Reply To: Q/A with State of Mind..
stateofmindnz– Hardware. Answered above.
– Sidechain – Only via the kick. The snare doesn’t usually compete with the sub. I mean a snare doesn’t generally have much info below 80 so why duck the sub? Maybe for effect you could but i don’t think it will help with punch.
– Distortion – Try multiband distortion like trash 2. Try using parallel wet/dry mixes when using distortion. EQ before distortion can be handy if you have a bit of a problem resonance. The distortion will amplify that trouble spot. But distortion often brings in low crap as you probably no, so keep an eye on that. Often you need both pre and post distortion eq.
– limiting – Yeah i hear what you are saying. The best mixes have a minimum of insert processing on the master. I don’t like having things on the bus that radically shape the sound in a creative way because as you say, it becomes a big part of the track. Never send a limited track to master. It makes getting a good result so much harder. Also don’t turn down the fader, turn down the input gain to the master channel and keep the master fader at 0. Keep a dither on as they probably want 16 bit audio.
The thing with mastering is you have to trust that the master engineer can do whatever you do better and with neutral ears. Having said that, quite often i will do my own master and compare it to what they do. Often i prefer my own, sometimes a combination of one track my master and some tracks theirs, sometimes all theirs….
-reverb – We use the EMT140 (UAD), Valhalla, Pro R and Replika XT. Pro R and Replika you can adjust the spread and therefore the way they interact in mono. The other 2 just sit real nice anyway.
