Andy Wallace.... HOW???

[ScottMan]

It's all about his ears and his ability to get inside the song and mix it the way YOU would like to hear it if YOU were standing there watching the band play it LIVE.
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.... have opinons about balances that strike a chord in people[/QB][/QUOTE]

My philosophy exactly.

_Scott

[John Kurzweg]

One more thing that may or may not have been mentioned-Andy mixes most of the time at very low levels-something I suspect all of us could do a little more of-Ive also heard some of his mixes before(and after)mastering and like everybody else many of his mixes sound better before mastering.

[John Kurzweg]

P.S.
I should have said "monitors at very low levels" rather than mixes.

[doorknocker]

Originally posted by John Kurzweg:
-Ive also heard some of his mixes before(and after)mastering and like everybody else many of his mixes sound better before mastering.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">[img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img] Please explain....

Andi

[strunz0]

I am amazed by the mastering done on jeff bucley`s grace that andy eng/prod/mixed because it is one of the only mixes that sounds great to me everywhere except in recording studios. The record doesn`t have much low end on it, but since everyone`s stereos are so low-end pumped the record sounds great on them

[kidmixalot]

I really should have mentioned that next to Nevermind, the Puddle Of Mudd debut is my favorite Andy Wallace mix, but I would say that much of the great sounds on that album should be rewarded to John Kurzweg. The drum sound is deep and fat and the guitars are crunchy and huge.

John, I know that you said that the drums were to tape, but were the guitars straight to disk? They really are great sounding, I love when they all come in after the intro on Drift and Die. Can you tell us about the amp/mic combos you used for that album? What kind of guitar did Paul Phillips use for the sessions?

For a great John Kurzweg interview, check here:
http://www.johnkurzweg.com/JKExclusive.htm

[John Kurzweg]

In response to doorknocker----When i mentioned that some mixes sound better before mastering I was refering to how some(not all)mixes sound smaller and less punchy after mastering-some get better but due to the never ending "Loudness Wars"thats taken over(or should I say overs?-Ive seen some stuff never come out of the red at mastering),your great mix may be lucky if it survives "making it louder than the other guys CD"-Before the loudness revolution you could feel pretty safe that when you sent something off to be mastered that it would come back a little bit bigger and better-nowadays you have to be more careful.

[doorknocker]

John,
thanks for clarifying.... Whatever happened to dynamics? I've been listening to a lot of classical music recently and what strikes me is that even 'old' (i.e mid 80ies) CDs generally sound very good...obviously the dynamic range of rock and pop music is much smaller to begin with...so why squash it even more? I'm getting totally fed up with this loudness thing, it's just stupid. On a similar note: I recently listened to Led Zeppelin 'IV' again (on CD) and what stroke me was the amount of dynamics involved, even within vocal phrases.....

Andi

[sweetness]

Originally posted by John Kurzweg:
In response to doorknocker----When i mentioned that some mixes sound better before mastering I was refering to how some(not all)mixes sound smaller and less punchy after mastering-some get better but due to the never ending "Loudness Wars"thats taken over(or should I say overs?-Ive seen some stuff never come out of the red at mastering),your great mix may be lucky if it survives "making it louder than the other guys CD"-Before the loudness revolution you could feel pretty safe that when you sent something off to be mastered that it would come back a little bit bigger and better-nowadays you have to be more careful.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">i gotta say i dont know how much mastering improves on him. they cant be doing much to his work.

people lean on mastering like a crutch, you turn out a mix that you know sounds a little weak and you hope that mastering will make it sound like a record. and it does sortof.

but his mixes really sound like records straight off the console. they could skip mastering and just press up his workdat.

lucid

ps. mtv killed dynamics. and artistic integrity.

[Matt Zeiner]

ps. mtv killed dynamics. and artistic integrity.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">here,here