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PureMix has the http://www.puremix… mixing tutorials by Fab Dupont from Sweetwater's Gearfest 2011 up. They are free. Some comments.

1. As you would expect at a Sweetwater Gearfest there is a lot of focus on gear. But the sales pitch is relatively soft and I did not find it annoying.

2. As it happens, all the gear is stuff that has been discussed pretty heavily on this board (Great River preamps, Dangerous analog summing) and much of it I own (Pro Tools, UAD plugins, UA 4-710d preamp, Royer and Mojave mics) so it was interesting to me even if there was a certain amount of sales pitch. It actually creeped me out a bit that they were featuring so much of the stuff I bought over the last few years. How much Koolade have I been drinking?

3. The analog summing discussion was short, but had a few points that I don't remember reading in our discussions here. There are more (free) discussions of analog summing on the PureMix site. I see this as a "maybe some day when I find a winning lottery ticket lying on the ground" step for my studio, so I have been avoiding them.

4. Fab Dupont is a good teacher - humorous and pretty articulate. Most of this session is elementary, but there are a few little tips and tricks that gave me some new info or taught me a new perspective. For instance, he's much more concerned with deessers than I am - maybe something that I should focus on.

5. The audio quality on the PureMix videos is much better than YouTubes, etc. Worth listening to on good monitors.

6. There are lots of other tutorials at his PureMix site. Many of them are free. I'm going to run through the PT shortcuts video a few times when I'm working on a mix. I have a bunch of favorite shortcuts that I use all the time, but I could probably double the number to my benefit.

7. Has anyone here tried the pay per view videos on the site? There is a 25 minute video that focuses solely on mixing with UAD plugins that he is selling for $14. It includes uncompressed .wav files of the song he mixes. Anyone tried it? A bit pricey for 25 minutes.

Comments

BobRogers Sat, 10/01/2011 - 04:54

I got in touch with them and they are planning some major improvements in the next month. They will be uploading some more videos from other authors and launching a subscription service that unlimited viewing of all pay-to-play content. They do not have prices set yet, but it may work out much cheaper for someone who wants to go through all of the paid content in a three or six month period and treat it like a course.

audiokid Sat, 10/01/2011 - 15:03

Love these, especially the Dangerous Music 2-bus videos, it really helped me understand the stem concept last year. Looking forward to the new ones coming.

I'm with you on the de-esser. I'm actually looking at the Weiss DS1 for this and more.
However, the new Samplitude 64bit Pro X has a new de-esser that I'm hoping is my dream come true. Less plug-ins the better is my rule, however, I'd much rather have this in a plug-in if at all possible.
Why the emphasis on high quality de-essers? sss are something overlooked or eq'd not so well. Slow and inaccurate de-esser's are not helping the situation.
I'd love for someone else to elaborate in more detail but here's my simple take.

If you have vocals in any mix, you are going to have hot spots in the 6 to 8k range, its part of being human plus... cheaper gear accentuates s's even more. So, there is a lot of sss going on in DAW produced music. An added reason why I'm developing big taste for silky analog ( grouping stems to OTB summing).

6 to 8k is where a lot of definition is, so, allowing these sss's to go through to the 2-bus will effect your entire final mix more than we maybe realize. The Weiss de-esser is probably the best going because it can deal with mixes that let it go through to the 2-bus better than others. The DS1 detects them before they get through via time delay. But I would probably want two of those ( one for a comp and one for de-essing) and that's a 20 grand touch-up so that isn't going to happen.

(For newbies lurking and/or for the crowd using lower end and stumbling across this in search of de-essers), get those sss under control before they get to the 2-bus makes way better sounding music. Also easier on the Mastering Engineer. Investing in quality gear ( less is more) saves major time and money down the road. Better gear handles sss/zzz transients much better than low end so right from the get go.
When I test mics, pre's and converters, The first thing I do is sing or say " ABC, 123, Sausalito Summer Nights! or She Sells Sea Shells by the Sea Shore.

Same as Bob... anyone watch the UAD plugin tutorial, please share? Could be the best $25 spent.

Thanks for posting this.

thomasp Thu, 10/06/2011 - 02:40

Hi!

I bought the "mixing with UAD plugins" video a few weeks ago. I found it very useful and great! I felt like those 25 minutes were better than hours of any other video you find on youtube. I mean, you've got a lot of stuff going on there. It's not too often that you see and learn to mix a song in 25 minutes! Plus Fab Dupont is very clear when it comes to explaining what he does and how plugins can be used and the pros and cons and everything. I can only recommend it to you.

audiokid Mon, 01/23/2012 - 23:43

Okay, BOB!

... everyone should watch these. I watched two yesterday and the tips I picked up are indispensable. I've been remixing today and my work is better. Fab is great, plain and simple. No wonder he is doing this. The guy is such a good teacher and a first class engineer.

I watched Hybrid Digital/Analog Mixing (1:23 min) everyone should see this!) It goes beyong hybrid. Its the real deal. You will not wonder after this.
DO IT! You will not be the same.

and How To Eq Vocals. thumb

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