The Producers Thread: Production Tips, Tricks, Techniques & Questions

[Lopp]

Figured you guys may appreciate some recording and guitar amp porn while we’re talking about this stuff.

Now you are just showing off.


And yeah, I am jealous, impressed, and excited.

 

[Stone]

I highly recommend DaVinci Resolve as a powerful pro-grade video editor and... It is free.

You can quickly get up on running with Resolve with your knowledge of DAW. Some of the features may require a little research, but there are tons of YouTube vids.

Thanks Ill check it out on the weekend

 

[la szum]

Kevin Shirley is my hero.
I also admire Chuck Ainlay work.

Even after he got Bonamassa'd??

 

[JiveTurkey]

Kevin Shirley is the guy who's made Iron Maiden suck for the past 6 albums, right?

 

[gumtown]

Less is more !!
Don't overload your song with too many overdubbed parts, or if you do, make them a small part or a background mix.
Music becomes confusing with too many parts all at once.

Come back to your mix tomorrow,
if you spend too many hours mixing down a song, you start trying to mix in things that just aren't there (only existing in your mind, not in the recording).

 

[Lopp]

Favourite Producers?? Who do you all admire, or take notes/cues from?

I love Martin Birch and Terry Date for the hard stuff, and Daniel Lanois when
it comes to ambience and atmosphere.

Love Martin Birch's work with Iron Maiden.

 

[Lopp]

Less is more !!
Don't overload your song with too many overdubbed parts, or if you do, make them a small part or a background mix.
Music becomes confusing with too many parts all at once.

Good point that I was also going to mention.

This became apparent in a recent mix with four tracks of guitars playing the same part. It sounded tighter after reducing/removing two guitar tracks, with the remaining two panned L and R.

More tracks may sound better if the rhythm guitar playing is super tight. In my case, dropping it to two tracks sounded better because my playing wasn't tight enough.

 

[HotRats]

Even after he got Bonamassa'd??

yes!

Kevin Shirley is the guy who's made Iron Maiden suck for the past 6 albums, right?

yes, that guy!

he made them "suck" and they are happy with it so there's somenthing else going on there :)

 

[la szum]

Kevin Shirley is the guy who's made Iron Maiden suck for the past 6 albums, right?

I didn't go there. You did.

 

[la szum]

Less is more !!
Don't overload your song with too many overdubbed parts, or if you do, make them a small part or a background mix.
Music becomes confusing with too many parts all at once.

You need to tell this to EVERYONE making music in the modern era. They didn't get the memo.


If I could reintroduce one element I find woefully missing in music being made these days it would
be "space." Let that shit breath--a little. Stop hammering my ear like it is a porn star's pussy.

 

[DrewJD82]

Favorite producers/mixers-

Dave Jerden
Toby Wright
David Botrill
Joe Baressi
Michael Wagner
Nick Raskuliksadckmsdfmsdmasdm
Brendan O’Brien
Matt Wallace
Andy Wallace

I can keep going, I’ve probably got more favorite producers than I do favorite guitarists.

As for overdubs….. well, I LOVE a lot of layers. Whether it’s AIC stacking Layne’s voice up 6x and Jerry’s 4x, or Vai putting in 46 tracks of backwards guitars, or Mr. Bungle having every guy in the band playing something different at the same time, it’s all there because that’s what the bands/musicians/producers felt was going to work best for the song.

While I have plenty of songs that are just 2 guitar tracks, a bass, drums and vocals, I‘ve got a lot more that are layered to hell and back with string sections, acoustics, horn sections, electrics, counter-melodies with guitars and vocals, polyrhythms, etc. I suppose this goes in line with the thread I made a couple weeks ago about listening to a song does not require a critique of said song, but I do that because that’s how I’m hearing it in my head. It’s entirely possible that the song just isn’t for you, but does exactly what I, the writer, wanted it to.

 

[la szum]

Great list, Drew!
I forgot Glyn Johns, Andy Johns.... Pink Floyd..... and Jimmy F'ing Page!!

 

[DrewJD82]

Sh*t….can’t forget about Ggggarth and Colin Richardson, either! Those dudes basically pioneered the modern metal sound, along with Terry Date.

And while this might be a bit tacky, I think Nolly did an outstanding job mixing the Devin Townsend albums he mixed.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Unsung metal "resurgence" (in a time when resurgence was really a difficult proposition) producers who don't get any credit: Roy Z

 

[Bruce]

Do everything Bob Rock and CLA do and you’ll always make money.

 

[DrewJD82]

Do everything Bob Rock and CLA do and you’ll always make money.

Can’t believe I left out Bob Rock! It’s because of Metallica’s Year And A Half Of tapes that I became enamored with recording studios and production. Between seeing Hetfield use different guitars for overdubs, the shotgun cocking overdubs and the one line Bob says when Kirk is trying to record the solo for “The Unforgiven”, “Just use whatever, I’ll put it through an amp later, I don’t want to spend time dicking around with tones right now.”

I wanted to know everything about what they were doing and talking about. Thankfully, I only got as far as recording 1/4” tape and never got to experience the ”joys” of cutting and splicing 2”.

CLA I definitely looked to when I first started teaching myself how to mix, I mean, the guy’s credits speak for themselves. Unfortunately, the actual information he gives in all the interview/mix sessions with him is rather slim and 99% extends to “Ya want to know the secret to ________? Just record it and move the knobs until it sounds good. I have a lot of compressors.”

While I get what he’s saying, when you’re starting out and trying to understand frequencies and compression and the technical aspects of mixing, you need a little more than just “turn the knobs until it sounds good”. That said, I’ve learned a TON as a result of his signature plug-ins with Waves and still use a lot of those plug-ins regularly. CLA-Vocals, CLA-Unplugged, CLA-Bass, CLA-76 and CLA-Epic, namely. I have those loaded in my writing templates because they get me where I need to go right away, then when I go to actually mix, I’ll essentially recreate them with individual plug-ins so I can fine tune things a little better.

And his brother, Tom, doesn’t get a lot of credit I feel he deserves. Live’s Throwing Copper album is one of the best mixed albums I’ve ever heard and blows away practically anything Chris has done, IMO. Everything sounds amazing on that album, especially the drums.

 

[la szum]

And his brother, Tom, doesn’t get a lot of credit I feel he deserves. Live’s Throwing Copper album is one of the best mixed albums I’ve ever heard and blows away practically anything Chris has done, IMO. Everything sounds amazing on that album, especially the drums.

Those Jerry Harrison produced Live albums are all great, in my book.

 

[Bruce]

Can’t believe I left out Bob Rock! It’s because of Metallica’s Year And A Half Of tapes that I became enamored with recording studios and production. Between seeing Hetfield use different guitars for overdubs, the shotgun cocking overdubs and the one line Bob says when Kirk is trying to record the solo for “The Unforgiven”, “Just use whatever, I’ll put it through an amp later, I don’t want to spend time dicking around with tones right now.”

I wanted to know everything about what they were doing and talking about. Thankfully, I only got as far as recording 1/4” tape and never got to experience the ”joys” of cutting and splicing 2”.

CLA I definitely looked to when I first started teaching myself how to mix, I mean, the guy’s credits speak for themselves. Unfortunately, the actual information he gives in all the interview/mix sessions with him is rather slim and 99% extends to “Ya want to know the secret to ________? Just record it and move the knobs until it sounds good. I have a lot of compressors.”

While I get what he’s saying, when you’re starting out and trying to understand frequencies and compression and the technical aspects of mixing, you need a little more than just “turn the knobs until it sounds good”. That said, I’ve learned a TON as a result of his signature plug-ins with Waves and still use a lot of those plug-ins regularly. CLA-Vocals, CLA-Unplugged, CLA-Bass, CLA-76 and CLA-Epic, namely. I have those loaded in my writing templates because they get me where I need to go right away, then when I go to actually mix, I’ll essentially recreate them with individual plug-ins so I can fine tune things a little better.

And his brother, Tom, doesn’t get a lot of credit I feel he deserves. Live’s Throwing Copper album is one of the best mixed albums I’ve ever heard and blows away practically anything Chris has done, IMO. Everything sounds amazing on that album, especially the drums.

I think in the Steven Slate subscription CLA did an hour plus long rock mix tutorial that was quite eye opening for me at the time. Maybe worth the 15 bucks one month sub just to check it out. The plugins dont suck, either. I own the mic and its decent although I have 2 Thompson Sphere mics I like a lot more as far as modeling mics go. Also swear by the Slate headphones. I couldn’t live without them.

 

[HotRats]

Favorite producers/mixers-

Dave Jerden
Toby Wright
David Botrill
Joe Baressi
Michael Wagner
Nick Raskuliksadckmsdfmsdmasdm
Brendan O’Brien
Matt Wallace
Andy Wallace

I can keep going, I’ve probably got more favorite producers than I do favorite guitarists.

As for overdubs….. well, I LOVE a lot of layers. Whether it’s AIC stacking Layne’s voice up 6x and Jerry’s 4x, or Vai putting in 46 tracks of backwards guitars, or Mr. Bungle having every guy in the band playing something different at the same time, it’s all there because that’s what the bands/musicians/producers felt was going to work best for the song.

While I have plenty of songs that are just 2 guitar tracks, a bass, drums and vocals, I‘ve got a lot more that are layered to hell and back with string sections, acoustics, horn sections, electrics, counter-melodies with guitars and vocals, polyrhythms, etc. I suppose this goes in line with the thread I made a couple weeks ago about listening to a song does not require a critique of said song, but I do that because that’s how I’m hearing it in my head. It’s entirely possible that the song just isn’t for you, but does exactly what I, the writer, wanted it to.

Nice list.
Those names worked on some great records for sure.

 

[DrewJD82]

I think in the Steven Slate subscription CLA did an hour plus long rock mix tutorial that was quite eye opening for me at the time. Maybe worth the 15 bucks one month sub just to check it out. The plugins dont suck, either. I own the mic and its decent although I have 2 Thompson Sphere mics I like a lot more as far as modeling mics go. Also swear by the Slate headphones. I couldn’t live without them.

I actually have that subscription, I've been meaning to cancel it because I haven't used a single plug-in from it once I got the Plug-in Alliance subscription. Definitely great stuff in there, the P-A stuff just seems to work with what I do with extremely little tweaking. I'll have to check that vid out.