I enjoy watching these types of videos. Not because I'm learning much, but because I am reminded of different techniques that when not in use, they elude forward thinking when not practiced on a frequent basis. Thank you for putting this simple and to the point video out! Keep them coming with Bradley Denniston instructing the class.
@@RadiumRecordsHollywood hey I just subscribed to your channel, I've been a very long-time user of Waves plugins, but I have not used them in a while because my PC was stolen out of my storage, and I've forgotten how to Mix but watching you everything is coming back slowly.
Funny to do a search for waves and Bradley popped up I didn't know he was associated with waves. Good to get more wonderful info on production techniques by Bradley.
My favorite part of top down mixing is either (i) when people say this isn’t something that should be done as they slap on an SSL bus comp on the master at the very start of mixing or (ii) when people forget that it is top down mixing, not top only mixing
fire. love the SSL comp. i have an older version but man i be going straight to the pensado preset and tweaking from there. vocals, drum buss, master buss. makes errthing *chefs kiss*
I agree. I don't know but it gives the best "glue" that my mix needs. I've tried a lot of compressors for glueing my mix. the bx_townhouse compressor might be a close competitor though.
Personally I think it's really worth your time to 1. Level mach 2. EQ and 3. Compress individual tracks. (Using good references ) Then use top down mastering. Add effects and extra processing afterwards if desired
Top down is the way to go, you put things that are 100% going to be on the mastering chain like a limiter, compressor, saturation, tape ect. But all in small amounts at first, and as you're mix get polished and "finished" then you start pushing the parameters harder and adding more devices, then tweak the tracks to compensate, the only thing I try not to do in the mastering is EQ, I try to fix this at track level. Dont get me wrong, I compress, clip, saturate ect at track level too but the EQ I try to keep to the track if possible. People hear your music after mastering, its the final sound that counts, so what you hear right away is what people are going to hear. Sometimes the limiter can affect the snare for example, you can correct this on the spot.
@@TheRONdezvousPoint If there's not enough bass, wouldn't you want to ajust the bass and not all the bass of every instrument. But in the end, if you like what's coming out of the speakers, that's the only thing that matters.
@@RadiumRecordsHollywood yeah for me it's cruscial because the transient control hits different, like Jaycen Joshua says: the transients are the most important!
@@Y42 I actually did another video on this exact thing: th-cam.com/video/xngm0L4eRT4/w-d-xo.htmlsi=PKIe2BvtYCGb-nmC Transients and perceived loudness of transients come from harmonics and pointing the ear to them... Not as much with limiting.
I do the same thing wrong or right... I learned a long time ago that when I mix Metal music a lot of times if I wait to master a track it always seems to have too much low end or too much highs man because of how things hit a compressor and or limiter... Since I keep a mild compressor/limiter on my Master buss now, I have been getting some really nice tones man... Wish I wasn't too old to jam Live because I got a ton of ideas for songs... Like a terabyte of tracks man in the last 6 months!!!! I might start finishing some and uploading just for fun ... maybe show what I used in the video for the tone or something... I'm 52 so it's not all that old I guess BUT with work and everything I haven't been able to make the time for another band... Honestly, I jammed in a live band for 15 years. I have seen a lot, and I have put in the work but there was always DRAMA!!!!!! We played out every other week for 7 years then the last few was less and less...
Beginner here. Please help. At the beginning of the video we can see that there is already some processing on the bass track with compressor and something else. So, when do we actually start top down mixing? My impression was that I need to setup mix bus between rough mix and individual tracks processing.
He likely received that project from a tracking engineer or artist with processing already on the channels. When working with your own recordings or raw tracks only, you may want to do some initial preparations of the tracks. This may be mostly technical - such as checking/adjusting polarities, alignment adjustments, track editing, vocal-tuning, or setting clip gains. And some may be more creative, such as starting with channel strips or preamp models if the material wasn't originally tracked in that manner. Some engineers have assistants that do a lot of that before the engineer even sits down to start. Jumping from that to the master bus before detailed track by track tweaking/mixing is still a top-down approach.
i often compare to references. For me its crucial to have at least a glue comp... some tape and a limiter already on the master. Reference tracks are mastered and limited... this is may not the only but the best way to see if your tracks really compare to the reference😊
This is not really what I'm thinking when doing top-down. I first set up busses for the different groups of instruments/vox, then balance everything with just volume and panning-on just the busses. Then I add EQs and compression on the busses, if needed. In the end, it's all about BALANCE. That's what they used to call mix engineers...Balance Engineers...back in the old (like me) days.
Some of these changes seem to be inaudible. For example when he adjusts the high end attenuation at 6:30 I hear literally no difference, even when he is attenuating 4db at 5k, am I missing something or is there a mistake in this video?
It's very apparent to my ears, right when I turn the knob up (even at 20K)... As I select the band, you have to realize how subtle this attenuation knob is on the puigtec, it is NOT a filter, and it is NOT a bell EQ... It is a shelf cut EQ that is attenuating (turning down) everything subtly from 5/ 10/ 20 k and above... If you want to hear the effects, focus your ears on the hi-hats right when I turn up the attenuation knob.
@@SindhiSufiMusicofKutch I honestly don't know how you can't hear the effects of that... Listen to the vocal go back in the mix when I take it down, it's almost gone... Can't help you there!
@@RadiumRecordsHollywood Ah ok yes I can hear the vocal go back in the mix when you do that now, thank you for responding. The Puigtec changes at 6:30 are very subtle tho. I have that plugin and use it (or the UAD Pultec) on my mix bus all the time and it is usually way less subtle than that, but maybe that's bc that hi-hat isn't super toppy.
Why the need for Fast mixing? I see a lot of YT videos that emphasize Fast mixing and it seems weird to rush through the mixing process...I say let the magic happen and enjoy the ride, don't rush through it
1 - Some people do it for a job. They have deadlines and can't take their time much. 2 - The faster you get to the point of having a decent mix, the better. You get a quicker understanding of what the song "needs", what extra things might be required, prevent ear/brain fatigue, practice/refine your workflow and equiptment and so on. It's a REALLY good idea, to get the basis of your mix down, ASAP. 3 - You have more time for other mixes or activities/tasks in your life! Just a few reasons. I didn't watch the video either. All these TH-camrs just talk themselves in circles for the sake of filling out time in a video. They've always got "the secret" or the "one thing you're missing!" or the exact same list of "10 things you should do!" that is in every other video, meanwhile, their mixes usually sound bad, sterile, weak and unprofessional. Their advice is often incomplete, uncomprehensive and biased. I watch the guys that prove themselves and that's almost nobody on TH-cam. If they can, they usually have better things to do then edit up some surface level, clickbait-ass trends, and you won't find them here, not without exception. Anyways, faster mixing is of importance for technical, logistical and philosophical reasons and keep in mind, when talking about faster mixing they don't always mean the whole mix, start to finish. Often they're talking about getting to certain points in the process so you don't start wallowing and drowning in the quicksand of your indecisions and incapabilties. Being done, is better than being perfect.
@@RadiumRecordsHollywood was half a joke comment referencing the Mike Judge comedy, Silicon Valley, but half a real comment about how I like to get compression working at the group level, then, once that’s doing its thing, apply compression to individual tracks and the bus. My groups are: vox, rhythm section, hooks, pads, BVs, and Verb/Delays. Compressing the groups glues things together that I want glued (bass and drums), but also lets different elements still move independently (vox not ducked by drums). After I’ve mixed into those, about half way through I will turn on a bus compressor to taste (usually parallel compressed SSL flavor).
Hi. Professional mix engineer of 26 years here. I know what top down mixing is. He started with it and never actually went on to the rest of the process. He framed it like you simply treat the mix bus and you’re done. Not so. I watched the entire video and didn’t see him go to a channel one time or ride an automation. So that leaves those to be more like a mastering process rather than a mixing process. Hence my sarcasm.
@@JamesArthurHurley Fair. This video is showing you how I setup the master buss for top down mixing... For the sake of the video not being 30 minutes long, I'm showing how I setup the master buss to then "mix into" the master. Hope that clarifies things for you.
@@RadiumRecordsHollywood oh YOU are the guy. Sorry I didn’t make the connection. And that’s fair. To be honest your approach and explanation are great. I’m just missing the rest of the process for a video titled “Top Down Mixing” rather than something like “Setup Mixes Faster”. Just a semantics thing with the video title. And an opportunity for some cheeky sarcastic humor.
Uhm.. This is just doing it the normal way.. Track is done and then you add plugs to the masterbus. Top down is the opposite. You start with the plugs on the mix bus, THEN you finish your record.... 🤦♂️ 🤦♂️ 🤦♂️ 🤦♂️
@@AboveEmAllProduction who says the track is “done”? Haha… It’s my song and in this video it was FAR from done. Look up the song and you’ll here “done”. “Lucky You” - Bradley Denniston
would be so helpful if you guys would use an Artists Like Gucci or somebody that everyone is used to Listening to instead of whatever this song is for mixing and mastering. people would learn so much more and easier
![TEEDEE TADA - DIAMOND NARAKORN X LEGO LYKN [Special Dance Performance]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/QgtZedFeumA/mqdefault.jpg)
I enjoy watching these types of videos. Not because I'm learning much, but because I am reminded of different techniques that when not in use, they elude forward thinking when not practiced on a frequent basis.
Thank you for putting this simple and to the point video out! Keep them coming with Bradley Denniston instructing the class.
Cheers man! Thanks for stopping by!
One of the most important things in the video, is the level matching!
💯, this is setting up the master buss to mix into… We shouldn’t be adding gain here, we are preparing it.
david spade can do anything, woah! respect.
lmao!
😂 yessss
been top down mixing for years , good to see your method
Such a necessity for my workflow nowadays... Gotta ship and make sure it still sounds amazing!
@@RadiumRecordsHollywood hey I just subscribed to your channel, I've been a very long-time user of Waves plugins, but I have not used them in a while because my PC was stolen out of my storage, and I've forgotten how to Mix but watching you everything is coming back slowly.
Funny to do a search for waves and Bradley popped up I didn't know he was associated with waves. Good to get more wonderful info on production techniques by Bradley.
Yo! Good to see you here fam!
Bradley, I love this track man! The groove and Melody are sweet.
Appreciate that fully! Definitely check out the final song: "Lucky You"
Cool! As a home hobbyist, I"m pretty much never in a hurry but it is good to learn about how other people do things.
Cheers! Hopefully one day when you're hit with a pressing deadline, this will help out...
My favorite part of top down mixing is either (i) when people say this isn’t something that should be done as they slap on an SSL bus comp on the master at the very start of mixing or (ii) when people forget that it is top down mixing, not top only mixing
fire. love the SSL comp. i have an older version but man i be going straight to the pensado preset and tweaking from there. vocals, drum buss, master buss. makes errthing *chefs kiss*
So damn good
im definitely using this top down technique🔥🔥🔥
I am enjoying this work flow already 😊..!!❤
Hope it helps!
I am gonna try this in my next session ❤
Thanks man!
Cheers! Hope it helps for real
Great video - thanks Bradley
Hey! Cheers!
Thanks a lot for sharing your knowledge!
I like this guy!
Cheers!
nice tips . Big THX !
Cheers!
Always helpful!!!!!!!❤🔥❤🔥❤🔥❤🔥❤🔥
Let's go!
I very much like top down mixing. Learned this from Michael brauer. Also the ssl g master bus is an oldie but goodie. Love that plug-in to this day.
Brauer is the man! His process is wild...
I agree. I don't know but it gives the best "glue" that my mix needs. I've tried a lot of compressors for glueing my mix. the bx_townhouse compressor might be a close competitor though.
@@TheRONdezvousPoint that’s an amazing sounding compressor bx did a great job
outstanding❤
Nice work flow
Cheers!
good stuff
Hope it helps!
Personally I think it's really worth your time to 1. Level mach 2. EQ and 3. Compress individual tracks. (Using good references ) Then use top down mastering. Add effects and extra processing afterwards if desired
Wanna try this
Definitely give it a shot, then mix/ produce into it...
I learned a lot from this. Thanks for sharing. 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
Cheers!
Top down is the way to go, you put things that are 100% going to be on the mastering chain like a limiter, compressor, saturation, tape ect. But all in small amounts at first, and as you're mix get polished and "finished" then you start pushing the parameters harder and adding more devices, then tweak the tracks to compensate, the only thing I try not to do in the mastering is EQ, I try to fix this at track level. Dont get me wrong, I compress, clip, saturate ect at track level too but the EQ I try to keep to the track if possible. People hear your music after mastering, its the final sound that counts, so what you hear right away is what people are going to hear. Sometimes the limiter can affect the snare for example, you can correct this on the spot.
that is weird. mixbus eq i think is the most important part of top down mixing since it's the one that saves you a hell lot of time.
@@TheRONdezvousPoint If there's not enough bass, wouldn't you want to ajust the bass and not all the bass of every instrument. But in the end, if you like what's coming out of the speakers, that's the only thing that matters.
Great!!!
Dope
Pro Tipp: Top Down Mix into a Limiter set to -6db threshold or more, then in the LAST step reduce that.
@@Y42 pmsl
Well, the amount of limiting will be a modular process for me...
@@RadiumRecordsHollywood yeah for me it's cruscial because the transient control hits different, like Jaycen Joshua says: the transients are the most important!
@@RadiumRecordsHollywood yeah like you said before, but transient shaping is a way bigger element in my mixes so its on from the beginning
@@Y42 I actually did another video on this exact thing: th-cam.com/video/xngm0L4eRT4/w-d-xo.htmlsi=PKIe2BvtYCGb-nmC Transients and perceived loudness of transients come from harmonics and pointing the ear to them... Not as much with limiting.
That’s cool but the reverb on this is so 🔥🔥🔥
Heey!! Appreciate it!
I do the same thing wrong or right... I learned a long time ago that when I mix Metal music a lot of times if I wait to master a track it always seems to have too much low end or too much highs man because of how things hit a compressor and or limiter... Since I keep a mild compressor/limiter on my Master buss now, I have been getting some really nice tones man... Wish I wasn't too old to jam Live because I got a ton of ideas for songs... Like a terabyte of tracks man in the last 6 months!!!! I might start finishing some and uploading just for fun ... maybe show what I used in the video for the tone or something... I'm 52 so it's not all that old I guess BUT with work and everything I haven't been able to make the time for another band... Honestly, I jammed in a live band for 15 years. I have seen a lot, and I have put in the work but there was always DRAMA!!!!!! We played out every other week for 7 years then the last few was less and less...
Beginner here. Please help. At the beginning of the video we can see that there is already some processing on the bass track with compressor and something else. So, when do we actually start top down mixing? My impression was that I need to setup mix bus between rough mix and individual tracks processing.
It’s bollocks, no decent mixer starts on the master bus
Bradley has a ton on tutorials @Radium Media. Totally helped me improve.
I typically get the master buss going once I have a good balance and some headroom (-3 to -6 dB)... It's pretty organic for the process.
@@UniteAmericaUnite Happy to help!
He likely received that project from a tracking engineer or artist with processing already on the channels. When working with your own recordings or raw tracks only, you may want to do some initial preparations of the tracks. This may be mostly technical - such as checking/adjusting polarities, alignment adjustments, track editing, vocal-tuning, or setting clip gains. And some may be more creative, such as starting with channel strips or preamp models if the material wasn't originally tracked in that manner. Some engineers have assistants that do a lot of that before the engineer even sits down to start. Jumping from that to the master bus before detailed track by track tweaking/mixing is still a top-down approach.
Ever try the AR TG on drums??? NICE!!!!
Love it
Top down mixing can set the stage. The overall picture.
Yea, it's super important to my workflow
i often compare to references. For me its crucial to have at least a glue comp... some tape and a limiter already on the master. Reference tracks are mastered and limited... this is may not the only but the best way to see if your tracks really compare to the reference😊
love
question. so are the vocals already mixed and leveled and this is just a master or what?
I can hear the phaser on that parallel de esser
🔥
This is not really what I'm thinking when doing top-down. I first set up busses for the different groups of instruments/vox, then balance everything with just volume and panning-on just the busses. Then I add EQs and compression on the busses, if needed. In the end, it's all about BALANCE. That's what they used to call mix engineers...Balance Engineers...back in the old (like me) days.
@@glb322 do what works for you… I’m showing what works for me in this video. 👍🏼
Does Brad have his own Channel?
I believe he's the dude from the Radium Pow channel 🤷🏾♂️
@@NoQualmsTheArtist yeah, I stopped by, didn't realize he was annoying and loves to argue. No thanks 😅
Radium Records, but subscribe here also as Bradley has lots of amazing topics planned like this for future videos here at Waves
Some of these changes seem to be inaudible. For example when he adjusts the high end attenuation at 6:30 I hear literally no difference, even when he is attenuating 4db at 5k, am I missing something or is there a mistake in this video?
Same thing at 4:10, literally no difference when he is adjusting 1.45k!
It's very apparent to my ears, right when I turn the knob up (even at 20K)... As I select the band, you have to realize how subtle this attenuation knob is on the puigtec, it is NOT a filter, and it is NOT a bell EQ... It is a shelf cut EQ that is attenuating (turning down) everything subtly from 5/ 10/ 20 k and above... If you want to hear the effects, focus your ears on the hi-hats right when I turn up the attenuation knob.
@@SindhiSufiMusicofKutch I honestly don't know how you can't hear the effects of that... Listen to the vocal go back in the mix when I take it down, it's almost gone... Can't help you there!
@@RadiumRecordsHollywood Ah ok yes I can hear the vocal go back in the mix when you do that now, thank you for responding. The Puigtec changes at 6:30 are very subtle tho. I have that plugin and use it (or the UAD Pultec) on my mix bus all the time and it is usually way less subtle than that, but maybe that's bc that hi-hat isn't super toppy.
@@SindhiSufiMusicofKutch Yea... Pultecs in general are VERY subtle, that's the beauty of them!
❤
Why the need for Fast mixing? I see a lot of YT videos that emphasize Fast mixing and it seems weird to rush through the mixing process...I say let the magic happen and enjoy the ride, don't rush through it
I think I explained that in the first 1-2 minutes of the video… Did you get that far? 😂
@@RadiumRecordsHollywood Nope, I didn''t watch any of the video due to the headline of "Faster Mixes"...totally lost my interest at that point.
1 - Some people do it for a job. They have deadlines and can't take their time much.
2 - The faster you get to the point of having a decent mix, the better. You get a quicker understanding of what the song "needs", what extra things might be required, prevent ear/brain fatigue, practice/refine your workflow and equiptment and so on. It's a REALLY good idea, to get the basis of your mix down, ASAP.
3 - You have more time for other mixes or activities/tasks in your life!
Just a few reasons.
I didn't watch the video either. All these TH-camrs just talk themselves in circles for the sake of filling out time in a video. They've always got "the secret" or the "one thing you're missing!" or the exact same list of "10 things you should do!" that is in every other video, meanwhile, their mixes usually sound bad, sterile, weak and unprofessional. Their advice is often incomplete, uncomprehensive and biased.
I watch the guys that prove themselves and that's almost nobody on TH-cam. If they can, they usually have better things to do then edit up some surface level, clickbait-ass trends, and you won't find them here, not without exception.
Anyways, faster mixing is of importance for technical, logistical and philosophical reasons and keep in mind, when talking about faster mixing they don't always mean the whole mix, start to finish. Often they're talking about getting to certain points in the process so you don't start wallowing and drowning in the quicksand of your indecisions and incapabilties.
Being done, is better than being perfect.
@@doktordrift948well said my friend, that’s exactly it!
you lose objectivity the more time you spend on a mix aka ear fatigue.
Am I the only one who didn't notice any changes? Maybe youtube overcompressing too much, or my Mackies are not good enough for these type of videos.
Your ears bro 😢😢
@@bradtpittlord Mackies are Shite
Current mood: middle-out compression
Explain...
@@RadiumRecordsHollywood was half a joke comment referencing the Mike Judge comedy, Silicon Valley, but half a real comment about how I like to get compression working at the group level, then, once that’s doing its thing, apply compression to individual tracks and the bus. My groups are: vox, rhythm section, hooks, pads, BVs, and Verb/Delays. Compressing the groups glues things together that I want glued (bass and drums), but also lets different elements still move independently (vox not ducked by drums). After I’ve mixed into those, about half way through I will turn on a bus compressor to taste (usually parallel compressed SSL flavor).
@4:55 The "Pwoy-Tec" EQ?
Puig Tec...
Was this top down mixing? Or was it mastering?
Top down mixing... If you watch the whole video, you'll get the full explanation.
Hi. Professional mix engineer of 26 years here. I know what top down mixing is. He started with it and never actually went on to the rest of the process. He framed it like you simply treat the mix bus and you’re done. Not so. I watched the entire video and didn’t see him go to a channel one time or ride an automation. So that leaves those to be more like a mastering process rather than a mixing process. Hence my sarcasm.
@@JamesArthurHurley Fair. This video is showing you how I setup the master buss for top down mixing... For the sake of the video not being 30 minutes long, I'm showing how I setup the master buss to then "mix into" the master. Hope that clarifies things for you.
@@RadiumRecordsHollywood oh YOU are the guy. Sorry I didn’t make the connection. And that’s fair. To be honest your approach and explanation are great. I’m just missing the rest of the process for a video titled “Top Down Mixing” rather than something like “Setup Mixes Faster”. Just a semantics thing with the video title. And an opportunity for some cheeky sarcastic humor.
Is counter intuitive? Wouldn’t the mastering engineer take care of this?
Did you watch the first minute of the video?? 😂
or follow Warren Huart's advice instead 👍
I agree. But it’s not just his advice. It’s everyone who doesn’t do top down mixing lol
Mr commissioner gorden
Uhm.. This is just doing it the normal way.. Track is done and then you add plugs to the masterbus. Top down is the opposite. You start with the plugs on the mix bus, THEN you finish your record.... 🤦♂️ 🤦♂️ 🤦♂️ 🤦♂️
Yes, this is setting up the master buss so you can then mix into the master buss… Hopefully that’s clear.
@@RadiumRecordsHollywood but the track is already done it's way too late to set it up now to be called top down
@@AboveEmAllProduction who says the track is “done”? Haha… It’s my song and in this video it was FAR from done. Look up the song and you’ll here “done”. “Lucky You” - Bradley Denniston
Warning: This video is not for beginners or hobbyists. Only people who truly understand the science of mixing.
@@Staykool777 pmsl
Sure buddy. You are truly a genius
But also begineers and hobbyists lol
😂
Kool story bro.
You didnt do anything but add plugins this isnt top down mixing this just a commercial
Yeah this is the Waves channel, what did you expect?
would be so helpful if you guys would use an Artists Like Gucci or somebody that everyone is used to Listening to instead of whatever this song is for mixing and mastering.
people would learn so much more and easier
I came away from these feeling hopeless. I'm a technophobe.
Im dying dudes def sponsored. No one is using that L2 sounding trash in 2024 andnif they are well 😂
I love the L2 and the L1... Use both all the time and know dozens of highly credited engineers that do the same.