Author: urmadmin

| By Dave Whalen | 

In my last article, I outlined the many advantages of doing live sound, and how it will help you develop your skills on a technical level. That’s all great, but what if I were to tell you that’s not even the most important benefit? There is an even greater advantage, and I’ll tell you what it is.

Are you ready?

People.

That’s right, you’re actually going to meet real people and make their bands sound good. For a bunch of folks who sit in a dark room listening to a 4-bar phrase on loop for three hours at a time, this is a huge deal.

I mean… Learning how to dial in a snare compressor in ten seconds is great and all, but nothing can compare to actually meeting and dealing with real-life, honest-to-goodness people, and all of the benefits of interacting with them – such as:

You’re going to meet some good contacts:

When you think about it, there are a lot of people involved in putting on a show. There’s the venue owner (if it’s a small venue you may interact with them), manager, promoter, and, of course, the band. These people represent contacts which collectively make up your local scene. Doing sound for various places in your scene is going to put your face in front of a lot of bands. They will inevitably know that you make things sound good for money. All that’s left is to make them sound as good as possible… And possibly hand them a business card while you’re talking.

You’ll get to show off how you work:

All of the great new friends you’re making at tonight’s bar gig are going to see, first-hand, how you handle yourself when it’s time to bring it. As a guy who feels a little awkward talking myself up in a way that’s not pushy or irritating, this is a big deal. To me it’s the most natural setting to showcase your chops, because everyone is there just doing what they’re being paid to do. All you have to do is be awesome.

From setting up, to switching bands, to when it’s time to wrap it up, you are in the “invisible spotlight.” You’re responsible for making sure everything on your end goes smoothly and the band sounds amazing. If you do it right, no one will even know you’re there. In the end though, the band will appreciate what an effortless experience it was to play their show. (not like the last guy who couldn’t get the monitor mix right)

I can say as a band member, a sound guy who can keep things running smoothly is always appreciated. My band always took $20 from our haul for the night and tipped an awesome sound guy.

It could land you some recording gigs:

Like I mentioned before, you’re going to be in front of a lot more people, doing your thing. This is a great opportunity to let the bands know that you’re also a recording engineer. Don’t be ham-fisted about it though. You don’t want to force yourself onto them in such a way that it becomes a turn-off. Let it come naturally in conversation. Eventually word will spread about your studio, and you will finally be able to take over the Tri-State Area!

You’ll get lots of practice being nice to people who suck:

You may have heard of the lead singer who stops in the middle of every song to complain that he can’t hear himself in the monitors and gets super frustrated. Or maybe the guy standing on stage, behind the mains, critiquing you mix because he would rather monitor through the house system than through his “monitor.”

Then there’s the guy who walks up to the mix console and says, “Hey that sounds real great. Is there too much reverb?” Seriously dude, either it sounds great or there’s too much reverb. Pick one.

Actually, don’t say that. Just smile and nod.

Please note, all of these guys are likely to actually be the same guy.

Let’s face it, not all people are awesome – in fact, I have a fairly low tolerance for suckitude. People are created for relationships however, so knowing how to deal with difficult people in a graceful, amicable way will help you in all facets of life. You may as well practice while you’re doing something you love and getting paid, it makes it less painful.

You’ll get the opportunity how to troll people with style:

If it happens that you’ve tried “human relationships” a few times and have decided that it’s just not for you, live sound is a great avenue to be able to completely troll people, in style. Turning the bass player down and screwing with monitor mixes comes to mind.

Or you could disconnect something somewhere in the chain which completely disables the lead vocal mic from the house system and the television broadcast. I don’t actually think guy was trolling, but if he was, it was epic. Either way, he probably won’t be engineering for the Grammys again.

If you do choose to use your position of ultimate power for the trolling of all musician-kind, just know that you’ll only be able to do it a few times before venues magically find another guy to do their sound on a consistent basis. Consider yourself warned.

You’ll be able to do all of this while making some extra money:

This is possibly the biggest advantage of all. After all, that new Distressor isn’t going to pay for itself… And after you buy it you can invite all your new friends to the studio to check it out.

So the next time you think to yourself, “Self, what can I do to meet people, show them what I can do in a way that’s not pushy, practice patience and problem-solving, potentially mess with them, and get paid for it?” the answer is clear: go get hooked up with a live sound gig.

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Nail The Mix is our online mixing school that gives you REAL multi-tracks from REAL bands, plus a mixing class from the producer who recorded it. Past guests include Periphery, Chelsea Grin, Machine Head and State Champs. Join now for instant access!

Introduction To The Series:

What if I told you that whether you’re aware of it or not, there are probably dozens of tedious studio tasks that you’re wasting unnecessary amounts of valuable time on every single day?

But it doesn’t have to be that way…

Efficient time-management is one of the most crucial things to get right when trying to make a career out of music production and mixing. Taking the time to learn how and where to cut corners (in a good way) in order to save time is extremely beneficial towards getting more work done and ultimately, making your time spent in-front of a DAW as productive as possible.

 

In this week’s URM Blog, we’ll be taking a look at some tips and tricks you can use to streamline your workflow and free up some precious time.

Here are 5 tips to super-charge your mixing workflow:

Tip #1 – Make Mix Templates

A common mistake which can waste a lot of time if done on a daily-basis is re-doing the same boring tasks from scratch every time you fire up a new session for a project.

Creating custom templates which allow you to bypass some of the repetitive grunt work is an excellent way of freeing up some valuable time and allowing you to dive straight into the fun part. (which also happens to be the better moneymaker!)

Here are a few examples of things you can consider including in a Mixing Template:

• Pre-Routed Instrument Groups/Busses: Setting up a well named, tidy grouping system takes a while, but is an integral part of any efficient mixing setup. Why not come up with a kind of “pre-built routing & bussing checkpoint” template which allows you to skip the tedious setup process?

• You can even pre-equip your group channels with any processing you’ll ultimately end up using in order to save further time and hassle later on.

• Parallel Compression, Distortion, Excitation Sends: You can set up an infinite number of varying parallel FX sends which can be blended in underneath your original signals for added oomph or air.

NOTE: Some of the sends I like to set-up in my own projects include a Parallel Distortion (Soundtoys Decapitator), multiple Parallel Compression sends of varying colour (A dbx 160, A Slate 1176) and an Exciter (Waves’ Aphex Aural Exciter).

• Multiple Reverb Sends Set For Different Purposes: These could include a short room-reverb for added ambience & realism, a medium plate for Drums, a long hall for FX and Vocals, etc.

• A selection of Delay Sends: A short “Lennon Style” slapback, a ¼ note Delay for long “delay throws”, a stereo Ping-Pong delay with varying settings for general use on Vocals and Instruments, etc.

• A Stereo Widener/Doubler Send: Waves’ Doubler, Eventide’s H3000 Factory and Soundtoys’ Microshift are all excellent plugin options for this purpose, and always great to have readily available on an Aux.

NOTE: These are just a few basic ideas of what might end up in a mixing template. Long story short, anything that you use on a regular basis and would usually take a while to set-up is an ideal candidate for inclusion.

Tip #2 – Commit To Decisions & Move On ASAP

Making open-ended decisions at every step of the music production process is a surefire way of slowing down your progress and preventing yourself from ever getting anything done.

Ask yourself this:

Do you think a top-dog engineer like Chris Lord Alge would be able to churn out multiple mixes every single day if he was doubting every decision and repeating his moves over-and-over again in search of negligible improvements? – PROBABLY NOT…

NOTE: Check out my “Learn From The Legends” Blog series for an in-depth breakdown of some brilliant workflow tips from the mind of CLA himself.

https://urm.academy/learn-from-the-legends-volume-1-chris-lord-alge/

Here are a few pieces of advice on how to deal with the moments of indecision and insecurity that might occur during your music production process:

• Render/Print any open-ended source tones the moment you’re happy with them: This is crucial in order to prevent any “what if” urges from rearing their ugly heads further down the line. (This includes things like amp sims, impulse responses, drum samples etc.)

• Recording a backup DI alongside your “real” amp tone shouldn’t be seen as a default “fix the tone later” safety net; Sure, recording a DI is always good practice, but what’s the point in spending hours dialing in a tone and placing microphones in the room if you’re just gonna throw it all away in favour of amp sims or re-amping at the first chance you get…

• Bounce similar sounds down to manageable stereo stems and reduce your overall channel-count: CLA often talks about how he likes to combine similar elements down to single stems in order fit the hundreds of channels he receives per project across his 48 channel SSL setup for easy access.

Tip #3 – Process Your Groups & Move Forward Quickly!

Ever find that you’re applying similar processing to multiple elements within the same mix? Why not kill 2 (or more) birds with one stone by bussing them together and treating them as one?!?

An incredible example of this kind of workflow is last month’s Meshuggah Nail The Mix with Tue Madsen: Rather than obsessing over each and every guitar track one-by-one, Tue simply treats the entire guitar buss as a single sound, resulting in a huge wall of guitars.

Check out the video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Xte6sUXjn0

 

The exact same concept can even be applied across an entire mix if desired. This method of working is often called “Top-Down Mixing”:

What is “Top-Down Mixing?

Guys like Chris Lord Alge, Andrew Scheps and Adam “Nolly” Getgood are known for instantiating some fairly drastic EQ on their master busses at the very beginning of their mixes.

These moves often take the shape of broad high and low-end boosts in order to brighten and fatten all of the raw elements within the mix from the get-go and in return, speed up the process of getting them to commercial levels of “polished”.

NOTE: Here’s a concise video demonstration of “Top-Down Mixing” in order to give you a few basic ideas on where to get started:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wxj9vZQ_53k

A typical Top-Down mixing chain might look something a bit like this:

• Saturation: Using some kind of tape or console emulation and driving the input subtly can do wonders towards gluing your mix together and giving it some added liveliness.

• Additive EQ: The most common tool for this purpose is a broad and gentle “Pultec” style equaliser which boosts everything below 100Hz and above 5kHz.

• Buss Compression: Mixing into a few dB of compression from the get-go can help reduce the amount of time it takes to produce a tight and punchy mix. A lot of people like the sound of an SSL type buss compressor with a slow attack and fast release for this application.
• Limiting: As dangerous as it may sound, mixing through some subtle peak limiting from the get-go can give you a better idea of what your drums and transient elements will end up sounding like post-mastering.

It often takes a few tries and revisions to settle on a “Top-Down” setup that really does the trick for your specific work setup. Don’t be afraid to try out new ideas and switch things around until you finally land on a magic combination that seems to makes your life easier.

Tip #4 – Create “Ballpark” Plugin Presets & FX Chains

Do you have certain “go-to” plugin settings that more-or-less end up on every single one of your mixing projects? Why not set them as your plugin defaults and save time otherwise spent dialing them in several times per-day…?

FACT: Certain elements within a mix will call for a similar kind of treatment almost every time regardless of genre. Ex: Snare and Kick will need a scoop in the mids, vocals will need brightening etc. etc…

Given this information, why not save yourself some future hassle and come up with default plugin presets that will get you a significant deal closer to your desired end sounds from the moment you insert them on the channel?

Here’s an example in the shape of the initial vocal FX chain I like to start with in each one of my mixes:

My Overall Initial Vocal Plugin Chain:

1st Plugin: Slate VMR (Trimmer, VMS, FG-73, FG-s)

2nd Plugin: Slate VMR (CS-Lift, Revival, FG-116 Vintage)

3rd Plugin: Waves CLA-2A

4th Plugin: FabFilter Pro-DS

5th Plugin: Waves L1 Limiter

As you can tell from the sheer amount going on in the images above, dialing in all of these initial vocal channel settings from scratch would take a fair bit of time. By saving this entire chain as a default preset, all it takes is few clicks at the start of each session and I’m ready to get started on my Vocal mixing process.

Tip #5 – CONCLUSION: Learn About Workflow From The Greats!

Ever started watching through a mixing tutorial or reading through a mixing related book… Only to skip past the workflow related sections in order to get to the “good part”?

I know I have… But it’s not always justified!

Let’s take Nail The Mix as an example: As boring as the basics may seem to a beginner, taking the time to study the way that professionals like our URM overlords Joey Sturgis, Eyal Levi and Joel Wanasek like to approach the process of setting-up their sessions can actually have a greater impact on your growth as an engineer than just copying the EQ and Compression settings they’re using…

After all, It’s not a coincidence that many superstar producers and mixers prefer to talk about workflow rather than specific mixing settings in interviews and tutorials…

All of this being said, if you take a single piece of advice from this article then let it be this:

Don’t let your “I know all of that stuff already!” attitude and mixer’s pride get in the way of your improvement! There’s always something new and beneficial to be picked up from studying how the professionals like to go about their work process!

 

Final Words:

This concludes “5 Tips To Super-Charge Your Mixing Workflow.” I hope that this article has given you some new ideas to try out during your next project. Be sure to comment below if any of this information has helped you out, or if you have any questions.

Stay tuned for more production/mixing related articles in the not-so-distant future!

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Want mix tips from URM Academy? Read them here!

Nail The Mix is our online mixing school that gives you REAL multi-tracks from REAL bands, plus a mixing class from the producer who recorded it. Past guests include Periphery, Chelsea Grin, Machine Head and State Champs. Join now for instant access!

 

Kurt Ballou (Converge, GodCity Studios) is a musician and producer that need no introduction to fans of heavy music. There are precious few individuals out there that approach similar levels of raw brutality and emotion in their productions.

Photo: Jimmy Hubbard

If you can give one piece of advice for upcoming engineers what would it be?

Always listen with your heart. Don’t ever feel constrained to use a certain piece of gear or certain technique. You’ll never get something to sound exactly like what you wanted it to sound like, but if you listen with your heart, and make good decisions based on that, you can make a record that feels like it is supposed to.

Photo: Aaron Jones

What would you say is the one thing that has motivated you to keep going in your career?

If I’m not doing something creative regularly, I feel like a piece of shit.

Amps or sims?

Amps are more fun, look cooler, and have more individualistic quirks. Plus, I need to justify my investment in amps, cabs, mics, sound proofing, etc. somehow, right?

Photo: Aaron Jones

What is the most important lesson you’ve learned in your career?

If there’s some sort of tension in the studio or with the label, keep it classy and take the high ground. Behave how you would want to be treated if the shoe were on the other foot.

What are your top five go to gear choices?

Heil PR-30

Introduction To The Series:

Learning How To Learn is one of the most crucial steps you can take towards becoming great at pretty much anything – And what better place to learn than from the minds of people who have actually been doing the job successfully for years?

In this ongoing series of Blogs, we’ll explore the valuable words of wisdom bestowed upon us by some of the most sought after names in the recording studio business, and discover how you can apply this advice to your own situation.

This week, we’re taking a look at some excellent advice from a man who’s been involved with some of most successful and influential albums in metal history: Randy Staub.

NOTE: If you’re hoping to find some “secret mix settings” or “magic formulas” in this article then you might as well leave now… I can guarantee you that the real secrets behind each of these engineers’ success are their ears and personal tastes.

Remember:

Following the practical “workflow and decision-making” advice these guys have to offer from years of experience in the business is far more valuable than trying to copy the settings they’ve used for specific songs!

VOLUME 2: RANDY STAUB

Who Is Randy Staub?

Randy Staub is a Canadian recording & mixing engineer best known for his groundbreaking work on Metallica’s Black Album. His signature sound is one of the most recognisable in the industry and often cited as a golden standard in the worlds of hard rock and heavy metal production.

Some of the artists he’s worked with include:

Metallica

Motley Crue

Bon Jovi

Alice In Chains

Nickelback

Evanescence

Stone Sour

AND MANY MORE…

Now that you know exactly who you’re dealing with, let’s cut straight to the chase:

Here Are 5 Pieces of Audio Advice From Randy Staub:

1 – THE IMPORTANCE OF THE ROUGH MIX

“I like to talk with the producer and artist before I begin mixing, to get as clear a picture as possible of what they want to achieve. For the same reason, I like to hear the rough mixes, because people will have spent a lot of time on them, and they give me a basic idea of the kind of balance and perspective that the artist and producer have in mind.” – Randy Staub

Swallow your pride – Take cues from the rough:

NOTE: It goes without saying that not all sessions you receive to mix will necessarily have been recorded by people who know what they’re doing… In this case, I’m primarily talking about the situations where a fairly decent rough mix has been provided for reference alongside the raw material.

• Your personal inclinations as a mixer won’t always align with that of the band & producer. Paying close attention to a client’s rough mix is the easiest way to gain some quick insight into their vision for the track and help you to determine the sonic direction to take it in.
• The band and producer have probably been listening-to & tweaking the rough mixes for weeks, even months before finally handing the sessions over to you. Chances are: They’re probably already in the same ballpark as what they want the end product to sound like.

• A mixer’s job is often simply to realise the artist’s vision and try to make it sound clearer, punchier, wider, etc… not to re-imagine and change the entire thing (Unless you’ve been told otherwise…) If the client wanted the final mix to sound drastically different from the rough, they probably would have recorded it differently in the first place!

• Your first playthrough of the rough is extremely crucial, as it’s the only time you’ll get to hear the track with an unbiased perspective. Don’t underestimate the value of fresh ears. It’s all too easy to develop a blind-spot towards certain issues as you start to grow more familiar with the material.

• Always make sure to take quick note of anything that jumps out at you during this “honeymoon” period (both the good, and the bad). Your initial reactions are comparable to those that a potential audience member might have, and are consequently the most important things to address while mixing the song.

2 – IT’S CALLED “MIXING”, NOT “FIXING”…

“If something is recorded very poorly, then chances are it will sound poor in the end. There’s definitely a correlation, and young engineers need to realise that. It’s surprising how often I get comments where they’ll send a song over and say they want the drums to sound like Metallica, and I’ll pull the drums up and it sounds absolutely nothing like Metallica. I’ll ask them: ‘When you were in the studio getting the sounds did you put on a Metallica record and A/B? No? Well it doesn’t just come out of thin air, it’s gotta to be in there to begin with…’ If young engineers spend little more time crafting it how they want, then at the end it’ll sound closer to how they want.” – Randy Staub

“I always tell people that you have to create the sound of the record that you want right from the beginning, so that when the mixer first pushes up the fader, the record is already there. If everything sounds the way it should, the arrangements are good, the emotion is there, the balance is there, then your job as a mixer is to take it to another level.” – Randy Staub

The sounds need to be there from the get-go:

• A/B referencing during the recording and mixing stages is a process that a lot of beginner engineers seem to undervalue until they’ve actually given it a go for themselves.

• Our ability to accurately memorise specific sounds is extremely short-term, so it’s not worth relying solely on what you think something sounds like, only to find out that you’ve missed the mark entirely further down the line.

• Do yourself a favour: If you have a particular goal in mind when trying to craft a sound, then actively reference it alongside your own material throughout the duration of the recording and mixing process in order to confirm you’re on the right track.

• Another important step towards achieving these sounds is to simply do your research. Figure out the pieces of gear and techniques which were used in order to capture said sound. Experiment with your own setup until you’re happy with the results.

• You can’t expect a strat going into a small combo amp to end up sounding like EMG’s into a 5150 with the few moves of an EQ during mixing…

3 – THE SECRET TO LEGENDARY GUITAR TONE?

“There is no real big secret, except that you have to find a good sounding cabinet & head and have a great sounding player. If you have really good equipment it will naturally sound good, then you can take it to the next level with mic placement, the room it’s in and not over EQ’ing it. If the source is really good, it will sound good in the end!” – Randy Staub

Get the tone at the source:

• It’s easy to get carried away with fancy techniques and endless chains of guitar pedals, only to end up wondering why your tones don’t sound like those of your favourite bands. Maybe it’s time to re-evaluate and go back to the bare basics…

• Great guitar tones are rarely the result of heaps of processing and “secret mixing tricks”… In fact, you’d be surprised at how little EQ is actually being applied to a lot of the amazing tones you hear on records mixed by famous engineers. (Watch the Nolly or Kyle Black Nail The Mix videos and you’ll see exactly what I’m talking about)

• Taking the time to learn how to properly dial in a guitar tone and place a microphone in front of a speaker cabinet in the room will go a long way towards reducing the amount of processing you’re having to mess with after the fact.

NOTE: Check out my “Recording Tips” Blog series from a few months back for a huge selection of video tutorials on tweaking amp settings and proper microphone placement.

https://urm.academy/make-recording-50-better-with-these-5-tips-part-2/

4 – DON’T SACRIFICE QUALITY FOR LOUDNESS

“Records have become too loud, and I don’t like it too loud. You can only go so loud until you reach a point where records don’t sound very good any more. They become too linear, are fatiguing to listen to, and will distort on consumer electronics which can’t take the level.” – Randy Staub

Loud – But at what cost?

• What’s the point in spending hours upon hours trying to squeeze transient punch and snap out of your drums if you’re just going to shoot yourself in the foot later on with an overcooked, “homebrew” mastering job using outdated tools…

• At the end of the day, making sure your music is loud enough to hold it’s ground alongside everything else on the market is important, and disregarding the maximisation process in it’s entirety isn’t really a viable option at this point.

• A better solution to this issue is to simply do your research towards figuring out the best techniques of retaining as much of the punch and perceived dynamics as possible while still reaching competitive volume levels.

• Luckily, we now have access to some great new processing tools such as Joey Sturgis’ “Finality” and “JST Clip” and Kazrog’s “Kclip” which are designed for this very purpose. These products do an excellent job of preserving your dynamic impact and are a huge step up from what was previously available to engineers.

Check these plugins out here:

https://joeysturgistones.com/products/finality?variant=11134488897

https://joeysturgistones.com/collections/everything/products/jst-clip?variant=1263455681

http://kazrog.com/products/kclip/

• Regardless of what you end up using, approach the concept of loudness with extreme caution. Always make sure there’s a valid reason behind each and every decision you make, and that you’re not just “steamrolling your mix flat” just for the sake of it.

5 – CONCLUSION: THE SONG IS KEY

“It’s odd… I’ve worked on and mixed records where I’d swear on my grandmother’s grave that it’s gonna be a smash, and the thing barely makes a dent! Other records you work on you’re like ‘This is really good, but it’s not gonna take over the world’ and for some reason it does! So, it’s hard to predict… One thing I do know, is that if you don’t have a great song it definitely won’t be a hit.” – Randy Staub

A good song will transcend the quality of the mix:

• Regardless of how great an engineer and mixer Randy is, some of the amazing albums he worked on would have probably still been fairly successful if the bands had chosen someone else to mix… How? Because the key ingredient that a lot of these albums have in common is the high quality of the songs.

• Having a killer mix is definitely a bonus, and can really help convey the power or emotion of a song as it was originally intended. However, it’s important to always keep in mind that no amount of studio trickery or technical perfection will ever make up for the lack of strong core material to begin with.

Final Words:

This concludes “Learn From The Legends – Volume 2: RANDY STAUB.” I hope that this article has given you some new ideas to try out during your next project. Be sure to comment below if any of this information has helped you out, or if you have any questions.

Stay tuned for more production/mixing related articles in the not-so-distant future!

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Read Learn From The Legends – Volume 1: Chris Lord-Alge here!

Want mix tips from URM Academy? Read them here!

Nail The Mix is our online mixing school that gives you REAL multi-tracks from REAL bands, plus a mixing class from the producer who recorded it. Past guests include Periphery, Chelsea Grin, Machine Head and State Champs. Join now for instant access!