Pro Mix Engineers' Secret Weapon

[@HomeStudioCorner]

▶︎▶︎ Ultimate Recording Checklist: www.homestudiocorner.com/checklist

[@zorlak2006]

Just a heads up, all your links for free stuff redirect to the vocal course page and you can't never get them. Thanks a lot for your videos, I've learned a lot!!

[@tmwmanning5500]

Measure twice, cut once. Saves hours of turd polishing down the line. Thanks for all you do, Joe. GIRATS for life!

[@michaeltablet8577]

Lol. I measure twice and cuss three times when it's wrong.

[@MOSMASTERING]

An old friend, who is a fantastic musician, but knows nothing about production, sent me some tracks to mix and they were recorded so badly they were unusable. I thought if I could just get some good drums then I could work with that . I politely told her that I think they could be better. She got super angry, told me her drummer had a perfect pro setup and her band all knew what they were doing. Basically, I was an idiot.. she even said another producer had turned out an incredible mix.. it was a disaster. Threatened out friendship and I never did any work with them again I listened to the track that was released and everything had been replaced with samples. I really care about my mixes and sound. I'm a producer over musician and I obsess about quality. If I had worked with the tracks I would have been upset turning out substandard work.

[@RealHomeRecording]

You made the right choice.

[@drinkinslim]

When you say everything had been replaced with samples, did that result in a great sounding mix or a bad one?

[@devon-graves-studio-D]

True that! I had similar experiences. In fact I am astounded at how bad of drum sounds can come out of actually good studios. I have decided to only take on mixes that I record. Unless the source tracks are good to begin with, and that is an increasingly rare thing. The winning mix engineer will be the one with the best sample library. I have a home studio setup but my room is treated really well and I have great mics that I know how to aim. Also a generous analog front-end and I get an excellent drum sound even in my home studio. I find myself turning my nose up to drum recordings done at "proper" studios because even there, the recording process is overstepped.

[@oshamo833]

@@drinkinslim i will like to know too

[@MichaelDaviesMusic]

Coming from someone that has recorded for many years. Probably the Best, if not of one of the best Recording channels ever!

[@Ray-um3if]

Hi Joe, I recently finished working through your mixing course. I then went back to a song that I wasn’t happy with and re-recorded nearly every part, a lot better, and now I almost don’t need to mix it. G.I.R.A.T.S. works.🍻🎸

[@cleverdood]

A great track starts with the performance. Always. You could record a great performance on a phone speaker and it would work.

[@wayne1581]

Hi Joe, I have been down that path for sure. These days we have great tones going in and the mix is much easier. Not much is required. We are basically getting on the recording what we hear in the room monitors. I always wonder what is the right way to do things. It is great to hear for you the confirmation of we are doing is a good way. Thanks!

[@AJDOLDCHANNELARCHIVE]

100% agree - sh*t in, sh*t out... applicable to many fields.

[@BRANDONSOZO]

Yes this is literally the single most important thing! I definitely learned this the hard way 😂

[@perfasting4342]

Great, Joe! As always 😊!

[@Werockpso]

Just a shout out , one of my fav songs ever is “the chorus” by Frankie B,your production is pure perfection! Just a fyi

[@arinin77]

Thanks for the tutorial.

[@MikeFromDownUnder]

Thanks for sharing this! 👍

[@pb3662]

Its also why a decent mic in the right position is the start of a good recording and post people just place it where ie LOOKS right vs SOUNDS great. Nice mic, with nice pre and a little EQ/Compression on the way in and you will get a great performance from your musicians and not have to do a lot "in-the-mix". If you need to record an unprocessed track for a guitar go for it but if you want to record everything without any eq/comp then you dont have a vision and will struggle to get a great result in mixing.

[@raybeeger1529]

He is so right!

[@Uatu-the-Watcher]

GIRATS!! :-) Thanks for everything, Joe.

[@KingsleyChim2u]

Hi,Joe, Thanx for the mixing checklist. PLs can you make a video on how to structure or arrange your song including the principles guiding your choice of what sounds to include or use. thanx again.

[@michaeltablet8577]

Excellent video!

[@nomoresaul]

I still like my alternate acronym “GRAS” better lol (Get it Right At the Source) Can also be “GRASS” if you want to add a “Silly” or “Stupid” or “Sir” or something at the end.

[@DrummersKey]

I have an interesting (or perhaps not) question/issue. I am a drummer, I publish drum covers. Over the past year, I have been (slowly) learning audio engineering and in the past few weeks, decided to step it up some more. For a drum cover, I put the drums forward. It's a drum cover. The stems for the remaining instruments have already been mixed and mastered. I may play with the volume a bit on the "drumless" track but largely leave it alone. Instead, focusing on trying to match the drums to the song (reverb, automated volume, etc.) but it still ends up a little lackluster. Would you/do you toy with the original song and if yes, how? Should I be side-chaining bass stems with the drum bus? Should it use compression? Should I EQ it? Curious on a professionals answer. Most videos are about mixing untouched recordings.

[@HomeStudioCorner]

Sorry I'm not entirely sure what you're asking.

[@DrummersKey]

@@HomeStudioCorner My apologies. I am recording myself playing drums to a song you would hear on the radio. When I mix, I am dropping the original drum track and adding my own. Since these are professionally mixed and mastered songs from the radio, I am only leveling the volume for the original song. I was asking if I should be applying any technique to the original guitar, vocals and bass or leave them alone. Perhaps an example? kzbin.info/www/bejne/epLQXnSOrMqqn80feature=shared

[@HomeStudioCorner]

I don' think there's a real answer. You listen to it and determine if it needs anything. You gotta make that decision in the moment based on what you're hearing.

[@JoeStuffzAlt]

More on OBS. I had it set to record to mono, and that was clobbering my audio. I also recently found out about intersample peaking. I was streaming, and didn't ever see any red lines. Someone complained, and I thought I was okay, UNTIL I recorded it and played it back. Now I heard what was going on, and apologized to the one complaining. The sound was just blasted and sounded brickwalled. "Autotune sound when I didn't use autotune". This drove me crazy until I found out that it was a side-effect of my compressor. The compressor is more for streaming than recording. I had no idea the compressor could make things sound "autotuned". I think the song itself might have had autotuned backing vocals. It was weird

[@BlugubriousMusic]

Man, I hate how right you are in this video. If it weren't true, I will not have wasted so much time.

[@gpstudio]

Can you please paint your ceiling grey or black it will make your mixes and these videos so much better :D

[@DonDouglass]

I'm not a mix engineer. I'm a turd polisher. 😂😂 Sad but true.

[@scottparker7739]

It so like totally works.

[@jamesnyers1721]

Hi Joe, could you put together a KZbin video of good examples of how instruments should sound right after recording? Like an acoustic guitar a snare drum or saxophone etc.? Maybe a few examples on the acoustic guitar please? Recording with one microphone with two microphones etc. that would be amazing. Thank you for all you do.

[@nilespeshay1734]

Only now, am I 'coming into my own' as a decent mixer.. and +for me+ it's all about being a better producer. Knowing which tracks are just extra without adding anything... (or if they actually take away from the song). Being more decisive about what the song really IS and the streamlining the story that it's telling. And....most painfully (lol).... being okay with spending an hour on a sound, only to place it so low in the mix that you feel it more than actually hear it.

[@yonatron5684]

Awesome video bro

[@sammusic036]

thx brow lov

[@superiorjamtracks2189]

You have a great "Voice over" voice. That would be a great job for you if AI hadn't already replaced humans for that.

[@VirTikall]

Hi Joe, Thank you for all the videos that you have shared and all the things that you have taught us. Is there a way that I could restore a deleted session in studio one? I created a beat and wrote a song for it. I ended up deleting it all from Studio One and also from my trash on my computer around a month ago. Is there a way that I could restore it in Studio One.

[@HomeStudioCorner]

No.

[@VirTikall]

@@HomeStudioCorner OK, thank you.

[@cominhomewithjohnalan9103]

Hey Joe! What kind of mic is the one you are using for your commentary?

[@HomeStudioCorner]

It's an Earthworks Sonos

[@Kunibert_Knatter]

Hello Joe, this topic here is completely unrelated to your video, but... hmmm, so what! ;-) I noticed several times, that older recordings are often "out of tune", meaning they are not pitch-perfect adjusted to 440 Hertz. While I can understand that for recording from the 50s to 80s (maybe) because of differing voltage for the tape recorder, the mixing devices (?), the cutting machine, you name it. But I am stunned that this even is similar with tracks from the digital 2000s. Do they intentionally de-tune songs, so that when you noodle along to a record with a well-tuned instrument, it is prone to sound more like a catfight? To discourage upcoming talents, for sure…. and a new conspiracy theory is born. ;-)

[@EricJohnson-fh8zj]

Joe Gilder...the "Get it right at the source" guy lol. It's true, great tracks kind of mix themselves in many ways. BUT....if we all had GREAT vocalists and musicians to record our songs...wouldn't that be awesome?! 😂 That's the problem...we have a NEED to try and make mediocre recordings sound as good as we possibly can. It is what it is, and we're just out here trying to deal with it. If I had a great vocalist to record songs...I'd love that. But I dont.

[@okejso]

I have one horrible story: There was once a time, when I’ve spent about 10 years of my life trying to fix stuff in the mix and never achieved anything good with that 😢

[@HomeStudioCorner]

It’s a very common story. Time to walk away.

[@Sample_Props_Official]

mighty Joe, how can I adjust volume in Studio One? Which stock plugin? Im talking about peak adjustment 😢

[@DrProgNerd]

I'm not a Studio One user, but I recall him - on one of his videos - saying that he did video demos for Presonus. There are a bunch of YT vids by him on the 'PreSonus Audio Electronics' YT channel.

[@justingibbons9011]

Right click on a track and check the "gain envelope" box. That brings up a line on the track. Insert a point by clicking on the part you want to turn up or turn down and drag accordingly. Hope that helps

[@JoeyFTL]

If you're looking for S1's gain plugin, it's called mixtool

[@Sample_Props_Official]

@@justingibbons9011 i mean peak limit

[@Sample_Props_Official]

@@JoeyFTL can I set a peak limit there?

[@guitarizt68]

Thanks, Captain Obvious 🤨