I was beginning to think Serban was a mythological character, spoken about in fables by engineers. Now I know he's an actual real guy! It's great to finally hear him speak...I'd love to hear more from him.
Serban and I have know each other since 7th grade back in Montreal. Not only is he talented mix engineer, but he's an amazing guitar player (he gave lessons to my brother and me). He was also the repair tech at Musicircle back when we were at CEGEP, the pros starting bring their guitars to Serban. But most of all, he's genuinely a real great dude.
4:59 It’s true, and it’s actually not all bad-if you’ve achieved something with 8 plugins quickly, you can then start cleaning it up to preserve the result you’ve ALREADY HEARD with just 3. I used to do the same with reverb. I’m even thinking sometimes: what if I slap reverb on the mixbus and mix into it, then remove the reverb? Because, you see, it emulates the acoustics that we especially don’t have when mixing on headphones. That’s what these new software tools do-the ones that emulate rooms and studio acoustics. The thing is, it’s not the reverb itself but what you do with your gain staging, EQs, and compression WHILE listening through it. Like we normally do with slight compression on a mixbus (maybe a tape emulation or even an actual tape). That’s kind of what happens when you mix on those stiff Yamahas or even the CUBE, or when you mix in MONO..
The interview the World been waiting for congratulations. We need a whole series Serban Ghenea knowledge mixing series Pop Soul Rock, i like to see him do it on a behringer wing console because they have over 40 fx on board. No other console has this. I run the behringer wing | studio music production group on f book.
I agree with the lack of experience in the former. I get way too many projects that there has not been any decisions really made. HENCE I always get several references from either the artist, label, or in film scoring that I do, a spotting session with either the director or producer who may be in charge of the decision making process in the end to know what they really want in the project or how they want the audience to feel.
You really need to have a vision and a feel as a producer, that pulls you in the right direction and forces you to make decisions ( with maybe some related alternatives ), otherwise it's better to do some other activity. I also think that, if you have the possibility to work with an absolute top professional like Mr. Ghenea, it's important to ask yourself how you can best utilise his time and experience in your project. Making them do lots corrective stuff and going through lots of tracks is an absolute 'no go' as far as I'm concerned. You need to share your ideas and see how they can take it further. In that way their work can be applying their experience in a technical and creative way.
I don't really understand what he's saying... he wants to receive a more finished product so he has to do less work? What even is your job at that point? Love Serban as much as anyone, but if you receive a mix with printed effects, and everything sounds good.. what is even left to do other than mastering? Is his genius just volume automation and panning?
With the best sounding records and 22 Grammys billions of listens of his mixed songs. His way Al Schmit and Tom Elmhurst is the right way . We just have to listen and take notes.
@@Doctaj54 yeah, I guess so. I’m working with such low stakes myself that it all seems baffling to me. I would track, produce, mix, and master myself in sequence. Getting stems with printed fx and mixing, panning, automating, etc just doesn’t feel like a separate job to me.
@@evanmuller1967 but it is a separate job and that's the point I feel he's making. Sometimes you get plugins or printed efx that the artist or producer don't want you to change. They want a great mix but those "Don't Change this or that" requests have a direct impact on getting that great mix. Even those sessions you get where you're told you have 100% freedom to do whatever can be a nightmare... because a lot of the mix decision are really production and/or creative decisions being force onto the mix engineer. Then when you send the final mix, the artist asks you to change this or that. And we have yet to talk about finding and fixing any technical issues within the recording before the actual mixing is in full swing. Oh, and they want that great mix finished in by the end of the day.
Hey I can weigh in to this: as a mastering engineer its always surprising how much I can do with a stereo track. If I have 5 stems I can essentially remix all elements from there. The musicality, openness and balance can be corrected, but also whilst retaining the effects and decisions from the producer. If I mix a track with 8 stems or 10 I can do all the important mix work... if I need more granular stems I can always ask for them
I was beginning to think Serban was a mythological character, spoken about in fables by engineers. Now I know he's an actual real guy! It's great to finally hear him speak...I'd love to hear more from him.
serban spoke
Serban and I have know each other since 7th grade back in Montreal. Not only is he talented mix engineer, but he's an amazing guitar player (he gave lessons to my brother and me). He was also the repair tech at Musicircle back when we were at CEGEP, the pros starting bring their guitars to Serban. But most of all, he's genuinely a real great dude.
Nice!
Tell him to do more interviews and help combat his frustrations with modern mixers.
To have both Serban and Manny on a call is insane!
AND Young Guru
This is a rare Serban interview. Thank you!
Not only that but there's people that feel proud the more tracks they have
I saw that classical music dude jackob i guess and he showed a FL studio project with over 830 tracks with such a proud smile. 🤣
And like 20 of the tracks will be synth layers serving the same purpose in the song.
Wow, he spoke!
More please!!!!
4:59 It’s true, and it’s actually not all bad-if you’ve achieved something with 8 plugins quickly, you can then start cleaning it up to preserve the result you’ve ALREADY HEARD with just 3.
I used to do the same with reverb. I’m even thinking sometimes: what if I slap reverb on the mixbus and mix into it, then remove the reverb? Because, you see, it emulates the acoustics that we especially don’t have when mixing on headphones. That’s what these new software tools do-the ones that emulate rooms and studio acoustics.
The thing is, it’s not the reverb itself but what you do with your gain staging, EQs, and compression WHILE listening through it. Like we normally do with slight compression on a mixbus (maybe a tape emulation or even an actual tape).
That’s kind of what happens when you mix on those stiff Yamahas or even the CUBE, or when you mix in MONO..
The interview the World been waiting for congratulations.
We need a whole series Serban Ghenea knowledge mixing series Pop Soul Rock, i like to see him do it on a behringer wing console because they have over 40 fx on board. No other console has this. I run the behringer wing | studio music production group on f book.
I agree with the lack of experience in the former. I get way too many projects that there has not been any decisions really made. HENCE I always get several references from either the artist, label, or in film scoring that I do, a spotting session with either the director or producer who may be in charge of the decision making process in the end to know what they really want in the project or how they want the audience to feel.
All them legends in one stream?! 🤯
Talking about tape 😅
@@kingech_B15 😆
Where is this from?
Right? I wanna see the full stream!
It was stream during Covid. But that was about all he said about mixing.
The Grammy Facebook. there's another video, but he doesn't go into much detail in this or the other video. it's not what the webinar was about anyways
Notice how you can see everyone else's workspace but Serban's camera is pointing up 😂
Yeah, I think last I read he was using proac 100s for nearfield and quested or dynaudio farfields. As for the rest of it, I don’t know.
@@andrewrice9383 I'm well aware of his setup, just an observation as Serbian is known to be "secretive."
Lol I got to mean John and had a peek in serbans room but couldn't talk because he was on a phone call :')
Back in the day...that,s where I'm from. Ampex, Sully, MCI...
Where is this clip from???
First time Sherban talks…
Whats Up Young Guru!!🎧📻
Extremely useful info
nice thanks for sharing
You really need to have a vision and a feel as a producer, that pulls you in the right direction and forces you to make decisions ( with maybe some related alternatives ), otherwise it's better to do some other activity. I also think that, if you have the possibility to work with an absolute top professional like Mr. Ghenea, it's important to ask yourself how you can best utilise his time and experience in your project. Making them do lots corrective stuff and going through lots of tracks is an absolute 'no go' as far as I'm concerned. You need to share your ideas and see how they can take it further. In that way their work can be applying their experience in a technical and creative way.
Where can we find the full video ?
Covid made Serban speak on camera!
if you get ableton live light you could actually work like the way he is describing
😂
@@p4493 why not it only has a certain amount of channels so you have decide what to bounce down to a group
based
Great vid. Who is that in the hat? Also, top right with the long, blond hair?
Top right with the long blond hair, Ann Mincieli, Alicia Keys' engineer.
@@elbear98 Thank you.
in the hat is Ivan Barias… my professor at Drexel haha…
🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽
This is a quite old video, right?
Behringer Wing🎧🎙🔈🔉🔊🎼🎵🎶Behringer Wing
Max Martin doesn’t send him 200 tracks?
And almost every Drake song could have been done with 8 tracks.
I don't really understand what he's saying... he wants to receive a more finished product so he has to do less work? What even is your job at that point?
Love Serban as much as anyone, but if you receive a mix with printed effects, and everything sounds good.. what is even left to do other than mastering? Is his genius just volume automation and panning?
With the best sounding records and 22 Grammys billions of listens of his mixed songs. His way Al Schmit and Tom Elmhurst is the right way . We just have to listen and take notes.
You need to become a full time mixing engineer and you will very clearly understand what he's speaking. It's a headache with some projects.
@@Doctaj54 yeah, I guess so. I’m working with such low stakes myself that it all seems baffling to me. I would track, produce, mix, and master myself in sequence. Getting stems with printed fx and mixing, panning, automating, etc just doesn’t feel like a separate job to me.
@@evanmuller1967 but it is a separate job and that's the point I feel he's making. Sometimes you get plugins or printed efx that the artist or producer don't want you to change. They want a great mix but those "Don't Change this or that" requests have a direct impact on getting that great mix. Even those sessions you get where you're told you have 100% freedom to do whatever can be a nightmare... because a lot of the mix decision are really production and/or creative decisions being force onto the mix engineer. Then when you send the final mix, the artist asks you to change this or that. And we have yet to talk about finding and fixing any technical issues within the recording before the actual mixing is in full swing. Oh, and they want that great mix finished in by the end of the day.
Hey I can weigh in to this: as a mastering engineer its always surprising how much I can do with a stereo track. If I have 5 stems I can essentially remix all elements from there. The musicality, openness and balance can be corrected, but also whilst retaining the effects and decisions from the producer.
If I mix a track with 8 stems or 10 I can do all the important mix work... if I need more granular stems I can always ask for them