STOP sweeping the EQ, train your EARS to KNOW frequencies!
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ส.ค. 2024
- When you reach for an EQ, do you know exactly what you're going to do with it? If not, you're actually using the EQ to figure out how to EQ the sound, which is not only inefficient, it may be preventing you from mixing faster and more intuitively. Gregory Scott, Kush Audio's plugin and hardware designer, offers a simple ear- and brain-training exercise to help sharpen your skills and your ears at the same time.
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What's the one must-have Kush plugin for the toolbox?
oof. I can't drill it down to 1, but I can list my desert-island tools from each category, in no particular order, and why:
Novatron: perfect balance of insane versatility with incredibly fast and easy setup. There's nothing it can't compress and you can explore dozens of colors extremely quickly, hard to make it sound bad.
Axis EQ (technically from Sly-Fi but Kush now distributes it). API muscle but way more flexible, and a really sweet colorful tone. Has variable input Sat that should be its own plugin. Bass, drums, guitars, vox, it owns all of them.
Omega A: if you work with electric guitars, this will make all of them sound better, more real, more dimensional. Not sure why, it just always works on them.
Omega TWK: nails the dirt of the Tweaker hardware, this is the absolute smoothest vintage clipper out there. Softens and rounds out digital transients at low settings, has a killer crunchy grind if driven hard. Amazing pre-compression treatment on anything with a transient. 💪🏽
If you ask the typical Kush user, they'd add Omega 458a to that list, it's the distortion section from the AR-1 comp.
@@TheHouseofKushTV Wow, thanks brother. I'm surprised the UBK-1 didn't make your list. I'll have to give some demos a run in a session.
As a heavy Kush plugins user I couldn't pick one. Novatron, AR-1 and Omegas get a lot of use on every mix.
i find myself using Omega A and N on guitars a LOT.
SoundGym?
This guy is so chill and convincing, he could talk me into anything.
LMFAO. It's true!
:)
whatch your "back" lol
Tell me before... you know..
Swallowing is better.
Ok
Dude I'm hooked 😳
It's interesting how just about every one of Gregory's tips and lessons can be applied to everything in life and living. These are life lessons that just happen to be set against an engineering backdrop.
Exactly! He’s like a life guru teaching inner peace through audio! 😆
Exactly
Art and life walk hand in hand
Same thing with language, history, and math. beautiful observation!!
Exactly this!
It's like watching Buddha talking about mixing.
I agree! This is really great!
Most accurate description ever
Exactly. I think this is the perfect description. *THOK* always has a calm demeanor.
Innit. I have ADHD and I swear his voice is making me concentrating more just by relaxing me.
sadhu! sadhu! mixing buddha
This process of "identify your understanding, test the understanding and then reflect on the delta" is the fastest way to learn ANYTHING! Thank you for teaching this technique
great way of putting it thanks a lot
Yes! Also I think we met at a party a few years back, which is a very weird realization when scrolling through TH-cam comments...
Here's a super nerdy comparison from my days learning upright bass with a teacher: I was told to commit to the note my fingers landed on, no matter how out of tune, to not develop the habit of always slippin' and sliddin' to find accurate pitch. The point being to create confident muscle memory and mental association.
I love the analogy, thanks for sharing!
you had a great teacher. This is super important on that instrument.
I frequently watch tutorials on TH-cam for mixing and you are the best at teaching without diving into a DAW to apply it directly. You give clear, universal tips that can apply to any style of music. Please never stop making these videos!
That's the plan, thanks for the support!
In aviation we call this the DECIDE model: 1. D = define the problem.
2. E = establish the criteria.
3. C = consider all the alternatives.
4. I = identify the best alternative.
5. D = develop and implement a plan of action.
6. E = evaluate and monitor the solution and feedback when necessary.
I love a good mnemonic!
I've watched way too many "professionals" sweep and remove frequencies just because, Eqing just for the sake of it. Nice to hear this kind of advice by you, thumbs up 👍🏼
I mean, what you're describing isn't really limited to "eq'ing" 🤜🏽😛🤛🏼
Did the “professionals” say it was “just because”?
I mean, sweeping and cutting is great for finding annoying frequencies, but you quickly lose the body of the sound if you just cut it because it sounds gross when you turn it up. It should be an offending frequency to begin with before trying to cut. Sweeping just allows you to pin point it when it's not obvious.
My favorite days are the days greg puts up a new video ❤️
Hey man, just wanted to say that your videos are simple and short, but full of gold. Not many producers talk like this when it comes to music production :)
Thanks!
Random but I love that you read your comments and appreciate the community you’ve grown. You’re a great person
Thanks! It really is a shockingly lovely and respectful group of people hanging out here, I think that's pretty special and shouldn't be taken for granted!
nice to listen to an engineer who knows what they’re talking about and is chill AF about it.
Likewise, it's nice that I can babble on and people seem to get something out of it 😊
Fear is always our problem. We are afraid to be wrong, even with ourselves. But it is courageous to act with our best hunch, be okay with being "off", LEARNING, and get better over time. Great lesson here Gregory.
Totally agreed. This kinda fear still holds me back in singing, even when I'm alone I'm afraid to hit the wrong pitch, crack, or just plain sound bad. It's probably my biggest artistic fear, actually. Hmmm, I wonder what kinda exercise I would create for people in that boat. Shit, thanks for sharing this thought, something is percolating in the back of my brain! 🤜🏽🤛🏼
House of Kush: this helped me, it might help you with your singing fear. John Coltrane was once asked something like “you play all kinds of notes; how do you avoid playing the wrong note?” To which he replied - there’s no such thing as a wrong note - it’s The next note that’s wrong. In another place he phrased it more like “it’s the notes resolution that can be wrong”. I have heard miles Davis say the same thing. One experiment I made up and I urge you to try/ listen to any song in the radio and then, while listening to that song, sing another (different ) song on top of it. Start with a simple singing song, perhaps a nursery rhyme or something. The only rule.: you cannot change the melody, only the timing of when you sing any given note. I am Confodent you will see there is no such thing as a wrong note, only when it’a Played. Let me know if you do try this and how it went. For me, this lesson helped me be a little braver with experimenting with phrasing and it worrying....
Thanks for the kind words and the considered advice 😊 I'm not actually afraid of 'wrong notes', my fear is 'wrong pitch', as in, 'flat'. I'm constantly singing quarter tones, non-existent notes, and am consistently 10-30 cents flat. I can hear it clearly on playback, but not when singing. For reasons I have yet to understand, I have trouble hearing 'reality' and instead seem to hear a distorted version of it, one which sounds great when I'm singing and seriously out of tune on playback. I'm overcoming a similar issue with my drumming thru relentess practice and targeted exercises with a metronome. I'm not aware of a similar tool for practicing singing, but it won't stop me from working on it (and my singing!). But I do appreciate the encouragement!
Who else opens up TH-cam, sees the bell with the red notification and hopes it's a new Greg kush wisdom video? I'm always disappointing when it's not.
A friend of mine would say in spanish:
Plan your moves as if the fader is on fire,
You don't want to burn your hands man.
I don't even mix music, just have an amateur interest in music production and I still watch your videos. You've got such a cool, distinctive image that makes your channel a unique experience to be part of. Masterclass in branding.
Do not sleep on this video.. this is a gem and will make you make better mix decisions.
At school they told me to put bandpass on a white noise and learn how certain frequencies sound. That helped a lot.
Cool idea. I’d guess that pink noise would be even better for this.
Had a friend show me how spot on HE was when using synths. Its a similar process of discovery. Knowing is half the battle. 4sure
Totally about mindfulness. I love it. It’s intuition training. People think it’s an innate ability but it’s not. It’s an ear to brain “muscle” that you train by being aware of the calibration between the two. Long time musician and writer but new to mixing and I LOVE doing it. Still beginning but putting the hours in 🙏
I love how the video highlight is played at the beginning, then again in context. Helps me take away more than I would just watching it once through.
Thanks, yeah, part of me misses the goofyness and entertainment factor of the other types of intros I've played with, but this one really does have some kinda messaging mojo, it really drives home the heart of the concepts I'm trying to share.
Thanks for tips on mixing that nobody else is offering, on the grand scale.
Thanks for all the great info and pleasant demeanor. You are actually the second Kush I've enjoyed on this fine Friday afternoon...
Thanks for this Gregory - Really useful, and so happy you listened to my video suggestion :D
Ha! Not to take away from your suggestion, but this vid was filmed a couple months ago, when I did the eps on 'mixing fast' and 'small moves'. Time is not what it seems in the world of content production! 😛
Great advice. Very like Michael Stavrou in Mixing With The Mind. He does a chapter where he just repeats ‘Don’t Sweep’. Whatever you do ‘Don’t Sweep’ . sweeping changes what your ears are doing as they adjust to the sweep . His phrase is “Listen - Imagine - Guess - Compare”
if you want you music to sound perfect Gregory Scott's videos are the best
Don’t mouse it down, In other words “don’t make any move where u can hear the sound moving” that just changed my life. I fuckin love u Gregory, thanks bro. U are the best on this platform I mean it 🔥👊
Time is money, friend. Very on point perspective about moving on and working fast. Music is always evolving like any other proffesion or skill and that ends up with us having to do more detailed work, so with this way of being conscious and thinking ahead, we're saving both our time but also our ear fatigue and as well mental exhaustion from occuring. Bit like knowing that it will taste good to put salt on your potatoes or tomatoes, you don't have to check while cooking, you just know the amount that will be good.
Where were you 40 years ago when I needed you... Love this channel.
I was getting picked on by Jennifer Shannon, the class tomgirl who had a massive crush on me.
I started watching your video's and laughing at the deliberate old school vibe, made jokes about you looking like a good guy to get some snow from, lol. But bro, you really are good at what you are doing, you might be the best out here doing this in this saturated field of internet mixing advice. I keep getting better the more I listen to your suggestions, thank you.
Right on, thanks for the show of faith! No snow here, only booger sugar, and it'll cost you some heavy bread 🥖🕺
Gregory Scott is the GOAT mixing philosopher.
Beautiful like always. Well spoken, well explained, and well done. This man is the future of TH-cam Mixing tutorials
I really love your zen approach to this. Super helpful. This is how intuition grows 🙏
Another wisdom pill. Gotta try it right away. Thanks for your show, one of the very best out there
Yes! Another producer hit me with this tip a few months ago and it's freed up so much time! You're a hero to us mortals. We are not worthy.
Always a clever take. Doesn’t sound like something too keen at first, but then I get it as you explain.
I took a class w my parents in senior year of h.s. called Silva Mind Control. Similar to what you’ve described, it emphasizes the power of first instinct for reaction, and the power of intent for taking action. Our cognitive skills are more sensitive than most people realize, I can attest to your approach as a way to sharpen mix skills, and many other life skills. Great stuff!
UBK fan and Kush plugin owner. Insightful, chill dude who makes excellent gear/plugins. Many of his viewpoints I was familiar with already. Some I wasn't. He REALLY changed my perspective with the idea of "moving" the music when mixing. WOW. I never looked at it that way. Definitely changed my creativity workflow. Gregory is pure gold. The Buddha meets The Sonic Prince. After watching a good number of his vids I also went listened to some Sneaky Littler Devil cuts. After listening...it all came together for me from his mindset. I highly recommend to anyone: 1. Watch some of Gregory's vids. 2. Think about his ideas and try them in your studio. 3. Go listen (closely) to some Sneaky Little Devil stuff. 4. Contemplate and return to your studio to apply all you've learned. You are welcome. Out.
Wish we had a mentor of your caliber 10 years back... Pure Gold Stuff Greg... Thanks trillions and God bless.... 🎉🎉
Is this the fucking yoga class for producers? I love it, not just for the info but for the vibe and focus, even the comments are chill. Very cool.
Thanks for ur help I have been learning and producing for the last 5 years so I am quite fresh of the boat (slowly getting where I want to be). Your short clip sessions are giving me a different perspective and approach. Thanks again
Thanks, I watch a tons of videos from professional audio engineers, artist and teachers, and your channel is a whole beast on it's own, I lova the way you think and it helps tremendously !
Cheers and love from France !
Love this holistic approach to mixing!
Thanks for sharing all this value!
I was gonna take a day off from music today but, youtube keeps showing me interesting videos of yours. I've watched so many videos from other channels and your videos have been immensely more helpful. So thank you.
I teach programming. Just game development code to kids. And this tip here is god tier. I'm putting this directly into use in a perfect way.
Thank you, Kush man.
Holy macaroni! This is exactly how I started really learning how to EQ (finally) more than a decade ago, and is exactly what I have been recommending to a since.
You’re the only other person I’ve seen talk about this. No wonder so many of our viewers tell me you’re their other favorite channel aside from ours 😅
If you ever decide to rename your channel, might I suggest 'The Mix Whisperer' :D
Or... "The Course Whisperer".
@@brynburrows1053 the whisker mixerer
@@MrPMOSullivan Hahaha.
Perfection. Thank you, genius teacher!
Intuiting what works, as opposed to consulting the ego and having every decision made through the neurons of a madman, is a complex and exhuasting process. The sooner one can intuit a solution, the better in every way.
A personal thanks, several of your videos have reframed concepts I struggled with in such away, that it has exponentially levelled me up. The 1K push talk, in particular, toppled a heck of a lot of dominoes for me.
That's awesome to hear man, truly!
This is brilliant. Integrate learning into any process will give you permanent knowledge. I would also recommend learning to sing. That helps tremendously with lyrics, pacing plus tone recognition.
Great video as always, Greg.
Despite all of it being advice that I will adopt and apply, the nugget of wisdom I instantly got from this was your instruction to enter a dB value directly, so that you hear the change state immediately. This gave me a proper "aha," moment. The ears can be so tricky when making small moves, this seems like a masterful antidote to this.
I think I'll use this even outside of a mix, just choosing different instruments and trying your technique, purely to experiment with how sound changes when adjusting certain frequencies.
Cheers again, brotha.
Im gonna do this. Your videos stack up in my greatest video playlist man. Tnx!
best mixing instructor on the internet, hands down
Pure gold. I am developing my mixing methodology so I can make faster mixes and self aware techniques. This just came in the right moment. I am already analizyng before committing into anything, but this approach is brilliant! Thank you so much!
Happy to help!
I can do that and I still watch lol. I get clear confidence based on what I do in reference to this channel. It tells me I make the right decisions.
This is so concise and encouraging. Challenge accepted. Thank you for these videos, they really help in making better mixing choices 🙏
You're very welcome!
Yes you're the man sir! In your previous previous videos, I noticed you said something like "crank that 1.8k" and more same stuff with high precision. Its like you know exactly where to make sounds sound good (with EQ).
It made me think, how does he know which exact frequency to tweak to? (although its just an example but its like on real world) And in this video you said "its gotta be a way that way faster than try and error" - so there is my answer to my question.
One more thing bout the EQ, we accidentally mix more with eyes than the ears these days. Especially for younger generation of mixer (myself included) that have zero experience on "mix with ears because we dont have information on graphic presentations" its kinda hard because we are so get used to graphic information. I'm not blaming old technologies or new technologies here only saying people always go for the easier way of doing things. Its our nature I guess. Its the approach. Gotta change/fix it a little.
By saying that, this is a great great advice you're giving us sir. Once again thank you Mr Gregory Scott, sir. 👍👍👍
Thanks for the support, and for 'getting it'! 🕺
Very insightfull - reminds me much of traditional archery: Do not aim with your eyes, aim with your mind. "Hit" the target before you release that arrow. Analyze your shot.
Great thoughts and process!! You explain things throughly and I think there is a great deal to learn here. Mixing live I learned the same method on my own after starting to mix through L Acoustics (the clearest PA speakers mmMmM 🦮) and after applying it to my studio mix’s it’s become second nature and speeds things right along!
Hello I agree with you I use this same process myself I worked with a guy named peter Hopper for 5 years yeah that guy that use to record barbra streisand and that's basically how we could spend 20 minutes on a mix while others were spending a hour ..it is all about know what each frequency is and how to assess it quickly and fix it and keep going .it also is Much easier on the ears too lol
Great stuff,, thank you kindly buddy. Really enjoy your productive videos. Regards from London uk.
Reminds me of wenn John Hiatt preformed in our little Theater in Amsterdam 20+ years ago. His technician didn’t touch the board, just named frequencies and how much up or down and how high the fader should go. Made it look so easy
Great video as always! Its frustrating seeing/ hearing some people advocate sweeping to solve EQ problems.
When I was first started doing live sound I was impressed by skilled monitor engineers who would go on stage and call out frequencies and the exact amount of dB they wanted to cut or change. From observing these pros I made a real effort to learn to predict eq changes without sweeping or using inefficient tools. I practiced a lot using simple feedback trainer, Quiztones and more recently soundgym (the free version) when I didn't have much mixing going on.
Yeah, same with the engineer ringing out the mains, they gotta know what to kill!
Always looking forward to these videos! Loving The UBK Happy Funtime Hour too, I listen every morning
our engineer/producer has learned alot from your videos!
Thmx for your always tip top videos. Currently in the hair losing process of writing songs. Usually when ever im done, its time for the thing i hate most, ruining my songs by mixing them. Your videos gives hope that it's going to be fun when i finally reach that state.
Keep being awsome 👌
Man your videos are awesome. Being conscious is THE way to improve in anything. I do the EQ sweep all the time and just now I realize it's dumb. Next mix I'm trying this way.
Even if I could nail my eqs on the first try, I would still watch these videos.
Thank you for giving thought process ideas Instead of cement answers to subjective things like most. You give me new ideas of how to aproach mixing not how to mix🙏 i love your idea about skiping past your problem parts so you dont mental block. Beautiful aproach.
These tutorials are just great all around. You could put all these together in a course and charge for it.
Just subscribe to Kush plugins and we'll call it even 😛
I gravitate to your vids because you take a more musical/audiological approach to mixing as opposed to a tactile/press-this-button approach
This is why I like Neve-type EQs, because they limit the frequencies you can work with to just a few and make you really pay attention to what's going to happen when you turn the knobs...
Thank you for this one! I've done this with one mix and already begin to see where I need to develop.
On a side note, I'm willing to bet the reason your channel isn't bigger is that people want to keep your knowledge to themselves, instead of sharing it (which is kind of ironic). Subbed!
Another golden nugget from UBK sensei. Thank you, Gregory!
Hey Kush, thanks for these videos. I’ve learnt a lot mixing wise. More so than many other channels. Super clear and about the big picture rather than the best plugins to use
This guy's choker game is on point.
Thanks for this technique. I'm preparing a mix and will implement this.
Yes! This is how i started out a long time ago (not speaking to myself, just thinking). When i got more gear, things became difficult. I'll train myself to think ahead of the mixing decision. And to add a bit: compressing a wrong eq makes things even worse
I like your style. Only recently found your videos, and I do like your teaching style. Thank you.
It's pity I can't hit that like button two hundred times!
I took this tip and applied it to choosing delays and plugins. Making my small moves and mixing faster
Awesome!! When you're ready to level-up again and REALLY start mixing faster, take the time to set up a nice assortment of fx chains on various auxes, and make them part of your template. Import the new channels into your current mix if needed, and rather than choosing delays etc, throw the sounds into the ready-made auxes.
I've always got (among others) a stereo tape-slap, bpf'd 8th+4tr pingpong, lpf'd 4tr mono delays, and filtered triplet dub-style echo on the ready. I think I've got 8 or 10 delay auxes set up in my template, 3 verbs, coupla volume LFO's... if I use an effect on any kind of regular basis, I put it in the template.
Do the same with some distortion and colorizing strips, some modulation and movement channels... whatever you might reach for in the course of a mix. It changes your life to have a rich and diverse set of colors already on the palette ready to dip your brush into, not only do you use more and varied textures in your mix, you spend a fraction of the brain cycles exploring them and an even smaller fraction of time plowing thru ideas to find some magic. Can't recommend it enough!
Always fantastic advice, Gregory. This fits well with my observation that too much EQ hunting skews your tonal perception. Like looking at the colour blue for a long time and then the world appears yellow. This makes sense as the brain is continuously dynamically adjusting to "normalize" and optimize reality. Our mind is not a blank slate. Some days I have spent hours EQing a recording, eliminating the nasties, perfecting and balancing frequencies. Next day the whole thing sounds dull and congested as if my ears (brain) has reset itself. Often my initial "gut" adjustments were pretty much better in the ballpark. Now, after watching your video, I can see my instincts were correct (I wasn't going nuts!), and going forward, how to develop this perceptual muscle over time. Thanks!
Exactly! I talk about that (loss of perspective due to overfocus) in-depth on the episode on Mixing Too Slow. It's not just an eq problem, it's a "can't judge anything objectively" problem!
@@TheHouseofKushTV I will check that one out👍
I’m moving my studio to South Dakota and I want to start fresh. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!!
I‘m in between. Been a live sound engineer for 30 years and one of the first things we learned back then was detecting the frequencies of a 31 band graphic eq for quickly setting up monitor systems. After some time you even heard, when a frequency was right between two bands. So even though I know frequencies I still sweep around in that area a bit to find the exact spot. Also as you grow older your detection is shifting so what once was 8 k is now 6k. You can‘t trust it that much anymore.
Or... you can bypass your plugin, make your moves, and enable it. This way you can do more moves than one, and hear it in action at once.
I can confirm that this method works for training an intuition.
This is how we train Neural Networks to predict correct output. The name of this process is Back Propagation, and this is how we do it (at a very high level):
1. Give the Nerual network a set of inputs
2. Run those inputs through its interal connections
3. Read the output
4. Compare the output to truth
5. Calculate the difference (error)
6. Adjust interal connections by the amount of error
7. Repeat
This is the at the heart of all AI we know today.
have been following up every of your episodes now. Nice ideas... ...
BTW, thanks for the BiG SALE today. Bought the Clariphonic right away. KUSH Rocks !!!!
BRO tell me why im always already doing ur tricks and tips. Love this channelll please keep making these after hours!
Here's for the next Q&A: Do you work with clients? What's the worst situation with a client you've ever had? What was the best? And finally, what's your preferred type of client to work with? (The genre of the track, the kinds of multitracks they send, how much freedom they allow for creativity and composition/sound design, their personality, etc.)
Happy Turkey Day
Great minds think alike!
@@TheHouseofKushTV haha no you! I don't usually go out of my way to change the EQ immediately instead of dragging it but i definitely will try that out more.
Fried gold as usual. Thank you Mr Scott! ❤️
Your channel is the greatest mixing resource I’ve ever come across on youtube and I think on the internet in general 🙏🏻🙏🏻 thank you for sharing your knowledge
Thanks Gregory. Your video on compression was very helpful and I’d just like to say I appreciate you sharing your knowledge.
Cheers,
mvh
This is such such such good advice and such a good perspective change.
So happy i found your channel .. all your videos are just wonderful i started using your tips. And my mixes just sound better
Always love seeing your vids.
Is the podcast coming back? Just finished a 3 month binge...
It is, and it's coming back here on YT, early 2021 🕺
This videos always teach me something that i can actually apply and learn so much from, straight to the point as well, just awesome as always
This man is a gift from the universe!
Thanks for always keeping it brief!
I love the lighting in your studio, but there are reflections from TWO lights in your pupils. A great technique for helping people connect to your videos is to make sure there is only ONE light reflected in the subject's eyes. It seems like a minor thing, but since we're always looking people directly in the eyes it's actually very important.
You're welcome! Regarding the lighting... in the 4 months I've been posting this show, the channel has seen 2,000% growth, gets new subs at the same rate with every show, and only seems to be accelerating.
So I'm not disagreeing with you, but... the data sure seems to be! 😛
@@TheHouseofKushTV It's a great show for sure my man!
The literal second you mentioned octaves, you had sufficiently turned the wheels enough to make a few things click for me. Then you said later that you actually and often experienced being off by octaves and I was glad I wasn't alone in that.
Huge help thanks, especially on dense metal mixing. God bless!!!
I don't know if you own a pair, but I would hate to mix metal without my NS10's!
@@TheHouseofKushTV no and its a bummer, I'm currently using non powered Event 20/20's , but mostly headphone mixing. Someday looking to getting a pair, but appreciate all the wisdom bro!!! Many things you have taught I apply daily, again thanks.