BRAUERIZING EXPLAINED: ITB Routing, Setup, and Calibration | LearnAudioEngineering.com
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In this video, Robert explains the basics of Michael Brauer's Signature 'Brauerizing' Bus compression process. Learn how to setup Brauer's bus compression ITB (in the box), with a full walkthrough of the routing and setup of the busses, as well as compressor calibration!
►Part 2 Vocal Setup, Compressor Settings:
• BRAUERIZING PROCESS - ...
00:58 Brauerizing Intro
03:16 A B C D Buses Explained
05:26 Brauerizing Process
07:48 Setup in Protools
11:27 Compressor Calibration
17:17 Bus Routing
18:47 Balancing Tracks into Compressors
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Awesome tutorial man! Just heard about Michael Brauer and his mixing technique today, I was able to follow along with your tutorial and make notes. Can't wait to try this on my next mix! Will now look at what he did with his lead vocal, great stuff!!
Awesome. This helped me with my Advanced Mixing class. You explained it in a way that can be applied to any DAW. I was able to do this in Ableton, so thanks!
The best BRAUERIZING explanation on You Tube for sure. I could finally understood the routing. Thanks
Thanks a lot! thats great to hear. Glad I could help :)
Learn Audio Engineering Hey, the only thing I’m not clear are the attack and release times of each compressor. Perhaps thats why they weren’t doing much on your video? Any updates you found since this video? Thanks
Check out my most recent videos on compression, I did one on the attack and release envelope. :)
I understand the attack and release of a comoressor just wanted to point out why in your Brauerizing were not doing anything. Is there a specific setting in each compressor?
Yes, actually he has a rack of compressors he claims never change. I have a new video coming out Sunday that goes more in depth on Brauerizing and includes the settings for each. Thanks for your interest!
Cool technique to try, and you explained it really well. One thing to keep in mind is that Brauer developed this way of working over the years and is accustomed to it... don't think that this is some superior technique that is gonna automatically make your mixes better. Don't force and complicate your life with this way of working if you don't truly like it and have better results with it.
Wow! amazing channel mate, awesome job!
Really enjoyed this...
Great vid...well done!
Im no Michael Brauer but use this buss type of splitting: not for compression sake. Michael has truly honed this technique into his own artform!
I see some value of the compressors being an indicator but this is generally PEAK compression triggered by spectral transient weight and by no means perceived volume at all. This issue I have with it is that after 30 years of mixing...STOP LOOKING!
For newbies checking out...we should look with our ears before anything and Im sure Michael is doing way more of that as opposed to the visual which the compressors suggest. I see the compressors used this way as per the comments below...colour and trigger management (which is would certainly polish headroom) and is a great way to granularise the compression and is almost a faux multiband in a way
Just remember as we encroach into a K-12 pre master level...we are killing the power and size of the mix and trapping the mastering engineer...this staggered approached certainly formulates an approach but keep respecting the dynamics...these days the loudness wars are over and side by side ie volume calibrated on spotify, some of the LW mixes actually sound disgusting and fatiguing
I find that breaking the Low/Low mids (B) into their own buss also allows for side chain carving. If you use surgical compressor on the B.2 buss eg like a dsm or trackspacer it also allows for simple transient control that is SPECTRALLY operative ie only removes the kinetic or "pressure energy" from the bottoms, although you can certainly use it for any spectral info. This totally changes the feed into the final mix buss and the transient energy is never double ie kick on top of bass etc
B.1. Low End Primary (Transient eg kick etc)
B.2. Low End Secondary (anything that is sustained and needs a hole punch from the transients)
Also, I like to group BEFORE they get to the sub mix busses into grouping like 3 point bokeh photography
FOREGROUND
FOCUS
BACKGROUND
This has the same parallel where the focus has more detail ie sharpness and contrast = more transients, less compression and the others use the same landscape like rules eg less contrast less detail eg shorter attack etc...you get the idea. Try it with vocals...crisp and dynamic lead...crush and de ess with bottom and top cuts for backing vocals and use the sidechain above...you can actually push the backing vocals into the background even though they are nearly the same volume, as they are almost smeared and the lead still has space and focus...more than ever because of reference
Just throwing in some extra ideas...hope it helps
Greetings and peace from Oz!
great stuff! thanks so much for commenting!
To brauerize your mix in the box, you should change the 'stereo output' of your track to 'no output'; open two send busses (in Logic) and you put a different sounding compressor with the same settings in each bus. You've just split the dry sound = brauerized. You can also brauerize the wet sound: add all your plugins in different send busses (= parallel), and put the stereo output of all those buses to for example bus 20; change the 'stereo output' of bus 20 to 'no output', open two busses and add a different sounding compressor with the same settings to each bus; your wet sound has been split = brauerized. Next step: change the 'stereo output' of the dry compressors to, for example, 'bus 30', and change the 'stereo output' of the wet compressors to, for example, 'bus 40'. Bus 30 = volume of dry compressed sound; bus 40 = volume wet compressed sound. Change the 'stereo output' of bus 30 and bus 40 to, for example, 'bus 50'. Add a multipressor with light settings, only taming peaks, to bus 50. Bus 50 is now your premaster for this specific instrument, containing a mix of the compressed dry and wet sound. (Brauerizing means enriching the sound by splitting it up, and it means controlling the dynamics of each instrument, or instrument group, before it reaches the stereo output.)
Great Job on the tutorial!!!
I can't wait to try this, THANK YOU
glad you enjoyed it, thanks so much for watching!
Great lesson!! Will dig right in to it ... Thanx!!
Great technique, definitely going to give this a try.
Very well done. Thanks and greetings from Nashville!
Glad you enjoyed! thanks for watching, let me know if you have a producer/engineer suggestion for this series. :)
Thanks so much!
Absolutely great video and overview of the Brauerization Method, which IMHO, is just overthinking and over-complicating normal, channel >> bus routing techniques. It may work well for him...in his studio...with his particular hardware...but seeing thresholds readjusted after the "calibration" completely negated that effort. After watching this, the only thing I agree with is "mixing into the compressor," which is a great technique to observe (think master bus comp) the impacts of certain high-energy sounds needing to be turned down while also using your ears...which may also mean keeping the element loud(er) and slightly adjust the threshold/attack/ratio of the bus comp.
It's really wel explained ! But the whole point of Brauer stuff is using compressors that brings something he loves about them. Like saturation with Distressor, Low-mid with Neve 33609 for instance. So it's a good explanation but I don't think it makes a lot of sense using this techniques without a compressor that will brings the color you're after. My 2 cents.
i'm using UAD 33609 on A, Fg-stress and overloud api550 eq on B, FG-MU on C, and UAD ManleyVoxbox with Ozone Imager on D.
For me it does, the frequency separation is GOLD !!!
Indeed good point !
It makes sense to split material in this way. Even if other compressors are used, the same thought process and technique can still be applied. You wouldn't want to replicate the exact same tonal colour Brauer uses, 1, because every mix is different, 2, to that end; make the technique your own to suit your own mix.
@@SmoothSailingMusic great! I will try that!
Great stuff thx.
I imagine he chooses those compressor for their character. For example, the Neve on the highs makes sense because of the general smoothing of top end they do. Most def using the general idea you can come up with some cool stuff.
Well explained!
Dude! Thanks! Just thanks! This info is gold!
And yep, i've obviously subscribed and hit the bell ;)
Perfect explanation! Brauer is such a beast. 🤘💀🤘
Ben Kweller? The singer/songwriter?
@@paalhn yes the one and only! hahaha! This is my personal account. The one i use to watch music production and gear videos. LOL!
Well done!!!I was reaserching the Brauerise method and now here it is!!Really good job!Thanx and Congrats!
This was awesome. Thank you 🙂
Glad it was helpful!
Great video man. Best one i've found
Appreciate that, thank you for watching!
THANK YOU!
Es muy interesante gracias por el video hermano
Thanks for that :)
dude, now i understand. i just set it up as you explained and it is a GREAT technique . my only diff would be to eq b4 due to the fact that everything sounds too muddy. you want to be able to differentiate between the tracks i think. but man,the difference is night and day regarding the mix. also , he outs his tracks to a dummy bus and then uses the sends to send to the comp buses and leaves everything at unity gain? at first it seemed convoluted, but what a brilliant idea. its more powerful and cleaner as well. who'd a thunk ? god bless you and thanks for all the work you put into these videos. keep it up, chuck. lol
the dummy bus is to trick delay compensation
@@sleepisoptional needed this explanation thanks
Very Cool. Thanks
Glad you liked it!
Nice bro ❤️
great broth
Very very well explained and with all details.
Thank so much!!
I susbcribe to your channel. 👍👍👍🎸🎵
Thanks for the sub! :D
Thanks for explaining this - I have phase issues (vocal chain) - going mono into hardware and back. Is that because you are using stereo ITB?
Hey thanks great video, great explanation. I will trying these concepts on Luna. I think it will good start point, and i wonder how this works on the summing neve pluggin. I will tell you later!
Quality
Hi, I just watched the vintage pensado episode where he explains it. He mentioned that the problem with it being in the box was latency issues. Is protools/ Logic/ cubase etc more up to date now?
hi there, so you process only instrumentals and backing vocals. what about lead vocals and solo instruments?
Great video man! Do you know if he’s feeding the four busses to the SSL buss compressor? Maybe 1-2db gain reduction for that little extra glue?
ah yes! I talk more about this is the second Brauerizing Video
-> th-cam.com/video/ghnvit-kUOo/w-d-xo.html
I go over the vocal setup and his compressor settings, AND mention more about the stereo output. He's mentioned he sometimes uses an Avalon 737 without actually compressing , just for some extra flavor. But as you said, I'm sure he puts that SSL Buss compressor to use for a bit of glue, I love it for that reason as well!
Thanks for watching and commenting. Hope you'll consider subscribing :)
Learn Audio Engineering Thanks so much man! Should have looked for a part 2 haha. Subscribed!
So...I had some time to test the exact scenario in the vid; its great logic but noticed it was a bit inconsistent and pushed the philosophy of essentially a multi band buss system.
My question is eg when calibrating the low buss ie drums and bass...the predominant trigger will be the low frequencies of course so why is the calibration done using generic 1khz?
I tried with the fundamental eg 55hz (key of A) and its a different ball game because of the rms response of the comp vs peak...as per my comment below.
Wouldn't each 'band' of sub mix buss be tuned to its predominant freq range? Wouldnt it make sense to fine tuned to the key of the music if the instruments were tuned for it? I would normally tuned the lowest instruments, the most methodically and accurately because of the power of phase down there..but interested to hear what others think...despite the ago of the post...its still just as relevant
is there any issue if i calibrate highers than -18db. like what about if calibrated at -10db would there be issues im running into? please let me know Thanks!
What are your thoughts about separating the drums into the other components ie: cymbals into high frequency area, toms and snare into mids, and kicks into lows with that bass?
I've considered this too. I guess the easy answer you would likely hear from Brauer is you can certainly experiment and see what's sounding better on your material. I think the mindset of approaching the whole kit is just faster, and as long as you like the results there's no reason to make it even more complicated. But he certainly groups higher sounding percussion with the A bus.
Hi Robert, when calibrating the buses I notice A & B start with threshold to hit -1dB and then gain to hit 0dB... but for C & D the input is first raised to hit +1dB and then the gain is adjusted to hit 0dB. Is there a reason for switching the method for C & D or does it not matter if you shoot for -1dB or +1dB? Thanks!
I've read about this before and I still think the whole calibrating and letting the compressor decide what is too loud is pointless. I think splitting instruments in to groups based on their purpose is a good idea and you explained it very well.
Thanks for the tutorial man! Very well explained. One question though - How about channels like OH & Hihats which contain mainly high frequencies, do they still belong to B Bus?
Short Answer -The entire drum set goes in the B bus.
Long Answer - Experiment, try whatever creative idea comes into your head. Brauer has said that he will occasionally try things like this if the song calls for it. I like putting percussion in the D bus. Usually the B bus is the most heavily compressed, and I don't really enjoy excess compression on cymbals so A bus could be a solution to that. I have a habit of cymbals being lower in the mix, this also prevents them from triggering the compressor (that's left to the kick, snare, and Bass Guitar)
I put out a second video that further explains his entire compression setup, his compressor settings, AND goes into more of the experimental side of his practices -> th-cam.com/video/ghnvit-kUOo/w-d-xo.html
Thank you for your question, hope this helped. Please consider subscribing. :)
@@LearnAudioEngineering Just did man, thanks for the explanation!
Great explanation. Love it. After finish balancing the abcd bus, do you rout the dummy output back to mixbus and blend with the abcd bus as pararel?
I know it's 3 years late but anyone wondering about this: The answer is no. The idea is that the 4 buses are our mixing environments, so it's not running in parallel but you could blend in parallel buses with them too, I find Rear bus technique works well with this.
@@anjinbeats i dont understand the point of the dummy bus, are all tracks routed to the dummy bus?
and if so why
@@merakimusicIE The Dummy Bus is there so instead of sending the tracks to the Master Bus they go nowhere, and we can send them to the Mixing environments only. Hope that makes sense.
So where would you put any sidechaining to the bassdrum, before or after the bus compression?
this is a great question. Brauer has 2 additional mono 1176s that he uses for extra compression the song may need. you could try an additional send to a mono compressor that you could use to sidechain a kick to a bass track. (or a stereo comp if you wanna get crazy and side chain the D bus to the B bus)
so to answer your question, you would create a separate sidechain bus and send the kick to it, in addition to sending the kick to the B bus. you could then balance between the kick send to the B bus, and the kick on its own compression bus. Hope this helps, Christian!
Just wondering how to manage vocal EQ in this set up when its split into 5 channels?
I'm implementing something approaching this in a hybrid set-up with outboard compressors and an SSL Sigma. I'd usually handle my vocal eq post compression, but i'm thinking having multiple eqs on multed vocal tracks is both expensive and potentially phasey
I would definitely EQ before the multing (at least if you're going this route)
Does a "Dummy" track not have an output? Or does it have an output, generally, and just has its fader turned all the way down?
Yes, I want to know this too.
@@timwilderspin There is no point to a dummy bus....just choose no output lol
genius
Why are some elements calibrated to the vu being -1 and then back to zero, and others are plus one and then back to zero. Is that just based on how much those sections are generally compressed, or is it about a volume hierarchy?
How do you stereo pan individual channel strips when using the "brauerizing" method when the individual channel strips are sent to a dummy bus? As soon as I left click on the pan to choose stereo pan instead of regular balance mode (I'm using Logic Pro x) my daw automatically creates the dummy channel. As soon as that channel is up, the signal passes through on the dummy channel as well which is not my hope. I just want to stereo pan an individual channel strip.
What wrong am I doing? I have set up the channels according to your tutorial videos on how to "Brauerize" to test it out but I would love to stereo pan without any problems of that sort.
I use Logic as well. I'll talk about two approaches to this. You can set individual channels to "no output" instead of a dummy channel, and then use sends to get to Bus A, B, C, or D. Or alternatively, you could just send the output on the channels to their proper group bus, which is what I've done. The sound is the same. From what I've read about Brauer's approach, this has evolved multiple times over the years, and he doesn't even really like doing it in the box. But the idea of using sends instead of the channel outputs was due to possible phasing issues that come up later after things are routed through multiple paths. You still want to check for phase always, but this problem has been less of an issue with DAWs over the past few years. I think we're fine to use outputs instead of the bus sends. And as far as panning, I set the bus to stereo pan, and adjust pan on individual tracks.
Thank you for doing this. I have one question. Which bus or routing does his delays and reverbs go through? Thank you!
You might check out michael's Q+A for his answer, www.mbrauer.com/q-a
however I'd trying sending them right to the mix bus, or on the D bus with the atmospheric textures.
Hope this helps :D thanks for watching
How do you handle doing discreet stems with their effect returns using this method?
Can you please provide template with same setup for Ableton Live 10 ? Or make a video on it ? Thank you so much !
Hey! great video here. Why is the signal generator set to -18 db though? If my input gain is way more or less i'd have to change the compressor meters once sending to the 4 mix busses. Would love for an explanation :) Thanks
great question, -18dB is the standard calibration for analog. Because Brauer developed this process with analog equipment, and much of the plugin's used to recreate the method ITB are analog modelled, we use -18dB as our calibration point.
Balancing the input gain of your tracks to fit this -18dB standard will give a better sound with analog modelled plugins. Jason Moss has a really good video about gain staging -> th-cam.com/video/xJepTM-01VI/w-d-xo.html
Hope this helps, thanks for your question. Please consider subscribing :)
@@LearnAudioEngineering understood thanks!
You might need to set it to -12db. ITB, it’s a little harder to get that same pump. That’s how I’ve set mine.
Really interesting technique, thanks for sharing. I don't get the point of the dummy bus though. Why not just send the output of each track to the correct bus (A,B,C,D) in the first place? Am i missing something?! Also didn't get the point of calibrating the compressors only to bring down the threshold at the end!
That's what I do. First, Brauer is using a console and mostly out of the box. From what I read, and I'm not sure I understand it completely, but the bus sends were used to allow for experimenting and somehow related to helping to fix any possible phase issues that happen once things are blended together. But modern DAWs won't have the routing/delay path issues that might have once occurred. I've decided on my tests that the sound is really the same either through the bus or with output to the bus. So I use the outputs.
I was thinking the same. If the tracks were sent to the ABCD buses through "SENDS" at 100% or at unity gain, why would I send them again from the track outputs ?
How would I make the balance with SEND levels ? Can't we just send the track outputs to their corresponding busses ?
I think I am missing something as well.
What is the point of the dummy bus again?
Tracks route to subs which route to stereo out . Can’t figure out where the dummy bus comes into play. Is it for parallel or am I missing something?
Hi! Just puzzled if hi-hats and cymbals should go to *A* High freq info buss??
Drums and Bass go in B (This includes cymbals)
But why not try it and see what happens?
Thanks for the comment
May I ask - Which bus handles the main vocals? The background vocals are directed to D bus
This video is about the ABCD busses, the next video covers his 5 compressor vocal chain as well: th-cam.com/video/ghnvit-kUOo/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=LearnAudioEngineering
is this suitable for all genres?
Here is a link to his discography to give you an idea: www.mbrauer.com/full-discography
It's mainly pop, rock, and alternative.
If you can just arbitrarily change the threshold later, why calibrate in the first place?
fair.
@@LearnAudioEngineering I am just asking from a position of curiosity.
Maybe when working with real hardware it's necessary to make sure everything is functioning correctly (and similarly) at the same level?
Or maybe it's that if Brauer is in charge of recording as well as mixing, he is going to make sure he gets a certain level of loudness in the first place on each track, so that consistency is there through anything he is working with?
I don't know. I'm sure there's a reason. It just seems superfluous to me.
@@Radeo The calibration is meant to be a starting point. So, you import your tracks in and start to mix into something that's all set up to go. It's faster and a much nicer sound than starting at default compressor settings. Yes, you can tweak it as needed, and Brauer certainly EQs and puts plugins on individual tracks that need processing, but those processing decisions are made based on how things sound going through the ABCD bus AND the mix bus as step one. This video doesn't even cover what he does on vocals, or mix bus.
@@alexbreyer6921 but isn't the point that if you calibrated your compressor, you are able to judge what it actually does? What I understand from his personal comments is that he calibrates in order to simply being able to A/B switch without any kind of additional gain makeup between altered/unaltered which might screw up the comparison (as louder is always perceived as better).
So in this case, it's not that the threshold should be changed, just push the faders to get the volume from the summed tracks into the threshold territory.
@@Radeo you're correct. The idea would be to push your faders instead of lowering the threshold.
Can you EQ with this method and if so you do it after the compression? do you EQ every instrument or in the bus channel? and what about delay and reverbs how do you implement them with this method?
There's been a lot of updates to the ITB Brauerizing setup, I've received a few messages about his Puremix course. Lately, I've gotten into the habit of grouping my effects together into an E bus (something I'm told Brauer explains in his Puremix course)
I find I'm usually still EQing individual channels and applying some EQ on the bus channels as well.
If you'd like to hear these techniques in action please check out 'Burn Out' by Lexene (which is an album I mixed using ABCDE busses) that came out this month:
distrokid.com/hyperfollow/lexene/burn-out-2
Each song is in a different style of popular music so I think it showcases the versatility of the Brauer-type Method.
Thanks for watching, I appreciate your comment!
@@LearnAudioEngineering Dude....
Your mixes are totally insane. It sounds so huge!!!! It was 100% convinced after the first few seconds.
On a sidenote, I had to re-calibrate your Logic template a bit - one of the bus was way off, like 7.6 read on the VU meter (everything calibrated at -18, standard VU, same meter, same 1KhZ tone, everything).
I'm trying the TDR molotok as a replacement for the more robust distressor (I will also try the Arousor LT soon, but the iLok bs gets on my nerves realy quickly lol).
I'll let you know how it goes!!!
Thanks for the explanation :-) Do you know if he gain staging every audiofile (track) to -18db peak or -12db peak .... ?
What is the best level for the tracks to be in?
I've heard MB say if you're fully ITB to try -12db .. see if it helps
1) there's absolutely no need for a dummy bus. You route them to the right channels, like you say just after this.
2) if drums and bass are on channel b, why the stock compressor and not the puig? Sounds like some subtle differences in threshold, or attack and release, would make that pumping left and right you mention.
3)And if guitars are on c bus, assuming they are distorted guitars, i dont see the need for the puig, and I'd put the stock comp here. The guitars will be compressed enough with distortion to not have a need to try to push them just a little harder with the digital tools we're using. So,
4)And again, on D bus, why the puig? Once again I'd put the stock comp. You explain all of this really well. But it seems to me that better customized mixes would result from switching places with a couple of those comps. Thoughts?
I don't get the dummy bus? Can someone help? Thanks Great Vid BTW
@@treeoflifeguitars That's a Pro Tools thing. Let's say you're working on track 1 and it has to send to the A bus, let's say that bus is track 2. You don't need to hear track 1, you just need to hear track 2 which is receiving from track 1 anyways. So what do you do? You remove the output routing from track 1, in other words you take away the final destination for that track (usually the stereo mix bus or whatever you set as the "main receiver" in youor project), leaving only the send to track 2...
...
BUT: Pro Tools doesn't like that. It says "Better stop playing track 1 because oh well, it has no main output so it's gotta be like an alt take or something like that, so I better save some CPU for things that ACTUALLY MATTER", so it gets angry and just stop processing track 1. Problem is, since it stops processing track 1, there is nothing to send from track 1 to track 2, and you don't hear track 1 anymore.
SO, to prevent Pro Tools from deciding it doesn't wanna play track 1 anymore, you just route track 1's main output (and you do the same with all the other tracks that send to a brauer bus) to a fake output track, a dummy, and you set the fader to -inf on the dummy. So Pro Tools is happy, and you still hear everything
@@pianoman_luke thanks
@@pianoman_luke So this can be ignored in Logic?
Did you route them direct or as an fx send? Didnt specify
Each instrumental track is routed through a bus send to either A B C or D. This is instead of sending their output directly to A B C or D. To avoid a double send, the instrumental track outputs are sent to a dummy bus.
These A B C D make up the 'Mix Bus'. Which is what this video is explaining. There is a whole bunch of other cool bus tricks that Brauer does on his vocals and Drums. Maybe I'll have to do another video ;) Thanks for your comment!
Learn Audio Engineering basically its just a master bus for each group ie drums, music, vocal etc
Exactly, He breaks them into sub groups by instrument and frequency content. A = High, B=Low, C=Mids, D=spatial/ambience
Hi "Learn Audio Engineering". What do you mean when you say "sending their output directly to A B C or D, to avoid a double send"? I don't understand this. There not would be a double send, if I route the audio tracks directly to A B C or D. There would be only that routing. What didn't I understand? Sorry for my terrible english. I am italian.
Hey! We want to avoid sending the signal to the master output twice. If each track came through the master fader, while also going through the A B C D busses we would get parallel compression, a blend between compressed and uncompressed.
To correct this I send each instrument to a 'dummy bus' a bus that goes nowhere so we do not hear it's output. This way, as you pointed out, we only hear what passes through A B C D.
I've also learned that with some DAWs you don't even need a 'dummy bus'
(Logic Pro for example) you can set the output of each track to 'no output' and bus them to A B C D.
where do you write your automation?
I've gotten into the habit of using a gain plugin, at the end of the signal chain for fader rides. This prevents the fader from getting locked up, which happens when you write volume automation, and allows you to still use the faders to adjust the overall level of tracks. Hope this helps, thank you for your comment
You need to show before and after. Turn the compressors off at the end and let us hear if they actually made things sound "way bigger" as you claimed.
Good job bro...but can you explain what is the dummy bus? Is that like a mixbuss?
Hey! I just did a Q+A video that answers this and more: th-cam.com/video/UaXDdh7eL8o/w-d-xo.html
Basically the dummy bus goes to a bus that we do not hear the output of so the audio will keep flowing through the tracks. In some DAWs, like Pro Tools, audio will not play unless it has an output (so I use a dummy bus).
HOWEVER, some DAWs, like Logic, will pass audio without an output. so you can set your track outputs to 'no output' in logic.
Try it out in your DAW to see if your audio tracks will still play without a designated output. if so, you do not need a dummy bus.
Great question, hope this helps. Thanks for watching!
So, I'm under the impression that this calibration technique can't be done with the Waves V-Comp? If that's true, that's a shame, because it's a nice Neve 33609
emulation. What do you think about that?
By the way, in case it makes a difference to you: "PuigChild" is pronounced like "PwigChild." Not Pweeg/Pyoog. I used to say that too.
Lol I got called out for saying 'pasty' instead of 'PIEste' too
Yes, you can for sure do this method with the V comp. Instead of adjusting the threshold use the Input and output gain to find that -1dB sweet spot, sorta like he does with the 1176s. I talk more about Brauer's Setup in tomorrow's Video :)
Shouldnt the noise generator be at 18 RMS not peak? wouldnt peak be 6dbfs?
it's a sine wave generator, set to -18dBfs which is 0VU. the mvMeter plugin I used also measures RMS-12, RMS-14, and RMS-20. Are you suggesting calibrating to one of these measurements? I hope I understand what you're saying. thanks for watching.
No problem and sorry my comment came off as aggressive. This video is great and brauerizing is actually completing revolutionizing my mixes. It just makes a lot of sense to mix that way. In terms of my calibration question, to simplify it, I guess my question was isn't 0VU -18dbfs in RMS and not -18dbfs Peak? So looking at a level meter, you cee the level of the peak dbfs and the average (rms) dbfs. I thought 0VU was -18dbfs measured in rms not peak level. I think I'm actually mistaken though because I use the VUMT VU meter and setting the oscilator set to peak like you have results in the VU meter to read 0 as it should, so I think I'm just misunderstanding calibration measurements. Great video as I said. Definitely a game changer!!
Why do you use sends instead of routing the output of your tracks to the busses?
Very good question, I want to know it also
I'm lost. Why not use the group channels directly instead of sends?
This is what I'm wondering
Lead Vox to the main bus?
Watch the sequel to learn about Brauer's 5 Compressor Vocal chain: th-cam.com/video/ghnvit-kUOo/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=LearnAudioEngineering
You definitely understand Brauer’s concept but word of caution. If you don’t have hardware outputs and you do this in pro tools with just one stereo output, you will get lots of phasing issues. The concept is designed for analog console mixing.
yes, I've noticed! haha. Brauer mentions this as well. especially when you start sending to multiple busses. Things can get pretty burry phase wise.
Thanks for your heads up! I appreciate the view!
Learn Audio Engineering sure you are welcome. Another way this will work is with analog summing.
@@ekm3820 is that so?
Learn Audio Engineering Yeah. I use it with Analog summing and it works great.
wouldn't it be simpler to send all the tracks to the 2 buss and add a multi band compressor split into 4 bands, bass, low mids, high mids, treble. That way you can set the ratio, attack and threshold per band?
Just mho, but multiband stuff should be used as a last resort. It might solve your problem but also might cause another one elsewhere due to the interaction of all the bands, even the best linear phase processing won't make the crossover points flawless.
No because a multi band compressor is very rigid and takes the complete summed signal to split it up in bands and compress them individually. That will not yield the same result as grouping certain instruments/tracks and compressing them. To give the B bus as an example: the overall content of that buss has low, low mids, and midrange information because that's the nature of bass and drums. But there is still plenty of high frequencies in there which are treated by the compressor on the B bus (think of the cymbals). They wouldn't be treated by the multiband compressor in the same way as they are in a different band.
And of course, the grouping into global frequency content is also a grouping in transient information. The B bus has instruments with fast attacks and transients (drums, bass, percussion). The A bus has instruments which often have a slightly slower attack compared to the B bus. That could actually imply that you might want to have different compressor topologies for these types of sounds (and of course, the B bus would benefit from some saturation). Note that the compressor is also fulfilling the job of gluing the bass to the drums. The multiband would not do that. Also, it's not just about the compression, it's about the colour a specific compressor (or actually, it's often a chain of outboard) as well. You will not get that with a multi band compressor because it is a single (and often more transparant) colour. It's a completely different concept which cannot be compared to what a multiband compressor does.
why do you use send? why not address using buses?
maybe because you could decide to send a channel on several different buses like snare to B and a little to C?
because from what I understand from Brauer himself is that he uses the sends on his console to do this. It gives the ability to send for example the background vocals to bus D for the width and A for more colour.
Wow, Pro Tools feels so old.
Dark mode really helps
Interesting.
Now try it with 1 mic., 1 mono tape machine and 1 basement, like we did in 1961.
And Sam Phillips was doing it in 1953.
Great walk through of the setup but I’m confused. The whole purpose of calibrating is to set the threshold and mix into it so that it achieves 1dB of compression, then at the end of the video you CHANGE the threshold!? Aren’t you supposed to leave it and push the track volume to get more compression?
I can't remember why I would have done that tbh. If you're in this I'd highly recommend Brauer's website. At the end of the day, mix to bring out the emotion of the song. even if that means breaking the rules.
Thanks for the reply. I’ve since seen another video that explained that some tracks aren’t hot enough to elicit a response from the compressor but are already loud enough, in which case you may need to make adjustments. That’s probably what you were doing. And another video explains that you may want to use -12 rather than -18 although I don’t think that’s what Brauer does. Well our discussion here (if anyone reads it) may give someone else wondering the same things answers so thanks!! I’m gonna try this - today!
You know this is pretty much how we all have mexed since roughly 1980? Ive never understood how this is unique. Brauer is a great mixer - but its not because of doing this.
Questions… why not send using output?Where is the dummy track? Why is there a dummy track?
Short answer, Pro Tools workflow.
I like to have the 4 A B C D busses set up on each track to choose between in the mix window.
However, Pro tools requires you have a track output set.
In this setup, to avoid sending the signal to the master output twice, you can point the track's output to a bus number that you never intend to use. This way, we only hear what passes through A B C D busses
You can set the track outputs to A B C D directly if you like. Hope this helps, Thanks for watching!
Hey. You forgot to send one of the the backing vocals to the dummy aux.
The moment he forgot to check that second BG vocal, I knew it will stay like that till the very end ;)
If you're calibrating the compressors, why are you messing with the threshold after all that calibrating? Doesn't that make the calibrating pointless..?
Argh no!!! Your files are not available anymore. I really need the logic template!! Please!
Email me and I'll send them over :)
@@LearnAudioEngineering Thank you very very much! You ROCK!
You made a mistake...when the compressor isn't working, you move the fader up and add more db's. By going in and changing the settings on the compressor, you screw up the calibration.
You can't "drive the preamp" of a compressor because compressors don't have preamps.
If you was doing this mix using faders on a controller or console you would have been finished already with this example.
I really didn't hear a difference between what was done and before
Was... were
all cool....except that horrible song.....what an "Atari" style ridiculous idea.
Bro you totally screwed this up.... Tour explanation is not even close to how Brauer does this....
Did you come from puremix? This video is over 5 years old, so I know he's changed this setup since then. This video is passing along the method that I learned. Thanks for your comment!