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I see your channel is growing nicely!!! Good job Bobby!

Great content as always Bobby. Simple tips but soooo effective

This is one of my favorite videos you've done. I'm new to mixing heavy music. Techniques, terminology, it's all new to me. Lots of useful and actionable information here. You are going to make a heavy music mixer out of me yet Bobby. Thanks again!

That low shelf tip is golden. I've been finding that my screaming has a lot of gargley sounds in it and I assumed I just wasnt screaming right. One of my solutions was to use a low pass filter but I am gonna try your tip instead.

Another delay reverb trick that you could do this the following: have a mano 16th notes single slap delay you going into a short spring reverb. It just blend it in to the track mix so that it's not obvious but then when you take it out you notice that there's something gone

Such great info, thanks Bobby 🤘

Sick intro. Just started doing vocal stuff so this is very helpful

I also use a De-esser with that method.

Golden info here 🙏

Great advice Bobby!

The l1 limiter doing 12db of reduction surprised me lol I was doing 30db of reduction on two comps but not that much limiting

great tips for taming those Jeff Walker type vocals

LMAO! Yes! You are where it's at young man! Using a boatload of compression and limiting and EQ. On the vocals. And downward expansion. Which I never forget to add. Everybody is afraid to add that which they do not understand. Or the importance thereof. I mean talk about scrubbing clean vocals. You scrub out all the background trash with a downward expander. Some people call it a gate. I don't like gates on vocals they sound awkward. I prefer downward expanders. Set to a maximum of between 10 and 20 DB of, gain ducking. Semi equivalent to the amount of limiting and/or compression gain reduction. As it also cleans up and reduces the breaths. From sounding like asthmatic gasping. And somebody drowning. Yeah no. That ain't cool sounding. So you downward expand on the breath threshold level. Et Voilà! No air conditioning and room rumble, background traffic noise, kids and dogs barking. When the lead vocal microphone gets turned down between words and breaths. Just like fucking magic! And I've been doing that since, 1978. Now I do it in software. The same thing. The same way. So yeah. I like pushing into the limiter. I really dig and prefer those, 1176, FET types. I used to own, 5 of the originals. I have since sold those for a pretty penny. And started to replace those with the Hairball, clones. And other clones. That all looked the same. Our built the same. Work and sound the same. Regardless of what everybody else says. Yes there are tiny nuanced differences. Big Fucking Deal! Nobody is handing you a $30,000 or $50,000 contract. So you ain't got to worry. The clones are just fine. And those are a couple hundred dollars each. And worth every penny! There was a UREI recommended mod. I installed back in, 1979. That was comprised of a single capacitor and switch. That made the 1176 FET limiter a, 75 µs pre-emphasized, FM and lacquer disc cutting lathe, High Frequency Limiter. And let me tell you, Oh WOW! Holy shit! Now, I was able to crank in, tons of high frequency and 3-5 kHz peaking, EQ boost. And no more sibilance no more screechy sound. Now it was just big and fat and lush and warm and smooth and zippy and clear and clean and airy. It made a small difference. Now that's just from frequency, weighting. A single limiter like that. At a single frequency. Put 3 or 4 together for each channel of the 2 of stereo. And what might you get? Yes I am talking about building and designing a crazy custom, music recording Mastering System. That just pump, pump, pump, pumps everything up! With real loudness war done with real analog FET peak sensing, limiters and downward expanders. Yeah baby! I've been talking about this rig for eight years now. I've never gotten to it yet in its entirety. It can be done with a single 1176 FET clone limiter and your computer. Processing the 2 channels. 3 or 4 times over. And to stitch it all together after the fact. Because you can't do it in real time with just one. But this doesn't help you guys out much. To get better sound. When you've never realized. There was more than just getting your, Left and Right speakers together in phase. Of course they are in phase. You got a college degree telling you. You know that. At that cost a lot of money to get. And you wanted to make certain your education was complete. And well it isn't. What you have all failed to realize. With few exceptions. Your left and right channel speakers are in phase together. But they are also both in negative polarity together. Nobody understands what this means. Nobody has been taught this, very comprehensive important factor. Because your college professors don't understand it either. Neither do the electrical engineers. Neither do the acoustic engineers. Because everybody listens with their eyes.. Not their ears. But some of us do. And we know how to. And we know what things are supposed to sound like and the why and the how of it. Because we also worked for those companies. That made the best recording stuff ever. And we all know more than stupid self-proclaimed audio experts. People like myself get big laugh out of. For their clueless stupidity in their expertise. You see some of us are just naturally more intelligent than others. Nobody knows why? We certainly don't. But we are happy it is this way. Mostly. Except when the wrong people get elected. And wreak havoc. On our nation's poor and most vulnerable. Which is what greedy opportunistic parasites all do. Unto others. As they would never want done unto them. So when you feel your monitoring environment is compromised? From lousy acoustics, cheap equipment and a huge compromise on speakers. Yeah no. It's really not that stuff even if it is. It's simply that your speakers are in phase but in, reverse polarity together. And that polarity can only be changed. At the output of the audio power amplifiers to the direct input on the speakers. And not further upstream by flipping phase at the inputs. No. That merely inverts the waveform. It does not change the output polarity. Of what's going to move the air substantially. And which way you want it moving that air? This is what 99% of everybody gets wrong. Including the electrical engineers. Including the acoustic engineers. Including the college professors. And that's why there are some people better at their jobs than others. Like me. The problem solver. Because if you're going to design and build custom control rooms? You have to know how to do it. And what of everything is involved. Right down to the FUCKING SPEAKER WIRING! That 99% of everybody has wrong in their listening environment. And blames that on their acoustics, their gear, the speakers, the microphones, the bits, the sample rate. Whatever they can blame. Because it could never be for improper helter-skelter like sounding monitoring? Could it? Ya think? No! Nobody's been able to think about this! Except myself and a little company by the name of JBL. Who also got this right. At least by 1968 that I know of. As this is a fascinating story. Back in 1978 when I discovered that brand of speakers. Was out of phase. To all other speaker manufacturers. On the face of the planet! Until I could plainly hear why. And I thought everybody else could also? I was terribly wrong. Everybody was listening with their eyes, their textbooks and mathematical formulas. Which can't hear or evaluate a damn thing! Only we can.. So for those of you that don't use that brand, JBL brand? Fear not! All is not lost. You merely have to flip the 2 wires. On the back of both your left and right channel speakers. That are plugged into your external audio amplifier or receiver. And that's it. It's that simple. For you folks that have the, Bi-Amplified, self powered, compact monitor speakers? You are going to have to be good with a screwdriver and soldering iron. To reverse the connections. On the internal speakers. And then remount them and screw them down tight. So you have to have, 10% of that necessary technical competency. To wield a, 15 watt, soldering iron. Without causing yourself serious injury. From stupidity. Of not unplugging the speaker from the 120 or 240 volt, AC electric wall outlets. Which you must do first. Before you open them up to start soldering inside. Just that word of caution. And warning. Will Robinson. That killing yourself for rock 'n' roll is not good. Plenty of guys have tried and succeeded. Don't be one of them. Just be a living sloppy rock musician. Instead of the kind that aren't anymore. Due to stupidity. (Continued in next post)

Awesome. Thanks, Man!

@6:46 hahaha badass!

Awesome video man. When using tons of compression then I have huge issues with some vocalists when it comes to the breaths coming out waaaay too much. How do you tame them?

Excellent tips...What effects does the other voice have to sound like that?

Do you insert the EQ before or after the compressors?

Who is that ultra talented lovely lady in thumbnail? 😝

Do you ever double track a main vocal performance? I'm curious to know if multi-tracking main vocal lines (not just harmonies) is still a popular technique on modern productions. I often use a Left, Right, and Center track on my own performances but make the center the most prominent in the mix. I still add loads of compression, ambience, and slight saturation but the multiple tracks really gives me excellent results that work for my singing style every time.

Yeah so I've posted a couple of rants. As I am on board here with, cutting, tracking. With some mighty aggressive, limiting. In particular. Sometimes I run the compressor. Sometimes I don't. Sometimes the aggressive limiting takes care of the compression, also. But having more than one stacked up is, where it's at. And you can mix-and-match. FET, Opto, VCA, old fashion volume control action with your finger. What a concept! Maybe it'll catch on? Naw, of course not! How stupid! What would you do with the volume control? Control volume? Ha! YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO CONTROL NO VOLUME! It could come down to anything? As long as it works. It'll do the job. You can even go for the RMS auto detector types. They've got an, input, volume control. Add some. It takes care of the other confusing settings. And perfect for rank amateurs and stoned engineers. So I have fun cutting vocals by usually cutting all the low frequencies below, 250 Hz or so. Cutting it all out. Turning it all down. Turning up the midrange and high frequencies to stratospheric proportions. And then you add that 1176 style limiter. With all buttons in. For, 50:1 limiting. With a slow attack and relatively quick but not superfast release. Followed by a, Allison Research KEPEX-1 or Valley People, KEPEX-II. But you'll also want to have some, tone control, EQ. From a Neve 1073 or 1081 or API 550 or 560, series equalizers. To further enhance the sound. Before you crunch the crap out of it with the limiters and compression. And we commit that way as we are tracking. Never worrying about wanting to undo. Our genius to begin with. Little children are much more timid. And don't want mommy or daddy getting mad at them for their priest or pastor. For using a, blasphemous amount of, EQ and limiting. And even get away with it! And everybody praising you. For your wonderful natural sounding vocal tracks. When you know. Ain't nothing natural about them! Except now. You don't have to do much on mix down time. It already sounds great! And you just use it that way now. And enjoy how naturally they sound. When you are laughing. Because you know. You have processed the living crap out of them! And the joke is on everybody! As good audio engineers make you think what you are listening to is natural sounding. When they are nothing of the kind. They just sound that way. That's what good engineers do. Fake wannabes and beginners don't do anything. Thinking they want natural sound. And then you get nondescript mud. Why is that? LMAO. This is how it actually works. Listen to this guy here. He knows. He's spot on! He'll clean it. RamyRAD

So yeah this is one of those secret, top-secret, engineer things. That's a life changer. A game changer. A world changing event. And it costs, Zero to do! That's what's so funny! And easy to put back if you don't like it. But you won't! Not after you hear it for yourself. It's tragically funny. I laughed. But it's really not funny. It's beyond stupid. And you've got to love that kind of stupid. That everybody else wanted to hop on board with that stupidity. All the best speaker manufacturers out there! Except for JBL. They stand apart. They stand alone with me. Because we both know what we are talking about. Because you can plainly hear the difference. Of not how they design their speakers so much. That's just how you wire them up together. That's what's so stupid! Everybody is convinced. The wiring from the output of the audio power amplifier to the speakers is correct. And it is. Mathematically speaking. Textbook speaking. But neither math nor a textbook can hear whether the speaker is in positive or negative polarity and modulation. DUH!? Yes! This is one of those what the FUCK moments! Holy shit, moments! It's a revelation! And it costs nothing to find out for yourself. With anybody's speakers. Anybody's! You just have to flip the polarity on all of them! They are all 180° backwards. And here's the rationale behind this. If you keep everything in phase. For microphone input to the speaker output. The sound coming from your speakers is only the rebound. It's not being directed toward you. Even though it's in front of you. The speakers are sucking inward. Into the box in which they are mounted. When everything is in phase! Why? Because the speakers are now mimicking. The motion of the diaphragms of the microphones. As the sound pressure waves smash into the microphone diaphragms. Compressing the diaphragms into the body of the microphone. And now the speakers are moving in the same way! It's so funny! Nobody has been able to think this through this way except JBL starting in 1968. And me figuring this out in 1978 at 22 years of age. Once I had heard them in 1968 at 12 years of age. I knew there was something going on here! I knew I would have to own the speakers one day. Because nothing else sounded like these small bookshelf speakers. 10 inch woofers. Not 12. Not 15. Just 10. In the JBL, 4310's. Followed by the higher power rated, 4311's. Later with the addition of a titanium dome tweeter with the 4312's. And the very pretty orange or blue foam grill, consumer JBL, L-100's. Which actually made more sense than the professional versions. And from which the first hit mixes of, Earth Wind & Fire emanated from. I happen to know. But was stupid of JBL. Not to make that L-100 model the Professional Version! It was in a beautiful walnut box. The professional was eggshell white paint. It had these beautiful bright orange or bright blue custom cut foam grills. The Pro versions had black burlap. And they were not a discrete left/Right mirror imaged pair. They were not. But the L-100's were! And otherwise made with all the other same components the same way! I mean what the FUCK? How could they get it so right and then just miss the boat? But those in the know wouldn't get the 4311's they would get the L-100's. And they looked better. So like Rudy Giuliani said. The truth is not always the truth! And that is sort of corrects in a wrong kind of way. But most definitely perfectly correct, sort of. Kind of like only being a little bit pregnant. Which can then grow out of control. Months later. And then you had that miraculous weight loss! Since you gave the kid up for adoption. To pursue a rock 'n' roll career. I'm glad I never had any! I mean kids. And also that rock 'n' roll career not quite the way I wanted. I.e. no substantial hit records. I would be collecting royalties from ever. Oh well.. Other guys have all the luck. It's just dumb luck, mostly. But most people will not admit that. I'm not afraid to. I'm mostly retired, now. Remember you can only reverse the polarity on your speakers. From the output of the audio power amplifier. Not at the input. Repeat, not at the input. Only at the output and into the speaker directly. This is what determines polarity not phase. Because the two are not the same. Even though they seem to be the same and a lot of people's minds. They didn't grow up in Pro Audio. I have. Over more than 50 years. So? I'm one of those smart asses. That can put your money where my mouth is! RamyRAD