Absolutely, you nailed it! This is the exact point I’m trying to make in the video!

Yeah level matching things is solid advice particularly for folks just starting out!

Absolutely- gain staging is hugely important and I agree it should be something everyone takes time to learn. But it’s massively source dependent. Theres no arbitrary level that certain pieces of gear or plugins should be hit at - it all depends on the sound you’re going after.

Yeah I mean the ultimate point is that mixing is all about LISTENING… and then making adjustments based on what you ACTUALLY hear! Not slapping on a preset or hi pass filter on every single track just because it’s some sort of ‘rule’. Listen, adjust, listen again. Repeat.

That may be the case… but rules are there to be broken 😉 I’m pretty sure the very original Pultec EQP-1A instructions said not to use the boost and attenuation at the same time… that turned out to be one of the most classic tricks and sounds to come out of that unit. Go figure!

​@@adamfiascoVEVO I didn't say there are rules (I said the opposite). However, if a plugin company says that their plugin is better emulating the hardware unit when fed with "-18dbFS", this is a suggestion...Of course the user can do whatever they want, but you know, keep the suggestion of the creator in mind.

@@VoodooProjectStudio Apologies, I mis-read as ‘are’. And that’s a fair point for sure! A lot of analogue modelled plugins model the non-linearities that the hardware units exhibit too and you really notice that when driving into them at different levels. It’s good to experiment.

Only if it works for that particular song! If it doesn’t then it’s terrible advice - that’s kinda my point! Take subtractive EQ… There’s absolutely nothing wrong with using it. But saying that’s the ONLY way you should EQ things is just plain stupid.

@@adamfiascoVEVO Your claim about not needing to leave headroom for mastering, the couple of mastering engineers I know if you sent them a mix without any headroom they'd send it back to you as they wouldn't be able to do any processing to the track without hitting 0db and clipping and using lots of additive EQ can cause phasing and distortion so it's not the best the way to mix.

@@jamiehunter1980 that’s not what I’m claiming though. Absolutely there needs to be headroom for mastering and it’s vitally important that the mix isn’t clipping. But whether there’s -6dB of headroom or -1dB really doesn’t matter. If a mastering engineer needs more or less they can adjust it to whatever they need... there is no arbitrary number! On the additive EQ - you’re right, boosting certain frequencies on certain EQs can causing phasing and distortion issues that doesn’t sound great, so in that situation it would be appropriate to use subtractive EQ. However boosting 5k on an SSL on a snare drum can sound glorious! As can adding a big high shelf to a lead vocal using a Pultec. Or adding some weight to a kick with a 1073 or API 550… so again, simply saying subtractive EQ is the ‘only way’ is bad advice!!

@@adamfiascoVEVO I used to think the same but turning down the master effects the volume of the whole track, I was told by a pro to think about headroom on an individual track basis and also frequency, peak and RMS volume are different things.

@@jamiehunter1980 headroom of individual tracks really isn’t something to be overly concerned about when mixing in a DAW. Especially if you’re mixing at 24bit, and definitely if you’re at 32bit float.

This! Exactly! Certain things in one context can sound amazing and work brilliantly, yet in another situation/context sound like crap. Just like I demonstrated with the tape saturation… pushing a snare into tape can sound epic. However pushing the same level on the mix bus sounds mushy and muddy. A clean pop mix might require zero tape saturation at all. Different contexts require completely different approaches!

The point I’m making is this - you shouldn’t do something just as a matter of course! You should use your ears and do what needs to be done based on that feedback. If every track needs a high pass then go ahead and do that. But simply telling people who are new to mixing ‘you must high pass everything up to XHz all of the time’ is just terrible advice. And thats where we will have to disagree. As for the headroom thing - are you saying it matters what level mixes are exported at? Like I said in the video as long as the mix isn’t clipping it really doesn’t matter if the mix is hitting -6, -2, -7 or -0.5. And this is the kind of terrible BS advice that can tie young engineers in knots for no reason. Bottom line: mixing is about using your ears and making adjustment based on WHAT YOU HEAR. Not following a set of arbitrary rules like ‘high pass up to 50’, ‘hit all of your plugins at -18dB’ or ‘export your mix at -6’

@@adamfiascoVEVO The whole point of hi passing is that you remove the unwanted rumble that you can’t necessarily hear, unless you have an immaculate monitor setup. It’s not a case of “hi pass all guitars at 85 Hz!”. It’s a case of hi passing because it’s good practice. Even if you are hi passing without it having an immediately audible effect on the source. With regard to headroom, it’s again about developing good habits. It’s not that a mastering engineer can’t turn it up by a few dB. It’s about always using the headroom available as digital may theoretically have tons of headroom, but in practice you still have a noise floor to deal with. Anything you record, anywhere on the planet, with any gear, will involve background noise. Regardless of theoretical headroom, that noise will still come blasting through once you start compressing, hi shelving, limiting, etc. So the better your signal to noise ratio is from the beginning, the better. And the same goes all the way down the chain. A lot of tracks with a tiny bit of noise will limit your options later. Same can be said for mixdown. There’s a reason mastering engineers don’t just say “yeah, -36 dB is fine 👍🏻”

​@@KasperViggoJensen OK so I'm with you on the bit about developing good habits! Totally agree that there are certain 'ball parks' to aim for with certain things (such as headroom) when it comes to mixing. But you lost me mostly everywhere else and we'll probably have to agree to disagree. The hi pass thing - let's assume anyone mixing has got a semi decent monitoring set up (the basic requirement to churn out decent sounding mixes), you're gonna hear if there are any lows that need cleaning up. If so then yes absolutely. Your comment about 'Hi pass all guitars at 85Hz' is exactly the kind of bad advice I'm talking about and actually this is what I said in the video - there are people out there saying things like 'You should hi pass kicks upto XHz' and 'You should hi pass vocals upto XHz'.... to me this is bad advice as there's no magic number to hi pass anything up to! Listen, and adjust it to wherever sounds best based on what you're hearing. Same thing goes with the headroom issue - yes we need to be bouncing mixes in a certain ballpark and not have them stupidly quiet - anyone with even a very basic understanding of recording will know that. But this idea of -6 is the holy grail level that it has to be is silly. It really doesn't matter if it's hitting -6, -2, -1 or -7... it just has to not be clipping and if it's a great mix, that will not stop a mastering doing a great job. And obsessing over hitting -6 is a waste of time, yet there's still this myth out there that if your mixes aren't at that very specific level when exported it will somehow hurt the final result. There are much bigger things to worry about than whether your mix is hitting -6 or a few dB either side lol.