The Two Things That Matter Most in Your Mix 

It's amazing to me. We've seen Jordan's process and see he's the opposite of a gear snob or someone that endlessly tweaks gear and tone, he's happy to stick to a formula, a workflow, and a handful of tools. And yet IT TURNS OUT that some of my favorite bands and mixes have been created by Jordan. And I ALWAYS IMAGINED that gear snobs and the most scrutinous minds were behind my music. It's crazy when your perception is smashed!

As a guitar player and engineer that does not stress about guitar tones when recording, I really appreciated this. Last song I played overdubs on I just recorded a clean amp and used the american tweed preset on saturn 2 with a few other tweaks, and everyone loved the tone

Cool timing! I was just doing the second revision of a mix for a band I'm working with. They wanted a bit more clarity, a bit wider sound and more "power". I did my best to bring out the snare better, make overheads a bit crisper without being harsh, loads of automation on overheads when the splash gets hit and even more when the ride is playing on blastbeats. Didn't even touch the guitars except actually pulling them down tiny bit... They were extremely satisfied at how bigger and more powerfull everything sounds.

I was watching some Hardcore Mixing courses, and it's time to make a break... with that video aha

You know what?You are so good that you can't even do it sounding bad by taking off whatever.

I'm a guitarrist and I was naturally drawn to focus a lot on my drums when I produced a song. I've spent a lot of time improving my drums and it really paid off cause it improved my mixes a lot.

Great video. The guitar tone video changed my workflow dramatically for the better

Really underrated channel man, well explained and demonstrated, and some novel approaches and wisdom which is really hard to come by these days with regard to mixing. Keep it up.

again, a very useful, informative and no nonsense video. Jordan, I've already fanmailed you once, but ill say this again: dude, you rock! Even though you've also kinda mastered clickbaiting (so often I'm like, damn, I don't even have time but I HAVE to watch this right now haha) so many of your videos hit that 10 min mark without the content ever feeling stretched as is the case with so many youtubers. 11 minutes with you is 11 minutes of useful info. awesome!

Would love a video on what makes a mix "muddy vs clear"

Thank you, Jordan. Hope to enroll in your session!

That Auras mix is one of the best I've ever heard.

Haha I shoulda had a bet with someone guessing what the 2 things are before we watch the video lol exactly what I was thinking. Back in my mixing classes in college one of the first "rules" I learnt is that kick, snare & vocals are the holy trinity of any modern mix (that contain these elements or their variants of course) whatever it is I do, whether it's getting initial levels or all the way to compressing the whole mix on the master bus, nothing shall ever jeopardize the sound & balance of the kick, snare & vocals

0:56

I agree in that guitar tone is not the most important thing ever but all of the best producers in the heavy scene today have CRUSHING guitar tones

God damn. Fucking love you man, thanks for spreading your knowledge. Big up's on the recent quality boost on your channel too, even the "vlogs" are cleaner. Been a fan for years and years but only subscribed about 6 months ago, and dear god I'm pissed I missed out. Who could say where my mixes would be if I saw every video you put the past few years. Keep it up, I know you will. Cheers.

I agree with you Jordan. Drums and Vocals need to be controlled and always present. But the comparisons were a bit unfair haha. You compared two different, but both good sounding guitar tones. Then you compared good drums vs bad drums and same with vocals. So that wasn't really proving a point. You should have made a kind of bad, amateur sounding guitar tone to prove the point. But thank you for the video, I love your content and have learned a ton from it!

Great practical advice, no bs! Thank you, its way too easy to get obsessed with minute details while forgetting about the big picture, Hell yeah!

I love this! I will often get a mix together with just the drums and vocals as a starting point. Then bring in each element wrapping around and underneath them in volume and frequency placement. Think of some of those incredible vocal isolation tracks we've been gifted over the years. All you hear is the vocal and some drum bleed off the headphones and the whole song is right there. Everything else is extra and should not get in the way.

Your room looks SO MUCH cooler and has so much more studio vibe now! That was really worth it imo!

Needed to hear this one! I never like many of the guitar tones I get from people so I’d try and DI change them a lot... good to hear “don’t chase”. Thanks!

When you said if the vocals and drums, particularly the snare are off then the whole mix can be off, St. Anger instantly popped in my head, 😆

The best evidence about guitar tones and other things ! I told my last band about it all time but they didn’t get it 😫

Great video! Did anyone else notice the last example waveform looked Ike a torpedo?

For the last 2 yrs I just record my go-to tone, In post I do 2 band of cut and 2 bands of boost and fader throughtout the track. Don't get me wrong, I love my gear and seeking guitar tone (and extremely proud of mine) but as time goes on I've realized how little it matters in a mix. Or to sum it up: guitars juat mix themselves in :D

To my ears the mix woke up massively when the nolly plugin came on. Nothing against the original guitar tone but the nolly amp added a sort of strat single coil neck pickup? aggressively whacked string sound that cut some of the meat and let the kick and snare come through even more and coupled with the pump of the mix just sounds fantastic. If you have any further details about the guitar recording that would be great Jordan. I.e. is it actually a strat? Which pickup used exactly and what amp is being modelled? Its definitely a sound I'd use as a reference when doing my own stuff because its present and aggressive but let's the kick and snare hammer away and because it's not necessarily metal the kick can be a bit warmer and meatier with less of that super top end click and it's just really pleasing to the ear.

Start from drums, and finish with vocals Mix other instruments in between

Right in time for a vocal mix of mine. Thanks Jordan!

I love that you used an Emery song for this video. Probably my favorite band!!

This is such a great video. I must get back to finishing the mixing course!!

My guitars are the vocals in heavy guitar driven rock instrumentals...but I'm only mixing for my own music, no-one else, yet... ...most of the time I can dial in one guitar tone and vary the dynamics by playing technique or post production.

That guitar tracks you switched to in the indie rock mix wasn't much different in tone from the original. But I definitely agree with the overall message regarding drums and vocals.

Agree 100%. The modern world is exposed to pop & urban music if they like it or not; and drums & vox are by far their focus.

Love the checklist at 0:56! :)

Vocals and drums, yeah! I guessed it right... Hmm, I'm really learning things on RU-vid ;-) Great!

All these mix examples remind me of 99% of the mixes we got for the rock genre in the 1970s. Drums were always so compressed and low level that it never sounded anything like a live concert. The detail was so squashed and unrealistic that it was NOT a good listening experience. ( I was a young audiophile when listening to these 70s mixes, so it was a very good audio system for reference).

Great songs, great work, but no credits to the musicians or mention of the bands/songs? Some of these aren't on your Spotify playlist.

Totally agree bro!!!

i'm getting slow at vocal mixing, still learning how the frequency works to be the main aspect of the mix.....i need to learn more about vocal mixing

0:56 holds the great secrets of this channel

very true thanks for the information

In my opinion a good guitar tone won’t make a bad mix better, but a bad guitar tone can definitely make a good mix worse. I can definitely think of a few mixes with great drums and vocals that were let down by bad guitar and/or bass tones. That being said, if you only have x amount of time to track or mix a record you should definitely put the emphasis on the drums and vocals. If you aren’t time restricted there is no reason not to try and get the best guitar tone you can though.

amazing example!

Does it vary depending on the producer/genre? I tend to obsess over drums primarily followed by vocals then bass is third. I'm a working musician, a guitarist by trade, and I don't really obsess over the guitars at all. Once I'm happy with the level of the guitar it's generally grand cause I track them more or less as they'll end up sounding. If the drums sound rough then everything is f****d no matter how much work I do on the guitars.

Hey man ! Awesome video as always :) at 0:56 you gave us a short one frame glimpse into your video making preperation I guess :P

thx for advices!

I'd much rather be progressing than obsessing:)

Main elements : Snare, Vocals, & Guitars... everything else to a lesser extent !

What the hell is that one frame at 0:56? :D

Was one of those bands Symphony In Peril?

You are very right! My latest mixes sound.. meh. However... the instrumental versions of the songs sound fucking sweet! The vocals take something away from the mix.

Are all these examples pre-master?

I wish you'd put the track titles on screen when you play them

Brilliant video, thanks! (I think the amp sims sound noticibly worse though, typical guitarist!)

I find if an aggressive song has a guitar tone which sounds too small, it can be distracting. One album I feel like this is in is Death By Stereo's - Death For Life album. To me, the guitars sound too small and calm sounding for how aggressive the vocals and drums are.

You just made me laugh my arse off Jordon. Vocals and drums, absolutely right!

just to name a few bands where the guitar sound made the actual sound: billy talent at the gates bloodbath in flames (clayman especially) royal blood

Who was the "indie" band and why does it sound like the singer to an old band called Embodiment?

Wait. Did you produce an Emery album?!

Using compression correctly has to be way up there

We acnt have vocal simple but could you give us some snare sample of yours?

The things that matter MOST in a hardcore mix, old school here, has guitar riff edge just above the low end of bass and kick. The snare level is about equal with the guitar edge, because snare and guitar edge is where the energy drive comes from, and then the vox comes in barely above that, or equal with, depending on the tune. If your vox is leading your hardcore mix heavily, go make pop tunes instead. Any leads or solos always come in and slap your face with the highest level heard up until that point, live or recorded. Now this is not coming from a mix guy but an old school hardcore drummer. This type of mix suggestion is based around music being created with the goals of driving energy and attitude deep into the listeners souls, which is all we ever created, and did, it never failed to keep the pit full either....thx for the vid.

0:56 What was that???

Probably a newb question but for metal how far should I be panning my guitars left and right? I’ve seen 100% but heard it could sound unnatural and some people say 95%, 80% ect. What works best and why?

Hi friend what camera are you using ?

Eric Valentine said the same thing on one of his video's.

This video proves that "sounding professional" in the modern world = having the same sounding mixes as everyone else. That's the main reason why modern music bores the crap out of me. There's 40-50 years of popular music that was created before computer-based DAWs became dominant, and most of that music is so far from "professional" by modern standards, yet it sounds alive and almost every band sounds different.

Honestly, I preferred the guitar DI ampsim in the mix. 😂

Probably right, though 'and justice for all' may be the exception to that rule - i.e a distracting guitar tone that is like sticking pins in your ears! haha

And at 2:38. They rip!!

Bass: hey you forgot me!

has anyone been able to pause at 0:56 mark to see what is flashed on screen? I haven't.. its like half a frame..

Ok. Going to guess and then edit my comment after. My assumption would be 100% the low end and the stereo image. They causes the most phase issues. Edit: I suppose I was partially correct on the low end part. And misunderstood, when I read 2 things, I didn't think it meant instruments lol.

Acoustic instruments which include vocals are incredibly difficult to record. Microphones are so far from what our ears/brain hear with environment actual and simulated complicates it more. Recording an acoustic grand piano is the best example, extremely difficult. Keyboards, electric guitars, even digital drums that have their own channels are child's play in comparison. Microphones and the environment, model, pattern, pre-amps, compressors, delay, reverb, pops....arrrrggg!

Who’s the band at 2:31

Please become my mentor!!!

Video: "Your guitar tone doesn't make a huge difference" Me, listening to "...And Justice for All": raises one eyebrow.

I would have to add that the low end is almost just as important. Lose the low end and it's weak. Gotta rip those faces off.

8:25 vocal FX off

hah, you haven't heard my guitar tones!

I think this video provides deeply questionable answers to its title. How about: Creativity Deep engagement with what the music is trying to say and the artist's intent Consideration of the song's place in the current artistic landscape (the only thing you kind of address here, albeit poorly IMO) Willingness to leave great source material alone Suppression of ego in service of the best results Having fun (IDK, maybe the song wants you to be miserable) All these and more would, in my opinion, be far better answers than "the vocals and the drums."

The nolly had more SprAnGle BoNgLe

Yep, you can not hide bad vocal or drums sound.

Sorry, metal guitarists. The 80s were for you.

OMG I can't listen to the dry snare at 07:12 without feeling out of breath cos it sounds like the snare is out of breath lolol

Сколько видосов посмотрел, во всех барабаны у тебя звучат одинаково далёкими от того как звучат реальные барабаны.

I just learned that I don't like "profesional sounding" mixes... interesting.