Very interesting Ian and showing the value of using LPS to do this analysis level matched. On your first listen my gut said Josh's for tonal balance but then when you listened to different sections that impression changed a little showing the compromises that are often required in mastering. Of course it all comes down to taste and only the client decides what is right or wrong.
This was amazing you never see or ever hear of this. The same material really cool guys. Thanks to the mixers to put themselves out like this. Really shows us what’s up
Jense's mix is also my favourite. I also like how you decided to show differences in your video. Choosing one mix as a reference point made the differences less drastic than if you just jumped through all of these mixes one after another (how it was done in the SOS video).
I wish you offered a cheaper version of the software without all the different Streaming services options, I would like it just to drop in various remastered versions of CDs in my collection. I'm never going to be mixing or mastering anything for release. The matching info and loudness matching (and the various different lufs measurements) is the interesting stuff for me. I would love to analyse the version of Hot Buttered Soul that I have especially for By The Time I Get To Phoenix, which seems to grow massively in volume during the song. Would also like to drop my original Animals CD and the Remix to see if the remix is as much of an improvement as it seems to be.
Your comments are so accurate! Jens Borgen has the most impactful dynamics, all elements have a great relatioship between them, they're communicating, and the depth of field is great also. Although I feel the midrange could be a bit more refined, it's a bit harsh sometimes SOS research team, is sounding very dull and midrangy. The tone of the el. gtr sound wrooong. Adam Nolly it's harsh and aggressive on the highs, piercing to the ear. Μike Exeter is really weird also, especially the vocals and the el. gtrs. It's like there's a blanket. David Otero is all over the place. Ther relationships between instruments and vocals are lost here. Buster's mix is closer to Adam Nolly but with a bit more 3D highs but still aggressive without reason.
After loading up the masters in my DAW and spending entirely too much time going back and forth through them, I think MOST of them sound good, just different. Here's my order from favorite to least. 1. Jens Bogren - Well balanced, good clarity, good weight, vocals could've been just a tad more aggressive and louder imo 2.Dave Otero - Very loud in your face mix, but still retain some definition and clarity. I think this would be what the band might be looking for in terms of in your face aggressiveness that still sounds good. 3. Adam Nolly - just a bit of boxiness compared to the first 2, but still well balanced. The aggressiveness and definition is also there, I really like how the vocals sit on this one. 4. Andrew Scheps - Sounds well balanced, clear, and very natural, but there's absolutely NO weight compared to the others, especially in the vocals. Of course that probably because of the lack of mastering. On the other hand, this one is the smoothest and easiest to listen to. 5. Josh Middleton - Sound good, but vocal seems a bit thin, might be a bit too dry. 6. Frederik Nordstrom - Sounds good, maybe a bit of mud in the guitars that clutters up the mix just a tad in the low mids. Maybe could need a bit of top boost or sheen too. 7. Buster Odeholm - Sound is very focused and small compared to the Dave Otero mix which is also very loud. Buster's mix seems to focus a lot more on the drums and giving them their space, and they do sound good, but if we're going for loudness, I think the big and wide wall of guitars from Dave's mix works better. Buster's has more space for drums, but it seems everything else has been squished upward the frequency spectrum and in consequence lack weight. 8. Mark Mynett - Just sounds bad imo, Very hollow, guitars feel like they're just sitting on top of everything instead tucked behind the vocals. I don't think he took the assignment seriously. 9. Mike Exeter - Sounds bad also imo, there seem to be some crazy resonances going there too, idk what that's about. That was definitely a fun experiment, and Sound on Sound should definitively do more of those.
Wauw amazing how much of a difference these mixes have. My favo would be number 7 and then 4. The louder a mix is the less I really listen to it. You don't get pushed into the mix anymore. Your brain starts to ignore the musical details. Then the mixes with Hugh ~200-300 bump. I wonder if that is a studio listening issue at their studio or a creative choice. Thanks for sharing your opinion.
Thank you for this, Ian... ha! quite a range of tonal and balance decisions. Some mixes sound like an actual live band in a room, while others sound so hollow and manipulated as to make them seem artificial and cartoonish...
Daves and Busters mix get close for me. Loud drums, maximal intensity, suffocating crush is what this song represents musically. Having the high frequency transients nice and clear makes the track feel faster and more agressive. One crucial aspect of this genre is the speed of transients and having the mids jump out of the speakers with maximal density. This to me immediately suggests a less subby, extremely dense and more mids heavy style with loud transients. If anybody is interested in an old metal heads/mastering engineers taste, Check out Hatesphere "Lies and deciet" for some extremely well engineered thrash/death. Its much less polite, more live sounding and at the same time clearer in the bass and lower mids than these mixes.
Great to have these available to download and compare. Jens Bogren is easily the best mix to my ears for EQ balance and stereo image, but you did mention he'd submitted a fully mastered file. Nolly is narrow/high pass/low pass midrange focus and Scheps is muddy on the low mids, but both workable. Buster is pushed too hard for any tweaks to have any meaningful impact. Only my opinions of course.
What’s really interesting is that I used the stems (without keys) to re-construct Jens’ raw mix, without the mastering. It’s actually pretty similar, apart from dynamics processing and some stereo width work. So even though the version in this video is mastered, it doesn’t have an “unfair advantage” over the others as a result. But it WAS much more dynamic… (Which makes me wonder if I should rebuild some of the others, as well…)
Super interesting video as you always do! That's why I'm here 😀 During a recent study at the University of Maryland, sociologist Philip Cohen asked nearly 2,000 men and women a simple question: “What’s your favorite color?” Blue turned out to be most popular across the board, followed by green for men and purple for women. It's interesting because I see a parallel with mixing and mastering. There are different tastes, but some seem more widespread than others. But are the less popular colors less beautiful/attractive than the more popular ones? Imagine if we could see everything in blue, but only in blue! Would the world be really beautiful? 🤔
What a great video, love this 👍🏼 I liked Josh Middleton’s mix the best. Liked Dave Otero’s mix a lot too And Buster Odehlom’s mix is also great. I probably would choose between Josh and Dave, both are great.
@@ProductionAdvice O definitely, I would be happy with any mix. I have certain personal preferences however. I like the clicky beater of the kick in metal but I’m pretty much of a fan of a tight low-end. The mid-range is a matter of taste for the guitars, I like them not to bright but still forward in the mix. For the high-end I like to go not to wide and bright because I like metal to have a darker feel, fits better with the genre imo. A really good mix imo is Behind the Wall by Queensryche mixed by Planet Zeus but of course it’s all a matter of taste and preference.
Josh’s was my favourite too. Was a little bit duller than others especially Dave’s mix, which was too bright for me. I liked the organic feel of Andrew’s mix but wasn’t fan of his snare for some reason.
Quite a few of these guys have worked with URM Academy/Nail The Mix, showing how they've mixed a particular song they did with a famous band - you can probably track down things like Master Bus chains etc. on there.
This is representing the work of the studio. Jens has acheived a propular vote. Lets be honest here, they wont sacrific reputation as most artists wont understand. I would do the same, I'm not having someone listen to an unfinished product judging me. Jens is a very popular producer. What I think I took from this when I listened was the differences should fill us all with some confidence that even if we dont achieve our reference its probably fine. What I liked about Jens was the way the strings sit. Jens masters pass as a final result. Is your master too bright, too dark, is it wrong? I think at the end of the day this proves that it does not matter. Look how bright and open some mixes sound. Maybe some of us are much better than we think.
This video shows how difficult mixing really is which people don't realize. Even professional dudes who are highly successful couldn't make it 100% right. Only Jens Bogren did the mix 100% right from the tonal balance standpoint. Crazy
@@ProductionAdvice I laugh at the comments saying something like "it's all subjective, these are different colors and you can do whatever you want in mixing". It shows how uncalibrated and untrained a lot of people's hearing really is because the reality is that the perfect balance's sweet spot is a pretty narrow range to fit in and the "subjective" part is mostly in the tiny details like reverb/delay choices, some bigger automation moves between sections of a song or the kind of click in the kick drum (where the range of sweet spot for a song is quite big) or choice of drum samples or the sibilance tone (every deesser has a slightly different sound to it). But the eq and fader balance part has a very narrow sweet spot to nail
@@dablizzoduve4576 a great mix is very balanced both eq-wise and dynamic-wise. Show me an example of unbalanced professional mix from Serban or CLA - I know a lot of their mxes and I've yet to found an unbalanced one😂
Mike's sounds different than others, and contrast is so big that in comparison it sounds kind of weird. But - I think in mastering there could be a lot of control and some interesting things done to the final result, from the side of mastering engineer. Most of the other samples indeed sound like already done masters, rather than what I would expect mastering engineer to receive
I do that myself with all my split personalities. 🤪 To some extent this reminds me of turning the "character" knob on a Tech 21 pedal. I prefer Mike's mix. I'm not a fan of loud and abrasive cymbals.
Give me a lot of ammo against the people that feel the mix should be at -16LUFS which is ridiculously quiet to me for most genre's. From my standpoint I don't mix quite this loud but close but some of that comes from limiters on the master bus, but the limiters get removed when it goes to the mastering engineer. From my standpoint the mix should have mastering applied when going to the client for evaluation but that mastering gets removed when going to the mastering engineer. I think I like Dave's the best personally.
@@dodgingrain3695 I don’t disagree necessarily, the problem with applying mastering processing to the mix supplied to the client is that they can get used to (say) very high LUFS which then reduces our options at the mastering stage
@@ProductionAdvice I really disagree. You can always send the reference level matched. When I mix I always send a genre appropriate loudness "limited" version and a premaster
Some of your comments I don’t agree with. It’s all good and well to say ‘I like more low end weight’, but so much is being pressed to vinyl these days. Maybe they have worked this variable into their workflow? Josh sure does drums well. I like Exeter as a person, really great guy, but that’s a terrible mix. Regardless of frequency response, Nolly seems to have the highest energy level. Jens does sound good. I’m going to head into studio and have a listen. Just listening on tv at mo
True enough about vinyl, but vinyl typically has it’s own master made so there’s plenty of time to reduce the lows if necessary - but often it isn’t, it’s a common misconception that you can’t have big bass on vinyl - you absolutely can, especially if it’s well-managed dynamically
I knew it! Some of the mixes are quasi-pre mastered. I'd really like to hear them without that master bus processing and all at the same loudness which is the only true way to compare them as mixes. The other video that does the A/B comparison clearly demonstrates that some are louder than others and some are just crushed. Meh. As a mix engineer aren't you supposed to give the mastering engineer a chance at doing their job? Lol. Are mix engineers the new mastering engineers? Ugh.
Nollys does sound great if your preference is more open and clean, which does work for this specific sub genre. It’s just a little stale and boring compared to busters imo
That was my first reaction too but in the end I think Dave Otero's mix is the best. I just like his style. His mix of "Remote Tumor Seeker" from Archspire is the song I always use as a reference mix. It's ultra heavy and full range.
Very interesting!! Is mastering going away? That’s the question isn’t? Mixing engineers are mixing to master already! The mixing and mastering may be taking a new form. And Ai will fill the gab in between? New ways to get the music and loudness, finishing we all want. Cheers!
Fair question, but the answer for me, based on the examples in this video, is a clear "No". There was only 1 mix here that was tonally balanced enough (IMO) to translate really well, which was Jen's, and had been professionally mastered...! As good as they are, I think all of these mixes would benefit from adjustments - some larger than others - and the ideal time and place to do this is as part of a dedicated mastering step.
@@ProductionAdvice definitely! The balance between the mixing as an artist point of view vs the technically in Mastering. Mastering is still an art (IMO )and not just a “processing step”. As both master and mixing engineer completely understand the benefits and places for both just noticing that mixing is getting closer to a final product than years ago. Thank you for always sharing !
It's like changing EQ profiles, nothing sounds bad just different. That confirms my view that mixing is nothing but EQ'ing and that's about it. I bet I can make all those sound very similar to each other with some EQ and m/s tuning
@@luisVdavila They were all mixed by different people, so have slightly different running times. I edited the starts so they play in sync for comparison, but not the ends
Sorry about that ! I have to disagree though, I think metal is one of the most challenging genres to record, mix, and master, so it makes a really interesting example. I think the choice was made because the SOS article is an off-shoot of a research project into what makes music 'heavy' and there's some really interesting discussion from several of the engineers talking about the ways in which classical music can be heavy.
One of the most brilliant pieces of content from the past few years, and the guy still complains about the style? Mixing isn't about dynamic range or aesthetics; it's about painting a picture with the chosen theme. In this case, we had eight artists painting the same landscape... Each with their own vision... If you can’t grasp the depth of this teaching, you probably need to rethink your concepts of music, art, technique, and, honestly, how to see life in a lighter way (in my opinion)... Complaining about FREE information of this caliber is like complaining that you won 9 million in the lottery instead of 10... When you were living on the street...
All mixes are not very dynamic in the low end and a bit spikey in the 2 k range. Might be the recordings. Very light sounding, too much focus on the midrange, lacking low end.
![[LIVE] BABYMONSTER(베이비몬스터) - DRIP | 두시탈출 컬투쇼](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/UG05pxLGwzc/mqdefault.jpg)
BOOM!!! I agree with you on this, Jens Bogren was the one that jumped out for me.
Very interesting Ian and showing the value of using LPS to do this analysis level matched. On your first listen my gut said Josh's for tonal balance but then when you listened to different sections that impression changed a little showing the compromises that are often required in mastering. Of course it all comes down to taste and only the client decides what is right or wrong.
This is fascinating and incredibly useful. Thank you for this.
My pleasure !
This was amazing you never see or ever hear of this. The same material really cool guys. Thanks to the mixers to put themselves out like this. Really shows us what’s up
Jense's mix is also my favourite. I also like how you decided to show differences in your video. Choosing one mix as a reference point made the differences less drastic than if you just jumped through all of these mixes one after another (how it was done in the SOS video).
Thanks, glad it was helpful !
This video is great man, a lot of insight to be gained from this. Probably gonna take a few rewatches
@@TildeSounds Thanks, I really appreciate it !
Really interesting, thanks for sharing Ian!
NICE CONTENT. agree with you about Jens's
Very instructive, thx. Well, now it remains that you master all these tracks, and make a video out of your work, explaining choices.... Haha!
I wish you offered a cheaper version of the software without all the different Streaming services options, I would like it just to drop in various remastered versions of CDs in my collection. I'm never going to be mixing or mastering anything for release. The matching info and loudness matching (and the various different lufs measurements) is the interesting stuff for me. I would love to analyse the version of Hot Buttered Soul that I have especially for By The Time I Get To Phoenix, which seems to grow massively in volume during the song.
Would also like to drop my original Animals CD and the Remix to see if the remix is as much of an improvement as it seems to be.
Your comments are so accurate!
Jens Borgen has the most impactful dynamics, all elements have a great relatioship between them, they're communicating, and the depth of field is great also. Although I feel the midrange could be a bit more refined, it's a bit harsh sometimes
SOS research team, is sounding very dull and midrangy. The tone of the el. gtr sound wrooong.
Adam Nolly it's harsh and aggressive on the highs, piercing to the ear.
Μike Exeter is really weird also, especially the vocals and the el. gtrs. It's like there's a blanket.
David Otero is all over the place. Ther relationships between instruments and vocals are lost here.
Buster's mix is closer to Adam Nolly but with a bit more 3D highs but still aggressive without reason.
Fantastic Ian, thank you
After loading up the masters in my DAW and spending entirely too much time going back and forth through them, I think MOST of them sound good, just different. Here's my order from favorite to least.
1. Jens Bogren - Well balanced, good clarity, good weight, vocals could've been just a tad more aggressive and louder imo
2.Dave Otero - Very loud in your face mix, but still retain some definition and clarity. I think this would be what the band might be looking for in terms of in your face aggressiveness that still sounds good.
3. Adam Nolly - just a bit of boxiness compared to the first 2, but still well balanced. The aggressiveness and definition is also there, I really like how the vocals sit on this one.
4. Andrew Scheps - Sounds well balanced, clear, and very natural, but there's absolutely NO weight compared to the others, especially in the vocals. Of course that probably because of the lack of mastering. On the other hand, this one is the smoothest and easiest to listen to.
5. Josh Middleton - Sound good, but vocal seems a bit thin, might be a bit too dry.
6. Frederik Nordstrom - Sounds good, maybe a bit of mud in the guitars that clutters up the mix just a tad in the low mids. Maybe could need a bit of top boost or sheen too.
7. Buster Odeholm - Sound is very focused and small compared to the Dave Otero mix which is also very loud. Buster's mix seems to focus a lot more on the drums and giving them their space, and they do sound good, but if we're going for loudness, I think the big and wide wall of guitars from Dave's mix works better. Buster's has more space for drums, but it seems everything else has been squished upward the frequency spectrum and in consequence lack weight.
8. Mark Mynett - Just sounds bad imo, Very hollow, guitars feel like they're just sitting on top of everything instead tucked behind the vocals. I don't think he took the assignment seriously.
9. Mike Exeter - Sounds bad also imo, there seem to be some crazy resonances going there too, idk what that's about.
That was definitely a fun experiment, and Sound on Sound should definitively do more of those.
Wauw amazing how much of a difference these mixes have. My favo would be number 7 and then 4. The louder a mix is the less I really listen to it. You don't get pushed into the mix anymore. Your brain starts to ignore the musical details. Then the mixes with Hugh ~200-300 bump. I wonder if that is a studio listening issue at their studio or a creative choice. Thanks for sharing your opinion.
Thank you for this, Ian... ha! quite a range of tonal and balance decisions.
Some mixes sound like an actual live band in a room, while others sound
so hollow and manipulated as to make them seem artificial and cartoonish...
Daves and Busters mix get close for me. Loud drums, maximal intensity, suffocating crush is what this song represents musically. Having the high frequency transients nice and clear makes the track feel faster and more agressive. One crucial aspect of this genre is the speed of transients and having the mids jump out of the speakers with maximal density. This to me immediately suggests a less subby, extremely dense and more mids heavy style with loud transients. If anybody is interested in an old metal heads/mastering engineers taste, Check out Hatesphere "Lies and deciet" for some extremely well engineered thrash/death. Its much less polite, more live sounding and at the same time clearer in the bass and lower mids than these mixes.
That would be Tue Madsen
Great to have these available to download and compare. Jens Bogren is easily the best mix to my ears for EQ balance and stereo image, but you did mention he'd submitted a fully mastered file. Nolly is narrow/high pass/low pass midrange focus and Scheps is muddy on the low mids, but both workable. Buster is pushed too hard for any tweaks to have any meaningful impact. Only my opinions of course.
What’s really interesting is that I used the stems (without keys) to re-construct Jens’ raw mix, without the mastering. It’s actually pretty similar, apart from dynamics processing and some stereo width work.
So even though the version in this video is mastered, it doesn’t have an “unfair advantage” over the others as a result. But it WAS much more dynamic…
(Which makes me wonder if I should rebuild some of the others, as well…)
Busters mix was great for as loud as it was. I’d like a mix between him and Jens.
Super interesting video as you always do! That's why I'm here 😀
During a recent study at the University of Maryland, sociologist Philip Cohen asked nearly 2,000 men and women a simple question: “What’s your favorite color?” Blue turned out to be most popular across the board, followed by green for men and purple for women.
It's interesting because I see a parallel with mixing and mastering. There are different tastes, but some seem more widespread than others. But are the less popular colors less beautiful/attractive than the more popular ones? Imagine if we could see everything in blue, but only in blue! Would the world be really beautiful? 🤔
Thanks for sharing, super interesting.
this video is amazing! thanks Ian :-)
What a great video, love this 👍🏼
I liked Josh Middleton’s mix the best.
Liked Dave Otero’s mix a lot too
And Buster Odehlom’s mix is also great.
I probably would choose between Josh and Dave, both are great.
@@Chaos-Dynamics Honestly there are things I like about all of them !
@@ProductionAdvice O definitely, I would be happy with any mix. I have certain personal preferences however. I like the clicky beater of the kick in metal but I’m pretty much of a fan of a tight low-end. The mid-range is a matter of taste for the guitars, I like them not to bright but still forward in the mix. For the high-end I like to go not to wide and bright because I like metal to have a darker feel, fits better with the genre imo. A really good mix imo is Behind the Wall by Queensryche mixed by Planet Zeus but of course it’s all a matter of taste and preference.
Josh’s was my favourite too. Was a little bit duller than others especially Dave’s mix, which was too bright for me.
I liked the organic feel of Andrew’s mix but wasn’t fan of his snare for some reason.
I wonder what each of the mixes had on their master buss and what they were using for monitoring??
Quite a few of these guys have worked with URM Academy/Nail The Mix, showing how they've mixed a particular song they did with a famous band - you can probably track down things like Master Bus chains etc. on there.
There's some discussion in the SOS article about some of the mastering chain decisions, especially Buster's IIRC
I like Andrew Scheps as someone who talks about mixing but funny enough I really dislike how he mixes.
This is representing the work of the studio. Jens has acheived a propular vote. Lets be honest here, they wont sacrific reputation as most artists wont understand. I would do the same, I'm not having someone listen to an unfinished product judging me.
Jens is a very popular producer.
What I think I took from this when I listened was the differences should fill us all with some confidence that even if we dont achieve our reference its probably fine.
What I liked about Jens was the way the strings sit.
Jens masters pass as a final result. Is your master too bright, too dark, is it wrong? I think at the end of the day this proves that it does not matter. Look how bright and open some mixes sound. Maybe some of us are much better than we think.
This video shows how difficult mixing really is which people don't realize. Even professional dudes who are highly successful couldn't make it 100% right. Only Jens Bogren did the mix 100% right from the tonal balance standpoint. Crazy
And even his could stand a little more low end weight if they backed off the LUFS a little… IMNSHO 😂
@@ProductionAdvice I laugh at the comments saying something like "it's all subjective, these are different colors and you can do whatever you want in mixing". It shows how uncalibrated and untrained a lot of people's hearing really is because the reality is that the perfect balance's sweet spot is a pretty narrow range to fit in and the "subjective" part is mostly in the tiny details like reverb/delay choices, some bigger automation moves between sections of a song or the kind of click in the kick drum (where the range of sweet spot for a song is quite big) or choice of drum samples or the sibilance tone (every deesser has a slightly different sound to it). But the eq and fader balance part has a very narrow sweet spot to nail
@@huberttorzewskiperfect balance sweet spot...😂
Remember perfection does not exist it's just an illusion...
In fact a great mix is unbalanced..😊
@@huberttorzewskiand there are a thousand ways to balance a mix..depends on the feeling you are going for..
@@dablizzoduve4576 a great mix is very balanced both eq-wise and dynamic-wise. Show me an example of unbalanced professional mix from Serban or CLA - I know a lot of their mxes and I've yet to found an unbalanced one😂
Mike's sounds different than others, and contrast is so big that in comparison it sounds kind of weird. But - I think in mastering there could be a lot of control and some interesting things done to the final result, from the side of mastering engineer. Most of the other samples indeed sound like already done masters, rather than what I would expect mastering engineer to receive
Will try to give a listen for uncompressed files, as usually YT compression skews perception of audio by a lot
I do that myself with all my split personalities. 🤪
To some extent this reminds me of turning the "character" knob on a Tech 21 pedal.
I prefer Mike's mix. I'm not a fan of loud and abrasive cymbals.
😂
Great video . Thanks.
Some engineers will master the mix in the mixing phase. I have seen this done by many top name engineers.
Give me a lot of ammo against the people that feel the mix should be at -16LUFS which is ridiculously quiet to me for most genre's. From my standpoint I don't mix quite this loud but close but some of that comes from limiters on the master bus, but the limiters get removed when it goes to the mastering engineer. From my standpoint the mix should have mastering applied when going to the client for evaluation but that mastering gets removed when going to the mastering engineer. I think I like Dave's the best personally.
@@dodgingrain3695 I don’t disagree necessarily, the problem with applying mastering processing to the mix supplied to the client is that they can get used to (say) very high LUFS which then reduces our options at the mastering stage
@@ProductionAdvice I really disagree. You can always send the reference level matched. When I mix I always send a genre appropriate loudness "limited" version and a premaster
On first listen, and just using my laptop speakers, Jens' mix sounds best to me. The EQ is balanced how I would expect a song like this to sound.
Andrew make this song actual listenable...
Some of your comments I don’t agree with. It’s all good and well to say ‘I like more low end weight’, but so much is being pressed to vinyl these days. Maybe they have worked this variable into their workflow? Josh sure does drums well. I like Exeter as a person, really great guy, but that’s a terrible mix. Regardless of frequency response, Nolly seems to have the highest energy level. Jens does sound good. I’m going to head into studio and have a listen. Just listening on tv at mo
True enough about vinyl, but vinyl typically has it’s own master made so there’s plenty of time to reduce the lows if necessary - but often it isn’t, it’s a common misconception that you can’t have big bass on vinyl - you absolutely can, especially if it’s well-managed dynamically
@@ProductionAdvicehave you got a master I can hear that has a BIG lowend and was pressed to vinyl without filters?
Wish busters got a bit more attention
I knew it! Some of the mixes are quasi-pre mastered. I'd really like to hear them without that master bus processing and all at the same loudness which is the only true way to compare them as mixes. The other video that does the A/B comparison clearly demonstrates that some are louder than others and some are just crushed. Meh. As a mix engineer aren't you supposed to give the mastering engineer a chance at doing their job? Lol. Are mix engineers the new mastering engineers? Ugh.
Busters destroys everyone else’s. That’s why he is arguably the most in demand of all of these mixers currently.
Nollys does sound great if your preference is more open and clean, which does work for this specific sub genre. It’s just a little stale and boring compared to busters imo
That was my first reaction too but in the end I think Dave Otero's mix is the best. I just like his style. His mix of "Remote Tumor Seeker" from Archspire is the song I always use as a reference mix. It's ultra heavy and full range.
@@AG-mz7vm Dave is great for sure. Especially at death metal. Great dude too
@@soothsayeraudio919 👍
Very interesting!! Is mastering going away? That’s the question isn’t? Mixing engineers are mixing to master already! The mixing and mastering may be taking a new form. And Ai will fill the gab in between? New ways to get the music and loudness, finishing we all want. Cheers!
Fair question, but the answer for me, based on the examples in this video, is a clear "No". There was only 1 mix here that was tonally balanced enough (IMO) to translate really well, which was Jen's, and had been professionally mastered...!
As good as they are, I think all of these mixes would benefit from adjustments - some larger than others - and the ideal time and place to do this is as part of a dedicated mastering step.
@@ProductionAdvice definitely! The balance between the mixing as an artist point of view vs the technically in Mastering. Mastering is still an art (IMO )and not just a “processing step”.
As both master and mixing engineer completely understand the benefits and places for both just noticing that mixing is getting closer to a final product than years ago. Thank you for always sharing !
1:43 LUFs 'lolz'
It's like changing EQ profiles, nothing sounds bad just different. That confirms my view that mixing is nothing but EQ'ing and that's about it. I bet I can make all those sound very similar to each other with some EQ and m/s tuning
I take that bet??!!
@@morbidmanmusic I tried with 2 of them and it worked
I said that too when I was 12 years old
@@BukanIbuMu No you didn't, liar. I am not a newbie, I am 52, I mean what I say because I did it and I have proof
@@konstantinos777 why would I lie? lmao.
nolly's was my favourite
Amazed how bad sound Otero’s mix compared to the rest, very harsh
That's how different tastes are Dave Otero's mix is my favourite!
why some tracks last longer if they are the same?
@@luisVdavila They were all mixed by different people, so have slightly different running times. I edited the starts so they play in sync for comparison, but not the ends
Disappointed. Why choose a genre with so few dynamics or nuances? You may as well have compared 8 mic placements around a high-revving diesel engine.
Sorry about that !
I have to disagree though, I think metal is one of the most challenging genres to record, mix, and master, so it makes a really interesting example. I think the choice was made because the SOS article is an off-shoot of a research project into what makes music 'heavy' and there's some really interesting discussion from several of the engineers talking about the ways in which classical music can be heavy.
Metal is one of the most.challenging genres of music to mix and get it right. I think it's a pretty good benchmark
It's about mixing a metal song. How can you be disappointed? Move on if it's not your cup of tea.
@@AG-mz7vm I was disappointed because that's not the way this video was advertised - there's no mention of metal in the blurb or the intro.
One of the most brilliant pieces of content from the past few years, and the guy still complains about the style? Mixing isn't about dynamic range or aesthetics; it's about painting a picture with the chosen theme. In this case, we had eight artists painting the same landscape... Each with their own vision... If you can’t grasp the depth of this teaching, you probably need to rethink your concepts of music, art, technique, and, honestly, how to see life in a lighter way (in my opinion)... Complaining about FREE information of this caliber is like complaining that you won 9 million in the lottery instead of 10... When you were living on the street...
All mixes are not very dynamic in the low end and a bit spikey in the 2 k range. Might be the recordings. Very light sounding, too much focus on the midrange, lacking low end.
Mmm maybe only Buster Odeholm did the low end right imo
@@MarcoRaaphorstBuster did too much ducking on the low end