@@Varonno This was done as part of Mark's doctorate into perception of heaviness in music. They have paid all the producers and the project has taken 4 years in total.
All great mixes but Jens I think nails it here. I think what I would loved to hear is what the band thought. This has to be one of the best videos I have watched.
Totally agree, it's quite clean but still really natural compared to the rest. It's my fave along with Nordstrom's and Middleton's. I though Scheps' and Exeter's mixes to be the less appealing, but you never know what the artist wanted in the first place :)
@@Charlyfromthenuclearcity It shows you that maybe, its not as important as you think, as long as you can do something decent andwork towards a vision. I Love Scheps but he's not my favourite mixer - not saying he isn't great but I have a certain taste.
This is so great to watch. You can get so hung up on the "perfect" mix and yet it always come down to what sounds best to YOU! All of these amazing pros delivering such different sounds is reassuring!
This actually gives me a great deal of confidence. I think we all tend to doubt our decisions. This shows to stick to the way you hear, and, presumably, the client agrees, which is why they chose you in the first place. Thanks!
this is actually so awesome, and just goes to show there are defintly alot of creativ freedom in mixing. no rights and no wrongs, its all about capturing a vibe.
Brilliant video! I've never seen/heard someone do this, give the same song to several top engineers to mix. And it being metal, which is what I mostly do, is just an icing on the cake. The differences are wild, and just goes to show that a mix can sound great but in many different ways and flavours. Sometimes we may think our mix sounds bad compared to something else out there, but really it can just be different.
Thank you to all the legendary mix engineers who contributed! What an amazing learning experience. If possible, I would love to see more of these in different genres! Thank you to the host as well!
Gosh they are all so different and have their own strengths! I'm partial to the sizzle of the Andrew Scheps and Nolly mixes, but can also see where the Mike Exeter mix would make sense for darker production treatments. Kudos to the SOS team, more videos like this please!
Its funny, this shows me how quickly my ear will adjust to a mix and enjoy it. Buster and Otero were my favorites, their high end just sounds so good. Frederick had an incredible lead guitar tone though. Instantly recognizable
I would have loved it if it was instrumental, the way it's mixed now, its crazy massive, it sounds like I'm at a concert. Very impressive! But the vocals are way too processed, sounds a bit like when you put too many Soothe2 plugins on the same vocal channel and the vocals starts to lisp.
Its amazing to hear the difference between different mixers. For me the favourites were Jens, Otero and Buster. Buster's mix was the most effective and Jens'es and Otero's were more on the natural side and handled clarity very well.
I think a popular initial reaction is to be attracted to the more hyperreal bright loud "modern" mixes, but personally that would impress me for about 20 seconds, then I'd want it to stop.
Incredible video! Every mix has something that I really dig for this material. I'm familiar with work from all of these engineers and I love hearing their sonic signature popping out in their version of a single track!
Great video. Thanks to all who took part and 'laying your mixes on the line'. Love Scheps, but for me, the mix that is MOST in keeping with this genre is Jens Bogren. He has a well controlled low end and just the right amount of sparkle without it sounding fatiguing.
Every single one of these goes for a different vibe and works. That being said, my favorites for this were Jens Bogren, Adam 'Nolly' Getgood, and Dave Otero. Fredrik Nordstrom's didn't fit the genre imo. still a fantastic mix though. The rest felt too dark for what it was. Like it worked, but meh. I am curious about the details of how these engineers crafted the mix: how much reamping and sample replacement was done? How much was analog processing vs digital? how long did they each spend on the mix? What monitors did/do they all use? etc. Great video and I think we need more of this stuff!
Interesting concept! I think people will, in general, prefer brighter and louder when making comparisons. But you'd really need to live with each mix, crank it up on the car stereo, see what becomes grating over time at volume.
Very interesting. It is a treat to hear the direct comparisons. If there were mixes included with no vocals it would be easier to hone in on the differences of most of the topics discussed. Nonetheless - excellent video. Thx
for the genre and the composition, jens bogren's is the best, to my ears. scheps' makes the vocal very prominent, and all the rest almost grouped together as "background". it's amazing what a spatial difference he gets between the two.
My favourites were Fredrik Nordstrom or Jens Bogren. Fredrik's in particular is so well balanced, SOS thought the same I reckon ;) Jen's too with a bit more of a hyped mix that (personal preference) I seem to like less and less these days. In fact, the more hyped or hyper-realistic they get, the less I liked their mix. Scheps has a unique tone that really suits the music he does. Ditto with exeter, very dark sounding but I loved those vocals and reminded me of old school metal. Middleton had the best guitar tone (shock) but took over from the rest of the mix a little.
Is the course with full breakdowns of each mix still in the works, and any ideas on when that will be released? The page is missing for me at the moment
Sheps is the only one who gave a pop vibe to the song, that was interesting to watch, me personally im a fan of Jens, i like how dynamic and natural his mixes sound, buster josh and nolly have a very modern approach, and the other mixes are what you would call a solid metal mix
Thank you! Sound on Sound... WOW, quite a range of tonal/balance concepts 😱 Some mixes sound like an actual live band in a room, while others sound so hollowed out and manipulated as to make them seem artificial and cartoonish.
So fascinating to hear those different approaches to the mix. It really boils down to taste. My „winners“ are Nolly and Josh… their midrange is just so defined and forward.
This video would be better if the engineers pool were diverse. Maybe a list like: scheps, bogren, serban, jaycen, cla, luca pretolesci, michael brauer, josh gudwin. This would make an amazing learning experience of a video. Insane.
@@josuastangl7140 I think if it were diverse it would give a good learning experience and understanding whether the genre thing matters or not etc. etc.
All mixes were great! My fave was buster odeholme, it was super exiting, sonically probably not the most perfect but it felt great. Second place for me was Fredrik Nordstrom, probably sonically most appealing for me. And third Mike Exeter felt like a more old-school classic mix, guitars had a slayer vibe. Andrew Scheps felt like a classic metallica ish mix. Edit, after listening more the Dave Otero mix was super sick too, maybe my fav also. And Josh had a super good guitar sound 13:56
Fascinating to see this! And it’s really amazing how different producers approach the same sound differently and all ended up with great but different results 💪💪💪
Jens, Buster and Nolly are all pretty much tied for first. Josh, Fredrik and Dave close second. Andy Scheps and Mike Exeter were drier, almost pop rock, my least favorite for this genre. It just goes to show how much a creative part of the song a mixer can be. This was a great video, and I'd love to see more. It makes us feel much better when we see pros have such a different take, because you know that some of this is just their "taste," and not that they are figuring out the perfect formula that the rest of us can't...🤘
For this track I really like the hyperreality feel that Buster Odeholme went with, I think its suits the track best. I also love how you can hear the strings/orchestra melodies much better in Mike Exters, Andrew Scheps & Nolly's version
Thanks for the video, really helpful. Am not going to point out the best because this is not the objective of the video, but on the contrary of what people say, mix is not subjective, there's really a quality difference between ones and others. Hope we can get some more similar videos, Thanks very much sir!!
Yeah, I found it quiet confusing as well. Please loop a whole Section. E.g. a chorus. Thank you. Also a bit annoying that we have to pay for the opportunity to hear the whole songs.
Schep’s reminds me of something like Metallica’s Black album. It’s all relative to what you grew up listening to and enjoying. They are all good and relative to your taste and probably generation.
Kind of shows the engineering side of it is as important as the song itself. If the key elements arent properly balanced or the mix is too dark or too harsh its just not pleasurable to listen to regardless if the song is itself is good or not.
Really appreciate the Bogren mix. Oteros is too bright to me, and Exeter was too dull. All others are somewhere in between, where Sheps vocal clarity is nice. I guess it's a balancing act. I really liked the guitars on Bogren and Middleton. Probably... Bogren, Middleton, Odeholme, Scheps, the others
how different are all these mixes! this is very unexpected! (is it really because different plugins are used? (the plugin issue is probably the main one here) (if only they had made all the mixes on one console and without any plans at all + iron mastering!) / an important educational video! thank you!
interesting video but some of the really key concepts in metal I think were totally missed IMO. When there are riffs, you need the guitar to be the star. The single most important part of guitar tone is where you put your mid emphasis and making sure it snarls in that mid peak. Usually its mid and upper mid and you need to make those bite. Huge part of this is speaker/cab selection. Every metal producer has forward guitars with a gnarly mid bite, all the non-metal producers have kindve thin or woofy or fizzy sounding guitars. The reference mix sounds like from folks who dont do metal usually because it seems to follow old and bad sounding mid-scoop 90's metal sound which is just not modern. Though of course it can be the right move for a throw back 90's sound, which this song is not. Weird to spend so much time on drummers perspective panning vs not, which is immaterial, and no time on the impact/transient/compression approach which again is a huge part of what makes metal metal. Not to mention almost no time spent on snare sound, which is ridiculously important in metal. The other observation is you can hear which mixers are older, they have hardly any high end. Must be some over/under reaction to losing top end hearing as you age?
Great video. Just shows how subjective a mix is. Thanks to you and all the engineers that took time to participate. You rock!
THIS IS EXACTLY what is needed. Bringing art and subjectivity to what has been a "This is how to mix" world for far too long... Great work.
Man this is a killer video. I wish there were more like this.
I agree, different genres would be helpful
It's gotta be really expensive trying to compensate everyone for their time 👀
@@spoonerluvThey donated their time, or was it the max of $1000 charge per?
@@Varonno This was done as part of Mark's doctorate into perception of heaviness in music. They have paid all the producers and the project has taken 4 years in total.
@@callumhall967 Not as I was told. If there was profit for a professional education it’s unusual.
All great mixes but Jens I think nails it here. I think what I would loved to hear is what the band thought. This has to be one of the best videos I have watched.
I agree, fantastic mix!!!
Totally agree, it's quite clean but still really natural compared to the rest. It's my fave along with Nordstrom's and Middleton's.
I though Scheps' and Exeter's mixes to be the less appealing, but you never know what the artist wanted in the first place :)
@@Charlyfromthenuclearcity It shows you that maybe, its not as important as you think, as long as you can do something decent andwork towards a vision. I Love Scheps but he's not my favourite mixer - not saying he isn't great but I have a certain taste.
Exactly me thoughts with the first listen.
This is so great to watch. You can get so hung up on the "perfect" mix and yet it always come down to what sounds best to YOU! All of these amazing pros delivering such different sounds is reassuring!
great video! the Scheps mix is definitely the most "radio friendly" mix, while others are much more appealing to people who like more brutal mixes
The processing on radio stations really butchers the producer's intent most of the time.
This actually gives me a great deal of confidence. I think we all tend to doubt our decisions. This shows to stick to the way you hear, and, presumably, the client agrees, which is why they chose you in the first place. Thanks!
this is actually so awesome, and just goes to show there are defintly alot of creativ freedom in mixing. no rights and no wrongs, its all about capturing a vibe.
Brilliant video! I've never seen/heard someone do this, give the same song to several top engineers to mix. And it being metal, which is what I mostly do, is just an icing on the cake. The differences are wild, and just goes to show that a mix can sound great but in many different ways and flavours. Sometimes we may think our mix sounds bad compared to something else out there, but really it can just be different.
Jens B and Andrew S are my favorites. Very different, but nice to hear. Great video, I'd love to see more of this stuff!
Totally agree!
Agree
Thank you to all the legendary mix engineers who contributed! What an amazing learning experience. If possible, I would love to see more of these in different genres! Thank you to the host as well!
As someone who admires Buster and Nolly, I gotta say Jens just wins it here. Quality video!
Same here man. Jens' Mix was flawless. The Low End was tight, highs were not hyped up at all.
Agree! I love Buster and Nolly but Jens’ mix stood out to me as my favorite.
Jens‘ mix was amazing indeed, but I also really liked Fredrik‘s and Andrew‘s.
Obviously they’re all really different and all great.
Jens sounds more fitting for this kind of metal when compared to Nolly and Buster so yeah.
Amazing video. It plays like a table of contents to the Encyclopedia of Mixing but with tantalizing teasers under each entry.
Gosh they are all so different and have their own strengths! I'm partial to the sizzle of the Andrew Scheps and Nolly mixes, but can also see where the Mike Exeter mix would make sense for darker production treatments. Kudos to the SOS team, more videos like this please!
Great Job guys, love how all my favourite mixers still sound different.
Its funny, this shows me how quickly my ear will adjust to a mix and enjoy it. Buster and Otero were my favorites, their high end just sounds so good.
Frederick had an incredible lead guitar tone though. Instantly recognizable
Dave Otero's mix is my favourite. Thick and heavy!
I would have loved it if it was instrumental, the way it's mixed now, its crazy massive, it sounds like I'm at a concert. Very impressive! But the vocals are way too processed, sounds a bit like when you put too many Soothe2 plugins on the same vocal channel and the vocals starts to lisp.
Its amazing to hear the difference between different mixers. For me the favourites were Jens, Otero and Buster. Buster's mix was the most effective and Jens'es and Otero's were more on the natural side and handled clarity very well.
Please do more of these! Incredibly interesting!
I really liked the Jens and Buster mixes.
I think a popular initial reaction is to be attracted to the more hyperreal bright loud "modern" mixes, but personally that would impress me for about 20 seconds, then I'd want it to stop.
Awesome video!!! Crazy how differant all the mixes are. \m/
Me personally, I love Buster Odeholmes mix. Sounds the most brutal and fits the genre perfect.
Incredible video! Every mix has something that I really dig for this material. I'm familiar with work from all of these engineers and I love hearing their sonic signature popping out in their version of a single track!
man... fredrik's and jens' mixes sound absolutely beautiful
Always wanted to hear a comparison like this! Excellent video!
My god what an amazing video! Thanks so much for this.
Great video. Thanks to all who took part and 'laying your mixes on the line'. Love Scheps, but for me, the mix that is MOST in keeping with this genre is Jens Bogren. He has a well controlled low end and just the right amount of sparkle without it sounding fatiguing.
Every single one of these goes for a different vibe and works. That being said, my favorites for this were Jens Bogren, Adam 'Nolly' Getgood, and Dave Otero.
Fredrik Nordstrom's didn't fit the genre imo. still a fantastic mix though.
The rest felt too dark for what it was. Like it worked, but meh.
I am curious about the details of how these engineers crafted the mix: how much reamping and sample replacement was done? How much was analog processing vs digital? how long did they each spend on the mix? What monitors did/do they all use? etc.
Great video and I think we need more of this stuff!
I feel like Jens won this. This type of music is what he does best.
Jens always comes first when it comes to extreme metal with symphonic elements.
Amazing video!! I love all of them, truly fascinating to hear them side-by-side!
Interesting concept! I think people will, in general, prefer brighter and louder when making comparisons. But you'd really need to live with each mix, crank it up on the car stereo, see what becomes grating over time at volume.
Holy cow!! There are so many differences between all the different mixers. You can really hear each one style! Really cool video!!!
All so very different. Everyone will have their own thoughts based on their taste. I personally liked Nollys and Jens.
Thank you for a great video! Loved it! 🖤
Honestly, especially for Metal, I never thought the mixes could be that different from one to another.
The article says there are videos about each of the individual mixes, but the link doesn't work. Where can we find these?
Very interesting. It is a treat to hear the direct comparisons. If there were mixes included with no vocals it would be easier to hone in on the differences of most of the topics discussed. Nonetheless - excellent video. Thx
Great Video! Thanks for that!
Great Format in generally!
Would be nice to see more of this , more Genres with more Top Tier Engineers!
for the genre and the composition, jens bogren's is the best, to my ears. scheps' makes the vocal very prominent, and all the rest almost grouped together as "background". it's amazing what a spatial difference he gets between the two.
My favourites were Fredrik Nordstrom or Jens Bogren. Fredrik's in particular is so well balanced, SOS thought the same I reckon ;) Jen's too with a bit more of a hyped mix that (personal preference) I seem to like less and less these days. In fact, the more hyped or hyper-realistic they get, the less I liked their mix. Scheps has a unique tone that really suits the music he does. Ditto with exeter, very dark sounding but I loved those vocals and reminded me of old school metal. Middleton had the best guitar tone (shock) but took over from the rest of the mix a little.
Drummer perspective all the way! Honestly all the mixes were fantastic, this video is brilliant and I learned a ton
Is the course with full breakdowns of each mix still in the works, and any ideas on when that will be released? The page is missing for me at the moment
Jens nailed it to my ears
Sheps is the only one who gave a pop vibe to the song, that was interesting to watch, me personally im a fan of Jens, i like how dynamic and natural his mixes sound, buster josh and nolly have a very modern approach, and the other mixes are what you would call a solid metal mix
Jens further solidifying his goat status.
Good stuff, this vid has been an eye opener 👌
Glad you have found it helpful :-)
Thank you! Sound on Sound... WOW, quite a range of tonal/balance concepts 😱
Some mixes sound like an actual live band in a room, while others sound so
hollowed out and manipulated as to make them seem artificial and cartoonish.
So fascinating to hear those different approaches to the mix. It really boils down to taste. My „winners“ are Nolly and Josh… their midrange is just so defined and forward.
This video would be better if the engineers pool were diverse. Maybe a list like: scheps, bogren, serban, jaycen, cla, luca pretolesci, michael brauer, josh gudwin. This would make an amazing learning experience of a video. Insane.
Would indeed be very interesting, but I think it does make sense to stay in the rough genre of the song
@@josuastangl7140 I think if it were diverse it would give a good learning experience and understanding whether the genre thing matters or not etc. etc.
awesome seminar. Thank you. Seems that Mike Exeter gave this one to his newest assistant LOL
Please do the same with mastering
All mixes were great! My fave was buster odeholme, it was super exiting, sonically probably not the most perfect but it felt great. Second place for me was Fredrik Nordstrom, probably sonically most appealing for me. And third Mike Exeter felt like a more old-school classic mix, guitars had a slayer vibe. Andrew Scheps felt like a classic metallica ish mix. Edit, after listening more the Dave Otero mix was super sick too, maybe my fav also. And Josh had a super good guitar sound 13:56
Great video thank you
Awesome video! Cant wait to watch it tonight!
Fascinating to see this! And it’s really amazing how different producers approach the same sound differently and all ended up with great but different results 💪💪💪
Amazing video!
I love this guy. He has a super interview with Andy Sneap!
It would also be great to see the same kind comparison for Atmos music. Thanks again!
That was really cool listening to all the different interpretations,thanx for that I wonder how many hours went into each mix ?
why there is no Collin Richardson? :(
Immediately curious about the age of the ears re "brightness"? Any corellation there?
That's really amazing video. Very interesting how will pop mix sound from some other top guys, like Serban, Manny Marroquin and others
Jens, Buster and Nolly are all pretty much tied for first. Josh, Fredrik and Dave close second. Andy Scheps and Mike Exeter were drier, almost pop rock, my least favorite for this genre. It just goes to show how much a creative part of the song a mixer can be. This was a great video, and I'd love to see more. It makes us feel much better when we see pros have such a different take, because you know that some of this is just their "taste," and not that they are figuring out the perfect formula that the rest of us can't...🤘
Fantastic video!... we want more!... (rock) . For me, Bogren is the most balanced one. Possibly using a lot of automation
Golden ! Next take : same song, only DIs and midi files ( or triggers ) for drums. This would emphasise each engineers decisions even more.
What is this mustard bus he keeps on about? (36:36) Gotta get us one of those.
I thought we will have access to the mix videos of each engineer ? Where can we have access ?
❤ the video. The mixing engineer is a producer and defines the character of the song. I like more produced sound for metal in this case.
amazing project cheers
Which of the mix is your favorite?
For this track I really like the hyperreality feel that Buster Odeholme went with, I think its suits the track best.
I also love how you can hear the strings/orchestra melodies much better in Mike Exters, Andrew Scheps & Nolly's version
Thanks for the video, really helpful. Am not going to point out the best because this is not the objective of the video, but on the contrary of what people say, mix is not subjective, there's really a quality difference between ones and others. Hope we can get some more similar videos, Thanks very much sir!!
Huge changes in overall tonality must be reflecting differing monitoring setups.
I was also wondering about this
Also style of mixing tastes.
Maybe should have had a particular section, in a loop, to compare, rather than just jumping to different mixes as the track played.
Yeah, I found it quiet confusing as well. Please loop a whole Section. E.g. a chorus. Thank you. Also a bit annoying that we have to pay for the opportunity to hear the whole songs.
I liked the mix that used an EQ the best
What an interesting video!! Thanks S.O.S 👍
Fantastic content! Thanks!
Schep’s reminds me of something like Metallica’s Black album. It’s all relative to what you grew up listening to and enjoying. They are all good and relative to your taste and probably generation.
Fredrik Nordstrom's guitars sound exactly like Clayman!
Exactly what I thought as well!!
I hope not the clayman 2020 lol
@@BukanIbuMu hahahaha
Kind of shows the engineering side of it is as important as the song itself. If the key elements arent properly balanced or the mix is too dark or too harsh its just not pleasurable to listen to regardless if the song is itself is good or not.
Great flick,, 👍🌟👍
Thanks,, 💖🙏💖
Really appreciate the Bogren mix. Oteros is too bright to me, and Exeter was too dull. All others are somewhere in between, where Sheps vocal clarity is nice. I guess it's a balancing act.
I really liked the guitars on Bogren and Middleton.
Probably... Bogren, Middleton, Odeholme, Scheps, the others
excellent
...to me all sound good, but Andrew has that golden 5%...respect
Scheps mix just feels better in my ears.
Scheps & Bogren!
Jens wins for for me.
Super cool video!
how different are all these mixes! this is very unexpected! (is it really because different plugins are used? (the plugin issue is probably the main one here) (if only they had made all the mixes on one console and without any plans at all + iron mastering!) / an important educational video! thank you!
Scheps is the one I can relate to the most. I’m a rock guy not a metal guy.
more videos like this!
Very interesting! Thanx a lot!
Is there a master buss running?
Сolin Richardson? Colin Richardson would give everyone a hard time? ) Andy Sneap? Dave Otero and Jens Bogren win's to me) Nice Video!
Better to compare in the same loop...
I don't see the option to download the mixes to compare myself. There's only info about some mixing course but no audio to download.
that's the point... pay for this mixing course 😅
sound on sound subscribers can dl
Looks like it's a totally different course though.....@@Byron101_
interesting video but some of the really key concepts in metal I think were totally missed IMO. When there are riffs, you need the guitar to be the star. The single most important part of guitar tone is where you put your mid emphasis and making sure it snarls in that mid peak. Usually its mid and upper mid and you need to make those bite. Huge part of this is speaker/cab selection. Every metal producer has forward guitars with a gnarly mid bite, all the non-metal producers have kindve thin or woofy or fizzy sounding guitars. The reference mix sounds like from folks who dont do metal usually because it seems to follow old and bad sounding mid-scoop 90's metal sound which is just not modern. Though of course it can be the right move for a throw back 90's sound, which this song is not. Weird to spend so much time on drummers perspective panning vs not, which is immaterial, and no time on the impact/transient/compression approach which again is a huge part of what makes metal metal. Not to mention almost no time spent on snare sound, which is ridiculously important in metal. The other observation is you can hear which mixers are older, they have hardly any high end. Must be some over/under reaction to losing top end hearing as you age?
Very interesting video, great job!
i like them ALL...great content..
Very interesting and elaborate video. Thanks to everyone involved, this was an eyeopening experience!