3 Delay Mixing Tricks - Warren Huart: Produce Like A Pro

[@mr_mogles7304]

Thanks for all your content Warren! It’s spectacular for those of us starting out looking to build a portfolio where do you recommend us getting multitrack sessions?

[@Producelikeapro]

Hey Adam! You're very welcome! We actually have a blog post on this subject! producelikeapro.com/blog/free-multitracks-hone-mixing-skills/ You can also join our academy and get over 40 sets of multitracks to mix! bit.ly/2QgO8fp

[@Producelikeapro]

Hi Adam, thanks for the marvellous question! Yes! We have tons of free multitracks!

[@AKAtAGG]

Every time i watch your output I end up thinking 'holy crap it's nowhere near as complicated as I thought it would be! I can do that!'. Every time. You're a bonafide legend.

[@Producelikeapro]

Aw shucks thanks ever so much my friend!!

[@Bloodstone_DC]

The moment, you went like "let's open another channel" on the compressor bit , i knew, where you were going. Not like i knew it in advance, i realised the way of thought behind it in that moment. I'm now proud of myself for the rest of the evening, just so you know.

[@Producelikeapro]

Fantastic Christian! That's amazing to hear my friend! Great minds think alike! Haha

[@Zelectrocutica]

Thanks for your content for all of us. God bless Warren!

[@Producelikeapro]

Thanks for the comment IO! You rock!

[@martijnvandongen]

The trick with the compressor and moving the audio a tiny bit forward is really amazing! I just tried it and it made so much difference! Thank you so much for all those awesome tricks Warren :D

[@critiquedard]

This guy deserve an award, just because of these videos. Even if we couldn't ear the sound in context, just the fact and the tips of the effects. Thank you so much, Warren. Merci beaucoup de France ! ;)

[@anonagain]

Hi Warren - these tips/tricks videos are really helpful, especially to those of us new to mixing. Thanks!

[@sylzysylzerz7887]

man ive watched ur vids forever but you nailed your signature demeanor in this one

[@Producelikeapro]

Hi sylzy sylzerz Thanks! That’s very kind of you my friend!!

[@TheSmokedKarma]

Hello Warren. I usually watch on my game console, so I don't get to like and comment, and I know how important it is to the algorithm to get your videos out to people. It is the least I can do for all the help, advice, and knowledge you give to the community. Thanks Warren great video as always!!!!!!!!

[@BullZephyr]

The drum delay trick is very clever, it adds ghost notes which is what a drummer does and programming doesn't do so easily. Thanks for your energy and advice, both are quality.

[@cosmicforcesmusic]

Warren It is a pleasure to watch your videos. You have wonderful Tips, but Much more than the tips is you teach us to be more creative. Your special Positive Energy is Contagious and it Inspires me to move out of my comfort Zone. I come from the Analog World where we used everything Analog . I had and old Ampex 16 track 2" tape and in the old days we had 4 tracks and then 8 tracks, and did a lot of bouncing. I am blessed to have a lot of wonderful Analog toys including two Akg BX 20 & Bx20E stereo Reverbs. I am into the Hybrid world where I use DAW along with My D&R Cinemix Analog board. I use the DAW to control the volumes so that I dont need to use flying faders . I will be watching a lot of your Videos and give you some feedback. There are some tips that I will also share with you on things that I do. Thanks again I very much appreciate your time and effort to help people that share our love of music and recording it. Im from Canada and live near Montreal in Quebec.

[@TheTom5150]

DANG!!! I never in a million years would of thought of the idea of shifting a track in order to get a faster attack time on a compressor via sidechaining. Friggen brilliant!!! Thanks Warren, totally gonna try this!!!!

[@pplg-yt]

The 20ms side-chain trick is SUPERB. This is something I thought to do in the past to tame spiky tracks but never tried because I felt It was something weird. Thanks again!

[@sea-saw2654]

KZbin annoys the hell out of me sometimes, I'm just at a spareroom producer mainly for my own entertainment but constantly searching KZbin for good vids with good advice, then one day a channel as good as this pops up. Where were you when I was searching and what else may I be missing... Excellent videos Excelllent channel..

[@Producelikeapro]

Hi Sea-Saw wow!! Amazingly kind words my friend! I really appreciate it! I’m so glad to be able to help!

[@ravingsofa...6]

The delaying trick is great! I’ve used it on gates with great success but it never occurred to try it on compressors. Thanks for the tips Warren.

[@Producelikeapro]

you’re very welcome! Glad to be able to help

[@michaelorourke5848]

Congratulations on the big 250 Warren!! And another fantastic video!!

[@Producelikeapro]

Many thanks Michael!

[@pwlse4184]

Got to love that manual look-ahead trick! Also works great for VO guys that want to duck the music slightly before they start talking. Cheers, keep them coming!

[@brianblevins8871]

i just used the first trick on one of my tracks and it took the song to a new level. very awesome info. thx warren.

[@AMB666]

That's awesome! Drums always drive me crazy but when it's done, the whole mix is done!

[@MartinLuxen]

This is awesome, especially after last Friday's question it's nice to hear it applied! Keep on fingerdrumming!

[@Producelikeapro]

Thanks ever so much Martin! Agreed, great to be able to address things right away!

[@trollstjerne]

That's some pretty cool delay tricks Warren. Thanks for sharing!

[@Producelikeapro]

You're very welcome trollstjerne! Do you have any delay tips you'd like to share?!

[@trollstjerne]

@@Producelikeapro Not really, that's why im watching you :-) Anyway, Not really a delay tip used for mixing/production, but sometimes if you do the "random delay" trick you showed in the video, and keep it up in the mix while recording the guitar solo, you can capture a pretty cool and energic performance.. Ok, so it doent work everytime.. lol.. Maybe it's something to try out when its time for the bassplayer to redo his first lifeless performance as well and make it groooove. Then when you're done recording you turn the delay fx's down again.

[@Producelikeapro]

Thanks ever so much! I know you always have amazing ideas my friend! Thanks for all you do!

[@claytonreardon42069]

Oh my gosh sodechaining to the duplicate vocal is GENIUS 👌👌👌 Thank you so much Warren ♥️

[@jurgenschuler8389]

Woohoo! 250k subscribers! Congratulations! You really rock! By the way, great video! As always!

[@Producelikeapro]

Wow! Many thanks Jürgen! You rock!

[@paulEmotionalaudio]

Cracking trick with the not delayed predelayed look ahead compression Warren. Very handy tips!!!

[@chuckcostello5167]

This is great content. I'm looking forward to trying these out in my next mixes. Thanks, Warren.

[@Jon_Tate]

Hey Warren, great video as always! In regards to compression, Id love to get more of glimpse into the why's of compression. Specifically, what are you trying to achieve with certain attack and release times. And more importantly why. In this video you show cased a great example of manipulating compression to give you the faster release time and that was priceless! I so often feel many people (myself included) throw a compressor on a channel or buss for the sake of throwing a compressor on a channel or buss without the full understanding of what we are trying to achieve by adding such. Beyond the basics of volume control; in what instances are you looking to shorten a sound vs lengthening a sound. In what instances are we trying to emphasize impact vs making it softer? Apologies for the long question.

[@evanfoster9078]

Thank you Warren, the 'delaying' trick is killer!

[@Producelikeapro]

Marvellous!

[@splashesin8]

Wow! I know I'm gonna wanna play with this a lot. I think I will crank up my old HP WinMe in order to get to my toys that still have functional recording input drivers, today! Seems like it always sounded better than the Gateway. That way I can figure out if the mics are still okay, and pre's work. Thank you Warren. :)

[@STARRYSKYproject]

WTF Warren ! The Delaying compressor trick is INSANE =O Why is it the first time I see that ? Who uses this trick ? Why not using this trick on EVERY track ? That sounds amazing.

[@Producelikeapro]

Hi TAI REFLECTIONS / STARRYSKY thanks ever so much! Yes, I’m expecting to see a lot of spin off videos!!

[@MarioRoqueSanRoque]

Incredible tutorial. Thank´s Warren. God bless you. Pax.

[@Producelikeapro]

Mario Roque Thanks ever so much my friend!!

[@BadChizzle]

Last two videos of yours I watched... showed me just how real you are. No doubts about your abilities at all. Keep in mind I don’t know your history... I purely found you here and have watched some videos. It’s kind of Cool that I found out you are at level 9000 just from peeping videos for fun! Zoom!!!

[@montgomeryhaines2087]

Always great tips Warren, thanks.

[@Producelikeapro]

You're very welcome Mongomery!

[@D20Music]

I would’ve watched this soon as it came out, but I got delayed. Awesome session Warren. Thanks.

[@Producelikeapro]

KJee Music Thanks ever so much my friend!

[@jerryrichardson2665]

Brilliant tips, I especially like #3, I'll try that right away

[@alexeysmirnovguitar]

Liked before actually watching. No mistake at all)

[@Producelikeapro]

Amazing Alexey! haha You rock my friend!

[@sea-saw2654]

Alexey Smirnov WZ

[@Producelikeapro]

Hi Friends, In our last Feedback Friday episode we got asked a lot of questions about drums. One question in particular was asking about using programmed drums and making them sound good. In this song not only is it finger drums, but there are no cymbals! So if we can make this interesting we can do anything. Please let us know how you create varied and interesting sounds with programmed elements such as drums!

[@TheSmokedKarma]

Brain works Sub kick on the toms sounds huge with a bit of verb

[@ManHoun77officiel]

Thank you for everything you do for us.

[@Producelikeapro]

You're welcome ManHoun! - Very happy to help!

[@int3533]

Man really love that trick for the programmed drums!

[@Producelikeapro]

Elroi The Overseer thanks ever so much my friend!

[@stephenzeagman9985]

Another great video, thanks again for the tips. Very helpful for those of us that only have access to programmed drums. If/when you have a chance during a FAQ Friday session could you explain what bands who predominantly use one guitar track in a song, like the red hot chili peppers, the ramones, and greenday (older recordings) do with panning their one guitar....or is it up the middle for most of these bands? Thanks Warren.

[@SirEggbertfartalot]

1/4 of a Million subscribers ! Well done, and richly deserved Warren. Kudos Ooh, and another cheat sheet as well, thank you ;0)

[@Producelikeapro]

SirEggbertfartalot thanks ever so much for your support!!

[@thecapsicumkid4740]

That has to be the best username in the history of KZbin!

[@SirEggbertfartalot]

@@thecapsicumkid4740 Cheers, Just my warped sense of humour ;0)

[@SirEggbertfartalot]

@@Producelikeapro For all the grade 'A' content you've provided free, to "starting from scratch" beginners like myself, it's the least I can do, to like a video, and make a comment. I am not an academy member (yet), I'm just a subscriber, and yet I feel like an academy member anyway ;0) The community you and your team have created is simply brilliant, friendly, supportive and addictive. Long may it "Rock on" (David Essex 1973) ;0)

[@lilevestudios]

Thank you Warren! Great Tips!

[@mitcheltheelenmusic8858]

Always great content Warren!

[@Producelikeapro]

Many thanks M-Mixing!

[@GaragebandandBeyond]

Hahaha black shirt joke, love it! Hope you're doing well!

[@hansdampf7397]

Great Tips - TY.

[@Producelikeapro]

You're very welcome Hans!

[@gavinjackguitar3482]

Cheers For another awesome video!!! I was wondering...what is the best quality digital format to release music on? If mp3s are poor quality, what is best? WAV? and what bit rate etc gives the best quality that people can play on their computers?

[@jarradmeney6793]

This was fantastic! Thanks Warren

[@thiagoribeiro9789]

Very handy!!! Thanks again and again!!

[@mcpepa]

you are the best.

[@Producelikeapro]

Awe Shucks! - Thank you PEPA!

[@milan6840]

first trick sounds very banshee for me haha. great wor. thanks

[@adamfox9651]

Never in a million years would I have thought of doing tip #3. I definitely have to give that one a try. Thanks for all the great info. Warren, when you were going to school as a kid in the UK, did they make you wear a white button-down shirt for Assembly Day? I remember having to do that every Friday when I was going to elementary school, and I never liked it.

[@Producelikeapro]

Hi Adam Fox Thanks ever so much my friend! I’m so glad to be able to help!!

[@necrodogs]

Brilliant. Especially the compressor trick. Also, 2 people have no idea what they just watched :v

[@Producelikeapro]

Haha that's quite alright my friend!

[@thecapsicumkid4740]

Another great video Warren! Edging the bass forward not delaying it....I'm telling on you haha

[@Producelikeapro]

Busted! Haha Thanks for your great comment my friend!

[@Alex_Florin_Prod]

Amazing! 10Q !!!

[@billysmart6825]

I like the tips- but 1176 is one of the fastest compressors out there. If you dial up the ratio higher (to 12 or 20) and dial back the input, I think you'll find it does a far better job at grabbing those transient peaks. You won't have to jump through the hoops of duplicating the track and doing all that extra bussing

[@Producelikeapro]

Yes, it’s a fast attack compressor, but not a lock ahead as I demonstrated with that technique. Many thanks, Warren

[@RansomnoteWill]

That last gem 🤯

[@utubehound69]

I'd love to see you do the Ozzy vocal sound old to newer.

[@jyun7360]

I think the delaying trick is the lookahead knob on some dynamic control plugins? I really curious how you determine how long you move the sidechaining signal forward?

[@Producelikeapro]

Hi JyunSyut _MEos Marvellous question! In this instance I moved the keying track forward by 20ms. That’s what sounded good to me, ultimately I would keep adjusting it to it sounds great to you!

[@jyun7360]

@@Producelikeapro Thank you for replying, so now I know sometimes 10ms lookahead on the fabfilter's plugins might not be enough.

[@arcaneminded]

Hi Warren. I've only started doing this a few months ago, but I honestly for the life of me can't tell what the hell attack and release does, have you or could you made/make a video explaining it. There's plenty of words on the subject but no one gives examples.

[@royglennie]

If I'm honest I like the black shirt better ha ha! Thanks for another very useful video!

[@Producelikeapro]

Hi royglennie haha yes, indeed! It’s rather slimming!

[@saltydog8913]

Would the same trick work with an LA2A? Love the tips Warren.

[@Producelikeapro]

Kevin Salter definitely! Especially even! They are very slow compressors!

[@JRLEY]

Thanks, great tips!

[@Producelikeapro]

Hi J.R. Ley thanks ever so much!

[@najinelson6742]

Hi Warren , first of all: I love watching your videos, your British accent is great - "I hope you are doing marvelously well" and your is it "shnits and schnitzels (?)" (reminds me of "Wiener Schnitzel" each time). I have a question: you seem to add quite a lot of new things to a mix. How do the artist(s) react, when you sometimes give some new character to a mix? I mean, maybe an artist does not want to be changed too much, he wants a mix with the character he has added to a song!? Let us take a famous song: "Purple Rain" by Prince. There is a very remarkable delay on vocals. If Prince had recorded this song in a studio with dry vocals and a mixing engineer would have added that kind of delay to his vocals, there could have been two reactions: "joy or disappointment, I think - is the mixing engineer going crazy, what has he done to my voice!!!???. Do you know what I mean? How far can a mixing engineer go? Prince of course was a very special artist, he was doing most of the things by himself, especially in his early years and he actually did not care too much about the quality of his recordings - the mix had to be as good as possible finally, it was more about the composition or releasing something completely new. By the way, Prince recorded an mixed quite a lot in Sunset Sound studios in LA, and Paisley Park´s Studio3 in Minneapolis was or is a copy of it. Susan Rogers has some interesting videos here on youtube talking about her collaboration with Prince. It is also intersesting that sometimes mistakes give a special character to a song. E.G. "If I was your girlfriend", the vocals clipped red during recording (with analog gear!) and sounds distorted, but it is simply great or "Forever in my life" also by Prince, the background voices had been moved by mistake, again the result is simply great and his Prince´s Camille voice on songs like "U got the look" "Shokadelica" and many more with a kind of Mickey Mouse effect - Prince fans love it - how did he do this voice? - have to find it in google. The question was: How far can you go as a mixing engineer?

[@apenasmarcosfelipe]

amazing! thank you so much sir

[@L.Scott_Music]

There is an irony in this video in that it's a Delay Trick video and that You Tube, for the first time I've seen on a PLAP video, has misaligned the video and audio. Great tip about making your own look ahead compression without all the CPU load that look ahead compressors take.

[@willemmoller6736]

delayed comment, but still - great tips, thanks Warren!

[@Producelikeapro]

Hi Willem Moller haha yes!

[@BenevolentMutation]

Love you man.

[@vpasqal7977]

love you!!!

[@Producelikeapro]

Thanks ever so much!

[@stepncrypto8413]

you arr the best

[@acmeyakko]

Negative delay? :) There's a setting in Pro Tools to bring up sends at 0 instead of -INF, so you don't have to change it each time. Any reason why you sent the vocal side chain input track to a random bus rather than no out or even the send bus instead of a send? When I split my bass DI to two channels for different processing, I put two sends and output to no output (makes more sense to my eye). If I'm only going to one place, like the side chain trick, I'd just send to the bus.

[@OdinOfficialEmcee]

Can someone tell me if I'm understanding the final trick properly? So you take your main track, duplicate it and move it to be ~20ms faster. On the main you have a compressor at it's fastest attack time being fed by a key input (a bus). You then route your delayed track to your key input bus to "speed up" the attack time via it acting 20ms in advance, right? The part that's confusing me is the fact that there is no delayed sound in Warren's video when logically it feels like there should be. Maybe I don't fully understand key inputs yet, but it seems like there is no level from the delayed track being heard? How is this possible? Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!

[@OdinOfficialEmcee]

Just found the answer from Dave Johnson & PLAP in the comments. Assign the nudged tracks to "no output" or an unused bus so they trigger but are inaudable.

[@Producelikeapro]

Odin OfficialEmcee yes!! No output or an unused output works great!

[@kaiulrich6185]

Being mostly a live sound engineer I work with the Haas effect (or better: Law of the first wave front)all the time, but I don‘t really quite understand,how that law applies to that delay trick.

[@davejohnsonmusic]

With the tracks that you've nudged forward, they are not actually audible, but just triggers? So, you assign the output of that track to "no output", or just a random bus not being used?

[@Producelikeapro]

Exactly Dave! You nailed it! That is exactly right!

[@davejohnsonmusic]

@@Producelikeapro Cool man, thanks. Hey, if you get a chance sometime, could you do a video on how you yourself pan a guitar hard one way and the verb the other? Maybe go over the types of verb you can use, any EQ/FX used to sculpt it and how far you bring it up in the mix? I have trouble with some verbs because I feel like there's a pre-delay that's audible even if the verb itself has none, or set to zero. And maybe anything else you do to make a single guitar track sound special? Thanks

[@OdinOfficialEmcee]

@@Producelikeapro just posted the same question then found this perfect answer haha. Will have to mess around in Studio One to figure how to emulate the routing but I can't wait to try this trick now I get how it's supposed to work

[@mikewaldron4492]

Great little trick. Another way to do it, especially for Reaper users (we don't buss in quite the same way) would be to have the key trigger fader all the way down, and send it pre-fader.

[@Producelikeapro]

Mike Waldron thanks for sharing that information! Great help to the community!!

[@jbaranowski1990]

Sounds like Daddy's gonna pay for your crashed car drums on U2 album Zooropa

[@Producelikeapro]

Jakub Baranowski wow!! That’s a great compliment

[@lahattec]

It's the 'Prelay' trick!

[@Producelikeapro]

Hi Clay LaHatte haha yes it is!! Nicely done!!

[@SuperLevelone]

God I love learning from you! lol

[@FanaticDrummer]

You acting out finger tapping drums is literally what DJ’s look like tapping out beats

[@Producelikeapro]

FanaticalDrummer haha yes, indeed!!

[@dansands6363]

What's the name of the song?

[@AirwayX]

Something doesn't seem to add up though... The 1176 was, and still is, one of the fastest compressors out there with an attack time down to 20 microseconds. Hearing you say it's too slow confuses me. Maybe it's the plugin that doesn't perform well?

[@seanohutton3185]

I'm back outa hospital after my final neck opperation (limited movement meaning I couldn't bury myself into youtube and such). But I see different drivers in the background... Did you decide the old pairing wasn't working for you?...

[@Producelikeapro]

Hi Seano Hutton welcome back my friend! Feel better!!

[@createsomethinggreat175]

PLAP forever.

[@Producelikeapro]

PLAP4LIFE haha!

[@lahattec]

@@Producelikeapro I'm there.

[@Producelikeapro]

Haha thanks ever so much Clay! Lifetime Member my friend! Very nice!

[@lahattec]

@@Producelikeapro One of these days I'll get a song mixed, and hope you can review. Funny you went back to this song. I worked on that Wide Awake song, on and off, for over 3 weeks, and it's just bleh. First mix. I hope to get back to it and tweak a bit, and these delay tips should be helpful. I struggled with the kick sound, and yours is thumping nicely.

[@BeGoodNow5]

Kool-worthy!

[@Producelikeapro]

Hi BeGoodNow5 thanks ever so much!

[@ryKirwan1]

👍🏼

[@Producelikeapro]

Thanks Ryan!

[@GikiOfficial]

GENIUS. fckk

[@Producelikeapro]

Netan'el PROD. Haha thanks!

[@drummerjeroensimons]

Hahaha, thats humor: tip 3.5....Hahahaha... Thats what I call: out of any box...;)

[@Producelikeapro]

Haha yes, indeed!!

[@lwpweb]

7ms sec attack time is from my point of view the slowest attack time. 1ms is faster than 7 ms? Did got something wrong?

[@andymusicyoutube]

we don't see any black shorts, Warren.

[@Producelikeapro]

Andrey Gaiduk haha thankfully!

[@jessebalber]

what a horribly boring song to mix....great tips in here though as usual! i kept watching only because I always learn at least one thing from every video from you! thanks again as always!