It's always been my understanding that scooping the mids on guitars (particularly high gain guitars) basically mutes them in a mix. They lose their voice due to the nature of their voice in the first place. Scooped mids were always a solo practice thing done in an attempt to emulate the sound of a full mix (guitars, bass, vox, drums, ect) when one was playing alone. Was completely unaware that they could ever be mixed that way. I'll have to give it a shot and see what comes out.
In my experience the only problem Ive run into removing the mids, is leaving too much low end. I dont like too much mids. I don't know if what I do qualifies as "scooping" the mids, but I do like to take some of the mids out.
I'm a little bit in between: I like my guitars with a lot of fullness in the 700 to 900 range but I prefer scooping them in the 1.8 to 2.5k range and instead have higher bite in the 4/5k range - and of course as much lower midrange in the 100 to 300 range as I can without sounding muddy
@@mixbustv with a couple of surgical cuts I can make the “rat” less fizzy, while I’ve never had issues with the guitars and the bass fighting each other
Hey David, could you make a video explain everything about file management (the Audio Files folder) in Pro Tools. How to clean this folder and what happens when you clean your session within pro tools. Tips and tricks on how you handle that.
I think my fav amps tend to be scooped, that is, Marshall and Fender. At the end of the day, I would encourage people to still mike real cabs and to use tube amps. I've experimented with many alternatives and it's simply not the same or as good imo.
4:22 - What if you made it in between and that would fit into the mix the best? I seem to do that with acoustic. With distortion I've been going for the mids sounds, but acoustic guitar I go for the very slightly scooped mids
Question on drum sidechain compression: Is it better to use a dynamic eq or a compressor sidechain for drums? Should I worry about mid/side as well when ducking kick and snare?
Scooped mids... The ever raging debate. Biggest problem I come across is guys that set their scooped mid tone at home then try to use it to record or play live. You need to scoop it differently in a mix. You need to be open to experimenting with the eq when it counts, not when sitting at home. I personally don't care for scooped mids much. Some guys have done it right, some just don't get it at all. Dime, Metallica... Yep, great albums and players but there's s lot more to their tone and place in the mix than making the eq smile. 😃 I'd suggest to guys experimenting with scooping mids to pick a band and sweep around with it cut to find what mid area it is to scoop. There's some mid you scoop then there's some mid you don't scoop. Like James from Metallica said... "It's not so much scooped mids as it is a whole lot of one particular frequency." Then he went on to not discuss that frequency. You can find it on an old Boogie or Carvin eq.
What i like to do with my amp when rehearsing or playing live is push the mids really hard and then with a boss eq pedal in the fx loop I cut a few decibels from the 500hz slider and it gives me that scoopy chunky sound without losing presence in the whole of the mid range. I'll also boost maximum of 2db in the lows and highs depending on the sound of the room.
Great video, thanks. I personally believe in guitars with mids, with a setup/player that delivers good sounding mids, mids are not annoying by default. The texture of the guitar sound is crucial, for example lowering the distortion/preamp gain and using more power amp saturation gives a smoother sound that can give the feeling of a scooped guitar tone, because it produces "creamy" mids with a beautiful presence . Scooped guitars became a standard mostly after the black album/AJFA, it worked for Metallica and it also became the typical "american metal" sound but many times when you remove mids from a guitar you are basically "removing the guitar from the guitar", in that case probably you didn't like the sound to begin with
I do scoop the mids, but I do that to make room for the orchestra. My music is more orchestra driven than guitar driven. Especially my current project, which is a Symphonic Black metal project. I did went for a modern sound, not the low quality trve kvlt sound that is typical for black metal, but there are some songs that do have that sound, but those are without orchestra. I do have plans for a different kind of album, which is more of a protest album, with all different kinds of genres per songs, (thrash, hardcore-ish, prog as well as melodeath) and there I do use more mids, so yes I agree with you that it depends on the song. I'm happy to hear that you say that, because a lot of people on MixTube really hate on the scooped mid sound on guitars
Hi, I don't want to be a bother but just in case you missed my reply: I am recommended the Focusrite ISA One or an Apollo X for great preamps to record vocals. Would you recommend anything better? UAD has the unison thingy going for them too. The Focusrite has Variable INPUT impedance. My mike is a Blue Baby Bottle.
Here's a semi-related question: how do some bands process guitars that seem to be bypassing a mic'ed cabinet? (Rammstein's "Tattoo" being a recent example).
I actually have a better, more universal mixing question: how to mix songs with lots of dynamics? eg] a metal song with typically loud, dense parts but also quiet parts like acoustic guitars and instruments and/or sparse arrangements. Do you have to automate the mixbus compressor so it reacts the same way across the song? Separate mix busses for the loud and quiet parts? How much quieter should the quiet parts be? Thanks!
interesting statement, there are some good songs with less fidelity or tone and then boring songs with top notch production, i know our music world has so much artistic variety stamped on the song by mixers but i guess in the end song is king, looking for the perfect balance to the individual artist can i guess be hankered by time esp back in the day of the music buisness, now its an open platform people can share and learn the tricks but the raw energy and talent and songs may be hidden in the mass saturated open world of technology too, songwriting slaves maybe in the ai wilderness, the scene is now machine, oh well time for coffee and some mesa boogie meditation
As much as I love some of your videos this is just stupid becuase we don't hear any examples of both styles of mixing and how should we think while mixing other elements to fit in nicely these scooped or mid-heavy guitars. Just talking won't help too much without hearing the actual guitars + taking into account that both scenarios need some corrective or shaping eq usually in the first place. Please add some audio examples :) Cheers :)
![Tricks & Plugins To Make Bass Translate on Small Speakers [with examples] - Rapid Fire Q&A #34](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/RAcMcplNxcQ/mqdefault.jpg)
![Tricks & Plugins To Make Bass Translate on Small Speakers [with examples] - Rapid Fire Q&A #34](/img/tr.png)
No rules: scoop the mids or mid the scoops ;)
"Do I know how to do it...? Sure! You scoop the mids!" Ha ha haaaaaa!! I love this channel!
It's always been my understanding that scooping the mids on guitars (particularly high gain guitars) basically mutes them in a mix. They lose their voice due to the nature of their voice in the first place. Scooped mids were always a solo practice thing done in an attempt to emulate the sound of a full mix (guitars, bass, vox, drums, ect) when one was playing alone. Was completely unaware that they could ever be mixed that way. I'll have to give it a shot and see what comes out.
In my experience the only problem Ive run into removing the mids, is leaving too much low end. I dont like too much mids. I don't know if what I do qualifies as "scooping" the mids, but I do like to take some of the mids out.
I'm a little bit in between: I like my guitars with a lot of fullness in the 700 to 900 range but I prefer scooping them in the 1.8 to 2.5k range and instead have higher bite in the 4/5k range - and of course as much lower midrange in the 100 to 300 range as I can without sounding muddy
Kinda backwards. 5-6K is the "rat", 1-2K is voicing (gtrs( while 700-900 is usually the voicing of the bass.
@@mixbustv with a couple of surgical cuts I can make the “rat” less fizzy, while I’ve never had issues with the guitars and the bass fighting each other
Hey David, could you make a video explain everything about file management (the Audio Files folder) in Pro Tools. How to clean this folder and what happens when you clean your session within pro tools. Tips and tricks on how you handle that.
Thank you so much! I really appreciate it. This totally answers my question.
Keep up the good work!
I think my fav amps tend to be scooped, that is, Marshall and Fender. At the end of the day, I would encourage people to still mike real cabs and to use tube amps. I've experimented with many alternatives and it's simply not the same or as good imo.
4:22 - What if you made it in between and that would fit into the mix the best? I seem to do that with acoustic. With distortion I've been going for the mids sounds, but acoustic guitar I go for the very slightly scooped mids
Great content! The observation regarding scooped-mids guitars sounding largely the same is an important one.
Question on drum sidechain compression: Is it better to use a dynamic eq or a compressor sidechain for drums? Should I worry about mid/side as well when ducking kick and snare?
Scooped mids... The ever raging debate. Biggest problem I come across is guys that set their scooped mid tone at home then try to use it to record or play live. You need to scoop it differently in a mix.
You need to be open to experimenting with the eq when it counts, not when sitting at home.
I personally don't care for scooped mids much. Some guys have done it right, some just don't get it at all. Dime, Metallica... Yep, great albums and players but there's s lot more to their tone and place in the mix than making the eq smile. 😃 I'd suggest to guys experimenting with scooping mids to pick a band and sweep around with it cut to find what mid area it is to scoop. There's some mid you scoop then there's some mid you don't scoop.
Like James from Metallica said... "It's not so much scooped mids as it is a whole lot of one particular frequency." Then he went on to not discuss that frequency. You can find it on an old Boogie or Carvin eq.
What i like to do with my amp when rehearsing or playing live is push the mids really hard and then with a boss eq pedal in the fx loop I cut a few decibels from the 500hz slider and it gives me that scoopy chunky sound without losing presence in the whole of the mid range. I'll also boost maximum of 2db in the lows and highs depending on the sound of the room.
Mac vs pc for running the studio and what kind of specs are helpful?
Great video, thanks. I personally believe in guitars with mids, with a setup/player that delivers good sounding mids, mids are not annoying by default.
The texture of the guitar sound is crucial, for example lowering the distortion/preamp gain and using more power amp saturation gives a smoother sound that can give the feeling of a scooped guitar tone, because it produces "creamy" mids with a beautiful presence
.
Scooped guitars became a standard mostly after the black album/AJFA, it worked for Metallica and it also became the typical "american metal" sound but many times when you remove mids from a guitar you are basically "removing the guitar from the guitar", in that case probably you didn't like the sound to begin with
I do scoop the mids, but I do that to make room for the orchestra. My music is more orchestra driven than guitar driven. Especially my current project, which is a Symphonic Black metal project. I did went for a modern sound, not the low quality trve kvlt sound that is typical for black metal, but there are some songs that do have that sound, but those are without orchestra. I do have plans for a different kind of album, which is more of a protest album, with all different kinds of genres per songs, (thrash, hardcore-ish, prog as well as melodeath) and there I do use more mids, so yes I agree with you that it depends on the song. I'm happy to hear that you say that, because a lot of people on MixTube really hate on the scooped mid sound on guitars
Can you give us some songs for reference with good sounding vocals especially in rap and trap genre?
Hi, I don't want to be a bother but just in case you missed my reply: I am recommended the Focusrite ISA One or an Apollo X for great preamps to record vocals. Would you recommend anything better? UAD has the unison thingy going for them too. The Focusrite has Variable INPUT impedance. My mike is a Blue Baby Bottle.
@@mixbustv Awesome thanks so much, bow to you, no need to reply. Best regards.
Here's a semi-related question: how do some bands process guitars that seem to be bypassing a mic'ed cabinet? (Rammstein's "Tattoo" being a recent example).
I actually have a better, more universal mixing question: how to mix songs with lots of dynamics? eg] a metal song with typically loud, dense parts but also quiet parts like acoustic guitars and instruments and/or sparse arrangements. Do you have to automate the mixbus compressor so it reacts the same way across the song? Separate mix busses for the loud and quiet parts? How much quieter should the quiet parts be? Thanks!
For me the bass guitar needs to be audible in the mix I think it makes a way more powerful sound.
interesting statement, there are some good songs with less fidelity or tone and then boring songs with top notch production, i know our music world has so much artistic variety stamped on the song by mixers but i guess in the end song is king, looking for the perfect balance to the individual artist can i guess be hankered by time esp back in the day of the music buisness, now its an open platform people can share and learn the tricks but the raw energy and talent and songs may be hidden in the mass saturated open world of technology too, songwriting slaves maybe in the ai wilderness, the scene is now machine, oh well time for coffee and some mesa boogie meditation
As much as I love some of your videos this is just stupid becuase we don't hear any examples of both styles of mixing and how should we think while mixing other elements to fit in nicely these scooped or mid-heavy guitars. Just talking won't help too much without hearing the actual guitars + taking into account that both scenarios need some corrective or shaping eq usually in the first place. Please add some audio examples :) Cheers :)