Mix Tips and tricks from Dave Pensado

[Geoff738]

http://www.youtube.com/show/pensadosplace?s=1&clips=1

Stumbled upon this last week. A video blog or podcast or whatever from mixer Dave Pensado. I don't think he does much rock stuff, but he's done a lot of records you'd know - especially the diva gals (Xtina, Mariah, the Beyonce, Pink etc.). Anyhow, I've watched a few of these and there's some good stuff there. Great ideas in the widening/depth and using gates ones. Can be a bit hard to follow if you don't know the plugins he's using sometimes. And a lot of stuff will be missed if you're trying to listen on computer speakers.

He also has a bunch of longer interview clips with fellow mixers. I've only watched a couple of these, but there's been some food for thought.

Cheers,
Geoff

[ScatMan]

I ran across his demos about a month ago maybe??

Very informative. Of course, I do not have (and never will have) his gear, but many of his techniques can be utilized using stuff I do have.

I too liked his techniques for widening and adding depth.

Interesting too that he used a plug-in called a pitch blender that can set a L/R delay and vary the pitch of the L and R independently.

Years ago (without knowing what I was doing), I duplicated a vocal track, offset the duplication somewhat in time (not close enough for phase problems and not far enough to get a slap back delay). Then hard panned them left and right and dropped the left side pitch a few cents and raised the right a few cents.

Kinda cool to see a pro using a technique that an amateur like me just stumbled upon by accident.

[Geoff738]

Originally Posted by ScatMan

I ran across his demos about a month ago maybe??

Very informative. Of course, I do not have (and never will have) his gear, but many of his techniques can be utilized using stuff I do have.

I too liked his techniques for widening and adding depth.

Interesting too that he used a plug-in called a pitch blender that can set a L/R delay and vary the pitch of the L and R independently.

Years ago (without knowing what I was doing), I duplicated a vocal track, offset the duplication somewhat in time (not close enough for phase problems and not far enough to get a slap back delay). Then hard panned them left and right and dropped the left side pitch a few cents and raised the right a few cents.

Kinda cool to see a pro using a technique that an amateur like me just stumbled upon by accident.

Well, you (or I) don't have his ears either. But he's helping us with that.

I really do get the sense that he's not holding back - no secrets. Just sharing. And, I love how he always says something along the lines of - I was talking to so and so (famous mixer) the other day about X and I learned so much. Or how he admits he still struggles with hearing/using mix bus compression. After 100s of millions sold and a few Grammys. Seems like a real humble guy who loves music, worked (and works) really hard, maybe got a bit lucky but capitalized on his opportunities when they came. And just wants to give back a little. Definitely some nuggets in there.

I really can't recommend these enough, even though they may be hit and miss with regards to the type of music you do.

And yeah, the pitch shift trick I've used before. I didn't come with it independently though, probably read about it somewhere or looked at a preset or something.

Cheers,
Geoff

[woodman]

I've tinkered primitively with a couple of these techniques too, more as a shot in the dark than anything, but Dave pinpoints the things that matter ... all his fancy plugs are fascinating, but out of my reach, so I like that he introduces a few that can be accomplished even in Logic Express via panning, delay and so forth. To me, the main value is to get you thinking about these things.