To boost or not to boost?

[frenkonio]

Hi Russell!
First of all I wanna show you much love for the helpness and interesting tips you're giving in this forum. I'm so excited about that because you're one of the most important engineers in today's music biz, imho.
My name is Tony, I'm from Italy and got a project studio. I'm also one of the chiefs of an indipendent label of hip hop/ soul (I know that you don't care about these last things LOL) called SOULVILLE REC.
I spoke about you on my last post (you can see it on www.soulville.it). I read all the topics of this forum so I decided to ask you somethin'.
Some engineers told me that "you will find more reduction settings than boosting settings on a mix console touched by an expert engineer". I don't think there's a precise rule or method in this world (I mean the mixing world) but they seem really convinced of their words!
So, do you tend to reduce gain on some frequencies during the mix or increase the same? (are you a frquency cut man or a frequency boost man? - Jules) Are you one of those engineers that are used to leave a mixer with all the pots in the " - " position? I know that it depends from several factors (maybe the position of the mic, the room...) but in your engineer's career did you leave every console you used with the pots in the "reduction" setting?
Thanks so much Russell, I will really appreciate your opinion.
God bless you.

Tony

[Russell Elevado]

Originally Posted by frankreverbo

Hi Russell!
First of all I wanna show you much love for the helpness and interesting tips you're giving in this forum. I'm so excited about that because you're one of the most important engineers in today's music biz, imho.
My name is Tony, I'm from Italy and got a project studio. I'm also one of the chiefs of an indipendent label of hip hop/ soul (I know that you don't care about these last things LOL) called SOULVILLE REC.
I spoke about you on my last post (you can see it on www.soulville.it). I read all the topics of this forum so I decided to ask you somethin'.
Some engineers told me that "you will find more reduction settings than boosting settings on a mix console touched by an expert engineer". I don't think there's a precise rule or method in this world (I mean the mixing world) but they seem really convinced of their words!
So, do you tend to reduce gain on some frequencies during the mix or increase the same? (are you a frquency cut man or a frequency boost man? - Jules) Are you one of those engineers that are used to leave a mixer with all the pots in the " - " position? I know that it depends from several factors (maybe the position of the mic, the room...) but in your engineer's career did you leave every console you used with the pots in the "reduction" setting?
Thanks so much Russell, I will really appreciate your opinion.
God bless you. Tony

hello tony,

thank you very much for the compliments
i'm not sure i completely understand your question. but i'll try and answer from what i believe you are asking.

i use both techniques when i'm mixing. if there are frequencies fighting, i'll try and subtract first then i'll try the reverse and boost something else and see which one is most effective. so essentially, i'll try and look at it (or hear) from a few different angles and see which one will work best. sometimes i hear a track and think, for example, it needs just a touch more brightness, so i would just boost the top.

all the best