Not only do I love the new tips(to me) you give but I love when you confirm my ears. I recently became obsessed with 2-4k on guitars and that overtone noise you mention drives me crazy. On some notes the whistle even sounds like a sine wave. Anytime I try to show it to non mixers they think im crazy. Cutting it with a small q does wonders. I saw you do this in one of your videos and it made me so happy to know I am not crazy with hearing that overtone.
Side Chain Latency: No, I don’t think they’ve figured it out… BUT… I just saw Stuart White explain his trick for getting around this. He doesn’t side chain off the original source, and instead creates a duplicate dummy track (not routed to main stereo buss) that he uses for the side chain. He then manually moves it forward in time by ear until the side chain is acting like he wants. I tried it on my last mix and it worked beautifully.
It’s also helpful to use Steven slate trigger or some other similar program. I bounce out the triggered snare or kick samples, then turn off the output. You get a much cleaner gate key trigger, sometimes drastically better
I know what you mean man with being private, I also was a rockstar drummer (Epica) and introverted, but as the years go by the need to express things more openly grew bit by bit... Now I,m selling my first written (very complex!) drumbook and with that attracting other brands, so public/camera speaking will be part of my life too... You are a very respected humble guy, wish you the best man!!!! Cheers, Jeroen.
Thank you Eric!!!! That narrow Q boost and cut worked incredibly good on guitars!!!! I could not believe how simple it was to get that harshness out. I mean.. Wow!!!
Hi Eric, thanks for your time sharing all this great knowledge by joining the zeitgeist. In regards to your question about delay comp when side chaining via busses I believe that the bus you are using should also be routed to a physical output. PT will (should) then apply the correct timing to the input signal of the sidechain. I make a dummy bus that feeds an aux which is just mute it with fader down. Best Regards, Nat.
Since you started to share your knowledge with us, I'm very surprised and glad that I accidentally share most of my philosophical concepts on what really matters in making records with one of the best ever. Thank you!
Hi Eric, these videos are incredible! Amazing detail. Thank you! My question about EQ significance is two parts: 1. When you want a source to sound like itself, and also blend well in a mix, what is your typical “start to finish” approach with EQ for any source? 2. Second part; I commonly use a $3,000 (Manley Ref. Cardioid) tube large diaphragm and a Neve (class-A, carnhill transformers, etc) on some of my sources. I like to turn the input gain up as much as possible (sometimes 40-50 dB). I find myself having to take out 20-40 dB from the Low-Mid to High-Mid, in order to get my High highs to stand out on that source to stand out. *is taking out this much in those frequencies typical for most any source, for getting high highs to stand out, OR, do you think my signal chain, close-miking, or liberal use of input gain are the culprit?? Bob
Hey Eric! Thanks so much for doing these. I don't know if this is the right place to be asking the questions, but here goes. I have a few questions, two of which are potentially related but maybe not. 1. There have been a couple of instances in which you've talked about using your RCA 77 through an old Altec 1567a and then proceeding to boost all kinds of high end. I too have an RCA 77 and a couple of Altec 1566 pres (stand alone single channel pre very similar to the 1567) and it sounds great but is generally noisy enough that boosting that much high end would be pretty much out of the question for me, particularly on a vocal or something relatively quiet. How are you achieving this low noise level? Have the mic or mixer been modded? 2. (potentially related) I'd love to see an episode on studio electricity/cabling similarly to how you did one on acoustics. Like the topic of acoustics, there are a lot of videos about how to get clean studio power, but you have a way of cutting through the BS and the hype that is helpful. 3. You've made a few mentions of having arranged parts for strings or horns as well as writing out a clav part in one of your notebooks. Can you talk about what kind of training you've had (if any) as a musician? What things come in handy often, and what doesn't? Thanks so much
On the sampling thing: I believe Closer by Nine Inch Nails used (and was inspired by) samples from Nightclubbing by Iggy Pop. Both awesome songs, but very different. Kind of a perfect example of sampling not harming music, but enriching it.
Heya Eric, thanks for getting to my question. Your answer was EXACTLY describing my use of hardware and issues with the latency. Not sure about the S/C issues with PT these days. One of the more recent PT updates did seem to fix some of the latency issues that were common but I don't do a lot of S/C stuff, so not sure if that was one of the fixes. I do know that the latest few rounds of mixes I've done have been much less of a headache than mixes I've done in the past. Will check out the Eventide item. That seems like it might just be the magic beans to get this working a bit better. I owe ya one for the answer.
Incredible videos Eric, thank you. I'd love to hear more about the treatment you've built for your room and barefoot. For example, the tube trap madness- I love it! I don't imagine that you purchased them, you seem like a DIY kinda guy. But did you build ALL of them? If so, how? What's the process? I wanna make some of my own. There's a lot more info out there on diffusers but not the tube traps. Thanks
This video actually inspired me to check out Year 3000 and the production on that is legit, the arpeggios actually have that same nice sheen that the famous acoustic guitar in All Star does. Ooh!
Eric thnx a lot! Your q&a sessions are the most awaited! Have a question for you! Can you dig a little bit deeper on you favourite bass recording and mixing setup?
I appreciate the shout out to Mark from Taking Back Sunday. That dude absolutely beats the hell out of his drums on pretty much all of their songs. Would love to see a Production Deconstruction of “Makedamnsure” or any song off their “Louder Now” record
What's your opinion on using a clicktrack for rock music? If it is used, do you change tempo for different parts of the song (I mean changes in BPM)? Does it make sense for musicians other than the drummer to track using a clicktrack?
Hi Eric, question, would you please share your learning experience with NS10s. How did you learn to interpret them so that they worked for you? Are you able to tell what’s happening below 100hz by the way they’re speaking? Did you ever try the paper over the tweeter “trick”? At what SPL do you find them the most accurate? Thanks and best regards, Nat
Hi Eric, thanks for these great videos. One of my favorite pieces in the indie rock scene of recent years is "tokyo" by Wombats. I know it was produced and mixed by you and the band and I was wondering if it could be a candidate for a near future video.
It would be awsome to know more about the production background of "The Modern Glitch".
2 or 3 days lol it takes me 2 or 3 months, and it still doesnt sound the way I hear it my head. Though, thanks to channels like yours, I am getting better.
I‘ve been thinking about the parallel processing with hardware. Would it not be feasible to send the track you are processing out twice, in parallel, processing just one copy? This way you have real time, phase coherent control about what you are doing, and time aligning the processed track would just be about grouping the two returned tracks and getting the original track and the unprocessed copy to null. I‘ll have to try that tonight, but this feels less convoluted than measuring phase shift in an analyzer...
That is definitely a way to solve the issue for sure. I have done it that way at times. I have an aversion (possibly unfounded) to having the audio suffer unnecessary D/A-A/D conversions. That was the motivation for the admittedly, more convoluted, way of solving it with a precision delay. Good suggestion though!
Hey mate, you said you use precision time align (a plugin?) to help align parallel tracks, until the frequency response settles down (viewing on another plugin?) . LOVE to hear more on this, pretty please!
Curious your thoughts about preamps and specifically the Orion Studio preamps, as those are "labeled" as Class A on the website. Do you feel that they just don't saturate the same as a true outboard analog mic pre? Reason I ask is because I have the Antelope Discrete 8 which is advertised as having both Class A and transformer based grade 6 pre's. Would those pre's give the same character that you've found really gives life to tracks?
What do you find most difficult to handle overall in a mix (low end, FX, master buss processing, etc.) and what are your current methods to deal with it? Thanks for the advice!
Hey Eric! Loving your videos. Just wondering, is there any way i can speak to you more privately? I'm making quite a few videos on Qotsa related topics and i wondered if you'd be up for an interview?
This is crazy. Now that you've told the story, it explains some of the things I remember reading online, that I could never understand. (regarding NOT your identity). Totally unrelated to the actual story, yet a part of the online gearslutz et al ethos, was the "Mixerman" diaries, and the confusion regarding the identity of "Mixerman", who seemed to revel in the same desire for anonymity. There were so many weird chatroom/message board/forum posts that you and the other "Eric" became one and the same, and neither were part of the fraudster "Valentine" whose clientele's friends of friends (and so on) shared stories about the production experiences. Wow.
Avid says that as long as you have their hardware, that side-chain delay compensation works, but in my experience, it still doesn't work. Time adjuster and manual slipping to the rescue...just hope you don't decide to change a plugin on a track.
I had this problem too but it's not the case if you do it properly. The bus you're using must also route to a physical output. Then, the signal going to the side-chain will be delay compensated. Try it. It worked for me. I use Lynx hardware. Hope it helps.
The photo of the con artist holding a shrek record is absolute meme gold.
I'm just glad to see a studio guy outside getting some sun. Good for you! ( and don't forget the sunscreen)
Not only do I love the new tips(to me) you give but I love when you confirm my ears. I recently became obsessed with 2-4k on guitars and that overtone noise you mention drives me crazy. On some notes the whistle even sounds like a sine wave. Anytime I try to show it to non mixers they think im crazy. Cutting it with a small q does wonders. I saw you do this in one of your videos and it made me so happy to know I am not crazy with hearing that overtone.
If someone would time-stamp these, you would be a Champion for LIFE...
Loved it ! Fade to black. That's your longest smoothest fade ever Eric ! 1h30 organic fade. Thanks again :)
Side Chain Latency: No, I don’t think they’ve figured it out… BUT… I just saw Stuart White explain his trick for getting around this. He doesn’t side chain off the original source, and instead creates a duplicate dummy track (not routed to main stereo buss) that he uses for the side chain. He then manually moves it forward in time by ear until the side chain is acting like he wants. I tried it on my last mix and it worked beautifully.
It’s also helpful to use Steven slate trigger or some other similar program. I bounce out the triggered snare or kick samples, then turn off the output. You get a much cleaner gate key trigger, sometimes drastically better
So funny… “I’m totally not visible at this point”. You got a love it. Thanks Eric for the great videos
Awesome! On a EV youtube binge lately, lovin your show! 😁
"i wasn't "stealing your identity", i just sampled it"" lol.
Haha!
I know what you mean man with being private, I also was a rockstar drummer (Epica) and introverted, but as the years go by the need to express things more openly grew bit by bit... Now I,m selling my first written (very complex!) drumbook and with that attracting other brands, so public/camera speaking will be part of my life too... You are a very respected humble guy, wish you the best man!!!! Cheers, Jeroen.
Thank you Eric!!!! That narrow Q boost and cut worked incredibly good on guitars!!!! I could not believe how simple it was to get that harshness out. I mean.. Wow!!!
Hi Eric, thanks for your time sharing all this great knowledge by joining the zeitgeist. In regards to your question about delay comp when side chaining via busses I believe that the bus you are using should also be routed to a physical output. PT will (should) then apply the correct timing to the input signal of the sidechain. I make a dummy bus that feeds an aux which is just mute it with fader down. Best Regards, Nat.
Since you started to share your knowledge with us, I'm very surprised and glad that I accidentally share most of my philosophical concepts on what really matters in making records with one of the best ever. Thank you!
Hi Eric, these videos are incredible! Amazing detail. Thank you!
My question about EQ significance is two parts:
1. When you want a source to sound like itself, and also blend well in a mix, what is your typical “start to finish” approach with EQ for any source?
2. Second part; I commonly use a $3,000 (Manley Ref. Cardioid) tube large diaphragm and a Neve (class-A, carnhill transformers, etc) on some of my sources. I like to turn the input gain up as much as possible (sometimes 40-50 dB). I find myself having to take out 20-40 dB from the Low-Mid to High-Mid, in order to get my High highs to stand out on that source to stand out.
*is taking out this much in those frequencies typical for most any source, for getting high highs to stand out, OR, do you think my signal chain, close-miking, or liberal use of input gain are the culprit??
Bob
Hey Eric! Thanks so much for doing these. I don't know if this is the right place to be asking the questions, but here goes. I have a few questions, two of which are potentially related but maybe not.
1. There have been a couple of instances in which you've talked about using your RCA 77 through an old Altec 1567a and then proceeding to boost all kinds of high end. I too have an RCA 77 and a couple of Altec 1566 pres (stand alone single channel pre very similar to the 1567) and it sounds great but is generally noisy enough that boosting that much high end would be pretty much out of the question for me, particularly on a vocal or something relatively quiet. How are you achieving this low noise level? Have the mic or mixer been modded?
2. (potentially related) I'd love to see an episode on studio electricity/cabling similarly to how you did one on acoustics. Like the topic of acoustics, there are a lot of videos about how to get clean studio power, but you have a way of cutting through the BS and the hype that is helpful.
3. You've made a few mentions of having arranged parts for strings or horns as well as writing out a clav part in one of your notebooks. Can you talk about what kind of training you've had (if any) as a musician? What things come in handy often, and what doesn't?
Thanks so much
I think it would be really cool to see a video of you doing one of those experimental research sessions!
On the sampling thing: I believe Closer by Nine Inch Nails used (and was inspired by) samples from Nightclubbing by Iggy Pop. Both awesome songs, but very different. Kind of a perfect example of sampling not harming music, but enriching it.
Heya Eric, thanks for getting to my question. Your answer was EXACTLY describing my use of hardware and issues with the latency. Not sure about the S/C issues with PT these days. One of the more recent PT updates did seem to fix some of the latency issues that were common but I don't do a lot of S/C stuff, so not sure if that was one of the fixes. I do know that the latest few rounds of mixes I've done have been much less of a headache than mixes I've done in the past.
Will check out the Eventide item. That seems like it might just be the magic beans to get this working a bit better. I owe ya one for the answer.
Would like to see behind the scenes of the first Slash album with all the guest singers, if you can!! Good Vids!
The dave grohl cymbal editing just blew my mind.
The one dislike is Louie
Fuck you beat me to it
Incredible videos Eric, thank you. I'd love to hear more about the treatment you've built for your room and barefoot. For example, the tube trap madness- I love it! I don't imagine that you purchased them, you seem like a DIY kinda guy. But did you build ALL of them? If so, how? What's the process? I wanna make some of my own. There's a lot more info out there on diffusers but not the tube traps. Thanks
Be careful Eric, you may get a tan! :D Thx again for taking the time to answering questions!
Thanks for these vids. How would you approach making MIDI drums (like the Steve Slate Drums VST) sound their best?
I'm recording an album for an old craggly singer and yeah, I rench all day long!! Great channel man thank you!!
This video actually inspired me to check out Year 3000 and the production on that is legit, the arpeggios actually have that same nice sheen that the famous acoustic guitar in All Star does. Ooh!
Someone needs to make a movie of that identity theft story. That's totally surreal and larger than life.
I can totally see it as a "Be Cool" sort of comedy :D
Thanks for all the cool videos you're putting out and for your reply to my quesion!
Eric thnx a lot! Your q&a sessions are the most awaited!
Have a question for you!
Can you dig a little bit deeper on you favourite bass recording and mixing setup?
I appreciate the shout out to Mark from Taking Back Sunday. That dude absolutely beats the hell out of his drums on pretty much all of their songs. Would love to see a Production Deconstruction of “Makedamnsure” or any song off their “Louder Now” record
Its coming :)
MAKING RECORDS with ERIC VALENTINE nice! 🙌🏼
What's your opinion on using a clicktrack for rock music? If it is used, do you change tempo for different parts of the song (I mean changes in BPM)? Does it make sense for musicians other than the drummer to track using a clicktrack?
Hi Eric, question, would you please share your learning experience with NS10s. How did you learn to interpret them so that they worked for you? Are you able to tell what’s happening below 100hz by the way they’re speaking? Did you ever try the paper over the tweeter “trick”? At what SPL do you find them the most accurate? Thanks and best regards, Nat
Hi Eric, thanks for these great videos.
One of my favorite pieces in the indie rock scene of recent years is "tokyo" by Wombats. I know it was produced and mixed by you and the band and I was wondering if it could be a candidate for a near future video.
It would be awsome to know more about the production background of "The Modern Glitch".
I moved over to Studio One from PT and was blown away how much better life can be. Just sayin....
I’m so there. I’m gonna start experimenting with DAWs.
2 or 3 days lol it takes me 2 or 3 months, and it still doesnt sound the way I hear it my head. Though, thanks to channels like yours, I am getting better.
Gold. Pure gold
Thank you Eric!
I‘ve been thinking about the parallel processing with hardware.
Would it not be feasible to send the track you are processing out twice, in parallel, processing just one copy?
This way you have real time, phase coherent control about what you are doing, and time aligning the processed track would just be about grouping the two returned tracks and getting the original track and the unprocessed copy to null.
I‘ll have to try that tonight, but this feels less convoluted than measuring phase shift in an analyzer...
That is definitely a way to solve the issue for sure. I have done it that way at times. I have an aversion (possibly unfounded) to having the audio suffer unnecessary D/A-A/D conversions. That was the motivation for the admittedly, more convoluted, way of solving it with a precision delay. Good suggestion though!
Watching the MB meter continuously grow from the screen capture video recording is giving me a panic attack. hahaha
14:40 god damn this had me dying haha
Hey mate, you said you use precision time align (a plugin?) to help align parallel tracks, until the frequency response settles down (viewing on another plugin?) . LOVE to hear more on this, pretty please!
53:00 - QOTSA drums and cymbals
Curious your thoughts about preamps and specifically the Orion Studio preamps, as those are "labeled" as Class A on the website. Do you feel that they just don't saturate the same as a true outboard analog mic pre? Reason I ask is because I have the Antelope Discrete 8 which is advertised as having both Class A and transformer based grade 6 pre's. Would those pre's give the same character that you've found really gives life to tracks?
What do you find most difficult to handle overall in a mix (low end, FX, master buss processing, etc.) and what are your current methods to deal with it?
Thanks for the advice!
Ta for this Mr.
Hey Eric! Loving your videos. Just wondering, is there any way i can speak to you more privately? I'm making quite a few videos on Qotsa related topics and i wondered if you'd be up for an interview?
He’s not allowed to talk about that
Woah woah woah, back up a sec - did you say the "lingerie NFL league"??!?
This is crazy. Now that you've told the story, it explains some of the things I remember reading online, that I could never understand. (regarding NOT your identity). Totally unrelated to the actual story, yet a part of the online gearslutz et al ethos, was the "Mixerman" diaries, and the confusion regarding the identity of "Mixerman", who seemed to revel in the same desire for anonymity. There were so many weird chatroom/message board/forum posts that you and the other "Eric" became one and the same, and neither were part of the fraudster "Valentine" whose clientele's friends of friends (and so on) shared stories about the production experiences. Wow.
Im interested as to whether you heard the original of year 3000 prior to taking on the project or whether you went in totally new to the song?
T-Ride reunion when
Avid says that as long as you have their hardware, that side-chain delay compensation works, but in my experience, it still doesn't work.
Time adjuster and manual slipping to the rescue...just hope you don't decide to change a plugin on a track.
I had this problem too but it's not the case if you do it properly. The bus you're using must also route to a physical output. Then, the signal going to the side-chain will be delay compensated. Try it. It worked for me. I use Lynx hardware. Hope it helps.
@@natlove219 I have tried that, and many other combinations. Side chain delay compensation is just woefully broken.
Also, how do i send questions for the next WTF?
Mattias Augustsson please add questions to this video’s comments section. czcams.com/video/_LnTIbOk6w8/video.html
Thanks!!
Where is the timestamps guy?? :(
This video is really going to bite you in the arse when that sweet converter endorsement comes your way.
David Harrison they’re already fighting back! that one thumbs down is probably from a converter manufacturer ;)
Haha!
Thankyou Eric!