[Dana Nielsen]

Great question, Jesse – and great response, @-PT!

Is the iphone the only camera position, or is this a multi-cam setup?

For me, I’d keep this pretty simple:

1. Ensure the clap audio in your close mics lines up with the clap motion in the video. NOTE: mute or disregard the iphone audio at this point! Move the iphone video (with its muted audio) around, frame by frame, until it syncs up nicely with your close-mic audio tracks.
2. Now, unlink the iphone audio from the iphone video so you can move the iphone audio independently from its video track.
3. Next, move the unlinked iphone audio so that it’s “clap” syncs up with your close mic claps. NOTE: sometimes I’ll change my vid editor timeline to Samples at this point if I’m unable to achieve good sync/phase using the Frames timeline.
4. Unmute the stereo iphone audio track and balance against your direct mics to taste!

Bonus Round: Add a millisecond-based delay plugin to your iphone audio set to 100% Wet, and try sweeping around the delay time (say, btwn 0 and 100ms) to simulate control over how far away the iphone microphone is. By adding 15 milliseconds, the iphone mic will sound as if it’s roughly 15 feet away from your direct mics! (Yay, the science part!). NOTE: honestly, for mixing purposes, at this point I would just ditch the science and use my ears while sweeping around the ms delay time on the plugin until I settle on something that sounds cool… who knows– it might sound amazing set to 1137ms!)

Can’t wait to hear what you end up with!

🤓

PS – here’s some speed of sound info from the ol’ Google machine:

It would take approximately 13.3 milliseconds for sound to travel 15 feet in dry air at room temperature.
The calculation is based on the following:

1. Speed of sound: Approximately 1,125 feet per second (fps) at 20 °C (68 °F).

1. Formula: Time = Distance / Speed

1. Calculation in seconds: 15 feet / 1,125 fps = 0.01333 seconds.

1. Convert to milliseconds (1 second = 1,000 milliseconds): 0.01333 seconds * 1,000 ms/second ≈ 13.3 ms.

A common approximation used in live sound engineering is that sound travels about one foot per millisecond (1 ms/ft). Using this simple rule of thumb, the time would be approximately 15 milliseconds. The more precise calculation above gives a more accurate value.

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[Dana Nielsen]

Duder – this is so chill and so beautiful! Finally able to give it a proper listen (sorry for the delay).

2:44 – there’s a bass that comes in that I could hear louder. I know the REAL sub-bass comes in later, but that pre-bass-bass ..haha.. I’d love that to be a bigger moment.

And overall, it might be nice to have some stereo sauce on the lead guitar. I think there’s a stereo reverb on it that’s long and lush and kinda blends into the gorgeous background pads – and that verb feels good – but I’d also in addition try some kind of short stereo ambience or some Dimension D or maybe some cool subtle Eventide H9000 stereo preset … OR … maybe just turn up the verb you already have on the guitar, lol.

I dig the light sidechain compression you have on the synths (or mix?) triggered by the kick. Giving this track Lo-Fi genre vibes but with much more sophisticated style playing. “Elegant Lo-Fi” anyone?

Me likey! And I can’t wait to see the accompanying video!

💜

[Dana Nielsen]

Jezzeeee! I’m so pumped to listen to this, and thanks for your patience 💜 – and thanks @-PT for chiming in here w/ the gems! It’s been an epic multi-artist, multi-session, long-hours week for me and I’m just coming back to life over here, lol. Gonna give this new track of yours a spin as soon as I’m back from a “walking donut tour of Santa Monica” … yes, you read that right 😂 🍩 🎡

[Dana Nielsen]

This is sounding beautiful!!

[Dana Nielsen]

That’s great news, Bar! I’m glad you’re able to hang onto that 6176 a bit longer and get some more use outta it!

Great question re saturation and when to use it.

For me, it’s really song/production-dependent. Acoustic guitar is a good example. If I’m recording a delicate singer-songwriter style track I’m usually looking for a full-range, high-fidelity acoustic guitar sound with no need for saturation. I may still compress it on the way into pro tools to get a good level without digital overs, but I prob wouldn’t drive the mic pre toward saturation in that instance.

However, I LOVE adding mic pre input gain saturation to acoustic guitars in a rock production! Like, if the strummy rhythm acoustics enter in the chorus… I need them to be loud and proud so they cut through the mix and fit nicely against hard-hitting drums and electric guitars. Even if it’s a folk-rock americana style, I might push the preamp input a bit hotter – not looking to “hear distortion” in the signal, but more to control peaks a bit and give the sound a subtle edge. In this case the amplifier component (the 610 input tube amp on your 6176) will kinda shave off the loudest peaks. This can work to your advantage, kinda like a compressor before your compressor – and it sounds cool in the right context!

Very cheap or poorly made preamps and other analog components sound terrible when overloaded like this on input. In my opinion, this is a huge part of what makes Neves, APIs, your UA 6176, and other great equipment so sought after — how they handle the extremes (intended AND unintended extremes, haha)! Great gear sounds AWESOME when pushed to the extreme, opening up new creative options. Not-great gear sounds harsh, unforgiving, and unusable.

[Dana Nielsen]

YESSSS!!!! This came out amazing, homey!! Great work tweaking the guitar, and I love the increased “pre-bass” level. The mix sounds awesome, the vid is super cool, and you are a BEAST!!! 😍

[Dana Nielsen]

Hahahaa – amazing! Can’t wait to hear what you two cook up! 🍳

[Dana Nielsen]

😂😂😂. The reverb journey is real.

[Dana Nielsen]

#popcornfart 😂🍿💨

[Dana Nielsen]

Hey Bar! (and @sexton)! Wow, I love this – such beautiful playing and recording! And to @-PT‘s point, I agree — @JLew will totally dig this awesome instrumental 😊.

“Outlaw” lolol – perfect word for that wonderful feeling of “breaking the rules” with your equipment. Haha, love it! Whatever you’re doing to “abuse” that 6176 sounds GREAT – keep it up!

I’m not familiar with those other specific pieces of gear you mentioned but in general, heck yeah, these days it’s easier and easier to get expensive-sounding results using budget-friendly gear. You could probably even return/exchange for something different if you’re not satisfied with your first choice (assuming you’re buying something new from Guitar Center, Sweetwater, Amazon, etc.).

No matter the brand/model you settle on, per the video above in this thread, I would just try to find a piece (or pieces) of gear that ‘check the same boxes’ as that 6176 if you can:

• Input gain AND output fader/knob (to control digital peaks when you’re in “Outlaw Mode” 🤠)
• EQ for tone shaping on the way into your DAW
• Compressor/limiter option for shaping dynamics on the way in, and controlling peaks/overs in your DAW

Let us know what you decide on, Bar!

I’m gonna listen to that instrumental again now, cause it’s so nice! 🙌

[Dana Nielsen]

My pleasure, man! Altiverb is amazing for lots of actual sampled living rooms and real spaces (and has tons of real halls and stadiums too). Waves IR reverb has this too but a less intuitive graphic interface. Logic may have its own Impulse Response reverb as well – not sure. But i find for realistic sounding rooms IR verbs are the way to go. I use UAD Ocean Way plugin a lot for this too but it definitely sounds more like a professional recording studio than a room in a regular house. Have fun!

[Dana Nielsen]

Hahaha u know it! 👴

Thanks brother!

PS – when we gonna get some new J-Beat jams?! 🙏💜

[Dana Nielsen]

😂 You know I’m here for ALL the duckees! 🦆🦆🦆

[Dana Nielsen]

The ducking you hear in the ad was applied by the broadcast mix team in their final rerecord mix session, and yeah – full bandwidth for sure! Haha. I feel like that’s the commercial and radio style that everyone’s used to hearing. And like you said, it really makes the VO the star of the show / lead singer, which is exactly what they want.

But heck yeah, I love using a lead vocal to key frequency-specific compression on drums/gtrs/etc! Lately I’ve been doing that with Fabfilter Pro-Q 4’s built-in dynamics set to Spectral Mode across my submasters. Works incredibly well!

For ads and VO, another great trick – even better than keying and ducking – is producing the arrangement itself to stay out of the vocal range during VO sections, or even composing music with VO in mind. Think: sparse arrangements using low- or mid-frequency instruments, etc. That way, less ducking is required, and ad agency folks are drawn to your track as they test it internally against their ever-changing VO – cause, let’s face it, those folks in the boardroom ain’t duckin’ sh&#! 😂

[Dana Nielsen]

I actually was provided with a temp voiceover placed exactly where they wanted it and was able to compose and arrange the song so as not to interfere w the VO.

I also do my own VO ducking on my mixes when submitting things so that it sounds more finished when they’re evaluating submissions.

When submitting, I send 2 files: a :30 sec .mov file w music, VO, picture all baked together, as well as a .wav with only the music- at mastered volume like a “found” track on Spotify they were interested in licensing. The .wav music-only fike runs longer, about :45 sec so they have additional material to edit with.