching all of your videos!
To describe all in one word... INSANE !!! Subscribed within the first two mins. You damn know what your talking about Greg. Such a Gem of advises. Cheers... God Bless You...
Really, I feel like I've adsorbed a bundle of staff from the tones of sound-engineering "spec-guides" which is full all around the internet, spending hours, listening the same rules repeatedly narrated by random 'specialists' one over the other - useless. And to be honest now I might seems th 95% of them didn't actually knew shit about wat they were talking..
..until I finally get here. It just so obvious that finally hearing someone who know exectly what is the point of matters he is talking about, sharing the obvious knowledge and experience and the write points delivered in the way that everything is uderstanable so easilly.. - so there's no way the noob guy like me don't get the proper knowledge and clearly find out how the things works and understand what actually is hapening in your mix and why.
Really enjoing to laern from you. Really glad to find your channel and great thanks for the awesome and (finally) super usefull tips you decided to share for free all of peaple that couldn't get any opportunity to ;earn from nowhere else.
Trully gratefull. Thanks
Thank you for writing that, I love getting this kind of feedback! Keep at it!!
Gregory reminds me if my audio professors at Columbia college: Passionate, articulate, and extremely qualified in all areas of audio. We paid a lot of attention to the subjectivity in audio and how theres a ton of psychoacoustics involved in mixing, artistic motivation, and technology.
I'm new at this.
An illustration of what you're talking about would be really helpful, to get a much better understanding of what you're talking about.
I did learn something valuable by watching this lecture.
I learned that the human voice exist between 800 to 2500 hertz.
Now I know that I have to slightly cut out those frequencies from the instrumental to make room for the vocals.
Thank you.
And please illustrate what you are talking about.
PS I subscribed.
Pure wisdom & entertaining in the same way !
When i hear an intro music quality and his voiceover, im sold already. Thank you Gregory! Amazing as always! 👌looking to buy a Kush products
The idea of relafive frequency placement on a vocal to replicate how you would hear someones voice in person is something that I have been interest in regarding the mid range, but I've never really thought about the other bands and their effect. This has opened me up to the idea of applying this concept in a mixing sense, to strike a balance between a realistic sounding vocal, and a vocal that feels equalised to the rest of the mix. This has given me a whole new perspective, thank you
When he says I got what you need Kush after hours, it feels like he's directing talking to me.
The way it's explained is so engaging and interesting.. I feel like I'm watching an actor being interviewed for "behind the scene episode" of his successful blockbuster movies! :) thanks Scott.
You make frequencies so much easier to learn and understand! Especially with that voice! Subscribed, thank you.
This is the second video I've watched and got damn, I've learned more in 30 minutes from you than the countless hours I've put into audio engineering and producing! Please don't let this channel die brochacho
I will definitely test and train this. For a 5 star review outcome I would have loved to actually hear examples of the things you are describing. Fader - 1kHz - 10kHz - 100Hz - finale
If you trust me on the exercise, then trust me when I say that I deliberately chose to not use audio clips for a reason :-)
brilliant. i've watched like 3 videos and they're all mind-blowing. Kush is by far the best at explaining the art and tonality to mixing rather than technicality, by USING the technicality to achieve the art and tonality.
Mission accomplished, thanks for the support my man!
A fundamental tone doubles in its harmonics each ascending octave, use broad EQ and boosts/cuts on harmonic octaves or in-between, depending on track priority and overall spectral scheme.
use mic and mic-distance to control spectral balance. Ideally, use a measuring mic (flat) to reference the raw instrument/vocal for insight on tonal balance. Everything else is the instrument, arrangement, and performance quality. Everything else is subjective. No ambient room, absorb everything except the floor for a little life.
Excellent advice, well presented...
Plus you inadvertently started a new catchphrase. “Dude that mix sounds Kush” !!!
This dude just became my favorite youtube producer. This info is gonna come in so handy
I would like to hear an example if you can sing and set the three levels plus fader. Or have a singer(s) come in and do the conceptual adjustments on their examples. Thanks!
I have never been turned on by somebody talking about EQ ..
You never forget your first...
hahahahahahaha
Hahahahahaaaa
@@TheHouseofKushTV hahah you funny homie
Yes this guy knows what he talking about boy n girls this is absolutely bear basics of engineering. If you dont know this and you call yourself a engineer or producer then you need to stop and learn alot more! Forget about all the plugins u think u need or that people poke your eyes with and learn the basics, in reality all u need is an eq! Its the most powerful tool a real engineer has.
Ohhh, gloveslap! I mean, I love eq --- REALLY love it --- but for the way I mix, distortion is every bit as powerful and essential. Compression I actually need very little of, just give me eq and clipping and I'm a happy man!
Faders + a 12db per octave EQ will get you pretty damn close each time
Dude I am a professional touring engineer of 10 years working at a commercial level and you kinda just blew my mind. I am TOTALLY rethinking how I approach vocal EQ. I tried this out with a beta 58 over a live PA and the whole world changed. EVERYTHING sounds better. My hat is off to you sir!
Just stumbled onto this from my recommendations (since I've been looking up audio editing). You are my new favorite teacher. Thank you, sensei! *Subscribed! Ding!*
Welcome aboard!
He and Warren Huart. No one but them explain sound and music so good.
this was much needed for so many producers of today
I'm on the Kush users mailing list and occasionally Gregory Scott puts out little drops of wisdom like this and examples of music, etc. He's a very interesting guy with a different way of imparting knowledge than most guys on UA-cam. He's a musician too, which I think had a lot to do with it. And Kush plugins ROCK by the way, in case you don't know that already!! lol
Thanks for the kind words and the support! :-)
Such good stuff. It's like your a spiritual guide on the path toward audio wisdom, teaching us to think and hear for ourselves, instead of just telling us what to do.
greg you're the greatest teacher on youtube. your video on compression changed my life, never stop
Really interesting way of looking at EQ. One interesting thing I read whilst I was studying was to not think of a microphone as for a particular purpose, but think of it like an artists paintbrush. If an artist wants a thin brush they will use that to pick up the paint and apply it to the canvas, if they want a thicker brush it will apply more paint. So if a microphone is good at picking up a certain frequency then think of it in terms of a brush. You would probably not pick up a D12 for vocals per se, but it will record a vocal. The point is to think of the microphone differently
Great perspective!
Always a treat to watch these.
Thank you! They're getting quite fun to make as well, I just another batch of 5 and had a blast!
@@TheHouseofKushTV I can tell. Those moments where you start bursting out in laughter are genuine.
By the way, I just happened to working on a mix when I watched this and it made me rethink the whys behind why my vocals wasn't sitting right. Ended up using the fader to get it right. It's funny cause I do it all the time, but I just never think about it...especially when I've been mixing for hours and plugins are flying everywhere.
Also picked up the bundle about two months ago. Loving them all, especially Novatron and UBK-1 for both drums and bass. Once I've got the funds, I'll probably get some hardware off of you guys for the studio. We'll be sure to put it on blast once we do. Studio's called Big City Jacks in Manchester, UK.
Keep them coming, dude. Thanks for all the insight so far.
Cheers,
TL
Wow, that's all amazing to hear, thanks for the enthusiasm and support mate!
The fader thing is interesting point, and I think in digital domain there's something called "auto gain" that some EQs have, that basically auto adjusts the volume. Some EQs do this different than others (I think Fabfilter's implementation of this feature is only so-so), TDR SlickEQ (both versions) seems to do this the best.
Yeah, autogain can be useful, but for this exercise it would defeat the point: to get you moving two controls at once, interactively and in response to each other, in order to explore the complex relationship between tone and level. Most of the time, your fader will not be moving in direct proportion to your eq gain, nor should it. So if your eq moves are automagically offset with algorithmic precision, you miss out on 90% of the fun!
My brother, I'm so glad I came across your channel! Nice and smooth! Thank you for sharing!
Glad you found us!
Man, you are the best production channel i have seen.
A Master Guru right here!
Thanks my dude