Mixing Masterclass with Bob Power [MixCon 2017]
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- čas přidán 16. 08. 2017
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In this video, go deep with veteran mixer Bob Power as he takes us under the hood of a real neo-soul mix and imparts decades worth of hard-won wisdom and best practices for getting mixes that leave a real impact on listeners.
Bob is a GRAMMY-winning, platinum-selling engineer for the likes of D'Angelo, De La Soul, Erykah Badu, The Roots, Tribe Called Quest, Macy Gray and more.
This video was filmed at the third annual MixCon and made possible by Soundtoys. Check them out at soundtoys.com
Special thanks to Ester Rada for allowing us a deeper look at her track "Cry for Me". Check her out at ester-rada.bandcamp.com
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See more great videos at sonicscoop.com and mix-con.com - Hudba
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1:55 - start
2:15 - mixing is gain & tonal balancing
3:32 - creating a vibe
3:48 - seeing the producer & artist vision
4:34 - can you hear everything?
5:35 - reflections on all of the below topics
6:29 - dimensions of a mix
10:03 - careful of reference tracks
10:36 - thoughts on mixing for clients
11:45 - trusting your monitors
13:36 - all audio tools can be split into two categories: gain control & ambience
14:44 - what do we do with these two type of tools?
16:38 - genre
17:55 - making room for instruments/resonant peaks
19:40 - do you need to boost?
20:48 - High Pass & Low Pass
22:25 - gain control / compressors
24:23 - tuning (not your job but the producer's)
26:23 - organization
30:05 - presentation of artist Ester Rada
31:43 - figuring out what the mix needs
32:52 - playing the track
35:21 - done playing track
Go on...
Kristian Andreasen thank you!!
Thx!
Wow thank you!!
Major kudos Kristian Andreasen! thx
I cannot believe what high quality content is here for free.
Totally!
CZcams shill
Dirk Diggler haha!!
shhhh dont expose they gonna charge us soon
>For real. I definitely subscribed
This is one of the best mix videos I've ever seen. No bullshit, no egos, just a straight up talented dude doing what he loves. Shares his philosophy, then demonstrates it with a mix. Cheers mate.
Hear hear man. Thinking the exact same thing. I truly learnt a lot of stuff from this. What a great down-to-earth guy!
+1
Paul Anstey t
+2
right. I seen him talk before, but didn't waste a word with this presentation.
1:55 What mixing really is?
6:28 The dimensions of the mix
10:04 About using reference tracks
11:10 The quality of the recordings
11:45 Trust your monitors!
13:35 Building blocks in mixing
14:38 How to use them
16:38 The importance of genre
17:53 Making room: the resonant frequencies
19:39 About the boost
20:48 High pass and low pass
22:27 About gain control: compression and more...
24:25 Tuning and Autotune
26:26 Organization Issues
30:08 About the singer Ester Rada
32:39 BOB'S MIX LISTENING
35:20 General comments about this mix
35:54 About grouping instruments
38:26 DRUMS
41:33 Tips about compression
46:29 Tip about boost
49:00 Tip about how you can listen better what you are doing
50:00 Percussion wich is driving the song (bongos, etc): tape compression and more...
52:18 About ambience reverbs
53:00 ''Snare''
55:41 About harshness and high frequency equilibrium
56:30 Snare delay effects and more...
57:11 Work in touch!!
1:01:14 Hi Hats: Devil-loc plugin and more...
1:05:06 Claps: why use pitch with them?
1:08:16 Shaker
1:08:55 Name your buses!!!
1:09:41 Toms
1:10:27 Be careful with the panning!!!
1:12:01 Be careful enhancing the attack
1:12:51 About using well known tools
1:14:34 Background vocals: eq tips and more...
🙌
Best bit of advice I got from this video:
"Carve up the frequency spectrum to hear things in a mix". Most instruments have a resonant peak. It often changes with the pitch of the instrument. Raise up an EQ with a medium width and start sweeping it through the frequencies until you find the weird bit that really sticks out. That's the resonant peak. Pull back the EQ a little bit on those resonant peaks for every track in your session before starting to mix and you'll find there's so much more room for everything else because those resonant peaks won't be masking the other instruments.
Especially in the range of 100 to 500 hz
This is huge, but not as simple. When I first learned about filtering and subtractive EQ, I thought the more I filtered the better. Turns out that will result in a thin weak mix.
Only filter if it’s necessary. If there’s a resonant peak, but there are no tracks competing with it, I’d try to preserve that information if I have no issues with it tonally.
Its a good idea. But sometimes you can go overboard with about 8 notches for EVERY resonance. And it might even take away character.
If you mute and unmute you can tell what is masking what and remove the one thats masking. Maybe its where you felt you needed to boost the masked instrument?
You can also use a dynamic EQ if you really want I. I remove the resonance ONLY when its actually there. And high Q of course.
Its also one area where eyes rather than ears are useful with a good graphic analyser. You immediately see peaks and get them exactly.
@@MrGeekymusic Always start with the levels, try to optimize the frequency spectrum with them first, and then use EQ if you still don't like what you're hearing.
@@gt3shredz510 Thanks I agree with you - it's the removing of resonant peaks before starting a mix that I didn't.
" My career is a result of my clients knowing that I will work much harder than they will"
My hats off to you my friend
The first part before he went into the song was 100% good information.
it was absolutely golden eh ! Almost prophet like
The Timbre info in respect to depth was mind opening!Bob is dope!!!
but...?
Best rogue presenter ever!
No buts
My sound-quality went way up, when I discovered removing those resonant peaks. Game changer for me
same same
@@redlikewater2453 Get them eradicated BEFORE they hit any other plugin such as comps. dist, reverbs etc - everything will become easier hereafter.
I mixed this using that principle together with parallel comp on anything BUT percussive stuff - the rest bussed and sharing a comp. A more natural sound emerges from this. It's the "Andrew Scheps way" It's a demo og a Korg Mono/Poly
czcams.com/video/jD6HabU5TeQ/video.html
And far fewer comps/cpu-horsepower needed
@@redlikewater2453 no. First high-pass, then de-resonate. :)
This is a basic education in fundamental mixing. Three years and hundreds of videos and VST"s. Ill add 1000's of Recording Sessions to that as well. I 15 minutes in and If this was the first thing I ever watched, Id been where I am today 2 and 1/2 years ago. Putting this on repeat. Thanks a ton for this video.
same here man
True the rest was mainly less is more and do what sounds good
Awesome
Wow glad I clicked this
That's how you know you're being taught by a master. Masters help 'compress' (no pun intended) the learning time.
This was awesome, my major takeaways:
1. Always use high pass and low pass for a clean uncluttered sound.
2. On drums, dip just above the boost to make it snap better.
3. Add some pitch shift down to handclaps to make them meatier.
I actually was struggling with handclaps before, glad to get that tip.
Hats off to the "rogue presenter", who preferred to share brilliant advice with everyone, so we could understand why he does what in the mix later! And thanks to the guys in the background for not cutting him off :)
49:00 the blind compressor A/B test... GOTTA LOVE IT! Mr Power is truly aware of the psychology that goes on in this work. You have to fool yourself sometimes to stay humble enough to actually IMPROVE what you are doing!!!
Watched this to appease the CZcams algorithm. Was not disappointed
Few are! It's a good one. Thanks for stopping by! :-)
Unlimited gems in here. Basically watch this thing 1000 times and you never have to go to school again. Bob Power is a boss!
this man is a LEGEND...a mix god!
"Bob Power, you there?(Yeah)
Adjust the bass and treble make my shit sound clear(echo)"
--Q-Tip, A Tribe Called Quest
btw 332 clowns disliked this video because he wasn't using Fruity Loops smh
I can not believe the thumbs down on this. They must not like the fact that he knows more than they do.
"Do this because of xyz, don't do this other thing because abc" - this is the best kind of masterclass! So much better than other lectures that focus on "me me me my my my, I'm famous because of me me me."
😂😂😂
I come back every year to this video to watch and learn from this legend
"D-Verb...It's so trashy that I've really gotten to like it..." 😂 So much great info here, thank you Bob and SonicScoop!
curtis you're in a wrong section .You make video graphic works man .:D
@@Mixingmachine774 ? Sound for film is my main focus.
amen!!!!!!!!!
@@Mixingmachine774 oo km j o o njmmomk
Not only a skilled mixer but also an excellent and very engaging speaker/presenter/teacher! 👏
Absolutely!
Gonna have to go grab *everything* I can find from Bob now :-)
Bob Power is a LEGEND. ATCQ used to shout him out all the time in their music. I was amazed to find out he had mixed an produced so much classic R&B. I learned a ton from this video. Thanks Sonicscoop
been a while since i enjoyed a session this much especially the first 30 minutes and the rest was a big big bonus
I am back. I Needed this inspiration again today. Love the part making your clients know your listening.
Thank you soundtoys and Bob Power - you speak clearly and with wisdom. Cheers
watched this a year or so ago, it changed my mixing, for the better! soooo much better, thanks man
Stop scrolling through the comments and pay attention
Haha sorry... I will look @ the old guy. 😁
yo i literally paused the video before looking at comments because i was hanging on every word
🙂
😆 Dude, you totally busted me...
Okay okay..... I am sorry 🙏
as someone with 0 mixing experience, this has been so much more than helpful. I look foreword to watching this over and over again.
Just came across this vid. Absolutely brilliant. Very inspirational thanks for this
This is randomly one of the most cinematic, well shot seminar type videos I've ever seen, (that wasn't for an actual movie). Usually these videos looks terrible. kudos to the camera crew.
I could watch this guy for hours. Lots of knowledge delivered in casual way.
Great video! Happy to find quality content after hours of searching.
Excellent work by sharing this, thanks for the knowledge and keep on doing it
An actual free Masterclass, in every sense of the word. I loved this! Thank you for sharing.
"Bongos Bathroom? That wasn't very helpful, so I didn't use it" - made my day!
You the man, Bob!
Thanks for a great maaterclass
Bob Power... Powerful use of fundamentals and a beautiful explanation of what matters most. Killer video walkthrough of mixing done right! Damn glad I found it...Time well spent
That tip for resonant peak was brilliant. Thank you soo much.
This guy is AWESOME! Thank you Bob Power!
Thank you SonicScoop, Bob and Soundtoys ! I applaused in front of the screen... lol ;)
What a great class! I'm amazed by this journey in music and how constant the learning is.
Every single word he says makes perfect sense. I needed to hear them
THANK YOU SOUNDTOYS!!! THAT'S WHY I PURCHASED SOUNDTOYS 5!!
Simply, the best session ever on sound production!
Took 33 minutes to get to a song but it was all gold! Great gems given!
Excellent master class by one of my favorite sound engineers! He gives excellent advice! So knowledgeable! Wonderful tutorial! Thanks for sharing!
Agree with all of Bob's plugin comments!
Good Tips and Reminders! Good pace, not too fast and not too slow.
Very insightful and inspiring lecture! I'm not sure I could ever tire of this man talking about music.
This give me so much more confidence, Its worth watching all hour and 20 minutes.
this was by far the best audio mixing video I've ever seen
49:04 - best tip of this video, and there is a lot of them
Watched this a year ago, and now again in 2019. What a great video. Bob communicates so generously. Thanks again 🙏
Great mind and well explained! I'm glad they let him speak his mind and didn't rush him into working right away.
I truly enjoyed this. I feel like the first 30 minutes was the most important part. Great video!
100% agree mate
Yeah loved that to :)
As well, we can see an api 2500 while he says "guys thank you..." - probably they cut the part when talks about the mix bus.
DEFININTELY!! That first 30 mins set the entire context up for the rest...this was so awesome!
Thanks so much for mentioning Ester Rada! Amazing! (Never heard of her before)
This is probably the best mixing tutorial video I've found on CZcams, yet! Thanks SonicScoop & Sound Toys!
I love this man and i want to thank SonicScoop for taking the initiative and uploading this here for free.
Wow incredible! Bob is a real genius. Thanks a lot.
I was there, it was a truly great presentation. So glad I can watch it again. Thank you SonicScoop for posting this. Can't wait for other videos from MixCon.
Great to have you there! More coming soon.
Real cool to share this info Bob, informative and for the most part, easy to understand. Thank you, great work 👍
He gave so many gems in this video!! You need to watch this a few times.
This must be the most recommended mixing vid on youtube. Definitely mine. The info here is unreal. Worth learning and re-learning. Watched this several times now and its always a lesson. Thanks fellas
this is richer than a mixing mastering class that I paid back in 2019, thank you
"its for them" - you are my very favorite teacher. Thank you
This is honestly one of the best mix lectures I've watched if not the best. I saw it the first time probably in 2018 and knowing I'd revisit it. I should have had it on repeat ever since.
Two things. A) That guy really looks like Tom Skerritt. B) He knows his stuff. What he said about arrangment as "legislating levels of importance for the listener" blew my mind.
I think he looks like John Malkovitch with hair....
And i think he's more of a Jeff Kober look alike...
Or an older Kevin 🥓
he looks like Jeff Bridges more
@@Zebadane LOL Damn. The Dude. The Dude abides.
Have to give props to Bob Powers.
Such a great teacher, who explains with a style easily understood.
Thanks, folks!
Perspicaciously painted nuggets of wisdom! Ted Talk-worthy! Much respect to Bob Power & SonicScoop for this terrific video share.
This was great i have taken in alot and tried new teqnuiques on my project because of this lecture. Thanks Bob!
audio/video quality is unusually good for these kind of things
After watching this and taking a lot of notes, I went back to a mix I started a couple of weeks before and started redoing all the EQing from scratch. I decided to dive back into mixing 3 months ago, since it's always been my weak point in music production. I keep coming back to this video, even just a couple of sentences of his are like a mantra which will let me focus in my next session.
What a fine fellow, and too everyone in the background having done and are doing their part in providing Bob's wisdom to me. Thank you
I had to pause this 15 minutes in yesterday and have been looking forward to watching the rest today. This man explains this all so well. Bravo!
"...and an...auto...release. I don't know. I just got the piece and was messing around with it."
what a legend
Seen this video in my feed for weeks but skipped over it due to length... Ugh, regrets. This is AMAZING. Love the resonant peaks explanation and also when boosting low end, cutting right above. Super neat and simple to use ideas that will really change the mix. Still have 30 mins to go, excited for what awaits.
Honestly can't believe this is free, thank you.
Really smart, to the point and Humble! You could have talked down to everyone, but instead, it was more like a good friend stopped by to help you at home. You make learning clear without the listener feeling embarrassed for not knowing this material. Amazing job !! Thank you for sharing your talent and skills that took so many years to Hone. I need to find more of you on the Web. All the best Ed Genovese Composer
I can't even handle how much gratitude I have in my soul for this absolutely incredible master class!!! Im self-taught and it's been very frustrating to not be able to explain or discuss music with people when I've never been properly trained and educated. Again, thank you so much for this.
Thank you for share this seminars! You are so helpful!
Thanks for sharing the knowledge Bob Powers! So many gems here to learn from & implement. Peace+Love
Great video. Thank you for posting!
Thanks, Bob. This information is gold.
Wow wow wow, great pearls of wisdom from a true master. What stands out as much as anything is the light touch he applies to most everything.
My old teacher
I literally had to pause this masterclass and drop to the floor on my knees pumping my fist, hollering, "Bosssssss!" Because this was just what I needed in language I can understand! Big ups to MixCon, SonicScoop, and Bob Powers. This masterclass lifted me up and gave me the wisdom I needed to move forward with my mixing in confidence.
Great Content for all DJs out there!!! Thank you for this Video!!! :-)
That hour and twenty minutes went by fast! I really wanted to be there but you guys made it possible for me. Thanks Justin and Sonic Scoop for the FREE video on Bob Power!.
THIS IS THE BEST MIX VIDEO I EVER SEEN IN MY WHOLE LIFE
I really enjoyed this and appreciate this being posted. A lot of great tips have either been reinforced, or introduced to me! I took notes and thought I'd share, if anyone is interested. (:
- A great arrangement makes a great mix.
- Tonal Balance: "A complementary, and pleasant distribution of the frequency content between the different instruments so the listening experience becomes pleasurable from a sonic point of view".
- Mixing isn't about the engineer, but making sure the artist is satisfied with the sound, and helping them achieve their vision. You are in service of the music.
- Make sure all elements are heard in the proper perspective.
- Think of the dimensions of a mix in three ways: Top to bottom (Frequency), side to side (Panorama), and front to back (Dimension).
- Learn to trust your monitors, and make sure you learn their sound.
- Genre matters, and not every method of mixing translates to different styles of music. You wouldn't place the kick in a jazz song at the same level as one in a hip-hop song.
- Cut out resonant peaks by filter sweeping with a medium sized Q, until you hear that resonant tone, and cut a few dB out with a narrow Q.
- Attempt to cut more than boost for a smoother mix.
- Hi-Pass at the start of the mix to declutter instruments. Don't cut all instruments at same frequency. Instead, slowly turn up the high pass right up until it begins to negatively affect tone, then bring it down a bit.
- Even though vocal tuning is the job of the producer, make sure to tune within the artist's comfort level, and not to the point of sounding unnatural. Additionally, render autotune to audio to save on DSP.
- ALWAYS Backup. Use two drives. Work on one, and backup to the other. ChronoSync is recommended. Also, save version numbers at 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, etc. This allows you to go back to earlier mixes, if necessary.
- Use mix busses to have quick control of level and processing to entire groups at a time. This makes mixing quicker, glues instruments together, and saves on computer processing.
- When boosting low frequencies, cut a little just above the boost to make it snap better and prevent from accentuating resonant frequencies. "...Benefit of 100Hz without the woof that's just above it"
- With plug-ins, if you have a setting that you think is working but you want to mess with it, save it as a custom preset first so you can go back to it, as well as easily A/B them
- With any plug-in, and especially compressors, close your eyes and toggle the bypass button the hear from an objective perspective whether or not what's being done is desirable
- With compression on percussive elements, use a slow attack and a fast release. Fast attacks will squash signal too much and suck life out of performance, and slow releases will take too long to "recover back to zero before the next hit comes". This also allows attack of hit to naturally pass through while bringing the tail down, which we perceive as a louder attack by bringing down the sustain level.
- Remove unnecessary high-mids on instruments that don't require it, even if it doesn't sound bad on its own. This clears up the high-mid space for other instruments, preventing frequency clashing.
- When automating plugins, work in touch rather than using drawn in lines. This gives a more human, musical feel, and is actually quicker as any automation that doesn't work can simply be undone and attempted again. "Fuck those lines". lol
- Delay with an increasing feedback just before the chorus can create excitement. Adds kinetic energy.
- Reverbs and delays do not require high frequency content, and should be filtered (high-cut) to allow for focus to be on direct sound.
- Throw: When a signal is sent to an ambience generator just for a moment.
- "Psychoacoustically, if one thing is even a little bit louder than the other, and you play both of them, you will think that the louder one sounds better".
- With claps, adding a pitched down duplicate will make them sound more powerful by adding mid-range boost.
- Even with vocals, cutting the mid-range can sound a little more clear and remove some harshness.
Best compression explanation ever, for me anyways. Also that eq stuff was enlightening
watch this like once every couple of months as a refresher and re focusing tool. bob Been had the sauce
I'm watching this to refresh my knowledge and skills acquired 5 years ago in audio engineering school. This is really a good video!!!
Resonant peak… THAT’S what it’s called. And… taking away frequency competition. Brilliant stuff. Oh, and, now I’m gonna find a Devil-Loc. Thanks for sharing all this stuff!
"ultimately, a great recording is a compelling performance of a great song"
enough said
This is the best mixing video I have seen on CZcams. Thank you Justin and Bob
Wow! so much information to learn in a CZcams video and I'm not even halfway done. Thank you for uploading and thank you Mr. Power for sharing your knowledge with us.
I've done a ton of recording over the the past 30 years and this is one of the best talks I've ever heard. Very very good stuff! Time Machine should be turned OFF when recording because it'll steal CPU cycles and hard drive/SSD speed. Turn it back on when done. I agree with manually backing up all music projects to multiple drives - I have four.
Don't make the mistake I did and put your hard drives too close together. They have internal magnets that can damage and corrupt other hard drives if placed too close to one another.
@@masteroutlaw100 That's good advice!
Amazing. Easily the most useful, informative and detailed mixdown example i've seen online. This guy knows his shit, and I love how he covers it all. well in for the video
Thank you for your points on Jazz. Especially about that Kick and the point of mixing in genre base. Have a great day. Thanks SonicScoop for these videos. it was stated that Bob Power was a good teacher. Yes, I must agree. I am a more descriptive learning. I love pictures for my mind to understand.
I'm so glad i stumbled upon this talk
On a side note, that production is amazing! I might have to add this song to my playlist