Andrew Maury Productions

Its changing year to year, mix to mix. Some of the tools that I know best and get consistent results from are: UAD Studer A800, Pultec EQP1A, Massenburg EQ, API 2500, Manley Vari-Mu, Puigchild, Oxford Inflator, and Ozone.

been using it since version 3 in 2006. i barely knew anything about audio software back then and when i got my hands on it i was shocked how 'pro' i could get something to sound. the multi-module interface of powerful tools is amazing. i use version 9 now and love the exciter in tape mode, the imager for boosting mids and highs, the dynamic EQ for inflating midrange, and the limiter is the only one i've ever relied on.

I have a pretty powerful 12 core mac pro trashcan with 64GB of ram and 2 UAD satellites. Its a solid system. I currently have my computer, drives, interface, and amps in a server rack behind my attack wall away from the listening position so theres no fan noise near my head. That said... a laptop is a perfectly viable computer for almost anyone. Mixing on a laptop with and checking with its internal speakers can be quite useful. For a beginner looking to use OSX, I'd say a macbook pro. Add a big screen if you want. iMacs and Mac mini's are powerful too, but portability is useful. There's so much to learn about mixing - your computer wont be a bottleneck.

haha, hm... tough one. it always does sound cheesy huh? i think it may have something to do with how unbelievably easy it is to use. it strips away all of the thought that goes into constructing a drum sound and performing or programming it. drum tone/decay and the patterns played can completely change a song's feel. with Logic Drummer, theres no human connection except for where you drop that little dot and which player + kit you chose. the drummer feature cant listen to your song and react to it like a human with good musical instinct. that goes a long way.

if we're talking about tuning in a modern pop/rap autotune-effect territory, do it however you want. watch out for melodyne destroying F's, T's, and S's. //// great vocals are mostly about believability. so, so much of this lies in the performance. the most fruitful step is to get the right performance and the right comp. sometimes pitchiness commands a lot of attention which can be good. David Byrne in Talking Heads comes to mind. But you have to know how to hear whether the pitchiness is musical and artistic or just sour and distracting. when i start working on a vocal (as a producer - not a mixer), i ask myself whether the mistakes make the performance cooler or pull me out of the song. first step would be deciding if autotune is right for their voice. i usually try it to see. if it glides with the music, i'll keep it and fine tune the retune speed. But if autotune is fighting what's naturally there, i ditch it and go to melodyne where i can be extremely precise. i comb through the whole song probably twice touching up spots that seem like they really need it. and i'll inevitably come across a few more moments to fix as i work the production to the finish line. i'll tune the shit out of octave stacks. can't stand when octaves are rubbing.

Haaaaaa... here's my take. Others might describe it differently. A compressor is a tool that allows you to change the energy of a sound. It can be used gently to help massage the balance in the mix, or aggressively to create energy where it is lacking. It tightens a signal's dynamic range and can help prevent things from sounding overly dynamic. When you push a compressor hard (lets say, over 15db of gain reduction), it has an effect of adding lots of drama and excitement to a sound. It helps to keep the signal focused in its moment-to-moment volume. Our ears and brain naturally compress sound when we hear things out in the real world. We're used to hearing some form of compression. Our eardrums physically tighten when we hear loud sounds and our brain allows us to focus in on quieter sounds that we are attempting to hear in more detail. Compressors help bring this familiarity to electronically recorded sounds.

gonna start adding dates to responses. things change fast these days, ppl. / 9.10.2019 / hi cian. shampoo is enemy - once a week or an "alternate" product. condition if i feel like stealing some of my wife's - a special treat. NYC tap baby. the bathtub is too small to use. had to google it, looks absolutely terrible. Decapitator is great - I think a "Decapitator II" would sling mad licenses.

Just a little bit of serial CLA76 and UAD LA2A compression. Like, a LITTLE. Jeremy pre-mixes his tracks very tastefully before handing off to me. I'm not sure what he did but he has eagle ears and amazing taste. This is true of all his songs. Mixing his stuff is really only about setting a stage for the song to feel a little bigger and more 3D. All of the noticeable tonality/style/effect/compression is him.

That record and band are really special to me. That album turned out great. I remember when I got the rough mixes about a month before I started mixing, I listened to the songs to death because I really loved them. I even developed a fear that I wasn't going to do it justice. Phew. Dylan their bassist is a great arranger and producer. The puzzle of tones and rhythms across all the parts make a lot of sense and thats why its able to sound so clear. Its also a wide bandwidth production -- low lows and high highs are all musically considered.

This album was mixed when I was doing a hybrid ITB/OTB approach. I don't think its good BECAUSE of that though. Its just a context. There's a lot of hardware KuSh Audio Clariphonic mid+high boost on the mix bus. I might have overdone it because I remember having a revelation right before mastering that all the mixes sounded better when I added a pretty aggressive and broad digital EQ boost in the mids/low mids around 800hz. And then I remember getting the masters back from Dave McNair and thinking they were super bright again. But he nailed it. I dunno... good song, good arrangement, lots of conviction, like minds, get the right balance, EQ it until it works!!

In 2018, the streaming service auto leveling conversation got intense. Mostly about Spotify, whom impose the setting *on* by default. To date, they have not shared their leveling algorithm with the music making community. I was thinking about this a lot at the time, and was getting psyched out by numbers and technicalities etc etc. There are sites like loudnesspenalty.com that somehow give you information about what the services will do to the file.

Bottom line for me right now (2019) is that there seems to be a degree of loudness per song that really does the mix justice. Some songs feel best with clean headroom and a really open 3D soundscape. Some songs feel best creamed and distorted and flat right up against the glass of 0dbfs. There is a very specific texture that you get when a mix is “grinding” against the ceiling. Do not underestimate this. If you haven’t yet developed an ear for this, I recommend you work on it. Different limiters and saturators and compressors have different sounds. Building a master chain that complements the mix can be a complex art. Some mixers are skilled at getting a mix to sound complete without a ton of processing at the finish line. Others lean on it heavily. I use both techniques.

I weigh the moment in history we’re in... where cd loudness wars resulted in a taste for sound that is heavily limited and compact in dynamic range. Remember: the sound of popular music out in the world has created an expectation for the average person. This is a completely subjective thing that evolves slowly with time and artist trends. A lot of popular music is CRUSHED! The general public has no idea what RMS or LUFS or any of that is. They don't even know what a compressor is. Many don't even know the concept of how multitrack recording works. They just hear a song and the sound of that song. The mix should feel great. Smashing a mix into the ceiling is sometimes how I get that. Sometimes it’s the opposite. Sometimes I want the kick and bass to ring free with zero distortion or transient compromise. Those songs may need to be a little quieter. Listen to the relationship between density and transient detail and find the balance that animates the song best!

the numbers dont matter when you're under 0. no difference in sound quality if you deliver your mix at -20 or -2. a 24 bit audio file has an immense amount of perfectly clean headroom (140db from 0 to the noise floor)

SSL channel is always useful. Also a fan of Sly-Fi Axis for adding saturation+EQ. Soothe when the recording is really problematic / resonant. Sometimes Decapitator to add more grit/texture.

It varies a lot, but I have been a fan of what the API 2500 does generally. Sometimes I do a parallel "smash" of the drums rather than process the drum buss. Sometimes the UAD Studer A800 in 30 ips mode enhances the subs in a really great way. Pultec high shelf boosts. I notice a pattern that any time the drum bus gets loaded up with a ton of stuff (more than 3 plugins), I end up scrapping it for a more simple chain... it always seems to sound better with less processing.

I'd have to pull it up, but a lot of Shawn LP3 vocals have the waves C4 with the top boosted. Its quite a distinct sound. The "pop vocal" preset is a good starting place. Credit to the producer, Teddy Geiger, on that tip! The PT sessions came with C4 in the vocal chains. I had never really found a use for it prior, but I kept them as I reworked these mixes.

looking at the session, there are 3 verb sends that different tracks / sections use in different amounts.

Best case scenario tends to be that the artist signs off on the mix after 2 revisions. Worst case scenario... i've gone up to #18. With high revision counts, its often the case that I end up helping with the production, editing, arrangement, and integrating additional layers along the way. I think on average, I spend about 10 collective hours working on a song and its mix 3-7 that goes to mastering. I find it most comfortable when there is time to sit with the mix over the course of 2 weeks. With perfect ITB recalls, it allows me to chip away at a mix with a lot of fresh perspective.

Tim Pagnotta produced + mixed 4 songs on the record and Chad Wahlbrink mixed 1. I mixed the rest. We did not communicate with each other, but the album feels cohesive to me!

I have been mixing ITB exclusively since the end of 2016. I'll let you determine which of those releases count as "famous" :)

As I answer this question in October of 2018, yes. I usually mix in Logic because I prefer it and know it best. Sometimes I mix in PT if it seems like its going to be a smoother process to work from someone's production session file. I think arguing about the sound quality of DAWs is a massive distraction. I've done tests comparing PT and Logic with a routing scheme and array of many plugins that had identical settings. To my ear, there was no stark difference.

yes - theyre ASC Tube Traps. i have them configured in what is called an "attack wall." look it up!

i am

likely decapitor, yes!

born in '85