Mixing Masterclass with Bob Power [MixCon 2017]

In this video, go deep with veteran mixer Bob Power as he takes us under the hood of a real neo-soul mix and imparts decades worth of hard-won wisdom and best practices for getting mixes that leave a real impact on listeners.

Bob is a GRAMMY-winning, platinum-selling engineer for the likes of D'Angelo, De La Soul, Erykah Badu, The Roots, Tribe Called Quest, Macy Gray and more.

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[tyronrossouw]

I cannot believe what high quality content is here for free.

[kristianandreasen]

1:55 - start
2:15 - mixing is gain & tonal balancing
3:32 - creating a vibe
3:48 - seeing the producer & artist vision
4:34 - can you hear everything?
5:35 - reflections on all of the below topics
6:29 - dimensions of a mix
10:03 - careful of reference tracks
10:36 - thoughts on mixing for clients
11:45 - trusting your monitors
13:36 - all audio tools can be split into two categories: gain control & ambience
14:44 - what do we do with these two type of tools?
16:38 - genre
17:55 - making room for instruments/resonant peaks
19:40 - do you need to boost?
20:48 - High Pass & Low Pass
22:25 - gain control / compressors
24:23 - tuning (not your job but the producer's)
26:23 - organization
30:05 - presentation of artist Ester Rada
31:43 - figuring out what the mix needs
32:52 - playing the track
35:21 - done playing track

[jewfinigan]

This is one of the best mix videos I've ever seen. No bullshit, no egos, just a straight up talented dude doing what he loves. Shares his philosophy, then demonstrates it with a mix. Cheers mate.

[willhelliwell]

Best bit of advice I got from this video:
"Carve up the frequency spectrum to hear things in a mix". Most instruments have a resonant peak. It often changes with the pitch of the instrument. Raise up an EQ with a medium width and start sweeping it through the frequencies until you find the weird bit that really sticks out. That's the resonant peak. Pull back the EQ a little bit on those resonant peaks for every track in your session before starting to mix and you'll find there's so much more room for everything else because those resonant peaks won't be masking the other instruments.

[pennstateyo]

" My career is a result of my clients knowing that I will work much harder than they will"


My hats off to you my friend

[CoffeeBeatsAndConversations]

The first part before he went into the song was 100% good information.

[JERJES]

1:55 What mixing really is?
6:28 The dimensions of the mix
10:04 About using reference tracks
11:10 The quality of the recordings
11:45 Trust your monitors!
13:35 Building blocks in mixing
14:38 How to use them
16:38 The importance of genre
17:53 Making room: the resonant frequencies
19:39 About the boost
20:48 High pass and low pass
22:27 About gain control: compression and more...
24:25 Tuning and Autotune
26:26 Organization Issues
30:08 About the singer Ester Rada
32:39 BOB'S MIX LISTENING
35:20 General comments about this mix
35:54 About grouping instruments

38:26 DRUMS
41:33 Tips about compression
46:29 Tip about boost
49:00 Tip about how you can listen better what you are doing
50:00 Percussion wich is driving the song (bongos, etc): tape compression and more...
52:18 About ambience reverbs
53:00 ''Snare''
55:41 About harshness and high frequency equilibrium
56:30 Snare delay effects and more...
57:11 Work in touch!!
1:01:14 Hi Hats: Devil-loc plugin and more...
1:05:06 Claps: why use pitch with them?
1:08:16 Shaker
1:08:55 Name your buses!!!
1:09:41 Toms
1:10:27 Be careful with the panning!!!
1:12:01 Be careful enhancing the attack
1:12:51 About using well known tools
1:14:34 Background vocals: eq tips and more...

[jakobole]

My sound-quality went way up, when I discovered removing those resonant peaks. Game changer for me

[nathansoundz]

This is a basic education in fundamental mixing. Three years and hundreds of videos and VST"s. Ill add 1000's of Recording Sessions to that as well. I 15 minutes in and If this was the first thing I ever watched, Id been where I am today 2 and 1/2 years ago. Putting this on repeat. Thanks a ton for this video.

[michaelmichael]

Hats off to the "rogue presenter", who preferred to share brilliant advice with everyone, so we could understand why he does what in the mix later! And thanks to the guys in the background for not cutting him off :)

[Exitof]

This was awesome, my major takeaways:
1. Always use high pass and low pass for a clean uncluttered sound.
2. On drums, dip just above the boost to make it snap better.
3. Add some pitch shift down to handclaps to make them meatier.

I actually was struggling with handclaps before, glad to get that tip.

[JamesonTabor]

Unlimited gems in here. Basically watch this thing 1000 times and you never have to go to school again. Bob Power is a boss!

[MrZapperific]

49:00 the blind compressor A/B test... GOTTA LOVE IT! Mr Power is truly aware of the psychology that goes on in this work. You have to fool yourself sometimes to stay humble enough to actually IMPROVE what you are doing!!!

[davidleeroth]

Bob Power is a LEGEND. ATCQ used to shout him out all the time in their music. I was amazed to find out he had mixed an produced so much classic R&B. I learned a ton from this video. Thanks Sonicscoop

[prospectnyc]

"Do this because of xyz, don't do this other thing because abc" - this is the best kind of masterclass! So much better than other lectures that focus on "me me me my my my, I'm famous because of me me me."

[johnmathews]

I can not believe the thumbs down on this. They must not like the fact that he knows more than they do.

[MrGuitarist]

I was there, it was a truly great presentation. So glad I can watch it again. Thank you SonicScoop for posting this. Can't wait for other videos from MixCon.

[davidbarnardmusic]

as someone with 0 mixing experience, this has been so much more than helpful. I look foreword to watching this over and over again.

[artsmadeit]

I could watch this guy for hours. Lots of knowledge delivered in casual way.

[gabrielrf]

Watched this to appease the YouTube algorithm. Was not disappointed