Member Dana Nielsen
MemberForum Replies Created
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Hey Pete! Thanks for sharing this with us all! I’ll circle back soon with some helpful De-essing ideas and other thoughts when I have a moment to listen in the studio. 🤘 ⚡️
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Kevin!!
So thrilled to have u here in the MP community, and what a killer first post! This is badass. I’ve posted a few thoughts via video below.
Also, which DAW are you using, and can you tell us more about where you recorded this? Are the drums all live, or are there samples in there? They sound nice!! Great work, and I look fwd to hearing what you add to this! 🤘
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Jesse!!! Dude, this is so beautiful, visually and musically! And I love that the iphone audio captured live is used in the final mix, surrounded and augmented by a richer overdubbed atmosphere … so freaking cool! BRAVO!!! 🙌💜⚡️
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Also – never even heard of Needlepoint, and turns out I own it as part of my Plugin Alliance MEGA Bundle, so I’ll for sure be messing with that thing in the near future – thanks for the tip!
And for anyone else who’s interested, it looks like it’s on sale for $29 at the moment. 🤘
plugin-alliance.com
Authentic, physically modeled vinyl effects from subtle to surreal.
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So fun hearing this one again, Paul! — this time on headphones… sounds deep and punchy! 🙌
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Stuart! This is super cool, man – love it! Tension for sure ⚡️. FWIW, dropping a couple thoughts here on an otherwise fun, exciting mix and production!
- The synth lead at 0:52 feels real loud to me against the track. Try turning it down? orrr … try leaving it loud but with heavy side-chain compression keyed by the kick and snare, which would give the synth some aggro pumping action AND it would let the kick and snare cut through the synth better so those drums stay powerful and upfront (right now that synth is kinda drowning out the kick/snare).
- I love how huge the snare is! That said, I want the kick to be JUST as huge as the snare. Currently the kick feels a bit low-volume. Crank that thing up so it punches me in the GUT!
That’s all I got, man – killer job!! And thanks for sharing with us all!
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Man, your post has inspired me to make a de-essing video but alas I’ve been swamped this week and it may have to wait …. meantime, here’s a shortlist of my fav de-essing techniques:
- Massey De-Esser is my go-to. In general, I’d say I hate the sound of de-essers at least 50% of the time, lol. They just make things sound unnatural. BUT … the Massey one is by far my favorite, most of all due to the mix knob. Plus, it’s simple to use, easy to tweak, and to my ear does the best job in the least amount of time.
- Using “clip gain” to manually turn down the volume of intense S’s is very effective. It’s certainly more time consuming than slapping a de-essing plugin on the insert, but it sounds more natural since you’re just manipulating volume, not frequencies.
- Adjusting the volume of S’s within Melodyne. If you’re already using Melodyne to adjust tuning and timing, why not turn down those pesky S’s while you’re at it? That’s what I often do. Pro Tip: even tho Melodyne now has a De-Essing tool, I still find that manually chopping the S’s out of the blobs and turning them down with the Amplitude tool sounds the best for some reason.
- All of the above. Sometimes throughout the course of a mix I’ll end up treating the S’s using all three (or more) methods, little by little, until everything is under control. Our ears are so sensitive to human speech and when those S’s get manipulated even the most casual listener will perk up and feel as though there’s a glitch in The Matrix. As such, I find that stacking several gentle processes often yields a more natural de-essing result than trying to fix all problems by brute force with one single tool.
Hope these tips serve ya well man! I’ll try to circle back with further thoughts on your other mix questions when I can. Great having you in the livestream today!
masseyplugins.com
Massey Plugins creates versatile, affordable and elegant plugins that have earned the status of 'must-haves' for mixing in Pro Tools.
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I love that! Amazing how those things happen.
And high paise in the comments from Jamie Lidell on that post. Love Jamie and his podcast – i’ll have to look that one up!
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Yeah that thing is so cool. I haven’t done any tracking with it, but I’ve used it to create trippy echo and delay with feedback fx, some of which can be heard on the Smashing Pumpkins album I recorded/mixed .. I’ll post an example if I can find it. I’d love to try recording to that machine sometime as a 4-track!
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@Muzz that is awesome, man, that you’re getting such great sounds right at home – killer! With the bass, if it’s getting too muddy when you turn it up, don’t be afraid to use some EQ to reduce the low end “mud” to your liking, and boost some top or midrange to help with the “definition.” I often find 800Hz gratifying on an electric bass to help with that. It sounds like “rrrrrrrr” to me 🤷🏻♂️😂 and sometimes helps poke it out through a heavy mix so you can distinguish the note/melody of the bass. Don’t get stuck on that specific frequency though if it’s not helping … just follow your instincts and your ears and you’ll find your way. It’s always super helpful to have a reference mix to compare to while you’re working — Cue up that ol’ Sevendust album! haha. Or maybe some Foo Fighters? Just be sure to turn down your Spotify volume fader to match the overall volume of your mix, otherwise you’ll be chasing your tail, blinded by loudness. And @-PT‘s suggestion is great as well: don’t do all of your EQ’ing while in Solo, otherwise you might not push (or cut) frequencies hard enough to make a tangible difference in the overall mix. Looking fwd to hearing your next update, homey!! ⚡️
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I LOVE this, @Dave! Heck yeah, experimentation, finding the limits, pushing the gear, accidentally stumbling onto cool sounds … that’s the best stuff!
Also … look what sits just on the other side of my room:
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@ABrown! Thanks, man!
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Woo! Can’t wait to hear it, man!
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Nice! I’m ITB as well – have been for the past many years, happily. My main speakers are ATC SCM45As. I also have a trusty (smaller) pair of their SCM25As. They’re both excellent.