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Dana Nielsen

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at 12:18 am in reply to: 4 Piece Band, Live Instrumental Track

HOLY MOLY!! A+++ @joerobinson – Bravo!

Such a treat to hear and watch u all play. Such burning cats you all are! And that is some high level video production and lighting too, to top it all off!! 👏👏🤘

Absolutely incredible, homey!!

Dana Nielsen

Administrator
at 12:20 am in reply to: 4 Piece Band, Live Instrumental Track

Just added to the MP Playlist, too!

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2Hur30TN833YNBj6auawtf?si=55cb5f0103af457f

Dana Nielsen

Administrator

at 12:13 am in reply to: Member Poll: Trends in file delivery when working with remote session musicians

Dylan!

What an excellent and thoughtful question.

I get files of all kinds – some great, some not so great haha. Here are a few things that come to mind.

I love it when:

– Files and tracks have been named thoughtfully and thoroughly (no “Audio_01” please! 😂)

– Tracks are laid out top-to-bottom in some kind of organized fashion

– Same goes for track and clip colors – they don’t need to be MY preferred colors, but seeing some type of system helps me to understand the production more quickly and easily.

– Limited options, or no options — just the finished product please 🙂 You aptly mentioned this concept in our Member Meet-up Zoom the other day!

– Waveforms that are nice and loud! But, obv, not clipping. I can’t tell you how many kick and snare and lead vocal tracks I’ve applied +20db of clip gain to. “Bro, your snare track looks like an egg shaker” haha

– If you’re sending a folder of multi-track audio files – as opposed to a Pro Tools session – I love it when people are mindful of their folder names and file names. Such as … Instrument_SongName_mix#_24bit48k_STEM (or MULTI if multitrack file)

– Bonus points if multi-track exports have a 2-digit number upfront to maintain their top-down track layout:

01_Kick_SongName_…

02_Snare-Top_SongName_…

03_Snare-Btm_SongName_…

– And lastly, since you mentioned “uh-the-playing” … I do love excellent playing (and/or editing) that doesn’t require further editing on my part.

Re: Phase … I’m always appreciative and surprised when drums and other things are in phase, tho I don’t expect them to be, and I don’t get riled up if they’re not. After all, phase is a pretty advanced thing to understand and be able to hear and/or adjust properly. And that’s part of MY job to fix that stuff! Plus … if they think their song sounds good with everything out of phase, well that’s an easy “win” for me, as their mixer, haha.

Further resources and fun:

Here’s a brand new blog post and video I made that’s very relevant to this great topic: https://mixprotege.com/2025/02/15/batch-rename-audio-files-with-a-better-finder/

Here’s my Stems Checklist I send to clients who are getting ready to export multitrack audio files: https://dananielsen.com/stems-checklist/

Thanks again, @dylanmandel, for the great topic! ⚡️ I hope to hear additional responses from others here – and your own as well – that I can learn from! 🤘

mixprotege.com

Batch Rename Audio Files with 'A Better Finder'

'A Better Finder Rename' is a powerful MacOS batch renaming tool that has revolutionized my audio file workflow.

Dana Nielsen

Administrator

at 9:16 pm in reply to: Question about using compression for sustain

Jezze!

I love that you’re diving deep into compression after watching that Zoom! And you are totally on the right track finding the best settings to lengthen sustain so that held notes don’t die away so quickly.

I think the best strategy (as demonstrated in the Zoom) is to go nuts with the settings in order to hear what each control has to offer. That said, it is easier to hear attack and release settings when applied to brief sounds with sharp transients such as drum hits, which is why I tend to use drums for compression demonstration purposes. Compression settings are harder to “hear” when applied to sustained sounds, so I’m not surprised you’re finding it all a bit more confusing as you delve deeper into sustained notes!

I love your practical example of using compression to lengthen the sustain of a held guitar note so that it doesn’t drop in volume so quickly. This comes up all the time in both the production and mixing phases of a record.

I find it best to imagine it a bit like an algebra equation (barf … I know … bear with me). Or better yet, think of the game show, Jeopardy, where you know “the answer” to the question and just need to work backwards to solve “the question.”

Here’s the same approach described differently:

Rather than wondering “how can I make the back-half of my guitar notes louder?” Ask yourself “how can I make the front-half of my guitar notes quieter?”

Here’s a 5-step approach:

Find The Quiet: Ok so, park your playhead/cursor in the middle or end of a long sustained guitar note. Choose a position during the note where the level is sustaining nicely but it’s just too dang quiet to cut through the mix. (FUN FACT: you’ve just discovered your threshold! See step 2)
Set The Threshold: Continue to play that quiet sustained section of the note (or loop it) while you lower the compressor’s threshold. Watch the gain reduction meter as you adjust the threshold and stop lowering the threshold when you start to see the tiniest bit of reduction registering on the GR meter.
Make It Loud: Continue looping the quiet sustained “below threshold” portion of your note while you turn up the compressor’s make-up gain. Add make-up gain until it’s as loud as you like.
Enter Launch Codes: Adjust the compressor parameters to the max, just for fun (and to protect your ears now that we’ve added a bunch of makeup gain). Try a ratio of 10:1 or higher; fastest attack, fastest release.
Let ‘Er Rip: Now position your playhead just before the note and let ‘er rip! With these settings you should see and hear a TON of gain reduction during the initial Attack and Decay of the note. And due to the fast release setting, you should see no further gain reduction by the time the playhead reaches the Sustain and Release part of the note chosen in step 1.

From there, you can continue to adjust the parameters.

Missing some of the plucky attack as the pick strikes the guitar string? Increase the compressor’s attack setting to let some of that through!
Are you hearing “pumping” artifacts during the sustain of the note? Increase the compressor’s release setting to smooth things out!
Want a super-sustained sound? Lower the threshold all the way down to just above the noise floor and turn up the make-up gain to 11!
Love the way your compressor is controlling the dynamics but it’s starting to sound unnatural? Try a lower ratio! Or a “softer knee” if your compressor has it! Or if your compressor has a “mix” or “dry/wet” knob, blend back in some of the uncompressed signal!

Lemme know if these tips are helpful, homey! Thanks for the great question – keep em comin!

Dana Nielsen

Administrator

at 7:11 pm in reply to: Nature Is A Teacher – Mix Feedback

So freaking gorgeous, Joe!!! Man. Great to hear this again — in STEREO no less, lol, after our mono Zoom meetup last week.

I love all these excellent observations and suggestions by @JLew and @shimmerisland – what an awesome, talented, creative, supportive bunch of badass musicians you all are here in this community. It is I who am humbled!

I have a bunch of thoughts and techniques/ideas that come to mind but all of them would be much easier to demonstrate rather than write about. Not much different from what Jesse commented on, but thought it’d be helpful to show HOW I tackle those things.

Is your mix session in Pro Tools? Feel free to DM me and maybe we can schedule a livestream event here on MP if you’re up for something like that.

👏 Regardless, your song is beautiful as-is – i love it! 👏

Dana Nielsen

Administrator

at 6:22 pm in reply to: Give It A Name

James!

So fun to hear this again – such an awesome composition, performance, and soundscape. Bravo!!

I just love that you and your daughter work on these together – she sounds great! Her voice and stacked harmony style reminds me of a group @cmn and @kwas and I have been listening to lots lately, The Roches. 💜

OK, so here are the very few ideas that came to mind while rocking out to “Give It A Name”:

1:05 – gimme lots more sidestick backbeat!!
Try turning up the Kick throughout so that it’s at least as big and loud as those rocking toms
love those little electronic percussion elements!!

All easy stuff man! And only if you’re feelin it, too! Awesome work as always, “J-Cube”.

Dana Nielsen

Administrator

at 1:27 pm in reply to: Give It A Name

It was so great seeing you on the Zoom yesterday and hearing a preview (in mono – thanks, Zoom 🥴)

Looking fwd to giving this a fresh listen (in stereo!) soon, man!

Dana Nielsen

Administrator

at 12:20 pm in reply to: Any Other Way

Love, love, LOVE!!! This is so good for so many reasons, Paul!! The song and performance are great, the sounds are clean and clear and punchy and have a great sense of space and vibe, and the dad-son combo is the icing on the beautiful “stuff that really matters in life” cake! 🍰

“Gentle Weezer” 😂 – great observation, @shimmerisland! I love Weezer and Rivers’ solo “demos” albums are an absolute treat if you haven’t heard them. Working w them on their Red Album was one of my fav experiences as an engineer. They’re all so smart and fun and hilarious.

@-PT you know I was hearing all kinds of fun little bonus earcandy add-ons to lift diff sections lolol, but I absolutely appreciate this as it is – capturing a performance of great song played live by a great band! (That bass riff towards the end?! I was all, “woah!”)

My only mix curiosity that I would be keen to try if I were playing around with it would be to try muting the general room reverb to see what it’s like if the vocal and “regular rhythm instruments” are bone dry, vocal right upfront, no sauce; and the only saucy surprise would be those killing slide guitar parts that have the strong echo/verb on them. Basically, just upping the ante on the contrast btwn dry AF and surprisingly-verbed-out solo guitar riffs.

And there’s a good chance I’d try that and then be like, “nah, it was cool as it was”. But I would at least try it and see. 🥰

PS – looks like the tags on this thread disappeared! I was excited to see some clever/irreverant comedy gold, @JLew!