Mix Engineer Dave Pensado goes over the top 5 things he does before and during every mix that he does. Shop the Sweetwater Pensado's Place Store imp.i114863.net/za7ymx
+Niko Bobich right, if u dont like it, dont use it, i think these videos are fantastic pointers, tips, and sometimes just good things to consider even if they dont apply. BIG THANKS FOR THE VIDEOS! :D
+Niko Bobich , I totally agree with you! If there is one thing everyone can confirm is that Dave Pensado is a very humble man who has accomplished a lot and yet he still has a very down to earth attitude and he is incredibly generous in taking the time to make all of these videos for us. I mean all of us who love this craft have the opportunity to learn on a regular basis from an expert and a professional like Dave and we should be thankful for that. Thank you very much Dave Pensado for all the video tutorials you record. You're an inspiration and we're blessed to learn from you!
Outstanding tutorial and sound clip. Man this sounds good through my vintage Sennheiser Headphones! Compression applied to the vocal really elevates it and just the right touch of sparkle on top... without sounding restrained. Beautiful work, thank you for sharing! BTW awesome reverb!
Samplicity contains all 137 main front panel patches from the Bricasti Designs M7. It's licensed with permission by a psychologist with specialty degree concentrations in psychoacoustics. Bricasti decided to let him do this if released for free, and in combination with any convolution reverb plug-in, it works like a charm.
...just discovered Pensado's place... ...thank you sir, for giving us your invaluable experience... just because you like to! ...i couldn't pay for the kind of time and dedication you spent learning this.
Mr.Pensado, you constantly teach me such helpful things with such a great demeanor. It would be so amazing to meet you and mix with you some day, you're an inspiration sir
3. Waves: H-delay, H-eq, r-series (love it), center, L1 and 2... almost all the time. 4. Softtube: manyl trident a-range, amp-simulations, spring verb 5. And last but not least a freebe: smartelectronix s(m)exoscope (so i can see the dynamic shaping in real time)
I personally always use the PT-EQx from Ignite amps on every single mix I do. It does wonders on just about everything, from shaping a kick drum to getting a snare punchy to cleaning up guitars, it always sounds great.
Far be if from my place as a young man to ask a master to change how he does things, but I'd love to see you show your examples *without* the processing first. Either way, love your work and I've learned tons. Keep it up, I know you're an inspiration to the people I work with!
For absolutely every mix I use these 5 plugins: 1. Q10 2. C1 3. IR-1 reverb 4. Kramer Tape 5. L2 Maybe it's lame but I see how my mixes get better and better.
@@sonnyjennings9035 man, it was three years ago :D I don't use any of these plugins today. And of course I agree that there are more transparent limiters, i.e. Voxengo Elephant that I use today
peoples who go at university studying those nice tips should be proud, but we indipendet producer and audio engeeniers that never been in school to learn tips like that, we yeah we got you and other nice and great big mans that do those things, in the end of the day you are who run the audio engeenering history, so we say it loud : thank u very much for doing that for us. Love Algert Sulka (Albania)!
1) SSL channel strip on just about everything 2) Parallel compressed drums with a waves 1176 3) Vocals usually get ran through a CLA-2A 4) Slate trigger has saved me when mixing for clients who did a poor job recording drums 5) Slate FG-X is golden when preserving transients when mastering 6) Tape saturation plug-in on the master fader does wonders!
If you don't have 1500 bucks to splurge on a compressor, Native Instruments just came out with one that totally smokes and it is one tenth the price of the API or Waves stuff. Just love your videos Mr. Pensado, offering great insight into the recording/ mixing process. I hope you don't mind that little plug for a plug in there. I don't normally do that sort of thing and if it is out of line you can just erase my comment. Keep up the great work and keep the videos coming. Respect!
1. Focusrite Midnight EQ and SSL Comp plugins on the stereo mix; slight bump in the low end, tiny dip in midrange, slight bump in high end, compressor gently grabbing the transients 2. Bus kick, snare and bass or a variant of the three (dependent on song) to a mono bus, emphasize the low, and compress the snot out of it, and use it as a fat fader 3. Flux BitterSweet on vocal buss, used sparingly 4. LexHall on vocals; easily my favourite reverb plugin right now 5. Saturation EXCEPT on stereo bus
Top 5: 1. Powercore 6000: Manly for the verbs... vss3, dvr2, nonlin 2. But also md3 and the brickwall limiter are great on the 2bus. Finally harmony 4, intonator and voice modeller (since im lacking a eventide h3000). 2. Uad 2 card: For all the retro stuff... manly compressors... but also tapesaturation: studer and amphex and of course the vog (love this thing!) and last but not least some eqs: cambrige (swiss army knife), pultec and neve 1073 (...)
Lexicon Pcm is also another great reverb plug, although I must say that Manny's new reverb emulation from Waves is really surprising me every time at how close it is to the Bricasti. Truth is, there's no such thing as a bad piece of gear or plugin, they are all just tools to make the creative process of making music more dynamic and inspiring.
Hey Dave, love your insight content on here. This may be a random late night mix thought. But what would think about parallel multi-band compression on a vocal, and what would be your approach if ethical to the mix. blessed, nibleyahno
Good to hear someone who does this for a living be honest about it, I read some crap by a guy called Allen Farmelo about Sonic Varnish. While I agree in principle with the idea he proposed, that adding lots of subtle layers instead of drastic changes is key to a good mix . He twists it to make out that it can only be achieved using high end outboard gear.
good ole Pensado... gotta watch the old episodes every now and again. well, here's my top 5, in order! (I engineer mostly hip-hop and R&B btw) 1. Waves H-EQ 2. Waves API-2500 (tonal compression) 3. Slate Digital VMR: Revival (sounds better when it's last in the chain sometimes) 4. Waves API-2500 (dynamic compression) 5. IK Multimedia: T-Racks White 2A OR NI/Softube LA-2A (as limiter)
Hmmm... my five things every mix... I'm a home mixer guy and in the box completely with Reaper as my DAW: - Slate VCC on every track - Drums first using Dave's method for "DBX" parallel compression - LOVE IT - Wide guitars, lots of complimentary EQ - Lead vocals send to 3 or more parallel compression plugins mixed together (a la Michael Brauer); each compressor set differently - Virtual tape on my master bus for compression and character, right now it's Ferric TDS
1. Distressor on the way in 2. LA2A plugin (waves or NI) 3. Valhalla reverb plugin 4. The built in EQ in cubase for the basic stuff, even though I have others for fancier stuff 5. API 2500 plugin or hardware unit usually makes it in on part of the drums somehow
9 лет назад
Since I make Progressive House: 1. Get rid of resonant frequencies on my synths/pianos 2. Lexicon RandomHall on a bus send on the synths with a heavy sedition but only for the drop 3. Always bump my claps/snares with a little saturation and maybe 200Hz bump in Pro-Q 2 4. Always compare it to a song similar by a respected artist to see if my song sound to full or too empty, etc... 5. AOM Invisible Limiter after the Pro-L does wonders, crank it up until it starts distorting, then pull it back and you've got a winner ***
8 лет назад
***** I agree with you completely, a lot, if not most, of the Progressive House songs out there are extremely cheesy and genetic. But at the same time there are many artists who make extremely goo Progressive House, like Stadiumx, Deniz Koyu, Mako, DubVision, etc... That set themselves apart not so much by the sounds they use, or their mixing skills, but because their tracks are much deeper and melodic than the rest.
8 лет назад
***** Oh and I'm not that into Big Room, it's cool but it's not my style
+Décio Arruda good tips. Lets not forget proper gain staging
8 лет назад
ketchup breads Well, I don't see the importance of that actually. As long as you only peak in the master channel and not in individual tracks/busses there's no problem with peaking because then you can pull it back in the end before going to the compressor.
My list is almost exactly the same. The only thing I could add is: Use brainworks 2.0 eq to narrow low end and widen the top end. Izotope stereo imager, waves s1 and waves center can also work magic. Often on vocals I use logic's sample delay by a couple hundred samples to make those stand on top of the mix.
nice one! my top 5 would be 1) sub bass sine wave in the key of the track with a gate triggered by the kick 2) para compression on the drums through the Drawmer 1969 3) whole mix just passed through the TLA C1 compressor with possibly some soft compression 4) mix the vocals at the very begining of the mix so they fit, then mix them again at the very end 5) monitor in as many places as possible (including with beats headphones to make sure they dont ruin my mix too much)
Here's my list: 1. NY (or parallel) compression. 2. High pass everything but Kick and Bass, Low pass everything but cymbals and snare. 3. Kick, Bass, and Toms all get some kind of a cut around 315Hz. 4. For drums and vox especially (sometimes other stuff too), I use folder tracks with staged comp. Moderate comp. on the track itself, then lighter comp. on the folder track. Sometimes folders within folders. Usually comp. at each stage. 5. Bus reverb only (except vox)
Okay I need to save that Video for later. Like in 4 months when I did my homework on the more basic topics. I'm having some trouble understanding those 5 tips yet
I have personally tried some hardware reverbs, and every single of them I have liked a lot. They just sound so much more what reverb should sound than any software reverb. That's just a whole diffrent world of reverbs. Just an idea to those that struggle with the problem "I can't find a good reverb (plugin) to this sound!"
1. Fabfilter pro q on like everything 2. dbx 160 plugin on drum buss 3. IR1 reverb 4. API 2500 + Scheps 73 plugin on vocals 5. always use the waves ssl compressor and J73 plugin when mastering But, I am by no means an experienced professional. I still have a lot to learn.
It's important to keep all your instruments, whether virtual or real, working together, supplementing one another, not fighting for front spot. You get to choose temporary or consistent front spot if you believe it's needed. I usually get my vocals a dB or two in front of instruments with a similar flavour. The main thing is: learn and work with all the available tools so that you make good decisions when mixing. Watch this one: Into The Lair #46 - How To Make Your Mixes LOUD! Keep learning!
Absoloutly, the increased dynamic range, and also the character is gives to audio is ubelivable, plugz are good, but you cant beat the analogue rack gear! Especially since Dave has some very nice equipment, you should do a studio tour dave, and talk about all your gear!
@Tifan777...Dude be thankful just for theses FREEE videos. how many times do you bump into lifer engineers???? Make your own decision but be thankful for this exchange....get on the journey seven three times peaceeeee
On almost every mix it's... 1. MJUC on Vocals. 2. SDRR2 Desk Mode on the mix bus. 3. FabFilter Pro-Q 3 all over the place. 4. Kotelnikov GE or SPL IRON on the mix bus. 5. Softube Tape Multi-track summing the sub-mix busses into the mix bus.
CLOCK!! lol,..Dave I have only recentley started watching ITL..I am pretty impressed with myself that somehow I do things pretty much like yourself, only somethings baffling me,..on your aux bus's you have the usual like all guitars and drums and all vox,..but you also have 'High End' (saw it on #38)..do u have an ITL episode that explains this please?
Much respect and thanks for the vids-- But I suspect it's easier say you don't need great gear when you've got Shadow Hills and Bricasti at your fingertips!
I'm not Dave but i can tell you from my studio we have a mixture, sometimes a plugin is sufficient and sometimes more suitable but there are some outboard equipment that really make a difference. usually on a mix we will have used some outboard and some plugins depending on the project but yes in some cases the difference between having outboard compared to plugin can be like ford focus to ferrari
dont let it stop u bro. u can do a lot w almost nothing, it's more about developing taste and intention/direction than fetishizing gear. keep goin yohh
Ok Dave I am sold.I have been checking out all the other masters and out of all of them you seem to resonate with me much better.I don't know why but I just understand you more clearly.How do I get into your mix group of producers where you hold contests from time to time to teach us the things that in your opinion satisfy your musical taste.I chose to comment in this community because you have more clicks here than others.My name is Andre D. aka Famous Dwayne and I have been in mastering studios here in Germany for over 30 years.2 majors under my belt.Some good ones and some bad ones.But I've learned from all experiences.Could you please send me a link to that group.I have made my decision to stick with you from now on.Your content is so robust until it mind boggling."Stove Top? I'm Stayin!"
