21st February 2012
|
#1 | | Gear maniac
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 281
Thread Starter | calvin harris mixing method
anyone have any idea what he is talking about in this article? Interview: Calvin Harris on software, hardware and hit-making | Page 4 | MusicRadar.com
"The Focusrite was brilliant, because I could really crunch the vocals up and distort them to hell. That was my mixing technique. Distort everything to hell, then you don't have to worry about things like EQ and balance. Distortion allowed me to work with my limited setup."
he used the focusrite vocal processor to distort tracks in the song other than vocals? and how the hell does distorting everything to hell mean he didn't have to worry about balance and eq?  never heard of anything like this before. all i know is that his first album which he is referring to does sound very full and raw.
| 
|  | |
21st February 2012
|
#2 | | Gear maniac
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 281
Thread Starter |
??  | |
| | |
21st February 2012
|
#3 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 7,332
|
i havent read this article but i know a producer who uses distortion in conjunction with bitdepth and sample rate instead of (and as well as) EQ .
the basic principle is you choose the frequency you wish to apply distortion to. this adds extra harmonics in that region that give the effect of exciting that element. which makes it pop out in the mix.
bit depth and sample rate manipulation is all about lowering the aliasing in a digital signal down into a pleasing part of the audio range. usually low pass filtering is also needed here to eliminate the harsher frequencies. again it is about exciting this or that element at a certain frequency to make it stand out.
__________________ Quote:
Originally Posted by djugel  The knob on the Source is perhaps the ballsiest knob ever made.
| Quote:
Originally Posted by LimpyLoo My gearection has gone from 'Fairchild' to 'Behringer'... | | |
| | |
21st February 2012
|
#4 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Jun 2009 Location: Helsinki, Finland
Posts: 1,958
|
I have a feeling that many, not naming any names, big shot producers talk total trash in their interviews, concerning their studio tricks. They simply don't want copycats to copy their sound, so they say all kinds of weird things to mislead them.
Could be wrong though.
__________________
Would Schrödinger's cat sound better OTB?
| |
| | |
21st February 2012
|
#5 | | Banned
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 389
| Quote:
Originally Posted by Barfunkel I have a feeling that many, not naming any names, big shot producers talk total trash in their interviews, concerning their studio tricks. They simply don't want copycats to copy their sound, so they say all kinds of weird things to mislead them.
Could be wrong though. | So true, like all the proclaimed vsti users who are closet analog addicts.
| |
| | |
21st February 2012
|
#6 | | Gear maniac
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 281
Thread Starter |
I do agree that some producers would do this. But if you read the interview he seems to be telling the truth, such as his compression was initially bad when he was learning to compress.
Sent from my HTC Wildfire S A510b using Gearslutz.com
| |
| | |
21st February 2012
|
#7 | | Gear maniac
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 281
Thread Starter |
I see, golden beers. Distortion to help parts of a mix but I can't see it as the mix method, eq and leveling and compression would still be required. Not just distort everything and screw eq. Perhaps just some r exaggerating from Calvin.
Sent from my HTC Wildfire S A510b using Gearslutz.com
| |
| | |
21st February 2012
|
#8 | | Geariophile
Joined: Oct 2006 Location: london
Posts: 9,975
 | Quote:
Originally Posted by vivid435 I do agree that some producers would do this. But if you read the interview he seems to be telling the truth, such as his compression was initially bad when he was learning to compress.
Sent from my HTC Wildfire S A510b using Gearslutz.com |
I suspect he is totally telling the truth. I could fully believe that he used to cane the silver focusrite as he liked the vibe, and the eq comment is in a sense of "doing that made a sound 'work' so less need to try and 'fix' it with eq". Read it broadly and it will make sense. He just leant heavily on the buzzing of the burning focusrite in his building of the sound. Distortion is a great tool....Still, some guys definitely make it up as they go.... 
__________________
toolazytowritemuchactualmusicstep - offki
| 
| | |
21st February 2012
|
#9 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Aug 2010 Location: Space is the place
Posts: 1,576
| Quote:
Originally Posted by vivid435 Distortion to help parts of a mix but I can't see it as the mix method, eq and leveling and compression would still be required. | You can use distortion pedals as compressors/limiters and if you've choosen your sounds well you wouldn't need eq.
| |
| | |
22nd February 2012
|
#10 | | Top Gear addict
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 629
|
Distortion is a fast and easy way to make soft or week sounds that get lost in the mix to come out. Doing that to everything you most likely will come up with a flat sounding mix.
__________________ http://soundcloud.com/soulphase "Dude, I love that warm analog tape sound we're getting today . . . What? You recorded it digitally? Oh, in that case, it sounds too glassy." - unknown | |
| | |
22nd February 2012
|
#11 | | Gear maniac
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 281
Thread Starter |
What do you mean flat mix, do you mean balanced or bad sounding mix?
Sent from my HTC Wildfire S A510b using Gearslutz.com
| |
| | |
22nd February 2012
|
#12 | | Gear nut
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 110
| Quote:
Originally Posted by Itsmorning So true, like all the proclaimed vsti users who are closet analog addicts. | Ha! In my experience, it's often the exact opposite. I've been in several known electronic producers' studios in LA that have lots of great hardware gear, but then once the actual writing or mixing starts, none of it even gets turned on. It's all plugins and presets. But you can be sure that when EM magazine comes around, they're gonna be talking about using all of their hardware gear that they actually haven't even turned on years!
| |
| | |
22nd February 2012
|
#13 | | Gear Head
Joined: Dec 2011
Posts: 35
|
Touching up individual tracks with the right amount of softish clipping will kill dynamic range and give you very well behaved elements to play with.
Adjust the clip until it doesn't sound too soft or too distorted, then do a little leveling relative to else and all your source is excited and dynamically tame. As long as you don't have too much pitch overlap you're in the clear.
| |
| | |
22nd February 2012
|
#14 | | Top Gear addict
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 629
| Quote:
Originally Posted by vivid435 What do you mean flat mix, do you mean balanced or bad sounding mix? | Maybe not entirely bad but boring-flat perhaps, you can't really tell until you hear how a particular mix sounds though. But it will be more difficult your mix to have depth that way, you'll need proper gain stages, panning and reverb-delay, i wouldn't recommend it to beginners to mix completely that way. Anyway i always use eq no matter what, tiny amounts if needed.
| |
| | |
22nd February 2012
|
#15 | | Gear maniac
Joined: Jun 2011 Location: San Francisco, CA
Posts: 217
|
His mixes do sound quite flat and boring to me, so maybe he really does do this...
| |
| | |
22nd February 2012
|
#16 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Oct 2007 Location: NY
Posts: 2,283
| Quote:
Originally Posted by Barfunkel I have a feeling that many, not naming any names, big shot producers talk total trash in their interviews, concerning their studio tricks. They simply don't want copycats to copy their sound, so they say all kinds of weird things to mislead them.
Could be wrong though. | agreed!  | |
| | | |
New Reply 
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
