All language subtitles for 16 - Tom Elmhirst

hello welcome to la Fabrique my name's

Tom Elmhurst and we've just finished a

week-long seminar specifically looking

at mixing mixing techniques had 15

students from all over the world we've

had a great time it's been hard work but

we've now got 10 questions that have

been presented to me from people who are

not on the course so we're going to

start with Patrick Comerica I hope I got

that right hey Tom what's your go-to

vocal chain in the mix I use a

combination of vocal compressors I've

been using a blackface Yuri limbed 1176

and I tend to change my second

compressor and I'll explain why I

suppose the starting point for my vocal

chain is a Neve 1081 module which I take

straight off the multitrack return as in

Pro Tools return into a Neve 1081 that

then goes into the blackface URI and

that then goes into at the moment I'm

using a tube tech 11 CL 1b I do

sometimes switch that up I have an old

I'll tech compressor I have I have a few

different options what I'm doing with

the two compressors the Neve I'm using

is the lineup remember so I'm returning

that in the in so return which you know

I'm trying to use a better vocal chain

than a sort of vocal preamp if you like

they're my Neve console the two

compressors work in tandem in my and

this is a this is something I've sort of

I wouldn't say it's you know unique but

it's just I use the URI very fast

release it's not doing a lot maximum on

the meter and meters don't always tell

you everything but the URI will be doing

maybe five seven to nine dB

and that may sound like a lot but with a

very fast release it's it's just hitting

that what I call the heavy transients in

a vocal then the tube tech or something

like a nail tech will be behaving more

like a Fairchild or

a slower compressor much slower attack

very slow release again it's not doing

crazy amounts of compression reduction

maybe 3 4 5 DB and in my in my head the

the concept behind it is that yeah the

URI slaps the sort of heavy transient

when a vocal kicks up and the tube tech

or the the sort of the Fairchild or the

whatever else I use maybe a nail tech I

have a gates as well that'll just be

doing something it's coloring the vocal

and obviously between those three

different compressors I can change the

color and the sound but it's picking up

the slack and it's you know the

difference between say a URI which is

colorful in its own way and something

like a tube tech or something like the

the state the the gates is is that they

they work in tandem I hope that answers

your question Patrick question to John

Rukh hey Tom I know you like to work

quickly and get into the mix as fast as

possible

in my experience mixing is all about

your mindset do you have any tips for

mentally preparing yourself before a MEK

session that's a good question

mixing is super instinctive and what

we've worked on during this week here is

getting people getting the students to

get a balance together quite quickly 20

minutes generally if you spend you know

an hour or two just fiddling around with

drums in a mix or just getting certain

things working you're all that time

you're tiring your ears you're also

acclimatizing your brain to a specific

way of working and you're going to find

that it's harder to make interesting mix

decisions and change the palette of a

mix that the longer the day goes on so

on my average day I'll sit down at

midday one o'clock and start a mix

within half an hour and this is a

multitrack I'll never have seen before I

want to have a all the parts that I need

access to coming up my console and I'll

have a working balance it may not be the

finished balance there may be a long way

to go but within 20 minutes half an hour

and again yeah multitrack I've not seen

before I'll have everything working

quite quickly the reason again is it's

so that my brain my ears and I'm not

conditioning myself too quickly as to

how this is how them how the mix is

going to take shape there's lots of ways

to you know approach a mix mindset if we

if we look at that

III think mixing had one inside you have

to have a little aggression about you it

doesn't mean you're sort of bullish and

throw things around but you need to be

slightly charged going in to mix there

is an element in a mix in my head that

is performance it's not just a technical

exercise of course those techniques

involve but if you can come in a bit

pumped up if you like it's not going to

hurt the mix I don't think that could be

you go play tennis for an hour before

you start mixing have a round with your

girlfriend whatever it is you can do

something that is going to make you come

into the studio and and do and do good

work quickly okay I hope that helps John

question three metier Maggie hello Tom

do you have a particular technique to

get a solid and clean low-end no it's

the answer but you know you got a hope

it's solid and clean low-end but I mean

where is the low-end coming from in your

mix that's the first thing to look at

invariably it's coming from bass drum

bass maybe some other instruments

depending on the music or what the this

you know the aesthetic of the track

you're working on but you've got to find

it but it's it's balance goes back to

just balance and I've also often said EQ

you know when you add or take away EQ

you're altering the balance on you know

another way to do it instead of adding

EQ is to just move the fader in Pro

Tools on a console however you're

working bass and bass drums work in

similar areas and we know that now I use

a lot of high-pass filters and under

instrumentation so if you if you're not

hearing if you're monitoring is not

allowing you to hear the you know below

100 Hertz information or below 150 Hertz

information there might be all

sorts of information getting in the way

of your bass and bass drum so first

point you need good monitoring to get a

clean low-end why because you need to

get rid of certain things below you know

in the area of bass drum and bass that's

really critical you know say an acoustic

guitar or a vocal or a piano anything

below 80 unless you really want it it's

going to get in the way of your clean

low-end then the battle is between the

bass drum and the bass and they operate

in a similar area you might find if you

boost 50 60 Hertz on a bass drum that

you're going to have to take that out of

the bass if the bass is a melodic part

more musical you're going to want to be

boosting around 200 in that area it very

much depends on on the material but

high-pass filters on other things clears

our area clears out the bass so you can

get this clean low-end you're asking

about material I hope that helps okay

question for Antony pilato hi hi Tom

what are your methods for creating width

and depth in a mix thanks that's a good

question with width and depth again

quite sort of visual you know visual

question in my head and you can achieve

that in a variety of ways obviously

width panning using your pan pot is is a

great way to create width if

everything's coming up the middle a it's

going to be in mono but B you're not

going to get with so use the pan pot you

know some people have sort of beetles

esque in their panning which can be

either left middle or right other people

like sort of more subtle panning the

more abstract and the more the more

eccentric your panning if you like the

bit more width you're going to achieve

in a mixed situation I quite enjoy

having things feel like they come in and

out so you may start with your verse

with instrumentation quite panned quite

centrally then try when you go to the

chorus to have things dramatically

you know accentuate the left and the

right depth is another thing depth of

feel and that's that's the hardest thing

to achieve if all your music with all

your departs in your multitrack at the

same volume same level and are all dry

no effects nothing you're going to have

no depth now again it goes back to the

mono stereo thing that can be great for

the verse then if you want to start

getting some depth in the chorus you

need effects you need you know pre

delays into reverbs you need I use a

technique of a delay off the bus going

into a quite wide sort of reverb so

there's already maybe a 200 millisecond

delay you're not hearing that delay

because it's then going to reverb so I

can keep a vocal quite present in the

mix but I've got a thing behind it that

will sort of act like a like a sort of

cotton wool cushion that I can play with

and I'll ride the send from a vocal into

that and it will change throughout a

song again creating the sense of depth

I think that covers that okay

and as sig lists Oliver hi Tom how do

you create such driven but yet pleasant

open dynamic vocals when mixing I'm

spending the most time on the vocal in a

mix vocals and drums is the hardest work

why because the vocals your principal

object invariably in popular music so

the vocals going to be the loudest thing

in the mix drums also you know I found a

lot of the times working with students

the balance is tend to become quite safe

all instrumentation is sort of operating

at the same level to get it a dynamic

mixes and when you talk about open

vocals I think you're meaning that the

vocals quite clear and present you need

to make room for it now with that can go

that can reference back to the question

before which is panning get things out

of the way of the vocal the evoke all

your bass drum your bass are going to be

your sort of central objects in the mix

if you've got a lot of other things

cluttering that you're not going to have

room for your vocal the driven part of

question is is trickier you know there

are techniques such as you know reamping

a vocal I've quite often put vocal onto

a piece of tape to get a bit of tape

saturation then put it back in the

session if you don't have access to tape

you can use plugins

there's many plugins that sort of drive

a vocal a bit be an amp farm bit low fie

speaker phone it's a good plugin for

this there's many ways to do it but

you've got to be careful with distortion

and driving driving a vocal because

obviously you're going to you're going

to start blurring the lines and that

you've got to be careful that so it's

it's a it's a something you should be

constantly playing with while while the

mix is going on but I think there's a

couple of techniques there that I've

explained hope that helped

Ronnie dangle hi Tom I'm a huge fan of

your work and sound since I discovered

The Kills great band I really love the

way how you handle the low end in your

mixes your kick drum sound airy and wide

but still have a lot of punch how do you

achieve that this is a combination of

room mics or do you use a room reverb

for kick drum I don't what's your go-to

EQ and compressor for it

thanks a lot wish you the best look a

couple of different questions there

I like low end so I'm always going to

you know try and really work on the low

end this question has some somewhat been

answered by the first point use

high-pass filters and other things leave

the low end for your bass drum and bass

you're just going to make more room

immediately by doing that combination of

room mics would use room reverb for kick

drum I do not on the whole use reverb

for kick drum unless the bass drum has

been pretty badly recorded I use a lot

of room mics depending on it depends on

the material of course it'll kick down

to an area and wide we still have a lot

of punch how do you achieve that I mean

it depends on them very much on the

material but I might quite often on a

lot of tracks I'll add samples to help

me so if it's a live drum kit which is

hard to record let's not you know we

have to accept that

everyone gets a great room a great

drummer a great kit but I'll use a

sample to help me get definition if I

need it and and you know in certain

sections of the song I'll want reverb or

room and I can play with it my go-to EQ

and compressor I use I really like the

dbx the original dbx 160 and EQ wise

I'll use two new 1081 channels again III

give I have a few Neve modules and I'll

I'll give them to the principal objects

in the mix which for me quite often our

bass drum snare bass vocal and those

things are up the middle so they're

really important you know they're going

to take up a lot of room in the mix and

I want to you know treat them well

the dbx compresses the 160 is quite an

aggressive compressor but it can really

help control you know especially with a

live kick control the environment that

that it's doing that and then if I

balance that with my samples I've got

lots of options I hope that I hope that

answers your question running there's a

question from Julio Alberto Arredondo

Tom love the tonal balance dynamics and

sense of space of your mixes how do you

use EQ I mean your mixes sound pristine

yet they don't sound harsh a lot of

carving with EQ what about your drum

samples drum buss three or four

questions they're tonal balance dynamics

and sense of spaces your mixes how do

you use EQ well that kind of is going to

be answered by the next question which

is they sound pristine yet they don't

sound harsh a lot of carving of the EQ

yes is the answer i I do much more

reductive eke use an additive EQ my my

mix buss is where I'm doing quite a lot

of general EQ and I'll get my mix buss

working very early on in the mix because

if I'm adding I use a curve bender the

TG curve bender of my mix buss I've used

it for quite a while if I'm adding I

don't know three I don't know if that's

DB but three at twenty K which I seem to

be doing I'm adding six today five

but if I'm adding quite a lot of mixbus

EQ I'm not going to need to do you know

it's going to take care of my protein my

mix if you like I'm not going to have to

go through each channel do it obviously

you're going to have individual things

but on the console on my VR I'm using a

very high Q to take out frequencies I

don't like and they're invariably

between two and six K I you know I would

stress that I don't look at the

frequencies I just I turn the gain full

and find what I don't like and then take

it out it's that's you know it's that

simple now will EQ is very personal like

mixing you're going to find frequencies

you like or don't like and boost them

and not it's just taste but I don't like

harshness so much music these days to me

is very hard very hard sometimes it's

hard to you know sometimes you need it

if you think of sort of indie rock bands

or what have you it's part of the sound

this harshness or quite high mid-range

frequencies that and it makes it makes a

mix aggressive and exciting but I'm not

always a fan of it in in the work I do

and I I like space I like open and I

like dynamics tonal balance Dianetics a

sense of space well I mean the using EQ

so I'm going back to the first part the

question but I like I use EQ to make

space for other things so if I if I

start taking away the frequencies I

don't like in the mix I'm going to make

room for other frequencies and other

things and if I'm constantly taking away

that sort of 2 to 6k area I'm taking

away harshness and that's going to make

the instruments more open and give give

the mix a more open sense of space if

you like what about your drum samples

and drum buss my drum samples not going

to lie been using the same two Dom

samples for 10 years bass drum I made of

several samples and a snare now the main

thing with drum samples and you've got

to be careful here I think is you don't

always want to hear them

in a live drum kit I feel like I can get

away with a bit more samples but it's

got to be program relator Mix related or

you know let's not say that what I'm

using them for is not the sound of the

sample it's to work in tandem with the

live drum or whatever the bass drum is

in the thing and I don't use them every

time I can think of many records where I

haven't used any samples at all because

it was available to me on tape I'm using

samples for a purpose to get definition

if it's not there in the recording and

yeah it's as simple as that drum buss I

use a

tg1 limiter again the Chandler tg1 and I

I just use the only parallel compression

I generally do in mixes so I'm sending

if I've got the drums over seven or

eight channels I might send just the

overhead mics or just the room mics to

the to the two parallel compressor and

what what it will give me is the option

and I've got a fader to ride into the

compressor and I've also got the return

of the compressor so I can do a lot of

different things again going back to the

question earlier which is how do you get

a sense of depth and width well if I

start riding if I have no compression no

parallel drum compression in the verse

and I button it in on the bridge of the

course

suddenly only things available to me and

you get that lovely sucking you know and

on my TIGI I have it in limit mode so

it's actually you know it's doing a hell

of a lot it got to be careful the phase

you've got listen to that sometimes I

might try and ikki the return

differently and so these things are not

cancelling each other out or getting in

each other's way

I might put the crazy reverb on the

return of the on the return of the drum

buss compressor just to just to make it

a different thing and that's how I use

them but the samples you've got to be

careful with samples because depending

on your artist or you know the

production you you don't want your

sample to be the thing that is heard

it's there to sort of fulfill a job not

to be

the principal the principal object I

hope that helps Dylan seals question

from Dylan seals hi Tom tell us more

about your multiple tight knots

reductive EQ techniques for vocal again

the vocals there is the hardest thing in

a mix to get right it's going to be the

loudest thing in the mix if you're

working with a soloist it's you know

it's the the thing in the mix so I'm

constantly cueing a vocal throughout the

mix I never I don't EQ once and then go

that's it what I might find in a song

again I'll talk about sections of a song

is that generally the course is the

busiest part of a song I might find I'm

really battling harshness there I might

separate the vocal I can do it in Pro

Tools I can do on the board but I'll

probably do it in the in in Pro Tools

and I used the waves cue three four five

and six whatever they're called and I'll

go and find frequencies I don't like and

reduce them

I'd love I love it if I can get an EQ

setting or a compressor setting or

whatever that works throughout the song

quite often now because within dynamic

mixes and the material requires a

different a different approach for

sections of a song I'll split the vocal

and Pro Tools very easy and if there's a

lot more information at me in the chorus

well I might want the vocal harder so if

I'm taking those two three four five K

frequencies out in the verse I might

leave them in in the chorus or

conversely but the way I do it is very

simply is booster frequency at about

eighty on the cue setting in other ways

plug-in boost it all the way and then

just move the frequency band around

until I find what I don't like and then

I take it out now you know obviously if

you've got time you can automate these

settings you can it's very fast very

easy to do but I'm just listening to

what to the things I don't that I

personally don't like which is that

harshness that we're talking about and I

find that really works what I invariably

do after that and I I do quite often I

might have a pultec or I might go over

to my Neve and I might add top-end back

in there because if you're taking a lot

of harshness you'll you know you want to

still keep that center there and on the

Neve I'll add 15k

something like that and and that helps

okay and finally question from Adam

Denny hi Tom would love to know what is

on your master bus and how you approach

anything that is on there EQ compression

you see I've had the same things on my

master bus for several years now it

works for me

we're all going to find different

different bits of gear what have you

that are going to help you with your

your mix bus depends on the material

depends on how you work how you like to

work but I used to mix a half inch tape

when I started and a half inch tape

gives you saturation which is I suppose

what some people call glue in a mix it's

the hardest thing to get where you get

everything sort of working together and

gelling if you like so on my mix buss I

have and I think it goes in this order I

have the EMI curve bender which is the

tip Chandler and then I go into the

Manley which is a very mu compressor and

then I go into something called

a head crane song head yeah which is a

which I'm pleasing for a bit of

saturation obviously when you when when

I was an assistant engineer I watched

several different engineers use

different approaches to their mix bus

but I like the way these things work in

tandem and I watched an engineer that I

respect use them and I found something

that fits for me it's very personal of

what you use how you use it but

invariably on my on my curve bender I'm

adding 20k you could argue who's going

to hear it well it's not it's that

openness that someone else is asked

about to get this sort of sense of air I

boost 20k and sometimes all the way the

curve end it's quite a musical EQ not

not sort of as tight and as not maybe

not quite as yeah softer EQ than

something like the GML and I'm adding 72

Hertz invariably on that I might then

actually add a bit of 8 K but it's again

totally program related or mix related

the very MU is quite a specific

compressor and not for everyone some

people don't like it what I like about

it and I use it in link mode some people

like their left and rights to be you

acting independently I don't I what I in

my head I wanted a stereo picture and if

something's panned hard left it'll

trigger both sides so be it that's how I

like it

but the very mood for me and you know

watching leaders isn't always the best

way to do it is you know you can only

get shocked or you don't think it's

doing enough but you have to very much

easier ears with something like a mix

buss compressor

I'm invariably on either metre medium

release time or medium to fast again

program layered dance music or something

with quite electronic drums and so on

you don't want long long slow releases

you want something that recovers quite

quickly if that makes sense

but the main thing that the very me is

doing is because the vocals the light

loudest thing in the mix I'm using the

very muted to sort of govern govern the

mix compressor if I have the vocal up

the mix compress is doing its work when

when the vocal stops if you like and

they don't often start but when there's

a break in that it allows the music to

come back a bit and so it's quite a sort

of those old approach to how a

compressor works in that in that it's

very much based on the singer driving

the compressor and when they sing it

stops it sort of comes back I think that

makes sense the crane song which is the

last thing in the chain and I use it as

my A to D or so it's my convertor back

into Pro Tools I'm only using there's a

button called tape and it's great it's

it allows it allows me to get some sense

of that tape saturation that that I got

from half-inch tape while putting mixes

onto half and today and sometimes I find

still with acoustic material I want to

put it on half inch tape more electronic

bass material I'm just going to

realistically it's going to go straight

back in the computer I don't want it

saturated it's it's not what it's it's

not the aesthetic you know that's

required for that thing

so I hope these quick these answers have

helped with your questions and some of

these things have all tied into each

other someone asked again about dynamic

and open mixes I do a lot of theta rides

if I'm not doing a lot of mix buss

compression which I'm never trying to do

too much you know it's going to go to

mastering it's you know it's going to

get help on that respect but I'll do

rides with faders and that's where

faders for me in a console is so

important because I can create Dyne

dynamics that you know with faders and

and that's half the thing I find very

much lesson I think that we've looked at

this week is that if the mix is sounding

boring to you or you're bored during the

mix in chances are that the listener or

someone who listens to your mix down the

line is going to be bored too and you

must try if you can either to come into

the studio you know slightly excited to

be doing this because that's going to

translate into your mix and I hope that

helps thank you very much

you