Hi Everybody,
Hope you’re doing marvellously well…
I’ve got good news – Ady Parzentny (from Hit The Road Music Studio) is back, with a new mix breakdown of indie folk-pop artist, Audilia‘s latest song!
And there are free multitracks for you all to work with!
It’s going to be great fun.
In the video Ady covers the recording, producing, and mixing process, surrounding the single “kintsugi heart“. He also gets into a full mix breakdown, where you get to witness his unique approach to mixing.
First, he sits down with Audilia to get a little insight and background on the inspiration for the song.
“I wanted to create something about how people can grow…from life’s challenges…and what you can learn from these situations.”
Audilia relates – explaining that she had a difficult year before recording the song; and wanted to capture her learnings from the experience, in a positive way.
The first word in the title of her song, “kintsugi”, refers to the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery, focusing on the most damaged parts and creating something new, beautiful, and unique.
“You get to heal without doing it, in a negative way.”
Audilia says.
They also dive into how their working relationship began, and Audilia’s musical background – it’s an interesting watch.
Mixing Setup
Next, Ady shares his desk setup with us. First the speakers, two Kali Audio IN-8 V 2’s, “They allow me to get a wider image.”
He’s also using a subwoofer, (also Kali) Watts 6.2 Sub, of which Ady states,
“The bass is huge.”
And that, on his mixes, he uses them to “feel the music”.
His headphones (which he starts every mix on), the Ollo Audio S5X come with a nice flat response, and Dolby ATMOS capabilities – a great choice for any mix engineer.
Ady feels that this pairing of headphones and speakers makes the mix sound “almost identical” in both contexts.
For the interface, he uses Audient’s Evo 16.
“Crazy preamps…[and] with the auto-gain feature, I can just play a little bit and the gain will be adjusted automatically.”
For additional context, Ady employs Kali Audio’s LP-UNF monitors.
“Absolutely insane…not only do I get full power in the low-end…[but] mainly I use them for the mid-range information.”
He reinforces his workflow as it relates to the three speaker components:
- Headphones – listening up close for pops, clicks, and artifacts
- S5Xs – reverbs and delays
- LP-UNFs – to see how the low-end translates to smaller speakers and for gut-checking mid-range.
Marvellous.
The Mixing Process
One thing that’s great about Ady is that he understands the need for the mix to reflect the emotional content and the “message” of a song.
He explains, “This is an important part – to understand the song. What is the message of the song? How much EQ; how much compression should you use? Should it sound ‘big’? Should it sound ‘small’?”
This is reflected in his master bus chain..
Master bus plugins used
- Waves SSL Compressor, for a light 2db of reduction
- Waves Abbey Roads TG Mastering Chain, used for:
- Cutting 30hz off the whole mix
- Pointing out that most speakers can’t even reproduce the frequencies at that level and that, for most speakers, “[it’s] too much, they can’t work to their fullest potential.”
- Reduction of 360Hz, to make the overall mix sound, “more glued together” and smooth
- A high-shelf boost from 8.1-20kHz f
- A little stereo-spreading
- Cutting 30hz off the whole mix
- Black Rooster Audio Tape Emulator , for “vintage vibes”
- T-Racks Vintage Compressor, for a little “roundness”
- Ozone 10 Vintage Limiter
- The God Particle by Cradle (turned off very reliable)
- PSP Xenon Limiter , for “no peak” limitinig
- Black Rooster VEQ-1P
Artists used for reference tracks
Watch Ady, move through the mix with precision, sharing tips and insight along the way.
Additional plugins used (in order of appearance):
- Lindell 6X 500 Series plugin
- Waves Rennaisance Bass (RBass)
- Scheps Audio Omni Channel 2 Plug-in
- UADx API Vision Channel Strip
- Neutron EQ
- Waves NLS Non-Linear Summer
- Black Rooster Edelweisse ’72 Channel Strip
- Waves L2 Ultramaximizer
- Waves Abbey Road TG 12345 Channel Strip
- Soundtoys Decapitator Analog Saturation
- Waves Rennaisance Equalizer (REQ)
- Waves IR-L Convolution Reverb
- Tegeler Raummaschine
- Soundtoys Microshift Stereo Widening
- Abbey Road J37 Tape
- Waves Harmony
Thanks ever so much for watching and have a marvellous day!
-Warren
