Outdated Mixing Techniques BOOMERS Swear By

Discussion in 'Mixing and Mastering' started by DontKnowJack, Feb 7, 2023.

  1. DontKnowJack

    DontKnowJack Producer

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    What do you guys think about this? Are these mixing techniques outdated? Do you agree or disagree with some or all of these?
    I think he's right. :guru:
     
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  3. SineWave

    SineWave Audiosexual

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    Everything he said I agree with except High Pass Filtering. It is very useful for the mix to HPF tracks that don't need any sub, bass, or just muddy frequencies so the other tracks that do can shine in the mix. With a good HPF that doesn't just filter but can boost frequencies around the cutoff point you can actually make a bass/kick sound sound heftier and cleaner at the same time. Also, nobody can hear anything lower than 30Hz anyway. Sub frequencies also compromise headroom that could be better used for higher frequency tracks.

    I don't completely agree with mixing with headphones. 3 things do matter IMHO: it will sound better with open headphones. You have to be very experienced with how your headphones sound, same as with your speakers. You have to check what it sounds like on the speakers.

    His video is an obvious click bait for those who don't agree with BOOMERS. :wink:

    When I was a teen I worked at a "classic" studio for a couple of years and feck me I fecking listened when the studio owner and mixing engineer told me something. One should put ego aside and know his place to succeed in life. :wink:

    Cheers!
     
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  4. DoubleTake

    DoubleTake Audiosexual

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    That's wrong, technically.
    Although many speakers may not be able to reproduce it well / loud enough to hear, humans can hear well below 20 Hz. If course we feel all frequencies throughout our bodies and our ears are good at hearing a more limited range of frequencies, the limitations are more obvious in higher frequencies.
    Certainly a HPF is useful and reproducing (or recording) frequencies below 30 Hz is often both a waste (of headroom and effort, as most won't be heard in the final) and problematic.

    Of course it depends on the genre as well.
    When you want people to vomit at the rave, low frequencies drink & drugs are all effective...
     
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  5. Daisy69

    Daisy69 Platinum Record

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    Boomer reaction when you call him a BOOMER:
    [​IMG]
     
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  6. Trurl

    Trurl Audiosexual

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    TRIGGERED
    :rofl:
     
    Last edited: Feb 7, 2023
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  7. clone

    clone Audiosexual

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    Do you know which specific frequencies will work?
     
  8. mk_96

    mk_96 Audiosexual

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    This all sounds like advise taken out of context, because what i've actually heard from "boomer" engineers (or any actual engineer really) is "i prefer this", "i like to do this", "i don't like using these", never as a way of setting rules, just as a way of describing how they do it and why the do it like that.

    The only situation i see them refered to as "rules" is when people try to replicate a specific sound or workflow, people trying to achieve a very specific result, youtubers trying to come up with "rules" to make them look smarter, and people trying to debunk the "myths" the other three generated.

    So where am i going with this? There's a difference between rules and tips, and these kind of videos tend to blur that, intentionally or not. It's all just good and perfectly up to date advise until it's not, it'll all depend on context, preference, and wether you know where that advise is coming from (perspective-wise) so you can know when to lean into it or step away from it.
     
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  9. Lois Lane

    Lois Lane Audiosexual

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    The guy is a dickhead if he click-baits a title like that but then almost immediately differentiates at the beginning of his verbiage between a tip and a rule. Then his self authoritative attitude almost made me vomit in a very boomer way and tuned me out.

    Whippersnapper!

    Everyone knows that no rules are good rules (except when mastering for vinyl or aiming for the publishing rules of various music platforms.

    Anout 15 years ago I was mentoring a kid who had no music producing, engineering or composing experience at all and wanted to create a dubstep tune for his big Middle Year Project at the local International School. One day I showed him how to sidechain the bass to follow the kick and he said "fuck that" and sidechained the kick to follow the bass....because he liked it. I said "why the hell not, we don't need no stinkin' rules", the sidechaining technique itself, the concept of creating movement with a compressor was the lesson that I wished to convey. The song as well as his write up came out excellently and the tune was well recieved by the other students and parents. We're still friends to this very day.

    Lois, out.
     
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  10. clone

    clone Audiosexual

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    I like the gaslit presentation projection of it being " us mixing engineers just sitting around secretly having a clickbait conversation about some old people". just keep the info between us engineers, and all.
     
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  11. Olymoon

    Olymoon Moderator

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    Words like Boomer, millennials, Gen Z, etc... Are just stickers, that people use to denigrate others by their age, which shows a lot of their lack of understanding of life and people and also says a lot about their own insecurity.
    This should never be part of the description / conversation of art or music technique.

    From this article: https://www.theatlantic.com/family/...ls-gen-z-boomers-generations-are-fake/620390/
    About mixing vocals, if this is really of your interest, there are no rules, no trick. Voice is THE instrument that's truly unique. No one have the same voice as the other, so for me, it's always a matter of listening to the singer without a mic, and from there, begin to build the whole chain, from chosing the right microphone, to the right effects etc... Only one rule: Adaptation.
     
    Last edited: Feb 7, 2023
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  12. justwannadownload

    justwannadownload Audiosexual

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    Okay Zoomer :bleh:
     
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  13. alchemistrpm

    alchemistrpm Member

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    Funny how all the greatest audio engineers out there tend to be people tweens like to call "boomer." You know, the knuckleheads who just discovered Fabfilter and who ironically think FL8 sounds "punchier" than FL21.
    :deep_facepalm:
     
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  14. No Avenger

    No Avenger Audiosexual

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  15. No Avenger

    No Avenger Audiosexual

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    Additionally:

    - All-in-one plugins just can't be adjusted precisely, but if they work, they work.

    - Headphones are not stereo


    - EQing: I never heard of 'don't boost more than 3dB'. The thing with preferring to attenuate rather than emphasise is the argument that EQs are twisting the phase and it's probably better to make this less audible than emphasise it, if that is possible.

    - Masterbus: no prob to add a bit of EQing or compressing to add clarity or density, but putting a limiter or a clipper on the mix is probably the worst idea.
    But congrats to grasshopper, he discovered that making a mix louder (maximizer) usually sounds better. That's deep. :facepalm:

    - Master your own song: you'll need a bunch of experience to do this this properly.

    - Highpassing 20Hz: as long as your bedroom doesn't have a 2kWatt+ system with according woofers, I recommend to cut even higher because you have no clue how this will sound even in a very small club.
     
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  16. clone

    clone Audiosexual

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    I dare you to show me one "All in One Product" that doesn't need something else.
     
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  17. Barncore

    Barncore Platinum Record

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    Weird title. In my experience it's the older pro engineers who - more than anyone - will tell you there are no rules and to mix primarily with a focus on serving the emotion of the song.

    It's the younger semi-pro youtubers that do the whole "The 7 Secret Rules of PROFESSIONAL Mixing!" shit
     
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  18. Lois Lane

    Lois Lane Audiosexual

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    John Lennon who much very well defines the definition of baby boomer maddened the staff (I read somewhere years ago) at Abby Road when he would tork up the high frequencies way above the handbook protocol and rule of the management when in the booth come mix time. In the 1960's boomers were breaking the rules in the world of music, fashion and the visual arts. This young fellow is so very brave, breaking away from the victimhood of the barb wired dictates of past masters in his chosen field of music to triumphantly rise above and to create a brave new world of freedom, freeing not just himself but a whole new generation of "producers" from the long and tyrannical reach of those creativity slave masters stretching across long dead decades before he first shit in his diaper. Wow, I'm impressed!
     
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  19. MdB

    MdB Guest

    yeah, boomers are stup*d ..... they know theory and stuff
    By the way , i want someone to help me recreate the synth sound we can hear
    at the beginning of the song called "sweet child of mine".
    Is there a samplebank i could use to make people believe i did it myself ?
    Show me using ableton in your explanation.
    I need it quick, so hurry up.
     
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  20. justwannadownload

    justwannadownload Audiosexual

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    Now this is a boomer dictate. How am I supposed to go up to -3 LUFS then?
    Incidentally, all the people I know of who go up there are Gen X or, at most, early Millenials, which substitutes nicely for Boomers in Gen Z's eyes.
     
    Last edited: Feb 8, 2023
  21. Crinklebumps

    Crinklebumps Audiosexual

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    I'm a boomer and I don't need a video to teach me how to get things done, I just know.
     
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