Mix/Mastering Engineer Luca Pretolesi - Pensado's Place

[@RichardRosiles]

you should have a small section in each episode where the guest shows like a 5 minute pre-recorded tip from their studio, like their own little ITL

[@mitchiemasha]

Digital Boy... THE MOUNTAIN OF KING!!! When America had hiphop we had Luca... The sounds of Europe was massive in rave clubs all over the NE of England.

[@BorisRio]

My favorite episode so far. The man has so much knowledge to share! I'll have to watch this over again a couple times.

[@MaxSebastien]

DIGITAL BOY in da house. This guy was my idol in the 90s

[@d_lala]

is he in his late 50s ?

[@RominaJones]

That was so good, one of the most informative batter boxes I've seen!

[@23Brettski]

My "WoW Moment"...the PONG SCREENSAVER @ 8:10 on the SSL screen...awesome!!!

[@roylilly6534]

I had to stop the video halfway through and say that I am so happy to see Pensado's Place.. Dave and Herb, get so big. You guys are such a massive inspiration .. this whole thing! I have been involved for so long! You guys are so good, And have taught me soooo much. Stay safe guys! :)

[@j00hnnyandr3]

One of the best episodes, learned a lot from Luca!! Thanks!!

[@EvilEvil66]

One of the best interviews by far! A real wealth of knowledge. And a keen perspective on modern engineering.

[@eclecticmethod]

such an insane amount of useful information packed into this. Luca's approach is innovative to everyone

[@scotthstevenson]

More EDM guests and info please. I reckon over 80% of your subscribers are EDM Producers !!

[@scotthstevenson]

Hey morbidmanmusic, my comment was 3 years ago so I meant EDM as in electronic dance music and not the god awful genre that it eventually became :)

[@stevewessel2448]

3 yrs? not that big of a change since 2014. Good job on copping out when some one questions your preferences.

[@ChemiiOneLegacy]

Best guest you've had for me. Really great to have a dance music producer/engineer who actually knows what he's talking about.

[@iandyha]

this one is seriously a gem...

[@zionherbert]

Whole video great wisdom

[@Diro04]

Great episode. So much information. Comeback-episode as soon as possible. Big up from Italy!!!

[@rasi_rawss]

From the gear to the workflow, it always makes one feel good to know that pros are doing it your way too. Excellent interview, guys. Time for tha rewind!

[@ryderbach]

F-ing Legends in the zone, I love the way he very hesitantly and quickly says ‘I replaced some of the kicks’

[@DjKingMorice]

I wish I could be in the studio and watch him work !!

[@carljung4733]

this is great for more advanced viewers! good stuff.

[@clintnelsonengineer]

That ITL was awesome!! Dave and Herb just keep getting better with this show.

[@DJDMass]

very good show!!! tons of tips I can use as usual...I know alot of DJs that need to see this one.

[@theokoustas]

Wish this one was longer!

[@thegroove2000]

Luca some amazing insights.

[@HardballsRecords]

Luca - what a great guy !

[@JoeLSoL]

Wow, all those UA Apollos in the Blackbird Academy lab. Too cool!!

[@SuperFear83]

wow this is a great one for anyone working in electronic and dance

[@mlrdmn]

Really great info in this in the last third!! Wow separation!!!

[@ursulabetty8441]

I worked at Nyquist studio with their engineer Raz Klinghoffer, best mix engineer I've worked with so far

[@DynastyUK]

WOW!!! LOVED THIS SHOW!!!! :D Luca is awesome! Thanks!!!

[@MarkKlett]

Great show as always! You guys should really get Joey Sturgis on the show! He worked his way up from nothing with very little gear to putting out some of the slickest metal tracks ever created! He's an inspiration to up and coming mixers.

[@neeratron]

amen. Joey, and Acle. look him up Pensado ppl..

[@josephstar8568]

Excellent episode thanks so much for educating us :)

[@FTMuisikTV]

Incredible Show Bdw!! Love his Major Lazer and Snoop Lion Mixes!

[@TimeMarchesOn]

I'll be re watching this one again, some sweet tips.

[@luffegun]

the SSL has Pong as a screensaver. thats the best!

[@SoStrauberry]

You both are the life version of the real producer/engineer's bible…keep on good sir's

[@crixtention]

This is finally informative on the technical tip.

[@wizmusicproductions]

My brain may have exploded from this one... SHEESH!

[@gdansk12349]

Great great episode!👌🙌

[@Geffimusic]

This man is a genius at mixing

[@iamtraviscleveland]

Great show! Yall NEED to interview John "The Yoshman" Jaszcz. He is a beast!!!

[@philzacharias5126]

Great episode! Nice guy and refreshingly open regards EDM mixing. Was a little confused about the last third regarding low end eq though - Was he saying High Pass Cut the Sub or the Kick at 32hz? and then High Passes the stereo stuff at 150-200hz?

[@studiolivkba]

Highpass everything at 32Hz is standard and great. No subs can play lower really and this keeps the bass cleaner and add room for headroom. The 150-200 Hz highpass at stereostuff is to keep bass mono and keep it cleaner.

[@edgararana2404]

So proud to be Luca's friend he is indeed a pioneer and somebody I support and admire!

[@crisisbliss2462]

What is the technique for making particular frequencies mono as he talks about at 46:00 and is he doing this on tracks, busses or the master output.

[@brendanwalsh4615]

There is many ways to do this it just depends on what you find to be the easiest and most efficient for yourself. In this example he is using busses, but you could also do it on individual tracks or even the master. He has all of his tracks sent to a mono buss and a stereo buss which both have a mid/side equalizer on it. On the mono buss the mid eq high pass filter at ~32hz and low pass filter ~300hz. On the side eq high pass at the highest frequency your eq goes (say 20khz). This will clear the sides of any sound and only allow sound in the mid up to 300hz, which will give you the desired low end mono effect. Alternatively you could use a mono eq on the mono buss with the same settings as the mid eq above. On the stereo buss use a mid/side eq. On both the mid and side eq he has a high pass filter at ~300hz. He also boosts the sides in higher frequencies to get an airy and wider effect. Using 2 busses as explained above is imo making this technique more complicated than it has to be, but the only way to explain the entire process. If you use ableton you could do this easily all on one buss by using an audio effect rack with 2 chains (1 mono, 1 side). You could also do this on one buss if you have a multi band tool that can split the frequencies.

[@crisisbliss2462]

Brendan Walsh Thank you for the feedback but, if you have the time I need you to walk me thru this step by step. I've never used the Mid/Side features of an eq before and I'm getting lost. Here is what I interpret you as saying. 1. Send all the Tracks to Buss A, which will have a Mono output. 2. Send all the Tracks to Buss B, which will have a Stereo output. NOTE: The only source of sound I should hear at this time is the outputs of Buss A and Buss B. If I mute Buss A and mute Buss B, I should hear nothing. 3. On each Buss, I will place 1 eq. 4. On Buss A I will set the eq to MID and apply a high pass cut off at 32hz and a low pass cut off at 300hz 5. On Buss B, I will set a the eq to SIDE and apply a high pass cut off at 20khz---- NOTE: At this point it stopped making sense to me, so I tried out this arrangement. I bussed my drums tracks and bass to one output, I'm using Logic, so I sent them to a summing stack, which effectively is a buss as it is the output for all the tracks contained therein. I turned the output of the summing stack to none, and created a Send to Buss 1 and a Send to Buss 2 , both set to unity gain. On Buss 1 insert A, I applied an Eq and set it to mid, and inside the mulitband eq set a low pass filter at 300hz. On Buss 2, insert A, I applied an Eq and set it to side, I did not engage any of the eq bands, instead I made insert B with a high pass filter at 300hz. I liked the sound that I got but I'm not sure that I achieve the result I was trying to get. For one I don't if just setting the eq to mid or side has any effect if you don't change the eq band width. You know its just too many parameters to set and know what they are supposed to be doing

[@TunnelPipes]

Did anyone notice Dave's shirt changed at the end?

[@kicksncapz]

To Luca, Big question, who is the smartest singer you ever worked with sonically, who knew thier instrument the best(?voice, what it needed) asking all the engineers

[@lalala3342]

Great one! I can't understand the name of his favorite plug-in at 50:55, can someone tell me what it is?

[@werochingon]

same with me... my guess UAD fatso

[@PRSOne]

K100 He says early in the interview that he does a lot of sidechaining with basses. He just doesn't sidechain dubstep (wobble) bass, which makes sense.

[@PawelWalentynski1]

I thought Skrillex was mixing/mastering his own tracks... We dont know which tracks exactly were done by mr.Luca... and was it just mixing, or mastering or both.. Any clues?

[@lequidbit9385]

Love his approach and technique but this video was a promo for his acustica/dmi plugins

[@MilenaEtc]

what's his fav plugin?? @ 50:55

[@pietrocuniberti518]

how can you spread a mono signal?? i use this technique too but on the guitar STEREO buss. it woks very well

[@TheColonyRed]

LOOOOVED IT!!!!!

[@ErickT_MX]

48:48 Batter's Box

[@mahdimachfar5948]

he talked about parallel clipping, any ideas how its done ?

[@meekyoumadethis]

That's crazy that he worked on a SSL Matrix!

[@RTCLR123]

Why? I know his setup rn, but i dont get why is that such a difference? He has probably tons of control in current setup, that is for sure.

[@bobbybloomfieldproducer]

Is this video mono?

[@OneTanMan]

It is for me. I was listening to the guitar widening part (at HD quality) thinking, "man that's subtle". I recorded the audio into a sample editor and the left and right channels are identical.

[@bobbybloomfieldproducer]

Reid Oda phew!

[@DavidPiccinelli]

Reid Oda loooool I was thinking the same about the guitar widening!! now I undersand : )

[@MrMusicalee]

Yes it is Mono, no changes in width.

[@BeppeRadvik]

great stuff! :D

[@FreshnessStudio1]

thanks a lot guys

[@johnnycdiaz]

Anyone tell me what was his "island " plugin of choice? Can't make out what it was, phats dvd 5 zero?

[@QuabmasM]

Oh I see you already saw this interview. This was where I first heard of this dude. Its a Fatso(he said UAD Fatso...UAD makes it) and there didnt used to be a plugin for it but there is now(its based off vintage hardware). Something similar to the UAD Fatso is the PSP warmer plugins.

[@johnnycdiaz]

yeah i think i might have that its called Vintage Warmer? does that work? im laughing cause it didnt take me too long to find out he was talking about fatso after I made that comment. I guess it was how he said "UAD" that really threw me off. Thanks for the response. I know I cant afford UAD anything at the moment but I can say after seeing his hardware, I noticed the specific model he has is the UBK-Fatso if I am not mistaken, its yellow. *For those who are interested reading this, Kush is a plugin company who makes a decent UBK-Fatso emulating plugin from what I have read.

[@QuabmasM]

Johnny Diaz Yeah the vintage warmer does very similar...its all about algorithm but they designed it to be similar(or so my ears say). Imagine using Pepsi to make an ice cream float instead when the directions say Coke. I lusted for a fatso vst but i dont believe in magic tools. The closest thing to magic tools is definitely in the vintage emulated vsts or buying the expensive hardware but the funny thing is how close one can get to emulating a certain thing once they understand the tools they have and the many techniques at our hands. "Getting there quicker" is what its all about though as well as getting closer to the sound you were going for. I dont find fatso to have so much character uniquely that the PSP vintage warmer doesnt have. Flip the fat switch and drive the signal and use your parallel techniques and you could probably trick the ears of anyone swearing by the Fatso. Vintage compressor vsts and the coloring emulation hidden in them is about as magical as mixing tools get for me....that and vintage reverb emulation made to sound like the lexicon 224. Other than that, everything has an alternative. Guard your pockets my friend. Im fine still using Izotope 4 in an age when its already on like 7 or 8.

[@owenadams2217]

2:32 - Pong!

[@ilziojimmy]

An intresting ITL about placebo effect...

[@8alz]

This is waaaay better with music.....Listening to some Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works at the same time. I'd highly recommend it.

[@thewakz]

Great stuff, this is GOLD! We use parallel tracks most of the time, using it to split stereo while maintaining a nice mono signal and the original sound. Take a listen to our latest, the Katy Perry remix for an example.

[@treztracks]

So the last ITL was a joke or what?????

[@kaldun2124]

Lol is it only me or the ITL is in Mono?

[@LizGotcha]

Got distracted by the SSL pong though...

[@K100music]

Being a dubstep/whatever producer I find it very odd he doesn't sidechain the bass :( I've been doing it wrong this whole time!

[@andrewhopewell3439]

Either the Bass or the kick has to win you side chain in other genres so the kick can keep the beat pumping but dubstep is mostly about that sub bass so you don't want to mess with that too much

[@K100music]

Andrew Hopewell hmmm 98% of my friends who are producers sidechain everything to the kick and snare. And also in masterclasses with some of the biggest names in the business like Culprate, Reso and Funtcase they all do the same thing.

[@K100music]

***** I'm not sure I understand this comment :/ Sidechain compression is a mixing technique is it not? And he said he didn't do it at all.

[@kako191919]

Hey everyone, Let me know what you think of this mix. It seems like everyone has this common over all sound and I'm not sure if its because of mixing or what. I mean this track sounds I've heard. Let me know what you think. Thanks a lot! soundcloud.com/kakoapproved/the-bloody-beetroots-ft-peter

[@javiernajar1457]

Gimme a fat beat!

[@cowlegoblonski]

Luca’s from a parallel universe.

[@KrzZproductions]

Enlightened haha

[@DjKingMorice]

ITL :)))))!!!!

[@K1nkyD1sco]

"Commercial EDM" has been around for age's even before the mega american pop stars decided to bastardize it. Lets be honest here. At the point napster was born, CD sales were declining. When people were able to rip and copy cd's for their friends, cd sales began declining. At the heart of it all its about integrating these cheesy lyric pop fools into a system they can pull money from. If anyone know's what dance music is really about, they know for sure its not the cheesy bullshit the industry has forced it to become. Thankfully there are people who still have it in them to be original. Greedy American white labels will NEVER own everything.

[@seen632]

i disagree with side chaining the bass in dubstep , it can sound good it your kick is subby

[@cowlegoblonski]

HHaha I have a real one I have a real one

[@neeratron]

Is there any Pensado episode which is NOT informative as fuck and is boring?

[@forsure2283]

Why did it take the American mainstream audience so long to catch on to Dance Music? the rest of the world's commercial mainstream listeners were onto it from 91-92, they kinda missed out on the best part i.e. the 90ies which is sad.

[@atmosphreal]

😂😂😂 8 minutes only kick and snare

[@aarvin1]

This guy's mix sound very harsh on the ears :S Ouchhhhhh

[@EvilEvil66]

Don't know what you are listening on… but his mixes are amazing on my near fields and in the club...

[@aarvin1]

Listening on a monitoring environement which alerts me when there is harshness. There is none of this painful stuff on tracks like : "SHM - Don't you worry child" .... and yet it sounds and feels good everywhere, including the clubs.

[@cidalopez6964]

what kind of monitors are those at the back??