Joe Carrell - Mixing With Subgroups Part 2: EQing & Stereo Widening | Plugin Alliance

In the second part of the series, Joe Carrell continues to break down his hybrid workflow, showing you how to use EQing and stereo widening, after applying saturation and compression to subgroups and stereo masters.
Watch the episode to learn how to dial in the EQ on group vocals, add dimensions and realism, and make use of the famous 'Pultec trick', using some of Joe’s favorites like AMEK EQ200, Lindell TE-100, Maag EQ4, and the Bettermaker EQ232D!
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[@TheFrankiejay]

This guy, Joe Carrell. I just love how he explains stuff. Sometimes with plugins and mixing, it is not about having the most expensive ones but more about knowing WHY you are using them and HEARING the end result. Joe explains the WHYs so clearly and teaches you to HEAR within/inside the song. Master teacher 👍🏿

[@scoremix8556]

yup. Its alwasy about hearing and why one does something. Gear is largely meaningless withouth those two important parts.

[@leoperl]

Joe you are the goat! i could watch mixing tutorials with you forever. thanks for keeping it interesting and relatable

[@GaryNorthants]

Cool video Joe. It's always a privilege when someone lets you inside their thought process. Thank you

[@Fateline70]

This is exactly what plugin alliance must do, thank you Joe, you are great.

[@groutfinger1]

My whole recording and mixing process is changing and actually becoming clearer. Thank you.

[@vancenichols9490]

Yes! Both videos in this series have me feeling empowered and ready to take my productions to the next level! Thanks so much!!!😀

[@PluginAllianceTV]

We're glad to be part of your journey. Thanks and enjoy your sessions!

[@sampotiittanen5092]

Thank you for Mixing With Subgroups videos! I would love to see next level also.

[@bo3751]

Love all the Joe Carrell videos, he has a great way of explaining and showing of some of his tricks. Please keep them coming. And of course thanks for quality plugins.

[@PluginAllianceTV]

That's great to hear. Thank you so much!

[@TonjuwelenDeAgentur]

I wish I had a teacher like Joe Carrell when I started being an engineer. If this guy starts an Audio School I will joyn right away... Even though I´m 60 Years young :)

[@luckyjonesmusic]

These two videos have been EXTREMELY helpful for me. Thank you Plugin Alliance and Joe Carrell!

[@PluginAllianceTV]

You're welcome. Thanks for the great feedback!

[@theleviathan89]

Joe is the greatest. Always inspiring and enlightening.

[@PluginAllianceTV]

Absolutely agreed!

[@zacm6173]

next level understanding from this video and the previous one ✌️

[@PluginAllianceTV]

We're very glad to hear that. Thanks for the nice feedback!

[@OverdriveMusic]

Bought the Millennia EQ thanks to this video and the 14 day free trial. Used it on my vocal bus yesterday. Took a distant sounding vocal and placed it up front in the mix. Gain matched them too. Great plugin

[@PluginAllianceTV]

Thanks for the great feedback and sharing your experience!

[@ms6465]

Man, you are the best. Thanks a lot for these videos.

[@arenbie30]

Don’t get me wrong I absolutely Love Plugin Alliance plugs but you gotta have a good recording from the jump to achieve this!! Great Vid as always!! Happy Mixing Folks

[@maxuno8524]

I waited for this video for a while. Thank you for making me aware of the SPL Iron. Best thing since TMT.

[@fotispolychronopoulos6267]

I started mixing bottom- up, it took a lot of time being focused to one element and then move to the other, resulting to lose the whole picture and needed a lot of time to pause and revisit. I changed to top - down, then i was fighting with my choices, tweeking something again and again. Then i moved to use templates, then all mixes had the same colour. Finally i ve found my method, some months before ive watched this video and it is very similar. I put all the tracks in the session, i arrange them to groups and subgroups ( drums are one subgroup but they go together with bass in the rythm section group for example), i choose channel strips for every instrument and i start mixing from the groups looking to the bigger picture, then i move to individual instruments and when i like what i am hearing, i move to make master buss process. Then i m ready to move ro the final results. This way i have in one to two hours better results that i had after a day otherwise. I never finish though so fast, but i have more time to make changes and different versions and i dont have headache and frustration

[@Rgdonaire_07]

Left handed mouse user. That’s new for me. Great teacher this guy.

[@spn7594]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/pavdYYCclNmWosU in this video, he was right handed 😅

[@anthonycunningham4598]

This has been a tremendous help! Thanks Joe!

[@frankybass72]

man, you are absolutely great. I love your videos and your way of explain things. I learn a whole lot much with you than i do with others. Your videos are fantastic, you are a master. Thank you so very much

[@kadinsongsessions]

Super useful video for helping to take my mixes to the next level using PA plugins. I really love the results after trying this myself. Great job Joe and P.A. crew!

[@PluginAllianceTV]

We're glad it helps. Thanks for the awesome feedback!

[@GoodVibeTribe]

Joe is the best!!

[@RabbitintheMoon]

Joe is my favorite on these videos... so much useful info

[@PluginAllianceTV]

Thanks for the great feedback!

[@pascalmerschaudio]

Love your Videos Joe

[@humbertocruz5952]

You heard Mr. Carrell; "Create Your Own Sound" Not His!! He's one of the TOP Engineers teaching others on how to become audio engineers. I enjoy listening to his advise. Great Work!! Mr. Carrell👍👍👌👌😁😁

[@RayFerretti]

My two favorite Joe Carrell quotes: "Don't think that a plugin will change the world." "Mixing better is not about a plugin its about a thousand little things that you do, some of which are plugins. If you base your whole mix on a certain brand of plugin your going to be frustrated a lot."

[@PatMcGuireMusic]

Wow, what a great video to watch and tutorial. Learned so much and really clarified some things for me I've been working towards. Thanks Joe and thanks Plugin Alliance for some great sounding tools.

[@PluginAllianceTV]

We really appreciate the awesome feedback. Thank you so much!

[@ragingblues8852]

Great job as usual Joe. Thanks!

[@SonoraFilms]

Hi. Please the part 3 🙏

[@Lasantha.]

Waited for this..thank you for this tutorial series ❤️

[@PluginAllianceTV]

Thank YOU for the awesome feedback!

[@gearforest9746]

Thank you for this great episode! 🎉 I learned a lot here.

[@PluginAllianceTV]

That's wonderful feedback. Thanks for sharing!

[@umanoid1523]

I just picked up the black box and the iron compressor on sale. A lot to learn. They already sound sweet. I have one of the lower-end bundles for the synths which I won't do again next year. I've already bought everything I liked over this year and next year will try out their mastering and mixing bundle. I've sort of been already fumbling my way through doing what you're suggesting when I start to mix/master my own tracks. I gain stage gradually and ad some eq and compression where needed on subgroups. I have a submaster and sweeten that a bit as well..always checking the gain. Then I add the rest on my master. Atthe beginning of this year I just started using Master desk which I love. Now I'm looking at how to use the new toys instead of or in addition to. I'm at that point where I'm still hitting the master bus with a sledgehammer instead of being subtle but it's definitely improving. watching the two tutorials gives me a better concept of where to adjust and to keep it subtle.

[@PluginAllianceTV]

We're glad to be part of your journey. Thanks for the amazing and elaborate feedback!

[@allpdmusic]

Another awesome video! Joe is such a great teacher.

[@rickdeaguiar-musicreflecti7692]

Another wonderful tutorial. Thank you Plugin Alliance and Joe Carrell :)

[@PluginAllianceTV]

Thank YOU for the nice feedback!

[@sgfdancecompany]

Great Tutorial Joe, thanks so much for sharing your knowledge

[@kurtm6345]

Thank you!

[@andrewchristman2981]

Always great content. Thanks and keep up the great work.

[@PluginAllianceTV]

Will do. Thanks!

[@ambrocado]

Always learning from you.👏🏼

[@kennyglod7]

Thank you Joe! This has been a great tutorial for me, and I’ll be sure to try this technique on my next mix.

[@mrfleamino9350]

nice one ,thank you

[@kickdust4499]

Nice video man 😎

[@jameshenderson6014]

Game changer

[@elmonje2254]

GREAT STUF!!

[@PluginAllianceTV]

Thanks!

[@TheGurner1]

Great stuff Joe! It's how you use them ;-)

[@khalilroukoz]

nice video! awesome workflow!, much appreciated sir! I use to saturate and compress first but i found dynamic EQing prior works great as well, in terms of shaping and controlling bands prior to pushing em in tape or comp, so ex: less top harsh freq jumpin out or such ...etc no Cheers

[@PluginAllianceTV]

We're glad it's helping. Thanks for the nice feedback!

[@khalilroukoz]

@@PluginAllianceTV my pleasure! PA rocks as usual 🙌

[@TicscoCampbell]

JOE IS HARD MANNN !!!

[@Erix77]

Great vid indeed👊

[@PluginAllianceTV]

Thank you so much!

[@youfkntubez]

Love those two videos. Very informative! Thanks - Just one q? : what are those monitors next to your NS10? Cheers

[@AlfaSamdong]

thx master

[@BelAnuRa]

Hey Joe, your tips had enlightend me much of these Plug Ins :-) but let me know if there will be a part3 of it ? or please tell me for what is that 4th row in the sub groups, starting with shadow hills, elysia mpressor and so on ?

[@InTheMixJoeCarrell]

Thanks Rob. I believe those were just other choices I could pull from on that row. We are indeed discussing more videos soon!!

[@francoisbouteau881]

I 've got plugins one by one thanks to plugin alliance and I think all are necessary. With that kind of treatment I hesitate to try it and be tempted and buy it. I'd rather win and be under the spell.

[@iam-music]

Yep, I have watched a couple now...in agreement...great teaching vibe Joe. Would have been nice to have gain matched comparisons (as louder is always better...right? hehe ;-) Wow, I find the vocals way too far out front and so clean and clear its like lost some cohesion with the rest of the song; well actually it feels like its in a different space and seems quite diff to the intro mix on Pt1...if thats ok to say (and my very humble 2c). I think having such razor sharp tools can make it easy to go too far. Im translating on a couple of monitors and keeping yt compression in mind though. Great knowledge Joe...thanks for sharing it so freely...and elegantly.

[@echoheadband]

Where do FX enter in to the flow here? I’ve seen other setups where the FX are kind of outside of the “groups”. So, like, a master reverb and delay, for example. I’m thinking of and Andrew Scheps style setup which, if combined with this setup, would have vocals, for example, being bussed out to reverb and delay prior to and outside of the vocal subgroup. With a setup like this, do you keep vocal FX within the vocal group all being routed through the vocal subgroup? And, of course, guitar FX are maintained within the guitar group and all routed together to the guitar subgroup and so-on?

[@AlexOlivari67]

Great stuff, thanks John ! Do you route the reverbs and delays to the according subgroups as well or do they go to the master bus. Thanks, Alex

[@InTheMixJoeCarrell]

Great question Alex. I do typically route the drum verbs to the drum bus and also the vocal effects to the vocal bus. Occasionally I do throw things around and where they land is where they land and I don’t really worry about it. If I do multiple groups for the guitars, keys, orchestra, etc., I do usually return all of the “band” effects to just one of the groups. This is because I tend to throw them around on everything to tie a lot of elements together in the same spaces. In my personal template that typically all returns down to Guitar bus. I know there’s a little bit of a trend for all of the Reverb to only be used on a specific stem, Group, etc, but I am old school in many ways And like to freely throw things around to the same effects on the fly as I feel it. Hope that makes sense. Have a good weekend!

[@AlexOlivari67]

@@InTheMixJoeCarrell Makes total sense and thanks for getting back. Applied some of your tricks in my mixes and it works great. Since I write, track and produce at the same time, I try to keep it as simple and organic as possible. Best, Alex

[@WisdomHouseCreative]

Would you typically do high and low passing on individual tracks as part of your level mix? And then do the group processing?

[@truthseeker3650]

what plugin you use to widen tracks?

[@srinip]

First off, I love this video and your other one about choosing a channel strip; and my apologies if this is the wrong video for this question, but here goes. I just bought the SSL 4000e plugin, and assigned it to each of my channels in my latest mixing project in Cubase (all amateur home stuff, I assure you!). Since I'm not such a technical hotshot, I like to use presets, so while I was setting up for the drum premix, I found a preset for the snare track. Then, when I pulled up the preset list for the hihat track, lo and behold, the snare preset was highlighted. So I scrolled to find the hihat preset, then went back to the snare track and, guess what - the hihat preset was highlighted. Am I missing something? I'm guessing there is a way to get the presets assigned to each channel to remain fixed until I change them. It doesn't seem like every channel should be forced to use the same preset - am I wrong? Thanks in advance, and once again, sorry for potentially asking in the wrong place.

[@PluginAllianceTV]

Preset management is handled by your DAW, so that's hard to tell from KZbin. For assistance with technical questions and reporting bugs, please contact our Product Support: support.plugin-alliance.com/hc/en-us/categories/10092720300829-Product-Support

[@srinip]

@@PluginAllianceTV Thanks very much. I will contact Product Support, but just to confirm, if everything works fine, I should not be experiencing this issue, right?

[@srinip]

@@PluginAllianceTV Update, and thanks very much for the link. I did contact both Plugin Alliance and Steinberg, and embarrassingly enough for me, after a computer reboot, the problem went away before I got a response from either of them. So I'm good now. I do have one more rookie question, if that's OK. Does it matter where in the insert chain a channel strip plugin is placed, ie, first in the chain, pre or post? Thanks again!

[@1TeamDrip]

Link to the song that plays at the beginning?

[@PluginAllianceTV]

That's Chase Goehring, "Mirror". kzbin.info/www/bejne/gKHHZH2LrK2msNU

[@lk0707]

What's your desk brand and model ?

[@InTheMixJoeCarrell]

I really don’t know the model. It’s an Argosy That was originally built to hold one of the larger Avid controllers, but when those went away it was adapted to hold four bays of standard outboard. It’s been around for a long while!!

[@omarmiranda4987]

I'm curious which sample rate you're working on? Although we are listening on 441 on youtube.

[@InTheMixJoeCarrell]

I believe that song specifically was 24.48. I feel like 95% of what I get in here is. I occasionally see 96 or even 44, but 48 is still most common by far.

[@omarmiranda4987]

@@InTheMixJoeCarrell thanks for your answer Joe¡

[@prophesiedgnar5809]

Name of the song?

[@ProducerGio]

He needs more adjectives in his vocabulary. I need a better description of "more better".

[@InTheMixJoeCarrell]

Haha. More better baby. Like better except even better 🔥🔥