1) mix bus compression 2) parallel compression 3) grouping sounds 4) using reference tracks 5) understanding phase 6) using fx sends 7) cracking the compression code 8) masking 9) knowing when to do nothing 10) using drum samples
I guess I have never really understood how to use compressors. I brought up a mix I am working on and used the exact settings and compressor plugins you use in this video. Honestly, I'm blown away! This is the first time I can actually sense the instrument changing depth in a mix and I can clearly hear how the release and attack are working on the individual instruments. The Slate Grey compressor is awesome and for once I have created a mix that sounds somewhat Pro level. Thanks RYYS very grateful
That point on the release being like back and forth is brilliant!! My mind automatically thought of so many ways to implement this! You are amazing my man
There are a gazillion similar videos to this one on the toobz, but your calm and relaxed approach to explaining it all was great. I've been doing this a long time and am familiar with all of what you touched upon, yet I still found this video engaging and interesting to watch all the way through. What tipped the scale was your tip 9 - knowing when not to process or do anything to a sound. Just because we have the tools, doesn't mean we need to use them. This right there is so often overlooked and not discussed enough, so for that alone, hats off. As for the stereo bus question many seem to be asking... It's a good practice to route all your channels to a new created mix bus, which then feeds the stereo master output. As Rhys said, this way, should you want to import a reference track into your session, you simply let its outputs be automatically routed to the main stereo bus vs. your actual mix bus. Thus, any processing you put on your mix bus will not affect the reference track in any way. Well done on this video and happily subscribed. :)
Thanks so much mate! Glad you enjoyed my style! I know plenty of these tips are second nature to a seasoned audiophile, but to the newcomers it’s valuable knowledge :) appreciate your comment 🙏🏼
The best way I found to benefit from buss compression is to mix INTO the compressor. I use top down mixing and so put the mix buss compressor from the beginning. I use the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor Class A and it sounds so good I can’t imagine mixing without it.
Wish I had seen this video a couple of years ago when I was getting started. It probably took a couple dozen videos to learn about all the things you covered in this one. I'm still working for that 'aha' moment with compression. I'm somewhere between knowing what I'm doing - and throwing sh*t at the wall - hoping I end up with the Mona Lisa. Lol !!! Great video, Rhys. Thanks.
I went and built my own DIY SSL clone G bus compressor precisely because I used to use the wave SSL G bus plug on my mix bus. xD I had the same revelation when I went to hardware compressors for he mix bus ... I was like woah this sounds SO much better than any plug in emulation I've ever used (and it's not even a real SSL, although it basically has the same circuitry as the old G comps, with a few mods).
@@spinlightstudios Yeah it's so expensive tho. I also had a similar revelation when I found out there's a bunch of DIY gear you can build ... I was like "Whoa, you mean I can build it myself for like half the price or less?!" ... :D
@@spinlightstudios Haha, yeah soldering iron around kids is a bit of a nono, even I've managed to burn a few holes in my carpet by swiping the thing with the back of my hand by accident and knocking it off my desk. 😅 It is super fun though, and really rewarding and satisfying when you get the thing working. I think you get more of an attachment to that bit of gear as you built it yourself and are invested in it, which helps you start to learn and understand how it works (in an electrical sense).
Interestingly, I prefer the example with the guitar bumped at 800. Vocals more buried in guitars reduces the overly pop feel of this song. More of a big guitar indie rock sound.
Thanks! Essentially the same thing. I like to use a seperate bus as the mix bus so if I drop in reference material it’s not affected by any processing that would be on the stereo out 😉
For sure - I do this already for some mixes - it does help with certain genres to get a louder master. Obviously not great on a gentle singer songwriter style mix - but good for shaving drum transients.
It mostly just challenged me to EQ better, get better guitar tones while tracking. Listen to how everything sat together. The thing with references, it will never sound the same, but it helps you aim for something!
i would appreciate if you respond to this one. what are your suggestions for someone who records / mixes for himself using usually beats downloaded as MP3 from RU-vid
I don’t really recommend working with mp3s as the quality is not great. Surely there are other places to get beats that are full quality that don’t cost too much?
when you say learning about "nyc parallel compression" was an "eye opener" - just curious - which one? see what I did there? no... over *here* - sincerely, Weaver Beats 2 ghost acct.
Haha each to their own. I personally don’t understand people who get on their high horse over drum samples. They are a tool that can be used to salvage bad recordings or enhance good recordings. Always project Dependent, but shouldn’t be written off. Taking the mentality of drum samples being bad and fake. You’re never allowed to use midi again or guitar/bass VSTs. It’s not real/authentic either 😝
You guys in the box you have all the same sound it’s crazy…. Man listen the way you use compression in your mix, it’s sounds plastic on drums and the mix has no personality. The mix is good, it’s clean but you sound like all the people in the box…. Find your personality and when you having drums like that use layers of snares it sound better a single snare with compression
On point info. Phase is 🔑. I put more focus on phase and volume balance when mixing nowadays. Everything else seems to falls into place more down the line.
Mix bus compression is so cool,I was working on a master yesterday, I took an ApI 2500 plugin,added to master I was so surprised about the push my mix suddenly had.
actually it's pretty garbage, it makes all the transients blurry and the depth goes away. I've tried it on multiple raw drum recordings. Manual phase alignment is the way to go
Legend as always great video but I have an important Question. You mentioned that when you started mixing you used waves SSL and I saw that you use a lot of Steven Slate so recently I bought a VSX headphones from Steven slate and I was wondering if I should switch my main plugins which they are subscription bundle ALL plugins included from WAVES to Steven Slate and SSL Bundle. Do you recommend this? Maybe my only concern is the learning curve because I have used waves since ALL of my life, big hug from México 🇲🇽
I've compared a lot of plugins to waves, to hardware, to UAD (albeit not slate)... Waves gets a bad reputation, but I think it's more because of their crappy business model and people just want to hate on it. Waves was incredibly close to hardware LA2A and hardware 1176LN... It was closer to my hardware LA2A than UAD was - UAD was much brighter - but they are obviously modeled off of different units which vary drastically from unit to unit. With that said, if you can't get a killer mix with Waves, you just need more experience. Another surprising find: IK Multimedia's LA2A sounded closest to my hardware unit under 15-25db of GR. The UAD fell apart along with many other emulations. Don't trust forums - just download trials and try it yourself. But for now, if you have waves, just focus on moving forward with it since it's excellent.
BTW nice to see someone using the term "stems" the correct way, and explaining it so less people use wrong terminology. 👍🏻👍🏻 On the topic of terminology, funny barbershop slip there: "Filter combing" ✂️🤭😂 - you meant "Comb filtering". 😉😉
A shout out to the fact you can get the stems for this song at your store, mix it yourself, and then follow along with you while you mix it seems like a crazy omission from this video. I suspect you just didn’t want to sound salesy but that $12 usd exercise is likely a better way to improve one’s mixes than any new plugin. You will definitely learn about phase doing that! 😂❤
Thanks Tom! Yep plenty of value in that full mix vid! And plenty of phase issues to tackle through hehe that’s why I picked that song, everyone always works with great sounding tracks, but I wanted to show it was possible to make something sound great even if the raws have issues!
Thanks for all this awesome content! One question to compression on the mixbus (tip #1): Any mastering engineer my band worked with always specifically asked to not use compression on the whole mix - have I been misled?
Yeah man, you don’t need to remove mix bus compression for a mastering engineer, especially if you have mixed into the compressor and it’s part of the sound you have created, it makes no sense to remove it. If you had a slamming limiter on the mixbus also and they asked you to remove that, I can understand that. Unless they thought you were over compressing the mix, but then they should probably ask for a version with and without the compressor.
Awesome video! Regarding reference tracks, that's how I'm learning more about drum recording. My son and I do YT drum covers and we'll pick songs that might be a bit simpler to play but would be fun to try and match a particular tone or sound in the original recording. We don't really achieve it, but it's helped us find sounds or effects that otherwise I doubt we would have on our own. Gives me a whole new appreciation for the original engineers and what they achieved on their own.
I just want to say thank you for the knowledge you always share for free, your channel is Gold, every time I watch any of your video my skill level increase. And knowing you are on Logic proX makes its even more fun. Thank you very much
Great vid as always. I notice you don't use the Stereo Out as your mix bus. There seems to be a myriad of good reasons why someone might favour this approach, but I'd like to know why you have adopted it? Cheers!
Thanks! Main reason being if I want to drop a reference track into the session, it won’t be affected by processing on the stereo out so I can easily A/B!
@@spinlightstudios Yes, that makes perfect sense. Do you ever use it as a way to check your mix in Mono, toggling between Mono & Stereo on the main Stereo Out?
Love the sample tip. I've been struggling with my drum recording and was resigned to the fact that I'd need to use samples. But you showing the blending of the sample in really helps me get over this mental blocker! Cheers Rhys!
Thanks AJ! Honeslty, some people just like to act like if you use samples you can’t mix.. it’s some sort of superiority complex imo. Samples are just a tool to get a result, and if you like how it sounds in the end, that’s what matters!
I have learned a lot of these watching your videos and your mix course you sell. Definitely cleared up a lot of the things that were completely lost on me. Parallel comp on drums is something I had not even considered and doing rock music I realized it is absolutely essential!
@@spinlightstudios I appreciate the effort you're putting into teaching others. It's a synergistic approach to also building your audience and channel. I like your style too. It's just clear and helpful in many ways.
