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Lesson Info

Sending Files to Master Engineer with Q&A

So especially when you're first starting to learn as somebody who does a lot of mastering, I will tell you the best way I'm able to help my clients. I was just working with one of my good friends sky as lynn from a great band called unifier out of when you called north carolina and as one producer, live bands, he doesn't great great great work, but we're having, like, I think we're just like, you know, both him and I weren't getting his symbols we wanted so it's, like we tried to figure out what it was, and eventually we traced it back to that it's something is bastard, but so I haven't said be the next file, one with what he does to his master bus, but with no loud dis maximize on it, and one would just nothing on his master bus, and it was so easy for us to finally tell that there was something in that process and, you know, the big thing with like we discussed the last cost is, you know, you're mastering engineers, another relationship that can really help you improve your mix is yo...

u should work with somebody if you're go to sunday, alabaster jer, who could always be giving you constant feedback about what you could be doing better with their here. That they're having to do the same thing over and over and over your mix is that maybe you could fix that in advance so they could focus on other things. Um, the other thing about what you said to your bastard engineers, you want to send it at the highest resolution possible. If you're mixing your file at twenty four bit ninety six kilohertz, you absolutely have to said the twenty four bit ninety six cards, not a sixteen. Forty four point would kilohertz file. You want to give your mastering engineer the highest resolution? So you maintain this. It could do it. I still get at once a week. I have to set to file bacchus. Somebody doesn't do this it's imperative. No, loudest. Maximize er and if you can just turn off your master bus that one with no loudest maximize your bastard you could hear what your intent was, but they do. They could also, if they have really cool compressors and accused they want to use or a better year for it, they could help you get your mix to sound as good as possible. Quick question why does somebody producers emphasize having six to nine d b on the master bus? I understand you're giving the engineer had room to do their magic, but if you slap a limiter on it, aren't they drastically bringing up the noise floor? They're drastically bring up the noise for but the one thing I'll always remember this is something like you to get in a crib from great alan dow chess that would you are in the digital world and if you're technically a recording and you're doing all of your level sitting properly, the noise for so far down what goes on to a sixteen bit forty four point, one local arts wave that if you're doing all this right, you're bringing up non existent noise that's chopped off in the truncation of the bits anyway, so if we're talking about tape, that would be a much more oh yeah, I mean, take it could be important, but, you know, the other thing about it is there's something we're good mix that all the doors subs good. I know you're a big fan of harmonics, so I'm a big fan of harmonics and to be honest with you, I'm a very you know, I know this sounds really dumb, but like, you know, you could spot a when you I know when I get a tape record it was delayed tape how bad the mix is going to be, by the way that his sounds before I even hear the song, because if they've e q tons of trouble on, you're going to just hear the sound of that tape it so I guess maybe I just know this from somebody years of this, but I'm like, not kidding you, I would put it thumb on the chopping block to guess how bad a song was going to be by the sound of the tape is before you get it, and the funny thing is, is that you wish to a white stripes trucker, and you hear that tape has come on like, I'll even tell you the rock and tours record. I hear that tape hiss saw the first song on the second record, like that's, the best sounding papist I've ever heard and there's really nothing. This noise is good noise, it's the same thing, a bad guitar home on a like a bad digital recording for the nineties is the worst tone on earth, but guitar, I'm like on a manchester orchestra record that joe chika really did feel like, oh, at home is musical so it's, almost like you're telling me that we're dealing with art here, it's really using heart no way and you know if you like what's coming out of your speakers that's all that matters is that it hasn't it's it's it's e think it's also a think of that when you're doing things right almost everything starts to go right like it's the same thing like you know nigel godrich like all these tape records he's done it's the same thing it's like the tape is that pops up at the end of a fade out of this song is good sounding tape issue don't notice in leicester being a nerd like me and you're seeing there for the four thousand time we'll see the fade out on a beck record you're like oh wow that's a lot of gain on that tape this who cares no one's hearing that that really matters in this world I don't think people who may who make that comment on gear starts or the people you shouldn't I was just going to say like anybody who utters that sentence about gain on tape pissed I did not want if you're making records for them you're making records for the wrong people there's a couple questions about other distortion plug ins that you like are there any light you like be science saturn are they any waves distortion plug ins that you like the waves many m distortion eyes just I've been like working it into my repertoire and so like why these mixes here are from even last year this time because I just thought they were good examples, but if you opened like what I did in the last two weeks since I've gotten that plug in early this year that many plug ins over peace be except I'll tell you this too is the bomb factory seventy six and the waves seventy six could be used as distortions as well as compressions of you clip there gade, right and everything and you pulled out there's some really cool character so that the waves red uh que the way it distorts is absolutely fantastic. Yeah, I'm a big fan of a lot of different distortions and sound twice decapitate her all over some of the other stuff that we'll get into. I have that on a bunch of the tracks that we have, like a color nothing truck has that of all the guitars and, you know, I think that the capitated, like all of them, have a different flavor, like what I like about the saturn is the saturn is really like slick and pop sounding to me and where is like the air distortion is kind of like a little grungy and nike nine needs to me where is like decapitate er's, just like all over the board, just character and say there would be exaggerator it's just like phenomenal the many I'm is so diverse and get some really popping thick and just I've never heard anyone say anything but great things about decapitate er that seem to see a favorite that that that that that is a plug in that I think isn't every good mixers drawer that at this point that was doing one of the first distortion pockets that really really nailed it ok great question from b sapphire who asked can you explain a little better while using distortion boosting the harmonics is effectively slimmer similar to compression or reducing dynamics and would you ever use compression after distortion? Yeah well that's a lot so when we say this compression is distortion no matter what would your compressing it you're distorting the way for you're creating more robotics by doing that distortion any manipulation of the way for but is distortions if you think of this way like it's very so believe it visually it was that like when you see a wave form cut off that is distorting it by definition. So a cz faras how it's similar to compression is that just that when you compress a lot of time, what you're hearing is harmonics and that's what you're liking about the compression not necessarily to control the diets I'm not always compressing to control the dynamics I'm compressing to control the way the transient is done like so I think actually this is a great actually sidebar of what you say is that I think one of the worst this that gets put into young people's heads I know was put into by head back in the nineties was that you're compressing the snare drum as if you're trying to make it all the same exact volume that is not what compression is doing. Compression is manipulating the way the transient gets hit it's not necessarily your affordably making the quietest stare hit this do it while autograph of paper that's what it looks like it's not really what it practically does to the sound and that's. The one thing is that I think that that's, like a really much better way of me is trying to say what I've been say about this is that control the volume of, like what's? So you're talking about your stared rub with fader moves, or even pre gade fader moves so that's all hitting the compressor at the same volume, or do it in your editing and edit in better hit. So the quietest hits are there and paste in a better stare head butt when you're really try to do is you're trying to get a south here of the way that that harmonic brings out a ring or a crack or something like that. And compression is just a different side I'm not saying one's worst another, but a lot of time we're using oppression because we're like, oh, this is going to even out the volume yes, a compressor because even out of volume in a certain way but it's not always the way that everybody thinks they're using it for particularly on drums. Andi I think also the other thing about it is that we like the artifical fact of sound because these digital compressors air so plead like often times like so my base trucks always like a great example is that oftentimes if I feel the need to distort a base, I first compressed because I usually need to compress the base to get it it's somewhat why? But that I distorted some afterwards but that's just to get it toe cut through the guitars and have the harbaugh dex, I like to hear on it and have the base not be so cold, so I would normally clip and distort after the compressor because then if I tried actually use the compressor for gain reduction it's making me work against it because it's dead clipped it's, bringing up the bleed and wowing less dynamic range on there so it wouldn't make sense, so usually I'm going to buy compression before by clipping, so I hope that answers all of that okay, great question from pablo picasso don't think it's the rial really can't hear too well, right? Were chopped off the year, right? Okay, question from pablo. Are there certain things one can do that that can get more of a garage? The lo fi sound particular? Oh, yeah. I mean, I since I do tons of garage records, I mix through decapitate her all the time. I actually will run a lot of tracks back out to our neave clothed pre ups and turned up the gate and the dow the output so that we get aboard distorted stuff on anything that was too clean. I run tow my turbo rat on my big buff. I run trucks. I mean, if you want to get garage a distorted, I think that that's the thing is, like, you know, like, I actually really love like that, you know, there's like this bass drum of death record. I've been listening to a lot lately. That's like this really blowed out garage record. And I love that one oblivion is records which qatar it's so blood out. And if you want that stuff it's just about clipping things, you know, the outer world either. Getting it include I think there is something he said for somebody's getting the tracks in clean that said the back out re record the back it totally blow it out and then manipulated to get it the computer if that's all you have to work with if not on the mixing board but yeah like I love that stuff and that's some of my favorite stuff and it's so easy to do if you just record tracks back down to things running through a compressor clip your compressor and turnout of output gate on the way back into I mean all this stuff everything is a different sound of distortion just like every distortion pedal sounds a little bit different work around and find what you like those instruments and do it but also I will say if you're just going to stick in the box to capitated all the way those different settings and presets and things like having like twelve different distortion plug ins in one thing it's so great this one from nico hello why is it preferable to use reverb in an ox rather than just on an insert? Or you know rather than you know, like the drum kit why why don't you just put eight different inserts on it? So one a lot of the cheaper adverbs kill your tone that's not always the case there's tons of great ones now do I'd say twenty five percent of them still kill you're totally into you usually want the same river because there's something about having one space on the drums or maybe two spaces on the drums that sound pleasing. Torrey, are we like the sound of a uniformed room and drums being in a room? Because that's how our years air her to do so? Savior dsp power put it on morning walks, and I think this even gets backto like the old way we learned records like, you know, before, even just the past ten years, you would usually only have two to four reverb that you could afford to have even at the fanciest studios. And so we put them on a knocks it every way they could share, because whenever we needed reverb, we just put a little bit on this it's a way our years or used to hear it, you might be the person that redefines things, but you're going to need a ton of d s because reverb takes up more dsp than any other plug in I mean alter verb just really hogsett down and that's one of the best there is in the box. I think that there's a big thing that you just it's conservancy and consistency and, you know, even if you were going to put the same reverb so they could dial different mix that's. The same thing to do with the hawks. Why go through all that extra trouble of just putting it out? Each one?