Are We Being Conned By Mixing Tricks? We Look At The Most Popular Ones | Production Expert

Are We Being Conned By Mixing Tricks? We Look At The Most Popular Ones | Production Expert

Some people refer to “mixing tricks” but are they really tricks? When is a technique just a technique? Julian looks at some common examples and decides.

I put an EQ as the first insert on my reverb AUX channels. When I insert reverbs I try to make sure that I adjust the filters that are built in to most of my reverbs. I think it’s better to be able to “see” the filter on the AUX channels.

Show/Hide EQ Thumbnails — Logic Pro keyboard command of the day

Displays an view of the EQ bands that are active - a quick reference to how the filters are applied
  Show/Hide EQ Thumbnails

Shows or hides the EQ thumbnail in the channel strips. It’s unfortunate that third-party EQ plugins can’t (or won’t) use the thumbnail. To be fair, the built-in “coloring” EQs don’t use the display either. The Channel EQ and Linear Phase EQ use the display.

The MCU (Logic Control) is an excellent companion to the channel EQs — the 8 controls map to the plugin. Eight bands, 4 controls per band. Quick work to EQ with knobs and dials. It is also kind of fun to FLIP the MCU and use the faders to adjust the filters.

Channel strip controls in Logic Pro — Apple Support

Each channel strip has a set of controls (also called components), which varies according to channel strip type. You can adjust the channel strip volume and pan position, mute and solo channel strips, add and adjust effects, and send the output to auxiliary or output channel strips.

How To Choose The Right EQ — Equalisers Demystified | Production Expert

How To Choose The Right EQ — Equalisers Demystified | Production Expert

We’ve highlighted a number of top-notch commercial third-party offerings (and one must-have freebie) here, but the EQs built into most DAWs these days are at least pretty good, if not quite excellent, albeit largely limited to parametrics and multimode filters. As long as you don’t expect much in the way of character, Pultec-style trickery or mastering-grade viability, your stock DAW EQ will more than suffice for bread-and-butter frequency-shaping, so don’t feel like its an inferior option – as ever, if it sounds good, is it good. Indeed, onboard EQ plugins can actually bring their own benefits in the shape of low CPU usage and handy response curve thumbnails embedded in mixer channels.

I have the IK and iZotope tools. Add those to the Logic built-ins (they do have ‘vintage’ character EQs with drive now) and I just don’t need anymore. I do so love the FabFilter interface though…

Choosing the Right EQ

Choosing the Right EQ — Nick Messitte, iZotope Contributor

Hang on, aren’t all digital EQs roughly the same?

Some people on the internet will tell you that. They’ll say, “for the most part, digital EQs sound and function the same way.”

by Nick Messitte, iZotope Contributor February 23, 2021

Tres Amigos — Nectar, Neutron, and Ozone.

I never really appreciated the differences in the EQs available in the three tools.

Neutron and Ozone EQs are available as separate plugins. Nectar is only a “mothership” plugin — all of the tools are included in the interface.

Gain Staging — Are Your Faders In Charge Of Your Mix? | Production Expert

Gain Staging — Are Your Faders In Charge Of Your Mix? | Production Expert

While perusing the Sonnox website i saw in intriguingly titled article — “Are your EQ Gain Knob and Channel Fader having an affair”?

It is always good to be reminded of the “good practice” of level matching your processors. The principal goal is to have the level of the output of a processor to be the same as the level of the input. If you bypass your processor volume shouldn’t change. If it does change you are lying to your ears.