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Author Topic: Mr Brauer ... what say the voices in your head today ....  (Read 21514 times)

rosshogarth

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Mr Brauer ... what say the voices in your head today ....
« on: March 04, 2011, 03:35:23 AM »

Michael my brother, firstly congrats on winning another Grammy trophy last month for your amazing work on Battle Studies. Can you share an interesting creative choice or creative use of one of your many fine pieces of gear in the creative process. or a chain of gear or
Did this come from a genius psychically transmitted thought from my brain to yours ?
But really
I would love to have a glimpse into your creative process ....
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The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world.

The standard of success in life isn't the things. It isn't the money or the stuff. It is absolutely the amount of joy that you feel.

bigbone

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Re: Mr Brauer ... what say the voices in your head today ....
« Reply #1 on: March 04, 2011, 09:41:18 AM »


Michael

I love the sound of the drums in Battle studies ( love jordan
also) , can you , please, share some of the mixing process for those. thank you

All the best

JN

P.S. thank you all the mod and the poster to share your knowledge..........
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Michael Brauer

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Re: Mr Brauer ... what say the voices in your head today ....
« Reply #2 on: March 04, 2011, 12:32:30 PM »

thanks Ross, I'm proud of that Grammy, it's directly related to my gig which makes it that much more special.

You will notice over the coming months that I have almost Zero recall of anything I do. I think it's because I don't think. I'm just looking to feel a certain way and I keep moving buttons and changing comps until it makes me feel warm and fuzzy. Now I know that's not unique to me, we all do it that way, I just don't find it worth remembering because nine times out of ten, the idea is not repeatable on another song or because I like to wipe the slate clean before I mix the next song. But having said that, I'll do my best. In regards to the battle studies record a couple interesting things happened that I drew from my arsenal of gear. As many of you know I use my Brauerize approach which for those who aren't familiar, basically is a combination of multi buss compression, parallel compression and send return compression all used in endless combinations. But it doesn't always work and that was the case on the first song I mixed "who says". it's a simple song with a very honest sounding vocal. When John heard the mix he said, "I know the way this is mixed it's gonna sound great on radio because it's hifi and big sounding but it's sounding a bit insincere, I want it to be more honest and almost like James Taylor feeling". "ok", I said, come back in 20. So, I decided to go back to my days when I was mixing those kinds of records. Instead of the stuff I do on the vocal now(sending it to 5 different sounding compressors and getting a blend that way), I simply put my La3a across him and sent that to buss A. Instead of sending the instruments to my different processed sub stereo busses, everything went to Buss A which is my original approach-a 33609 going into two pultecs. And I only used Electric Lady's EMT 140 plate with a choice of the signal going direct or delayed into it. That's the way I started as a mixer and 20 minutes later it was a complete different feel. It was simple and honest,like he's singing to just you without forcing the words on you. He walked in and said "oh yah, this is it" and we were done. Two weeks later it was on the radio and I was hearing it while in the back of a cab and it felt good.
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Michael Brauer

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Re: Mr Brauer ... what say the voices in your head today ....
« Reply #3 on: March 04, 2011, 01:07:29 PM »

Drum sound on Battle studies.

I gotta say, when I mix his records I think of my upbringing at MediaSound. The sound you hear was the sound that came out of that studio but updated to 2011. Tony Bongovi was a big influence on the Mediasound drum sound. he came from Motown and he had an amazing drum and bass sound. First of all, Steve's drums sound like what you heard, they were recorded really well so it's not as if I recreated anything, the credit really goes to the performer and the recording. But I did enhance what was there yes. I have a shitload of kick and snare samples that I've been comping and making over the years and so I would add a combination of kicks to make his kick fatter and the same goes with the snare. It's by no means replacing, it's simply filling in the area that I want to make pop. and this is where my multi buss technique works like a charm. Generally I'll send the drums and bass to stereo Buss B which are my Distressors(with british mode in) into Avalon EQ's. So I'll send the snare to that and it may or may not be hitting the distressors pretty hard. If I feel like some of the attack is going away, I'll also send it to the stereo buss which let's all the transients through. yes, that makes it louder and sometimes I trim it down, other times it's feeling so great in the mix at that level that I leave it. On mayer's record that kick and snare are fat so I can probably assume I did that same approach on both.My favorite example of that mediasound booty fat sound is on a song I mixed called Vultures. Man, it always makes me feel good all over when I hear that song, in fact I'm listening to it as I write and I don't think I'll ever grow tired of it. I remember riding the cymbals when steve would hit them, so the effect is that they last longer and transition well into next sections. Sometimes I ride cymbals like someone bending a string on a sustaining note to give it a slow vibrato type thing. I'll do that with guitar solos too, with practice you can bend a fader with the same kind of effect. it's hard to imagine but I've been doing it for years and there are times for example when a guitar sustains and note does a little vibrato near the end of it...well actually that was me doing that. 

I like to play the console as an instrument, I always have and it's probably the reason that I'll continue to avoid a mouse to do my playing. That's not to say I won't be mixing hybrid but I'll need a fader on my fingers. My most dynamic and fun mixes are from my playing the hell out of the desk. When I move faders it's not with a microscopic caliber twitch, it's with a full body slam.

PS: if you want to see what my Multi buss settings are, you can go to my site where I've given the complete calibration settings or go to the pictures of my gear and Zoom in on any piece of gear. I don't really change any of those much, maybe the Eq's yes but for the most part I've found the sweetspot on those babies and i leave them alone.
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bigbone

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Re: Mr Brauer ... what say the voices in your head today ....
« Reply #4 on: March 04, 2011, 01:36:57 PM »

Michael

Thank's a lot for the info, and again, thank's to share your knowledge

All the best

jean N.
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rosshogarth

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Re: Mr Brauer ... what say the voices in your head today ....
« Reply #5 on: March 04, 2011, 03:52:37 PM »

good stuff MB !!
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The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world.

The standard of success in life isn't the things. It isn't the money or the stuff. It is absolutely the amount of joy that you feel.

duvalle

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Re: Mr Brauer ... what say the voices in your head today ....
« Reply #6 on: March 11, 2011, 08:37:59 AM »

good read -  thx for the detailed infos ...  :)
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mojo

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Re: Mr Brauer ... what say the voices in your head today ....
« Reply #7 on: March 13, 2011, 11:34:46 AM »

...
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studjo

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Re: Mr Brauer ... what say the voices in your head today ....
« Reply #8 on: March 22, 2011, 04:36:05 PM »

Man you're an inspiration to all of us!

I copied your multibusapproach for some time and found now the ingredients that work for me. Thanks so much for all the infos you shared over the years!

Jo
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Michael Brauer

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Re: Mr Brauer ... what say the voices in your head today ....
« Reply #9 on: March 23, 2011, 10:29:22 AM »

For those who are interested in spending a week with me in the south of france teaching a seminar, check out this site. www.mixwiththemasters.com/HOME.html

David Kahne and I did it last summer and it was really fun for everyone. this summer David and I will be doing one together again and I'll be doing an additional week solo.
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Cass Anawaty

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Re: Mr Brauer ... what say the voices in your head today ....
« Reply #10 on: March 23, 2011, 10:43:26 AM »

For those who are interested in spending a week with me in the south of france teaching a seminar, check out this site. www.mixwiththemasters.com/HOME.html

David Kahne and I did it last summer and it was really fun for everyone. this summer David and I will be doing one together again and I'll be doing an additional week solo.
A friend of mine (Dave P) had nothing but great things to say about the time he spent there.
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Cass Anawaty, Mastering Engineer
www.sunbreakmusic.com

Michael Brauer

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Re: Mr Brauer ... what say the voices in your head today ....
« Reply #11 on: March 23, 2011, 02:59:38 PM »

one of the participants from last summer is now my second assistant. I think everyone had a great time and learned alot about how david and I work and think.
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Joao Bessa

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Re: Mr Brauer ... what say the voices in your head today ....
« Reply #12 on: March 24, 2011, 12:06:36 AM »

Hi Michael,

i'm a huge fan of your work and your way to be in life and musical industry.

I work in a great studio in Portugal, but i do live mixing too with some artists, and for the last 3 years i use John Mayer's Continuum album to tune the P.A.! (so thanks for that beautifull and great job!)

I hope someday have the chance to meet you! Unfortunately not this year in France, but maybe next!
 
Anyway, i have some questions if you dont mind to answer,

1 - Although you use your 4 buses with compressors and Eqs, do you process the tracks individualy before with eq and compression with the onboard processing? (I.E. - Compress Snare Drum with SSL Channel compressor, and then compress again on the bus?)

2 - Do you make use of parallel compression from the beginin of your mix, or do you send your drums to your Bus B, and then, only if your are loosing to much atack you send it to the master too? There are instruments that you compress just as an insert, without paralel processing?

3 - I read on your site your way of calibrating your outboard. When you talk about the EQs, and you say that you gain on 1dB at 100 Hz and do the same at 8KHz, do you mean that this is your starting point eq for that bus? 1 dB up at lows, and 1 dB up at Highs?

4 - We finally refurbished our SSL 4000E console (the analog part... not the computer yet.) So its working flawlessly, but with no automation yet.
4.1 - Do you think its possible to do your brauerize stuff on that, since i just have 1 stereo master bus on this desk?
4.2- We have a protools rig, so we work on a hybrid setup. What do you think its the best aproach for me to aplly your bus technic , since i only can do automation and recalls on protools?

Sorry to bother you with this questions... i tryed not repeat same questions that you have on your site.

Thanks a lot,

Joao Bessa
www.boomstudios.pt
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josephm

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Re: Mr Brauer ... what say the voices in your head today ....
« Reply #13 on: March 24, 2011, 02:10:21 AM »

one of the participants from last summer is now my second assistant. I think everyone had a great time and learned alot about how david and I work and think.
:o it's not me!! it's not me!! :-X  :'(  ;D

Hi Michael, congratulation again for the Grammy!

Michael Brauer

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Re: Mr Brauer ... what say the voices in your head today ....
« Reply #14 on: March 24, 2011, 12:34:21 PM »

:o it's not me!! it's not me!! :-X  :'(  ;D

Hi Michael, congratulation again for the Grammy!

haha it's lewis Pickett
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