Anyway guys Serban absolutely does not use any Acustica Audio in his workflow. Totally ITB, Pro Tools user, always uses Waves and McDSP, UAD on vocals (and sometimes guitars), much Plugin Alliance recently. Told by a direct source from his crew.
I read the first rerecorded Swift album was mixed and mastered @ 24-bit/96kHz, so the latest one was probably done the same way. They recently upgraded their Mac computer along with the latest Pro Tools/UAD hardware, as the previous one was from 2013. Last edited: Dec 7, 2021
Where most ITB mixing still fails is imo low mids, less glue and cohesivity vs all top analog/tape. His mixes sound good but not as good as the pre pro tools era.
Still a solid channel strip in 2021. Very great EQ and 4 types of compression that’s pretty good. I only wished it had dedicated filters without sacrificing EQ bands (also it feels like 2007 every time I add it lol)
Thats the best part tbh true analog feel. limited choices. also, no uad on vocals, not that it matters
Yeah Serban is a true Master at his craft! He has been on top of the charts for decades! I love how his mixes are always very warm a nothing fights for space and have a very immersive sound.. and the vocals are just perfect everytime! That`s the stuff that make engineers losing sleep at night! I can almost say when a song on the radio come and it was mixed by him.. And Damn!! is Alex Ghenea his son! The Black Bear stuff sound very good too.. Now it all makes sense!! He has been used by Max Martin exclusively on all his productions (The Weeknd, Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus, Bruno Mars, Adele, etc..) Yeah and to all the gear addicts he is 100% in the Box.. Go figure! Last edited: Dec 7, 2021
I think what Serban is really good at is how the elements in the track is carefully arranged and EQed front back, what's prominent what's not and how he hides, and slowly introduced elements little by little for a busy mix along the way so the listening experience is smooth. He also carefully treat all the annoying part of the sounds, spent a lot of time to manage harshness and 98% of his mixes has solid rounded (for lack of better word) top end which helps a lot with reducing ear fatigue. You don't get ear fatigue listening to his mixes over and over and you'd want to repeat the song because it's soothing in a way even when you listen to it objectively as an engineer. This is what I come up with after listening more than 1000 of his mixes everyday for the past few years. There's no such thing as this plugin or hardware characters, warm saturation, magical level dynamic or compression or enormous low end punch any other bs. Also there's not a single fault in his mix IMO, like you'd never thought of, "ah maybe this need to be brighter" or "I'd compress this differently" or any shit like that. It's normal and that's what a good mix is. Good mix sounds normal while you'd quickly detect a bad mix on the first listen just like that. If you listen carefully and know what you are doing, that's all you'd hear and tho it seems simple the decision making of which one is which is the best in the world so far. The thought process that lead to his decision making is what needed to be studied not his gear or technique which I believe is nothing we don't already know. Here's a playlist of 2714 songs he mixed in Spotify, just play it on shuffle, everything is just normal, assuming your monitoring is good, you wont really detect something weird popped out or anything, it's just smooth play and everything strangely feels belong together. Even the TS new album been getting review being "sounds the same like TS's previous album" showcasing how consistent Serban is with his mixes : https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4e1fsjagt4XRInCbL2dnEl?si=3e7af3de7cee4acd Last edited: Jun 17, 2024
Honestly I don't get the hype and can't stand this modern ultrasquashed US sound, that pretends not to be squashed. Taylor Swift Anti-Hero: Am I the only one who can't stand how the low mid SEQ synth is filling everything up and that instead of a rythmic pattern, it's a total decay mess, where the kick hardly comes through? Or more recently the Guetta "Don't hurt me" rape of the amazing Haddaway "What is love"-production. The synths are totally squashed layers, nothing can breathe. Barbaric. Ok, these modern US "songs" are horribly produced collages of bits and pieces of phrases but not songs, but Serban as mixer is not making these dense, ugly arrangements breathe, but condenses everything even more. And then ppl say: "Listen, everything sounds consistent." Optimod comes to mind... Last edited: Oct 15, 2024
I dunno if they updated it since, but the compressor on every setting but MIO is broken. it lets all sorts of sounds slip through even on the fastest attack. i think the sidechain might be lowpassed or something to compensate for aliasing in the control signal. anyways, they are rubbish at being a compressor. stick to the MIO setting if you want to actually compress stuff(if it hasn't been updated that is)
Pardon? Where is any emotion in that voice? Also use Metric AB and listen without the treble. The mids! Come on, man! Overdriven tape plugins do this to the midrange. Take only the oversaturated midrange-band and work with that, to achieve that "sound". This is not a sound of mimicking close microphone distance, it is just ugly distorted midrange with clean treble on top. And what is worse and obviously fools people: the overcompressed piano, with low mids filled to the brim, makes the voice, thanks to the naturally sounding treble, seem as if it was not overcompressed. This is so overcompressed, on a good system there is almost pressure in the ears. I don't want to use a Whitney Houston or Shirley Bassey example, as they are too old, but here is one Denniz Pop (where Max Martin learned to produce good sounding songs, before he forgot everything and destroyed the pop-sound) example, what I deem a still naturally sounding voice and how a not overly loud mix creates the wish to hear it again. Pay attention how different emotions are transported with every word differently, how the background vocals enhance the emotion for single words, and compare this to the totally dead Rodrigo Zombie-song: Technically the Serban voice has less transients let slip though, while a few slipped through the Jessica production, but one is listenable at all volumes, and the other is fatigueing and can only be beared at low volumes only. PS: and while I'm at it: also pay attention to the bassline, how it is pulsating and supporting the lyrics. Nothing of that in the Serban mix. Totally dead and sterile. Last edited: Oct 15, 2024
