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[Colin Larson]

by rock I mean the typical 2 guitar (usually with some distortion), bass, drums, keys... your stereotypical indie rock band.

What do you find you ALWAYS (or at least 90% of the time) end up doing with the mix?  I know you'll answer back with something along the lines of "but it matters what the music tells me to do! every situation is different!" or some BS like that.  Fuck all that.

What I'm looking for is stuff like:

do you typically use some sort of parallel compression on the drums?  on just kick snare and toms or do you include overheads and room mics?

any certain go to effects on vocals? lead and background?  I know I almost always set up some sort of eventidey split harmonizer thing that vocals and sometimes guitars get sent to.

reverbs vs lots of delays?  I'd love to hear how the guys who use tons of different delays typically set up (how many, what kind of delay times, etc)

what do you put on the master buss? comps, limiters, wacky gadgets?

I guess a more specific question would be (more for itb guys), if you had to make a "rock band" template in PT before you even heard the tracks, what plugs (not specific plugs, but just comps, delays, etc) would be where and how would things get bussed?

Share your secrets so the rest of us can steal your work  

(kidding)

[grantis]

Quote:

I know you'll answer back with something along the lines of "but it matters what the music tells me to do! every situation is different!" or some BS like that. Fuck all that.

While I find it slightly naive to dismiss that statement, I suppose I can come up with something else.

Every situation IS different.  Here are a couple of things that have almost never changed for me.

-Compress the overheads (usually at least 6 db reduction)
-Compress the lead vocal (multi-band, sometimes as much as 25 db reduction when it needs to be.  It's tough to master that skill and I'm still working on it)

Now, every situation being different for me means that I can never rely on a certain attack/release on a compressor from song to song.  Ever song timbre is different, every singer sings different, every drum hit is different.  You have to treat each differently.  Slow attack/fast release is always my starting point, then I tweak from there.  Hope that helps!

[Colin Larson]

hehe, I know that in reality every situation is different and you never really do the exact same thing every time.  But it makes for shitty forum threads when everyone starts arguing "but I can't give you any advice because it's always different!" and never really giving any actual helpful answers.

General advice is the key phrase here.

[grantis]

OK, i see what you were getting at now .

[Jonah A. Kort]

Every time I open up a session I always open a reverb aux channel

(maybe three) and send the snare, toms, and lead vocals to it. I

generally pan everything hard left or right besides the kick,

snare, bass and lead vocals of course. I try to start with the

fewer number of guitar overdub (if there is more than two) and pan

those hard left and right. After that eqs and compressors (a delay

or five on the vocals who knows) are opened I start trying to "make

it rock".  As they say it, artist being recorded that is.          

[craig boychuk]

I almost always end up doing some parallel compression on the drum bus. Not always, but most of the time.

Sometimes I like to have a separate submix for the drums and  overheads/room mics. You can really lean on the compression for the drums, but leave the oh/room untouched by the comp. This way you can get that nice snappy comp on the drums without annoying pumping on the cymbals.


-craig-

[j.hall]

i compress everything to some degree.  

especially considering my SSL 384 is on the 2Buss all the time.

i actually do have a template set up.

i import verb, delay, stereo input channel to print the mix to.

the verb and delay get changed per song.  but it makes it easier to have the template ready to import from.

that's as far as i can take this.  considering i primarily just mix, the tracks i get are so wildly different.  some time i get vocals that were HAMMERED into PT and i simply don't need a compressor.  some times not.

i use a lot of EQ when i need it.

i also use the cranesong phoenix plug-in ALL THE TIME.

[beau]

the bottom line is you do whatever you have to do to get the mix happening.. if it means adding in 12 db of high shelving on all the guitars, because the engineer tracked the guitars really "warm" and when they were tracking guitars they had the control room mains at like 110 db... so all the tracks ended up coming out really dark..
if it means triggering some drum samples because the drum tracks sound like the guy was playing the snare with his flacid dick, then you do it.  if it means running the bass through eq, compressor, eq, sansamp, eq, compressor, eq, limiter because the guy recorded some sort of spaz with a warwick bass, then you do it... and you do all of this because in the end, you are being paid to make the record sound great. and personally, i never compare my mixes with other records of similar budgets.. i find the most bad ass recordings of whatever style music it is im mixing, and i try to make the record stand up against that... sometimes its impossible, but you learn and learn and learn every mix.  

hmm... something i find myself doing on every mix.... putting in way more work than i am obligated to.. not stopping til the band is jumping up and down, telling me i brought the recording to a whole new level. and this is how they pictured it sounding from the start.

peace

beau

[rankus]

beau wrote on Sat, 27 September 2008 09:55

hmm... something i find myself doing on every mix.... putting in way more work than i am obligated to.. beau

+1 this is definitely a common theme over here as well.  

[j.hall]

rankus wrote on Sat, 27 September 2008 12:25

beau wrote on Sat, 27 September 2008 09:55 hmm... something i find myself doing on every mix.... putting in way more work than i am obligated to.. beau +1 this is definitely a common theme over here as well.

-1, if i decide to do it, i feel it's my obligation to do it, as i was hired to "make it rock".  i charge per song, so whatever i decide to do is simply part of the deal.  i honestly feel like we all should think like this.

[beau]

does anybody really mix a record and charge by the hour?  

peace

beau

[rankus]

beau wrote on Mon, 29 September 2008 09:02

does anybody really mix a record and charge by the hour?   peace beau

Sometimes when the band is involved through the whole mix (sitting on the couch)  I will go hourly.  

[marcel]

rankus wrote on Mon, 29 September 2008 11:44

beau wrote on Mon, 29 September 2008 09:02 does anybody really mix a record and charge by the hour?   peace beau Sometimes when the band is involved through the whole mix (sitting on the couch)  I will go hourly.

Classic.  Music production has got to be the only business where 'sitting on the couch' can be thought of as being 'involved'.

You should make them get up and move the faders for you on every pass.  

See if that cuts down on the comments.

LOL

[j.hall]

marcel wrote on Mon, 29 September 2008 15:10

Classic.  Music production has got to be the only business where 'sitting on the couch' can be thought of as being 'involved'.

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[marcel]

j.hall wrote on Mon, 29 September 2008 13:26

marcel wrote on Mon, 29 September 2008 15:10 Classic.  Music production has got to be the only business where 'sitting on the couch' can be thought of as being 'involved'. advertising ad producing reality TV director george bush

Psychiatry.