Відео

I use Decapitator a lot and blind at 44.1 at high levels of distortion it’s a big difference. I can tell 10/10.

Casper! You are 100% correct! Thanks so much for the catch. I just double checked and all the other mixes are correct. But I messed up on that one. Thanks so much for pointing it out. I'll fix it in the playlist now. I was surprised by how much deeper the low end was on that compared to Illangelo's usual mixes and felt they were closer together than the others. Knowing that it's a Serban mix that makes sense. But know it's a Serban mix, I'm a little surprised by the hi hats being as prominent as they are. It's definitely different than the usual for him. And I think his other mixes on the album are better. Thanks again for the correction! -Justin

@@SonicScoop No problem! I agree with that - very unusual, even unique production by Martin-Holter. As what I know, that was very unusual song style to mix for Serban. However, those sizzling perc/hat things and rims are focal points for that genre, so maybe taming them could make the song and groove fall down. Such a beautiful composition imo, I like that song a lot! Btw, I found a new artist, Conan Gray, that became one of my favourites recently. He has a few songs (i.e. The Final Fight and Killing Me) that are produced by Martin/Holter and mixed by the one and only. Crazy good songs with 80’s vibe and character!

Thanks so much for sharing this story Matt! Loved it. Yes, I have both of them on my list for sure. Very best, Justin

This is perfectly explained! Agreed with every word of it. Thanks so much for the great comment. -Justin

Exactly, 100%!! Couldn’t say it better myself. The next mind blowing moment is when you realize the same is true of mastering :-) Not everything will work for most listeners, but there’s a wide range of ways for things to sound “good” or “right”. Thanks for the great comment, Justin

@@SonicScoop Thanks for the great video!

Agreed, his vocal effects and balances are always perfect for sure! -Justin

Yeah, for sure, the original mix still holds up beautifully! As a modern listener, I expect to hear a touch more compression on the vocals. But otherwise, if they just did a light remaster with a touch more dynamics processing, it could have been released today today as is and it would still be a banger! The groove is undeniable, and the whole production just works. -Justin

Most of the mixes we listened to today were mastered by Randy Merrill. That’s not necessarily the only mastering engineer he when’s with, but I saw Randy’s name come up a lot. -Justin

@@SonicScoop Thx!!! Would be nice to know/hear how much of the sound is provided by the mastering process.

Compared to all of the other mixes we listened to in this session, I’d say that Serban’s had WAY more depth, especially on a good system. That said, do they have as much front to back depth as great sounding records that aren’t mixed to hit to -6 LUFS? Probably not. But is that the goal? I think in this style, it’s more about things being up front and grabbing you, wherever and however you may be listening. Compared to his immediate peers, Serban’s mixes generally have more depth, not less. Agreed that a lot of the music he mixes doesn’t have that much artistic depth from my perspective. A lot of those artists are going for breadth of appeal rather than depth of appeal. I suppose someone should! If I’m being critical, then Imagine Dragons sometimes feels to me like a skeleton of a man all puffed up in a general’s uniform with a bazillion medals on his jacket. There’s SOMETHING there, but the dressing seems greater than the substance. But that’s if I’m not being charitable. If I am being charitable, then even if I’m not a fan, I have to admit that they have extremely well structured song arcs that touch on very universal themes, with incredibly skilled production and very competent performances. If I give them an honest chance and engage with the material uncritically, they can get an honest goosebump out of me at their best due to how well the arrangements and productions work together. On the other hand, if I’m being cynical, or I’m hit with a really cheesy moment like the big exaggerated inhale on “breathing in the chemicals” from “Radioactive”, I kind of roll my eyes and look over my shoulder, embarrassed I’m listening to them. I can definitely understand what people like and dislike about them, and for the right demographic, I’m sure all that dramatic flair seems welcome and maybe even earnest. Globally, I think they get “mixed” reviews, and any personal review I’d give them would probably end up being the same. That said, I can appreciate what they do well, even if I’m unlikely to listen on my own time. -Justin

⁠ Absolutely, of course Serban has a certain depth in his mixes. You used a descriptive word, space, for what I experience when I listen to his mixes, spot on, but it's not necessarily the same as an experience of depth in a mix. It was super interesting when I first listened through a bunch of songs by Serban, I was completely sold and thought it was among the best I've heard when it comes to mixing. Very smooth as you describe it. But after a while I got a strange feeling in my body, it felt a little claustrophobic. There was definitely something missing. It was depth! At least to my ears. And then I put on ”classic songs” with a lot of depth, for example Woman In Chains, I felt it straight away, it was the depth of the mix that I was missing. I picked up two songs by Serban for my own reference list for mixing. What A Man Gotta Do with the Jonas Brothers and Pendulum with Katy Perry, probably mostly because I like and listen to them. Both songs have an extreme width and are very representative of Serban's mixing I would say, but to my ears they lack depth in the mix. Interesting what you write about Imagine Dragons. I have previously included them in my reference list, and that particular band has gone in and out of the list several times, they finally had to leave… Thanks Justin!

To be charitable, I think Illangelo seems like a creative person and has had some great successes in his work! So kudos to him. That said, I’d agree that his mixes don’t feel nearly as refined as Serban’s… …but then again that’s a pretty tall order! Serban has also had decades longer to get good at it, so that helps too :-) To be fair, Serban hasn’t *produced* anywhere near the number of successful tracks as Illangelo. Generally speaking, specialists will outperform non-specialists in their area of specialization. And Serban is one of the best specialists there is for his niche. There’s something to be said for generalists too though: They make their own kinds of contributions, often crossing territories that need to be crossed and blurring lines that have become too fixed and rigid. In his defense, sometimes people who get good results can’t explain what they’re doing, because explanation isn’t their skill, and sometimes making it up as you go is the best thing to do in the moment. I haven’t listened to his album or much of his other work outside of what’s on this playlist, so I can’t comment further than that! But I appreciate the comment and the passion. Thanks for swinging by! -Justin

Most of Serban's work is done on ProAcs without the sub engaged...

I know guys here in Poland mixing on ProAcs their entire life (even fully analog on a desk) and their mixes sound very mediocre at best so it's definitely not only about his monitoring.. But how he hears music, his taste and his skill.

@@huberttorzewski Yeah, I'm definitely not attributing his quality just to his monitoring but it definitely tracks that he would be mixing on near fields without a sub and that confirms my suspicion. Mixing with a sub will alot of times lead to a more mid range forward mix, in my experience.

@@CadeRoberts I tend to shift the lows higher in the range when I mix on NS10s, so there's more like 80-120Hz than 30-60Hz. But on Eve Audios I tend to do the opposite having more "hifi" sounding mix. So nowadays I combined the both and mix first on NS10s and do some minor corrections on Eves to polish it more. The other way around is also ok but I need to mix very loud to achieve a good mix on Eves while on NS10s I can mix more quietly and the result is great

Not at all

I’m scratching my head on that one! That’s not what I’m hearing at all. :-) He doesn’t have excessive, poky high end like on a couple of the other mixes in this playlist. But his mixes definitely aren’t “dark”. If anything, they are just preposterously well-balanced. -Justin

Yes..thats such an amazing feature of his mixes. Sometimes it feels like they are very bright and sometimes lo passed. Such an amazing psychoacoustic processing he is doing

@@SonicScoop lol... that was my first honest impression listening on my small system. not familiar with his work due to the artists he mixes. maybe his mixes are too well-balanced to my ears? idk i think i like a bit more rebellious offending mixes with stuff jumping out. love these comparisons though!

I plan to!

Interesting. I’m about to pull the trigger on a base Mac studio with an M2 so I can get something asap. Do you think that’s a bad idea? -Justin

@@SonicScoop I 'd have more storage and RAM than the base, but if they do not update the Studio I'll be getting an M2 Max Studio as well. I've been very tempted to pull the trigger anyway.

In some cases yes, in some cases no. Some tracks are similar in style, especially some of the imagine dragons pairs, and in at least one case we have two mixes of the exact same song and production! In any case, I think there are a lot of common threads that can be found, even when the style of two tracks is different. If you can hear it in that context, you can hear it anywhere. -Justin

Serving the song is the most important thing for sure! Manny is definitely great at getting the point of the song, and is unafraid of pushing things. From a raw sonic perspective, I think that on smaller speakers, Manny's mixes sometimes work better and sound more exciting. But on really nice big speakers, Serban's will often sound a bit more "impressive" and hi-fi. (One contrary example is Manny's "Thunder" mix which sounds absolutely enormous and smooth on a good big system. Very Serban-like.) Tradeoffs! They can both be good approaches. -Justin

Serban's mix definitely has less 10k-12k than Illangelo's, but a lot of that is because Illangelo has a ton of 10-12k energy in his high hats relative to the average. If you look at it on a frequency analyzer, the 10-12k area on Illangelo's mix pokes out above the surrounding areas. We *don't* have a visible dip from the baseline in that area on Serban's mix. But we have a visible peak in that area from baseline on Illangelo's. Objectively, it's not that Serban's mix is lacking air compared to the average, it's that Illangelo is loading more energy into that area than average. Granted, if you listen to Illangelo's first and establish your baseline from that, then Serban's could sound dark in that area. But if you listen to Serban's first and establish that as the baseline, the Illangelo's could sound excessively bright in that area by comparison! So, what's the proper baseline? Easy: The sum average of all decent sounding music ever released. What does that sound like? Basically, like pink noise :-) That's the curve to look at, more or less, if we want to be objective. When comparing things and deciding what's bright, what's dark, etc., that kind of average is what we have as a reference. (Though it probably skews a little away from true pink noise if you are filtering be genre and/or decade.) In that context, I'd suggest that Illangelo is more bright in that area, and Serban is more balanced. That said, your tastes may skew more in one direction or the other, and if you prefer Illangelo's approach to high end, then that's your answer! Go for that kind of mix yourself. It's not wrong. It's just a different sound. All that comes down to preference. I hope that makes sense. -Justin

I agree with you

Serban sometimes low passes the verses (or vocal only) from what I've noticed analyzing his various mixes. The choruses have full range on the top end and verses are less airy. Not in every song he mixed though

I’m surprised you advocate mixing mostly for balance, I thought I remembered you talking about how that’s counterproductive and most great mixes are not the most balanced. If the arrangement is not pink noise, the mix shouldn’t be… in my opinion. Basic balance is one thing, but averaging frequencies seems like a slippery slope into lifeless mixes. Imagine an orchestra: different elements stand out in different compositions, despite the inherent balance of the instruments across the frequency spectrum. If you average hundreds of songs the spectrum should be fairly balanced, but a loud brass section isn’t “wrong” in a dramatic Wagner piece etc. The original Bowie mix of the Stooges Raw Power is a great example of this. The fuzzy brightness of the guitars is what makes it sound so cool, and the remixes sound way less creative. Interesting to think about though, I guess. There’s a place for balance, but at this level I think it’s overrated.

Definitely. I could have gone two or three hours easily! -Justin

He’s definitely on the list! Thanks for weighing in :-) -Justin

and then compare it to the FF Saturn 2, I prefer that.

They have already confirmed that it is 100% ITB. Like their old 33609 or vitalizer they may have stopped using that hardware

Nope hahaha

@@roberteismann1929 as someone who has used Saturn for years, hard disagree

@@johnjhonny646 John Hanes literally posted that this was the unit on GearSpace yesterday, and that the plugin has now replaced it. So you’re correct at this moment now that the plugin exists, but this hardware unit was in fact in the chain for years.

That’s not lip sync being off, that’s the video lagging from the computer choking out for the first 23 seconds of the livestream due to too many programs running at once. Should have a new streaming computer in the next couple weeks which will make that less likely. -Justin

@@SonicScoop Even further irony that the guy on the video can't tell that the lip sync looks unnatural for the entire video.

It's possible there could have been some additional video delay the whole stream today. Computer was acting buggy. I don't know, I haven't watched it back yet. But who WATCHES UA-cam videos anyway? They're for listening! Preferably at 2X speed. (Except for the audio examples) 😃 Anyway, computer upgrade should free up some bandwidth I think. I hope so anyway. I'm a mastering guy, not a video guy. -Justin

I talked to him yesterday. He wants to do it, and he wants to bring that track as fate would have it! Still haven't nailed down a sponsor just yet, but if we can we'd love to have him on. 🤞 -Justin

​@@SonicScoopI'm glad to hear that! I hope it's possible!

He knows what he's doing for sure! Beautifully balanced and smooth mixes while still having personality and tremendous depth and space-and they always sound great on a good, big system. -Justin

But what about joel Wanasuk!?😂

i just know you saw the sorcery he was doing in the MWTM segment

Haha, I just got to the second track and I prefer the Manny Marroquin mix too; I think there's something Serban does frequency wise (and with compression) that I'm not enjoying at all on some of these examples. I do like some of his mixes for Ariana Grande, perhaps because the style fits better. Cool to compare and analyse though, for sure.

You're not wrong, because there is no right or wrong with taste! :-) With that said, for my tastes, the Serban mix sounds way better on a great big system, while the Illangelo mix sounds better and more exciting on my phone. Some of the depth and space and details of the Serban mix are lost on a phone, tablet or laptop, while the additional midrange and upfront dryness of the percussion on the Illangelo mix sounds more exciting on my phone, and probably on other small devices as well. Try listening in a few different environments and let me know if you hear the same thing! Very best, Justin

@@SonicScoop Listening on studio monitors and also tried on headphones, but I've been listening to the Weeknd / IIlangelo's work for many, many years and love it, so that might affect my taste too. I also listen to trap and stuff with similarly loud hihats; again, I can totally see how others would have a different opinion. I think it comes down to the emotive impact, for me: some of the thinner pop mixes lack richness, even if they have the extra sub extension, and I think it's probably to do with the transient processing and low-mid scooping. Totally subjective as to what's better, of course!

@@bigdawgg1994 His (Illangelo's) Joy Odyssey live streams were cool too, although mostly in a slightly different style. You should check them out if you haven't seen them.

Compress your vocal more :-) Most vocals on beginner mixes are woefully under compressed for their style. Not just 2 or 3 or 5dB. Cumulative vocal compression of well more than 10dB is common in most popular styles of music. In addition, you might do clip gain before you hit the compressor to make it more consistent, plus volume rides after the compressor to make the vocal work better in context. Hope that helps! -Justin

Great to hear it is helpful Matty! Thanks for the comment, but you are far too kind :-) -Justin