EVERYTHING Paul & Ed Learned About Mixing & Mastering In 2024 (Working Audio Tools Podcast S8 E10)

[@mixphantom0101]

I've been making the "no new gear" New Year's resolution for over 30 years! Eventually I realized that it's all part of the "studio circle of life" so there's no point in fighting/denying it... eventually if you want something new you can usually find a couple things to sell to fund it. I'm sure you'll agree that you don't really know how valuable hardware or software is until you've lived with it for some time. Anyway, it sounds like you've both got your priorities straight so the "shiny new objects" will need to improve your quality of life more than pure "audio vanity" (nice one!). Happy Christmas guys!

[@WorkingAudioTools]

🤘🤘🍻

[@switchtwista2464]

So glad you guys took the time to address the elephant in the room as regards gear etc. Expensive gear does not equate to good music and mixes in itself. Not at all against people being rewarded for hard work with perks of the job, but for those who are on small budgets you can still put out excellent mixes with what you have. Translation IS the key! You just need to figure out where the weaknesses in your current setup are and build in workarounds. Don't lose heart just because you can afford nice gear. These days a lot can be done in the box and for free. Have a great Christmas one and all.

[@WorkingAudioTools]

🤘🤘

[@heddshot87]

Not being able to go down in sound quality as easily became real when I got my L30 mk2 and Sundaras recently, I don't even feel like listening to anything else! EQ was really necessary, though, I got them to a damnear chefs kiss balance 🥰Thanks Paul I feel truly confident when mixing now thanks to my latest investments.

[@WorkingAudioTools]

🤜🤛

[@PresentDayProduction]

Happy Christmas dear chaps! Keep up the great work in 2025 🎉❤

[@WorkingAudioTools]

Thanks, Mark and James. Merry Christmas too. Wishing you all the best!

[@riasure]

I enjoyed hearing you both speak so honestly and it definitely has given me food for thought and kinda made me more reflective. Thanks guys for the value you bring and the hard work in producing great content. Wishing you both the very best for 2025 and beyond.

[@WorkingAudioTools]

Thank you. All the best for next year 🍻

[@echothenatives]

An awesome ride! Thank you gentlemen!

[@WorkingAudioTools]

It’s been a hell of a year! Thanks for joining us.

[@interaktiveaudio]

Sonible is a great sponsor congratulations 🎉

[@WorkingAudioTools]

🤘

[@crossbonet]

Merry Christmas lads. Glad to see you have both finallly gotten over your G.A.S & are focused on making the most with what you have. Now go and focus on marketing and promotion for your studios / services so you can continue to keep making great music!

[@WorkingAudioTools]

We will!!! 🤘

[@damienowens242]

Merry Christmas to you both and thank you for your honest and down to earth pod cast. Good luck for next year boy’s

[@WorkingAudioTools]

Thank you. Merry Christmas.

[@UncleBenjs]

🔥 Another banger. You guys inspired me to improve my workflow over the last however many weeks. Cheers!

[@WorkingAudioTools]

Glad to know we've helped!! 🍻🤘

[@natdenchfield8061]

Merry Christmas and Happy Hogmanay Ed and Paul !! Eggnogs (and a Buckfast) all round ! Cheers !

[@WorkingAudioTools]

Merry Christmas, Nat.

[@jeffburling7224]

Id love to see Paul dive into his Studio One tracking and mixing workflow in 2025

[@WorkingAudioTools]

We may do a video each discussing our whole workflow process

[@jeffburling7224]

​@WorkingAudioTools I'd love to see how you organize your sessions, whether in Logic or Studio One. I'm rocking an RME adi-2 pro FS R as an interface/DAC using low latency monitoring in Studio One for tracking and Hifiman HE1000se's. This being happy and working with what you have discussion is super important...even with the RME (which is overkill for what I use it for) I have slight FOMO with the high end topping DACs and coming from a gen1 Apollo Duo Thunderbolt should I even have wandering eyes for this anyway ? The point being I create so many BS excuses to not get to work and write / record & mix. Great discussion as always.

[@WorkingAudioTools]

Only thing that should be concerning you is your results. If your mixes are translating and your clients are happy then your setup is good enough. It's just really about bettering workflow from there on

[@bobbyweezer]

Shit got philosophical at the end there. Cheers fellas, keep up the great work 👍👍

[@chrisdover8507]

Paul buy the Audioscape sta-level. High quality bargain imo. Merry Christmas guys. I’ve got 6 rack space to fill in 2025. Another 10 slot for starters. Wes Mimas and Dione for drum parallel is possibly happening. Can’t have enough 1176 or G comps imo. Nothing will beat the c1LA though! Godly

[@WorkingAudioTools]

I agree - Paul should buy the Audioscape Sta-Level! Their D-Comp is KILLER too. I’m loading up on Wes Audio gear. It’s really good gear! So versatile! Defo check out the Rhea. Unbelievably good sounding compressor. Merry Christmas.

[@WorkingAudioTools]

The kiive/audioscape plugin measures WAY off TimP's vari level which I use in every mix. I trust Tim more than anybody when it comes to nailing the hardware so I don't know if it's audioscape that is way off the retro or kiive trying to model the audioscape. I adore Tim's vari level and only want that as an option for tracking which for me would be the retro as I know Tim doesn't stop till it's indistinguishable from a measurement and sonic perspective. but retro is 3 and half grand which I can't justify just for tracking when I've got Tim's

[@infojunkie4989]

@WorkingAudioToolsare they making the V-comp in 240v yet? Audioscape are great. Looking forward to their 670 clone.

[@LightsandMotion]

I´m waiting for my Audioscape Sta-Level (deluxe) now. I hope it's a good one, I've never used one!

[@chrisdover8507]

@WorkingAudioTools I don’t think I’d be judging Audioscape on a plugin. I personally have a huge amount of faith in Chris Yetter. I call him golden ears. Reach out to him and have a chat about it. He’s the one who answers emails. He’s a perfectionist imo. Even resorting to buying quantities of NOS to get units right to the original. Their Sta-Level has a good credibility imo

[@glebglub]

as an owner of beyerdynamic dt990 pros, I do agree, on that the only reason I bought them was bang-for-the-buck, i.e. *they're cheap entry-level with a decent soundstage*. I knew going into them they were overly bright but that's just a case of EQing to get them closer to harman. they're HORRIBLE stock and fatiguing etc., but for £140 with an EQ correction curve, they're pretty solidly soundstaged and good enough for starting out. going like £100 more (I forgot what for) or a similar price, you get a better stock frequency response (that you STILL have to EQ anyway) but you lose the soundstage. iirc the cheapest I found that were close/better at stock were £600, but for that you can get the Ananda Nanos AND a pair of DT990s, so you got both types of driver technologies to work with, 2 budget/quality targets for translation, and £20 left over for some Greggs sausage rolls :P of course I could have gone for a £30 pair of Superlux HD 681 but the last pair I had crumbled to pieces in no time lol

[@sylegg]

Another great episode guys. Q I’ve got a good treated room and want to use either the arc solution or the ma1 as last bit of Eq treatment and As you both have used both what would you go for. I’m using Neumann kh80 speakers

[@WorkingAudioTools]

If you already have the Neumann KH750 sub use the MA1 system. If not ARC is a lot cheaper. MA1 calibrates phase alignment with the subwoofer. ARC does not.

[@sylegg]

@ thank you 🙏 only got the kh80 rooms too small for a sub think I’ll go for the ma1 as it’s designed for the kh80

[@WorkingAudioTools]

If your KH80s are the DSP versions you’ll be able to run the MA1 system (I believe). As far as I know it’s not a stand alone software to run with their Analogue speakers.

[@CookinBeatloaf]

People often miss the nuance when they parrot without experience... Brightness does change PERCEIVED brightness, which is a very important difference I like both of your opinions on audio because I've come to the same conclusions when I've spent time with the same gear. I did buy the dt700 pro x and like them for what they are, bright durable studio headphones that would never recommend as main mixing or mastering headphones. And again there is a difference in implied nuance, studio to me means durable, serviceable, and reliable, not objectively or subjectively tuned to a target

[@srgzbltch2249]

While I agree that you shouldn't buy excessively expensive gear to achieve a result, in some cases, you can't afford to settle for inferior products. For example, in Turkey, spending less on lower-quality hardware or software may lead to the need to spend money repeatedly. It's similar to the concept of buying cheap mass-market clothes, where you ultimately end up spending more. In Western countries, with a more developed second-hand market, you can try different things without the same risk.

[@WorkingAudioTools]

True but it all depends on how much you can afford at the end of the day

[@infojunkie4989]

My goal for 2025 is to build the ultimate rack. 100u that is fully motorised so can access all the gear without moving from the sweet spot !!! 😂

[@WorkingAudioTools]

Isn’t that called Access Analogue? 🤣🤘

[@infojunkie4989]

@ I’m going to call it the depths of hell! Will be filled with the best saturation and distortion boxes going. Access Analog is a bit lame. Not a lot of kit to choose from. But I do wish they’d resell their control packages to enable recall retrofit to one’s own kit. That would be a killer set of products they could sell by the truckload!