@@PeteLockhartTV What's more dated, the joke from 2010, or the band that peaked in 2001 amongst their audience of aging soccer moms from the 80s? Just like great music is timeless, Nickelback being watered down sludge for simpleton douchebags will also always be timeless.
Your mixes do not sound like Nickelback for these reasons - You do not have 4 professional musicians with decades of experience playing top tier gear who have rehearsed these songs to perfection - You do not have a professional recording engineer who is capturing the best input tones possible with the right mic setups to fit the song -Then all of this gets sent to a world class mixing engineer who now mixes a track that is already sounding like a record with a fresh set of ears -Then a new mastering engineer gets the record and add's the final cherry on top also with a fresh set of ears So if you are scratching your head on why you cant get your own songs to sound like this.... just realize the amount of talent that goes into these records is insane. But then at the same time realize that if you can even get 50% of your song to sound this powerful by yourself you have done a great job.
You do know there are 5 other people involved with Nickleback’s album production? But I agree one of the people that worked on Nickleback’s album is a complete Chad (the lead singer of Florida Georgia Line) as well the lead singer of Nickleback, he’s definitely a Chad 😋
I am not a Nickelback fan. But for what they do they are REALLY REALLY good at it. More so, the album Dark Horse sounds CRAZY. From a production standpoint it's directly responsible for how Devin Townsend mixed "Addicted" as he said "it sounds like they recorded it in a space ship" and he's right. Something about how that album is mixed is fucking ridiculous. I can't explain it but it nearly sounds futuristic for commercial rock at the time it was released.
@@Kreverend520v2 That's common for pop productions tbh, a singer may do 40 takes of the same line, and then an engineer will pick the very best sounding example of each word and splice em all together.
Amen...but, that being said. If people stopped doing helpful things, that made sense, due to the completely unjustified hate, coming from self-loathing, losers who don't revere anything....then, no one would open their mouths.
You missed the fact that he used several samples, blended them, sculptured them to fit the specific song, bounced them down to one sample, and then blended that unique sample with the recorded kick in the final mix? 🤔 Did you have the sound on when you watched the video? 😁
Or, learning to use mics, tune a set, and learn to play...but samples.. okay.. Lol. Samples suck. They'd are copies of a sound someone got.. get your own.
I studied in sound engineering years ago and the drummer went to the drum fest in Montreal and he was not only a mad drummer but a pretty chill guy. I'm not sure he even wanted to be in the band himself lol
I liked what he said about choosing the right samples in pre-production at 4:40 . that goes for all sounds imo. mixing is easier when the tracks already sound fitting.
This is refreshing because it is so easy to get trapped into looking for things. When mixing post, I figured out what I liked and just stuck with it. There are certain ones you might like for different reasons, but I always have an REQ6 as an alt. Building the mix from a strict plugin channel strip POV makes the most sense. Build the mix with one tool, and tools as you need them. I mean, Andy Wallace is a pretty bare bones guy. Korn record he was mixing was basically being mixed by SSL compression. It was Untouchables. Granted the recording already had a lot of the work done. Frank, Beinhorn and the Euphonix R-1. I remember when they came to the studio I was at to listen to the Euphonix converters analog ones. 703 and 713s. Tested the Lavry 4 channel converters as well with the 704/714 AES to Madi converters. Beinhorn wanted the Lavry converters 24 channels for the drums. I'm pretty sure he bought it outright from his own pocket. The R-1 was 100k. Then I remember going to Conway as they were trying to figure out how to get 96k recording into PT which was 48k at the time still I think, via a Pyramix Madi card that wouldn't work. Editing on the R-1 was almost like cutting tape. From what I remember, from what I was told, they split the 96k into 2 channels for editing and combined them back to 96k. It was a technique because Pro Tools wasn't 96k at the time. I still remember 5.1 truncating the bit if you lowered a fader internally. We caught that on a John Powell score. Be that as it may, having a console has the advantage. Because you have to make it work. Some outboard for when you need help. I think Nuendo got it right in that respect.
What I found after many years recording music is that each individual track, be it drums, bass, guitar, keyboards, vocals, HAS to be perfect before you ever mix the song. Tone + performance is everything. Don't skimp on any track. Spend as much time as you can exploring sounds and character for every single track. Every nuance. It will be worth it come mix time. Be anal. Learn how to spot what is not working. What is working. It takes time but it will pay off in the end. 8)))
Not sure what I just watched. But what this guy is saying is if you can’t hear what you want it to sound like then you’re going to be wasting energy looking for it. There is a reason why he’s the best of the best, he has as much talent for hearing what he wants as the actual artist. This guy would do well back in the analog recording days. He reminds me of how Rick Rubin produces.
This goes directly against the grain of the typical mix engineer mindset of "know your frequencies; know this; know that" and I love it. Use your ears, not your eyes.
Yes, there's a time and place though. If you're mixing, don't worry about which frequency is which, just use your ears. If you're listening in your car or headphones outside of the studio, it sure helps to be able to identify by ear at which frequencies there is masking, harshness/muddiness, or where you're like to make some room etc.
I believe the most quality way to professionalism is by learning and training to hear all frequencies, and mixing by ear. Only when you have established a good understanding of the sonic spectrum, by years of practice, can you truly release your self. This way you will have a masters understanding and ears, and know what and why to do, without going into details and searching for the perfect peaks and things that have nothing to do with the actual music.
@@WardenOfTerradefine wrong take. Nils Rogers, and the guitarist of Gang of Four recorded their guitar directly in a mixer’s input, yet they got a good sound out of doing that.
I also really like that meter analogy, where making broad strokes frees room for making more decisions. I think Eyal has mentioned this too several times where it's sort of a mental RAM usage thing. I like all of that as a means to keep the work flowing
I’m neurotic about speed, having lost my license over it a long time ago. But I would definitely AGREE that if you’re paying attention to individual things and not just enjoying song - absolutely… there is your clue.
I hate to be the contrarian but the old Waves E channel is still absolutely one of the most versatile and greatest sounding channel strips for any genre imaginable. Choosing that specific one is going to streamline your process and guarantee results as long as you know what you're doing.
His mentality is great. Even though he uses the exact same channel strip as most others I see mixing, but still. It's about the why. No one is going to know or care about what plug in you're using. The listener isn't on a honeymoon with the new plug in YOU bought and thought was the answer to every issue you have in your mix JUST because you want it to end up being worth the money. Your secret sauce can be established AFTER you get the basics down and understand why you're making whatever moves you're making in the mix.
Great advice all around. Sometimes as engineers we get wrapped around certain technical things and it distracts us from the fun, creative stuff. Obviously there are technical, science-based issues to worry about, but there still needs to be the artistic side of mixing. Here’s another thing I thought was super helpful. Mixing quickly, but efficiently, will allow more time for creativity to flourish. Workflow is the key in this regard. Presets, templates, defaults, whatever…should be setup well in advance of the mixing, so again we can have more time to JUST mix and enjoy that process.
i find that the people that give the whole spiel "have a really narrow Q and pull down 4.5k, 6.034k, by 3db" etc are often amateur or inexperienced, but have been impressed when they've heard another amateur or inexperienced person promote the same thing. thus creating an endless cycle of bullshittery and bad habits. this is really refreshing seeing a guy with a completely no bullshit approach, just getting stuck in. if it sounds good, its good. end of story.
It’s funny that this vid pops up now. About a week ago I heard NB on the radio and thinking how great the mix was comparing it to the song before and after.
Sounds to me a lot like CLA's approach. Yeah given that your incoming tracks are amazingly produced, mixing it's always a lot simpler than most people think it is (and I said "simpler", not "easy")
But that's the thing! Everyone is always saying that! "oh but it's so easy to work fast and simple with tracks that are recorded perfectly". But not everyone is trying to learn how to record and preproduce properly and just being lazy thinking their 1000 plugins will make it sound great. People should start trying to learn how to mic things and how to direct the musicians better to get the tracks perfectly before even touching a fader in the DAW.
Great video! This makes so much sense, and I think the same approach works for a lot of other creative work as well, whether it's songwriting, video production, or whatever.
Garbage in Garbage out. The tone is in your fingers. The best mixes are the most accurate. A good mic recording a good tone. No one wants to hear this but mess with the knobs until it sounds good was the best advice, I ever got from my mentors. These guys were at the top of the game. Studio magic is a bit of a myth. Trust yourself and don't copy other's techniques.
Great stuff, man! This kind of attitude/philosophy is very rare (I can think of Joe Barresi as another maestro) among all those frequency-number-plugin-gear people out there. Many times in my own experience it has been that the numbers show one thing, ears deliver the other (and vice versa). Go figure, huh?! So, ears are any producer's/engineer's most valuable plugin ever to be present in this business which should be utilized way more than it's being done. And these kinds of interviews help that to happen. Thanks again!
I've always thought Nickelback had a tight sound even though they've been the subject of a lot of undue hate. They're a solid band that sticks to the basics.
Ever notice when someone tries to praise something they know is shit, all these mid terms start flowing in water. Like I'm supposed to respect Nickelback for being "solid" and "sticking to the basics".
@@Afghamistam I'm not even a fan of Nickelback. I have some nostalgic memories of a few songs from my teen years but other than that I've never given one of their albums to spin but as a recording engineer I appreciate their mix and overall sound with no attachment to their lyrics or songwriting ability and it doesn't add value to anything to call something shit just because I don't like it.
@@schumannbeing I appreciate all the thousands of songs I've heard that have tight mixes without neanderthal lyrics and corny buttrock riffs. But that's me. Life is too short for Nickelback.
Yeah, this was really ... relaxant for me! I'm mixing quite fast and my standard track template is my well-know EQ and a SSL style channel. And it works out in 99% of the time. Sometimes adding some other comps or eqs ... when I feel to do something more / different. And I always felt bad because of this "habit" ... but I'm really happy to hear, that it's total "OK" to just drop your standard channel you know well and you are fast with. Thanks very lot! Thumbs up, Stefan
I suddenly feel a lot better about my own process having heard this guy talk. He's on another plane than me in terms of skill, but my buddies and I always talk about the "am I speeding?" test when we're mixing.
lol my most recent mix (for practice) i’ve been using Nickelback as a reference, and constantly feeling like their music is so huge and loud and mine sounds like a garage so this is perfect
I love the Nickelback sound. I love the final product. I am kind of disappointed in how they get there now. I used to stack sounds like this but have become way more of a "purist" which is kind of bs because after I put all my tweaks, comps, whatever-- its not pure, far from pure.. but ??? I guess if I need a radio hit to sound big, I better stack the hell out of it and sculp the sound.
wow thanks for all the insights, that was so thorough 😂 I’m newbie so cannot grasp them all yet but thanks for sharing. Even the drums that already sounded ok live version have undergone tweaking with samples and all. No wonder in the final recording it’s awesome. Metallica black is one of my fav drum mix heard in recording. Hope you can have another episode featuring that particular album mix.
"Who cares, what frequency did I end up on? I don't know, I fixed the problem, move on." - truer words have never been spoken. Stop fucking around, and get the job done.
Came for the click bait title, some of the best tips I have heard ever! Great methodology and breakdown of broad stroke moves that actually make a difference.
I use the brainworx ssl channel on every single one of my tracks too. The EQ just sounds the absolute best compared to anything I’ve ever used. It’s so musical. It’s literally hard to make things sound bad with it.
I guess if you want a big, fat, larger than life sound, then you have to do things in the studio that aren’t possible with actual playing, like layering multiple samples together. I don’t remember Led Zep having to layer kicks, but what do I know. And I suppose if you layer kick samples then you have to have use a backing track when playing live to reproduce the layered kick, or have someone trigger it when playing live.
I like big drums and I cannot lie. However, of course his mixing process is fast and little work is necessary on EQ or compression: he did all the work in pre-production.
OMG! This guy get's it... This day and age, with the plug-in overload, and the fact that so much is digital, and plugins are now almost all on an equal level, he's taking the process back to "why", instead of what. The whole GAS epidemic has caused that. You can't tell what a piece of gear is when listening, whether recording, or instrument. It ALL sounds good today. You knowledge, workflow, and ears are FAR more important than what gear you own. The irony is that I'm not a fan of the drums, because they sound exactly like what it is...a bunch of WAY over-processed samples. They're high-and low-pitched thuds with tons of reverb. It works for Nickelback (whom I'm a HUGE fan of), though. So much of the recording today is digital, which means, as long as the signal being recorded is a fundamentally good sound, it shouldn't matter which "digital" piece of gear you use (theoretically). I'd like to see just how good one of the pro's could get a Presonus, or Focusrite piece of gear to sound, with high-end plugins. Because, there's literally no difference between a Neve, SSL, or Presonus mic-pre's (in and of themselves). Several comparisons have already disproven that. So, I'm trying to see where the quantum leap of bad mixes to good mixes takes place. I'm convinced, that once you get to a certain point of quality with gear (which is now VERY accessible today) it's the knowledge of the equipment.
I wish more reverb plugins had note subdivision times rather than ms so I didn’t have to bust out the calculator and divide the tempo by 60,000 or 30,000 to find a note subdivision for the song. I mean I do it to get that perfectly long tail he’s talking about but yeah I wish more plugins incorporated it
Could it be that Nickelback mixes sound incredible because they have the absolute best in the business engineering and producing all of their recordings?
What controller is he using to control a Waves channel strip in Pro Tools? I didn't think the SSL controller worked with anything other than their own plugins. He must have a generic midi controller mapped with Mulligan to control just the parameters he cares about.
I'm confused! On the one hand you're basically saying just adjust the frequency or gain and move on! But then you're talking about mixing all those kick samples together, which usually takes a lot longer to complete than it does just to turn a few knobs to get your sound! So, either way you're still spending roughly the same amount of time adjusting the kick versus creating a new one from samples! Which probably takes longer!
EQ is not gonna get you the same sound as layering multiple samples. It can't. He's saying when it comes to EQ and such, don't waste a ton of time, rather, spend it where you actually need to.
