After attending the Chris Lord-Alge Waves seminar, I got to ask Chris a few questions that I thought were pretty important. I didn't video tape the seminar, as it wasn't allowed, so I figured I'd do my best to let you guys know what I learned about him. Some of this may not be 100% accurate, but it's as close as I can get:
-Bought a pair of Barefoots, but thinks that "they make things sound too good." Had a hard time trusting them compared to his Yamaha NS-10's, so he says he's sticking with the Yammys.
-Always mixes into the same master bus chain with nearly the same settings, all of which is hardware. The chain is SSL Compressor->Limiter(unnamed)->Pultec EQ. Note that he puts EQ on the master bus and finds it quite important. His settings are a threshold of around -1.5 to -3dB, with a ratio of 2:1. If he hears the compressor start to work/pump before he "finishes the mix," he will back off on the individual faders and continue mixing.
-Will use hardware BEFORE reaching for his software.
-Thinks the biggest mistake engineers make is compression while tracking. He often gets pissed off at other engineers and wished someone would make an "uncompressor"
Light compression on bass and vocals on the way in is okay.
-Prefers using one style of EQ per track.
-Separates bass tracks into high end for distortion.
-Sends a bass DI out into a sub woofer and mic's it up for "super low end." Prefers this to just processing a DI track.
-Uses delay and reverb at the same time on both drums and vocals.
-Often uses light chorus and light delay on distorted guitars.
-Want(ed)(s) to mix AC/DC, Pink Floyd, and some other classic groups.
-Uses Aurora converters.
-Prefers real drums to samples. When he samples, he often takes drums from the project in question to make the samples from.
-Uses parallel compression on drums.
-As far as I know, he does NOT used staged compression on individual tracks.
My impressions are that Chris is a very nice guy with a good sense of humor. He didn't have a big head at all, and really loves his work.
His closing message to all the people of the world, especially us engineers, is to BUY MUSIC and BUY RECORDING SOFTWARE. He says if people continue to steal what others worked so hard for, no audio engineer in our day and age will ever make a living. If you have any questions about how pirating music affects the economy of the United States AND the music industry, I would talk to James Murphy. He's got the best explanation possible.
If any of this is blatantly wrong, correct me, please.
Also, for people who wonder why Waves TDM plugins are almost twice as expensive as Native, is because an entirely new algorithm has to be written for TDM plugins. If the coding for a Native plugin is 100 pages of code, you can expect the TDM plugin to be anywhere from 600-1200 pages just to perform the same task. TDM's biggest implication was to track into plugins with little to no latency back in the 90's when computers couldn't keep up. Now it is obsolete, and according to Waves, they will continue supporting TDM until Avid gives up on it since "they want to play ball with everyone."
-Bought a pair of Barefoots, but thinks that "they make things sound too good." Had a hard time trusting them compared to his Yamaha NS-10's, so he says he's sticking with the Yammys.
-Always mixes into the same master bus chain with nearly the same settings, all of which is hardware. The chain is SSL Compressor->Limiter(unnamed)->Pultec EQ. Note that he puts EQ on the master bus and finds it quite important. His settings are a threshold of around -1.5 to -3dB, with a ratio of 2:1. If he hears the compressor start to work/pump before he "finishes the mix," he will back off on the individual faders and continue mixing.
-Will use hardware BEFORE reaching for his software.
-Thinks the biggest mistake engineers make is compression while tracking. He often gets pissed off at other engineers and wished someone would make an "uncompressor"
Light compression on bass and vocals on the way in is okay.-Prefers using one style of EQ per track.
-Separates bass tracks into high end for distortion.
-Sends a bass DI out into a sub woofer and mic's it up for "super low end." Prefers this to just processing a DI track.
-Uses delay and reverb at the same time on both drums and vocals.
-Often uses light chorus and light delay on distorted guitars.
-Want(ed)(s) to mix AC/DC, Pink Floyd, and some other classic groups.
-Uses Aurora converters.
-Prefers real drums to samples. When he samples, he often takes drums from the project in question to make the samples from.
-Uses parallel compression on drums.
-As far as I know, he does NOT used staged compression on individual tracks.
My impressions are that Chris is a very nice guy with a good sense of humor. He didn't have a big head at all, and really loves his work.
His closing message to all the people of the world, especially us engineers, is to BUY MUSIC and BUY RECORDING SOFTWARE. He says if people continue to steal what others worked so hard for, no audio engineer in our day and age will ever make a living. If you have any questions about how pirating music affects the economy of the United States AND the music industry, I would talk to James Murphy. He's got the best explanation possible.
If any of this is blatantly wrong, correct me, please.
Also, for people who wonder why Waves TDM plugins are almost twice as expensive as Native, is because an entirely new algorithm has to be written for TDM plugins. If the coding for a Native plugin is 100 pages of code, you can expect the TDM plugin to be anywhere from 600-1200 pages just to perform the same task. TDM's biggest implication was to track into plugins with little to no latency back in the 90's when computers couldn't keep up. Now it is obsolete, and according to Waves, they will continue supporting TDM until Avid gives up on it since "they want to play ball with everyone."
