Member Dana Nielsen
MemberForum Replies Created
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Great question (as always), @JLEW! Here’s a video I made in response, which includes some answers to your questions as well as some tips that might be helpful when evaluating the “sound” of limiters like these. Lemme know what ya think! And can’t wait to hear what you’ve been limiting lately!! 💜⚡️
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Michael! Awesome work, man!! Fun song too. Here are my initial impressions/ideas:
- the harmonic distortion on lead vocal catches my ear. I’m assuming it’s a deliberate choice, but I’d opt for a more polished pop vocal sound, personally. You could always use vocal distortion in a more aggro/obvious way in certain spots for greater contrast. That way, instead of the listener (me) wondering “hmm.. is that saturation on the vocal a mistake?”, there will be no question. I’d be like, “oh snap! He put the lead vocal through a high gain amp for the chorus punchline there! Daaaamn!”
- I’d love to hear more bass guitar “note.” The low end from the bass is nice, but u could try some snarly Ampeg SVT-style grind on the bass to add some note clarity. I think more bass guitar level overall would be great (but not necessarily more low end from the bass – just midrange punch and clarity)
- When I listened in the car (happened to be driving when you posted this) I was losing the lead vocal in the wash of guitars at times, esp in the choruses, and especially the chorus punchline “leave me the f alone”. I didn’t realize that’s what she was saying until the final chorus! Maybe that punchline is a good candidate for the more aggro distortion idea – maybe as a parallel process so u still get clean pop vocal punchline as well?
Anyway, incredible work, @Michael, and thanks so much for sharing this with us!! 🙌🤓
As always, take my thoughts with a grain of salt. I look fwd to reading additional ideas and high fives from others here in the forum! And feel free to follow up in this thread by “Replying” with a new mix revision (or a Spotify link when it’s out 😉)
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Jesse!!!
What a great question, man. Here’s how I tend to think about the plethora of plug-in EQs out there for your DAW.
- I tend to notice the unique “sound” of an EQ when BOOSTING frequencies, and much less so when CUTTING. i.e. “How forgiving or open or airy or sweet is that 10k shelf you’re boosting 6db? How does that 60Hz bell-curve boost on the kick drum sound? Is the bandwidth narrow and ultra defined, bordering on resonant; or is it wide and warm and wooly?”
- When I’m CUTTING surgically my EQs feel much more like Swiss Army Knives rather than artistic paint brushes. I recognize a frequency (or five of them) I’d like to reduce and I slap a versatile parametric EQ on it — usually the stock Avid 7-band EQ or Fabfilter Pro-Q3 in my case — not because their cuts “sound the best” or better than any other option, but because they offers me either a) the most options, and/or b) the least amount of fuss (i.e. time). For this type of EQ I want many fully-sweepable bands, capable of extreme/resonant/notch/narrow bandwidths (sometimes known as Q), and a hi-pass and low-pass filter, again with as many db per octave as possible.
I hope this helps in some way, brother! Can’t wait to hear what you’ve been EQ’ing lately 😉
Dana
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Killerrrrr! Thanks for the amazing freebie recco YET AGAIN, @smoothygroove! I just “purchased” it for $0.00 lol and am looking fwd to using it. So cool that it’s from Rhodes too – neat! I often turn to PanMan by SoundToys for this type of effect and then every time I open that plugin I’m like “ugh … so complicated … where’s the “rhodes” preset???!” 😂 So this’ll be a nice simple addition to my auto-pan arsenal! 🙏🏻
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Stuart! Always comin’ thru with the fire freebies!!! 🔥 Thanks so much for alerting us to this hip versatile tool! I just listened to all the demos and downloaded it and it sounds super cool and creative and I’m looking fwd to checking this out – thanks again!! 🙌
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Alex!!! Man, sorry for the delayed response here!
Yes, the CL1B has been insanely popular over the past several years. I’ve owned one for ages and use it daily and love the TubeTech stuff (I’m also 25% Danish, so I love that connection too 🇩🇰)
I think of the CL1B as an LA-2A with a lot more control. What I mean is, it has the gentle, slow vibes you get from an LA2A, but you have lots of control over all the parameters (attack, release, ratio, etc) that you don’t get on an LA-2A. The CL1B is very clean, very forgiving, very smooth. All attributes that serve vocal production well.
That said tho, despite it’s wild popularity, I wouldn’t say you NEED this in your arsenal given the plugins you already own. I use my hardware CL1B every day on vocals on their way IN to Pro Tools so I can print a nice hot signal without distortion. Works great for that. But honestly, once I’m mixing “in the box” I can’t remember the last time I pulled up a CL1B plugin. (when I do, I own and use the Softube version). TBH tho, a lil secret …. 👂🤫 … Waves R-Vox is still my most-used vocal compressor plugin, for sure, when I’m just looking clean dynamics control that sounds great and doesn’t add too much crazy pumping or aggro sound. Other vocal compressor plugins I use constantly: the basic stock bombfactory/avid 1176 and LA2A, and the Empiricle Labs Arousor – a plugin version of my fav Distressor.
TL;DR: CL-1B is fantastic, but it’s not going to instantly make your vocals perfect like a pop song. It’s just another versatile (fairly clinical) tool for shaping dynamics. In my experience it’s much more popular and useful as a front-end tool, before your converter, than as a plugin in your DAW. The Softube plugin version is accurate and excellent! But you may not need it given the excellent tools you already own. (Save that money for the hardware version!)
softube.com
Tube-Tech Complete Collection 2
An indispensable set of true-blue tools, Tube-Tech Complete Collection 2 gives you all our exclusive, officially licensed Tube-Tech plug-ins.
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@bryan!! So glad you’re here, and thanks for starting this thread — a topic I love and am always researching and experimenting with. My fav tools for mix review and collaboration are:
- Muse — amazing, and I don’t understand how it’s free! For me, it replaces a lot of other software for virtual meetups, cause it includes chat, video cam, screen share, remote screen control, etc. I tend to use Muse for 1:1 consulting and songwriting collabs.
- Source Nexus Suite — I’ve used Nexus for many years for mix streaming/approvals as well as remote recording/mixing. And now it’s more powerful than ever w/ the new “Suite” of tools they’ve released. There’s a free option, but you’ll prob end up wanting the paid option for all the bells and whistles. Nexus suite has vid, chat, screenshare, insanely flexible virtual soundcard driver and router (replacing Loopback software), works entirely in web browser so clients don’t need to download any software. It’s also got the best audio quality w least amount of artifacts and dropouts based on my experience. This is what I use when I’m presenting to high profile clients. Very clean interface, I pay all costs for the service so my clients have a great, easy experience when joining my listening sessions. FWIW u can see me demo’ing Nexus in response to a Mix Protege thread about mixing live on iphone (which is a super cool hack!)
Would love to hear about anyone else’s preferred methods for remote mix review and online collaboration! 💻
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@ABrown! Thanks, man!
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Very cool, Paul, and interesting to hear all these subtle variations. And thank YOU ALL for weighing in with such great feedback for Michael!
@Michael – keep us posted on how this mix is coming along! 🤘
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Hahaha – AMAZING!!! You won’t regret it.
Did u see me on their site? haha. I don’t get any kickback from them and I’ve paid for every single one of their plugins (lest you think my exuberance about their products puts money in my pocket .. it does not. I’m just a fan.)
Have fun, homey!!
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Fantastic – love having some real-user feedback on this product, thanks @Kenny! I’m gonna check it out!
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Hahaha – well, you certainly shed your ii-V’s MUCH harder than I did, and are a much better player than I, so it’s only a matter of time before you’ll be on the cover of TapeOp or hosting Mix With The Masters, I have no doubt!
Also, for anyone else reading this thread — please weigh in with your thoughts and opinions on Jesse’s question about EQs! I’d love to hear — and welcome — any contrasting opinions. If you’re like, “nah, Dana, the top end boost on the Farfelbanger 5000 parametric plugin is sonically far superior to all other EQs for your DAW!” you best believe I’ma download that Farfelbanger and check it out! 😂 #farfelbanger5k
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My pleasure man!
True about the sweet, sweet pultec sounds as well as other colorful EQ models, which add a lot of wonderful mysterious beauty when boosting. Regarding the sonic differences between surgical parametric EQ plugins boosting equal amounts of the exact same frequency and bandwidth …. If you don’t hear a difference then there probably is none! Simple as that. And in my experience that tends to be the case – not much difference if at all. Don’t second-guess yourself or let any of that wig you out – just keep it simple and trust your ears. Most EQs of that type sound the same at the end of the day, and you might end up preferring one over the next due to non-sound-related things like:
- system resources / efficiency
- graphic interface
- metering / visual feedback
- band solo-isolate option while sweeping
- wide range of db/octave options on high and low pass filters
- map-ability to hardware encoders (Eucon, Hui, MIDI faders/pots etc.)
- number of available bands
- Mid-side options (EQing only the mid or the side channels)
- mono-maker (summing all frequencies to mono above a certain frequency)
- “tilt” band option
- specialized processor compatibility (UAD, HDX)
…And on and on. That above list is off the top of my head, and just some of the factors that may lead me to favor one “surgical workhorse desert-island” EQ over another. And incidentally NONE of those factors have anything to do with sound QUALITY. Know wha’mean?
TL;DR: Chances are your stock Ableton parametric probably sounds just as good as the competition. ⚡️
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My pleasure, man!! 🇩🇰
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