In this excerpt from Tony Maserati Mixing Jason Mraz we see Tony use a delay to subtly adjust the rhythmic complexity of a guitar part.
We join the action with Tony listening to some soloed elements of the mix—acoustic guitar, electric guitar, Wurlitzer electric piano and vocals. He says he’s not happy with the feel of the acoustic guitar, which is playing reggae-style accents on the upbeats.
Sometimes you discover during the mix that a track that you thought was well recorded is lacking in some way when you’re mixing. When that happens, there may be an opportunity to use effects processing to imporve it. Tony opens up a stereo instance of a Soundtoys EchoBoy, an extremely versatile delay plug-in, on an aux and starts experimenting with different settings. EchoBoy includes some unique features, including its Feel section. The Feel controls include knobs called Rushin’ and Draggin', which delay or advance the echo taps so that they’re not directly on the beats. It also features a knob called Groove, which lets you inject either swing or shuffle feels into the taps.
In this pureMix exclusive video, Tony opens up the multitrack of "I'm Yours" and creates an entirely new mix of the chart-topping hit. Along the way, he breaks down everything from the origin of the song and creating a plan of attack for a mix to his meticulous attention to detail with automation.
Equipment & Software
Audio Ease AltiVerb
Avid BF-76
Avid Lofi
Fabfilter Pro-L
Softube Amp Room
Softube Tube0Tech CL1B Compressor
Sound Toys Echoboy
UAD AMS RMX16
UAD API 550B
UAD Ampex ATR-102
UAD Fairchild 670
UAD Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor
Valhalla Vintage Verb
Waves CLA-76
Waves DeEsser
Waves Maserati AEG
Waves Maserati Groups
Waves Maserati vocals
Waves SSL Channel
Waves Renaissance Compressor
Watch as Tony:
Explains the origin of the song
Discusses how he finds the direction for the mix
Address the rough mix
Adds dimension and width to the acoustic guitar using short delays
Adds texture and a little bit of attitude to the bass guitar using tape saturation
Explains why he tries not to interrupt playback as much as possible.
Automates E.Q.s on individual elements for different sections of the song
Talk about the process of creating the radio edit
Sends drums into a mono delay, which feeds a lightly blended reverb to add a unique depth to the drums
Adds personality to the mix with precise automation while looping playback and reacting intuitively
Compares multiple plugin bus compressors while searching for an alternative for his hardware pendulum es8
Revisits the original mix and compares this new version
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