Score mixing - Alan Meyerson

Join scoring mixer Alan Meyerson at Remote Control Productions for a new “Deconstructing a Mix” video !

[newmanbeing]

the way he used the reverbs at the end was extremely interesting - just to make a little room/space for the instrument with no obvious 'reverb' effect... very helpful technique, thanks!

[yishihara]

I would argue that most modern media "composers" aren't actually composers at all. They fall more under the category of sound designers, experimentalists, and, dare I say, noodlers. If DAWs didn't exist, 95% of these people would be out of the business. DAWs allow people to "Frankenstein" things together as they play with their "digital Legos." There are things that become second nature to real musicians over the years that are simply foreign to the digital Lego people. For example, there is no possible way for someone who has just sat at a DAW most of their life to tell me that they are a better orchestrator than I am when I've been playing in numerous bands, orchestras, chamber ensembles, etc. since the 80s. So much has reached our subconscious, so we intuitively know what works, which combinations of instruments sound horrible in unison, general ranges of the instruments, and what actually works in the physical world. Some moron on YouTube who is confused thinking that she's "Joan Williams" wrote one hour's worth of tremolo parts for the strings while playing with her digital Legos. At the scoring stage, they told her, "Look, we can't do this anymore." Ignorance like that could potentially result in serious injuries that could have lasting effects on musicians. There is no substitute for real-life experience. How can you claim to be a champion swimmer when you have never jumped into a pool? It's simply not possible. People are using DAWs as a crutch to find out what might work rather than simply hearing it in advance. Since I have perfect pitch, I can actively tell myself, "Imagine the Principal Oboist playing a legato passage in this range, in this specific character, etc." I can also hear particular soloists in my mind as well or imagine the CSO's brass from their golden era under Reiner. Yet people like me are blocked from the business because many of you DAW people are like bulldozers. You don't know what you don't know, so you assume that you are armed with actual skills and then go and somehow get your foot in the door shamelessly working your connections. Unfortunately most directors and producers know nothing about music, so if you are a good talker or someone with strong industry connections since Uncle Bob supplies light bulbs to a major lighting director, it's only a matter of time before you will get in the door and start working, even if it's a bunch of really small projects at first.

The other major thing that's missing is the actual performance aspect. Dear God, if it's a big budget production where the digital Legos are transformed into parts, guess what? The live players end up sounding like digital Legos! It's a complete waste of money. Might as well install MIDI ports into the players' heads! And I have to laugh when a media composer counters by saying, "Well we have CC data, dude." Well that's just adding fuel to the fire because if you have never played an instrument at a very high level, then what the hell do you know about proper phrasing? The phrasing needs to be INTEGRATED! You can't just use a variety of CC data as a substitute. I've seen the CC data of some "big" LA composers and laughed my butt off because they just drew in whatever just to add some variety (excuse me, but....AHAHAHAHAHA). No, it doesn't work like that. A lot of the phrasing is already implied based on the melodic lines and harmonic movement. You can't arbitrarily go to your MIDI editor and draw in swells (well you can but it will just sound bad). All that tells real musicians is this: "I don't know what the hell I'm doing." Yet many of you working media "composers" act larger than life. If you are at some industry event and John Williams comes over and asks what you do, you should say, "I'm a professional barista, " because the gap is so wide that it's beyond ridiculous. This goes for you as well, Hans.

[jhcmusicii]

Okay man, late to the party but that was amazing! One of the few mix vids I've seen where I could actually hear the difference and also could feel the mix adding to the musicality of the cue.

[basehead]

it's kind of funny to have a $150k+ avid s6 and then he's mainly just clicking around the screen and using a mouse anyway lol

[jaketanner]

Alan, how many mics are typically recorded for a film score these days, and how many of those get used? Thanks.

[AboveEmAllProduction]

This is cringe... How did he scam himself into this business

[Auddictaudio]

The master at work... great stuff, super useful and insightful

[mitekillem]

Seems like a 6:30, he's bypassing a shared Aux reverb, not just the verb for the flute. I can definitely detect an overall drop in the volume in the instruments when he hits bypass.
Still, it's amazing what a little reverb on the right thing can trick the ear to thinking there's more there.

[matthewdidomenico]

White Meyerson..
When I started mixing I was

[JohnMassari]

You've got a great piece of music to start with.

[prijackcastro]

Incrível como poucos ajustes, com os plugins certos fazem muita diferença.

[nicksaya]

I see Alan using certain plugins on tracks that I have found to not work on all Channels on say a quad or 5.1 buss. Puightech eq only effects stereo Channels for example.

[jaketanner]

Curious why the delay and reverb are not going through an aux and bus? I didn't see him adjust the mix in the delay especially...

[markthomas]

Amazing video!! Alan is just a genius!

[cipmars]

I am a sound guy for a news tv station and I can tell you... boy, do I ever suck compared to this guy. What I do is vrey much different but I can't help feeling humble.

[hoomanleys]

i'd like the trick that you add depth to the Flute, i learned new thing, Thank you!

[aveross]

What’s the name of this track from The Man In The High Castle

[CamRebires]

Man what a guy, you can tell he loves what he's doing, awesome

[NN-rsny]

OMG I just finish watching a Dave Pensados Tutorial video on Vocals and is Amazing how he starts talking about the Reverb trick that this incredible gentlemen talks in this video and how he learned it from him, he says it " it Like Magic" and i have to go back and watch this video again, My only question is how can i achieve this effect if i dont posses any UAD or Eventide Plugings please help!!!

[Joshua_Griffin]

Lovely, very relevent to my work right now