See all Into The Lair Episodes and more at pensadosplace.tv! In this week's Into The Lair, Dave discusses dealing with Low-End in a mix, and provides some detailed examples of his mixing process.
8:26 I like the fact that he's a professional and he was straight up & honest and said that he didn't know what that plug-in was or how to use it. A lot of people in his position don't like to admit when they don't know something, let alone mention it on a video broadcasted worldwide. #Respect!
cnotenesmith Indeed, that is the sign of a master; admitting right away when you don't know something. Too many people, especially in mixing, offer advice and claim to know it all, but have no idea what they're talking about, and don't even have any training or experience!
I actually think it's more common for guys in 'his position' to be frank about their weaknesses. At that level, the work speaks for itself many times over. Pensado could say 'I'm so good with this compressor' or 'I always find mix buses confusing' and people would regard him just as highly in either case
Thanks for doing these. I hope you'll do more on bass and low end. I feel like bass is the most challenging instrument (and frequency range) to really master in a mix, but there is so little written about it. Super standout recorded bass guitar sounds in a big mix are so few and far between; it has always been relegated to a sub bass or something way back in the mix historically, but it can shine as midrange instrument, with masterful recording and mixing.
thanks Jim, i will do, every time i watch Dave's vids i always learn something, i definitely will be watching every last one, and i hope he keeps coming out with more.
Dave saying "I just messed with it till it sounded good" is probably the most sage piece of wisdom you could give anyone. We all know what good music sounds like, just work on it till it sounds like that
loved your comment.."I just messed with it until it sounded right" that`s the approach i take with each mix.A very good Friend and one Hell of an Sound Tech once told me when i ask him..how to get a good mix..."you keep turning knobs and moving Faders until it sounds right",,,..I`m not so much into using frequencies..i love working intuitiv..
I love how you can just get creative like that in the box, doing things that would have been impossible for most of us to accomplish in the past. No limits.
Soooo glad to see a V that speaks to dealing with a unique composition. My recent work includes attempts to compose and arrange new(ish) approaches. This V helped me. I owe you a piece of pizza, Pensado.
When you had the bass and the drums alone I really thought "damn, this can't be right, drums are sooo much louder" but when you added the guitar and the coper, man, it just balanced out perfect.
wooooow you love your work and i will say you are damn good to bring that bass sounding good and also i love the brass, wish you could do a tutorial on brass i have some work that i was pressing hard on but i am now getting ease up on the low end from your tutorials and now paying more attention on the brass section (horn section) , keep up the good work you are inspiring a lot of engineers and desire to be engineers like myself out there in the world of audio recording,stay bless .
Nice stuff I was afraid to get that radical with my EQ cuz of what I thought was correct butI'm learnin alot from these vids and my Bass and Drum stuff is gettin pretty slammin.
In case you didn't get an answer yet.. On pultec style EQ's, the boost and attenuate knobs often affect the frequency with different EQ curves, so by using both, one can generate a different/more focused eq boost. check other videos on how to use a pultec style eq.. that's where I picked up that trick from! :)
Analyse the kick to see where it's res freq is, that's where you notch the bass a bit on your eq. Also subtly sidechaining the kick to a multiband comp on the bass that compresses the lows can help them co-exist. Add a little more top freqs to the kick to make it's snap more audible, this helps your ears find the kick in the mix.
that means that sometimes on tiny speakers, laptops u just dont hear what u r supossed to hear... mostly bass for example and there is a lot things u can do to make it hearable on every speaker no matter what quality or build it is...
Lowpass your master channel,so all you hear is the low end,maybe 400hz and below. Pick two compromising frequencies both as close to 60 as you can. Maybe put the kick at 65-75 and the bass at 55-65. Where ever you put the kick, carve a little of that frequency out of the bass, vise versa. Compress the bass sidechained with the kick and dial in the compression settings until it sounds good, the release in particular(RU-vid sidechain compression if that didn't make sense).
May I suggest trying a side chain eq/filter on the bass channel that cuts some low-ends everytime the bass drum kicks in. It might be a bit more subtle solution than straight side chain compression.
hey dude, for rock stuff try doubling your bass guitar track and making one all higher freqs and the other all the lower stuff, this way you can make some room in the middle for the gtrs and specifically control the level of the bass in the mix while maintaining the definition of what is being played by the instrument, works like a charm. and you can do the same thing for the Kick Drum and really give everything a place in the mix.
I do side-chain, I do, thanks for the tips. But for example, in the other video about ear training on low freqs., when Dave passed 100 hz with the lo-pass, all you could hear was the bass, it was clearly overpowering the kick in the subs. So what to do?
I'm listening on a vizio soundbar at work. (real life work not studio dream job stuff) anyway, The sub bass sounded great on "little speakers" here too. Until the dark essence plug in. Just muddied on the sound bar but I got it pretty loud. Dave's the man and I look up to him as an engineer. Maxbass plug is amazing. I wish I had it. Does anybody know of a more affordable plugin that might get a similar result? Low end really sounds great! awesome tutorial
The same..... Watch his video on listening. He sweeps an EQ on a full mix. Lets you know where the lows should go. Good for some experimenting. I do the same thing. Boost 50 Hz on the kick and wonder why it isn't working.
Please, would love to hear some straight rock management of bass and kick. I never know how to get separation, I always want the 60 hz to be present in both and lever let enyone win the battle! anyone feeling the same?
also this video is a really old school, but really good at explaining the concept of spacial mixing your mix and giving every instrument its place. the title is "The Art Of Mixing (A Arte da Mixagem) - David Gibson" Its a long ass video so go pee and get some coffee first, lol.
Dave always has his delay compensation light lit red on pretty much everything I see him do. I wonder if this is helping or hurting him. Oh, and somebody tell him what the Little Labs VOG actually does, haha. Dave is funny.
Of course not! You can use almost any EQ in the world in almost any DAW. You just have to install them and stuff. They're called VST's /Plugins, and you can have as many as your heart desires in your DAW.
Do most sound engineers go by ear and is it superior to say someone with shit loads of sound wave education,not saying that isnt important but are most of the top guy just people who have done there 10,000 hours under the headphones?
With everything P.P knows about mixing & getting freq to work with each other, you would expect their video's to NOT have this 200-500 hz white noise playing during the video !!! - " Only trained ears can hear what I'm talking about "
