My mentor Keith Olsen told me he always adds 10K to a Bass GT, to get some "string" sound to the bass. 20 years of trying that and it never working for me, I found that 6.8k works better. Another famous guy told me he always cuts 1k on the snare, always. I find I never do that, and instead often boost 1.5k. So... just use your ears.
I always try to record a part with the EQ set, rather than just leave everything flat. Nearly everything I record is high passed at 30 Hz and low passed at about 16k, then fiddle with the low and high mids
Not a tip so much as a query: Lately I've been Mono-ing almost every track up to 120hz. To me my mixes sounds better for it but I can't shake the feeling I'm doing something intrinsically wrong. Can anyone please confirm or assuage my fears please?
This is the kinda guy that you could learn volumes from. If I was a young man starting out, this is who I'd want to teach me! I'm old and would love to learn from him! Lol
This was So refreshing! Someone who knows it all, not talking to us like an arrogant "know it all". That's a real gift for educating. I'd love to be a fly on the wall for about 12 months with you.
Mark, great to see your face and of course your clever humor. Good to hear your tips, and when you're coming back thru St. Lou, give me a shout & we'll have a cold beer waiting!
Blackbird has all the best gear, no surprise their instrutors and people are world class as well. Great stuff! Thanks Mark and Warren! Mark's dry sense of humor had me rewinding the video to hear what he said while I was laughing too hard.
I am so grateful for this channel! I've been a musician for over 40 years but I have learned more from watching this channel in the last 5 years than I learned in the previous 35. Thank you Warren! Because of you I am a better musician, engineer, producer and even a kinder person! Keep it coming. Your passion is contagious!
I went to school at Blackbird, I graduated on April 1st 2022, he’s one of the most genuine people I’ve ever met, he has such a way of teaching and getting you engaged and enthralled with audio engineering. All of the people I met and were taught by were so genuine and willing to learn and teach each other, it was an absolute blast to learn from this guy. (P.S I’ve seen him use the water bottle technique, it actually works that well)
I was lucky enough to attend the black bird academy and learn from Mark Rubel for six months. He’s an awesome teacher, awesome audio engineer and more importantly an amazing human. It is truly a treat to get to learn from him again.
So did I hear him correctly? At the end he says these are just the raw tracks with NO EQ on them or anything!! WOW!! A true testament to the adage... Get it right going in! It all starts with mic proper placement! (and gain structure) Get that right and the whole rest of the mix is a breeze! (Speaking from experience after spending untold hours trying to "fix it in the mix" when trying to mix crappy or mediocre recordings. I pretty much knew most of what he said but there were a few nifty tips I didn't know. The 5 gal. plastic water jug for instance! Thanks!!
COOL! My first studio experience was with Mark - early 80's - 4 tracks, a great sounding old tube board. Great guy to work with - we were inexperienced kids and he guided us through the experience without a hitch. I wish I still had the tracks. Oh well. Hi, Mark!
i learn more tips and tricks in 30 minutes with you then watching hours of other peoples stuff ... thanks for not dumbing it down or assuming everybody knows every trick
Absolutely marvellous, free advice. The kind of lecture you would have paid a lot of money for 10 years ago. Paul McCartney told me it’s not cool to drop names! Love it! :-)
I love his sense of humor and the way he explains certain concepts with analogies. It's so important to know about hearing and the physics and biology behind it, this is what a real competent and dedicated recording/mixing engineer thinks about! That part @7:00, about not building a front porch with the guy who brings 30 saws and 100 screwdrivers hit the nail on the head! I've been using my (available to customers) Focusrite compressor, reverb and EQ plugins for a long time, because they give very good results, are easy to work with, and versatile enough to cover many instruments. I've been using the same 3-4 amp free sim plugins and cab sim for years, and can easily get the same results as a friend of mine who tries all new Neural DSP stuff, all those guitar amp suites and of course my sound is way better than his god awful Boss gt100 xD
Wow! Mark really was a magician, or the Pied Piper without the nasty bits. Farewell, Maestro! You'll be missed, but memories of you will linger and continue to delight those who loved you, or even some who just happened to meet you by chance, - each all the better for your having been among them.🌟
This was honestly one of the most helpful and inspiring videos on EQ I've watched on UA-cam (and I've watched a lot haha). Thank you! Please give us more awesome tricks!
LOVED this video. Some really excellent tips delivered engagingly and with genuine warmth and humour. Would love to see more videos from Mark... especially the crazier recording tricks he alludes to!
About 7 years ago, as a recording student, I was privileged enough to see Mark at an Audio Engineer conference in St Louis. He was awesome and I very much enjoyed listening to him talk. Later, as my class was driving back to our home town, I referred to him as "The fucked guy" because that was an acceptable term used in my mind for someone who was cool, and I remember the air going silent. I still feel an embarrassing and deep regret at having referred to him with those words because that's obviously not a respectful way to refer to someone. He's an awesome, interesting, and knowledgeable dude and it's cool being able to see him talk again.
this is one of the most insightful and useful videos i have watched since subscribing here. what a great guy! who i never knew of. please have him back again in future if you have the opportunity.... would like to think of him as a 'Bob Ross'type character for music production, very thoughtful and kind
One thing all the awesome sound engineers I've been lucky enough to work with have in common is a wicked and slightly warped sense of humour along with incredible humility.. I guess sitting in the control room in concentration for so many hours does things to a person xD... Awesome video and great tips from a great!
the comments about hearing and masking working in octaves, and there being 10 octaves from 20hz to 20khz was pretty revelatory for me. really helps me break down and understand the frequency spectrum in a more sensible way than the somewhat arbitrary frequency limits i’ve learned over the years. thank you!!!
@@Producelikeapro he was amazingly patient with us, and recorded our first single that hit the airwaves (and the only song I ever wrote). He’s a really good man. Thanks for having him on, Warren!!
What a great overview and reminder of what we're trying to do and how to do it. Little variations on techniques are the most fun to learn, and this is full of little nuggets of knowledge and inspiration. Thanks!!
Only years of experience surrounded with the best analog equipment can bring you there. And pure creativity to use an 8 $ microphone and an empty 2 $ water bottle to improve the sound. Sometimes investing 8 $ + 2 $ can be as beneficial as investing 6000 $! Let's hear more from Mark Rubel.
Great stuff, thank you Mark. Wise words, genuinely helpful tips and a lovely engaging manner with a clear passion for music shining brightly in every word. Would love to hear from Mark again, particularly on synesthesia!
Got to love it !!! It's always about the messenger for me. The message can get lost or polluted in the wrong hands. Thanks Warren and of course you Mark : )
Excellent. 👍👍👍 The knowledge, the ease, and the humour - all top notch. (If Tchad Blake, Ryan Hewitt and Marc Daniel Nelson had a common uncle, embodying some of the voice, ways and vibe of all 3 of them, it would be this gentleman 😉) And gotta love that millisecond instantaneous jump from serious to smile and back. And I've been doing the water bottle thing for quite a number of years, also works very well and with different resonant timbres with big glass bottles, of varying shapes. More of Mr. Rubel, please!
Great video! Lot's of awesome techniques. I've worked in several of the rooms at Blackbird and everything there is top notch. The mic clost is crazy and that Neve is truly one of a king. I'm going to try the water bottle idea next time I track drums. Thanks!
Thanks for an excellent video and for the deadpan ironic humour--Paul McCartney told me it's not cool to name-drop :-) Also those 'raw' tracks sounded pretty good. I was watching some old videos by people like Geoff Emerick and he (I think it was him, anyway) said that recording to 2-track was a great discipline because you had to make decisions about things like eq and effects at the recording stage. In his view there was no excuse, even with digital technology, for making a less than perfect recording on the assumption that it could be fixed at the mixing stage.
Are there any EQ tips you've come up with that you'd like to share with us?
800 hertz is an interesting frequency. When I start EQ processing, I start working with this frequency first.
800 hertz interesting frequency for elektric guitar and bass
My mentor Keith Olsen told me he always adds 10K to a Bass GT, to get some "string" sound to the bass. 20 years of trying that and it never working for me, I found that 6.8k works better. Another famous guy told me he always cuts 1k on the snare, always. I find I never do that, and instead often boost 1.5k. So... just use your ears.
I always try to record a part with the EQ set, rather than just leave everything flat. Nearly everything I record is high passed at 30 Hz and low passed at about 16k, then fiddle with the low and high mids
Not a tip so much as a query: Lately I've been Mono-ing almost every track up to 120hz. To me my mixes sounds better for it but I can't shake the feeling I'm doing something intrinsically wrong. Can anyone please confirm or assuage my fears please?
RIP Mark. You were one of a kind and you'll be missed more than we can put into words.
Truly one of a kind ❤
"Paul McCartney told me it's not cool to drop names" LOL LOL would love to learn more from this guy. cheers
Definitely! More to come!
🤣🤣🤣
He's a truly great guy and teacher.
That was funny!
first he said Andrew Scheops, then he said "name dropping" then he said Paul...
This is the kinda guy that you could learn volumes from. If I was a young man starting out, this is who I'd want to teach me! I'm old and would love to learn from him! Lol
He recorded downward is heavenward which is sonically one of the best albums of all time
I like this guy's attitude.
He’s pretty amazing
I wish I could have known this amazing educator and person.
This is great! Also, Marks subtle humor is very funny!
Haha yes, it is!!
Mark is my Audio hero! the nicest guy on the planet, and filled with so much knowledge.
Agreed! Such a wonderful guy! Huge fan
Well that was a bouquet of fresh air! He's like the Yoda of EQ. Thank you, Mark Rubel, and thanks, Warren, for having him on.
Thanks ever so much J.P!
what a joy it must be to mix tracks that sound like that before you even touch them
Having documentation of Mark's teaching and delivery is priceless. I can't watch this without tears right now.
Yes, he was a true master
This was So refreshing! Someone who knows it all, not talking to us like an arrogant "know it all". That's a real gift for educating. I'd love to be a fly on the wall for about 12 months with you.
3:30 "Wacky Recording Techniques with Mark Rubel" coming soon? Hope to see this wizard again sharing his magic! Thank you for posting this!
Absolutely! He’s the man!!
i will set my reminder for this,Mark is the man!!!
@@topa1798 Yes!! Me too! Haha Coming soon!
I am so grateful his teaching lives on forever. Truly one of the greatest people on earth. You are so missed, Mark!
Mark, great to see your face and of course your clever humor. Good to hear your tips, and when you're coming back thru St. Lou, give me a shout & we'll have a cold beer waiting!
Mark is amazing
Conceptualisation and philosophy of mixing by top-level proponents is what we need more of. I'll end up watching this a few times, thanks Warren.
Thanks! Yes, Mark is a master!!
Blackbird has all the best gear, no surprise their instrutors and people are world class as well. Great stuff! Thanks Mark and Warren! Mark's dry sense of humor had me rewinding the video to hear what he said while I was laughing too hard.
Priceless knowledge from Mark Rubel... man.... I wish I could spend the day with this guy from time to time, what a legend!
I wish that I could like this 2X. He is SO right on.
Wow!! Thanks ever so much!!
What a sweet and knowledgeable person !!! Also generous !!!
Waiting for your memorial service, and lo and behold, you've taught me something new today...spectacular kick drum sound! Thank you, Mark. R.I.P.
We need more this man’s wisdom
Coming soon!
Mark’s comments about the basics of hearing are so important and inspiring and informative.
Agreed 100%!
This guy is dishing out pure gold.
He’s pretty amazing!!
I am so grateful for this channel! I've been a musician for over 40 years but I have learned more from watching this channel in the last 5 years than I learned in the previous 35. Thank you Warren! Because of you I am a better musician, engineer, producer and even a kinder person! Keep it coming. Your passion is contagious!
I went to school at Blackbird, I graduated on April 1st 2022, he’s one of the most genuine people I’ve ever met, he has such a way of teaching and getting you engaged and enthralled with audio engineering. All of the people I met and were taught by were so genuine and willing to learn and teach each other, it was an absolute blast to learn from this guy.
(P.S I’ve seen him use the water bottle technique, it actually works that well)
I was lucky enough to attend the black bird academy and learn from Mark Rubel for six months. He’s an awesome teacher, awesome audio engineer and more importantly an amazing human. It is truly a treat to get to learn from him again.
So did I hear him correctly? At the end he says these are just the raw tracks with NO EQ on them or anything!! WOW!! A true testament to the adage... Get it right going in! It all starts with mic proper placement! (and gain structure) Get that right and the whole rest of the mix is a breeze! (Speaking from experience after spending untold hours trying to "fix it in the mix" when trying to mix crappy or mediocre recordings. I pretty much knew most of what he said but there were a few nifty tips I didn't know. The 5 gal. plastic water jug for instance! Thanks!!
think he said no volume automation, but eq added ? Anyway, the stuff going in is def very important. Its hard to fix stuff later
COOL! My first studio experience was with Mark - early 80's - 4 tracks, a great sounding old tube board. Great guy to work with - we were inexperienced kids and he guided us through the experience without a hitch. I wish I still had the tracks. Oh well. Hi, Mark!
That’s fantastic to hear!! Yes, Mark rules! Great guy and wonderful educator
i love this guy. he's so informative and funny. my kind of dude.
That ‘5 gallon’ trick and eq feeding itself is magic✨
This guy just rock! And funny too I really like him. 🤣😂 Thank You Warren!
I've recorded an album with Mark. He's like a nicer, wiser Yoda! I'm so glad to see this video!
What a guy! If the audio career doesn't work out, there's always stand up. Thanks! Very enjoyable and loaded with ideas.
i learn more tips and tricks in 30 minutes with you then watching hours of other peoples stuff ... thanks for not dumbing it down or assuming everybody knows every trick
What an amazing guy - able to explain concepts and practical application so clearly and interestingly. More please!!
Yes! Incredible
Great sense of humor! Love it!
Absolutely marvellous, free advice. The kind of lecture you would have paid a lot of money for 10 years ago. Paul McCartney told me it’s not cool to drop names! Love it! :-)
Thanks ever so much Phil!
Yes, Mark Rules!!
I love his sense of humor and the way he explains certain concepts with analogies.
It's so important to know about hearing and the physics and biology behind it, this is what a real competent and dedicated recording/mixing engineer thinks about!
That part @7:00, about not building a front porch with the guy who brings 30 saws and 100 screwdrivers hit the nail on the head!
I've been using my (available to customers) Focusrite compressor, reverb and EQ plugins for a long time, because they give very good results, are easy to work with, and versatile enough to cover many instruments.
I've been using the same 3-4 amp free sim plugins and cab sim for years, and can easily get the same results as a friend of mine who tries all new Neural DSP stuff, all those guitar amp suites and of course my sound is way better than his god awful Boss gt100 xD
Gospel here (and I dont even use PT).. thank you Mark.. you are an inspiration!
This was great. Have him on again.
You're blowing my mind, Mark.
Love love love this. More old-school / seasoned engineers please this is the stuff that can't get lost. Thanks Warren.
I love this guy! So much great information, and the humor! Thanks for having him on, I definitely hope for more!
Another reminder why I'm sub'd to the channel. Such wealth of information without overloading one's brain circuits!
This is brilliant. There are real gems in here.
Agreed! Dan is wonderful!
A genius who has fine tuned his production over the years and loves teaching. Thanks.
Yes! Mark is amazing
What a lovely guy. I thoroughly enjoyed his tips and philosophies.
I love this guy! So much fun to listen to him and you can just tell he loves all of it!
Wow! Mark really was a magician, or the Pied Piper without the nasty bits. Farewell, Maestro! You'll be missed, but memories of you will linger and continue to delight those who loved you, or even some who just happened to meet you by chance, - each all the better for your having been among them.🌟
Always a pleasure to learn something new from someone who has practiced these techniques many times in the real world!
This was great! What a great teacher; to the point, clear and informative. Please do more videos with him.
That resonating feedback filter trick is right up there with the Pultec low end trick! Sooo coool!
This was honestly one of the most helpful and inspiring videos on EQ I've watched on UA-cam (and I've watched a lot haha). Thank you! Please give us more awesome tricks!
mark is a legend!
This man is absolutely brilliant.
Agreed 100%!
"'Rat' is guitar distortion pedal, which is great on everything... except guitar!"
what a legend :D
That had me in stitches also lol
LOVED this video. Some really excellent tips delivered engagingly and with genuine warmth and humour. Would love to see more videos from Mark... especially the crazier recording tricks he alludes to!
Yes! Mark rules!!
Some absolute pearls in this, thank you Mark!
How do you know they Pearls? They may have been Ludwigs? .......... and part Evian of course 😃
@@moyrmixhub54 Ba-dum tshh!
@@russiansteve 😂
I like his approach. How can I not appreciate having access to his experience? Great stuff.
The love of making music is a pure love...
Gotta love Mark! This was fantastic. Thank you :)
Thanks Topher!
About 7 years ago, as a recording student, I was privileged enough to see Mark at an Audio Engineer conference in St Louis. He was awesome and I very much enjoyed listening to him talk. Later, as my class was driving back to our home town, I referred to him as "The fucked guy" because that was an acceptable term used in my mind for someone who was cool, and I remember the air going silent. I still feel an embarrassing and deep regret at having referred to him with those words because that's obviously not a respectful way to refer to someone. He's an awesome, interesting, and knowledgeable dude and it's cool being able to see him talk again.
this is one of the most insightful and useful videos i have watched since subscribing here. what a great guy! who i never knew of. please have him back again in future if you have the opportunity.... would like to think of him as a 'Bob Ross'type character for music production, very thoughtful and kind
The song of a Blackbird singing in Nashville is all the sweeter with Mark Rubel singing along...
Looking forward to the book on studios.
One thing all the awesome sound engineers I've been lucky enough to work with have in common is a wicked and slightly warped sense of humour along with incredible humility.. I guess sitting in the control room in concentration for so many hours does things to a person xD... Awesome video and great tips from a great!
i feel like im back in school for recording again and i needed that, thanks mark
Yes! Mark os amazing
the comments about hearing and masking working in octaves, and there being 10 octaves from 20hz to 20khz was pretty revelatory for me. really helps me break down and understand the frequency spectrum in a more sensible way than the somewhat arbitrary frequency limits i’ve learned over the years. thank you!!!
Mark! Great to see you! Hope you are well, and thanks for the video on my favorite channel!
-Bobby (My Brother’s Keeper)
Mark is such a badass and one of the most liked people in our business! For good reason! He Rocks!
@@Producelikeapro he was amazingly patient with us, and recorded our first single that hit the airwaves (and the only song I ever wrote). He’s a really good man. Thanks for having him on, Warren!!
@@positivelybobby agreed! One of the greats! Wonderful guy!
ProTools should pay you two for this tutorial. Mark is teaching quite a few keyboard shortcuts, that I wish I knew from day one!
He’s pretty darn amazing!!
Thank you MARK, so awesome to have all this on one video, excellent job my friend. See you soon.
What a great overview and reminder of what we're trying to do and how to do it. Little variations on techniques are the most fun to learn, and this is full of little nuggets of knowledge and inspiration. Thanks!!
Hey Mark,
It's great to see you on Produce like a Pro. Roger in Champaign
Really interesting person...great video! Thanks
Thanks Steve!
Only years of experience surrounded with the best analog equipment can bring you there. And pure creativity to use an 8 $ microphone and an empty 2 $ water bottle to improve the sound. Sometimes investing 8 $ + 2 $ can be as beneficial as investing 6000 $! Let's hear more from Mark Rubel.
Great demo! Mark is knowledgeable, easy to understand, and has a great low-key, deadpan sense of humor.
This guy is a master!
Yes! He is!!
@@Producelikeapro Love the "know your stock plugins" concept (and the other ones)
What a gem, great video sir! Lol'd @ 21:50. Would love to hear that advice on multi-band compression!
Yes! Marc is amazing!
It's a guitar pedal that sounds fantastic on everything except guitar. I love this guy!
Hahah
Great stuff, thank you Mark. Wise words, genuinely helpful tips and a lovely engaging manner with a clear passion for music shining brightly in every word. Would love to hear from Mark again, particularly on synesthesia!
Wow, he is a great teacher. I'd love more videos and topics from him like he suggested
More to come!!
This is an incredible source of information, an example of real competence and humanity. Thanks.
5:56 THAT is the teenage dirty bag sound, awesome
Wow ! thanks Warren and thanks Mr. Rubel !
Got to love it !!! It's always about the messenger for me. The message can get lost or polluted in the wrong hands. Thanks Warren and of course you Mark : )
Excellent.
👍👍👍
The knowledge, the ease, and the humour - all top notch.
(If Tchad Blake, Ryan Hewitt and Marc Daniel Nelson had a common uncle, embodying some of the voice, ways and vibe of all 3 of them, it would be this gentleman 😉)
And gotta love that millisecond instantaneous jump from serious to smile and back.
And I've been doing the water bottle thing for quite a number of years, also works very well and with different resonant timbres with big glass bottles, of varying shapes.
More of Mr. Rubel, please!
This might have been the most inspirational video I've ever seen. Thx so much for doing and putting it up!
This was a fantastic video from a very charismatic individual. Please give us more from him!
knowledge
Many thanks for sharing Mark, and I'll be watching whatever else you have on UA-cam. As well as subscribing to this channel.
Thanks Sam!
His talking at times (around 9:44) reminded me of Kiefer Sutherland’s character in Dark City. Great content as always Warren!
Great video! Lot's of awesome techniques. I've worked in several of the rooms at Blackbird and everything there is top notch. The mic clost is crazy and that Neve is truly one of a king. I'm going to try the water bottle idea next time I track drums. Thanks!
a great listen, thanks
Beautiful sounding tracks. ❤️ this.
(Especially the elephant on the outro) 31:00
Thanks for an excellent video and for the deadpan ironic humour--Paul McCartney told me it's not cool to name-drop :-) Also those 'raw' tracks sounded pretty good. I was watching some old videos by people like Geoff Emerick and he (I think it was him, anyway) said that recording to 2-track was a great discipline because you had to make decisions about things like eq and effects at the recording stage. In his view there was no excuse, even with digital technology, for making a less than perfect recording on the assumption that it could be fixed at the mixing stage.
Mark is the best!
Yes! He is!!
Someone get this man a UA-cam channel.
More to come! Mark rules!!
Gems! Signor, you are completely spoiling us!!
That water bottle thing in front of drums is right up my alley!! love it! Beautiful Sub Lows! 👍💪 Poor Mans NS 1O Membran Trick
Agreed! Wonderful idea!!
@@Producelikeapro are there pictures of this?