All language subtitles for Mixing Pop (Ms Polyester)

Hey guys, Ian Vargo here of the Pro Audio
Files.

Welcome to this course in which I mix a
track from beginning to end.

The song that I'm going to be using is
Miss Polyester by the band Pushing Static

Song sort of has a eighties electronic
pop rock vibe to it.

So I always love to start by having a
discussion with the songwriter or artist,

in this case Asher.

Thank you for providing these tracks for

us asher and he provided me this rough
mix which we're going to listen to and

compare to these raw rough audio files if
you've watched my tutorials, you know

that I am a stickler for organization of
my Pro Tools sessions.

I always start with percussion up at the
top, so any percussion like tambourine

etcetera is light green.

Next is my drums kick snare, high hat.

I color them dark purple and group them.

After that is bass dark green guitars are

orange. After that, any synthesizer, organ, piano

keyboard type thing ends up being a a
pink color i've got a couple of these

that are are purple here and sometimes
I'll change it up if there are tons of

synths. And then after that I color code my

vocals red.
Red attracts the eye.

Vocals are an incredibly important part
of the arrangement, obviously, and I have

a lot of vocal tracks if you take a look
at this Pro Tools session, you'll notice

there's just a lot.

We've got several leads which I ended up

consolidating, and tons of backup vocals,
even some that are sort of spoken word,

each of which present their own
challenges.

Sometimes I end up bussing these vocals
as you could see if you look at the

output, they go to their own backup vocal
bus which that signal travels down the

path to an auxiliary track which then
goes to my vocal bus.

I have several buses at the top of the
session.

I like this multi bus technique where all
of my drums and percussion end up here.

Any instruments that include my guitars
or keys go to the instrument bus and all

my vocals end up at the vocal bus.

All of my effects, reverbs, delays,

things like that, they show up at my FX
bus and then we're going to use this a

little bit later.

The parallel bus or P bus, which I use

for compression, which I blend in and
we're going to discuss that and then of

course everything ends up going through
the master bus, which gets some

processing as well.

So what I like to do is start by soloing

the rough mix and get a general idea, the
vision of the track and how I can get

mine closer to that o Let's do it.

So if you notice, I am soloing all of the

rough audio files that I've been
provided, which I grouped and then

comparing to the rough mix that I was
given.

Obviously what I've been provided is very
dry.

No reverb or spatial effects whatsoever.

I think that's a good place to start.

Asher did a really good job of giving me
a rough mix that has genre and tone and

energy and vibe established already.

You can hear there's some saturation on

the vocals and reverb.

The balance is mostly good and I'm going

to use that balance as a guide map for my
own balances.

I'm going to use the tones he's got the
saturated vocal, he's got these filtered

percussion elements, and basically it's
sort of an homage to eighties dark pop.

And so I'm going to do things that that I
know are going to push this arrangement

in that direction.

Off the top of my head, qualities that

are going to get this sounding genre
appropriate, meaning sort of eighties

pop, are gated reverbs, the right type of
space, the right type of punch, the right

type of clarity i don't want this to be
too low fi.

I want it to be sort of pristine sounding
to to honor the the cleanliness of the

production of the nineteen eighties so I
see some gated reverbs in my future,

especially on the drums, and I'm going to
use specific drum sounds that make this

genre appropriate.
I think the drums are a great place to

start, so let's have a listen to them.

I really like how these drums are put

together. Great job Asher.

We've got multiple kicks and snares and
they have these cool interweaving

patterns. Let's start with the snare i'm going to

insert Addictive Trigger which allows me
to augment the original drums let's

select this snare preset with samples
there are samples built into this plugin

O it reads the transient information and
allows me to choose different drums.

This is the addictive drum signal and I
can go through and choose different

sounds O these are more organic not sure
I need that.

Sometimes you just go through and
audition different drums and you could

hear when it works.

None of these are really striking me as

perfect yet.
So that's the original and then that's

the addictive drums this is a blend of
the two.

The original drums already have a sort of
white, noisy quality to them.

I might embellish that a little bit, but
I want more of a a punch O let's use

these different effects.

I'm going to pitch it down this is an

extremely underrated part of drum
programming, Is making sure your samles

are in the same key as the song and work
well with the original drums.

This is only going to be one part of the
puzzle O after that I can insert effects.

I've got this RO q two eq I'm going to
use to add a little bit of tone in the

low end you've got this API which is
going to help me with some punch.

Slow attack on your drums generally allow
the transient to go through and then this

kneeve preamp adds some color.

It's got a nice short, snappy sound i

think the snare drum that was there was
awesome, but this is going to be a nice

layer on top O I'm going to render this.

This takes all of the processing that is

currently being applied to this track and
renders it down South this becomes a new

audio track.
I do this process multiple times on my

kicks, on my snares, sometimes on other
percussive elements.

This is really going to help me achieve
the sound I'm after.

O Another method of doing drum
augmentation and replacement is using a

combination of one of my favorite
plugins, Massey DRT which you load as an

audio suite track.

You then select the wave file that you

want to augment or replace and hit
analyze.

It analyzes the transient information.

You can change the sensitivity and the

loudness until you only are creating
triggers when you want to have triggers

created. And so I'm going to bring U the volume of

these triggers going to drag to a MIDI or
instrument track and make sure that this

snaps to the beginning of the session.

And we see here the notes are absolutely

perfect any MIDI note that was generated
occurs right where the original drum hit

that you want to augment or replace was.

I am going to use Ableton Live which is a

great program as my means of of
triggering samples there are other ones

you can use, but I love this one.

So I've got these awesome samples from

that sound drums if you go to
iwantthatsound.com

they have these amazing sounds and these
are just really genre appropriate they've

got that eighties gated reverb sound and
from here all I have to do is move up or

down my MIDI notes and make sure that
they are in fact triggering the samples

from Ableton.
You could hear that sits really great.

Sometimes addictive trigger works i've
got other drum sampling and augmentation

tools and virtual instruments.

You'd never really know what's going to

work, but you test things out until you
find the sound that you want.

O I'm going to render both of these
eighties gated sounds.

If I wanted to insert an effect or
effects after Ableton Live, whether it be

saturation, reverb, EQ, compression, I
could do that if I want to scult the tone

of these before I rint them, I could, but
in this case I think probably going to

leave them as they are and worry about
processing later because I don't have any

effects. The processing goes very quickly.

Let's drag these underneath the original
snare i love to check and make sure that

the samples are lined up.

This is already a lot closer to where I

want it to be just based off of including
a couple of snare sounds that I I know

sound familiar and famous and appropriate
to that genre of music i'm going to do

the same thing with kick here.

Drag it to its own instrument track.

Snap them to the beginning of the session
so that they are lined up, and we're

going to again use Ableton Live.

Let's drag it there near the kick.

It's got a nice beefy yet gated tone to
it that's drier.

If I wanted a dry sound, it's easy to do
that.

These Samles are really great.

That's a cool sound i like the sort of

decaying pitch of that reverb O that kick
is already sounding way better to me.

Let's go ahead and commit it nice and
quick.

Thank you, Ableton Live, and we're going
to do it again with the other samle that

I have loaded in there.

Upon committing these, you definitely

have to be somewhat careful.

You want to make sure that you didn't

have some sort of error and the samples
occur couple milliseconds or even samples

earlier than they should have.

You want to check your polarity and

phase. You want them to be working together to

sculpt the tone you want.

This is a lot punchier and more genre

appropriate than what I was given, and I
love taking care of this process first

because it helps me feel the song it
helps me get into the rhythm and the

groove of the song.

That's just part of my mixing style i

love feeling the rhythm before I work on
the the menial tasks of fixing vocal

issues, any guitar slides or or pops or
anything like that i want to feel the

groove first, so generally I'm going to
be working on the drums at the start.

So I'm just poking around this session
now and deciding where I want to start

next. Part of my style is mixing in waves i

jump around a lot sometimes I'll work on
a vocal line, then I'll move to the

guitars, then I'll move to the synths.

Maybe I'll go back to the drums and add

another sample later and never really
know.

I just know that I am chasing a feeling
and chasing a sound and making it so that

every time I hit play I feel something
good and those vocals need some work.

Hear the low frequency rumble.

It's from being a bit too close to the

microphone. I've got these tracks sent to their own

aux and I'm going to put a highpass
filter feeling a bit of subby rumble in

my kicks.
I know it seems like I'm jumping around a

lot, but that's part of the process i'm
sculpting elements.

I'm going to do things like this that
remove unwanted frequencies, but also

subtle boosts help the drums cut through
a little bit.

I've got this different pattern here.

I like the crunchiness of it.

All right, We've got this bass sort of
has a clicky tone to it.

I know this is going to resent me some
some issues if you look at the frequency

analyzer, there are some really resonant
notes around one fifty that I'm probably

going to end up trying some different
things to carve out.

I've got this sound toys, effect rack.

This thing's a lot of fun.

I love choosing presets and justice,
seeing where it takes me.

It's got a cool filter going on, little
bit of saturation with the decapitator

and radiator and I'll try things like
that where I push it pretty hard and if

it works it works.

I like this sound, it's somewhat

saturated, cuts through a little bit
better, but what I want to do is parallel

processing so I'm going to duplicate this
bass track.

So this process of adding plugin inserts
and sculpting the tone and dynamics the

EQ, maybe using some saturation or other
type effects.

This is most of the beginning of my
process shaping the tone i want to worry

about the final balances a little bit
later.

I want to get the tones to be right first
and the dynamics so let's use this lovely

1176 emulation from Universal Audio.

Sort of want to smash this thing get it

pretty crunchy.
Let's find that click and remove it a

little bit.
I want to pull out that resonant peek

that one note that just pokes through.

Probably going to use some multi band

compression later down the line too.

I think the dynamics could be leveled a

little bit so I'm going to reach for my
favorite plugins, the Tube Tech C oh 01

from universal audio.

If you look at the waveform it is still

pretty dynamic with those clicky
transients.

I want to even out this part just a
little bit i don't want to crush it.

She's a cannibal.

Tender eyes and a smile of gold, she

says. Have it all to lure you in.

You know you're under control.

She's looking good.

She's looking fun i'm just getting a feel
for the arrangement at this point.

Check out these guitars.

The Fab Filter Pro Q2 is such a great EQ

I find myself using it a lot as the first
insert on many things just to get rid of

issues like some low end rumble here I
just want to clean up the low end because

I know these guitars don't need to occupy
that space.

Decapitator I use this thing all the time
for a number of different things i'm

going to use this in this instance to
brighten it up a little bit, add a little

bit of grit so it cuts through better,
behaves sort of like an EQ and a

compressor. O, let's do something fun with these DI

guitars. They sound DI and I hate DI acoustic

guitars. O check this out.

We're going to make them sound more
acoustic we've got control over the neck

and body blend and different styles of
acoustic guitars that help me nail the

tone that I want.

It's the woodwork plugin from Universal

Audio we're going to smoosh the signal
with an 1176 emulation.

This is going to help these guitars seem
really wide and larger than life.

I'm thinking about arrangement here we
have this dark verse and I want the

chorus to have this bright hopeful feel
and this is going to help get me there.

I'm not going to put any reverb or
spatial effects in these guitars i want

them to be sort of dry and justice these
little chimy things to the far left and

right panned super hard i'm going to use
this Neve emulation to brighten them up a

bit. Yeah, that's achieving the desired effect

i want these to be super wide and to
embellish the hopeful tone and feeling of

the chorus.

I think it's an underrated quality of a

mix engineer to be able to pay attention
to the aesthetics of what the artist is

after or what they were after when they
wrote the song any opportunity that I

have to help the songwriter and help the
arrangement achieve its desired emotional

effect, I'm going to go after that.

It's not just about fixing recording

problems, It's about establishing genre
and really fulfilling the vision of where

the songwriter was when they wrote the
song and recorded the song and and just

helping the feeling and the emotion of
the track that's that's what I'm after.

So we're going to render these these are
pretty processing intensive plugins going

on if if you see me using a lot of
universal audio, it's because I love

their stuff.
Just great emulations, has great tone and

warmth and beautiful clean high end, and
they're fun to use.

I will use plenty of other plugins so
don't worry, but I find them to be just a

great starting point.

So we've got my parallel processing vocal

technique going on here, where I have the
original and then I've duplicated it

multiple times and I've imported these
tracks from a template session that I

have. So I've got a lead vocal that I just find

to be a solid sound it's just a good,
clean, good starting point i've got a

bright one, I've got a saturated one and
an aggressive one she's a cannibal, your

heart she stole tender eyes and a smile
of gold.

I start with EQ and deessing she's a
cannibal.

Your heart she stole tenor eyes and a
smile of gold.

Subtractive EQ She's a cannibal.

Your heart, She stole tenor eyes and a

smile of gold.

The 1176 is catching the peaks, the very

loudest parts of the passages, tenor
eyes, and a smile of gold.

I'm paying attention to the waveforms,
she says.

Have it all to lure you in.

Put a toxin underneath your skin 1176

into LA 2A Classic technique.

After that, got some analog emulation eQ

the Trident.
You know you're you're under control.

I could really brighten it up.

She's looking good.

She's looking fine.

She'll make you think.

Bow crossing line, drink it up, but you
still stay thirsty.

I know that you think you're just using
some subtle sculpting here, a little bit

of boost in the high end, getting rid of
some mids at 500 just to get a clean,

solid vocal sound so I'll dial that in
and move on, she says.

Have it all to lure you in.

Put a toxin underneath your skin.

So we're going to go for a slightly
brighter tone here and we're going to use

tape saturation to do that.

You know you're you're under control.

Got some high frequency control with this
stuter emulation.

She's looking good, She's looking fine.

She'll make you think.

Bow crossing the line, Drink, drink.

Sometimes when I add stuff with too much

brightness gets harsh so I use this
soothe plugin and maybe some EQ to tame

S's even more you're gonna miss Miss.

She's a cannibal.

Tender eyes and a smile of gold.

To me, that sound has just enough high

end and I'm going to use additional ones
for saturation and attitude.

Tender eyes and a smile of gold.

Really got to clean up the low end on

these vocals, she says.

Have it all to lure you in.

Put a toxin underneath your skin.

So this distressor, I am pushing it

pretty hard over 10 DB of gain reduction.

I'm gonna use the distortion you know

you're you're under control super in your
face.

Next is this Shep's Omni channel I'm
using for additional saturation and

brightness. She's looking fine.

She'll make you think.

Bow crossing line you could really push

this thing, drink it up up, but you still
stay thirsty.

I know that you think you're better now,
but you beside you when you fall, she's a

cannibal. Your heart just stole tender eyes and a

smile of gold.

I want this vocal to be super in your

face and then use reverb to push it back
as far as I want she's a cannibal.

Let's go for an aggressive sound here.

She's a cannibal.

Your heart she stole tender eyes and a
smile of gold.

She's a cannibal, Your heart she stole
tender eyes and a smile of gold.

She's a cannibal your heart she stole
tender eyes and a smile love gold really

smooth even tone your heart she stole
tender eyes and a smile love gold again

the Decapitator i love pushing it and
then dialing it back.

Here is the Waves tg one two three four
five I'm going to push the drive.

I'm going to go for that John Lennon i am
the walrus saturated sound, so I'm using

all of this processing to establish
different tones and bring out different

qualities. I went ahead and committed them.

They sound cool on their own, but the
point is how they work together.

Probably going to have to bring down the
saturated one that has a nice balance to

it now all the words are clear.

You know your you're under control and I

will apply this process and use these
preset sounds and other vocals too you

know you're you're under control.

You know you're you're under control and

if a vocal or a part is missing
something, I'm not against changing it U

it's a cool little ear candy layer in
there.

I know this might seem a little bit time
consuming where I'm constantly renaming,

sculting these tones and then processing
them, but I prefer if possible to have as

many tracks just be committed rendered to
audio so I don't have to worry about

bogging down my computer in case I'm
going to a different studio and they

don't have these plugins that's an
important part of this process, too.

She's looking good.

She's looking fine.

She'll make you think.

I'm also going to leave this dry,

untreated vocal in here.

I may keep it, I I may bring it down at

points, but it's good to keep the
original in there if possible, just to

keep the naturalness of it.

I love parts like that these quad vocals,

the way she moves is stronger than the
words that build your wall.

So I'm just going to use some subtractive
EQ and again some saturation with this

EMI plugin stronger than the words that
build your wall.

The way she moves is stronger than the
words that build your wall.

Nice brightness to it.

She moves it stronger than.

For recordings such as this one that were
created in these project studios where

they don't necessarily have access to
juicy analog gear to establish the tone,

that's usually the first part of the
process for me is is adding those tones

so I'll try expressive things like this
so the levels aren't there, but they will

be she's looking good, She's looking
fine.

She'll make you think you win more than
more than you know you win.

You win more than more than you know you
win.

You win more than more than you know you
win that needs a slap delay i know it you

know you win.

You win more than more than you know you

win. You win more than more than you know you

win you win more than more than you know.

We're going to insert Echo Boy and use a

fast echo time.

As you might be able to tell, I am

processing the lead separate from the
backup vocals there are like 5 different

subcategories of backup vocals and I want
each of them to sit in their own unique

space and have their own unique tone to
keep the arrangement interesting i don't

want every vocal part to sound the same
because then the the sense of space

becomes cloudy and unclear i'm going to
use this AMS RMX 16 expanded plugin which

is a great tried and true gated reverb
sound.

It does the gated thing well, but other
great reverb sounds as well so I may not

stick with the gated quality, but let's
see.

She's looking good.

She's looking fine.

She'll make you think.

Bow crossing line, drink, drinking up.

But you still stay thirsty i know that
you think you better now but you decide.

You know when you fall, sooner or later
you're gonna miss.

You're gonna miss miss.

O this one reverb is just a part of the

picture. Just like with my kick and snare, I'm

going to use multiple reverbs and delays
to achieve the desired effect.

Fab Filter Pro R.

She's looking good.

She's looking fine.

She'll make you think.

I know that sounds nuts on its own, but
I'm going for a more cavernous, long,

dense sound with that, and I'm going to
blend it to taste, and I'm not going to

use it throughout the entirety of the
song there might be moments where I bring

up that long, dense reverb, and then
there will be moments where you can't

hear it at all.

To use Echo Boy, she's a cannibal.

Your heart she stole tender eyes and a
smile of goggle, she says.

Have it all to lure you in.

Put a toxin underneath your skin.

She's a cannibal, so we've got a nice
saturated, almost slap delay sound that

was present in the rough mix that was
provided, so I know that I want to go

after that flavor.

Echo Boy Super easy plugin.

Let's go with a a longer, more
mysterious, unpredictable delay sound

here and a bull your heart.

You stole tender eyes and a smile of gold

saturation on delay echo Boy love it, she
says.

Have it all to lure you in.

Put a docks underneath your skin,

adjusting the levels.

Ok, so hearing them all together in

context super helpful.

I'm happy with them.

Think there might need to be one more
reverb i know it seems like overkill, but

for this sort of elaborate shiny
production value that we're after, three

or four reverbs is not uncommon.

Emt one forty is classic beautiful tale.

Let's remove some low end, she says.

Have it all to lure you in.

Put a dots underneath your skin.

I really want to embellish this dark,

mysterious feeling in the vocal.

You know you're you're under control.

She's looking good.

She's looking fine.

She'll make you think.

Bow crossing line drain.

Drinking up.

But you still stay thirsty.

She's looking good.

She's looking fine.

She'll make you think.

Bow crossing line.

She's a cannibal.

Your heart you stole tender eyes and a

smile. Go away.

So again, my point before was getting
that vocal to sound as in your face and

close and upfront as possible so I could
then take that sound and push it back

with reverb and delay as I saw fit.

So I've gone ahead and committed those

reverbs and delays.

I don't want those types of processing

bogging down my computer because I still
have a lot of work to do.

So I have committed them, and then I'm
going to repeat that process multiple

times now let's move to the backup vocals
and we'll start with this little plate

the way she moves is stronger than the
words that build your world we want a

nice long, spooky tail there.

The way she moves is stronger than the

words that build your wall.

We're going to use a different setting on

the AMS.

The way she moves is stronger than the

words that build your wall.

It's not quite doing anything let's let's

toggle through some different presets
here.

She moves is stronger than the words that
build your wall i've got a plan for these

reverbs here i'll tell you about it in a
minute.

She Moves is stronger than the words that
build you i actually want to accentuate

the S's sometimes you don't.

Sometimes I despise reverbs that are too

Essie the way she moves is stronger than
the words that build your world.

But I'm actually going to use these
reverbs to accentuate the S's because I

just think it's like a cool, unique idea.

So I'm going to use Echo Boy for some

width the way she moves is stronger than
the words that build your wall gotta get

the timing right.

The way she moves is stronger than the

words that build your wall and then worry
about the tone.

She moves is stronger than the words that
build your wall and push some saturation

a little bit.

The way she moves is stronger than the

words that build your wall yeah, and
let's use more repeats the way she moves

is stronger than the words that build
your wall, she says.

She says have it all to lure you in
again, I want a much different space for

these vocals to sit in than the lead.

You definitely want to test and make sure

that these spaces are working well
together.

Let's delete this previous volume
automation that I have.

You know you're you're under control O
I've gone ahead and printed these reverbs

and I'm certain that I want that line to
be bone dry i don't want that to have any

reverb on it at all so I'm simply going
to delete.

There we go.

Much better i'm going to go ahead and

find them real quick.

Goodbye add one more, maybe two.

Get out of here i'm just going to mute
them with Command M and then we've got

one more Goodbye yeah, you're going to
miss.

Yeah sometimes the space you want is U
Front.

Let's go back to the drums for a minute,
she says.

Happy to.

Let's work on these Toms for a minute

they sound a little bit flubby and let's
unsolo safe these reverb and and delay

tracks so they don't distract me while
I'm trying to focus on the other parts.

She's a canniboo.

She's a canniboo.

She's a canniboo.

She's a canniboo.

She's a canniboo.

She says have it all to lower you.

Let's work a little bit on this shaker
tambourine combo.

I sort of like it when tracks are printed
like this where they're just together and

you have to accept things as the way they
are going to use filter freak from Sound

toys i want to give it almost a a phasey,
sickening quality to it.

Ometimes I don't know when I'm after, but
I know when I get there.

That sound is a lot different than what
I'm hearing in the rough mix the rough

mix has a much brighter, harsher thing
going on and I'm going to try to push

that. Something I like about the rough mix i

like when artists provide direction and
inspiration and make decisions.

Waves V comp.

You know these these stepped controls

sometimes can be cool.

I'm not sure if this is working, you know

sometimes you try something doesn't quite
work.

Change it out.

Want something more gnarly?

Let's go with the Devil Lock from Sound
Toys it's an emulation of the level lock,

and this thing gets gnarly.

That sounds much cooler let's focus on

this synth bass O look at this volume
automation that I created i'm going to

bypass that.
And when I bring it in, you hear this

much more prominent swell.

This helps it get out of the way of the

kick and snare any opportunity that you
might be able to save space for parts of

the arrangement i say go for it.

O At this point I want to smooth out the

vocal a little bit and add some TAE
saturation to it i'm going to use this

tutor a 800 I think the vocal is coming
together nicely it's time to think macro

your heart she stole tender eyes and a
smile of gold.

The way she moves it stronger than the
words that build your wall she says have

it all so all of my vocals now are
running through this plugin and I'm using

different tape types.

This just smooths out the vocal.

Tame is some harshness.

And then we've got this soothe plugin as

well i've got tutorials on this.

This is a great preset here.

Great for taming harshness to lure you
in.

Put a toxic underneath your skin.

The way she moves is stronger than the

words that build your wall.

You know your you're under control.

You'll notice that we're not hearing the
reverbs.

They're going to their own bus.

As I said, eyes and do a little bit of

compression, just additional leveling
with the API twenty five hundred she

says. Have it all to lure you in, put a toxin

underneath your skin it's really warm.

You're under control.

She's looking good.

She's looking fine.

She'll make you think about crossing the
line, drink, drinking up, but you still

stay thirsty.
I know that you think you're better now.

But you beside you, when you fall, sooner
or later you're going to miss.

You're going to miss miss you're going to
miss miss.

So I want that reverb to go away awesome.

It's important to accentuate that line

and and fade the reverb down right before
that line.

Ain't no accident.

You take the forget the world when you

love like that.

She's looking good.

I want to bring that bass part down and
create some contrast.

Don't really need it in that part.

Let's work on this twinkly little piano.

Definitely need some space.

Not supposed to do this if you're talking

in technical terms I guess, but sometimes
just loading your reverb right onto it.

Insert of a track save some time.

I'm not against it.

Hey, let's smush this so that the tail
stays really long and lush.

She's looking good.

She's looking fine.

She'll make you think you're proud,
crossing the line, drinking up, but you

still get thirsty i know that you think
you're better now, but she beside you

when you fall here i'm trying to work on
that synth bass part.

Make it sit right EQ wise.

This bass still seems a little bit hot to

me and not cutting through the right way.

So I'm going to undo some of the

subtractive EQ I did on that one resident
note and then instead allow that task to

be handled by multiband compression, so
that it's only being compressed when a

certain amount of that frequency is being
detected.

That sits much better in my opinion now
she's a cannibal, she says.

Have it all to lure you in.

You know, you're you're under control.

She's looking good.

She's looking fine.

She's looking good.

She's looking fine.

She'll make you think.

Bow crossing the line, drink, drink it up

up. But you still stay thirsty.

I know that you think you're better now,
but I'm just going to work a little bit

more on the lead vocals.

She's looking good.

She's looking fine.

She'll make you think.

Bow crossing the line, drink, drink it
up.

But you still stay thirsty.

I know that you think you're better now,

but you beside you when you fall.

That cavernous reverb is a little bit

much at that part in the backup vocals.

Drinking up but but you still stay

thirsty. I know that you think you're better now.

You think bow crossing the line, drink
drinking up, but but you still stay

thirsty. I know that you think you're better now,

but you beside you, you think bow
crossing the line, drink drinking up, but

you still stay thirsty.

I know that you think you're better now,

but you beside you when you fall sooner
or later.

Yeah, we definitely need that chorus part
to have a different feel spatially than

the verse.
She's looking good, She's looking fine.

She'll make you think about crossing the
line drinking, but you still stay

thirsty. I might engage a different effect, like a

delay a little bit later on.

She's looking good.

She's looking fine.

She'll make you think.

Bow crossing the line.

Drink, drink it up up.

But you still stay thirsty.

I know that you think you're better now.

But you beside you when you fall sooner
or later you're gonna miss.

You're gonna miss miss.

You would be surprised sometimes at the

the low end that you don't really need in
vocals it depends on the singer and the

recording, but I try to get rid of some
of the junk down there, so the backup

vocals are sounding pretty cool.

I think that they could cut through a

little bit more.

How to go with the tried and true

Decapitator just to add a little bit of
warmth and presence to them, and I'm

going to apply this to the backup group.

Sometimes you use the Decapitator, you

turn up the drive and it just magically
sits better still not in love with these

guitars. They're not really doing the intended

effect, which is adding width and space
to the extreme that I want them to let's

go with this PSP old timer.

It's a great, very simple compressor.

Sort of want to smoosh these?
What I really want is to bring out the

pickiness of the acoustic guitars, and
this is going to help me do that.

But you still stay thirsty.

I know that you think you're better now,

but you beside you, when you fall, sooner
or later you're gonna miss, you're gonna

miss, miss, want that kick to cut through
just a little bit more it's lacking in

attack i think with all the the other
parts, the guitars, the synths, the the

bass, that kick is is losing out on some
attack so I'm trying to hunt that down

and justice bring it out with some EQ.

This boost here should accentuate the

cool decaying space of that sample.

I think this bass still needs some more

work it needs some more excitement energy
crunch.

I know I've used this plugin extensively,
but when it's working it's working.

Dry, wet blend.

Always a great feature on these plugins.

I'm using saturation here to bring out
the notes of the bass i feel like I am

not quite there and being able to hear
the individual notes and saturation

sometimes can help with that if you use
it correctly and subtly.

Ok, so I want to bring down the kick for
this first half the verse to create some

more contrast between the different parts
it's a great way of allowing a mix to

breathe and keep it more interesting.

She's looking good.

She's looking fine.

She'll make you think about crossing the

line. Let's check the rough mix at this point.

Yeah, his still has some excitement and
energy that mine doesn't, but I will get

there i know that you think you better
now, but you beside you when you fall,

sooner or later you can miss.

So a lot of this energy can be gained by

processing these subgroups, which is part
of the reason why I love doing it i can

really glue my drums together a little
bit later I'll probably do some side

chain compression and bring down the
instrument bus, so every time the kick

and snare hit I have some subtle ducking.

For now i think the vocals still need a

little bit of leveling, crossing line,
drinking up, but just to stay thirsty.

I know that you think you're better now,
but you beside you and you fall sooner or

later you're gonna miss.

So the cl one b just a couple DB of

slowish gain reduction, add some real
warmth.

I think the FX are muddying everything
i'm going to get rid of some low end

there and it's great to mute some of
these sub buses so you can hear how

things are working together.

Alright so I have my drum instrument,

vocals and FX bus sent to this P bus and
on the P bus I'm going to insert and 1176

this is going to be working in parallel.

I'm going to set these to pre fader mode

so I can mute these and we can hear the
effect.

I'm going to remove some low end from the
signal before it even hits that

compressor as to not drive it too wild.

I love the subtle crunch and boost in

perceived volume.
I'm using this P bus technique, so this

is all coming together nicely i still
have a good amount of work to do.

It's good to just take a step back,
listen through.

I definitely don't want reverb on those
vocals, so I'm going to do the same

process here where I select and command
M.

To mute them.

I only want that delay.

Yeah, definitely don't want any reverb
there.

Looks like I have a straggler get out of
here more than you know you and we want a

cool slap delay on these vocals so I'm
going to go with Echo Boy just because

it's so easy to dial in a sound.

More than more than you know you win, you

win more than more than you know you win,
you win more than you know you win.

You win more than you just working on
these percussion parts i want that that

clank to sit right might try to smash
this tambourine shaker combo.

So it's a little bit more upfront and we
hear more of the phasey effect.

I'm working quickly here i just want to
level out the dynamics of this part.

So it's more ufront.

So piece by piece, all of these little

changes are going to add U let's go back
to the Decapitator.

Just add a little bit of warmth and grit.

Not that much.

Let's make this a little more gritty.

Sometimes I go well over an hour into a

mix before I realize there are parts that
I haven't even really analyzed, like the

snare. Let's bring out some resonance.

Thicken it U just a little bit.

She's looking good.

She's looking fine.

She'll make you think.

Bow crossing the line, drinking up.

But you still stay thirsty.

I know that you think this piano needs a
little work.

It's the great vintage style channel
strip already has some vintage

crunchiness to it.

Let's push that and gauge the compressor.

It's a little too bright.

This part has sort of an Abbey Road piano

sound to it.

You're gonna miss, miss You're gonna miss

miss. You're gonna miss miss.

You're stop.

Miss, miss.

You're stop.

I'm clearly not against soloing anything

some some engineers say never solo
anything.

That just doesn't doesn't make sense to
me i'm going to bring down these ends of

the reverb tale.

Want to go totally dry again at this part

you're gonna miss miss forget the world O
the two things that I did there, I added

TAE saturation to the drums just to
smooth it out, add a little bit of

harmonic saturation to it, and now I am
placing the Fabfilter Pro C2 on the

instrument bus to make it duck every time
we have some drums or vocals it will duck

and I made it pretty drastic, but really
I only want about two to four DB of gain

reduction just to clear out some space
for the kick.

Snare and vocals adds a cool, pumpy
effect.

She's looking good.

She's looking fine.

She'll make you think you're proud.

I was in the light.

Drink drinking.

You're better now.

But she beside you when you fall, sooner
or later you're gonna miss.

You're gonna miss.

You win you win more than more than you

know you win you.

You're gonna miss you win.

You win more than more than you know you
gonna miss.

You're gonna miss.

You win.

You win more than more than you know
you're gonna miss.

You're gonna miss.

You win.

You win more than more than you know you
win.

You win more than more than you know.

You win, you win.

At this point, we have some retty cool
textures going on everything's sitting

much better than it did at first.

Just going to add a little bit of EQ to

this drum bus.

Pulling out a little bit of muddy

tubbiness, filtering out some rumble at
the low end, adding some grit in the high

mids these drums are pretty smooth, so
you can afford to push the high end a

little bit, so they cut better.

The kick was taking UA little bit too

much space, so there's this saturated
delay in the chorus of the rough mix that

I really like that I believe helps
differentiate the Sonic texture of the

the lead vocals from the verses to the
choruses.

So I'm going to create this in my mix
with H delay.

She's looking good.

She's looking fine.

She'll make you think.

Bow crossing line.

Sort of a messy delay, gritty and
disorganized, but I like it.

Some delays you want to be tidy and some
you don't some you want to be sort of a

mess. Get a little modulation section, Add some

wordliness to it.

She's looking good, she's looking fine.

She'll make you think definitely pretty
happy at this point with the way the the

vocals are sounding and it's only going
to get better from here we're not even 2

hours in.
We've made a lot of progress, but we do

still have ways to go.

So let's go ahead and commit this

distorted type delay.

Note that I've got that Lofi button

clicked in that sort of removes from some
high end.

All right, let's hide and make inactive
so we can move on.

And I don't want this distorted delay to
be audible in the verses so there we go.

Are you listening?
You hear her call?

There's this thwacky snare sound.

Not quite sure what it is it says roomy

snare. I'm going to copy the processing.

There we go.

Sounds great it's panned more now sounds

like a whip cracking awesome.

That makes a big stylistic difference.

She's looking good.

She's looking fine.

She'll make you think piano is a little
intense, bring you down.

She's looking fine.

She'll make you think, Bow crossing the

line, drinking up but you still miss
Miss.

I always love to do stuff like this when
I have the opportunity.

Pan man is going to move the piano subtly
from left to right and back.

Adjust the width and the smoothness just
adds some movement and space while you

listening you hear her calm.

Strangely, I think that the that thwacky

ercussion sound has made a huge
difference.

Bring you down a little bit vocals.

At this point I would say about 70 %

there it's just fine tuning.

At some point around this time I'll take

a break, get some air, drink some water,
collect my thoughts and listen with

somewhat fresh ears i I think that's
really important.

Scars on your body.

Got no one food at all.

Scars on your body ain't got no one food
at all.

So I want to create a throw delay and
have it only repeat the words at all.

Let's show you how to do this you're
going to adjust the send level and zoom

in and bring the send level up you got no
one food at all, only on the words that

you want to repeat.

In this case, it's at all.

We're going to have this repeat multiple
times at all, at all, at scars on your

body got no one food at all.

Scars on your body got no one food at

all. It's a cool little texture.

These different styles make all the
difference for Echo Boy.

Changes the tone and feel of the delay
cool.

She's looking good.

She's looking fine.

She'll make you think.

Bow crossing the line, drink, drinking

up, but you still stay thirsty.

And then do the same thing and send only

certain words from the lead vocal to that
delay.

She's looking good.

She's looking fine.

She'll make you think.

Bow crossing the line drink drinking up.

But you still stay thirsty.

I know that you think you're better now.

But you beside you when you fall.

Sooner or later you can miss you're gonna

miss miss oh, you stop.

Tender eyes and eyes and a smile of gold.

She's looking good.

She's looking fine.

She'll make you think.

Bow crossing the line, drink, drinking

up, but you still stay thirsty.

I know that you think you're better now,

but you beside you, when you fall, make
you think.

Bow crossing the line drink.

Just working a little more on the reverb

levels. Yeah, that was the culprit a little bit

bright and long and harsh gonna bring you
down drinking up, but you still stay

thirsty. I know that you think you're better now

but you beside you, when you fall, sooner
or later you're gonna miss.

You're gonna miss miss.

These reverbs can build up pretty quick.

Forget the world.

I think this bass part is unnecessary

here. Got this saturated bass part here.

Bring that UA little bit i want to
ractice using a filter swee at this part,

a little bit of crust at the end of that
I'm going to take that down.

That filter swee was not perfect i'm
going to make it so I can automate all of

these parameters and then do it do
something like that that wasn't quite it.

This is a great tension builder that's
what this part needs, man mixing is so

cool it's like there's all these little
tools and techniques and games that you

can play that affect the way that we
experience music and a song.

You don't really appreciate it until you
take a step back and realize the sheer

number of decisions and the variety of
decisions that go into a single mix.

I love that, even though it's not going
to work.

You, you your, your, your, your, your
control Control polyester she's looking

good. No accident polyester she's looking good.

She's looking fine.

She'll make you think you're proud.

Doesn't lie.

All right, so these are retty cool.

I like this spoken word element, but
needs to be in a different sense of

space, right so if this song is about
addiction and giving in to an addiction,

I sort of want this part to be this
cloudy haze of confusion and giving in

and the the guilt and darkness that comes
along with it.

So I love these guitar stomp effects i
mean, they're they're sort of cheesy, but

in a in a great way they're really simple
sounding, simple to operate them.

Let's do it.

Overdrive in a spring reverb see what

that feels like.

That sounds cool let's see what it sounds

like in context.

Control, control, control control.

I don't use these good hurts plugins
enough, but they're really great.

So I've got the saturation and reverb
effect and I'm using compression to

smoosh it all together.

And let's further smear it with H delay.

It's amazing what vocalists and artists
entrust us with.

You know, they allow themselves to be
vulnerable and give us these super dry

tracks that on their own don't sound
right and justice trust us to do the

right thing.
Just going to tidy things up.

Add a fade the ends of these reverbs.

I tried an AM simulator before that

didn't quite work in those ahs, so I'm
going to see if the processing that I

just applied to those spoken word tracks
maybe Perhaps works on these as well.

Let's see.

Yeah, cool sounding much better sitting

in a good space.

And the minor imperfections in the vocal

performance are not so glaring anymore
when you do a little bit of reverb and

saturation, more than more than you know,
you win, you win.

More than more than you know you win, you
win More than you know you win, you win.

More than you win.

More than you know, you win, you win.

More than you know you win.

Bring those kicks down.

The point of bringing those kicks down is
so that the the vocals can be more

prominent in that moment.

So I think that I want to do another

filter sweep on the vocals and so I'm
going to put the fab filter pro Q2 on the

vocal bus so all of the vocals are
processed You in you in more than more

than you know, you in you in more than
more than you know you win.

You win More than more than you know you
win more than you know you win, you win

more than you know, you win.

You win more than.

I copied that plugin over to the FX bus
too because I wanted to process the delay

that was on the vocals as well.

Got to take care of that other vocal O

definitely want to obliterate that
signal.

It's going to be a moment, you know you
have moments like this where there's a

lot of contrast.

I love that creepy reverb tale.

Got the mix like singing to me.

Ok, so this is coming together retty cool

i think we need a little bit more
obliteration of the signal go back to our

trusty Tom effects.

She's looking good.

You're in more than you know.

Oh, looking good.

She's, you know you're important and you
know she's looking good.

She's looking fine.

She'll make you think by crossing the

line. Drink, drink it above but you still stay

thirsty i know that you think you're
better now, but she beside you when you

fall, I'm going to leave that tail in
there.

Nice clean tail.

I could OT to do something fancy, but I

don't think I want to with the ending
right now.

Let's bring that tail of the bass down.

That's a little too quick.

Little better, erfect.

All right, nice clean ending.

At this point I want to look at the
overall balance of everything and I'm

going to use this tonal balance control
from isotope to show me the different

frequencies. So I'm going to use this information and

apply it to any additional subgroup bus
processing and master bus processing.

A little bit too much happening in the
subrange in the instrument section of the

arrangement. She's looking good, so I've got a multi

band taking care of that.

Clean up the uer mids in the drums a

little bit so they don't interfere with
the vocals.

Check my rough mix.

She's looking good.

She's looking fine.

She'll make you think about crossing

line, drinking up, but you still stay
thirsty.

I know that you think you're better now.

But you beside you, when you fall, sooner

or later you're gonna miss.

You're gonna miss miss.

Ok, so let's focus on the master bus a
little bit.

I'm going to hunt down unwanted
frequencies with the Brain works midside

EQ I could focus on things that are
straight U the middle like drums and

vocals, kick snare vocals just going to
pull out some harshness and unwanted

stuff. Test out this mono Maker feature make

everything mono if I wanted, get get rid
of some rumble whistle tones.

Now I'm working on the stereo section.

She's looking good.

She's feel like this synth bass is still
clouding U the uer mids of the mix.

Pardon me, She's looking good.

She's looking fine.

She'll make you think.

Use multi band compression on the master

bus. Obtain some unwanted frequency ranges.

Oxford inflator just add some impact and
size and depth.

Really great plugin 1 slider and it makes
a world of difference.

Love plugins like that And while I'm
doing this I'm still going back and

making little changes to individual
parts, doing some boosting in the high

frequency range and super lows.

A super musical mastering EQ.

The Manly Massive passive from Universal
Audio Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor.

Only trimming about one to three DB.

Add some upfrontness to the whole mix.

Still stay thirsty?
All right, I'm feeling pretty good this

master bus stuff really helps.

I like to wait until the end.

Some engineers mix into it, but I like to
wait.

Sort of like icing on the cake type
thing.

Isotope ozone.

Great stuff.

You know, you're you're under control.

She's looking good.

She's looking fine.

She'll make you think.

Bow crossing the line, Drink.

Drinking up.

But you still stay thirsty.

I know that you think you're better now,

but you decide you when you fall, Sooner
or later you're gonna miss you're gonna

miss. Miss the fab filter Pro L2 the limiter

boost and overall volume.

Get this to more competitive standards.

Got to be careful because sometimes your
mix can change when you apply things to

the master bus.

That part's a little bit too loud.

Bring you down a little bit?
Yeah things change when you start doing

stuff to the mast.

Just want to tame this piano art a little

bit. Find it to be a bit harsh you can warm it

U ever so slightly while you listening.

You hear her calm.

Oh, why you listening and bring you way
down.

Why you listening?
You hear her calm scars just stop.

Why you listening?
You hear her calm scars on your body.

Ain't got no one, Ain't no accident.

You take this.

Forget the world you love like that.

All right, guess what i found some hidden

tracks in the chorus that really make a
big difference.

Take a listen.

It's these kick parts looking good.

She's looking fine.

She'll make you think, bow crossing the

line drinking, but you still stay
thirsty.

I know that you think you're better now,
but you decide you know when you fall

sooner. Yeah, they make a huge difference in the

chorus there and I also have these big
noisy claps.

Check them out.

I added these in myself.

All right, so it's all sounding pretty
cool i also tweaked these Toms here i

added this reverb to them and rinted it
check them out.

Super subtle.

She's looking good.

She's looking fine.

She'll make you think.

Bow crossing line.

Want to tame any additional harshness

this multi band i know that you think
you're better now.

But you beside you, when you fall, sooner
or later you're gonna miss you're gonna

miss miss you listening, You hear her
calm scars on your body all right, So at

this point, I'm going to take a break i
like how everything is sitting i'm pretty

happy with it, ready to send it off.

But I want to give myself some time

listen on a couple of different speaker
systems and in different environments,

and then I'll come back to it with a
relatively fresh set of ears.

So I listened to my first mix on a
variety of different speakers i took a

break i actually slept on it, and I'm
pretty happy with it i think that it is

where it was about 90 % of where I wanted
it to be.

There were some little errors and
omissions and oversights that I tended

to. I think this is an important part of the

process, to mention that doing it in one
fell swoop and just mixing from beginning

to end without taking a break, without
getting some perspective and returning to

your life, maybe getting some exercise,
drinking some water, getting some sun,

it's not great it's a It's a good thing
to take a step back when you have the

opportunity if you are not under a time
crunch o Let's check out the changes

starting with this synth base.

That part was competing for space and

attention, so I brought it down ever so
slightly.

Next U is these backup vocals in this
verse just needed to be brought down just

a little bit.

Scars on your body and got no one for you

hear that throw delay on the vocal.

I decided that the the sound that I had

was a little bit too harsh and bright and
cutting so I opted to go with a a

different style within Echo Boy so it's a
little bit more smooth and chorusy.

I think these other backup vocal parts
needed to come down a little bit so I

brought them down the whispery parts.

I also made some adjustments at the sub

bus level with both volume automation end
with that filter i think the filter was a

little bit jacked up so I both made
volume automation adjustments and changed

the the filter using the pro Q2 to be a
little bit more smooth and that's pretty

much it i might have made a slight change
to the pianos but other than that I was I

was pretty satisfied with how it turned
out especially considering how quickly I

did everything.
I also, I found a pop on one of the piano

parts. So let's see is is this it here no, this

is not it the the one just above right
there had a little pop at the end of the

phrase so I went through and as you can
see, I made a little fade.

Don't want that to reach mastering, you
got to be got to be careful about those

pops. Let's Fast forward and check out an ABC

comparison with what I was delivered,
what I started with, and what I ended up

with. So here in yellow I've got the unmixed,

unprocessed export of the the mix as it
was when I started it.

I've got the rough mix in orange that
Asher provided, which was a great road

map for what I eventually did.

And then I've got mine in red, which I'm

trying to level match.

I know that's important to many of you,

but I do think that getting something to
industry standard loudness is part of the

job of mix engineer so let's check it
out.

She's a cannibal.

Your heart just no tender eyes and a

smile of gold.

You're under control.

She's looking good.

She's looking fine.

She'll make you think about crossing
line, drinking up, but you still stay

thirsty. I know that you think you better now, but

you decide you when you fall, sooner or
later you're gonna miss, you're going to

miss miss.
So you definitely hear how dry the

original is.
You hear that the the orange, which is

Asher's version, which is great, provides
a great inspiration for what I was to

ultimately do.
Still needed some some tweaks and just a

little bit of love on the vocals and the
punchiness of the drums so I'm happy with

where it's at.

Asher is happy with where it's at and

that's what's most important to me.

So thank you guys for taking this journey

with me i really love the process of
filming myself, mixing and turning it

into content like this.

I would love to hear from you guys.

If you have any ideas or comments as to
how to improve these, I am all ears.

Also have fun with the multitracks that
Asher was kind enough to provide for your

practice. Have fun with that i would love to hear

them and make sure to check out Pushing
Static in their album that I mixed which

is now on retty much all major streaming
latforms this has been Ian Vargo with the

pro audio files and masteringintheboxcom.

Thank you.