JOEL WANASEK: Why Harsh Feedback is Crucial, Common Mixing Mistakes, and Destructive Bus Compression

Speaker 1 (00:00):

Welcome to the Unstoppable Recording Machine Podcast, brought to you by Joey Sturgis's tones, creating unique audio tools for musicians and producers everywhere. Unleash your creativity with Joey Sturgis tones. Visit joey sturgis tones.com for more info. And now your hosts, Joey Sturgis, Joel Wanasek and

Speaker 2 (00:22):

Eyal Levi. Hey everybody. Welcome to the Unstoppable Recording Machine podcast. I'm Joel Wanasek. My cohorts Eyal Levi and Joey Sturgis will not be joining us tonight. They are off flying, doing lots of exciting stuff. So lemme just take a minute to say here, I know some of you guys have asked, how come you guys aren't always on the podcast always together? For example, maybe it's just me doing a podcast or Al or me and Eyal or Joey or et cetera. Well, as you guys know, we're pretty damn busy over here at Unstoppable Recording Machine doing lots of things, trying to take a lot of time and help you guys grow. We're creating all kinds of new programs, courses, we're doing all sorts of stuff and it's really, really labor intensive and that requires us to fly a lot. Originally when we just started podcasting, it was awesome.

(01:12):

We just got together on Skype. We never had to fly anywhere, we never had to do anything. We never had to go anywhere. And lo and behold, now we're flying all over the country all the time, sometimes flying two, three times in a month, which is pretty intensive on all of our schedules. So because of that, for example, right now Eyal is filming a really amazing course that you guys are going to geek out over. It is going to be all end all drum recording course and I am so excited for you guys to see it. I mean, I was looking at the outline the other day and just all the logistics of it. It's going to be amazing. It's going to be so exciting. And we have one of the best drum techs and probably one of the best engineers I know coming to do this course and teach you guys.

(01:54):

It is going to be something incredible. So because he's doing that right now and filming that, I'm here talking to you guys and podcasting away. So Joey himself is getting ready to go to Nam. He's got a lot of stuff going on with JST and he's pretty much in panic mode. So let's have a little bit of fun and dig into some mixed crit Monday here. So just know that I should finish the tangent. I just started. Just know that we do this stuff, meaning the podcast and stuff like that because we can't always get together, know that we're doing lots of other things to help grow this company and give more value to you guys by sitting here and expanding the programs. For example, we have nailed the mix and we have U RM enhanced right now, but we are working on a very cool next year that will be coming out hopefully in the next couple of months that's going to be amazing.

(02:48):

It's going to be based around careers and helping you guys make a lot more money and become a lot more successful doing this stuff and sharing with you guys all of the most important stuff that you're not going to learn in business school, you're not going to learn in an internship. And it's stuff that people that are really, really experienced and have had great careers usually figure out after 20, 30 years in the business. So we're going to teach you all of the most important stuff that we've never covered or never really shared publicly before. So we've got that coming. We've been working on that. There's tons of filming, like I'm getting together with Al in February and we're going to film for about two weeks straight. So that just gives you an idea of all the madness that's going on and what we're doing and why sometimes not all of us are on the podcast.

(03:33):

So please forgive us. We are not trying to slack by any way, shape or form, but while we have any massive and comprehensive and amazing team of people that work with us here at Unstoppable Recording Machine, I'll say to you guys that me, Al and Joey, were only three dudes and we can only do so much. So please forgive the absence, know that it's for the better and for the best, meaning that the things that we're working on are going to be so cool. So enough of that, let's get to crit some mixes and talk about mixing. So I just want to take a second, and I feel like I've talked about this before on some of the mix crit episodes, but I believe that it's really important to bring this up again. So let's talk about mentoring here for a second and let's talk about mixed crits.

(04:19):

Mixed crits are my least favorite episode to do off the podcast. I absolutely hate them and I mean that in a positive way. I don't actually hate it. I hate mixed crit because it's a negative thing, if that makes sense. So it's not really, I don't know, it's just the way that you come on and by the structure of the show, people want their mixes torn into shreds and there's no way to do it and sound like, Hey, that was okay. I'm not a guy who believes in giving trophies to everybody for just trying. I believe in rewarding excellence and people that are doing amazing at the same time, giving people the brutal honest feedback that no one will give them. I remember when I was starting out doing this guys, it was like I would have a mix. I'd be all stoked on it and think it's great.

(05:01):

It'd show it for my friends. They'd be like, oh, this is awesome. Then I would put it on a form or the band would come out or something and then all the comments came and they're like, oh man, this mix sucks. Or that snare drum is shit, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, oh, it was so frustrating because you think you did really well. And then somebody professional comes in and they listen to it and they just absolutely tear you a new asshole. So I just want to say to you guys, when we cri these mixes and we do these critiques, we're doing them because we want you guys to get better. And me, Joey, Al, and a lot of other really successful people that I know and peers and producers, et cetera, just everything, business people, we've all had really hard ass badass mentors in our life.

(05:42):

People that have come in at one point in time or another and have absolutely made our lives hell. And what I mean by made our lives hell, I mean you send 'em a mix and they're like, this is absolute shit. Don't waste my fucking time with this. I can't believe you turned blah, blah, blah. This is crap. Why did you send this blah, blah, blah, blah. I mean, I've had managers scream at me, a and r, guys scream at me, bands scream at me, labels scream at me. I've had my peers scream at me, even my wife screams at me. No, I'm kidding. She doesn't even know how to mix, but you know, you know what I mean? So the point is, some of the best mentors I ever had when I was younger and coming up and just throughout my career have been some of the most disciplined, difficult, hardest ass people on me that have just absolutely savaged me and been so ruthless with me that at times I've just wanted to be like and just choked myself.

(06:35):

It's okay what I'm saying. So when you come in and you get really hardcore, harsh, heavy feedback on something, you can't take it to heart and be upset. Yeah, you're stoked on a mix. You turn it in, you did your best, and then somebody's like, you know what? It's fucking garbage. It sucks. This is shit. This is gone. Redo this mix. Everything is wrong. And I could see you can get really upset. Again, I've been in your shoes guys. I've sat there and I've done that. And I like to intentionally pick mixes that need a lot of work for this mix CRI show because I feel like if we just picked really amazing mixes and we're like, just tweak this, then tweak that you guys aren't going to learn something. But when you hear what people are doing wrong on a macro scale, you can sit down, you can listen to it, you can analyze it, you can compare your own work and say, okay, maybe I'm struggling with that too.

(07:21):

Maybe that situation or that solution that was recommended by those guys, maybe that's something can help me. So anytime you come in and you're going to do something that's critical in nature and people are going to come in and cri you, like I said, it's easy to get upset and butt hurt, but there's two ways you can take it. And let's talk about an analogy like the guitar player comes into the studio. So being a guitar nerd and I got a book out on guitar playing and how to become a guitar virtual, so that's guitar virtual, so.net for any of you guys who play guitar and are interested in reading it and listening to this stuff. But I had a really savage reputation regionally for recording guitars. Guys would come in just terrified because they knew I could play much better than them and that if they weren't prepared, I was absolutely going to savage them and just pound the crap out of them until they were sitting there quivering in terror.

(08:08):

Most of the time I would just pick up the guitar and play it for them right in front of their face. Now obviously being a producer, there's two ways you can do it. You can do it really aggressively and really piss people off, but you have to build them up if you're going to break them down. It's like the Gordon Ramsey approach on the other side of that equation. Some people can't handle that psychologically. So what I'm saying is when you go in and you break somebody down, you need to go back in with a feather. So the guitar player comes in, he can't play his part, he's wasting your time as a producer, he's wasting the band's time and money for not being prepared. He's just embarrassing and screwing up the whole damn record. And you as a producer, you have to put your name on it.

(08:44):

So you got to make excellence. So you're sitting there like, dude, that was shit. Do it again. No fucking do it again. No, you see that application on the wall? Yeah, that's your future. Now play it right? Alright, give me the fucking guitar, play the part. Alright, here you go. So you got to mitigate that sort of stuff. And when you sit down with a kid, the kid's going to be pissed at you. He's going to be really pissed at you, extremely pissed because you just shattered his world. He's going to be sitting there going, man, this guy's an asshole, blah, blah, blah, blah. What the hell does he know? Blah, blah, blah, blah. Listen, there's two ways you can take it. You can take it like that or you can take it as a reason, as an excuse. Say, you know what? The truth hurts.

(09:20):

It's honest, because deep down inside that kid knows that he wasn't prepared, he didn't have his shit together, he wasn't ready to get into the studio. He was not just not at the level that was necessary to go out and make a great product. And deep down inside, he's upset with himself. So you come in as the producer and you say, Hey listen, I want to talk to you a second. Listen, I was really hard on you back there, but I was doing so out of love because I know you can be a great guitar player. You need to work on this, you need to work on this and you need to work on that. But next time I see you in my studio, I want to see you come in here and play guitar so well that I go, holy shit. It's like a whole different guitar player.

(10:03):

And when you have that conversation with that kid and you prep him up and be like, listen, you can't look me in the eye and tell me that you were prepared or you came into the studio and you feel good about the takes that you were getting and that is going to be competitive with what you're hearing and the bands that you're competing with. You cannot honestly look at me in the eye and tell me that. So why on earth should I tell you anything other than the brutal honest truth? Because the guys in your band aren't going to say it to you. They're afraid of upsetting you and you quitting the band. But I will say it to you because I care. I want your record to sound amazing. I want you to be the best guitar player that you can be. I want you to come in and blow my head off sometime.

(10:41):

And I found over my career that when somebody really struggles, it's very, very, very much an effective way of dealing with them because they'll come back and if they take it the right way, that kid will be the best damn guitar player that records with you the next time in months. Seriously, I've seen it happen so many times. Yeah, some kids, they don't get better, they don't listen, but a lot of people come in and they get savaged and then they know that you're speaking the truth and you have a good heartfelt conversation with them and you get better. So that's how you have to take it, rise up to the challenge. Prove me wrong. So it's the same thing with these mixed crits guys. I hate giving them because they're negative and I feel like a complete bastard in an asshole giving them, I mean, maybe I am one, maybe I'm not, hopefully not too bad.

(11:28):

But at the same time, this requires me to have a certain level of brutality and so is Al and Joey and we try to do this stuff a little bit lighthearted, and I could see how sometimes people would get really offended or whatever, but guys, we're doing this because we care. We want you guys to be the best producers, mixers, engineers possible. And the only way you guys are going to get good is if you have some really hard ass dudes sitting at the other head of the spectrum here just knocking on your head saying, dude, it's not good enough. It's not good enough, it's not good enough. It's not good enough because one day you're going to wake up, you're going to put in the time, you're going to put in the work and guess what's going to happen? Your mixes are going to be fricking awesome and people are going to be like, damn, who mixed that?

(12:06):

And you're going to get a ton of work and you're going to be super stoked because you put in the time, you put in the work, you put in the effort, you worked really fricking hard and you didn't get offended. So guys, we're doing this for you. We're here creating these mixes. We're being hard on you because we want you to succeed and we never had this ourselves. So you can look at it two ways. Like I said, you can get upset or you can use it as a, you know what, I'm going to show this guy, I'm going to work harder and I'm going to show this guy and he's going to sit back and he's going to crip my mix Sometime he's going to be like, damn, this mix is dope, period. I've got nothing to say. It sounds amazing. Fantastic job. And we've had quite a few subscribers that have really improved over the last year since we started doing Nail the Mix and the podcast and all that.

(12:48):

It's been pretty incredible to watch some of your progress. So guys, I just want to leave that disclaimer out because I feel like it's important to always put that stuff in perspective because again, a mixed crit show is negative because we're sitting here critiquing everything, ripping it apart, being ridiculous and unreasonable and poking fun of things and this and that. There's a little bit of an entertainment value to this and you got to have a little bit of fun, but at the same time, we care. We really, really, really want you guys to be amazing at this. So we do it with love and we want you to come back and get in the crit ring here, the octagon that you are on PPC octagon and just drop the dopest fricking mix and have everybody go, damn that sick and you guys can do it. So I'll shut up and let's crit some mixes here. So the first mix that I have in front of me is from Bruno Ro. Hopefully I said that right? We're going to be doing fragments here by Jason Richardson. This is the nail the mix for here in January, 2017. Yeah, it's January, 2017. I can't even believe it. I almost had 2016. Yeah, it is 2017. All right, so here we go. We got Bruno's Mix. Let's hear it.

Speaker 3 (15:05):

Yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:24):

All right. That was fragments by Jason Richardson, mixed by Bruno ero. So alright, first and foremost, Bruno, I feel like we need to completely reset everything to zero on this mix. Okay, so the reason I'm saying that is there's a lot of things structurally wrong with this mix that needs and it just needs a ton of work and I feel like we've screwed some things up and that if you go back to the source tones of the mix, I think that you're going to get better results on what you've had. So first and foremost, I feel like there's something weird going on with the top end of the entire mix. The whole mix sounds to me, it sounds like it's got a blanket over it. It sounds like just it's underwater or something. I don't know. It's kind of like you took a high pass filter and just removed all the topping.

(19:13):

I mean, it just sounds, sorry, I said high pass filter. I'm an idiot. It's light. Guys, I'm tired. I've been up for a long time today. A low pass filter, sorry, the top end. It just seems like it's rolled off at like 5K or something, except on the drums. It's really weird. So we got to go in and we got to figure out what's going on with that. But first and foremost, let's talk about this mix structurally. So the kick in the snare way too loud, and not only that, they sound really, really clipped and really, really distorted. So you have a super loud kick and snare and then you can barely hear anything else. But the kick and snare is so distorted and clipped that they don't even sound awesome, and it's like there's too much mid in it. So I can hear the 250 hertz or 201 50, somewhere in there in the kick.

(19:54):

It's really, really freaking distorted and it needs to be eqd out or something, or you need to use different samples. Or if you're using real drums, you got to EQ them better or something like that. I'm not sure what's going on. So the bottom line is something's really weird going on with the drums. They're way too distorted, they're way too clipped and they're way too damn loud. For example, there's no symbols in this mix. The symbols are literally like six to 10 db too quiet in comparison to the kick and the snare. It's like I can barely hear 'em. So you just have a kick and you just have a snare and there's no connection. You're not hearing an entire drum kit. The symbols need to be connected to the kit. The whole point of having overheads is to connect the symbols and the kit to the samples or to the direct microphones.

(20:40):

If you just have your kick and snare super loud and your symbols really quiet, the problem with that is is it sounds like drums in space, it doesn't sound like a drummer. It sounds like a program kicking snare with some dude playing along really quietly doing his symbols. So we got to get that straightened out. Now the flip side of that is that if you have your symbols too damn loud, what happens is then it doesn't sound connected. So you got to find that point in your volume where your symbols are not too loud, but not too quiet, but it sounds like a fricking drummer playing in a room. You don't go into a room and hear a dude hitting the snare super hard and just destroying it and then tapping on the ride and the crash symbols so quietly that you can barely hear it.

(21:22):

It doesn't even sound like a performance. No human could even play how this mix is performed. I mean, if they could, they would be an incredibly gifted drummer with tons of years of training. I mean, so you got to think about that. It should be a little bit more realistic. So we got to get that under control. I would reset those faders. Now, I would say in the break section of this song, I do remember when it gets clean and there's some league guitar noodling and stuff like that, the overheads are a lot louder and the triggers or the directs or whatever you used, they themselves are a little bit better balanced, but the overheads themselves have too much midrange in them. They're not eqd properly. There's not enough clarity, and it really makes the whole mix struggle because I feel like when I listen to it, I'm just like, man, the drums just aren't connected.

(22:11):

We got drums in space, so we got to get the drums more connected. We got to go back to basics. So maybe pull off all your plugins, reset the faders, listen to the balance and try to get it to sound more like a kit now. Okay, I get it. This is a Taylor Larson mix and what is Taylor Larson known for? Really badass kick and snare, really loud. And a lot of you guys, I feel like, and this is a symptom that the other mixes are going to have. A lot of you guys came in and you tried to mix this song like Taylor, but you failed miserably because you didn't connect the drums. Now Taylor is a pro. Taylor makes great mixes and he obviously knows what he's doing. He's very experienced and he has a very cool and unique sound, and a lot of people look up to him.

(22:50):

The problem is when you try to emulate that, you're not thinking about like, oh, well Taylor's got his kick and snare really loud. I'm going to do that too. Well, you can do that, but it's very, very, very important to understand that when you do that, you need to make sure that your kit connects and it sounds like a drum kit. You can't just turn up your kick and snare samples really loud and make 'em sound really badass and then all of a sudden it's like cymbals way the hell down here and guitars and just bury everything else. Let's just have kick and snare super loud. That's not what a mix is. That's not how a song is mixed. That's called a drum solo. This is not a drum solo. This is a Jason fucking Richardson song, which is a lead guitar player doing a solo project.

(23:29):

The most fucking important thing, excuse my French, is the guitar playing in this entire mix. And I mean, it's important. Hey, you got Luke Col on drums and stuff like that. So obviously you want to hear Luke Holland, but man, you got to think about this. This is like solo guitar music, even though it's kind of like in a band setting and stuff like that, it's worth respecting the guitar player. So aside from the drums and stuff being out of balance, there's no bass guitar in this mix at all. I think it's in there when I crank it up really loud. But I mean, we don't have any bass. We got to EQ it better or we just got to turn it up and the guitars are super just quiet. So structurally to me with this mix, everything is wrong. We need to start over and you need to rethink your approaches and hey, that's okay.

(24:12):

Okay, I just want to say to you that there have been so many times where I've mixed a mix, okay? When I did the last machine had single, the first mix, I got through the whole mix and I got really frustrated with it. It just wasn't right. I just reset everything. I came back the next day, I tried again and I got a much, much, much better mix. You know what, listen, we don't always get a great mix the first time. Sometimes we really screw things up. So you got to revisit this mix. The fact that you're not hearing any high end in this or such a rolled off amount of top end really concerns me. I wonder if it's your listening environment and whatever you're mixing on, it makes me wonder if maybe your speakers are messed up or the tweeters are blowing out or something crazy like that.

(24:57):

I don't know what it is, but you got to look very carefully at your setup because man, we're like, mix is underwater, balance is our way out. Everything is messed up. So maybe we should address the monitoring situation that you've got going on there. I'm not sure, but regardless of that, Bruno, I think if you reset everything, you restart, you try a fresh approach on it, you think about connecting the kit and getting the mix to sound more like a song and not just like a kick and snare solo. I just thought of something too. Maybe your monitors are too close together or if they're too far apart, maybe they're too far apart because if they're too far apart, what's going to happen is your center elements are going to sound weaker than they are, so you're going to overmix them. If they're too close together, it's really going to amplify the center like the kick and the snare and you're going to mess it up.

(25:49):

So you got to make sure that your speaker distance is at a good spot. So when you go between stereo and mono, what happens is your middle section on your mixes kind of sounds the same. If your speakers are too far apart, you're going to overcompensate. So that might be another thing possibly going on. I don't know, I'm not in your room. I haven't seen your setup, but you got to be careful. So something screwed up. You got to figure out what it is. I'm not there. I can't see your setup, but if you're an enhanced user man, get a one-on-one. Let's sit down. Let's take a look at your room and stuff and talk about some stuff, but I've got some ideas. So hopefully that helps you, Bruno. Alright, the next mix here is going to be from our friend Rodney Augh. Let's have a listen.

Speaker 3 (29:20):

My God,

Speaker 2 (30:43):

That was fragments by Jason Richardson and the mixer was Rodney Atten ball. So Rodney, all right, man, we got some problems here with this mix that I want to address. So first and foremost, I will say that this snare is pretty cool and dope. I did your snare drum butts. We are struggling with some crazy eq. I think you've absolutely destroyed the mix with EQ and absolutely overdone it. And you've got some weird pumping and compressor stuff going on. It's in, it's out. It's kind of weird in some places. So first off, I feel like the mix is really scooped and again, it sounds kind of like it's underwater, man. Maybe my ears are filled with shit or something. But I just listened to Taylor's Mix before I started this episode and before I got on live stream here, I'll tell you that Taylor's mix was sounding amazing.

(31:28):

When I come back, there's something going on. It still sounds a little bit muffled. There's a lot of clarity issues in this mix, Rodney, where the guitar EQ in some spots, some of the synths, some of the lead guitars and stuff like that is really out of whack. So some places I feel like you've over eqd things so much that in a way they're very separated, but they sound kind of harsh and kind of irritating to the ear and underwater and stuff like that. And in some ways I feel like you haven't eqd things enough in some parts, which is weird. It's a contradiction. I know on some of the lead guitar tones and stuff like that, I was just listening to that clean section not too long ago and the clean section has some, I don't know, it was just really mid ranging. It didn't fit in with the rest of the guitar tones and stuff like that.

(32:11):

So it's really important to have cohesion and cohesiveness when you are mixing. Okay, so we got to get, if our guitar tone is really scooped and then our lead is super mid rangey, that's too much of a contrast. It's really a pro mix is a little bit more subtle than that. It's good to have just a little bit more mid and maybe a little bit more scoop depending on the part. But if the whole damn thing is super scooped and then the leads come in and they're super midrange ear the vocals or any other instrument, it's going to stand out like a sore thumb. So you got to get an EQ balance across the board. You have to have a curve, a general curve to it. You can't come in and have things jumping all over. So another big problem with this mix, Rodney, I thought was there are some serious balance issues.

(32:57):

Sometimes guitars are way too damn loud, sometimes they're way too quiet. Sometimes vocals are inaudible, but then they're too loud. I thought a lot of the backing vocals, like the far left and right vocals, sometimes they come up and they're like four or five DB louder than the mains and it just jumps out so loud and you're sitting there and all of a sudden you're like, whoa, holy crap, backing vocals. You're like, what the hell? I feel like it should be more subtle and more music and it should get bigger, but it shouldn't necessarily get a lot louder. And I feel like there's definitely, there's a balance to be had. There's a medium not you have to get in that continuum. If it's too damn loud when it comes in and it gets bigger, then it goes back and then the main vocal is going to sound small and wimpy.

(33:37):

If it's not loud enough and it doesn't get big enough, then it doesn't sound like there was a double and then you didn't do your job as a mixer. Again, it's about balance and I feel like you over queued and you have some problems here with balance. So let's get into some more details here because I feel like this mix is over comped and over eq. It gives me a bit of a headache. I think it's frequency dependent because there's definitely, like I said, the guitars are way too scooped in the bass. It just sounds like underwater and it's difficult to listen to. So it needs a little bit more mid range. And again, like I said, this is Jason Richardson and you need to hear the guitars. So you need a little bit of midrange in there and you want the guitars to kind of just bloom a little bit so you cut too much out.

(34:21):

Or when you did cut it, you cut it at the wrong frequencies. I would just reset my EQ and then just be like, okay, what does it mean need? And then try to get to whatever EQ that you have in less moves, meaning that maybe if you used two or three EQs and each one had two to four cuts or boosts or whatever, maybe grab one EQ and see if you can get the guitars to fit in with one EQ and then maybe one or two bands of spot treatment if necessary. I think the guitar is hard to hear at a lot of points because the mid range isn't right. Again, that's kind of a balance thing too, but it's also an EQ thing. EQ is causing the balance problems. So basically I think that if you were to maybe add a little bit more mid range, you're going to hear the guitar parts a little bit better, which I'm sure Jason would be stoked on.

(35:05):

I now I will compliment you and say that, well, I think your snare drum is badass. I think your bass tone overall is pretty badass and it sounds really good. You did a really good job of mixing the bass on this and keeping the bass solid and consistent and having a lot of punch and it drives the mix pretty well. So you've got some energy in the mix, but like I said, there is still a little bit of pumping and things like that. So that's kind of what I got on this. Rodney. Overall, I feel like we just need to clean up the frequency EQing stuff a little bit. It needs just a little bit of love and it needs to be straightened out a little bit more. And then once you get that under control, man, you're going to be shooting fireballs. So get it straightened up, go retweak some of the balances, go to Taylor's, mix the league guitar.

(35:50):

Shouldn't be so damn loud in a certain part of the song and then kind of buried in other parts and you know what I mean, stuff like that. You just need to get your balance a little bit more under control. So that's what I've got. Alright, the next mix we're going to go listen to here of fragments is by our listener here, Raven, Papa, KU. Hopefully I said this name guys, if I butcher your names, I'm sorry. There are a lot of foreign people and I'm just terrible at pronouncing names. I try and sometimes I know they don't read well in English. I understand when I go to Russia and I say some things like there was a one time I was telling my father-in-law I need a box. And he's like, what's a box? I'm like, box BOX. He's like Box. I'm like Bo. He's like, oh books. Ah, now I understand books. You want a books? I'm like a box. I'm like, oh yeah, I'm from the Midwest. That's how we say ah instead of, oh, so BOXI need a box so I can put some things in the box and pack them up. So there you go. A simple vowel can be so confusing and so difficult depending on where you're in the world. So guys, I But your names, I'm sorry. Alright, let's listen to Raven's Mix and see what he's got.

Speaker 3 (37:49):

Yeah, George, the we'll, we'll go. God George broke.

Speaker 2 (41:14):

All right. That was another mix of fragments by Jason Richardson and the mixer is Raven pscu. So alright, here's what I'm thinking about this mix. First and foremost, this mix pumps like fricking crazy. There is so much pumping going on on the compression somewhere, I'm assuming the bus compression, that the whole mix is just pushing and pulling. Sometimes I hear him hit the snare and the whole mix sucks out and then pops back or the downbeat of a section, the kick hits really hard and just the mix just goes and it just comes back. It's like push and pull, but not in a good way. So we got to get the bus compression under control in the two bus stuff under control in this mix. And some of it I feel like may be frequency dependent. Sometimes if you don't get your mids, especially your low meds or your bottom end, that's what the compressor really clamps down on.

(42:03):

And we might have some looseness on the bottom end or in the mid range that's really taking the compressor and just swinging it around madly and just wildly. So I feel like that really needs some work. We got to really get the bus compression under control. It definitely, I dunno, it's all over the place and it makes the mix really hard to listen to. Again, it gives me a headache in, it's out, it hits the drum and then all of a sudden it pops back at you and then the guitars sink down in two db and then they come right back up front and the vocals go down and up and boom, boom, boom and there's push and pull and it's absolutely just choking the mix. So we really got to think about the compression on this and we got to get it under control.

(42:43):

Man, it's rough. So I thought your snare drum is too loud. It's definitely pretty brutal. Again, the problem is we're listening to Taylor Larson and yes, Taylor Larson is a master at being able to get his kick in. Snare super fricking loud, but to me the problem is when you guys are trying to emulate somebody like Taylor, what's happening is you're overcompensating and you're screwing it up. For example, we're hitting the bus compression for example. Maybe that snare transient is so wild that it's hitting the bus compressor and it's just boop, it's just popping it every single time. I don't know, there could be a lot of different things. I'd have to experiment and open up the session a little bit. So it's very important guys, when you're doing this stuff to make sure that you get your bus compression stuff because while a bus compressor can be the glue, it's like the salt and the soup, it brings all the flavors together.

(43:29):

It can also be your worst enemy and really destroy the entire feeling of your mix. And if your mix pumps too hard, it's like that bocal comes in, mix goes down, bocal goes out, mix comes up, gets Harley goes in mix, goes down in out, and it's just like a circus. It's like jumping on a trampoline and it shouldn't sound like that. The whole mix should sound cohesive and if it's going to move, then the hit the whole thing should move together and it should have a subtle slow rhythm. If you guys are UR M enhanced members, if you're not familiar with that, it's URM Academy slash I am enhanced. Go check it out. That is the next level up from nail the mix, which is our core offering and enhanced has all these awesome fast tracks and one of them is hearing compression where I show you guys how to sit down, grab a compressor and actually hear movement.

(44:17):

So the first stage of compression is really just dynamics control, hearing the sustain on the snare or making more transient pop viewer, et cetera. The next thing is then hearing the density. So how the tone affects the signal. And then after that what's going to happen is then you're going to be able to hear movement and movement is taking your mix and throwing it into a rubber band. And you guys want to hear a good explanation, go listen to the podcast with Gregory Scotch from Kush Audio, we had a great thing. Or log into your accounts and go watch hearing compression and have a listen and I'll show you guys how to hear it and it takes a while to really master this stuff. But I would say that there is a ton of video content on Enhance. We have hundreds of videos, we are always working on tons of fast tracks.

(45:06):

There is mixed rescue, which we basically do a mixed crit live where we open up your session, me, Joey or Al, and we fix it in front of your face and show you guys what you're doing wrong in your session or what you could do to improve your mix and make it better or what you're doing. And we rescue the mix and then we also have one-on-ones where you can sit down with us in one-on-one sessions where you can sit down with me, Al or Joey, and we'll sit down for like 20 minutes and talk to you about whatever you want, career advice, we'll work on your mix with you and stuff like that. So enhanced has a ton of awesome stuff. If you're serious about audio and you want to get great at this, you got to get to enhanced it's your M Academy slash i am enhanced.

(45:45):

That is how you get signed up. So go check it out. But let's get back to this mix. So the problem is I'm hearing too much movements on the compressor. The movements of the compressor is swinging too hard, it's choking off the vocals and parts, it's pumping and popping off this drum transient, it's killing the guitars, the bass, et cetera. So man, we got to really get that under control. Another two major points I have here is the EQ of this mix. So the guitar on this mix is very money now where Rodney's Mix was really scooped and kind of underwater and he'd really overdone his eq. This mix is way too over mid rangey and the guitars in the vocals and there's a lot of conflict there. And because of that we're losing a lot of clarity. And again, that might also cause some of the pumping because there's just all of that extra frequency information there and the compressor is just eating it up and it's working too hard.

(46:35):

So we got to clean it up, we got to get the mid range a little bit more controlled. Again, this is a very dense mix. I haven't opened the session, but I hear there's over a hundred tracks on this and there's even more than machine heads. So you guys are mixing a pretty colossal and epic session. There's a lot of stuff going on and because there's a lot of stuff going on, it's going to really require a ton of attention to detail and you're going to need to get the right midrange on your core elements. Your core elements being your kick, your snare, your bass, your rhythm guitars, and your vocals. You got to get the midrange right, you got to lock all of them very tightly like a puzzle. And then you'll be able to easily hear your synths, your leads, your little fancy things that come in and your overdubs and stuff like that.

(47:17):

So our guitars are muddy, our vocals are muddy. And in general, I just want to see the entire mid range of this entire mix is completely off. Meaning that Rodney's mid range was off because it was too scooped. This one has too much mids as I just said to reiterate. So we got to get the midrange under control in this mix. It's very important and I feel like midrange and being able to get the midrange right is one of the most coveted and difficult audio skills because it's very hard to hear. It takes a lot of practice and a lot of time mixing to really be able to hear and hit that curve and really be able to get things to lock like a glove. So you just got to keep mixing songs, mixing one song and sitting there screwing around with it for a month isn't going to make you that much of a better mixer.

(48:01):

But sitting there and mixing 50 different songs in a month is going to make you a lot better, a lot faster because you're going to run into a lot of different problems and you're going to reference a lot of different styles of mixes and things like that. So it's very, very important for you guys when you're practicing, you're mixing, try to mix a lot of different songs and try to mix them rather quickly and you'll get your average up. It's like a batting average, right? So you're as a mixer, no matter how good you are or how bad you are, you're always going to have a shitty mix. Every once in a while you're going to miss, you're going to strike out just like baseball, but we want to get our average up. So the difference between the pro mixers and the guys who are aspiring is an aspiring mixer may get one or two really awesome, amazing mixes, but a pro mixer can get an amazing mix almost every time they go and they play the game.

(48:44):

So you're going to have bad mixes, you're going to do some crappy ones, you're going to do some good ones, but it's about getting your batting average up, meaning most of the time you're putting out pretty quality stuff. You might have a bad day, but it's not that often. Whereas less experienced mixer is going to come in and maybe they'll have one good mix and then 10 crappy ones and things like that. So you guys need to mix a lot of songs. The more songs you mix, the better that batting average is going to get. The better your mixing average, I should say, not batting average. The better your mixing average will get and the more confident you'll be, the better you're going to get at EQing and things like that. So the last note I've got here on Raven's Mix is that I think that the vocals can be very tough to hear in places.

(49:26):

And again, that's because the mid-range isn't right. So now we're having a balance issue in some parts you can't really hear them and they're kind of out of balance because he hasn't got his mid-range clear enough and tight enough. So it's definitely there's no room and there's no frequency space. So guys, that is all I have for this episode of Mix Crit Monday. Hopefully you guys have learned something and this has helped. We were mixing fragments by Jason Richardson, which we are doing this [email protected]. Come check it out, come join us. We have the mighty Taylor Larson on and you get to watch him live. You can ask him questions at the end of this month. It's going to be really exciting. So if you're not in Nail the Mix subscriber, you should definitely come on and I'll say that you want to stick around because guys, we have some really amazing mixers coming up.

(50:17):

We've got some legendary bands, we've got some number one singles, we have some just incredible talent coming up. And if you're new to Nail the Mix or the podcast log into your accounts because you can go back and get all of the back issues. They're a la carte, you can check them out. There's so many great songs and artists and things like that for anybody who signed up recently. I mean Nail the Mix. We've already got an entire 12 months. I think this is going to be the 14th month of it now on Taylor Mixes. So there are 13 more episodes in every single episode. Something different has been covered. There's different approaches. I mean every time I mix I try to do it radically different like cognizance. I mixed it very different than I mixed the millennium. There was a little bit of crossover, but Anakin was mixed completely analog and machine Head was mixed even different than that.

(51:00):

It was kind of like hybrid. That's just to give you an example. And I tried to cover different things and focus on different things when I was mixing and all that fun stuff. And I know that Joey and Al also tried to do that too. And we have all these great guest mixers and they all have slightly different approaches and there's some really incredible talent. So guys, check that out. I'm going to sign off here. Thanks for hanging out on Mixed Crit Monday. And again, if you got your mix torn up today, look at it as a reason to improve and get better. I want to see you guys turning in mixes that blow my mind and I feel like you guys are all capable of doing it. So thank you. I'm Joel Sek and this is the Unstoppable Recording Machine Podcast. I'll see you guys next time. Cheers. This episode of the

Speaker 1 (51:42):

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