Man, since I found your channel I have not stopped watching your videos over and over, and every time I am just thinking “no wonder why my music sounds like shit”😂… I can truly thank you enough. I have unsubscribed of so many channels that I have now realized are just bad unprofessional advice 🤙🏼
I had to learn this the hard way unfortunately. Spent 3-4 years in the beginning of my music career going from one click-bait "THE ONLY EQ COMPRESSION TRICK YOU'LL EVER NEED FOR YOUR MIX" video to another. And every time I thought "This is the one! Finally my mixes won't sound like dog 💩". And you're absolutely right. What these UA-camrs omit is that their YT sponsorships generate more money for them than their music itself. It's really a shame. Thank you for another unique video. You sir are a revolutionary in this field. Keep it up. Much love from Ottawa 🇨🇦🍻 - Sam
It took me so long to understand what compression did, and I don't think I was able to audibly perceive it's effects (when gain matched) until it finally was clear to me what it was doing. Probably because because before I understood it, my perception of it was really just Dr. Dre's beats and his low end, but had no sense of what it's role was in music beyond that.
My favourite thing about your channel is the style of music you work on. I won't say you are the only channel who does this level of quality content. It's quite saturated. But, I don't know anyone who does it like you in this style of music. Most others who make tutorials on similar genres are either not good at what they do as professionals or they are clickbaiting. I really love Bound To Divide and PML as well. You three are the ultimate tutorial trio for me. (I am at core a classical/jazz and rock/blues/ballad rock fan but dance music is my favourite thing to do. Mostly because that's all I can do)
I just love your approach to giving advice by focusing on the philosophies & emotions and thereby redirecting the process back towards it being all about the art. This is extremely important to hear. Thank you, mate. PS love what Gregory Scott & Dan Worrall are doing as well.
Having done digital art a lot longer than music, I never want to buy software/new gear. My mindset is already: "I wouldn't keep buying different art software now, would I? It's about how I use my pen." Not a one to one comparison, but it does seem like everyone in the music space likes burning dosh. Also, thank you for putting me on to the dragonfly reverbs, they're amazingly free and wonderful.
i was a fine arts student and i have to tell you buying new paints or brushes or markers was such a fun part of it. i can see digital art being a bit different, but i am sure there are plugins and such being developed all the time to do interesting things digitally.
@Nova_Afterglow yeah of course there's lots of cool stuff out there. Was more thinking having good fundamentals kind of logic. I also didn't like buying supplies cus they're expensive lol. All kinds of artists out there, makes the world interesting.
You had me at "music may be more of a 'dark art' than engineering..." 🤣 Hey, fwiw, after watching every single mixing tutorial on UA-cam in the past 3 years, I can indeed confirm that it all *finally* begins to make sense! Did you know a 100Hz low boost on a Pultec ramps all the way up to 1k?? Why did it take 30 tutorials to find out?? 😅 In the old days, it came down to whether your mentor knew what he was doing. Now it comes down to whether you can figure out which guy *that* is? Love your channel and perspectives, thanks!
And, as you say there are no rules in audio. If you haven't heard "The Sky is a Neighborhood" by Foo Fighters, it's definitely worth consideration in context of your observation. It was an eye opener for me as an aspiring engineer!
@RainbowRadioLab oh really? I still think colour and shape is a great sounding album. I remember back in university I could hear egregious clipping on the "nothing left to lose" album and hated it haha.
@@Bthelick I grew up watching my dad produce radio and tv jungles in the 70s. Everything was opposite back then- they fought to keep it clean, quiet, uncolored. Now we destroy it on purpose just trying to evoke those old vibes. Lol, the day I noticed the saturation on "Wash it all Away" by Five Finger Death Punch! 😯
I've got to say, this is the best mixing video I've seen on here because you actually address the questions we all really have in our minds and gave us a mindset to tackle mixing with. I appreciate the work 👏🏽
Just posted this on the socials mate, very clear, concise, zoomed out view of what this game is all about.... Epic teaching fella, perspective.... ledge ❤
Every producer should watch this video on day one😂 I really had a hard time in the beginning, binge watching these f*kn tutorials. This video confirmed some of my assumptions i made over time and it feels like such a relief. Thank you for this man, it really gives me peace of mind! BIG SUB and I will look forward to watch more of your videos, these type of videos help more than anything else on YT. Much Love❤
I've been watching your videos for a couple months but it's my first time writing a comment. Just want to say that videos like this one are so insightful and helpful for new producers. This is the best edm production channel on youtube to me, cheers!
Dynamite content once again. I believe that one driver behind the massive amount of mixing tutorials is the demand for them. For the average rookie producer it’s tempting to think that making a quick fix can magically turn the track around. In contrast, getting down to business with the music feels like a longer road which results in the consumption of the mixing videos. This in turn makes them a lucrative category for UA-camrs. As you layed brilliantly out this is not in the best service for us studying the art. Once again a big round of applause to you for thinking about what we ought to focus on - not what seems to get the easiest streams. Mad respect ! ❤
So so true. The recommended channels are pure gold, and I've been following them for a few years. It's a market and people want to sell you stuff, in good or bad faith, it does not matter. We have access today to so much stuff, even free, that back in the day would have cost us like a couple of mansions. Learn the tools, and acquire taste. A pro is still a pro even with 'amateur', 'super cheap' tools. If you gave Eddie Van Halen or Keith Emerson a €20 guitar/keyboard, they would have made a masterpiece regardless, and you take an inexperienced, and talentless chap and leave him in Abbey Road for a week, you will most likely get a sub-par work. Nobody cares what you use, but they might care that you make them FEEL something inside, which does not come from any specific plugin, outboard gear or presets, but it come from YOU!
Surprisingly, I found a trick from a UA-cam mixing tutorial that changed everything for me. It showed how to create an EQ filter that mimics the frequency range of small speakers(portable, iPhone, etc.). Referencing this filter helped me quickly learn what sounds translate to common speakers systems. Now, I can browse samples and know immediately what will and won’t translate. I can also make mixing decisions with more confidence. It helped me understand that there is no single mixing technique that will work with every sound and/or song. Every project is different, so you need to use your ears(and references!). I still make tons of mistakes, but this certainly helped. I highly recommend if you haven’t already. Edit: please read replies!
I do recommend that in my reference video, but for completely different reasons, like you say every situation is different, and on my channel I mostly cover club music, such a filter only lets you judge mid range translation, which doesn't help with any genre that relies on sub bass like club music. If you use that filter to make dance music all your basses will cover the lower mid range which will make it impossible to have a clean & clear low end. Also when making any genre of music at 'commercial' level that sub low end is key to the final tracks loudness, so I don't ever recommend starting with it. As I recommend you start with the low end to build the track upon, and the sub is the first thing that must be sorted. It's useful for pop music , we used to use it for 'radio' translation , I suppose now you could use it for phone speaker translation.
@@Bthelick I totally agree. I should’ve added it’s still incredibly important to use headphones and/or studio monitors(something with low end capabilities). In fact, I use another filter to cut off mid and high frequencies so I can hear what the low end sounds like. If you only reference the small speaker EQ filter, then your mixes will come out sounding weak. Referencing both just helps me ensure everything will sound ok on both large and small speakers. I’ll have to check out your reference video for sure. I’ll also have to try building a track starting with the low end 👍
I'm also guilty of having spent countless hours watching mixing tutorials on UA-cam. And while I've gotten considerably better at setting levels, EQing and compression, it's daunting me that most of my problems really come from poor sound selection and writing. I think I keep creating issues that simply cannot be fixed by mixing tricks. For instance, I suck at pads and I'm not even sure why. I guess it's a mix of being drawn to "full" and "lush" sounding patches and writing parts that sound cool on their own, but are too dense to work with other sounds that I need them to work with. More generally, I'm probably focussing too much on single instruments and parts while losing sight of the big picture. I might just be writing small solo pieces for all instruments rather than one cohesive piece for the ensemble. On the bright side, I've gotten more serious about breaking down the arragements of some of my favorite tracks to see what makes them work. I've also been trying to recreate a few of them. It has been fun and frustrating at the same time. And I feel like I'm learning something.
Maybe this is the most important video, a hobby musician could ever watch. And I think what even preceded those this-vocal-trick-videos were forums like Gearslutz where you would find 1 useful advice by a professional located between 20 posts by people that only wrote for the sake of having talked about their hobby to other hobbyists. But I'm not complaining about this since becoming pro involves to spend resources on getting educated so there are no claims to assert for a hobbyist anyway.
Great message as always. If only you'd released it before black Friday/week/ month you'd have saved me 100 quid wasting cash on different versions of shit I already own to make my mixes sound as shit as they already do. 😂
Love it! Well explained. Such an important point!! Your teaching style is one of the freshest takes as you approach the process from a more holistic work flow and clarify what you’re trying to do for good music, not for good use of various tactics or tools in your tool belt. Even things considered standard practice like ‘limiter on master’ you say why and explain a better approach and what you’re trying to actually achieve here. Thanks for helping us navigate the maze of music production more effectively!! 😊
This video is just wow - thanks for sharing all that sonic wisdom. I just find it a bit ironic that 2 plugins, recommended by many for mixing and mastering are displayed throughout :-)
Interesting - I've tried to use compression on things because it seems to be what everyone does to get loudness or punch in electronic music - and when I level match and A/B it always sounds either the same or worse.
Yup. Just not very useful in this genre. It's almost essential in rock and band music still, but I have no idea how the advice is prevalent in electronic music.
I feel like this is something that lies implicitly within the industry. Anyone new to music production with no network will be subject to this. Myself back in the day included. Many years of hazing around to find the golden technique for perfect sound, not knowing that experimenting and just listening was the most valueable thing i would acquire. I also think this is something that makes the dunning-kruger effect VERY present for beginner/intermediate producers. This should be spoken more of.
good one, bruv ;) good points about moving focus to vibe from tech. some true about dumb ways to use plugins but also i can't agree with some of moments here mmmm yep. green maybe is not the same for every human being. but here is the thing. some of sound producers are gathering stadiums of visitors. some of them rotating on radio stations. and their tracks are being balanced for "today's trend style" to be approved material for "mass media public playback". i know most of stadium visitors r not getting central parter and not getting best spot to listern soundsystem, so they just having a pretty drunk good time or some like that and they kinda dont rly care a lot. i know ;) probably diferent sound producers hear diferent but managers and promoters looking for quality result. so some kind of technology kowlages are necessary for producing that kind of result. if u create danse music it must makes u danse. i spended a lot of first years creating chillout tracks. its rly ez to create good melodic cute chill. but i got lots of troubles when i started trying "feel the groove drop the bass" style i have 2 cores 1ghz CPU on my laptop. and it's not enough. i can't do "3 tracks+sub bus+master+send effect" VST chain without "eco" button on plugins. so i cant even think about 8tracks producing. yeh its not a popular laptop model but the same problem will be on middle performance CPUs if u have 20+ tracks in ur project *speaking of VST chain - thank u for VST video. helped a lot. anyway all other points r great thank u for video hope my feedback dont feels rude, my point here is to explain what else kinds of puzzle pieses people having deal with =)
The same principle applies to music career success. It is heavily context dependent. How many of us has put a ton of time and money into trying to mimic someone else’s success and failed, and finally realized that we were trying to live someone else’s life? With a different context, family, job, personal circumstances and background, but trying to accomplish the same doing the same. Nonsense. Pretty much like trying to sound alike applying a blind recipe to a completely different sonic material. Excellent video BTW. I 100% concur with those that said here that your channel is absolutely unique, genuine and top class in the space.
I'm in this music producing game a log time... last week I've made my first real mastering channel for Cubase Pro with stock plugins for a friend to compare Bitwig and Ableton with Cubase Pro. And guess what...they are sound exactly the same as all the expensive plugins I own and as the other DAWs. It's the ears, the sound (my sound) and experience with your sound and of course comparisation with others ;)
Indeed. I did a similar experiment in the early 2000s as I was a music software salesman so I had access to 7 daws at the time. They all spat out the same file.
Was on my way to find another of your vids and saw this. Wow but you talk such a huge amount of sense! A few comments: if you haven't already, I'd love it if you brought your great explanations to the difference between limiting and compression - perhaps even to include "expanders". They all seem to share things in common. Gain staging. In the age of the DAW (mine uses 32 bit floating point precision) it seems that so much talk about "levels" and clipping and etc. are completely irrelevant or outdated. Would be really interested on your take on that too. While still very much a beginner, I have just been going back through some first attempts at mixing, and instead of worrying about "values", I'm grabbing controls and tweaking them until "that sounds better" rather than worry about what the actual setting is. Keep up the great work! Off to watch your other vid now :)
Thanks. Yes a limiter is really just a compressor with an infinite ratio. An expander is a kind of 'reverse' compressor reducing level under a threshold instead of over. I went pretty heavy into clipping etc in my video "how to not master your music" ua-cam.com/video/s2zQ8r1Tjao/v-deo.htmlsi=RtZ_zEk9DZ-69pNK Sounds like you're already getting it though, as that video is to show exactly why the numbers don't matter 👊
Not sure if our conversation yesterday was the inspiration for this video but it was a great watch and very relatable and relevant for me, great work as always
about that compression thing. I personally Use compression on my kickdrum, but with quite a heavy attack time, so the initial punch comes through uncompressed, and then it gets quieter. technically you could also do that with a transient shaper, but isnt that like almost the same as a compressor. for those creative ways you can use compression, and thats what i saw a lot from tutorials.
Yes there's lots of ways of achieving that. You are simply changing the ratio of transient and kick body. But it's all dependent on things like how much of the track is dependent on that transient for drive or that body for sub content, it's never something I'm going to recommend to beginners they are always better off leaving compression alone imo. There's a million kick choices out there it's always going to get better results picking a better kick with the attack you need than trying to manipulate one with a compressor and losing your low end.
@@Bthelick thank you, because for me personally i was always more or less in the opinion, that compressing the shit out of your kick, is the only way to make it Sound "good" and dont get me wrong, ive gotten gold examples, i am quite satisfied with my kicks tbh. But i always kinda thought there might be better ways, but i have not figured them out yet
8:54 About compression. You can achieve the same result with volumes, right? Let me give you an example: a compressor in the percussion group starts to work with the loudest part, the claps for example. Instead of simply compressing, I would lower the volume of those claps. Is this correct or, as we have been hearing all the time, the compressor gives you a more “glued” sound? Would compressing the percussion bus somehow improve the mix before mastering or can everything be solved with the right levels? If what I say makes sense and bus compression is not better than correct levels, would it be the same case if we talk about bus limiting? Thank you so much, as always awesome explanation!!
Kinda yeah, they are different results , but the approach you describe there would be how I go about it first, get the right sounds at the right balance and If it's already grooving then I leave it alone. Compression is different in that it would result in all elements being modulated by the loudest, for example 16th shakers would probably be ducked by the louder off beat 8th hat, which changes the groove somewhat, usually it's not a preferable groove for me as that 16th role is usually to add pace energy and be constant imo. Also the artifacts of compression will usually 'smush' the sound, changing the release shape of the sound, changing the groove further. It's the kind of thing you would need to account for ahead of time when picking the sounds, like deliberately choosing sounds that are too short or transient having that eventual effect in mind. Personally I find it far easier and just add effective to get it right at the selection stage, it's also easier to judge that in context as the track plays too.
@@Bthelick thank you so much!!! I just think it is easier to get the overall drums dynamics/groove with levels, like doing it manual. I find compression useful for individual sounds like softening a snare attack or shortening the kick.
I got better at producing by just listening to these videos. The ultimate mixing lesson. Every song every sample is different. There isnt one trick for mixing its a constant evolving art that is case specific.
Yup you got it. As long as you're thinking in that way, you will be engaging in active listening to figure out what is different & appropriate to your current situation, As opposed to blindly applying a pre set 'solution'. That should speed up your ear education greatly 👊
Ben. The ideas that you express here about compression helped me be able to solidify and verbalize what I suspect to be the reason I dislike the way most of the machines that Elektron makes sound, and I suspect this is why many others seem to dislike the elektron "character" as well. I suspect that Elektron has engineered a master compressor on the main outs of most of their hardware and that it's clamping down so far that it basically strips the output of any dynamics that could have helped inform the level of energy a track has. So without processing the output to counteract that everything coming out of them sounds extremely flat and just meh. Also some of their effects just sound super digital, but that has nothing to do with my theory about the elektron "character" because even without using any of the effects I still feel the output has that lifelessness to it.
The LA-2A Version is pure Sound coloration tool that can be used on every BUSS in my opinion for the GEAR PORN part been said by a 19 year long mix and mastering engineer
On my next production I'll try 3 different master chains: one free plugins only, one with Ozone manually set by me, and one with Ozone with A.I. with EDM as a reference genre, then I'll send them to my buddy who's a sound engineer, and I bet he won't be able to tell the difference
I suffer so hard from that lucy problem I have a lot of technically working ideas and stuff. but i lack the ear training to actually get it. and i try so hard to train my ears, but its hard, and its so frustrating
100% THIS!!! I've always thought that mixing tutorials are useless because most do not tech you what you actually need to know: PRACTICE and EXPERIENCE and constant ability to LISTEN allt he time when you hear any sound or step into a new acoustic space.. always listening. always learning. And that only happens by doing the thing for extended periods of time. Because that's hard to put in a YT video. It's easier to say "do this, then do that, use this plugin and put some 1k here and tadaa!"... which teaches you nothing about mixing. Mixing needs VISION it need trained ear that goes "this is the sound I got, this is what it SHOULD sound like and THIS is what i need to do to fix it" which is different every single time and only way to learn whats good sound and what's not is EXPERIENCE and LISTENING. I can do passable announcer/host sound for esports because I have an idea of what in MY OPINION is good sound that I'm able to listen for hours. I can step into a new space and immediately tune myself into the acoustics of that space and where i'm hearing issues and what kinds, because i've done audio for so song that my ears (or more like my brain) have trained themselves to listen and cut into bits what i'm hearing and try to understand why. And when you've done it enough, it starts to become automatic. One should be watching YT video and immediately go like "hey, this guy clearly has the mic in front of their mouths because there are these particular problems and they should move the mic like this to fix it" without even thinking about it... Pick apart everything you hear, pay attention... Then you get your VISION because you start to understand what good sound is like and how to get there.
Your content is always thought-provoking and insightful. There's a universe of things to be learned related to production, but every time I watch on eof your videos I feel less overwhelmed, more inspired and more confident in my production journey. Thank you!
I found using new plugins all the time can be fun but it really distracts from making music. So I stopped trying them and I’m trying to get the best sound with the least extra processing, aka mixing. More focus on sound selection and what fits together nicely. What doesn’t fit can’t be fixed with mixing tricks and tools and what does fit already sounds great without. So this year no Black Friday stuff, except for a new better headphone. And I removed 90% of the plugins I had installed, just Ableton stuff, Kontakt and Serum. Those have enough options to stay busy for a lifetime 😂
I've been really struggling to mix my music properly. I have the basic knowledge on how to do it, but I end up just using a mixture of soundgoodizer, maximus, and some compression plugins. I've just been told to make sure the song isn't clipping (going above like -5db or whatever, make sure the highs aren't clipping (maximus helps with this) but in the end, my music still sounds shitty and non-professional.
Sounds like you might see an improvement by using different samples/sounds. If you are making house all you need is some really high quality classic drum machines sample packs (tr 707,808,909,linndrum etc.) and only look for modern kick drums that are punchier and less processed than the crap you might find in older vengeance packs for example. Swing and shuffle your drums if you dont already do might be another way to make your music sound less amateur along with making drum fills. Another thing you might want to try is referencing. If you do that you will learn to analyze and it will help you a lot in decision making down the line. Stopping the use of soundgoodizer, maximus and compression goes without saying. Try using it less for starters. Imo these are the easiest things you can start with and you will see improvement.
Well that's the problem right there. Take it all off. The fact you're having to lean on that is the red flag. That's 3 layers of sunday's processing there. It means you're trying to bend/force the wrong sounds into something else, instead of just starting with different sounds. It's also bad for your ear education because you're going to be getting used to squashed versions of everything, Like I say practice your referencing, sounds selection, writing and arrangement. My tracks have little mixes and no mastering at all. It's all in the sounds. Also See my video on clipping, called "how to not master your music" so you understand why you've been told that.
Simplify everything down, use a limited number of drum sounds, one bass sound, one sound for a melody and one for chords. Rather than looking to add a new sound to create interest in your track, look at what you already have and ask yourself, can I achieve this by modifying what I already have? Add a note, remove a note, shift a note to another position, change the velocity of a note etc. Use your music writing skills to create interest, not by adding new sounds. The more sounds, the more complex the track will be to mix. He talks about psychoacoustics in this video and this is really important concept to understand, when it comes to mixing and sound production. You have to understand, you are not trying to create a gnarly bass sound, what should be creating a very controlled bass that gives the listener the illusion that it is a gnarly bass sound. A good mix starts before compression, eq etc. it starts within the writing of the music, where the notes are placed, the octave etc. For example if you play your melody in the same octave range as your chords, it's going to be harder to mix the two but if the melody is in a higher octave range than the chords it has more space to breath. Look at your music as a whole, your bass, melody, chords. When you add them all together, how many notes are all stacking on top of eachother? You need to also think of creating space within how the music is written, where each note is placed, and not just in eq frequency ranges. Anyway keep at it, don't let it drag you down, we all go through this at some stage. Hopefully some of what I wrote will make some sense to you. ✌
Interesting take, but what if watching mix tutorials IS a part of "ear education"? I would be surprised if anyone watched a mix tutorial and then went to go mix that same song from the tutorial. They're mixing other stuff, the tutorial is just a reference, it's context, it's ear training and brain training. When the tutorial says "Now I hear abc so I do xyz" the watcher doesn't have to also hear abc in that tutorial, as long as they're learning what abc and xyz actually are. They're adding more tools to their box exactly as you suggested so that WHEN the watcher eventually hears abc, they remember that xyz might be a useful response.
It is part of the ear training yes. The title is only a question. As I say in the video it's more about the mindset of your education and recognizing the context (or lack of), as many newcomers fall into the hammer and nail trap of seeking the wrong solutions to the wrong problems.
The hardest lesson I learned is that you need to sift out people who are willing to post or stream their process from scratch and just sit down and watch it for 4 hours straight lol. Then taking away the process, not the techniques.
Haha yeah I'm sorry. I did consider you, just apparently not all of you! I actually started with orange, and upon researching colour blindness found that was a bad choice so I swapped it to what looked better, but I didn't realise there were multiple types 🤦♂️
I think you're making a great overall point but I personally don't agree with your anti-compressor argument. First of all my sounds are not from splice. I use synths or raw oldschool samples and process them myself, so a lot of reshaping takes place. I like to work like that. That's part of my style. So I need compression for that. But even the moments I import some more "modern" kind of sample or loop I wanna be in control of the dynamics, you know? Yeah, they have been designed to have good dynamics already, but as you said before with pre-mixed sample-presets, it's all about the context of the rest of the music. No one can make a sample that just works in every situation. Compression and expansion are the tools to make it work for your context. Not because I've been told so, because I experience it over and over again
Yes the was actually the point, I'm not anti compression, I'm anti blind compression. If you understand it, have an ear for dynamics and can recognize the contexts it's useful in then of course compression is valuable. I just find in those 'flavor' or enhancement type arguments it's usually the type of difference only other engineers (trained ears) appreciate and is not going to make much difference to the performance of the track to a real audience. One of the many reasons I tell beginners not to bother.
@@Bthelick I do think every compressor has its own flavour, but sure, you have to be able to hear that to appreciate it, and as you said in some other part of your video, don't just assume that some potentially cool flavour is always the right flavour
Maybe I've been watching different mixing tutorials but most of the ones I have seen focus on getting the sound to look right in the spectrum analyser rather than what it sounds like to the ear and from what I can tell (and I suspect I'm going to be corrected quite quickly) there is a fairly standard way that a track should "look" for it to sound good to the majority of people most of the time?
Mixing with your eyes is very tempting and a natural tenancy when your ears / environment aren't up to par, but it's a very dangerous route, it's impossible to mix deaf you should never rely on a meter of any kind. None of our visual tools behave anything like our ears and brain. And our eyes themselves don't behave like our ears at all. See my video on "how to not master your music" I explain this problem there 👊
I have the feeling that I have made significant progress in my ear training, thanks to you! Do you perhaps know a good book that helps with this situation? Greetings!
I'm not sure a book is the best solution for ear training. It's a practical practice! Websites like sound gym and tone gym are a better direction imo. Something interactive with live aural feedback so the brain can train with sound.
All fair points. But I must say that majority of manuals for plug-ins and tutorials that I read/watched during last 25 years of my audio education have disclaimer saying that any preset should be just a starting point for your own project as context is king and there are no magic wands or super one click solutions in the world of audio engineering. These days i watch lot less of these so maybe now it's different?
It seems you are in the better echo bubble then. Newcomers who are searching for the wrong solutions to problems they don't have , are bombarded with solutions from those who are better at click-bait than they are teachers, and are absolutely promising magic wand solutions. This is just a general warning to switch up the mindset of those trapped in that cycle.
Not all mix tutorials are useless. But the tricks, hacks and 'advanced' techniques are BS. A thoughtful application of the basics is what's really needed.
So, if there’s no 'correct' answer because it’s art, is there any point in using reference tracks? Shouldn't we figure out what we like and create on our own ?
It's a good point, but for club music it has to work in its desired destination if you're making art for a career. So referencing gets you in the ball park without having to test it live first.
Mixing is an ear training problem, not a technique problem.
Man, since I found your channel I have not stopped watching your videos over and over, and every time I am just thinking “no wonder why my music sounds like shit”😂… I can truly thank you enough. I have unsubscribed of so many channels that I have now realized are just bad unprofessional advice 🤙🏼
I had to learn this the hard way unfortunately. Spent 3-4 years in the beginning of my music career going from one click-bait "THE ONLY EQ COMPRESSION TRICK YOU'LL EVER NEED FOR YOUR MIX" video to another. And every time I thought "This is the one! Finally my mixes won't sound like dog 💩". And you're absolutely right. What these UA-camrs omit is that their YT sponsorships generate more money for them than their music itself. It's really a shame. Thank you for another unique video. You sir are a revolutionary in this field. Keep it up. Much love from Ottawa 🇨🇦🍻 - Sam
Well didn't we all!
that's part of the paradox, if you don't understand the problem, you'll inevitably search for the wrong solutions!
It took me so long to understand what compression did, and I don't think I was able to audibly perceive it's effects (when gain matched) until it finally was clear to me what it was doing. Probably because because before I understood it, my perception of it was really just Dr. Dre's beats and his low end, but had no sense of what it's role was in music beyond that.
"this is Art, there are no correct answers" Brilliant!!! 👍👍❤
My favourite thing about your channel is the style of music you work on. I won't say you are the only channel who does this level of quality content. It's quite saturated. But, I don't know anyone who does it like you in this style of music. Most others who make tutorials on similar genres are either not good at what they do as professionals or they are clickbaiting. I really love Bound To Divide and PML as well.
You three are the ultimate tutorial trio for me.
(I am at core a classical/jazz and rock/blues/ballad rock fan but dance music is my favourite thing to do. Mostly because that's all I can do)
Yes! PML, BTD and B are the best teachers I've seen by far on UA-cam.
I just love your approach to giving advice by focusing on the philosophies & emotions and thereby redirecting the process back towards it being all about the art. This is extremely important to hear. Thank you, mate. PS love what Gregory Scott & Dan Worrall are doing as well.
and how well it helps is certainly special
Having done digital art a lot longer than music, I never want to buy software/new gear. My mindset is already: "I wouldn't keep buying different art software now, would I? It's about how I use my pen." Not a one to one comparison, but it does seem like everyone in the music space likes burning dosh. Also, thank you for putting me on to the dragonfly reverbs, they're amazingly free and wonderful.
i was a fine arts student and i have to tell you buying new paints or brushes or markers was such a fun part of it. i can see digital art being a bit different, but i am sure there are plugins and such being developed all the time to do interesting things digitally.
@Nova_Afterglow yeah of course there's lots of cool stuff out there. Was more thinking having good fundamentals kind of logic. I also didn't like buying supplies cus they're expensive lol. All kinds of artists out there, makes the world interesting.
You had me at "music may be more of a 'dark art' than engineering..." 🤣
Hey, fwiw, after watching every single mixing tutorial on UA-cam in the past 3 years, I can indeed confirm that it all *finally* begins to make sense! Did you know a 100Hz low boost on a Pultec ramps all the way up to 1k?? Why did it take 30 tutorials to find out?? 😅
In the old days, it came down to whether your mentor knew what he was doing. Now it comes down to whether you can figure out which guy *that* is?
Love your channel and perspectives, thanks!
And, as you say there are no rules in audio. If you haven't heard "The Sky is a Neighborhood" by Foo Fighters, it's definitely worth consideration in context of your observation. It was an eye opener for me as an aspiring engineer!
@RainbowRadioLab oh really? I still think colour and shape is a great sounding album. I remember back in university I could hear egregious clipping on the "nothing left to lose" album and hated it haha.
@@Bthelick I grew up watching my dad produce radio and tv jungles in the 70s. Everything was opposite back then- they fought to keep it clean, quiet, uncolored. Now we destroy it on purpose just trying to evoke those old vibes. Lol, the day I noticed the saturation on "Wash it all Away" by Five Finger Death Punch! 😯
I've got to say, this is the best mixing video I've seen on here because you actually address the questions we all really have in our minds and gave us a mindset to tackle mixing with. I appreciate the work 👏🏽
Just posted this on the socials mate, very clear, concise, zoomed out view of what this game is all about.... Epic teaching fella, perspective.... ledge ❤
By far best music production videos. Sooooo much knowledge and wisdom!!
Every producer should watch this video on day one😂 I really had a hard time in the beginning, binge watching these f*kn tutorials. This video confirmed some of my assumptions i made over time and it feels like such a relief. Thank you for this man, it really gives me peace of mind! BIG SUB and I will look forward to watch more of your videos, these type of videos help more than anything else on YT. Much Love❤
I've been watching your videos for a couple months but it's my first time writing a comment. Just want to say that videos like this one are so insightful and helpful for new producers. This is the best edm production channel on youtube to me, cheers!
Dynamite content once again. I believe that one driver behind the massive amount of mixing tutorials is the demand for them. For the average rookie producer it’s tempting to think that making a quick fix can magically turn the track around. In contrast, getting down to business with the music feels like a longer road which results in the consumption of the mixing videos. This in turn makes them a lucrative category for UA-camrs. As you layed brilliantly out this is not in the best service for us studying the art. Once again a big round of applause to you for thinking about what we ought to focus on - not what seems to get the easiest streams. Mad respect ! ❤
Concurring !
7:55 gave me anxiety attack 😅
I'm so happy we can have decent options regarding CPU and "affordable" decent sounding hardware.
So so true. The recommended channels are pure gold, and I've been following them for a few years. It's a market and people want to sell you stuff, in good or bad faith, it does not matter. We have access today to so much stuff, even free, that back in the day would have cost us like a couple of mansions.
Learn the tools, and acquire taste. A pro is still a pro even with 'amateur', 'super cheap' tools. If you gave Eddie Van Halen or Keith Emerson a €20 guitar/keyboard, they would have made a masterpiece regardless, and you take an inexperienced, and talentless chap and leave him in Abbey Road for a week, you will most likely get a sub-par work.
Nobody cares what you use, but they might care that you make them FEEL something inside, which does not come from any specific plugin, outboard gear or presets, but it come from YOU!
Surprisingly, I found a trick from a UA-cam mixing tutorial that changed everything for me. It showed how to create an EQ filter that mimics the frequency range of small speakers(portable, iPhone, etc.). Referencing this filter helped me quickly learn what sounds translate to common speakers systems.
Now, I can browse samples and know immediately what will and won’t translate. I can also make mixing decisions with more confidence.
It helped me understand that there is no single mixing technique that will work with every sound and/or song. Every project is different, so you need to use your ears(and references!). I still make tons of mistakes, but this certainly helped. I highly recommend if you haven’t already.
Edit: please read replies!
I do recommend that in my reference video, but for completely different reasons, like you say every situation is different, and on my channel I mostly cover club music, such a filter only lets you judge mid range translation, which doesn't help with any genre that relies on sub bass like club music.
If you use that filter to make dance music all your basses will cover the lower mid range which will make it impossible to have a clean & clear low end.
Also when making any genre of music at 'commercial' level that sub low end is key to the final tracks loudness, so I don't ever recommend starting with it. As I recommend you start with the low end to build the track upon, and the sub is the first thing that must be sorted.
It's useful for pop music , we used to use it for 'radio' translation , I suppose now you could use it for phone speaker translation.
@@Bthelick I totally agree. I should’ve added it’s still incredibly important to use headphones and/or studio monitors(something with low end capabilities). In fact, I use another filter to cut off mid and high frequencies so I can hear what the low end sounds like. If you only reference the small speaker EQ filter, then your mixes will come out sounding weak. Referencing both just helps me ensure everything will sound ok on both large and small speakers. I’ll have to check out your reference video for sure. I’ll also have to try building a track starting with the low end 👍
@MateusMachina yes swapping it up is important so your ears don't settle. I went over the very method in the three Rs video.
I'm also guilty of having spent countless hours watching mixing tutorials on UA-cam. And while I've gotten considerably better at setting levels, EQing and compression, it's daunting me that most of my problems really come from poor sound selection and writing. I think I keep creating issues that simply cannot be fixed by mixing tricks.
For instance, I suck at pads and I'm not even sure why. I guess it's a mix of being drawn to "full" and "lush" sounding patches and writing parts that sound cool on their own, but are too dense to work with other sounds that I need them to work with. More generally, I'm probably focussing too much on single instruments and parts while losing sight of the big picture. I might just be writing small solo pieces for all instruments rather than one cohesive piece for the ensemble.
On the bright side, I've gotten more serious about breaking down the arragements of some of my favorite tracks to see what makes them work. I've also been trying to recreate a few of them. It has been fun and frustrating at the same time. And I feel like I'm learning something.
I recently began to realize this as well. Each song is like fitting a puzzle together. It’s impossible if you pick the wrong pieces.
This is the best electronic music production channel on UA-cam. Please keep doing what you do!
Maybe this is the most important video, a hobby musician could ever watch. And I think what even preceded those this-vocal-trick-videos were forums like Gearslutz where you would find 1 useful advice by a professional located between 20 posts by people that only wrote for the sake of having talked about their hobby to other hobbyists. But I'm not complaining about this since becoming pro involves to spend resources on getting educated so there are no claims to assert for a hobbyist anyway.
Great message as always. If only you'd released it before black Friday/week/ month you'd have saved me 100 quid wasting cash on different versions of shit I already own to make my mixes sound as shit as they already do. 😂
you the man Bthelick! started on ableton again a few months back and your videos are second to none!
keep up the good work mate!
Love it! Well explained. Such an important point!!
Your teaching style is one of the freshest takes as you approach the process from a more holistic work flow and clarify what you’re trying to do for good music, not for good use of various tactics or tools in your tool belt. Even things considered standard practice like ‘limiter on master’ you say why and explain a better approach and what you’re trying to actually achieve here.
Thanks for helping us navigate the maze of music production more effectively!! 😊
This video is great and contains eye-opening advice. THNX again 🧡🔥
Love this so much! Loved every video on your channel so far, it's actual honest insightful advice. Keep doing your thing!
smart stuff right here, the state of parroting in mix tutorials has reached an absurd level
One of the best music production videos ever!
Thank you ❤
It's only been 20 minutes? I mean I like his videos too but...
This video is just wow - thanks for sharing all that sonic wisdom. I just find it a bit ironic that 2 plugins, recommended by many for mixing and mastering are displayed throughout :-)
Which one the LA2A?
Ohhhhh you mean the meters.
This is priceless, you are much more than a youtube tutorial producer, you are a true music mentor, thanks a lot!! ❤
Now I want to watch you do a mix tutorial, cause everything said in this is pretty spot on ^^
Interesting - I've tried to use compression on things because it seems to be what everyone does to get loudness or punch in electronic music - and when I level match and A/B it always sounds either the same or worse.
Yup. Just not very useful in this genre.
It's almost essential in rock and band music still, but I have no idea how the advice is prevalent in electronic music.
Thank you for this. I've been producing for a couol of years now and really needed to hear nearly all of this!
Thank you sir for bringing this up. Have thought about this for so long, and coincidentally made a post about this topic on Reddit about a week ago
I feel like this is something that lies implicitly within the industry. Anyone new to music production with no network will be subject to this. Myself back in the day included. Many years of hazing around to find the golden technique for perfect sound, not knowing that experimenting and just listening was the most valueable thing i would acquire.
I also think this is something that makes the dunning-kruger effect VERY present for beginner/intermediate producers. This should be spoken more of.
These videos have taught me tons, thank you
Thank you for being the messenger. Get's me shot less often in the future. Hopefully :)
good one, bruv ;)
good points about moving focus to vibe from tech.
some true about dumb ways to use plugins
but also i can't agree with some of moments here
mmmm yep. green maybe is not the same for every human being.
but here is the thing. some of sound producers are gathering stadiums of visitors. some of them rotating on radio stations.
and their tracks are being balanced for "today's trend style" to be approved material for "mass media public playback".
i know most of stadium visitors r not getting central parter and not getting best spot to listern soundsystem, so they just having a pretty drunk good time or some like that and they kinda dont rly care a lot. i know ;)
probably diferent sound producers hear diferent but managers and promoters looking for quality result. so some kind of technology kowlages are necessary for producing that kind of result.
if u create danse music it must makes u danse. i spended a lot of first years creating chillout tracks. its rly ez to create good melodic cute chill. but i got lots of troubles when i started trying "feel the groove drop the bass" style
i have 2 cores 1ghz CPU on my laptop. and it's not enough. i can't do "3 tracks+sub bus+master+send effect" VST chain without "eco" button on plugins. so i cant even think about 8tracks producing. yeh its not a popular laptop model but the same problem will be on middle performance CPUs if u have 20+ tracks in ur project
*speaking of VST chain - thank u for VST video. helped a lot.
anyway all other points r great
thank u for video
hope my feedback dont feels rude, my point here is to explain what else kinds of puzzle pieses people having deal with =)
The same principle applies to music career success. It is heavily context dependent. How many of us has put a ton of time and money into trying to mimic someone else’s success and failed, and finally realized that we were trying to live someone else’s life? With a different context, family, job, personal circumstances and background, but trying to accomplish the same doing the same. Nonsense. Pretty much like trying to sound alike applying a blind recipe to a completely different sonic material. Excellent video BTW. I 100% concur with those that said here that your channel is absolutely unique, genuine and top class in the space.
Thank you for making me feel old by reminding me of IRQ's lol
This guy is like guru I was missing along my music journey... years of bad advice went with me :))
Hope ur all having a glorious day! Thanks B for the content :)
Finally an excellent UA-cam channel on audio production
I love this!
100 percent true! respect
I'm in this music producing game a log time... last week I've made my first real mastering channel for Cubase Pro with stock plugins for a friend to compare Bitwig and Ableton with Cubase Pro. And guess what...they are sound exactly the same as all the expensive plugins I own and as the other DAWs. It's the ears, the sound (my sound) and experience with your sound and of course comparisation with others ;)
Indeed.
I did a similar experiment in the early 2000s as I was a music software salesman so I had access to 7 daws at the time. They all spat out the same file.
Was on my way to find another of your vids and saw this. Wow but you talk such a huge amount of sense!
A few comments: if you haven't already, I'd love it if you brought your great explanations to the difference between limiting and compression - perhaps even to include "expanders". They all seem to share things in common.
Gain staging. In the age of the DAW (mine uses 32 bit floating point precision) it seems that so much talk about "levels" and clipping and etc. are completely irrelevant or outdated. Would be really interested on your take on that too.
While still very much a beginner, I have just been going back through some first attempts at mixing, and instead of worrying about "values", I'm grabbing controls and tweaking them until "that sounds better" rather than worry about what the actual setting is.
Keep up the great work! Off to watch your other vid now :)
Thanks. Yes a limiter is really just a compressor with an infinite ratio. An expander is a kind of 'reverse' compressor reducing level under a threshold instead of over.
I went pretty heavy into clipping etc in my video "how to not master your music"
ua-cam.com/video/s2zQ8r1Tjao/v-deo.htmlsi=RtZ_zEk9DZ-69pNK
Sounds like you're already getting it though, as that video is to show exactly why the numbers don't matter 👊
Simultaneously contrast - not optical illusion. It’s the way our brain process colour😊 - amazing video
Ah thanks for the info I wasn't aware of the distinction.
Your channel is simply excellent
Not sure if our conversation yesterday was the inspiration for this video but it was a great watch and very relatable and relevant for me, great work as always
Yes absolutely! Well, this has been a long time coming in truth but our conversation certainly fed into it.
Taming and controlling the harshness frequency range and the sibilants range is the first thing to keep in mind if you want to get a good mix.
Yes definitely. Strong Sibilance fools the ear into thinking vocals are loud enough at that's where our diction detection lies
Thanks for this, your vidoes are great, No BS and very helpful. ...
about that compression thing.
I personally Use compression on my kickdrum, but with quite a heavy attack time, so the initial punch comes through uncompressed, and then it gets quieter. technically you could also do that with a transient shaper, but isnt that like almost the same as a compressor.
for those creative ways you can use compression, and thats what i saw a lot from tutorials.
Yes there's lots of ways of achieving that. You are simply changing the ratio of transient and kick body.
But it's all dependent on things like how much of the track is dependent on that transient for drive or that body for sub content, it's never something I'm going to recommend to beginners they are always better off leaving compression alone imo.
There's a million kick choices out there it's always going to get better results picking a better kick with the attack you need than trying to manipulate one with a compressor and losing your low end.
@@Bthelick thank you, because for me personally i was always more or less in the opinion, that compressing the shit out of your kick, is the only way to make it Sound "good" and dont get me wrong, ive gotten gold examples, i am quite satisfied with my kicks tbh. But i always kinda thought there might be better ways, but i have not figured them out yet
8:54 About compression. You can achieve the same result with volumes, right?
Let me give you an example: a compressor in the percussion group starts to work with the loudest part, the claps for example. Instead of simply compressing, I would lower the volume of those claps.
Is this correct or, as we have been hearing all the time, the compressor gives you a more “glued” sound? Would compressing the percussion bus somehow improve the mix before mastering or can everything be solved with the right levels?
If what I say makes sense and bus compression is not better than correct levels, would it be the same case if we talk about bus limiting?
Thank you so much, as always awesome explanation!!
Kinda yeah, they are different results , but the approach you describe there would be how I go about it first, get the right sounds at the right balance and If it's already grooving then I leave it alone.
Compression is different in that it would result in all elements being modulated by the loudest, for example 16th shakers would probably be ducked by the louder off beat 8th hat, which changes the groove somewhat, usually it's not a preferable groove for me as that 16th role is usually to add pace energy and be constant imo.
Also the artifacts of compression will usually 'smush' the sound, changing the release shape of the sound, changing the groove further.
It's the kind of thing you would need to account for ahead of time when picking the sounds, like deliberately choosing sounds that are too short or transient having that eventual effect in mind.
Personally I find it far easier and just add effective to get it right at the selection stage, it's also easier to judge that in context as the track plays too.
@@Bthelick thank you so much!!! I just think it is easier to get the overall drums dynamics/groove with levels, like doing it manual. I find compression useful for individual sounds like softening a snare attack or shortening the kick.
Чувак, ты лучший из лучших, ты подтвердил мою теорию второй раз🔥
I got better at producing by just listening to these videos.
The ultimate mixing lesson. Every song every sample is different. There isnt one trick for mixing its a constant evolving art that is case specific.
Yup you got it. As long as you're thinking in that way, you will be engaging in active listening to figure out what is different & appropriate to your current situation, As opposed to blindly applying a pre set 'solution'. That should speed up your ear education greatly 👊
appreciate you! @@Bthelick
Amazing! Makes complete sense, thanks for the wisdom!
Ben. The ideas that you express here about compression helped me be able to solidify and verbalize what I suspect to be the reason I dislike the way most of the machines that Elektron makes sound, and I suspect this is why many others seem to dislike the elektron "character" as well. I suspect that Elektron has engineered a master compressor on the main outs of most of their hardware and that it's clamping down so far that it basically strips the output of any dynamics that could have helped inform the level of energy a track has. So without processing the output to counteract that everything coming out of them sounds extremely flat and just meh. Also some of their effects just sound super digital, but that has nothing to do with my theory about the elektron "character" because even without using any of the effects I still feel the output has that lifelessness to it.
what a treat an early video from B!
Thanks a lot for your effort! Very motivating! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Just discovered you and instantly subbed ! 😂 Thanks to the YT recommandation. 🎉
This video is pure poetry... fantastic!!!
The LA-2A Version is pure Sound coloration tool that can be used on every BUSS in my opinion for the GEAR PORN part been said by a 19 year long mix and mastering engineer
On my next production I'll try 3 different master chains: one free plugins only, one with Ozone manually set by me, and one with Ozone with A.I. with EDM as a reference genre, then I'll send them to my buddy who's a sound engineer, and I bet he won't be able to tell the difference
Or do what I do. Nothing on the master. That one always sounds best to me!
I suffer so hard from that lucy problem
I have a lot of technically working ideas and stuff. but i lack the ear training to actually get it. and i try so hard to train my ears, but its hard, and its so frustrating
100% THIS!!!
I've always thought that mixing tutorials are useless because most do not tech you what you actually need to know: PRACTICE and EXPERIENCE and constant ability to LISTEN allt he time when you hear any sound or step into a new acoustic space.. always listening. always learning. And that only happens by doing the thing for extended periods of time.
Because that's hard to put in a YT video.
It's easier to say "do this, then do that, use this plugin and put some 1k here and tadaa!"... which teaches you nothing about mixing.
Mixing needs VISION it need trained ear that goes "this is the sound I got, this is what it SHOULD sound like and THIS is what i need to do to fix it" which is different every single time and only way to learn whats good sound and what's not is EXPERIENCE and LISTENING.
I can do passable announcer/host sound for esports because I have an idea of what in MY OPINION is good sound that I'm able to listen for hours.
I can step into a new space and immediately tune myself into the acoustics of that space and where i'm hearing issues and what kinds, because i've done audio for so song that my ears (or more like my brain) have trained themselves to listen and cut into bits what i'm hearing and try to understand why.
And when you've done it enough, it starts to become automatic. One should be watching YT video and immediately go like "hey, this guy clearly has the mic in front of their mouths because there are these particular problems and they should move the mic like this to fix it" without even thinking about it...
Pick apart everything you hear, pay attention...
Then you get your VISION because you start to understand what good sound is like and how to get there.
great vid
yet again, I'm impressed thank you
That was food for thought.
Your content is always thought-provoking and insightful. There's a universe of things to be learned related to production, but every time I watch on eof your videos I feel less overwhelmed, more inspired and more confident in my production journey. Thank you!
thank you for great information 🙌
Love this mate, definately made me question a things haha!
hah, having done color correction in the past I never tough about the correlation. But it relates a lot with mix translation indeed.
I found using new plugins all the time can be fun but it really distracts from making music. So I stopped trying them and I’m trying to get the best sound with the least extra processing, aka mixing. More focus on sound selection and what fits together nicely. What doesn’t fit can’t be fixed with mixing tricks and tools and what does fit already sounds great without.
So this year no Black Friday stuff, except for a new better headphone. And I removed 90% of the plugins I had installed, just Ableton stuff, Kontakt and Serum. Those have enough options to stay busy for a lifetime 😂
Your style reminded me of Dan Worrall a lot. Great tips here, you have a new sub sir.
Thanks, best compliment you could give, this channel is just me doing my best impression of him but I'm my professional field of dance music.
Dan worral that gets to the point
5:20 Patrick Bateman meets VSTs
Best "mix" tutorial i've seen so far
I've been really struggling to mix my music properly. I have the basic knowledge on how to do it, but I end up just using a mixture of soundgoodizer, maximus, and some compression plugins. I've just been told to make sure the song isn't clipping (going above like -5db or whatever, make sure the highs aren't clipping (maximus helps with this) but in the end, my music still sounds shitty and non-professional.
Sounds like you might see an improvement by using different samples/sounds. If you are making house all you need is some really high quality classic drum machines sample packs (tr 707,808,909,linndrum etc.) and only look for modern kick drums that are punchier and less processed than the crap you might find in older vengeance packs for example. Swing and shuffle your drums if you dont already do might be another way to make your music sound less amateur along with making drum fills.
Another thing you might want to try is referencing. If you do that you will learn to analyze and it will help you a lot in decision making down the line.
Stopping the use of soundgoodizer, maximus and compression goes without saying. Try using it less for starters.
Imo these are the easiest things you can start with and you will see improvement.
Well that's the problem right there. Take it all off. The fact you're having to lean on that is the red flag. That's 3 layers of sunday's processing there. It means you're trying to bend/force the wrong sounds into something else, instead of just starting with different sounds. It's also bad for your ear education because you're going to be getting used to squashed versions of everything,
Like I say practice your referencing, sounds selection, writing and arrangement.
My tracks have little mixes and no mastering at all. It's all in the sounds.
Also See my video on clipping, called "how to not master your music" so you understand why you've been told that.
Simplify everything down, use a limited number of drum sounds, one bass sound, one sound for a melody and one for chords. Rather than looking to add a new sound to create interest in your track, look at what you already have and ask yourself, can I achieve this by modifying what I already have? Add a note, remove a note, shift a note to another position, change the velocity of a note etc. Use your music writing skills to create interest, not by adding new sounds. The more sounds, the more complex the track will be to mix.
He talks about psychoacoustics in this video and this is really important concept to understand, when it comes to mixing and sound production. You have to understand, you are not trying to create a gnarly bass sound, what should be creating a very controlled bass that gives the listener the illusion that it is a gnarly bass sound.
A good mix starts before compression, eq etc. it starts within the writing of the music, where the notes are placed, the octave etc. For example if you play your melody in the same octave range as your chords, it's going to be harder to mix the two but if the melody is in a higher octave range than the chords it has more space to breath.
Look at your music as a whole, your bass, melody, chords. When you add them all together, how many notes are all stacking on top of eachother? You need to also think of creating space within how the music is written, where each note is placed, and not just in eq frequency ranges.
Anyway keep at it, don't let it drag you down, we all go through this at some stage.
Hopefully some of what I wrote will make some sense to you. ✌
Man i love your content. Frkn awesome! 👌🏻
Interesting take, but what if watching mix tutorials IS a part of "ear education"? I would be surprised if anyone watched a mix tutorial and then went to go mix that same song from the tutorial. They're mixing other stuff, the tutorial is just a reference, it's context, it's ear training and brain training. When the tutorial says "Now I hear abc so I do xyz" the watcher doesn't have to also hear abc in that tutorial, as long as they're learning what abc and xyz actually are. They're adding more tools to their box exactly as you suggested so that WHEN the watcher eventually hears abc, they remember that xyz might be a useful response.
It is part of the ear training yes. The title is only a question. As I say in the video it's more about the mindset of your education and recognizing the context (or lack of), as many newcomers fall into the hammer and nail trap of seeking the wrong solutions to the wrong problems.
The hardest lesson I learned is that you need to sift out people who are willing to post or stream their process from scratch and just sit down and watch it for 4 hours straight lol. Then taking away the process, not the techniques.
As a colorblind lad this was a fun start hahaha
Haha yeah I'm sorry. I did consider you, just apparently not all of you!
I actually started with orange, and upon researching colour blindness found that was a bad choice so I swapped it to what looked better, but I didn't realise there were multiple types 🤦♂️
I watched a documentary about a photographer who only worked in black and white but always used a yellow filter when talking pictures of people.
My god this video is GOLD! I love it
Appreciated this video
Dan Worrall and Gregory Scott. I concur.
Nice
Brilliant. I didnt use Compression for the first 20 years I created music and still not that much as it is all in box nowadays.
The Dan Worrall of EDM! Great stuff!
great video as always
I think you're making a great overall point but I personally don't agree with your anti-compressor argument. First of all my sounds are not from splice. I use synths or raw oldschool samples and process them myself, so a lot of reshaping takes place. I like to work like that. That's part of my style. So I need compression for that. But even the moments I import some more "modern" kind of sample or loop I wanna be in control of the dynamics, you know? Yeah, they have been designed to have good dynamics already, but as you said before with pre-mixed sample-presets, it's all about the context of the rest of the music. No one can make a sample that just works in every situation. Compression and expansion are the tools to make it work for your context. Not because I've been told so, because I experience it over and over again
Yes the was actually the point, I'm not anti compression, I'm anti blind compression. If you understand it, have an ear for dynamics and can recognize the contexts it's useful in then of course compression is valuable.
I just find in those 'flavor' or enhancement type arguments it's usually the type of difference only other engineers (trained ears) appreciate and is not going to make much difference to the performance of the track to a real audience. One of the many reasons I tell beginners not to bother.
@@Bthelick I do think every compressor has its own flavour, but sure, you have to be able to hear that to appreciate it, and as you said in some other part of your video, don't just assume that some potentially cool flavour is always the right flavour
Kids need to know!! 😅 Nailed as always 🎉
Oh wow!!!! Thanks ❤ i have just unsubscribed from Streaky 😂😂 and many many more!!😂
🤣🤣
@@Bthelick when i heard u say "high end sparkle" i knew exactly what i neeeded to do. Hahah
Maybe I've been watching different mixing tutorials but most of the ones I have seen focus on getting the sound to look right in the spectrum analyser rather than what it sounds like to the ear and from what I can tell (and I suspect I'm going to be corrected quite quickly) there is a fairly standard way that a track should "look" for it to sound good to the majority of people most of the time?
Mixing with your eyes is very tempting and a natural tenancy when your ears / environment aren't up to par, but it's a very dangerous route, it's impossible to mix deaf you should never rely on a meter of any kind. None of our visual tools behave anything like our ears and brain. And our eyes themselves don't behave like our ears at all.
See my video on "how to not master your music" I explain this problem there 👊
watching in x1.25 is a whole different vibe
Wait, I'm getting a stone and chisel for you.
Yes...ear education!...great...thought provoking...centering...
Grate stuff
That background track is so good! It's making it difficult for me to focus on your voice :(
Hey nothing wrong with that! Haha
I released it under the name "remembrance".
(Extended mixes to come)
I have the feeling that I have made significant progress in my ear training, thanks to you! Do you perhaps know a good book that helps with this situation? Greetings!
I'm not sure a book is the best solution for ear training. It's a practical practice! Websites like sound gym and tone gym are a better direction imo. Something interactive with live aural feedback so the brain can train with sound.
All fair points. But I must say that majority of manuals for plug-ins and tutorials that I read/watched during last 25 years of my audio education have disclaimer saying that any preset should be just a starting point for your own project as context is king and there are no magic wands or super one click solutions in the world of audio engineering. These days i watch lot less of these so maybe now it's different?
It seems you are in the better echo bubble then. Newcomers who are searching for the wrong solutions to problems they don't have , are bombarded with solutions from those who are better at click-bait than they are teachers, and are absolutely promising magic wand solutions. This is just a general warning to switch up the mindset of those trapped in that cycle.
Not all mix tutorials are useless. But the tricks, hacks and 'advanced' techniques are BS. A thoughtful application of the basics is what's really needed.
So, if there’s no 'correct' answer because it’s art, is there any point in using reference tracks? Shouldn't we figure out what we like and create on our own ?
It's a good point, but for club music it has to work in its desired destination if you're making art for a career. So referencing gets you in the ball park without having to test it live first.