01-31-2008, 03:17 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-01-2008, 12:29 AM by Rambunkcious.)
Just had the pleasure of attending a seminar with Jimmy Douglass,
http://www.myspace.com/jimmymagicmix, who has engineered countless hits over the past 20 years, from classic Chaka Khan, Sade, Hall & Oates, etc etc, and most recently Timbaland’s work and he’s mixing the new Al Green album I guess Al’s making a comeback.
As well as Herb Powers (Mastering Engineer), http://www.pmmastering.com, who has also had 30 years worth of mastering experience on countless hit records that have touched all our hearts.
Just thought Id share some thoughts they were kind enough to share with us, that would help us all in our ever-growing, bittersweet journey as engineers. First of all I’d like to say that they both had very warm characters, great dynamics between them as they have been best buds for ages. Very humble, straight forward, open and willing to share whatever knowledge they have, of which they had a lot.
Addition & Subtraction
Jimmy informed us of how he used to mix with his ears and with the advent of pro tools most of us now mix with our eyes. Recalling the days where there was no visual feedback he’d close his eyes listen for the frequency he wanted then boosted it, his philosophy behind that was this; when the consumer gets a track to listen to on thier home/car stereo, even in todays world, what is the first thing they do; they dial in the highs, or lows and boost them. It wasn’t until a couple of years ago that one of his interns introduced him to subtractive eqing. Not that he didnt know about it, but thats just the way he worked, and his whole career prior to the introduction of subtarctive eqing, he mixed many hits that we hold dear to our hearts using additive eqing. So for him additive eqing is a plus and does work well when used right. As graphic and parametric eq’s came about he felt misled due to the fact that you can now look at your frequency, which led him to use his ears less, then the DAW came about, and his ears did even less work. He stressed use your ears to listen and not your eyes, it is sound after all.
Mastering
Herb, also touched on the addition/subtraction topic but more in the mastering sense. Explaining how he hardly subtracted anything at all as he got these flat mixes from the engineers he’d make them shine through addition. Flat not being a bad thing, just a term he used for a track that wasn’t mastered. He believed that this piece of work that he just recieved was the fruit of the engineers labor, and why should he subtract anything, if he did he’d be taking away from the creation, plus he’d have engineers on his ass complaining about it, one of which was his good friend, Jimmy Douglas who was seated right next to him.
So to Herb, as a mastering engineer he would get the stems from the mix engineer, that way if there was anything too loud he could turn that track down a .5 or .25 db, eqing it down would also affect the harmonics of the other elements in that frequency range. After he feels that this “flat” mix is ready to master he splits them up into low’s, mid’s, and hi’s. He rarely uses compression on the mid’s and hi’s instead he would prefer to use additive eqing to bring out what he thought needed that extra polish and shine. Low’s or bass on the other hand utilized compression to make them tighter, and maybe “some” subtractive eqing. Compressing the Mid’s and Hi’s limits your sound and the elements that will stick out in the final mix. This of course is all based upon the fact that there is a good mix already, mastering as we all know is not going to take a piece of crap and make it shine.
Free The .wav
Finally, they touched on the .wav vs .mp3, as I had originally stated in another post we have the technology at a cheap enough cost to not only allow digital downlaods of 320 on a .mp3 but .wav files at the standard 16 bit 44.1K, they only went on to confirm this. There is no need to degrade the sound quality of a file in these times, we are the generation(s) that will set an example for future generations to come, why should they grow up listening to 128 .mp3 file off of itunes, when we grew up listening to records and then CD’s, both of which have better fidelity than an mp3. It is sound after all that we are immersing ourselves in when we listen to a track, why should we compromise the whole frequency range of a track if that wasnt the way it was mixed for us to hear. Again this is sound enjoy it and the labor of love that went into producing, mixing, and mastering to its full extent.
please free the .wav
Conclusion
Though they are engineers in the commercial industry, and we in the underground/electronic/exprimental scene, those same concepts apply. For our music seems to have the most intricate details and sound design concepts built into it so in the end it doesnt matter what genre you’re in we all care about fidelity, cleanliness of sound and fresh ideas.
This might seem like my ramblings to most of us as we have heard these concepts drilled into our head, though the mastering info. opened my eyes a bit. It seemed to serve as a reminder to us engineers and consumers of music, and a well deserved wake up call. I hope this benefits the reader as much as I found it to be beneficial.
Sidenote: Im a big fan of classic Chaka Khan, and i had to ask, he confirmed that they used an ARP 2600, he couldnt remember which SCI Prophet but one of them, and oddly enough a mellotron, and that those three were plastered on all her hits, well I guess the bassline from “aint nobody” is a 2600 or a prophet, thats such a phat bassline.
http://www.myspace.com/jimmymagicmix, who has engineered countless hits over the past 20 years, from classic Chaka Khan, Sade, Hall & Oates, etc etc, and most recently Timbaland’s work and he’s mixing the new Al Green album I guess Al’s making a comeback.
As well as Herb Powers (Mastering Engineer), http://www.pmmastering.com, who has also had 30 years worth of mastering experience on countless hit records that have touched all our hearts.
Just thought Id share some thoughts they were kind enough to share with us, that would help us all in our ever-growing, bittersweet journey as engineers. First of all I’d like to say that they both had very warm characters, great dynamics between them as they have been best buds for ages. Very humble, straight forward, open and willing to share whatever knowledge they have, of which they had a lot.
Addition & Subtraction
Jimmy informed us of how he used to mix with his ears and with the advent of pro tools most of us now mix with our eyes. Recalling the days where there was no visual feedback he’d close his eyes listen for the frequency he wanted then boosted it, his philosophy behind that was this; when the consumer gets a track to listen to on thier home/car stereo, even in todays world, what is the first thing they do; they dial in the highs, or lows and boost them. It wasn’t until a couple of years ago that one of his interns introduced him to subtractive eqing. Not that he didnt know about it, but thats just the way he worked, and his whole career prior to the introduction of subtarctive eqing, he mixed many hits that we hold dear to our hearts using additive eqing. So for him additive eqing is a plus and does work well when used right. As graphic and parametric eq’s came about he felt misled due to the fact that you can now look at your frequency, which led him to use his ears less, then the DAW came about, and his ears did even less work. He stressed use your ears to listen and not your eyes, it is sound after all.
Mastering
Herb, also touched on the addition/subtraction topic but more in the mastering sense. Explaining how he hardly subtracted anything at all as he got these flat mixes from the engineers he’d make them shine through addition. Flat not being a bad thing, just a term he used for a track that wasn’t mastered. He believed that this piece of work that he just recieved was the fruit of the engineers labor, and why should he subtract anything, if he did he’d be taking away from the creation, plus he’d have engineers on his ass complaining about it, one of which was his good friend, Jimmy Douglas who was seated right next to him.
So to Herb, as a mastering engineer he would get the stems from the mix engineer, that way if there was anything too loud he could turn that track down a .5 or .25 db, eqing it down would also affect the harmonics of the other elements in that frequency range. After he feels that this “flat” mix is ready to master he splits them up into low’s, mid’s, and hi’s. He rarely uses compression on the mid’s and hi’s instead he would prefer to use additive eqing to bring out what he thought needed that extra polish and shine. Low’s or bass on the other hand utilized compression to make them tighter, and maybe “some” subtractive eqing. Compressing the Mid’s and Hi’s limits your sound and the elements that will stick out in the final mix. This of course is all based upon the fact that there is a good mix already, mastering as we all know is not going to take a piece of crap and make it shine.
Free The .wav
Finally, they touched on the .wav vs .mp3, as I had originally stated in another post we have the technology at a cheap enough cost to not only allow digital downlaods of 320 on a .mp3 but .wav files at the standard 16 bit 44.1K, they only went on to confirm this. There is no need to degrade the sound quality of a file in these times, we are the generation(s) that will set an example for future generations to come, why should they grow up listening to 128 .mp3 file off of itunes, when we grew up listening to records and then CD’s, both of which have better fidelity than an mp3. It is sound after all that we are immersing ourselves in when we listen to a track, why should we compromise the whole frequency range of a track if that wasnt the way it was mixed for us to hear. Again this is sound enjoy it and the labor of love that went into producing, mixing, and mastering to its full extent.
please free the .wav
Conclusion
Though they are engineers in the commercial industry, and we in the underground/electronic/exprimental scene, those same concepts apply. For our music seems to have the most intricate details and sound design concepts built into it so in the end it doesnt matter what genre you’re in we all care about fidelity, cleanliness of sound and fresh ideas.
This might seem like my ramblings to most of us as we have heard these concepts drilled into our head, though the mastering info. opened my eyes a bit. It seemed to serve as a reminder to us engineers and consumers of music, and a well deserved wake up call. I hope this benefits the reader as much as I found it to be beneficial.
Sidenote: Im a big fan of classic Chaka Khan, and i had to ask, he confirmed that they used an ARP 2600, he couldnt remember which SCI Prophet but one of them, and oddly enough a mellotron, and that those three were plastered on all her hits, well I guess the bassline from “aint nobody” is a 2600 or a prophet, thats such a phat bassline.
