Producing and Mixing Country Like a Pro - Webinar with Joe West

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LupIQH7VyjI


This is really worth watching. You might learn something... A 45 minute discussion and then 30 minute Q&A - don't skip the Q&A...

a songwriter, engineer (tracking, mixing) and producer. (what most of us do)

This is mostly about Waves plug-ins, but it applies to whatever set of plugins you might own.

It is geared towards people who have some experience with DAWs and plugins and mixing. It is not a beginner's "how-to". But if you are a beginner, bookmark it and play it later (often)... learn about those things you don't understand...

Some snippets, highlights....

Drums are the most important part of a mix after the vocal. "The mix engineer in me wants the drums to just be massive". (ROG and I tell people all the time - turn the drums up!)

Compressors all over the place. Often, multiple ones. "Mostly compression... I don't hardly use EQ..."

The use of DeEssers on a guitar track is interesting.

Q: " I see a lot of red in your meters" A: "I don't really deal with that unless I hear it".
Don't-ever-let-it-clip is a myth. What you hear is all that matters. All that talk that some do about staying below -6 dB just means you are creating low volume tracks...

The amount of automation on the vocal is interesting (at 1:00:00)


It would be nice to see/hear more like this...

Nice video. Some new opinions some very universal, especially turn up the drum, I remember Dick Clark questioning the teenage judges on American Bandstand. After playing the latest dance songs each week, over and over they would say, I like the beat, its a good dance song. You don't have a song without a melody, but, you don't have a hit without a beat.

I'll watch later...

Thanks for the tip! I've watched a few of those waves webinars (I use many waves plugins here) but hadn't seen that one.

Floyd what DAW do you use and which waves product?

I use Presonus Studio One Professional. The plugins that come with that are top-of-the-line, so there is little need for anything else. I used to search out new plugins, read up on them, drool over some, consider buying them...

But somewhere along the way, I realized I already had more than I could ever need - and all that time I was spending searching would be better used writing and producing using what I've got...

I have a few Waves plugins - all bought on sale through the years. The most useful is One Knob Louder which I will use occasionally to bring a final mix up a little (typically 1.5 or 2 on its scale of 10) so it is on par with my other mixes. It is very transparent. And my mixes are loud once I run them through Ozone (5) - so I only need it once in a while (to "normalize" a playlist of my mixes). Oh - I got that on sale for $10 - a no-brainer. I got the LinMB (again on sale - cheap) years ago and have used it a few times instead of Ozone for a "mastering" plugin - but Ozone is so easy, I don't think to use LinMB much... Like before, it's best to get good at your go-to tools and not get bogged down or overwhelmed by all the toys that are out there...(Studio One has a great Multiband compressor that I use on drums in every mix).

I do still use the Scarlett Reverb - that came with my Focusrite 8i6 - because it has a great sound and is easy to use - on a lot of different things. But most of my plugins come from the stuff provided with Studio One...

Thanks Floyd, Listening to your songs I can hear you know what you are doing, especially the drums and vocals. Does your parametric have these controls? HPF, sweep low mid, sweep mid, sweep high mid, LPF ?

Does this plugin come with Presonus Studio One Professional

Yes. It also comes with the Artist version (which is cheaper).

Thanks Floyd

Great info. I watched all the way through twice. The guy is obviously high tech but the ultimate arbiter is his ears. Nice.

Bud