… He would get towards the end of a mix, and decide it was a little strident around 2.5k. Sweeping an eq boost of about 4.5dB around that frequency on the master output, he identifies the guitars as the problem. He goes and pulls strident mids out of all the guitars, making them sit much better. He re-tweaks the other tracks around the changes, trims a few faders up or down a dB or so. Running out of time, he burns a mix down.
On playback, he feels like the song is somehow more forward sounding than it should be, but he can’t put a finger on it - it’s not too harsh any more, but somehow the tone isn’t right.
Not until he gets back to the studio three days later does he discover he forgot to turn off the 4.5dB boost at 2.5k on the master bus. He just mixed around it.
[quote=“Greg_L, post:4, topic:725”]
Why would you have a 4.5db 2.5k boost on the master bus anyway?
[/quote]I don’t know about silly, but it’s standard practice. Using a parametric, boost, then sweep to locate the offending frequency. You’re supposed to turn off the boost though after you’ve found the frequency - hence the OP.
Personally I don’t use the sweep technique, it’s never done much for me. I look at a spectrum analyser.
Hah… if we had a dumb-things-I’ve-done-to-a-mix competition, I would easily win. When I get into creative mode while mixing, I seem to lose my logical part of my brain and adjust this that and the other with a form of mania at times.
Sigh…
Good god man! this is a nightmare, but if you’ve been doing audio long enough, you will have done stupid shit along the way, and hope to god nobody noticed. My worst recent screw up was when backup vocals just vanished from a mix. It was several weeks later, I had forgotten about the issue, and I ran across this side chain frequency compressor switch that had been set in the ‘on’ possision. I think it might have been the De-esser monitoring switch? I fliped it off, and bam, backup vocals came back.
Back in 2009 i did A beat for a friend of mine. Since i was a noob at mixing, i “mastered” the beat and delivered it for the guys to drop the vocals. The finished track clips way above 0 dbFS and is still on youtube, for thousands of admirers to listen to.
I’m trying to wrap my head around how this is possible. How did you bounce a session without having to visit the processing chain on your 2 bus at least once? Do you use some kind of meter that isn’t docked to your channel strip? Wouldn’t you have had to check the meter for peaks? How do you look at a meter on an insert slot and not see an EQ plugin sitting adjacent to it?
And how did you end up with a 4.5db boost anywhere on your 2 bus to begin with? I can’t think of a scenario where I’ve ever used 4.5db of anything on a 2 bus unless I was doing a plugin shootout or experimenting. …and just out of curiosity, which EQ was it? lol
Don’t get me wrong…I’ve done a lot of stupid shit by forgetting about my 2 bus. And I totally understand being strapped for time (or on a deadline) and deeming it not worthwhile to remove the 2 bus processor. Especially if it were able to mix around it.
Just because you visit the chain doesn’t mean you would automatically see the boost. You would have to go into the plugin responsible for the boost and even then, you would still have to actually notice it visually. People tend to see only what they are expecting to see.[quote=“Jonathan, post:13, topic:725”]
And how did you end up with a 4.5db boost anywhere on your 2 bus to begin with?
[/quote]Are you serious? Read the OP. You’ve even quoted my own post where I have explained it a second time.
Started recording vocals but when I played them back they sounded all weird and phasy. Through a process of elimination I traced it back to the usb audio interface. I even copied the whole project to my laptop and got the same result using the interface.
Travelled to the town centre, bought a new interface, got it back, registered online just to get the damn drivers, installed it, started recording vocals again and…same result. Why? Because I was recording on a track that already had a shedload of effects on it from a previous bass line that was on it. It never occurred to me to check, because in my tiny little mind it was a virgin track that I had just added for the purpose of recording vocals. It obviously wasn’t.
So why did it happen on the laptop too? Because having copied the project over, I chose the exact same track to record on.
lol
