[Dana Nielsen]

Oooh ooh ooooh! I love these questions so much and have so much to add – gonna circle back in the next day or so w some thoughts and suggestions as well as my own process and tools for referencing.

I also look fwd to reading replies and suggestions on this topic from others here in the MP fam! Please chime in y’all with any of your fav tips, thoughts, and/or additional questions! ⚡️⚡️

[Dana Nielsen]

Heck yeah, David!! Ya beat me to it! I downloaded the free version the other day and can’t wait to check it out. Have you tried them yet?

[Dana Nielsen]

I used this on a mix just yesterday! Very cool, useful, and creative!

[Dana Nielsen]

The mixer is the artist that should make the ART as best he or she can. If master bus compression, tonal shaping, or intentional distortion of the electrical signal is part of the artist’s intent, it should be implemented before the mastering process. – @-PT

Couldn’t have said it better myself, Paul! Love this quote and also love the ART/SCIENCE line! Amazing stuff, man!

[Dana Nielsen]

Ooh, yeah, the double-compressor combo-punch of the 1176 AND LA2A is a lot of fun! Especially when the singer has a huge dynamic range (whispery soft verses into ripping loud choruses). These days, when tracking live with compressor(s) on the front end of the signal path before digital conversion, if I need that double-comp scenario I’ll reach for a lightning fast Distressor to do the heavy lifting and then a CL1B after that for some final slow ‘n’ gentle smoothing.

NOTE: lest I give the unintended impression that I’m constantly double-compressing things on input I should mention that, for me, this technique is fairly uncommon. 99% of the time I’m fine using 1 compressor on the input chain. But in the right situation the double-up is perfect!

And H-Comp – nice! I forgot about that oldie but goodie … gonna bring that back into rotation!

[Dana Nielsen]

What an amazing mastering experiment! I bet that was super fun to hear all those options. The variety of “flavors” or styles you get back from different mastering engineers who’ve all been given the same stereo file is always so fun to hear — especially when you as producer or artist or mixer, etc, are so deeply connected to- and invested in- the current sound of that source file.

And then on top of the obvious sonic differences from each mastering engineer, you must also consider the workflow, communications, etiquette, deliverables, quality control, and personality of those you’re considering.

I always remind myself that there are many people who do what I do and do it reeeeally well, especially in a competitive, creative, entertainment-hub like L.A. So I do my best to ensure that the operations and personal interactions side of my business is as good as can be. Cause sometimes (read: often!) that can be one more benefit that tips the scale in your favor. (i.e. “well, engineers A and B both delivered incredible sounding work I’d be happy with forever. But engineer B was a lot more fun to work with and communicated everything clearly. Let’s go with B!”)

[Dana Nielsen]

What is this “willpower” you speak of? … I’ve heard of that but don’t really know what it is. 🤔😂

[Dana Nielsen]

Ooh, this is such an awesome endorsement and explanation man thanks! And love that you shared your fav room models too – makes me want to check those out!

Every time I try the headphone-room-model thing (or car or earbud etc) I always get an odd vibe, like it just doesn’t feel “right” to me or particularly useful — or maybe I just kinda love the unadulterated sound of tiny speaker cones strapped mere millimeters away from my eardrums 🤷🏻‍♂️ — BUT … all that said, I have not ever heard the Slate version! So I’m definitely keen to try it when the opportunity presents itself. I’ve heard good things from lots of folks about the Slate headphones system, including you, so I’m sure they’re badass.

[Dana Nielsen]

Thanks, Pete! That was such a fun interview/chat with Ari. Gonna post it here on Mix Protege soon, too!

[Dana Nielsen]

Wooo! Fantastic, homey! Happy headphone-ing! 🎧

[Dana Nielsen]

Hahaha – love the “Thinker” with laptop 💻😂. Yeah, in general that’s a producer and/or artist choice. Though in my experience it’s often a discussion that includes producer, mix engineer, artist, and artist management. If there’s budget to try out a few different mastering engineers on the same song, that’s always an eye opening (ear opening?) and fun experience. As a mixer, I’m often relied upon for mastering engineer suggestions since I’m usually the person interfacing the most with that person.

[Dana Nielsen]

Yo! Glad you found the @Dewey thread response!

To @-PT‘s point, I would leave everything “artistic” on the master fader, baked into the mix. When you send files to mastering, send two files:

1. Mix w/ all your master bus plugins INCLUDING your final peak limiter (pro-l2 or similar). Call it something obvious like “Song Title_mix number_FOR REFERENCE”, and tell the mastering engineer that this loud reference is what has been approved by the artist and what you’ve been living with.
2. Mix w/ all your master bus plugins EXCEPT FOR your final peak limiter. Call it “Song Title_mix number_ FOR MASTERING”, and tell the mastering engineer that this is the exact same mix but without your final limiter so there’s more headroom.

I always tell the mastering engineer to feel free to use either file for mastering (knowing that they’ll 95% of the time prefer to use the “for mastering” version).

Lastly, to answer your original question of whether the “pros” disable all their master buss plugins before sending their mix to mastering ….

[Dana Nielsen]

Ah, that makes more sense that a vintage EQ emulation isn’t completely eliminating frequencies below your Hi Pass frequency. Vintage EQ’s are full of mysterious idiosyncrasies – which is what makes them so fun! – and you often don’t know exactly what’s going on without looking at a spectrograph on the output.

I’m always looking at my VU meters and frequency spectrograph for useful information, much of which is easier to see than hear, such as a 23Hz rumble on a guitar amp that you can’t hear but is very much taking up valuable headroom in the mix … stuff like that.

These days there are GOBS of plug-in meters and spectrographs for your DAW master fader to keep an eye on things. For me though, rather than take up valuable screen real estate for a plugin, I use a wonderful hardware metering tool by TC Electronic called the Clarity M. It’s still a plugin you put on your master insert (making sure it’s the final insert in your chain*) but with dedicated hardware displaying a wealth of information at all times. I LOVE it and honestly I learn so much about my mixes and other people’s mixes I dig by constantly having that info available – spectrograph, LUFS, mono deviation, phase correlation, etc etc etc.

So … all that to say …. when I pop an EQ on any insert in my session (even a vintage emulation EQ with no spectrograph overlay) I can solo that track and look at my Clarity M and see exactly what’s going on under the hood, so to speak.

tcelectronic.com

TC Electronic | Product | CLARITY M

TC Electronic | Product | CLARITY M

[Dana Nielsen]

Deweeeeeey!!! Awe man, what a freakin TREAT seeing your name pop up here in Mix Protege! Love that you’re here man!

Pro-L2 is literally the only thing I have on my “loud ref” mix print track. In other words, when I send files to mastering I love being able to tell the engineer “here’s the loud mix the band has signed off on, and here’s the same mix with more headroom which you might prefer to work from. The only difference between the two options is a Pro-L2 limiter.” That way they’ll understand that there’s no “mystery sauce” difference between the two, and no need sending them down a rabbit hole trying to reproduce on their end.

That said, however, my “master fader” (which is in quotes cause it’s actually a stereo aux input which feeds into my 2 print tracks – see my Prep School course for a deep dive on that) sometimes has mystery sauce elements on it. Usually some harmonic saturation things like Waves NLS or Softube Console 1, maybe a touch of finishing EQ with Weiss MP, sometimes a little bx_masterdesk for to adjust stereo width and to mono-ize frequencies below 80Hz if needed … subtle stuff really. I prefer to get as rockin a mix as I can with absolutely NUTHIN’ on the master fader. Then I add a few favs mentioned above to see what helps and what doesn’t. And as I add master inserts (or any insert for that matter) I’m constantly adjusting the output settings to ensure I’m not adding loudness. That way, I can bypass anything in the insert chain and understand what it’s adding (or subtracting) without being fooled by loudness.

Ok, that was a bit of a ramble-y answer but hope it helped!

[Dana Nielsen]

Heck yeah homey – save them dolla-dolla billz! I’ll work on the Sonarworks vid soon as I can … 🤘

Also, I think they offer a free trial on their website if u wanna check it out. Tho you’d need a measurement microphone to get started. I ultimately bought their mic which pairs with the software via serial number, based on that exact particular individual microphone’s response graph. Nifty! But before I bought the Sonarworks measurement mic I did several successful room measurements using an inexpensive Behringer measurement mic I already owned. So for $35 and a free software trial you could be off to the races by Friday! 💥

a.co

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