Member Dana Nielsen
MemberForum Replies Created
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Here are some chapters to help navigate the replay a bit easier
You can also access the chapter list directly within the video interface by clicking on the hamburger-looking Chapter Menu.- 00:03 Greetings and Introductions: Casual greetings, introductions, and expressions of happiness to see each other.
- 01:12 Work and Education: Updates on work, freelancing, sound engineering degree, and curriculum.
- 02:56 Music Production Tools: Exploration of Ableton software and its features for music production.
- 04:00 Community and Collaboration: Encouragement for community interaction and sharing experiences.
- 08:32 Technical Challenges: Discussion about distribution issues and volume levels in music production.
- 35:19 Loudness and Dynamics: Discussion on achieving loud mixes, headroom levels, and the balance between loudness and dynamics.
- 36:54 Metering and Sound Quality: Importance of monitoring meters, understanding loudness levels, and using ears over numbers.
- 38:57 Using Avid Heat: Experience with Avid Heat, its settings, and its impact on mixing.
- 42:39 Experimentation and Learning: Encouragement to explore parameters and learn through experimentation.
- 46:07 Vocal Mixing Techniques: Considerations for using effects on vocals and the impact on vocal sound.
- 46:40 Community and Music Quality: Appreciation for the quality of music shared within the community.
- 71:19 Audio Mixing Techniques: Discussion on using headphones, quality of vocals, and mixing techniques for clarity and balance.
- 74:34 Noise Reduction Tools: Utilization of RX software for noise removal, addressing mouth clicks, and enhancing audio quality.
- 78:35 Editing Techniques for Bass: Discussion on editing bass and drums for phase alignment and maintaining natural sound in recordings.
Here are a few example Q&A takeaways based on our lively discussion:
- What mastering techniques were mentioned in the Zoom?
The Zoom replay details mastering techniques focused on preventing distortion through true peak limiters and using plugins like Waves NLS for subtle compression. It also emphasizes the use of FabFilter Pro-L2 for managing output levels and achieving increased loudness while advocating for a simple master bus processing approach. Finally, the video compares console emulation with using compressors or limiters on the master bus. - How is audio loudness addressed on Spotify?
Spotify uses audio loudness normalization, but the video suggests disabling this feature. This allows users to experience the original, unprocessed sound of each track as intended by the artist. Mastering engineers should focus on achieving high-quality audio rather than rigidly conforming to specific loudness targets. - Should mixers pay attention to LUFS and other visual feedback from specialized meters?
Mixers should be aware of LUFS meters, but not overly reliant on them. Prioritize achieving high-quality sound through careful listening and attention to detail. Mastering engineers should similarly focus on sonic excellence over strict adherence to loudness standards. - Where does Dana prefer to utilize compression and limiting rather than on the master bus?
Dana’s approach in the video avoids master bus compression or limiting. Instead, he emphasizes careful EQ and compression on individual tracks and the drum bus to achieve the desired loudness. This method prioritizes track-level dynamics control for a balanced and powerful final mix. - How does iZotope’s “RX Monitor” plug-in aid mixing?
RX Monitor provides real-time audio monitoring through a DAW’s effects, even when RX is used in as a standalone app. This consistent sound monitoring prevents problems caused by volume differences between the original and processed audio. The seamless integration with RX Connect streamlines the editing workflow.
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Super cool, @jlew, thanks so much for sharing this! And FREE, no less! I don’t know about this one and will check it out. Great to have @detective‘s (partially) ringing endorsement, too!
PS – are you using this in addition to your new snazzy TC Electronic Clarity M meter? 🤓💜
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Hey Drew!
Such a great question, AND a great challenge. Upright bass is a beast that can be difficult to wrangle, especially when you want sub-y low-end out of it.
For me, this process begins with mic placement. (I know … “yawn.” And prob also “too late,” as you’re working with already-recorded tracks, but bear with me. Perhaps these ideas will help your next recording. Plus, I’ll include some mixing tips that’ll help pre-recorded bass as well.
My Best Microphone? My Ear.
I always start by listening to the player in the room. This is my method for recording any instrument. I pretend my ear is the microphone (or ears, plural, if I’m placing a stereo mic). I move my head around like a weirdo while the musician plays, and I find the spots that sound the best to me, and I put the mics there. Works every time.
My Go-To Two Mic Upright Bass Technique
For an upright bass I’m usually looking for a two-mic setup: one large-diaphragm condenser near the f-hole to pick up the deepest, richest, sub-iest sound my ears can locate; and one LDC on the neck facing down(ish) around where the neck meets the body of the instrument to pick up the mid-range definition, which helps define the bass “note” especially on small speakers. As long as those two mics are in-phase with each other I can adjust them during mixing to suit each individual song. A slow ballad might favor the F-hole low-end bloom, whereas an uptempo song might favor the neck mic so that the notes pop out nice and clear, and the tempo doesn’t get weighed down with sluggish low-end.
Bass Bussin’
Regardless the tempo, both of these mics (and sometimes a D.I., too, if available) will get bussed to a mono Aux Input, where I’ll apply any additional EQ and compression. EQ’ing and compressing the combined signal helps avoid EQ phase weirdness btwn mic’s, and helps solidify the instrument’s envelope (attack, decay, sustain, release). As an added bonus it also sums things down to one fader for easier balancing and automation.
Parallel Extremes When Needed
From there – if needed – I might add a couple “parallel” processes by sending the Bass buss (via pre-fade send) to an aggressive compressor Aux Input, and/or an amp sim Aux Input, and/or a subharmonic effect Aux Input (this is similar to what @detective recommended in his helpful post – thanks, Paul!). Sending the bass buss to multiple returns using a “pre-fade” aux send, allows me to turn the original dry Bass buss fader all the way down while I dial in my aggressive parallel effects returns. I always go “aggressive” with parallel FX ’cause otherwise what’s the point? The beauty of parallel is I can add these faders to the dry Bass buss in small increments. Kinda like adding a few dashes of ghost pepper hot sauce to huge pot of chili. A little goes a long way, and its potency is what makes it so useful in a large batch– err, I mean so useful in a dense audio mix.
Hope these tips help, Drew! Feel free to share a sample of your current mix as well as a sample of one of your fav references, and maybe we can get some more ideas flying. Good luck! 🎚️⚡️
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Oh, one last thing about adding low-end EQ to stuff like bass and kicks …. try reducing the frequency above where your boost is at. This often helps me get a more focused sound and eliminates mud. Like, try a low shelf boost at 100Hz in tandem with a significant bellcurve notch reduction at say 200Hz, or wherever the mud or resonance is building up.
Hi pass is also your friend for low-end, backwards as that sounds. i.e., try boosting 60Hz with a steep hi pass filter at 40Hz for example. You’ll be able to push that 60Hz harder without the sub frequencies below 40 eating up all your mix headroom and destroying your speakers. 🤘
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Joe!
I remember this track from before (is that possible?) beautiful!
Yeah guitar a bit loud and maybe a bit bright midrange-y (could just be loudness)
try bass gtr up
distortion on guitar catches my ear – seems a bit agro for the vibe of the song (a darker gtr EQ might smooth this out. AND, it’s fine as-is – it just caught my ear a few times so I thought I’d mention)
snare – maybe try a darker sound with more fat bottom, dark n gut-punchy. try giving that snare a huge 60 or 100hz Pultec boost (medium to narrow bandwidth). ⚡️
You’ve really achieved all the clarity and brightness one could want (love it! Great job! That’s no easy feat). Now, my curiosity would be to warm it all up per the song’s feeling .. more like a “hug”, kinda similar comment as my reply to @jlew‘s recent post. See what it’s like to make all the tones rich and deep as you can without losing too, too much of your nice top end.
Here are a few Nir Felder tracks that come to mind from the albums I mixed for him, which have a similar chill brushes vibe, in case they spark any mix inspiration for ya:
- Longest Star (“III” album)
- Sea of Miracles (“III”)
- coronation (from “II” album)
After my own listening to those references just now, and then listening to your mix again, I think the main thing I’d focus on is the snare sound – getting it fatter, and maybe more depth to the bass guitar. The bass sounds good already, but due to the key and voicing on the bass, higher on the fretboard, sometimes I have to work extra hard to get that deep “root note” feeling to help round out a higher-voiced arrangement. Does that make any sense? 😂
Amazing playing, writing, arranging, man!! Love this!
🎚️🤘
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Paul!! What an incredible story and performance (and clothing optional details lol). Your post feels straight out of a Hunter S. Thompson book. And, man, sorry to hear Mr. Hippo is no longer with us – what a great voice! I love the original you posted and I dig the 2024 version too. I definitely hear some “digital stem separation” artifacts but it’s still a marvel to me what’s possible these days! And I dig the smooth low end you got on that bass/kick. Thanks so much for sharing (the mixes AND the stories behind the mixes!!). ⚡️🤓
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… and a follow-up IG post with some more ideas:
instagram.com
82 likes, 7 comments - mixprotege on August 22, 2023: "Been using a lot of different mic combinations lately to capture solo acoustic guitar. all in the same general configuration, all beautiful results in their own way!".
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Joe! This is so great! Technically, compositionally, musically, and microphonically (is that a word? haha). Bravo, man!
I love me some Blumlein stereo mic’ing! And you’ve captured a gorgeous, natural sound. Here are a couple things I noticed … super minor stuff!
- the stereo image feels ever-so-slightly left-heavy. Easy fix – just turn up the mic fader on the right (or if you’re using a stereo fader you could add a multi-mono trim plugin, unlink the left and right channels, and add a touch more gain to the right channel of the plugin)
- I’d love to hear more body in the low strings – more fundamental, more “note”. You could try adding EQ to boost the low end, but it’s easier to accomplish during recording by adjusting the mic(s) position. Often it’s a matter of vertical position of the diaphragm(s) — … though I’m realizing this is much easier to demonstrate visually than it is to describe in writing, haha. But basically, imagine if your blumlein setup was configured on one single mic stand, 6 inches from the strings, pointed at the neck of the guitar where the neck meets the guitar body. The sound is clear and well-balanced but the low strings sound a bit thin and under-represented. Solution: raise the mic stand an inch or two higher so that the mic diaphragms are more centered vertically on the low strings. And/or wear some loud, closed-back headphones and try moving your body up/down, left/right, fwd/back while you play, allowing you to *hear* the best mic position in realtime. When you’ve found the sound you like, hold that position and hit record!
I have lots of fav stereo acoustic guitar mic’ing techniques (I’ve always considered making a course or video series on that subject). I know @jlew has been experimenting a lot with that too these days, including some Mid-Side acoustic gtr recording.
All in all, I think your blumlein setup is sounding great!
Here’s an IG post I did a while back showing a stereo setup I devised for a solo slide acoustic guitar recording that worked well:
instagram.com
93 likes, 18 comments - danafrio on August 22, 2023: "Here’s the equipment and thought process i used to record acoustic slide guitar with Craig Jameson the other day 🎤 . . . #protoolshdx #atcloudspeakers #dcommand #producingmusic #recordingmusic #outboardgear #soundstudio … Continue reading
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Dude! Listening on my MBP speakers and it sounds beefy and warm and hug-tastic! Fantastic work, man. Looking fwd to giving a listen on the big speakers tomorrow when back in the studio.
Only thing that stood out were a few of the tom fills feel perhaps a bit too loud or too “modern rock” sounding for the track. 2:11 is a good example where they feel maybe a bit too loud and/or could use a hefty 2k-3k reduction for my taste. Don’t get me wrong – the toms sound awesome! And I boost 2k-3k all day long on toms for that scoop-y snappy modern tom sound. But for this track I feel like a more chill, warm, jazz tone on the toms would be nice. Sometimes close-mic’ed brushes on toms will accentuate that midrange “attack-y-ness”, and if it’s a jazzier tune I might roll off some of the top or mids to make them sound a little more natural as if the listener were farther away from the kit in the room. Just a thought! And a super duper minor one at that!
Really awesome, Joe!!
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Absolutely gorgeous!!! Visually and musically! 🙌💜⚡️
@andrew-feltenstein would surely recognize this backdrop! Looks like Livingston!
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That is so cool Joe! Especially that you and your wife are both creating video courses and content – presumably sharing ideas and tools etc. – that’s awesome. And YES I would love to chat about your journey and Kajabi and Circle (both platforms I enjoy and use often for other folks’ communities/courses). Let’s hop on a call – I’ll shoot u a DM.
Everything here at MP is WordPress-based with lots of 3rd party integrations. I love that I can basically build/design whatever I want and use whichever integrations I want and because of that, MP looks/feels a bit different from other course/community platforms. BUT .. that also means everything is custom and requires a lot of maintenance, plugin updates, troubleshooting, and time. (Enormous shoutout to MP dev guru extraordinaire @avernet!)
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Joe! I’m sorry I forgot to respond to this till now! Your Invisible Technique site is super pro and looks like a ton of amazing content! Are you u using Kajabi? How’s that been? I’d love to chat sometime about all that stuff and how that’s been going for you — looks like you’re crushing it!
And yeah a stereo guitar course would be a lot of fun – maybe even something we could work on together at some point.
Hope you’re doing great, man!
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BRAVA, Bar!! This came out so beautifully! Really great work. Everything sounds balanced and full and airy and verby and rich and calm, and is a delight to listen to! 🙌⚡️
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Awesome, Bar! This sounds really nice!
The last couple things I notice:
- at 0:40 there’s an odd subtle guitar note on the left side that always catches my ear
- during the final reverb tail fade-out at the end of the song there’s a subtle sound like hands letting go of the guitar chord. I would find a way to remove that for a cleaner ending.
- sometimes I wonder if the lead vocal is a little too loud against the track overall, and possibly a touch too bright. But I also like it a lot the way it is.
- the mix will sound even better with some gentle limiting to get it louder overall! I usually use a Fabfilter Pro-L2 plugin to get my mixes loud and proud (within reason, that is … this is a gentle song, so no need to go crazy with loudness, but I bet you could get another 6db of volume easily)
Again, great work, Bar!! And thanks for sharing with us!
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Nice, Paul! (as always) ⚡️