Yes. I'd really state this. Serban mixes are for sure, not saturated or analog'sh. He doesn't even seem to like that thing. When you spot saturation is somthing very punctual, on one element or other. I believe that Jaycen Joshua's 8 NLS style of mixing, where he distorts the hell of a source to bring punch and loudness, through all over the mix, would scare Serban and give him nightmares But i see a great use of reverbs, perfect use of eqs, a low end that NEVERS drown the song but still very clear and powerful, perfect stereo placement, the top end ALWAYS have the exact amount of energy and brightness the song needs. It will be dark, sunset or very bright, and when it gets really bright it is eq'd in a way that he can find the sweet spot on certain frequencies that will give that feeling and eliminating the ones that make your ears hurt. Also, i really doubt he uses Nebula or Acustica. Maybe the guys who are sending him stems are, but within the core of his mixes i can't percieve any strong "analog" character from volterra kernels. When it have something like that, is always very smooth and kinda digital, so my guess is on McDSP or Metric Halo Character to be his go-to saturation source. Even Waves got more chances to be extensively used. Like Stevie, i listened to his mixes all days of the year for 2 years. Not a huge amount of songs, but songs that for my style were groundbreaking. Like Silk Sonic or some Electro-Pop, Urban and Cinematic tracks.
If the goal was to top the Billboard charts and get nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Song, then Serban & Olivia won. Last edited: Oct 15, 2024 at 8:45 PM
Don't get me wrong, I am very much pro-success. But we are going through a transformational phase, where everything that had gained reputation over decades, is being subverted and in some cases is no longer an indication of extraordinary achievements, that probably will stand the test of time. Hollywood managed to destroy the biggest cash cow franchises, and the Oscars then tried, the more they bombed, to push total garbage on the audience, which only accelerated the downfall. Didn't the movie 1917 not even receive an Oscar for the music? 16th notes lo-sequencer lines for minutes... Torture. The music production business always has been an extreme mafia like business and with streaming everything got even worse, because the usual suspects quickly re-arranged the chairs. Limp Bizkit just filed a lawsuit against Warner, because the numbers are all totally fake. The legalized robbery with the royalty payout mechanism by Spotify, which intentionally also favours the big labels, is not sustainable and we could sooner rather than later get to the point, when also the Grammy's decisions will become questioned. The only people admiring this fatigueing lo mid sound are mixers, that try not to go bust and try to compete! I think it's not impossible, that in ten years all these nauseating lo mid mixes, all will become remixed. I don't want to blame Serban for this. He is just delivering, what the producers and labels expect. What made things worse: "thanks" to woke barbarism over the last decade screaming girls with ugly voices have become accepted by cucks and these thin and ugly screaming voices need lots of low mids, to become bearable. And just with every technical production trend, it spilled over.
