Vintage Drum Mix Magic: Pultec EQ & Fairchild Compression Techniques

[@spinlightstudios]

If you like Pultec EQ's and Fairchild Compressors - hit that like button :)

[@davidr1620]

Great video. When I first got my DAW last year, the Pultecs came with my Apollo. I thought they barely did anything significant. But as I've fiddled with them more, I've realized how magic they are. You can pretty much boost-attenuate any frequency and it sounds more musical.

[@spinlightstudios]

So true, they can be subtle, or you can really hype a sound!

[@rakasin]

What a splendid video! Lovely stuff

[@spinlightstudios]

Thanks mate!

[@Rocknrolldaddy81-xy8ur]

Your drum room sounds small, but it has a very nice sound. Great job with the recording.

[@easternsouvenirs]

Love your mix tips. Keep it up!

[@spinlightstudios]

Thanks mate! Will do!

[@jiznak2000]

This is a really great illustration of "it's not the tools but how you use them'".

[@spinlightstudios]

Thanks mate!

[@jiznak2000]

Thank YOU! I love watching you mix. And you’re great at explaining the thought process. You’re also exceptional at identifying trouble frequencies as well as enhancing the good ones. Keep mixing for us mate. You were born for it.

[@MichaelLenz1]

This vintage sounds better than any “modern” sound processors

[@pearsonart]

Vintage means different things to different people. For me, the pinnacle is late 50’s jazz sessions to early 70’s.

[@STMRecords1]

Really good video, love your process and am definitely going to try this on my next track

[@spinlightstudios]

Thanks mate!

[@huberttorzewski]

I did exactly this experiment but with Softube Tube-Tech Mk2 and the resulting sound was great as well. I just pushed top and bottom more and scooped the mids a bit more (I went for a bit more hyped sound). The sound is noticeably different and has a different color than using SSL4000e or 9000xl. It sounds more 'vintage' and a bit more 'raw'. Mixing with Neve-style eq is also giving a nice results, very fat and crispier sound. I enjoy using SSL9000xl eq and compression from a softube console 1 for the drums the most lately. It's has a very unique color to it which I really enjoy. It has a 'solid' feel and very smooth and open-sounding top and bottom to it at the same time. The high mid boosts sound incredibly musical and smooth on 9000 compared to 4000

[@GeorgeAmodei21]

Thank You for show us this in detail (Really Works) !

[@spinlightstudios]

You’re welcome!

[@brownsnakestudios277]

I know I’m not a drummer, but it sounds really good the final outcome. Lots of great technical advice!

[@spinlightstudios]

Thanks Brownie!

[@rome8180]

I really love Fairchild compressors, or at least the emulations I've tried. I especially love the UAD one. I can almost always get a good result from it. I've never really tried it on drums though. I should. I like it on vocals, bass, and clean guitars. I just toggle back and forth between the time constants and pick the one that sounds best. I have no idea what I'm actually doing to the settings. And of course, Pultecs are great for adding low end or top end to almost any source. I even sometimes put one on the master bus.

[@spinlightstudios]

Definitely a great compressor, never really aggressive or harsh sounding! Lots of vibe and character!

[@Rocknrolldaddy81-xy8ur]

“Pro tip”😂, sometimes I stand beside the drums while tracking, wearing 3 bath robes, and I pinch the large crash & ride, when the drummer isn’t playing them. You actually have to pinch them quite hard to get them to stop ringing. But it works to clean up the sound. And the 3 robes also kill a reflections from the closest wall. This works.

[@spinlightstudios]

Haha

[@Rocknrolldaddy81-xy8ur]

If you only had one snare mic, I feel like the bottom sounded better than the top. It had a perfect blend of skin and wires.

[@Rocknrolldaddy81-xy8ur]

Is the 5K, 10k & 20k cut on the EQP-1A a bell, shelf or filter? Also, it is not affected by the bandwidth, correct? Only the bell boost is affected by the bandwidth I think?

[@timo946]

Thank you so much. Will try that too. Can you do a video, how you record drums? :))

[@spinlightstudios]

I have a few drum recording videos about my set up - if you want to go for a scroll back through my uploads!

[@timo946]

@@spinlightstudios thanks a lot! I'll check them out. :)

[@michaelobrist4716]

Cool video man, Pultec and Fairchild really add some serious vibe to the drum sound. The drums sounded really great without processing though. I'd be interested in how they were recorded, what hardware and what mics had been used. How about a drum micing/recording tutorial? Thanks anyways!

[@michaelobrist4716]

aaaand I found it! you did that already, many thanks!

[@spinlightstudios]

Thanks mate! Yes definitely helps to have a good source to work from :)

[@yungswampfire]

Amazing video!

[@spinlightstudios]

Thanks mate!

[@guscarter5918]

Great Vidéo again … 🤙🏽😎🔥🎶⭐️🇳🇨

[@spinlightstudios]

Thank you!

[@DrProgNerd]

Another great vid. I'm just a recording hobbyist. I use instrument plugins for everything but guitar. I use Superior Drummer 3 for my drums. I'm interested in your take on EQ moves on 'fake' drums like SD3.

[@spinlightstudios]

It's been a while since I've really used Midi drums (as I'm a drummer and play on most of my clients projects) but I might have to do a Midi mixing video - i typically use Steven slate drums or GetGood Drums when I do use Midi. Superior Drummer is great though. I used to use SD2 all the time for triggering drum samples!

[@SeanofAllTrades]

Any time I EQ "fake" drums I treat them just like regular drums. At the end of the day, they're samples of real drums recorded in a studio.

[@AJS421]

Drums sound great! Is there a reason you don't track/process your overheads on a stereo track... as opposed to 2 mono tracks hard panned? Are there instances where the overheads sound better when they're not hard panned? Thanks!

[@spinlightstudios]

Thanks! Typically I would bus the overheads and process them together. This was a session drum recording , so no point complicating the routing as I needed to then export the individual channels and wanted to include a processed and unprocessed version. Keeping the overheads mono means the client can then pan as they please. I like hard panned overheads, but plenty of time I’ve liked them panned more 50% and that sounds good too. Depends on the track I guess!

[@HmmInteresting478]

Aren't there phasing problems associated with putting EQ's on seperate multi-mic channels? Like if you have a seperate kick in and kick out eq as opposed to bussing, is it a big problem? My biggest worries with phasing is that I don't notice small problems until they've built up and i've got an overall problematic mix.

[@spinlightstudios]

If there were phasing issues you would hear it. It would depend if the plugin created latency then it would be an issue. Logic is pretty good at accounting for any latency created by plugins, so I haven’t experienced and phasing issues from using different EQs plugins etc on individual channels. Usually I notice phasing when using high pass filters if not using a linear phase EQ. But it all depends on how it sounds ultimately

[@artwerkmedia8616]

Nice! Keep going by adding reverbs ;)

[@MunkirNakirGaming]

Can you please make a video how to process midi drums ....

[@spinlightstudios]

Yes! It’s on the to do list ✅

[@tallmccartneymusic]

It's a cruel world we live in when no samples = vintage...

[@spinlightstudios]

Pultec and Fairchild are vintage EQs and compressors… maybe you missed something 😜

[@tallmccartneymusic]

​@@spinlightstudios I thought about that, but at the same time you labeled the whole video "vintage drum mix." I get where youre coming from. Nevertheless, sounds great and I find myself using both of these tools on my drums more often than not. I stand by my point though, most engineers nowadays wont be caught dead going all natural on a drum mix, props to you

[@spinlightstudios]

Haha fair enough! The description does say I’m showing how to achieve a natural drum sound with no samples using vintage EQs/compressors. If it needs to be more vintage just mono it all and add some tape 😆 it depends on the song and desired sound I guess as to whether you can get away without using samples these days!

[@tallmccartneymusic]

@@spinlightstudios oh I'm Rockin a 76' studiomaster 16-8-2 and a beautiful TEAC A-3440 at my studio, I'm all about those old school tones. Im not mixing entire tracks to tape but I've been doing a healthy amount of production through it before hitting the daw. mono drums actually sound p good if you want to do a lot of stereo guitars/keys/vocal layers.

[@luke_sz77-49]

can always just bus the two overheads together and process them, less CPU used

[@spinlightstudios]

Yeah man. And I usually do, but this is my session drum tracking template, I keep it simple with routing as I have to export the tracks to send to clients, they want the individual tracks, and I want the processing to be applied to those when I do a batch export. In this case I gave them two options - with processing and without. But yeah if you watch literally any of my other drum mixing videos there is loads of routing going on - but can be nice to keep it simple like in this vid!

[@Rocknrolldaddy81-xy8ur]

Basketball kick = 900hz.

[@AlterSoundsPH]

why you always use different eq plugins in your videos

[@spinlightstudios]

It can give you different results! Doing the same thing every mix would get a little monotonous and it’s nice to explore different sounds. This video was to demonstrate the power of pultec EQs, which are pretty wonderful!

[@EdwinDekker71]

666 sign "a-ok" in the thumbnail....

[@EdwinDekker71]

Will you also be doing the one-eye symbolism?

[@spinlightstudios]

Haha put your tin foil hat away mate 😂😂 ridiculous

[@jarredtaylor52]

Those coloured patch cables are also a sign of satanic tendencies

[@spinlightstudios]

You got me 😈

[@Rocknrolldaddy81-xy8ur]

Is the 5K, 10k & 20k cut on the EQP-1A a bell, shelf or filter? Also, it is not affected by the bandwidth, correct? Only the bell boost is affected by the bandwidth I think?

[@Rocknrolldaddy81-xy8ur]

Is the 5K, 10k & 20k cut on the EQP-1A a bell, shelf or filter? Also, it is not affected by the bandwidth, correct? Only the bell boost is affected by the bandwidth I think?

[@spinlightstudios]

I think it’s a shelf and I think that’s right