Sometimes you need someone who explains the world exactly the way you need it to hear. As a beginner I've got so much to learn. Mixing skills, the skills of hearing analytically, and the ability to decide actually what sounds good to me. Hundreds of TH-cam videos bend and stretch my mind, let it go like a pinball shooting in all possible directions, still not knowing anything at the end of the day how to proceed. But your videos bring my focus back again onto myself, helping me not to forget that mixing is in a way a matter of personal taste and that you have to develop the confidence to trust yourself understanding that the opinion of others are just another option and not the only truth. Thanks again for sharing your thoughts.
A good friend of mine was running a „real“ recording studio, back in the 2000s. It was all there: the fancy preamps, the tape machine etc. He quit the job for personal reasons and little by little sold most of the stuff. Except for the mic locker and his Ludwig kit. „If I ever start recording again, all I‘d have to buy were a few UAD Apollos." I was lucky enough to see, hear and feel the real stuff back in the day but I think he’s right. If you know what you are going for, you can re-create "analog warmth" in the box, especially if you’re just mixing. Just look at what people like Jacquire King are doing. While recording and mixing my own music over the last few years, I realized that everything that comes BEFORE the files in a DAW is way more important. Writing, pre production, performance, the right instrument, proper mic choice and placing are way more important than a 4000€ preamp. Thanks justin
Oh and one more thing that’s a better investment than attractive „gear“: workflow. It’s things I still struggle with… Label or color code your cables so you know which goes where. If possible, get an interface with more than two input channels, so you can have your most used tools (mics/instruments) ready to work with in an instant. Have enough cables and power supplies, don’t keep the broken ones lying around in your studio and kill your Inspiration. … things like that
I found workflow to be just as important than even the gear you have. Making the productions and mixes consistent and magic is more important in the end. I experimented with running mixes a certain way that I liked but didn't do it because it took too much time and didn't work across all the songs. Especially if you don't have recall.
Hello Justin, hope you're well. I decided to spend some money to see if the gear makes the difference, the expensive ones, they do. The best example on youtube is the API 2500+ vs plugins, the difference is brutal. In my case I bought a Wesaudio ng compressor to really try against all SSL plugins I have, I'm lucky enough to work in big studios sometimes, as a session musician, but I want to see that piece of gear in a home studio, how it would perform. Anything I pass through that sounds good....honestly, no plugin came close to that. For compressors I feel the plugins are far away from being good enough. All videos from those famous guys mixing ITB, the sound source they have already sounds incredible good, compressed, equed, you can get away mixing in the box for sure. If the production use samples inside the box, already processed, another case of "ITB" success. If you record at home, there is nothing like a good mic, good micpre, good player, good compressor, enough acoustics and good instrument well tuned. Big productions has it all, including a great sounding room for tracking to start with. I know, people out there will throw stones at me, but thats how I feel, plugins are ok, but expensive gear makes life easier..... Have a good one everyone
Hey Justin! I'm super interested in picking up Mixing Breakthroughs 2.0 but I was curious whether or not you planned on running some form of Holiday Special or Black Friday Deal this season?
Yes, there will probably be a Black Friday special on it. If you can't wait and want to buy it before then, and the price changes within 30 days, customer support can refund the difference for you. So there's no harm in just getting it if you're itching to! Hope that helps, Justin
I'm in the middle of insulating the walls in my room & upgrading acoustic treatment & I had to move my setup into the garage for a few days with absolutely zero acoustic treatment & wow does it sound terrible. Absolutely trash. It's mindboggling how some people would never even notice!
cool example of confirmation bias. (liking what is was familiar) or maybe this is cognitive bias. close enough. so much of experiencing art / music is subjective so. it does get tricky with what priorities to have via production or amounts of money to spend that makes sense, if any of it ever does much at all!
I have $1000 worth of acoustic treatment Yamaha ns 10 monitors $200 Mac computer maxed out ram SSL channel Strip Neumann u87 microphone Digi 003 and $2000 in programs MPC 1000 Yamaha motif Korg triton extreme and I’m having the time of my life Living like Larry
If you want to mix entirely in the box you actually need some analog gear. Otherwise things sound so digital. Particularly vocals. But just a couple things often do the job. A channel strip, summing box and maybe a compressor and bam
Those things can all have a sound for sure, and can possibly get you where you want to go faster or more easily. But don’t get it twisted: There are a lot of people mixing in the box today who are getting VERY organic sounding results. You’d probably be surprised as to the degree of high level work that’s all occurring in the box these days. That’s just the reality of it. That said, I like analog gear. It’s fun, it’s tactile, and much (though not all) of the good stuff has a bit of a tone in and of itself, and can sometimes cut down on steps. Hope that helps, Justin
Acoustic treatment is not as important as you’re making out to be to upcoming audio people….it doesn’t trump decent speakers that you’ve spent time learning & can be portable & sound great at low volume levels…tired of hearing the acoustic treatment point…yes it’s important but not relevant for most bedroom producers/mixers who aren’t in a static situation…gear thats portable is more valuable & there are many that have proven that
Amazing speakers in an untreated room are going to tend to be significantly less useful than OK speakers in a well treated room. There’s really no two ways around that. For portability, I’d advise that $300-$500 will get you pretty amazing headphones that you can learn to use anywhere, and could be more useful than speakers in the same price range for that purpose. That said, back in the day, I did travel with speakers. The ones that translated best from environment to environment were the Auratones, which leave off the low end which tends to be the most skewed from room to room. All other speakers had to be relearned in each new environment. The problem with portable speakers is that it’s not just about learning the speakers. More centrally, it’s about learning the ROOM, as there is much much greater variation in frequency response from room to room than speaker to speaker. (That’s pretty easy to prove empirically and I can point you to some studies that show exactly that if it’s useful.) These days, I travel with headphones instead of speakers, because I’ve chosen a pair that works, I’ve learned them, they actually give me useful low end, and they sound the same everywhere. Hope that helps! -Justin
@@SonicScoop i get what you’re saying but if you’re working with other people you can’t all wear headphones…having good monitors you know and then using references to adjust your ears in a new space is an important skill…yes get the room treated if that’s gonna be where you’re going to be working most of the time…room treatment is important for a certain portion of your viewers but not for all of your viewers…love the healthy discourse & much respect to what you do! - Nico
This man he’s a total genius giving all of us gems thank you for Your wisdom keep doing these Q&A’s thank you sir
Sometimes you need someone who explains the world exactly the way you need it to hear. As a beginner I've got so much to learn. Mixing skills, the skills of hearing analytically, and the ability to decide actually what sounds good to me. Hundreds of TH-cam videos bend and stretch my mind, let it go like a pinball shooting in all possible directions, still not knowing anything at the end of the day how to proceed. But your videos bring my focus back again onto myself, helping me not to forget that mixing is in a way a matter of personal taste and that you have to develop the confidence to trust yourself understanding that the opinion of others are just another option and not the only truth.
Thanks again for sharing your thoughts.
Awesome to hear Allen! I think you’ve got the right mindset there, and it’ll serve you well.
-Justin
I'm just starting to get into mixing for my own music and I'm really happy I found this channel before I REALLY started.
This video gives me so much hope and confidence... thanks Justin, you are helping me out a lot with this!!
by far the best audio channel on YT since years
A good friend of mine was running a „real“ recording studio, back in the 2000s. It was all there: the fancy preamps, the tape machine etc.
He quit the job for personal reasons and little by little sold most of the stuff. Except for the mic locker and his Ludwig kit.
„If I ever start recording again, all I‘d have to buy were a few UAD Apollos."
I was lucky enough to see, hear and feel the real stuff back in the day but I think he’s right. If you know what you are going for, you can re-create "analog warmth" in the box, especially if you’re just mixing.
Just look at what people like Jacquire King are doing.
While recording and mixing my own music over the last few years, I realized that everything that comes BEFORE the files in a DAW is way more important. Writing, pre production, performance, the right instrument, proper mic choice and placing are way more important than a 4000€ preamp.
Thanks justin
Oh and one more thing that’s a better investment than attractive „gear“: workflow.
It’s things I still struggle with… Label or color code your cables so you know which goes where. If possible, get an interface with more than two input channels, so you can have your most used tools (mics/instruments) ready to work with in an instant. Have enough cables and power supplies, don’t keep the broken ones lying around in your studio and kill your Inspiration. … things like that
I found workflow to be just as important than even the gear you have. Making the productions and mixes consistent and magic is more important in the end. I experimented with running mixes a certain way that I liked but didn't do it because it took too much time and didn't work across all the songs. Especially if you don't have recall.
Definitely.
Hello Justin, hope you're well.
I decided to spend some money to see if the gear makes the difference, the expensive ones, they do. The best example on youtube is the API 2500+ vs plugins, the difference is brutal.
In my case I bought a Wesaudio ng compressor to really try against all SSL plugins I have, I'm lucky enough to work in big studios sometimes, as a session musician, but I want to see that piece of gear in a home studio, how it would perform. Anything I pass through that sounds good....honestly, no plugin came close to that. For compressors I feel the plugins are far away from being good enough.
All videos from those famous guys mixing ITB, the sound source they have already sounds incredible good, compressed, equed, you can get away mixing in the box for sure. If the production use samples inside the box, already processed, another case of "ITB" success. If you record at home, there is nothing like a good mic, good micpre, good player, good compressor, enough acoustics and good instrument well tuned. Big productions has it all, including a great sounding room for tracking to start with.
I know, people out there will throw stones at me, but thats how I feel, plugins are ok, but expensive gear makes life easier.....
Have a good one everyone
Fantastic video justin, loving this authenticity and perspective of this …Thanks
Hey Justin! I'm super interested in picking up Mixing Breakthroughs 2.0 but I was curious whether or not you planned on running some form of Holiday Special or Black Friday Deal this season?
Yes, there will probably be a Black Friday special on it. If you can't wait and want to buy it before then, and the price changes within 30 days, customer support can refund the difference for you. So there's no harm in just getting it if you're itching to!
Hope that helps,
Justin
I'm in the middle of insulating the walls in my room & upgrading acoustic treatment & I had to move my setup into the garage for a few days with absolutely zero acoustic treatment & wow does it sound terrible. Absolutely trash. It's mindboggling how some people would never even notice!
A better question is, Is the song I'm mixing... good enough? There is more good gear out there.... than good songs.
Gear = love
cool example of confirmation bias. (liking what is was familiar) or maybe this is cognitive bias. close enough. so much of experiencing art / music is subjective so. it does get tricky with what priorities to have via production or amounts of money to spend that makes sense, if any of it ever does much at all!
I have $1000 worth of acoustic treatment Yamaha ns 10 monitors $200 Mac computer maxed out ram SSL channel Strip Neumann u87 microphone Digi 003 and $2000 in programs MPC 1000 Yamaha motif Korg triton extreme and I’m having the time of my life Living like Larry
It does not matter how much or how little money you spend, the mastering limiter is gonna grind the song into oblivion.
If you want to mix entirely in the box you actually need some analog gear. Otherwise things sound so digital. Particularly vocals. But just a couple things often do the job. A channel strip, summing box and maybe a compressor and bam
Those things can all have a sound for sure, and can possibly get you where you want to go faster or more easily.
But don’t get it twisted: There are a lot of people mixing in the box today who are getting VERY organic sounding results.
You’d probably be surprised as to the degree of high level work that’s all occurring in the box these days. That’s just the reality of it.
That said, I like analog gear. It’s fun, it’s tactile, and much (though not all) of the good stuff has a bit of a tone in and of itself, and can sometimes cut down on steps.
Hope that helps,
Justin
audient id4 vs uad volt 1
antelope zen go
Acoustic treatment is not as important as you’re making out to be to upcoming audio people….it doesn’t trump decent speakers that you’ve spent time learning & can be portable & sound great at low volume levels…tired of hearing the acoustic treatment point…yes it’s important but not relevant for most bedroom producers/mixers who aren’t in a static situation…gear thats portable is more valuable & there are many that have proven that
Amazing speakers in an untreated room are going to tend to be significantly less useful than OK speakers in a well treated room. There’s really no two ways around that.
For portability, I’d advise that $300-$500 will get you pretty amazing headphones that you can learn to use anywhere, and could be more useful than speakers in the same price range for that purpose.
That said, back in the day, I did travel with speakers. The ones that translated best from environment to environment were the Auratones, which leave off the low end which tends to be the most skewed from room to room. All other speakers had to be relearned in each new environment.
The problem with portable speakers is that it’s not just about learning the speakers. More centrally, it’s about learning the ROOM, as there is much much greater variation in frequency response from room to room than speaker to speaker. (That’s pretty easy to prove empirically and I can point you to some studies that show exactly that if it’s useful.)
These days, I travel with headphones instead of speakers, because I’ve chosen a pair that works, I’ve learned them, they actually give me useful low end, and they sound the same everywhere.
Hope that helps!
-Justin
@@SonicScoop i get what you’re saying but if you’re working with other people you can’t all wear headphones…having good monitors you know and then using references to adjust your ears in a new space is an important skill…yes get the room treated if that’s gonna be where you’re going to be working most of the time…room treatment is important for a certain portion of your viewers but not for all of your viewers…love the healthy discourse & much respect to what you do! - Nico