JOHN MACIEL: Fixing Your Low End, Overcooked Mastering, and When to Scrap a Mix

Speaker 1 (00:00):

Welcome to the Unstoppable Recording Machine Podcast, brought to you by Golden Age Premier high quality vintage style products at an affordable price point. To find out more, go to golden age premiere.com. This episode is also brought to you by F Audio Labs, uncompromising of classic and rare studio processors in revolutionary plugin form. For more info, go to Fuse Audio Rams. And now your host Eyal Levi.

(00:30):

Hello everybody. This episode is brought to you by Ultimate Guitar Production, the most detailed in-depth course ever created about guitars. The course is taught by Andrew Wade. You may know from one of his three appearances on nail the mix or work with bands like a Day to remember the Ghost Inside Wage War or Neck Deep. And it covers everything and I mean everything. It's over a hundred videos that cover every single step of the guitar production process, setting up the guitar, choosing the right amp cabs, mics the right way to track guitars, editing, amping, mixing and more. He puts it all together by dialing tones for indie, pop, rock, pop, punk, and metal. And there's actually way, way, way more than what I just told you, but I'm out of time. If you want to see all of it and get a sneak preview of the content, go to ultimate guitar production.com and prepare to have your mind blown. Alright, welcome to a brand new edition of Mix Crit Monday. I have a new guest host on for the very first time. Those of you who are in the URM community already know him and love him. If you aren't in the URM community, you probably don't know him and love him, but you will and you should. Welcome John Maciel. Welcome to the URM podcast. Welcome to Mix Crit Monday.

Speaker 3 (01:51):

Alright, thanks for having me, this is really awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:54):

My pleasure. So we're going to get right into it. We haven't done Mix Crit Monday in a while and I know lots of people are waiting for it, so fuck talking about anything else we're going to get right into this. Alright,

Speaker 4 (02:07):

So

Speaker 2 (02:07):

We have two mixes, well two songs that we are going to critique. One is 365 by Amaranth and the other is Iron Strengthens Iron by Discarnate, which was originally mixed by Jacob Hansen. Now the thing about it is we're not crit Jacob Hansen's mix. Obviously we're going to be creating student submitted mixes and before we get into that, I just want to say that I know it's hard to be, what's the word, lambasted or roasted or critiqued out in public in front of everybody, but just know that roasted roasted, if we picked your mix and some of this sounds harsh, just know that we mean it all with love. We're not trying to make fun of anybody or anything like that. Just calling it like we hear it in the interest of helping you get better. So first up is a mix of Amaranths 3 6 5 by our subscribers Zach Savoia, and we'll play through the first chorus just so you get an idea of how it is and we'll start talking about it

Speaker 5 (03:59):

Started.

Speaker 6 (04:08):

It is not Say no before go.

Speaker 2 (04:39):

Okay, that was 3 6 5 mixed by Zach Savoia and honestly to me, I think it's maybe one of the best students submitted mixes that I've heard on Mix Crit Monday. Obviously it's not perfect, but I did have to check it against the original by Jacob Hanson's just to make sure I wasn't nuts. And when I referenced against Jacob Hanson's, I realized I wasn't nuts. I mean obviously I still prefer his, but for a student mix, this is really, really good in my opinion. And the following feedback is with the understanding that it already sounds really good. I would possibly even vote for this if it was in a nail, the mix poll if I could vote but I can't. So so far I'll tell you my notes and then I want to hear what you've got to say. Everything has great tones, good balance, and just a few things I would emphasize and I don't have too many technical suggestions, just here's what I'm hearing.

(05:39):

I feel like the overall low end is almost there, like 5% tighter and you're there. I'm not feeling it big enough in the low end, but we're talking by like 5%. Again, reference Jacobs don't go overboard. I'm not saying blast the low end or anything, which is a problem I heard in lots of other mixes. You are almost there with the low end. Second issue is the CN kick are not always slamming you right in the face. And I understand actually that in Jacob's mix, the kicks are not prominent in the chorus for instance, you listen closely how he brings out just the right amount of kick and click on the kick without letting them get lost. They're still there even though the stack of 9 million vocals are taking the front seat. So you might want to focus on giving that snare a bit more impact and separation don't go nuts, but it should hit you in the face a little more. Overheads are smearing some, I'm not hearing every symbol hit as its own individual hit. They kind of wash together and I think that this has mastered quite loud and you could be losing some impact in the kicks and snares just because of that. Anyways, great work in my opinion. What do you think?

Speaker 3 (06:55):

So on Zach's, for me it did definitely feel like one of the better mixes I've heard this month. For me the bass was lost in the center image. I could definitely feel the impact in the low end with the guitars. The marriage was there that you're looking for, but in terms of the clarity of the low end fundamental, it was just lacking and I think that's that 5% you were talking about just a second ago, that fundamental isn't shining through enough to give us that perceived in your face bass sound that you need for a track like this. This is a really difficult song to mix because there's a lot of dynamic, but that bass has got to fill that void a hundred percent the full time of the mix. Another thing that really caught my attention was the crash in, I think the left hand side throughout the whole song just sounds really washy and weird to me.

(07:46):

It wasn't defined at all and that was just something that you got to be careful when it comes to spot mics. If you don't balance 'em with the overheads and the rooms and whatever else is going on, all of a sudden it's like you can have a really cool drum mix going on with all the instruments and then if your spot mics are off by just a little bit in terms of EQ or however you're processing now, it's distracting from the overall picture that you created and that can work against you if it was like a test mix situation. The only other thing on this mix for me personally was the snare didn't seem to have the same impact or sustained that the kick drum had through the song. I felt like the snare just needed a little extra 10% of liveliness and every time it hit, it just felt like it hit and that was it. I didn't feel like that, oh man, this snare is driving the song and the chorus, the snare didn't feel as powerful as the kick either. It just the way the kick in the snare relationship worked, it wasn't quite there. But I mean overall Zach did a pretty cool job on this mix. I just feel like a little more over time on it and he would definitely have a banger.

Speaker 2 (08:48):

I totally think so. So great work, Zach. This one is 365 by amaranth mixed by our subscriber Johan Carlson here. Again, we'll play the verse in the first chorus and then we'll be back.

(10:08):

Okay, that was 365 mixed by Johan Carlson and Dam that base and low end is so way overdone. It feels like the low end is so out of control that everything else just needs to get pushed to the limit in order to compensate and it makes everything else really, really tiring to listen to. I mean those drums and guitars and symbols are punishing and they're trying to get ahead of that low end. It's like having a surfboard with a tsunami behind you. They're not going to get away. You go, so here's some advice for Johan, join URM enhanced if you're not in it already, I know shameless plug, but this material works and work your way up to the low end fast track and just start getting your low end under control and then once you finish that fast track, come back to this mix and take off everything that you're using to push that low end and bring the rest of the mix back to neutral and then start EQing from a place where the low end is in some juggernaut and you'll find that if you have the low end better, you're not going to need to push the highs and the guitars and symbols and snare quite so hard to compensate, which will make it much easier on everyone's ears.

(11:34):

What do you think John?

Speaker 3 (11:35):

Yeah, totally. I'm going through my notes right now because the low end thing was the first thing that stuck out when this track started playing on ball. I was like, oh my god. And it's a thing that a lot of people don't take away from the fast track. The hearing compression that is super beneficial is when you have low end like this and then you throw a compressor on there and the compressor isn't synced up to moving to the tempo of the song or how the song's moving. It's like you have this crazy flabby bass sound going on and then all of a sudden you are doing what exactly what you described. Then you're going to add so much top end because the low end is just taking up so much informational space. It's kind of if you feel the need to reach for the top end knobs on the eq, slow down for a second.

(12:22):

Ask yourself what's distracting or taken away from the clarity of that top end. Most of the time it's going to be your low end isn't in check yet and your mids also aren't in check just yet and you can definitely hear that in the guitars. They're just super weird also and I think that's like the bass is so out of control that whatever cue decisions he made in the guitars was to get that low end out of the guitars, but then it is just not working the kick drum also because of the low end issues, there's a lot of flap to the high end of the kick. The snare sounds small, the entire mix is just being destroyed by this low end. So I definitely do agree with these. Fast tracks are super awesome because they go into these topics and it's really important to understand the relationship in the low end because that low end, as you just heard, destroyed a complete mix that Polly had potential but you got to get it under control.

Speaker 2 (13:14):

Yeah, I mean dude, I didn't even comment on really what was going on in the guitars or anything else because that low end is so destructive that what's the point? There's literally nothing you can do to make those guitars and drums or vocals work when the low end is how it is, there's nothing you can do.

Speaker 3 (13:34):

And then because of the way the song is set up in such a very dynamic way, this is a very difficult track to mix because the dynamics you have screams two different styles of vocals that's already working against you in a pop hook, but then you could hear the compression really kick in between the pre-chorus and then the chorus. It's all of a sudden that low end just sucks up everything and you've just got to be mindful of that stuff. It's really hard to not unhear that. And also another thing that was really distracting for me, I dunno if you heard this at all, but the reverb on the vocals in the backgrounds were super distracting and then the pump from the low end, it was just like, whoa, what is happening right now?

Speaker 2 (14:15):

Yeah, that too. I just didn't write it down, but yeah, for sure. Absolutely. Alright, well I highly suggest checking out those fast tracks and kind of regrouping on this and I'll just throw this out there. Maybe you're not hearing your low end. It could be a possibility due to your mixing environment. I mean if you're mixing in headphones or who knows, mixing on consumer speakers or just are in a strangely untreated or treated room, you could be sitting in a low end null and not be hearing what we're hearing just because of your messed up listening situation. I would say check that out too because I mean the low end is so damn overpowering that it makes me wonder if he's actually hearing it like this or if what he's hearing is something different and he thinks it's okay, who knows?

Speaker 3 (15:17):

Honestly, I wouldn't mind if he hit me up on Facebook so I can see a picture of his room or if he posted in the PPC so we can kind of see what's going on because he's not the only one that probably has that same issue. And if he's in an unideal room, there's someone else who probably has the same type of room and they've probably had solutions. It really comes down to once you know your environment, what's the solution to help him hear that low end. He could have his monitors in a how sometimes you'll see him where it's like, it's like a triangle almost, but it's like sideways triangle of monitors. I've seen that and it's just like, dude, that's why you can't hear your mix very clearly. It's like some people just don't know about proper positioning and room treatment and just understanding the acoustics of a room. You might have to do some crazy moving your stuff in your room just to get the low end to kind of come out a little bit. I want to talk to him more.

Speaker 2 (16:06):

Yeah, there's a lot of solutions and there's a lot of people in our private community in the PPC where stands for Private Producers Club for those of you who are not aware, but there's a lot of people there who will help you all the way from the dudes from Sonar Works are in there. Someone who works for Sonar Works is a longtime subscriber, so they have their own set of insight. Jessica Lohan is in there as well. He's a great acoustician and he has a lot of tips for how to improve the acoustic situation in your room without really spending any money. We've got people who can help you build stuff, not build it for you, but show you how to build acoustic treatment yourself any way you want to go. There's people who can help you and John who also will help you with the mixing end and the advice and how to go about this stuff.

(17:02):

Post your room and ask for some help. We're here to help. There's many ways you can attack this without spending a ton of money and so I'm just curious. We're curious what it is that you're hearing or why it is the way it is. Just hit us up. So moving on, we're going to hear another mix of 365. This is by our student deck Reed. I think that's how you say his name deck. I was about to say December, but I realized his name is probably not December Reed. So anyways, this is just going to be the verse in the chorus here goes

Speaker 6 (18:08):

To say no.

Speaker 2 (18:38):

Alright, that was 365 mixed by our student deck reed and here are my thoughts. Kick is nonexistent and there is no power in this mix. It sounds like the room mics are just blasted loud and that's what we're primarily hearing in the snare sound and the sance, holy sance, the Ts are just piercing, like dammit, dude, use a ds, sir. There's no kick to be found. There's no Toms either. Have some advice here, scrap this mix. No offense, just scrap the mix. Go to URM enhanced and go through the prerequisites if you're not already in and watch mixing real drums with Chris Crum and use that to help you establish a basic drum mix and then watch the balance fast track. Now I'm not saying that you have to copy what's in there. I'm not even suggesting to copy it, but just follow along so that you can start to get in your mind and in your ears what it sounds like when drums are properly balanced and when a mix is properly balanced.

(19:53):

Because this song, I mean every mix really, but this song is basically an exercise in balance. You have so much stuff going on and really the first thing you have to get balanced is a drum set, which is an instrument that consists of multiple independent things working together. So check out the Chris Crut mixing real drums fast track and again, man, I would just go back to the beginning and focus on getting the drums, working on their own, driving the song, sounding big, balanced to each other and start worrying about balance. But there's so much wrong with the mix that I feel like we can talk about it for a long time, but until the fundamentals get solved, nothing is going to make a difference and the fundamentals to me are getting a good drum mix started. So that's what I have.

Speaker 3 (20:47):

Yeah, I'm just pretty much going to piggyback on what you just said. It's super crucial to really understand the fundamentals of game staging and balance and the moment you press play on this mix, you can hear that those two fundamentals are not understood at all and that in part also I don't think Deck has, it doesn't sound like there's a vision behind what he was trying to accomplish with the mix. It just sounded like,

Speaker 2 (21:15):

Yeah, you're probably right.

Speaker 3 (21:16):

I'm just going at it. And so the Chris Crume Fast Track is actually one of the really cool ones. They're all great, but that one, especially for drums was really fun to watch for me because he's giving all the insight on how do you create these sounds, but he has a vision the whole time on what he's trying to go for in these drum sounds and all these guests that come on nail the mix. I think it's a thing that a lot of people, they're paying attention to. What EQ did he use, what sample? It's like these guys have already mixed a song. They had a vision already for the drum sound. So I think it's really important once you get the fundamentals to really have a vision for what you want the mix to be and you're going to go from having that vision to that's how you build your template, that's how you build your workflow, that's how you come into your own as a mixer, but if you don't have those fundamentals, you're never going to be able to have that vision.

(22:04):

You're always going to be chasing this illusion. You don't know what exactly is there. It's like a mirage almost. You feel like you kind of have an idea but you don't and you've really got to come into your own and be like, you know what? I like this drum sound here. Are these drums cool? I need to get a mix or a balance that goes with what I hear. Or maybe it's the vocals that take the lead and you're like, I want the vocals to have this sound. So the drums need to have this type of vibe so that the vocals shine. It's a hundred percent. You have to have the fundamentals in place so your vision makes sense at the end.

Speaker 2 (22:34):

I wouldn't be surprised if I get to Denmark to do now the mix and Jacob starts mixing vocals first on this song or something. Who knows? I mean every mixer has their focus. I think though that just as an exercise though, an exercise in focus, the deck should start with a vision for the drums always when

Speaker 3 (22:57):

You're starting.

Speaker 2 (22:58):

The reason I'm saying that is because just in case this comes out and then we do the live mix with Jacob Hanson and Jacob doesn't start with drums or something. Oh yeah, he might start with vocals. Who knows. I've never seen him mix. I don't know how he mixes. He could be one of those people.

Speaker 4 (23:16):

Yeah,

Speaker 2 (23:18):

That's not going to invalidate the advice we're giving you because we're not telling you to copy anybody. The way Jacob mixes is the way he mixes and you should gain whatever insights you can from that. The way Chris mixes, the way he mixes, gain whatever insight you can, but the idea is not to copy them, but just to understand thought process, how they solve problems and workflows. But I do suggest that you start with the drums because that to me is what's causing so many problems right off the bat in this mix and then you could de ask those vocals.

Speaker 3 (23:56):

Yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:57):

You got anything else on this one? Are we going to move on?

Speaker 3 (23:59):

We're good to move on. We got a double header in front of us.

Speaker 2 (24:03):

Hey everybody, if you're enjoying this podcast and you should know that it's brought to you by URM Academy, URM Academy's mission is to create the next generation of audio professionals by giving them the inspiration information to hone their craft and build a career doing what they love. You've probably heard me talk about Nail the Mix before, and if you remember, you already know how amazing it is. At the beginning of the month, nail the mix members get the raw multitracks to a new song by artists like Lama God eth Shuga, bring Me the Horizon Gaira asking Alexandria Mac Machine Head and Papa Roach among many, many others. Then at the end of the month, the producer who mixed it comes on and does a live streaming walkthrough of exactly how they mix the song of the album and takes your questions live on the air.

(24:52):

You'll also get access to Mix Lab, our collection of dozens of bite-sized mixing tutorials that cover all the basics and Portfolio Builder, which is a library of pro quality multi-tracks cleared for use of your portfolio. So your career will never again be held back by the quality of your source material and for those who really, really want to step up their game, we have another membership tier called URM Enhanced, which includes everything I already told you about and access to our massive library of fast tracks, which are deep, super detailed courses on intermediate and advanced topics like gain staging, mastering loan and so forth. It's over 50 hours of content in, man, let me tell you. This stuff is just insanely detailed. Enhanced members also get access to one-on-one office hours sessions with us and Mix Rescue, which is where we open up one of your mixes on a live video stream, fix it up and talk you through exactly what we're doing at every step.

(25:51):

If any of that sounds interesting to you, if you're ready to level up your mixing skills and your audio career, head over to URM academy slash enhanced to find out more. The second band on Mix Script Monday this month is the second band on Nail the Mix this month. It's a band called Discarnate, which I am so happy that we got on because I don't listen to Extreme Metal. I used to be all about it then I just wasn't all about it anymore. Every once in a while there comes a band where I'm like, yes, they give me what I want, and I think that they're just now starting to get discovered. I know that Chris Adler just picked them up as a manager and they're one of these bands that have been around, but only now people are starting to hear them be like, damn, that is sick.

(26:45):

And that's just how I feel. At first when I heard them I was like, God, it's kind of simple, but it's kind of catchy. Then I heard their stuff a bunch more times and I was just like, I just want to hear it over and over and over and over again. So anyways, I'm going to stop Fanboying. I really like this band and Jacob Hansen's Mix is a crusher. It is a crusher, and the best thing about it is the low end balance is perfect. It's perfect. So with that said, I'm going to listen to a submitted mix. This is Devin McNichols, URM subscriber, and this is his mix of garnets iron, strengthens iron.

Speaker 7 (27:50):

We on the cloud broken man setting, stay track through on the line and put,

Speaker 2 (28:44):

Okay, that was iron strengthens iron mixed by Devin McNichols and holy, too loud, holy high and holy, painful and wholly overcooked. The high end is just so pushed on literally everything. The kicks, the snare, the guitars, the symbols, the vocals, but then the bass just sounds disconnected from the mix. You got the mix, you got the bass, and they're not, maybe they're friends but they're not acting like friends right now. I'm also wondering, Devin, let us know, did you use the kick sample that was provided with the mix or did you use your own, because I don't think you were supposed to use what was provided. I think that that was just a triggering guide, so just saying it sounds like you used it and anyone listening, if you used it, now's your chance to redo that because you weren't supposed to use the provided kick sample That was just something for you to trigger off of. Those are my thoughts. What do you think?

Speaker 3 (29:54):

Yeah, the whole mix just sounds super scooped, sounds really weird. The basic guitar relationship just isn't right for this song at all. It's the drive from the original track does not match up or add up with this mix at all. Another thing that is the high hat was just super bright and fatiguing to listen to and then the top end and the snare was just super bright. I think it's one of those things where you're not really hearing the low end very clearly and then you're reaching for the top end and you're boosting to hell and then before you know it, you've got this super weird sounding mix. Super. It was a really fatiguing mix to listen to.

Speaker 2 (30:38):

Yeah, I would kind of suggest to just start all over. Honestly, when I say that, I don't mean that in a bad way. Every great mixer I know will go through phases on lots of mixes. It's fairly common where they'll start it, hate it and start again and then find it, and that's totally okay. When I say start all over, this is not like a serve him kind of stuff. Not at all. I mean sometimes you have to restart a mix in order to get it right. So this one is just, I just feel like sometimes they're so messed up. If you think about that whole, it's kind of a cliche phrase, but it's true. A great mix is built up of a thousand great decisions. Well, if you're at decision 692 and 75% of your decisions up to that point are messed up and you still have 300 decisions to go, I mean you're building on a really bad foundation. Better to start again and go slow or fast, but just build a better foundation.

Speaker 3 (31:54):

100%.

Speaker 2 (31:55):

So don't get offended if I say start over. Alright, now we're going to listen to a mix of Iron strengthens iron by URM student Cyril Lauper.

(33:05):

Alright, that was Iron Strengthens Iron mixed by Sarah Lauper and here are my thoughts. The snare is all wrong for this kind of music. It just sounds like a natural close mic and I know that there are no rooms in this recording and so you have to make your own rooms. We cover this so many different ways in our fast tracks and I'll nail the mix. So many of our mixers have shown how to do this right off the bat. First thing that came to mind is that Berg Strand showed this on his mic, sugar Nail the mix. I believe that there were no room mics on that one and he just showed us how he creates room mics when there are no room mics. There's so many ways to do it. You can do it the overheads, you can do it with a room sample.

(33:51):

There's so many ways to do it, but you have to do that in this mix. You can't just use that natural close mic. I mean it's going to sound like it does now a little. And then a snare like this needs a sample. It needs length, and I know that length comes from the rooms, but you need a sample that's going to give it more body and more length and this slower tempo death metal needs that longer, bigger snare. The kick is way too loud on the single hits. Watch that the high end on the Toms is super brutal on the fast fills, the kicks get completely buried in the double base bursts, so you get them either too loud when they're doing single kick stuff or not at all on the bursts. And what that tells me is that Cyril is doing one thing, which is automating kick volumes, which is a good thing you're supposed to, especially in this style of music because when you start getting bursts and festival bass, you want to turn them down because you get all this low end buildup. So he's making proper moves I think to a degree. I think he needs a lot of work. I can hear the bass individually, but it just doesn't blend with the guitars that well, they're not working like an interlocked puzzle and the guitars are a bit honky. All in all, I would say start over on this one. What do you think

Speaker 3 (35:21):

The snare right off the bat just was wrong. I noticed that when it comes to these type of songs, when we have 'em on nail the mix is that for whatever reason, when you get really great natural snares, people want to use only that snare and that's admirable and I get it, but you do need a sample reinforcement. You need something to make that snare cut and sound as punishing as the production sounds.

Speaker 2 (35:45):

I'm going to go and say that I'm not sure that this is the greatest natural snare either. I think that this is, well first of all, Jacob Hansen didn't produce this. I think this is a very low budget recording and I mean, no offense, it's fine, but this is not a super nice snare in a super nice room or anything. It's rough and tough kind of recording and so it's not the best snare in the world. You've got to help it.

Speaker 3 (36:09):

Yeah, it's like, I don't know why there's this weird thing and you've been talking about this for years. It's like someone gets raw drum tracks and they feel like they're obligated to use 'em and it's like if it doesn't match the song and the production and what needs to happen, don't waste time trying to make something work that's not going to work. Find what's going to actually bring value to the song and go with it. Stop overthinking the process. This mix to me sounds very overthought and not, there was no focus, it was just overthinking the guitar is the bass trying to make all these elements work together, but there was no cohesiveness and then you just get this mix that you're just like, man, there's just so much in it that I don't know where to begin to God bring out the mix so we can see what's going on.

(36:56):

What are you hearing that's making you make these decisions? What are you unsure of? What fast tracks can help you, things like that. For me, the mix really sounded like it was mixed through a mastering chain that was making it loud and that when you have a mix loud, you feel like, oh yeah, this mix sounds great. You're not able to be objective and stand back from it. Then you're trickery. Yeah, it messes with you and especially if you don't have your fundamentals and you don't know what good sounds are, that mastering chain will destroy you. I don't know if this is what he did, but based on mixes that I've heard, it sounds like the moment you put on that limiter, it starts lying to you and you lose focus and the sight of what the end goal is in a mix like this, the base was super out of control and when the fast parts happened with this fast kick drum stick of patient, you could hear the compressor working really hard and all of a sudden the mix got smaller because of it. And then when it opened up, it got big again. Then the top end and the vocals was super rough and the vocals were loud. There's just a lot of going back to the basics and just starting over for me on this one.

Speaker 2 (37:58):

Yep. Alright, last mix of this episode. This is another iron strengthens iron mixed by URM student Alan Ada Aguila.

(39:09):

Alright, that was Iron Strengthens iron mixed by Alan Casada Aguilar, and okay, that high end is just extreme. It hurts. It's mastered way too loud. This is the definition of overcooked. If I was going to look up overcooked in the dictionary, this mix would start playing. Also, you should have amped the guitars. I know what these tracks sound like and you got di I'm going to say that I will bet dinner, Alan, if you come to the U RM summit and I got this wrong, I'll buy you dinner, but I'm going to bet that Jacob Hanson reamp these guitars and if he didn't, he's that much more of a mixing God than I even realized. But you should have amped these guitars. I know what the provided guitars sound like. This is a definite situation where amping would've been the right move. Now in the subject of mastering to hot, it's pumping everywhere.

(40:08):

You hear the volume of the guitars change several times throughout the rifts. It's most evident on the transitional parts where the full band isn't playing. And right there the mix, the entire mix just balloons in size. However, it's a lower dynamic section. It should not be ballooning in size there, but it just gets so loud. That's how you know that it's overcooked in the master. Also throughout several riffs, like I said before, you hear the volume change multiple times. This is obviously mastered way too loud. I'm 50% thinking that this is the provided kick. I mean, you should have figured out a new sample and if this is your own sample, use another one. And I feel like the snare could be okay, but it's so buried. It's hard to say. What do you think, John?

Speaker 3 (41:02):

Yeah, for me, I was noticing the pump really happen with the bass, the bass low-end, it's all a movement. It's like there's no definition with that bass in those guitars, and it's just like this low end movement that's just making the compressors and the limiter just work overtime. But where it's really apparent is when the riffs into those really syncopated notes and the base clink just jumps out all of a sudden and is just super overbearing to listen to. And then when it slows down again, it disappears. And I feel like there's so much weird stuff happening with just base frequencies. The whole chain is just, everything's breaking down. It's like if you have a house and the electrical iss not working and then all of a sudden something else stops working and it all falls apart and pretty soon the foundation, the way everything looked is just, it's not there.

(41:50):

The snare also was just really weird to me. I just couldn't get around the snare. I was just like, what is going on? But then when little tom fills would happen, I was like, the Toms weren't great, but in terms of the whole drum kit picture, I felt like the Toms were the only thing where I was like, that sounds okay. The kick drum was just super clinky and weird and tiny and weak compared to the snare and then the Toms. Yeah, it's like one of those, start over. Don't be afraid to use DI if they don't match with what you want to do. Again, to what I was saying earlier, when you get tracks, use what's going to work for the song. If you have di experiment test it. Maybe you can get a better guitar tone that was provided. Maybe you don't like the original guitar tone. Don't feel like you're pressured into making these decisions. You are given the tracks to make them sound. How if a band was hiring you to mix a song, they're entrusting your style to impart onto the mix, to enhance it, to make their vision go the extra mile. Don't feel like you have to use the stuff that's provided. Do whatever it takes to make it sound like a banger basically.

Speaker 2 (42:54):

And Jacob Hanson did. I mean he worked off these tracks too, and that mix is godly,

Speaker 3 (43:00):

So

Speaker 2 (43:00):

I know it's doable. And that's actually why I think this is one of the most valuable nail the mixes because oftentimes we get songs that are produced and mixed by the people we have on. So the tracking is incredible or it's tracked by someone great, then mixed by someone great, everything's great. But in this case, the production, again, not talking shit, it's just obviously low budget. It is what it is. The band was, I don't even know if they were signed when they did this, and it's rough and tough and that's fine, but this is very much reality for I'd say 99% of the bands out there,

Speaker 3 (43:41):

100%.

Speaker 2 (43:42):

And engineers. Yeah, this is a very real life scenario and it goes to show that even when you don't have the best drum room in the world all the time in the world, the best setup and all that, if you know what you're doing mix wise, you can deliver a devastatingly incredible mix. Just listen to the original and there you have it. So watch Jacob Hanson snail the mix. Start over. Enjoy your life. Anyhow, this has been Mixed Crip Monday with my new co-host John Maya. John, thank you so much for being here. Thanks

Speaker 3 (44:17):

For having me. Really. This is really cool.

Speaker 2 (44:19):

Yeah, it's been awesome. Those of you in URM who want more of this from John, well, he's going to be on Future Mix Script Monday episodes with me, but also if you're a member of URM Enhanced, you can book a one-on-one with him and you should, because he will go through your mixes with you one-on-one and tell you how to make them better. Also, if you want to be on Mix Crit Monday, it's really, really simple. You just have to join the URM Octagon Facebook group, which is an exclusive group only for nail the mix URM subscribers, and it is a mixed group so you can put your mixes up there and get feedback from the community. The rules are pretty strict. It's troll free positive only. I mean by positive only. I don't mean that we won't tell you if something needs to be changed. Honesty is very important there, but nobody is flaming anybody is what I'm getting at.

Speaker 3 (45:21):

Yeah, it is definitely the best group online. I'm not just saying that toot the forum's horn. If you post mixes online, you'd never get helpful feedback. A lot of the posts in there will get two to three comments that are just really great and the people who take those to heart and able to do the next mix. You just see the mix progress and it's really cool that there is a community somewhere out there that does it and it happens to be in URM and that's awesome.

Speaker 2 (45:46):

Yep, and that's where we pick these mixes from. So we randomly select mixes from the Octagon for Mix CRI Monday. So with that, I'm going to sign off. If you want to follow me on Instagram, I'm at AAL levy URM Audio. You spell my name, E-Y-A-L-U-R-M Audio and see you next time. This episode

Speaker 1 (46:07):

Of the Unstoppable Recording Machine podcast is brought to you by Golden Age Premier high quality vintage style products at an affordable price point. To find out more, go golden age premier.com. This episode is also brought to you by Fuse Audio Labs, uncompromising emulations of classic and rare studio processors in revolutionary plugin form. For more info, go to Fuse audio labs de to ask us questions, make suggestions and interact. Visit URM academy slash podcast and subscribe today.