Mixing Piano for Rock & Heavy Music
Here’s a walkthrough of my acoustic piano chain for a rock track. Main lesson: don’t be shy with your EQ and compression! It often takes a healthy dose of each to anchor the piano in a dense mix.
Tips & Tricks
How to Stop Mixing With Your Eyes
The SSL Channel is one of my favorite plugins, but not just because of the way it sounds. The other big benefit of a plugin like this is that it forces you to use your EARS more than your eyes. This video gives you an example of what a typical EQ on the SSL Channel […]
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Inside the Mix – RIVER OAKS Part 2: Compressing acoustic guitars
Here’s another peek inside the mix for “Let You Down” by River Oaks (Shane Told of Silverstein). In the first video, I walked through my EQ techniques for the acoustic guitars. In this video, I show you the rest of the chain – the compressors. Counterparts Counterparts – 10 Years Later Forevermore Intervals River Oaks […]
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Mixing Metal Kick – EQ and Compression Tutorial
Here’s an in-depth tutorial on how to get a tight, punchy kick drum with tons of attack and presence for metal and heavy rock. This video walks through how to EQ, compress and use saturation on a live kick track to give it a modern metal sound.
Plugin Preset: Stereo Delay for Vocals
I use this short stereo delay to add a touch of excitement and width to a lead vocal, and to help it sit in the mix. I typically prefer this approach over a short reverb. Note that since my FX are set up as sends and returns, the mix is at 100%. Having the left […]
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Plugin Preset: Digirack Gate for Toms
It’s an an age-old struggle… trying to cut out bleed from tom tracks but having the gate misfire or not open up when it’s supposed to. In the past I would just skip the gate all together and manually cut out bleed from tom tracks. Ugh… what a waste of time. I hate wasting time […]
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How to Use Drum Samples in Your Mix Session
Here’s my workflow for auditioning and printing drum samples in a mix. I recommend that you commit your triggered drums to audio in this way, for a few reasons discussed in the video.
Inside the Mix – RIVER OAKS (Shane Told): EQ on acoustic guitars
Here’s a peek inside the mix for “Let You Down” by River Oaks (Shane Told of Silverstein). This video walks through how I used EQ on the acoustic guitars to put them up-front in the mix and create the acoustic-driven rock vibe. Watch more mix videos from my discography: Counterparts Counterparts – 10 Years Later […]
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Proof That You Can Mix with Stock Plugins
I never buy excuses like “I don’t have the right gear” or “I can’t afford good enough plugins.” I’m a firm believer that it’s about your skills and your taste, not the gear itself. So I decided to do a little challenge for myself. In this video, I take a vocal track loaded with expensive plugins […]
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Inside the Mix – COUNTERPARTS ‘Prophets’
#TBT! Here’s a look at my mix session for Counterparts “Goodbye, Megaton.” This record was recorded and mixed in 2009, and surprisingly I still get compliments on the sound of this record. In this video I take a look back at what made this mix unique. I find it a valuable exercise to take some […]
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