Hotmixing.com

Visual Generators for Max for Live

admin — Fri, 17 May 2013 18:38:44 +0000

I’m excited to check out these plugins after I get home from the studio! Visual generators for Max for Ableton. Fun stuff

Visual generators for Max for Ableton

Nice Ableton Live 9 tips site

admin — Fri, 17 May 2013 14:57:12 +0000

Here’s a cool site I just discovered with some great tips on music production with Ableton Live 9 and the new Push controller. I don’t have Push, but thinking about getting it. Might be gratuitous since I have the APC 40, but of course I always love more controllers Live 9 is great though, and I definitely recommend it. Anyway, for those of you already using Live 9, check out this site:

Pyramid.com Ableton Live 9 Tutorials

Arranging a mix lesson with Ken Lewis

admin — Thu, 16 May 2013 22:07:23 +0000

Here’s a great arrangement lesson from my mentor, Ken Lewis. Check out more from him at audioschoolonline.com. This video is just a preview, but you can learn a lot just from that. Enjoy! Arranging a mix lesson with Ken Lewis

Traktor for iPad tutorial with Dubspot’s DJ Endo

admin — Wed, 15 May 2013 19:48:14 +0000

I am starting to really enjoy DJ’ing with Traktor for iPad. Check out this tutorial to learn some tricks

Traktor for iPad tutorial with Dubspot’s DJ Endo (part 2 of 3)

Glitch edits video by Vespers

admin — Wed, 15 May 2013 19:06:15 +0000

Here’s a cool video from Vespers about how to make some quick random cool glitch edits in Ableton Live 9. Enjoy!

Vespers Glitch Edits in Ableton Live 9 Tutorial Video

Quick Mixing Tip

admin — Wed, 09 May 2012 04:09:08 +0000

Here’s a quick mixing tip: the factory preset on the UAD Fairchild plugin sounds great on vocals! I just used it on a rough mix acapella of a song I’m producing, and it just smoothed out the vocals without sounding over-compressed. The stock preset has the time setting on 1, which is the fastest. Fast compressors are generally more transparent sounding on vocals. The UAD version is my favorite Fairchild plugin.

Cilver – Say You Will (Piano Version)

admin — Mon, 07 May 2012 22:12:36 +0000

I wanted to share a new music video that was released today. The song is “Say You Will” by Cilver (formerly known as Me Talk Pretty). I recorded and mixed the music. I think it came out pretty well, and hopefully will have good reception. On the technical end of things, I used the Malmsjo Piano patch for Kontakt 4. The guitars were run through Native Instruments’ Guitar Rig 4. Vocals were recorded through my analog vocal chain: Neumann U87 -> Neve 33122a -> Avalon vt737 (Compressor only) -> GML 8200 EQ -> Rosetta 800. Reverbs were mostly my beloved Lexicon Native, and echoes by Echoboy. I used additional UAD compressors and EQ’s on the mix, as well as running the stereo mix bus back through the GML 8200. Anyway, check out the video, read the backstory (its for a good cause) and enjoy!

Soundtoys – Highly Recommended

admin — Sat, 05 May 2012 19:03:15 +0000

Another one of my favorite plugin suites is Soundtoys Native. I would rate this one as essential. The plugins are designed by former Eventide engineers, and based on analog designs. The main thing that I like about them is the UI. It is very easy to use, and intuitive to make presets. They have plenty of pre-packaged presets, but often I just play with the controls a while until I get the desired result. Echoboy is used on about 95% of my sessions….production, recording, mixing, etc. I have it on most of my templates. One of my favorite ways to get a distinctive sound quickly is to change the “Style” setting. This is a sort of sub-preset. It adjusts the filters and effects that are applied to the echos. You can have chorused sounds or filtered, distortion, etc. My favorites are Telephone, Space Echo, Echoplex, and Analog Delay. You can also add saturation to any echo with the saturation knob. Echo time settings are very easy to set on the left side of the plugin, and the Feedback knob controls the number of repeats in a very analog feeling way. There are “Master Filter” Low and Hi Cut knobs on the bottom left of the plugin. The mode section you can set the delay time and Sync settings to get Tempo Synced delays, as well as Single, Double, Ping Pong or custom Rhythmic Echos. The “Tweak” and “Style Edit” buttons open up sub-menus that you can further edit the preset, but I hardly ever find myself on these pages. I usually prefer to add other plugins before or after Echoboy in the chain to add additional effects. Working in that method allows me to use the effects I want and have them easily accessible.

The other Soundtoys plugins that get the most use from me are PanMan, Filter Freak, and Decapitator. PanMan is great for adding panning effects. It has a similar interface to Echoboy, and is a snap to program. Filter Freak 1 and 2 are a little more in depth. They can vary from light to very heavily audible processing, and have many options available for tweaking sounds. With the Filter Freak, I usually flip through presets until I find something similar to what I am looking for, and then lock it in. Decapitator is a high quality distortion plugin. Its good for analog distortion sounds, and emulates popular preamps, consoles and distortion units for some serious dirt. Decapitator is excellent for “fattening up” or “warming” sounds.

The Soundtoys plugins are multi-platform, which is nice because I bounce between 3 DAWs (Pro Tools, Logic and Ableton Live). I prefer plugins that are available in all 3 because then I can get used to the specific plugin workflow and pull it up in whichever environment I am working in, and use plugin-saved presets. Those features are essential for bringing sounds and settings to different sessions.

Mixing Matt Wolpe – Knockin’ At Your Door

admin — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 00:05:09 +0000

I’m almost halfway through mixing this Matt Wolpe EP. It’s some laid back folky kinda stuff. Lots of acoustic instruments and not much electronic elements at all. So I just wanted to take a second and mention two things that I’m really loving using on this mix. The first is Slate Digital’s Virtual Console plugin. I really like this thing! I’m not sure exactly what it does, but it’s supposed to emulate the sonic qualities of a real console. I work on an SSL board at least 5 days a week, but being a big fan of In The Box mixing, I have to say that I really enjoy this effect! It seems to kind of glue everything together well. I’m using it grouped on the Neve setting. That one is my favorite because it adds a lot of bass. Usually I’ll leave it on the Neve or SSL setting, but grouped so they all change simultaneously, and later on in the mix when I have most or all of the tracks playing, I’ll switch between the modes and see what the others sound like. I also use the Neve setting on the Mixbus plugin. I keep that one separate from the rest of the group and just leave it on Neve. Something about it does it for me….probably the bass!

Another trick I’m doing on this mix is running the bass through the IK Multimedia Ampeg SVX plugin. This plugin is getting kind of old, but I think it still sounds really good. For some reason, it sometimes has a problem where if you re-open the session it won’t play back anything…..like no audio. So what I do is use Audiosuite, and find my amp sound with the preview function, then when I’m satisified, duplicate the playlist and hit process. That way I have a backup unaffected copy on another playlist if I don’t like it! This mix is on Pro Tools 9 with Snow Leopard 10.6.8 by the way.

Lexicon PCM Native Reverb Bundle

admin — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 07:07:42 +0000

WOW! That’s all I have to say. I knew they were good. I’ve always loved Lexicon verbs since back in the day at Berklee’s studios. I’ve used the plugin before, but I never realized how good it was until I actually demo’d it here at my own studio. I was hooked instantly. All of the other plugin reverbs I have don’t come anywhere near Lexicon in the smooth lushness. I don’t endorse Lexicon or anything, but I just love their stuff. The plugin price is rather steep as far as plugins go, but definitely worth every penny. Especially when compared to the hardware units by Lexicon and other manufacturers. As far as I’m concerned, the plugins sound every bit as good, and are much easier and more versatile to use.