Andy Wallace.... HOW???

[PTUser NYC]

here,here

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Ok, I am NO spelling-ophile or grammer-cop. I don't go around correcting those kind of things on boards, and I'm often guilty of such mistakes myself.

Still, this one is so ironic, I thought it should be mentioned.

The phrase is "Hear, Hear"

Which is really pretty funny if you think about it.

[stealthbalance]

hey kidmixalot-
they are chatting about aw at gearslutz -
thought you may want to know.
gearslutz is awesome!
s

[snoopy]

Am I the only one that thinks he makes the vocals way too loud? I some mixes I have a hard tiem even hearing the music underneith the vocals (like that sheryl crow song).

[BillSmith]

Maybe it was Sheryl who wanted the vocal that loud. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

I have spent most of the last ten years of my life working side by side with Al Schmitt almost every day of the week and what I have learned from him is that there is no real secret or voodoo at all to mixing.
Just grab your *ss in one hand the faders in the other and jump in. No matter what you got going if you, the band/artist, and the producer all think it sounds good....then it is.
Much of the "secret", at least in Al's case, is in getting everything down on the tape the right way to start with...you should already be thinking about your mix when you lift that first fader on the tracking date.
Change or move a mic before you hit an EQ if something doesn't sound quite right, don't over compress stuff, take the time to get the balances right while your recording and don't be afraid to gain ride your level to tape.
It's amazing how much faster mixes come together when a bunch of moves are already done because you lifted a horn or guitar solo, rode the strings etc. during tracking and evened out most of the vocal as it was going down during the overdub.
Take the time to learn the song during vocals as a singer runs it down... if they get loud in the chorus pull the fader back a bit...if they are soft in the verses, lift the level to tape etc.
You'll find you need alot less compression,eq, and fader moves on everything in your final mix if you get as much as you can on the tape the right way from the jump.
The band will also be grooving when your board mix during tracking sounds close to the finished product. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Another thing I have picked up on is learning when it's time to "step away from the console".
Go with your gut, if your excited by the mix you have going on the board chances are others will be as well.
Stop tweaking and print that sucker!!
Lots of good mixes have been ruined by tweaking till someone turns blue and mixing all the emotion and feeling right out of a song.
Just cause there's a knob it doesn't mean you have to turn it, and sometimes less really is more.

----------------------------------------------
www.billsmith.biz

[Kenny Gioia]

BillSmith is very right.

I prefer to spend only a certain amount of time on a mix.

If it takes longer than expected, I lose perspective.

I will usually spend no more than 3 or 4 hours mixing something I tracked.

That's because I took the time to get each track to sound the way I want it during the tracking process.

Sometimes I'll stop the tracking session and add a plugin or tweak an eq before doing more overdubs.

This way you are very fresh when you mix.

I almost never think to myself that this record will come together in the mix. It must come together during the process or I re evalute the process.

Now if I didn't track it, that's another story.

[snoopy]

Maybe it's everyone he mixes for that wants it that loud? Maybe an engineer whos work your don't like, just happens to be asked by all his clients to make it sound that way (joking). ;-)

[kidmixalot]

Originally posted by snoopy:
Maybe it's everyone he mixes for that wants it that loud? Maybe an engineer whos work your don't like, just happens to be asked by all his clients to make it sound that way (joking). ;-)

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Stealth, thanks for the tipoff about gearslutz...

As for the vox too loud, maybe on the Sheryl Crow Stuff, but from what I've heard, his balances are perfection. I want to know what kinds of vocal effects he uses. Like on the Linkin Park stuff, the choruses are so DEEP in the mix, but you can't HEAR any effect. I wonder if its a plate panned less then wide with no lows or maybe just a really high quality transparent effect box? Either way, I can't do it without either hearing the effect too much or too little.

Hey, given that Steve Sisco was involved in this thread, I wonder if Andy himself just took a look at it for the hell of it... cool to think about.

[marcusb]

Originally posted by kidmixalot:
I want to know what kinds of vocal effects he uses. Like on the Linkin Park stuff, the choruses are so DEEP in the mix, but you can't HEAR any effect.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">One thing i've taken to doing is actually cutting the effect returns from time to time while i'm mixing. I'll get an effect I like, then if I start thinking i'm hearing too much 'effect' i'll cut them and listen to the mix dry for a bit. More often than not when I put the returns back in the mix again the effect stands out like dogs bollocks and i'll bring the returns down a little. I think during a mix you can become too pre-occupied with your effect returns and almost become numb to them, so if you give your ears a breather you can re-assess exactly what the effect is contributing to the mix. Less is more often works best, a nice supporting reverb back in the mix whilst not 'audible' in the sense of "hey there's the verb" you'll find if you turn it off you miss it even though you can't explicitly HEAR it.

Hope that ramble makes sense [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

Cheers,
Marcus

[kidmixalot]

Originally posted by marcusb:


Hope that ramble makes sense [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

Cheers,
Marcus

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">It definitely does. I am having the exact problem you describe, I concentrated too much on the effects and in the outside world things sounded way too effected. I then tried something, I placed all the effects so I thought they sounded good, then turned them all down a few db. Of course on my car stereo, the mix sounded way better. Go figure. Thanks for the tip.

Anyone know what type of effect Andy used for the chorus of "Crawling in My Skin" to make those choruses so deep in the mix without sounding too effected? Large Hall with a HPF?