Analysis of S7E01: NickBee – Mixing & Mastering

Start of Season 7, and NickBee’s first ever tutorial. Not my best set of notes, might refine later. Also, NickBee had a Q&A posted on the forum: https://sample-genie.com/topic/nickbee-qa/

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The Master Bus (36:27)
– This is the video to start with.
– Track is NickBee’s remix of Mean Teeth’s “We Hold On”

02:00 – mastering is the final touch, mixing comes first

02:30 – likes iZotope plugins and Voxengo SPAN, says he writes with no plugins except SPAN turned on, on the master bus.
– Advises against a limiter on the master while writing a track.

05:00 – “Peaks don’t hurt you” and focus on how the elements sound

05:40 – starts with an EQ when mastering.
– Boosted the highs, but said it depends on the style of music.
– Cuts everything below 20 Hz, and over 20 KHz.

08:05 – M/S cut on lows, uses sometimes, but not on this track.

10:30 – dynamic EQ (Ozone 7), some movement on mids & highs

12:00 – urges using a reference track, in the same key as what you’re working in.

13:10 – imager (Ozone 7), gives space & width to sounds.
– Uses the Learn function to adjust bands

15:30 – “Repeat the basics, so you don’t lose it” in reference to basic production techniques, in regards to imaging.

20:20 – thinking about what you want out of a track.

21:35 – Stereoize function can be over used and adversely affect the energy of a track.

23:00 – Maximizer is the next insert plugin.

28:45 – more about Maximizer.

30:00 – suggests Voxengo’s MSED plugin to boost M/S

33:10 – CamelPhat

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Mixing – Pt. 1: Kicks & Percussion (29:12)
01:00 – mixdown is not a complicated process for NickBee, his ears are trained from years of experience, he has reference tracks, and the core tools he uses are: EQ, compression, panning, volume balancing. These are 80% of the work, in his opinion.

03:00 – explains that the intro is mostly the original’s parts, with maybe some volume changes.
– This is his usual approach to remixes.
– Likes to keep the music close to the original version.

04:00 – kick is a one shot sample, probably a techno sample, with some compression (Waves API-2500).

09:00 – kick layer, likes the mid-frequency sound and what it adds to the main kick.

10:20 – feels that layering is part of the mixdown process.

11:30 – kick layer has some EQ’ing, working on layer kick’s high frequencies fitting with pecussion sounds.

14:00 – using Cubase’s Room Reverb

17:00 – explains the diffusion knob on reverb, says it’s very useful on snares.

19:15 – looking at percussion hit sound that occurs every 4-bars.
– CamelPhat for filters, distortion, and compression.
– Simple EQ, rolls off in the mid frequency range, has a boost in the highs.
– Valhalla Vintage Reverb.

28:45 – if something in a mixdown bothers him, he tries reducing it or elevating it.

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Mixing – Pt. 2: Snare, Percussion, and White Noise (23:43)
00:10 – snare, main layer a processed sample with a reverb, volume and pan balancing.
– Snare bus with just a Room Reverb.

03:00 – snare layer with high boost EQ and a Room Reverb.

07:20 – hi-hat, very sparse, with CamelPhat, EQ, and reverb.

08:40 – explains there are different mix techniques for different types of tracks.

11:05 – 30 dB setting used on FabFilter Pro-Q, to set the slop of the cut.

13:10 – likes tambourines for filling out frequencies.

21:20 – white noise layer

23:20 – a white noise riser

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Mixing – Pt. 3: Bass (21:26)
00:30 – always EQ’s out the lows

01:00 – Trash2 for a touch of distortion
– Likes vowels from the Convolve section.
– Multi-band use of the Distortion section.

04:10 – a second EQ on the bass

06:15 – mid-range layer sound, sits on top of the main bass.

11:20 – seeing low amounts of distortion and mix (dry/wet), so it’s little bits of distortion being added.

16:30 – vocal.

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Mixing – Pt. 4 (18:15)
– Parts from the original track.
– EQ and some soft sidechaining.

02:15 – fast hats with EQ, compression, envelope shaping.

07:00 – Addictive Drums

09:00 – suggests making some intro elements quieter, others louder.
– Makes the intro more interesting.

09:55 – original track’s synth line.

11:00 – listens to stabs, watches EQ movement on analyzer.

13:00 – vocal processing with iZotope Vocal Synth.