We meet many people throughout our lives. I know that I have. Sometimes they disappear and reappear at a later time. Sometimes you never lose contact. Sometimes it’s an old boss. Sometimes a current or old coworker or friend. Keep those contacts and make sure that you don’t fallout or have a friendship ending argument. Where am I going with this? Well…yesterday my partner and I took a drive to Northwest Indiana to see my old boss who is one of my best friends as well as another great old friend who was there at the same time. The reason was to get a rack from one of our studio rooms from the past and a heavy base boom mic stand with wheels to hold a U-87 or other shock mounted mic. Since Boss had gotten out of recording, I have been making runs to the building where his recently closed studio was. In addition to picking up the rack and stand, I inquired about compressors and limiters. I also asked if there were any bass heads there. Yep, I took three JBL Urei 7110 limiter/compressors, a DBX 160X compressor/limiter, an Aphex Dominator II, and an Aphex Compellor. Also in the mix were two rack mount power strips with dimmable lights. Some Audix mics were tossed in the car too. A D4, D6, and two ADX-51’s. Basically a great set of mics for a drum kit. But I also needed a bass head. Now for the big deal. Boss is executor of the estate of an old friend who passed in June. The decedent just happened to be a multi-millionaire. He was a musician and collector too. There are maybe 30 classic amps from different periods including some Boogies, old Fenders, Supro, Gibson, Marshall, and Matchless. If anyone is looking for something, DM me. In the mix was a Sunn Coliseum Bass. 320 watts of sheer power. It’s now sitting on my Peavey 18” cab. Lots of strong air movement with this setup. Plugged in a Jazz bass, set the volume to 3 and added some EQ. I had no idea this thing could be so loud! It sounds fantastic. I’ve been doodling around with it all day today. Big time fun. If I ever want to take it to higher volumes, I’ll probably add a 4-10 cab at some point.

I don’t know if anyone is familiar with James Zahn’s work but here goes. I was doing a quick google search on the various compressors in Logic. I found this site which seemed interesting at the time. https://journal.james-zhan.com/logic-pro-11-stock-compressors/ He was an engineer for 10 years. There is another page on his site explaining how he burned out. That’s interesting too. Onto the Logic Pro Stock Compressors guide: hear every model compared. It’s a well written and concise study complete with tables, results, and his opinions. He listed comparison test results after putting different types of tracks through each compressor in Logic. He tested with a female voice , metal guitar, acoustic, and drums, etc. I won’t discuss it in detail here. See for yourselves. I think it may be usefull.

Been making some tweaks to the studio. Share your latest shots below!

Recently, I had a friend reach out to me and asked if I would Mix a song they tracked in their home studio. I agreed to help them out. I’m in this for fun, I am already financially stable so I never ask for money. It’s therapeutic to me. All was going good until the response from the band came to a holt. I knew something was off. Turns it there was another engineer providing his version of the mix as well. I was fired lol. I will say, his mix was FANTASTIC! The group made the right decision. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t hurt a bit, even though for me, it was for fun. When they gave me the news, they also told me that what I did to the arrangement was incredibly and that the other engineer didn’t have the creative aspect. I still landed there respect as a “producer” and they want me to help in that area. I learned that even though my weakness came through, I still had very good strengths. These are opportunities to improve and celebrate. Stay Mixing!

Hi I'm watching Fix the Mix series, and I have a really confusing question about gain staging. When I build the foundation, I make the kick and snare hit around -5 dB after processing. But when I add the beat and the vocals (I make lo-fi hip hop, so I usually sample songs), I only have about 2 dB of headroom left on the stereo out. How should I gain stage my beat and vocals in this situation? Also, how much headroom should I aim to have on the stereo out before mastering? Another question: if I want my sample to have more bass by adding R-Bass or a similar plugin, should I apply the VU gain staging method to the sample before processing, or is the VU method unnecessary in this case? Also, what level should I aim for when recording or gain staging my vocals? I don't usually have many layers in my mixes. A typical session for me consists of: - Soul sample - Kick - Snare - Hi-hats - Percussion - Maybe a bassline - Vocals What would be the proper gain staging approach and target levels for a simple arrangement like this? Also, how should I approach mixing the sample? Since it's usually taken from an already mixed and mastered song, I'm never sure how much processing it actually needs. Should I treat it like any other instrument and gain stage it first, or is there a different workflow you recommend for samples? Thanks