Great job setting forth the pros and cons of the two approaches so objectively! I was so impressed with the Bottom Up mix I thought it might actually be coming through my speakers louder. I imported them both into my DAW, and they are the same volume. That sells me! I guess my two cents is if I'm mixing someone's music and want it to be the best sounding it can be, I'm happy sticking to the Bottom Up approach. There may be times when a "quick-but-decent mix" is all you need; in that case, I'm interested in seeing you continue to explore Top Down techniques in future videos. I've seen several other videos on this topic, and this one is already the gold standard!
Listening on phone speakers (will listen again on headphones and at the desk with the monitors) but bottom up sounded 5% fuller but otherwise nearly identical (again, to me on my phone speakers… which the majority of people use these or crappy headphones to enjoy music). Great video as always AM!
I do both. I definitely prefer certain plugins at the very end that really open stuff and and polish it. But, adding at the end can really upset what you've worked so hard for. That said, I'll load my master and turn on and off my final 'recipe' as I go along. I've watched lots of videos by some of the top guys and they all vary. I.E. Brauer is always top down with the master loaded and only 4 sub busses. Marc Daniel Nelson uses dozens sub busses but barely touches the master with maybe a little glue and minor EQ to shelf trouble spots. I think it depends on how heavily one processes at the end. Both are valid. 🤷♂
Maybe a hybrid approach would balance time/quality? Preview a few tracks to get a feel for things, then start the top down. We all have our go-to mix bus chains anyway.
Big brush strokes over the whole canvas first. Then finer and finer brush strokes over every square inch of the canvas until it ALL comes into focus.....
I like the painting analogy. I guess one possible counter position might be that the composition and color palette are the initial fader and panning settings, and the large brush strokes for the background are the initial pass-filtering and subtractive EQ. From there the smaller brush strokes are the dynamic inserts and contouring EQ, and the small detailed brush strokes are the FX and saturation. Thoughts? I really appreciate this discussion- thanks!
@@AudioMountain777 👍that's pretty much how I see it. However, for those of us writing and producing our own stuff, I guess the sketching out and broadest strokes might start with the writing process; (maybe going as far as creating an outline drawing, say?) As for the "top down vs bottom up mixing" that you have covered so well here; it seems to me that the most successful (long term) creators are usually those that most concientiously attend to the details of a project. What we do as "producers" is part art; part craft, I reckon. "Art" is mostly inspiration. "Craft" is mostly perspiration!🤣 I really value your content. Cheers!
and lastly 14:22 - I don’t see top down as lazy. Do you want your plumber to take 12 hours fixing the toilet or be done in 1? I do agree totally with the notion that if your tracks were recorded beautifully and it’s not EDM or another style that demands heavy processing, top down is a great tool to increase the amount of music you get to make and the client is happier that their mix sounds great even quicker. Knowing how to do bottom up properly without getting off at the wrong exit and ending up with a confused mix is important, and same with top down and how to learn to make quick decisions. There’s so many applications for both and it just helps us become better engineers. Cheers AM!
Homes, any of the trades, are built from the bottom up, at least the ones with any value. Anything worth anything focuses on the details as it comes together. These days tho. the modern tradesman are all about hacking it in, and knocking it out, and the final product shows it.
Bottom up definitely sounded clearer and louder in this instance. I think the two perspectives and workflows are relevant depending on how you think about and work your mix. Perhaps using one at the expense of the other is ultimately going to not be the best mix "possible" but that can also be a rabbit hole. And ultimately if you've learned bottom up and your mixes are amazing (which they are) then don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.. It would be interesting to see if the.time to a finished.mix ended up the same or if some of the busses processing needed changing once the mix was further on in top down.. totally depends on how well you know your gear and what it's capable of too.. for me I think bottom up then towards a finished mix top down but that'll probably change in a few months lol who knows.. 👍 great vid and interesting take on it, thank you 🙏🕊️
Yeh top down was decent for a quick mix, it's got me wondering about doing that first then honing in on the tracks to polish. Seems counter intuitive but maybe.. hmm.. time will tell.. 😎🙏🕊️@@failuretolaunchdrums
