Definitely agree. I always always always want that analogue additional grit and warmth so I usually premix with analogue effect plugins and then then remove them when I send to the actual mixing guy so his analogue gear adds it’s own signature analogue texture. It’s never the same but always works.
Analog mixing engineer here, first of all both formats are very capable of getting great results. The thing that I find missing in the analog cq digital conversation is if someone has a reference. I mean, if you know how driving a DBX160 or a 1176 sounds like then you can get the same sound with plugins. The problem with engineers that start ‘in the box’ is that they don’t know what to aim for. They don’t have the reference how a real 1176 sounds in the sweet spot. Of course everything can be learned but knowing how analog supposed to sound and how gain staging affects the sound is a very useful thing. Another thing is that people tend to record their sound too clean, when recording with a good pre-amp and some compression the analog sound gets backed in the recording, basically mixing starts when the recording begins. In the old days there wasn’t so much outboard gear to put on any channel so committing while tracking was a necessity. Nowadays people track too clean and try to shape the sound later when mixing, the possibilities are basically endless which eventually doesn’t make things easy. I learned a trick that hiphop engineers used in the 90’s to get a fat sound, which they come up with because of the lack of channels. A trick people nowadays wouldn’t come up with because we can get hundreds of channels these days. Limitations can really cause us to get creative and work with what we have, too many options don’t necessarily guarantee a better result. 😊
Thanks for this reply, some really great points that I very much agree with. I love the point about limitations breeding creativity - I’ve got a video in mind about this topic!
something that i feel helps me and probably other people is practical application and problem solving. especially eq moves and spectral balance as it is the main tool for achieving a great master and needs the most experience. what to listen to and when to stop. i would love to see you tackling different songs/genres and your approach to eq-ing while following your train of thought. seems like this is not covered on youtube as much as i feel it should be. thanks for the content. all the best!!
Sure thing, I often teach that the dynamics side of thing is more difficult but that may well be my bias! As Chaos Dynamics has put below - EQ depends very much on the song, even 2 songs on the same album may need different EQ approaches. I’ll do some videos walking through my EQ processing though!
Definitely agree. I always always always want that analogue additional grit and warmth so I usually premix with analogue effect plugins and then then remove them when I send to the actual mixing guy so his analogue gear adds it’s own signature analogue texture. It’s never the same but always works.
Great video mate, hope all is good!
Thanks Oli! Hope all’s well with you!
yes mate!
Thanks Nico!
Analog mixing engineer here,
first of all both formats are very capable of getting great results. The thing that I find missing in the analog cq digital conversation is if someone has a reference. I mean, if you know how driving a DBX160 or a 1176 sounds like then you can get the same sound with plugins. The problem with engineers that start ‘in the box’ is that they don’t know what to aim for. They don’t have the reference how a real 1176 sounds in the sweet spot. Of course everything can be learned but knowing how analog supposed to sound and how gain staging affects the sound is a very useful thing.
Another thing is that people tend to record their sound too clean, when recording with a good pre-amp and some compression the analog sound gets backed in the recording, basically mixing starts when the recording begins. In the old days there wasn’t so much outboard gear to put on any channel so committing while tracking was a necessity. Nowadays people track too clean and try to shape the sound later when mixing, the possibilities are basically endless which eventually doesn’t make things easy.
I learned a trick that hiphop engineers used in the 90’s to get a fat sound, which they come up with because of the lack of channels. A trick people nowadays wouldn’t come up with because we can get hundreds of channels these days. Limitations can really cause us to get creative and work with what we have, too many options don’t necessarily guarantee a better result. 😊
Thanks for this reply, some really great points that I very much agree with. I love the point about limitations breeding creativity - I’ve got a video in mind about this topic!
something that i feel helps me and probably other people is practical application and problem solving. especially eq moves and spectral balance as it is the main tool for achieving a great master and needs the most experience. what to listen to and when to stop. i would love to see you tackling different songs/genres and your approach to eq-ing while following your train of thought. seems like this is not covered on youtube as much as i feel it should be. thanks for the content. all the best!!
I think it’s a very hard thing to do because every song needs a different approach even in the same genre.
At least that’s what I think 🤔
Sure thing, I often teach that the dynamics side of thing is more difficult but that may well be my bias! As Chaos Dynamics has put below - EQ depends very much on the song, even 2 songs on the same album may need different EQ approaches. I’ll do some videos walking through my EQ processing though!