How to make my track warmer?

[LincolnCTE]

Have been doing a project, and am now getting to the mixing process on one track, and overall have everything feeling great, but the overall track just seems really bright... I'm currently not using any outboard gear, so i'm all ITB.. I do however have the waves complete plug in pack which helps a great deal.. I want to add warmth to the track without boosting all the low end tracks i.e kick, and an upright bass I recorded.. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated...

[edva]

Try Nebula, I think they have a free demo. It is capable of some serious analogue warmth. Not an easy plug, but a great one.

[Arthur Stone]

Hi Lincoln - Welcome to Gearslutz!!

I was asking exactly the same question about 6 months ago...I tried everything ITB and decided to run a 2-track mix out and into a BAE1073mpf to add some Mojo. It works.
Many posters here will offer good advice; what would help is a description of your monitoring system and acoustic treatment.

Best, Arthur

[LincolnCTE]

Currently Adams a7's, with minimal treatment but typical absorption set up for a small room. Got the track sounding great on the adams, took it out to my car(which i reference everything i do on) and it sounded great there.. Then took it in my house on some shitty altec lansing speaker set up and sounds very thin, which understandably is the terrible speakers, but the more and more i'm listening to it the track is lacking that analogue warmth..
Edva, do you have a link where i could download the Nebula?
Thanks for the help guys

[edva]

Originally Posted by LincolnCTE

Currently Adams a7's, with minimal treatment but typical absorption set up for a small room. Got the track sounding great on the adams, took it out to my car(which i reference everything i do on) and it sounded great there.. Then took it in my house on some shitty altec lansing speaker set up and sounds very thin, which understandably is the terrible speakers, but the more and more i'm listening to it the track is lacking that analogue warmth..
Edva, do you have a link where i could download the Nebula?
Thanks for the help guys

Acustica-Audio.com

[Bivouac]

Originally Posted by LincolnCTE

Currently Adams a7's, with minimal treatment but typical absorption set up for a small room. Got the track sounding great on the adams, took it out to my car(which i reference everything i do on) and it sounded great there.. Then took it in my house on some shitty altec lansing speaker set up and sounds very thin, which understandably is the terrible speakers, but the more and more i'm listening to it the track is lacking that analogue warmth..
Edva, do you have a link where i could download the Nebula?
Thanks for the help guys

Listen, I'm as big of an analog proponent as any, but this just sounds silly.

Nothing about digital audio is preventing you from making a decent mix. If I'm you, I stop trying to find a quick "equipment fix" and take the time to get your midrange right.

[edva]

Originally Posted by Bivouac

Listen, I'm as big of an analog proponent as any, but this just sounds silly.

Nothing about digital audio is preventing you from making a decent mix. If I'm you, I stop trying to find a quick "equipment fix" and take the time to get your midrange right.

With what?!?! Brainwaves? He needs some equipment, and Nebula will blow anyone with ears away with the sound of analogue warmth and dimension. Listen for yourself.

[surfspank]

Wrap it in a blanket and feed it some Brandy.

[shipshape]

Hi , for warmth , try the Pheonix plugins by Crane song , there are some great , (but oddly named!!!)variables that are very useful for adding warmth to a track , or an overall mix if used to the right degree .Play around with it , its really useful .
Shipshape

[Bivouac]

Originally Posted by edva

With what?!?! Brainwaves? He needs some equipment...

If he has a DAW and a pair of speakers, then he already has the equipment.

...and Nebula will blow anyone with ears away with the sound of analogue warmth and dimension. Listen for yourself.

I've demo'd Nebula, and it's fine -- a tool that shapes audio, just like anything else. It doesn't allow you to forgo the use of your ears for a quick, gimmicky fix.

[Enlightened Hand]

Originally Posted by LincolnCTE

Have been doing a project, and am now getting to the mixing process on one track, and overall have everything feeling great, but the overall track just seems really bright... I'm currently not using any outboard gear, so i'm all ITB.. I do however have the waves complete plug in pack which helps a great deal.. I want to add warmth to the track without boosting all the low end tracks i.e kick, and an upright bass I recorded.. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated...

"I want it warmer" doesn't mean anything specific. "Warmth" means different things to different people. Judging by what you're saying: "...I'm currently not using any outboard...the overall track just seems really bright...etc..." you seem to hinting that you want someone to tell you to not mix in-the-box and you seem to me to want someone to come along and tell you it's "bright" because you're not using this or that analog piece of gear. But really this isn't an issue of the often mythicized "analog warmth" versus the often blamed "digital brightness or coldness". This is an issue of source, input gear, monitoring and your personal tastes.

The guiding principal of ALL recording is that you only get out on playback what you actually capture from the source. Everything else, every other signal processing *trick* is an afterthought and not nearly as effective of a solution as you simply tracking it the way you want it to sound in the first place. Mixing should not be creating something that isn't there because it really doesn't work that well when it's approached that way. Mixing should be enhancing what has already been captured during the tracking phase. So the first step to figuring out what you're trying to get at would be to tear apart what you're doing and how you're doing it.

-What are you recording exactly?
-Where are you recording it?
-How does the source sound live in the recording space?
-What microphones are you using?
-How are you placing your microphones?
-What preamps are you using?
-What gain settings are you using at the pres?
-What converters are you using?
-Where is your monitoring set up and how are the acoustics of that space?

If you get all of that stuff sorted out then I guarantee that you'll need not worry about whether or not something has enough "analog warmth". It also won't matter that you're mixing in-the-box because you'll have already captured things in the manner that they should sound.

The BIGGEST mistake with the mixing process is to track something poorly and try to make it "right" in the mix.

So maybe you can fill everyone in on what you really have been up to specifically and what you really want instead of rather vaguely saying: "I want it warmer".

[Thumper]

Originally Posted by shipshape

Hi , for warmth , try the Pheonix plugins by Crane song , there are some great , (but oddly named!!!)variables that are very useful for adding warmth to a track , or an overall mix if used to the right degree .Play around with it , its really useful .
Shipshape

Pheonix is TDM only. I don't know the dude, but I doubt he has a TDM rig. Way to tease a guy with something he cant use, haha. (Pheonix is awesome though... LOVE it)

I apologize OP if you do have a PTHDTDM rig, no harm meant!


My suggestion is to get it mastered by a competent mastering guy. If the mix rocks, it rocks Mastering will help in translate on all playback systems.

[DannyMac]

Just a note to arthur Stone..

nice track, but the kick is over-compressed, and a little too high in the mix

Tis isn't a taste thing, just a balance thing

[depulse]

Originally Posted by Enlightened Hand

"I want it warmer" doesn't mean anything specific. "Warmth" means different things to different people. Judging by what you're saying: "...I'm currently not using any outboard...the overall track just seems really bright...etc..." you seem to hinting that you want someone to tell you to not mix in-the-box and you seem to me to want someone to come along and tell you it's "bright" because you're not using this or that analog piece of gear. But really this isn't an issue of the often mythicized "analog warmth" versus the often blamed "digital brightness or coldness". This is an issue of source, input gear, monitoring and your personal tastes.

The guiding principal of ALL recording is that you only get out on playback what you actually capture from the source. Everything else, every other signal processing *trick* is an afterthought and not nearly as effective of a solution as you simply tracking it the way you want it to sound in the first place. Mixing should not be creating something that isn't there because it really doesn't work that well when it's approached that way. Mixing should be enhancing what has already been captured during the tracking phase. So the first step to figuring out what you're trying to get at would be to tear apart what you're doing and how you're doing it.

-What are you recording exactly?
-Where are you recording it?
-How does the source sound live in the recording space?
-What microphones are you using?
-How are you placing your microphones?
-What preamps are you using?
-What gain settings are you using at the pres?
-What converters are you using?
-Where is your monitoring set up and how are the acoustics of that space?

If you get all of that stuff sorted out then I guarantee that you'll need not worry about whether or not something has enough "analog warmth". It also won't matter that you're mixing in-the-box because you'll have already captured things in the manner that they should sound.

The BIGGEST mistake with the mixing process is to track something poorly and try to make it "right" in the mix.

So maybe you can fill everyone in on what you really have been up to specifically and what you really want instead of rather vaguely saying: "I want it warmer".

Make this a sticky!


Everyone is looking for the magic bullet... it's just experience and hard work that is needed

[surfspank]

Originally Posted by depulse

Make this a sticky!


Everyone is looking for the magic bullet... it's just experience and hard work that is needed

Yep.thumbsupthumbsup

[Arthur Stone]

Originally Posted by DannyMac

Just a note to arthur Stone..

nice track, but the kick is over-compressed, and a little too high in the mix

Tis isn't a taste thing, just a balance thing

Thanks DannyMac - I did a quick 'finalise' using Reason but a software glitch set the 'width' to zero...I've reposted a stereo version but I can't play it on this site yet. It is available at the link beneath the Soundcloud file. I promise to double-check my uploads in future...lol.
Even so, I think you're right about the kik...thanks for the feedback, much appreciated

Sorry for thread hijack - lot of sense here...especially achieving 'warmth' whilst tracking.

[uncle duncan]

Originally Posted by LincolnCTE

Have been doing a project, and am now getting to the mixing process on one track, and overall have everything feeling great, but the overall track just seems really bright... I'm currently not using any outboard gear, so i'm all ITB.. I do however have the waves complete plug in pack which helps a great deal.. I want to add warmth to the track without boosting all the low end tracks i.e kick, and an upright bass I recorded.. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated...

One approach would be to identify the bright instruments in your track, and then treat each one with subtractive EQ to get rid of the harshness. If you tracked with bright mics, that might be a problem, since it's a lot harder to eliminate brightness after the fact than it is to add it.

If you're bussing things, perhaps putting a multiband comp on a buss, and clamping down on the bright frequencies would help. (Trial and error.)

Sometimes in a mix, you make your forward instruments or voices brighter and your background parts darker. This gives the mix some contrast and depth.

Waiting until mastering to un-brighten a mix is not what the mastering engineers want. They prefer a track they can add brightness to, if it's even needed. Keep that in mind when mixing. In fact, see if you can do the entire mix without boosting any frequencies on any track. Then, when you get near the end of the mix, you can add a little touch of high end here or there to give the mix its sparkle without turning the whole thing into a mass of harshness.

Re-starting a mix from scratch is really not that hard. The bulk of the work has already been done - volume automation, compressors - it's just a matter of re-introducing the elements of the mix, but with an ear for neutrality rather than presence.

[therealbigd]

Originally Posted by edva

With what?!?! Brainwaves? He needs some equipment, and Nebula will blow anyone with ears away with the sound of analogue warmth and dimension. Listen for yourself.

Does he hell! He just needs to learn to mix better. If you can't do it with ANY of the Waves plugins, it's not the equipment going wrong!

[unitymusic]

If it's too bright take out some high end.

[coyot]

SoundToys Decapitator - Analog Saturation Modeler

[carllock]

Search Slate's "Virtual Console Collection" or VCC on the board....pretty good thread on this product in new product section. May give you some Neve (and other console) warmth if that helps.

[Tony Shepperd]

I'm with Mike on this. The Phoenix is perfect for warming up your tracks.
Then add some Waves V series and run that into some analog on the 2 buss.
You will find all the warmth you need.

[Dissimili]

People who use software synths actually do have a need for extra "warmth" to sound anything like real hardware synths in the slightest bit.

I have have some great mics, great pre, good converters,etc....and still use vintage warmer, softube, soundtoys,etc... to enhance anything not actually mic'd by me.

That isn't looking for a "magic, gimmick", that's adding tone to something that needs it.

Not everyone is looking for warmth because they're uninspired. Type "in the studio" into youtube and you'll see how many pros use psp vintage warmer. It's ridiculously popular with pros and amateurs alike.

If you need extra warmth, either get outboard gear, or invest a bit less into Slate VCC, nebula, or even Vintage Warmer. If you need warmth on vocals or instrument recordings then see posts above. That being said, there's a reason the pros have "go-to" pieces of gear. Some gear just sounds good. Don't let anyone tell you that a U87 through a ISA one doesn't sound killer on an average voice. I have an average singing voice, but through a great signal path I end up getting lots of compliments.... So I know for a fact that sometimes the gear can help you get from "ok" to "quite nice". Same goes for switching the epiphone p/u's in my dot for Seymour-Duncan's. The guitar doesn't even sound like it was built in the same universe as a regular dot studio anymore. I no longer get angry that I can't achieve the sound I'm after.... I'm nailing it for the bands I produce and on my own songs.

Point is.....read a ton of posts before you take anyone on this forum's advice. I read a ton of stuff on here that sounded "knowledgeable" to myself at the time, only to realize it wasn't relevant to my situation at all. The most common response to any question around here is "sm7b" . The "b" is for Bieber.....

[RiF]

Originally Posted by unitymusic

If it's too bright take out some high end.

+1