3 Controversial Tips for GREAT Low End
Вставка
- Опубліковано 28 лис 2022
- Get a big, powerful low end that sounds good on ALL speakers with these 3 mix tips.
☛ Learn the go-to starting points for EQ and compression in heavy mixes with my FREE Mixing Cheatsheet: mixcheatsheet.com
Watch This Next: The TRUTH About Proper Gain Staging in Your Mix • The TRUTH About Proper...
Music I’ve Worked On: open.spotify.com/playlist/6I7...
Website: hardcoremusicstudio.com
-------------------------
MY FAVORITE GEAR:
Computer / Interface:
Mac M1 Studio Max sweetwater.sjv.io/anOMOo
Avid Carbon sweetwater.sjv.io/ZQ6M6g
Apogee Duet 3 sweetwater.sjv.io/y2qXqb
Monitors / Headphones:
Avantone CLA-10a sweetwater.sjv.io/WqyMyZ
Audio Technica ATH-M50 sweetwater.sjv.io/PyOMON
Microphones:
Shure SM57 sweetwater.sjv.io/daOMy7
AKG D112 sweetwater.sjv.io/Kj0MBy
Sennheiser e604 sweetwater.sjv.io/DKyvWa
Shure SM7b sweetwater.sjv.io/5g5vk3
AKG C451b sweetwater.sjv.io/jre9Rv
Shure SM81 sweetwater.sjv.io/eK1LnD
Audio Technica AT4050 sweetwater.sjv.io/JzKMqr
Preamps/Outboard:
API 3124 sweetwater.sjv.io/eK1LRD
EL8 Distressor sweetwater.sjv.io/XYmMd4
Favorite Plugins:
BSA Clipper blacksaltaudio.com/clipper
Escalator blacksaltaudio.com/escalator
Low Control blacksaltaudio.com/low-control
Waves SSL Bundle waves.alzt.net/dMd4q
Waves CLA Compressors waves.alzt.net/0va0P
Waves Platinum waves.alzt.net/jxz2M
Slate Trigger 2 sweetwater.sjv.io/MmAM53
SoundToys Rack sweetwater.sjv.io/xkLgyd
Auto-tune Pro sweetwater.sjv.io/OreMYr
Vocalign Project sweetwater.sjv.io/xkLgyA
Cranesong Phoenix II sweetwater.sjv.io/PyOMrz
Instruments / Amps:
Ludwig Black Beauty Snare sweetwater.sjv.io/1r9vDR
Gibson Les Paul sweetwater.sjv.io/B0nvz1
Evertune Guitars sweetwater.sjv.io/WqyM6P
Fender Jazz Bass sweetwater.sjv.io/nLX5R6
Sansamp Bass Driver DI sweetwater.sjv.io/OreM9Q
EVH 5150 sweetwater.sjv.io/4PGvr9
Mesa 2x12 cab sweetwater.sjv.io/75avGA
A few years ago I bought an 7 dollar ebook of you, it’s still the best mixing course I ever bought. Love that your advice is consistent over the years.
Learning mixing from a book sounds pretty damn smart. It must save a ton of time to not just learn by trial and error.
would you mind sharing the link to get this book? or the name!
Send me that bro
@@DRUGSdify it was a few years ago. The book is called the harcore mixing guide. If I remind correctly.
@@apocalypsem4553 don’t know if that is allowed.
I don't think I've ever had such substantial improvement on my mixes from any UA-camr's advice than yours. My mixes now compared to a year ago just following what you say has dramatically improved my sound and workflow.
CLA has specifically said he doesn't worry about the idea of carving out frequencies. It really depends on the source audio.
Those two sentences are completely unrelated to each other.
I’ve been watching UA-cam mixers for over a year, but I found this channel a couple days ago, and I feel like you’ve immediately leveled up my skills more than anyone on here. You say so many things I’ve never heard that also make perfect sense. Thank you!
Thanks! That’s awesome
I came to the same conclusion through a different path. im the bass player in the band as well doing the mixes and I use to carve out my basslines to make room for the kick. So recently after years of going through a multitude of gear and setups and finally having found that illusive bass tone in my head, i sat down with a mix and went fuck it im not going mess with my bass tone. So i just slammed it together with the kick. It was a pure WTF moment because other than some mild pultec, compression and fader balancing, that low end was perfect.
I remembering reading an interbiew with Gordon Raphael about working on the first Strokes album. He said Julian kept begging him to take the bass out of the bass and turn the drums WAY below what was being played on the radio. Raphael said he kept saying "it wont work it wont work" until he finally tried it to humor Julian. t ended up being the sound that shaped their first two albums and had the entire rock world chasing still to this day lol. just do what works. no rules!
Wow interesting just went to listen.. how thin! The drums are so quiet too its mostly julians voice and guitars
@@SkeleMusic seriously! those albums are freaks of nature from an engineering and production standpoint i highly recommend reading Gordons memoirs from those sessions.
Listening to UA-cam mixers literally wasted about a year of my learning. With the separating everything. Spot on.
Love all your ideas and suggestions!
This is the difference between (a professional) EQing while the mix plays, and (am amateur) mixing in solo. Those amateur moves are great for learning and understanding, but the sooner one can hear how the moves they make affect the whole mix, the greater their mixes improve. Great vid, as always! Thanks!
Incredible advice man. And not subtle at all the energy was completely different. So much more power in the ‘glued’ version
You’ve made my mixes better with your advice . I use to spend hours on kick and bass now now I only spend a couple minutes and getting better result by focusing on the overall sound and vibe on of the mix and I realize that when I do this it makes mixing much more fun for me and more than that I make less moves than I did before because and now every move I make is to make the song better and not to make an individual element of the song sound good ..thanks again and I work in a complete different genre than you do which makes what you are saying so legitimate
Great job brother!
I agree fully with this concept
Another excellent video!
Great content bro!
Looking forward to trying these out. Thanks!
I love your approach.
Very helpful! Thanks!
Thank you 😊
BRAVO! Great Advices!
I loved the Dr Brule reference!
I also love this perspective. I’ve found I’ve been much happier with my mixes since I’ve stopped caring about what I “should” do and just started adjusting things based on what I was hearing.
really great tips!! thanks for sharing. Cheers from Brazil 😊🙏🏼
Thank you sir
People tend to forget that timbre is what makes seperation in first place. If a group of instruments share similar timbre than maybe carving out frequencies makes sense. But very often a kick and bass guitar will have very distinct timbres, therefore negating the absolute need of making space in frequency domaine. The density of the mix is the key here.
Great stuff. I produce and mix my own stuff but over the years I found myself in the same spot regarding the low end, I can approve of all three points.
Another excellent video brother
I agree with you!!!
Bro, this was very valuable information. Thank you!
SUPER important video, thanks for letting the people know!!
Thanks for confirming my suspicions. Thought I was going rogue with my second album on the low end but I did a lot of what you’re covering and I’m way happier with the sound! 🤘🤘
I have seen about maybe 10 of your videos and I'm starting to realize that I have learned more than a 100 videos from other you tube mixers,so that's a good thing ha!!! thank you!!!
Bro, Jordan, you deserve so much credit for everything you’ve given to the community man. You easily have the best mixing advice channel available on this platform. Hands down 💯
So thank you for all the growth & insight! This channel is a life-changer my guyyy🙌🏼🤍 🔊 🎶
Wow this is amazing advice! I like how you present the information in a way that's easy to understand, so we know why or why not to do certain things. Great video! 👍😃
What an eye opener video! Thnx
Thx Man!
Very insightful, thank you.
You are a wise man and you speak very transparently about everything, therefore I listen to your words with certain level of trust - kudos and thank you
This is my go to channel. I've been producing music for over a decade. Mostly punk rock and music for japanese alternative Idols. These tips produce the most tangible results I've found on youtube. I know a lot, but sometimes If i get stumped I come here and HMS always gets me back on track. Thanks man. Keep up the great content!
Its good that you highlight the fact that there is many ways to get a great sound. Not just what has worked for others in the past🤝
amazing video, as always!
fantastic the 1st tip really helped me soo much my mix is night n day now
Thank you so much. I am so happy and grateful for everything I am learning with your channel.
Thanks for a video! :)
I loved this! The kick felt much fuller when boasted in that first example. Great video and your body of work is 🔥 I love Silverstein
wish I'd have seen this video like...15yrs ago...had to learn these things the hard way as well...especially the low mid tip...and totally true for vocals as well...so many times I would scoop out all the mid lows, sacrificing all the warmth and intimacy of the vocals for "clarity"...all it did was make the vocals sound thin and powerless...such great tips Jordan! Glad you're helping folks escape the pitfalls of UA-cam and providing actual real world advice that works.
Mixing mindset... MIX-SET!!🙏🏾 thank you so much for this. I’m getting into mixing more and I can feel the wisdom in your words. My new mixing sensei, seriously.
As an Orchestral musician/conductor, I've always been mildly confused at the "I need to hear this instrument separately" focus. In an orchestra, your goal is to blend and create different timbres by mixing different instrument timbres together to form the new, intended sound. Sometimes a part needs to come out of the texture and be prominent, but if that is the case, the composer crafted the music around it to allow that to happen (or chose an instrument with a timbre and register that stands out). Perhaps it's an idea in music today that everyone in the band wants to be a focal point instead of serving the music/song as a whole? ("I want people to hear how awesome I am in this song..." instead of blending to serve the music.) If the texture of a song is too full and overlaps, then trying to artificially separate out the constituent parts in a mix seems a bit futile and harmful to the music; the band needs to consider that in the writing phase, not expect you to deal with a bad composition in post. I always assume (often incorrectly) that the band intended to blend the things that overlap....
a lot of band indeed does not think about "taking their place" in a mix in their tones or composition!!! I think you pointed out a good part of that problem!
Orchestral music isn't bass heavy though. Listen to it om a set of good speakers. Literally none of them makes your sub go boom. Heavy bass has never been a problem yall had to deal with. This is a modern music problem.
yup! we can learn a lot just by going through classical scores. they are the masters of form and arrangement, instrumentation and dynamics. and just one person doing it all. classical composers are foorkin amazing
@@TakeHit0 I think your missing his point. When an orchestra is going full tilt, with amplification remember, you can still hear the piccolo, for example, based on it's timbre, frequency and placement.
@@AndyA1234 You know it's a very common problem that the entire string section gets masked by the brass section and becomes almost inaudible. Anyone who thinks you can cure mixing problems with "good arrangement" has 0 understanding of basic audio engineering.
This advices are what I needed to hear since I've been doing the most complex mixes (without the best results) for almost a decade, because of all the other UA-cam tutorials. This is my new favorite channel to learn music production
Nicely Taught 🔥
Watching this video, it dawned on me what was ruining the low end in my mixes. Or at least why I struggled so many times. From now on I'll leave the 100-400Hz range alone, unless there's an actual problem goin on :D Thank you for this video!
My thoughts exactly
i like your advices ❤
I'm no guru in mixing but I think the most useful advice I've ever received is... "make the song work." If you want to boost something... boost it. If you want to cut something... cut it. Just make the song work. That all starts with a vision on how you want the song to sound and THAT is the most important thing, in my opinion. Great tutorial and definitely "controversial" but good to hear.
You nailed it man. For a few years I would watch tutorials and take ideas and sort of catalogue them as TO DO's/NOT TO DO's in my mind. Though the past year or so I've broke free from that, and like you said, began to just use my intuition and my ears to guide my process. My mixes are ten fold better now IMO.
But don´t you automatically cut the low mids by boosting all the frequencies around?
nice. I like to watch your channel. no nonsense. Thanks for sharing.
wowww you really teaching us the real deal gracias Hermano
I'm so grateful for this video. It really makes sense - just imagine all the great sounding records made before digital audio existed where they weren't able to get so mathematically surgical. I guess this is what really separates the pros from everyone else - pros just use their instincts, everyone else is looking for a copyable 'formula'.
Awesome tips!!!
great video !
Nice tutorial, I already try to separate kick and bass in the arrangement phase of a project, just to save a huge amount of time, before going into mixing, but I leave them on different channels, just to avoid phase issues and muddyness in the tracks.
love theses tips 🎉
Great advice from a Great mixer!! Very Similar to my style of mixing lol
Yeah man. I've learned mixing mainly from UA-cam and during the last three years I've obsessively watched so many clips about mixing and gained a huge knowledge about it. Still my actual mixes didn't really improve although I was applying all the tips and tricks I've seen on various channels. And have made an acceptable mix it had to do more with luck than anything else. UNTIL I FOUND YOUR CHANNEL! All those basic, somehow controversial concepts (focus on midrange, don't use reverb, compress and eq the hell out of your tracks etc.) you shared were just exactly the the problems I was facing but I didn't have the guts to simply change them, because, you know, UA-cam told me not to... My mixes since then improved drastically and yet the steps were so obvious in retrospect. I don't blame other UA-camrs and I wouldn't say that what they're telling is wrong but especially in hardcore and punk rock there are just other methods required than, let's say, EDM. So thanks a lot for your words of truth. They had a huge impact on me.
Another awesome video! I was wondering if you could do a video on your process of checking live drums for phase. I’ve seen some big mixers go as far as moving room mics back so all the transients match up for a bigger sound
I like this guy, and I can totally relate to what he's saying in his videos. He has a really useful video called 10 mixing things I didn't know and it's really good and useful thank you for such help
Loved your take on the low-mids - for heavy guitars low-mids help give resonance and make a high gain guitar sound full. If you remove too much you can neuter what was otherwise a pretty awesome source track. Of course sculpting is often necessary but again with the low-mid, you can get anemic pretty quickly if you get heavy handed with EQ.
Thanks, heaps, for this video! I will have to practice this... I definitely learnt from EDM mixing video's precision cutting frequencies discussed in this video.
I'm trying to overcome the "intermediate" level and this is just what I needed to hear, thanks
Not cutting mids is the way!! Recently I've been experimenting with mixing the kick ABOVE or BELOW the bass depending on if the low bass notes are living more in the sub (40-60) vs the lows (80-100) and that has made my low end quite a bit punchier and consistent. But I think sometimes I overdo it and the tips here of leaving the overlap is crucial.
You are...RIGHT!
Wow this video is really what I was missing
can i say u actually helped my mixes. i just tried what you did with the 80 hz for the kick. and now my kick has so much more body and is much more audible throughout my mix for some reason i used to only boost at 60hz for my kick. thankyou
Thank you, this is really valuable. So in general if "it" sounds good then.. well its good.
Great sonic info. Usually the numbers don't lie as in "Cut this frequency so that you can heart this instrument better".
I'm very interested in what is going on with that snare sound.
Sounds wicked.
Thanks Jordan.
Great ❤ video.
I produce drum and bass and I have never mixed or produced with a woofer. Good monitors and trusting your ears and balancing that with some simple eq settings and maybe a couple other things is all you need
Bravo!
I'm guilty of carving. I think my low end has gotten way better with this approach for the most part, especially the punch, but I will have to pay closer attention and hear if I'm cutting when I shouldn't be. Thanks man.
Love the honesty here. I'd even zoom out another layer and posit that you should not subscribe to any mix move, whether it's to take something out or leave something alone, as a default approach of any kind (I think you've mentioned this in a previous video). The language chosen here is so perfect "it's called mixing for a reason". One's responsibility as a mixer is to find some way of getting the different elements to coexist in a pleasing way. How you get/got there is completely irrelevant to any other song you've mixed or will mix. It's therefore important to accept that the tools and/or techniques needed to accomplish the task will change just as the music does. What I've found for myself is that having a sonic target or ideal can not only be defeating to your morale if you don't achieve it, but extremely damaging to that which makes music fundamentally conversational: reaction. As a musician, you learn your craft so that when it is called upon you to deliver it, you can react without having to think about what it is you're doing. You just play. Mixing should be the same. When you hear the track, you shouldn't have to think too hard about what you're going to do. If you've spent enough time honing your skills and your taste has informed those skills, you'll be too busy reacting to the music to stop and consider much.
So true. I remember when I stared mixing I was using a tascam 2488 where no displays, no freq analysis or all of that was visible ...just a simple 3 point eq to use. Today I hear those mixes and I can swear they sound way richer , full and better balanced than what ive done in the last 7 years using DAW with bunch of visual plugins . I think is due to the fact back then I wasn't really thinking about frequencies and carvin and non of that, was just listening and making moves. Compression was something I really had to decided if was really needed or not in order to compress then bounce into a track ...no going back.
Thank you for bringing order to the galaxy.
bro please keep making these videos
☛ Grab your free Mixing Cheatsheet to learn the go-to starting points for EQ and compression in heavy mixes: mixcheatsheet.com
Unsecured website :/
Well i m not 100% with this logic, because depend on the source, i Mix only hardcore EDM music like Hi-Tech, DrumNBass and psytrance.
And actually u cant sound competitive with dance music for festivals if u cant hear under 100hz......
There is what makes people move, and you have to sculpt it very careful with highend expensive big monitors ;)
I mean just to clarify, what you do with your genre is fine....
But you have to say to people that this dont work for everything..
Great snare
You may not believe it, but I’ve bought the SSL script for the looks of it and would use it occasionally but didn’t know what I was doing. You just made me understand it way better thank you.😢😅😂❤
Great video! I make electronic music, but your video just popped up and I thought it might be interesting.
I've noticed some time ago that seperating everything does not even work most of the time and of course the game is pretty much lost when you're mixing with numbers and analysers mostly instead of listening for what the track might need. I wasn't really happy with the low end for quite some time and when I went through a ton of tracks, listening to the low end only, there was so much interaction while my tracks were totally dry - just a boring kick and a bland bass. I was working on a track at that time, so I simply disabled all the high pass filters and low shelfs on kick and bass tracks and it made it so much better. Then I went in and tried to boost some areas and switched to shelfing eqs instead of steep high passes for cutting. The improvement was mind blowing.
I went back to some of my older tracks that ended up on releases and I they didn't have the ridiculous seperation.
I get that being a content creator is hard work and you gotta pick up on trends and follow them if you want to stay on top, but all those 'mono the bass, high pass wherever possible, seperate your tracks, glue everything together'....idk...recently the trend on 'mono the bass' flipped 180 back. Now there are tons of videos telling people to not do it. 😅
Love this. I always ignored the scoop-the-mids advice on guitars because I kept thinking, if it sounds good at the source when it's dialed in why would I make big changes after? If it's too woofy then tweak the amp and mic placement first
Thank you for the advice Jordan. You are right, we've gotten brainwashed about cutting and making sound everything small and separate and then... we are trying every plugin we have to make it glue again. Pretty funny when you think about that. 🙃
hey man. great stuff. love the 'no nonsense' approach to mixing. It's a great place to arrive to and whilst it's great to say 'don't get hung up on this and that', most of us have to go through the trials and errors to arrive to such a point. But your advice may make the journey a little quicker...so thanks for that. I don't use references a great deal. I'm just wondering where the site you refer to at around 6:37 is? I have found it changing to find appropriate ref. tracks for my stuff. All the best.
Definitely agree with the low mids tip for guitars and bass. You mentioned reference mixes, what are some recent mixes you’ve been referencing?
I really like your mindset. Spot on! I've gotten so confused about these "carving out frequenices"" tips, cause I've found them contradictory. I've always thought of overlapping frequencies as a "chorus" effect, at least for tone instruments: guitars, bass, vocals and so on. For rock and metal there are usually 2 guitars and a bass that are bold in the 100Hz to 200Hz, which gives a swirling chorus effect for that "big bottom end" that can also be heard on small bluetooth speakers. In the same way I'm not a fan of Hi-cutting... i.e. distortion guitars. A shelving filter often works better, which leaves some "air".
But when it comes to how drums are interacting with the tone instruments, ofc the "chorus" term might not be so applicable. Here, your explanation makes perfect sense!
wow - this video was eye opening. You nailed on the head what the youtube comunity is missing!
legend
just bold truth! SUBSCRIBED! and folks new to mixing , just .... just dont press that SOLO button other than for editing. The results of the mixes are gonna be so much better. Even if you dont know what your are doing
I know you've touched on this in other videos, but what I find interesting is that a lot of the "problems" that arise in the mixing stage could have been addressed - or even be non-issues - in the earlier stages, especially in the arrangement. I have found that mixing should really be about making those individual elements work together for a greater whole. You only need to put in additional processing when it will best serve the element for the entire whole (again, "stop mixing in solo" ;) ).
In fact, even though I have accrued over 600 plug-ins that are processors, I have found myself being very minimal in using them. I think it's because I have chosen instruments well and what they play, thus having little need for additional processing. Furthermore, I've also learned - and I think this also came from you - that you should get a good mix from levels and panning alone.
And finally, be prepared to hear a lot about tonal balance. While I definitely understand that it is preferred to have a song that sounds full across the whole hearing spectrum, especially when played at loud volume (Fletcher-Munson at play), this can also become one of those "mixing to an idea" rather than mixing with your ears. Sometimes a song will be more on the lower side and less on the higher side. That can be OK, especially when you are happy with how it sounds.
I mainly work with reggae but this channel is gold
Hands down the best mixing tips on YT come from you. I was surprised on the low end SHELF boost on the bass and kick. I will definitely try that. Do you have a HP later in the chain somewhere? As the "general advise" is to have a HP around 20-30hz in metal.
Hey! I stopped cutting my low mids and my chronic back pain cleared up overnight! Also, now Im the life of the party and its girls, girls, girls! But seriously, this is great and very sound advice. And it works! In an ocean of same sounding, opinion-style advice, going against the current is well worth considering.
Love it
awesome tips! The balance between separation and glue in a mix is always a puzzle, but I agree that as I've progressed I've become less inclined to achieve separation from aggressive eq carving like this, rather using panning and levels. Especially what you were saying on low mids on guitars, if you're hard panning the guitars to either side then you're already getting separation from the bass, so why make them sound thin on the sides just to get them out of the way of a sound that isn't even existing in the same space spectrally.
This (boosting both bass and kick in the same range) makes sense in 2 contexts:
1) To automatically oppositely boost and carve presumes too much. It presumes that they are perfectly frequency balanced to begin with. If the kick and bass are already lower than desired at 60Hz, well then of course they will both be needing increases to bring them to a nominal, pre-optimized, level. So, auto-carving one simply assumes too much. This is why the "follow your ears" approach works. If boosting both creates conflicts -- you'll hear the conflict! And then it might be that opposite carving does work for a particular song or moment.
2. If strong, solid overall bass is what you're looking for or what the song or genre demands. As you mentioned, if they are both boosted, they likely will be compressed (or limited) together in bus processing, and the overages will be addressed there. Meanwhile, the desirable gluing will happen.
This is helpful! Thanks for the reminder that the mix principle above all others is: What sounds good IS good.