The magic of outboard

[Pedro Teixeira]

K guys, so doing this EP (the girl band) I decided to use my drawmer ME 1969 to glue the mix a bit more together, so I'm shaving off about 3-5dBs and then when sending back to my Soundtracs Mega desk I decided to crank both channels into fucking red, yes, when I was printing both tracks it never came out of red, full on blast, and guess what?? That in conjuction with the drawmer gave a whole new life, feel and 3D image to the mix, it gave a whole saturation layer that just made everything rounder, smoother, much much more alive, I'm still baffled at the difference it did!
The EQs on the desk are pretty much useless, but there's something about the circuitry that rounds everything up and brings everything to life! I never thought that cranking both channels up so much would be so beneficial, I just thought it would "soft clip" the mix, but it just saturated it in a beautiful way.

Here's a couple of songs, keep in mind these are not mastered though, there's nothing on the "DAW's" master bus, I just did this to test the drawmer and the desk saturation, so this is what I will do before I send this to mastering.

This isnt exactly a "rate my mix" although comments are welcomed, it's just to show how important quality outboard gear is and how it beautifully colours the sound, I honestly feel like I dont want to use a compressor plugin ever again. If I have time tomorrow Ill post the mixes before this process.

Edit:

K guys here's the comparison:

1st song

Original Mix: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/617922/EvaRose%20-%20Today%20minute%20Original%20Mix.mp3

Outboard: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/617922/EvaRose%20-%20Today%20minute%20Outboard.mp3

Outboard Heavily Compressed: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/617922/EvaRose%20-%20Today%20minute%20Outboard%20Heavy%20Comp.mp3

2nd song

Original Mix: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/617922/EvaRose%20-%20We%20can%20pretend%20Original%20Mix.mp3

Outboard: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/617922/EvaRose%20-%20We%20can%20pretend%20Outboard.mp3

Outboard Heavily Compressed: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/617922/EvaRose%20-%20We%20can%20pretend%20Outboard%20Heavy%20Comp.mp3

 

[AudioPhile777]

I think it would have made more sense to post a before/after instead of two tracks in which there is no direct comparison... links to with/without would be ideal in this scenario.

 

[christopher ridley]

I think it would have made more sense to post a before/after instead of two tracks in which there is no direct comparison... links to with/without would be ideal in this scenario.

Agreed here. The tracks sound pretty good for no mastering. Would like to hear the bounces prior to running out of the DAW then back in.

 

[Pedro Teixeira]

agreed, i said ill post tomorrow if i can

 

[>>>GENZ<<<]

The band is just another Paramore clone with no songwriting skills whatsoever.

Great polishing though!

 

[zackpennington]

The band is just another Paramore clone with no songwriting skills whatsoever.

Great polishing though!

I'd rather hear another Paramore clone (bring the grand total to about 5) then another shitty grindtechofusionfuckfestival band.

 

[gabriel g.]

I'd rather hear another Paramore clone (bring the grand total to about 5) then another shitty grindtechofusionfuckfestival band.

+1

 

[Pedro Teixeira]

guize! dont turn this into a paramore debate plz ;_;

I used the drawmer in big mode which I think has emphasised too much low end, so I'm gonna re-process the mix in normal stereo mode and post them as well as the before mixes

 

[Pedro Teixeira]

The band is just another Paramore clone with no songwriting skills whatsoever.

Great polishing though!

And dude, keep in mind, this may sound sexist but it's a bit of the truth, there arent many girl bands out there that actually can write something commercially acceptable and actually be good at their instruments and have a good idea of where they wanna go with their songs, and also theyre just 19, so theyre fairly young and have much room to improve. I wish I had as many "guys" bands as them, usually they/re all a bunch of ignorant and useless whinny bitches really

 

[barricade]

I love the band since you posted the first song a month ago or so...rly nice ideas and great vocals!!!

 

[YoRich]

who are the band?

 

[Pedro Teixeira]

http://www.facebook.com/evaroseband

that mix is the old one I had to do in a rush

 

[YoRich]

cheers!!

Full on girl rock, sweet, they are now my friends..

Anyway, yeah I've been using some channels on my new soundtracs recently and found that it does add a certain something, I'll have to try smashing a mix through it for fun to see what happens..

Good work..

 

[Ermz]

Yeah the transient and high frequency rounding effects of outboard are really nice. I use an assortment of outboard comps in conjunction with Nebula saturation and EQ. Found it to give much more pleasant results than the all-ITB approach I had in prior years. The mixes come together faster and just sound more glued as a virtue of what the outboard effect does. It doesn't forego the need for good mixing, though that should go without saying.

 

[Pedro Teixeira]

Completely agreed Ermz. I've always been ITB, but as soon as I had the mix going through the drawmer even without setting up the knobs, just on default, not even did it glue almost "instantly" but it just added a lot of character, something that I couldnt "feel" with any plugin comp

 

[Mikaël-ange]

Listened both clip today, sound great but where are before clip for A/B comp?

 

[Pedro Teixeira]

Comparisons updated on 1st post

 

[punkrockacademyfightsong]

Yeah, I love some real compression too for glue.

The volume difference is a bit misleading though... but it does glue nicely.
The hard compressed versions has a bit too much pumping going on IMO, the release time is a bit fast and the compression responds too much on the kick drum.

 

[Pedro Teixeira]

Yeah I know, I just did it for giggles, couldnt be bothered to mess with really