How come I feel like I just smoked a lot of good weed with him and want to leave his room but don't want to be rude, so I am really stoned and just listening to him but have no idea what he is talking about and I just want to go home because there is something really erotic about the situation but I am too stoned to know if it is just my imagination
I quite understand, also some mixes just don't need GLUE compression may be because the mix on that track is great as is. That's why I love doing this shit cause there are no real set rules and you're allowed to find uncharted territory in this! Keep helping us Gregory
Breaux just gave us the keys to the kingdom. So so grateful for your channel. The only channel on UA-cam that treats audio engineering like art and not science.
Dude, I know you’ve had some challenges over the last year or so, but I just want you to know that I always come back and review your videos, because they are always insightful. Hope you’re doing better these days!
But glue is all about density. Also it best to learn the core of what compressor does and why they used it in the first place. And i don't use mix bus compressor in the mix. That's called mastering. I do a drumbus if needed. And live. Never from a daw.
@@Madrrrrrrrrrrr Super agree. Theres a reason mastering engineers will tell you (myself included) to take off any effects from the master bus. Just doesn't make any sense to have one in the first place.
Funny thing: I do it exactly vice versa, than you explained regarding your "sound signature" at 5:20 . Before I finish a mix, I put an EQ on the master bus, adjust it to my likings until the mix sounds better to me, and then switch it off again and start compensating for everything that's missing in the mix without the mix bus EQ. Works perfectly and helps making "ear fatique" obvious.
Nice! I'm not able to pull that off, because the mix eq for me is literally grabbing everything, and it's putting a single layer of analog phase smear across all the sounds. One of my mix eq's has tubes, the other has transformers, and they're gainstaged for saturation and color. I'm not able to replicate that via plugins in the mix, but even if I could... I'm lazy! My brain says, "Sounds good? Print it!!!"
Im just gonna leave a like and come back when I'm in need of mixing inspiration. I love your style of teaching. You focus on the feeling behind mixing.
I've missed you man. Honestly, Gregg I'm so grateful for everything you've created. I've used a lot of different plugins and companies over the years, but I find myself using yours more than anyone. I love the tone of your saturations, I love the musicality of your compressors - shaping and gluing the sound without adding ugly artefacts. I love the smoothness of your EQ's... they're just amazing plugins and I worship those 3 in Sly-Fi. Finally, for me there is no better plugin in a mix bus than Blyss! Thank you, legend.
Just want to point out, if you don't understand or appreciate this advice fully right away, don't worry. These are fairly advanced concepts. Come back to this video in 6 months or 6 years and you'll go ahhh, now it makes sense. Density, sonic shaping and 'finishing' will become clear when your ears, skills and workflow are ready for them. Top vid as always Gregory.
That was cool. There are many ways to do a mix. Good to hear your insight into why you choose to leave the mix bus for finishing. It makes makes sense. Great video.
For me, the problem with mixing into a bunch of "top down" mixbus processing is that it effects every element in the mix, whether needed or not. Now I not only need to address the elements that still require some shaping, but I also have to fix those elements that didn't need that processing in the first place. It's like salting your entire meal, even though only the steak required it, then having to go and pull all of the salt out of the peas and potato to preserve their proper flavor. Fix problems that need to be fixed, and leave the rest alone.
The real usefull type of mixing is middle down / middle up. Where you mix from your groups-busses downwards and then when you have things going good you mix from your busses upwards. Its like putting the least needed salt in separate food groups and then sparkling the entire meal with the seasoning you always love.
As someone who has only learned mixing from UA-cam and making music your channel is becoming a favorite. I’m finding a lot of the consensus advise doesn’t yield me a very good product. This is excellent.
I have tried top-down-mixing before and it was a different flavor overall for me. But I resonate with this a lot - I do mixing with virtually NO effects on my mix buss and have no problems. I get the dynamics how I want them and, as you said - glue it together without compression and have never had issues. When I tried top-down for the first time - it was like "Huh, that's kinda cool" but it didn't really make a massive difference for me in terms of "WHOA this just changed my life" Overall --> there is WAY too much hype online and WAY too much of the "THIS WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE" mentality that is actually pretty harmful to the average person because it's almost never true.
Totally agree, most live engineers don’t have that luxury (I surely didn’t) and adapted a similar mixing style once I moved to the studio. Much Respect!
Revisiting your videos. Your how to hear compression video was the first time you helped me "hear" what attack and release accomplished. Now I've decided to be more serious with my mixes and production. You provide the most tactile learning experience I've seen.
I’m not sure when this guy started making videos but he’s got a very common sense and down to earth approach that I really appreciate. These have helped me a lot with mixing.
I'm still pretty much of a newbie, but I've always felt that my mixes sound much better when I just rely on my ears to adjust levels, eq a bit here and there, and only then start compressing etc. It's good to hear someone with more experience essentially say the same thing.
There’s so much you can do with simple fader levels before you even try a compressor or EQ. There’s always that temptation to slap things on because you feel you need to.
This is what I love about the Internet - not only do I get to hear the wisdom of Gregory Scott, but also have access to the wisdom of someone like Billy Decker who does the complete opposite - mixing into Ozone, using templates, etc. What a time to be alive and making music.
Right? To be clear: I absolutely use templates, and I have a very well established and consistent workspace and predictable workflow from song to song. It's just that in my mix template, all my mix buss processors default to Bypass. But they're there, and the knobs are all set up and ready to go, so Mr. Decker and I are maybe not as far apart as you think!
I have been listening to you for the past 20 hours, literally... I really needed you 10 years ago, working from today to make sure I can be the best mixer I can from this point on. Thanks.
funny story, everyone freaks out when they see my sessions, the only thing on my master bus is the FFT and coloration meters by voxengo. I hate the sound of any master processing because after 20 years of ear training I mix from getting the sounds right at source and channel. I just let my transients hit the red and it goes out as is. 100 million streams in I have no reason to change it!
My psychedelia orchestral metal ideas thank you. I've been experimenting with UBK Silika AR1 on sub group mixes and getting into OMega's I'll get into Hammer on my Bus.
@@TheHouseofKushTV Greg what's the odds of a Channel Strip Tape product 2 inch 1 1/4 Maxell TDK Fostex Magnetic Ferric Oxide Charcoal wow and flutter tape age. ..Hint I'd buy it.
@@TheHouseofKushTV nice names they are... i also like reverbs being called archaic Chamber and i actually had a Bus explained to me as a "Bus" and the people come in into the Bus can be in ex...voices..and they are all in The Bus...one further back in the row of seats has more echo ...in his Voice..i actually thought ...i,d never understand how it works *** great Channel*
When there is a gain structure and peaks are finalised, it is even easier to deal in the glue. The final limiter is then more of a soft clipper thing for lifting and not for taming the peaks. If starting early mixing into limiters and compressors it happens fast when the mix could fall apart if taking it away. This happens mixing in the box, don't know how that is doing with analog gear. The pultec type curves crave out almost the mids and low end which seems more vital for mixing because adding definition focus, more headspace for adding other elements. Ofc it sounds great on a mixbus and maybe silky smooth but the tonal shaping happens usually on solo channels creating complementary sounds not so much competing sounds just for contemporary music.
Great stuff! I typically find the biggest, loudest, most dense part of the mix and dial in that part first, including mix buss compression. That way my automation work doesn’t get altered downstream. I also believe strongly in processing at the group level. No EQ or heavy compression on the mix buss, just a “hug”. The vocals have their own mix buss separate from the music that doesn’t get touched by that stereo compressor. Always experimenting though. 90% or more of my engineer friends who have problems with their mix, their issue stems from the mix buss. Most of the time mix buss processing is doing bad things that you don’t realize until much later… muddiness, cramped sound stage, weird stuff that you don’t notice at first blush
I love your videos, they remind me of how we used to work in the 80's. I dont have a fixed way of working, I just serve the song and use what is necessary. I see people use a lot of buses in mixes and I usually just use one. Sometimes there is nothing on it but level and maybe a touch of eq. I rarely use compression on a mix bus as it tends to mess with my balance and eq choices and I feel like I have to go back and fix what the compressor does to the eq. If it needs it, then fine but less is just about always more for me. Thanks for your wonderful approach to recording.
Thank you! I swear you are an enlightened being! We are not machines or an algorithm this what it is all about. Human feeling and intuition. This is has what has made all the great records in the past I fiend over. Not some internet equation or cookie cutter template.
Solid advice, same I got from some small studio mixers in the nineties. Some even saying they did nothing on the mix bus, tune dependent of course.15:19 says it all ...thx for the rewind.
I love this channel and all of the advice and insight. I do wonder of this approach is relevant to metal productions. Metal of old, not the core metal of today, but metal like 90's death metal and black metal. I have a Swedish death metal style band hiring me to do a single for them, I am going to apply this mindset to that and see how it goes...
Charles I don’t mix metal but in the 90s and earlier decades there were many engineers who mixed metal on the SSL 4000E without the G compressor at the end. If you think about the mindset you need to have is “I can only make moves with this set channel EQ and dynamics processing” you’ll be able to figure out how powerful that channel really is. Anyways good luck on the single.
At the risk of being a bit flippant, music is music, engineering is engineering. All of my approaches are style-agnostic; when you make the focus 'mindset and workflow', it applies across the board. Doesn't mean it will work for you, but the principles can work for any piece of music. Experiment, your instinct will keep you on track!
Greg, I used to do it your way for a long time, but lately I'm trying something completely different. After my Dangerous 2Bus summing box, I run my mix into Tonelux Equalux EQ (this one can be used in a pultec style, cutting and boosting same frequencies at the same time, and that's how I use it), then to Fatso Jr (no compression or 1db max. I use it for saturation), then to...drumroll......Kush Clariphonic. After that the sound travels to double compressors! Yes, I run the signal to Chandler Germanium Limited comp (compressing 0.5-1db, slowest attack, fastest release for punch) and then the signal goes to my Tube-Tech LCA-2B for tube colorarion and "glue". Finally I EQ everything with an unbelieavable piece of gear which is Heritage Audio Symph EQ. As you can see, my 2 bus is loaded, and I start mixing into it from the get go. I manipulate the levels just to hit the gear with the right levels. You can consider it "my sound", as you said you'd compensate the mix to kinda fix the master chain anyways. That's exactly what I do. What's the point? The point is that I don't have to listen to the digital crappy sound for hours. The digititis is gone from the first minute, which not only improved my mixes but made me enjoy mixing much more. I mix 80% OTB, and since I started doing so, I mix twice as fast as I was ITB, and my mixes sound much better. If you have tried a compressor feeding another compressor, both doing a bit different thing, please let me know what you think about this idea.
Awesome!!!! There was a time when I would be lost listening to something so valuable. Many years later I totally understand everything your saying and its gold!!!!! Thanks!
So beautifully said. Speechless as putting this feeling into words would take away from it. However, if anyone was to take this advice a little seriously, they could swift through their mixes, productions and release their stuff to be heard at desired speed.
@5.35 I do the exact same thing. To hear you say that is encouraging...of course it's taking me longer to learn how to properly mix but even in my apprentice state I can tell the difference in the dynamics. BTW I'm a subscriber to your plugins offer. Thanks bro...I appreciate you.
Totally agree. You should get your balance right and make sure your headroom is 1-2db under 0 on master bus for the whole song. This is so important. Then you can apply whatever compression, eq or saturation you wish.
Very nice coincidence that you bring up the approach to finish everything as well as possible before doing anything on the mixbus since it's exactly my approach in a project i'm doing now. Thanx for great all great mixbus tips to finalize it!
I was wondering about that very same concept tonight as I approach a deadline for my first paid producer gig here at F-Hole Studios. Do I mix with a mastering chain in place or do I ride bareback till I get to that "perfect" balance and then start diving into my Abbey Road? Hehe I said "perfect". Your Technical Philosophy is intriguing and a wander. You present your Ideas openly and with deep thoughtfulness. I appreciate what you share. Thank you Gregory Scott.
I agree with you having way less experience but what I really appreciate is the deliver of your mixing process, very musical aligned and your whispering voice makes me feel that you're telling us a secret so I even pay more attention to it. All your videos are great but "How to listen to compression" video is my favorite
The way you share your knowledge and personal mixing experience sounds like I'm being told a beautiful story. It's a very unique and precious natural talent. Love from Quebec :)
I dont think I've takenthe time commenting on someones ideas relating to mix bussing, mixing, or anything relating to my work, andI 've been doing it for a long time. I like what you discussed, I agree with you in theory, and in practice. Well put.
This resonated with my mix style a lot. I never got into putting plugins on the mix bus except for a limiter. They sound good at first but when I volume match and compare my mixes they always seem a tiny bit mushy compared to the straight mix. Good outboard gear seems to fix that for me. I Use the RND MBP for my colour, compression, widening and limiting and it is absolutely wonderful. It is so nice after spending a long time tweaking a mix to my taste of perfection to send it out into the analogue gear and do the final touches. Often that SSL glue sound to me, at least with the plugins I have tried, just makes my mix sound a bit less defined so gluing the mix in the mix really works better. Nice to hear someone else's process with this.
In retrospect I kept delaying for a while the idea or the "need" to put something on the bus mix from an early stage of the mix, thanks to you Gregory I understand why I delayed it. Mixbus at an early stage, at least for me, is like a bodyguard on a street where there is no danger, only opportunities. I will continue to do two things: 1- make mix buses towards the end 2- I will continue to follow each of your videos. Thank you so much
Saved to my favorites list for mixing. Greg, you are my audio spirit animal. Nobody gets it and explains it quite like you do. Exactly how I think of mix bus processing too
Already watched this but among so many good tips, its here the best description of what I experience with Oxford inflator! the negative values is very good with a already good and harmonic rich mix, im experimenting using this clip off with a soft clipper after (really like standard clip on pro mode) warmy thumpy marvelous! Also im running the mix in parallel with Omega TWK it brings a nice and subtle character!
Oozing with awesome knowledge as usual, sir! Finding the balance between "rules", and just figuring out what sounds good and what doesn't, is very tricky when you're still learning. Sometimes, it's easier to trust rules than it is your ears! Learning to trust your ears and bending the norms comes with experience I think.
I know I don't have the ear that you do, but I've been spending a lot of time mixing. And I've come to the same conclusion that you have. Some people may look at it as a minimalist perspective but I think it's more about less is more because what we do is more deliberate and effective. About the only instrument which almost always gets its own separate processing before going to the master bus from me is the drum kit. Once I start throwing stuff onto the master bus I like to have everything rendered out into bounced tracks by then. Because now I'm thinking about a whole different process
I 100% agree with this. I’m doing very nearly the same. Similar chain, though not identical, obviously. But the concept is spot-on. I do leave a limiter on my 2-bus once I start getting balances, but it’s pulled down 3 dB on input. If I see any activity on it, then I know my intended gain-staging is off somewhere… so it just acts as a safety. But even that doesn’t go on until I’m done getting basic sounds, because I don’t want even that possibly throwing me off what I’m hearing at that early stage, either. I wasn’t aware that Inflator acts a bit like an expander below 50%; I knew it was doing coloration and harmonics there, but I didn’t know it went that far. It’s always been a bit of a mysterious plug-in, even though it’s “just” a waveshaper. Anyway, I’ve come back full circle to this very same conclusion just in the past 6 months. They key is getting the initial tracks tonally shaped early on. Then you don’t need so much crap on the back end, where every little small move is exaggerated.
Incredible advice man, thank you. I have had the Exact same experience when slapping comps and EQs on the bus early, I always end up fighting and shutting them off. Very cool to hear some one else with my same experience when everyone else says to do that.
literally nothing would make me happier then smoking a bowl with you and talking about mixing and music for hours! Must do that sometime in the future😂 but for now thank you for all you do and all the amazing information you give us all we appreciate it more then you could ever understand. you just have this amazing vibe surrounding you that reals people in as soon as they see you and makes everyone instantly love you and want more! keep up the great work man, I know you got great things coming!
I started mixing way back in 1989..... and what ring so true to me from everything you talk about.... is 'the rules'...... I spent years and years playing with mixing desks, multi tracks and then DAWs - so I didn't learn any rules..... I learned to experiment and listen. Does this ring true with you? .... I never learned what a Compressor does or what a buss mix was.... I played around and knew if I did this or that it changed the sound in ways I liked.... I couldn't explain or teach it..... but my mixes bring musicians to work with me because my sound is different to others.... I was offered work in sound design by the BBC because of how my mixes sound...... its all about the feel for me - not what you "think" you know. I just wish I could express it in the way you can - I don't have the vocab to do it..... its just refreshing to hear you talk in these terms. Respect!
I just found your channel and I really like it, but I am enough of a newbie that I would like to see you actually do some of these things with an example. That would be more helpful. Your compression video that just focused on a drum track really worked.
Dont give up! Trust me as you learn you will come back to this video and be like "no way this makes sense"! Practice practice practice only way in this art
I mix into a Comp and some Saturation and a master EQ ( I dont touch the master EQ until near the end) I did not learn this from anyone though, I just did it quite early on and it made logical sense to me,so I have kept doing it. Important to note, settings on the MIx bus comp I use are rough and are tweaked at the end
Hello Gregory. I find your process very interesting... Before I bring in the vocalist or solo instrumentalist to record their parts, I make sure my tracks are mixed well especially the drums and bass. Nothing but a mild HP filter on the mix bus. I also add HP filters to the drum buss, bass and synths to clean up the mud. At this point I want the mix to sound good thru the headphones to help inspire the vocalist or instrumentalist. I add saturation, EQ, 1 or 2 db of compression max and maybe an expander/widener on the mix bus for the final mix. I do mostly smooth jazz,, world music or funk.. Luv your work bro. Thanks
I love your advice man, the vibes are incredible and you’ve got some great things to say! It’s funny I work the opposite, I mix top down. I do all my volume automation and figure all the levels out first then do universal EQing on the track and but my mix bus compression is something I figure out at the very end of my mix when there’s only tiny little details that need to be fixed that won’t effect the track too much. Love your work and there’s definitely still stuff I can take from this, thanks for the videos man!
Right on! Yeah, I’ve met a lot of engineers over the decades and no two work the same, and sometimes it’s pretty staggering how differently we can approach things!
Gregory, I hope you are doing better!!! Thanks for this clip, because one gets the feeling that mixing into a compressor is the only way to go. I have never done it. Glad you confirmed I am not insane (for this reason 😁).
this was helpful. my mastering chain is a mess but it works by meticulously going to extremes and then backing off, saturating, then eq'ing, gluing and then pumping. i feel like maybe a good way to achieve "polished" results in the box is to use multiple serial chains that saturate and compress and boost/cut in their own ways, then move on to another one, and if anything is still too harsh or digital, you can use mbdynamics from melda or baby audio smooth and then the 385 enhance, and finish with the softube weiss shit i do appreciate these talks. very inspiring
Thank you! It does make perfect sense and the whole series about breaking rules is really encouraging. You have covered several areas that have affirmed my own 'rule breaking' practices. I am still learning as I go along but have become more confident about following my instincts. I reminded myself of how, when I was younger, I used to experiment with connecting anything I had lying around to anything I had lying around to see what sound it would make and tried to adopt that approach when mixing. My mix bus processing has been steadily shrinking with each new project and lately all I use on there is Blyss - it provides just enough of that elusive something without messing with the shape of the track. Many thanks for sharing your ramblings, please keep them coming.
Great insight on the eventuality of using a mixbus comp early in the mix! Am sooo with you on what you are saying here and on the reasons why it does not work for you. Had the same experiences that you describe and stopped doing it. Now using them only at the very end of the mix, looking for a tiny more of density and mids tone getting a tiny bit forward, that's all. Another great video Gregory, love from Italy!
I think of mix bus processing in the exact same way. Didn’t actually know whether I was handling the “right” way or not. But this was super validating. Love your approach and style of mixing. Can’t wait until I can afford some of that hardware.
I've always done it the way you do. I try to make the mix sound good before the mix bus processing is applied. Then I apply it to get that extra 10%. However, I'm considering trying top down mixing to see if I like it. I tend to be a big picture/global thinker. So top down may work for me. If not, I'll just go back to what I was doing before. The only thing I don't like about the way I was doing it is that sometimes if you apply mix bus processing at the end it causes certain instruments or frequencies to jump out in unexpected ways.
hello. im copy-pasting what i commented above : Nice video man, and thanks for sharing your workflow. Some of the times I mix into the mixbus comp-eq-saturation, sometimes i turn them on during the mix and some of the times i leave the mixbus empty and add later, just like you described. I dont have a rule. The song or project dictates that to me. For example, if im mixing an album of lets say 10 songs and im not familiar with the content, the first song im mixing is usualy the one that tells me what is going to happen. So on that first song I leave the mixbus processing for last. Then the second and third song I kind of throw in the mixbus processors i used in song 1 , at 80% of the mix and at 20% respectively. From that point on, 4th song I mix with the processors on. But I mix with lots of headroom. If anything sounds weird i on-off the mixbus plugins and re-adjust when needed and maybe add or replace some processors. By song 5 i have established the rules of the mix and the possibilities of the mixbus (and other busses too). When the whole album is done I have a complete idea of what the mixbus should be doing and sometimes songs 8-9-10 might tell me how to correct or re-adjust songs 1-2-3. Its what I call an organic process where the sound of an album is cohesive throughout and a song's minor change/addition can be benefical to the rest of them.
Excellent thank you. I like that you include the goal aspect as opposed to it being about gear. Although I don’t have magic hardware, i can shoot for a similar experience with what i have. What the ear doesn’t miss, the heart wont mind.
I dig your way of talking about geek stuff man. I tend to agree with you about mix buss compression. It's a finishing tool, not a mixing tool. That's the way I have always mixed, but occasionally I have tried "top down" mixing, but as you say, I just end up fighting the mix buss processing while I'm trying to establish tonal, spatial, and dynamic aspects of the mix. It definitely works for me to use mix buss processing to finish, to polish the mostly complete mix. And I know what you mean about Inflator. It does the most amazing things!
How come I feel like I just smoked a lot of good weed with him and want to leave his room but don't want to be rude, so I am really stoned and just listening to him but have no idea what he is talking about and I just want to go home because there is something really erotic about the situation but I am too stoned to know if it is just my imagination
This is possibly the funniest thing I've read in weeks, tears are rolling down my face. Thank you!!
How my girl feels when I start ranting about the beat I made
And then the kush after hour song starts playing in the background, you feel that bass, that kick, and you know you are in danger
@@rulorulex6964 😂😂😂
I quite understand, also some mixes just don't need GLUE compression may be because the mix on that track is great as is.
That's why I love doing this shit cause there are no real set rules and you're allowed to find uncharted territory in this!
Keep helping us Gregory
Breaux just gave us the keys to the kingdom. So so grateful for your channel. The only channel on UA-cam that treats audio engineering like art and not science.
Dude, I know you’ve had some challenges over the last year or so, but I just want you to know that I always come back and review your videos, because they are always insightful. Hope you’re doing better these days!
We need him back!
Agreed!
Just what I needed, was just about to start mixing a track. Nothing quite like 16 mins with Gregory to recontexualise things :)
Couldn't agree more!
I read "resexualize" at first. :)
@@zaptronic Greg definitely does that too lol
But glue is all about density. Also it best to learn the core of what compressor does and why they used it in the first place. And i don't use mix bus compressor in the mix. That's called mastering. I do a drumbus if needed. And live. Never from a daw.
@@Madrrrrrrrrrrr Super agree. Theres a reason mastering engineers will tell you (myself included) to take off any effects from the master bus. Just doesn't make any sense to have one in the first place.
Funny thing: I do it exactly vice versa, than you explained regarding your "sound signature" at 5:20 . Before I finish a mix, I put an EQ on the master bus, adjust it to my likings until the mix sounds better to me, and then switch it off again and start compensating for everything that's missing in the mix without the mix bus EQ. Works perfectly and helps making "ear fatique" obvious.
Nice! I'm not able to pull that off, because the mix eq for me is literally grabbing everything, and it's putting a single layer of analog phase smear across all the sounds. One of my mix eq's has tubes, the other has transformers, and they're gainstaged for saturation and color. I'm not able to replicate that via plugins in the mix, but even if I could... I'm lazy! My brain says, "Sounds good? Print it!!!"
Im just gonna leave a like and come back when I'm in need of mixing inspiration. I love your style of teaching. You focus on the feeling behind mixing.
So true. It should be about feelings. The mixing "engineer" title is wrong in so many ways. It should be an art/craft, rather than "engineering".
I can't stop recommending this channel to my friends. Hands down the best music production channel on UA-cam
I've missed you man. Honestly, Gregg I'm so grateful for everything you've created. I've used a lot of different plugins and companies over the years, but I find myself using yours more than anyone. I love the tone of your saturations, I love the musicality of your compressors - shaping and gluing the sound without adding ugly artefacts. I love the smoothness of your EQ's... they're just amazing plugins and I worship those 3 in Sly-Fi. Finally, for me there is no better plugin in a mix bus than Blyss! Thank you, legend.
Just want to point out, if you don't understand or appreciate this advice fully right away, don't worry.
These are fairly advanced concepts.
Come back to this video in 6 months or 6 years and you'll go ahhh, now it makes sense. Density, sonic shaping and 'finishing' will become clear when your ears, skills and workflow are ready for them.
Top vid as always Gregory.
That was cool. There are many ways to do a mix. Good to hear your insight into why you choose to leave the mix bus for finishing. It makes makes sense. Great video.
For me, the problem with mixing into a bunch of "top down" mixbus processing is that it effects every element in the mix, whether needed or not. Now I not only need to address the elements that still require some shaping, but I also have to fix those elements that didn't need that processing in the first place.
It's like salting your entire meal, even though only the steak required it, then having to go and pull all of the salt out of the peas and potato to preserve their proper flavor.
Fix problems that need to be fixed, and leave the rest alone.
The real usefull type of mixing is middle down / middle up. Where you mix from your groups-busses downwards and then when you have things going good you mix from your busses upwards. Its like putting the least needed salt in separate food groups and then sparkling the entire meal with the seasoning you always love.
Really good analogy. I also think of it as painting with an instagram filter on
🔥🔥
the most chilled guy on youtube, I came for the advice, I stayed for the mood and ambience(pronounced the french way, yes, the french way)
As someone who has only learned mixing from UA-cam and making music your channel is becoming a favorite. I’m finding a lot of the consensus advise doesn’t yield me a very good product. This is excellent.
I have tried top-down-mixing before and it was a different flavor overall for me.
But I resonate with this a lot - I do mixing with virtually NO effects on my mix buss and have no problems. I get the dynamics how I want them and, as you said - glue it together without compression and have never had issues. When I tried top-down for the first time - it was like "Huh, that's kinda cool" but it didn't really make a massive difference for me in terms of "WHOA this just changed my life"
Overall --> there is WAY too much hype online and WAY too much of the "THIS WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE" mentality that is actually pretty harmful to the average person because it's almost never true.
Totally agree, most live engineers don’t have that luxury (I surely didn’t) and adapted a similar mixing style once I moved to the studio. Much Respect!
Revisiting your videos. Your how to hear compression video was the first time you helped me "hear" what attack and release accomplished. Now I've decided to be more serious with my mixes and production. You provide the most tactile learning experience I've seen.
Also just revisited that one a couple of days ago, so glad that we all have this gold in our hands, bro. Greg is the best!
I’m not sure when this guy started making videos but he’s got a very common sense and down to earth approach that I really appreciate. These have helped me a lot with mixing.
Thank God for this channel. I've learned so much from the liquid silver voice of Sir Gregory Scott.
Even his mercurial statements are pure gold, eh? 😏🍻
I'm still pretty much of a newbie, but I've always felt that my mixes sound much better when I just rely on my ears to adjust levels, eq a bit here and there, and only then start compressing etc. It's good to hear someone with more experience essentially say the same thing.
There’s so much you can do with simple fader levels before you even try a compressor or EQ. There’s always that temptation to slap things on because you feel you need to.
This is what I love about the Internet - not only do I get to hear the wisdom of Gregory Scott, but also have access to the wisdom of someone like Billy Decker who does the complete opposite - mixing into Ozone, using templates, etc. What a time to be alive and making music.
Right? To be clear: I absolutely use templates, and I have a very well established and consistent workspace and predictable workflow from song to song. It's just that in my mix template, all my mix buss processors default to Bypass. But they're there, and the knobs are all set up and ready to go, so Mr. Decker and I are maybe not as far apart as you think!
I love listening to this guy, he has the most perfect laid back voice. Which is filled to the brim with wisdom and knowledge.
His voice probably goes through all of that gear. Also there's a box that adds just a little bit of that extra wisdom and knowledge.
This is the greatest channel ever. I want to get Kush hardware when I grow up.
I have been listening to you for the past 20 hours, literally... I really needed you 10 years ago, working from today to make sure I can be the best mixer I can from this point on. Thanks.
funny story, everyone freaks out when they see my sessions, the only thing on my master bus is the FFT and coloration meters by voxengo. I hate the sound of any master processing because after 20 years of ear training I mix from getting the sounds right at source and channel. I just let my transients hit the red and it goes out as is. 100 million streams in I have no reason to change it!
So much passion in this video. I can almost feel myself standing in the kitchen with you stirring the soup.
"Flauer Pauer" and "Green Pond Alge" preset names is what makes Hammer eq so good.
Lol, I was never sure anybody noticed!
My psychedelia orchestral metal ideas thank you. I've been experimenting with UBK Silika AR1 on sub group mixes and getting into OMega's
I'll get into Hammer on my Bus.
Ahahahahaha!! These presets' name have krushed me for ten hours!!
@@TheHouseofKushTV Greg what's the odds of a Channel Strip Tape product 2 inch 1 1/4 Maxell TDK Fostex Magnetic Ferric Oxide Charcoal wow and flutter tape age. ..Hint I'd buy it.
@@TheHouseofKushTV nice names they are... i also like reverbs being called archaic Chamber and i actually had a Bus explained to me as a "Bus" and the people come in into the Bus can be in ex...voices..and they are all in The Bus...one further back in the row of seats has more echo ...in his Voice..i actually thought ...i,d never understand how it works *** great Channel*
Most of the time i do not even use mixbus compression at all, in any stage of the mix ... i very much agree with you
A little Kush 🍃 🍂 🍁 watching Kush 🖥 while using my Kush 🎙🎚🎛
My man be living life on point
Smoking mine 💨
When there is a gain structure and peaks are finalised, it is even easier to deal in the glue. The final limiter is then more of a soft clipper thing for lifting and not for taming the peaks. If starting early mixing into limiters and compressors it happens fast when the mix could fall apart if taking it away. This happens mixing in the box, don't know how that is doing with analog gear.
The pultec type curves crave out almost the mids and low end which seems more vital for mixing because adding definition focus, more headspace for adding other elements. Ofc it sounds great on a mixbus and maybe silky smooth but the tonal shaping happens usually on solo channels creating complementary sounds not so much competing sounds just for contemporary music.
Great stuff! I typically find the biggest, loudest, most dense part of the mix and dial in that part first, including mix buss compression. That way my automation work doesn’t get altered downstream.
I also believe strongly in processing at the group level. No EQ or heavy compression on the mix buss, just a “hug”. The vocals have their own mix buss separate from the music that doesn’t get touched by that stereo compressor.
Always experimenting though.
90% or more of my engineer friends who have problems with their mix, their issue stems from the mix buss. Most of the time mix buss processing is doing bad things that you don’t realize until much later… muddiness, cramped sound stage, weird stuff that you don’t notice at first blush
I love your videos, they remind me of how we used to work in the 80's.
I dont have a fixed way of working, I just serve the song and use what is necessary. I see people use a lot of buses in mixes and I usually just use one. Sometimes there is nothing on it but level and maybe a touch of eq. I rarely use compression on a mix bus as it tends to mess with my balance and eq choices and I feel like I have to go back and fix what the compressor does to the eq. If it needs it, then fine but less is just about always more for me.
Thanks for your wonderful approach to recording.
I expect him to be clickbaiting, but im blown away every time!!
I am so glad you made this video. I thought it was just me. This was just brilliant.
Dude you are the perfect antidote to Warren Huart. My pallette is now cleansed. Thank you.
Thank you! I swear you are an enlightened being! We are not machines or an algorithm this what it is all about. Human feeling and intuition. This is has what has made all the great records in the past I fiend over. Not some internet equation or cookie cutter template.
I love seeing your new videos, Greg, but I equally love re-watching your old ones, as there are always new things to uncover as my own skills improve.
THIS.
Solid advice, same I got from some small studio mixers in the nineties. Some even saying they did nothing on the mix bus, tune dependent of course.15:19 says it all ...thx for the rewind.
I think I was hypnotised while watching this vid :)
1:40 probably the most valuable music production advise on the whole Internet
Every time I watch one of your videos, my awareness expands and it just makes sense to me. You're like an audio hit of really good acid.
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts! I found this video very interesting and it really made me think. All the best from Finland!
This is weird. Last two days I listen to this channel to fall asleep 🤣i love these topics and i like his calm voice. I also learn a lot. Thank you
I love this channel and all of the advice and insight. I do wonder of this approach is relevant to metal productions. Metal of old, not the core metal of today, but metal like 90's death metal and black metal. I have a Swedish death metal style band hiring me to do a single for them, I am going to apply this mindset to that and see how it goes...
Charles I don’t mix metal but in the 90s and earlier decades there were many engineers who mixed metal on the SSL 4000E without the G compressor at the end. If you think about the mindset you need to have is “I can only make moves with this set channel EQ and dynamics processing” you’ll be able to figure out how powerful that channel really is. Anyways good luck on the single.
At the risk of being a bit flippant, music is music, engineering is engineering. All of my approaches are style-agnostic; when you make the focus 'mindset and workflow', it applies across the board. Doesn't mean it will work for you, but the principles can work for any piece of music. Experiment, your instinct will keep you on track!
Greg, I used to do it your way for a long time, but lately I'm trying something completely different. After my Dangerous 2Bus summing box, I run my mix into Tonelux Equalux EQ (this one can be used in a pultec style, cutting and boosting same frequencies at the same time, and that's how I use it), then to Fatso Jr (no compression or 1db max. I use it for saturation), then to...drumroll......Kush Clariphonic. After that the sound travels to double compressors! Yes, I run the signal to Chandler Germanium Limited comp (compressing 0.5-1db, slowest attack, fastest release for punch) and then the signal goes to my Tube-Tech LCA-2B for tube colorarion and "glue". Finally I EQ everything with an unbelieavable piece of gear which is Heritage Audio Symph EQ. As you can see, my 2 bus is loaded, and I start mixing into it from the get go. I manipulate the levels just to hit the gear with the right levels. You can consider it "my sound", as you said you'd compensate the mix to kinda fix the master chain anyways. That's exactly what I do. What's the point? The point is that I don't have to listen to the digital crappy sound for hours. The digititis is gone from the first minute, which not only improved my mixes but made me enjoy mixing much more. I mix 80% OTB, and since I started doing so, I mix twice as fast as I was ITB, and my mixes sound much better. If you have tried a compressor feeding another compressor, both doing a bit different thing, please let me know what you think about this idea.
YESSSS. I've tried to articulate this before and felt I got my point across, but now I'll just keep this link on hand to explain it for me.
Fellow mix bus as a "finishing tool" user checking in. Great vid!
Awesome!!!! There was a time when I would be lost listening to something so valuable. Many years later I totally understand everything your saying and its gold!!!!! Thanks!
So beautifully said. Speechless as putting this feeling into words would take away from it. However, if anyone was to take this advice a little seriously, they could swift through their mixes, productions and release their stuff to be heard at desired speed.
@5.35 I do the exact same thing. To hear you say that is encouraging...of course it's taking me longer to learn how to properly mix but even in my apprentice state I can tell the difference in the dynamics. BTW I'm a subscriber to your plugins offer. Thanks bro...I appreciate you.
Totally agree. You should get your balance right and make sure your headroom is 1-2db under 0 on master bus for the whole song. This is so important. Then you can apply whatever compression, eq or saturation you wish.
It's a great feeling when the advice matches up with your original plan.
Very nice coincidence that you bring up the approach to finish everything as well as possible before doing anything on the mixbus since it's exactly my approach in a project i'm doing now. Thanx for great all great mixbus tips to finalize it!
I was wondering about that very same concept tonight as I approach a deadline for my first paid producer gig here at F-Hole Studios. Do I mix with a mastering chain in place or do I ride bareback till I get to that "perfect" balance and then start diving into my Abbey Road? Hehe I said "perfect". Your Technical Philosophy is intriguing and a wander. You present your Ideas openly and with deep thoughtfulness. I appreciate what you share. Thank you Gregory Scott.
I agree with you having way less experience but what I really appreciate is the deliver of your mixing process, very musical aligned and your whispering voice makes me feel that you're telling us a secret so I even pay more attention to it. All your videos are great but "How to listen to compression" video is my favorite
Hi Gregory, Thank you very much for another great video. I love the intro and outro music in your videos. Thank you very much for that.
The way you share your knowledge and personal mixing experience sounds like I'm being told a beautiful story.
It's a very unique and precious natural talent.
Love from Quebec :)
just signed up for the subscription for kush plugins. VERY excited man. Thank you
I dont think I've takenthe time commenting on someones ideas relating to mix bussing, mixing, or anything relating to my work, andI 've been doing it for a long time.
I like what you discussed, I agree with you in theory, and in practice. Well put.
you are my fav teacher . open with your ideas to letting us find what works for our ears . thanks
Thank you for "getting it"! 😃
This resonated with my mix style a lot. I never got into putting plugins on the mix bus except for a limiter. They sound good at first but when I volume match and compare my mixes they always seem a tiny bit mushy compared to the straight mix. Good outboard gear seems to fix that for me. I Use the RND MBP for my colour, compression, widening and limiting and it is absolutely wonderful. It is so nice after spending a long time tweaking a mix to my taste of perfection to send it out into the analogue gear and do the final touches. Often that SSL glue sound to me, at least with the plugins I have tried, just makes my mix sound a bit less defined so gluing the mix in the mix really works better. Nice to hear someone else's process with this.
Many great points and tips in this ramble. I love when i leave a video with thoughts i didnt come to the video for
In retrospect I kept delaying for a while the idea or the "need" to put something on the bus mix from an early stage of the mix, thanks to you Gregory I understand why I delayed it. Mixbus at an early stage, at least for me, is like a bodyguard on a street where there is no danger, only opportunities. I will continue to do two things: 1- make mix buses towards the end 2- I will continue to follow each of your videos. Thank you so much
The entrance of your videos are like a massage in the ears.
Saved to my favorites list for mixing. Greg, you are my audio spirit animal. Nobody gets it and explains it quite like you do. Exactly how I think of mix bus processing too
THANK YOU FOR THIS. can't wait to hear your thoughts adding dynamics while mixing (old school fader riding)
love the new plugin, btw! 🙏
Already watched this but among so many good tips, its here the best description of what I experience with Oxford inflator! the negative values is very good with a already good and harmonic rich mix, im experimenting using this clip off with a soft clipper after (really like standard clip on pro mode) warmy thumpy marvelous! Also im running the mix in parallel with Omega TWK it brings a nice and subtle character!
I ditched everything on the mix bus a few years back and I'm so much happier with my results.
Oozing with awesome knowledge as usual, sir! Finding the balance between "rules", and just figuring out what sounds good and what doesn't, is very tricky when you're still learning. Sometimes, it's easier to trust rules than it is your ears! Learning to trust your ears and bending the norms comes with experience I think.
I know I don't have the ear that you do, but I've been spending a lot of time mixing. And I've come to the same conclusion that you have. Some people may look at it as a minimalist perspective but I think it's more about less is more because what we do is more deliberate and effective. About the only instrument which almost always gets its own separate processing before going to the master bus from me is the drum kit. Once I start throwing stuff onto the master bus I like to have everything rendered out into bounced tracks by then. Because now I'm thinking about a whole different process
I like that terminology. How the internet says thats how it works. And works on so many different applications.
" Use the Hammer with the inferior Pultec that you already have" Gold
love when you whisper the magic insights :)
This is a really useful commentary on the process of mixing for where I'm at.
I 100% agree with this.
I’m doing very nearly the same. Similar chain, though not identical, obviously. But the concept is spot-on.
I do leave a limiter on my 2-bus once I start getting balances, but it’s pulled down 3 dB on input. If I see any activity on it, then I know my intended gain-staging is off somewhere… so it just acts as a safety. But even that doesn’t go on until I’m done getting basic sounds, because I don’t want even that possibly throwing me off what I’m hearing at that early stage, either.
I wasn’t aware that Inflator acts a bit like an expander below 50%; I knew it was doing coloration and harmonics there, but I didn’t know it went that far. It’s always been a bit of a mysterious plug-in, even though it’s “just” a waveshaper.
Anyway, I’ve come back full circle to this very same conclusion just in the past 6 months. They key is getting the initial tracks tonally shaped early on. Then you don’t need so much crap on the back end, where every little small move is exaggerated.
I run into the same issues. I’m glad you brought it up
Thank you for your generosity! It's very evident that you care about the other mixers out there that need a helping hand.
Thank you so much for these videos. The main takeaway for me is, learn to trust yourself.
Incredible advice man, thank you. I have had the Exact same experience when slapping comps and EQs on the bus early, I always end up fighting and shutting them off. Very cool to hear some one else with my same experience when everyone else says to do that.
literally nothing would make me happier then smoking a bowl with you and talking about mixing and music for hours! Must do that sometime in the future😂 but for now thank you for all you do and all the amazing information you give us all we appreciate it more then you could ever understand. you just have this amazing vibe surrounding you that reals people in as soon as they see you and makes everyone instantly love you and want more! keep up the great work man, I know you got great things coming!
I started mixing way back in 1989..... and what ring so true to me from everything you talk about.... is 'the rules'...... I spent years and years playing with mixing desks, multi tracks and then DAWs - so I didn't learn any rules..... I learned to experiment and listen.
Does this ring true with you? .... I never learned what a Compressor does or what a buss mix was.... I played around and knew if I did this or that it changed the sound in ways I liked.... I couldn't explain or teach it..... but my mixes bring musicians to work with me because my sound is different to others.... I was offered work in sound design by the BBC because of how my mixes sound...... its all about the feel for me - not what you "think" you know.
I just wish I could express it in the way you can - I don't have the vocab to do it..... its just refreshing to hear you talk in these terms.
Respect!
So true, at the end it’s about how do we feel about sound and music, congrats
Second time listening to this channel and mheeerrn I just subbed. In the context of this video he just touched my approach.......Your voice is ❤
Glueee, it yourself. Thanks for saying the things that you did Gregory. Much respect.
I just found your channel and I really like it, but I am enough of a newbie that I would like to see you actually do some of these things with an example. That would be more helpful. Your compression video that just focused on a drum track really worked.
Dont give up! Trust me as you learn you will come back to this video and be like "no way this makes sense"! Practice practice practice only way in this art
I mix into a Comp and some Saturation and a master EQ ( I dont touch the master EQ until near the end) I did not learn this from anyone though, I just did it quite early on and it made logical sense to me,so I have kept doing it. Important to note, settings on the MIx bus comp I use are rough and are tweaked at the end
Hello Gregory. I find your process very interesting... Before I bring in the vocalist or solo instrumentalist to record their parts, I make sure my tracks are mixed well especially the drums and bass. Nothing but a mild HP filter on the mix bus. I also add HP filters to the drum buss, bass and synths to clean up the mud. At this point I want the mix to sound good thru the headphones to help inspire the vocalist or instrumentalist. I add saturation, EQ, 1 or 2 db of compression max and maybe an expander/widener on the mix bus for the final mix. I do mostly smooth jazz,, world music or funk.. Luv your work bro. Thanks
I love your advice man, the vibes are incredible and you’ve got some great things to say! It’s funny I work the opposite, I mix top down. I do all my volume automation and figure all the levels out first then do universal EQing on the track and but my mix bus compression is something I figure out at the very end of my mix when there’s only tiny little details that need to be fixed that won’t effect the track too much. Love your work and there’s definitely still stuff I can take from this, thanks for the videos man!
Right on! Yeah, I’ve met a lot of engineers over the decades and no two work the same, and sometimes it’s pretty staggering how differently we can approach things!
Gregory, I hope you are doing better!!! Thanks for this clip, because one gets the feeling that mixing into a compressor is the only way to go. I have never done it. Glad you confirmed I am not insane (for this reason 😁).
Man, your Plugs are phenomenal.
I love the idea of your Mixing concept!
I can't wait to try it!
Thanks for sharing!
this was helpful. my mastering chain is a mess but it works by meticulously going to extremes and then backing off, saturating, then eq'ing, gluing and then pumping. i feel like maybe a good way to achieve "polished" results in the box is to use multiple serial chains that saturate and compress and boost/cut in their own ways, then move on to another one, and if anything is still too harsh or digital, you can use mbdynamics from melda or baby audio smooth and then the 385 enhance, and finish with the softube weiss shit
i do appreciate these talks. very inspiring
Glad I found this channel. Really great teacher
I am absolutely addicted to these videos! I don't know how many I have watched by now. Can't stop! MOAR!!!
Thank you! It does make perfect sense and the whole series about breaking rules is really encouraging. You have covered several areas that have affirmed my own 'rule breaking' practices. I am still learning as I go along but have become more confident about following my instincts. I reminded myself of how, when I was younger, I used to experiment with connecting anything I had lying around to anything I had lying around to see what sound it would make and tried to adopt that approach when mixing. My mix bus processing has been steadily shrinking with each new project and lately all I use on there is Blyss - it provides just enough of that elusive something without messing with the shape of the track. Many thanks for sharing your ramblings, please keep them coming.
Great insight on the eventuality of using a mixbus comp early in the mix! Am sooo with you on what you are saying here and on the reasons why it does not work for you. Had the same experiences that you describe and stopped doing it. Now using them only at the very end of the mix, looking for a tiny more of density and mids tone getting a tiny bit forward, that's all. Another great video Gregory, love from Italy!
I think of mix bus processing in the exact same way. Didn’t actually know whether I was handling the “right” way or not. But this was super validating. Love your approach and style of mixing. Can’t wait until I can afford some of that hardware.
I've always done it the way you do. I try to make the mix sound good before the mix bus processing is applied. Then I apply it to get that extra 10%.
However, I'm considering trying top down mixing to see if I like it. I tend to be a big picture/global thinker. So top down may work for me. If not, I'll just go back to what I was doing before. The only thing I don't like about the way I was doing it is that sometimes if you apply mix bus processing at the end it causes certain instruments or frequencies to jump out in unexpected ways.
hello. im copy-pasting what i commented above :
Nice video man, and thanks for sharing your workflow. Some of the times I mix into the mixbus comp-eq-saturation, sometimes i turn them on during the mix and some of the times i leave the mixbus empty and add later, just like you described. I dont have a rule. The song or project dictates that to me.
For example, if im mixing an album of lets say 10 songs and im not familiar with the content, the first song im mixing is usualy the one that tells me what is going to happen. So on that first song I leave the mixbus processing for last. Then the second and third song I kind of throw in the mixbus processors i used in song 1 , at 80% of the mix and at 20% respectively.
From that point on, 4th song I mix with the processors on. But I mix with lots of headroom. If anything sounds weird i on-off the mixbus plugins and re-adjust when needed and maybe add or replace some processors. By song 5 i have established the rules of the mix and the possibilities of the mixbus (and other busses too).
When the whole album is done I have a complete idea of what the mixbus should be doing and sometimes songs 8-9-10 might tell me how to correct or re-adjust songs 1-2-3. Its what I call an organic process where the sound of an album is cohesive throughout and a song's minor change/addition can be benefical to the rest of them.
You've resuscitated me. As always awesome. Thanks!!!
Glad to hear it!
Excellent thank you. I like that you include the goal aspect as opposed to it being about gear. Although I don’t have magic hardware, i can shoot for a similar experience with what i have. What the ear doesn’t miss, the heart wont mind.
4:10
"This is just work flow."
That is exactly the attitude to all of this stuff. Nothing matters except the end result!
I dig your way of talking about geek stuff man. I tend to agree with you about mix buss compression. It's a finishing tool, not a mixing tool. That's the way I have always mixed, but occasionally I have tried "top down" mixing, but as you say, I just end up fighting the mix buss processing while I'm trying to establish tonal, spatial, and dynamic aspects of the mix. It definitely works for me to use mix buss processing to finish, to polish the mostly complete mix. And I know what you mean about Inflator. It does the most amazing things!