This is the secret to every great mix (parallel processing)

[@andrewhuang]

Hope you found these tips helpful! Let me know of any other topics you'd want a video on. Thanks again to Baby Audio: babyaud.io/ Here's my new album: fanlink.to/AndrewHuang-DustAndDewdrops

[@Trickster7916]

Thanks for the amazing content as always! I'd be interested in any insights you had on correlations between oscilloscope sample views and the (perceived) quality of plugins. For example, do 'higher quality' plugins produce a perceivable difference in oscilloscope readings compared to 'lower quality' ones when fed the same midi information? The golden rule always remains 'use your ears', yet there are certain underlying 'industry standards' when it comes to acceptable quality transitioning to quality music. Figured knowing a method of determining quality would be more useful than just being told the most used plugins in the higher music industry echelons. If you could make content related to this, that would be great! Thanks for your hard work always!

[@jimlampshady]

I clicked the link to your new album, then stopped at the point I realised I would have to pay for it. Please consider giving your music away for free. I believe the gifts you would receive in return would far outstrip the financial revenue from sales.

[@BenLowther]

@@jimlampshady You're joking right? Please tell me you're joking! What are these "gifts" exactly?

[@pqlr8763]

The sub-low-pass chain for phaseless frequency splitting is a wonderful tip, thanks, Andrew! Would love a video on how to make glassy/marble-ball reverse glitch transitions - for instance, like on Ochre's album 'A Midsummer Nice Dream', or on the Plaid track 'Wallet' - the way it envelopes the drum hits. I'd like to know how to set it up and control it... particularly in Ochre's case. Thanks again and keep doing what you're doing. Greetings from Moscow ❤

[@NasnuvenPaulo]

Hey, Andrew, how u doing? I’ve just been called about a winning prize by a profile in your behalf. Your name, your official pic, 5 followers… is that really you or may we be talking about some scammer?

[@pyromaniacbridge]

I've been making music for 25+ years and have had a career in professional sound design for about 13 of those years. Despite all of that experience, almost without fail, I learn from your videos and they make me want to go make things. I sometimes don't even get all the way through the video before I have to go make noise. A great record makes me want to make records. A great youtube video makes me want to go put parallel processing into all of my songs that don't have it. Your videos are a constant inspiration. Thank you for that.

[@derrincalk9579]

Check out Night a new album released by Johho

[@switchezgdc]

Agreed 🤌

[@BrianAndersonTT]

This is why mixing is a science of its own, just like composing and sound design.

[@Lance_G]

10+ years here, and I couldn't agree more🙌

[@DrumAndSpaces]

I've only been making music for about a year. All self taught so not great but I enjoy learning with videos and playing along with them. It's good to know I'm on the right track if I feel exactly the same way as you after 25+

[@theovergoat]

The tip with shaping the bass while paying attention to phase, and the sends tip were golden! I really appreciate that Andrew exaggerates a lot of these effects in these tutorials at first before dialling to taste, because it's easy to hear this way. There's way too many KZbin tutorials where the presenter doesn't accommodate for this and they end up making a bunch of really subtle and tiny changes that are not obvious for those with an untrained ear/not listening with a professional setup. So it's no exaggeration that Andrew has taught me the most out of anyone on KZbin over all these years, and continues to even today!

[@averagebedroomproducer5008]

tbf the processed side of the parallel should be exaggerated otherwise you're just blending more dry/not fully wet signal in which is phase issues galore

[@wired-up5677]

That mr.bill phase trick is fire

[@hughharsher]

You should check out Mr. Bills channel. His stuff is next level

[@Acolytemedia]

Been watching Andrew for years but only actually checked out his music recently. He's a fantastic and diverse producer. Massive respect to the dude.

[@andrewhuang]

Ahhh thank you for listening 💖

[@Alkatross]

That new album Dust and Dewdrops has been on repeat.

[@JacksonSadinsky]

That phase flip tip :o you’ve always got some really sick tip in there for those who’ve been around for years, I really appreciate you making music creation accessible.

[@PieterLaroy]

That phase flip tip doesn't seem to work when I set it up?

[@ElPita17]

same here

[@rist98]

If you mean the splitter he tried to make with EQ eight and a utility, he actually made a bell shaped EQ boost. Because he put the Utility in the wrong place. You want to put it in the chain called "EQ" not the one called "DRY".

[@rist98]

Im not even entirely sure its a bell shaped EQ he made. Either way, it wasn't the splitter he intended, and I explained how to make the splitter he intended.

[@ElPita17]

@@rist98 you're right, that fixed it, thanks! :)

[@LivingTimmy]

Love your 'forever a student' comment, because even though I've studied music and mixed my own stuff for a while now (by no means as a professional haha), I'd NEVER thought to have used polarity flipping for splitting out lows and highs without affecting phase. Such an awesome wee gem in that piece of knowledge alone! Fantastic examples in this video too! ✌

[@Officeninja428]

I love baby audio! Out of all of my plugins, I reach for theirs the most glad to see them show up here!

[@Standbackforscience]

This video should be mandatory watching for anyone trying to mix, good grief, so much useful info, so clearly presented, in so little time.

[@TheOfficalAndI]

I've been using the frequency split trick for bass sounds for quite sometime. But the idea with a low and high compression/distortion send for mixing is damn good. I will definitely make use of this very heavily from now on. These tips are dope, I hope people will pick them up.

[@rawalshadab3812]

Any tips? I'm gonna try doing parallel compression. Do I just make sends with different EQ filters and adjust the levels of the send or is it something else?

[@rawalshadab3812]

@@pappasierra703 I don't know much about it but I watched Dan Worrall's videos on parallel compression. They were very comprehensive and had a number of tricks relating to things like Delta signals and notch filters. Gonna try those as well.

[@rawalshadab3812]

@@pappasierra703 Nice. Thanks for the clarification

[@TheOfficalAndI]

​@@pappasierra703 I always prefer sends on post, as it keeps the balance between dry and wet sounds. If at some point you like how many high frequencies there are in a sound (by using the send) and later have to change the channel volume to improve the mix, your previously dialed in balance would change with a pre-fader send. I did boost both sends a bit with like 3 to 10db so I can go nuts if I drastically want to change the sounds timbre.

[@cloudifulmusic]

that applying same LP filter and flip one's phase to achieve parallel without phase issue is so 🤯🤯🤯

[@andrewhuang]

Assign both cutoff points to the same macro knob for easier adjustment too, and save the rack as a preset :)

[@5methoxy]

thank you for introducing ‘ihny2’! just the type of plug-in I’ve been looking for. also minimalistic enough for my squirrel brain.

[@kennethsmith5383]

Bruh, the bass treatment...going to be my go-to!

[@Makker_1]

Andrew is such a good music producer! 👌👌👌

[@mrotaveria]

and a good teacher

[@whatskraken3886]

He’s a good producer but not a great mixer tbh

[@mwood1618]

Don't sell yourself short buddy. You are a pretty good KZbin commenter as well!

[@zian3694]

How do you know ? I think he is just a good youtuber.

[@theaddictofgaming9174]

@@zian3694 You know by listening to his music. It's not that difficult

[@lassorb4752]

Andrew your production value is world class - both audio AND video

[@jimwideboysullivan3165]

Great tips Andrew. Love the MIX POLISH tip in particular. Been in the industry for 30 years and still learning from you. Many thanks.

[@Itsanasmusic]

Wow! I always LOVE how much you go in detail on EVERY TOPIC! I’ve been learning about parallel for a year and it never made as much sense as it does after this video. AMAZING! Thank you Andrew🙏🏽❤️

[@justinbouchard]

Thank you for this. I've always felt like I've been missing out one some mixing techniques. This is perfect. Please do more? Love from Ontario :)

[@jimmyced4419]

I think I finally understand how parallel processing works now. Thank you Andrew!

[@martymo2]

Always love seeing Andrew in the background when Andrew is talking… great video as always!

[@majdmonther840]

Man thsee tips are awesome!! Huge respect for sharing it for free .. it seems to me that as you're getting more confident in your game and musical brand you're sharing bigger and more complex processing. I mean there are a lot of mixing engineers out there who wouldn't even consider to share any of these things (like the parallel bass process). They sleep on it like it is a treasure they need to guard. It takes a lot of confidence in what you do to share it in detail without being too preoccupied with how you can profit from it or how someone else might "steal" your process. Thanks a lot for sharing. Great stuff!! 🍻

[@SundayVibesmusic]

Thanks for the hard work in getting these videos out! Much needed tutorial!🔥🔥🔥

[@mcdan2696]

Brilliant! I agree! Base should always be dry, but equalized so that the kick does not get distorted!

[@ramizian]

Ableton is just so good when it comes to parallel processing, great video!

[@pauljs75]

On 5:22, some software like LMMS using sends is really the only way to do parallel processing with FX. Otherwise any FX put on a channel runs sequentially through the stack. (Although each effect has a W/D control, it's still going to the next FX on that channel.) To parallel you basically put instrument(s) to an FX channel, then use sends on other FX channels to parallel from that, and possibly recombine in a final channel. (Sends work at the FX channel rather than instrument level on that software. And don't forget to disable send to master on channels not considered final output.) That's no-budget music making without having to go to the high seas; awkward, but it does work doing it that way. There's probably some portion of those watching that may find that info useful (hope it was explained well enough), otherwise not knowing that there is a way to make the process work with that particular program.

[@Thorrison]

I got super lost in the reverse phase bass stuff but I will have to try some of these. I'd been using compressors with wet/dry mix but I hadn't done separate sends for delay and reverb, for example.

[@juntapao]

Wow, I did not know I could do this kind of stuff. As a beginner, I also learned the dynamics of send busses and their functionalities. Thank you for sharing this information.

[@realBlueMoonMusic]

I go to Full Sail University and this is one of the first things that they teach in my degree program. Utilize sends to put all the effects in (minus dynamic effects like compression and such)

[@maxflailer]

This is unbelievably helpful holy moly

[@birviva]

Andrew, What a amazing new background lighting you’ve got over there! So atmospheric 😍

[@NonTwinBrothers]

Ah man I'm in love with that pink light

[@steven_porter]

That lo and hi send trick is gonna come in real handy on the track I'm working on now. Thanks for the ideas!

[@mantenbrink]

Wow this video gave me even more drive to create then usual. Once I get more time on my hands I really want to rediscover music creation and I'm thinking about buying a first analog synth once I figure out how to easily send it midi or sound from a daw and bring the sound back at the same time.

[@vgmandstuff1381]

Great video! Lots of tricks here and there that makes me want to do more music. Composition-wise I'm in love with the little glide arp in the last track, hopefully that comes out soon if it hasn't already!!

[@andrewhuang]

The last track is on my new album, link in the video description!

[@retepclips]

YES! ive been struggling with mixing for quite some time. thank you

[@yasseford]

This video is amazing. Really see the value in using the rack over sends now.

[@kiimvenus]

youre the best andrew, the best thing i found on youtube was your videos

Almost everything you talked about in this video is suuuuper super simple in FL Studio, all effects in FL have this Mix knob automatically. Also the phase stuff is really easy to do in the basic sampler in FL

[@juanuribe8876]

Awww man, as time goes on your videos just keep getting sharper and sharper with the content and with the production omg

[@WhereDaDuckAt]

great timing for mixing my new electronic EP "Andrew".

[@mrmooch2163]

This was a great video for parallel compression. Finally think I can understand it

[@ArnthorPhotography]

you always leave us with some cold nuggets, thank you Andrew!

[@flake8382]

A lesson on how you set up side chains and frequency blending would be helpful. This teaching format is great, thank you!

[@mariusnitzbon8215]

Thank you Andrew for the detailed insights! It is the most useful and inspirational video on mixing that i have seen so far! lots of love to you ❤

[@animaxiiima]

Great video Andrew however I have to correct you because the phase invert trick is NOT RIGHT. If you invert the phase of the "DRY" in the subchain it will separate the highs from the lows and thats fine BUT then you will end up using the inverted phase of the highs and the original phase of the lows. It can cause problems especially in the crossover frequencies of the high and low bands and it's not a phase perfect solution. The good solution is the same but you have to add another phase inverter utility after the whole "EQ / DRY" subchain to invert back the phase of the "HIGH" chain to it's originial phase. Then it will be perfect. Hope this gets to you or other people who will use this technique. Awesome video thank you!

[@HazyJ28]

So weird for you to upload this, as a few days ago I did a stream where I implemented parallel reverb on my snare bus. In FL, you side chain to a different mixer track, connect them using fruity send, put the effect on your sidechain track at 100 percent wet, then blend it in using the dB fader on the mixer. This will also prevent the effect from moving downstream. This is useful if, say, on a drum bus, you have a compressor, but you don't want a reverb effecting how the compressor reacts. Well, in parallel, the reverb won't move downstream, and it won't affect the comp.

[@MYSTIC5925]

BABY AUDIO PLUG INS ARE SOOO GOOD! I use the spaced out plug in in almost every track

[@jonathansamuels5630]

Excellent breakdown of parallel processing. The depth of your knowledge is crazy. 👊🏿

[@Ventanty]

I think it's very smart to do more extreme examples. Sometimes you see other people trying to do very *subtle* stuff and the viewer might not always pick up on that because 1. They don't have the ears you do. 2. It gives of a more genuine understandin for beginners trying to learn the basics, rather than making them do it like pros. -which they aren't.

[@AaricBeats9]

game changing. learned something special

[@nickjohnson398]

The phase flip trick for splitting the signal is next fucking level, I've seen so many people recommend this "signal split" idea but I'd have phase issues every time, also stuff like this is why I mix in Ableton, imagine trying to conveniently do this in protools lmao. Thx a lot Andrew!

[@awaiout]

i tried it, and dry signal track with no effect is different from split track, don't know what's wrong

[@awaiout]

so, it won't sound the same i think

[@peterrostgaardbojesen5790]

Great examples, Andrew - and clever product placement from Baby Audio - I just bought IHNY2 immediately after watching your video 😂

[@deanerdaweiner3829]

Patcher in flstudio is so powerful for this, i like using it to isolate the delay for sounds

[@JaesNSC]

So, so, so useful. Thank you very much

[@LesSondiers]

Pretty cool tracks and tips ! Thanks !

[@danielschenker9874]

9:05 This is funny, because is other genres the opposite is usually done! In metal, the highs and mids are often distorted , while the lows are kept clean but are heavily compressed. This way you get a very agressive bass sound, but you get a very stable foundation in the low end that doesn't lack clarity.

[@smartassrecords]

Very articulate , sending students to this .

[@cpt.white96]

Always love getting new producing tips!

[@ringsystemmusic]

I came up with this idea or something similar independently earlier this week and have been having tons of fun doing a generative twist on this in VCV Rack where the computer decides which FX to blend together. That’s how you know it’s a good idea- someone came up with it before you did!

[@MistyMusicStudio]

Eyyy I'd been using some of these tricks for a hot second but never had any terminology for it haha. Thank you! I am going to have a way easier time explaining to students why the mix knob on a compressor / FX / etc. is so important lol. Phase inverting the bass EQ is a super neat trick 😮 Fantastic saturation on that master 👏

[@flake8382]

These are the lessons we actually need. Yeah I can record and mix... But processing signal levels and effect chains is hard! Cheers champ!

[@AlexLong98]

This channel has the best for educational content for producers by far

[@antnycruzr]

SHARING SECRETS?! Love this! Ableton is not great for send flexibility as you only have 12 for the whole project, so duplicating tracks or using the effect rack is incredibly useful!

[@sleepysloth847]

Just wanna say the studio lighting is a VIBE

[@klausmuller2352]

Phase Flip tip by MrBill 8:15-9:00 one of the beste Ableton advises of my life. Combine it with a Makro to set the frequency boom you have a clean splitting tool 🤯

[@BdrumMerX14]

that mix one so simple but affective

[@francistomalik]

Yeah, baby audio's legit as hell

[@noahvandenabeele]

Hi Andrew, thank you for this tutorial, really great. Especially the section from Mr Bill, splitting up the low and the highs. However I think you should put the utility plugin with the switched polarity on the EQ effect and not on the DRY effect, otherwise you do a polarity switch and the sound of high and low together is different. I just tried it out and this was my experience. Thanks again anyway for this great tutorial!

[@TheOfficalAndI]

There's one inaccuracy: Parallel Frequency Bands with LP/HP in nonlinear phase mode ONLY work without phase-shift, if you use 6db/oct filters. -> You can't do that with stock ableton plugins. It only has 12db/oct filters minimum. Phase shift however isn't the end of the world, if your changes sound good, that's a good reason to keep them.

[@BodyOfPlayMusic]

Mid side + parallel is my fav

[@ReeseWitherknife]

New York compression is specifically adding a high and low shelf EQ to the paralell signal.

[@Telesko]

I learned to do this right from the first thing I ever mixed but I didn't know it had a name or was anything special. I was just told this is what people do. I guess I had a good teacher

[@IamABee]

I STILL LOVE UR SONG “pink fluffy unicorns dancing on rainbows!”

[@samstevens4390]

Andrew! Please do a video on cymatics! I am in love with the phenomenon and love your content. Andrew Huang + Cymatics = 🔥💥✋🏼🤯🤚🏼💥🔥

[@static-san]

Wow... you cover so much in this! Definitely the first time I've genuinely understood parallel processing - will be using that a lot more in my own tracks. P.S. Love the lo/hi phase trick.

[@lostimpanis]

Isn't this idea similar to Fl Studio's Patcher? Patcher is able to send the original signal and seperate, combine, and adjust the send of effects/vsts.

[@gerardfabisch]

Nothing new "mixideaswise" but great teaser tracks in between. Especially liked that piano keys snippets beat at the end, great stuff!

[@benshaminmusic]

Really cool tips, I can seriously improve my mastering and I really need to try some of these tricks out! I really like the lighting in this video and the last one. Also, I am looking forward to last Theory Thursday's follow up video, I can't wait to hear what everyone else came up with!

[@EclipseAtDusk]

Oh hey I just did this for a contest on Emily Hopkins’ channel! Three layers of the same recording, each processed differently to make a rly cool & dense but distinct mix

[@danibee535]

nice video, thanks. i think you'd be really interested in dan worrall's videos on parallel filters - he goes really in depth on when to worry about phase and when not to.

[@itsHavvik]

The Parallel frequency segment 😅 Solved a problem I knew I had, but never understood, if you know what I mean. Gonna try to do that in FL ⭐️

[@collins_channel8643]

Autotuning the reverb sounds interesting. Gonna try it out!

[@coreyano]

In ancient culture there is a compliment to the 4 elements of earth, water, air and fire. Those are the 4 states of the elements: hot, cold, dry and wet. Ancient science!

[@AnotherDimentionRadio]

You are the best. Thank you so much!

[@mhidday]

As always thanks bro, genius!

[@RegebroRepairs]

Heh, I discovered parallell compression through lazyness. I had just gotten a mixer with many sends, and I felt a vocal track needed compression, and I had no insert cables, and didn't feel like digging around behind stuff to rewire it, and thought "Ugh, why can't I compress on a send? Heeeey.... maybe I can!?" I've never tried using multiple things in parallel. I'll try that.

[@diegomora_02]

That phase trick is priceless

[@Darksagan]

12:15 this beat slaps. Although I am familiar with these, I really liked the plugins you used and the way you explained them.

[@andrewhuang]

“Cloud Loops” from my new album, a fave of mine :) Link in the description if you wanna listen!

[@stadiagamer9689]

04:33 That "I've been" vocal part gave me big Katatonia vibes

[@WesMott1994]

Oh god multiverse Andrew is back. Spacetime Vol 2

[@amicarla]

Seems Dan Worall is setting the trend recently. I like your audio bits Andrew!

[@stripedelicstudios]

Thanks for the great video! You rock!

[@jadedragon469]

So instead of routing all general effects to aux like reverb and delay standard am I routing every dry track into a new buss(not sure if cakewalk has independent fx chains) with those effects? Using cakewalk and want to make sure my fx chain or parallel compression is in the right place! Thanks for help! Great video on the bass much needed info!

[@ChasMusic]

Thank you. Some of these techniques (like the phase shift) are more advanced than I feel I can master, but the basic concepts of parallel processing (and your demonstrations of it) are likely to improve my mixes. ¿What about splitting out the kick into a separate track so you can set a different compression level for it with regard to the other percussion?

[@andrewhuang]

Yup you gotta come up with whatever solutions serve your track. Drums might be combined in various sub busses before some or all go to a larger buss. And/or every individual element may get its own (parallel maybe!) compression

[@hamacaboy]

❤❤❤❤❤the king of production Andrew Huang

[@robertsteinberger]

Oh oh Andrew's messing with time crystals again

[@NemoCee]

So, on the master buss, Andrew (and community), are you using an effects rack with a dry and 'fx' chain and that's where you put the taip plugin? Or how is that master buss parallel processing setup? Thanks

[@andrewhuang]

Anything with a dry/wet not set to 0 or 100 is also parallel

[@NemoCee]

@@andrewhuang thanks homie, great content all the time, really appreciate it.

[@djbeto1]

awesome tips...thx so much!

[@amandabear64]

Gonna go ahead and edit my default scene to include those high and low sends and save that phase flip frequency separation thing as an effect rack

[@a.rad_music]

Man I love your videos. One of the reasons I switched to ableton

[@slash196]

Hi lo send is a good idea, will try that out on projects going forward