I'm older than Rick and have been producing, writing and running a studio for over 40 years.I've built 3.5 studios and done about 500 cassette, vinyl and CD albums over the years. It took me many years to learn what Rick is sharing.I agree with all his teaching. He's fast tracking many young people with invaluable info that you won't always even get at these schools where you'll pay 40k. As an aside, I joined a band in 1976 that did Kid Charlemagne. I already had a good ear from piano. viola and choir boy experience. I had that solo nailed and love hearing Rick play it. I also learned some great Joni Mitchell tunings and Little Feat tunes. Best regards to Rick who is a true treasure. I'd love to meet for Coffee if you have time one of these days. I've been collecting vintage gear for 40 years.
Thank you Professor Beato. Many times while watching I feel like I am attending a lecture in school. Take notes to get all the good stuff. My mixes are steadily improving. So much so that I have put off my album release multiple times, because I am still discovering better methods to record and mix. It is really challenging when you are the composer, play all the instruments, producer, mixer and do the mastering. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Weak and Powerless is one of my favorite songs, and that example of how it’s a bass feature but a kick *heavy* song was a real game changer for how i think about low end. rick, your channel is literally one of the best channels of all time.
Rick is not a mastering engineer, though I'm sure he can explain it well. Bob Katz is the man, where it comes to mastering, and I strongly recommend his book, Mastering Audio, 3rd edition.
Imo, get the volume that sounds good and has a decent crest factor like albums from the 80s to 90s. I go lower than that typically because they were mastered by mastering engineers I don't pretend to do. One day, somebody will appreciate the richness of dynamics and that engineer will get so much praise and be copied over n over.
This is the first video I've ever seen on the nuts and bolts of recording, mixing and producing. It is an important video and one that should be highly appreciated by anyone trying to make it in the industry. I think it's great that you try to give people the knowledge and tools to be successful. Thank you Rick.
What is so enigmatic about the process of mixing is that it is an individual art, however, there are guidelines that are the standard to creating clarity and placement of instruments. It is so interesting and eye opening to see the thoughts of other musicians about the process. I have some of my own recordings that I have done from my home, but I will say this, "There is nothing better than an excellent original signal." If you have an ear for quality and more importantly an ear for harsh tones, I think you might be on the same page with me in realizing what you can get out of an instrument live. This live "take" might "make or break" your recording. MAN... the more I watch Rick Beato's videos the more I have confidence in what he is saying. It is time well spent.
This helped me alot to grasp what mixers do to many different genres of music . I just like how it's all about presence and clarity. Learning from Rick is Golden!
Rick, you tell it like it is. Learned more in this video than watching stuff like Mixing with the Masters. Grabbed the Beato Book last week and chewing through it. Cheers!
A lot of people think that it doesn't matter where the bass instruments are placed as I was once told by a lecturer that it is near impossible to locate where the bass is coming from, although when the class talked about this we realised he was kinda wrong as in a live setting, going with his logic, could be problematic. Great video not sure if anyone will read this as this video is 4 years old now. Just reminded me of that lecturer who was definitely the biggest know it all. Love your content Rick keep up the great work :)
Thanks Rick, I’ve learned so much from you over the last 12 months. This, like all your other videos are great! Thank you for being such a wealth of knowledge 🤟🏼🤟🏼
Thank you Rick!!! I have been prnting mixes through an L2 limiter and your comments here about riding faders is something I also heard Andy Wallace say. The advice you gave on leaving headroom for the mastering engineer and riding faders on tom fills, guitars, etc was the missing piece that took my game to the next level, GRATITUDE!!!
I love this idea drums come to centre concept and your arms waving in front.. I went to a talk where all 3 producers recommend co-axial pair overheads if you want glistening stereo for drums (at the time I was spreading them wide across my room at the time), its so much more together in the bass even if hard panned out to get a stereo treble in your headphones.
"Big Mono" - That's a really good way of putting it! I've heard beginner bedroom producers just doubling up on the same synth patch and asking why it doesn't sound big and fat like they want it. And I'm there telling them "you're just layering up the exact same thing on top of itself, all that does is make it twice as loud"! You need to vary the phase and the tone, modulate parameters, get smart with your panning and EQ, to sculpt and carve out space for each sound in the "nix" lol. Nice one Rick, thanks for all the deadly advice!
I love getting whatever tips I can get from you, you're truly a talented musician and producer. I wish you would make some videos where you deconstruct the stems from different songs to show how they have been produced, that would be extremely informative
Man don’t you just fkn love Rick? I swear to hell, I would pay for a Rick channel with helpful stuff he gives us. I would consider myself to be a fairly expert musician and Rick is always finding some new things to teach us in various ways.
Thanks for this, Rick. I bought the 1.0 and fot 2.0 upgrade of your book ;). I rememeber there's a video where you go oever the different frequencies of instruments in a mix. I'm going to look for it. But you might want to make a series where you go over the mixing basics (panning, where instruments lives, tips and tricks to have each instrument not lose its soul, thanks !)
Man, I’ve been watching loads of your videos. So interesting and inspiring. I’m exactly (almost) your age, a drummer/producer, and identify with many of your observations. Having that said, being a drummer/producer I work in a single room, no control. So I many times leave the phase checking for after the recording. Aspecialy today when you have relative phase plugins to fix phase cancelation issues I find it convenient and it helps my workflow. Would love to hear your take on this comment. Great stuff, both you’re channels. Cheers
The low end shelving is a must. So many people do not understand the concept of subtractive EQ. I was taught by a great teacher Fred Catero. He would always ask why are you boosting the EQ .
The Waves F6 Equalizer has a feature that only plays specific frequencies so you can hear if the lows are muddy or if the highs are screeching in need of DeEssering. Or if the mids are too low or to thin or vice versa. I used that because it focuses on specific notches such as very narrow cuts or wider cuts or db increased frequencies.
Currently composing/sequencing/producing a midi orchestral theme song for my friend's web series. This video's guidance is perfectly timed...even two and a half years later! Thank you so much...once again!
Old video so I dunno if Rick will respond but hrre goes anyway: what are your tips for mixing a dense but lush genre like Shoegaze? How do you pan the effects? Do you add effects via plug ins to a dry guitar? How do you layer sounds? Mic placements? Etc
you could listen to Loveless and try to re-record your own version of songs on it. If you get anywhere close, you'll have learned everything you need to know!
That’s a jam packed question, you have a lot of testing in the lab to do sound like. Read up on shoegaze engineers from your fav albums and then get down in the mixing. Lab and test out mic placement and so on
-18db is where you want your tracks at if your converters are aligned at -18dbfs. You need to know what your converters are aligned at to know what RMS level you should be shooting to record your tracks at. If your converters are aligned at -18dbfs that equals 0dbvu in analog. You do this so that if you use outboard gear it lines up good and that’s the sweetspot of your converters. Or lower!!! That way you don’t have to pull down all your tracks in the mix… Also, everything just works out if your tracks are right around where your converters are aligned at RMS.
You mentioned Led Zep, and it's interesting that Zep II was mastered by the famous Bob Ludwig at Sterling mastering labs, and they would center the bass tones on those Lp's IN THE BASS FREQUENCIES, even if the mids were panned or off center for that particular instrument... but the original master used for Zep II was not allowed to exist but for maybe a week or two before they were recalled. I was kicked off of a record selling site for telling the truth on this, as I interviewed Bob Ludwig some years back for the straight scoop. It seems that Page and Eddie Kramer both were fans of Bob's work and asked him if he could literally make those grooves smoke with signal and full bass, as they were mastering kick and bass tones down to 40hz, something that a lot of groups shied away from in 1969... Bob aimed to please... and the record was a huge hit, immediately, and people bought it in droves, one of which was Ahmet Erdegan's daughter, who was playing it in her room on literally a "mickey mouse" turntable... you know, the little plasticky kids turntables, with no tracking and a glorified NAIL for a stylus... and noticed the needle jumping off the record on parts of "whole Lotta love"! He checked for returns and found that in some markets, there were high rates of returns for skipping... this was likely due to the fact that they express mailed out the press plates to certain plants and each plate at the time, was hand made according to notes taken by the mastering engineer... so each plate made for the plants was hand made, one at a time, each progressively hotter and hotter until they ran out of space on the disc, so each master plate is slightly different, but all very nice and SUPER HOT in sound... so... in a few markets, there may have been a really HOT one, depending on which plant was closest... but Ahmet did a complete recall of all the pressings out at that time (which were arguably the best pressings ever made in Rock up to that moment) instead of asking Bob for a milder master, which would have been no problem, and they were the kings of mastering at that tome... but instead used his own in-house mastering and a copy of the cassette/8 track tape master that sterling had made them with extremely compressed dynamics and limited high end and bass!!! Bob was incensed! And so was the band, but couldn't do much about it at that time. But if you find a "real copy" you'll notice that there's literally less than a 1/4" of dead wax on either side, and some mighty deep grooves! Also you'll see R Ludwig or RL on one or more sides, and the Sterling stamp, which means they made the plates (there were a few made by his partner Lee Hulko, from his notes, and the argument I had with these 'collectors' was that those are still the hot master, which they are. They were made on the same machine to the same specs, and though RL made all of the original plates, Hulko supplied a few replacements when the pressing plants blew out one occasionally.) Now those original mastered versions fetch as much as $500... but be sure to play them before you sell. Check for groove wear and skipping, because the punchy pressing was indeed a few years ahead of its time, but only because the average youngster that bought them wasn't quite up to date or even in at the mid-fi level of playback equipment... and in many instances, were even what one could only call "mickey mouse"... lol
I knew I read about this some time ago and had a vague memory of the story, you just brought it all back to me. Crazy. Wonder if reissue can compare to some of the original copies.
@@sgtcreasegrease it's a tough question... but ideally yes! A master is not a mix. And all the mixes were more or less the same, as far as I know. In all the versions made, I'm nor aware of any alternate mixes or fundamental changes in the actual mix, but certainly a good mastering lab will reveal and preserve things you never knew existed... like looking at the back of your hand and seeing a faint drawing in relief of the Mona Lisa... lol
@@Grindstaff09 that is one that I didn't know of. Zep 1 has a version with different mixes; supremely rare, and I had a version from RECORD CLUB OF AMERICA that had an Atco label blank from the mid 60's and that was worth $300. Some say that had an alt mix or master.
I Love this song, heard it hundreds of time. I am amazed the bass is so sparse!! It's not thumping except in the Ah Mater section. The vocals are so interesting as an arrangement themselves. 💯
@@PolyQuasi In the digital world there's no real HARM in going under though is there? Just over, right? Unless you aint going to master or process afterwards That said, Ricks advice is usually spot on - this is a guy who knows his stuff AND loves his music - and it shows!
Props on the LOW frequencies in the center. Try listening to a track with low frequencies off center with headphones and you feel like one side of your head is heavy and you don't walk straight anymore :) For heavy metal I record two identical takes of the rhythm guitar and put each take 100% in opposite ears, I also double any distorted chord phrases with a bright acoustic if I need some extra fullness. The problems I have with this is sometimes I can crowd out the vocals, so its a balance. But it makes the guitars sound MASSIVE
Regarding listening in mono, I always put a multi-meter on the stereo output and check the correlation. Also, not many people listen to AM radio anymore :)
Extreme's album Waiting for the Punchline is a good example of an open mix, sounds like there is lots of room in that mix, but doesn't lose its dynamic (don't know who the producer was on that album)
Rick you're the best! I think the "hostility" comment came from your responses to seemingly basic questions about audio engineering. This type of video assumes the viewer has a root knowledge or recording and mixing. If they don't have that, these tips will likely be lost on them anyway..
Hi Mr. Beato! I am a recent listener of yours, a songwriter, a performer, a beginning engineer, and a huge beneficiary of your work . You mentioned centering the low frequency instruments like bass guitar and kick rather than panning them to either side, so that the mix sounds balanced. Now, I was just listening to Abbey Road by the Beatles, and I noticed that a few of its tracks have the bass guitar panned maybe 85% to the left, and the drums panned similarly to the right. It definitely felt different, but somehow it did not feel unbalanced. Maybe the kick and bass guitar balanced each other out? Anyways, it made me think of what you had said, and I wondered if they had some kind of Beatles-magic that allowed them do that with good results, or if it works that way normally? Thanks again for sharing your experience and knowledge so that other musicians can benefit. Much respect. --Martin
About the dynamics in the performances, AC/DC is all about that. One of my favourite examples are the Malcolm Young isolated guitar tracks, especially Let There Be Rock in the last solo. Night Prowler is my favourite whole song example.
A lot of mixes pre 1970 panned drums, including kick drum, to one side. But it's true, you rarely hear bass off-center. And bass drums used to be recorded with less bass. Now it's common for kick to sit below the bass in the mix
Excellent info Rick. I learned a bunch and you reinforced some good habits that I already have. Thank you SO MUCH for sharing your incredible knowledge. Your book and merchandise are on my short list.😀
Loved this video. I'd usually look for information with sonic examples. But this was super explanatory and I could relate what you explained to situations I've had to face lately. Thank you so much!
When music is played in a store (or any large room with a multi-speaker-in-the-ceiling system) it is summed mono. Not to nitpick, but I work in a large store and it’s sometimes very noticeable. These systems are used in places where the listener’s position cannot be controlled. Also: people use mono Bluetooth speakers.
I understand that sidechaining the bass can sound like a pumping sound but I found in a work around to that. You double the track and only use it on one of them and blend them together. It's really bailed me out on some tracks to help them play nice together. I keep hearing side-chaining is not necessary but in my experience it's really bailed me out on some mixes after trying everything else and trying to carve bass out with EQ. Carving too much means you are lowering volume of the bass throughout the entire song, which is bad because then you are losing some stuff that you can keep most of the time that only dips when the kick does a kick - and I don't even notice the dip at all. Sounds good to me. I will say that you have to properly compress the bass first, and use exactly, and I mean exactly the right compressor for each job, using multiple types, for what they are best at like opto for some of it, VCA for some of it, etc., and I put tons of work into that - I mean tons. So I'll bet without the prep work, the sidechaining might make more of a noticeable effect. I'm just saying it's worked for me really well if you do it carefully. If you raise something like 1db too high it's all off. It's one of those things you have to be very precise with.
Regarding HP filter to remove uneccessary low end - If you have a spectrum analyser built into your EQ, like the Fabfilter Pro-EQ, then it's easy to set the high pass filter. Just find the frequency of the fundamental (where the lowest frequency energy peak is), and set a 12dB/oct HP filter at one octave below that point. This will minimize the change to the sound of the instrument.
Rick can you do a video on proper mixing from the end of the mono era in rock and roll for example The Beatles or the stones, too early stereo, possibly that short. Of quadraphonic sound. Yeah my dad had one of those LOL and the progression from the 80s until the present time. No I'm not a musician but I have a pretty good he ran a decent voice where I've sung publicly before whether it's in a bar or Christmas time:-) thank you for everything you do I've learned so much about the music I love and grew up with listening to this channel:-)
Awesome video again RB. Do you have a song or songs you can recommend as a fantastic Rock - Pop/Rock mix reference track? Something new or old that holds up no matter what speakers you listen to it on? With real drums would be great!
If you’ve had experience in tracking and mixing screaming, can you either make a video or give me advice on how to mix screamed/growled metal vocals? Thank you.
Hey respect for the tremendous content.., i'm kind of a rhythm nut and see it as being the key that unlocks a song. In Don't Dream It's Over i was surprised to hear a flam throughout. Perhaps an exception to the rule.
On flams... a flam is a combination of a tap and stroke... Terry bozzio is a ,master of the flam and is great at using flams to create fantastic syncopated riffs
The panning on Zeppelin I was almost certainly intentional. That was still during the period when bands and recording engineers were going crazy experimenting with the possibilities of stereo. There are many records, including by The Beatles, where the drums and/or bass are panned 100% to one side or the other.
thank you, kind sir, for that education. I've been to Bach's church in Leipzig. As you know by now, Felix Mendelsson was there before him and left quite a musical legacy also, but his statues and memorials were destroyed by the Nazis during WWII. Random thoughts from jack handey....
Oh and another classic LP that had off center bass on first pressings was TIME OUT by Brubeck... but only the early 6 eye pressings. They skipped like crazy, since they were full frequency and very hi-fi... on Take Five, the little drum solo in the middle, all in the right channel... with the fill punctuated with a ff kick drum, sent even the best turntables a couple grooves back in time... so it truly was "time out"! Lol
Hi, Rick, I hear in mono; I was born completely deaf from one ear, but that didn't stop me from trying to write down some music for myself. The thing is that I've never experimented stereo effects nor I understand how to play and mix with it. Is there any visualisation solution for me to compare some tracks with my own mixes, so other people can enjoy them? Also, is mono audio a possible aesthetic option, or that's too crazy? Thank you for your videos and live lectures, you rock!
The Beatles could not understand why anyone would ever want to listen to music in stereo. Abbey Road engineers would spend days mixing in mono and hours in stereo. I think the answer is that most people are not musicians let alone musicologists and find it difficult to separate or zoom in to different parts of a song, especially if the arrangement is complex. Stereo can give a bit more space and separation to the various parts of the music. The most important thing is that a song sounds good in mono.
I am no expert, just a hobbyist, so you should take my thoughts with a tablespoon or two of salt :) Most DAW's and audio editing progs will give you spectrum visualization. Most of them either do, or can, show you what the left and right (and other) channels "look" like. Do you use any particular software? As to your question on writing songs in mono, please remember that stereo audio didn't become broadly available until FM radio caught steam in the 70's. As the previous commenter noted, many musicians didn't care about stereo,
other than its use as a novelty for many years. Personally, i would encourage you to make music that YOU like to listen to and just pan your channels as neutral as possible. That is, keep the L and R as identical as you can. As you go on, start looking at spectrum visualizations to give you an idea of the differences between your L and R channels. Play around with it, let your friends listen to it, and use that input to tweak your process. I hope that helps you some :) I wish you luck and safe travels!
I've been mixing for years. I went to uni with a guy who was also born completely deaf in one ear and he has gone further than anyone else in my class. He used the metering visuals as others have already mentioned, however since I had 12+ years experience as an amateur, he kept coming to me for advice due to my wide/thick masters. The most practical advice I can think to give you are the following two: 1) "Listen" with the working ear. If you apply stereo effects such as a chorus, you should hear the effect fade out from that speaker. The more it's fading, the more it's spreading/panning. Depending on your experience, this may take a while to master. (No pun intended) 2) People (such as myself) go a little too crazy with stereo effects/panning/mixing. I've personally seen people who are not only impaired in one ear, but are severely damaged in both, who than start to learn studio mixing and live engineering, another guy who is damaged in both ears is one of the best live engineers I've ever heard first hand. The reason, I believe, is the simple fact that they know their own ears. By default, their final sound (if they keep their eyes on the meters) will offer something different, something that will stand out in comparison to more "common" mixes. So in short, people who have unaffected hearing seem to forget that mono is actually good and has its place outside of Bass, Kick (as Rick mentioned at the beginning). Stereo is just like anything else when it comes to mixing; only use it if it has a practical purpose. A small side advice is to use monitors over headphones. Your brain should eventually pick up on what signals are bouncing around the room from the side of your impaired ear. Obviously since I'm unaware of the specifics of your impairment, I don't know if any of this was useful. Hope you gained something from my rambles. Good luck with your future mixes. Also; if you are able to make a stereo track mono in your DAW, do it with a song you like, the change in tones and frequencies may be able to shed light on how stereo mixing affects the frequencies in general. If it sounds identical to you, the "better" the stereo mixing was in that song. I use logic which has a default plugin called "Gain" which allows you to phase invert, convert to mono (if the track is in stereo) and swap left and right signals. This may be very useful to you.
Someone below probably already wrote it below, but as an orchestral bassist, the celli and basses are usually stage left. (One conductor in Brazil put us stage right, and I've been lined center behind everyone while under another conductor.) If stage left, the mix would put us a bit right as if watching from the audience.
I'm older than Rick and have been producing, writing and running a studio for over 40 years.I've built 3.5 studios and done about 500 cassette, vinyl and CD albums over the years. It took me many years to learn what Rick is sharing.I agree with all his teaching. He's fast tracking many young people with invaluable info that you won't always even get at these schools where you'll pay 40k. As an aside, I joined a band in 1976 that did Kid Charlemagne. I already had a good ear from piano. viola and choir boy experience. I had that solo nailed and love hearing Rick play it. I also learned some great Joni Mitchell tunings and Little Feat tunes. Best regards to Rick who is a true treasure. I'd love to meet for Coffee if you have time one of these days. I've been collecting vintage gear for 40 years.
@@martinvaillancourt4140 I interpreted his comment as meaning he was in a band that covered Kid Charlemagne
Thank you Professor Beato. Many times while watching I feel like I am attending a lecture in school. Take notes to get all the good stuff. My mixes are steadily improving. So much so that I have put off my album release multiple times, because I am still discovering better methods to record and mix. It is really challenging when you are the composer, play all the instruments, producer, mixer and do the mastering. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Weak and Powerless is one of my favorite songs, and that example of how it’s a bass feature but a kick *heavy* song was a real game changer for how i think about low end. rick, your channel is literally one of the best channels of all time.
Rick please do How to get KILLER mastering episode, talking about the loudness wars,PEAK, RMS and LUFS !! I extremely appreciate this mixing episode.
Just stay away from PMS
@@evenseb7574 yep. Always
Rick is not a mastering engineer, though I'm sure he can explain it well. Bob Katz is the man, where it comes to mastering, and I strongly recommend his book, Mastering Audio, 3rd edition.
@@m0j0b0ne I'll second that book. Helpful for any engineering tasks as well.
Imo, get the volume that sounds good and has a decent crest factor like albums from the 80s to 90s. I go lower than that typically because they were mastered by mastering engineers I don't pretend to do. One day, somebody will appreciate the richness of dynamics and that engineer will get so much praise and be copied over n over.
This is the first video I've ever seen on the nuts and bolts of recording, mixing and producing. It is an important video and one that should be highly appreciated by anyone trying to make it in the industry. I think it's great that you try to give people the knowledge and tools to be successful. Thank you Rick.
Loved this one! As a session player of 40 years this has tons of "secret" information everyone can benefit from.
Rick, you are awesome dude. If the music industry were ran by guys like you, the standard of music would be held in such a high regard.
sorry, but that one mis-use of grammar really bugs me.. ie 'ran'.. it's run in that case. Spot on re Rick
@@18_rabbit 🤦♂️
@@18_rabbit Found the Karen....
@@ryancarlisle2931 It's not hard to grammar properly, especially when it just takes punching the 'u' instead of 'a.' 🤦♀
Well said!
Wow Rick, mixing my first rock album and your eq, compression, and mixing videos are helping me immensely.
What is so enigmatic about the process of mixing is that it is an individual art, however, there are guidelines that are the standard to creating clarity and placement of instruments.
It is so interesting and eye opening to see the thoughts of other musicians about the process.
I have some of my own recordings that I have done from my home, but I will say this, "There is nothing better than an excellent original signal."
If you have an ear for quality and more importantly an ear for harsh tones, I think you might be on the same page with me in realizing what you can get out of an instrument live.
This live "take" might "make or break" your recording.
MAN... the more I watch Rick Beato's videos the more I have confidence in what he is saying.
It is time well spent.
This helped me alot to grasp what mixers do to many different genres of music . I just like how it's all about presence and clarity. Learning from Rick is Golden!
Rick, you tell it like it is. Learned more in this video than watching stuff like Mixing with the Masters. Grabbed the Beato Book last week and chewing through it. Cheers!
A lot of people think that it doesn't matter where the bass instruments are placed as I was once told by a lecturer that it is near impossible to locate where the bass is coming from, although when the class talked about this we realised he was kinda wrong as in a live setting, going with his logic, could be problematic. Great video not sure if anyone will read this as this video is 4 years old now. Just reminded me of that lecturer who was definitely the biggest know it all. Love your content Rick keep up the great work :)
Thanks Rick, I’ve learned so much from you over the last 12 months. This, like all your other videos are great! Thank you for being such a wealth of knowledge 🤟🏼🤟🏼
Thank you Rick!!! I have been prnting mixes through an L2 limiter and your comments here about riding faders is something I also heard Andy Wallace say. The advice you gave on leaving headroom for the mastering engineer and riding faders
on tom fills, guitars, etc was the missing piece that took my game to the next level, GRATITUDE!!!
Always amazes me how you read the comments while providing in depth technical information.
I love this idea drums come to centre concept and your arms waving in front.. I went to a talk where all 3 producers recommend co-axial pair overheads if you want glistening stereo for drums (at the time I was spreading them wide across my room at the time), its so much more together in the bass even if hard panned out to get a stereo treble in your headphones.
"Big Mono" - That's a really good way of putting it! I've heard beginner bedroom producers just doubling up on the same synth patch and asking why it doesn't sound big and fat like they want it. And I'm there telling them "you're just layering up the exact same thing on top of itself, all that does is make it twice as loud"! You need to vary the phase and the tone, modulate parameters, get smart with your panning and EQ, to sculpt and carve out space for each sound in the "nix" lol. Nice one Rick, thanks for all the deadly advice!
I love getting whatever tips I can get from you, you're truly a talented musician and producer. I wish you would make some videos where you deconstruct the stems from different songs to show how they have been produced, that would be extremely informative
Excellent idea.
Man don’t you just fkn love Rick? I swear to hell, I would pay for a Rick channel with helpful stuff he gives us. I would consider myself to be a fairly expert musician and Rick is always finding some new things to teach us in various ways.
Thanks for this, Rick. I bought the 1.0 and fot 2.0 upgrade of your book ;). I rememeber there's a video where you go oever the different frequencies of instruments in a mix. I'm going to look for it. But you might want to make a series where you go over the mixing basics (panning, where instruments lives, tips and tricks to have each instrument not lose its soul, thanks !)
Man, I’ve been watching loads of your videos. So interesting and inspiring. I’m exactly (almost) your age, a drummer/producer, and identify with many of your observations. Having that said, being a drummer/producer I work in a single room, no control. So I many times leave the phase checking for after the recording. Aspecialy today when you have relative phase plugins to fix phase cancelation issues I find it convenient and it helps my workflow. Would love to hear your take on this comment. Great stuff, both you’re channels. Cheers
The low end shelving is a must. So many people do not understand the concept of subtractive EQ. I was taught by a great teacher Fred Catero. He would always ask why are you boosting the EQ .
The Waves F6 Equalizer has a feature that only plays specific frequencies so you can hear if the lows are muddy or if the highs are screeching in need of DeEssering. Or if the mids are too low or to thin or vice versa. I used that because it focuses on specific notches such as very narrow cuts or wider cuts or db increased frequencies.
Currently composing/sequencing/producing a midi orchestral theme song for my friend's web series. This video's guidance is perfectly timed...even two and a half years later!
Thank you so much...once again!
Old video so I dunno if Rick will respond but hrre goes anyway: what are your tips for mixing a dense but lush genre like Shoegaze? How do you pan the effects? Do you add effects via plug ins to a dry guitar? How do you layer sounds? Mic placements? Etc
you could listen to Loveless and try to re-record your own version of songs on it. If you get anywhere close, you'll have learned everything you need to know!
That’s a jam packed question, you have a lot of testing in the lab to do sound like. Read up on shoegaze engineers from your fav albums and then get down in the mixing. Lab and test out mic placement and so on
I've been mixing for a while now and Ricky is the man , learn from the great man.
love from hamburg. watching one of your videos before almost every studio session
Always a great experience and source of knowledge on how all this sound stuff works.
-18db is where you want your tracks at if your converters are aligned at -18dbfs. You need to know what your converters are aligned at to know what RMS level you should be shooting to record your tracks at. If your converters are aligned at -18dbfs that equals 0dbvu in analog. You do this so that if you use outboard gear it lines up good and that’s the sweetspot of your converters. Or lower!!! That way you don’t have to pull down all your tracks in the mix… Also, everything just works out if your tracks are right around where your converters are aligned at RMS.
Between -12 and -9dBfs i think is a good peak level for mixdowns to aim for, providing enough headroom for mastering without being too quiet.
You mentioned Led Zep, and it's interesting that Zep II was mastered by the famous Bob Ludwig at Sterling mastering labs, and they would center the bass tones on those Lp's IN THE BASS FREQUENCIES, even if the mids were panned or off center for that particular instrument... but the original master used for Zep II was not allowed to exist but for maybe a week or two before they were recalled. I was kicked off of a record selling site for telling the truth on this, as I interviewed Bob Ludwig some years back for the straight scoop. It seems that Page and Eddie Kramer both were fans of Bob's work and asked him if he could literally make those grooves smoke with signal and full bass, as they were mastering kick and bass tones down to 40hz, something that a lot of groups shied away from in 1969... Bob aimed to please... and the record was a huge hit, immediately, and people bought it in droves, one of which was Ahmet Erdegan's daughter, who was playing it in her room on literally a "mickey mouse" turntable... you know, the little plasticky kids turntables, with no tracking and a glorified NAIL for a stylus... and noticed the needle jumping off the record on parts of "whole Lotta love"! He checked for returns and found that in some markets, there were high rates of returns for skipping... this was likely due to the fact that they express mailed out the press plates to certain plants and each plate at the time, was hand made according to notes taken by the mastering engineer... so each plate made for the plants was hand made, one at a time, each progressively hotter and hotter until they ran out of space on the disc, so each master plate is slightly different, but all very nice and SUPER HOT in sound... so... in a few markets, there may have been a really HOT one, depending on which plant was closest... but Ahmet did a complete recall of all the pressings out at that time (which were arguably the best pressings ever made in Rock up to that moment) instead of asking Bob for a milder master, which would have been no problem, and they were the kings of mastering at that tome... but instead used his own in-house mastering and a copy of the cassette/8 track tape master that sterling had made them with extremely compressed dynamics and limited high end and bass!!! Bob was incensed! And so was the band, but couldn't do much about it at that time. But if you find a "real copy" you'll notice that there's literally less than a 1/4" of dead wax on either side, and some mighty deep grooves! Also you'll see R Ludwig or RL on one or more sides, and the Sterling stamp, which means they made the plates (there were a few made by his partner Lee Hulko, from his notes, and the argument I had with these 'collectors' was that those are still the hot master, which they are. They were made on the same machine to the same specs, and though RL made all of the original plates, Hulko supplied a few replacements when the pressing plants blew out one occasionally.) Now those original mastered versions fetch as much as $500... but be sure to play them before you sell. Check for groove wear and skipping, because the punchy pressing was indeed a few years ahead of its time, but only because the average youngster that bought them wasn't quite up to date or even in at the mid-fi level of playback equipment... and in many instances, were even what one could only call "mickey mouse"... lol
I knew I read about this some time ago and had a vague memory of the story, you just brought it all back to me. Crazy. Wonder if reissue can compare to some of the original copies.
@@sgtcreasegrease it's a tough question... but ideally yes! A master is not a mix. And all the mixes were more or less the same, as far as I know. In all the versions made, I'm nor aware of any alternate mixes or fundamental changes in the actual mix, but certainly a good mastering lab will reveal and preserve things you never knew existed... like looking at the back of your hand and seeing a faint drawing in relief of the Mona Lisa... lol
Now that really IS interesting --- new one to me
Wowsers...
There was was one release that didn't include the laugh at beginning of WLL
@@Grindstaff09 that is one that I didn't know of. Zep 1 has a version with different mixes; supremely rare, and I had a version from RECORD CLUB OF AMERICA that had an Atco label blank from the mid 60's and that was worth $300. Some say that had an alt mix or master.
I Love this song, heard it hundreds of time. I am amazed the bass is so sparse!! It's not thumping except in the Ah Mater section. The vocals are so interesting as an arrangement themselves. 💯
You’re a very good and concern teacher, love your lectures
Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge and experience.
Wow! Thanks for filling in so many blanks for me. So dead-on ...answering the important mix questions here. Hats off!
As always another great video Rick!
I love hearing Rick’s disappointment in some of the questions he gets 😂”No, -18db is ridiculous”
Then they cried about him being "hostile". Geez louise
@@PolyQuasi In the digital world there's no real HARM in going under though is there? Just over, right? Unless you aint going to master or process afterwards
That said, Ricks advice is usually spot on - this is a guy who knows his stuff AND loves his music - and it shows!
Awesome stream Rick! Thanks for sharing all this valuable information with us. Hope you have a great time in Germany.
Such a boss man! Thank you for your brilliant insights to mixing!
Props on the LOW frequencies in the center. Try listening to a track with low frequencies off center with headphones and you feel like one side of your head is heavy and you don't walk straight anymore :)
For heavy metal I record two identical takes of the rhythm guitar and put each take 100% in opposite ears, I also double any distorted chord phrases with a bright acoustic if I need some extra fullness. The problems I have with this is sometimes I can crowd out the vocals, so its a balance. But it makes the guitars sound MASSIVE
I watched this a few years ago. It still holds up today, Rick (07/07/24). The only thing some might still disagree on is sample rate/bit rate.
Regarding listening in mono, I always put a multi-meter on the stereo output and check the correlation. Also, not many people listen to AM radio anymore :)
would have liked to hear about bus compression settings!
Extreme's album Waiting for the Punchline is a good example of an open mix, sounds like there is lots of room in that mix, but doesn't lose its dynamic (don't know who the producer was on that album)
Produced by Nuno Bettencourt and Bob St John
Dude your videos are in alignment with my life. I am trying to master the tracks im recording.
Just commenting to push this video forward. Love this Rick thank you.
Great video as usual, thanks for the mixing tips Rick.
I learned so much here, thank you Rick.
Great vid Rick. I’m following most of what you talked about. Thanks for bringing these videos.
Rick you're the best! I think the "hostility" comment came from your responses to seemingly basic questions about audio engineering. This type of video assumes the viewer has a root knowledge or recording and mixing. If they don't have that, these tips will likely be lost on them anyway..
Hi Mr. Beato! I am a recent listener of yours, a songwriter, a performer, a beginning engineer, and a huge beneficiary of your work .
You mentioned centering the low frequency instruments like bass guitar and kick rather than panning them to either side, so that the mix sounds balanced. Now, I was just listening to Abbey Road by the Beatles, and I noticed that a few of its tracks have the bass guitar panned maybe 85% to the left, and the drums panned similarly to the right. It definitely felt different, but somehow it did not feel unbalanced. Maybe the kick and bass guitar balanced each other out? Anyways, it made me think of what you had said, and I wondered if they had some kind of Beatles-magic that allowed them do that with good results, or if it works that way normally? Thanks again for sharing your experience and knowledge so that other musicians can benefit. Much respect. --Martin
My thought exactly
Any plans on writing a book on basic mixing? PLEASE
Thank you for sharing all of this information. It's immensely helpful. Cheers.
Great show... bought the Beato Book too and love it. Thanks for what you do!
Thanks... i'll be soon in the mixing process of the first album of my band, so this is very helpful to know what to ask for how to make me understand.
About the dynamics in the performances, AC/DC is all about that. One of my favourite examples are the Malcolm Young isolated guitar tracks, especially Let There Be Rock in the last solo. Night Prowler is my favourite whole song example.
A lot of mixes pre 1970 panned drums, including kick drum, to one side. But it's true, you rarely hear bass off-center. And bass drums used to be recorded with less bass. Now it's common for kick to sit below the bass in the mix
Great video Rick!
im joining the beato club now
7:38 - Oh. I get it! Sort of like the shots that rang out in Dealy Plaza! LoL
Excellent info Rick. I learned a bunch and you reinforced some good habits that I already have. Thank you SO MUCH for sharing your incredible knowledge. Your book and merchandise are on my short list.😀
Thanks Rick appreciate your help and your shared experience!
Loved this video. I'd usually look for information with sonic examples. But this was super explanatory and I could relate what you explained to situations I've had to face lately. Thank you so much!
I spend way too much time watching your videos... haha! Good stuff!
Very helpful tips.
"Magic AB" really is a game changer ...also "Auto Align" for getting perfect phase alignment when multi-mic-ing instruments
Great Album Mer de Noms as well. Lots of love. three Libras wow! Paslin Lenchantin fantastic.
Thank you Ricky, we definitely find some pearls here to implement in our work.
Regards from Cornwall
Loved this one!!!
I'm learning metal guitar playing and recording and this video was helpful! I'll add a sub to my studio asap!
Your videos are Gold 🥇
When music is played in a store (or any large room with a multi-speaker-in-the-ceiling system) it is summed mono. Not to nitpick, but I work in a large store and it’s sometimes very noticeable.
These systems are used in places where the listener’s position cannot be controlled. Also: people use mono Bluetooth speakers.
YOU MAKE GREAT WORK FOR PEOPLE WHO WANT TO KNOWS HOW THEY FIND BAND'S WHAT LISTEN TO YOUNG PEOPLE
I understand that sidechaining the bass can sound like a pumping sound but I found in a work around to that. You double the track and only use it on one of them and blend them together. It's really bailed me out on some tracks to help them play nice together. I keep hearing side-chaining is not necessary but in my experience it's really bailed me out on some mixes after trying everything else and trying to carve bass out with EQ. Carving too much means you are lowering volume of the bass throughout the entire song, which is bad because then you are losing some stuff that you can keep most of the time that only dips when the kick does a kick - and I don't even notice the dip at all. Sounds good to me. I will say that you have to properly compress the bass first, and use exactly, and I mean exactly the right compressor for each job, using multiple types, for what they are best at like opto for some of it, VCA for some of it, etc., and I put tons of work into that - I mean tons. So I'll bet without the prep work, the sidechaining might make more of a noticeable effect. I'm just saying it's worked for me really well if you do it carefully. If you raise something like 1db too high it's all off. It's one of those things you have to be very precise with.
Rick , you’re great. Thank you!
You sound fine Rick mate.
Love your teaching .
Regarding HP filter to remove uneccessary low end - If you have a spectrum analyser built into your EQ, like the Fabfilter Pro-EQ, then it's easy to set the high pass filter. Just find the frequency of the fundamental (where the lowest frequency energy peak is), and set a 12dB/oct HP filter at one octave below that point. This will minimize the change to the sound of the instrument.
Rick can you do a video on proper mixing from the end of the mono era in rock and roll for example The Beatles or the stones, too early stereo, possibly that short. Of quadraphonic sound. Yeah my dad had one of those LOL and the progression from the 80s until the present time. No I'm not a musician but I have a pretty good he ran a decent voice where I've sung publicly before whether it's in a bar or Christmas time:-) thank you for everything you do I've learned so much about the music I love and grew up with listening to this channel:-)
LCR Panning
Thank you Rick for your very informative content!!!!
You are not hostile. You are making a point with emphasis!!!!
I make orchestral metal a lot, and I typically keep the double bass, contrabassoon, tuba, and timpani near the center. 20% or less
Awesome video again RB. Do you have a song or songs you can recommend as a fantastic Rock - Pop/Rock mix reference track? Something new or old that holds up no matter what speakers you listen to it on? With real drums would be great!
And this is a super helpful episode, as always. Thank you!
Great info. Thank you!
A tonne of information here, so valuable. Thanks Rick!
If you’ve had experience in tracking and mixing screaming, can you either make a video or give me advice on how to mix screamed/growled metal vocals? Thank you.
Hey respect for the tremendous content.., i'm kind of a rhythm nut and see it as being the key that unlocks a song. In Don't Dream It's Over i was surprised to hear a flam throughout. Perhaps an exception to the rule.
On flams... a flam is a combination of a tap and stroke... Terry bozzio is a ,master of the flam and is great at using flams to create fantastic syncopated riffs
The panning on Zeppelin I was almost certainly intentional. That was still during the period when bands and recording engineers were going crazy experimenting with the possibilities of stereo. There are many records, including by The Beatles, where the drums and/or bass are panned 100% to one side or the other.
Jeff Beck Group
Would you recommend using some of these techniques in a live mix as well? Most of the time in local clubs, a stereo mix is not practical.
Very helpful video. Appreciate your insights.
thank you, kind sir, for that education. I've been to Bach's church in Leipzig. As you know by now, Felix Mendelsson was there before him and left quite a musical legacy also, but his statues and memorials were destroyed by the Nazis during WWII. Random thoughts from jack handey....
You are a legend, I need to rewatch this with a pencil and paper
A lot of great advice, Rick! Thank you!
What is ricks other channel? Any link to the bass mixing video mentioned at the beginning?
Its his live channel. Search for Rick Beato 10-2-18
Thanks man!
Oh and another classic LP that had off center bass on first pressings was TIME OUT by Brubeck... but only the early 6 eye pressings. They skipped like crazy, since they were full frequency and very hi-fi... on Take Five, the little drum solo in the middle, all in the right channel... with the fill punctuated with a ff kick drum, sent even the best turntables a couple grooves back in time... so it truly was "time out"! Lol
Hi, Rick, I hear in mono;
I was born completely deaf from one ear, but that didn't stop me from trying to write down some music for myself.
The thing is that I've never experimented stereo effects nor I understand how to play and mix with it.
Is there any visualisation solution for me to compare some tracks with my own mixes, so other people can enjoy them?
Also, is mono audio a possible aesthetic option, or that's too crazy?
Thank you for your videos and live lectures, you rock!
The Beatles could not understand why anyone would ever want to listen to music in stereo. Abbey Road engineers would spend days mixing in mono and hours in stereo. I think the answer is that most people are not musicians let alone musicologists and find it difficult to separate or zoom in to different parts of a song, especially if the arrangement is complex. Stereo can give a bit more space and separation to the various parts of the music. The most important thing is that a song sounds good in mono.
I am no expert, just a hobbyist, so you should take my thoughts with a tablespoon or two of salt :)
Most DAW's and audio editing progs will give you spectrum visualization. Most of them either do, or can, show you what the left and right (and other) channels "look" like. Do you use any particular software?
As to your question on writing songs in mono, please remember that stereo audio didn't become broadly available until FM radio caught steam in the 70's. As the previous commenter noted, many musicians didn't care about stereo,
other than its use as a novelty for many years.
Personally, i would encourage you to make music that YOU like to listen to and just pan your channels as neutral as possible. That is, keep the L and R as identical as you can.
As you go on, start looking at spectrum visualizations to give you an idea of the differences between your L and R channels. Play around with it, let your friends listen to it, and use that input to tweak your process.
I hope that helps you some :)
I wish you luck and safe travels!
Brian Wilson hears in mono too, works for him!
I've been mixing for years. I went to uni with a guy who was also born completely deaf in one ear and he has gone further than anyone else in my class. He used the metering visuals as others have already mentioned, however since I had 12+ years experience as an amateur, he kept coming to me for advice due to my wide/thick masters. The most practical advice I can think to give you are the following two:
1) "Listen" with the working ear. If you apply stereo effects such as a chorus, you should hear the effect fade out from that speaker. The more it's fading, the more it's spreading/panning. Depending on your experience, this may take a while to master. (No pun intended)
2) People (such as myself) go a little too crazy with stereo effects/panning/mixing. I've personally seen people who are not only impaired in one ear, but are severely damaged in both, who than start to learn studio mixing and live engineering, another guy who is damaged in both ears is one of the best live engineers I've ever heard first hand. The reason, I believe, is the simple fact that they know their own ears. By default, their final sound (if they keep their eyes on the meters) will offer something different, something that will stand out in comparison to more "common" mixes. So in short, people who have unaffected hearing seem to forget that mono is actually good and has its place outside of Bass, Kick (as Rick mentioned at the beginning). Stereo is just like anything else when it comes to mixing; only use it if it has a practical purpose.
A small side advice is to use monitors over headphones. Your brain should eventually pick up on what signals are bouncing around the room from the side of your impaired ear. Obviously since I'm unaware of the specifics of your impairment, I don't know if any of this was useful. Hope you gained something from my rambles. Good luck with your future mixes.
Also; if you are able to make a stereo track mono in your DAW, do it with a song you like, the change in tones and frequencies may be able to shed light on how stereo mixing affects the frequencies in general. If it sounds identical to you, the "better" the stereo mixing was in that song. I use logic which has a default plugin called "Gain" which allows you to phase invert, convert to mono (if the track is in stereo) and swap left and right signals. This may be very useful to you.
Cellos and Basses are mostly stage left though... but venue right. ;)
Great video, great info! Loved it!
Someone below probably already wrote it below, but as an orchestral bassist, the celli and basses are usually stage left. (One conductor in Brazil put us stage right, and I've been lined center behind everyone while under another conductor.) If stage left, the mix would put us a bit right as if watching from the audience.